Integrate Marketing Communication and Automobile Industry - Case Study Example

 Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and Automobile Industry – The case of Mazda 1. Integrate Marketing Communication and Automobile Industry Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a managerial concept that intends to unify different aspects of marketing communication giving them the shape of a joint workforce in order to increase the effectiveness of marketing communication process (Gonring, 1994, p8). It is often regarded as a holistic approach towards the notion of marketing communication that inhibits different marketing communication segments like online and off-line advertising, sales promotion, public relation and direct marketing to work separately in isolation but it proposes their combined effort towards the achievement of marketing objective of the business. IMC is also concerned with the consistency of messages and complementary usage of mass mediums (Weinberger et al, 1995, p44). The notion of IMC is basically built upon the philosophy that when all the marketing tool, resources and approaches of a company are integrated, they are likely to have stronger impact upon the mind of the consumers that ultimately cause the companies higher levels of profits and also allows the companies gaining edge over their competitors. The concept of IMC has proved its broader implications in different sectors of businesses. With no exception, the companies operating in the automobile industry have also realized and experienced the implication and effectiveness of IMC and different elements of IMC are commonly used in the industry to market different automobiles. The implication of IMC in the automobile industry was realized especially when some of the leading brands of the industry including Mazda witnessed decline in their sales and brand image due to lack of proper focus upon advertising and marketing strategies. Mazda operates in highly competitive market place and faces tough competition with some of well established automobile brands like Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Over the last three decades Mazda has offered different models to the consumers based upon different superior attributes like styling, performance and reliability, however, the decline in the sales volume from 1994-1997 provoked awareness within the company regarding adoptability of IMC for effective delivery of marketing messages. In order to rebuilt its image and increase the sales volume, the company decided to rebuild its marketing strategy while adopting the concept of IMC because it blends different mediums of marketing communication together and permits their combined working towards specified target. The management of Mazda decided to give the charge of marketing strategy development to another advertising agency “Doner” that adopts the new generation approach of marketing communication and restructured the marketing strategies of Mazda for rebuilding its image and company reputation. The most important step taken by the advertising agency was to create the advertising campaign for building and promoting the overall company image of Mazda rather focusing upon any specific model. For this purpose, there was a very simple but quite appealing slogan also developed for Mazda “Get In, Be Moved”. This slogan proves its significance for establishing the company image of Mazda on solid basis and very well demonstrates the company commitment towards the provision of superior quality automobiles. In the first place, it was decided that the marketing communication strategies of Mazda will mainly target the young generation that is the most important target consumer of the sporty cars. All the marketing communication mediums like advertising, print ads, TV and radio commercials and public relation activities were then focused upon targeting that particular group of consumer and same theme of messages and marketing communication was transmitted through all of these mediums to present a unified marketing message in front of the target customers of Mazda. The implications of the concept of integrated marketing communication could be further observed in the automobile industry by having insight over the strategy adopted by Mazda to reposition its subcompact model Protégé that was launched in 1999. It was a great challenge for the company to launch the campaign for repositioning of this model that was earlier positioned as the smaller second car for entry level buyers or older people. However, the model was repositioned as a cool and fun thing model that suits the young females especially the working women. The repositioning of this model was not an easy task but it was successfully accomplished because the concept of IMC was put in practice for this purpose. There was some TV advertisement developed showing young group of women enjoying the drive of Protégé. At the same time, internet was used as marketing tool and many ads and banners of the car appear at different websites and popular portals. Informative CD-ROMS were also emails to the people that show their interests online in knowing more about this brand. Furthermore, the point of purchase cubs were also developed to be shown at the showrooms of Mazda dealers that contain promotional messages being transmitted though TV and print ads. The significance of adopting IMC approach for the marketing of this brand was proved when 33 percent increase was recorded in the sales volume of Protégé in 1998. The same approach was followed by Mazda for the promotion of another model Mazda 6 that was launched in 2003. The company again adopted the strategy of integrated marketing communication and the promotional messages were at a time transmitted through different mediums. The print ads of Mazda 6 appeared in different printing publications like newspaper and life style magazine. The company also signed agreement with ESPN to show the TV commercials during key sports event. Other medium of marketing like direct mail, email, banners and website ads, online promotional messages and public relation activities were also managed and a mini website was also created for the promotion of this model. As a result of these efforts, the car was successfully launched and was listed among the best 10 cars of 2003. The