Marketing Communication Theories - Assignment Example

Marketing Communications Contents Contents 2 Part B 3 Introduction 3 Marketing Communication Theories (SOSTAC model) 4 Development of marketing communication plan 4 Campaign Design 9 Conclusion 12 References 14 Part B Introduction Marketing communication is an important aspect that can be used by any brand or company in order to promote itself. There are various media communication and advertisement techniques that the companies normally use in order to promote it. In yester years the different segment of marketing were viewed with different aspects and given separate priorities. However modern marketing theories focus on integrated marketing communication. In the integrated marketing communication all the aspects of marketing communication are designed with a single focus and single message to be used and spread through the entire different communication medium. There are several marketing tools that are used by the companies for the purpose of promotional activities. Campaign is one of the techniques that are often used by the companies to promote a brand or product. The following report is based on the Vodafone and its operations in the UK market. It is seen that the present situation of Vodafone in the market is not too good as from a market position of third place in the market it will be falling back to the last place. This has happened due to the decision of BT to take over EE and decision of Hutchison whampoa the owner of three to take over O2. This will be causing a major change in the mobile landscape of the country and the company needs to change the marketing strategy that the company uses. The company must make use of integrated marketing communication and a new campaign should be launched in order to increase the market share of the company. The present scenario and the application of the integrated marketing communication are studied based on the application of SOSTAC model. Marketing Communication Theories (SOSTAC model) SOSTAC model is an important tool which is utilized for planning campaigns. Marketing strategies are designed on basis of this model in order to evaluate current situation properly and formulate plans for future growth. Different planning activities can be easily structured through SOSTAC model. SOSTAC planning model was developed during 1990 to facilitate easier accomplishment of tasks by marketing practitioners. This model encompasses certain factors such as situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, actions and control. Situation indicates the current marketing scenario. Objectives reflect upon key tasks to be accomplished through marketing strategies. Strategy relates to the path which needs to be followed in order to achieve set goals or objectives. Tactics outlines the method that can help in reaching set targets. Action is the plan framed by marketing practitioners. On the other hand, control aspect relates to effectiveness of such plan. Situational analysis is conducted through implementing marketplace SWOT. Objectives highlight the future position of a brand or a firm and it is exhibited in terms of 5 S’s such as sell, serve, sizzle, speak and save. Strategy aspect comprises of two methods – SIT and STOP. They stand for sequence, integration and targeting, and segments, target markets, objectives and positioning respectively. The tactics part is represented through marketing mix, communication plan, content plan, etc. Details of tactics or actions are in the form of internal structures, usage of external agencies, skills, responsibilities, etc. Control or optimization element in the model is facilitated through user experience analysis, reporting frequency, KPI’s and evaluation of conversion rate. Development of marketing communication plan Vodafone UK is one of the renowned companies in telecommunication sector. It has occupied second position in cellular telecommunication industry and comprises of large base of customers. Marketing communication plan can be viewed as a framework through which different marketing strategies can be effectively implemented. On the basis of marketing communication plan, the company plans to launch new products in the market place. As per SOSTAC model, current situation of UK market is intensely competitive. There are new players in the market who are offering diverse set of products to target audience and this is adversely affecting market share of Vodafone UK. SWOT analysis will portray current situation of the company in UK market and it shall help in designing appropriate marketing communication plan. The major strengths of the company in UK market are asset leverage, strong management of workforce, innovative culture, high degree of supply chain efficiency, pricing power and financial leverage. Weaknesses of Vodafone UK are increased level of work inefficiencies, bad acquisitions, weak R&D facilities, and deteriorating brand image. Opportunities for the firm can be indulging into profitable acquisition synergies, focusing on fragmented market places, emphasizing more on innovation or new product development, online marketing, adopting new technology, etc. Threats are mainly intense competition and formation of successful new ventures. Political risk also might have negative impact on business operations of Vodafone UK. Changing consumer taste and preferences would initiate decreased profit margins of Vodafone UK. The company is operator of ADSL, mobile telephony and fixed telephony. Data services are also provided by the company so as to ensure that customers can easily access Internet applications. Vodafone UK is in the third position in telecommunication sector of UK. It can be stated that the new marketing communication plan would be developed by the firm in order to enhance customer attention and retain desirable percentage of customers. 