The Role of Integrated Marketing Communication On Consumer Decision-Making Process

*Corresponding author: Clarence Anthony Puspanathan, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Email:clarencean@utar.edu.my Abstract: This research is about how the IMC tools used to inform, persuade and remind targeted audience with the promotion, interactive marketing, advertising, public relations, and personal selling that how they influence the consumer decision-making process. The research will examine the relationship between the promotion, interactive marketing, advertising, public relations, and personal selling with the consumer decision-making process that which was the most effective tools that can affect the consumer decision-making process. This research will be conduct quantitative research that will use a questionnaire to collect data with the random sampling method. The questionnaire will use a 5-point Likert scale and will be distributed online to collect data. Statistical Package of the Social Science will be used to analyze the data that was collected from 382 respondents from Ipoh. The study found that all elements are significantly influenced the consumer decision-making process.


Introduction
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) used to inform, persuade and remind targeted audiences regarding brands, the organization, or the products or This study is carried out to investigate whether the role of integrated marketing communication can influence the consumer decision-making process. In this study, researchers can also investigate the way of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) to persuade customers towards the consumer decisionmaking process. The Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) tools included Public Relations, personal selling, promotion, interactive marketing, and advertising; it can help the organization to persuade the consumer to purchase their product (Ekhlassi, 2012).
The researchers can get more information about Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) in this study. When they gain more information about Integrated Marketing Communication, it can help them to have the ability to compete with other organizations. This is because Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) can make the organization have an effective and creative way to communicate with their customers and provide them detailed information about their product (Madhavaram, Badrinarayanan, & Mcdonald, 2013).

Literature Review
Many companies see Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) as a way to manage their communication to send a consistent message to consumers about the organization and its products. It also targeted specific customers and accomplished their needs through the various Integrated Marketing Communications tools (IMC). Integrated marketing communications (IMC) played an important role in building a close relationship with current and potential customers (Mihaela, 2015). It provided the right point to find out the needs and wants of the customers.
Public relations were a strategy of a communication process that can help an organization to maintain a good relationship with the public and help the organization to gain a lot of benefits. Public relations can create a special communication plan that can improve and maintain the positive image of the organization and the brand (Pahwa, 2019). It can also strengthen the relationship with the public and build good relationships between consumers and the organization.
Advertising was a tool that the organization paid for the message and those people will aim to inform and affect the consumer who received the advertising message (The Economic Times, 2019). Advertising was the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) tool that promotes ideas, goods, and services through mass media. The organization needs advertising to pop up its organizations' product or brand to the target consumer and the potential consumer. Through advertising, the organization can grab the attention of the public.
The promotion was a tool that is always used by the organization to increase its product or brands' exposure rate in public view (Toppr, 2019). Promotion includes a free-sample campaign, offering gifts, discounts, and buy one-free-one which the consumer can notice the product or brand through the promotion made by an organization. So that it will make the consumer aware and knowledgeable about the product of the organization. It will also attract and motivate consumers to make a purchase.
Personal selling was a communications tool that can communicate with the potential consumer face-to-face that can promote the product and persuade the consumer to buy the product (Advameg, 2019). Personal selling is an effective way to persuade people to buy and drive the consumer decision-making process and it also can present their product's function to the consumer.
Interactive marketing was using one or more advertising media to result in a measurable response such as customer order (Kayode, 2014). It delivers promotional marketing messages to consumers by using the Internet which created two-way communication between a business and its customers ("Interactive Marketing: What is Interactive Marketing?", 2012).
Below is the study framework designed for this specific study: The feedback from the consumer can be used to guide an organization's advertising efforts in which consumers can provide feedback and express their personal preferences to reach their expectations and fulfill their needs. Interactive marketing is more dependent on consumers' needs and wants. It also enabled consumers to give feedback to the organization.

