Should communicators and marketers care about the difference between integrated marketing communication and integrated communication?
The answer on both these questions is an indubitable yes!
It is imperative to note that the focus in academic literature and industry is in recent times largely on integrated communication (IC) and not integrated marketing communication (IMC), which was the preferred term before the late 1990s. Integrated marketing communication is defined as the strategic coordination of all messages (internally and externally) to create dialogue between the customer and the organisation, which will attitudinally and behaviourally move the customer towards brand loyalty. After studying existing literature, there are indeed some fundamental differences between the concepts of integrated marketing communication and integrated communication (while it must be said that integrated communication is seen as the evolution of the concept of integrated marketing communication). Based on in-depth scrutiny of literature from approximately 1990, and the current body of knowledge on integrated communication and integrated marketing communication, the fundamental differences between these two concepts could be summarised according to five main ideas, namely:
a) Integrated marketing communication focuses predominantly on customers, where integrated communication proposes a more holistic perspective to include all stakeholders of the organisation, which Steyn and Puth (2000:198) define as “… groups of people are stakeholders when they are affected by decisions of an organisation or if their decisions affect the organisation”. Steyn and Puth (2000:198) further state that publics form when stakeholders recognise the consequences of an organisation’s behaviour as a problem and organise to do something about it. It is therefore necessary to understand that organisations are functioning in the stakeholder century. In the stakeholder century, organisations have to begin with, and focus very strictly on, the needs and wants of stakeholders (the so-called outside-in approach) in order to become a stakeholder-centric organisation. Furthermore, an integrated communication approach will lead the organisation to greater stakeholder centricity.
b) In the context of integrated marketing communication, the focus is on messages sent out by the organisation. In the context of integrated communication, the focus is on communication (implying a two-way, interactive process), therefore emphasising that all communication, and not merely messages, contributes to the brand of the organisation.
c) Integrated marketing communication focuses heavily on external messages, whereas integrated communication focuses on internal and external messages.
d) The most fundamental difference between integrated marketing communication and integrated communication is that with integrated marketing communication, the marketing or communication departmental strategy drives the messages of the organisation. In integrated communication, however, the strategic intent of the organisation as a whole drives all the communication of the organisation.
e) Integrated marketing communication contributes to the technical aspects of the organisation, whereas integrated communication is strategic in nature, contributing to the strategic thinking processes within the system of the organisation.Integrated communication could thus be seen as a broader view of integrated marketing communication, based on these five ideas derived from the analysis of the said literature. It should be emphasised that integrated communication follows on integrated marketing communication.
Integrated communication is therefore built on the premise that there must be interaction between the two forms of communication (internally and externally) in an ongoing, interactive, independent and synergistic manner. There should be no walls or barriers, despite their often different functions, between these types of communication, for both are ultimately strategically indispensable to drive business forward. As a whole, integrated communication is therefore not a new concept. It has evolved from the need to prepare organisations to succeed in the future business landscape. The focus is therefore on integrated communication and not on integrated marketing communication, with integrated communication viewed as an extension of the concept of integrated marketing communication. It is as a result reasoned that integrated communication is always integrated marketing communication but that integrated marketing communication is not always integrated communication.A shift consequently appeared in the concept of integrated marketing communication as well as the implementation thereof to a more broad-based strategic approach so that integrated communication is seen as an umbrella term for all strategic organisational communication. In this evolutionary period of the concept, it would appear as if much literature exists on integrated marketing communication and integrated communication. Many of these texts claim to be focusing on integrated marketing communication and integrated communication, but they are in truth merely traditional promotional approach texts, which cover promotional elements, but not true integration. In addition, most of these texts exclude various other integrated communication mix elements and some of the literature, advocating the idea of integrated communication, does not view integrated communication as an organisational process, but merely as the superficial integration of a message for a specific campaign.
