Although the Druckerian Management Philosophy was a significant impact on the marketing concept in the 1960s, people who focused on selling and positioning did not entirely back down. Different frameworks on marketing communications came to life at the same time, such as the hierarchy of effects approach, AIDA (Attention, Interest, Decision, Action) by Barry and Howard.

In 1972, Al Ries and Jack Trout, popular marketing consultants, emphasized the importance of positioning a product in an information-saturated society. They argued that the success of a product is significantly about how it is positioned in the customer’s mind. In their book, Positioning, the Battle of the Mind, Reis and Trout mentioned that companies should not only focus on their strengths but also their competitors’ weaknesses.

In short, this concept starts with the product, but instead of entirely focusing on the product, it also focuses on how the product should be placed in the prospect’s mind.

In the 1980s, Don E Shultz constructed the concept IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications). The idea elaborated how a brand’s communication should have and follow a common strategy that works cooperatively. Vital communication elements include direct marketing, highly selective advertising, public relations, sales promotion, retail trade, packaging, influencing opinions, in-store activities and word of mouth.

All these breakdowns meant deeper analysis and brought the need for a one-stop solution for all marketing elements. Just as IMC was gaining momentum, companies started a shift in their operations by focusing on marketing and advertising more than the product. This got a backlash since it created a gap between the promise and the delivery. The gap opened an opportunity for a need for Drucker’s publications on service marketing that emphasized the importance of marketing and innovation as methods to satisfy actual customer needs.