Integrating Marketing Communication Technique - Essay Example

Multichannel Marketing Communication Proposal College: Introduction Integrating marketing communication technique are central to the outstanding success of the John Lewis Retail Shop. The Shop top management recognize and appreciate the positive packages attributable to both multichannel and integrated marketing (Arikan 2008). The following is a report that progress from John Lewis Retail 2014 report to demonstrate how the proposed multichannel communication. The central to the previous report is that this retail shop has successfully employed such lucrative marketing techniques as Omni-channel, Online and mobile shop, offline-high Street shops that cover all customers. The retail shop marketing team understands that only a few customer still prefer dealing with a single channel in purchasing their preferred goods. However, increasing numbers employ multiple channels in their respective buying processes particularly, the ones purchasing about 30% onwards. Moreover, the management understands that with the world increasingly becoming interconnected via the internet and mobile technology, multichannel communication have become inevitabilities in commerce rather than the exception (Blakeman 2014). Therefore, there is a need for John Lewis retail to effectively integrate its existing multichannel marketing communication as this increases the points of contact with the customers. The MMC techniques and strategies further help the retail shop reach marginal customer segments by permitting preferred customers access points. Therefore, for imperativeness of MMC, John Lewis retail shop must satisfactorily work to coordinate both message and data. Such channels as TV, direct mail and mail, radio, advertising print and internet must consistently offer consistent brand experience. Importantly, the John Lewis marketing team must understand the difficulty in developing consistent message when various agencies are contracted for each of the avenues marketing avenues mentioned (Ryan & Jones 2012). The consistent brand must be demonstrated with respect to the customers’ experience through call centers, retail environment, websites and direct sales. The underlying principle behind John Lewis increasing success is the firm’s integrative multichannel marketing where data and marketing messages that make the customers feel they are dealing with John Lewis and not a different Company at each point. Despite the success noted, John Lewis is still struggling with how to capture young customers through its AW collection. This paper will primarily focus on how the firm can apply the MMC to launch a new product for the younger population and also the general customers. Therefore, the implementation of the integrated marketing strategy is finalized by determining the effective careers that efficiently work with the integrated marketing strategies. The firm must understand how marketing in the 21st century has shifted to an interactive nature and hence the need for brand integration across the multiple media via making the digital aspect fluid and particular (Zoratti & Gallagher 2012). Such strategy implies that marketers must possess an in-depth understanding of the ever-altering world of social media and online marketing alongside sufficient endowment with marketing background. Therefore, the whole process must culminate into an efficient Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) to brand and coordinate the Shop’s communication efforts. The firm must appreciate the current marketing efforts shift from mass advertisement to niche marketing. Offline strategy The offline strategy in marketing is an integral part of JLRS multichannel integrated marketing and Integrated Marketing Communication. The high street shops attract a greater number of customers who inspect and compare the prices of goods online but move to the shops for actual purchase. However, the management must ensure that all the items accessible online are in the shops for collection so as to attract the confidence of the customers who may prefer picking the goods from the shops (Kandampully 2012). The offline marketing strategy for John Lewis Shop will include such promotional mix as advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relation. Moreover, the firm must speed up the promotions and utilize inspiring shop displays and further facilitate the increasingly experiential in-store strategies like Little Waitrose and Beauty Retreats to increase the portfolio of creating competitive advantages while meeting their offline customer’s needs. The advertising will be done for a period of one month during the month of august to create awareness for the autumn/ winter collection. The advertising messages and data however must be integrated and coordinated and channeled through various media such as television and radio for a period of one month. However, the advertising will nor cease but will subsequently done occasionally as the need arise. This will ensure that both loyal and potential customers are properly informed of the winter collection. The firm will ensure a higher level of consistency in the data and the advertising messages across such media as newspapers, magazines and television. The integration will also be done across all other promotional mix to ensure that customers are never