imc business plan 2022

The campaign inspired a purple theme, which took over the company's Facebook and Instagram accounts. Along with this social media content, influencers sent the palette and began to upload their reviews on YouTube .

For this launch, a variety of social tactics were used. A matching social campaign, user-generated hashtag, YouTube recommendations, and a revolving landing page contributed to where the campaign was distributed.

Pro-Tip: When you know where your audience spends their time, like the team at Melt, you can reach them with a diverse, omnichannel strategy.

8. Brew Dr. Kombucha, “Love Wins”

"In May 2020, Brew Dr. Kombucha released its signature kombucha with limited-edition colorful, rainbow-wrapping for Pride Month," HubSpot writer and Principle Marketing Manager Caroline Forsey recalls.

"The wrapping has the lifeline number to The Trevor Project printed directly on it — the company partnered with The Trevor Project and supports the organization through proceeds of its limited-edition kombucha."

"Along with the limited-edition wrapping, the company created a dedicated landing page for #LoveWins and supported Pride Month with the #LoveWins hashtag across its social channels."

Forsey continues, “Ultimately, I chose this campaign as one of my favorite integrated campaigns of 2020 because I was inspired to see this brand uplift and inspire communities while giving proceeds back to an incredibly worthy cause.”

What We Like: The brand chose a social movement that was important to them, Pride, and celebrated it with this integrated campaign.

This tactic brings awareness to a social cause a respected organization, and enhances a celebration.

Get Started With Integrated Marketing Campaigns

can help increase brand awareness, generate leads, and delight customers. The best-integrated marketing campaigns have an omnichannel approach, encourage audience engagement, and hopefully improve your brand reputation.

The only way to truly create an integrated marketing campaign is to have a marketing plan template to help you identify the proper channels, budget, and strategy for your campaign.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Guide to creating an integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan

• by Performance Marketer Team
• 22 November 2022
• 3 minute read

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a strategic approach that involves harmonizing and synchronizing all marketing and communication efforts, tools, channels, and resources within an organization. By seamlessly blending various elements of the marketing mix, IMC aims to create a unified and impactful program that effectively reaches and engages both consumers and other key stakeholders.

This comprehensive approach entails coordinating advertising, public relations, direct marketing, sales promotion, social media, branding, and other communication methods, ensuring that they work together synergistically towards a common goal. By integrating these diverse components, IMC enables companies to deliver a consistent and cohesive message across multiple touchpoints, reinforcing their brand identity and enhancing the overall customer experience.

At its core, IMC strives to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing activities by eliminating silos and fostering collaboration between different departments and teams. It recognizes that customers interact with brands through various channels and touchpoints, and seeks to create a seamless and immersive brand experience across all these interactions. By doing so, IMC aims to build strong and enduring relationships with customers, increase brand loyalty, and drive business growth.

In essence, integrated marketing communications is a strategic framework that enables companies to leverage the power of synergy and coordination to deliver a compelling and unified message to their target audience, ensuring that their marketing efforts are optimized and impactful.

What is an integrated marketing communications plan?

A complete integrated marketing communications plan incorporates every element of the marketing mix in order to present a unified message to target audiences and other company stakeholders. Integrated marketing is based on the master marketing plan, which should include all the components of the marketing mix. The foundation of an integrated marketing communications program consists of a careful review of the company’s image, target customers, and the markets in which buyers are located. Advertising programs are then built on this foundation, as are other elements of the promotional mix. Achieving integrated, marketing communications can become more complex when deployed at a global scale, due to larger national and cultural differences in target markets.

4 stages in designing an effective integrated marketing communications system

• Identify, coordinate, and manage all forms of integrated marketing communication. Bring all of the communication elements together under one umbrella. This includes advertising, promotions, direct mail, digital marketing and e-commerce programs, public relations, sponsorships, and other marketing activities. During this stage of IMC development, the marketing team must be sure that all communications deliver a unified message and speak with one voice. A theme should also be present in the logos, colors, letterhead, and every other message the company sends. The goal is to make sure there’s consistency in and synergy among all communication channels.
• Examine communications from the perspective of the customer. The marketing team should review every contact method, also known as a brand touch points , that might influence customers as they form opinions and make decisions about the company. The goal is to ensure external communications match internal communications. The integrated marketing communications umbrella covers every internal and external group that might affect perceptions of the company and its products.
• Gather integrated marketing communications performance marketing data to make better decisions. Continuously identify and evaluate the impact of communications. Use customer data insights to help drive strategic planning and analyze the return on investment. It’s also important to adjust and optimize marketing campaigns and communications when data insights highlight areas for improvement.

The role of corporate imagine in IMC

Effective marketing communications is based on a clearly defined corporate image. The image summarizes what the company stands for, and how well its position has been established. The goal of image management is to create a consistent impression in the minds of customers and key stakeholders. A strong corporate image creates a major competitive advantage, and can make the difference in a choice between competitors.

Benefits of having a consistently strong visual brand image:

• Give assurance about the purchase when the buyer has little or no previous experience with a good or service, or is making the purchase in an unfamiliar setting
• Reduce search time and purchase decisions
• Enhances company revenue, and builds longer term loyalty when the image also matches or exceeds expectation

It’s important to remember that what consumers believe about a firm is far more important than how company officials view the image. The image of being projected must accurately portrayed the organization and coincide with the good and services being offered.

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Learn about integrated marketing communications and improve your product promotion

When you’ve tried a variety of marketing strategies, but the results are inconsistent or lackluster, it might be time to look at your communications on a higher level.

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a foundational concept in marketing, and it’s particularly useful for a multichannel marketing strategy. Whether you’re new to marketing or revitalizing your current efforts, implementing IMC practices can help you provide a consistent marketing message and better reach your target audience.

In this guide to integrated marketing communications, you’ll learn:

• What IMC is
• The benefits of IMC
• Approaches to IMC
• Examples of IMC
• How to implement IMC
• How to get started with IMC

What is integrated marketing communications (IMC)?

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is both a theory and a set of business practices that facilitate consistent messaging across channels and produce a unified brand experience for customers. This foundational marketing concept applies not only to advertising but to all forms of a business’s communication. Integrated marketing focuses on creating a consistent and positive experience for customers every time they encounter or interact with a brand.

The evolution of integrated marketing communications

The concept of integrated marketing communications has been around since the late 1980s, when modern forms of communication were becoming more dynamic. With the data-tracking ability of computers, it became possible for marketers to understand purchasing behavior and track campaigns.

This new insight into customer tastes and habits meant that marketing transformed from a one-way announcement to a two-way conversation. And with more channels of communication came multiple ways to interact with consumers. Where advertising was once a distinct and separate department, all forms of business communication began to have marketing relevance.

Since then, integrated marketing has been a field of academic research and a strategic approach to improving marketing operations with consistent and multichannel customer experiences that lead to greater brand recognition, trust, and loyalty. It has become even more important in the age of social media and mobile phones, when consumers interact with brands they care about on a daily basis.

Marketing these days is about the customer, not the business, which means that not only do communications need to be coordinated and consistent — they also need to be targeted and customized. For that reason, integrated marketing is more than consistent branding.

The benefits of integrated marketing communications

In today's marketing arena, an integrated strategy can give you a big advantage. Whether you have a strategy or not, you are likely using multiple channels — and if not, your competitors are. Companies that focus on omnichannel customer engagement grow faster than those who don’t.

The benefits of integrated marketing include:

• Memorability — The messages you deliver across channels are more effective when they are unified. The number of ads we see per day in 2022 is up to 10,000, so we’re more likely to remember the ones that make a consistent impression and appear on multiple platforms.
• Efficiency — With an integration plan, you can repurpose content and streamline production and distribution schedules. Internal assets and communications can also be streamlined. You can attach campaigns more purposefully to larger business objectives instead of relying on scattered and duplicated projects across departments with incompatible metrics.
• Loyalty — An important component of integrated marketing is understanding and responding to customers. People like to know what to expect. Customers keep coming back to a brand that provides a reliable positive experience at every encounter.

Integrating marketing works in tandem with public relations, corporate communications, media relations, and other common outlets for marketing messaging. It’s impossible to ignore these other forms of communication and the many ways that consumers might encounter a brand.

After all, consumer expectations have been shaped by the multiple channels they use on a daily basis. Customers learn in new ways and do their own research. They want to interact with brands in different ways and find content that is relevant to their unique needs and tastes. It can be a huge challenge for companies to manage this customer data and respond to it efficiently. With a game plan in place, your company can show up on the field the way it needs to.

Approaches to integrated marketing communications

There are various ideas about what IMC means and how it can be implemented. This list of common approaches should give you an idea of the different ways it can apply:

Consumer-oriented

This approach starts by seeking to understand consumers. Before creating content or messaging, the marketing team does research. They identify the target audience and use internal data or other tools to find out what customers need and value. The findings determine the shape of an integrated marketing communications plan.

