"Integrated Marketing" embraced by Marketers but Internal Structures Limit Uptake - Marketing Charts
Though Key Challenges Remain
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) has been embraced by marketers, 74 percent of whom now employ IMC campaigns for most of their brands, according to a new Association of National Advertisers member survey fielded by CoActive Marketing Group.
However, significant challenges to achieving optimal IMC performance remain, with only one quarter of marketers giving their firm’s IMC efforts a “very good” or “excellent” rating.
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Beyond functional silos and strategic inconsistency, the survey also revealed the following barriers to IMC success:
- Insufficient marketing budget (36%)
- Lack of a standard measurement process (36%)
- Lack of needed skill sets among marketing staff (33%)
- Need to develop the “big creative idea” that can be leveraged across different media disciplines (32%)
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The survey revealed other opportunities to achieve greater marketing integration, such as improving internal stakeholder communications and incorporating specific IMC performance measures into employee performance reviews and agency evaluations.
Only 20 percent of respondents indicate they use internal marketing to stakeholders all or most of the time, and only two-fifths have specific performance measures incorporated into employee evaluations.
“Integrated marketing is more essential than ever, as power has shifted from the marketer to the consumer,” said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA. “However, marketers are still struggling with entrenched, parochial structures that inhibit these efforts from achieving their enormous promise.”
The ANA Integrated Marketing Conference on May 29, 2008 in New York City will address issues related to IMC.