Revisiting the IMC construct

A revised definition and four pillars

Jerry Kliatchko
University of Asia and the Pacific
BY:-Grp-II
Mohit , Aditya ,Nikhil , Ikshit , Parinit
 About the author
• vice president for Academic Affairs and
Corporate Communications AIM Manila
• He is also an Assistant Professor onIMC at the
School of Communication of UA&P
• Founded the graduate program in IMC in the
same university in 1997.
• He obtained his doctorate degree from the
University of Navarre in Spain in 2001.
Agenda
• Introduction
• IMC research from 1990 to 2006
• Revised IMC definition proposed
• Elements of the proposed 2008 IMC
definition
• Four pillars of IMC
• Interplay between the four levels and
four pillars of IMC
– Conclusion
 Introduction
• IMC conceptualisation as a formal field of study started in the late 1980s and early
1990s.
• IMC has evolved from a limited view of coordinating communication tools to a strategic
process (Madhavaram et al. 2005).
• Key Studies In IMC

• Swain (2004)
- definition, acceptance, leadership and measurement issues
• Jones et al. (2004)
-on an excellent discussion of the historical and theoretical . in
perspectives and development of the IMC concept
• Jerry Kliatchko (2005)
• -on the different points of view surrounding the articulation of the . . IMC
concept since its inception
 IMC research from 1990 to 2006
Research year Worked On
• Schultz and Schultz
(1998) • Definition of IMC based upon strategic
aspects of IMC rather than impact upon last
marketing and communication techniques
• Nowak & Phelps
1994; Phelps & • How total quality management processes
Johnson 1996
support integrated communications in
• Gronstedt 1996
organisations
• Challenges facing companies as regards
organisational issues in the implementation
of IMC
• Gronstedt & • Amount of time and attention devoted by
Thorson 1996;
Eppes 1998 marketing executives to IMC activities
 IMC research from 1990 to 2006
Research year Worked On
• McArthur & Griffin
1997 Schultz & • The extent to which major US ad agency
Kitchen 1997 executives practise and utilise IMC on behalf
of their clients
• Among practitioners in advertising agencies,
• Duncan & Everett some gave special focus to the impact of
1993; Beard 1997;
Schultz & Kitchen
IMC on client and agency relationships, and
1997; Gould et al. its effects on advertising processes
1999

• How IMC and PR may be integrated in actual

• Miller & Rose
1994; Moriarty practice, including certain disagreements on
1994; Kitchen & the issue, coming mainly from the public
Moss 1995;
relations sector
 IMC research from 1990 to 2006
Research year Worked On
• Grunig and Grunig
(1998), • who claim that most IMC adherents view
public relations with a biased and narrow
perspective

• Hutton (1996) • that adopting a more humanistic approach

to marketing relationships – that is, a
relationship based on trust, commitment
and shared values
• IMC programmes and its differences in
• Pickton & Hartley perspective from traditional ways of
1998; Schultz 1998 measuring advertising campaigns
IMC research from 1990 to 2006
special interest to scholars since 2000.
• IMC and internal marketing issues and corporate communications;
• IMC and branding, brand equity, identity and outcomes;
• IMC and media planning, media measurement and integration/synergy of multiple media.
IMC research from 1990 to 2006
 Revised IMC definition proposed
• This research paper builds on a previous work
of Author (2005)
• Author called the ‘three pillars of IMC ‘more
succinctly expresses the essence and inherent
distinctive elements of the IMC concept.
• This research of Author Differ from his 2005
reaserch
 The overall content of this paper also differs from the
2005 version in at least five more ways

1. It discusses the strategic management of IMC programmes

more clearly by suggesting that this takes place at two levels
in the organisation corporate and operational levels.
2. It highlights the ethical dimensions in viewing and upholding the dignity of
the human person behind the consumers or target markets or audiences
that IMC programmes address.
3. It explains channels planning more extensively by stressing the importance
of preference and relevance as major determinants in media planning.
4. It adds the dimension of wealth contribution to the discussion on
measuring results of IMC programmes.
5. It demonstrates the relationship between the four stages or levels ofIMC
by Schultz and Schultz and the four pillars of IMC by myself.
 Elements of the proposed 2008 IMC definition

• This new definition is made up of two main elements:

(1) IMC as an audience-driven business process and

(2) The four pillars of IMC.