One option is to hire an external team to carry out research, analytics, and content creation. They can look at what your company is trying to accomplish, how well it’s performing, and what it will take to integrate marketing communications. Then they can implement the strategy.

A horizontal approach is a federation of departments working together on one initiative. Management might promote an initiative across departments, including sales, PR, and corporate communications, or they can create a team and assign a leader to the project. The process can form a workflow from planning to implementation to evaluation.

This top-down approach is not as focused on customers. A company might have a set-in-stone mission and message to convey. Starting at the C-suite, leaders can nurture excitement about new initiatives or products to employees, who then share this messaging more broadly or direct the implementation of an IMC plan.

Cross-functional

An approach growing in popularity in the digital age is to start by planning multiple touchpoints for consumers, online and in person, to create an interactive and engaging customer service experience.

Examples of integrated marketing communications

As part of a 2017 strategy to increase direct sales, Nike integrated its app and store communications. This example of integrated marketing started with careful thought about how and why customers use both channels.

The company’s innovative Nike Live stores were designed in tandem with its app. These stores are customized according to data on local customer preferences and behavior. The unique character of the store — its design and products — in Long Beach, California, matches its customer base just as the store in Japan matches the customer base there. Data from users in the area help predict sales, and customers get a seamless experience moving from digital to retail sales. The app even lets customers request fitting rooms and check out on their phones.

Nike’s efforts are an example of a consumer-oriented and cross-functional approach to integrated marketing communications because it used both personalization and streamlined messaging across channels. The idea from the beginning was to create a unified experience at every touchpoint, and this lends itself surprisingly well to customization for individual users. The more reliable the messaging, the more appealing individual encounters with it can be.

And it worked. In 2019, over half of Nike’s transactions came from members, and app users averaged 40% higher sales.

In 2020, Audi launched a new brand identity to market electric vehicles globally. Head of Brand Henrik Wenders says that a company’s success depends on a “clear, holistic strategy and people who are willing to get together and make that vision come true.”

That spirit helped inspire the new slogan “Future is an attitude,” which the automaker is using to unite marketing efforts. One branch of this communications approach is a campaign called “Story of Progress” — a series of video interviews highlighting the experiences of changemakers around the world. In 2022, Audi invited local South African changemakers to share their stories.

The approach that Audi used in this campaign has some elements of both vertical and horizontal marketing approaches. The slogan “Future is an attitude” and the philosophy around it came from the top, so although the decision was probably informed by market research, the outflow of consistent branding across campaigns is an example of a vertical IMC strategy. Global consumers get a clear and consistent experience anytime they encounter communications about Audi’s electric cars.

The “Story of Progress” series also has elements of the horizontal approach because it is a result of internationally coordinated teams. The South African series had to have coherence and consistency with other videos in the campaign.

Either way, it delivers both a tailored and consistent message to global audiences, which is a significant achievement. Audi reports strong numbers despite the challenges of the pandemic and supply chain restraints in the same period.

An integrated initiative by Cisco to improve social customer relations earned recognition in 2019. In addition to engaging with customers on different platforms, the program used sophisticated data collection, response automation, and artificial intelligence to understand a mass of input from social channels.

The company’s approach represents a two-way integration of data that allows customer comments to directly and immediately shape marketing communications consistently across platforms. When complaints about harmful product packaging came through, Cisco showed it was listening by posting a video announcing a plan to go greener, tagging those who had given the feedback.

Cisco used some elements of the outsourcing approach by leveraging third-party tools to understand and integrate customer communications into its larger strategy. The campaign led to a measurable increase in positive sentiment and earned recognition.

Another way that Cisco has used integrated marketing is by working to create a brand identity that is associated with its social responsibility initiatives. In 2016, the company launched a branding campaign called “There’s never been a better time,” which takes an optimistic view of the future.

A set of customer stories highlights how the tech company’s products are helping them make the world a better place. The communication strategy extends to employees and partners. Although it’s a global campaign, variations of ads are targeted at local sensibilities. It was distributed via TV, print, and social media.

This initiative is an example of horizontal integration that extends beyond marketing and is integral to the overall communication strategy for Cisco. This consistency in messaging across channels, whether connected to products or to corporate initiatives, helps the company create a distinct character and set of values that can earn customer trust and loyalty.

How to implement integrated marketing communications

By integrating your marketing communications, your campaigns will be more effective. To adopt this strategy and execute an integrated campaign, there are a few basic steps you should follow and things to keep in mind:

• Identify your audience. Who are your target customers? Use internal data and research to understand their behavior and preferences. Identify the channels they are most likely to use. For example, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn each has different age demographics. You don’t need to use all the channels that are out there — only the ones your customers use. Listen to customer pain points and create personas that can help you shape targeted content.
• Assemble a team. Identify the departments that need to be involved. It’s crucial to get marketing and sales teams in alignment, but anyone who participates in communications is relevant. That could be corporate communications, media relations, or another team.
• Make assignments. Let a different team member direct each channel, and be sure that there is a designated director for the larger initiatives.
• Set goals. What does your company want to achieve with this campaign? Set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Decide on which KPIs will help you best evaluate exposure and engagement.
• Plan the content.
• Establish a visual theme with codified colors, typeface, and graphics.
• Use emotion and storytelling to capture attention and increase engagement.
• Consider the history and identity of your brand.
• Choose a character or quality that can appear consistently through many iterations. (For example, Travelocity’s gnome is easily recognizable across its marketing communication, and The Home Depot appeals to the identity of a “doer.”)
• Select the voice and tone that is appropriate for your brand identity, for this campaign, and for different audience segments.
• Create landing pages to collect leads.
• Determine how you will adapt messaging for different stages of the sales journey.
• Establish a workflow and a schedule. The more people who are involved, whether as decision-makers or content creators, the more important it is to have a clear plan and system for collaboration.

Challenges of IMC

As you implement your strategy, you may encounter some obstacles. The largest challenge by far is internal communication and collaboration. This kind of integration is complicated by nature because it involves bringing together different budgets, initiatives, goals, and personalities.

Still, the whole point of IMC is to be deliberate — so establish leadership that can plan and take responsibility rather than let things happen haphazardly. Team members need to be completely invested in a common goal that will provide enough incentive to overcome obstacles and solve disagreements about how to get there.

Another barrier is implementation. Branding documentation needs to be clear and consistently distributed to everyone, including contractors. When it’s time to carry it out, the application might be ambiguous, and efforts could lose focus or fizzle out completely. It’s important to have a detailed plan in place to keep tasks on track and anticipate how they will apply in different contexts.

At the end of the day, the most important thing to keep in mind might be the three pillars of integrated marketing — consistency, clarity, and cohesion. If you’re coordinating efforts across channels with those three objectives, you’re on the right track.

Start your integrated marketing communications journey

IMC is one of the most important marketing principles to understand today, as information is more available than ever and communication happens instantaneously across the globe. This approach to marketing creates a stronger brand identity and more consumer loyalty by focusing simultaneously on delivering consistent messages across channels and listening intently to customers in order to target and tailor that messaging to them.

Handling multiple marketing streams can be overwhelming. Adobe Journey Optimizer can help you manage and refine your omnichannel strategy to get better results from your marketing campaigns and grow customer loyalty.

Check out the overview video for more information, or take the Journey Optimizer interactive tour .

13.4 Steps in the IMC Planning Process

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• 1 List the steps in the IMC planning process.
• 2 Summarize the details of each step in IMC planning.

Identify the Target Audience

All successful IMC campaigns start with a good foundation and a carefully written and executed plan. Every step in the marketing process should be driven by research; the same is true for the IMC planning process (see Figure 13.9 ).

Understanding the audience is integral to creating an effective IMC campaign. Using a variety of tools, marketers are able to identify the target audience. The more that is known about the target audience, the higher the likelihood is of making sure the message is coded correctly and the right medium for effective encoding and reduced noise is chosen.

Marketers employ many tools to understand the target audience. Both primary and secondary marketing research can provide significant insights. A clear understanding of the consumer allows the marketer to create messages that resonate with the needs and wants of the target audience.

Determine the Marketing Communications Objectives

Marketing campaigns must start with clear objectives. Objectives define what needs to be done, and they help to keep the strategy and tactics clearly aligned. Good objectives will help marketers create cohesive messaging across all the promotional mix methods. Objectives need to be simple, and they should be written in such a way that they provide opportunity for analysis. If done correctly, marketers should be able to analyze if the messaging and the medium are working. When creating objectives, follow the SMART guidelines: simple, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound.

The 5A Framework

The 5A framework is the map of the customer’s needs. Through the 5A framework (see Figure 13.10 ), marketers create messaging that moves the customer through the funnel, or customer journey with the brand. The 5As provide the marketer with clear steps on the role of the messaging at each step of the framework.

