Integrated
Marketing Communication (IMC) has been defined by
the American Association of Advertising Agencies as
a concept of marketing communications planning, that
recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan
and that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety
of communication disciplinesadvertising, direct marketing,
sales promotion, and public relationsand combines
these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency,
and maximum communication impact. Don Schultz (1997)
of Northwestern University, brought a new perspective
to IMC with the introduction of consumer in his definition.
He defined IMC as the process of managing all sources
of information about a product/service to which a
customer or prospect is exposed and which behaviorally
moves the consumer toward a sale and maintains customer
loyalty. Similarly, Duncan and Caywood (1996) defined
IMC as the process of strategically controlling or
influencing all messages and encouraging purposeful
dialogs to create and nourish profitable relationships
with customers and other stakeholders. It is evident
from the above definitions that IMC as a concept has
been evolving over a period of time and is still susceptible
to change. There is yet no IMC theory developed in
literature.
The
author further finds that most of IMC studies have
concentrated on application of IMC, tools and tactics,
and have not focused much on building a theory on
IM
C. So far literature and practice regarding IMC
has been about ensuring that all marketing communication
messages have the same objectivethey look similar
and they say the same things. The raison d'être
for IMC in organizations was one of strengthening
relationships that build brands and increasing brand
equity. IMC essentially addressed message clutter
and brand proliferation. |
