If nothing else, the bad economy has pushed us all to do more with less. In our world of marketing and communications, that means that integration of all the marketing elements and disciplines is critical. No longer can companies keep their various strategies locked up in silos where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
They have to all HOLD hands and approach marketing challenges and opportunities as a united front. This has always been the right thing to do. It’s just that when corporations were fat and happy, they could afford to tolerate these internal disciplines not talking to one another.
I am reminded of an article I wrote for one of our national trade publications MANY years ago on the value of an integrated marcom approach. As soon as it was published, I was immediately taken to task by several of my PR peers, who, as “purists”, were horrified by my suggestion that PR hold hands with marketing and that PR could actually be a marketing tool, as opposed to a straight image enhancement tool. My, how times have changed.
Today, the smartest companies are those who explore EVERY avenue for pushing their products out the door, those who have become masters at leveraging all of the tools in their toolbox against each other, and certainly those who realize that digital and social media is an increasingly huge part of the marketing and outreach mix.
I believe that doing more with less is going to be a common refrain for awhile now…and that savvy integration of all the marketing and communications strategies available is how that will happen.
