Integrated marketing communications in promoting sneakers

Integrated Marketing Communications How would you as a marketer use an IMC to promote an unknown brand of sneakers? Discuss specific channels you would choose and the rationale behind those choices.
Integrated marketing communications takes into account a mix of different marketing methods and this means using different strategies to market the sneakers (Hackley 27). I would first of all identify the different marketing strategies in the IMC model and then chose the most common and the ones most likely to attract customers to purchase the sneakers. It is important to ensure that customer satisfaction and attraction is high as it is a new brand and hence its inception in the market will determine its sustainability and competitive advantage.
The first channel is to advertise using posters, word of mouth, television and social media sites. This is bound to attract different types of customers who cut across all ages, race and social status. Other than advertising, the other effective channel is using sales promotion such as that of giving free gifts with every purchase of the sneakers (Hackley 176). People love sales and free things and hence are most likely to purchase the sneakers because of that reason. People are bound to purchase the sneakers in large numbers in order to acquire more free gifts.
Lastly is the use of personal selling. This involves selling to the sneakers to the friends and family members as well as other close acquaintances directly without using sales personnel. Personal selling is better as it gives opportunity to directly convince the potential customers as well as an opportunity to sell to people one knows and hence are likely to purchase the product in order to support the relationship with the seller of the product.
Work Cited
Hackley, Chris. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Approach. New York: SAGE Publications, 2010.