A critique of the integrated marketing communications for effective advertising of commercial banks services in Nigeria

Integrated Marketing Communications is the conglomeration of the various promotional tools put into a central message presentation to a target market population, with the objective of achieving consistent and reliable effects on consumers’ choice of products. The programmes of IMC is a marketing communications plan that incorporates advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, public relations, publicity, direct marketing and word of mouth under an agency that is responsible for coordinating promotional activities, including the internet facilities. The difficulties associated with integrated marketing communications are on the implementations of the programme, between the use of an internal coordinating unit within an organisation especially in advertising and an external agency. Thus, the challenges of coordinating the different professional services in the promotion mix for coherence and consistency in messages presentations is paramount. The strategic impact of IMC is in the complementary and interdependency of the different communications and promotion tools required to stimulate and motivate the consumers. However the consumers often see and interpret the various messages from the perspectives of the problems to be solved, the needs for the products, and the perception of the situation. The use of integrated marketing communications is necessary in the different circumstances on the prevailing marketing requirements in the sale of particular products and the needs of a particular target market.