Introduction: The evolution of IMC: IMC in a customer-driven marketplace

Abstract

One of the advantages of career longevity is the ability to see and experience change. In the academic area, the changes are not immediately obvious or radical. In marketing communications, we’ve seen the development of new models of learning, the globalization of higher education, increased emphasis on research, the call for measurement of marketing productivity and the resulting emphasis on marketing metrics. Many of these changes have been profound. They have changed what we in the academic community think and theorize, as well as what practitioners do, forever. Certainly, earlier periods in marketing, which we often refer to as “the good olddays” do set the stage for the present and the future. But, that only happens for those who accurately read the environment and assess the impact of how we think about and practice marketing, and, especially marketing communications. During the past 50 years, many marketing management concepts and frameworkshave emerged. For example, the ‘4Ps’ (product, price, place and promotion), the product life cycle, buyer behavior models, positioning, supply chains and a host of others. These frameworks often help shape the way we think about marketing, stimulate research questions, influence what is taught, and typically guide (and sometimes proscribe) marketing practice. Some of these frameworks influence marketing practice for a long time. Others are more short-lived, being replaced by new observations, innovations and practices. This new book is focused on the development, maturation and future of one of thesemanagerial frameworks - integrated marketing communications (IMC). At this point, there is little doubt that IMC has become one of the most influential marketing management frameworks of our time. Today, IMC is the subject of professional works and textbooks; trade and academic conferences; higher education curricula; academic journals and industry magazines; and the actual practice of IMC in the marketplace. Along with this research and learning, there has been an on-going, lively discussionabout how to shorten the gap between what is happening with IMC and what should happen. For example, how did the IMC evolution occur? What are the primary drivers? What changes have resulted? And, where do we go from here? All these areas and more, make up the on-going discussion of IMC. And, that is what this text is all about.The world, consumers, communications systems and the study of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) have all changed dramatically in the last dozen years. WhenDon E. Schultz, Charles H. Patti and Philip J. Kitchen