As power in the global marketplace shifts from manufacturer to end-user, communication can no longer be viewed as simply a tactical or support activity. Rather, today's successful global organizations consider communication a strategic management tool viewed in terms of investment, return, and how it can both enhance and improve the success of the organization. From best-selling business author Don Schulz and Philip Kitchen, a well-known United Kingdom author and scholar, comes this new book on the principles and application of integrated marketing communication (IMC) in the global marketplace. Designed to help executives position and leverage marketing communication in the global arena to their ongoing strategic advantage, Communicating Globally is the first book to explore IMC from a global perspective. Directed to professionals at multinational organizations who are struggling with how to integrate their communication strategies both internally and across borders, Communicating Globally provides readers with the knowledge and skills they need in the emergent subject of integrated global marketing communication (IGMC). How can a company effectively communicate its message to customers and prospects all over the world or ensure that its branding messages "travel"? Readers are guided on how to successfully strategize, select appropriate communication tactics, and then execute a global communication plan that encompasses all sources of communication, both internal and external. The text is based on the strong theoretical foundations of IMC, but also includes many examples in practice through vignettes, four complete case studies, and one study case.
Transitioning into the 21st-Century Marketplace
The challenge facing most marketing organizations as they enter
the 21st century is how to transition from traditional functions and
operations to the new world of the 21st century and the global
marketplace. We argue that the best mechanism for making the adjustment
to the new marketplace realities is integrated marketing communication.
Therefore we start with the transitioning process. Exhibit 1.1
illustrates the challenge.
Most marketing and communication organizations know their current
location; that is, they understand the marketplace they occupy, the
prevailing competitive framework, the target markets they serve, and so
forth. As a result, most firms and managers have fairly well-established
patterns for communicating with customers and prospects and investing in
processes and systems, and they have some idea of the return they can
likely expect from those investments. Although they may not consider
these conditions ideal, most managers clearly understand where their
organization is in today's marketplace.
By the same token, most organizations have some idea of where they need
to be or where they would like to be in the future. While the view may
be a bit fuzzy because of unknown market or technological changes, for
the most part senior management knows where it is trying to drive its
organization one, three, or five years out.
Marketers and marketing managers also have a fairly clear understanding
of where their firms and brands are in the marketplace. For example,
they have many guideposts marking present success such as market share,
sales performance, profit and loss accounts, and the like. These tell
them how they are doing. In addition, most marketing people have some
vision of the future or where their marketplace is going and how they
might fit.
Thus the challenge for both senior managers and marketing managers is
not "Where are we today?" or "Where do we need to be in the future?" but
"How do we get there?" That, in our experience, is the transition with
which they are struggling. And that transition faces every senior
management team and every marketing manager in every organization around
the world.
The same transitional challenge confronts most marketing communication
managers. They generally know what communication programs are in place
now. They also know what seems to work and what doesn't, but often not
why for either. Therefore most know what they can and can't do with
communication to influence customers and prospects in today's
marketplace. In addition, most communication managers can wax eloquent
about what the marketplace of the future will or might be: electronic
systems, interactive communication, information on demand, World Wide
Web, and so on. But, like senior management and marketing managers, most
have difficulty identifying how they might get to this new marketplace
and what needs to be done to make the transition. There are so many
variables. So much change. Such dynamic structures. The traditional
"plan, develop, execute, and evaluate" model doesn't seem to work
anymore. The old models are less and less relevant given the challenges
of a global marketplace where border-crossing, new cultures, new
languages, and new media abound. Yes, how and in what ways, or with what
mechanisms, to make the transition to the new global marketplace is the
question and the challenge.
That's what this book is about. How to get from here to there.
