Percy, L., 2014. Strategic integrated marketing communications. Routledge.

IMC is planning in a systematic way in order to determine the most effective and
consistent message for the target audience.
(quoting 4As)
A concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value o
f a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of commun
ication disciplines (e.g. general advertising, direct response, sales promotion,
and public relations) and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consis
tency, and maximum communication impact
Schultz, DE 1993 Integrated Marketing Communications: Maybe definition is in the
point of view, Marketing News, January 18,17
The goal of IMC is to influence or directly affect the behaviour of the selected
communications audience.
A strategic understanding of IMC must be based on a rigorous planning process th
at will identify appropriate target audiences, set specific communication object
ives for these target audiences, and develop marketing communication that will a
ccomplish those objectives in a consistent way, and find the best way of deliver
ing the message.
The brain will process the words and images the same way regardless of how it is
delivered. Sound is sound, words are words, and pictures are pictures to the br
ain, regardless of where the sense organs find them.
Strategic planning for IMC involves a five step process:
Step one: Identify and select the appropriate target audience
Step two: Determine how the target audience makes product or brand decisions
Step three: Establish how the brand will be positioned within its marketing comm
unication and select a benefit to support that position
Step four: Set communication objectives
Step five: Identify appropriate media options consistent with the communication
objectives to optimize message delivery and the processing of the message
Ang, L., 2014. Principles of Integrated Marketing Communications. Cambridge Univ
ersity Press.
IMC is defined as a research-based, audience-focused,result-driven,communication
planning process that aims to execute a brand communication program over time s
o that there is clarity and consistency in the positioning of the brand. This is
achieved by coordinating different communication disiciplines and integrating t
he creative content across different media.
IMC is only needed when there is complexity, which may come from having:
many communication disciplines (sales promotions, direct marketing, personal sel
ling, and so on
many brand contact points
more than one target audience
more than one message to be communicated
a range of creative content to be used
a target audience that habitually uses different media
different geographic areas to be targeted
the need for trade support

p.5
Each communication discipline also has its own strengths and weaknesses. This me
ans that when we aim to select disciplines that complement each other. In this w
ay, the strength of one discipline makes up for any weakness in another. For ins
tance, advertising is very effective in creating brand awareness but much less s
o in converting sales, while personal selling is the reverse
p.6
We can quickly see that the ability to combine these disciplines is only limited
by our imagination
One reason for aspiring media integration is to achieve a 'synergistic' effect.
Sometimes called the 'media multiplier' effect, it means that the combined effec
t of two media is greater than that of one medium in isolation. In other words,
the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, or colloquially, two plus two is
now five, not four.
Yeshin, T., 2012. Integrated marketing communications. Routledge.
The task of communication is to exchange information and convey meaning to other
s
p.14
The underlying requirement of integrated marketing communications (IMC) is to fo
rce all aspects of the communication programme to deliver a single-minded and un
ified message to the consumer. The imperative has become one of ensuring that ea
ch and every communications tactic serves to reinforce the work of the other par
ts of the communications programme.
Egan, J., 2007. Marketing communications. Cengage Learning EMEA.
Despite the seeming advantages integrated marketing communications (IMC) is not
fully accepted in academia nor fully adopted in the communications industry, lar
gely because of its supposed difficulty to implement. Indeed some authors would
question whether or not integrated marketing communications is even a new concep
t. They argue either that it is simply the basis under which organizations have
always wanted operate, but for a variety of reasons have been unable to operatio
nalize it, or that this is te traditional way that companies act anyway, but it
has just been reinvented as a concept.
Masterman, G. and Wood, E.H., 2006. Innovative marketing communications: Strateg
ies for the events industry. Routledge.
The difficult task of integrating the various aspects of marketing communication
s and of ensuring a consistent core message to all stakeholder groups can only b
e achieved through a well-planned communications campaign. The integration, cons
istency and complementarity needed to gain synergy and hence increased customer
value and competitive advantage will only happen if a systematic and well-define
d process is followed.
The ideal form of budget setting is 'objective-and-task'. This logical process
suggests that if objectives have been set that are desirable, realistic, and ach
ievable then the finances should be made available to enable those objectives to
be achieved. The budget negotiation process therefore takes placeonce the commu
nications plan has been determined, i.e. this is what we need to achieve, this i
s how it can be done and this is what it will cost.