BUS6302 Integrated Marketing Communications Report Sample

BUS6302 Integrated Marketing Communications

Drawing from industry opinion and theoretical underpinnings, students will be required to present an opinion piece on an IMC topic.

Instructions

In your opinion paper you must provide an analysis supporting your position to one of the following topics. You may decide to argue in favor of or against the selected topic. However, your position must be clearly stated in the introduction. Use 2-4 arguments to support your position. To add a critical aspect, present some contrary argument and then disprove it. Please choose one of the following topics:

- Luxury advertising
- aspirational lifestyles in advertising
- Virtual Reality Advertising
- Data Privacy and Personalised Advertising
- CSR advertising
- Influencer Marketing
- LGBT Representation in Advertising
- Gender Stereotypes in Advertising

Structure

Use the following structure for this assignment.

1. Assignment Title:

- Opinion Paper on [Selected IMC Topic]

2. Introduction:

- Provide a brief overview of the chosen IMC topic.

- Clearly state your opinion or position on the topic.

- Outline the main arguments you will present in the paper.

3. Body:

Argument 1:

- Present the first argument supporting your position on the chosen IMC topic.
- Provide industry opinions and theoretical perspectives that align with your argument.
- Use examples, case studies, or research findings to strengthen your argument.

Argument 2:

- Present the second argument supporting your position.

- Again, support your argument with industry opinions, theories, and evidence.

- Provide real-world examples or relevant data to illustrate your point.

Argument 3:

- Present the third argument supporting your position.

- Provide additional industry insights and theoretical underpinnings.

- Use persuasive language and logical reasoning to reinforce your argument.

Counterargument:

- Acknowledge and address potential counterarguments or opposing views.

- Refute counterarguments using evidence, logic, or alternative perspectives.

4. Conclusion:

- Summarize the key points made in the paper.

- Reinforce your opinion or position on the IMC topic.

- Provide insights into the implications or significance of your argument.

Solution

Topic: Influencer Marketing

1.0 Introduction

Influencer marketing is the procedure through which well-known social media users collaborate with firms to promote their products and services (Holm,2006). These sorts of informal collaborations stretch back to the early days of networking on social media. The size of the global influencer market was projected at USD 10.39 billion in 2021 and will continue to increase at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 33.4% from USD 13.86 billion in 2022 to USD 139 billion by 2030 (Statista 2024). Influencer marketing is embraced by brands because it advantages influencers, consumers, and the businesses involved. People with significant social media followings tend to sway the buying choices of their followers and are regarded as influencers. Understanding Influencer marketing from a business perspective is a highly effective method of advertising. Clearly stating in agreement with the fact that marketing in social media is very helpful in creating brand value. This study aims at Influencer marketing and its positive influence on people using social media. Argument 1 includes that Influencer marketing will boost the website's backlink profile and brand mentions, which will lead to its position in the result pages of search engines. Argument 2 suggests how influencer marketing can enhance credibility and trust among viewers through different social media platforms, Argument 3 consists of influencers promoting awareness by collaborating with a brand and reaching a large audience. Whereas in counter-argument some drawbacks were seen of using influencer marketing as it can be a threat in the long run.

Figure 1: Global Influencer Market from 2016 to 2024.
(Source: Statista, 2024)

Main Body

2.1 Argument 1: Influencer Marketing Improves Search Engine Optimization(SEO)

Influencer marketing for MBA assignment expert provides quick and inexpensive solutions that can boost traffic, generate high-quality backlinks, and boost customer trust in the business. It is associated with SEO in that it promotes short-term referral traffic and builds reputation through external components. An organization's SEO efforts could profit through influencer marketing because it renders a website appear more prominent and relevant. An influencer can link back to the website of the business as they endorse its products or services on the website or social media profiles(Macarthy 2021). Despite boosting website traffic, this may improve the website's search engine rankings. Influencer marketing helps a company to acquire reliable backlinks, which are essential for search engine optimization. Connecting influencers with an active website and producing content of the highest quality can help companies enhance their online search engine optimization and increase overall organic reach. In the long run, better SEO may help an organization be more visible and interact with more potential customers, which becomes a crucial component of a marketing strategy. If implemented properly, Instagram SEO will improve the visibility of the company. SEO techniques assist in enabling articles to show up in the top results when a user types an inquiry into Instagram. In addition to the content that users provide, this can also include audio, tags, and locations linked to it. Instagram SEO allows businesses to reach consumers who are actively searching for business-related content(Kundu 2021).

2.2 Argument 2: Influencer Marketing Enhances Credibility & Trust

Credibility and trust are essential components of effective influencer marketing strategies (Martínez-López et al., 2020). In the digital age, where commercials are directed at consumers continuously, establishing genuine connections with consumers is important. Influencers have an enormous amount of power over their audience and are frequently seen as trustworthy sources of guidance and data. Consumers want a sense of faith in the sincerity and ethical behavior of the influences they follow. Even though it can be difficult to figure out true influence, 93% of youngsters claim to rely on internet reviews to assist them in making prudent decisions.
Therefore, organizations and firms must put trust and credibility first to guarantee the success of influencer marketing. A real-world example to support this study is Rihanna's Fenty Beauty: Fenty Beauty raised the bar for inclusion in the beauty industry(Gutierrez Chora 2022). Partnering with an extensive range of social media influencers they displayed their commitment to serving people of all skin tones. These influencers can sway the general population due to their large and dedicated fan base. Influencer marketing is transforming the industry as consumers desire authenticity and trustworthiness more and more. On a wider spectrum, it's comparable to getting suggestions from the closest friend about the top skincare items.