 (1)Audience-driven business process: strategic
management
An essential
• Mass marketing and mass communication mindset of the past to one-to one
marketing approaches
• Transactional to relational models of marketing

• Product focus to consumer-focused business and marketing strategies

• Marketing to a broad, average consumer with similar traits to marketing on the

basis of behavioural differences of consumers

• Marketing on the basis of product features to providing customer solutions and

consumer benefits

• Focus on outputs of marketing communication activities to focusing on outcomes

• .
 (1)Audience-driven business process: strategic
management
An essential
• Emphasis on customer acquisition to customer retention
• Intuition/gut feel-based marketing to more fact-based marketing
• From the 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion) of marketing to the
4Cs(consumer, consumer costs, convenience, communication) of IMC
• Advertising monologue to consumer dialogue
• Mass, generic, unknown audiences to known prospects and consumers
• Mass, shotgun messages to targeted communications
• Traditional tri-media mindset to multiple, relevant, interactive, digital contact
• Points and media neutrality
• Bombarding audiences with advertising messages to building relationships
• Focus on USP (unique selling proposition) to EVP (extra value proposition)
• Attitudinally-based market research methods (e.g. brand recall, brand
awareness) to more behavioural and accountable measures
Explaining Further
(2)Four pillars of IMC
 First IMC pillar: stakeholders

• The term stakeholders refers to all the relevant publics or multiple markets
with which any given firm interacts.
- External audiences may refer to customers, consumers, prospects and other
entities outside the organisation, while internal audiences refer
to those within the organisation, such as employees, managers, and so on.
• Managing the external markets in IMC presupposes
- the entire process of developing an integrated brand communication programme
places the target market at the core of the business process so as to effectively
address their needs and wants and establish long-term and
profitable relationships with them.
• IMC planning process hinges on a deep understanding of the target aggregate, and
takes its point of view in analysing business issues surrounding the brand and its
competitive environment.
 First IMC pillar: stakeholders

• Building and developing positive relationships, not only with the firm’s
external markets but also with its internal audience.

• MC managers seek to be sensitive and responsive to their needs, wants,

aspirations and expectations, in order to more effectively provide solutions to
consumer problems, nourish positive total customer experiences with the brand,
deepen the customers’ relationships with the brand and the firm, and ultimately
create reciprocal value for them and the firm in the long term.

• Emphasises the need to see consumers in their totality as human beings,

whose dignity needs to be preserved and respected at all times.
 Second IMC pillar: content

• Understanding consumers beyond traditional marketing descriptors,

such as demographic and psychographic data, is essential
• consumers determine which media forms they want to get exposed to and the
amount of time they wish to devote to each medium. This implies that they also
select and determine which content they prefer to receive at their convenience.
• Most important of all, IMC managers must realise that it is consumers (not the
marketers) themselves who integrate in their minds all the messages or content
they receive from these multiple media forms to which they are exposed
• Controlled content must not only be relevant, and therefore connect with a
specific aggregate, but must also be creative, persuasive, respectful of the human
person’s dignity, and consistent.
• The dawn of user-generated content has also given rise to phenomenal digital
innovations such as personal or community blogs, vlogs, podcasts, wikis and the
much-celebrated success stories in trade publications in the last two years of
internet sites such as Google and YouTube.
Second IMC pillar: content
 Third IMC pillar: channel

• The integrated view provides a broader understanding of channels to

include not only traditional tools – radio, TV, print – but all other possible
contact points or touch points where customers or prospects experience a
brand and get in contact with it.
• By conducting a brand contact audit of consumers, as well as examining
the consumer’s ‘path to purchase’, marketers could determine which
contact points or channels are relevant to them and which they prefer as
sources of information about a company and its brands

• It may also be said that an understanding of how audiences are reached

through their preferred channels of communication is of greater
importance than what content is delivered to them, for if audiences are
not accurately reached, it makes little difference what message a marketer
conveys.
 Fourth IMC pillar: results

• Measuring results of marketing communications programmes against

set objectives has always been the norm for business organisations.
• The IMC approach measures behavioural responses (e.g. Actual purchases
made by customers and prospects) and outcomes (i.e. Financial returns in
terms of income flows from consumers)
• ROCI- (return-on customer-investments,) which are then verified and evaluated
at certain points over time, to track the effectiveness of IMC programmes.
• The financial approach to measuring the effectiveness of IMC programmes
provides better metrics in the management and allocation of a firm’s limited
resources.
• This measurement method ensures that IMC programmes are focused on
profitable aggregates or customers, and on marketing communication
channels that effectively reach them
Summing Up
Interplay between the four levels and four pillars of
IMC
 Conclusion
• The review of IMC literature discussed in this paper shows
that definitional and conceptual underpinnings surrounding
the IMC construct continue to be an important topic of
academic research even in recent years.
• This paper revisited the IMC definition that author proposed
in 2005, and introduced further refinements to it, resulting in
a revised definition.
• Author highlighted the key attributes or four pillars of the IMC
construct and demonstrated the dynamics involved in the
application of each pillar in implementing IMC programmes.
• The paper also examined the interconnection between the
pillars of the proposed IMC definition and the four levels of
IMC implementation introduced by Schultz and Schultz
(1998).