Intergrated Marketing Communications

Promotion is a an attempt of marketers trying to inform persuade and remind potential buyers of their product to influence an opinion or elicit a response. No company can really survive in the market without promotion. That is why they all work on promotional strategies. A promotional strategy is finding optimal uses for the elements of promotion which are: advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion. Also these are known as the promotional mix.  

Advertising is impersonal, one-way mass communication about a product or organization that is paid for by a marketer. McDonald's advertising is one of the best in it's industry. I don't really have to prove this because it speaks for itself. There are not much places in the America you can go without seeing A McDonald's. They have many billboards all over the country and their commercials are expected for daily television. 

Public Relations is the marketing function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies areas within the organization the public may be interested in, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. Recently this year, McDonald's paid to get it's name on the trending list for twitter. Which lead to people watching their commercials about farmers who supply them. That made McDonald's image increasingly better. 
 
Sales promotion is marketing communication activities other than advertising, personal selling and public relations that motivates consumers to go buy a product. McDonald's uses this several ways. One way is through coupons which are certificates that allows you to buy a product for a cheaper price. Another way is through sweepstakes and and contests. One more is through premiums. A premium is getting another item offered after proof of buying the original item that was being promoted or sometimes it's the same product you get free.

Promotional strategy is close to the process of communication. Communication is the process by which meanings are exchanged or shared through a common set of symbols. A company cannot survive as well without selling it's message through communication to potential buyers. Which now takes us to Integrated Marketing Communications. This is the careful coordination of all promotional messages for a product or service to assure the consistency of messages at every contact point where a company meets the customer. This is a concept many companies have adopted to try to keep it's message the same.