Enhancing the Effectiveness of Marketing Communication Mix for Fiat 500 - Essay Example

? Enhancing the Effectiveness of Marketing Communication Mix for Fiat 500 By Candi s FACULTY OF BUSINESS Executive Summary Automobiles are expensive items that are not mere tools for moving people because they must click emotionally with buyers. It takes time for a consumer to decide about the model and make of automobile that they want. Thus, it is important to attract consumers to the product by highlighting some of the unique features of Fiat 500 that are lacking in other automobiles and then to provide them with constant support to help them remain engaged while they are making their mind. Maintaining consistency in marketing messages in an era of information democracy with a judicious mix of old and new media to presents more visibility cheaply while pointing to an interactive website that helps consumers make their mind is the way to go for the Fiat 500. An advertising message that highlights the unique capability of the Fiat 500 to upgrade to an electric car delivered on billboards outside of retail stores, on buses and outside of underground stations will present heightened consumer interest cheaply to enhance the effectiveness of the marketing communications mix. Consumers can interact with a website mentioned on the advertisement to seek further information on the Fiat 500 electric car, with social media, print, email, etc. adding support as necessary. Contents Introduction 1 The Role of Communications in the Marketing of the Fiat 500 3 An Advertisement for the Fiat 500 7 Conclusion 8 Appendix A – An Advertisement for Fiat 500 10 Bibliography / References 12 (This page intentionally left blank) Introduction It is important that the planning and execution of all types of advertising-like and promotion-like messages selected for a brand, product, service or company satisfy a common set of communication objectives to support a ‘positioning’ cost effectively (Percy, 2008, Pp. 5 – 10). Every individual, business, company or organisation has a need to communicate, but it is important to remember that competitiveness and communication are highly correlated in the real world because without effective communication, it is impossible to convince others to buy (Pattuglia, 2011, Pp. 5 – 10). Pattuglia (2011, Pp. 5 – 10) goes further to suggest that it makes sense to present a certain consistency in marketing messages in an era of information democracy because it is impossible to create brands in five minutes and marketing messages must position, integrate marketing channels and communications, protect a brand and add value to it. In addition, it makes sense for messages to focus on enhancing relationships with communities while remaining aware of consumer generated content models and evolution of technology. Thus, according to Pattuglia (2011, Pp. 7 – 10), a judicious mix of media, both old and new, that responds to the consumption habits of the traditional consumer, and the new consumer is essential for an effective marketing communication mix. However, while it is likely that products will become multi-platform with consumption and communication encompassing different marketing channels, the outstanding design attributes and prospects of a product must merit an emphasis in the communication mix to seek the attention of consumers to emphasise a satisfaction of their needs, aspirations and dreams (Posavac, 2012, Pp. 22 – 30). Fiat, which built its first car in 1899, is one of the pioneers in the automobile industry (Cammarata, 2006, Pp. 5 – 10). However, after the success of Fiat’s Grande Punto, which helped reduce the debt of Fiat from Euro 10 billion to just over Euro 1 billion, Fiat is now counting on the success of the new Fiat 500 on the global markets (Griffiths, 2007, Pp. 14 – 15) and (Automotive Engineer, 2010, Pp. 5). The design of the Fiat 500 aims to acknowledge the past without remaining captive to it and to cater to the needs of the future. Fiat 500’s fully integrated robotised engine, the 1.4 MultiAir, presents revolutionary valve management but Fiat plans to make this engine replaceable with an electric engine that will be available in 2012 to convert the Fiat 500 to an electric car (Automotive Engineer, 2010, Pp. 5). The Fiat 500, which is available in the Pop, Sport and Lounge models with a choice of fourteen exterior colours, and two interiors places its front passengers centred on the windows for increased driving pleasure (Automotive Design & Production, 2011, Pp. 43). Thus, the Fiat 500 has the design features that will attract, and this brief report examines how best to enhance the effectiveness of the marketing communication mix for this automobile. The Role of Communications in the Marketing of the Fiat 500 Pattuglia (2011, Pp. 20 – 25) states that automobiles are expensive items that are not mere tools for moving people because they must click emotionally with people. It takes time for a consumer to decide about the model and make of automobile that they want. Thus, it is important to attract consumers to the product by highlighting some of the unique features of Fiat 500 that are lacking in other automobiles and then to provide them with constant support to help them remain engaged