INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Requirement

Question: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Solution

Introduction

The aim of the marketing communication is to support the missions and the objectives which are being incorporated into the strategic plan of the company. If an organization has a proper plan for its audience it can focus on the marketing and communication as well. All the activities must be performed following to that particular plan so as to create a big picture. Marketing communication is a highly important strategy that helps the company to build a brand reputation and focus on all the target audiences. This report focusses on an energy drink named “Full Potential”. 

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Discussion
Current Market Situation of the Drink

A.    Internal analysis
“Full Potential” is a symbol of vitality which benefits the athletes and working people. With a tagline “Unleash the Beast”, it portrays the best image of being an energy drink to the audiences. 
The drink is one of the best available in the market and has ingredients like caffeine, carbohydrates, taurine, ginseng and B vitamins, which are highly known for developing physical endurance. When the samples were given to the people, it was seen to have relieving effects on them. Furthermore, the results of the energy drink is seen to improve with high concentration and speed. Therefore one of the main reasons for awareness of the product in the market is due to the tagline (Simkin, 2000).
The energy drink aims to promote healthy/ active lifestyles which is an imperative factor required in a time-pressed society. It helps in promoting the sports culture. Furthermore, the energy drink has been one of the highest revenue-generating in previous years. It is highly popular among the consumer group consisting of students, athletes, nightclubbers, and everyone involved in the late-night shift. 
Full Potential is various subsidiaries across the world and faced high competition from 200 newly emerging brands to highly known organizations like Red Bull, PepsiCo, etc. therefore Full Potential keeps a track on their competitors and provides a limited and unique taste selections when compared to other competitors. The most renowned brand has an extensive network for distribution and sales and also has a higher brand reputation as compared to Full Potential. 
B.    External analysis
The product is affected by macroeconomic factors. However, various side effects are also seen with the high growth in the demand of energy drinks. Due to which various restrictions have been put by the government affecting the overall sale of the product. The political/ regulatory and legal factors might affect the revenue generation of the energy drink. This has led to a high scrutinizing of the health watchdogs and the consumers' groups towards the energy drink and the other related products of the company. The sale of the product is also affected by the price inflations. However, the young people and the exposure towards entertainment and games have resulted in increased preferences towards these drinks. Furthermore, the downturn in the economic condition can also impact the sales of the organization. Hence there is a need to enter the foreign markets so as to increase the purchasing power in the developing countries. However, with the reduced trade barriers and improvement in trade cooperation, the purchasing power is likely to rise. (Cherington, P., 1937).
Full Potential should produce labels in all the countries in their language. But a higher cost will be incurred while launching the product in various other geographical areas. Full Potential needs to increase its brand equity so as to increase its brand identity along with the sales revenue generation. 
Full Potential needs to improve its communication strategies as well as promotional strategies. This can be done by promoting and advertising the products using social networks as the promotional tool. (Dholakia, N., 2015).
The integrated marketing communications objectives
The integrated marketing communications objectives are listed below:

  1. To position the product as a new entrant for exciting the customers;

  2. To attract and influence the purchase intention of the buyers;

  3. To increase brand loyalty among the customers in the same industry (Kumar, n.d.). 

A.    Objectives of marketing

The company aims to achieve a sale of approximately 5, 00,000 drinks in the first semester of this campaign and around 1, 20,000 annually. 
Further, the company aims to increase its market share by around 15% in the same sector.
To increase the net profit by 10% by the sales. 

B.    Objectives of communication

  1. Introducing the product in a very unique flavor so as to seek the attention of the customers.

  2. To increase the awareness of the customers towards this drink.

  3. To launch the product with a solidified brand altitude and communicate the brand identity. (Jackson, A., 1975).

  4. Almost 20% of the target customers will be the objective of regarding the drink as a more preferred choice. 

In order to increase brand loyalty, the increased market share will be considered as a major factor. The organization will focus on the hierarchical effects of the communication procedure where the customers will be made aware of the product and then will be imparted knowledge towards liking the product and finally persuade them to buy the product. Furthermore, the aim would be to established Full Potential Flux and Sugar-Free Full Potential as a flavor so as to attract as many customers as possible (Free marketing materials, 2011).
The major emphasis will be placed on the 12-year plan of the IMC so as to place the initial focus on building the product and then following a list in order to achieve the highest position.

