Change, continuity and progress: the concept of integrated marketing communications and marketing communications practice

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is the most recent in a long line of innovative marketing concepts widely endorsed by marketing and advertising academics and practitioners along the whole spectrum of industry and commerce in the Western hemisphere. Despite its continuing appeal, however, little is known about the actual embodiment of IMC within contemporary marketing communications practice. The article therefore reviews the extant literature and research studies with the purpose of drawing out whether IMC can indeed be seen to define the ways in which marketing communications is currently practiced and can thus be considered as a valid theory of contemporary marketing communications management.