Let’s look at the five steps of the 5A framework in more detail:

When Angel Johnson launched her activewear company ICONI , she needed to stand out from more popular and well-funded activewear brands. As a Black woman–owned business, Angel wanted to appeal to other women, many of whom needed different types of activewear. Angel found success in creating awareness through running ads on Amazon , where customers could easily find and purchase her products. 17

• Appeal: After becoming aware that a product exists, the consumer must gain some understanding of what the product can do for them. If the benefits are favorable for the consumer, they may put it in their consideration set of things that appeal to them.
• Ask: After the appeal stage, the consumer may become motivated to actively seek out information about the product. When the consumer asks the company about the product, they have opened the channels of communication. This is part of the feedback loop. Methods of asking include the consumer engaging online through a chatbot or a contact form or by calling a listed phone number.
• Act: Further down the customer journey funnel, if the customer has received information and they feel it is favorable, then they will act. The action can be to either purchase the product or not purchase the product. Either form of action must be evaluated by the marketing team. The marketer can determine if the messaging created a favorable or unfavorable reaction and then modify the messaging for the segment that acted not to buy the product.
• Advocacy: At the bottom of the funnel is the marketer’s holy grail—the consumer becomes a loyal customer. The marketer can begin to calculate lifetime value, but most importantly the consumer becomes an advocate for the product. Through their advocacy, the consumer provides positive word of mouth and encourages purchase by other consumers.

Design the Message

A key element of integrated marketing communications is creating the message. Messages are designed to fulfill the established objectives. Depending upon the objective and the desired action of the consumer, the marketer may create the message to meet the various stages in the customer journey and have a call to action.

The biggest part of the message design is the content of the message. To move the consumer to the point where they act, marketers have at their disposal various forms of appeal. The appeal is the approach used to attract the attention of the target audience or to persuade it to take action.

Create the Message Content

When creating the message, the marketer has to consider not only the stage of the customer journey, but the product’s features and benefits as well. Other factors to consider in the message content include the media and the traits and characteristics of the target market. All of the segmentation bases should be considered when creating the appeal.

Rational Appeals

When Toyota advertises the features of alternative-fuel vehicles and tells the consumer how those features benefit them, it is creating a rational appeal (see Figure 13.11 ). Rational appeals prompt the consumer to make the choice for the product because of all the ways they will benefit from using it.

Emotional Appeals

Consumers have a wide variety of emotions. Advertising messages can play to all those emotions. A few of the typical emotional appeals include happiness, fear, trust, sadness, anger, and guilt. It can be quite effective to create fear if the customer doesn’t purchase the product. Some examples of common fear appeals include skin care products and the fear of the effects of aging on skin. Vitamins and supplements use the fear of being unhealthy. And automobiles promote the fear of not being safe in a crash unless you drive a certain brand with a good crash-test rating.

Link to Learning

Happiness campaign.

Coca-Cola (see Figure 13.12 ) wanted to associate drinking a Coke with being happy and created a whole campaign on the emotion of happiness. Everything in the campaign was focused on drinking Coke and choosing to be happy. They created the #choosehappiness hashtag to be used in their social and digital promotions. Consumers would include their pictures drinking a Coke with friends and add #choosehappiness. Check out this commercial from the campaign.

Public health campaigns often rely on fear appeals (see Figure 13.13 ). If you continue a behavior there may well be negative consequences, which can arouse fear in the consumer. These campaigns seek to change behavior through fear. Fear appeals can be very effective in some circumstances.

Moral Appeals

A moral appeal pushes the consumer to want the product because of a sense of morality or social good (see Figure 13.14 ). The messaging may encourage the consumer to do the “right thing.” If they don’t do what is being asked of them, the situation will get worse.

Message Structure

Promotional messages generally have common elements, which include a slogan, the text or content, and the graphics. The graphics can include photos and brand identification. Messages can tell stories with words or lead the audience to their own conclusion based on the graphics.

When Apple first promoted its iPod, the company used the imagery of a very colorful background, a completely black silhouette, and the stark contrast of the all-white iPod with white headphones. The graphic alone conveyed the message that the iPod would allow consumers to “jam” to their own tunes through this new device.

Message Format

The format of the message depends largely on the media being used to send the message. For example, a television ad combines sight and sound, while radio is reliant only on sound. The same is true for print, billboards, and various digital campaigns. Formatting the message needs to take into consideration the target market as well as the medium of the message.

Determine the Budget

Promotional budgets are determined based on many variables. In developing the promotional budget, it is important to consider where the consumer is in their journey. Additional considerations include the current level of brand awareness for the product, accessibility of the target market, creation of the promotion, and specific media under consideration. There are several commonly used methods of creating promotional budgets.

• Objective and Task: This is perhaps the best method but is often used the least. With objective and task, the marketer determines the objectives of the IMC campaign and what tasks need to be done in order to complete the objectives. The tasks are priced, and the level of reach (number of consumers who will see the message) and the frequency (the number of times the consumer will see the message) are estimated. Based on the tasks necessary to achieve the campaign objectives, the budget is established.
• Top Down: With a top-down budgeting approach, the IMC campaign budget is issued from the operating budget based on input from the executives responsible for setting the budgets. While this method takes into consideration the overall organization, it pays little heed to the needs of the specific campaign.
• Percent of Sales: While personal selling is one of the methods included in the promotional mix, it is not the only method. A percent-of-sales approach attributes sales to all the functions of marketing. Generally, an organization may provide an arbitrary percent of overall sales as the total budget for the marketing promotions. Because many issues affect the sale of a product, it is difficult to make sales the only determinant of the marketing activities and the promotional methods.
• Affordable: The affordable method allocates only the amount of money the company can provide to a marketing budget. This method does not create a mindset of growth within the organization. A robust marketing strategy is focused on the growth of the organization. Affordable only provides for what is left over after all the other expenses have been allocated.
• Competitive Parity: If you were to look at the advertising budgets of competitors in the same industry, you might very likely see that they are spending similar amounts on a very similar promotional mix. Companies of every size closely monitor the promotional activities of their competitors. With the competitive parity method of budgeting, the allocations essentially mirror whatever the closest competitor is spending on promotions. This method of budgeting doesn’t allow for increased market share.

Develop Strategies and Tactics

The promotional strategies include the promotional methods the marketer chooses in order to achieve the objectives. Within the promotional methods, the tactics are the specifics the marketer must use to achieve the objectives. For example, if Panera Bread wants a 10 percent increase in brand awareness for its decorated Christmas sugar cookies from November 26 to December 30, it may choose to use the following strategy and corresponding tactics:

A strategy might be to create an Internet/digital messaging campaign focused on creating awareness with a message to try the Panera Christmas sugar cookies for a limited time. The tactics might then be developed as follows:

• Develop push ads through the Panera Bread mobile app
• Publish pop-up banner ads through Google
• Post campaign messages in Instagram
• Post campaign messages in Facebook

Select the Promotional Tools

The marketer must decide on the mix of promotional tools based on the established marketing objectives. Choosing the mix of promotional methods is also primarily dependent on the consumer and how best to reach them.

When Timmy Global Health , a not-for-profit organization, wanted to do an end-of-year fundraising ask, it chose to reach its donor base through direct mail. The organization chose an email campaign for the segment of its market that is responsive to email and has an email address in the CRM system. For a small segment of its market, those who are older and not responsive to digital marketing, it chose to do a direct mail campaign with a postcard mailed through the US Postal Service . 18

Direct Mail Examples

There are hundreds of examples where companies have used direct mail campaigns in their promotional mix. Check out some of the best as referenced in this article .

Designing the Promotion

In considering the target market and the message to send, the marketer must think of the desired response. Three important issues arise in the design of the promotion: what to say (message), how to say it (creative), and who should say it (source). This leads the marketer to the overall message strategy, which will look at the appeal as it relates to the brand positioning. A marketer will consider the following in designing a promotion:

• Message Strategy: A good message strategy must tie the brand to the target audience. What will appeal to them? What action do you want them to take? How does the brand positioning need to be portrayed? The marketer may choose to highlight how the product compares to the competition (points of parity), or the marketer may choose to focus on how the product is different (points of difference). In doing so, it is important to showcase the product or service through the value it will bring to the target market. Ultimately, the customer wants to know “What’s in it for me?”
• Creative Strategy: Through a creative strategy , the marketer is able to translate their message into words, images, and sounds. If the message and the creative do not match up, the communication objectives may miss their mark. The creative strategy helps the marketer cut through the clutter and get the attention of the target audience. A properly done creative strategy serves as the guiding principles to develop good content.

Personal communication channels can include social networks like friends, family, and neighbors. They can also include paid or unpaid experts and even the company’s own sales force. Nonpersonal communication channels include everything from television and radio to billboards and direct mail.

In designing the promotion, the marketer can mix and match the message, creative, and communication strategies until they have the right combination to execute on their objectives and connect with the target market.

For example, when World Food Championships wanted to reach home cooks, professional chefs, and aspiring chefs to participate in its Food Sport events, it enticed them with the opportunity for a big payout in winnings. And it created a connection with them through smaller local qualifying events. When the winners of smaller events received a Golden Ticket to compete, they were instantly excited. Then they realized the competition would allow them to meet with even bigger food celebrities and increase their chances of television fame (see Figure 13.15 ).