Methodology
The research design was a framework of methods and techniques to merge the various components in the research. Research design summarizes how to conduct research using a specific methodology (Bhat, 2019). The research design was a method used by scientists by observing and describing the subject's behavior without influencing them (Blakstad, 2008). The research design was the overall plan for joining the research problem to empirical research. It contained how, when, and where the data are going to be collected and used in the research (Wyk, 2019).
Probability sampling is used as a sampling method in this research. Every item has an equal chance of inclusion in this sampling design (Kothari, 2014). Equal means that the probability of selection in the population is the same. The element to choose in the sample was not influenced by other considerations. The chosen element was not dependent on the other element which means that the selection or rejection will not affect the result and the inclusion or exclusion of another (Kumar, 2009).
In this research, researchers used simple random sampling (SRS) to collect the sample from the individuals. Every element was given an equal and independent chance of selection and the simple random sample was selected by the procedure. The procedure includes (1) identifying the number of elementary units in the population. (2) Decide on the sample size then (3) select the sample size (Kumar, 2009).
The research was conducted at Ipoh. The target population will be the people who live in Ipoh. The respondents were targeted randomly from the target population. They were chosen as the respondents because they have been experienced in stimulating the decision-making process through the Integrated Marketing Communications tools (IMC) when making a purchase. This can help to study the role of the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) tool on the consumer decision-making process.
The Individuals that are targeted in this research are the people who lived in Ipoh. Researchers gave out questionnaires to the individuals to collect samples and data. The individuals were selected randomly by the researchers without any biased and without looking at their background. The data collected will be collected in the targeted population that is 300.
The formula of Cronbach's alpha is: Where N= is the number of items, c̄= is the average covariance between item pairs and v̄= average variance.
Furthermore, the rule of thumb for interpreting alpha for Likert scale questions is: The margin of error (e) 0.05 Population proportion (P) 0.5

Figure 2: Krecjie and Morgan Sample Size
The table showed that Cronbach's alpha is 0.958. Based on the result showed that the questionnaire is reliable because the Cronbach's alpha was ≥ 0.7 so it was acceptable. The number of items represents the total of independent and dependent variables questions of the questionnaire.
Public Relations is one of the elements or independent variables that have been identified to be investigated for this study. Public Relations is the term to influence the consumer decision-making process. The researcher adopted 5 items from Chansiri (2016), Raza (2016), and Jennifer (2014) to design the questionnaire. The 5 items are: 1. Public relations make you always aware of new brand products. 2. You are interested in tracking news releases for this brand.
3. You often heard the news release before this brand launched.
4. Public relations increase more purchase intention than a sales promotion.
5. Does celebrity endorsement affect your opinion on a brand or your purchasing decisions?
Promotion is one of the elements or independent variables that have been identified to be investigated for this study. Promotion is the term to influence the consumer decision-making process. The researcher adopted 5 items from Chansiri (2016) and Jennifer (2014) to design the questionnaire. The 5 items are: 1. This brand offers you more an incentive to encourage your attention 2. If the promotion of a product is always interested, you will engage with a product brand.
3. Brand promotion of this product better than other competitors that make consumers always engaged.
4. How often would you like to receive promotional material from companies? 5. How important reasons are discounts, special offers, information on new products, information about events and upcoming sales, and other reasons for becoming a member of a customer loyalty program?
Personal selling is one of the elements or independent variables that have been identified to be investigated for this study. Personal selling is the term to influence the consumer decision-making process. The researcher adopted 5 items from Chansiri (2016) and Oluyinka,s (2019) to design the questionnaire. The 5 items are: 1. Personal selling increases the close relationship between the company and its customers.
2. Understanding products and their respective function are essential when carrying out personal selling.
3. Personal selling is one of the important parts that influence the sales volume and revenue of an organization. Interactive Marketing is one of the elements or independent variables that have been identified to be investigated for this study. Interactive Marketing is the term to influence the consumer decision-making process. The researcher adopted 5 items from Chansiri (2016) and Jennifer (2014) to design the questionnaire. The 5 items are:

Personal selling influences customers' product
1. You always got mailing or handbills from this product brand.
2. Always pay attention when the product brand is presented by Telemarketing.
3. When you get a catalog from any modern trade/shop provider, their product brand put on the catalog's first page will catch your attention.
4. How would you like a company to contact you?
5. Do you feel that internet advertising works for you? Why?
Advertising is one of the elements or independent variables that have been identified to be investigated for this study. Advertising is the term to influence the consumer decision-making process. The researcher adopted 5 items from Chansiri (2016) and Kumar, & Raju (2013) to design the questionnaire. The 5 items are: 1. It is a brand's greater effort to customize the delivery of the messages in terms of culture, feature, and age length.
2. You can see the advertising of the product brand clearly in a common area.
3. You are already interested in the product and when you see the brand advertise. It will stimulate you to need it.
4. Advertising is important by informing its brand.
5. Is advertising visually appealing and engaging?

