“Integrated marketing.” It sounds so easy.
I’ve been a champion of integrated marketing for years, since way before it was a popular, technology-driven topic. Even though the concept has been around for decades, many business owners still don’t really understand it.
When I work with clients to maximize their marketing results, integration is one of the first things we address.
We start by unpacking the concept, what it is and what it isn’t, and assess the current state using my Integrated Marketing Maturity model.
Parallel Programs
Promoting more than one thing at a time doesn’t mean you have an integrated marketing program. Most companies have more than one product line and multiple market segments. Creating campaigns for each and trying not to cannibalize one or another is a step in the right direction, but that’s not integration.
Parallel programs are simply activities that run side by side, avoiding interference such as overlapping media pitches or confusing social media efforts. If your product managers and marketing communications teams are trying to stay out of each other’s way rather than working closely together, you’re probably running parallel programs.
Coordinated Communications
When the marketing team members for various initiatives start to work together, they move toward concurrent and even coordinated communications. This can take form in a corporate communications calendar, carefully timed press releases, synchronized product launches, and so on.
Coordination is an important element of integration. It’s the first step, but on its own, it falls short of delivering the value a fully integrated marketing program provides. Concurrent communications represent the middle ground between co-existence of products and service lines and a cohesive, strategic approach to marketing.
