Future of Integrated Marketing Communications

Abstract

Changes in the business environment, along with technological innovation, increasing consumer sophistication and changes in marketing communications practices, have led organizations to seek to improve relationships with their consumers, and to strive to deliver consistent messages to all stakeholders across a wide range of marketing communications channels, in order to effectively reinforce their core proposition. Although Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is an emerging field with a seemingly underdeveloped theoretical base, it appears to be an unavoidable trend that will continue into the future.

Overview

Marketing is the way companies strategically develop, price, promote, and distribute their products to increase customer interest and attain organizational goals. Marketing communications refers to the messages and related media used to communicate with a market. The idea of integrating marketing and communications dates back to early marketing literature, but the term "Integrated Marketing Communications" (IMC) only became popular in the 1980s. Even so, it was not until 1991 that a task force of academics and professionals began looking into issues such as appropriate terminology and definitions.

IMC can be defined as "the concept and process of strategically managing audience-focused, channel-centered, and results-driven brand communication programs over time" (Kliatchko, 2005, p. 23). By drawing from the fields of psychology, marketing and mass communications, IMC reveals the subtle ways in which consumers respond to marketing communications, thus helping marketers to better manage their marketing communications choices and maximize their effectiveness.

In addition, IMC helps organizations maximize their resources and link their communications activities together. IMC integrates elements of the promotional mix as well as the creative elements, organizational factors and the promotional mix with other marketing mix factors. IMC also integrates information and database systems, communications to internal and external audiences, and corporate communication, and promotes geographical integration.

A major feature of IMC is the shift from traditional one-way marketing communications and advertising channels like advertising, public relations, sales promotion, specialty items, merchandising, packaging and licensing; to two-way channels such as personal sales, direct response marketing, events and sponsorships, trade shows and exhibitions, e-commerce, customer loyalty programs, plant tours and other customer service activities (McGrath, 2005b).

Scholars and practitioners have begun to recognize a growing need to integrate marketing communications. Many factors have contributed to this need, including:

• Communications agency mergers and acquisitions.
• An increasing sophistication of clients and retailers, causing marketers to develop more elaborate and quicker response systems.
• The desire of firms for interaction and synergy with their stakeholders.
• The need for firms to save costs, causing companies to pursue new methods to increase productivity and value from marketing and media expenses.
• The increasing cost and decreasing effectiveness of traditional marketing and advertising, due to the rapid development and increasing effectiveness of integrative and interactive information technology.
• The decreasing cost of database development and usage.
• Increasing global competition.
• Increasing global and regional coordination.
• The rise of corporate brands that companies can use to communicate core values to different stakeholders, as against individual brands that are costly to manage and promote.

Organizations that are well integrated will maximize the impact on their consumers and other end users at a minimal cost for all of the organization's communications, whether business-to-business, customer-focused, or internally oriented. Such organizations will enjoy consistent messages with a consistent style and theme. Consistency will be maintained across a wide range of communications channels; costs will be reduced through the prevention of duplication of effort; corporate cohesion will increase; and dialogue and relationships with customers will also improve ("Chapter 5," 2003).

Generally, IMC is not easy to implement, but some firms find it easier to implement than others. For instance, according to Low (2000), small, consumer-focused, service-oriented companies in industries like manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, and mining, are more likely to have integrated marketing communications programs, since they typically target fewer market segments and therefore require fewer messages than large, product-oriented companies. It is also believed that IMC has the potential to thrive in conditions where there is the availability of experienced managers; where the market share for products or services is growing; and where competitive intensity is high.

Further Insights

Theoretical Foundations—IMC & the Consumer. According to McGrath (2005b), IMC is based upon three theoretical foundations. The first foundation proposes that IMC is based on an ongoing and dynamic two-way dialogue or relationship between consumers and marketers, with marketers seeking ways to strengthen their brand's relationship with the consumer, and with consumers using their own resources to develop a relationship with the brand.

In order to have effective relationships with their customers through IMC, marketers first need to know why consumers respond to marketing communications. Research in social psychology implies that consumers respond to marketing communications because of a natural desire or need to "complete" their concepts of themselves, otherwise known as their 'self-concepts.' A person feeling ‘incomplete’ might fill a perceived gap through the buying of material goods, and marketing communications can be used to influence or define which specific brands can best fill the gap. Additionally, marketers may position their products as desired, or even required, extensions of a person's self-concept, as is the case with luxury items such as clothing, luxury automobiles, and exotic vacations.