Scheduling the Promotion

Knowing when to promote and how often to promote is a critical juncture in the promotional process. For scheduling purposes, it is important to understand the complexity of the message and the medium or channel for delivery. If the average of 5,000 promotional messages a day is correct, the consumer will need to see a message many times in order to become aware and act. To move them down through the customer journey, the message has to cut through the clutter and stick.

Reach is the number of consumers who will be exposed to the promotional message at any given time. Frequency is the number of times the consumer will be exposed to the message. Using the combination of reach times frequency, the marketer is able to determine the promotional schedule. Marketers typically work to create promotional schedules that optimize the exposure to the target market. Once again, we see that having extensive knowledge of the target market is critical to creating effective campaigns. There are three promotional schedules a marketer may consider:

• Continuous: With a continuous promotional schedule , the marketer will conduct the promotion year-round on a very regular schedule. Consumers will continuously see the ads.
• Flighting : Through a flighting promotional schedule , the marketer will run a period of heavy promotions and then go for a period of time without any promotional messaging. The idea is to give the target market a break and avoid potential wear-out of the message.
• Pulsing: If you see promotions on a regular basis and then suddenly you see them a lot during certain seasons, the sender is using a pulsing schedule .

For example, let’s consider the television commercial for MyPillow . Throughout a broadcast, the MyPillow commercial plays two or three times. The commercial plays every night on one broadcast station. However, during holiday seasons, the commercial plays more often. The commercial is often accompanied by a special code. With the code, viewers can receive a discount on the pillows. The viewer gets a discount, and MyPillow receives analytics to determine if its budget for this commercial television time is effective. In this example, MyPillow is utilizing a pulsing schedule for its promotional efforts.

Evaluate and Measure the Objectives

Before starting a promotional campaign, marketers must establish objectives. Including measurable and time-bound objectives is important. The marketer must evaluate the campaign on a continual basis to ensure that every element in the campaign is working to achieve the objective. Measuring and evaluating the campaign on a continual basis allows the marketer to evaluate the elements and make changes. Typically, objectives also have financial accountability. Changing elements of a campaign avoids overspending on components that are not working to meet the objectives.

Some common key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluating promotional campaigns include the following:

• return on investment
• cost per lead
• cost per sale

Digital promotional campaigns allow marketers to track many analytics in real time and have the ability to make changes to the campaign in real time. The advantages of digital media include a host of valuable analytics, such as the following:

• website traffic
• bounce rate
• conversion rate
• impressions
• cost per click

Marketing Dashboard

IMC is centered on data-driven decision-making to drive organizational value. So it’s no surprise that the founder of IMC, Don Schultz , determined a way to measure IMC campaigns. Schultz calls this metric return on customer investment (ROCI) . ROCI is a marginal analysis that shows the efficiency of marketing communications spending. We often think of effectiveness as the key measure of a campaign’s success. But equally important is the efficiency of how we spend resources. We should consider how hard our resource works for us.

We should also be concerned about how well our investment does in the short term and the long term. After all, we are trying to build financial returns for our organizations. ROCI looks at short- and long-term value by considering the change in profitability and value during the period and overall.

IMC considers all aspects of the marketing communications relationship, not just a single campaign. The ROCI metric looks at how revenue grows over time and not just in response to one action.

The formula for ROCI is as follows:

Let’s say we own an ice cream shop and we are interested in the efficiency of our recent IMC campaign. So, we decide to conduct an ROCI calculation for an average customer using the following data. What is the ROCI?

Last period, the ROCI was $37.50. What factors might impact the change from the previous period to this period?

ROCI considers all aspects of the IMC relationship, so as the relationship grows, the ROCI does as well.

What is the value of the ROCI calculation?

It determines the marketing communication campaigns that yield the most profitable customers.

Don Schultz

Hear from Dr. Schultz directly about IMC trends in this video.

Knowledge Check

It’s time to check your knowledge on the concepts presented in this section. Refer to the Answer Key at the end of the book for feedback.

• determine the objectives
• determine the budget
• identify the target audience
• select the promotional tools
• Objective and task
• Competitive parity
• Percent of sales

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• Authors: Dr. Maria Gomez Albrecht, Dr. Mark Green, Linda Hoffman
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Principles of Marketing
• Publication date: Jan 25, 2023
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• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-unit-introduction
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IMC Business Plan 2023 PDF Download

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This post will provide you with a PDF of the complete IMC Business Plan.  You can find the latest Marketing and Business Plan for IMC Company,  which you can also download in PDF format   at the end of the post.

IMC is a product-based network marketing company , which is a well-known direct-selling company in India. It was started in 2007 and its head office is in Ludhiana, Punjab.

IMC stands for International Marketing Corporation . Ashok Bhatia is the chairman and Satyan Bhatia is the managing director of IMC.

IMC got registered under MCA on 31 December 2013 from Ludhiana, Punjab. IMC products list consists of Health Care, Agriculture products, Personal Care, and Home Care category products.

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IMC Business Plan

Anyone can join IMC as a Distributor or Associate and being an Associate, Every person has to perform two major tasks to earn from it.

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After becoming an Associate, the company provides the product at a lower price, which is known as Distributor price (DP) and by selling that product in MRP, you can earn a good amount of retail profit.

The retail profit can be calculated by the following formula:

2. Recruitment

The second task to earn more is recruiting new people. To earn passive income as well as active income, distributors need to recruit more people in the downline.

As per Direct Selling Guidelines , earnings are always based on the product purchase, which can be a personal purchase or downline purchase.

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IMC offers 17 types of Income to their Associates:

• Retail Profit
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Fatima Ahmad, PharmD

Hosie Bhathena, MD

Clare Baker

Elvira D’souza

Paula Soto, PhD

This publication represents the consensus opinion of the MAPS Executive Consortium but does not represent formal endorsement by the authors’ organizations.

MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS FUNCTION: STRATEGIC DRIVERS OF AN INTEGRATED MEDICAL AFFAIRS COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY AND PLAN

As Medical Affairs teams transform in the era of novel technologies and personalized medicines, the discipline of Medical Communications has likewise evolved and expanded from having a focus on leading publication-planning activities to also driving the development of strategic scientific communications across multiple platforms and all phases of the product lifecycle.

Medical Communications teams have historically played an execution-focused, rather than a strategic, role with respect to communicating scientific evidence. However, given the focus on accelerating scientific data communication, with an emphasis on customizing outputs to various audiences, and the increasing use of digital strategies to engage with stakeholders, there has been a clear need for the function to evolve into a more strategic discipline of Medical Affairs in order to drive a cohesive and consistent scientific communications strategy across multiple channels and cross-functional touchpoints. 1

In both pre-commercialization and post-launch phases, an integrated Medical Communications Strategy, including a compelling Scientific Narrative, is critical in educating internal and external audiences about the progression and differentiation of assets in the context of the surrounding competitive landscape. The Medical Communications discipline is particularly well-placed to drive this process and is increasingly called upon to be strategic thought partners within and beyond the broader Medical Affairs organization, specifically with teams creating the overall medical strategy [Medical Strategy Team], and product commercialization/asset teams. Medical Affairs teams create forward looking strategies by interpreting and contextualizing emerging data, generating real-world evidence, engaging in peer-to-peer scientific dialogue, and identifying clinical practice insights. 2  Implementing an integrated Medical Communications strategy and plan can provide an exemplary value-add to this overall strategic approach.

Medical Communications and Medical Strategy teams have emerged as natural partners to other Medical Affairs subfunctions in generating, integrating, and communicating scientific evidence. Medical Communications teams are experts in developing a compelling Medical Communications strategy, and this expertise in tandem with Medical Strategy, Field Medical Affairs, and HEOR- related workstreams is important to communicate a consistent scientific narrative. These teams must come together with other functions to develop an Integrated Medical Communications Strategy and Plan (iMC S/P) which is the roadmap for how a Medical Affairs team communicates its product vision and value proposition to internal and external stakeholders.

WHAT IS AN INTEGRATED MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY AND PLAN

An iMC S/P is a methodical approach to align Medical Communications with the overarching Medical Strategy for the product and therapeutic area (TA). Its broad purpose is to articulate a consistent and cohesive scientific narrative across multiple dissemination channels and formats (traditional and digital). This approach involves combining insights from cross-functional teams and translating these into impactful communication activities/deliverables tailored to stakeholder needs and content consumption preferences.

BENEFITS OF CREATING AN INTEGRATED MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY AND PLAN

An iMC S/P provides the roadmap for Medical Affairs teams to efficiently and effectively deliver:

A consistent and cohesive scientific narrative: The plan includes key pillars/objectives of the overall Medical Strategy for the product and ensures consistency in how data are communicated. It specifies which data are of particular interest, and how the data impact the treatment landscape and guide implementation of the drug in clinical practice. The plan focuses on a consistent scientific narrative while tailoring how data are presented across various audiences and channels across global and regional teams and across all deliverables created by Medical Affairs. This helps establish trust in the science and build deeper engagement with the external medical and scientific communities.