while they are making their mind (Anantachart, 2004, Pp. 105 – 107). To turn consumers into customers it is important that access to information that will help consumers to decide in favour of the Fiat 500 is available at all times and this means that all marketing communications present the URL for a website that presents detailed information about Fiat 500 including podcasts, technical information, email for further support, etc. Enhancing the effectiveness of the marketing communication mix requires attracting more interest to convert more consumers to become customers while minimising the expenditure on advertising and media access and maintaining positioning coherence (Cornelissen, 2000, Pp. 102 – 107) and (De Pelsmacker, 2010, Pp. 4 – 37). According to Hart (1999, Pp. 1 – 15), enhancing the communications mix amounts to enhancing awareness and interest. For the Fiat 500, a need exists for emphasising product cues and design features that will serve buyers well cheaply. It is important to remember that the Fiat 500 design emphasised young people with an urban lifestyle and pace of work while looking to keep up with the future of all those that will buy this excellence in design (Pattuglia, 2011, Pp. 19 – 20). An emphasis on young people means an emphasis on values of young people that include thrift, a concern for the environment, a desire for maintaining their automobile for the future and a desire to do away with a dependency on fossil fuel driven automobiles. Thus, a clear communications win that will attract effectively young buyers needs to emphasise the unique capacity for upgrading the Fiat 500 into an electric car in the future, sometime in the year 2012 (Automotive Engineer, 2010, Pp. 5) and (Fiat, 2011b, “An All-Electric 500”). This capability is lacking in any of the competitors of the Fiat 500 including the Kia Picanto, Mini, Smart Fortwo, Chevrolet Matiz, Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107, Citroen C1 etc. Thus, an eye catching and enthralling slogan that matches the ideals of the young people must reach young audiences to pull them to the Fiat 500 cheaply and economically while offering them the opportunity to examine, imagine, question and to have their questions answered on a website supporting this slogan. The proposed slogan aligns well with the green marketing trend evident in the automotive sector in Europe (De Craecker, 2009, Pp. 1 – 5). Effectiveness of a marketing communications mix is likely to accrue when the advertisement is simple and compact with a great slogan that turns on the imagination to make consumers want to delve more deeply but with a capacity for delivery on a wide variety of media, both traditional and modern. In addition, it is likely to make sense to try to find vibrant additions to the marketing mix that are likely to deliver the slogan to many while costing less than traditional media, such as shopping malls (Forrester Consulting, 2006, Pp. 3 – 5). However, all advertising should point to a website that presents all pertinent details for all those who seeking further information to make their mind about buying. It is important to understand that although the Internet presents a valuable new marketing communications channel, it cannot completely replace traditional marketing channels because marketers must cheaply pull consumers to interact with a website that supports relationship building interactive dialogues to help persuade consumers to commit to a major investment. Thus, advertising messages presented on the billboard, the social media, print, magazine, mobile phone, television, etc. should all lead to one website that in-depth details of the conversion capability of Fiat 500 to an electric car. However, to enhance the effectiveness of the marketing mix it is important to use economic media channels with a capacity for attracting more consumers for less. It is important to note that the marketing campaign for the Toyota Aygo, which is one of Fiat 500’s major competitors, uses more of what are known as the below the line communication channels to keep the marketing communications mix more economical. According to Dahlen (2010, Pp. 491 - 548), below the line communication channels are the non-commission paying media in all their forms. However, Toyota has also tried cinema advertising and cross-promotional deals involving magazines, radio stations and websites to bring this the Toyota Aygo to the attention of the urban consumer (Marketing Magazine, 2011, “Search Results for Toyota Aygo”). Thus, Fiat 500 must try to reduce the cost of its media expenditure, and this means that affixing a banner advertisement outside of major retail stores, on London's buses and in the tube stations is likely to reduce costs associated with presenting marketing communications. Thus, a combination of a more catching advertisement that captures the imagination of the consumers with cheaper and more visible media channel is likely to enhance the effectiveness of the marketing communication mix for Fiat 500 while retaining integration of marketing communication messages over the whole media mix. The details are available from a website that provides all information about the Fiat 500 electric car, www.fiat500electric.com. No such website