Marketing Communication Plan for Green and Black Organic - Essay Example

?Marketing Communication Plan for Green and Black Organic Introduction It is said that if we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help (John Fitzgerald Kennedy). This saying carries meaning in itself and highlights the importance of communication. One cannot explain any phenomena, his/her intended feelings, his plans or anything else if there is a lack of communication. Thus, we can generalize this thing that effective communication has become mandatory in every walk of life. With special regard to businesses, communication phenomenon has grasped huge attention over the past few years. Its awareness truly started to spread when businesses realized the importance of communicating their purpose to their target audiences affectively. It is important to determine that how businesses can communicate their purpose and intended goals to their customers. Here, comes the importance of marketing communication. This paper will focus on marketing communication strategies, objectives and finally the plan proposed for Green and Black organic chocolate that aims to convert dark into rainbow. This proposal is prepared to be presented before an agency by Green and Black organic for illustrating their communication strategies they are thinking to opt. Marketing communication: Marketing communication, as described by Kimmel (2005), is a process that constitutes various activities such as advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing conducted to communicate company’s offerings to present and potential customers. Green and black organic, while keeping in view their position in market, is proposed to devise the following marketing plan for communicating benefits and attracting customers to their product portfolio. Marketing communication Plan: SOSTAC approach is one of the traditional and generic approaches for the development of marketing communication plan (Smith, Berry and Alan Pulford, 1999). Green and Black organic will follow this approach for developing marketing communication plan. It highlights the current situation, objectives, strategies employed for achieving objectives, tactics used, actions required and finally measures performance with the desired standard. Analysis of current situation: Green and black organic is now owned by Cadbury, which has 30% of the total market share in London. The company was initially carrying out its operations individually, but later it came under the control of Cadbury. SWOT analysis: In order to assess the current and past performance of the company, SWOT analysis was carried out for the purpose of analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strength Following are the factors that made Green and Black organic a successful company in confectionary industry. Manufacturing chocolates from organic food. Dark chocolates prepared from 70% of cocoa beans. Operating under the name of Cadbury. Regarded as first manufacturers of chocolate from organic substance. Employment of good marketing activities as compared to those conducted by small brands. Weaknesses Following are the weaknesses of Green and Black organic Most of the people do not prefer eating dark chocolates so this can result in reduction in sales volume. The size of the company is too small and so, it cannot extend its operation in areas outside the borders of London. As the name of the company does not specify anything related to chocolate, so people can misunderstand the name green and black organic. Opportunities Green and black can earn huge revenues if it focuses and avail following opportunities Manufacturing of chocolate butters and chocolate spread can earn them huge profits. Manufacturing chocolate shakes can also be an attractive option for customers to direct their buying behaviors in favor of Green and Black Organic. Extending their operations beyond the territories of London is an attractive opportunity. Threats The company has the following threats that it can face from the market and competitors. The competitors have a very strong position in market for example Mars, Nestle and Ferrero. Because of its small size, company got acquired by Cadbury, which has destroyed its own repute and name as the company is now operating under Cadbury’s name. Few people are of the view that preparing chocolates from organic is not environment friendly and they perceive preparing them as damaging the nature’s beauty. Extensive marketing by competitors can result in customers’ switching behavior from Green and Black organic. After analyzing the company’s current position, it is assessed that company is not paying much attention to the marketing communication strategies and it needs to be taken care of as it has become mandatory for the organization to achieve competitive edge. Objectives (Smith and Taylor, 2004) suggests that marketing communication objectives should be such that they affect the mind of the target audiences in a way that generates awareness, interest and repetitive behavior. In order to develop marketing communication objectives, a company must have a fair idea of its marketing objectives (Varey, 2002). For discussing marketing communication objectives, I will first shed light on marketing objectives of Green and Black Organic. Marketing Objectives The marketing objectives of Green and Black organic are as under: Increase unit sales of the product by 15% over next 12 months. Increase market share by 5% over the next 12 months. Increase distribution channel by 15% to 30% in next 12 months. To develop an extensive network of distributors outside the border of London to earn huge revenues. Once green and black organic are clear with their marketing objectives, they can then develop their marketing communication objectives that set a roadmap towards the direction they have to go for achieving their marketing communication objectives. Marketing Communication Objectives: Following are the marketing communication objectives set by Green and Black organic for the purpose of attracting and creating brand awareness of their product portfolio among customers. To increase awareness among people from 15 to 30% within a period of 10 weeks in youngsters who are at the age of 25-35 years. To position the product as “infectious brand” with a tagline “organic for everyone’ within a period of about 10 months. To make Green and Black chocolate as the most preferred chocolate among huge proportion of youngsters from the total population, within a period of about 10 months. To establish small shops holding complete products’ portfolio over a period of 2 years. To announce the launch of any new product only when 50% of awareness has been created among potential customers. Implications of developing Marketing Communication Objectives: Developing effective marketing communication strategies have implications in organizations in the long run. A research conducted by Kwak,  Forman and  Zinkhan (2009) on a sample of US and Korean people, for assessing the impact of marketing communication like advertising on individuals attitudes and behaviors, revealed that people living in US develop attitudes and behaviors that are more favorable to the product and its pricing. However, such an impact was nit observed in Korean people. However, overall results indicated that there is no significant impact of marketing communication strategies on individuals’ perceptions and attitudes. Marketing Communication Strategy: In order to accomplish the promotional goals, organizations need to devise such strategies that lead towards successful completion of promotional objectives. Hughes and Fill (2007) suggest that there are three entities that are important and critical to the success of the businesses namely customers, marketing channel and stake holders. They emphasize on the fact that different types of communication strategies need to be designed for each of these groups. Detail of these broad categories of communication strategies, along with the criticality to an entity, is discussed below. Pull strategy: According to Lamb, Hair and McDaniel (2008) pull strategy is employed by businesses when they want to achieve their promotional objectives by focusing only on the end user, rather than emphasizing the marketing channel. This creates such a strong impact that consumers start demanding the product from a retailer who buys it from the wholesaler. This is the reason that this strategy is referred to as a pull strategy because the product is pulled by customers through the marketing channels. Push strategy: Push strategy, as described by Lamb, Hair and McDaniel (2008) is a type of promotional strategy in which manufacturers use either aggressive personal selling or go for trade advertising for persuading the wholesaler to buy their products. The wholesaler then convince retailers to buy products from them and the retailers, by using different promotional activities, push products to the customers. As the product is pushed from the point of its source to different marketing channels, hence it is called as push strategy. Profile strategy: The third entity which is critical to huge organizations is stake holders that are interested in knowing the issues associated with the firm. This strategy is referred to as profile strategy (Hughes and Fill, 2007). They suggest that stakeholders are interested in the repute of the organization which obviously depends upon promotional activities, so it is referred as profile strategy. Strategies opted by Green and Black Organic: As Green and Black is a small organization, so their focus is on the customers and marketing channels. Efficient and extensive marketing channel will help the company to make their product available on shelves. On the other hand, conducting customer oriented promotional activities will increase awareness regarding the product portfolio that includes gift chocolates, ice cream chocolate and hot cooking chocolate. Push strategy in Green and Black Organic: Pull strategy in Green and Black Organic: Tactics/Communication Tools Having developed a broad perspective on marketing communication strategies, we will now go to the tactics or communication tools that Green and Black organic will use for attracting new generation to their infectious brand portfolio. Marketing communication tools help customers in the selection of the product and tend to position the product not only in their lives, but in their minds as well(Ries, 2003). This clearly states the significance of the marketing communication tools. Tools employed Green and Black organic are going to use different communication tools or promotional mix. Retrieved from www.devadolak.com Our focus among all these will be on advertising, sales promotion, directs marketing and social media marketing. Advertising According to Macrury (2009), advertising targets groups across different dimensions and among these different dimensions, most important are demographics, psychographics and geographic. Green and Black organic will look at all these three dimensions while designing their advertisements. Geographical segmentation: Keeping in view the needs and demands of the people belonging to different geographical units, we have segmented the market on the basis of the following geographical factors; Region: Europe Country: London Rural and urban area: Urban and semi-urban areas Demographic segmentation: Individuals of every age like enjoy special events but this trait is more common among people of 25-35 years. On the basis of distinctive needs of youngsters, we have segmented the market demographically. Age: 25-35 years Family size: Young, single; young, married; young, Married no children; young, married with Children. Gender: Female, male Income: Upper middle (50,000 to 70,000); high (Above 70,000) Occupation: Students, business people, job holders. Education: Graduates and post graduates Psychographic segmentation: Customers are willing to pay premium price only when they are satisfied with the product and when the product suits them psycho graphically. Keeping in view the changing life styles and the dynamic personality of today’s young generation, we have psycho graphically segmented the market on the basis of following factors: Socioeconomic classification: Upper middle and elite class Life style: Fashion oriented, outdoor oriented, fun loving Personality Those who want to enjoy every special moment of their life with their loved ones by dipping every moment in chocolate Behavioral segmentation: Behavior of a selected segment effects the buying of a product to a greater extent. Keeping in view the behavioral characteristics, market is segmented on the following factors; Occasions: Regular (Eid, parties, Christmas, birthdays, parties etc User status: 1st time user, regular user. Usage rate: Medium and heavy user. Loyalty status: Medium and strong. Readiness stage: Aware, interested and desirous. Attitude toward product: Enthusiastic and positive. As everything has been specified, that who is the target market and people of which life style and income level are to be focused, we will now move on to the advertising tools used for advertisement. Advertisement on electronic media:   According to Dahlen, Lange and Smith (2009), customers are least interested in knowing the positioning strategies of any organization or the tools employed by them for marketing their product. Customers are interested in knowing that whether the product is going to fulfill their needs and if so, then how effectively. They want to know the reason behind selecting a particular product over other alternatives. In other words, they are not interested in knowing the positioning strategies or the product, but they are interested in the benefits of the brand(Graham, 2008 ). Advertisement on Print Media: According to Wells (2007), print media is one of the most effective communication tools, even more than broad cast or electronic media because people can stop and re-read the publication. Another benefit of print media is that people can read at their own speed whereas broadcast advertisements either run so fast that people do not get anything or they run too slow that people get bored. Green and black, for the purpose of attracting new generation and for creating awareness of their product portfolio, will go for print media as well. Social Media Marketing According to Evans (2008) social media marketing is a way ahead from traditional means of marketing i.e. electronic and print media. It is not that it has replaced any of these means but it is just that it has added a lot for the organizations to market their products on social and public forums. Time Period Activity Budget allocated 1 year Facebook, twitter and MySpace 50,000? Sales promotion: Schultz, Robinson and Petrison (1998) are of the view that one of the most powerful tools of marketing campaigns is sales promotion because it really attracts customers and produce results. However, one of the drawbacks associated with it is that it is the shortest possible way and marketing managers might focus on this tool while neglecting others that can be put to benefit for the achievement of promotional goals. Green and black will use sales promotion as one of their strategies for positioning their product. Strategies employed are as follows: Time Period Activity Budget Allocated 2 months Coupons for watching movie 50,000? 3 months POP display in all renowned and famous shopping malls 40,000? Direct marketing: According to Mullin (2002), direct marketing is a tool that offers you to exploit your customer directly from marketing point of view by offering your products directly to the present and prospective buyers. Green and Black organic company will use following methods for carrying out direct marketing for their new brand portfolio. Time period Activity Budget allocated Frequency 6 months billboards 100,000? Will be placed before 2 or 3 shopping malls 4 months Bus and tubes 30,000? Stickers will be placed on buses and tubes Total budget allocated to the marketing campaign: Activity Budget allocated ELECTRONIC MEDIA 185,000? PRINT MEDIA 74,002? SOCIAL MEDIA 50,000? SALES PROMOTION 90,000? DIRECT MARKETING 130,000? TOTAL 5,29002? Total amount of budget allocated to this marketing campaign will be 5, 29002?. Various promotional activities, as described above will be employed in order to achieve promotional goals and objectives i.e. attracting young generation and creating awareness regarding product portfolio offered by Green and Black organic that promises its present and potential customers “infectious brand idea” and “sheer cheerfulness” on every accession. Controlling and Measuring: Controlling the actual performance with desired performance is important for businesses to critically evaluate their performance in terms of achieving their intended goals. Controlling the actual performance in a way that it matches the desired standard is what that is required. Following are the aspects that need monitoring and were evaluated critically to see if they fulfill the desired standard. Quality control is one the aspects that need to be specifically looked into by organizations. Controlling quality at its maximum will enable company to earn good repute and high profits. Though, it is famous for its natural organic substance, a proper quality control department needs to be developed that will take care of quality related matters. Talking about marketing campaign budget, the allocated budget was 750.000? but the entire promotional activities were planned in 5, 29002?. This shows that the actual performance was better because the rest of the amount will be used time to time if need arises according to the circumstances. One drawback that was observed was lack of market research. Proper market survey was not conducted for observing the attitudes and preferences of people towards chocolates. Proper system for customer feedback needs to be developed. Any company cannot just earn revenues from its promotional campaign, but other factors like satisfied customers are also critical to the success of organization. In view of this, customer relationship management process needs to be focused on. The Cadbury’s market share is about 30% in chocolate sector. As Green and Black is acquired by them so special attention should be given to the product development in order to make it most loving and preferable brand among young generation. Another important activity that needs to be conducted, along with other promotional activities, is the distribution of free samples in offices and in universities as it will bring more customers. Development of special information systems that can track customer complaints and maintain complete record needs to b employed which in this company is not given any attention. Extending operations outside the border of London will also be an attractive opportunity for Green and Black Organic. Enthusiastic youth living in other parts of the world should also be targeted as a new market. Sales volume can increase to a larger extent if company starts offering several gifts like a beautiful card, a beautiful decoration piece showing the significance of chocolate can prove beneficial. 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