Im Rahmen der EFCCE Konferenz 2009 in Wien hat KOMMPress-Redakteur Florian Schleicher den Universitätsprofessor und IK-Spezialisten Don E. Schultz interviewt.

Für euch hat KOMMPress bei dieser Gelegenheit herausgefunden, wie er IK definiert, wie sich die Wirtschaftskrise auf Kommunikation auswirkt, was gerade in heutiger Zeit wichtig ist und welche Tipps er für Studenten hat.

KOMMPress: Mr. Schultz, you are the author and co-author of currently 24 books on marketing, including Integrated Marketing Communications. Why do you think IMC is so important to dedicate it a course of studies at the FHVienna? 

Schultz: Well, the session before was descriptive for me of the 1990s where we had these great creative ideas and we just sent them out and people all just fell in line... I need the consumers in charge of all of this and so I really think you have to start with the customers – understand where they are and then you can do much more creative work, you can have much more ideas.
What we did was we started with products and then thought of ways to sell these. Now we have to start with consumers to find out what they want and what they are doing.

„There are huge changes in the way people communicate“

KOMMPress: What do you think is the future of IMC? What can our generation expect? 

Schultz: There are huge changes in technology, huge changes in the way people communicate. There are many ways that information is transmitted today. You come from an atmosphere of networking, where previous generations were primarily linear. I get emails from students around the world who ask me if I can help them with some paper. 


They come from Ghana, China from everywhere. So I think what we have is a much more fluid system where communications occur much more simultaneously – and you have grown up with that and you don't think anything about it. 

KOMMPress: You are teaching at the Northwestern University – What do you think is most important in teaching IMC? 

Schultz: Starting with customers and consumers! Try to understand where they are, what they are interested in, what they are looking for because there are so many alternatives today, so if you don't understand consumers you can have the greatest idea in the world but no one will ever see it.

„The real challenge is retraining the senior management“

KOMMPress: The new challenge: the Web, which was also discussed in the sessions before, is everywhere. In your opinion – is IMC able to handle these challenges and how?

Schultz: I think the real challenge is retraining the senior management to understand what the changes are, why they have occurred and whether they are going to continue to occur. To get them to understand that the way they communicated is not the way future generations will communicate.

„It's not going to go back to the way it was“

KOMMPress: We live in times of peril. The economy is struggling; thousands of people are losing their jobs. Many companies have to cut costs and many are cutting their budget for communication. What do you think of these developments? Can IMC survive these challenges? 

Schultz: The interesting thing is that we have to rethink communication. It's not a question of surviving, it's more a question of adaptation – can we adapt to the new market place? That's the hardest part. The economies are never going to go back to the way they were. The communication systems are never going to go back to the way they were. So we have to think about what transformations we need. It's not going to go back to the way it was – so we should stop acting as if it would.

KOMMPress: What is your advice for students like us who want to work in the field of IMC? 

Schultz: The most important thing is to learn what customers and consumers are like! We spend an awful lot of time studying the product and relatively little time working at customers. So I would urge you to go out and do that. The other thing I would urge you to do is to think multiculturally. Almost everything in marketing communication is western. 

If you look at the world, maybe 15% is western based, 85% is Asian or African and they don't think in the same way. So if we want to impose our way of thinking on them, it will not work.

„We elected Obama President...“

KOMMPress: You are actually working on a lot of projects, you teach, you travel to conferences like this one... so what do you do in your free time? 

Schultz: Well I'm working on a book.... I also spend a lot of time thinking about what the transformation will be because I don't think we have a very good idea. The US is an interesting place right now because we are going through a massive transformation – we elected Obama President, he is changing the entire country and some people like it, some people don't. But we have to recognize that it's never going to be the way it was, so figuring what it really will be like, that's what I'm trying to think about. 

„…managers and consumers co-create products“

KOMMPress: So what do you think it will be like? 

Schultz: D: I'm thinking of looking at the world with a different view, so that in essence managers and consumers co-create products, that it takes a consumer’s input for a company’s success. So I think it's co-creation, it's culture, it's networks – all the things we haven't dealt with quite well.

KOMMPress: How would you explain IMC to a child? 

Schultz: It starts with a consumer, it tries to understand where they are, what they are doing, how they are doing it and then how you create some way to interact or intercepting with him. If I understand what the touch points between a consumer and a company are I have a much better opportunity to communicate the messages I'm trying to develop.

KOMMPress Redakteur whoelse: Thank you very much for your time and your answers!

Wie immer haben wir die Fotos unserer KOMMPress-Fotografin moira zu verdanken!

And special thanks to our english teacher John Buczak, for checking the text for mistakes!