Every month, the 4 members of the panel will give their personal vision on one of 12 issues that top the CMO's agenda. This month number 3:

Integrated Marketing Communications

by Roy Dewell
Consultant at Assetlink

"The role of marketing is to communicate the company message to the widest appropriate audience, conveying the most comprehensive information needed to influence that market. The irony is that marketing people regularly complain that they work in silos, are not fully informed about company developments and gain more information from networking than from any formal communication channels. I have worked in companies where campaign launches have competed for the same market, lack of knowledge has created conflicts on photo-shoots or resulted in several shoots for basically the same product, and even where production and marketing are out of step resulting in over stocking of product or disappointed customers.

Other parts of business resolved these problems 10 years ago. They realized that the right way forward involved dedicated systems which connected all the required people and gave them all the information needed for their role.

In a recent UK survey 57% of the responding marketing divisions said they only use basic Office systems and email to control their processes. Only 4% reported that they had access to dedicated marketing systems.

Until recently integrated marketing was not realistically possible for marketers working on company PCs where the firewall would not let them down load images, where development was completed off-site by Agency and Printer staff using Macs and Quark files which would not display on the PC and the final files were then stored where marketing could not reach them. Too many marketing plans were managed via emails, Excel or worst of all local diary systems, so integrating with other company systems was a challenge.

Technology enabling integrated marketing has seen significant development over the last 2 years. The take up in Europe has been slower than in the USA, but in the survey referenced above 64% of respondents said they intend to implement dedicated marketing systems within the next 12 months. It is only when marketing have the systems support which gives them all the information needed for their role, removing the false barriers of firewall and compatibility issues that integrated marketing communications will become a reality."