Integrated Communication Marketing - Assignment Example

New Project Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Current marketing situation 4 SWOT 4 Market Analysis 5 Objectives and Issues 6 Marketing and Communications Strategy 6 Tactics and Action Programs 8 The Message 8 Budget 9 Performance measurement 9 Reference 11 Executive Summary The world of the 21st century is moving at a rapid pace. Continuous change and fast development is responsible for developing different markets and economies around the world. It is important to mention that the rapid technological strides over the years has brought a massive change in the modes of communication, and the rising technological penetration along with the growing popularity of smart technological devices has played a catalytic role in transforming the globe into a well connected single entity. While the transformation has triggered positive developments in terms of market and consumer dynamics, it has also made the work environments highly competitive and demanding. While the increased pace of the modern day lifestyle has cut out the time to relax and unwind, it has increased the demand for different on the go healthy food and drink options. In this paper, the spotlight is on the Thinking Cup Coffee Shop, located in the Downtown area of Boston (Thinkingcup.com, 2014). The prime focus of the assignment is to develop an integrated marketing communications plan for the dates dessert, which is a new product line that will be offered by the Boston based coffee shop to its customers. Current marketing situation The current marketing situation for the coffee shop can be well understood by taking into consideration the marketing tools and strategies that are presently used. The Thinking Cup Coffee Shop has its own website, which provides the customers with important insights besides helping in educating the customers about its product portfolio and product prices. The coffee shop also communicates the value of its products and services through multiple online networking platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Currently, the marketing endeavours through the online networking platforms are successful in generating consumer interests. The online pages of the Coffee Shop in the social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook have a considerable number of followers who have opted for receiving updates of the coffee shop. The coffee shop also opts for traditional offline marketing tactics and makes press releases in the print media so as to generate awareness among the audience (Conti, 2013). SWOT The SWOT analysis for the coffee shop has been designed by focusing on the new product, which will be offered to the consumers. Strengths Dates dessert is a completely new concept. Has the flavour and aroma of the original dates of the Middle East Weakness Other desert offerings of the shop may lead to product cannibalization. Opportunities Since the dates dessert is a new concept, it will present a first mover advantage to the shop. Have the potential to increase the customer footfall for the shop, thereby promoting sales of the entire product portfolio. Threats The new product might fail to appeal to the secondary target audience. The product might be replicated easily by other coffee shops, thereby increasing competition. Market Analysis The coffee shop market existing in the Downtown area of Boston is fiercely competitive. Because of a growing demand for coffee consumption, especially in the Downtown Boston area, many coffee shops have set up their business in that particular region. It is interesting to note that the Downtown area coffee shops prefer to distinguish themselves from the normal coffee shop trends in terms of service. The coffee shops of the region actively discourage users to use their laptop, or connect to the Wi-Fi in the store premises. From the business point, it can be said that the ban on Wi-Fi connectivity helps the coffee shops to attain an increase in sales as they can service a continuous flow of customers (Russell, 2014). While analyzing the market for the new product line that will be offered by the Thinking Cup Coffee Shop, the desired target audience has to be considered. Talking on the lines of the target audience, it has to be highlighted that the primary focus is on the students, residents and tourists of the Middle East, who are either residing or visiting the downtown Boston region. The secondary target market is the American audience, eager to experience the newly implemented Middle East concept. With regards to reliable statistical information, the Arab population in the entire Boston area is estimated at around 350,000 (zipatlas.com, 2013). Because of a high Arabian mass presence in the entire region, it can be said that the market provides a good fit for the coffee shop to launch the new product line. A successful introduction of the new product line in the market might lead to an increase of sales of the coffee shop by 20%. Objectives and Issues The marketing objectives for the new product of the Thinking Cup Coffee shop are multiple. The foremost objective is to generate awareness among the primary and secondary target audience in regards to the new product that will be offered by the consumers. The second objective is positioning the product as a key attraction for the coffee shop. The last objective is to increase customer footfall in the coffee shop, and successfully converting them into satisfied customers so as to attain a 20% rise in product sales. Now talking in regards to the marketing issue, it has to be said that the dates dessert is a completely new product in the Boston market. So, while introducing the product, Thinking Cup coffee shop needs to choose the right kind of pricing strategy. In this case, Thinking Cup should focus fix the product price by using the price skimming strategy. The price skimming strategy will help the coffee shop to charge a higher price during the product introduction phase and can gradually move towards price reduction, once competitors start offering similar products (Gitman and McDaniel, 2008, p. 309). Hence, with regards to the price skimming strategy, the dates dessert should be priced at $5.00/ piece. Marketing and Communications Strategy While designing the marketing and communications strategy, a geo-demographic method of segmentation has to be followed (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). The segment will comprise of Middle East as well as American masses living in Boston, of all age groups. The sampling method that will be used to market the product to the audience will be random sampling for the masses of Boston. The marketing of the new dates dessert product of