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Press Releases:
THUNDER FACTORY
Accelerates Growth
in Southern California
Fleetwood Rv, San José
State University Choose
Thunder Factory For
Integrated Marketing
Programs
Business Growth at
Thunder Factory Spurs
Headquarters Move,
Expansion into L.A.
and N.Y.
In the News:
Thunder Factory Wins
Fleetwood RV, San José
State University
Article List:
Confusing Spin
With Strategy
- Patrick Di Chiro
An Open Letter
To Al Ries, Ad Age
Columnist
Here's Where to Find
Integrated Marketing
- AdAge
Getting a Bead on 'Buzz'
- Virginia Postrel
Survey: Network TV
Does Worst Job of
Proving Advertising ROI
- Judann Pollack
Toughening Your Brand
- Lynn Upshaw
Coffee's For Closers
- Patrick Di Chiro
The Role of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)
in The Pharmaceutical Industry
- Joseph Gutman, MD
Playing the
Search-Engine Game
-Mylene Mangalindan, WSJ
At Last,
a Way to Measure Ads,
- Michael Totty, WSJ
Small Firms Can
Survive Sqeeze
By Revamping Marketing Efforts
- Jeff Bailey, WSJ
Study Says
Marketers Shifting
Toward Internet, Direct Mail
- Erin White, WSJ
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An Open Letter To Al Ries, Advertising Age Columnist:
Integrated Marketing -- It Works, and It's Here to Stay!
By Patrick Di Chiro
Chairman and CEO, THUNDER FACTORY, Inc.
Dear Editor:
If provocative headlines translated into consulting revenues, Al
Ries would rival McKinsey and Company by now. First Mr. Ries tried
to sell us on his questionable hypothesis that advertising is falling,
while PR rises. (Actually, the ad industry fared comparatively better
than PR during the recent economic meltdown.) Now, Mr. Ries is claiming
that integrated marketing is joining the advertising industry on
that slippery slope to marketing oblivion ( "The Disintegration
of Integrated Marketing," Al Ries, Feb. 16).
The fact is that integrated marketing, in philosophy and practice,
is gaining both agency and client-side acceptance every day. The
question is not whether adveritisng, PR and direct mail agencies
will all converge into integrated firms. Of course they won't. The
marketing industry continues to be very fragmented and it's highly
unlikely that will change in the foreseeable future.
The real questions are: What is the most effective way to acquire,
activate and retain customers today? And, what do clients really
want? Integrated marketing firms -- as well as marketers like P&G's
Jim Stengel, who commented on these issues in the Feb. 16 issue
of Ad Age -- understand that in today's fully networked world, you
can't engage customers and prospects through only one media channel..
Clients also understand that the fragmented and frequently inefficient
traditional agency model is fundamentally broken.
Smart clients now demand new thinking on media, greater focus on
ROI and better integration of strategy and tactics across the entire
marketing spectrum. Can integrated marketing agencies deliver on
those demands? Absolutely. They are doing so right now across the
US, and the world.
Just because huge agencies continue to stick to their respective
knitting, and small ones break off to pursue specialty areas, does
not mean that integrated marketing is not here to stay. Today's
drastically changed market and media landscape demands an integrated
approach in marketing. Increasingly, so do clients.
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