Thanks to technology, your customers and prospects are taking control of communication.

And they are doing it with a tenacity not seen since Paul Prudhomme attempted to tie his own shoelaces.

As a result, they now define when, where, how, how much and what kind of information they want.

The future's not what it used to be
At the same time, messages, brand promises and even brands themselves are being segmented, fragmented and pulverized until they disappear. All because there are now more choices of how to get information than there are coffee nomenclatures at Starbucks.

(And by the way, don't you just want to slap anybody who takes more than six words to order a cup of coffee?)

As a result, products and services are no longer sold. They are bought.

In fact, they're no longer just products or services. They're hybrids oriented to stated customer and prospect needs.

All this may seem bleaker than Ingmar Bergman listening to an acoustic set performed by Leonard Cohen.

But cheer up, frappucino-breath
This shifting world creates all sorts of opportunities for communications to play a much more effective and efficient role in delivering measurable business results.

It can move your prospects through each stage of the purchase process and beyond to not only create sales, customers, more profitable relationships, but also brand advocates.

If your communications is not doing that for you, then you should look closely at giving it direction by integrating all of it.

Test your integration
If you think you're already integrating what's being communicated in your markets, then you should look closely to be sure that it's reaching its full potential. (In fact, you might be interested in a little diagnostic exercise we've developed to test your program's true integration quotient.)

We say look closely because there are now more permutations of integrated business communications then there are of Michael Jackson's face.

Integration isn't what it used to be, either
In addition, integrated communications has evolved from the '90s version of truth management: reality styling and fact reconstruction foisted off by dinosaur ad agencies to generate income to their holding companies' independent profit centers.

Doesn't sound very integrated does it? Well, don't kid yourself. It's not.

True integrated communications is a strategic process that permeates the entire organization, rather than a campaign from the marketing or advertising department. Every point of contact with customers, prospects and other stakeholders must be identified, analyzed and integrated through communications to build profitable relationships.

This kind of integration is about as much like the packaging and transmitting of one-way marketing monologues that speak in "one voice" as a Tiffany's bracelet is to a cubic zirconium from Fred's Mattress City, Home Center and Leisure World.

No longer monologue management
Instead of surface-level communications spin and creative misdirection, true integrated communications is a process of dialogue, interaction and learning with the purpose of providing value to customers and prospects and cultivating long-term, reciprocal relationships with them.

True integration drives sales, brand value and repeat purchases, and builds and enhances long-term customer relationships and lifetime customer value.