Marketing Communication - Essay Example

Marketing Communication Table of Contents Introduction 3 SOSTAC Analysis 3 Conclusion 6 References 8 Introduction The Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre (L.R.A.C), a registered charity that provide various recreational and training facilities to the people of various ages of North East Lincolnshire. LRAC is located in the outskirts of Louth which is a small town in North East Lincolnshire. There are various programs like horticulture, horse management, small animal care and conservation. Apart from these programs the centre also provides various training programs to the young people with the purpose of making them industry ready (Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre, n.d.). Like any other organization LRAC also require to adopt some effective marketing communication strategies in order to promote its programs. Proper communication is very important for the success of any marketing strategy. Again proper strategy has to be adopted to communicate all those necessary information regarding the product, price, promotion and place. So it is clear that marketing and communication both are interconnected and success of one is dependent on the other. Marketing communication mix is comprised of different marketing communication elements like advertising, public relation, sales promotion, direct marketing etc. These are needed to be followed to achieve various marketing objectives. As far as developing marketing communication mix for Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre is concerned a SOSTAC (Situation, Objective, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control) analysis would be very effective. SOSTAC Analysis Situation Analysis: Situation analysis would include analysis of target audience, effectiveness of marketing communication, internal and external environment. Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre (LRAC) is located on the suburbs of Louth which is a small market town in the region of North East Lincolnshire. As a result the marketing communication of LRAC would target the market of North East Lincolnshire. Total population of this region is 158,200. Economy of this region is industry and service oriented. Generally facilities and services at the Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre are arranged with the purpose of involving various disabled and disadvantaged people into various community based activities. These disadvantaged and disabled people are made to interact with able bodied individuals who assist them in various mainstream activities. As a result the target audience of the marketing communications would be these disabled and disadvantaged people. Moreover the centre is also involved with ‘E2E’ program and engaged in providing training to young people in order to make them labour market ready. As a result young people in the region of north east Lincolnshire would also be the target of this communication program. The communication programs would be made to target not only the people of the region but also various organizations. As a result marketing communication programs would be both B2B as well as B2C. Objective: The major objective of this communication program is to create awareness among the people in north east Lincolnshire about various programs of LRAC. LRAC is involved in providing various land based courses which involve horticulture, horse management, small animal care and conservation. They are also involved in various fitness and health programs. Main objective of marketing communication programs would be to promote these programs of the centre and bring as many disabled people as possible. More number of people in the centre would automatically improve its market share. Another objective of this program would be to collect funds. It is important to notice that LRAC is a registered charity as a result it requires more source of funds to run its various programs. Strategy: As far as strategy is concerned push and pull strategy could be effective. Generally push strategy is used for creating consumer demand and this is done by using organisation’s sales force. Whereas pull strategy need huge spending on consumer promotion and advertising and it make consumers ask for the products (Tutor2u, n.d.). Here in the case of LRAC marketing communication strategy would be push strategy because here consumer demand needs to be created. Objective of this strategy would be to create awareness regarding various programs of LRAC. Advertising these programs in electronic media (television, radio) would be the best way to do this. Apart from advertising various public relation programs could also be useful. Tactics: Tactics are the base of the strategy. In case of marketing communication for Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre basic tactics would be crucial for successful implementation of various communication strategies. There could be various marketing communication tactics like advertising, public relation, personal selling, sales promotion and direct marketing. In case of LRAC public relation and advertising would be two most effective communication tactics. Advertising in television and local radio channel would be very effective. Various local radio channels are compass FM, Grimbsy hospital radio, lincs FM, Franklin college radio, Viking radio, magic 1161 and radio Lincolnshire (North East Lincolnshire Council, n.d.). This tactics would useful to increase the awareness among the people regarding various programs of LRAC. Furthermore LRAC can organize seminars, conferences on its different programs. There could be several public relation approaches such as customer press releases, promotional videos, celebrity endorsements etc. These activities could be effective for promoting LRAC programs. Action: Implementation of these above mentioned promotional tactics is crucial. It is very important to select the proper channel and message of the advertisement because success or failure of these programs is dependent on how they are presented to the target customers. The message of the advertisement would contain the core subject of these programs. Budget is also an important factor. LRAC is a registered charity as result it might not be able to spend huge amount of money in promotional campaign. As a result it must focus on the most cost effective way of promoting its programs. Budgeting of advertising is another important factor. Objective and task budgeting, where advertising expenditures are measured by performing audit of the resources which are required to attain the objectives, would be effective in this case. Control: Once the various advertisement and public relation programs are launched they must be properly controlled. Lack of control of these programs would result to wastage of money and time. Moreover all the communication programs need to be properly evaluated. This evaluation would be on the basis of the extent to which the objectives of the communication programs are fulfilled. Measurement of effectiveness of the communication programs regarding LRAC is based on how much awareness is created regarding various programs of the centre among the people. Basically awareness of LRAC programs would be reflected by how many people are attending the programs. As a result the ultimate evaluation of communication programs would be on the basis of how many people are attending these programs. Conclusion Marketing communication is crucial for any organization irrespective of its nature. Like any other organization for LRAC also various marketing communication strategies are important. There are different programs of the centre that need to be promoted through various advertising and public relation programs. Proper selection of communication channel and message would definitely help the organization to improve its market share and customer base. References Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre, No Date, About Us, [online] Available at: http://www.lincsruralactivitiescentre.co.uk/ [Accessed on November 28, 2009]. North East Lincolnshire Council, No Date, Local Radio, [online] Available at: http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/community/radio.htm [Accessed on November 28, 2009]. Tutor2u, No Date, promotion- push and pull strategies, [online] Available at: http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/promotion_pushpull.asp [Accessed on December 1, 2009]. Read More