Marketers also need to know how consumers respond to marketing communications. The field of cognitive psychology has given insight into the ways in which human beings process external stimuli, including marketing communications messages. It is known that "individuals base many decisions concerning products on their attitudes toward individual brands, and these attitudes can be influenced by marketing communications" (McGrath, 2005b, p. 4).

Consumers respond to marketing communications stimuli in three stages: cognitive, affective, and conative. The cognitive stage involves conscious intellectual activity, while the affective involves feelings and emotion. The conative stage is where consumers are inclined to take action. Equipped with the knowledge of how their own consumers respond to marketing communications, marketers can employ media planning models to determine the optimum amount of exposure that will help consumers receive the intended message.

It is also known that there are two routes to persuasion: central and peripheral. Marketing communications messages that encourage central processing can “lead to the creation of relatively strong and long-lasting attitudes about the messages” (McGrath, 2005b, p. 5). On the other hand, marketing communications messages that “employ superficial or peripheral techniques (such as the attractiveness of the message presenter, the credibility of the message source, etc.) will not be as long lasting or as resistant to change as those processed centrally” (McGrath, 2005b, p. 5).

Consumers develop opinions about brands through product or service use and through exposure to marketing communications messages: This knowledge helps marketers advertise brands in a way that encourages consumers to link their opinion of a brand with values that are important to them.

The second theoretical foundation of the IMC concept highlights the need to maintain a consistent message throughout all marketing media outlets and especially across all marketing communications messages. It is important that organizations and brands maintain a clear and consistent visual image (including color schemes, logos, symbols and other design elements), position, verbal and/or text theme (including body copy, typography, tag lines and other devices) across all marketing communications channels, to ensure "one-voice" or "one personality" consistency, and "seamless" communications. A corporate manual will help to ensure a consistent corporate brand.

It is believed that messages that are consistent across different channels may create traces in the consumer's memory, and that these traces may be revived and intensified upon exposure to subsequent messages from different channels that the same conceptual themes. Thus, a brand using the IMC strategy of integrating different types of communications channels may be more memorable to the consumer and processed more easily than a series of brand messages that offer relatively inconsistent information across different channels. Message consistency simplifies mental message processing by today's consumers, who are inundated with increasing amounts of competing message stimuli.

The third theoretical foundation of IMC suggests that all facets of a brand’s relationship with a consumer must be taken into consideration. Both traditional promotion channels and non-traditional means of promotion must be considered, and likewise, the various internal and external communications functions must be strategically integrated. A consistent brand message that is integrated across the entire range of marketing communications will allow for consistent clarity and reinforcement of an organization's (or a brand's) main proposition.

“The theory of an IMC program is that it has one basic communications strategy for each major target audience. This one strategy is then used as the basis for executing each communications function (advertising, PR, sales promotion, etc.) throughout a variety of communications channels” (Duncan, 1993, p. 31).

Firms with high integration of marketing channels will have their channel integration including everything from the design of the product itself to its packaging, its distribution, its pricing, and its marketing communications efforts (McGrath, 2005b). Also, the integration of common messages must span all market segments and geographical regions. The Internet is particularly helpful in this regard, enabling organizations to have an international presence, and enabling the integration of communication around individual customers and stakeholders through means such as cookie technology, which reveals information about the behavior of individual consumers through site visits.

Each element of the communications mix must support consumer expectations of a brand that in turn must be integrated and coordinated, so that it supports the others. Even the timing of each message must be coordinated so as to ensure maximum synergy.

IMC & the Organization. Since IMC requires the strategic management of audience-focused, channel-centered, and results-driven brand communication programs over time, any organization that desires to develop IMC must first make some key internal changes, phased over time. The nature and speed of adoption of IMC will vary from organization to organization: There is no single formula for the development of IMC (Fill, 2001).

IMC requires a strong blending of internal and external communications in order for it to be identified with the strategy and direction of an organization. As such, IMC must first involve the entire organization in an internal reorientation, so that the organization's entire internal audience—employees, managers and members of the Board of Directors—become customer-focused, speak with 'one voice,' and have their attitudes and behaviors reflecting the brand that they represent. As internal positive relationships are built and strengthened, internal stakeholders will develop a sense of loyalty and business ownership.

