International Marketing Communication Plan - Report Example

International Marketing Communication Plan Table of Contents Introduction 3 Context Analysis 3 Main Issues Identified Business Context Analysis 3 Main Issues Identified in the Internal Context Analysis 4 Main Issues Identified in the Consumer Context Analysis 4 Main Issues Identified in the External Context Analysis 5 Marketing Communications Objectives 5 Marketing Communications Strategy 6 Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning 6 Advertising Message 8 Tactics 8 Promotional Mix and Activities 8 Scheduling and Implementation 12 Evaluation and Control 13 Reference List 14 Introduction The purpose of this report is to design an international marketing plan for the leading telecommunication company Virgin Media Plc. for launching its products and services in the market for China.Virgin Media aims at connecting people to the digital world and ensures that they discover and experience the immense possibilities offered by the organization (Virgin Media, 2015a). Context Analysis Main Issues Identified Business Context Analysis The corporate mission of Virgin Media Plc. is to utilize all advanced technologies to provide the best services to their customers in terms of their wireless and broadband usage. The main objective of the enterprise is to provide diversified services to the different customer segments across the globe. From the business context analysis, it is observed that virgin Media applies the market development and product development strategy (Accenture, 2014). It has been observed that Virgin Media Plc. employs the cost leadership strategy for the sustainable development of the organization. It offers its services across 14 nations and has a huge customer base which is rising continuously. According to the brand analysis, the enterprise has achieved a strong position in the market by re-branding all its products under the name of Virgin Media. This has helped the organisation to enhance their brand value in the global market (Virgin Media, 2014). From this competitor analysis, it is found that the threat of new entrants is extremely high in the telecom industry of China as there are a few competitors in this industry. The oligopolistic structure of the market provides immense opportunity for new market players to enter the Chinese market (Huang, Xue and Liang, 2014). The bargaining power of the consumers in the China market is very low. The equipment suppliers of the telecom industry have a strong hold on the telecom service providers in China. Therefore, the bargaining power of these suppliers can restrict the business growth of Virgin Media in China (Huang, Xue and Liang, 2014). The substitution threat in China market is quite high for Virgin Media. Due to the technological advancement the competitors in the China market are providing a wide range of innovative products and services to their consumers (MOFCOM, 2007). Main Issues Identified in the Internal Context Analysis The management of the organisation has created a single brand name for all the diversified product lines of their organisation. This rebranding strategy has created a unique business identity for the organisation. This singular identity of all the product lines of Virgin Media will assist the organisation to increase the awareness about their offerings in the foreign market (Virgin Media, 2014). The organisation also has a number of weaknesses that can affect the performance of the company in the in the foreign market. Communication restriction within the consumers and investors within China will be the main restriction for the company. Main Issues Identified in the Consumer Context Analysis The enterprise employs the mass marketing strategy to increase the customer base of the company. Individual decision making plays an important role in China as personalized products and services are preferred by different segments of consumers. Thus, the mass marketing technique of Virgin Media will not be sufficient to attract wide ranges of consumers in the China market. The improvement in the economical condition of the country is leading to the increase in the number of professionals and thus the usage of mobile phone services and internet connection is also enhanced. Main Issues Identified in the External Context Analysis The regulation of the government in the telecom industry of China restricts the entry of the foreign companies in the market. Thus the management of Virgin Media will need to concentrate on the pricing policies and the business process restrictions to implement their operations in the Chinese market. The economy of China has witnessed a rapid growth in the last few years and also the rate of unemployment has also decreased. Therefore, the population of China has been encouraged to shift their preferences towards highly advanced global products and services. The socio-cultural analysis of China has established that young generation cover almost 70% of the population and over 98.2 % of the population can be considered as literate. This socio-cultural structure of the country influences the consumption pattern. Moreover, the demand for Wi-Fi connection in the work places and the inclination toward the usage of 4G networks has also increased. These developments in the consumption pattern will assist the organization to structure their international expansion plans. Disasters such as floods and earthquakes and also the increasing awareness about the effects of electromagnetic rays on the health of the population can adversely affect the business expansion of the Company in the Chinese market. Marketing Communications Objectives The marketing communications objectives of the organization should be SMART (Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-oriented) (Laitinen, 2009). Specific: Virgin Media Plc needs to establish its brand in the market of China within a year taking the advantage of the increase in the demand for advanced technologies in the telecommunication sector and also the growing young population along with the rapid economic growth. Measurable: Virgin Media Plc. must include objectives which are measurable like the growth in sales, or the increase in the market share or the response to the various promotional activities. Achievable: It must set a target for the various performance variables that can be attainable within a given time frame and with the resources available in the chosen location. Realistic: The enterprise must set the targets that complement the long term goals and objectives of the organization and the persons involves in the implementation plan are able are willing to work towards the goal. Time –oriented: The company targets to establish its brand and successfully compete with the existing market players within one year of its entry into the Chinese market. Marketing Communications Strategy Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Segmentation is the process of separating the customer base into various groups who have the same basic requirements or will respond in a similar way to a particular marketing action. The market can be segmented with respect to demographics (age, gender, education, cultural background, and purchasing power), psychographics (personality, attitudes, social status, lifestyle and opinions), and customer behaviour (previous purchases, online shoppers and brand preference). The segments should be definable, accessible and profitable (SmallBizConnect, 2015). After segmenting the market, the enterprise must evaluate the economic and potential appeal of the segments and then decide to target particular segment or segments (Blythe et.al, 2005). Targeting can be of three types: mass or undifferentiated targeting, differentiated targeting and concentrated or niche targeting (Boone and Kurtz, 2011). Positioning is developing or altering the product image in the minds of the customer by applying various marketing mixes in different targeted segments (Sengupta, 2005; Craig and Douglas, 2005). Virgin Media Plc. segments its customer on the basis of age and the level of education. It provides four types of communication services which includes landline connections, digital TV networks, mobile services and broadband connections. The young people are technology friendly and demand these services more than the older population. However, the enterprise provides landline and TV networks for the older population. Mostly technologically advanced communication services can only be utilized by the literate population. Thus Virgin Media segments its population but applies the mass or undifferentiated targeting marketing strategy. This is because it targets both the younger and the older population and also the educated population. It also segments customers as consumers and business. Due to its affordable pricing structure, various sectors of the economy like the government offices, small and large business, health and education sectors can use the services provides by virgin Media. China is the fastest growing consumer market in the world with a constantly increasing population. 56% of its population lives in the urban locations and in 2013, 22% of the population of China belongs to the age group of 10-24(Worldometers.info, 2015; Population Reference Bureau, 2015).The adult literacy rate in the country is 95% and the youth literacy rate is 99.6% (UNESCO-UIS, 2013). Thus Virgin Media Plc. will target the technology friendly educated youth for communicating its presence in the market of China.After targeting, the enterprise must build an image of their brand in the minds of the customers and make them aware of their quality of services and create the demand for their products by applying various marketing mixes in the targeted segments. Advertising Message The advertisement campaign of the company must include building a relationship of trust between the company and the consumers as most of the consumers believe that the companies do not care for the well-being of the consumers (G. E. Belch and M.A. Belch, 2003). If the company become successful in establishing that common ground with the consumers, its advertising campaign will be highly successful (Wührer and Bilgin, 2014). The enterprise must also create the need for the products they offer among the customers. The enterprise can also advertise by creating a problem and then offer a solution to the perceived problem. The company can also apply the benefit based advertisement by making the consumers aware of the benefits of availing its services. Tactics Promotional Mix and Activities The promotional mix is the term which is used for a set of tools that a company can use to communicate the benefits of its products and services to its customers when it enters a new market (Samli, 1995; Kumar, 2000). The promotional mix includes public relations, sales promotions, direct marketing, personal selling and advertisement. By designing the appropriate promotional mix, the enterprise can communicate the benefits and usefulness of its products. Successful communication is very important as it helps the customers to know about the existence of the company’s product in the competitive marketplace. A successful promotional mix includes the balance of the all the tools of the strategy as a single method will not be effective (Wührer and Bilgin, 2014). Advertisement: Companies advertise to provide the targeted segment with information, persuade them to avail its services and remind them about its existence by repeating the key messages. Advertisement is expensive and the company must plan its budget for implementing the plan within the specified time period (Stone, 2001). The market for the telecom service providers are highly regulated in China. In order to avoid the influence of this regulation on the market share of the existing enterprises, they invest significant on advertising its products and services. Thus Virgin Media must focus on advertisement and invest a huge amount of resources on conducting vigorous advertisement campaigns (Hawkins and Mothersbaugh, 2009). Public Relations: The Company can use public relations to promote its services in the Chinese market. Public relations is maintaining a relation with the media to develop a reputation of the companies through press releases, distributing articles in local newspapers, or through charitable donations. Public relations assist in launching of products and services, countering negative publicity, building a corporate image to name a few that helps in facilitating the sales of the products and services. Public