Published Paper Details:

Purpose- The objective of this paper is to provide the detailed knowledge based on the empirical studies on Integrated Marketing Communications. This paper aims firstly, to cover the evolution of IMC including the definitions of IMC. Secondly, to identify the barriers while implementing the IMC by the organizations and advertising agencies over the three decades. Methodology - This paper is based on a review of literature, by taking the articles from different databases (EBSCO, Scopus,) over the last decades (1991-2020). Findings- The study has found that over the three decades (1991-2020) It has been observed that the IMC has been defined differently by diverse authors in the past three decades wherein, Don.E Schultz; Seric and Gill & Lucia Porcu have contributed significantly while defining the definitions in three phases respectively. The study has categories barriers into four groups namely- conceptual issues, turf wars, organizational culture and stiff organizational structure. Research limitations- This research is limited to secondary data and few papers. Future studies should review a greater number of studies to get represent able results. Originality: This paper has a novel contribution by filling the existing gap. Firstly, this paper covers definitions evolved over the time 1991 to 2020, as existing studies have neglected the evolving definitions of IMC from 2008 onwards. Moreover, the study helps to identify the obstacles faced by the agencies and organization while IMC implementation.