Understanding Communication Processes Through IMC Situational Analysis: The Essay On Australian Medical Association.

• Understanding the communication processes; 
• Selecting the target market(s) (i.e. the consumers/ customers/ clients/ suppliers/ employees/etc.) to which the IMC program will be directed
• Developing the communication objectives and 
• Developing creative strategies

This means taking the IMC situational analysis identified in Task 1 for your chosen organisation (i.e. CBA, Australian Medical Association or AMP or an organisation you work for) and extending this analysis into understanding the communication processes through the lenses of the communication model in the Belch Text (i.e. Figure 5.1). 

Based on what you have learned and observed in this subject to-date and additional scholarly research ensure you include the following:

• Illustrate and discuss the communication model outlined by Belch et al. (2018) as it applies to your chosen organisation and the IMC issues being considered. Then, using the communication model, critically evaluate your chosen organisation's approach to IMC. 
• Identify and justify the selection of the target market(s) (i.e. the consumers/ customers/ clients/ suppliers/ employees/etc.) to which the IMC program will be directed
• Describe and then justify your communication objectives for the IMC program
• Describe and then justify the major creative approaches that you will use as the basis of your IMC program – and ultimately your positioning strategy. This means that you must provide examples of the kind of messaging that you will use for each component of your IMC program (i.e. advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, etc).

The Communication Model of Belch

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) helps in ensuring the fact that all kinds of communication along with messages in an organization are carefully linked that can help a company in reaching their objectives. It is indicative of integration of promotional tools so that they work in harmony with each other. The communication tools can work in a better manner for an organization if they work together instead of working in isolation. Integrated Marketing communication can help an organization in achieving competitive advantage and it can help in boosting the sales along with profits of a company. Integrated marketing communication can help in wrapping communication around that of the customer and it helps people in moving across different stage of buying process. An organisation can consolidate its image by taking recourse to IMC and it can help them in nurturing relationship with that of the customer. Australian Medical Association (AMA) refers to the professional association of the Australian doctors along with medical students. The national headquarters of the organisation are located within the Australian Capital Territory of Barton (Ama.com.au., 2018). This report discusses the communication model of Belch and how it is applied to the organisation. The report also identifies and justifies target market in relation to IMC program. It justifies the communication objectives in relation to IMC program and justifies the creative approaches that form the basis of IMC in relation to the organisation.

The communication model of Belch highlights on two elements- sender and receiver that help in representing major participant within the communication process. The other two forms of communication tool are that of message along with channel. The communication process that forms a part of integrated marketing communication are that of – encoding, decoding, response and that of feedback. Sender refers to the organization which wants to share information with another group of the people (Researchgate.net., 2018). Source can be an individual or it can also be a non-personal entity. The communication source selects words and symbols that can help in representing the message which is delivered to receiver. The process of encoding helps in developing of message that can help in conveying meaning to the audience. Message can be in the verbal form or it can be in the non-verbal form (Camilleri, 2018).  Message should be put within the transmittable form that can prove to be appropriate for channel of the communication that is being used. Channel refers to method by taking recourse to which communication can travel from sender to receiver. Receiver is indicative of the person and the sender share thought to the receiver. The reactions of the receiver after reading the message can be called response. According to Luxton, Reid & Mavondo (2015), the response of the receiver can vary from storing the information in the memory to the ordering of product which is advertised on the television.

Integrated Marketing Communication will be able to help Australian Medical Association in the strategic integration of the different kind of communication function. It can help in developing efficient marketing communication program. Integrated Marketing Communication can help Australian Medical Association in sustaining brand equity along with identity. IMC can help consumers in connecting with Australian Medical Association in a relationship that is on the basis of trust along with transparency. Internet Marketing will be used by Australian Medical Association and the users can easily participate in the medium of digital marketing and the users can receive the content within that of real time (Blakeman, 2018). Mobile marketing will also be used by Australian Medical Association that can help in the process of delivering messages that will be specific to the location of the consumer. Internet marketing can be interactive in nature and thus it can be of great use for Australian Medical Association. The company will be able to measure effects in relation to advertising and thus they will be able to ascertain the effectiveness of the communication medium. The marketing activities that will help in providing extra value pertaining to Australian Medical Association are that of sales force and the distributors. Google Ad words will be used for the online search advertising of Australian Medical Association. This cost effective method of advertising can add to the profit of the company. Internet marketing can help people in knowing about the world class medical care that is provided by Australian Medical Association and it can help people in the promotion of alternative policies to that of the government policies (Aggarwal, 2018).

