RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Why Does It Fail?
JF Journal of Advertising Research
JO J Advert Res
FD WARC
SP 132
OP 145
DO 10.2501/JAR-55-2-132-145
VO 55
IS 2
A1 Mart Ots
A1 Gergely Nyilasy
YR 2015
UL http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/55/2/132.abstract
AB Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is accepted widely as a multi-stakeholder strategic business process for brand communications. Yet, much less is known about the failures of its practical implementation. The current research provides a novel explanation for such failures. A two-year ethnographic study was conducted with a large Swedish retailer and its IMC partners. The objectives were to reveal potentially divergent managerial mental models and to understand the consequences of such divergence on IMC implementation. The authors' findings uncovered four basic mental models, which, in turn, revealed four aspects of IMC implementation dysfunction: miscommunication, compartmentalization, loss of trust, and decontextualization.