[Integrated Communications]
The idea of integrated communications emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s and has, after a somewhat slow beginning, started to catch on in the last two years. Of course, the concepts have changed a lot since then. The early arguments in favour of integration were usually made by advertisers who were desperately trying to find ways to regain diminishing accounts. The beginning fragmentation of the media, more intense competition and changed consumer behaviour had led many corporations to look for new ways to spend their communications budgets. Advertising agencies who up to then had been able to reap in quite a share of these budgets were suddenly faced with smaller accounts as companies shifted their budgets to competitors or reduced the amount of money they were willing to spend on communication.
Not surprisingly, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) was the first professional association to present a definition of integrated marketing communications (IMC) :
"[IMC is a] concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines - general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations - and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact." (Caywood, Schultz & Wang 1991, pp. 2-3)
Although this definition only includes marketing communications, it nonetheless contains the central idea of integration, i.e. planning a communications programme in such a way that the various elements support and re-enforce each other.
Nonetheless, this early definition left a lot to be desired. One area of criticism was the limitation to marketing communications. Integrating just the marketing communications aspect of managed communication without paying any attention to the corporate and internal aspects goes against the very idea of integration as we understand it today. What good does it do to integrate the marketing communications if they are inconsistent with the corporate and internal communications?
Furthermore, this distinction between the various functions of managed communication perpetuates the traditional separation between them; a separation that does not make sense. If we were to follow this separation strictly in the reality of corporate life, we would end up with structurally separate functional silos, each with its own set of tools, goals and objectives. There might be some degree of co-ordination between these functions, but each would essentially "do its own thing".
More importantly, no function would be able to use tools "assigned" to the others. The public relations department, for instance, would not be able to run a direct mail campaign, as this tool is one of direct marketing and not public relations. Neither would advertising have access to journalists who might be an interesting stakeholder group for their efforts, as these journalists would be considered within public relations' area of responsibility.
This is, admittedly, an over-dramatisation, but it illustrates the basic problem created by the separation of the strategic business function of managed communications into several functions such as public relations, advertising or direct marketing.
Let us return to the definition of integrated marketing communications by the AAAA. Another aspect for which this definition received a good deal of criticism was its over-emphasis on messages and consistency thereof. Taken to extremes this would mean reducing all forms of communication to a single, simple message, which would leave an organisation no room to manoeuvre or react to new and unexpected situations.
Despite these weaknesses, this definition was, nonetheless, a good starting point for the discussion of integrated communications and for the development of integrated management models. The majority of these models originated in the United States, documenting the leading role this country plays in the field of managed communications. The two leading institutions are Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, and the University of Colorado at Boulder, each of which offer a graduate programme in integrated communications and have greatly contributed to the advancement of integrated communications.
Gronstedt (1996) summed up the advantages of integration by arguing that "the theory of integrated communications recognizes that organizational communication is too complex and interactive to be fractionalized into insular disciplines. This interdisciplinary theory inserts the various communication disciplines into a holistic perspective, drawing from the concepts, methodologies, crafts, experiences, and artistries of marketing communications and public relations. Specialists in certain communicative tools will still be in demand, but instead of being solo performers, they will find themselves being instrumentalists in an orchestra, under the conductorship of the integrated communicator." (pp. 302-303)
Selected Definitions
Note that the various authors use different terms such as "integrated communications", "integrated marketing communications" or "integrated marketing" to refer to the same basic idea.
"It's a new way of looking at the whole, where once we only saw parts such as advertising, public relations, sales promotion, purchasing, employee communications, and so forth. It's realigning communications to look at it the way the customer sees it - as a flow of information from indistinguishable sources ... Integrated marketing communications means talking to people who buy or don't buy based on what they see, hear, feel, etc. - and not just about your product or service. It means eliciting a response, not just conducting a monologue." (Schultz, Lauterborn and Tannenbaum 1993, p. xvii)
"The aim of integrated corporate communication is to plan and use all communication instruments and tools together in a way that a unity for total communication is found." (Bruhn 1995, p. 61)
"Integrated communications uses an appropriate combination of sending, receiving, and interactive tools drawn from a wide range of communication disciplines to create and maintain mutually beneficial relations between the organization and its key stakeholders, including the customers." (Gronstedt 1996, p. 292)
"Public relations is the profitable integration of an organization's new and continuing relationships with stakeholders including customers by managing all communications contacts with the organization that create and protect the brand and reputation of the organization." (Caywood 1997, p. xi)
"Integrated marketing is a cross-functional process for managing profitable brand relationships by bringing people and corporate learning together in order to maintain strategic consistency in brand communications, facilitate purposeful dialogue with customers and other stakeholders, and market a corporate mission that increases brand trust." (Duncan & Moriarty 1997, p. 9)
Literature
Bruhn, Manfred (1995). Integrierte Unternehmenskommunikation. Ansatzpunkte für eine strategische und operative Umsetzung integrierter Kommunikationsarbeit. Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poschel
Caywood, Clarke L. (1997). Twenty-First Century Public Relations. The Strategic Stages of Integrated Communications. In Caywood, Clarke (ed.). The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations & Integrated Communications (pp. xi-xxvi). New York et al.: McGraw-Hill
Caywood, Clarke L., Schultz, Don E., & Wang, Paul (1991). Integrated marketing communications. A survey of national consumer goods advertisers. Unpublished Study sponsored by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers
Gronstedt, Anders (1996). Integrating marketing communication and public relations: A stakeholder relations model. In Esther Thorson & Jeri Moore (eds.). Integrated communication. Synergy of persuasive voices (pp. 287-304). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Zerfaß, Ansgar (1996). Unternehmensführung und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit: Grundlegung einer Theorie der Unternehmenskommunikation und Public Relations. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag
Additional Reading