The growth of the concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) took place in the early 1990s, but within a span of a decade it has influenced the field of global marketing communications in a big way. Even the conventional form of the advertising agencies were not spared by the wave of IMC. This article talks about the various forms of IMC agencies which have come up, and their relative rewards and shortcomings.

More important, in communication systems the whole is generally greater than the sum of the parts. It is this increasing recognition of a holistic, systemic process of communication, in which there are all types of synergies, that will inevitably drive the acceptance and use of integrated marketing and communication programs.

Throughout the last decade, the proponents of the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) concept have tried to justify the need for IMC to tap the inherent synergies present in different forms of marketing communications. Though the concept of IMC has been criticized by the conventional theorists, it has been backed by theoretical as well as empirical research by eminent scholars such as Schultz (1993, 1996, et al. 2004), Cornelissen and Lock (2000), Cornelissen (2001), etc.

Quite unique to conventional marketing theories, the IMC concept was first popularized by the industry and later embraced by the academia. Though this concept was popularized in literature in the 1990s by scholars such as Schultz, its origin can be traced back to the 1970s in scholarly works by Cook (1973) and Kotler (1978). However, IMC as a discipline emerged only in the late 1990s and that too, as mentioned earlier, due to the need of the industry.

Advertising Express Magazine, Integrated Marketing Communications, IMC, Global Marketing Communications, Advertising Agencies, IMC Agencies, Communication Systems, Communication Programs, Conventional Marketing Theories, Mergers and Acquisitions, Autonomous Corporation Houses, Matrix Organizations.