Organizations should also establish a market-oriented organizational structure instead of the traditional brand management set-up. This requires that responsibility for communications functions be given to a single position within the organization (typically a senior manager with relevant experience), who would handle strategic direction and planning. Creative and media services should be outsourced to a single agency that should be accountable for maintaining message coherence and coordinating communications programs.

Organizations and their agencies become channel-centered by planning and managing the coordinated use of appropriate and multiple communications channels such as advertising, public relations, direct marketing, sales promotions, and the Internet. In addition, the use of all other sources of information and brand contact points must also be planned and coordinated, so that they may reach and connect with target audiences.

To achieve IMC, an organization must prepare a plan with full senior management support. In order to decide which elements of the communications mix should be selected and integrated into a marketing campaign, the organization must carry out a situation analysis, looking at internal factors such as core competencies, strengths and weaknesses, product and service objectives, budgets and strategies adopted, as well as external factors such as competitor analysis, customer needs analysis and channels for delivery, and environmental scanning ("Chapter 5," 2003).

The plan must then be communicated to all other staff in the organization, so that each internal stakeholder will understand it and actively support its implementation in their day-to-day activities. Once the internal reorientation and plan implementation are underway, the messages to be communicated must be integrated in all the chosen media, to all target external audiences, including customers, consumers, prospective customers, government and other entities outside the organization.

With IMC, it is audience or the target consumer, and not the interest of the marketer or communications agency, that must drive the planning and selection process. Therefore, it is important that organizations maintain media neutrality in planning media channels or the message delivery system, treating all communications channels equally, without bias or preference for one medium over the others.

IMC must be results-driven, with its effectiveness tracked through customer valuation of the identified markets, and through return on customer investments. The financial measurement of IMC programs involves observing and tracking their impact along with the behavioral responses and effects on target audiences over time.

Organizations developing IMC must use the knowledge and skills of strategic management (such as planning, directing and controlling) to enable both the IMC process and an entire brand communication program to fit in with the overall corporate vision and business objectives. Many initiatives should be put in place to support the outworking of IMC. For instance, top management must be closely involved; organization structures should be supportive; employees should undergo cross-functional training; and a 'culture of marketing' should be created as part of the organization's corporate philosophy.

Since market conditions are continually changing, IMC planners should, as much as possible, adopt a zero-based planning approach, where all objectives and strategies should be formed at the time as opposed to relying on previous plans ("Chapter 5," 2003). In this regard, budget allocations should be based on the marketing communications objectives that need to be achieved, rather than being constrained by budgets imposed by management.

IMC is not easy to develop—it takes time, and all the more so in the case of diversified organizations with multiple products, multiple market segments, and multiple functional divisions across multiple geographical locations. Organizations will have to contend with many barriers to integration including the following:

• Fear of change and loss of control.
• Hierarchical organizational structures.
• Traditional command-and-control organizational structures.
• Functional competition (with issues of power, coordination and control).
• Multiple budgeting processes.
• Profit goals set internally and not based on customers.
• Short-term planning focused only on the acquisition of new customers, not on long-term customer loyalty and retention.
• Lack of database development.
• Media fragmentation.
• Agency resistance to integration and a lack of willingness to work across the media and promotional mix.
• Incomplete understanding of the integration process.
• Junior and inexperienced employees in charge of developing communications.
• Lack of cross-discipline management skills.

Viewpoints

While IMC has been lauded by many, it also has many critics, some of whom have gone as far as pronouncing IMC's demise on the grounds that there is too much misunderstanding surrounding this emerging field. According to Kliatchko (2005), the divergent viewpoints and criticisms stem from the following:

• Disagreements on definitional issues and scope of IMC.
• Difficulties arising from the view that IMC is both a concept and a process.
• Contentions on whether IMC is merely a fad or a management fashion.
• Debate over measurement methods used in evaluating IMC programs.
• Controversy over turf battles and on who leads the integration process.
• Conflicts on agency-client relationships, organizational structures and compensation issues.

Academics and practitioners still disagree on definitional issues concerning IMC, as well as the scope of IMC. Even the term 'Integrated Marketing Communications' has many other names, such as 'new advertising,' 'orchestration,' '360 branding,' 'total branding,' 'whole egg,' 'seamless communication,' 'relationship marketing,' 'one-to-one marketing,' 'integrated marketing' and 'integrated communications' (Kliatchko, 2002, p. 7). The literature also lacks empirical evidence to support the theoretical underpinnings of IMC. In addition, when it comes to the practice of IMC, there remains much controversy and debate over its actual adoption, content and effect. Likewise, the view that IMC is both a concept and a process impedes the formation of definitions and other foundational issues.

