- Hey there, fellow marketers. Professor Wolters here, and today we're in South Beach. And today what I want to talk about is integrated marketing communication strategy, because really when you think about it, integrated marketing communication, what we're trying to do is really come up with a kind of strategic two-way communication that's targeted to specific customers and their specific needs.

And the thing is we might sell one type of product, but it might have different connotations for multiple different people. And so we need to communicate that to them. And it's going to be different if I'm selling tubing, if I'm selling it to an airline, or if I'm selling it to a pharmaceutical company, or a hospital. They're going to have different needs and wants. And we're going to have to think strategically how we're going to reach out to them, how we're going to communicate with them.

So what you have to realize is everything when we're doing integrated marketing communication, everything needs to be coordinated across all media platforms. So it is tough because you don't want Facebook saying one thing, and your commercial saying something else, and your staff at the retail spot saying something different. You want everybody on the same page, because it really is hard to coordinate all this. I mean, how many of you have seen a commercial for a place that looks fantastic, and then when you go there, you're like, man, their staff is really not nice.

Because what happens is if you have this fragmented message, it frustrates customers, because the thing is if the local manager or the retail person isn't that friendly kind of stuff, it does have a knock-on effect. People remember the people they interact with. That's why important that everybody is on the same page with integrated marketing communication.

Because when your message gets mixed or your message gets fragmented, the customer can get frustrated. I mean, how many of you-- you know, you call up customer service, and they're like, your call is very important to us. Then why the heck do you have me waiting for 4 hours for a call? Why can't you call me back? Why can't you help me? I mean, these kinds of things really do upset customers. So we need to have a strategy of a good way to talk to our clients and to communicate with them.

So one way you can kind of do that is really kind of thinking about your goals. I mean setting your communication goals. Because if you think about it, if I say, oh, we want to get 30% market share in two years, that's a marketing goal. That's what we're trying to do overall for the business. We have to think about what is our communication going to be in order to help us get to that 30%.

And it's going to be different because selling to 1% of the market is a different communication strategy than if I want to get 90% of the market. I mean, there's a reason why you see so many Coca-Cola commercials, because they're communicating to everybody, because they want to be a huge market player versus the kind of vintage old-fashioned soda things. You don't see too many ads for them because they're not going for 50% to 60% of the market. They're going for 2% of the market.

So when you're thinking about your strategies, you have to think is, who is your audience? Who are the people you want to be talking to? So if I go back to the Coca-Cola example, like, who are they selling to? Well, they're selling to restaurants. They're selling to fast food restaurants. They're selling to sit down restaurants. They're selling to grocery stores. They're selling to mini markets. They're selling to bodegas. They're selling to vending machine people. I mean, think about it. It's a completely different group each time. When you start looking at it, you try to differentiate-- sorry.

So what you try to do is really determine all the different groups that you need to communicate with, because they're going to have different needs and wants. The vending machine people, they're like, look, we want the best selling sodas because I don't want to have one line of Mello Yello. Just give me all the Cokes and Sprites, because then I could just crank it through real quick. Whereas a fancy restaurant, look, we can't just have Coke and Sprite. We need to have more options for people because we're the fancy restaurant. So you're going to have to communicate with them differently. But you really have to think about and determine what are those different groups you need to talk to.

And then you look at it in terms of, what do we want them to do with this information I give them? Do I want to educate them about my product? Do I want to get them to buy my product? Do I want them to get desire and say, "Yes, I want to have this product"? Do I want to change their minds? Do I just want to build the image of my brand, or my company, or my service in the minds of the customers? I mean, these are things you have to think about when you're setting these communication goals, because me trying to get you to buy more Big Macs is going to be different than if I'm trying to change your perception to make McDonald's look more healthy. So you have to think about that.

And so when we look at a few of the type of goals you might have with your communication strategy, it's really going to depend on those marketing goals. So if you think about it in terms of communication goals for a movie, I mean, think about it. They start with, hey, we have awareness goals. We want people to know that we have a movie coming out eventually. So that's why two years before a movie comes out they go to San Diego Comic-Con and say, "Look, we have a new Batman movie coming out," to like build awareness that there is a Batman movie out there.

And then maybe six months before it releases, they put out the teaser trailer, or the first kind of trailer to really get people interested, like, "Oh, this new Batman movie looks kind of interesting." And then our next level of communication goes is desire, like, "Oh, now I want to see it." That's when they're like, "Oh, coming June 25 is The Batman." And you're like, "Oh, now I'm like I want to get the tickets for that." And then you have action goals. You want them to go and buy those tickets. "Buy now at Fandango. Get your tickets now. Get HBO Max so you can watch it free on the first day." They're getting you to buy something. They're trying to get you to do an action.

So there's different goals you're going to have with your communication. And that's why it's important with integrated market communication you understand how all those goals fit in with your overall marketing goals. So I hope this helps you understand a bit better what you're thinking about when you're developing an integrated marketing communication strategy. If you want to learn more, we've got tons of videos talking about this on our website, at professorwolters.com, or if you click Subscribe. We put out business videos a couple of times a week so people can learn as much as they can about business, marketing, YouTube, and all kinds of other fun stuff. So I'll say bye from here on South Beach.