• by Jean Brandolini Lamb , February 23, 2006

In ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," Meredith Grey is a first-year surgical intern in love with her married boss, the handsome and brilliant Dr. Derek Shepherd. At one particularly desperate moment, Dr. Grey pleads to her once-boyfriend, who has reconciled with his wife, "Want me. Love me. Choose me."

Bare, honest, unrequited desperation is tough to watch and even tougher to feel. Are marketers likewise too desperate for attention? They hold out hope that the target of their affections will choose a brand on their terms, which usually means programs anchored by advertising and supported by other communication efforts. But consumers, like Dr. Shepherd, are just too smart for that.

No longer black and white, successful marketing is graying. It reaches, engages, and interacts with its audience through the blending of formerly disparate practices of advertising, public relations, direct marketing, events, engagement, buzz, point-of-purchase, and so on. With integrated marketing, we start with an open mind, a blank slate, and the belief that the customer is king. With strategic communications, we begin with corporate goals and focus on delivering an appropriate message to each constituency through the best channels.

The first step in integrated marketing is being honest -- learning about the brand and its perception in the market. Research here is the key. It's how marketers learn about consumers: who they are, how they behave and interact. It's in the next step where integration sets itself apart. Instead of the research being used solely to inform the traditional creative process, the research is also used to direct the selection of most appropriate marketing functions to reach the target audience.

The big guns are starting to take notice. Brand powerhouse Procter & Gamble moved from "media planning" to "communications planning," which put the consumer at the center of its marketing efforts. P&G may not have been first, but it may be the biggest to employ campaigns that blend pr, advertising, Web marketing, and buzz. Some agencies are getting into position to lead this new movement. In a piece last fall in The Wall Street Journal, Publicis announced to the world that it had named a "chief holistic officer" charged with getting "agency staffers to think less about TV-centric campaigns and to devise campaigns that use whatever media suits the client's target audience."

It's a step, but are we still being too small-minded by focusing on media and the customer alone? In the spring 2005 MIT Sloan Management Review, Professor Paul A. Argenti delivers "The Strategic Communications Imperative," in which he makes the case for "communication aligned with the company's overall strategy, to enhance its strategic positioning." In his view, all messages are formed based on business goals. Argenti identifies Dell as a company that embodies this principle. "The phrase 'Dell Direct' not only describes the company's business model, but it is about as clear a unifying communications statement as a company could possibly have."

Think of strategic communications as an orchestra. The corporate strategy is the muse, the messages are the music, the communication functions are the instrument groups, the head of marketing or communications is the conductor, and the people in the audience are the constituencies. This is a fluid principle with interaction between the players and the audience. Adjustments can be made based on reactions. This model puts corporate interests front and center, but it also makes a strong argument that marketing communication practices must be harmonious in order to be effective.

There's no reason for marketers to act so desperate. If there's one lesson to take from integrated marketing and strategic communications, it is that marketers need to integrate campaigns and join marketing communication functions. Although it's not so easy to let go of black-and-white thinking, employing these lessons -- if not the entirety of the models -- is necessary to be wanted, loved, and chosen by customers.

Jean Brandolini Lamb is the founder of Brandolini Communications, a marketing consultancy. (jean@brandolinicommunications.com)