Revisiting the IMC construct

This paper re-examines a definition of integrated marketing communications (IMC) previously published in this journal, and proposes a revision to that original definition. It reviews topics of research studies conducted on IMC since its inception to the present, and establishes that the theoretical foundations and definitional issues of IMC continue to be an important area of research for most academics. This paper introduces the four pillars of IMC as an offshoot of the proposed revised definition, and discusses each pillar in detail. The paper concludes by illustrating the interplay between the pillars and levels of IMC.