IMC, The Next Generation

Strategies for binding customers to an organization--by determining the information they want and giving it to them

In 1993, Don Schultz showed marketers how to coordinate their organizations' entire communications programs with the seminalIntegrated Marketing Communications. InIMC--The Next Generation, Schultz offers a refined and updated approach to the IMC model, one that goes beyond the messages an organization chooses to send to encompass the information that the customer wishes to receive or have access to.

IMC--The Next Generation shows marketers how to build sustainable competitive advantage and ROI by combining and coordinating all methods through which buyers and sellers come together. Numerous cases and real-world examples reveal how to use today’s IMC model to:

• Integrate internal and external communications programs
• Influence customers at every contact point
• Build long-term brand relationships

Don Schultz is one of today's most knowledgeable and respected leaders in the field of marketing and communication. A professor emeritus-in-service of integrated marketing communications at Northwestern University, Schultz is also president of the consulting firm Agora, Inc., and an external director of Simon Richards, Melbourne and Brand Finance, London. He has authored a number of influential books including Communicating Globally, Raising the Corporate Umbrella, Measuring Brand Communication ROI, and other titles.

Heidi Schultz is executive vice president of Agora, Inc., and a lecturer at Northwestern University. She has an extensive background in media management, direct marketing, media research, and strategic planning and is the former publisher of Chicago, the nation's largest monthly city magazine.

Heidi Schultz is a professor of Management and Corporate Communication and teaches business communication and storytelling. Her six-word story sums up her devotion to her students: “Once my student, always my student.” Her current interests and research focus on the relationship between rhetorical patterns and writing quickly, storytelling in the corporate setting, and the impact of music intervention in high-stakes presentations. Dr. Schultz started the Business Communication Center at UNC Kenan-Flagler in 1997. It has grown to serve the communication needs of all business students. She is the former director of the Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. She received her PhD from UNC-Chapel Hill, MA from UNC-Charlotte and BA from Lenoir-Rhyne College.