Consumer Media and Communications of Airness - Case Study Example

Consumer Media and Communications Executive Summary A lesser famous sportswear brand, i.e. of Airness, is chosen for the purpose of the paper. Its various strengths, weaknesses and current promotional practices are discussed. Various aspects such as current advertising strategy of Airness for making its promotion in the upcoming Olympics in the United Kingdom and identifying its existing as well as its new potential target market have been taken into consideration in the paper. Moreover, the recommendations of various advertising messages of Airness, based on their target market profiling and recommendations also for developing positive attitudes towards the brand, are taken into concern in the discussion of this paper. Collectively, the overall introduction, analysis, evaluation, necessary recommendations and a summative conclusion have been drawn for Airness, which are elaborately discussed in this paper. Table of Contents 1 Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Analysis 5 Evaluation 8 Conclusion 15 References 16 Appendix 19 Introduction The conception, study and practice of consumer behaviour in an organisation is to help and support the firm or an organisation in order to enhance especially their marketing policies, which results in facilitating to reach the customers (Sharma 2006). The idea of consumer behaviour develops through the learning of organisations, groups or individuals along with the various procedures which they execute in order to fulfil the requirements upon the society as well as the consumer. Moreover, consumer behaviour engages the utilisation of various products which deeply influence the position of a product and encourage in raising consumption of the customers (Hoyer & Macinnis 2009). The conception of consumer behaviour is mainly applied for making various marketing strategies in order to make better marketing campaigns of a particular organisation or a firm. The most significant study of consumer behaviour is that it affects upon the decision making of the customers (Blythe 2008). There is no doubt that the understanding of consumer behaviour is very much necessary for any organisation for their long-term success in the initiation of any marketing program. However, consumer behaviour is visualised as a keystone of the marketing concepts. It also plays a significant role in determining strategies along with developing significant philosophy orientations especially of the marketing managers of an organisation (Loudon & Bitta 2001). Analysis Task 1 In relation to the theories and principles of learning, memory and consumer decision-making, the advertising message that is adopted by a lesser known sportswear brand, i.e., Airness, eventually makes the brand to capture especially the football market with its several products. The products include tracksuit, sport jacket and T-shirt among others. The main reason for the success that has been attained by Airness is due to the various advertising and promotional practices that have been performed by the brand (Raze n.d.). Airness is a French sportswear company selling one of the best sportswear brands. In terms of European expansion, the growth of Airness was fundamentally based on selling the US basketball clothing products. The products of Airness are mainly the apparels and footwear and its sportswear market has been greatly dominated by well known company brands like Nike, Puma and Adidas among others (Tiplady 2006). The strengths of Airness lie in the fact that the brand possesses a panther’s image in the brand’s logo, which creates an attractive outlook for the band. After its initial foundation, the Airness brand settled permanently within the range of suppliers for professional football. The brand in recent times has become a multi sports brand producing a broad variety of sporting equipment for basketball, tennis, rugby and football (Fragrantica 2011). One of the weaknesses of Airness lies in the fact that the brand emphasised mainly upon the sponsorships as their advertising message or as a promotional campaign for their products. As a result, the brand possessed a rigid pricing structure and is significantly behind than the major competitors such as Nike and Adidas (Fragrantica 2011). The other weakness of the Airness brand lies in the budget towards its marketing activity. It has been recognised that the Airness brand does not possess a greater market share along with a big budget especially in the marketing functions as compared to its competitors (Fragrantica 2011). In contrast with the weaknesses and strengths of Airness, it can be stated that the brand should maintain flexible pricing structure in order to compete with its major competitors and to attain success alike Nike and Adidas. In other words, Airness should provide utmost importance to its pricing structure in order to attain maximum leverage in the sportswear industry (Fragrantica 2011). The major attention that Airness is required to provide for is in its financial budget, especially towards its marketing activities, which is a crucial concern for Airness. The main reason for providing more attention in the budget, especially towards its marketing activities, is generally to enhance and to raise their market share along with increasing the awareness of the Airness brand (Fragrantica 2011). Advertising message is a kind of message which is executed through advertisements ultimately for the purpose of creating a communication especially for the customers, hoping that they will react in a certain way. In lieu of this, advertising message by making proper advertisements helps a particular organisation to reach a wide variety of audience of potential consumers. The advertising message that is conveyed to the customers through different categories of mass media is aimed to connect an organisation with the target audiences (Wells & et. al. 2007). The various fundamental components of advertising message include strategy, creative idea, execution and media. In order to reach a wide number of audiences, i.e. the customers, advertising messages have become more emphasised upon aspect while delivering commercial information along with the identification of the product’s maker. Furthermore, advertising messages play the role of generating need for a particular product. Thus, it can be stated that advertising messages possess a significant role for an organisation (Jefkins 2000). In this connection, the theory of consumer decision making can be visualised by considering few stages such as the input stage, output stage and process stage. The input stage refers towards