Integrated marketing communication and its effect on customer perception towards banking services in Jaffna district Sri Lanka

Abstract

Now a day’s business environment has been drastically changed as a complex and crucial one. In today’s business world, marketing processes are based on the interaction between a business and the customers. Communication affects the quality of the service, its shapes and the images of the organization in the mind of the customers where integrated marketing communication play crucial role in this regard. Integrated marketing communication tends to capture the attention of both providers and buyers especially, who need information from various sources to inform their purchasing decisions. Thus, the present paper aims to highlight the main tools which the specialists use in integrated marketing communication in their attempt to establish a permanent and efficient contact with both potential customers and with actual customers, as well as an analysis of secondary data sources regarding the impact false news broadcast through various media channels have on customer perceptions. This study aims to investigate the impact of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) on Customer perception of Private Local Commercial banks operates in Jaffna district Sri Lanka which especially aims at identifying the components and the degree of integrated marketing communications applied in the selected sector. A unique aspect of this paper is to bring out a study which has not been previously carried out by researchers by combining the customer perception towards services to the customers and the application of infrastructures in a selected financial sector in Jaffna Sri Lanka. A survey with 350 household customers and the relevant bank officials was carried out in three core Private Commercial Banks in the Jaffna region under study. The collection of the data was driven by three research hypotheses and involved dual questionnaires targeting two sets of respondents. One set of questionnaire was used to gather information on customer perception towards services. The research presented in this paper employs a modified version of the DuncanMoriarty IMC mini audit to measure the degree of IMC. Results demonstrate a positive relationship between IMC and customer perception and the higher degree of IMC application in the selected entities. Out of five dimensions of IMC considered for this study, mission marketing and interactivity directly influence customer perception. The paper concludes with the managerial implication which suggests that the value creation to customers comes in the way of integrated marketing communication, and it is being highlighted in the suggestion that to follow this new communication media as a competitive advantage into traditional integrated marketing communication in order to have fruitful results in the organizations.