[MUSIC] How are you today? As defined by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Integrated Marketing Communications, from now on, I will call it IMC, is a concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan. Such a plan evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of a company's disciplines. For example, Nike and the brand BBVA are a good example of this IMC. Unfortunately, many companies still rely on one or two communication tools. The wide range of communication tools, messages and audiences make it imperative that companies move towards Integrated Marketing Communications. However, despite its potential, many firms seem to be slow to accept it seriously. Companies must adopt a 360-degree view of themselves and consumers to fully understand all the different ways that communications can affect consumer's behavior, and so benefit their business. In the previous module on channel management a similar channel most called the omni channel. IMC requires media coordination. It can occur across and within media types, but marketers should combine personal and non-personal communication channels to achieve maximum impact. Many companies are coordinating their online and offline communication activities. IMC has been slow to take hold for several reasons. Large companies often employ several different communication specialists who may know competitively little about the other communication tools. In addition, many global companies use a large number of advertising agencies located in different countries and serving different divisions resulting in uncoordinated communication and image diffusion. Today, a few large agencies have substantially improved their integrated offering. To facilitate one stop shopping, major advertising agencies have acquired promotion agencies. Public relation firms. Package design consultancies. Website developments and direct mail houses. These agencies are defining themselves as communication companies. IMC can produce a stronger message consistency and help to build brand equity, and create greater selves impact. It forces management to think about every way the customer comes into contact with the company. How the company communicates its positioning, the relative importance of each vehicle and timing issues. The aim is to unify the company's brand images and messages. How can we determine how integrated our IMC program is? There are six criteria that can help to determine it. Coverage, contribution, commonality, complementarity, versatility and cost. Coverage is the proportion of audience reached by each communication option employed and existing overlaps. Contribution is the ability of a marketing communication to create the desired response and communication effect from consumers. Commonality the extent to which common associations are reinforced across communication options. It is the consistency and cohesiveness of the brand image. Complementarity - the extent to which different association are linkages, are emphasized across marketing communication options. Versatility, extent to which a marketing communication option is robust and works for different groups of consumers. And cost - marketers must weigh evaluations of marketing communications and all these criteria against their cost to arrive at the most effective and efficient communications program. We have learned today that IMC can produce a strong message consistency and help to build brand equity, and help create greater sales impact. In addition, today, only a few large agencies have substantially improved their integrating offering and of them is DDB. In the next class, we will be interviewing Jose Maria Rull, President and CEO of DDB Spain. [MUSIC]