examples of Mazda 6 and Protégé clearly illustrate the implication as well as significance of the concept of IMC for the automobile industry because it is found that the major brands make use of this approach for repositioning and positioning of different models and they become successful in their efforts due to the effectiveness of this marketing strategy. “Zoom-Zoom” Advertisement theme to replace “Get In. Be Moved” tagline The tagline “Get in. be moved” was created in 1999 to form a new image of the company, however; after the successful campaign of Protégé, it was realized by the top management of the company that this tagline does not amply describe and denote all the models of Mazda in effective manner. It was also felt that this theme gives such a common impression for Mazda model that could be applied even to the airport cars. Moreover, the tagline also appears passive and less attractive to some of the top management personnel of Mazda. It was also felt by the management of Mazda that the tagline of the company must demonstrate an enthusiastic image of the company and this tagline should also collectively represent all the brands of Mazda. Due to this reason, the company left the previous tagline and developed the new one i.e. “Zoom-Zoom” to represent the wide range of models launched by Mazda. The creation of this new tagline was basically backed by the philosophy that people can enjoy driving the Mazda cars in the same way as the children use to have fun playing with their wheels and toy cars. This new slogan was an attempt to target the inner child present within the adults and demonstrates that adults will have same level of fun and amusement that children have with their favourite toys and cars. The Tribute sport car was the first model of Mazda that was launched using the tagline of Zoom-Zoom in 2000. The model was launched successfully and received good response from the media and people in terms of sales volume and popularity. After that the same tagline was used in all the ads and promotional messages of the company and the previous tagline was completely dropped. The decision of the company to change the tagline was a wise and much needed decision because in the highly competitive and rapidly changing environment, it is not possible for the companies to remain successful using passive tagline and promotional themes. Thus, it is imperative that the companies must review and change their strategies including the promotional themes and taglines to keep them align with the requirements of the changing marketplace and highly demanding consumers (Srinivasan and. Anderson, 1998, p410). The tagline “Get in. Be moved” also proved its significance and stimulation for generating sales because the repositioning campaign of Protégé was successfully commenced using this tagline. However, it was a true fact realized by one of the top level personnel of the company that despite being successful for the campaign of one model, it is also a fact that this tagline is not a true representative of the brand that has the privilege to initiate and introduce several popular and outstanding models of sporty cars. Thus, there was need of some more stimulating and appealing tagline to suitably represent all of the Mazda brands collectively. This realization led the company towards the development of new tagline and ultimately Zoom-Zoom was created to donate the brands of Mazda collectively. The new tagline has been being regarded much more than just a tagline by the key personnel of the company. It is common belief held at Mazda managerial level that the new tagline is more appealing because it touched the inner side of the people and strive to wake up their desires for having fun and amusement while driving their vehicles. The change of the tagline seems a wise decision because it position Mazda as a brand that offer sporty, full of fun, reliable and pleasant drives to the people and allow them feeling the same carefree pleasure and happiness that the children feel when they play with their toy vehicles. It implies that changing the tagline was an important requirement of the competitive marketplace where the companies need to quickly modify the features of their sales and marketing strategies. Mazda also proves its consciousness towards responding to the demands of the situation and ultimately it become successful in launching its new models while establishing a better image of the company. Marketing Strategy for Mazda 6 Mazda 6 was a major model launched by Mazda and it was also deemed among the most important launches in the history of Mazda. Mazda 6 belongs to the sedan family that is the mid-size but most critical segment of automobile industry. The sales volume of this segment determines the company profitability as well as works for building the image of the company at broader level. The target audiences decided for Mazda 6 are the people spending an active lifestyle most of them were supposed belong to age groups of mid-30s that are also fond of cars and attractive automobiles. Keeping in view the critical importance of this model, the advertising and marketing strategy was designed very carefully for Mazda6. It was decided not to continue with the same approach as adopted for the marketing of Protégé, but the management decided to adopt a mature and refined approach for the marketing of Mazda 6. The marketing strategy was designed with the intention to position the car as a sporty but fine drive that people can use to replace Camry, Altima and Accord launched by Toyota, Nissan and Honda respectively. It was decided to adopt less playful and more matured approach for the marketing of Mazda 6. By the launch of Mazda 6, the company has already decided to drop out the tagline of “Get it, be moved” and the new tagline “Zoom-Zoom” was put in practice by the company. For the marketing of Mazda6, Zoom-Zoom line was used in different ads created for this model however, there was an attempt made to reflect more mature and confident side of company image. The strategy of integrated marketing communication was again used by the company for developing the marketing strategy of Mazda6. The print and electronic ads were created using the same line Zoom-Zoom but there was a major difference in the ads made for Mazda 6 and the ads of previous