Just doing it: theorising integrated marketing communications (IMC) practices

Abstract

European Journal of Marketing1 Abstract Purpose While Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a well-known concept in academia, there is insufficient theorisation on what it means 'to do' IMC in practice. Despite broad acceptance for IMC, there has been scant application of available organisational and sociological theories to illuminate actual IMC practices in the field. Drawing from the 'Practice Turn' in management studies, this paper elaborates on the concept of 'IMC practice' and provides an empirical exposition of how integration is enacted in the lifeworlds of marketing practitioners. Design/Methodology/ApproachThe paper introduces Practice Theory as a lens through which to study IMC practices. Using qualitative coding and interpretative analysis, the framework was operationalised in the context of a two-year organisational ethnography encompassing IMC planning and implementation activities at a leading Swedish retailer. Findings Findings demonstrate how practitioners develop explicit and implicit strategies to enact strategic integration.The study conceptualises IMC as set of interrelated practices, or routinised behaviours, which are repeated and organised by social/formal rules and conventions. In the ethnographic context of the study, 'IMC as practice' is exhibited in the forms of (1) routines, (2) material set-ups, (3) rules and procedures, (4) cultural templates, and (5) teleoaffective structures. Originality/valueThe paper proposes a novel set of theoretical and methodological tools that can be used to understand how IMC lives as a set of practices inside organisations. It specifically conceptualises the link between mental and objectified, materialised and routinised activities that has previously been escaping the sphere of theorisation. By creating language and tools to capture hitherto unmodellable phenomena, the paper opens many new avenues for future research.

The Role of Integrated Marketing Communications in Increasing the Efficiency of Internet-based Marketing among Jordanian Consumers

“…Also, the results of the study rhymed within the results of Ots & Nyilasy (2017) who argued that IMC can be activated mostly through the communication medium of the social media in which the organization can have a direct communication line with the customers in order to guarantee the retention of the current customers and the attracting of the potential customers.…”

Control, Knowledge, and Persuasive Power in Advertising Creativity: An Ethnographic Practice Theory Approach

“…Our study responds to calls for more exploratory research in advertising (Belk 2017;Goulding 2017;Faber 2015), contributes a new, deep ethnographic perspective to the practiceturn in advertising (Ots and Nyilasy 2017) and contributes to the practice-turn in management studies more broadly (Schatzki 1996(Schatzki , 2002(Schatzki , 2012Skålén and Hackley 2011). Following Schatzki (2002) and Ots and Nyilasy (2017) the study found that each of the three sets of social practices deployed routines, material set-ups, rules and procedural knowledge, cultural templates and teleoaffective structures in different ways. The five elements of practices that Ots and Nyilasy (2017) found around the IMC process were broadly supported in the study, although the specific manifestations were different.…”

“…Following Schatzki (2002) and Ots and Nyilasy (2017) the study found that each of the three sets of social practices deployed routines, material set-ups, rules and procedural knowledge, cultural templates and teleoaffective structures in different ways. The five elements of practices that Ots and Nyilasy (2017) found around the IMC process were broadly supported in the study, although the specific manifestations were different. For example, routines were evident where experienced practitioners referred to the Persuasive Power they had learned to wield, for example where the agency presented three creative pathways to clients, where they 'made clients tired' by presenting huge volumes of finished work, by the selectively presented use of statistical research data, and where 'Becky' deployed the team support approach.…”

“…Within marketing communications, Ots and Nyilasy (2017) have adapted practice theory to generate insights into the social practices of IMC, and they highlight five key elements of practices around the creation of IMC campaigns: 1) Routines, the recurring activities of practitioners that are tacitly assumed to be appropriate in particular situations. 2) Material set-ups, the physical environment and technological aids (such as PowerPoint presentations or storyboards) used in given situations, such as pitching.…”

The implementation of integrated marketing communication (IMC): evidence from professional football clubs in England

“…For example, Schultz et al's (2014, p. 455) aspirational claim that 'IMC can be recast as the base for rethinking and replacing traditional marketing theory' is in stark contrast to Cornelissen's (2001Cornelissen's ( , 2003 and Ots and Nyilasy' (2017) criticisms that IMC is falsely presented as a panacea for marketing and lacks rigorous theorisation. Though the marketing literature continues to stress the need for further study to empirically unpack the organisational role of IMC, IMC implementation remains under researched.…”