Analysis of IMC for Philips - Case Study Example

Analysis of IMC for Philips of the Introduction Intergraded marketing communication (IMC) is the process through which a company aims to achieve its marketing objectives. The process of IMC is conducted by using various marketing channels. IMC helps a brand to promote its products and attract customers. Strategic roles of different communication process are recognized by IMC. Creative campaigns and marketing strategies facilitate a company to develop its IMC. A company emphasize on its each communication channel for developing strong connection with its customers. In the present business scenario all the companies focus on IMC for making their position strong in competitive market. Various models of IMC are used by companies for reaching to its target customers. In this research paper IMC of Philips Company will be discussed in details. This paper will focus on different forms of IMC which Philips uses for attracting its target customers. The company uses various tools of IMC for popularizing its brand name. The firm communicates with its customers with the help of its different elements of marketing mix like packaging, products, price etc. This research paper will also highlight about the Philips recent ad campaigns. Through its advertisements the company communicates different message to its customers which help Philips to increase its sales. Various forms of IMC Philips can use The company Philips is into the electronic business from 1891. The company sells various products of home appliances, medical equipments, personal care and lighting. The company has large customer base in different countries of the world. Presently many companies have developed their businesses in electronic industry. These companies give tough competition to Philips. Therefore to retain its customers and to acquire more customers, Philips can use different effective forms of IMC. There are fore forms of IMC which help the business in achieving its targets and objectives. These four forms are internal, external, horizontal and vertical communication. By internal marketing integration the company can keep its employees exited about new product development. This excitement is transmitted outside which also makes other people excited about the new product. In horizontal integration Philips can establish good communication system among its production, distribution, marketing and finance teams. This communication system will help the company to run its business smoothly. The firm can incorporate vertical integration communication which will help it to understand that the products it is developing, matches with its corporate policies or not. The company can become sure that its products are aligned with its mission. Through external marketing integration Philips can develop interesting advertisements which will help the company to attract more customers. Strong public relations can facilitate the company in making good product campaigns. Analysis of IMC contact tools Print media: In print media Philips uses newspaper. The company publishes various advertisements in newspaper for launching any new product or making the customers aware of its existing products. Public Relations: For maintaining strong relationship with people Philips makes different advertisement campaigns in various languages. Through the advertisements the firm conveys message to people which influence them to purchase its products. Every ads of Philips tells a story. This makes the ad campaign more interesting. Internet interactive: Philips uses many social networking sites for communicating with its target customers. The company publishes various posts in facebook, twitter and YouTube for making its customers aware of its products. Direct Marketing: In direct marketing Philips uses its sales representatives for communicating with its customers easily. These representatives also communicate with the distributers and dealers of Philips. Sales promotion: The Company offers various types of discounts while selling its products. Philips offer many seasonal discounts for attracting new customers. The firm has its business in various countries. Philips offers discounts at the time of festive seasons in different countries. Event sponsorship: Philips sponsors many events at national and international levels. This helps the brand in creating strong brand image. The company is also involved in organizing events for launching its products. Product placement: This tool is extensively used by Philips. It is one of the important marketing strategies of Philips. With this tool the company tries to reach its customers through entertainment media. For making this marketing tool effective Philips hired a Product placement agency. Word of mouth: Strong reputation of this brand helps the company in establishing positive word of mouth. Personal selling: In the retail stores of Philips there are many sales officers present who are involved in personal selling. With this IMC tool the company builds strong relationship with its customers. Point of purchase: In retail shops or shopping malls Philips tries to influence the customers in purchasing its products instantly. The company displays its products in such a way which attracts many customers. Out of home media: By using this IMC tool the company advertizes about its products in various public places where it can reach maximum number of targeted customers. Various types of advertisements are used by Philips in this IMC tool (Swann, 2014). Broadcast media: In this IMC tool Philips various types of communication methods like