IMC Process in Advertising

Introduction

Advertising has been found as one of the most fundamental pillars of businesses. This is especially considering its bearing on profitability and long-term sustainability of businesses. Needless to say, advertising has undergone considerable growth in an effort to enhance its effectiveness. One of the most common approaches in contemporary advertising is Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). IMC has been defined as an approach aimed at attaining a marketing campaign’s objectives via a well-coordinated utilization of varied promotional techniques that are aimed at reinforcing each other (Lane et al, 2010). It is a cross-functional process for creating, as well as nourishing profitable relationships with the varied stakeholders through strategically influencing or controlling all messages that the business sends to the stakeholders, as well as encouraging a purposeful and data-driven dialogue with them (Lane et al, 2010). The strategy acknowledges the value of an all-inclusive plan that assesses the strategic roles of varied communication disciplines, personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations and blends them so as to offer consistency, clarity, as well as maximum communication effect.

One of the companies that have utilized IMC process in advertising is GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company). Established in 1936, GEICO is a private passenger auto insurer ranked the third largest in the United States. It provides more than 8.5 million policy holders with auto coverage, and insures over 14.4 million vehicles. In addition, it covers motorcycles, homes, boats, apartments, and all-terrain vehicles among other things under general insurance.

Nevertheless, its IMC advertising technique has led t the development of a nationally recognized brand. In 1996, the company made a heavy investment on national advertising that combined direct mail materials, television and radio ads, as well as print ads, which resulted in increased growth.

GEICOS’s distinctive advertising strategy currently incorporates a high volume of adverts that target and reach different people. While the company’s competitors run adverts than exploit people’s fear of accidents and the unknown, GEICO has distinguished itself through its incorporation of lighthearted tone and oddball humor in all its adverts. In this case, the company’s adverts incorporate fun in products that many people resent to buy especially considering that they associate it with miserable inci.............