Topic > Integrated Marketing Communications - 1134

Market fragmentation and growing communications options in recent years have contributed to the disorder the world is experiencing today. This has led marketers to integrate their marketing communications tools to overcome the noise barrier and reach the target market, “marketing overload is forcing companies to shout even louder” (keller 2001). In 1993 Shultz, Tannenbaum and Lauterborn introduced a new concept called Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). This concept has attracted great interest among academics and practitioners, although research on its frequency and implementation is limited. IMCs have been defined in numerous ways, all emphasizing the fact that the job of IMC is to combine all corporate media and messages to project clarity, coherence and maximum communication impact to the surrounding environment. Percy (1997) defines integrated marketing communications as "the planning and execution of all types of selected advertising and promotion for a brand, service or company, in order to meet a common set of communications objectives or, more in particular, to support a single positioning”. Smith (1998) highlights the importance of “ensuring that the positioning, personality and brand message are synergistically conveyed through every element of communication and are delivered by a single coherent strategy.