Defense Date

3-18-2016

Graduation Date

2016

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

PhD

Department

Communication and Rhetorical Studies

School

McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts

Committee Chair

Ronald Arnett

Committee Member

Janie Harden Fritz

Committee Member

Pat Arneson

Keywords

Constructive Hermeneutics, Humanities, IMC, Integrated Marketing Communication, Philosophy of Communication, Rhetoric

Abstract

A review of current integrated marketing communication (IMC) literature indicates that IMC has swept the globe. IMC has become the normative marketing practice for organizations to promote their goods and services, as well as an increasingly popular area of academic study. At the same time, literature shows inconsistency in IMC's professional practice and academic instruction. An increasing number of IMC theorists suggest that "true" IMC involves reorienting an organization to become consumer-focused and responsive at every level. This broader vision for IMC points to the discipline's communicative underpinnings. It is dialogic, other-oriented and interpretive in nature, yet most organizations and academics that claim to practice and teach IMC treat it as a "simple managerial task"—mere tactical coordination of marketing elements (Schultz and Patti 75). This dissertation supplements current literature to establish IMC's rhetorical and philosophical roots and provides a perspective about how organizations can achieve greater communicative understanding with their stakeholders by considering IMC from a humanities and constructive hermeneutic standpoint. By understanding the discipline as humanistic and situated in lived practices, rhetorical and philosophical acumen becomes the missing link between tactical implementation and IMC's full potential. This praxis-oriented approach moves IMC beyond the limitations of the social sciences and into the philosophy of communication to offer better insight into how IMC is an interpretive encounter that demands attentiveness to and communicative engagement with the other.

Format

PDF

Language

English

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