Book Title: A Practical Guide to Integrated Marketing Communication: Planning and Developing a Strategy

AUTHOR:           TOM BRANNAN

REVIEWER:       NZE EUNICE ONYINYECHI

PUBLISHER:      KOGAN PAGE LITD, 120 PENTONVILLE RD, LONDON

NO OF PAGES: 143

Tom Brannan is a leading thinker and practitioner in communications. In this book, he shows in a practical manner how to plan an integrated approach to marketing communication, develop the overall strategy, shape individual campaigns, select the right techniques, assemble the plans and resources for the activity.  

For the purpose of this review, I will divide the book into three segments. The first segment comprises the first six chapters; the second segment is from seven to twelve and the last from thirteen to eighteen.  

In the first segment, Brannan writes on the essence of integrated communications, positing that when we have identified the core message leading to one great creative idea, it is to be implemented across every other thing. Integrated communication is to be sustained when developments on the campaign can be seen to be true to the positioning and personality of the brand. Brannan’s stance is that effective integration is a brainchild of good planning. He writes that effective communication is borne out of structured thinking, insight, needs, aspiration and attitudes of the target customer. Without these, integration is academic since the communication is more than likely to be off-target in any event.  

He opines on the planning matrix thus: We must understand the business and marketing objectives at each level. The understanding will be used to identify the audiences that are important to achieving the objectives at each level and key messages are then defined for each relevant audience. He also gives the approach to be adopted in the campaign, starting with the marketing or business objective and the audience. He recommends that the parameters of the campaign should be specified and current situations examined before the appropriate communication objectives can be defined to aid the adoption of a strategy and tactical plans toward achieve them. He also highlights advertising and PR as options most frequently chosen to lead campaigns, defining advertising as the delivery of a message through space paid for by the advertiser. Advertising can help achieve almost any communication objective, “though with its own weaknesses. It offers a variety of routes to reaching the audience including television, cinema, radio, newspapers, magazines and outdoor advertising.”  

PR on the other hand employs the use of the same media as advertising but uses them in different ways and with different objectives. PR can be applied in corporate settings and to brands.  

In the next segment, the author discusses other options used in leading campaigns. Direct mail is the most easily measurable of all the techniques. It is easy to capture details of responses received using available software to track responses up to the final sale, though it has own weaknesses. Sponsorship is another weapon in the armoury of integrated communications. Used properly, it can be very useful. However, it has limitations. It rarely works effectively on its own. Sponsorship demands the same analytical approach like other techniques.  

Brannan further highlights design as another option. The influence of design is pervasive. It stretches from the name and identity of the brand, through the physical properties of the product to even whether the papers for press releases will get the necessary attention. Design is a central element of communication but many do not factor it in. Exhibitions, conferences and seminars could be used as part of campaign, according to him.

The electronic media presents a challenging new world to marketing. Also, the internet with its applications is creating new channels of marketing. Properly targeted sales efforts go a long way in making marketing communication easier as only a small proportion of goods go from factory to the end user without sales effort of some kind.  

In the last segment, Brannan discusses sales promotion as the last option in the process, maintaining that, “it is a range of tactical marketing techniques designed within a strategic marketing framework to add value to a product or service in order to achieve specific sales and marketing objectives.”  

The author notes that information given in this volume is enough to provide a broad view of the characteristics of each option leading to a better selection technique to complete the campaign. For any given market situation, there will be numerous ways of using communication techniques in an effective mix.  

The book, “A practical guide to integrated marketing communication”, is a practical book for practical people written by someone who practices what he writes.