While some scholars believe that IMC is a fad without a solid theoretical base, others believe that IMC is not new at all. Specifically, some suggest that IMC reinvents existing marketing theory by using different terminology for existing concepts. To support this view, the proponents of this argument cite the fact that small marketing departments have always had a quasi-integrated approach, since everyone in the department is involved in all the major communications programs. Also cited is the fact that smaller communications agencies have long been practicing coordinated planning for their clients and the fact that textbooks with marketing communications emphases have been in circulation for years (Duncan, 1993).

The supporters of IMC also say that IMC is an unavoidable trend. According to them, changing marketing factors inevitably require such a marketing strategy. Due to technological advancements, modern customers tend to integrate marketing communications, obtaining information and making decisions as and when they want, regardless of whether marketers and agencies integrate their communications. Likewise, globalization and global forces favor—and probably require—IMC for the successful marketing of global businesses and global brands. Proponents of IMC also say that it cannot be a fad since it reflects major changes in the ways in which organizations and their agencies approach marketing communications.

The quest is still on for a means to effectively evaluate and measure IMC. Effective evaluation requires 'thinking outside the box'—using new criterion instead of the existing models. Controversy over turf battles and on who leads the integration process has also contributed to the widening disparity of viewpoints on IMC, including conflicts on agency-client relationships, organizational structures and compensation issues. Such issues are difficult to generalize because, as Kim and Schulz (2004) point out, agency-client relationships are influenced by agency and client interests, as well as by the specific social, cultural, institutional and organizational factors in each country. Therefore, the client and agency situation varies from country to country.

Criticisms of IMC have been fueled by the fact that many of the few quantitative studies in IMC research are inconclusive, leaving many unanswered questions. Moreover, some main empirical studies on factors related to IMC contradict each other. In response to the critics, however, the supporters of IMC affirm that IMC is still developing as a field and that many of the matters being raised by critics are typical of “an evolutionary field, still undergoing a process of definition and redefinition” (McGrath, 2005b, p. 3).

For IMC to be effective into the future, and for it to mature as a field of study and practice, much more research must be undertaken to help formalize and reinforce IMC theory—or to simply help confirm or negate its validity.

Terms & Concepts

Brand: A trademark, distinctive name, symbol, mark, logo, name, word, sentence or a combination of these items identifying a product, service, or organization, and differentiating it from its competitors.

External Audience: All stakeholders outside of an organization, including its customers, consumers, prospective customers, government and other entities outside the organization.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): “The concept and process of strategically managing audience-focused, channel-centered, and results-driven brand communication programs over time” (Kliatchko, 2005, p. 23).

Internal Audience: All stakeholders within an organization, including its employees, managers and members of the Board of Directors.

Marketing: The way companies strategically develop, price, promote, and distribute their products to increase customer interest and attain organizational goals.

Marketing Communications: The messages and media used to communicate with a market.

Marketing Communications Agency: A firm that creates, plans, and handles the marketing communications of a client organization.

Marketing Communications Channels: Various means through which marketing messages and related media are used to communicate with a market. They include advertising, public relations, sales promotion, merchandising, personal sales, events and sponsorships, and customer loyalty programs.

Message Consistency: The degree of uniformity of visual imagery, verbal and/or text themes across different marketing channels.

Promotional Mix: An organization's blend of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations.

Strategy: The making of distinctive choices about markets, products, services, internal resources (human resources, information, knowledge, land, labor and capital) and plans for the future, to gain an edge over one’s competitors, and systematically integrating these choices to create the necessary relationship between what the market wants and what the company does.