confused. However, care will be taken to eliminate frequent and voluminous advertising that may be harmful to the entire process of business marketing strategy. Sales promotion of the winter collection will also be done to encourage customers to make purchases. The John Lewis shop will add value to their products through sales promotion by offering discounts on their product. This will lead to increased customer loyalty and hence sales volume of inter collection will go up. The firm will achieve this by the provision of vouchers, premiums and also engage in club and loyalty programs and refunds. The firm will thus give discounted product greatly attract both potential and loyal customers to make purchase during the winter collection. Therefore, the farm will increase the Christmas sales by issuing small gifts, additional points on loyalty cards. The firm will also use gift free gift-wrapping in store for the spending of over eighty pounds. Personal Selling will also form an integral part of offline marketing in John Lewis Shop. The John Lewis will implement the trial customer software to enhance collections via staff partnership schemes. This special care for the customers performed with a lot of passion and decorum by the John Lewis staff via the use of both transactional tablet and customer tracking software. The firm will be required to have adequate staff to conduct the personal selling in the Christmas period. Personal selling has a direct feedback. The firm will thus use the personal selling complaints to adjust and incorporate them to tailor their products to particular niche or segments. Public Relation will be central to the John Lewis winter collection promotion. The best strategy that will be applied will integrate the Public Relations and the use of social media particularly, through the employment of bloggers. Public relations is central in any marketing mix promotional strategies. The company name and how people perceive the John Lewis shop rest on the ability of the public relation to address issues from the customer’s complaints. Therefore, the winter collection presents the John Lewis public relations department to effectively showcase the brand image of the firm. Customers are always attracted to those ethical firms and therefore, the marketers in the public relation of the John Lewis shop must thrive to create a better retail name. However, the firm must be keen to ensure an effective coordination of and integration of messages and data used in these promotional mix. Customers prefer dealing with one firm and therefore, the firm marketers must ensure consistency of data and marketing messages. The shop offline strategy should be coordinated and integrated sufficiently with the online strategy to ensure consistency and paint the firm always as complex whole. This will provide the same and exact seamless principle that encourages the winter collection. For example, in 2013, the John Lewis management invested 57 million pounds in the existing shop estates. Such a step is a promising one and justifies the organization support for the offline strategy. Online website Strategy Primarily, recording the ultimate point of contact skews the metrics and culminates into misunderstanding the actual ROE for a number of messaging channels. Therefore, the chief outcome expected from this proposal is that JLRS meets every single loyal and potential buyers. The customers may, for example, inspect the goods online but ultimately walk to the retail and buy and vice versa. In addition, customers have different tastes and preference when making the purchase. A firm must therefore never lose the customer due to single channel marketing but always remain Omni-present both offline and online. The world has become increasingly connected by technology. As Johnlewis.com offers an integrative approach to marketing, the firm should integrate its website with other offline and online techniques such as mobile, social media, and high streets shop. Therefore, for John Lewis MMC strategy to be successful, it must showcase the high ability of integrated marketing. The data coordination is significant that various channels coordinate their respective data. For instance, it is justifiable that call center and website attached sales gather more information about the consumer as compared to those attributable to the retail store. Therefore, for this Retail Shop to customize consumers’ experience, those information must be integrated and never stored separately as those of call center and website. The integrated marketing communication has become an integral part of marketing and only firm that can effectively integrate multiple media channels can survive. At John Lewis Shop, the path of purchase is never restrictive, a strategy that has supported both online and offline marketing strategies (Smith & Taylor 2004). However, there should be more than just a mere use of multichannel marketing. A successful website is determined by the ability of easiness customers can access and retrieve information about the brands, services and products offered by the firm. Therefore, there is a need for John Lewis to adopt an Integrated Marketing Communication driven by a higher degree of optimization of the website search engines. Positioning and targeting are effective marketing concepts that minimize the wastage coverage. Therefore, positioning