Integrated Marketing Communication Project - Essay Example

Sur 25 January Marketing Communication- Integrated Marketing Communication Plan Introduction: Organizations have been determining different marketing measures in order to market their products or services. The manner in which the products or services are communicated to customers have modified over the years. Newer policies and mechanisms are being applied in the marketing communication planning. Today, the primary attention of the organizations is not only to gain new customers but also to retain them for their products or services. Thus, the communication plays a significant role in the process of connection between the seller and the buyer (Smith & Taylor, 4). The marketing communication includes communication activities like selling, advertising, promotion of products, direct marketing, publicity, sponsorship, exhibition, packaging, merchandising, e-marketing, and similar other measures that can influence the selling of the product or the service to the ultimate consumers as well as retain the customers (Smith & Taylor, 4). In this regard, a communication process involves certain steps in order to prepare the plan communicating the product or service. The current study considers the product, fruit drink, and tries to focus on the preparation of an integrated marketing communications plan using the different steps of the process. The IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) Planning Process and Its Application on the Product, Fruit Drink: The integrated marketing communication plan consists of six steps that would be discussed considering the product, fruit drink and its marketing. These steps are essential as they create a connection between the buyer and the seller stressing on a long term relationship between them. Step 1: Identification of Target Customers: It can be understood that every product might not be required by every individual. This implies that every product has a particular segment of customers. Considering this fact it is necessary that an organization segments its customers who would require the concerned product or service and accordingly target them. Segmenting referring to the distinguishing the customers based on their common preferences towards the concerned product or service (Duncan, 165). Trying to reach out to each and every customer would create wastage in terms of expenditure as well as time on the part of the organization. Thus considering the fruit drink product, it can be understood that although the product would be healthy and needful for consumers of different ages, yet the younger generation might prefer it more particularly as an intake during their breakfast. Depending on such an understanding and thereby conducting a research, the target customers need to be analyzed. This is the first step that an organization coming up with fruit drink product need to accomplish, primarily focusing on what the product has in extra to provide to its customers and who would need the product. Step 2: SWOT Analysis: SWOT analysis referring to the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a company is essential for an understanding of the status of the company with respect to other competitors in the industry. The determination of the strengths and weaknesses provide with the company’s internal analysis while the opportunities and the threats represent the external situation for the company (Duncan, 166). Considering the fruit drink product, this step can be associated in the integrated marketing communication plan, since when a new company would try to launch the product, the company would require learning about its own strengths and weaknesses such that it becomes capable of competing against the existing competitors. Also, in order to understand the external threats and opportunities, the company needs to learn about the other players that are existent in the same industry as well about the possibilities of the threats that might arise from new entrants. Thus this forms the second step of the marketing communication plan for the product. The strengths of the company would depend on its efficient organizational members, the financial status of the company as well as the marketing capabilities. These are essential factors that the company would require to focus on in order to utilize them in the achievement of the desired goals. If weaknesses are found in the internal organization of the company, these can be used to understand and modify their plans and policies such that their weaknesses are not taken advantage of by the competitor companies. In this regard, learning about the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors would also enable the company to enhance their strategies and decisions regarding the marketing of the product. Step 3: Determination of Marketing Communication Objectives: The determination of the objectives is an essential step in the marketing communication plan since it allows the organizational members to learn about the steps that they need to follow to sell their products. The analysis of the SWOT also enables an organization to determine its objectives. The objectives of such a plan need to specific, measurable, achievable and challenging such that an organization is capable of achieving them and they prove to be beneficial for the success of the product (Duncan, 171-172). Thus, considering the fruit drink product, the company that would try to launch the product would need to understand the required steps that they should follow. These would be formed as the objectives for the organization’s marketing communication plan. From the SWOT analysis, the company would understand what its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are and thus determine the steps accordingly depending on the other fruit drink companies in the market. These objectives would then be instructed and followed by the organizational members for their successful achievement of customer