Research Result
This chapter, brief explanation, and analysis of the research study. We had prepared 382 sets of questionnaires collected from the researcher. These 382 sets of questionnaires were analyzed and interpreted by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software as an analysis tool.
For gender, based on the data show that 41.6%of total respondents are Male, around 160 respondents. For the 58.4% of respondents that are female, around 225 respondents.
For the age, based on the table show that the highest rate of the respondent's age is between 18 to 25, there is 67.3%, 259 respondents. The lowest rate of the respondents' ages is between 26 to 30, 81 respondents. The following age rate is 31 to 40 around 8.6%, 33 respondents and the last age rate is 41 to 50 around 3.1%, 12 respondents.
For the ethnicity, most of the respondents are Chinese, around 93.0%, 358 respondents. The lowest respondents are Indians, it takes only 2.9%, 11 respondents. Then for the last respondents is Malay, which around 4.2%, 16 respondents.
For the income, the results show that the highest income of the respondents is RM1100 to RM2000, 48.8% around 188 respondents. The lowest income of the respondents is RM4000 above, 0.3%, 1 respondent. The following income level is RM0 to RM 1000, 38.4% around 148 respondents, RM 2100 to RM 3000, 9.6% around 37 respondents and RM3100 to RM 4000, 2.9% around 11 respondents. For the likeness of shopping, based on the result show that most of the respondents like to go shopping, we can see that 96.1%, 370 respondents like to go shopping, only 3,9% around 15 respondents don't like to go shopping.
For the shopping frequency, based on the result show that most of the respondents go shopping weekly, 73%, 281 respondents like to go shopping weekly, and only 0.5%, 2 respondents that like to go shopping once a year. In addition, 25.2%, 97 respondents like to go shopping once a month, and 1.3%, 5 respondents like to go shopping daily.
For the reason of shopping, 37.9% of respondents go shopping is because of needs and wants. The lowest reason that people go shopping is advertising, 12.2%, 47 respondents. Then the following reason people go shopping is they just want to go 29.9%, 115 respondents and promotion, 20.0%, 77 respondents.
From table 2, the consumer decision-making process and the promotion have a significant relationship as their P-value is 0.00, which is ≤ 0.01. The relationship between the consumer decisionmaking process and promotion is positive, with a value of 0.769. The consumer decision-making process and public relations have a significant relationship as their P-value are 0.00, which is ≤ 0.01. The relationship between the consumer decision-making process and public relations is positive, with a value of 0.738. The consumer decision-making process and personal selling have a significant relationship as their P-value are 0.00, which is ≤ 0.01.

Model Summary
The table above presents the findings of the regression analysis conducted to test the hypothesis of the study. We have chosen linear regression to test the hypothesis used for this The relationship between the consumer decision-making process and personal selling is positive, with a value of 0.830. The consumer decisionmaking process and the public interactive marketing have a significant relationship as their P-value is 0.00, which is ≤ 0.01. The relationship between the consumer decision-making process and interactive marketing is positive, with a value of 0.687. The consumer decisionmaking process and the advertising have a significant relationship as their P-value is 0.00, which is ≤ 0.01. The relationship between the consumer decisionmaking process and advertising is positive, with a value of 0.824.
Based on the finding of the linear regression in the table above, the results obtained based on the adjusted R square figures, our independent variables (promotion, public relations, personal selling, interactive marketing, and advertising) have a 75 percent influence on the dependent variables (consumer decision-making process). These figures can confirm that all the independent variables selected for this research are significant and do indeed have the capability of influencing the dependent variables strongly. Therefore, we can conclude these independent variables are important in influencing the consumer decision-making process of respondents.

Discussion
The researchers had come up with the hypothesis of the role of Interactive Marketing Communication (IMC) tools such as promotion, personal selling, public relation, interactive marketing, and advertising towards the consumer decision-making process which were evaluated by the null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis. The hypothesis is supported at the 0.05 significance level.
The result has signified that there is a positive significant relationship between the Interactive Marketing Communication (IMC) tools and the consumer decision-making process.
According to the data collected, the influence of IMC tools is 75% towards the consumer decisionmaking process. This shows that the IMC tools had influenced the decision-making process of the consumer. Personal selling has generated the highest consumer decision-making process compared to other Interactive Marketing Communication (IMC) tools.
The results showed that the Interactive Marketing Communication (IMC) tools had influenced the consumer decision-making process where the promotion, personal selling, public relation, interactive marketing, and advertising will affect the consumer decision-making process. In the business world, the IMC tool is an indispensable tool for organizations to attract attention from the customers and also have a competitive advantage among SMEs. By doing this, the organizations can reach a larger audience and increase sales when adopting this Interactive Marketing Communication (IMC) tools. In this study, the researchers found that there is a significant influence of the Interactive Marketing Communication (IMC) tools on the consumer decision-making process. https://explorable.com/descriptive-research-