The Aspects of Branding - Part 10: Integrated Marketing Communications
According to the American Marketing Association, Integrated Marketing Communications 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.
This is the work of SpinningSilk Multimedia. We provide services and products with consistent branding using web, print, audio, video and other communications. Our core customer bases are small businesses and organizations and in particular churches, agencies and other organizations in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church* denomination. We have also done work with some fine local organizations in the Greenville, SC area. The for profit businesses that we have experiences with are construction contractor companies, business coaches and small business e-commerce stores.
Why is Integrated Marketing Communications so important to us and why should it be important to you? I don’t know about you but I hate having to run all over the place to get work done when it’s much better to have a central point of contact where you can be on the same page.
It’s incredibly easy to go the “free route” on so many things from restricted or ad supported free web services, do it yourself business cards or brochures,etc. Some of these solutions are just fine for certain situations and I have nothing against someone printing their own business cards on an ink jet printer when they need an emergency run but for the long term you need to think long term and develop a relationship with a company experienced in the skills of communications, branding and marketing.
If a business or organization is serious about meeting long-term sales or donor goals, having a consistent brand and a central resource of experts is crucial. Can you do the work of Integrated Marketing yourself? Maybe. Are you an expert in that area and how much time will it take away from what you are an expert in? Marketing and sales don’t have to be overly expensive but you don’t want to do it on the cheap either. You’re business or organization needs a consistent branding program. Here is a checklist of things to consider and ask when seeking out and Integrated Marketing, graphic design, web design, print shop, etc.;
- Does the company have graphic designers who know the difference between optimizing your images for the web and print?
- Does the company know how to craft your content in such a way to make it compelling and search engine friendly?
- Is it evident the company is paying attention to the latest trends in technology and marketing?
- Even if the company is specializing on one aspect of marketing communications do they partner easy with other companies to get the work done?
- Are they about showing themselves off or showing you off?
- If you would like to do some things for yourself does the company give you the tools like an easy web site content management system or files for printing short runs of business cards, etc?
- Does the company practice what they preach? Do they have their own blog, professional business cards, etc?
Yes, I’m trying to “sell my companies services” in this post. This post describes what we do as a business and we would love to meet with you to talk about your communication and branding needs.
*We didn’t design the web site for the main denomination web site. That one is done in-house but we have developed sites and helped with other issues for several of the denominations agencies.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I think it is very important to make sure you’re designing for the right medium. Print and online optimization is so different in the formats and sizes necessary. Same thing goes with a blog, business cards, and other marketing materials. If you want to be successful you need the full package. Most family owned companies still don’t get it.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I agree. It’s part of my job to help companies “get it.” Yes, family owned are some of them but it’s amazing how many well established businesses and organizations still have a hard time “getting it.” It’s one reason I love my job because I get chances to passionately teach how important this stuff it plus there’s always something to learn as well!
March 17th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Patrick or Heather, I was wondering if you know of an association/organization in which podcasters or other integrated media types like us can participate in here in the greater GSP area? Like you, I am in the process of taking my passion and making it my career. Like anyone trying something new, I am more than open to share and obtain knowledge on this growing industry/communication tool. We love to hear back from either of you on the subject. Thanks for what you do.
March 17th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Stefan, I don’t know of a particular organization the focuses on this particular niche in the greater GSP area. I would be interested in getting something like this started however. Maybe we could meet sometime and discuss their further. I am involved a quite a few networking groups and organizations in the upstate. The Upstate Entrepreneur Forum, Professional Network Connections, Greenville Mac User’s Group, Greenville Chamber of Commerce to name a few. I tried started a “New Media” group last year via Meetup.com but I didn’t have enough of a response to justify continuing it at the time. Stay in touch and let’s see if we can make something happen.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:27 am
[...] I started to touch on the subject in the branding series because the two can be intertwined in many ways. Our clients want to use the most innovative and effective ways to showcase their business and products and this is done through integrated marketing communications. [...]