Integrated Market Communication Capability Of Honest To Goodness For Organic Foods

Company Background and Product Description

Discuss About The Integrated Market Communication Capability?

There has been an increase in the integrated marketing communication tools being used by the companies in order to survive in this competitive market. As opined by Percy (2014), the integrated marketing communication can be defined as the application of the consistent brand messages that are implemented in the traditional as well as non-traditional marketing channels. There have been significant changes in the marketing process over the years and the companies are increasingly accommodating the changing preferences of the consumers (Percy 2014). The organizations have started developing holistic marketing campaigns that have helped them to reach the target audience in a better way.

The selected product for the purpose of this report is organic foods and the company selected is Honest to Goodness. The company background and the description of the product would be done. The target market would be defined along with the positioning strategy of the company. The goals of the communication methods would be outlined along with the concerned message. The promotional mix of the new products would be analyzed and media strategy of the company would be defined.

Honest to Goodness is an Australian organic and natural food company that has been voted as the “favorite organic food brand” of the country (Goodness.com.au 2017). The company believes in the manufacturing, procuring and delivery of healthy foods and they believe in the methods of sustainable food production. The product range of the brand is the naturally grown healthy foods, which are available at affordable costs (Goodness.com.au 2017). Honest to Goodness is a certified brand that operates as wholesaler, retailer and distributor of various natural and organic foods (Goodness.com.au 2017). The food products are strictly handled under the ACO guidelines. The company strives to encourage locally grown products where it supports the local communities as well as regional Australia (Goodness.com.au 2017). The organic food firm has a vision of creating a healthy, sustainable as well as better future for the community.

The main products of the company include organic and natural grocery items such as vinegars, oils, coconut products, dried fruits, salts, herbs and others (Goodness.com.au 2017). The products undergo minimal processing and they lack artificial flavors, sweeteners or colors. The products are also free from hydrogenated oils and palm oils (Goodness.com.au 2017). The products are grown under strict organic conditions and their production facilities or the warehouse is never fumigated. They abide by the strict food handling guidelines and they have a strong quality management system so that the customers get the best possible products.

Target Market

The target market for the organic foods is primarily segregated into three segments. They are discussed as under-

• Core consumers- The core consumers of the company include the extremely dedicated ones and comprise of 21% of the target audience (Bryman and Bell 2015). These kinds of customers display their dedication through their behaviors as well as their attitudes. The core consumers are most aware of these kind of customers, who like to engage in discussions regarding organic foods.
• Mid-level consumers- The mid-level of consumers make up almost 65% of the target market customers and they comprise the bulk of the company’s customers (Percy 2014). The mid-level consumers are making a transition from the unhealthy food options to the naturally grown products (Briz, Ward and Ortega 2017). They are making subsequent changes in behaviour and attitudes so that they can be a part of the healthy food consumption.
• Periphery consumers- These kinds of customers account for over 14% sales of the organic foods. This segment has least behavioral changes and they have slowly started to opt for organic food products (Wee et al. 2014). They only make minimal purchases or during some months, they do not make any purchases at all. The periphery customers have slowly started to incline towards the organic foods as they have adopted healthy lifestyle.

The positioning strategy of the company include-

“To provide modern, safe and healthy food options to the community so that they can enjoy better quality of life”

The company makes sure that their offering is unique and safe, which would attract a large number of consumers (West, Ford and Ibrahim 2015). The company aims to make a clear difference in the market by combining the effort of retailer, stakeholders, traders and other entities. The organization wants to make a clear difference by creating optimal brand experience. The brand aims to create wide number of “mouth to mouth” advertising by spreading on their good work (West, Ford and Ibrahim 2015).

The brand believes in the fact that the product packaging has a major impact on the product positioning. The packaging is the primary thing that the customer notices before actually purchasing the products. It is important to include the certification labels, private product levels and others so that the customers can easily identify with the same (Armstrong et al. 2015). The company believes in the optimal package design which would show that the brand’s products are healthy, transparent, natural and safe to use (West, Ford and Ibrahim 2015). The organic food products should be distinguished from the normal food products and it is the duty of the company to incorporate appropriate food labels.

The rationale of this positioning strategy is to educate the consumers regarding the new type of products. It is important to consumers regarding the health benefits of the organic food products so that there is greater brand awareness (West, Ford and Ibrahim 2015). It is also important to position the products well within the health conscious customers, who are striving to achieve an optimum quality of life.

