According to The American Marketing Association, Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.”

By adapting an integrated approach, a company can direct all its advertising and promotional efforts towards delivering a consistent message, thereby obtaining a specific objective.

In traditional advertising and sales promotion (eg. television, newspaper, radio, magazines, personal selling) each has a different set of objectives, which may sometimes contradict each other.

An integrated campaign allows companies to send out a clear and consistent message to its target audience, without unnecessary duplication and ensuring that all sectors are covered. All marketing tools will synergize each other and the communications effectiveness will increase significantly.*

To learn more about integrated marketing, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing

(* Adapted from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism)