Ries on integrated marketing

In his latest column on AdAge, Al Ries talks about the “Disintegration of Integrated Marketing”. The article is not as polemical as it might sounds from the title or, at least, is not against the concept of “integrated marketing” rather against the tempting idea of “integrated marketing agencies”. Specialization is the key says, Mr Ries, and actually it’s simply an evolution of the positioning idea he presented us twenty years ago. Agencies can’t do everything in-house, unless they compromise quality. And this reminds me of a book I read a couple of years ago, “The Myth of Excellence” whose subtitle was “Why great companies never try to be the best at everything”. Think about it…