models that Mazda 6 ads mainly focus towards different attribute of the model itself rather depicting the fun people could have with it. Most of the TV and print ads consists of the actions shots focusing upon different qualities of the car. The strategy was prepared using a blend of different marketing mediums. The print advertisement budget accounts for almost 12 percent of total advertisement budget allocated for the marketing of Mazda 6. The prints ads for Mazda 6 appeared in some of the major newspapers as well as lifestyle and sports magazines through which the young and mid0aged group people were targeted. The company also entered a deal with ESPN that allow it to transmit the ads of Mazda through different channels of ESPN including ESPN magazine, TV channels as well as the ESPN Zone restaurants. Furthermore, it was also decided to take part in the sponsorship of different promotional campaigns launched by ESPN including Exhilarating moments and Pigskin Pick’Em etc. along with these efforts, the marketing team also decided to conduct an extensive public relation program to built up the better image of the company in order to compliment the positioning of Mazda 6 in the marketplace. It is found that the approach of integrated marketing communication has an important role to play in the formulation of marketing strategy for Mazda 6. The company decided to promote the brand using different forms of promotional media including print, TV and other electronic ads and direct advertisement methods. The use of these different types of medium for the marketing of Mazda6 indicates that the management attains clear understanding of the significance of integrated marketing communications strategy and rather focusing upon any single medium of marketing, the company decided to transmit the promotional messages through all the possible mediums and strives to create influential impact upon the minds and decision making behavior of the consumers. The entire effort brought some positive outcome to the company because the model was launched successfully and receives warm welcoming response from the media as well as from the general public. This positive response achieved from the target group of customers and media affirms that it was a wise decision of the management to drop the playful approach of marketing while adopting a mature and refined way of product marketing. This appropriate strategy allowed the model to attain the position within the list of successful cars of 2003. Recommendation for IMC Though Mazda is very well doing in the sector and has gained a stable market position after getting proper support from its marketing campaigns, but it is also a fact that the high competition in the market required to firm to reconsider its strategies on short time basis and modify the marketing plans to keep them update with evolving situation. Thus, there are some important recommendations made for Mazda that are expected to make some position contributions towards the company marketing policy and hopes to point out some useful aspect of the entire picture. Mazda operates in highly competitive market place and critically needs to evaluate and modify its advertising and marketing strategy on continual basis on order to induce the necessary changes as per the requirement of the market situation. As far as the marketing strategy using the approach of IMC is concerned, it has been already proved that there are significant level of awareness among the management of Mazda regarding the importance of integrated marketing communication and for almost last ten years, the company has been developing the marketing campaigns for its different brands using the approach of integrated marketing communication that allows it to engage different forms of media in the promotion and positioning of its brands as well as company image. The intense competition prevailing in the field of automobile industry asks Mazda to remain focus towards its target audience for every model and adopt the strategy to cater these people accordingly. The identification of proper market for the marketing of different models is very essential for the success of the marketing strategy because the company can record increase in the sales volume only when the target group of consumer for every model is reached though the marketing campaign in appropriate manner. Thus, the first important and fundamental recommendation for Mazda is to remain concern about the identification of target customers of its different models so that the marketing strategy could address their special needs through different ads and activities. After the proper and accurate identification of target group of customers, it is equally important that the company must decide to select the appropriate approach of marketing according to the psychographics of the consumers. The fun type marketing strategy is not generally suitable for the people beyond the mid ages but in some of the cases it is acceptable to use the approach of having fun even for the mature people because it gives them a sense of having relaxed and stress free time while they drive Mazda models. So it is very important that the company should select the tone of marketing strategy keeping in view the characteristics of the target consumer group. The strategy of using same tagline for the overall promotion of Mazda brand has also proved its significance and practicability thus it is recommended to Mazda to carry on with this approach because rather focusing upon any single model, it strengthen the brand image that ultimately contribute towards increase in sales volume and reliability of the company. Along with these issues, it is equally important that the company must keep keen eye towards the activities and marketing approached being adopted by the competitors. The company faces nose to nose competition with some stable automobile companies so it is very important that the marketing strategy adopted by Mazda must meet the same standard and level as that of its competitors. Moreover, the approaches adopted by the firms should also not different considerable and if the competitors are marketing their products using hip-hop, fun type and sporty essence, then Mazda should also keep the same essence in its marketing plans. It is not necessary that Mazda should