Benefits of Integrated Marketing Communication

The Red Ocean strategy can be used by Australian Medical Association and they make use of this process for the purpose of innovation along with the creation of new market space. Australian Medical Association can make use of the SWOT framework and strategy diamond that can help them in spreading their influence in the market. Australian Medical Association will be able to understand the need of the market and they would be able to ascertain the threats from that of other health care companies of Australia. According to Šeri?, Gil-Saura & Ruiz-Molina (2014), by making use of the red ocean strategy, the organization will be able to protect the medical practitioners and they would be able to promote the ethical behaviour in relation to the medical practitioners. Australian Medical Association will be able to promote the interests of the medical practitioners by taking recourse to the red ocean strategy.

Target market is indicative of the group of the customers within the available market of a business service which the marketing efforts of a business aim at. Target market comprises of the consumers who show similar kind of characteristics and who want to buy the product or service of the company. Australian Medical Association is indicative of a membership organisation in relation to the medical practitioners. The national body possesses a federal office within Canberra and it has got branches within each of the Australian state. The medical students of South Australia can join the organisation like the student members and they evolve to become full members after that of graduation. Geographic segmentation helps in dividing market on the basis of location. On the basis of market segmentation, it can be said that those people who are from the southern part of Australia will like to enrol as medical practitioners. The members of Australian Medical Association will be able to get discount of around 10 % on all the educational products of Mentone that will be inclusive of anatomical chart and the training equipment (Sozinova & Fokina, 2015).  The target market will comprise of those people who would like to take the advantage of the discounted products of Australian Medical Association. The target market of the marketing campaign of Australian Medical Association will comprise of those people who wants to make use of clinical resource support resource for getting various kinds of answers. Demographic segmentation helps in referring to different aspects of the market like age, occupation along with education. Demographic segmentation plays a crucial role within that of the segmentation strategy. On the basis of demographic segmentation, it can be said that people having the profession of doctor want to enrol themselves as members of the organisation (Joseph, Cook & Cook, 2015). The target market consists of people who are committed and experienced and who have different kind of national along with international background. They are mainly of the age group of 25-30. Senior management plays an important role with the help of significant amount of experience along with knowledge that they possess.

Creative Approaches in Relation to Australian Medical Association

The marketing of Australian Medical Association helps in targeting the aged people who are in need of quality health care system. The funding measures that Australian Medical Association provide come of great benefit for the old people and they can take the advantage of the exclusive medical services provided by the organisation. Elaboration Likelihood model emphasises on the fact that elaboration likelihood is composed of two elements- motivation along with ability. The motivation arises on account of certain factors like personal relevance along with the individual needs. Ability on the other hand refers to knowledge along with intellectual capacity of an individual. It can hence be said that the target market of the Australian Medical Association will be the people who have got knowledge and abilities pertaining to the medical line (Shaltoni, 2017). The competition in relation to medical training position has greatly increased in the present age and the Australian Medical Association can help an individual in reviewing and planning of the career. The target market of the marketing campaign of Australian Medical Association are those people who are in need of training that can help them in gaining an edge in the event of these people applying for that of position. The integrated marketing communication campaign of Australian Medical Association works for the benefit of these people by providing them with the right kind of interview skill tips (Wang & Liu, 2015). The target market will comprise of those people who will need to groom their interview skills so that they can prove themselves in the medical profession.

Integrated Marketing communication can help in building attention in relation to Australian Medical Association. A brand that is consistent can help in the building of strong relationship with the consumer along with the client. The strong relationship that Australian Medical Association wants to build with the help of integrated marketing communication can help a large number of medical practitioners to know about the services of the organization. The digital marketing campaign can help in differentiating a brand from that of the competitors. It has been stated by Theaker (2017), the economic importance of the brand can be augmented in the event of the company taking recourse to communications campaign that can effectively reach a wide number of people.  The marketing can help in providing value along with brand equity in relation to Australian Medical Association. The medical practitioners develop a behavioural relationship with the brand with the help of integrated communications campaign. Direct marketing will be made use of by Australian Medical Association for the purpose of generation of a response (Youtube.com., 2018). The public relations will also be made use of by Australian Medical Association that can help in the evaluation of the public attitude towards that of the organization. It helps Australian Medical Association in maintaining of positive image among the public. According to Qrunig & Qrunig (2016), the objective of internet advertising of Australian Medical Association can help in targeting people from the website and it can help in connecting with the people. Social media marketing was taken recourse to by the Association that can help in the advertising of the services with the help of online communities along with the blog operations of the company.

