Abstract
The world of integrated marketing communication (IMC) has become increasingly strategic in this digital and social media age. Flynn (Slippery Rock), Smith (New Paltz), and Walsh (West Virginia) model traditional digital and strategic planning that allow marketers to track a consumer journey through analytics and monitoring metrics.
The 13 chapters begin with learning outcomes and cover digital disruption, consumer and audience behavior, branding and consumer experiences, strategic planning, strategies and tactics, advertising media resources, marketing options, social media influencers and listeners, public relations resources, sales promotion, ethics, and regulation.
Email, for example, continues to be an approach to targeting consumers:
Creating an effective email strategy for any consumer journey touchpoint is a bit like crafting a love letter. It must be: personalized, address the recipient’s needs, perfectly timed, carefully worded and delivered in the optimal decision-making context. (p. 251)
Smith identifies the top email service providers as Salesforce, Mailchimp, Oracle, and Marketo. He also notes the top reasons we ignore email: (a) receive too many (55%), (b) irrelevant (50%), (c) not helpful or interesting (41%), (d) no discount or free shopping (33%), and (e) received at wrong time (17%) (p. 254).
Adam Earnhardt (Youngstown State) added the social media chapter and used the R.I.C.E. model (relationships, instruction, communication, entertainment) (p. 304). Social media are divided into paid, owned, earned, and influencer options (p. 305). The overlay of a consumer journey within social may be seen as oversimplified in that attribution issues persist in tracking data. Still, the ethics and privacy discussion provides a nice segue into the public relations (PR) chapter that follows.
From an IMC perspective, Flynn addresses PR stakeholders—including customers and employees (p. 332). The “convergence” of IMC and PR is clear: “The lines-in-the-sand separating marketing and PR have become increasingly blurred” (p. 333). PR contexts are divided into corporate, agency, government, and nonprofit (p. 334). The book returns to consumer journey touchpoints: awareness, media placement, research, evaluation, purchase and satisfaction, and customer service (pp. 335–336). The PR chapter is also slightly different from the previous one in that it identifies paid, earned, shared, and owned media within the popular PESO model (p. 337).
From corporate social responsibility (CSR) to reputation management, the PR chapter touches all of the popular bases within a comprehensive summary. The authors also provide a general summary of regulatory issues, such as emerging global data concerns. The book is packed with information, but it could use more examples and case studies, and the hefty price tag is problematic given universities’ current interest in reducing student debt.
Holtzhausen (Lamar), Fullerton (Oklahoma State and current editor of this Journalism & Mass Communication Educator), Lewis (Oklahoma State), and Shipka (Oklahoma State) offer a more affordable option within strategic communication principles. Their 13 chapters also begin with learning outcomes and cover theory, careers, strategy, management, ethics, research, planning, stakeholders, message tactics, traditional and evolving media, branding, and campaigns.
The global book begins with an “opening vignette” about an Australian tourism campaign (pp. 1–3) before defining strategic communication, as well as “agents and domains of practice” for students: management communication, marketing communication, public relations, technical communication, political communication, information/social marketing campaigns, corporate communication, crisis/risk communication, financial communication, health communication, public diplomacy, and activism (pp. 10–13).
The weaving of theory and case studies quickly turns to careers, which is likely to be engaging to students. Academic programs can also include the book’s list of hard and soft skills as a guide in revising and mapping the curriculum. Likewise, the inclusion of strategic planning takes readers into the meat of strategic communication assignments.
Each chapter concludes with online support material and links, as well as a solid set of reference notes.
I liked the deep dive into the concept of strategy and its “evolving meaning” since the 1950s (pp. 55–56). Most books in this area are not as articulate in the blending of theory and practice:
Once the strategy has been formulated through participative communities and continues to be shaped by continuous and inclusive communication, the actual strategic plan can take on an intentional approach for the purposes of implementation and assessment as the strategy matrix will show. (p. 58)
The message tactics chapter explores PESO, including shared media: “The posting of a communication entity’s content by stakeholders (fans and followers) on social media” (p. 204). Instagram and other platforms are reviewed in the evolving media chapter. The discussion questions here could be more focused. Some professors will also struggle with leaving branding as a chapter near the end of the book, and just ahead of the campaigns chapter. The return on investment (ROI) and measurement principles, though, are important practices to explain. I was left wishing there would be one more chapter to bring readers back around to the future of strategic communication. Still, I recommend both books for their comprehensive coverage and depth.
These books are not the first to break academic silos and blur traditional boundaries. For example, Quesenberry’s (2021) Social Media Strategy: Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations in the Consumer Revolution, third edition is also located at the intersection of business principles and media communication. His chapter devoted to cross-discipline integration through social media views omnichannel marketing as “the ultimate goal of many businesses today” (p. 139). For journalism and media communication faculty working to keep pace with Web3 metaverse innovation, university restructuring, and administrative workforce demands, social and digital media also ushered in heightened turf wars across departments, schools, and colleges. If all disciplines converge around social marketing, then the conversation must continue across and within academic programs.