5S objectives of the plan shall be retention and acquisition of customers in initial year of marketing communication plan. The target for customer retention in the first year is 25% and that of customer acquisition is 25%. Vodafone UK would attempt to enhance customer satisfaction level by 20% in the coming one year. Sizzle or wow factor of the company has been introduction of zoozoo character in all its advertisement campaigns. However in new campaign, the company shall create value addition by involving more number of customers (Fill, 2013). Value addition would be represented in terms of long-term post purchase service offered by Vodafone UK. Customer engagement shall be another objective of this marketing communication. This would be accomplished through appropriate customer relationship management and gaining customer feedback at the end of campaigns or promotional activities. Strategy needs to be designed properly so that set objectives can be achieved. The target market for the marketing communication plan would be shareholders, customers and employees. Product related advertisement campaigns are usually developed by the firm but in this new plan focus shall be on customer interests and superior quality of customer service. This would enable the company to occupy competitive position in the market place. Positioning would be of a brand which always stands for its customers and believes in innovation. The sequence to be established is motivate customers, establish high trust level, influence customers to purchase product or service and finally opt for closure of the deal. Integration shall be brought forth when customer database is referred by the firm and relationships are developed based on that database. Tactics represent the entire communication plan to be developed in order to enhance satisfaction level of customers. Communication mix would form an important part of tactics and this would be based on market opportunities prevalent in UK. Direct marketing is an appropriate tool in current scenario simply because customers are shifting towards other brands. The only cost effective mechanism for customer retention is direct interaction with target customers. Direct marketing is an approach by which sales personnel can directly interact with customers on services being offered by the company. Customers in UK market have wide array of choices in context of telecommunication sector. Direct interaction would enable the firm to create long term relationship with customers and increase level of customer loyalty. Advertisement campaigns shall also form another component of marketing communication mix. These campaigns would portray current telecommunication services being offered by the firm along with its new 4G service. The tagline of quality service can be sustained by the company if it highlights customer oriented approach in all its marketing strategies (Churchill, 2009). Advertisement campaigns would be designed for various platforms so as to attract customer attention. These campaigns shall be broadcasted in social media sites, billboards and posters. Customer reach can be facilitated only when company targets wider base of consumer market segment and adopts all possible media channels. Billboards will be put up in those locations where it is easy to grab customer attention. On the other hand, lump sum investment shall be required mainly in billboards and posters. To be more precise, the 5 S objectives can be fulfilled by this approach. For instance the wow factor can be addressed by outlining innovative aspects in advertisement campaigns. Posters or billboards would reflect value addition created by the company. The intensity of posters or advertisement campaigns shall trigger within consumer minds and generate high profit margins for the company. In initial time span of marketing communication focus would be on advertisement campaign design and broadcast. Social media will be utilized in order to communicate brand message to end customers. This phase will be followed by posters and billboards across the region. Direct marketing strategy shall be executed side by side in order to transform target audience to prospects in later period of time. 12month marketing communication plan would possess a particular objective of increasing customer acquisition or retention percentage. During this period campaign shall be broadcasted in social media as well as electronic media. Facebook and Twitter are common sites to be used for brand promotion. Integrated marketing communication is not only limited to brand advertising or billboards, but there are other strategies too which needs to be included within the plan. Online sales promotion shall be encouraged by the company. This will help in accomplishing ‘speak’ objective of the marketing communications plan. Customer engagement can be facilitated when customers are motivated to contribute their opinions on online platform. Online sales promotion can be exhibited by offering discounts to customers recharging online or giving free coupons to those who show interest towards products or services of Vodafone. Public relation strategy also can be incorporated in later phase of communication plan. This would support the firm in terms of reaching out to larger customer base. Integration of all these strategies will result into an appropriate marketing communication plan. Innovation can be stated as one of the market opportunities that can be explored by Vodafone UK. New service launch will upgrade brand image of the firm. Vodafone UK is planning to enter broadband segment which shall prove to be advantageous in long term growth. This aspect would be focused on in advertisement campaigns. However all marketing communication tools to be utilized will reveal a common message of superior quality and high speed. Customer’s attention can be gained when the company is inclined towards value for money. In UK market as per SOSTAC model, switching costs of customers is low and customer satisfaction is a vital component for all firms. This aspect can be accomplished when customers are ensured that they are offered high quality products and hence are gaining value for money. The actions to be performed shall be well supported by internal capabilities and resources of Vodafone UK. On the other hand, these actions can be simultaneously measured by acquiring customer feedback and evaluating it continuously. Rate of customer acquisition or increased percentage of revenue margins will also be a medium to evaluate effectiveness of marketing communication mix. Campaign Design In designing the campaign for the company one has to fist acknowledge the background on which the campaign is being set up. In studying the background and the conditions that prevail in the market it is found that Vodafone is losing its market share in the mobile communication market. It was in the third position in the market. This is due to that fact that one of the competitors of Vodafone that is bit is Acquiring EE and Hutchison whampoa who is the owner of three is on the path to acquire O2 (Williams, 2015). These facts will push Vodafone’s market share down and it will be holding the last position in the mobile network market. So the objective of the comp-any would be to launch new campaigns through which it can target different customers in the mobile network. The campaign that will be designed will be aimed at acquiring more customers in the mobile network business. The company is also slated to enter the high speed broad band network in order to increase the service portfolio that is offered