radio, TV for promoting its different products and connecting with its customers. Marketing mix elements Product: Philips Company deals with wide ranges of products. The company produces consumer electronics, medical systems, personal and domestic appliances etc. The products are designed in such ways which are able to satisfy the needs and demands of individuals. The products of Philips help the brand in building good connections with people. Price: The prices off Philips products are set in such a way which helps the brand to attract its target customers. Based on the product features and competition the company fixes the price of its products. The affordable price of Philips products influences its target customers to buy its products. Place: The Company has its presence in most of the countries of the world. It has established its retail stores in various popular places of different countries which attract many customers. This also helps the company in establishing strong position in the market. Good retail stores locations help the company to increase its customer base and sales figures. Philips is also involved in selling its products through online sites. This facilitates the firm in reaching maximum customers. Promotions: The Company uses various tools in promoting its products. Philips creates many ad campaigns which help the firm to launch new products. It is also involved in sponsoring various events for making customers aware of its brands. Discounts and offers are provided by the company for attracting new customers. People: Philips recruits efficient individuals who can help the company in performing various business functions. These people innovates new products ideas and assist the brand in launching the products in most attractive ways. These people understand the requirements of target customers and based on that they design the product and process of the company. Physical evidence: All of the products and retail stores are physical evidence of Philips. The company has designed its retail stores in such a way which attract many customers and influences their buying decisions of the customers in a positive way. Philips displays its products in a very systematic way which helps the company in communicating the features of its products easily to its customers. Process: The Company provides good quality of service to its customers. Philips tries to satisfy its customers by giving them best products and services. Product delivery process of this firm is efficient. This helps the company in building good relationship with its customers. Packaging: On the packets of Philips products company name is mentioned. By this process the company popularizes its brand name. The packaging of Philips products are done in eco friendly way which helps the company in communicating its efforts on reducing environmental damages. Most used IMC program of Philips Philips communicates with its customers in very effective way which helps the brand to build good relationship with people. The company mainly uses different types of advertisements in its IMC tools for promoting its products. Commercial ad campaigns of Philips arte designed in such a way which helps the brand in highlighting different features of its products. Its brand position is enhanced by its sponsorship programs. Product placement tool is also considered as an important tool of IMC by Philips. By using this tool in different ways Philips aware the consumers of entertainment media about its different types of products. The company is using personal selling tools for making good communication with the customers (Stromback and Kiousis, 2011). Integration of IMC various tools Various IMC tools used by Philips are integrated in efficient way which facilitates the company in conveying message to its target customers. The company believes in “sense and simplicity”. Philips. Therefore the advertisement of Philips are designed and developed on the basis of this believe. Philips analyses its customer mind set in a very detailed way. This helps the firm to implement its IMC tools effectively. The company trains and develops its employees for making them capable to communicate with its target customers. This process also helps the company in establishing strong marketing activities. The targeted customer base of this company is located worldwide. So the company uses various language and symbols in its marketing communications which conveys the same meaning. Overall assessment of IMC program As per my observation Philips mainly focuses on various kinds of advertisements for building its relationship with its customers. The company has its presence in various social media sites which helps the brand in communicating easily with its customers. Among all of its IMC tools I think the product replacement tool of Philips has helped the brand in delivering its message easily to people. The ad campaigns of Philips are very much interesting. Commercial advertisements of Philips help to create a positive impact on the customer regarding the brand and its products. In the changing business environment, I think effective internet interactivity will help the company to communicate with its customers easily. Many people are involved in online shopping. Philips sells its products through various online websites (Percy, 2008). Therefore the company can improve its internet interactivity for reaching more customers through internet. Two current advertising campaigns In this ad campaign of Philips, the Indian film stars Ranbir Kapoor and Shruti Hassan took active part in promoting the LED lights of Philips. This