The Relevance of IMC to Professional Service Firms

Abstract

No other sector in the economy influences business decisions like professional services, and while large commercial firms are major contributors to economies and employ highly educated people, they also engage teams of marketers who frequently work across national and international boundaries to deliver integrated marketing solutions connected to core business strategies. This paper finds that the integrated marketing communication (IMC) activities of major professional service firms (PSFs) often take on different priorities, to traditional product and consumer marketing, such as in-person marketing communication (MC) tactics are preferred. MC can vary between professions and tactics suited to one profession will not necessarily be appropriate for other professions. PSFs often find it challenging to embrace IMC because of organisational structures, position in the market and level of competitive turbulence