To the right stakeholder/target audience: The plan details which stakeholders should receive each communication, why these data are relevant to them, and how to customize to various audiences, such as HCPs, patients, payors, and other key audiences. It also ensures that actionable insights are appropriately captured and incorporated into the communication strategy, which allows Medical Affairs teams to ensure that all their activities address relevant stakeholder needs in a timely and agile manner.

The iMC S/P focuses on the appropriate timing of data communication in relation to the product lifecycle and ensures that stakeholders can find this information when they search for it.

Across channels, formats, and engagement touchpoints: The plan identifies the most appropriate channels based on the needs of the target audience and recommends formats (long form or more interactive formats) and dissemination tools (self-service medical affairs portals, social media platforms, etc.) based on audience needs and other considerations.

Additionally, an integrated plan also allows Medical Communications teams to identify areas of overlap and duplication of efforts in their content creation workflows across Medical Affairs teams. This helps with streamlining processes to allow for efficiencies, encourages content reuse and repurposing, and ensures a higher return on investment in content creation. Table 1 below discusses in more detail the various components of the iMC S/P.

Table 1. Difference between discrete Medical Communications deliverables and an Integrated Communications Strategy

Cross-functional collaboration for developing an imc s/p.

In order to provide a targeted, comprehensive, and valuable communication program, as a best practice, it is recommended that Medical Communications teams drive the creation of the iMC S/P along with the Medical Strategy Teams. Cross-functional stakeholders within and outside Medical Affairs should be included during the development and review process to ensure that communication objectives are aligned with the overarching product, medical, and TA strategies. Their involvement also ensures that insights and real-world experiences drive the strategy and that the plan is current and relevant.

Medical Communications teams already work with cross-functional teams to develop and align on the Scientific Communications Platform – a strategic foundational document that ensures accurate, consistent language and referencing through communication activities.1 They should work with the same set of stakeholders to create the annual iMC S/P (containing publications, field-based materials, medical education, and medical information content plans) and ensure alignment with the TA strategy, annual product, medical, and digital strategy plans, and the SCP. Some deliverables will be driven by Medical Strategy, others by Medical Communications – but all should be aligned, ensuring value and impact are amplified because they all support a consistent scientific narrative.

STRUCTURE AND COMPONENTS OF AN IMC S/P

An iMC S/P is an annual plan and is created as part of the planning cycle. We outline below the key steps to building an integrated plan:

Step 1: Define the overall Medical Communications objectives for the product.

The first step in creating an iMC S/P is to identify key scientific communication objectives and priorities for the product and the TA. These should be aligned with the overall product vision, the strategic imperatives for the product (Product/Brand strategy), the Medical Strategy, the TA strategy, and strategic pillars in the SCP.

In addition to the elements of the product, medical and TA strategy, information in this section to support the scientific communication objectives identified could include:

A. Product overview: Include a brief overview of the product including information on the disease state, mechanism of action, etc.

B. Competitor updates/Landscape analysis: Include new updates that could impact your communications strategy for the year, as well as key events impacting the product landscape (include timelines for key data and approvals).

C. Audience insights: These can include insights from the field-based teams or those in customer-facing roles regarding what information the target group of stakeholders is seeking, or additional insights on the treatment landscape from broader channels.

D. Key considerations for the plan (key data, new markets, use of digital initiatives aligned with overall digital strategy, alignment with overall company vision, etc.)

This first step is important in ensuring that the plan is “truly integrated” from the perspective of alignment with the larger Medical Affairs vision and business objectives for the product. Ensuring that cross-functional stakeholder input is used to derive communication objectives is important so that the communication tactics planned are relevant. It also ensures alignment with the gaps observed and stakeholder needs described by functions responsible for driving engagement through various touchpoints.

Step 2: Identify/understand the audiences and how they consume content.

Medical engagement now includes a broader community of stakeholders beyond HCPs that consume information across a range of increasingly digital touchpoints. 3  While traditional plans focus on product data and how to disseminate them to the community, integrated plans tend to be centered around not only the data but how the community wants to receive the data. To build trust through communication at the various stakeholder engagement points, stakeholder journey mapping becomes important for Medical Communications teams.

Information to be defined/specified in this section of the iMC S/P includes the following:

A. Who are the target audiences? (HCPs, KOLs, Digital Opinion Leaders, payers, policy holders, patients/caregivers)

B. How do they seek information? (Digital footprint, online destinations, preferred search methods)

C. What sources do they trust and use? (Peer-reviewed journals, scientific congresses, social media, symposia, societies, physician networks)

D. How can we optimize MSL content and field insights?

Insight-filled data regarding stakeholders and their preferences reside in different pockets within the larger Medical Affairs organizations. Insights can be harnessed from multiple sources/teams and from different digital applications (field insights, document management platforms, metrics captured from existing portals for stakeholders, etc.). Some organizations may have separate insights teams, and will need to coordinate across teams to capture those insights. Medical Communications can play an important role in helping contextualize these insights, along with knowledge gaps identified from traditional approaches and translating them into an impactful communication plan. Organizations have started to use technology to rethink their insight assimilation process (artificial intelligence/machine learning tools to glean insights from multiple sources to develop a “single source of truth” that can be used cross functionally; social media listening, etc.) to develop an in-depth understanding of the stakeholder knowledge journey and inform strategic plans.

Step 3: Identify appropriate channels and formats of communication to best engage stakeholders.

Given time limitations they have, stakeholders want scientifically accurate and appropriately referenced content. In addition, Field Medical Affairs Teams prefer easy-to-access resources to use with HCPs/KOLs in an era where virtual engagement is increasingly the norm. The amount of medical content and number of peer-reviewed publications is growing at an enormous rate. Stakeholders have limited time to stay updated and hence use several traditional and non- traditional tools and formats to search for and consume information (news aggregators like WebMD, Twitter, etc.). Stakeholders are also increasingly expecting a Netflix or Amazon like experience where they can consume medical content when they want it (at a time convenient to them) and how they want it (in a format that appeals to them).

These factors further stress the importance of the iMC S/P in understanding and covering which traditional and digital channels and formats will be most suitable to best match stakeholder needs, and best fulfil Medical Communications and brand/product objectives. For an iMC S/P to be truly impactful, it must also be aligned with any digital strategy that may be in place. A good iMC S/P will weave together a consistent scientific story across all engagement touchpoints. To do this, Medical Communications teams need to collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to align on which channels and formats will be the most effective, and how medical content can be repurposed and personalized for various channels and engagement touchpoints, ensuring the communication of an integrated and consistent scientific narrative.

Medical Communications teams should consider the following digital formats and channels to enhance the reach and impact of the iMC S/P:

• Digital enhancements for publications (videos, podcasts, infographics, visual abstracts)
• Plain language summaries for patients, caregivers, and non-specialist HCPs
• Innovative or interactive formats for proactive and reactive slide decks
• Virtual congress medical booths and microsites
• Self-service medical information or medical affairs portals
• Social media
• Physician networks

Audience Amplification:

In addition to newer formats and channels, there is also an increasing focus on increasing the discoverability of medical content. Various approaches for audience amplification, including publication search optimization (PSO/SEO), progressive disclosure of information, use of options such as the Article Discovery Package provided by publishers like Wiley, and content recommendation tools such as TrendMD, are being increasingly used to ensure that medical content is more discoverable when key audiences look for it. Stakeholder expectations for data transparency are increasing and Medical Affairs teams should stay abreast of the ongoing dialogue on this topic, as we use innovative approaches to reach audiences and ensure that they have access to transparent, timely, and accurate information.

Modular Content:

To ensure that content is created efficiently, several Medical Communications teams are also exploring modular content strategy formats (creation of core modules that can be reused across assets; commonly used in other industries such as retail) with the objective of creating content once and then repurposing it for use across channels and geographies. Most teams are at an early stage of assessing how best to fit a modular strategy within the Medical Affairs paradigm, but the evident efficiency gains and speed of content creation seem to indicate it is certainly the future. An iMC S/P also allows teams to visualize a content map where they can identify all the different channels and formats for the data that need to be communicated and helps identify methods to avoid duplication of efforts.

Step 4: Identify focus areas and detail tactics and an implementation plan:

The next step is to identify focus areas and priority topics for the Medical Communications teams. This step is focused on developing a detailed plan for communication of the scientific narrative that incorporates input from the cross-functional teams, and allows other functions to have visibility of and plan around availability of materials. These could vary depending on the stage in the lifecycle of the product, the target audience, the TA, etc. It is best practice to indicate which of the scientific and medical objectives and/or imperatives the tactics are related to. An iMC S/P allows cross-functional stakeholders to have a visual representation and knowledge of the various communication tactics that will be available for engagement with stakeholders. It also ensures alignment of stakeholders and activities for maximum reach and impact.

