ABSTRACT
Having spent 20-plus years in various marketing positions with medium-sized companies and agencies prior to joining academe, I have been involved with IMC during my entire career-well before it was even termed IMC. Academic theory provided me with perspectives and paradigms for what I had done in industry. My academic positions and ultimately my membership on the accrediting council of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) has afforded me the opportunity to look at various advertising programs and review IMC’s role within them. And, as editor of the Journal of Advertising Education (JAE), devoted to research and commentary on instruction, curriculum, and leadership in advertising education, I was able to monitor the pedagogical research being done in the field. Started in the mid1990s, the Journal emerged within the IMC world. Note, however, that the IMC world, to a major extent, is still in its infancy: it is still developing and, consequently, changing. What started as “one sight, one sound” has advanced to strategic consistency. While IMC was first seen as a marketer interacting with a customer, the concept has broadened to all of management interacting with all stakeholders. The original turf war between public relations and advertising has morphed into a bigger issue of communications vs. management. Indeed, scholars are still searching for a universally accepted definition of IMC. As Chapter 32 by Moriarty and Schultz aptly states, “Communication is a complex system that involves new ways of thinking about messages, media, sources, receivers, targeting, and effectiveness measures that are all interrelated.” Advertising educators realize this, and, while a number of the articles in JAE encompass IMC, or integrated marketing communications, the impact of IMC theory tends to be more subtle than overt. True, there has been some, repeat some, good research done in the field; unfortunately, it has been done by a limited number of people. While a number of tactical articles have been written, few have centered on theory. That said, however, if one analyzes the content of current advertising research, one finds that IMC has forged important, even if subtle, influences on
the overall discipline. For instance, early advertising focused on the product. Discussions and research on IMC forced researchers and educators to start focusing on the customer, which meant there was less emphasis on persuasion per se, and far more prominence given to consumer insights and engagement. From a tactical and educational standpoint, it validated account planning and allowed it to be accepted as a valid discipline by educators. Today, even the traditional portfolio schools have integrated account planning into their initial creative-only curriculum. Indeed, the Miami Ad School offers a special “Boot Camp for Account Planners.” As a corollary to the above, marketing communications shifted from oneway to two-way, and ultimately to multi-way, interactions. The shift from product to consumer focus and behavior changed the way marketers looked at the communication process and opened the way for social media to be perceived as a communication tool. Part of the shift in IMC’s original “one sight, one sound” philosophy was the realization that there were multiple stakeholders in the success or failure of a brand, that these stakeholders tended to morph in and out of various roles, and that depending on which role they found themselves, they had different messaging needs. Thus, the concept of “one look, one voice” shifted to one of strategic consistency. Strategy became a substitute for integration. And, out of strategy and multiple stakeholders grew the realization that relationships needed to be built and maintained. Relationship marketing became a buzzword; and researchers looked at “how” this relationship could best be achieved so that loyalty-and referrals-developed. And, as the definition of IMC slowly moved away from sameness, researchers were at a loss to agree on a single definition. True, many use words that included terms like interactive, manages and monitors communication, multiple media, and integrated brand perception; but no one definition is used universally. And, while researchers are still searching for a common, acceptable definition of IMC, they are also stymied by a changing perception and definition of advertising. As Chapter 1 notes, it has become more and more difficult to define advertising as “a paid form of non-personal presentation for the promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.” Messaging has become much more! Indeed, IMC has made message delivery, and consequently media choice, far more important in the messaging process. In essence, acknowledging the consumer as the point of focus opened the way for publicity, promotions, word-ofmouth, direct and interactive marketing, and personal experiences to be deemed part of messaging. The medium has, indeed, become the message rather than solely the creative message. The best examples of this are the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition, which
dictates an IMC campaign; the Direct Marketing Education Foundation’s Echo competition, which is used in many advertising classes; and, indeed, JAE’s production of two special issues of the Journal in conjunction with the Direct Marketing Education Foundation. Accordingly, communication and its evaluation are now seen in a far more holistic way. Indeed, marketers are no longer satisfied with short-term measures of success (reach and frequency, awareness, trial, etc.) but look for longer-term measurements of brand success and value. The brand has become the focal point and all communications should be geared to enhance its value. Thus, all elements of a “long term communication plan become equally important in forming an integrated brand perception.” While much of the above has faded into “general advertising theory,” it is safe to say that the impetus for much of the current holistic view of advertising emanated from the discussions and research into IMC.
