Speaking with one voice: integrated marketing communication from a Swedish retail perspective

Abstract: In today’s global society, marketers are faced with the difficult task of
becoming more effective with their promotion and at the same time they have
less money at their disposal. Moreover, it is also more difficult for
companies to reach their target group due to the technology advancements
and due to the increased number of competitors at the market, therefore,
companies are forced to become even more effective. In order for companies
to manage the increased effectiveness, they need to find their own specific
niche and Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is one way. The purpose
with IMC is to integrate all promotional tools and have a client
perspective where companies recognize the fact that all messages have
impact on customer’s overall impression of the company. Nevertheless, it
does not matter if the message originates from an advertisement or any
other promotional tool. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper
understanding of how Integrated Marketing Communication is used
strategically within the Swedish retail industry. To be able to answer this
research purpose we made us of a case study- Kappahl, where we conducted a
telephone interview were we looked into the IMC process, the non-personal
promotional tools and on how the benefits of IMC can be described. We found
that the IMC process is not utilized in the way that theory suggests,
additionally, we also discovered that some promotional tools were favored.
All things considered, we believe that Kappahl is very successful in their
IMC implementation.