In today’s world of competition between various media platforms to help the brand grow, it has led to an increased or even loose usage of the word “360 degree approach” or “integrated approach”. More and more media agencies are trying to provide the clients with all the services under one roof. The agencies are aspiring to develop a space where the clients are not looking elsewhere for solutions to meet their varied needs. Integrated approach or 360 degree approach though has enabled easy functioning; it has raised questions about the quality of work and output. It becomes very important to analyse the reach of a medium, the authenticity of a medium’s implementation and also the quality of the output generated. The whole concept of 360 degree approach thus has a lot of ambiguity, ambiguity in the way it functions and its ability to generate better results.

So that brings to our big question, does the integrated marketing approach really help the brand grow? Adgully asked this question to some of the industry notables and the opinions were varied.

Shubha George, Chief Operating Officer, MEC, started off by speaking about the media space evolving which in turn has led the agencies to provide an integrated approach. She further added that, “If you look at paid, owned and earned media as frame work, a lot of these activation come in the space of owned media because those are specific property that brands will start owning over time. We are very certain that it is already happening now and in the future as we go along that paid, owned and earned are going to integrate even more. If that is the way the communication planning or media planning is going to evolve, if you don’t have the specialism in two out of three areas, then you going to be an incomplete agency for sure.”

The positive tone is also echoed from the client’s perspective, Govind Shrikhande, Customer Care Associate and Managing Director, Shopper’s Stop Limited, said, “I think in the way a brand is today recognized by customers we need a unique identity irrespective of which media you look at. We need an agency which can understand connotation and meaning of the brand and truly represent it across various media. Internet and social networking is becoming very hot and dominant especially for the youth, the traditional media agencies cannot alone look at print and television. Media agencies need to understand the interaction also at the level of internet and social networking sites. Therefore, media integration and brand integration is very important.”

Deviating from the assertion, another client, Anupama Ahluwalia, Vice-President- Marketing, Idea Cellular, said, “Brand integrations are every critical to any brand building process and I think they are going to be the future. I think there are opportunities where you can work not only within one roof but you can also look at other ways to connect on the brand across multiple touch points and brands need to explore them as well.”
Offering a caution to advertisers and clients, Geetanjali Bhattacharji, Head-New Initiatives, Spatial Access, said, “If you can measure it, go ahead and spend it. If you cannot measure it then there is no point.

Advertisers prefer to have a single point of contact, if that single point of contact is offering to them all their needs, filling up all their knowledge pockets, it makes more sense for them to do it that way. If I have a model that delivers then why not offer it, but you cannot go out there and offer a 360 degree solution if you don’t understand the space you are in.”

Jasmin Sohrabji, Managing Director, OMD, proposed a rational approach and said, “The solution of the brief lies in all this function of having an integrated solution. It’s not like the clients are asking for integrated solution but if your solution is not integrated, chances are that your solution is incomplete.” She further added that, “I think the term ‘integrated solution’ means only that you are forcing it. It is not a forced thing. This is my target audience, this is my objective, this is what my research tells me are the best touch points to reach out to my audience. If three mediums fit in then so be it. Digital may or may not be a part of that. I may offer digital and be good at digital but if it is not fitting in as an option I will not recommend it. I find that there is much more thinking happening today.”

It can be inferred from the varying degrees of opinion that the 360 degree approach can prove helpful for a brand’s progress, and help in improving the reach of the message, but it can only happen when the quality of the service provided is up to the mark and rationally implemented. The integrated approach should not be confused to being a marketing mix that includes all kinds of media but should be looked upon as a well thought and appropriately planned marketing mix. So the credibility of the integrated approach depends on the superiority and the genuineness of the marketing idea. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]