the recognition of the customers regarding a certain product. The output stage refers towards the buying behaviour and post buying assessment of the customer. The process stage refers towards the procedure regarding how the customers make their decisions (Schiffman & Kanuk 2007). In relation to the theories of decision making, the lesser sportswear brand, i.e. Airness, has developed various promotional acts by making different sponsorships. Airness started to initiate its various promotional and advertising messages from the year 2004. Recently, in order to develop their advertising messages, Airness is awaiting for the result regarding its next invitation for the auction of French Football Federation (Raze n.d.). It has been identified that the current advertising message adopted by the lesser sportswear brand, i.e. Airness, is through conducting remarkable sponsorships in well known organised football clubs. In this regard, Airness signed various contracts with different terms, e.g. with Fulham (British Club), Genk (Belgium Club) and Boavista (Portugal Club) among others (Raze, n.d.). Thus, it can be stated that the advertising message adopted by a lesser sportswear brand i.e. Airness lies in developing various sponsorships agreements with well known organised football clubs and it also includes providing sponsorships in the sports like basketball, football, rugby and tennis. Evaluation Task 2 Consumer Segmentation is one of the crucial as well as the critical tasks of marketing strategy. It has been recognised that the customers are not treated equally because they are diverse in several ways. The several ways include the needs, capabilities, business strategies and demographic features such as profitability, size, geographical coverage and participation in various vertical markets (Bennett 2010). The several criteria of customer segmentation include the attitude and the behaviour of the customers, the different requirements of the customers and the buying practices of the customers. Well-structured and effective customer segmentation presents a marketing guideline for an entire organisation (Kim & et. al. 2006). With the help of the customer segmentation, especially the managers of all the departments of an organisation can examine and recognise the market. Moreover, the managers can execute or initiate different plans in order to enhance the performance of the organisation in various valuable segments based on customer segmentation (Barry 2006). However, the major and the most significant advantage of customer segmentation is that it helps to recognise various opportunities in each particular market segment and to enhance the retention as well as the productivity of the customers on a segment by segment basis. The other significant advantages also include executing individual marketing plans for each targeted segment and improving the services or the products that fit into the targeted segments (Barry 2006). The different categories of consumer segmentation include ‘geographic segmentation’, ‘psychographic’ or ‘lifestyle segmentation’, ‘behavioural segmentation’ and ‘demographic segmentation’ among others. In this context, ‘geographic segmentation’ is one of the most widespread and frequent forms of customer segmentation based on the market by focusing upon the geographic area, i.e. the organisations may focus upon their brands in certain countries and not all at once (Thomas 2007). ‘Demographic segmentation’ usually includes certain aspects like earnings, age, gender, housing pattern and education level. These aspects are the common elements of demographic segmentation. There lie certain brands which are targeted only to the customers based on the above discussed elements of demographic segmentation. It is obvious to the fact that the different essentials of demographic segmentation varies with the dissimilar consumer market segments (Beide 2003). ‘Behavioural segmentation’ helps to promote and to support the marketer in order to understand its potential customers which the marketer attempts to segregate and eventually target them to sell their particular brands or products. The various behavioural segmentation knowledge bases include product appliance, decision conditions, purchasing procedures, decision makers and attitudes of the decision makers (Beide 2003). ‘Psychographic segmentation’ is also referred as ‘lifestyle segmentation’. This particular segmentation is mainly based upon the thoughts, emotions, preferences, likings, perceptions, beliefs, behaviours, values and interests of the customers (Beide 2003). Before, identifying the existing target market along with identifying the potential new target market segment for Airness, it is necessary to have a look upon the mission of the marketing plan of Airness. The mission of the marketing plan of Airness lies in several aspects. The aspects include market penetration, market development and awareness (Beide 2003). The idea of market penetration refers towards attaining market share across all markets in which Airness compete with other sportswear brands. The conception of market development implies the expansion of the brand i.e. of Airness into new markets along with addressing and developing new consumer segments. The thought of awareness refers towards raising awareness and visibility across all brands, delivering understandable and constant messaging along with supporting product initiatives at the point-of-sale (Oboulo.com SARL 2012). Therefore, these are the marketing plans and strategies of Airness that need to be considered before identifying its potential new as well as existing target market segment for Airness. After having a broad discussion regarding the conception of various theories relating with consumer segmentation and acquiring a brief idea regarding the marketing plans and strategies of Airness, the existing target markets and the potential target markets can be assessed. On the basis of the conception and the different theories of consumer segmentation, the existing target market along with the potential new target market of Airness can be identified by considering certain factors. The factors include geographic, demographic, behavioural and psychographic or lifestyle segmentation among others (Scribd Inc. 2012). In general, the target market of Airness is France which is the principal country of Airness along with certain other countries especially in Africa. The target market of Airness also lies in the youth who are quite interested in the field of sports, especially football, along with the brand proposition ‘competition to lifestyle’. Furthermore, the new potential market of Airness lies