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Relevance of the concept of IMC and a recent definition

More and more companies are using an integrated marketing communication (IMC) approach to reach their target audiences.

These marketers still utilise traditional mass media advertising through television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and billboards to build awareness, communicate information, and build image for their brands. They use these off-line channels to build awareness and to influence online behavior, such as driving customers to visit their websites or Facebook page. Companies are adopting online strategies that provide detailed information to consumers, while at the same time employing the experiential, entertaining, and interactive aspects that the Internet provides compared to traditional media.

The advertising industry soon recognised that IMC was more than just a trend.

One of the first definitions of IMC as developed by a task force from the American Association of Advertising Agencies describes IMC as a concept of marketing communications planning that recognised the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines – for example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations – and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.

A decade of development may be insufficient to analyse competing paradigms concerning IMC.

Authors do not all agree if paradigms concerning IMC are new and if it is a theoretical concept or a management trend. What authors do agree on is that for successful execution of marketing communications, various disciplines must be brought together with high efficiency and high resonance meaning to stakeholder, customers, and consumers. This is to be done through advertising and PR - two of the major functions involved in IMC.

By focusing more on the strategic role of communication at both corporate level and...