Thinking Cup Coffee Shop will be done by using viral marketing, guerrilla marketing strategy along with the usage of public relations and print media. The viral marketing strategy will be a integration of both traditional and online marketing moves. The viral marketing for the new product will be initiated by advertising the new product on every napkin that is provided to the customer. Another traditional move of viral nature will be to display the product on the carry bags of the take-away items from the store. These traditional viral marketing moves will be supported by popularising the product on the online networking platforms. Apart from these, the promotional newsletters that are sent to the loyal customers of the store will also be tagged with information pertaining to the new dates dessert. The guerrilla marketing strategy will also be an integration of offline and online moves. The traditional guerrilla marketing move will be to create a flash mob performance in a busiest area of Downtown Boston during the peak hour and sharing the video link on the popular networking platforms. To make the video more appealing, a social message related to healthy eating will be displayed at the closing of the video (Mercer, 2013). It is important to state that both the viral marketing as well as the guerrilla marketing campaigns will be provided additional support through traditional public relations activities, which will generally involve educating the target audience about the new product through print media ads in various local newspapers as well as food and lifestyle magazines. Also, advertisements will be provided in various coffee shops magazines that have a high circulation in the entire Boston area. The in-store audience as well as the masses present in the adjacent neighbourhood of the stores will be educated about the new product by distributing promotional brochures which will mainly feature the new dates dessert product of Thinking Cup Coffee Shop. Tactics and Action Programs In order to successfully execute the viral and guerrilla marketing campaigns, a proper action plan needs to be designed. It has to be said that the viral marketing campaigns for spreading awareness about the new product will be done for a period of 2 months while the guerrilla marketing will be done once every month for the next three months. The quantity of napkins and carry bags that needs to be used for the viral marketing campaigns has to be forecasted previously, in order to prevent exhaustion of promotion materials during the campaign period. For the flash mob performance, that will happen once every month, for the upcoming three months, a performing group has to be contacted for making the performance along with the performing dates. Also, permissions have to be taken in advance from the local authorities in regards to the performance of the flash mob. The Message The promotional materials that will be used in the viral marketing campaign needs to carry a message that will trigger the interest among the target audience as well as educate them in regards to the dates dessert that will be offered by the coffee shop. Different promotional message needs to be displayed on both the paper napkins as well as the carry bags. The first promotional message will be “Have a date with the Middle East with the new Dates Dessert”. The second message will be ‘Experience the Magic of the Middle East with the new Dates Dessert”. Another promotional message will be “Get lost in the flavours of the Middle East with the new Dates Dessert”. The last one will be “Get a taste of the Majestic Middle East with the new Dates Dessert” For the guerrilla marketing campaign, the nutritional benefits of dates will be highlighted (Haris, n.d.). The video that will be shared on the different social networking sites will have the message “Have a balanced diet everyday with the new Dates Dessert. Available only at the Thinking Cup Coffee Shop.” Budget The estimated budget for marketing the new product is $30,000. Given below is the proposed split-up of the budget. Marketing Activity Expense Amount ($) Viral Campaign - Napkins 2,000 Viral Campaign - Carry Bags 6,000 Viral Campaign - Social Media Marketing 6,000 Guerrilla Campaign - Flash Mob Performance 12,000 Guerrilla Campaign - Online video marketing 4,000 Total Projected Expense 30,000 It is important to state that the proposed marketing budget has been prepared by considering the three stores of the Thinking Cup Coffee Shop, that are operating in different areas of Boston. Performance measurement To measure the effectiveness of the performance, a multi stage evaluation process has to be followed. The first stage will be to execute a market research in the Downtown area to evaluate awareness of the new product among the desired target audience. The next stage will be to compare the sales data after the introduction of the new product in the coffee shop with that of the sales data before the introduction of the dates dessert. the third stage will be to keep a tab on the number of followers who are following the coffee shop on the social networking sites. Also, the comments and feedback regarding the new product will have to be monitored to check the success of the dates dessert in the Boston Downtown market. The final stage will be to evaluate the number of viewers for the flash mob performance on the different social networking sites. The viewership number will give an idea of the effective reach of the guerrilla marketing campaign. Reference ThinkingCup.com. (2014). About Us. Retrieved from: http://www.thinkingcup.com/ Conti, M. (2013). Thinking Cup. Retrieved from: http://northendwaterfront.com/tag/thinking-cup/ Gitman, L. and McDaniel, C. (2008) The Future of Business: The Essentials. USA: Cengage Learning. Zipatlas.com (2013). Cities with the Highest Percentage of Arabs in Massachusetts. Retrieved from: http://zipatlas.com/us/ma/city-comparison/percentage-arab-population.htm Pride, W. and Ferrell, O.C. (2008) Marketing. US: Cengage Learning. Russell, A. (2014) No Laptops, No Wi-Fi: How One Cafe Fired Up Sales. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/04/10/300518819/no-laptops-no-wi-fi-how-one-cafe-fired-up-sales Mercer, L.M.. (2013) TEN GUERRILLA MARKETING TACTICS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA. Retrieved from: http://www.toptensocialmedia.com/social-media-how-to/ten-guerrilla-marketing-tactics-for-social-media/ Haris, N. (N.d.) Are Dates a Healthy Food? Retrieved from: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/dates-healthy-food-3867.html Bibliography Clow, K.E and Baack, D.E. (2013) Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications, Student Value Edition. USA: Prentice Hall. Read More