An investigation into the impact of integrated marketing communication strategy on brand awareness: The case of Petrotrade Private Limited

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of integrated marketing communications (IMC) on brand awareness. The general conclusion from literatureis that the implementation of IMC results in increased brand awareness by making a company’s brand familiar to customers and by building a set of associations that they can relate to. However, the literature is largely confined to the developed world, particularly the United States of America, where the widely accepted definition of the approach was crafted. Therefore, there is a research gap. It is against this background that the present study was aimed at filling this gap by evaluating the impact of IMC on brand awareness in a Zimbabwean context through a case study of Petrotrade.

The study employed a qualitative philosophy and an inductive research approach.In order to focus only on respondents who could adequately answer research questions, a purposive sampling strategy was employed. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect data from the relevant Petrotrade managers and the company’s key customers. Data was analysed through Content Analytic Tables and detailed write-ups. The study found that:the company only relied on personal selling and advertising (which were not effective), there was no senior management commitment, the communications budget was too small and there was no marketing expertise. In light of these findings the study concludes that Petrotrade communcations strategy has a minimal effect on the company’s brand awareness. Given the fore-going, managerial recommendations are that the company recruitsrequisite skills to manage the marketing function, and also provides enough fundingfor marketing activities. At policy level, since Petrotrade is Governement-owned, it is imperative that the company is privatised to remove the parastatal culture that pervades the company. It is difficult to see how the first two recommendations can be implemented before the company is privatised.