Developing Marketing Communication - Coursework Example

Developing Marketing Communication By Affiliation: Word Count: 2041 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Campaign Objectives 3 Target Audience for Campaign 4 List of Promotional Tools 5 Events and experiences 5 Direct Marketing 5 Advertising 5 Media used 6 Internet 6 Television 6 Billboards 7 Suitability of Promotional Tools and Media used 7 Recommendation for Improvement 9 References 10 Introduction The Galaxy Unpacked Campaign (GUC) is a series of ongoing campaigns by Samsung Electronics (SE) to market the company’s flagship smartphones (Galaxy S Series, Galaxy Note Series, and Galaxy Tab Series)” (Samsung Mobile, 2014). The GUC for consideration in this case is episode 2 of the campaign. Held in September 2014 in Berlin German, the GUC was a marketing campaign in which various communications channels were utilized to promote the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note 4 Edge, Samsung Gear, and Gear VR (Samsung Mobile, 2014). For Samsung, all these products are manufactured and intended for use by premium customers. The flagship concept of marketing involves the communication and product promotion for products considered top of the art used to drive sales in international markets (Samsung Mobile, 2014). Using marketing concepts and theories such as the theory of the firm, marketing mix, and retention marketing mix, this paper seeks to analyze SE’s use of GUC as a product promotion campaign. In addition, the applicability of the media and promotion tools is assessed and compared with theoretical best practice. For instance, using the theory of the firm, it is considered best practice for companies to mitigate their spending and increase returns such that product promotion is both beneficial to the company and directly influencing sales positively (Luo, & Donthu, 2006). The paper concludes with recommendations regarding areas in product promotion where Samsung should adapt different or improve on the current approach. For instance, international campaigns featuring products that do not make it to the international market burden promotional campaigns with extra costs. Campaign Objectives Samsung Electronics (SE), is a technology company that competes in the mainstream international smartphone industry. To address the threat of surging sales following the entry of alternative cheaper phones such as Xiaomi Note targeting the Chinese market, Samsung developed the GUC to familiarize customers with the ‘Next Big Thing’ (Extreme Tech, 2014). Samsung trades all its flagship smartphones with the tagline, ‘The Next Big Thing’ which serves the purpose of communicating to customers about the currently released premium products (Samsung Mobile, 2014). SE’s 2014-GUC makes use the DRIP (Different, Reinforce, Inform, and Persuade) Model aiming at: 1. Differentiating Samsung smartphones from rivals’ to mitigate surging worldwide sales 2. Reinforcing to customers that Samsung is capable of providing customers with the preferable products. 3. Inform loyal and adherent customers regarding the features making “Galaxy Note 4 & Note Edge and Gear S & VR worth buying” (Extreme Tech, 2014). 4. Persuading current owners of Galaxy devices to upgrade to the latest versions of their favorite product lines. Target Audience for Campaign In SE, GUC targets the international middle-to-upper class customers (Extreme Tech, 2014). Although Samsung products are sizably cheaper than those of competitors such as Apple, the company’s use of GUC is to market its line of high-end products meant for middle-to-upper class customers (Extreme Tech, 2014). In social and economic terms, the target group of middle-to-upper class customers is further filtered to a much manageable segment of customers. From the overall target group, the GUC initiative targets youthful customers of between 21 and 35 whose major activities with smartphones involve content sharing, productivity, and socializing (Extreme Tech, 2014). By promoting products installed with high-end features, GCU is meant to appeal to youthful international customers. It is noteworthy to consider that SE headquarters are in S. Korea and the 2014’s GCU event was launched in Berlin, Germany. The location of the campaign launch indicates that 2014’s GCU event was not targeting local S. Korean market but rather an international market flocking with competitors (Extreme Tech, 2014). The GCU initiative was launched in Berlin, Germany at the 2014 IFA. The IFA is an event that selects a location, mostly a cosmopolitan city, and invites tech companies to showcase their inventions. Under consumer electronics, SE and numerous other companies showcase their devices by allowing physically present customers to try the devices before making orders. Following the gathering of different