24210 Chap.1 IMC Foundations: Planning and Evolution
IMC Foundations: Planning and Evolution
What IMC is
Lecture 1 defines integrated marketing communications as a planning concept that judges what advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, direct marketing and sponsorship should each contribute, then combines them for clarity, consistency and maximum impact.
How a plan is built
The planning model moves from reviewing the marketing plan and analysing the promotional situation, the communication process and the budget, to an integrated program with objectives for each tool, then implementation, monitoring and control.
How the idea grew
Four stages widened integration from one look and one voice in the 1980s to strategic, organisational and finally connected, stakeholder-centred integration, while digital channels added programmatic buying, data, targeting and interactivity along with fragmentation, measurement problems and fraud.
What this chapter covers
- 01
IMC as a planning concept
- 02
Six communication disciplines
- 03
The IMC planning model
- 04
Four stages of IMC
- 05
Digital disruption and AI
- 06
The #LikeAGirl checklist
Worked example · free
Place a library app launch on the IMC planning model
- 1Checking the council’s marketing plan is the first box, the review of the marketing plan.
- 1Deciding how much money is available is budget determination, the last analysis step before the program.
- 1Choosing a social ad, a poster and a demonstration develops the IMC program across advertising and personal selling, each with its own objective.
- 1Tracking downloads after launch belongs to the final stage, monitoring, evaluating and controlling the program.
Key terms
- Promotional Mix
- The set of communication tools a marketer combines in place of the wider marketing mix when planning IMC.
- Programmatic Advertising
- The automated buying and selling of advertising space, one of the digital opportunities Lecture 1 lists.
- Ad Fraud
- Waste of advertising spend through bots, ad stacking or URL masking, a measurement risk in digital channels.
IMC Foundations: Planning and Evolution FAQ
Which tools does IMC combine?
Lecture 1 lists six disciplines whose roles an IMC plan weighs: advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, direct marketing and sponsorship. The point is not to use all six but to give each tool a defined role so the combination delivers clarity, consistency and maximum communications impact.
What are the four stages of IMC?
One look, one voice in the 1980s, which was tactical; strategic integration in the 1990s, which took the customer’s view and measured outcomes; organisational integration in the 2000s, which spread across the whole firm; and connected inside and out from the 2010s, where stakeholder dialogue runs across all media.
How does the IMC process differ from the marketing process?
Both begin with a situation analysis and end with implementation, evaluation and control. In the IMC version the objectives cover communication as well as marketing, and the marketing mix step narrows to the promotional mix, which the planning model then expands tool by tool.
What did digital disruption change for IMC?
It opened programmatic buying, data capture from online activity, behavioural targeting and two-way interactivity. It also raised consumer expectations of influence, fragmented audiences across devices, made measurement complex and exposed budgets to fraud through bots, ad stacking and URL masking.
Why is the #LikeAGirl campaign used as an example?
The lecture credits five features: one unified message across channels, a multi-channel approach that repeated it, an emotional connection to a social issue, participation through the hashtag, and alignment with Always’ values of confidence and empowerment. Together they make a quick test for any integrated campaign.
How can AI support integrated communication?
The lecture expects AI to analyse large data sets for insight into behaviour and trends, create targeted content, and automate routine work such as email and social media management. That frees marketers for strategic and creative decisions, which still determine whether the messages work together.
How did the Manoli and Hodgkinson study classify IMC in practice?
The Week 1 supplementary reading studied English football clubs and found four approaches: strategic integration, a practitioners’ strategy paradox, an unintentional implementation paradox and IMC absence. The week page suggests reading them as stages, which gives you a ready scale for judging how far a real organisation has integrated.
Assessment move
Memorise the planning model in order and practise placing real activities into its boxes. For the four stages, learn one deciding feature each rather than the dates alone, then use them to judge how far your project brand’s integration reaches. Keep the #LikeAGirl checklist handy as a fast test of any campaign you analyse in tutorials.
Before your group’s situation analysis, place your project brand on both the four historical stages and the four implementation approaches, and note the evidence for each placement.
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