410 The Marketing Book
the person or department must consider not
only the obvious items such as advertising,
point of sale and direct mail pieces, but
everything else which is prepared to support
the brand. This may include product leaflets
and other literature, presentations and audio-
visual material, sales training items, exhibition
stands, and so on.
A key area within the requirement of IMC
is the need for recommendations which are
without structural bias. Historically (and still to
a large degree), it was inevitable that agencies
promoted their own particular corners. Adver-
tising agencies would often present advertising
solutions, promotions companies would offer
sales promotion responses, and so on.
The move towards IMC has been hastened
by the desire for agencies to become more
accountable for their recommendations. Inher-
ently, agencies have to be confident, as far as it
is possible to be so, that the recommendations
they make are those most likely to achieve the
outcome desired by the client company.
To many writers on the topic, the central
part of the IMC process is the maintenance of
an effective database. Not only does this pro-
vide the opportunity to gain a greater under-
standing of existing customers, but from an
examination of their profiles (and using those
profiles to identify similar target groups) it is
possible to achieve a greater degree of precision
in all subsequent communications activity.
At the conceptual level, integration is
about capturing a single thought which expres-
ses what we wish the brand to stand for and of
ensuring that this thought is expressed, what-
ever the medium. At the process level, it is
about ensuring that the development and
implementation of communications live up to
that brand thought, and drive forward the
relationship between the brand and the
consumer.
As John Farrell, then Chief Executive of
DMB&B (now D’Arcy), said: ‘Unless there is
close involvement of senior client personnel
who truly have a full communications per-
spective, it’s simply unfair on the agencies
involved to expect them to drive the integration
process from the outside.’ Clients do not need
specialist implementation functions within
their businesses; rather, at a conceptual stage
there has to be a structure and attitude which
actively encourage the agency to recommend
the most appropriate media solution to solve
the particular problem.
Integration is not just about execution. It is
about the single brand thought that expresses
the essence of the brand personality and then
interpreting that thought for the appropriate
audience without changing or denigrating it.
Integration extends to the point where the
client and agency work together as a single
team. The total team across all communications
requirements is fully integrated with the cus-
tomer and brand requirements, and that is
what drives the focus of the team.
The position is summarized by the approa-
ches adopted by two different companies. After
Bisto’s annual marketing communications plan
has been developed, it is presented at a meeting
with all of the Bisto agencies represented. Paula
Ross, a group product manager at RHM, says
‘this creates a more open flow of information
with all of the agencies focusing on the key
objectives, not just their ideas. It motivates all
that take part and everybody has ownership in
the brand plan. And, most important, the
combined thinking of the team is better than
the parts.’ Similarly, Tetley implements the IMC
process by holding quarterly meetings when
marketing staff meet with its advertising
agency, PR consultancy and sales promotion
consultancy.Organizational approaches to integration
The way in which companies are organized into
different departments which reflect the various
functions of marketing communications is a key
cause of disintegrated communications where