Feature | Does the integrated marketing approach really help the brand grow?

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."