Running throughout the study was a theme of change. What has been developed and
codified both by the academic community and the senior marketing executives is nice
to know, but not terribly relevant' today. That is clear from the comments about the
resistance to change the senior marketing people found in their own organisations and
among their agencies. The 'campaign nature'of marketing communications planning and
implementation must clearly give way to more strategic, longer-term, financially viable
relationship programmes that build value for both the marketer and customer over time.
We simply need to rethink what marketing communications is all about in an interactive,
information-laden system where the customer probably knows as much as, or perhaps
more than, the marketer. Control is gone. Information sharing is likely to be the future,
and reciprocity for both parties the goal.