relations help in enhancing corporate communications, lobbying and establishing its existence in the concerned industry (Cateora, 1993). Since the market of China is completely new to Virgin Media Plc., it is necessary for the company to emphasize in the building a strategy to pursue public relations and enhance its connections with the other market players in the telecom industry. The company must align its public relations strategies with commercial goals aligned with the objectives of the Chinese government. The enterprise must also take into account the vertically integrated and complex power structure and all the stakeholders. The company must incorporate organizational structure and employee relations which reflect the local conditions and also consider the socialist and capitalist approaches while evaluating any situation. Virgin Media targets the educated youth, it can also promote its services by conducting seminars in the educational institutions on a regular basis. The company must emphasize on public relations as it is a very cost-effective method. Sales Promotion: As the company is launching its products in a completely new market, Virgin Media Plc. must extensively use sales promotions as an effective tool in increasing awareness about its services among the people of China. Sales promotion is the process of providing several attractive offers to the customers to gain their attention towards the services of the company (Cravens and Piercy, 2008). The company should plan sales promotion activities which are suitable for the targeted segments. For example, Virgin Media will offer attractive discounts on the usage of broadband or mobile communications for students. It will also offer to provide the landline telephone set for free for the lower income groups of the population if they avail the landline connection. Virgin Media Plc. will also design a special offer for the small and medium business units operating in the Chinese market in order to capture the different sectors of the economy. In this way, the company can spread its business in the newly extended market of China. Though sales promotion cannot influence the long-term purchasing habit of the customers, it is very useful in attracting new customers, encouraging repeated buying and counter competitor activity. Direct Marketing: This is a very popular tool for promoting the products and servicesof a company while launching its product in a new market. Direct marking removes the middle man between the company and the customer. In this type of marketing, the company advertises its products directly to the potential customer through telephone, email, or posting their offers in the social media. It also includes collecting information about the targeted segments and creates the personal database of the companies or purchase database from other sources to facilitate the planning of future marketing strategies. Virgin Media Plc. will focus intensely on promoting its services on the social media as China has a huge youth population with majority of them having the access to the digital world. The youth population is uses the social media extensively and thus Virgin Media Plc. will use this opportunity to promote its services by posting their advertisements in the popular social media sites (Kotler, 2008). Personal Selling: It involves the appointment of sales representatives to facilitate face to face promotion of the products. It allows the representative to understand the particular needs of an individual customer andofferthem the desired services or products. This helps the company to convey the information and promote its services on an individual basis (Doole and Lowe, 2008).Though it is the most effective method of promoting the products in a completely new market, Virgin media should concentrate less on this strategy since it is difficult to appoint sales person in the short run due to differences in the culture and also due to language barrier. Thus it must include personal selling in its strategy in the long run if the company is successful in capturing the market share in the short run. Also this is a very expensive method of promotion. At the later stage of the communication plan, the company must employ sales representatives and train them so that they enhance sales and promote the newly launch services through their appearance, attitude and special product knowledge. Scheduling and Implementation The company must at first decide the budget of the marketing communication plan and then implement the plan according to the chosen promotional mix and the decided schedule of the strategy. Virgin media should at first conduct a market research for two months of the pricing strategies of the firms and also the promotional activities of the competitors in the telecom market of China. At the same time it should start promoting its products and services by applying the promotional mix. It must compare the sales target to the actual sales and also compare the company’s sales with sales of its competitors in a given time period. Evaluation and Control The company should follow up the effects of the different promotional activities. It must maintain a record whether the promotional activities have been successful in increasing the sale of the company in the new market. It must maintain contact with its customers and regularly take feedback on the services provided by the company. The company must take the suggestions and opinions of the customers and modify its services according to the needs of the customers in this particular market. Virgin Media Plc. must undertake sales analysis, market-share analysis, marketing cost and profitability analysis and marketing effort in order to control and evaluate the success of the marketing plan it has employed (Kotler, 2008). Reference List Accenture. (2014) Virgin Media: Achieving High Performance for Customers through Flexible Business Process Outsourcing [pdf]. Accenture. Available from: http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Virgin-Media-Achieving-High-Performance-for-Customers-through-Flexible-BPO.pdf [Accessed 10 March 2015]. Belch, G. E. andBelch, M. A., 2003. Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. New York: The McGraw− Hill. 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