C.    Primary Target Audience (Youth aged 14-25)

  • Product launch of Full Potential- Sugar-Free - At the beginning of the year 2017 in April.

  • Generate awareness of Full Potential- Sugar-Free- during the first semester, 0-50% of the energy drink consumers will be targeted and then would increase up to 75% among the energy drink customers in the end.  

  • Improving customers’ knowledge Full Potential- Sugar-Free- by 50% at the end of the financial year. 

  • Generating positive association in Full Potential- Sugar-Free- by 25% during first semester and 45% at the end of the second semester.

  • The brand value of Full Potential- Sugar-Free will be increased- by targeting the consumers over 20% at the end of the second semester. 

  • Increasing the brand preference toward Full Potential- Sugar-Free- to increase the presence among the competitors by 10%.

  • Increase brand loyalty by 15%.

Budgeting approach and allocation of budget.

In order to achieve the goal of selling 5, 00,000 drinks in a single financial year. The projected target is estimated to be around $3,500,000. Where around 30% solely will be comprised of the IMC budget, and the amount stated below will help in justifying all the advertising activities so 
The bottom-up approach has been used for estimating the budget where the costs are tallied upwards and accounting is made for each expected cost. Further, the total costs is seen to be equal to the finished project. This is a basic method but with high accuracy. This helps to attain accuracy at the beginning of the process and then the work is done by breaking down the structure of the project work and their costs. Although the task of noting the cost of every structure is time-consuming it provides high accuracy. 

Development of an Integrated Marketing Communication program

A.    Sales Promotion
Sales Promotion is used for encouraging immediate purchase so as to allow the customers to enjoy the benefits and then changes the perceived price on a temporary basis. The prime aim of the organization is to have all the wholesalers, customers and retailers for purchasing in bulk, therefore, a bonus gift pack claiming “Buy 6 Get 1 Free” in a bundle. Further the company and its wholesalers, retailers should not only stock the product but also try to sell the product effectively. The push strategy will be highly supported by a pull strategy using advertising efforts. Furthermore, the company will hope to increase on-and off-shelf duration along with increasing the product usage by loading the customers (Jensen, D., 2013). This will help in increasing product usage by neutralizing competition, loading customers and sales promotion. “Buy 6 Get 1 Free” will be available for a period of 4 months from April to July.
These four months will be conjugated with heavy advertising efforts. The youths will be highly attracted as the product is cheaper and youths are not seen to be with disposable income. The promotional activities will take place throughout the country and after a good semester, the promotions will extend to the nearby countries. Initially, sampling will be done in all the hyper and supermarkets of the country. The volunteers will be assigned a definite slot for the initial month for two hours so as to do active sampling, introducing, demonstrating and educating all their crowd regarding the new product launch at the display counter. Further, the customers will have experience taste of the drink and will be given a trail-size cup. 
Furthermore, all the customers will be given an offer to use the couponing effort at every sale of the drink. An online competition will take place where the customers will have to act in an advertisement calling out the tagline. The ones with best taglines will be given a redeemable coupon for bonus packs as well as individual cans. This will be beneficial for the other customers to relate to the taglines of the product and they will keep all the taglines in the back of their mind sub-consciously. 
B.    Digital Marketing
For digital marketing the social media is the most important tool that can reach out to maximum number of youth possible. Digital marketing is the best form of communication and has a high potential due to being a vast vehicle. Therefore, the customers can easily associate with the product which can further help in continuous flow of information using the various methods that can share the information among their friends and help to promote the product. This way the awareness can be produced towards the mass public especially among the sports and youth segmentations. In order to associate the project with high buzz, various social tools can be used. The vehicles for creating awareness include Facebook, Twitter, and various blogs so as to communicate with as many youth as possible. This can be beneficial in creating a relevant and more tech savvy form of communication. Furthermore, these social media can be used to hold various Lucky Draw Contests for enhancing the awareness and further to entice their customers so as to know about the products. The customers on “liking” the Full Potential official Facebook Page and posting various pictures and taglines for the product, will win a IPad Mini in the lucky draw held at the end of the session and 5 lucky winner will be announced who will get a gift hamper containing Full Potential Pack of 12 cans. 
In the Facebook page, “Invite Us” activity will start where all the youths will be invited to write on their official page. Where the interaction with schools, sport events, recreational events etc. will be held. This will be conjugated with the objective of maximizing the youth and their vitality. Furthermore, the drinks will be distributed in gyms, sports clubs and schools. In these areas the drinks will be distributed, sampling would be performed along with demonstrations and education to the audiences regarding the products. The prime purpose of organizing these activities is to generate anticipation and excitement during events. With all the enjoyment and fun, the audiences will be educated regarding the product and its benefit. 
While handling the Twitter, an update regarding all the coming events related to the promotion of the project will be provided. All the Twitter users would be able to see these events. The Twitter would be more beneficial than Facebook due to the option of retweeting which is a vital form of communication among the youths at a higher speed. This will help in increasing the awareness towards the product at higher rate than Facebook and other social media platforms.  
We will be using several testing methods in order to determine awareness levels. Some testing methods will be aligned with specific media vehicles. The measures used are Recognition and Recall, Emotional Reaction and Sales Response.

