Part 1

Literature review
Background
To have a better understanding about the conceptualisation of IMC (Integrated
Marketing communication), it is vital traced back the history development of
IMC which is emerge in the late 80’s continuously widespread that caught the
attention and interest of the academics and practitioners.
Definition of IMC
Percy (2008) claims that the earliest definition of IMC was from a American
Association of Advertising Agency (4A’s) which defines it is the concept of
marketing communication planning that added value into a master plan to
evaluate the strategic role through variety combination of marketing
communication tool to provide clarity,consistency and maximum
communication impact. From then on, different voice from several author
(Duncan and Caywood 1996, Schultz and Schultz 1998) started to redefined the
concept based on their different point of view. Although the definition of IMC
still remain vague and uncertain in order to solidified the theoretical foundation
of the concept Kliatchko (2005) criticises that the issue of definition should be
continue debated by the academic and practitioner in the industry. Kliatchko
(2008) provides a new definition towards customer-centric approach of by
stating that “ IMC is an audience-driven business process of strategically
managing stakeholders,content, channels, and results of brand communication
programs.” Several year later, Kitchen and Del Barrio-Garcia (2012) considered
“IMC as the process through where the company plan and optimize the
messages conveyed to communicate with coherence and transparency and create
and maintain profitable relationships on short,medium and long term with the
customer.”
Evolution of IMC
The differences of IMC from the earlier marketing communication was
practised with the one-way feed approach where the marketer using the
communication tools (advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal
selling and public relation) to promote the product of service based of the
concept of “one sight ,one sound” (Schultz,2010). However, the limitation of
using one way communication is often lack of interaction or feedback and this
have make the marketer faced with the difficulty to obtain their audience needs
and reaction ​(Fielding , 2006). The IMC today is unlike the past.According to
Pickton and Broderick (2001), marketing communications tools that were
traditionally separated and specialised in “above the line” and “below-the-line”
activities, should be now integrated under the IMC concept.IMC is performed in
a manner of synergy rather than in isolation (Kitchen, Philip, Schultz, Don,
2003). Schultz and Schultz (1998) argued that marketing and marketing
communications are in transition because of the technological advances.The
unique capabilities of advanced technology to provide two-way communication
programs, personalized, one-to-one, and database-driven enabling companies to
move towards integrated marketing communication model (Kim et al., 2004).

The uses of IMC

The integrated marketing communications(IMC) approach is an appropriate
response to this need, as it adopts the holistic view of marketing
communications in order to deliver a consistent message and achieve major
impact through the integration of all elements of promotional mix (Keller,
2009).Duncan (2002) defines the function of IMC as “ a cross-functional
process for creating and nourishing profitable relationships with customers and
other stakeholders by strategically controlling or influencing all messages sent
to these groups and encouraging data-driven, purposeful dialogue with them.”
Therefore, Keller (2016) claims that to reflect brand positioning an ideal IMC
program would ensure the marketer chosen different types of communication
option to convey information, elicit emotion that create effect impact on
customer buying decision to reinforce and creating the desired consumer
knowledge so that it can develop a cohesive brand image and achieve their
communication objective.
Advantage & disadvantage
The advantages for the organisation implements IMC with an effective media
plan aid to increase brand awareness with the purpose of to reach and have a
maximum impact among relevance desired target audience.(Kitchen et
al,2004)Moreover, IMC brings the benefit for organisation to create competitive
advantage,increase company sale growth and boots up the profit as
well.(Keller,2016) A research conducted by Luxton, Reid and Mavondo (2014)
shows the significant capability of IMC which has a direct and positive impact
on a brand’s market based and financial performance.However according to Fill
(2006) outline the downside of IMC it is time consuming as required increased
management time seeking agreement from all parties which involved.
Moreover, Egan (2007) highlighted the point that the development of IMC was
not fully accepted in academia nor fully adopted in the industry is because of its
difficulty to implement.
The measurement issues
The issue regarding the measurability of IMC several authors have been
doubted over the year the lack of valid and reliable scales which needed a
further research developing the new measurement tools to assess IMC.
(​Swerling ​et al​., 2014​; Zahay ​et al.​, 2014​) However, Reinold & Tropp (2012) in
his recent work done proves an empirical work from different background and
countries of organisation using tools and provides model to measure the
effectiveness of Imc.
Barriers for the implementation of the IMC concept
Due to the culture different and value system in an organisation which act as
“functional silos” it is the barrier for managing and coordinate the internal
management to integrated and applied this concept. (Hackley, 2005) Another
reason is the unwillingness for each of the manager to adopt and collaborate
with others department to protect their own budget and also power base.(Smith
and Taylor, 2004)
Conclusion
As a conclusion, IMC was still being describe as “ a developing and evolving
field” ​(Schultz ​et al.​, 2014, p. 459). The researcher is hoping that other scholar
able continue undergo further in-depth research to develop a more
comprehensive view of IMC that provide a widely agreed upon the definition
and fill the gap between academic and professional perspective. ​(Kliatchko and
Schultz, 2014​).
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