Integrated marketing guides all relationship-sensitive factors of the enterprise. Integrated marketing unifies the core purpose, key goals and strategies and company-wide processes to create congruent messages and sufficient dialog with all stakeholder groups.

Integrated marketing:
Presents a unified image to the people who need and want to hear it; having a "positioning statement" for your company as well as " positions" for each of your products/services.

Has a consistent voice for all of your audiences - trade, consumer, employees, suppliers and stockholders. The messages must be consistent and congruent to the vision and values of your company or organization.

A concise, integrated marketing plan can be developed only after a company identifies itself. Only when you know who you are and what you have to offer can you tell others about it. Defining your company's identity can be very difficult. It takes soul searching. That's where strategic thinking comes in to play.

Defining yourself and staking out a clear position in the minds of your target audience is crucial. Every savvy company knows it must stand for something in the marketplace. All the good ones do.

Seek ways to set yourself apart from your competition. Why are you different? Why should people come to you instead of going to someone else offering the same service or product?

Corporate Images uses a process called "The Integrated Marketing Audit" to evaluate an organization's internal and external processes for developing communication strategies and programs.

Once you've defined who you are and have set your sights on where you want to go in the marketplace, how do you get your message to your market and project an image that fits your company? And how do you say it to all of your publics in a consistent voice?

A company that wants to make maximum use of the synergy of integrated marketing communication has to do more than simply initiate advertising, direct marketing, public relations and data base management. It requires total management commitment to a multi-faceted program of operations and marketing.

The bad news is, it's not as easy as it used to be. Years ago businesses could put a weekly ad in the local newspaper to get their message out to their publics. But things have changed. In fact, there's been more change in the consumer products industry in the last five years than in the previous fifty! Technology has made things go faster and business climates change overnight. A global economy has changed the standard operating procedure. It's complicated. It's challenging. Competition is continuing to heat up. It is much more difficult to find a competitive advantage in today's marketplace.

The good news is, you can make every dollar you spend work for you. The new rules make integrated marketing the only intelligent way to compete in a tenacious market place. All the pieces of your plan must fit together, and they can. Your message must be consistent, and it will be. With planning and foresight, Integrated Marketing will buy you " the most bang for your buck."

These are some of the tangible elements that must be integrated to optimize communication effectiveness.

◆ Marketing Research
◆Database Management
◆ Advertising Programs & Sales Literature and Promotion (including the World Wide Web
◆Sales Force Activity
◆Public Relations

Combining these elements can improve the overall effectiveness of your communication with your customers.