Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC):
It Is Not Just Marketing Services Anymore
There was a time when companies had secreted away in their annexes marketing services organizations that
essentially acted as a go-between with the creative brain trusts at "The Advertising Agency." The agency was a one-
stop shop for just about everything—especially advertising and media buying. Of course, time changes everything
and so does the Internet.
The rise of the Internet created new metrics and led to greater accountability in marketing. Companies could directly
interact with a greater number of their individual, end-user consumers and evaluate marketing strategy in terms of the
number of eyeballs, clicks or footsteps that search marketing delivered. Now, most companies realize that it is also
critical to a business’ success to gather information from these interactions to not only measure behavioral change
but also increase profitability.
The majority of consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies have traditionally focused solely on their customers.
Now, traditional companies are also collaborating with online giants, such as Google and Yahoo!, as well as other
media and direct marketing agencies to increase their market share. All of these changes reflect the resurgence of
the consumer as the arbiter of media choices.
Many companies are trying to put their arms around the ever-evolving marketing services dynamic. They seek to unify
efforts across geographies and business units. As it becomes more apparent that marketing excellence needs to be
strengthened, companies are implementing new strategies to continue to push the evolution of a fully integrated
marketing approach.
Historical Perspective
For decades, CPG companies have been masterful at understanding the customer (buyer) and consumer (end user).
They are strategic, analytical, brand oriented and consumer centric. CPG companies excel at training executive
marketing talent and have produced many of the most successful marketing and business leaders in the industry
today. Procter & Gamble, M&M/Mars, Kraft and PepsiCo are just a few notable examples of traditional CPG strategic
marketing “academies”—companies for which marketing represents a core competency and competitive advantage.
Such companies are implementing four major strategies:
Transform the portfolio: Accelerating the shift in the product portfolio to better align with key customer and consumer
trends and the top-grossing sales channels and demographic groups
Expand global scale: Increasing business internationally, especially in the fastest-growing developing countries
around the world
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Drive out costs: Creating a leaner cost structure and making better use of assets to generate savings to reinvest in
brand building
Strengthen employee and organizational excellence: Developing organizational capability and supporting employees in
meeting business challenges around the world
As a result of these strategies, a new role is emerging: the global integrated marketing communications (IMC) leader.
Redefining the Role
As a rule, the global IMC leader reports to the chief marketing officer (CMO) and is responsible for strategic, forward-
looking integrated marketing communications strategies and programs. In an environment with a great deal of
marketing sophistication, an IMC leader must raise the functional excellence of key areas of the marketing mix in
order to further drive brand performance. He or she provides strategic leadership for advertising, packaging,
consumer promotions, marketing and media, and public relations activities. A key responsibility is elevating these
organizations and their contributions on a global basis. This role ensures strong alignment to other cross-company
customer/consumer communications initiatives.
The global IMC leader plays both a strategic and a hands-on role in the company’s marketing efforts. This person
provides leadership, guidance and support to his or her direct reports. This individual is responsible for working with
agencies and with others across the organization globally in order to leverage and maximize efforts of the brand
portfolio as a whole. The role works closely with executives from across business units to assist in conceiving,
developing, evaluating and deploying programs so that each of the brand's respective strategic goals and objectives
is supported.
Specifically, a Global IMC Leader Will:
I Provide strategic direction for the development of annual marketing communications plans and long-range
strategic business objectives
I Identify, evaluate and publicize new “next generation” ideas to advance consumer communications
I Interpret and disseminate corporate policy on advertising, consumer promotions and packaging and ensure
adherence to corporate policy and legal compliance
I Manage the marketing training function to raise marketing skills of marketers worldwide
I Oversee the packaging function, including development and evaluation of new packaging technologies/
techniques designed to improve packaging quality and efficiency
I Lead agency relations, including optimizing the creative process and relationships to ensure continued
satisfaction, efficiencies and direction for creative reviews and annual agency evaluations
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Experience and Core Competencies
A typical career path for this role would begin in a classic CPG company and then transition successfully to a consumer
services business. The ideal candidate will have experience in packaged goods, consumer marketing, consumer
services and advertising. This person must be comfortable performing in a changing environment. Generally, this
person will have 15 or more years of relevant experience with a college degree and, preferably, an M.B.A.
