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The Emergence of IMC:A Theoretical Perspective
Within a short period of just over a decade, IMC has swept around the world and become the accepted norm of businesses and apparently the agencies that service their needs. Here we critically consider IMC in terms of (1) development, (2) impact on Marketingcommunications, (3) barriers to further progress, and (4) current location identificationand likely development in the future. Evidently, IMC is here to stay. But there areproblems. Not least of these is the apparent reluctance of many businesses to adoptanything more than an inside-out approach to IMC—in other words, bundling promotionalmix elements together so they look and sound alike. But, IMC has to move beyondthis stage if it is to radically change the face of communications and marketing.
SOMETIMES, in a specific disciplinary area, it is
useful to pause and take stock of our currentlocation and the processes that have led to thislocation. Many years ago, Daniel Webster said:“. . . When the mariner has been tossed formany days in thick weather, and on an unknownsea, he naturally avails himself of thefirst pause in the storm, the earliest glance ofthe sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain howfar the elements have driven him from his truecourse. Let us imitate this prudence, and, beforewe float further on the waves of this
debate, refer to the point from which we departed,that we may at least be able toconjecturewhere we are now. I ask for a reading of
the resolution. . .” (cited in Packer, 1979, p. 307)Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) seemsto have passed through and still is passing through
a conjectural storm as to its meaning and purpose.Certainly, if its meaning simply amounts tobundling promotional mix elements together tocreate the “one-voice” phenomenon, then it is notsaying much that is new, relevant, or even interesting.
Yet, this was the starting point of IMC. Ithas progressed apparently beyond this stage aswe shall see in this article. Its ending point maywell be the emergence of “integrated marketing.”Yet, if integrated marketing is merely based onpromotional juxtaposition, if it is just an extensionof old-style marketing dressed in new clothes,
then this too will have its rhetorical day (seeKitchen, 2003), but will pass away. What IMCpromises, and what is really needed, is the emergence
of a new dynamic paradigm that will finallyfacilitate business movement to marketing
communications (and the related range of activities)that are clearly in customer and consumerinterests. Currently, IMC extends no more than a
promise of this.Thus, this article will explore the phenomenonof IMC from a theoretical perspective. Wedo this by
1. considering the IMC developmental process
2. evaluating how and in what ways IMC has
impacted upon marketing communications
3. providing a critical analysis of IMC
4. indicating the barriers to further development
of IMC
5. showing where IMC is now and providing arationale for its subsequent development ordemise
PHILIP J. KITCHEN
University of Hullp.j.kitchen@hull.ac.uk
JOANNE BRIGNELL
Hull University Business
School
jo_brignell@hotmail.com
TAO LI
Hull University Business
School
taoli@yahoo.com
GRAHAM SPICKETT
JONES
Hull University Business
School
g.s.spickett-jones@hull.
ac.uk
DOI: 10.1017/S0021849904040048 March 2004 JOURNAL OF advertising RESEARCH 19
Undoubtedly, IMC or some variant with
the idea of “integ