THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION, MARKET ORIENTATION, AND BRAND ORIENTATION (REVIEW)

Author(s): Mike Reid, Sandra Luxton and Felix Mavondo

INTRODUCTION

Marketing communication plays an important role in building and maintaining stakeholder relationships, and in leveraging these relationships in terms of brand and channel equity (Dawar 2004; Duncan and Moriarty 1998; Lannon and Cooper 1983; Srivastava, Fahey, and Shervani 2000; White 1999). In response to concerns about the impact of hostile marketing environments on brand equity and increased management expectations related to marketing performance and accountability, many organizations are considering how to improve the management and integration of their marketing communication programs using integrated marketing communication (IMC). The paper also attempts to delineate or establish a relationship between IMC, market orientation (MO), and an emerging concept of brand orientation (BO) by proposing that both MO and BO are necessary conditions for successful IMC. IMC can be conceived at two distinct levels, that is, strategic or tactical; however, we will emphasize the strategic component of IMC, which takes into account the cultural and learning requirements of positioning brands over time. The paper recognizes the complementarities between IMC to MO and BO, and how each addresses a critical facet of achieving a competitive advantage through building brand equity.

VARIABLES

X₁ = Market Orientation

X₂ = Brand Orientation

Y  = Integrated Marketing Communication

RESEARCH METHOD

This paper clarifies the links between IMC, MO, and BO, and proposes a testable model linking the relationships among these concepts and facets of customers, and organizational performance.

CONCLUSION

This paper has attempted to show the complementarities between IMC, market orientation, and brand orientation. And each concept reflects specific emphasis, but collectively, they provide a rich description and complex insight into the relationship. However, for organizations with low market orientation, in this case, the cultural context for interfunctional coordination and focusing on customers, attempts to develop IMC may not succeed. This is because the cultural foundation for cooperation across functions, departments, and SBUs (strategic business units), or with suppliers and other stakeholders, may not exist. Overall, the data analysis implied by the model (structural equation modeling) is well established to provide direct, indirect, and total effects of the independent variables (MO and BO) through IMC, and the direct effects of IMC on external performance measures. The value of operationalizing this model will be seen through a clearer understanding of IMC's relationship to other marketing concepts and to customer and brand equity and marketplace performance.