Compensation
Base salaries for these roles range from $225,000 to $325,000 plus a performance bonus and long-term incentive
plan for a total compensation package of $500,000 to $750,000.
The successful candidate will demonstrate the following competencies:
Vision and Purpose
He or she must see beyond today in order to help with leading-edge thinking and next-generation ideas. In addition
to developing a clear, compelling vision of where he or she wants to take the organization, the successful candidate
will communicate it in bold, persuasive terms to all stakeholders. At the same time, he or she will use best-in-class
benchmarks and previous experience as catalysts for driving change, again creating the urgency for change and
communicating it throughout the organization in a positive way.
Influencing and Relationship-Building Skills
This person possesses a high degree of confidence and has balanced, well-honed listening skills. He or she must be
comfortable with the challenges of reaching agreement among occasionally conflicting interests and must be able to
interact effectively across the functions and business of the company. He or she shows the ability to both learn from
colleagues and add value to their thinking. This person needs to demonstrate the ability to be quickly recognized as
a key partner. While the position has a high level of responsibility in defining strategy and developing and deploying
programs, the support of key constituencies within the company is critical to success. The individual must, therefore,
have excellent skills in influencing, shaping and driving dialogue by building buy-in across the organization on topics
relevant to the consumer, the market and the business strategy.
Business Acumen
He or she must be a practical, hands-on marketing and general management executive who not only can
demonstrate creativity and market innovation, but also has a proven track record of excellence of driving results,
executing plans and delivering within budgets to both the business top and bottom line. He or she brings a balanced
marketing, strategic and operational background and develops his or her credibility by not only packaging ideas well
but also demonstrating practicality and building the support of key groups.
Cultural Acuity and Organizational Savvy
As a potential successor to the CMO, the global IMC leader must quickly recognize the nuances in the company’s
culture prior to embarking on major changes. Additionally, this person will have experience working across various
geographies and adapting to different cultures in global assignments. As a seasoned leader, this person evaluates,
recruits, develops and retains a motivated marketing team.
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Change Management Expertise
This person must have the ability to lead change through large, complex organizations due to the rapid evolution of
the business and the changing needs of the clients.
Integrated Communications/Media Expert
This individual must be a recognized authority in the world of marketing and media communications. He or she must
have managed the execution of large, fully integrated, multi-platform programs across both traditional and emerging
media. He or she must be well known to the media community as accomplished, respected and tough yet fair. Ideally,
the successful candidate will be grounded in traditional media planning and buying while also having significant
experience across all facets of integrated marketing communications.
Marketing Officers Practice | Global Team
Bradford McLane [Chicago] Practice Leader Courtney Hagen [New York] Margot McShane [San Francisco]
+1-312-993-9696 +1-212-351-2000 +1-415-352-3300
bmclane@russellreynolds.com chagen@russellreynolds.com mmcshane@russellreynolds.com
Anthony Armstrong [Sydney] Christine Hauff [Frankfurt] David Selby [Chicago]
+61-2-9258-3100 +49-69-75-60-90-0 +1-312-993-9696
aarmstrong@russellreynolds.com chauff@russellreynolds.com dselby@russellreynolds.com
James Carpenter [New York] Andrew Hayes [Houston] Robyn Harrell Soto [New York]
+1-212-351-2000 +1-713-754-5995 +1-212-351-2000
jcarpenter@russellreynolds.com andrewhayes@russellreynolds.com rsoto@russellreynolds.com
Florence Ferraton [Paris] Jim Hinds [London] Melanie Steinbach [Chicago]
+33-1-49-26-13-00 +44-20-7839-7788 +1-312-993-9696
fferraton@russellreynolds.com jhinds@russellreynolds.com msteinbach@russellreynolds.com
About Russell Reynolds Associates
Russell Reynolds Associates is the most trusted name in global executive search and assessment. Through our 37
wholly owned offices, the firm’s more than 275 professionals conduct senior-level search and assessment assignments
in a range of industries for public and private organizations of all sizes. With its one-firm culture, deep knowledge of
major industries and unwavering commitment to client service, Russell Reynolds Associates is uniquely qualified to
help clients find the best leaders and to advise them on optimizing their talent. The firm’s Web site is
www.russellreynolds.com.
© 2007 Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc.
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