exists at the time of writing this report, but such a website that presents the complete details of the Fiat 500 electric car merits construction prior to the release of the new advertisement for placement in shopping malls, tube stations and on London buses. Appendix A depicts the advertisement prepared for converting the Fiat 500 into an electric car, and a discussion about this advertisement is below. In addition to placing the prepared advertisement, it is possible to enhance the effectiveness of this advertisement further by blogging on social media, adding to YouTube, presenting the advertisement in print magazines and newspapers and including this advertisement in email campaigns. Because no competitor has the capacity to offer an upgrade to an electric car, it is likely that the impact of the advertisement may become viral if effective manipulation of the marketing communications mix exists (Chaudhuri, 2006, Pp. 25 – 50). However, it makes sense to try to observe the impact and to build awareness gradually while utilising below the line media channels first and then reinforcing based on sales performance using the more expensive media channels that charge more. An Advertisement for the Fiat 500 The advertisement prepared for the Fiat 500 and depicted in Appendix A leans towards strategic marketing communication that attempts to build a long-term brand attitude in consumers going beyond efforts directed towards short-term sales or product usage (Percy, 2008, Pp. 80 – 85). It is important to note that to date the marketing communications emanating for Fiat 500 present a neglect of the Fiat 500s capacity to upgrade to an electric car engine. However, it is important to remember that an automobile has a service life of 10 – 15 years, and this means that it is likely that many consumers will want to either acquire an electric car or maintain an option to upgrade to an electric car in view of the future uncertainty about fossil fuels and concerns about environment. Search results of Marketing Magazine suggests that Fiat has tried to portray the Fiat 500 as a relatively low priced car that presents a solution for the urban transport needs and glamorised this car by associating it with Gucci designs (Marketing Magazine, 2011, “Search Results for Fiat 500”). However, for marketing of automobiles design strengths count more than mere glamour images because the design solution decides about utility and usability. Thus, it makes sense to emphasise the capacity for fitting an electric engine into a Fiat 500. A sporty depiction of a Fiat 500 in black and red is more attractive to most consumers and a peek under the hood depicting the clean outlines of an electric engine for the Fiat 500 encourages a desire to convert to this type of automotive propulsion. A reference to the URL for the Fiat 500 electric car website, displayed in relatively large print below the slogans and pictures, ensures that consumers do note of this resource that will enable them to interact further to seek answers, reflect, contemplate and decide. Conclusion Enhancing the effectiveness of the marketing communication mix for the Fiat 500 will involve advertising that will attract more consumers to the unique features of the Fiat 500 and use of media channels that are cheaper but more visible. This report concludes that Fiat has been focusing on media channels that are not cheap and marketing for Fiat 500 has failed to emphasise a unique strength of the design for this automobile, a capacity for upgrading to an electric car. Thus, a new advertisement, depicted in Appendix A, is prepared together with a website that presents information about the Fiat 500 electric car to emphasise to consumers the capacity for converting the Fiat 500 to an electric car. Affixing this advertisement as banner advertisements outside of major retail stores, on London's buses and in underground stations will improve the effectiveness of the marketing communication mix for Fiat 500. Placing banner advertisements outside retail stores is cheaper than running print media campaigns and these stores present great visibility. Other media channels, including social media, print, magazine, mobile, email, etc. supplement these efforts as desired. Appendix A – An Advertisement for Fiat 500 The Fiat 500 is the Future…. Convert your Fiat 500 into an Electric Car at any time….. www.fiat500electric.com (This page intentionally left blank) Bibliography/ References Anantachart, S., 2004. Integrated Marketing Communications and Market Planning: Their Implications to Brand Equity Building. Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 11(1) 2004, viewed December 21, 2011, EBSCO. Automotive Design & Production, 2011. Five Things about the Fiat 500. Automotive Design & Production, Mar/Apr2011, Vol. 123 Issue 2, Pp. 43-43, viewed December 21, 2011, EBSCO. Automotive Engineer, 2010. Fiat 500 spearheads OEM's return to US: The Italian carmaker begins its big sales push in North America. Automotive Engineer, December 2010, Pp. 5, viewed December 21, 2011, EBSCO. Brannan, T., 1998. A Practical Guide to Integrated Marketing Communications, Kogan Page. Cammarata, V. et al, 2006. The FIAT Case: A Therapeutical Crisis. 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