In search of a theory of integrated marketing communication

For the most part, the literature base for Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) has developed from an applied or tactical level rather than from an intellectual or theoretical one. Since industry, practitioner and even academic studies have provided little insight into what IMC is and how it operates, our approach has been to investigate that other IMC community, that is, the academic or instructional group responsible for disseminating IMC knowledge. We proposed that the people providing course instruction and directing research activities have some basis for how they organize, consider and therefore instruct in the area of IMC. A syllabi analysis of 87 IMC units in six countries investigated the content of the unit, its delivery both physically and conceptually, and defined the audience of the unit. The study failed to discover any type of latent theoretical foundation that might be used as a base for understanding IMC. The students who are being prepared to extend, expand and enhance IMC concepts do not appear to be well-served by the curriculum we found in our research. The study concludes with a model for further IMC curriculum development.

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC): New Discipline with an Old Learning Approach: A Syllabi Analysis

Marketing communications as a discipline has changed significantly in both theory and practice over the past decade. But has our teaching of IMC kept pace with the discipline changes? The purpose of this paper is to explore how far the evolving concepts of IMC are reaching university learners. By doing this, the paper offers an approach to assessing how well marketing curricula are fulfilling their purpose. The course outlines (syllabi) for all IMC courses in 30 universities in Australia and five universities in New Zealand were analyzed. The findings suggest that most of what is taught in the units is not IMC. It is not directed by the key constructs of IMC, nor by the research informing the discipline. Rather, it appears to have evolved little from traditional promotion management units and is close in content and structure to many introductory advertising courses. This paper suggests several possible explanations for this, including: (1) a tacit rejection of IMC as a valid concept; (2) a lack of information about what IMC is and what it is not; and (3) a scarcity of teaching and learning materials that are clearly focused on key constructs and research issues of IMC.

Unhealthy food, integrated marketing communication and power: a critical analysis

Public health advocates have repeatedly highlighted parallels between food marketing and childhood obesity. Yet existing literature has not explored the connection between the promotion of unhealthy foods and beverages, certain characteristics of integrated marketing communication (IMC) and the power of multinational food and beverage companies. This is problematic because IMC represents the dominant marketing paradigm in use today. This article draws on critical theory and literature from across public health, marketing, business and related fields. By focusing on macro-level antecedents and interactions, this discussion highlights a previously unarticulated dimension of the promotion of unhealthy foods and beverages to children and adolescents. In doing so, this discussion aims to generate greater recognition of the broader environmental circumstances and processes that surround food marketing tactics and their consequences for public health nutrition. This perspective will also contribute to an expanded understanding of unhealthy food marketing and its unintended consequences, among an audience of nutrition, public health and policy communities.

Advertising : an integrated marketing communication perspective

This text provide the ideal student-centered introduction to the fast-changing field of integrated marketing communications. Technologies such as the convergence of the internet, mobile devices, and traditional channels are changing the way companies use marketing tools to communicate with their customers. The third edition of this market-leading text has been extensively revised to examine how cutting-edge developments are impacting the IMC program of marketers. All vignettes, cases and boxes showcasing specific examples of how companies and their communications agencies are using integrated marketing communications are new or updated. They provide engaging insights into the most current and popular campaigns being used by marketers and the key current trends and developments taking place in the advertising world.

Exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication frameworks: perspectives of services marketers

Purpose – At present no frameworks exist for services marketers to incorporate social media (SM) within marketing communications planning. The majority of integrated marketing communications (IMC) frameworks were developed prior to the development of the widespread use of digital and SM for information seeking, sales and service. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this issue for services marketers specifically as they differ from FMCG, industrial and durable marketers in terms of marketing messages, branding, media and channels. Furthermore, as they are less reliant on outsourced sale channels they have more potential than other industries to integrate social and digital media to build awareness, brands and sales.

Design/methodology/approach – Depth interviews were conducted with eight senior services marketing executives to identify the impact of SM on marketing communications planning, implementation and measurement.

