IMC and not 360 is the Way Forward for Marketing Companies

The blog is based on the research and findings corresponding to the recent industry trends and the changing behaviors of the marketers. The idea of integration is not as much new. It was initially been practicing in Japan and some other countries. US and other countries later adapted the IMC techniques and the trend is increasing day by day.

Conventional marketing practices like 4Ps and 360 degree marketing are now being changed. The major reason is the increasing efficiency and affectivity of the brand communication to masses.

IMC involves more than assuring that all communication is seamless in tone and approach, though. It is precise. It is based on a strategic planning process that begins with a thorough knowledge of customers and their needs. Marketing communications has evolved from a "push" mode of communication, traditionally using advertising to simply sell products. In this day and age, selling isn't enough! Emphasis has to be placed on carefully crafted messages to narrate brand attributes, enticing people to not only like a brand, but to fall in love with it. Thus, creating a brand culture, where products or services become a part of everyday life for users.

360 Degree Branding is critical in today’s marketplace. More channels today, more noise, more competition between products, more products crossing borders, more competitors coming out of more places. Add to that, there is less sustainable differentiation between products. Brands are the only sustainable difference – that is why they are so invaluable, and every client is riveted.

Why Barbie failed in China?

Mattel opened a $30 million, six-story flagship Barbie store in Shanghai with great fanfare. With its retail a sale growing by 15% in China in 2009 Mattel was right to look there for revenue growth for its Barbie brand. It targeted the right age and socioeconomic group. Middle-class Chinese women between the ages of 24 and 32 are especially optimistic. Their incomes kept rising to where they now account for about half of all household income, up from 20% in the 1950s. 

Chinese women tend to like cutesy, girlish pink clothes (think Hello Kitty), not the sexy and skimpy kind Fields designed. Odd as it sounds, Snoopy-branded clothes, cartoon logos and all are hot sellers for women entering the white-collar workforce. So far sales at the Barbie store have been disappointing. The product positioning and style just aren't what Chinese women want. The pricing hasn't fit the market too.  it is a different story, the dolls from Japan or korea which are lovely, cute, baby look, are more welcomed, that's something with the taste of toys. in that case, barbie doll has not the biggest market share. 

All is not lost for Barbie in China, however. Young girls still clamor for those dolls and other products. Barbie has a fine future in China, but if she wants to make the most of it, she will need to rethink what Chinese girls and young women want, as well as how they shop. While looking at the ads of the Barbie doll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytq0Ed_5FJk they have tried to put the cultural essence as well as the feelings of the children and parents’ love but somehow they failed to reshape the doll for China. Chinese women are not as taller as Barbie looks and its shape makes the parent offended to put before the children.

Google Failure in China

With 384 million Internet users, China accounts for over one-fifth of the 1.73 billion people around the world that take to the web. A few can blame Google for having nothing less than global domination in its mind, when it entered the Chinese market.

One of the big reasons of Google failure in China was its biggest USP i.e. Search Engine. How ? It is very simple to understand that Chinese language has thousands of characters in it and there would be hundreds of words to express any statement. Because of this, Chinese people don’t like to type anything and then search instead they prefer the navigational searches and links hence the reason why most Chinese portals consist of hundreds of colorful links competing for attention.. And Google was unable to provide such interface to Chinese people. If you see the google’s page for China i.e. http://www.google.com.cn, you’ll find an almost identical search box to the one you’d find on Google’s U.S. page, which poses a big problem considering that it doesn’t fit Chinese characters very well.

Even if Google actually did take the time to study up on the market it wanted so badly, the American corporation wouldn’t be able to understand its audience in the same way Chinese firms like Baidu do. In the battle for global domination of the Internet, Google will just have to settle for everything else… because it can’t win this war. This shows the communication strategy of Google failed in China. Now Google has moved it searches from China to Hong Kong. And this is only because it was failed compliance with the Chinese target market as well as the obligations of government which it couldn’t follow particularly in restricting the searches.

Secondly if you see the ads of the google in china like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEx22Nip4cU you would get it that it only highlights the features that google is providing to the people but how these features are useful it was failed to communicate this. Google should portray the culture of China as it is the main essence in Chinese campaigns and should portray the usage for Chinese people.