Marketing communication: principles and practice

S T R U C T U R E O F T H E B O O K
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Preface
For many people who have not studied marketing as a specialism, marketing
is promotion or ‘marketing communications’: advertising, mailed brochures,
sales promotions, exhibitions, and people selling. Expectations concerning
marketers are often of people with something to sell – expressers of what is
great, good, and irresistible about a product. People with job and role titles
of ‘marketer’ are often engaged in firing ‘messages’ at ‘targets’ with the
intention of hitting them in order to persuade and induce purchase. We will
take a necessarily broader, more powerful perspective – that all marketing
activity is intercultural social communication. Communication is social action
among people who differ in their values, beliefs, and motivations.
It would be naïve to imagine that marketing is merely a tool of business.
Marketing communication is a cultural enterprise that has a cultural impact.
But do marketing managers ask questions about the cultural impact of their
system of marketing communications? We examine this problem further in
chapter two as the basis for the approach taken in this book. Unlike most
marketing and marketing communication textbooks, this book does not
assume that it is possible to separate the social (culture) and economic
(business) aspects of markets. Thus, the scope of this book is broader than
most in this field, since it does not restrict itself to the management of
marketing communication from a business perspective. Chapter two provides
the detailed rationale for this approach.
This is an introductory textbook for advanced undergraduate, masters,
doctoral, and professional students. It has been designed to build on the
traditional body of knowledge for marketing communication by connecting
principles that are applicable in contemporary society with academic rigour

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and practice applications. This not an orthodox (conservative) textbook nor
a radical rewriting of marketing communication principles. Rather, it is a
necessary ‘third way’ critical reflection on the received wisdom of
management courses. Readers will find the content complementary to the
contemporary syllabus, as it raises the possibility of constructive change in
management as a social and political ideology and set of practices. Thus,
this book represents a reflective introduction to the field of managed
marketing communication for those engaged in a serious and advanced study
of management.
A comprehensive holistic framework is presented for the management of
integrated marketing communication programmes. Key features are:
• important concepts and theories of human communication, culture,
democratic process, and marketing
• a broader view of the social process of managed communication for
marketing purposes than is to be found in other textbooks in this field
• a perspective that takes marketing communication as a relational process
and not merely tools and artefacts of business
• links to strategic management and marketing planning, and a stakeholder
perspective in managing relationships with customers and other people
in the context of ‘new media’
• current concise and diverse case studies of contemporary management
practices, situation vignettes, and study prompts
The text aims to provide a framework for the management of marketing
communication processes focused on a planned, integrated marketing
communication programme. I develop an approach that examines the nature,
role, and contribution to corporate performance and marketing objectives.
This requires a perspective that forwards communication as a social process
between ‘cultures’, the critical mode of management, and the fundamental
basis for organized purposive work. This requires a connection to corporate
communication as a system of managing.
The reader of the text will be able to:
• appreciate the management of promotional and other necessary purposive
communicative activities in the context of markets operating in wider social
groupings
• apply some judgement and skills to this
• take a broad view of managed communication for marketing purposes
• apply a framework for developing marketing communication strategies
• identify links to strategic management and marketing planning with a
stakeholder perspective
The text takes a contemporary view in considering the advent of electronic
media as part of the communication context. Thus ‘new media’ are not
considered as merely an update or supplement to a more traditional marketing
communication framework. Second, rather than distinguishing promotion