use the same tone as that of the competitors but it would be better to propose new lines within the same way in order to remain competitive within the technology driven marketplace. It is also imperative that the company should think about some innovative ways of conveying messages to the people and the use of internet and latest technology is very important to attain this purpose. So Mazda should also develop some web based promotional activities that allow the interaction of general people with the company at some level. Advantages and Disadvantages of Print, TV, Radio and internet Advertisement Advertising is an important component of marketing mix and the companies often use different mediums for the advertisement of their products and services. The approach of integrated marketing communication insists that the companies must utilize different mediums of advertising at once in order to enhance the effectiveness of the message upon the mind of the consumers. The traditional medium for advertising includes television and print ads whereas over the last decade, internet has also evolved as one of the nonconventional but significant and strategic medium for marketing. It is very imperative for the companies to gain awareness of advantages and disadvantages associated with each medium of advertising so that they can formulate their marketing strategy keeping in view the potential benefits that could be drive from advertisement in terms of consumer feedback and response etc. (Sutherland et al, 2000, p203) The television and radio ads are traditional and relatively low cost forms of advertising and even in today’s high technology drive world one cannot deny the importance of these medium. TV and radio have been established as credible sources of advertisement and the promotional messages conveyed through these channels are supposed to have high level of reliability among the audience. On the other hand, internet has been evolved as modern channel of advertising that offers certain benefits to the companies that are not given by TV and radio ads. Thus, each of these advertising channel have their own significance and importance and the marketers have to choose the most appropriate and suitable media for the promotion of their products and services keeping in view the benefits and setbacks of each of these advertisement forms. The level of credibility of the radio and TV ads tend to be higher than the internet advertisements because the TV and radio ads are booked by companies and the audience are also aware that the TV and radio have transmitted their messages of the behalf of the companies. Internet tends to have credibility because the visitors could not track if any message has been sent to them genuinely by a company or it is just another spam email received in the mail boxes. Due to this reason, there are many chances that the internet ads might not be viewed by the visitors however; the viewership of the TV and radio ads could be estimated according to the audience of these channels. The radio and TV ads are supposed to attain undivided attention of the audience as compared with that of internet advertisement. While watching TV and radio, the people usually focus upon one medium at one time due to which they also came across different ads transmitted from different channels. While surfing online the people use to do so many things at one time like checking email, chatting, surfing different websites etc that divides their attention and ultimately there are little chances of estimating that how many visitors have actually read their messages. Thus, it is found that TV and radio are credible forms of advertisement that generally get undivided attention of audience, whereas internet ads usually tend to have divided attention of the visitors and anyone could send the message on the behalf of the company to the online consumers using hacking and other spamming techniques that in turn badly damages the credibility of internet as advertising and promotional medium (Sutherland et al, 2000, p203). There are some benefits that are solely offered by internet advertisement. For instance, the visitors have been provided with the opportunity that after coming across any advertisement or promotional message, they could record their feedback to the companies. Internet ads provide the visitors an instant way to respond towards the messages and the consumers could follow the links to get more information about the products or to order the product online or offline. In this way, the feedback is properly received and recorded for the internet ad that is not possible for the TV and radio ads. The internet ads also provide high level of interactivity with the consumers that the radio and TV ads could not provide. Internet ads could be made using techniques that ask the visitors to select some option to proceed with the process of viewing the ad. TV and radio are the one sided ads that are not actually concerned with the instance response of the consumers towards these ads. However, the TV and radio ads could be stored in paper or audio record form and viewed after long time. Internet ads could also be saved for later views but generally the online ads change so immediately that the visitors could not save those ads for later views (Sutherland et al, 2000, p203). Thus, it is revealed that all of these channels have their own unique significance and importance. It is essential that the companies have adequate awareness regarding the potential benefits and setbacks of these channels so that they could select the most appropriate and suitable media for the promotion of their products and services. References Gonring, M. P. (1994), “Putting integrated marketing communications to work today,” Public Relations Quarterly, (45), p8 Srinivasan S.S., Rolph E. Anderson (1998), Concepts and strategy guidelines for designing value enhancing sales promotions, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 7(5), pp410-20 Sutherland, M., Alice K. Sylvester (2000), Advertising and the mind of the consumer: what works, what doesn't, and why, NY: Allen & Unwin, 2000 Weinberger, M. G. Harlan Spotts, Leland Campbell, and Amy L. Parsons (1995), “The use and effect of humour in different advertising media,” Journal of Advertising Research, May–June 1995:44–55 Read More