Step 5: Define and measure success, review, reevaluate and adjust as needed.

Medical Affairs teams are expected to demonstrate the value of all their activities. The identification and use of appropriate metrics to demonstrate the effectiveness of Medical Communications plans is a hot topic of debate and discussion. There is an increasing need to go beyond reach and readership/usage to engagement and impact metrics. Metrics, when used appropriately, also function as feedback mechanisms for whether a communication strategy has been effective. The following are examples of metrics that are used by Medical Communications teams:

• Plum Metrics
• Social Media Analytics
• Usage of specific content by MSLs
• Google Analytics

Metrics that help capture and demonstrate ROI is still an unmet need in the industry and we hope that ongoing discussions on the topic will result in innovative approaches for appropriately measuring impact of communication and dissemination activities.

In addition to measuring the effectiveness and impact of an iMC S/P, it is important to ensure that the iMC S/P is reviewed at regular intervals (at least quarterly as a best practice) and for cross-functional stakeholders to be part of the review process. This allows for new input to be incorporated in real time and for changes to the overall strategy and plan to be made in an agile manner for the plan to always be current and relevant.

Medical Communications teams, with their expertise in developing a compelling Medical Communications Strategy, are well-positioned to drive scientific communication across an organization, in thought partnership with Medical Strategy and other Medical Affairs sub-teams. The iMC S/P is an important strategic document that plays a significant role in ensuring that a consistent and cohesive scientific narrative is communicated to the right stakeholder/target audience at the right time and across the right channels, formats, and touchpoints. Adopting this approach of creating an overarching and integrated scientific communication strategy maximizes engagement and trust with external stakeholder communities, allows communication objectives to be met in a consistent manner, and ultimately enables fully informed use of a product in order to facilitate the best possible clinical outcomes for patients.

ADDITIONAL READING

Medical Communications as Strategic Drivers of Scientific Communications

Online Discoverability of Publications

Beyond the Content: HCP Communication Preferences in the Virtual Era

The Value and Impact of Medical Affairs: Mastering the Art of Leveraging Meaningful Metrics

Measuring the value of medical affairs with altmetrics

1. Evers, Matthias; Suresh, Brindan; Westra, Ann, Zemp, Alexandra. A Vision for Medical Affairs in 2025: A McKinsey & Company Whitepaper.

2. Medical Affairs Professionals Society. MAPS Medical Affairs Strategic Planning Guide and Template, https://medicalaffairs.org/maps-strategic-planning-guide-and-template/. Accessed 17 November 2021.

3. Kremer, Charlotte ME; Piliero, Peter J; du Plessis, Danie. Communicating the Value of Medical Affairs: A MAPS White Paper. May 28, 2020.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to Dr. Hetal Patel, Global Medical Communications, Team Lead – TA Inflammation, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH and Fatima Ahmad, Head of Medical Communications, Spark Therapeutics for their valuable time for SME interviews that allowed us to gather industry insights that helped shaped the content of this whitepaper. MAPS Medical Communications FAWG participants that contributed to discussions and reviews include:

• Elise Blankenship (Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals)
• Raffy Dakessian (Novartis)
• Sissy Easo-Joseph (Teva Pharmaceuticals)
• Brian Falcone (Oxford PharmaGenesis)
• Keith Gaddie (Vertex) Renu Juneja (Janssen)
• Paul O’Grady (GSK)
• Wesley Portegies (MedicalWriters.com)
• Jennifer Schwinn (Bristol Myers Squibb)
• Monicca Shanthanelson (Veeva Systems)
• Linn Southall (Novartis)

MAPS is the premier nonprofit global Medical Affairs organization for Medical Affairs professionals by Medical Affairs professionals across all different levels of experience/specialty to engage, empower, and educate. Together with more than 6,300 Medical Affairs members from more than 220 companies globally, MAPS is transforming the Medical Affairs profession to increase its value to patients, HCPs, and other decision-makers.

Medical writing support was provided by Garth Sundem, Marketing and Communications Director of the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS), funded by MAPS, Golden, Colorado, USA, in accordance with Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines (http://www.ismpp.org/gpp3).

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The Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) seeks papers on the topic of measurement-based research in data communications. The focus of IMC 2022 will be on research that improves the practice of network measurement, illuminates some facet of an operational network, or both. Please see the Call for Papers for a list of topics of particular relevance.

To submit a paper to the SIGCOMM 2022 conference, please read the rest of this document regarding paper formatting, registration, ethics, anonymity, and other important issues relevant to your submission.

Then use the paper submission site to:

• Register your abstract by May 11, 2022, 23:59 AoE .
• Submit your paper by May 18, 2022, 23:59 AoE .

These are hard deadlines and no extensions will be given.

Paper Formatting

All submissions must obey the following formatting requirements.

• Full papers: up to 13 pages for technical content + unlimited pages for references and appendix
• Short papers: up to 6 pages for technical content + unlimited pages for references and appendix
• Note that any paper with technical content greater than 6 pages in length will be reviewed as a full paper, even if it contains fewer than 13 pages.
• The paper body must include some statement about ethical considerations in an appendix section titled Ethics . This could simply contain the sentence “This work does not raise any ethical issues”, or where relevant (for example, but not exclusively, a paper involving human subjects), the discussion may be more detailed. See the Ethics section below for additional requirements for research that involves human subjects or other ethical concerns.
• Reviewers are not required to read any appendices or consider them in their review, with the exception of the mandatory Ethics appendix section. Authors should thus ensure that the core paper is complete and self-contained. For example, if the appendix provides details of a proof or experiment, the body should summarize the key result.
• Papers must be formatted for printing on Letter-sized (8.5” by 11”) paper. Paper text blocks must follow ACM guidelines: double-column, with each column 9.25” by 3.33”, 0.33” space between columns. Each column must use 10-point font or larger, and contain no more than 55 lines of text. Fonts used in other elements of the paper (e.g., figures) should be no smaller than 9 point.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission satisfies the above requirements. If you are using LaTeX, you may make use of this template for ACM conference proceedings . With the older versions of this template you must add “10pt” to the documentclass command to meet the submission requirements. The current template sets 10pt by default. (Unlike the official template, it only includes an example for conference proceedings.)

Your goal as an author is to produce a clearly readable submission within the above constraints. Authors are strongly discouraged from violating the formatting requirements with the aim of including additional material: submissions that violate the formatting requirements may be desk rejected without review . You can visually inspect a page-by-page report of your paper format using the same tool as the submission system via a separate online form .

After the submission deadline, we will use the same tool to check the conformance of papers. The format checking tool uses heuristics and can make mistakes. The PC chairs will manually inspect and possibly reject those papers with evident format violations.

Please make sure that your submitted paper satisfies the following:

• You must list the submission number and the number of pages (ideally) in your paper in the author block, e.g., “Paper #N, 13 pages body, 15 pages total”, beneath your title. Registering your title, abstract, etc., will provide a paper submission number. Per the anonymity guidelines, you must remove any author names.
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• You should limit the file size to less than 15 MB. Contact the PC chairs if you have a file larger than 15 MB.

Paper Metadata and Conflicts

As part of the paper registration, authors will be required to provide paper metadata which includes title and abstract, author names, affiliations, contact email addresses, topics matching the subject matter of the paper, track (main or operational systems), and conflicts with program committee (PC) members.

Broadly, we define conflict of interest with a PC member using the following principles:

• You are currently employed at the same institution, have been previously employed at the same institution within the last 12 months, or are going to begin employment at the same institution.
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The PC chairs and members will review conflicts to ensure the integrity of the reviewing process, adding conflicts where necessary and sanity checking cases where conflicts do not appear justified. If there is no basis for PC conflicts provided by authors, those conflicts will be removed. Improperly identifying PC members as a conflict to avoid individual reviewers may lead to your paper being rejected. If you have concerns, please contact the PC chairs.

Paper Anonymity

IMC will use double blind submissions, per the following guidelines:

• Author names and affiliations must not appear on any submission.
• Identifying information such as grant numbers must not be included on submissions.
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For exceptions to the anonymization rules, see the detailed guidance on paper anonymity .

In addition to submitting an anonymized paper, double-blind reviewing requires that both authors and reviewers take care while reviewing is happening.

• Authors are welcome to release their paper in a non-peer-reviewed location (such as a technical report by your institution or arXiv), but you should not broadcast information about the publication widely. For example, do not post it to large mailing lists or social media forums where PC members would easily encounter it, and do not do general press releases. Authors are also welcome to talk about their work (as work-in-progress) at local institutions. In either case, authors should be aware of PC members who might encounter the work and avoid sharing the work in a way that a PC member would encounter it.
• PC members and other reviewers are expected to not actively attempt to deanonymize papers. In either case, if there is a breach of double-blind reviewing, the author and the reviewer should report it to the PC chairs.

