The Integrated Marketing Communication and Its Various Components - Business Plan Example

Introduction While formulating any product strategy, it is necessary that we take into account various components of the core strategy which basically give shape to an intangible idea. In this unit, we will be discussing the Integrated Marketing Communication and its various components and will apply the theoretical perspective to our proposed new product in development. Overview of the product The product which we are going to launch is the processed sea food. This product will be basically based on the processing of sea food items like fish, crabs etc to the UAE market. We will be selling our product based on our quality and freshness. This will be achieved while keeping in view the element of value addition in mind since sea food being a generic commodity; we believe our unique selling proposition will be value addition. Integrated Marketing Approach It is believed that the successful marketing approaches in the modern corporate world require that an integrated approach to all communication activities be adopted. (Proctor & Kitchen, 2002). It is also important to note that communication being critical to marketing need to base on integrated marketing communication to make the whole process more efficient and productive. (Vargas, 2005). By definition, IMC is a management concept which allows various aspects of marketing communication to work as a combine force rather than allowing them to work in isolation. Besides there is also a need for approaching the product development issue from the planning perspective also as it provides a better understanding of the whole process to launch the product on successful footings. The components of the Integrated Marketing approach are discussed below: 1) Advertising: “ADVERTISING is a paid form of communicating a message by the use of various media. It is persuasive, informative, and designed to influence purchasing behavior or thought patterns”. (Learnthat, 2004). Advertising can be done in many forms however the most important of them are : A) T.V. Commercials B) Printed Advertising through Print Media C) Direct Mailing All these forms of advertising have their pros and cons however the general pros and cons of the advertising are: 1) It allows greater access and penetration in the market for organization as it is more cheaper and easy medium to communicate to the world about the company and its products. 2) However, advertising is often labeled as immoral to the society as sometimes advertising can project messages which may not be suitable for viewing to the people of certain age specially children. 2) Direct Marketing: Direct Marketing is any unsolicitated activity which an organization performs directly to the customers to generate revenues. Direct marketing methods involve direct mail, leaflets drops and telemarketing etc. The most important benefit which organization derives from this sort of communication is the cost effectiveness. Direct Marketing is considered as the most cost effective method for the organizations to perform however on the other hand, it can be lengthy process with lesser penetration impacts on the customer base. Since approaching customers in formal way may be considered as somewhat unethical in terms of effecting privacy of individuals therefore direct marketing may not serve the purpose of the organization to the fullest. 3) Sales Promotion: Sales promotion is considered as a combination of communication activities that attempt to provide the additional benefits to the consumers and sellers of the product in order to generate sales. Sales promotion can include offering discounts, coupons, POS Displays etc. Again sales promotion activity is considered as cost effective as it does not require expensive media to channel it through to the consumers however sales promotion are limited in their scope since organizations may find it hard to launch the same sales promotion package across all geographical locations. 4) Public Relations: Public relations are considered as a continuous activity to ensure that on the overall company has a positive image in the public. These activities include helping the general consumer base of the company to understand what company is and what products and services it is offering. Besides public relations are considered as voluntary in nature as it is not paid effort by the company. The most important benefit of the publicity and public relations is the fact that they help maintain organization, its positive image in the general public however it can be expensive and cannot be sustained as a long term effort to keep the company in news. 5) Personal Selling: “Personal selling is oral communication with potential buyers of a product with the intention of making a sale. The personal selling may focus initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but will always ultimately end with an attempt to "close the sale" (tutor2u, 2008). Personal Selling is probably one of the oldest methods of marketing as there involves a formal sales force which execute the sales deals with the customers directly. However personal selling is not just selling as it also involves other important communication messages like creation of goodwill and after sell services. The most important benefit of personal selling is the fact it provides the sales force of the organization a direct chance to interact with the customer hence it will be better for the organization as a whole because it will now have direct information of the perception regarding the services and products the company is offering. However to be an effective in personal selling, companies need to have strong and professional sales work force which can help generate them desired results. Besides personal selling require enormous goodwill on the part of the customers for the company to allow them personal access to the buyers to effectively pursue them to buy. Message for target customers Since out main strategy involve value addition to the raw seafood by processing it in ready to cook food with special emphasis on the healthy nutrition involved in it therefore our message to our target customers will be to directly inform them about the potential benefits involved in consuming our seafood. Since out target market is based on two segments, one which is the hospitality sector of UAE and other the general public therefore we believe we need to customize our message in a way that it can be effective to both the segments of our market. Based on this analysis, we believe that we will be employing two methods to communicate our message. One will be through advertising to general public which will be well directed and focused on women specially because most of the shopping for home consumption is done by them and secondly we will be engaging into personal selling through our sales force which will directly market out product to the hotels of all range and stars to procure our product to serve them to the foreign customers. Detailed description of the IMC approach We believe that our approach towards IMC will be multi-pronged because we believe our main focus will be on the hospitality sector of UAE having large base of foreign guests therefore we believe that our demand will be derived demand. Besides our plan to sell directly to the general public of the UAE through our stores will demand us to adopt a customized approach to IMC. We intend to follow initially three elements of IMC. I.e. Advertising and promotion for our consumers in open market whereas Direct marketing to the hotels present in the large cities of UAE. We believe that internet will help us in making our advertising effort more concrete and effective as the increasing population of UAE is now using internet. Overall we believe that our strategy will be effective as we are clear about our target market and its requirement. References Learnthat. (2004). Advertising Definition. Retrieved Feb 26, 2008, from learnthat.com: http://www.learnthat.com/define/view.asp?id=162 Proctor, T., & Kitchen, P. (2002). Communication in postmodern integrated marketing. Corporate Communications: An International Journal , 7 (3), 144-154. tutor2u. (2008). promotion - personal selling. Retrieved Feb 27, 2008, from tutor2u: http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/promotion_personalselling.asp Vargas, R. D. (2005). Integrated Marketing Communications—An Effective, Comprehensive Approach. Retrieved Feb 26, 2008, from http://www.fairfaxcountyeda.org/publications/bv4q05.pdf. Read More