by the brand. The campaign that will be designed by the company will focus on increasing its customer base in the mobile network and acquisition of customers in the broadband area. Another thing should also be considered while the company tries to enter this market. It is the fact that in the UK the mobile communication market along with other communication market is undergoing rapid change. The players in the mobile communication market are entering into the TV broadcasting market. This has caused the market regulator to be planning to come up with uniform rules for all the market. In view of this changing landscape Vodafone needs to change the orientation and design of the marketing campaign. In designing the campaign the objective that has to be kept in mind is the fact that after the campaign the market share of Vodafone should increase by about 25% over the course of the year. One of the factors that the company can focus on the campaign is the fact the current provider of the broadband facility that is BT is providing poor service to the customers in terms of its poor backbone infrastructure of the network by the subsidiary called open reach. Open reach is the main profit making arm of the British telecom which was previously the state monopoly. The campaign that would be developed by Vodafone will try to build on the resentment of the poor network infrastructure that is provided by BT. The campaign will target the poor performance of the network infrastructure of the BT used the people’s dissatisfaction to its advantage. Since anger spreads faster than happiness so the campaign is likely to spread the message very fast and find wide acceptance amongst the customers. Before designing the campaign the target market or the audience of the brand should also be defined. The target customers of the Vodafone include all the age groups across the market. In entering the broadband market the focus of the campaign should be on the speed and the fact the company is entering the ultra fast broadband market. The campaign should be backed by technical information detailing the technology that the company is using to give the customers the ultrafast broadband service and the added benefits that the customers will be getting by using the service. That is to say that the campaign should be focussed on letting the customer know about the fact that concerns the added benefits that the customers will be getting by using the service. For example the ad campaign that is run on all the different media including television, print, social, radio, and digital media should focus on the fast life style of the people. The campaign should tell the story that due to the fast lifestyle the people are not able to do what they feel like to do and show their crazy deeds to their friends. The campaign should be aimed at placing the advertisement in this setting thereby encouraging the people to do whatever they like and sharing the same with their friends through video sharing on the ultra fast mobile internet network by Vodafone. One of the medium that should be actively chosen for the campaign is the radio. This is due to the fact that 91% of the adult population in UK turn on their radio sets each week and 34 million of those view the commercial section (Barrett, 2015). In order to reach the campaign to the mass market different communication networks and media is being planned to use in order to spread the message of the company. In promoting the mobile network of the company the campaign should focus on the fact that the mobile network will provide the customers of the company quality network access so that they can easily and effectively communicate over the mobile network. The message on the company’s entry should focus on the speed factor that needs to be counted in. Also a special focus should be made on the quality of service that the broadband service will provide. The other things that the mobile network can focus is that the company will be introducing internet over the mobile network so that the customers can connect to the ultrafast internet and get solutions to all their problems. The company should be providing the customers with quality products at a cost that is affordable for the customers. In designing the campaign and the advertisement responsibilities needs to be given to some persons who will be looking after every aspects of the campaign and would be responsible for the success of the campaign. A dedicated marketing agency will be perhaps the best choice in this matter as it can give the much needed focussed approach which will be impossible for the company to give. Figure 1 A sample campaign with the tagline Vodafone 4G faster than the fastest Figure 2 A sample campaign that is to focus on the fact that Vodafone internet will allow download of big contents at fast pace Conclusion As per the study, marketing communication mix is an important element when it comes to conveying brand message to customers. This brand message in short is able to outline key offerings of the company. Over the years, Vodafone UK has been able to acquire significant profit margins in the market place. There is intense competition within this market and it adversely affects business operations of many companies. Telecommunication sector in UK is highly saturated and this shifts market position of the company to third rank. It is clearly evident that marketing communication platform will be a medium by which the firm can interact with target customers. There is a specific budget allocated for marketing communications and the plan will be extended over a period of 12 months. SOSTAC model provides a proper framework regarding the current business environment of UK followed by preferable strategies in next few years. On the basis of these campaigns, the company will promote its new service as well as highlight certain additional features offered to customers. There is wide number of marketing tools integrated within communication mix in order to reach out to target audience. References Barrett, L., 2015. Commercial radio: bigger than ever and sound commercial sense. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1343647/commercial-radio-bigger-ever-sound-commercial-sense/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH > [Accessed 7 May 2015]. Churchill, G., 2009. A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 25(4), pp. 98-116. Fill, C., 2013. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and participation, 6th edition. Harlow: Pearson Education. Williams, C., 2015. Vodafone ends campaign to break up BT. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/11390965/Vodafone-ends-campaign-to-break-up-BT.html > [Accessed 7 May 2015]. Read More