in the different spheres of sporting events that include rugby, basketball and tennis (Oboulo.com SARL 2012). From the viewpoint of the geographic segmentation, the potential new target consumer market of Airness should lie upon France along with several other countries especially in Africa. The reason may be due to the fact that Airness might realise that in Africa, there lays huge enthusiasm and interest in the participation of various sporting events (Scribd Inc. 2012). According to the perspective of demographic segmentation, the potential new target consumer market of Airness should lie upon the age group of 15 to 35, with an average income level and social class. The focus should be upon both genders, i.e. female and male (Scribd Inc. 2012). From the behavioural segmentation point of view, the potential new target consumer market of Airness should lie upon the sportsperson such as the athletes, sports enthusiasts, gym regulars and sports loving individuals. It is obvious to the fact that Airness is a sportswear brand and its potential new market should include the above discussed elements of the behavioural segmentation (Scribd Inc. 2012). Finally, according to the psychographic or lifestyle segmentation, the potential new target consumer market of Airness lie upon the achievers, strivers, image drivers and experiencers (Scribd Inc. 2012). Recommendation Task 3 In order to compete with the major sportswear companies or brands such as Nike, Puma and Adidas among others along with maintaining the market share, it is essential for Airness to adopt certain suitable advertising messages for their customers throughout the world. It will also help for the brand (Airness) to expose themselves and their acceptance in the forthcoming Olympics that is scheduled in the United Kingdom. Though Airness has been chosen or has been adopted mainly for sponsorships as their advertising messages, there lie various other suitable promotional campaigns, advertisement activities and advertising messages. The different recommended advertising messages of Airness on the basis of target market profiling may lie upon the advertising media, covert advertising and television commercials. On the basis of developing positive attitudes towards the brand (Airness), the advertising messages include infomercials and celebrities (Scribd Inc. 2012). On the basis of target market profiling, Airness can adopt their advertising messages through initialising advertising media such as wall paintings, web banners, magazines, newspapers, messages in the sides of buses, any kind of event shows, shopping carts, subway platforms and trains and various other places, where Airness can deliver their message or can create branding for their products through the medium of advertising (Scribd Inc. 2012). Moreover, the conception of covert advertising can also be one of the advertising messages that can be adopted by Airness. The idea of covert advertising refers when a product or a brand is surrounded in media or entertainment. This signifies that the Airness brand could be seen in any movies or in any shows or events which can be a generous advertising message on the basis of target market profiling (Scribd Inc. 2012). In addition, the television commercials can also be one of the major advertising messages for Airness. It is due to the fact that the television commercials are fundamentally regarded as one of the most effective as well as efficient mass-market advertising formats or messages (Scribd Inc. 2012). On the basis of developing positive attitude towards the brand, especially the infomercials and the introduction of celebrities in promoting a brand can also be the advertising messages of Airness. Infomercials can be long-term as well as short-term initiatives. The main purpose of infomercials is to generate a desire to purchase so that the customers can see the visuals of the presentation and immediately purchase the product. Infomercials analyse and demonstrate various products along with their features in order to attract the customers and ultimately entice them to purchase the products (Nyren 2005). The other significant advertising message that can be adopted by Airness is to emphasise upon using different celebrities in order to attain recognition and for promoting their products. Celebrities are usually engaged in promoting the products through advertisements for different companies (Schlecht 2003). Thus, these are certain recommendations for Airness regarding new appropriate advertising messages based on target market profiling along with developing positive attitudes towards the brand. Conclusion After acquiring a broad discussion regarding various concepts of organisational behaviour along with having a general idea upon Airness, it can be stated that the advertising messages that have been adopted by Airness have an encouraging effect upon the consumers’ decision making procedures. Airness possesses an attractive logo, i.e. a panther’s image for its promotion of products, and the brand is focused mainly upon the sponsorships as their advertising message. In order to attain a greater market share along with competing with other major market leaders such as Adidas and Nike, Airness would have to develop themselves especially in the advertising messages. In this connection, in order to attain a greater market share along with competing with other major market leaders, the above discussed recommendations can play a noteworthy role for Airness to fulfil their various endeavours relating with the market share and competition. 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Schiffman, LG & Kanuk, LL 2007, Consumer behaviour, Pearson Education India. Thomas, JW 2007, ‘Market segmentation’, Geographic Segmentation, [Online] available at: http://www.decisionanalyst.com/Downloads/MarketSegm.pdf [Accessed March 05, 2012]. Tiplady, R 2006, ‘The ascent of Airness apparel’, Bloomberg Businessweek, [Online] available at: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2006/gb20060501_745574.htm [Accessed March 03, 2012]. Wells, WD & et al. 2007, Advertising: principles and practice, 7/E, Pearson Education India. Appendix Current Advertising Messages of Airness The current advertising messages of Airness possess an outstanding look in the font words, gorgeous colour combinations and attractive personality. Old Advertising Messages of Airness The old advertising messages of Airness possessed a slight differentiation especially in the font words which was not so much attractive and the colour of the shoe models were not up to the mark as compared to the new ones. 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