Value of Objectives

Lack of specific objectives are one of the primary reasons for the failure of an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan. Advertising and promotional objectives are needed for several reasons, including the functions they serve in communications, planning and decision making, and measurement and evaluation.

Communication - Specific objectives for the IMC program facilitate coordination of the various groups working on the campaign. The advertising and promotional program must be coordinated within the company, inside the ad agency, and between the two. Any other parties involved in the promotional campaign, such as public relations and/or sales promotion firms, research specialists, or media buying services, must also know what the company hopes to accomplish through its marketing communications program.

Planning and Decision Making - Specific promotional objectives also guide development of the integrated marketing communications plan. All phases of a firm’s promotional strategy should be based on the established objectives, including budgeting, creative, and media decisions as well as supportive programs such as direct marketing, public relations/publicity, sales promotion, and/or reseller support.

Meaningful objectives can also be a useful guide for decision making. Promotional planners are often faced with a number of strategic and tactical options in terms of choosing creative options, selecting media, and allocating the budget among various elements of the promotional mix. Choices should be made based on how well a particular strategy matches the firm’s promotional objectives.

Measurement and Evaluation of Results - An important reason for setting specific objectives is that they provide a benchmark against which the success or failure of the promotional campaign can be measured. Without specific objectives, it is extremely difficult to determine what the firm’s advertising and promotion efforts accomplished. One characteristic of good objectives is that they are measurable; they specify a method and criteria for determining how well the promotional program is working.

Types of Objectives

Sales-Oriented Objectives

Many managers believe that monies spent on advertising and other forms of promotion should produce measurable results, such as increasing sales volume by a certain percentage or dollar amount or increasing the brand’s market share.Some managers prefer sales-oriented objectives to make the individuals involved in advertising and promotion think in terms of how the promotional program will influence sales.

Problems associated with sales objectives :
1. Sales cannot be attributed solely to the advertisement and promotion and hence the failure of meeting sales objectives can be manifold
2. Many experts recognize that advertising has a lagged or carryover effect; monies spent on advertising do not necessarily have an immediate impact on sales
3. The carryover effect adds to the difficulty of determining the precise relationship between advertising and sales.
4. Sales objectives is that they offer little guidance to those responsible for planning and developing the promotional program. The creative and media people working on the account need some direction as to the nature of the advertising message the company hopes to communicate, the intended audience, and the particular effect or response sought.


Advertising and promotional programs tend to be evaluated in terms of sales, particularly when expectations are not being met. Marketing and brand managers under pressure to show sales results often take a short-term perspective in evaluating advertising and sales promotion programs. They are often looking for a quick fix for declining sales or loss of market share. They ignore the pitfalls of making direct links between advertising and sales, and campaigns, as well as ad agencies, may be changed if sales expectations are not being met.

Communications Objectives

Marketers do recognize the problems associated with sales-oriented objectives. They recognize that the primary role of an IMC program is to communicate and that planning should be based on communications objectives.Advertising and other promotional efforts are designed to achieve such communications as brand

knowledge and interest, favorable attitudes and image, and purchase intentions. Consumers are not expected to respond immediately; rather, advertisers realize they must provide relevant information and create favorable predispositions toward the brand before purchase behavior will occur.

Advertising and promotion perform communications tasks in the same way that a pyramid is built, by first accomplishing lower-level objectives such as awareness and knowledge or comprehension.Subsequent
tasks involve moving consumers who are aware of or knowledgeable about the product or service to higher levels in the pyramid. The initial stages, at the base of the pyramid, are easier to accomplish than those toward the top, such as trial and repurchase or regular use. Thus, the percentage of prospective customers will decline as they move up the pyramid.

Sample IMC Objectives

Factors related to success of advertising for new products

• Communicating that something is different about the product - Successful introductory commercials communicated some point of difference for the new product
• Positioning the brand difference in relation to the product category - Successful commercials positioned their brand’s difference within a specific product category. For example, a new breakfast product was positioned as the “crispiest cereal” and a new beverage as the “smoothest soft drink.”
• Communicating that the product difference is beneficial to consumers - Nearly all of the successful commercials linked a benefit directly to the new product’s difference
• Supporting the idea that something about the product is different and/or beneficial to consumers. All the successful commercials communicated support for the product’s difference claim or its relevance to consumers. Support took the form of demonstrations of performance, information supporting a uniqueness claim, endorsements, or testimonials