Barriers to the implementation of Integrated Marketing Communications: the client perspective

Discussions on Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) in the academic and practitioner journals are gradually changing from examining definitions and justifications to sharing good practice, with an acceptance that IMC is the only way forward in the multi-platform digital environment in which we now need to operate. Despite this growth in confidence, agencies report that the initiative in implementing IMC has to come from the client and barriers such as lack of understanding and organisational structures are preventing this from happening. But what do the clients think? There has been very little research into clients’ perception of IMC and its implementation. This study addresses this issue by examining the views of senior personal across both the client and agency sides of the industry. These views are obtained by analysing quantitative and qualitative feedback from an online questionnaire. Results show that the client is aware that IMC needs to be at the strategic level of an organisation and does perceive its implementation as difficult. The main challenge they face is in influencing other departments within the organisation to co-operate. The implications of these findings are explored further

Telehealth for expanding the reach of early autism training to parents.

Although there is consensus that parents should be involved in interventions designed for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), parent participation alone does not ensure consistent, generalized gains in children's development. Barriers such as costly intervention, time-intensive sessions, and family life may prevent parents from using the intervention at home. Telehealth integrates communication technologies to provide health-related services at a distance. A 12 one-hour per week parent intervention program was tested using telehealth delivery with nine families with ASD. The goal was to examine its feasibility and acceptance for promoting child learning throughout families' daily play and caretaking interactions at home. Parents became skilled at using teachable moments to promote children's spontaneous language and imitation skills and were pleased with the support and ease of telehealth learning. Preliminary results suggest the potential of technology for helping parents understand and use early intervention practices more often in their daily interactions with children

Critical and Creative Thinking in the Higher Education Classroom

Many of us recognize that the traditional college classroom—that in which the professor presents fact-based information to students and then tests them on their retention of those facts—is falling short of teaching students to think effectively in the discipline. Yet, few would disagree with the notion that problem solving should be a goal for students in any discipline. Today’s workshop explores various practical approaches to integrating critical and creative thinking into every step of course design—from developing course goals and student-learning outcomes, to creating meaningful activities and assignments, to conceiving and grading authentic assessments

Blogging and self-identity: assessing the impact of a 'digital you' within higher education

Conference poster presentation for the European Conference of Social Medi

‘It felt more real’: improving the experience of academic staff and students in assessed group work in undergraduate business education

This paper presents the findings of a Participatory Action Research project across two Higher Education institutions to inform the authors’ practices in assessed group working (AGW) in a level 4 marketing module. The ‘Guiding Principles Model for AGW’ (Laurie et al. 2015) presented at the 2015 Academy of Marketing Conference ‘The Magic in Marketing’ was used to inform the action research project aimed at improving the outcomes of AGW for staff and students. Key areas for improvement were identified as fairness in allocation of grades and a reduction in free loading and social loafing. In addition, ways of reducing incidences of ‘socially destructive behaviours’ which critically harm weaker students’ ability to develop were investigated. The lead author took the role of critical friend, and it was found that the guiding principles model was helpful when addressing the areas of concern in previous AGW

Students' attitude towards advertising in the new digital environment

This paper explores the attitudes that students have towards advertising. It is a replication of a study by Beard in 2003 and utilises the same questionnaire to examine ethical, economic, social and regulatory concerns across a sample of students in a UK university. The results indicate that the views of students are generally negative, as has been found in earlier research. Consumer empowerment has not led to a more positive perception of advertising. There is a strong call for more truthful and realistic advertising and a growing concern that advertising is manipulating people and more regulation is needed

Partner or supplier: an examination of client/agency relationships in an IMC context

There is growing evidence from practitioners that the advertising industry is in a state of crisis. As campaigns become more integrated and multi-disciplinary, the relationship between advertising agencies and clients is being tested to its limits and is presently considered to be at an all-time low. Agencies feel less valued and are being excluded from C-suite discussion. Clients feel that agencies do not appreciate the changing landscape and how the customer experience is now key. Both sides recognise the need for more trust and collaboration. This study applies the agency theory and the social power theory to understand the pressures that the relationship is under. It looks for evidence that IMC is creating a movement away from a business alliance relationship by comparing qualitative data collected from both agencies and clients, using NVivo to identify themes. The findings identify four themes which illustrate this shift towards a supplier relationship: the client ownership of the customer journey, the lack of a strategic role of agencies, the challenges of agency collaboration and difficulties of agency specialisation

The management of corporate personality: An IMC perspective

The symmetry between internal marketing and external marketing communications has been of interest in the Integrated Marketing Communications literature for some time. Kliatchko (2008) states that the culture of marketing needs to be communicated internally at all levels of the organsation including areas outside of the marketing domain such as HR and Finance. Fill (2009) talks about employees ‘living the brand’. The purpose of this is to ensure that an organisation is communicating the same values and culture internally and externally (Luck and Moffatt, 2009). However Laurie and Mortimer (2011) discovered that one of the main differences between IMC theory and practice was that practitioners placed less emphasis on the role of internal communications. The purpose of this study is to examine how corporate personality and culture is managed internally and externally in the UK communications industry. This industry is currently going through fundamental changes due to the influence of digital media and the development of integrated marketing communications (KeyNote, 2012). Although much is written about the industry and how it is changing in publications such as Campaign and Brand Republic, the author is unaware of any studies that have applied the academic theories of corporate personality and corporate identity to this particular industry. Such a study is worthwhile in that, not only does it provide an insight into how corporate personality is utilised in a highly competitive industry to achieve differentiation, but it also provides a picture of how these agencies may approach this issue when working with clients. Do they “practice what they preach”, in terms of IMC, or say one thing to clients and do another themselves

Coaching to improve self‐directed learning

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156178/2/tct13109.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156178/1/tct13109_am.pd