Integrated Marketing Communication

Abstract

AbstractThe role of marketing communications in advanced economies can hardly be underestimated. The sheer volume of media communications alone is staggering, and its effects are continuous. The aim of this article is to extensively review the literature of the provoking concept – Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). Secondly, it elaborates on issues related to implementation of IMC from both an agency and a client perspective.A period of this transformation is evident here, documenting the movement by companies and agencies from an emphasis on stand‐alone traditional elements of communication – such as advertising for example, to where all elements of communication or promotion areintegrated. Such integration is driven by technological advancement, media fragmentation, market demassification, and competitive pressures. The recency of the phenomenon and its widespread global adoption is remarkable and stems from changing practitioner activities in the late 1980s to its current global status. The development process and the effects of such integration are discussed here.