companies competing for the same customers, the GUC targets all customers who by either using the products, watching hands-on videos, reading promotional articles, or streaming live may make the decision to pre-order the launching products (Extreme Tech, 2014). List of Promotional Tools Events and experiences GCU, in both theory and practice, is an event organized and sponsored by Samsung Electronics to provide live and documented coverage of the company’s launch of flagship products. At the IFA in 2014 held in Berlin, SE launched four premium products as earlier stated (Extreme Tech, 2014. This event aims at gathering tech companies to showcase their innovations. Customers around the world are invited to the event to use the innovations first hand and make purchased based on hands-on knowledge. The IFA’s approach of inviting manufacturers and buyers promote the relevance of using events as a marketing strategy and resulting experiences as promotional approach (Prins, & Verhoef, 2007). Direct Marketing In direct marketing, marketers use personal mails, telemarketing, and Emailing as a strategy to reach specific customers (Percy, 2008). An example of direct marketing in the case of GUC initiative is the contacting of specific clients. SE sells and distributes most of its premium devices under carrier contracts. In order for SE to capture a stable footing with sales, the marketing team has to contact UK, US, and other telecommunication carriers to lure them into selling the products under contract or without contract (Percy, 2008). Advertising Advertising is one among the oldest methods of promoting products (Kirkpatrick, 2007). Advertising offers a business model the chance to not only communicate the presence of a new product/service, but also promotes the saturation of available product/service (Altstiel, & Grow, 2006). In the promoting the Galaxy and Gear lines of products, SE provided the “Next Big Thing is Here” set of ads which applied different strategies (Extreme Tech, 2014). Media used Internet One consideration when analyzing the GUC is that tech companies and broadcasting companies do not have mutual duties they serve to each other. Provided that TV stations could not interrupt their normal programming to feature 2014’s IFA campaign, the use of an alternative media was much appealing to SE in delivering the GUC (Extreme Tech, 2014). The internet serves as a media platform and GUC applied it to broadcast the campaign on YouTube. YouTube is able to host live broadcasting and streaming of events. This feature enabled GCU to serve international customers with updates and highlights of SE’s GUC campaign (Extreme Tech, 2014). Television GCU under SE is considered an event. However, the impact of the event nurtures and triggers communication overload regarding the products covered on different channels. GUC’s use of TV as a media involved the placement of ads to invite customers to the event by either attending in person or by following instructions to stream live on YouTube (Extreme Tech, 2014). Thus, as much as TV advertising is concerned, two approaches under the GUC were applied. Firstly, TV ads were used to advertise other Media that would cover the GUC. Secondly, television was and is still being used by channels such as SuperSport, and Barclay’s Premier League to host SE-sponsored ads (Extreme Tech, 2014). Billboards Billboards are promotion tools providing both textual and visual aid information (Taylor, Franke, & Bang, 2006). Billboards are normally placed in busy highways and big city-streets to serve the same purpose as a communication platform for advertising (For Know-It-Alls, 2008). The purpose of using billboards is to provide brief information regarding the presence of new products and services (Lindenberg, 2014). In Berlin’s streets, billboards were used to provide an abstract information regarding the unveiling of new Samsung Galaxy product. Suitability of Promotional Tools and Media used Marketing Mix and Theory of the Firm are two concepts that the choice of promotional tools and media can be tested for suitability considering (Kotler, 2003). For instance, in order to analyze how advertising suits SE under GUC, consideration of the Theory of the Firm would show how much the company is able to make in revenues as a result of the ads. SE considers the use of ads as beneficial such that through broadcasting on media such as television, provides customers, across a wide coverage, with information regarding SE products (Graham, & Frankenberger, 2011). Through mass marketing with advertisements and personal selling using telemarketing/mailing/Emailing makes use of the internet which is considered cheaper in this sense (Extreme Tech, 2014). Due to increased publicity and rendering of information to loyal customers and adherent customers, the company is able to reach as many potential customers as possible at a cheaper cost through the use of strategically located billboards. Following increased sales and managed spending, the company attains the primary achievement of attaining cost-effectiveness in its operations and increased sales (Narayanan, & Manchanda, 2009). Marketing Mix considers the application of the 4Ps in which businesses must consider the product, place, price, and promotion. The 4Ps influence the manner in which promotional tools are deployed as well as the media to use (Narayana, Manchanda, & Chintagunta, 2005). At the product marketing stage, GUC aims at attracting at much attention as possible to the products offered. Thus, the consideration of using television adverts aims at reaching as many people as possible such that the saved costs can be reflected on the product price. By managing promotional costs, lower priced products can be offered to the market. Affordable items in a normal market attract higher sales for price-sensitive customers (Narayana, Manchanda, & Chintagunta, 2005). Thus, using television as media and advertisement as a promotional tool, SE is capable of reducing spending and increasing sales. This outcome satisfies the Theory of the Firm and pricing in Marketing Mix (Thomas, & Sullivan, 2005). Television and the internet are media platforms where promotional tools can be deployed through. Advertising, direct marketing, and events are promotional tools, on the other hand. Deploying these tools through the media platforms invites the outcomes of Rozernberg and Czepiel’s (1992) Theory of Retention Marketing Mix. The theory suggests that businesses should apply different strategies to retain customers. GUC’s approach to the Theory of Retention Marketing Mix requires the use of promotional tools to provide product extras, reinforce promotions, connection of sales’ forces, specialized distribution, and after-purchase communication (Zhu, 2009). Through the application of direct marketing, advertising, and events on media platforms available to all or most of the target markets; SE is able to provide after-sale support through Emails, reinforcement of promotions by advertising on television/billboards, connect sales’ teams across the globe through both internet and television, and distribute strategically based on customer feedback or responses regarding the products under promotion on social media (Smith, & Zook, 2011). Recommendation for Improvement As observed from the above analysis on how the communication strategies of SE by the use of GUC impact the marketability of the targeted products, SE’s reliance on GUC to drive flagship-products’ sales should consider Lauterborm’s (1990) 4Cs (customer needs, customer cost, customer convenience, and customer communication) which aim at replacing the 4Ps of the Marketing Mix. By considering customer orientation, Samsung is to link its promotional tools’ choices with the accessibility of media by target market. While customers seek to be informed regarding pricing of products, SE’s GUC makes use of advertising on billboards, television, and the internet but does not appeal to the entirety of target market. Regarding the nature of GUC, use of billboards should be avoided as they provide very little room for persuading potential customers. The use of internet on the other hand, provides a poor promotional media due to competition for space with other advertisers using the internet and targeting the same customers. In these circumstances, it is impossible for the company to effectively air adverts regarding a onetime promotional event (Ratnatunga, & Ewing, 2005). On the other hand, the interaction between media and promotional tools is quite weak such as the case with personal selling and use of the internet. While time management and resource deployment require strategic planning, internet is a controllable platform that target customers are capable of activating and deactivating its connection. In this case, it is recommended that all the promotional tools be deployed to all identified media except of billboards which are designed to provide general and abstract communication, mostly unusable to convince a customer. References Extreme Tech. (2014). “Samsung Unpacked: Watch the Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge live video stream (updated).” Accessed online on March 12, 2015 from http://www.extremetech.com./computing/189147-samsung-unpacked-event-watch-the-galaxy-note-4-live-video-stream-here For Know-It-Alls. (2008). Billboard Advertising for Know-It-Alls. Filiquarian Publishing, LLC. Graham, R., & Frankenberger, K. (2011). “The Earning Effects Of Marketing Communication Expenditures During Recessions.” Journal of Advertising, Vol. 40, No. 2; pp. 5-24. Kotler, P. (2003). 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