attraction and retention. Step 4: Developing Strategies and Tactics: On deciding the required objectives for the accomplishment of the goals of marketing communication, it is essential for an organization to develop strategies. These strategies are primarily meant to determine the ways through which the organization would achieve the objectives that have been decided. This includes determination of the marketing communications functions as well as selection of the media that the organization would prefer to use for its purpose. Following this, the ideas need to be generated that would determine the ways of fulfillment of objectives. This is mostly done with the help of marketing agencies. Finally the ideas are dedicated to the management of the organization (Duncan, 176). In regard to the current study, for the fruit drink product, quite similarly, once the objectives are set, strategies need to be determined by the organization such that the product can be efficiently communicated to the target customers. The development of strategies being a sensitive and essential part of the marketing communication plan, it would be advisable for the company to organize for some experienced agencies who would be able to guide the product’s marketing successfully. Moreover the ideas that the fruit drink company decide upon need to be creative and innovative since their target would not only be to gain and retain customers but also to create their position among the competitor companies. Step 5: Budget Setting: Since marketing of a product or a service is a part of the company’s responsibilities to reach out to the customers, the marketing communication activities are planned within the overall marketing process and thus incur a certain amount of budget for its ultimate execution. This budget is essential to determine since the execution of the marketing communication activities would largely depend on the budget allocated for the purpose. Here also particular strategies become necessary in order to determine how the budgeted amount for marketing would be utilized in the activities of the marketing communication of a product or service (Duncan, 181-182). For the fruit drink product, as considered for the study, the organization would thus require to formulate and allocate a budget for the marketing of the product. This budget would then be used for the marketing communication activities. The decisions regarding the costs and investments would have to be considered depending on the needs and financial abilities of the company. The management of the company needs to take an active role in this regard and the marketing department of the company would then decide on which activities they would focus on for the purpose of communicating their product to the target customers. Again, this decision needs to consider the activities that are conducted by other competitor companies for attracting and retaining customers. Such allocations of budget would also vary depending on the stage of the product in the product life cycle, thus initially requiring greater financial involvement in the marketing communication plan, followed by moderate need once the product becomes known and acceptable among the customers. The focus would then be more on customer retention than customer attraction. Step 6: Evaluation of Effectiveness: An evaluation of the marketing communication plan is necessary for an organization to understand whether the plan would be successful or effective. Processes like market testing and campaigns can allow an organization to reflect on the effectiveness of their marketing communication plan. Since newer products and substitutes of those products have possibilities to enter the market, thus the views, opinions, preferences and demands of the ultimate consumers are necessary for the company to understand that can be achieved through the evaluation process (Duncan, 189-190). For the fruit drink product as well, while a plan for the marketing communication has been set, and the objectives and budget allocation are decided upon, their effectiveness and influence on the customers can be evaluated by arranging for campaigns and market testing processes. Also, feedback from the consumers on the concerned product in comparison to other substitutes already available in the market can help the company to take the required steps for communicating the product to the customers. If an evaluation is done then modifications, if required, can be considered in the marketing communication plan that would enable the company to attract customers successfully and retain them as well. Conclusion: The study reflects on the necessity of the marketing communication plan for any product or service that a company wants its customers to know about, and get attracted to it. The six steps as mentioned and discussed above in the study constitute the essential elements of the communication process that a company launching a new product in the market would require to follow in order to attract customers. Also, if the company becomes capable of creating its position in the concerned industry, as in the study the fruit drink industry has been considered, then the marketing communication plan would help the company to attract new customers as well as retain the old customers. Thus from the study, it can be concluded that a marketing communication plan is an essential part of the marketing process of a product or service of any company for its purpose to gain and retain customers. In this regard, it is necessary for the concerned organization to understand and incorporate the steps of the integrated marketing communication plan efficiently to successfully fulfill their marketing communication objectives. References 1) Duncan, Tom. Principles of Advertising and Imc, India: Tata McGraw-Hill Education 2) Smith, Paul Russell & Jonathan Taylor. Marketing communications: an integrated approach, London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2004 Read More