must be applied in at John Lewis to determine what particular cohorts are to be reached and whatever content and messages should be created in their minds. Just as mentioned in the case of mobile strategy, customers have become attentive to ads when listening to radios. When a funny ad is heard, they respond immediately hoping to meet a website that empties into sufficient procedures to inspect the products and compare the prices and qualities from where they make rational decision on whether to make online or offline purchases. Therefore, the website should contain integrated messages and data similar to what is presented in the high street shops, social media sites as well as mobile strategies. The website should create a value propositioning as dictated by the IMC. The website needs to be designed in a way that it promotes the click and collect strategy already employed by the shop. Regardless of the duration and procedure it takes to actualize purchase, the website should always have updated facts and figures about the brand and the products and services offered (Powell at al. 2011). Further, linking the website to email and direct mail that further connects in social Web helps promote the firm’s products. The click and collect have greatly contributed to the sales of the firm, and the shop must always try to promote this strategy through a highly integrative online and offline multichannel marketing. At no point should the firm fail to manage the posts on its website and should ensure that employees do not post negatively on social media sites as everything is integrated, and thus a single post appears almost on all channels. Mobile Strategy Mobile marketing is an emerging powerhouse in a multichannel integrated marketing. At johnlewis.com, 42% of the online traffic instigates from Smartphones and Tablets. Such a huge number validates the need for the management to ensure effective integration of the website (johnlewis.com) and these devices. Just as already been mentioned in the preceding discussion, consumers have been alert to funny ads when listening to the radio. They have reacted promptly by pulling up their smartphones and tablets hoping to meet effective websites that lead them to the right sites and anticipated products. The JLRS has developed the marketing campaign that is strategic, collective, integrated and successful through a multiple media channels. The consumers are currently tethered into their mobile technology and hence expect nothing short of being able to access a brand wherever they are, hence justifying the adoption of mobile marketing in MMC. Currently, the young customers are alert to the funny ad on the radio as they immediately respond by pulling out their Smartphones to check up the firm behind it with anticipation to finding a fully integrated website in waiting (Shankar & Carpenter 2012). They are urged to scan QR code on a poster hoping to be led to a familiar-looking page. The firm must, therefore, exploit such an opportunity of a massive build-up on a multiple media to solidify its reputation. Therefore, with integrated marketing communication, JLRS marketers must ensure that data and messages are coordinated and updated on the website to match the customers’ expectation. Such strategies should be accompanied by search engine optimization to facilitate easy customers browsing. The ‘on demand’ culture digital technology has warranted customers’ extraordinary access to information, products as well as the transactional undertakings. Particularly, the mobile channel is soaring with ever increasing number of consumers accessing the internet via mobile devices relative to PC. The B2C mobile commerce share worldwide is hitting 12 percent by 2016 as anticipated by IDC. Moreover, the 2013 Google/Nielsen research discovered that mobile shapes purchases across the multichannel. Interestingly, this research concluded that 93 percent of the potential and loyal customers utilizing mobile to research ultimately make purchases of the searched commodities (Tsiotsou & Goldsmith 2012). Therefore, the marketers at John Lewis must effectively integrated their portfolio of channels to work in an integrative and coordinative manner to facilitate the link between product research and the actual purchase whether online or offline. Indeed, the physical retail stores like the John Lewis’ high street are considered both as research and purchase places and this should clearly be integrated with the websites to the mobile devices with same data and messages creatively designed. The firm further understand that the origin of digital channels primarily circumvents retail research tools that are also utilized for purchases. Therefore, such inevitable and reciprocal relationships further validate the need for seamless experiences across the touch points as well conversion measuring across the multiple channels (Robert & Zahay 2013). Despite the pros of mobile platforms, it would be in vain if silo situation is never eliminated. Therefore, the only strategy that underpins the realization of benefits attached to mobile marketing is the satisfactory integration of the channels from high streets shop to the online website strategy to social media to mobile strategy. Furthermore, the success of such an integration again rests on the ability of the John Lewis marketers to creatively design, coordinate