Ethics Considerations

The program committee may raise concerns around the ethics of the work, even if it does not involve human subjects. All papers must include, in a clearly marked appendix section with the heading “Ethics”, a statement about ethical issues; papers that do not include such a statement may be rejected. This could be, if appropriate for the paper, simply the sentence “This work does not raise any ethical issues.” If the work involves human subjects or potentially sensitive data (e.g., user traffic or social network information, evaluation of censorship, etc.), the paper should clearly discuss these issues, perhaps in a separate subsection.

Research that entails experiments involving human subjects or user data (e.g., network traffic, passwords, social network information) should adhere to community norms. Any work that raises potential ethics considerations should indicate this on the submission form. The basic principles of ethical research are outlined in the Belmont Report : (1) respect for persons (which may involve obtaining consent); (2) beneficence (a careful consideration of risks and benefits); and (3) justice (ensuring that parts of the population that bear the risks of the research also are poised to obtain some benefit from it). Authors should further consult the ACM policy on research involving human subjects for further information on ethical principles that apply to this conference.

Research involving human subjects must be approved by the researchers’ respective Institutional Review Boards before the research takes place. Authors should indicate on the submission form whether the work involves human subjects. If so, the authors must indicate whether an IRB protocol has been approved for the research, or if the research has been determined exempt (either self-determination or IRB determination). We expect that any research follows the practices and procedures of the institution(s) where the work is being carried out; for example, some universities require separate approval for the use of campus data. We expect researchers to abide by these protocols.

We recognize that different IRBs follow different procedures for determining the status of human subject research, and approval or exempt status from a single institution may not align with community norms. To help the Ethics Committee review cases of concern, there is a need for more information about the research protocol. To this end, if the work involves human subjects, the authors must include with their submission a copy of the form that was used to determine IRB status (approved or exempt), sufficiently anonymized to preserve double-blind review.

If the submission describes research involving human subjects and none of the authors are at an institution with an IRB (or equivalent), the authors are nonetheless expected to follow a research protocol that adheres to ethical principles, as stated in the ACM policy on research involving human subjects . In such cases, the authors must use the Ethics section of their appendix to explain how their research protocol satisfies the principles of ethical research.

Some research does not involve human subjects yet nonetheless raises questions of ethics, which may be wide-ranging and not necessarily limited to direct effects. We encourage authors to be mindful of the ethics of the research that they undertake; these considerations are often not clear-cut, but often warrant thoughtful consideration. Discussions of these issues should be placed in the “Ethics” appendix section mentioned above, or in the main body of the paper where appropriate.

Paper Novelty

Under no circumstances, except where noted below, should authors submit previously-published work, submit the same work simultaneously to multiple venues, or submit papers that plagiarize the work of other authors. Like other conferences and journals, IMC prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have engaged in them. In some cases, the program committee may share information about submitted papers with other conference chairs and journal editors to ensure the integrity of papers under consideration. If the PC discovers a violation of these principles, sanctions may include, but are not limited to, contacting the institutions of the authors and publicizing the details of the case.

The ACM policy on simultaneous submissions does not consider technical reports (including arXiv) to be concurrent publication or submission.

Paper Acceptance

The IMC 2022 PC will notify authors of acceptance/rejection decisions by August 19, 2022. All accepted papers will be shepherded by members of the PC. Authors of accepted papers should plan to interact with their shepherds immediately after notification, and to budget sufficient time between acceptance notification and the camera-ready deadline to coordinate with their shepherd. It is a requirement that the paper be considered acceptable to the assigned shepherd so that the updates to the paper reflect the issues raised by the PC (conflicts will be mediated by the PC chairs) before the paper is considered “accepted” to appear in the conference proceedings. In addition, the publisher of the IMC proceedings will review all accepted papers submitted for the camera-ready deadline. Authors should also budget sufficient time immediately after the camera-ready deadline to be available and responsive to any editing changes requested by the publisher.

After acceptance, substantive changes to paper titles require approval by the PC chairs. Only in exceptional circumstances should authors change their author list, and only with the approval of the PC chairs.

Authors of accepted papers will also need to sign an ACM copyright-release form. All rejected papers will be treated as permanently confidential.

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The 20 Most Stressful Jobs

How does your career compare when it comes to stress? Take a look at the most stressful jobs.

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Stressful jobs can be fulfilling because they make a difference – in people’s health, public safety or a company's bottom line. And high-stress jobs often come with high pay. Find out whether your job is among the most stressful careers, according to experts, and how it compares with other high-stress careers from U.S. News' 100 Best Jobs ranking . Data comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Anesthesiologist

Median salary: $239,200 Education needed: Doctoral or professional degree Expected job growth by 2032: 2.6%

Anesthesiologists are health care professionals who monitor patient health during a procedure, adjusting the amount of anesthetic to relieve pain. "The need for precision and constant vigilance, coupled with the potential for severe complications and the unpredictability of patient responses, makes this a highly stressful job," organizational psychologist Etty Burk said in an email.

Learn more about anesthesiologists .

Business Operations Manager

Median salary: $98,100 Education needed: Bachelor’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 4.2%

Business operations managers are responsible for managing all business operations and setting organizational goals. "Their stress often stems from managing budgets and optimizing processes, all while meeting organizational goals and deadlines – often without control over external factors like the business market and employee behavior that can impact outcomes," Burk said.

Learn more about business operations managers .

Clinical Social Worker

Median salary: $60,280 Education needed: Master’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 9.6%

Clinical social workers are licensed social workers who can diagnose and treat individuals with behavioral, mental and emotional conditions.

While it can be rewarding, social work can be a stressful profession. “It used to be that jobs that had lives on the line every day, like first responders, were believed to face the most stress. While their jobs are still incredibly challenging, roles that involve supporting our communities have seen dramatic demands for their time and energy,” Kelly Roehm, career consultant and a senior certified professional by the Society of Human Resources Management, wrote in an email.

Learn more about clinical social workers .

Community Health Worker

Median salary: $46,190 Education needed: High school diploma or equivalent Expected job growth by 2032: 14.1%

Community health workers rank No. 2 among the Best Jobs Without a College Degree and No. 4 among the Best Social Services Jobs . They work with community and health professionals to promote wellness.

According to Roehm, because communities often lack adequate resources, these workers are often paid far less than other health care professionals. “Coupled with loss of funding, increasing caseloads and burnout have impacted these vital workers,” she said.

Learn more about community health workers .

Child and Family Social Worker

Median salary: $50,820 Education needed: Bachelor’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 5.3%

Child and family social workers provide interventions and support to ensure the well-being of children and families in need. “Post-COVID, we saw rising rates of children in school struggling to keep up and parents trying to balance child care and work, which is why children's services workers are carrying a heavy load,” Roehm said.

Learn more about child and family social workers .

Median salary: $155,040 Education needed: Doctoral or professional degree Expected job growth by 2032: 4.4%

Dentists identify and treat problems with a patient's mouth, gums and teeth. Career counselor Lynn Berger says that dentists have one of the most stressful jobs because most patients don’t like going to the dentist and may even feel scared or uncomfortable.

Managing the emotions that patients experience can be mentally taxing. “The most stressful occupations are those with much responsibility and not a lot of positive reward and feedback,” she explained in an email.

Learn more about dentists .

Firefighter

Median salary: $51,680 Education needed: Postsecondary nondegree award Expected job growth by 2032: 3.6%

Firefighters are responsible for responding to emergency situations involving fires, hazardous materials and other disasters.

“Firefighters work in dangerous and high-pressure environments where split-second decisions can mean life or death,” Conor Hughes, an SHRM senior certified professional and HR consultant, wrote in an email.

Learn more about firefighters .

Financial Analyst

Median salary: $90,680 Education needed: Bachelor’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 8.2%

Financial analysts are responsible for analyzing financial data, trends and market conditions to help businesses make informed financial decisions. While they make lucrative salaries, their job is not easy. "The need for accuracy, staying updated on market trends and making impactful decisions under tight deadlines is compounded by the volatility of financial markets, which financial analysts cannot influence," Burk said.

Learn more about financial analysts .

High School Teacher

Median salary: $62,360 Education needed: Bachelor’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 1%

In the U.S., high school teachers typically teach students from the ninth through 12th grades. While working with teenagers can be rewarding, it can be stressful as well.

“Educators often work long hours for little pay while managing overloaded classrooms, meeting strict curriculum standards and dealing with challenging student behaviors. This results in high attrition,” Hughes explained.

Learn more about high school teachers .

HR Specialist

Median salary: $63,080 Education needed: Bachelor’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 6.3%

Human resources specialists’ duties can include helping with recruiting, facilitating employee onboarding and supporting employees in managing their compensation and benefits packages. “HR specialists are typically the most stressed role for a good three weeks during performance reviews and compensation processes,” Daniel Space, senior HR business partner director, wrote in an email.

Learn more about HR specialists .

