PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Planning and Implementation of Integrated Marketing Communications

[Name od the Institution]Abstract

Purpose - Purpose of this study is to investigate characteristics of integrated marketing communication (IMC) in online environment.

Design / methodology / approach - both secondary and primary data (face to face interviews with 29 managers or marketing communications companies in United Kingdom online retail) are analyzed to identify different meanings of integrated marketing communication online, opportunities and challenges of online communication, and structure of an efficient integrated online marketing communication.

Conclusions - transparency, interactivity and memory of strength of Internet of organization to be proactive-reactive in online communication, and combining consistency and continuity with flexibility and customization.

Research limitations / implications - number of interviews to collect primary data is relatively small, use of information given is general and unstructured, and results are applicable only to retailers in customer's product line.

Practical implications - messages sent by company to its online audience has to be transformed / adapted in the three-step process.

Originality / value - paper identifies specific opportunities and challenges posed by Internet for integrated marketing communication, and proposes an original model of adapting messages online to company's core values, strategy and tactics communication, target audience and / communications.

Planning and Implementation of Integrated Marketing Communications

Introduction

Emergence and development of integrated marketing communication (IMC) has been determined by the series of evolutionary trends in various areas of marketing - increasing fragmentation and market segmentation, relationship marketing and direct marketing (Durkin and Lawlor, 2001; Eagle and Kitchen, 2000) and information technology - developing new communication technologies and databases (Kitchen and Schultz, 1999; McGoon, 1999, McKim, 2002; Reich, 1998), and communication - increasing fragmentation of public media, multiplicity and saturation of media channels (Hackley and Kitchen, 1998; Smith, 2002). From this perspective, new paradigm of BMI can be represented as the strategic response to business and social conditions of postmodern society (Proctor and Kitchen, 2002).

Importance of Study

Despite recognized effects of Internet in integrated marketing communication, few studies have investigated specific needs and opportunities of IMC in online environment (Durkin and Lawlor, 2001; Reich, 1998), and relationship between BMI and customer relationship management (Grönroos, 2004, Johnson and Schultz, 2004; Schultz, 2003).

Study Purpose

This paper tries to investigate particulars of application of BMI in an online environment. Study starts from premise that specific characteristics of Internet are transforming application of IMC principles of an alternative to an absolute requirement (Schultz, 1996). Based on an analysis of specific characteristics of online environment and public, and primary data collected through face to face interviews with managers of 29 marketing and communication companies in UK retail consumption, meaning of integrated marketing communication in online environment as well as challenges and opportunities created by Internet to implement an online process IMC, identified and analyzed. Contrastive elements of integrated marketing communication online then synthesized into the theoretical model that can be adopted by business organizations active on Internet.

Literature Review

IMC approach has received almost instant recognition in late 1990's, as the result of existing trends to reduce budget ...