Taking One Step Back to Take Two Forward

I started this project looking very specifically at digital marketing. As I've gone on, the scope has broadened and I've widened my focus. I want to see where digital marketing and social fit in the overall picture and take a more strategic view. The media and the channels will change. I think what is more important is what you are trying to achieve with the media and how this fits into your long-term plans.

My reading initially focused on digital marketing but from this I have widened my focus. The Chaffey book on e-marketing highlighted the importance of offline communications complementing your online communications. According to Chaffey these can and should be used to complement your digital marketing efforts. So from an approach that was getting into specifics, I am taking a step backward to see the bigger picture.

I am trying to identify the relevant bodies of literature that underlie effective integration of online and offline communications. Some of the areas my reading has highlighted so far are Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), which has in turn been shaped by relationship marketing, direct marketing and various areas of corporate communications such as management and branding, customers and stakeholder relationships and global branding/localised communications.

My approach is going to be to map out as many of the relevant bodies of literature as possible and try to visualise the various relationships between them. I think that this approach is going to give me a much better understanding of why integrated marketing communications are being done and more importantly why they are not being done right. In this way I feel that I can add greater layers and depth to my knowledge of the subject. The tools are just a means to an end. So for the time being I'm taking one step back to take two forward!