The use and integration of marketing communication tools in business-to-business firms: case studies of three Swedish firms

Abstract: Marketing communication is a systematic relationship between a business and its market. There are twelve different communication tools available to the marketer: personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, sponsorship, exhibitions, packaging, point-of-sale and merchandising, the Internet, word of mouth and corporate identity. These communication tools constitute the marketing communication mix. For several years, the Internet and the Web has dramatically altered the traditional view of advertising and communication media. The Web provides an efficient channel for advertising, marketing, and even direct distribution of certain goods and information services. Each element of the communication mix should integrate with other tools of the communication mix so that a unified message is consistently reinforced. This new direction for marketing is called integrated marketing communication (IMC). The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how business-to-business firms use and integrate the different marketing communication tool in the communication mix, from both a traditional and Internet marketing communication perspective. The findings showed that personal communication tools by which the companies can interact face-to-face with the customers such as personal selling and exhibitions were the most important tools. Regarding the Web as a communication tool it was mainly used to inform the market, to demonstrate products, and to provide online material to the customers. In terms of integrated marketing the companies seems to have little knowledge about it and how it can be used. In spite of that they try to send out a consistent message to the customers.