Evaluation and Control

A.    Recognition and Recall Measures
A testing procedure would be used in the organization where all the participants would be invited to watch a movie in a theater. During the process, a Full Potential Sugar Free advertisements would be broadcasted. Furthermore, the same ad is shown in the internal. After the movie, all the selected participants will be asked to recall the advertisement. This would be done by asking a series of questions. These questions would be related to the Full Potential advertisement like the color of the can, the date when it will be launched and related to it. This test will help in measuring the impact of the advertisement on the mind of the people related to the recognition of the brand along with their ability to relate to the brand and how the advertisements connecting to the audiences. (Marketing aid launched, 2009).
The target audiences will be the audiences aging from 14 to 25. Furthermore the participants from the target audience will again be provided with a magazine which has a Full Potential advertisement in it. After 2 weeks they will asked to fill a questionnaire. This questionnaire will be beneficial in letting the organization to know whether the target audiences paid any attention to the advertisement. These readers will be classified on the basis most read, some read, associated and noted.  
B.    Measures of Emotional Reactions
Additionally, the organization should determine the reaction of the participants towards the cinema and print advertisements. The organization must use pupil tracking technology for determining the part of the advertisement that catch higher attention.  The organization can use Pupillometric Tests for measuring the rate, awe and size of the dilation of the pupil of the participation. Furthermore so as to track their heart rates, during the phase of excitement. In order to detect the changes taking place in the muscle tension, Electromyograph monitors can be used for determining the level of interest of the participants toward the advertisement. If the participants have relaxed muscles than it signifies a great disinterest and in case of spikes in muscles, high level of interest is seen. Galvanometer can be used for measuring perspiration level which happens due to the changes in the emotional reaction. (Sasieni, M., 1989).

Conclusion

The Integrated Marketing Communications is a critical and beneficial approach for planning the communications and marketing of any business so as to help it reach to its potential and also reduces the extra marketing costs. This approach when combines with the integrating tools like advertising, telemarketing, social media and sales promotions helps the organization to provide a clear, consistent and maximum communications impact. “Full Potential” can easily enter the target markets on employing the Integrated Marketing Communications. 

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References

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  • Free marketing materials. (2011). BDJ, 211(2), 93-93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2011.602

  • Jackson, A. (1975). Developing a sales plan. Industrial Marketing Management, 4(4), 217-221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0019-8501(75)90025-5

  • Jensen, D. (2013). Your Personal Marketing Plan. Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.caredit.a1300171

  • Kumar, M. How Market Infrastructure Improves Market Efficiency? Case of Cotton Market in India. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1109240

  • Marketing aid launched. (2009). BDJ, 207(3), 138-138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2009.714

  • Sasieni, M. (1989). Optimal Advertising Strategies. Marketing Science, 8(4), 358-370. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.8.4.358

  • Sharpen your marketing. (2008). BDJ, 205(5), 284-284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2008.787

  • Simkin, L. (2000). Marketing is marketing – maybe!. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 18(3), 154-158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02634500010327944

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