Effectiveness of integrated marketing communications: Empirical analysis of two brands in India

Abstract

Purpose

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) has emerged as a promising area of study in the past decade. However, this area has received disproportionate attention for research around the world. This paper aims to determine the effectiveness of different components and total IMC on two brands in India.

Design/methodology/approach

Data on physical sales (200 ml bottles), advertising, sales force, promotion, distribution, and price in rupees (Indian currency) have been collected for two sample brands. A multiplicative regression model has been hypothesized and fitted on the data to estimate the elasticities of sales (in units) to individual components and total IMC.

Findings

Results suggest that all the individual components of IMC have significant unequal positive effects on physical sales for both the brands. Further, the effects of total IMC on sales are also positive and significant in both the cases.

Research limitations/implications

This work could not incorporate the carry‐over effect of different components of IMC in the model in view of the small number of observations.

Practical implications

The findings can help managers in allocating their budget over different components of IMC, resulting in higher sales and higher returns on their investment.

Originality/value

This research has much significance and importance in view of lack of quantitative modeling works reported on marketing data in India.

Citation

Baidya, M. and Maity, B. (2010), "Effectiveness of integrated marketing communications: Empirical analysis of two brands in India", Journal of Indian Business Research, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 23-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/17554191011032929