and integrate both data and marketing messages across these multiple channels and effectively employ Integrated Marketing Communication to reach their loyal and potential customers. Social Media Strategy Social media has become an integral part of the multichannel marketing in the today’s marketing world. John Lewis retail shop must embrace and integrate social media into their marketing plan (Samli 2013). Social media and interactive communication marketing transform brands like no other communication mechanisms previously. The social media alters the fundamental nature of the brand-customer relationship. However, social media and conversation marketing are inappropriate marketing channels when used in isolation. Therefore, it is increasingly disastrous to accomplish the economies of scale when a firm develops the relationships with customer’s individualized and small groups’ framework (Persuit 2013). Therefore, social media should never be designed as a freestanding or solo act with respect to multichannel and integrated marketing. Therefore, before JLRS employ social media tools and techniques to marketing, it is increasing significant, the firm should only use it as an integral component of existing marketing initiatives. Therefore, incorporating social media in a multichannel marketing involves devising appropriate, technically-agnostic social media strategy. Once this is done, the marketing team audit the current marketing and integrate social media ingredients. Ultimately, new social media programs are added to the strategy as the need arise (Kotler 2013). The social media should be used together with the search marketing. Here, the central tenets of inbound marketing as the John Lewis creates content about the brand and disseminate to a wider coverage. Such integration of social media plus search marketing leads to optimization of all aspects of the brand content for search and hence increased brand awareness. Moreover, John Lewis should integrate social media with the untapped benefit of market research. Therefore, such opportunities must be harnessed through effective follow-up from the call center hence increasing the young customer coverage. Further, a well-integrated data is a value adding strategy as it presents the firm with a profitable opportunity to enhance the portfolio of services offered particularly as the customer instigates contact via service number and online chat window. The John Lewis Retail Shop (JLRS) marketing team must, therefore, develop a system of touch-point attribution to demonstrate an accurate image of the firm’s efforts. Such a system eliminates the difficulty of measuring success across the multichannel marketing strategies and techniques. For instance, a customer who probes the JRRS via a Facebook ultimately making a purchase at one channel leaves us with an intriguing question of whether the forgone channels players in this particular purchase. Here, the firm asks the customers and fans about their thoughts on brands and collapse the feedback into establishing all-new products through consumer input. The CrowdCampaigh and associated tools help conduct a simple crowdsourcing. Also, John Lewis should benefit from integrating social media with the live events (Greenberg & Kates 2014). In this case, the firm will advance its events before and after its occurrence through social media such as Kuoni travel concessions to developing a more competitive advantage and surpass the fierce competition. Further, John Lewis need to integrate social media with virtual events. Here, the audience goes beyond the attendance in the room but this should be a global audience. The John Lewis Retail has remained creative while being consistent. There must be something beyond a mere slapping a single color palate across the multiple media and utilizing tagline on highway billboard to depict a homepage for a particular product. Therefore, integrated marketing strategy recognizes the significance of seamless, consistent as well as multi-dimensional brand experience for both the potential and loyal external employee at John Lewis. The underlying principle that JLRS management must underscore is that branding effort across these multichannel is designed and communicated in a similar manner that underpins the brand’s final message. Therefore, integrated marketing will help the Shop meet its brand marketing strategy in a more successful manner to attract new customers and retain the loyal ones while still exploiting other lucrative opportunities from the follow-up mechanisms. For example, the firm MMC strategy for John Lewis should imitate the Apple computer brand advertisement that is very simple but quite promising and efficient in terms of eliminating the possibility of competition. Apple applies a simple advertising framework that demonstrates a sleek, modern products attached to speedy working and smarter thus scaring competitors to a greater degree. The no gimmick mechanism is applied to the Apple brand aspects. The firm needs to capture its presentation about the brand and product and add it to the Slideshare. Subsequently, promoting the presentation on the Social Web works best for the firm marketing objectives. Further, social media can also be integrated with Email since effective email and social media are similar (Mohr at al. 2010). Therefore, the firm must incorporate social sharing