Marketing Communication Strategy - 3TM - Case Study Example

Marketing Communication Strategy- 3TM and Section # of This essay is about planning an effective marketing communication strategy for a UK based relief company 3TM. It mainly deals in providing to the destitute and needy so it has to collect charities as well. This essay is focused on the company's efforts for preventing and helping people with HIV/AIDS. The essay will include the internal and external environment of 3TM and also an analysis of the internal marketing issues within the company. The communication campaign will target three segments, one is an NGO, public (students, retired women and sex workers) and health care professionals mainly psychotherapists. The essay will analyze and evaluate the buying behavior and perceptions of each segment. Communication objectives and strategies will also be included. A marketing communication plan will follow till the conclusion. Internal Environment of 3TM 3TM is a simple structure that is low in specialization and formalization but high in centralization. Such organizations have few rules and the authority rests with the owner who in this case is the company's President/Executive Director; Shawn A. Wray. Such organizations are flat with two or three vertical levels and a loose body of empowered employees in whom decision making is centralized. The organization is centralized in its decision-making process. In such organizations the decisions are made at a higher level of the structure. External Environment of 3TM The external environment factors include social, legal, economic, political and technological factors. Social factors: These include changes in demography and consumer's buying patterns. 3TM has to deal with people's changing attitudes towards charity and the company needs charity since it is the fuel to its engine. Also the public's perceptions of the different projects the company takes up is important since people support have different opinions to different projects and purposes to collect charity. Legal factors: The Company also has to deal with legal pressures that force organizations to comply with the law. Government intervention in projects is common and also a hindrance. Economic factors: All organizations have to deal with slumps and booms in general economic activity that includes interest rates and inflation etc. Political factors: Political changes and also instability affect organizations since changing political scenarios bring new policies and plans. Technological factors: All organizations have to keep up to date with the constant changes in technology. New developments in technology must be adopted for better management but they are expensive and funds are a problem for charity organizations. Internal Marketing Issues Internal marketing is a process within the organization that aims to empower and motivate employees at all levels in order to increase consumer satisfaction. The key concepts of internal marketing include alignment of the company's purpose in a way that it integrates with employee behavior in order to motivate employees to work for the betterment of the company. It is a problem but a necessity. Internal marketing is an essential communication tool since it helps to wipe out any resistance to change in the organization. It aims to involve employees at all levels in new initiatives and strategies. This motivates and empowers the employees and they feel like an important and valued part of the organization which further motivates them to work for the organization. This also eliminates high turnover and absenteeism since employees like to work for the organization. Internal marketing is a necessity since organizations are changing and growing continuously, renaming and re-branding is common, relationship marketing is the emerging field in marketing and it can be done with the help of employees only, Contract employment is more common then full-time employment so a brand vision and value is important for success, internal marketing improves employee and employer relationships which is the key to the success of an organization and technological changes plus new ways of working require employees to update their skills regularly and employers must provide them the training and education required. This just shows that internal marketing is important and essential for a successful organization. The essay focuses on three segments. The budget for advertisement is 5m. NGO- Mercy Corporation (For Funds) We will target the NGO's since they fund the organization and the campaign will encourage them to fund the projects. Above the line tools such as the national newspaper and circulation of pamphlets within the Mercy Corporation will be effective to target this audience. The advertisement will appear in two huge paper companies. Newspapers: 1) The Observer: 995 2) The Sunday Times: 1250 Circulation of Pamplets: 500 Total 2745 The Public (Creating Awareness) 1) Students: This is a very important target audience since in college students tend to be more anxious to have sex and without protection which increases AIDS. The advertisement will target the students in order to create awareness so that they use protection and avoid AIDS. 2) Retired Women: At this age women are bored and have nothing to do and they might indulge in light sex or go to cheap hospitals where they can catch the disease so it is important to make them aware as well. These women do read the papers and watch television. 3) Sex Workers: They must be made aware since they are at a major risk and must use protection and get checked regularly. They watch tv and read the paper. Television: 140000 (each for 3 ads) (30 sec commercial ad each) Magazines: 15 cents per contact. Vogue= 116666, GQ= 666666 and Sassy= 124207. Radio: Charge per 1000 listeners. Depends on the time of advertisement. We will advertise in the morning at 7:30 a.m. 200 and also in the late night shows that will cost only 20. Newspapers (Observer and Sunday Times): 2245 Lectures in Colleges and Universities: 700 Direct mailing: Mails on personal email ids obtained from Orkut or Facebook. 