IMC; Back to Communication

Integrated Marketing Communications, conceptualized by Don Schultz, focuses on the necessity of changing the way marketers interact with their customers. Marketing communications are revolutionized due to the arrival of information technology, which enables people to choose the brand they want to communicate with, on their own. This phenomenon goes by the name of 'shift of power'. The main fundamental problem is that companies still have not adapted their practices to this new scenario. The solution for this problem lies in IMC itself, implemented by theoretical input provided by various clusters of academic disciplines: communication science, sociology, social psychology and the theoretical frame of Grunig¿s work in public relations. The empirical part consists of interviews made with academics and marketers. This part, blended with the first one, provides a new approach to the customers, implemented with theoretical input on the one side and enriched by the empirical results on the other one. The results mainly show the need for a heightened sensitivity of companies for the actual needs of the customers.