Integrated Marketing, what is “integration”?

When we talk about integrated marketing , we are referring to "no integration". The problem of no integration is either a simple listing of phenomena or measures without insight and failure to find the key to the problem; or the marketing is scattered, not unified, and not systematic; or the plan is empty and lacks feasibility.

Based on the above three points, I believe the key to integrated marketing is: insightful market analysis, focused system strategy, and operational solutions.

1. Insightful Market Analysis

Many people do market analysis by just filling out forms, filling in the details of the SWOT and 3C models. Sometimes they even use hard-coded data to make arguments in order to match their conclusions. These are all superficial and do not have much practical value.

Doing market analysis is like a doctor diagnosing a disease. The ultimate goal is to find the key cause of the problem in order to find business growth opportunities and determine the core direction for solving the problem, rather than simply listing a lot of phenomena.

For example, some of the key issues facing brands are generational changes in consumption trends, inconsistent brand images, insufficient brand awareness, lack of brand value, lack of core value or personality, insufficient brand loyalty that affects repeat purchases, product quality issues that affect word of mouth, incorrect communication appeals and media choices, incorrect channel policy incentives and insufficient thrust, and insufficient terminal experience and liveliness...

Sometimes, there seem to be many problems, but in essence they all have one cause.

For example, consumers do not have enough awareness of a certain brand; it is well-known in the industry but consumers do not know it; product advertisements are more of a sales-style, self-boasting style; and communication is still too much biased towards exhibitions, investment conferences, and press conferences.

The root cause of the above problems lies in the fact that companies are still using the "channel brand" thinking to build their brands. Therefore, if the brand wants to become a true consumer brand, it needs to reduce the proportion of industry promotion, focus more on consumers, and establish communication and connections with consumers.

2. Focused and systematic strategy

However, this model is to help you think about problems systematically, rather than to follow these marketing methods comprehensively. If you do this, the brand will easily die.

Because there are not many brands that can support all of these gameplays. Even if you are talented and capable, such dispersion will not be effective - if you have no focus and only touch upon the surface everywhere, you will not be able to penetrate the market.

Therefore, when analyzing marketing strategies and doing routine gap-filling, we try to be as systematic and comprehensive as possible; however, when designing specific solutions, we need to select a few key points to work on rather than trying to do everything at once. .

For example, for e-commerce sales promotion, you can systematically analyze the problems and perform routine optimization from the dimensions of display rate, click-through rate, order conversion rate, payment conversion rate, average order value, repurchase rate, and recommendation rate.

However, in a specific period, specific product, or specific task, you need to have a focus, put the greatest resources here, and work hard to improve.

If it is due to insufficient traffic, then the focus should be on attracting new users, which depends on the display rate and click-through rate. If you know that you already have a good impression rate through paid advertising, then your focus should be on optimizing clicks - improving the main image and testing the image to make it more creative and differentiated.

If the main problem is that the average order value is not high enough, then you need to focus on getting consumers to buy more through cash back, threshold coupons, multi-item discounts, related recommendations, package gifts, etc., or by listing more new SKUs that are purchased frequently and are related to usage scenarios.

For example, if your product is a fat-reducing product, you need to restore the real situation of consumers and comprehensively sort out the possible information contact points of consumers:

For example, you see bus and subway ads in the morning, check Tik Tok, Moments, and Taobao at noon, see ads at the gym after get off work in the evening, and possibly attend a weight loss salon, as well as read Xiaohongshu, slimming apps, watch slimming experts’ Tik Tok live broadcasts, and read weight loss articles on public accounts in the evening...Through comprehensive situational analysis, you can design precise advertising media, as well as corresponding promotional themes and content, and these contents need to be strung together by a unified theme.

Due to budget limitations, the next step is to choose several key media breakthroughs to form a marketing mix that suits you.

When we say that marketing must be thoughtful, we mean that you must have insights into specific brands, distinguish between priorities, and choose marketing tools that suit your goals, resources, and capabilities, so as to form a systematic approach that suits you and is not easily copied by other brands.

3. Practical solutions

Which experts do you want to target? What is the budget (head, waist, tail, specific quantity and cost ratio)

What is the content theme? (For example, if an office worker is busy with work, how can he lose weight?)

What form of content? (Is it a product experience review, a weight loss strategy, or something else? Should we let influencers write it, or should we write it and then publish it to influencers?)

When will it be released? (Weekend or weekday? Specific time in the morning, noon, or evening)

How to follow up on reposts (reposts by big accounts, trolls, company employees?)

For another example, if you want to make a simple e-commerce portal map, you need to consider:

Where and when is this picture displayed, and through what recommendation mechanism is it displayed? How do I match this referral mechanism?

Is the image mainly for image or promotion?

Who will click to watch it? What kind of color tones, visual elements, and text will attract them?

How can I connect to the landing page more smoothly after entering? What kind of promotional benefits should be combined to speed up conversion?

Each of the above things involves a lot of details, and these details are the key to determining the marketing effect.

Author: Brand Xin Viewpoint

Source: Brand Xin Viewpoint