Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) was a breakthrough concept when Don Schultz introduced it to marketers in the 1980s. But IMC, which is even more important today as the “marketing mix” has expanded to include many nontraditional activities, has had trouble moving from concept to practical application.

In this exploratory study of integrated marketing communications (IMC), we bring together relational and transactional data, and sales and marketing views, to investigate whether firms can enhance their position in the market in terms of both marketing-oriented and sales-based performance benchmarks. This article examines, in a business-to-business services context, the relationships between collecting various types of customer transaction and relational data, customer data quality, and two types of business unit performance. The first type of performance is a more traditional sales-oriented metric of sales-oriented business growth, growth in sales, and net income. The second type is a less traditional marketing-oriented metric, called marketing-oriented customer performance, a summed measure of retention rate, share of wallet, lifetime customer value, and return on investment (ROI). An extensive review of different types of transaction and relational data produced two different categories of transaction and relationship information.

Within a short period of just over a decade, IMC has swept around the world and become the accepted norm of businesses and apparently the agencies that service their needs. Here we critically consider IMC in terms of (1) development, (2) impact on marketing communications, (3) barriers to further progress, and (4) current location identification and likely development in the future. Evidently, IMC is here to stay. But there are problems. Not least of these is the apparent reluctance of many businesses to adopt anything more than an inside-out approach to IMC—in other words, bundling promotional mix elements together so they look and sound alike. But, IMC has to move beyond this stage if it is to radically change the face of communications and marketing.

Once again a “paradigm shift” is about to occur, leaving an accepted and acknowledged academic and social frame of standardization, simplification, and specialization totally perplexed. In the field of advertising, the paradigm change is coming from an offspring called Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). And, nowhere is that more evident than in the non-English-speaking countries where the primary focus on mass advertising and mass communication is giving way to more integrated forms of communication, including such areas as sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, events, and the like.

During the last decade, a series of studies have been conducted, either on a country level or sometimes among several nation states investigating the development, diffusion, and acceptance of IMC. In many of those studies, the comparison has been in the development and diffusion of the concept among traditional advertising agencies and/or advertiser companies. Thus, the most recent research on IMC has been mainly focused on its perception by clients and their advertising agencies (1991 and 1993 in United States; 1995 in the United Kingdom; 1998 in New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and India; 1999 to the present in many research studies). In some of those studies, scholars have argued that IMC is nothing new, it is simply a reiteration of what marketing and communication organizations have always done. In others, research has shown that IMC is indeed a new paradigm and can be quite successfully deployed by all types of firms in the new millennium.

The literature on integrated marketing communication (IMC) in the decade since its introduction offers evidence that debates over the definition, acceptance, leadership, and measurement of IMC remain unresolved. A survey was conducted to investigate leadership preferences and perceptions of appropriate methods of measurement and agency compensation in planning and implementing IMC. The survey was conducted by internet among samples of six professional groups with ties to marketing communication: advertising agency executives, public relations agency executives, corporate marketing executives, corporate public relations executives, advertising and marketing academics, and public relations academics. The survey revealed some clustering of leadership preferences but little movement toward marketing communication measurement and agency compensation methods consistent with models of IMC as a developing paradigm.

As evidenced in this issue, IMC remains a controversial theoretical concept in terms of generalizing what it is and what it does. However, if IMC is viewed from a different paradigmatic perspective on theory, namely that of poststructuralism, then we might consider it as a set of contingently framed practices and discourses where localized, particular practitioner interpretations are just as important as general theoretic ones. When viewed this way, IMC emerges as a powerful tool that guides practitioners in developing and implementing marketing communications programs even if they apply it in disparate ways according to their own specific understandings and circumstances.

The intelligence, measurement, knowledge, models, and desktop “best practice” tools discussed in this article are the types of “products” being developed by the 21st-century business researchers who are determined to add quantifiable value to the business enterprise—and the fact-based support being used by the brand and agency teams that are determined to win in the marketplace, quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year. By accounting for, improving, and achieving a return on advertising investments consistent with quarterly business objectives, what is traditionally viewed as a “cost of doing business” can be transformed to “wise investments in the business.”

Preparing a media plan aimed at opinion leaders requires accurately identifying and describing the attributes of this target as well as measuring its affinities with different media. Our research findings on women's fashion, particularly magazines, reveal that a media plan targeted at opinion leaders can succeed, that these opinion leaders tend to be positive toward and discuss advertising media, and that they read more women's fashion magazines and have significantly more affinities with such media than nonopinion leaders.

Teenagers currently spend an estimated $153 billion a year on everything from computers to cars to clothes (Brand, 2000). Trend conscious teens are very active in utilizing the media and advertising in seeking out the latest products, services, and fashions (Zollo, 1995). A greater understanding of teens' role model influences can help organizations and their advertising agencies more effectively target and communicate to this growing market. In this study, we examine the effect of athlete role models on teenagers' purchase intentions and behaviors. Results from a survey of 218 adolescents are discussed with implications and future research directions for advertising and sports marketing researchers.

Split book yellow page tests randomly distribute different versions of the test advertisement in the same market at the same point in time allowing direct assessment of the customer pulling power of different sizes or types of yellow pages advertisements. Using the results from 78 split book tests, we find that including trademarks in small in-column yellow page advertisements can have a very strong influence on call rates. Partially confirming previous work, we also find that larger advertisements do generate more calls than smaller advertisements. However, the increase in call rates is not a straight line relationship.

This study measured to what extent consumers used the internet to displace or reinforce the use of other media as sources of advertising information. The sample was 2,032 households from 5,031 households randomly selected from a midwestern state. The results showed that although internet advertising provided many unique features, it has not displaced most media as sources of advertising information. Many consumers found that internet advertising was a complementary medium based on their favorable attitudes or frequent use of other media advertising. The research also indicated that the reinforcement effects will be likely more evident for the future use of internet advertising associated with the use of billboards, direct mail, magazines, and television. However, the displacement effects may continue to occur for the future use of internet advertising associated with the future use of free community papers and weekly paid papers as advertising sources.

Super Bowl advertising receives considerable media attention each year, in part, because of the large TV audience the event attracts. Since 2000, advertisers have spent an average of over $2 million to run 30-second advertisements in these games. The question is often asked: “Are these ads worth it?” This study examines Super Bowl advertising effectiveness from the Hollywood movie industry's perspective. Results indicate that the average Super Bowl promoted film achieved twice as much first weekend, first week, and total U.S. box office revenue than its average non-Super Bowl promoted movie counterpart for the years 1998–2001. When all movies with production budgets of $35 million or more and U.S. release dates within 7 months of the 1998–2001 Super Bowls were considered, Super Bowl promoted movies grossed nearly 40 percent more than non-Super Bowl promoted movies. Conclusions are drawn and future research directions are outlined.