2.3 Argument 3: Influencer Marketing Increases Brand Awareness & Reach

Brands can expand their reach while improving their brand recognition by collaborating with social media influencers by taking advantage of the trust and dedicated audience that these people have developed. Because influencer marketing works so well, it will be worth $21.1 billion globally in 2023 (Teixeira et al., 2023). Influencers on social media distribute content on networks like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. In recent years, influencer marketing has gained prominence as an approach for firms looking to increase brand awareness. In traditional advertising, a campaign is created by a marketing division or agency and distributed through marketing channels which include social media, magazines, and television. Content collaboration in influencer marketing refers to an alliance between an organization and a user-generated following. Collectively, the influencer and the business create a campaign that reflects their common values. One of the most well-known soft drink companies in the world, Coca-Cola, for example, conducts brand awareness initiatives to remind customers of its fundamental values (Adewuyi 2023).

Figure 2: Three Arguments.
(Source: self-created)

2.4 Counter Argument:

Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of influencer advertising is one of its most challenging initiatives (Jover Rodríguez 2022). The cost of an influencer marketing campaign could become expensive. Larger-following influencers frequently request hefty prices for their advertising services. Businesses need to decide carefully if their potential return on investment exceeds the cost of collaborating. It can be challenging to measure and justify this. As influencer marketing frequently relies on transitory metrics like website traffic and social media communication, measuring its return on investment (ROI) can be difficult. It could prove difficult to assign long-term ROI and consistent business growth to influencer marketing campaigns alone.

Influencer marketing's focus on immediate results is one of its major disadvantages (Hackley, and Kitchen, 1998). Increasing website traffic and social media involvement right away can be achieved when collaborating with influencers. Nevertheless, the amount of traffic tends to drop quickly when the influencer's marketing ends. This brief increase in traffic is inadequate to offer an ongoing source of organic growth. Regretfully, since being an influencer is an extremely desired line of work, many turn to fraudulent strategies to grow followers and post engagement. The market is severely impacted by influencer fraud, as demonstrated by studies that show up to 20% of influencers having 50,000–100,000 followers consist mainly of fake followers (Kim 2021).

Conclusion

In summary, influencers are important on social media since they create a sense of community, create trust and authenticity, and post content that appeals to their audience. When paired with effective SEO tactics, influencer marketing creates an enormous synergy that can lead to previously unattainable visibility and engagement. Transparency and trust are the cornerstones of successful campaigns—they are not merely current buzzwords. These are the characteristics that turn influencer endorsements from advertisements into genuine suggestions. Influencer marketing could possess significant effects on raising brand recognition, which is a crucial element of any marketing strategy. However, influencer marketing also has drawbacks in creating fake followers, ROI concerns, and creators focusing on immediate results. This study will conclude with keeping in mind the positive side of Influencer marketing as it is a great way to build one's career if executed wisely and there are so many ways people can create content and put it online as there will always be an audience for every sort of content.

References

Adewuyi, A.S., 2023. A Comparative Study of the Influence of Advertising on the Brand Performance of Carbonated Soft Drinks: A Study of Coca-Cola and Pepsi Company in Nigeria. International Journal of Science, Technology & Society/Revista Internacional de CiÊncias, Tecnologia & Sociedade, 11(1).

Gutierrez Chora, M., 2022. Marketing approaches between Millennials and Gen-Zs in the fashion and beauty industries.

Hackley, C. and Kitchen, P., 1998. IMC: a consumer psychological perspective. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 16(3), pp.229-235.

Holm, O., 2006. Integrated marketing communication: from tactics to strategy. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 11(1), pp.23-33.
Jover Rodríguez, J., 2022. The challenging process of measuring influencer marketing performance.

Kim, S., 2021. Modeling and Discovering Authentic and Effective Influencers on Social Media via Graph Neural Network Learning. University of California, Los Angeles.
Kundu, S., 2021. Digital Marketing Trends and Prospects: Develop an effective Digital Marketing strategy with SEO, SEM, PPC, Digital Display Ads & Email Marketing techniques. (English Edition). BPB Publications.

Macarthy, A., 2021. 500 social media marketing tips: essential advice, hints, and strategy for business: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more.

Martínez-López, F.J., Anaya-Sánchez, R., Esteban-Millat, I., Torrez-Meruvia, H., D'Alessandro, S. and Miles, M., 2020. Influencer marketing: brand control, commercial orientation, and post credibility. Journal of Marketing Management, 36(17-18), pp.1805-1831.

Statista, 2024. Global Influencer Market from 2016 to 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092819/global-influencer-market-size/
Teixeira, S., Teixeira, S., Oliveira, Z. and Souza, E. eds., 2023. Using Influencer Marketing as a Digital Business Strategy. IGI Global.