Nonmarket marketers: A new way to look at public affairs practitioners

This paper addresses two specific questions: how do public affairs practitioners view themselves and how does this conceptualisation relate to wider debates about what constitutes Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). Scholarship suggests a shift from marketing-centred to organisational perspectives of IMC with a growing importance given to nonmarket stakeholders. Also, public affairs practitioners increasingly operate within a market context and against a changing notion of what constitutes professional work. By using the lens of identity, this paper enables insight into how individuals who help manage nonmarket relationships view themselves. The study is shaped by a critical realistic worldview and draws on data from a mixed methods study of UK practitioners exploring public affairs capabilities. Findings suggest practitioners understand their core identity as predicated on social capital and political insight, but they recognise their role is evolving. This includes widening of skills to include media and digital techniques, a broader remit of stakeholders and greater integration into the organisation. In this they show tendencies towards marketing communications and a stakeholder orientation of IMC. Limitations relate to its scope, a small-scale UK qualitative study and further research is required amongst those who deliver market and nonmarket relationships and the value of integrating these together.