Integrating social media within an integrated marketing communication decision-making framework

ABSTRACT

The reported failure of organisations to successfully implement social media (SM) within marketing communications is likely to result in competitive disadvantage. An exploratory methodology was undertaken to understand implementation challenges of SM. The methodology drew on grounded theory with the in-depth interviews with senior marketers in the first phase of data collection guiding the second phase of data collection. The third phase involved 21 senior marketers completing an online questionnaire which obtained more generalised feedback on the model and identified differences in model application for different SM platforms. The contribution of the study is to propose a sequential decision-making framework for marketers that may help them overcome decision-making uncertainty regarding the choice and implementation of SM platforms.

KEYWORDS:

• Integrated marketing communications (IMC)
• advertising
• social media
• new media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael J. Valos

Michael J. Valos is a senior lecturer in the Department of Marketing at Deakin University, Melbourne. Australia. His research interests are in the area of social media implementation, social media monitoring and integrated marketing communication. He has published papers in the Journal of Marketing Management and the Journal of Strategic Marketing amongst others.

Vanya Louise Maplestone

Vanya Louise Maplestone is a graduate student of the Department of Marketing at Deakin University. Her research interests are in the area of social media strategy, social media adoption and the evolution of integrated marketing communications. She has worked as a research assistant at Deakin University since completing her Honours thesis in 2013 and has commenced a PhD fellowship in 2015.

Michael Jay Polonsky

Michael Jay Polonsky is Alfred Deakin Professor in Marketing at Deakin University, Melbourne. Australia. In 2010, he was awarded Elsevier Distinguished Marketer award by the Society for Marketing Advances for his 20 years of research into environmental marketing issues. Michael has published over 150 journal articles in over 80 different academic journals.

Mike Ewing

Mike Ewing is Alfred Deakin Professor of Marketing and Dean of the Deakin Business School. His work has been published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, the Journal of Advertising Research, the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Service Research and the European Journal of Marketing, amongst others. In 2012, Mike was recognised as a distinguished fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science.