Red Ocean Strategy for Innovation and Market Expansion

The direct marketing approach employed by Australian Medical Association can help it in attaining communication objective pertaining to the program of integrated marketing communication. Video advertisements will be employed by Australian Medical Association and the short advertisement message can easily attract the viewers. The video advertisement can help the Association in rightly building brand recognition of the company that can increase the prestige of the company (Doorley & Garcia, 2015).  The communication objectives in relation to integrated marketing communication can be said to be justified as it can it help the various clients of the brand in getting additional information about the Australian Medical Association. The integrated marketing communication can help the company in achieving of greater synergy and it can be of great convenience for the medical practitioners. AMA will evolve to become a more accountable agency with the help of the marketing communications campaign. They can pay attention to the metrics that can help them in ascertaining the success of the digital marketing campaign of the company. IMC can help the company in adjusting to the changing environment. The consumers in the present age have become unresponsive to that of the traditional modes of advertising and so the innovative marketing campaign of AMA can help the company in attracting clients. The advertising carried out on the social media platform can influence the perception of the client and it can help in building brand equity pertaining to AMA. The digital marketing campaign of AMA has helped in persuading people so that they can engage with that of the brand. It has helped in the process of enrolling of more doctors with the Association (Belch et al., 2014).The facility of free student membership on the AMA helped the students in relation to the medical career. The digital marketing campaign of AMA can be said to be successful as it has helped in increasing traffic to the website of AMA. The marketing of AMA has helped in reminding the customers about the benefits provided by the association.

Creative approaches that will be made use of by AMA in the integrated marketing communication campaign that can help in drawing a large number of people towards the brand. Design elements will be used in mobile marketing of AMA that can help in drawing customers towards the brand. The process of data-driving will be made creative that can help the people feel that the data has been customised that can increase its appeal among the people. Unique kind of data will be made use of by AMA that can help in appealing to customers (Youtube.com., 2018) A framework can be developed by AMA that can help in supporting multiple languages so that it can feel specific to that of each particular region. Visual strategy will be made use of by AMA that would be consistent with the value of the organization. The creative digital experience will help in increasing the impact of AMA. According to Austin & Pinkleton (2015), the brand architecture is approved that can help in making the customer experience desirable. The systems approach of AMA is creative that can help the client in leveraging and managing of the creative assets. The manuals of AMA would be graphic designed that can help in drawing people towards the organization. The content management system documentation can help the company in increasing its influence among the people.

Target Market and Communication Objectives

Market positioning helps in fitting a service to the segment within the market so that it can achieve a unique position in the market. AMA links the services with that of the benefit that the customers will get that can help in the positioning of the AMA (Villeneuve & Pasquier, 2017). There are different medical associations present in Australia called Medical Board of Australia, The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, Australian General Practice Network and Australian Medical Council. AMA has been able to create its reputation in the market with the help of its superior positioning strategy.

Ethical medical marketing can help in growing the profit of AMA and it can help in attracting patients towards the company. According to Strauss & Frost (2016), the health of an individual has an effect on the stress level of an individual and it bears an impact on the ability of an individual of interacting socially with the friends along with family. The emotions of the patients can be targeted by taking recourse to advertising and the emotional drivers can help in the delivery of the business in a humane manner. Purchase occasion can be said to be not adequate and being remembered by the potential patients can ensure the brand success of AMA. The messaging would focus on generating connection that can help in the aspect of brand recall of the current along with future patients.

The sales promotion of AMA is carried out with the help of sales force of the company along with the distributors of AMA. These elements can help in stimulating the immediate sales in relation to the company. The sales promotion is oriented towards the consumer that can help in driving sales of the company. Direct marketing that is made use of by the company is that of telemarketing, e-mail marketing and that of social media marketing (Armstrong et al., 2014). The message should be articulated in a manner that is consistent and it should have a unified voice that can help in making the message clear in front of the client along with the consumers. The message should focus on the benefits that the medical practitioner and the patient would get that can help in popularizing service pertaining to AMA. The messages on the various platforms do not have a suggestive tone that helps in making the brand popular in front of the customers. AMA supports the sustainability programs that can help in the aspect of community engagement. AMA maintains relationship with the media that helps in the generation of publicity among the clients and the consumers towards the brand (Camilleri, 2018).

Conclusion

Integrated marketing communication will be able to offer help to AMA for strategic integration in relation to the communication function. Australian Medical Association will be able to sustain brand equity with the help of the marketing communications campaign. The medical students can take part in organization as student members and they can become full members after completion of their graduation. Public relations will be able to help AMA in creating positive image in front of the public. The mobile marketing will make use of the design elements that can attract people towards that of the brand. Data driving process will be creative for the AMA that can help in increasing appeal of the brand for the people.

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