Managing integrated marketing communications (IMC) through strategic decoupling: How luxury wine firms retain brand leadership while appearing to be wedded to the past

Firms increasingly leverage cultural sources of authenticity in their communication strategies to derive competitive advantage and brand value. The management of authenticity presents problems for brand managers. This paper draws on institutional theory by examining how firms deliberately decouple projected images from internal operations to create powerful brand images. The authors explore the strategies of 26 prestige wineries across 5 countries, and find that brand managers deliberately decouple outward images from internal practices, walking a fine line between remaining "true" to important values and real commercial considerations. The findings challenge whether integrated marketing communication (IMC) always requires tight integration with internal operations (the "one voice, one look" view of IMC). Our findings have particular relevance for niche marketers.