11. The Way Forward: Overcoming Barriers with IGMC Solutions

While the future of integrated marketing communications (IMC) or integrated global marketing communication (IGMC) or some other form of words or acronyms seems inevitable, there are still barriers in the way of progress. Here we identify nine such barriers at the time of writing. These are predicate upon the acknowledgment of senior managements in adopting a customer-centric approach to budget and allocate investments accordingly in communications. Moreover, outside-in budgeting and the closed-loop system sensibly tie marketing communication expenditures to revenues generated by customers. Adopting such a consumer-centric approach in measurement implies that the return on customer investment is to be applied to evaluate IGMC programs and campaigns.