to its email and then promote the email program in social linking the firm’s website to social media. Finally, the marketers must frequently apply their social initiatives to attempt out new mechanism while integrating most successful content to the email program. Therefore, the firm uses both targeting and positioning to identify whatever creation they want in the minds of the customers. Targeting will help ascertain that intended messages reach the designated audience as reflected by the profiles of the consumer. Therefore, wastage in coverage is counteracted leading to the contingency on efficient and effective market research (Kaufmann 2015). The firm can, therefore, apply such criterion as shared features like geographic location, values and lifestyles and consumer behavior to select the targets. On the other hand, positioning will guide the marketers at John Lewis in making tactical decisions about the selection of media channels and establishing content and messages. Conclusion The internet has revolutionized commerce ushering consumers to an unprecedented degree of information. Moreover, the internet has been an influential channel for interaction between consumers and firms (Information Resources Management Association 2015). Solely firms that employ multichannel marketing strategies and techniques survived the fiercely and saturated competitive environment. The current technological advancements have enhanced the interaction between the firms and consumers through integrated marketing, brand marketing, and precision marketing that collapse into Integrated Marketing Communication. The JLRS is never exceptional and must exploit the overarching positive packages attached to IMC and MMC. The communication between business and consumers have become cost-effective than ever before but still gets a lot of benefits. The only optional strategy is that firms must employ MMC in their marketing plans through evaluating and settling on the multiple channels appropriate for both firms and consumers (Chitty 2012). From the evaluation of the 2013 report of the JLRS, I have subsequently discovered that its marketers have greatly utilized both on-line and offline multichannel marketing through Omni-channel, mobile marketing, and high street shops. Nonetheless, the firm should embrace the strategies discussed and ensure that it updates and integrate its messaging and data to remain current and consistent. The customers must always never feel like they are interacting with new companies. The JLRS marketers will achieve this through integrated marketing that integrates and coordinates both data and messages but still remaining creative. The MMC and IMC embraced by the firm must always capture all customers taste and preference alongside needs. Therefore, the numerous benefits attached to the IMC must be exploited by the JLRS. The consumers are frequently overwhelmed with by the existence of a range of products to choose from alongside the higher number of advertisement saturating both online and offline communication multichannel (Ginty at al. 2011). The firm will, therefore, benefit as its messages will never be overlooked and negated since with the frequent updating and integration of data and messages, the firm creatively remains consistent. The integrated marketing benefits the shop as it permits the effectiveness in the communication of the brands information and messaging across the multichannel culminating into the establishment of brand awareness (Caywood 2012). Also, IMC is a cost-effective as compared to mass media as the likelihood of the customers to interact with the brands across a number of platforms, and digital interfaces are increased. The firm must be very keen never to make re-branding on fly challenging coercing firms to communicate between multichannel marketing departments to enact changes in branding. However, the cost-benefit analysis of integrated marketing reveals a well worth the rewards of recognition and cost management hence validating the need for a satisfactorily integrated marketing. Integrated marketing to be employed by JLRS will circumvent around a strong, focused brand image, communicate via clear, consistent voice and maintain a consistent look and feel across multiple media. In addition, it will incorporate both traditional and digital media in brand promotion. For outstanding outcomes, JLRS marketing team must operate behind-the-scenes to devise a compelling, unified voice for a brand as well as transition it effectively into all aspects of the brand’s persona, from advertising and collapse it to physical presence and customer service. Moreover, the vast touch-points help the marketers weave together multiple exposures to the JLRS brands while the consumers spend adequate time on mobile and computer devices. Therefore, the challenges associated with fragmented media in determining the JLRS communication tactics performance is eliminated via IMC that views such performance as an entire entity. The JLRS also enjoys the established competitive advantage derived from integrated marketing communication hence boosting its sales and the profitability indices. As the Integrated Marketing Communication immerses the consumers in communication, it also assist the customers understand and completes the purchase process (Baer 2013). 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