Findings – The findings revealed that the unique characteristics of SM (such as interactivity and individualisation, integration of communication and distribution channels, immediacy and information collection) impact traditional marketing communications frameworks. These impacts manifested in 12 modifications specific to services and SM to traditional generic IMC frameworks encompassed by the themes of reach, service channel, word-of-mouth advocacy, consumer generated messages, listening and behavioural measurement.

Practical implications – The rapidly evolving nature of SM means senior services marketers need to educate organisational stakeholders regarding implementation issues, which may be a barrier to effective integration of SM within marketing communications.

Originality/value – With digital marketing communications budgets reaching 30 per cent within some organisations, it is timely to put forward a marketing communication decision-making framework that first incorporates SM and second is suitable for services marketers.

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) : where to from here?

IMC is one of the most controversial areas of marketing education during the past decade. While many definitions of TMC have been put forth, agreement on the discipline's constructs remains unresolved. The core of future legitimacy of IMC resides in the development of a stream of research that develop s theory and methods for evaluation of IMC effectiveness. This paper reviews more than a decade of research on IMC effectiveness, suggests where the field is heading. and identifies future directions for fMC research.

Same but different: perceptions of IMC amongst marketing communication partners in Australia

This paper examines whether two key partners in the marketing communication process, advertising and public relations’ practitioners perceive IMC in the same way. It compares perceptions across a wide range of implementation, organizational and strategic issues in IMC to test if perceptions have moved past Stage 1 of IMC development (Schultz and Kitchen 2000). Although both advertising and PR practitioners concur with each other and the literature on a wide range of perceptions of IMC, they still believe that advertising and public relations practitioners have dissimilar views about IMC. PR practitioners position themselves as a separate breed of marketing communicator, requiring divergent skills from advertising practitioners and thinking differently about IMC.

Strategic IMC : from abstract concept to marketing management tool

Although integrated marketing communication (IMC) has progressed towards midrange maturity level, its full-scale adoption has been impeded by a lack of consensus on its defining constructs. The purpose of this study is to move from abstraction to define the construct of strategic integration (SI) and develop this into a management tool, thus making an important contribution to both the theory and practice of IMC. Drawing from both IMC and strategic management literature, the construct of SI is operationalised into a number of key factors and a well-cited management model, Fuchs’ ‘integration valuator’ is explored as the starting point of a measurement tool for IMC. To do this, a Delphi study invites the scrutiny of an expert panel of world-leading IMC researchers and practitioners. The panel validated the model construction process,redefined overarching constructs and key factors with a high degree of consensus, supported a process measure, suggested a weighted evaluation measure and recognised the importance of developing such a measure. They delivered clear and consistent imperatives guiding model development. The result is a measure of SI that evaluates organisational proficiency and diagnoses the integration of IMC campaigns. It also advances theory by providing a better understanding of the construct of SI.

Integrated marketing communications

Organisations continually use integrated marketing communications to achieve a competitive advantage and meet their marketing objectives. This 4th edition of Integrated Marketing Communications emphasises digital and interactive marketing, the most dynamic and crucial components to a successful IMC campaign today. Incorporating the most up to date theories and practice, the text clearly explains and demonstrates how to best select and co-ordinate all of a brand’s marketing communications elements to effectively engage the target market. Chapters adopt an integrative approach to examine marketing communications from both a consumer’s and marketer’s perspective. A wide range of local and global examples include: Spotify, Pandora, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Woolworths, Nike, KFC, Victoria Bitter, Tigerair and Air New Zealand. Each new copy of the text also offers 12 month access to wealth of student on-line revision and learning tools: CourseMate Express + Search me! marketing. Unique to the text is a series of end of chapter local videos showing students how key objectives in IMC theory are applied by real businesses.

