integrated marketing

integrated marketing

a business approach which stresses the need to coordinate all functions, departments and personnel in a firm and to harness their endeavours towards a common goal of attracting and retaining customers (see MARKETING CONCEPT).

Integrated marketing stresses how the activities of all functions and personnel in a firm have marketing implications. For example, the manner in which the firm operates its credit control procedures could win or lose customers, or customers could be put off by a poor delivery service.

Whether integrated marketing is effective depends to a large extent upon the position held by marketing in a business's ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE:

1. if marketing is regarded as just one of a number of business functions alongside production, finance and personnel, insufficient integration will occur;
2. if marketing includes all subfunctions from other departments which affect customers – credit control, customer service and distribution, then a fuller degree of integration will be attained;
3. if a company fully accepts the marketing concept then marketing will be classed as the principal function, with all other functions (production, finance, personnel) being subordinate to it.

Collins Dictionary of Business, 3rd ed. © 2002, 2005 C Pass, B Lowes, A Pendleton, L Chadwick, D O’Reilly and M Afferson