Integrated marketing communication and postmodernity: an odd couple?

• Published in: Corporate communications 2005-01, Vol.10 (2), p.156-167
• Main Authors: Thøger Christensen, Lars, Torp, Simon, Fuat Firat, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Business communications; Communication; Companies; Consumers; Information communication; Integrated approach; Integrated marketing; Integrated marketing communications; Marketing; Modernity; Operations management; Organizational change; Polyphony; Postmodernism; Production management; Studies; Writers
• ISSN: 1356-3289; 1758-6046
• DOI: 10.1108/13563280510596961

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, under conditions of postmodernity, the market is too complex to be responded to with an IMC-framework. While the desire of IMC scholars and practitioners to reinstate order and predictability in an increasingly disordered and fragmented world is understandable, such a mission may be misguided. The paper seeks to discuss the possibility that such attempts instead precipitate the production of complexity of an even more unpredictable nature.Design methodology approach - The paper proceeds through a critical juxtaposition of postmodernity and IMC, arguing that the latter - with its ambition to impose order and control - fails to understand important dimensions of contemporary markets.Findings - Rather than imposing a monological and hegemonic identity on markets and organizations - an identity that will unavoidably be challenged by consumers and employees - contemporary marketers and managers need to realize that organizational change and adaptability presuppose openness to variety, difference and polyphony.Research limitations implications - Although organizations, just like individuals, need a coherent narrative, polyphony promotes shared understandings and involvement and permits a kind of collective ownership that cannot be attained through the simple application of one-way managerial models that claim consistency and coherence without founding it in the life-world of the receiver.Originality value - Postmodern communication cannot adhere tightly to principles of IMC. Instead, openness towards fluidity and a certain degree of indeterminacy must be nurtured if organizations wish to cope with the postmodern world. Along with tolerance toward variety, organizations need to develop a tolerance for meanings negotiated together with consumer communities, such as brand communities, in the market.