200 TOTAL COST= 1330904 Health Care Professionals- Psyshotherapists Psychotherapists help people to live a better life and it is a psychological condition. They also help a group of people like a family to live happily together. People with AIDS are often a target of discrimination and these professionals help such people to overcome their depression and also help the victims family to live a normal life with the person with AIDS. 1) National Newspaper (Observer and Sunday Times): 2245 2) Medical journals: 1000 TOTAL COST= 3245 Total adv cost of all three segments= 1336894. Buying Behavior of Each Segment 1. NGO- Mercy Corp: They are an active organisation and they collect regular donations to help all the needy. They have a special program for protecting Zimbabwe's AIDS orphans. They aim to help these people so they will help 3TM in achieving their goal. This organisation's main aim is to collect donations and chairty to give it to the needy. Their attitude towards chairty is positive and they encourage others to give charity as well. They respect all partners since they believe that partners are the main drive of the growth and development of their programmes to help people so they will have a positive attitude towards 3TM as a relief organisation. 2) The Public: This is divided into 3 sectors: Students: They have a casual attitude toards charity and such organisations since they are interested in themselves only. Very few students give charity and the rest do not bother since they have a very lazy attitude towards giving charity. Most of them won't be even aware of the exisitence of 3TM. Retired women: They have enough to give charity and at this stage a person is more compassionate. A number of them are interested in giving charity and most of them will be aware of 3TM. Sex Workers: They spend only on themselves and are too involved in the tragedies of their lives to be aware and give charity. They won't even be aware of 3TM. 3) Psychotherapists: They are aware and capable enough to give charity. They do give charity to the needy and work actively for such programs. They are aware of such organizations including 3TM and they aim to help them to achieve the company's objectives. They are aware of the hard work put in by 3TM. Marketing Objectives and Strategies NGO: In this campaign a rational appeal with more factual details to encourage an informed opinion will be the best way to communicate. The colors used in all ads will be necessary to create the desired effect and for AIDS red is commonly used. The ad will use a central route to persuasion since the focus will be the need to donate and help the people with AIDS. The poster ad will use the even a penny approach to arouse emotions that will lead to achievement of the objective. This will be a simple advertisement in order to attract them to fund the projects by 3TM. The Public: This segment has three sectors; students, retired women and sex workers. Here the main aim is to create awareness of catching AIDS. This ad will use an attractive source or endorsement to create a liking principle between the source and the target. The message will be a fear appeal since it is to create awareness of the deadly disease and to prevent from it. The idea will be a hard sell since people will be influenced due to the fear appeal. It will be a simple message and the syllogistic inference rule will also be used for the student's ad. The Psychotherapists: This ad will include a one-sided message that will aim to attract these professionals to work for 3TM. The ad will use emotional appeal to arouse emotions in the workers and to influence them to provide with their services. The idea will be a soft sell since it uses emotions to communicate and persuade. The poster ads for this segment will use indirect association with less matter and only pictures to make an effective emotional appeal. The ad will be based on the foot-in-the-door technique that begins with a small request and the larger request follows. Marketing Communication Plan NGO: The ad will show a black background with white font saying "About 8000 people die of AIDS daily and another 6000 aged between 15 - 24yrs contract HIV daily. Help us reach more hands!" At the bottom it will say "If interested in offering help please contact (mentioned number). Since even a penny will make a difference!" The Public: For the students the ad will have Daniel Radcliffe dressed in red and white with a white background and he will say "sex is intimidating and it's true that AIDS often involves sex, but it isn't sexy! Go get yourself checked and remember safe sex or no sex!" For the retired women the ad will have Richard Gere since we react to the opposite sex more and he will be dressed in red and white with a white background. He will be in a gym lifting weights and will say "You think I'm too old for this! Think again! Life has just begun for me! Go get yourself checked and live a healthy AIDS free life! For the sex workers the ad will have Julia Roberts tutoring sex workers about preventing AIDS. She will be dressed in red and white and with a white background she will say then "It's your life that is more important than your job and the money! Get yourself checked and protect yourself!" All three ads will show an image in the beginning of a person suffering and is clearly in the last stages of AIDS. The same ads will run on the radio. The posters will be an indirect association with less matter and only a picture for emotional appeal. They will target all segments. The ad will have 2 human figures just like the ones on the public bathroom doors with the symbol of aids on the private part on the first figure and the symbol on the head of the other symbol with the words on the top "not only but also" At the bottom it will say "prevent AIDS, protect LIFE!" The TV and poster ads will appear in magazines and the newspapers. The Psychotherapists: The background will be black with white font saying "Three fourth's of the world is poor but you are one of the blessed ones. God said in the Bible that feed my sheep Here is your chance to a walk in interview and help those who are not as blessed as you!" At the bottom it will say "all psychotherapists who are interested please visit (mentioned address). The walk in interview will be the foot-in-the-door technique since not everyone will pass the interview and the rest is an emotional appeal. Bibliography Frank R. Kardes. (2002) Consumer Behavior and Managerial Decision Making. Marketing and Communication strategies. India. Pearson Education (Singapore) pte. Ltd; Indian Branch. Stephen P. Robins and David A. DeCenzo. (2001) Fundamentals of Management. Internal and External environments of an organization. India. Pearson Education (Singapore) pte. Ltd; Indian Branch. Information on 3TM. Available from [Accessed 20 October 2007] Internal Marketing. Available from [Accessed 20 October 20, 2007] Need for Internal Marketing. Available from [Accessed 20 October 2007] Internal and External Organizational environments. Available from [Accessed 20 October 2007] External environment of an Organization. Available from < http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theory.phptID=334> [Accessed 20 October 2007] Psychotherapists. Available from < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotherapy> [Accessed 20 October 2007] Read More