Product placement in integrated marketing communications strategy

Perinteisten markkinointiviestintäkanavien menettäessä jatkuvasti tehoaan mediakentän ja kohderyhmien sirpaloituessa yhä pienempiin yksiköihin markkinointiorganisaatiot etsivät vaihtoehtoisia tapoja tavoittaakseen kohdeyleisönsä. Yksi vaihtoehtoinen markkinointiviestintäkeino on tuotesijoittelu (product placement), jossa (merkki)tuotteita sijoitetaan erilaisten viihdetuotantojen, kuten elokuvien, televisio-ohjelmien ja tietokonepelien, tarinan yhteyteen, jotta yhä medialukutaitoisempi kohdeyleisö ei pystyisi välttämään kaupallista viestiä esimerkiksi vaihtamalla televisiokanavaa tai kääntämällä lehden sivua. Koska tuote on sijoitettu kerrottavan tarinan sisään, markkinointiviestin — eli tuotteen havaitsemisen — välttäminen on huomattavasti vaikeampaa kuin perinteisten markkinointiviestintämenetelmien kohdalla. Lisäksi, sijoitellut tuotteet ovat tavallisesti kiinteässä yhteydessä tarinan juonen ja henkilöhahmojen kanssa siten, että tuote saa näistä yhteyksistä positiivista vahvistusta imagolleen. Pro Gradu-tutkielman tarkoituksena oli selvittää tuotesijoittelun käyttökelpoisuutta markkinointiviestinnässä sekä miten kulutushyödykemarkkinoijat voivat hyödyntää menetelmää markkinointiviestintästrategioissaan. Tuotesijoittelun poikkeava luonne markkinointiviestintävälineenä tuotti kysymyksen miten tuotesijoittelua voitaisiin hyödyntää yhteistyössä muiden markkinointiviestintäkeinojen kanssa. Tätä varten tutkimuksessa tuotesijoittelu yhdistettiin integroidun markkinointiviestinnän (IMC) viitekehykseen. IMC-konsepti syntyi markkinointiviestinnässä vastaamaan samaan tarpeeseen kuin tuotesijoittelukin: pirstaloitunut mediakenttä ja yksittäiset kohderyhmät vaativat kehittyneempää ja yhtenäisempää markkinointiviestinnän suunnittelua ja toteutusta. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä tuotesijoittelu todettiin käyttökelpoiseksi markkinointiviestintäkeinoksi mikäli viestinnän tavoitteena on muu kuin tuotteen myyntiin suorasti vaikuttaminen. Tuotesijoittelu on sen sijaan erittäin tehokas tuotetietoisuuden lisäämisessä, erityisesti tunnistamisen kohdalla. Tuotesijoittelu voi myös tuottaa suoran ostotarpeen mutta tällöin viestin vastaanottajalla täytyy olla vallitseva tarve kyseisen tuoteryhmän osalta ennen altistumista ko. markkinointiviestille. Tuotesijoittelu voidaan sisällyttää IMC-suunnitteluprosessiin markkinointiviestintästrategian kiinteänä osana. Integraatio markkinointiviestinnässä siten, että tuotesijoittelua tuettaisiin muilla viestintäkeinoilla yhtenäisen kampanjan kehittämiseksi on kuitenkin paljon ennakoitua harvinaisempaa, johtuen ehkä eniten tuotesijoittelun poikkeuksellisesta luonteesta ja kyseisen viestintämuodon vaikeasta hallittavuudesta markkinoijan taholta. Tutkimus toteutettiin normatiivisena case-tutkimuksena pääasiassa sekundäärisiä tietolähteitä hyödyntäen. Case-tutkimuksia varten kerättiin primääristä tietoa kyselylomakkeella kahdesta tuotesijoittelua käyttävästä kansainvälisestä yhtiöstä, jonka lisäksi myös sekundäärisiä tietolähteitä hyödynnettiin case-osan tiedonkeruussa.

Integrated marketing communications measurement and evaluation

Marketing communications have historically been measured on a medium-by-medium basis. The new electronic communications systems are in danger of falling into the same trap. Yet consumers seem to use all these communications systems concurrently, simultaneously and one would assume, synergistically. If this is true, what are the challenges in measuring the impact and effect of these integrated communications systems? How should synergy between communications forms be considered and measured? For it is ultimately consumers, not managers, who integrate (marketing) communications. In response to these and other challenges, this article identifies five areas of integrated marketing communications (IMC) measurement worthy of future research. It then goes on to expand on each of the areas, noting some of the foundational work that has already taken place and signalling possible avenues for future research. In conclusion, it considers the theoretical implications of the research agenda and postulates how a broader view of theory could in fact assist scholars in tackling the research challenges as they currently stand.