Bibliography

Barger, V. A., & Labrecque, L. I. (2013). An integrated marketing communications perspective on social media metrics. International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications, 5, 64–76. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=87965639&site=ehost-live

Chapter 5: The tools of corporate reputation: Integrated marketing communications (IMC). (2003). Managing Corporate Reputation, 103–128. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=22377418&site=ehost-live

Clow, K., & Baack, D. (2005). Integrated marketing communications. Concise Encyclopedia of Advertising, 97–98. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=22573943&site=ehost-live

Cornelissen, J. (2003). Change, continuity and progress: The concept of integrated marketing communications and marketing communications practice. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 11, 217–234. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=11763013&site=ehost-live

Duncan, T., & Everett, S. (1993). Client perceptions of integrated marketing communications. Journal of Advertising Research, 33, 30–39. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=9309136066&site=ehost-live

Fill, C. (2001). Essentially a matter of consistency: Integrated marketing communications. Marketing Review, 1, 409. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=5776082&site=ehost-live

Gonring, M. (1994). Putting integrated marketing communications to work today. Public Relations Quarterly, 39, 45–48. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=9412092110&site=ehost-live

Gronstedt, A. (1997). Internet: IMC on steroids. Marketing News, 31, 9. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=9706055169&site=ehost-live

Hart, N. (1999). Chapter 1: Integrated marketing communications planning. Implementing an Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy, 1–12. Thorogood Publishing Ltd. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=22386401&site=ehost-live

Hartley, B., & Pickton, D. (1999). Integrated marketing communications requires a new way of thinking. Journal of Marketing Communications, 5, 97–106. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=3960635&site=ehost-live

Hill, D., Fink, R., & Morgan, A. (1998). Plant tours as a customer contact tool: An integrated marketing communications framework. Journal of Marketing Management (10711988), 8, 44–51. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=18078408&site=ehost-live

Keller, K. L. (2016). Unlocking the power of integrated marketing communications: how integrated is your imc program?. Journal of Advertising, 45(3), 286–301. doi:10.1080/00913367.2016.1204967. Retrieved December 28, 2016, from EBSCO online database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=117922895&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Kim, I., Han, D., & Schultz, D. (2004). Understanding the diffusion of integrated marketing communications. Journal of Advertising Research, 44, 31–45. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=13045723&site=ehost-live

Kitchen, P., & Li, T. (2005). Perceptions of integrated marketing communications: A Chinese ad and PR agency perspective. International Journal of Advertising, 24, 51–78. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=16626096&site=ehost-live

Kliatchko, J. (2002). Understanding integrated marketing communications. Pasig City, Philippines: Inkwell Publishing.

Kliatchko, J. (2005). Towards a new definition of integrated marketing communications (IMC). International Journal of Advertising, 24, 7–34. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=16626064&site=ehost-live

Low, G. (2000). Correlates of integrated marketing communications. Journal of Advertising Research, 40, 27. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=3351535&site=ehost-live

Luo, L. (2011). Product line design for consumer durables: An integrated marketing and engineering approach. Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), 48, 128–139. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=57434514&site=ehost-live

McArthur, D., & Griffin, T. (1997). A marketing management view of integrated marketing communications. Journal of Advertising Research, 37, 19–26. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=1841&site=ehost-live

McGrath, J. (2005a). A pilot study testing aspects of the integrated marketing communications concept. Journal of Marketing Communications, 11, 191–214. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=17926963&site=ehost-live

McGrath, J. (2005b). IMC at a crossroads: A theoretical review and a conceptual framework for testing. Marketing Management Journal, 15, 55–66. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=19403280&site=ehost-live

Schlinke, J., & Crain, S. (2013). Social media from an integrated marketing and compliance perspective. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, 67, 85–92. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=85802252&site=ehost-live

Spiller, L. D. (2013). Using metrics to drive integrated marketing communication decisions: Hi-Ho Silver. International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications, 5, 24–38. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=87965636&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Batra, R., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Integrating marketing communications: New findings, new lessons, and new ideas. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 122–145. doi:10.1509/jm.15.0419. Retrieved December 28, 2016, from EBSCO online database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=119129833&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Gould, S., Lerman, D., & Grein, A. (1999). Agency perceptions and practices on global IMC. Journal of Advertising Research, 39, 7–20. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=1898809&site=ehost-live

Kitchen, P., & Schultz, D. (2003). Integrated corporate and product brand communication. Advances in Competitiveness Research, 11, 66–86. Retrieved May 26, 2007, from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=13380272&site=ehost-live

McGrath, J. (2001). Integrated marketing communications: Some new experimental evidence. AMA Winter Educators' Conference Proceedings, 12, 318.

Schultz, D.E. & Schultz, H.F. (1998). Transitioning marketing communication into the twenty-first century. Journal of Marketing Communications 4, 9–26.