Median salary: $135,740 Education needed: Doctoral or professional degree Expected job growth by 2032: 7.5%

Lawyers rank No. 1 among the Best Social Services Jobs and No. 14 among the Best-Paying Jobs. They’re licensed professionals who provide legal advice to individuals or businesses in one or more areas of law.

“The adversarial nature of law combined with billable hour requirements, client demands and high-stakes cases create a pressure-cooker environment for many attorneys. If you’re in this field, my advice is to set boundaries, delegate tasks when possible and build time for stress management,” Hughes said.

Learn more about lawyers .

Marriage and Family Therapist

Median salary: $56,570 Education needed: Master’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 14.9%

Marriage and family therapists are mental health professionals licensed to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders within the context of marriage, couples and family systems.

While this career can be fulfilling, it's rather demanding. "The challenge of providing effective support while maintaining professional boundaries can be emotionally draining, and factors beyond their control can influence the progress of therapy," Burk explained.

Learn more about marriage and family therapists .

Mental Health Counselor

Median salary: $51,240 Education needed: Bachelor’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 10.6%

Mental health counselors assist patients with processing life experiences that can lead to grief and trauma. Of course, helping people achieve better mental health is deeply rewarding, but it could leave you feeling drained.

Also, as the pandemic led to rising mental health needs, mental health counselors experienced increasing caseloads, more stress and higher burnout rates.

Learn more about mental health counselors .

Nurse Practitioner

Median salary: $121,610 Education needed: Master’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 44.5%

Nurse practitioners rank No. 1 among the 100 Best Jobs, the Best STEM Jobs and the Best Health Care Jobs .

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with additional education, which allows them to take patient histories, perform physical exams, order labs, prescribe medicine and even authorize treatment plans.

“However, due to the high-stakes nature of their profession, their enormous workloads, irregular hours and their frequent exposure to patient trauma and suffering, nurse practitioners, along with physicians and other frontline health care workers confront extreme stress,” Hughes said.

Learn more about nurse practitioners .

Median salary: $49,090 Education needed: High school diploma or equivalent Expected job growth by 2032: 5.4%

Paramedics are highly trained professionals who assess, treat and transport patients who need urgent medical attention. Being a paramedic can be rewarding but mentally and physically taxing.

“Paramedics operate in dangerous, high-pressure environments where split-second decisions can mean life or death. The threat of violence combined with witnessing trauma on a regular basis contributes to extremely high rates of PTSD, depression and anxiety among first responders,” Hughes said.

Learn more about paramedics .

Patrol Officer

Median salary: $65,790 Education needed: High school diploma or equivalent Expected job growth by 2032: 3.3%

Patrol officers are members of local or state law enforcement agencies responsible for preventing illegal activity and protecting communities. Exposure to violence, crime and the physical demands of the job can all contribute to a high stress level.

If you’re interested in becoming a patrol officer, Hughes recommends that you seek counseling, peer support and stress management training to keep your mental health in check.

Learn more about patrol officers .

Median salary: $227,180 Education needed: Doctoral or professional degree Expected job growth by 2032: 3.1%

Physicians, or primary care doctors, are patients' first stop when they experience health issues like headaches or heart problems.

Because of the high-stakes nature of their profession, heavy workloads and frequent exposure to patient trauma, physicians and other frontline health care workers are often under a tremendous level of stress.

Learn more about physicians .

Sales Managers

Median salary: $130,600 Education needed: Bachelor’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 4%

Sales managers rank No. 2 among the Best Sales and Marketing Jobs and No. 17 among the Best-Paying Jobs.

Sales managers are responsible for orchestrating an organization’s sales process, including product development, customer response and data collection. "This profession can be stressful since you must face the pressure of meeting or exceeding sales targets. You must also motivate your team, handle rejections and adapt to market changes. Plus, success is often dependent on market conditions and customer behavior that you cannot control," Burk said.

Learn more about sales managers.

Software Developer

Median salary: $127,260 Education needed: Bachelor’s degree Expected job growth by 2032: 25.7%

Software developers rank No. 1 among the Best Technology Jobs and No. 2 among the Best STEM Jobs.

Although software developers earn lucrative salaries, especially those who work at top companies like Meta or Google, the job can be stressful and fast-paced. These professionals use their design and coding skills to create software for clients and users. According to Space, they can sometimes feel “extremely stressed between product updates and launches.”

Learn more about software developers .

Median salary: $239,200 Education needed: Doctoral or professional degree Expected job growth by 2032: 1.7%

Surgeons operate on people in need of medical treatment related to diseases, broken bones and other issues. An error made in a critical procedure can change someone’s life or be fatal, which is why surgeons are often under high stress.

If you’re interested in entering this career field, Hughes recommends that you try to separate your professional life from your personal one. “It's very easy to allow the suffering you see at work to influence your personal energy,” he said.

Learn more about surgeons .

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Microsoft Build 2024

Official microsoft blog, book of news, khan academy, windows omb, full keynote: satya nadella at microsoft build 2024.

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Keynote Sizzle: Satya Nadella at Microsoft Build 2024

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Microsoft build image gallery.

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella on stage May 21 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Rajesh Jha, executive vice president, Experiences + Devices, Microsoft, on stage May 21 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Jeff Teper, president, Collaborative Apps & Platform, Microsoft, on stage May 21 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Pavan Davuluri, corporate vice president, Windows + Devices, Microsoft, on stage May 21 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Kevin Scott, chief technology officer and EVP of AI, Microsoft, on stage with Sal Khan, founder and CEO, Khan Academy, May 21 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Kevin Scott, chief technology officer and EVP of AI, Microsoft, on stage May 21 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Cloud+AI, Microsoft, on stage May 22 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president, Business Applications & Platforms, Microsoft, on stage May 22 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

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Sarah Bird, CPO, Responsible AI, on stage May 22 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

Arun Ulagaratchagan, corporate vice president, Azure Data, Microsoft, on stage May 22 at Microsoft Build 2024 in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

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Students use marshmallows and water bottles to understand a chemistry concept, a suggestion from khanmigo for teachers. (photo by scott eklund for microsoft ).

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Brett Ostrum, Head of Surface, Microsoft, on stage May 20, 2024, at an event in Redmond, Washington. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

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Erica Arnold, Senior Product Manager, Surface, Microsoft, on stage May 20, 2024, at an event in Redmond. (Photo by Dan DeLong for Microsoft)

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European leaders are planning a $4.3 billion Iron Dome-style defense system

• European nations say they're planning a $4.3 billion joint air and missile defense system.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said creating an Iron Dome similar to Israel's was "necessary."
• The European Sky Shield Initiative involves 21 countries and aims to enhance NATO's defenses.

European countries are preparing to disclose plans for a $4.3 billion Iron Dome-style air and missile defense system, Poland's prime minister has announced.

Donald Tusk told the Polish broadcaster AVN that the proposal, which involves the cooperation of 21 nations, would be presented to the European Council in a matter of days, according to the Kyiv Post .

The European Sky Shield Initiative is conceived as a means to jointly procure ground-based interoperable air-defense systems.

"The recent attack on Israel showed how essential such systems are. There is no reason for Europe not to have its missile-defense shield," Tusk said, according to The Telegraph .

"Creating an Iron Dome against missiles and drones is necessary," he added.

In a not-too-subtle reference to Russia, Tusk also said it didn't take much imagination to figure out where a potential attack on Europe might come from, the Telegraph reported.

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Israel's Iron Dome has long been seen as one of the world's most advanced air-defense systems, protecting the country's skies from rockets and other projectiles.

In April, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel, which Israel's air defenses almost completely shot down, with the assistance of US and UK forces .

While a direct hot-war attack by Russia on NATO Europe isn't considered an immediate likelihood, many countries — particularly those that border Russia — are deeply alarmed . Many are also beefing up their defense spending in ways that were unimaginable before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine .

ESSI was first mooted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2022, not long after Russia had begun pounding Ukraine's civilian infrastructure with rockets. It's been led by Germany ever since.

In July last year, Austria and Switzerland — both traditionally neutral states — signed up to the initiative, and as of February this year, the number of countries had grown to 21, with the participation of Turkey and Greece .

The German Institute for International and Security Affairs , or SWP, outlined in a report last year some of the systems the German government was seeking to buy or replenish as part of ESSI. These included US-made Patriots, the IRIS-T SLM — a short-to-medium-range system capable of targeting drones, aircraft, and cruise missiles — and the long-range Arrow system in use in Israel.

SWP also said that although it considered a Russian attack on NATO countries unlikely in the immediate term, "improving air and missile defense in Europe could curb Russia's coercive power vis-à-vis NATO and thereby strengthen the cohesion of the alliance."

Despite Tusk's championing of ESSI, it has faced challenges from Polish President Andrzej Duda, who has opposed joining it on the grounds that the country already has its own joint air-defense agreements with the US and the UK.

Watch: Russia flaunts intercontinental ballistic missile in new video

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