As we already know, most of the firms selling a product or a service need to communicate their offerings to the outside world for them to be successful. This activity, however, is not limited to creating communication messages or TVCs but there has to be an all-round plan to tap into various media in trying to establish a connect with the customers. Developing and implementing of this integrated marketing communications program is usually a complex process requiring the efforts of many persons. As marketers, it is important to for us to be able to understand the nature of the industry and the structure and functions of the organizations involved, which help these firms with implementation of their IMC plan.
Here, we will try to examine the various organizations that participate in the IMC process, their roles and responsibilities, and their relationship to one another. We would also discuss how companies organize internally for advertising and promotion. For most companies, advertising is planned and executed by an outside ad agency. In this regard, many large agencies offer a variety of other IMC capabilities, and hence it is critical to take a look at their roles.
Before moving forward, let us first take an overview of the entire system and identify some of the players involved.
Here, Advertisers or the clients have the product/service to be sold, money to be spent on the marketing efforts as well as final decision making authority regarding the shortlisting and approval of media-message mix. Clients are also critical in the actual implementation of the marketing program, leveraging on their existing employee/dealer/supplier base. In terms of structure, while there are many inputs which are received for any communication creation, generally the overall responsibility lies with either
a) The advertising department which works under a CMO or
b) Brand Manager of the respective brand (de-centralized)
An advertising agency, is an outside firm that specializes in the creation, production, and/or placement of the communications message and that may provide other services to facilitate the marketing and promotions process. Many clients enlist multiple agencies rather than relying on one, particularly when they market a number of products.
While, the Brand Manager is often the stakeholder from the client firm who interacts with the Ad Agencies in de-centralized system, in the case of centralized system of advertising management, as outlined above, the functions are performed by an advertising manager with a team. They are as follows -
i) Planning and Budgeting (including allocations to each brand)
ii) Administration and Execution
iii) Coordination with other departments as well as other agencies
The de-centralized system works better in terms of focused attention to each brand, but also suffers from the lack of experience of brand managers as well as internal competition.
Another option to handle this is maintaining an in-house agency which will handle all the communication related aspects for that particular organization. The pros and cons of each of the options is evaluated below -
In terms of specialized advertising agencies, there are typically 4 roles that are present in the firm, viz.
1) Account Planning Team
2) Creative Team
3) Client Management Team
4) Media Management Team
Below is a brief description of their roles -
Account Planning - Account Planners form a very essential link between the target customers of the product or services and the creative team within the ad agency. They also co-ordinate with the Client Management team to better understand specific client needs. Account Planners usually connect directly with the end consumers through FGDs or in-depth interviews and generate important customer "insights" which can be leveraged upon in the content creation. Essentially this is similar to providing directions to the creative team for actual ad design.
Creative Team - This team has two sub-parts in the form of (a) Copywriters and (b) Designers. The copywriters are responsible for creating the text content or the exact dialogues to be used in the communication whereas the designers are responsible for determining all the other aspects including placements and typography, background colors etc. Both these sub-teams design the content in accordance with the requirements outlined by account planners
Client Management Team - Client management team performs the overall co-ordination between the clients and various other stakeholders in an ad agency. They obtain feedback from the clients on all deliverables and also participate in brainstorming sessions
Media Management Team - The role of the media management team is more of an operational one and starts after the communication is created. This team is responsible for identifying the exact TV Slots, Channel selection, location selection for OOH advertising; in a manner that will create the maximum impact.
After having looked at the structure of client organizations as well as ad agencies, let us now quickly take a look at how do advertisers identify a particular agency to manage their communication program.
Choosing an Ad Agency :
1) Goal Setting - Identification and prioritization of corporate goals
2) Defining the selection criteria - An objective criteria should be chosen and announced beforehand to avoid any favoritism. The criteria should be well rounded to consider all the relevant parameters such as agency size, expertise, media purchasing capabilities, creative reputation, personal chemistry etc.
3) Initial screening of agencies
4) Reference requests to the shortlisted agencies and analyzing important parameters such as client retention rate
5) Creative Pitch - Creative pitch is very costly and time consuming for an agency and hence they need to choose their targets carefully. A creative pitch generally involves the following -
(a) Selling points of the ad agency
(b) Demonstration of the understanding of the issues related to the client firm as well as the industry
(c) Methodology of analysis of key components and client queries
(d) Possible solution approaches and a preliminary communication sample for each of these approaches
6) Final Agency Selection
Lastly, the successful execution of any IMC plan also depends on the resource commitments from both the advertisers' and ad agencies' side.
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