Marketing Communications

8 CHAPTER 1 INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS

selling in most companies are traditionally managed by separate divisions that seldom

communicate with each other, let alone take account of each other’s priorities or integrate

their eff orts. Successful IMC rest on the existence of one communications manager who has

the authority to supervise and integrate all the specialised communications functions of the

organisation. Oft en this will imply a radical change in the structure of the organisation, and that

may be the most important reason why IMC have not been implemented in most companies.

Figure 1.1 The marketing mix and integrated marketing communications

Source : Hutton, J.H. (1996), ‘Integrated Marketing Communication and the Evolution of Marketing Thought’, Journal of Business

Research , 37, 155–62.

In a study of the perception of US motor carrier marketing managers, 192 respondents were asked to report

for which communications functions they used each of the marketing communications tools they employed. The

subjects framed five communications functions as the steps of the individual-level new product adoption model.

Sixteen marketing communications tools were mentioned. The map below was generated by means of correspond-

ence analysis on the basis of the number of times a communications tool was assigned to a specific communica-

tions function. It is a graphical representation of how appropriate the marketing managers perceive the role of each

tool in each stage of the new product adoption process. The horizontal axis of the map primarily represents the

various stages in the adoption process. All mass communications tools are clustered on the left-hand side of the

RESEARCH INSIGHT

Perception of IMC in the US motor carrier industry

M01_PELS3221_05_SE_C01.indd 8M01_PELS3221_05_SE_C01.indd 8 5/28/13 11:09 AM5/28/13 11:09 AM