Lou Lasday: Multiple Messages

Lou Lasday: Multiple Messages

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." That shop worn phrase is actually the latest breakthrough in strategic thinking as it relates to the development of integrated marketing communications. Its measurement is the new wave to skyrocket performance of your next Gulf Coast advertising campaign. IMC, as it is known, is the next generation thinking being advanced at the first tier of top graduate business schools. Writing in the soon-to-be-published epic scholarly reference, "The Handbook of Advertising," University of California Professor Prasad Naik suggests that marketing professionals should talk IMC, not just A.D.S. (advertising).

Utilize a proactive initiative for integrated marketing communications. As a Gulf Coast entrepreneur, you'll want to focus on much more than the actual advertising involved in your next promotional campaign. Let your creative and media team do that. Give them your clearest thinking, your expectations, your budget and your trust. Then get out of the way. Your function is to understand the strategies and the joint effects of the integration.