IMC is an acronym for Integrated Marketing Communications, which is a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time. Integrated Marketing Communications can be defined as a holistic approach to promote buying and selling in the digital economy. This concept includes many online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from search optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, affiliate, e-mail, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry analyst relations, billboard, radio, and television.1
Pioneered at the Medill School at Northwestern University, the IMC graduate program offers both full-time and part-time options. The full-time program is a 15-month, five-quarter graduate degree program, with classes offered in Evanston, Ill., which is about 30 minutes north of downtown Chicago.
There are now five concentrations in the full-time IMC program: Brand Strategy & Advertising, Corporate Communications & Public Relations, Direct & Interactive Marketing Communications, Marketing Analytics, and Media Management (the last offered in conjunction with the Kellogg School of Management). Students can select up to two concentrations. For all concentrations, the first two quarters consist of core IMC courses. In the third quarter, students take electives in their area of concentration. During the fourth quarter, students work with an employer in the professional residency program. The residency, which takes place over the summer, gives students the opportunity to work for a company and apply what they learned in the classroom to real IMC-related tasks within the company. Some past residency sponsors include: 3M, Dow Chemical, Draft FCB, Edelman, Euro RSCG, Facebook, FedEx, Google, Nimblefish Technologies, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular, Western Union, Yum! Brands. For more information on residencies, please click here. In the fifth and last quarter, students take the remaining electives and work on several real-world corporate projects.
The part-time program, which can be completed in two years, is offered at Medill’s downtown Chicago campus. Since part-time students work while enrolled in the program, they attend class year-round and a residency is not a requirement.
The Medill IMC graduate program teaches students how to become the best marketing professionals by understanding how to engage, persuade and activate consumers from the consumers point-of-view.
Graduates of the Medill IMC program are employed in such positions as: Brand Managers, Account Planners, PR Professionals, Internal Communications Specialists, Database Marketing Managers and Strategic Marketing Consultants.
For more information, please visit the Medill School’s Web site: http://medill.northwestern.edu
1- Source: The American Marketing Association
