Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix
Section snippets
Social media, the promotion mix, and integrated marketing communications
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the guiding principle organizations follow to communicate with their target markets. Integrated marketing communications attempts to coordinate and control the various elements of the promotional mix—advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion—to produce a unified customer-focused message and, therefore, achieve various organizational objectives (Boone & Kurtz, 2007, p. 488).
However, the tools and
Social media's hybrid role in the promotion mix
It has long been acknowledged in marketing management circles that successful IMC strategies clearly reflect the values articulated in an organization's mission statement and contribute to the fulfillment of the organization's performance goals. To accomplish these objectives, the elements of the promotion mix are carefully coordinated so the information transmitted to the marketplace through these elements consistently communicates a unified message that broadly reflects the organization's
Paradigms: Traditional vs. new communications
In the traditional communications paradigm, the elements of the promotional mix are coordinated to develop an IMC strategy, and the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications are dictated by the organization in collaboration with its paid agents (advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and public relations consultants). The flow of information outside the boundaries of the paradigm has generally been confined to face-to-face, word-of-mouth communications among individual
Shaping the discussions
As indicated earlier, social media has amplified the power of consumer-to-consumer conversations in the marketplace by enabling one person to communicate with literally hundreds or thousands of other consumers quickly and with relatively little effort. Managers cannot directly control these conversations. However, they can use the methods delineated below to influence and shape these discussions in a manner that is consistent with the organization's mission and performance goals. These methods
From one-way traffic to multiple avenues
IMC has traditionally been considered to be largely one-way in nature. In the old paradigm, the organization and its agents developed the message and transmitted it to potential consumers, who may or may not have been willing participants in the communication process. The control over the dissemination of information was in the hands of the marketing organization. The traditional elements of the promotion mix—advertising, personal selling, public relations and publicity, direct marketing, and
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