advertisement covey’s the message that the whole world is fond of Philips LED lights. In this advertisement the company highlights some of its LED lights. This advertisement was launched by the company just before Diwali festival in India. Diwali festival is considered as the festival of lights. So by publishing this advertisement just before the festival helps the company to communicate its target customers regarding its lighting products. This is one of the recent humorous advertisements of Philips. This advertisement portrays a funny situation that Grizzly is going to attack a person and in that situation the person is finding the ways to escape from grizzly in Google. In this advertisement the company promotes its new smart phone. Through the ad campaign Philips communicates the message that with its smart phone a person is able to access fast internet from any locations. Choosing these particular source or type of message Philips has chosen these types of source types and messages for making its ad campaigns interesting and attracting. For promoting its products in India the company has used popular celebrity figure in its advertisement. With the help of this celebrity figure Philips is able to influence its target customers in India. These celebrity figures also helped the company to reach maximum number of customers. The message focused in this ad campaign helps Philips to enhance its brand image in that market. This type of message indicates the large customer base of Philips. In the second ad campaign Philips delivers the messages that through its smart phones users are able to access fast internet from any place. The humorous appeal of this ad makes its very attracting. This particular source helps to highlight the dependency on people on internet (Alba and Hutchinson, 2008). Through this advertisement Philips communicates that it can help its customers even in the most difficult situation with the help of its various products. Spokespersons appropriateness for this ad Spokespersons Ranbir Kapoor and Shruti Hasan are used in the advertisement of Philips which was launched in India. These two spokespersons are very much appropriate for this ad. This is because both of them are very famous celebrities in India. They have the capability to influence large number of young people. Moreover Indian consumers are highly influenced by the celebrities. Most of the customers purchase products which are advertized by their favorite celebrity. So Philips has chosen these celebrities which have strong fan following in Indian market. This advertisement was shown just before Diwali festival for India. So these celebrities were able to influence large number of customers to purchase Philips lights for celebrating the festival of lights. These celebrities also communicated the brand message successfully. This facilitated the firm to enhance its brand value with the help of this message. Impacts of the messages on target customer’s response The messages communicated by Philips have strong impact on its targeted customers. The company analyzed various things which can influence the purchasing decisions of the customers. After considering all of those things Philips launched these ad campaigns. Both of this ad campaigns created positive impact on the mind set of customers. The celebrity advertisement of Philips influenced many of its targeted customers to purchase different types of Philips LED lights. The company created a strong brand image by stating that it has whole world is fond of its LED lights. By this the Indian customers got more influenced in purchasing LED lights. In the second ad campaign which was designed in humorous way helped the target customers of Philips to understand the efficiency of its smart phone (Churchill, 2009). The message influenced the customers to purchase the smart phone of Philips and access smart internet from various locations. With the help of humorous message the company is able to reach various customers and promote its smart phones. The target customers of Philips have taken both of these advertisements in positive way which increased the sale of Philips products. Conclusion IMC is an important marketing practice practiced by most of the companies of the world. By implementing various tools of marketing communication, companies communicate with their target customers. In this research paper IMC of Philips has been discussed in detailed way. Presently the company has large number of customers. With its various IMC tools the company reaches maximum number of customers. Different forms of IMC are discussed in this report. Different marketing mix elements of Philips also facilitate the brand in communicating effectively with its target customers. Philips mostly used advertisement tool in its IMC. The company reaches its target customers by creating different types interesting advertisements. Philips has integrated all of its marketing tools in very effective way. This facilitates the company in conveying its message successfully. References Alba, J. W., and Hutchinson, J. W. (2008). Dimensions of consumer expertise. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(3), pp. 411-454. Churchill, G. (2009). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 25(4), pp. 98-116. Percy, L. (2008). Strategic integrated marketing communication. Oxford: Elsevier. Stromback, J and Kiousis, S, (2011). Political Public Relations: Principles and Applications. New York: Taylor & Francis. Swann, P. (2014). Cases in Public Relations Management, 2nd Edition: The Rise of Social Media and Activism. New York: Routledge. Read More