An upside down look at integrated marketing communications in Ghana

It would seem strange that ad agencies are still being called ad agencies today when all progressive and profitable companies are beginning to integrate their marketing communications efforts. Marketing communications from the standard marketing literature has always been used to refer to the promotion element in the marketing or services marketing mix. Several American texts have traditionally defined the marketing- communication mix to be Sales Promotion, Direct Marketing, Advertising, Personal Selling and Public Relations/Publicity. This article attempts to investigate the integrated marketing (IMC) phenomenon (in Ghana and whether the importance of IMC in brand building activities has been fully appreciated or is being practised by Ghanaian advertisers and ad agencies.