THE IMC PLANNING PROCESS

CORPORATE PLAN
(Corporate Objectives and Strategies)

MARKETING PLAN
(Marketing Objectives and Strategies)

Steps involved in the Marketing Plan:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Situational Analysis ( 7 situations)

Set Marketing Objectives (SMART)
Devise Marketing Strategies (STP, 4Ps, Push/ Pull, Branding, USP etc.
Frame Implementation tactics
Monitor and Evaluate Performance

IMC PLAN
(IMC Objectives, IMC Strategies)

Steps involved in an IMC Plan:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Situational Analysis (5 situations)

Determine a Problem or Opportunity
Determine the Communication Objectives
Determine the Budget
Develop the IMC Strategies:
a) Select Target Audience
b) Arrive at the Communications Mix
c) Design message strategies
d) Determine media strategies
6. Implement the strategies and monitor activities
7. Evaluate the planning process.

HOW TO WRITE AN INTEGRATED MARKETING PLAN

The IMC plan of a product or brand is essentially derived from the larger MARKETING PLAN
which in turn is derived from the corporate plan. Various steps and their general sequence is
described below:
CONDUCT A SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF INTERNAL AN EXTERNAL
ENVIRONMENT FOCUSING ON THE FOLLOWING SITUATIONS:

STEP I

Product situation, Competitive situation, Past Promotional situation, Audience situation

and the Regulatory situation.
The marketing plan of a company provides a lot of information regarding the product, competitive
and promotional situations and some inkling regarding the audience situation. The rest has to be
gathered.

1.

PRODUCT SITUATION
Assess the products;
1. Benefits,
2. Quality,
3. Packaging,
4. Price,
5. Image,
6. Availability,
7. Features,
8. USP etc.

2.

COMPETITIVE SITUATION

Find answers to:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

3.

Who are the direct competitors

Who are the indirect competitors
What are their competitive positioning
What are their USPs if any
Are they using PUSH or PULL strategies
Are they using branding as a strategy
How strong is their brand positioning as compared to yours
SWOT of your promotional efforts versus theirs.

PAST PROMOTIONAL SITUATION

Review the past campaigns to understand:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Their objectives
Their audiences
Their strategies
Their tools
Their media
Their budgets
Their results
Prepare a SWOT report.

4.

AUDIENCE SITUATION
a) Understand the composition of the audience for promotion and break it up into:
1. Buyers
2. Deciders
3. Influencers
4. Users, etc.
b) Prepare a demographic, psychographic, behavioural and lifestyle profile for each.
c) Decide on the target audience to address by your campaign.
d) Prepare a demographic, psychographic, behavioural and lifestyle profile

5.

REGULATORY SITUATION
Rules and regulations regarding the product category and proposed media need to
be understood.

Step II

DETERMINE A PROBLEM OR OPPORTUNITY

Any problems identified in the situational analysis or any opportunities spotted can be prioritised
and selected as communication objectives.

Step III

DETERMINE THE COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES

They should flow from the marketing objectives.
Marketing objectives are stated in terms of sales figures, market share, profitability etc.,
IMC targets are stated in terms of communication tasks which would lead to the marketing
objectives by addressing the problems identified or opportunities unearthed by the
situational analysis. E.g.
Measurement of effectiveness criteria decided at this point to facilitate evaluation later.
a) Awareness to be created e.g. about a new product- Diabetes can be diagnosed without a
blood test.
b) Knowledge to be imparted e.g. features of a relatively new product like a new smart
phone which has e-shopping software pre-installed
c) Attitude and behaviour to be changed e.g. removal of any misconceptions like Cadbury
chocolates have worms.
d) Image to be built etc. Flipkart sells many other things in addition to books

Step IV

DETERMINE THE BUDGET

Broad estimates of costs of campaign, affordability and competitors expenditure are main
factors in determining the promotional budgets. Budget allocation to different tools and
media happens later once strategies and tactics are finalised.

DEVELOP IMC STRATEGIES

Step V

This is the most demanding step in the whole process and many key decisions need to be
taken here:
1. Selection of the TARGET AUDIENCE from the target segment ( mentioned in the marketing
plan)

2. Selection of the MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MIX .

In this step, the exact blend of the elements (advertising, SP, PS, DM, Events, PR) is
decided. Factors considered for this are target audience, type of product, type and
situation of market, objectives of program, budget and strengths and weaknesses of
various communications mix elements.
3. Arriving at the MESSAGE STRATEGY

Message creation takes place at this stage.

It is a crucial step since it is this message which will directly address the
communication problem.
It needs to be ensured that the messages communicated through the different
elements are consistent with the overall IMC message being sent.

4. Arriving at the MEDIA STRATEGY

Decision regarding the specific communication channels to be used is taken.
Each element (advertising, SP, PS, DM, Events, PR) has many vehicles or platforms. Choice
regarding which platforms to use in each chosen element is taken here.
Eg. Advertising; In print or TV or Radio, or OOH or ONLINE. Which newspapers, magazines etc.

Step VI

IMPLEMENT THE STRATEGIES AND MONITOR ACTIVITIES

Micro level planning and implementation takes place here.

Exact messages, the media, their timing, scheduling and frequency is decided.
People, resources and schedules allocated.
Campaign execution and monitoring happens.

Step VII

EVALUATE THE PLANNING PROCESS

The measurement criteria decided at the earlier stages help in evaluating the effectiveness
of the overall campaign as well as that of each element and media.