Integrated Marketing Communication with the understanding of Public Relations

Abstract

The dicipline of public relations usually used to be at the secondary importance in marketing communication activities for ages. Promotion stage of marketing mix was predominantly advertising. PR, however, was only an extra promotion tool remembered when product publicity was needed. It was accepted that PR had been mostly responsible for corporate communications. With the political, economic and technological developments of the 1990s, marketers recognized that it was difficult to reach their marketing aims only by using mass advertising. To establish and maintain long-term relations with customers, marketers began to use the characteristic facilitator features of PR more and more. With the increasing need for PR in the product brand communications, Marketing PR field arose. During this time, the dicipline of PR had a significant impact on the development of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach which means the management of all communication tools in a long-term harmony by meeting consumers at all contact points in accordance with one message and shared aims. In this article, the conceptual frame of marketing communication and the development of IMC approach are summarized and the effects of PR understanding on IMC are discussed, and according to the secondary data, 'Super Mother' campaign of Alo detergant brand is analyzed. It was found that the campaign has some characteristic features of IMC with the understanding of PR.