The marketing campaigns should be properly structured so that they can reach the desired target market. The company uses AIDA model for targeting their audiences and this makes the company to better respond to the needs/preferences of the target market. The objectives of the communication goal of the company are discussed below-

• The company aims to educate the audience regarding the organic food products (com.au 2017). The IMC aims to provide the customers with the necessary information about the products and the company (Rawal 2013). The reason for doing this act is that if the consumers are not aware of the details of the products, then they would not be interested in purchasing them. This form of marketing communication aims to create the knowledge base among the customers and encouraging them to purchase them.
• IMC would help in greater referral by inviting greater customers to purchase the products of the company. The brand engages in the interacting with the customers on various digital media such as social media, email and others (com.au 2017). This also creates good “word of mouth” among the customers and their immediate family members or friends (Copley 2015).This strategy is important as a positive word of mouth incurs no cost for the company and the existing customers have the ability to do bring in more customers.
• IMC would enable the greater sales of the company by greater promotion of the products among the target audience. The objective of this communication goal is to ensure that the customers are greater aware about the products and hence they make more number of purchases.

The organic food retailer has decided to use the AIDA framework to achieve their goals. The AIDA framework stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action (Hassan, Nadzim and Shiratuddin 2015). The attention component encourages the company to create attractive advertisement that would create an interest among the customers. The organization tries to create intelligent advertisement tools so that they can reach well among the customers (Goodness.com.au 2017).  The interest component focuses on the ability of the brand to focus on the benefits of the organic product. The company avoids the usual features of the products but instead focus on the product advantages that would help the company to convince in a better way (Goodness.com.au 2017). The advertisements are created in such a manner that it creates desire among the target audience. The unique selling proposition of the brand is highlighted and the differentiated products of the company are being pointed out to the customers.

Positioning Strategy

Honest to Goodness uses extensive advertisement strategies for attaining the communication goals of the company (Goodness.com.au 2017). The organic food company is aiming for creating brand awareness among the target audience. It is also achieving more customer attitudes and modification of them (Goodness.com.au 2017). The company has adopted content marketing strategy in which it engages in the creation and sharing of the online material such as blogs, videos and social media posts. It does not directly promote the brand directly but it creates interest among the target audience regarding the company’s products.

The promotional tools used by the companies are varied and they target specific consumer segment. The company used both digital forms of marketing as well as traditional forms of marketing (Goodness.com.au 2017). The reason for using is the increase of the effectiveness of the campaign and to increase the customer awareness regarding the organic food products.

Promotional Tools	Estimated audience	Estimated impacts
Social Media Marketing	Teenagers, Middle age, working population	High
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)	Teenagers, Middle age	High
Email Marketing	Working professionals	Medium
Magazine Advertisements	Housewives	Medium
Radio Advertisements	Older people, housewives	Low
Video Advertisements	Teenagers, Middle age, working population	Low
Facebook & Twitter Advertisements	Teenagers, Middle age, working population	High

Conclusion

The integrated marketing communication is used to better communicate with the customers of the brand. Honest to Goodness is an Australian organic and natural food company that has been voted as the “favorite organic food brand” of the country. The main products of the company include organic and natural grocery items such as vinegars, oils, coconut products, dried fruits, salts, herbs and others. The various target markets of the brand includes the Core consumers, mid-level customers and the periphery customers. The company uses AIDA model for targeting their audiences and this makes the company to better respond to the needs/preferences of the target market. The main goals of the communication strategy are to educate, gain referral and increase the sales of the company. The company has adopted content marketing strategy in which it engages in the creation and sharing of the online material such as blogs, videos and social media posts. It strives to use a combination of both digital as well as traditional sources of marketing. This report would broaden the understanding of the integrated marketing communication process in the organization for a real organization.

References

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Briz, T., Ward, R.W. and Ortega, L.E., 2017. Relative impacts of health and obesity on US household servings of fruits and vegetables. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, pp.1-13.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

Copley, P., 2015. For the love of AIDA–developing the Hierarchy of Effects model in SME social media marketing strategy.

Goodness.com.au. (2017). Honest to Goodness – Organic Food & Natural Products. [online] Available at: https://www.goodness.com.au [Accessed 18 Sep. 2017].

Hassan, S., Nadzim, S.Z.A. and Shiratuddin, N., 2015. Strategic use of social media for small business based on the AIDA model. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, pp.262-269.

Percy, L., 2014. Strategic integrated marketing communications. Routledge.

Rawal, P., 2013. AIDA Marketing Communication Model: Stimulating a purchase decision in the minds of the consumers through a linear progression of steps. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Social & Management Sciences, 1(1), pp.37-44.

Wee, C.S., Ariff, M.S.B.M., Zakuan, N., Tajudin, M.N.M., Ismail, K. and Ishak, N., 2014. Consumers perception, purchase intention and actual purchase behavior of organic food products. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 3(2), p.378.

West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage. Oxford University Press, USA.