An integrated marketing communication plan needs to be developed for a company which i have selected. They have provided a brief of the company overview and the product in which is focuses on. The report format has been created but content not completed. Some notes have been made which can be used in the assignment.
This report is about Blackmore Limited which manufactures and markets the diet and vitamin supplements. Blackmore Limited is mainly based in Australia but currently provides its services in various countries in all over the world. Currently, the market of Blackmore Limited is decreasing continuously, thus, this report is basically for developing an integrated marketing communication plan for the Blackmore Limited.
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This report discusses about the current situation of Blackmore Limited in the market. The current situation of the market helps in developing the objectives for integrated marketing communication. On the basis of objectives for ICM, a master plan is developed. This plan will help in fulfilling the objectives of the ICM for the Blackmore Limited (Forbes, 2014). The evaluation of the campaign is also necessary as this defines the efficiency and success rate of ICM plan in the market. The budget of the total campaign is around $340,000.
Blackmore is a company that manufactures Vitamin supplements as well as the Dietary supplements. This company works in various countries all over the world. The company basically works only in the Vitamin supplements. It also manufactures and provides the Dietary supplements. The products of the organization are adopted by most of the people in Australia.
But there is a high competition in the Australian market for Dietary supplements. There are various companies which provides these supplements in the market (CFA Institute, 2012). The main Dietary supplement provider companies in the market are Swisse, Blackmore, Cenovis, Nature’s Way, Berocca etc. These companies are most popular companies for the Vitamin supplements in Australian market. The following diagram shows the competitive situation in the market.
Figure : Market Analysis of Dietary and Vitamin supplements in Australia (Retail World, 2012).
According to the report published by the Retail World, in 2011, Blackmore Limited covered 20% and was on the first position in the market, but in 2012, it went down by 3% and was covering 17% of the overall market in Australia and fell down to the second position in the market. The next competitors in the market are Cenovis and Nature’s Way which covered 14.6% of the market (Retail World, 2011).
According to the Reader’s Digest magazine of 2014, Blackmore is the most trusted brand in Diet and vitamin supplements.
Figure: Revenue By Geographic segments (CFA Institute, 2012)
The above figure shows a pie chart of the geographic segments of Blackmore in the year 2012. In year 2012, 76.9% of the market of Blackmore was covered in Australia, 9.4% of the market was covered in Thailand, 5.8% of the market was covered by Malaysia, and 5.1% of the market was covered by Asia and 1.9% by New Zealand. Thus, the above report provides the market segmentation of Blackmore Limited.
SWOT analysis of Blackmore is as follows .
Strengths
Weaknesses
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1. Blackmore has strong brand name in Australian Market. 2. Blackmore is the most trusted brand of Diet and Vitamin Supplement according to the Reader’s digest. 3. The Prices of Blackmore supplements are not too high. 4. Blackmore is one of the oldest brand of diet and vitamin supplements in Australia working from last 80 years. 5. The supply chain of Blackmore is highly efficient (CAAD, 2014). 6. Customers can directly deal with the warehouses of the Blackmore. 7. Currently, it is the number 1 brand in Malaysia and Thailand for vitamin supplements. |
1. The operational strategy of Blackmore is not defined clearly. Blackmore uses the common operational strategies. 2. The distribution channel of Blackmore is very limited. Only three retail stores sell 57% of the Blackmore products. |
|
Opportunities |
Threats |
|
1. Blackmore has opened online retail store which may result in increase in sales for the Blackmore. 2. Blackmore has expended in Asia also. It has launched its products in the Mainland China. 3. Blackmore also launched the products related to the pet care. |
1. There is a very high competition in the Australian market for Diet and Vitamin supplements. 2. Competitors have increased their marketing market activity in the market. 3. The chemists may ask for the lower prices for adopting the discount strategy (CAAD, 2014). |
Thus, the current situation of the market is described, which shows the current situation of Blackmore in the Australian market. This also describes the SWOT analysis of Blackmore in Australian market.
According to the current situation of the company, it can be clearly said that the market position of the company is really well in the market but it decreases from the previous years. Blackmore mainly covers its most of the market in Australia. So, the company needs to develop some strategy to its market in Australia. From the SWOT analysis it can be clearly said that Blackmore is a well-known brand in the Australian market but if the marketing strategy is not clearly prepared than it may cause various problems for the company as it is clear from the SWOT analysis that the operational strategy of Blackmore is too common and not well structured. It should also be noted that the competition in the Australian market is increasing every year for diet and vitamin supplements and competitors in the market are actively participating in making their marketing strategy perfect (Retail world, 2012). Thus, Blackmore should also concentrate on their marketing strategy and should set their communication objectives by considering all the above points.
According to the current situation analysis of Blackmore communication, the SMARTT communication strategy should be as follows:
According to the above objective, it can be said that it uses the ‘learn- do–feel’ effect hierarchy (Retail world, 2011). In this hierarchy model, the consumers develop their belief in the brand. This is done by searching information about the product and brand. This also develops the attitude of the customers towards the purchase of the products.
This uses the Liking- Prefer hierarchy effects as these, in this type of hierarchy, people already like the products but they prefer it by experiencing the product. Success of this hierarchy depends on the effectiveness of the product otherwise the results may be seen opposite (Retail world, 2011).
This objective is also related to the ‘learn-do-feel’ hierarchy. As the consumers don’t have any interest in this product, thus, the advertising should be done by repetitive messages and various offers should be provided to the users so that the users get attracted towards the product.
This objective also uses the strategy ‘learn-feel-do’ hierarchy as this product will also be new in the market. Thus, for getting attention of the people, the repetitive message marketing should be performed and various types of offers should also be provided to the consumers.
Thus, the above communication objective should be set by the Blackmore Limited for the next year to retain its position in this competitive market.
Creative strategy actually is the strategy related to determination of what information should be provided in the advertising message.
The tagline of this campaign will be the “Stay healthy, Stay strong” as this tagline suits the products of Blackmore Limited. Overall campaign will be based on the above tagline as this tagline is according to our objective which will attract new customers as well as help in retaining the old customers (Forbes, 2014).
The campaign is created to increase the awareness of the Diet and vitamin supplements products for the Blackmore Limited. This campaign will result in the improved brand image of Blackmore. This will also result in the increase in the market covered by Blackmore. This campaign will basically target the people of age more than 20 years old as these people use the diet and vitamin supplements mostly.
According to our assumption, 10% of the people in the overall market prefer the products of the Blackmore. According to those people, Blackmore products are highly effective and efficient. 7% of the people think that these supplements can be used when other better options are not available in the market. 2% of the people in market have the negative experience about Blackmore products and remaining people have never used the Blackmore products available in the market (Sullivan, 2012).
We would like customers to think that the Blackmore supplements as the best Diet and vitamin supplements available in the market. People should prefer the Blackmore products more than any other products. The main idea behind this campaign will be to connect more people with the Blackmore products through various online and offline events.
The customers should believe in the products of Blackmore as Blackmore is one of the oldest diet and vitamin supplement provider of Australia. The organization has provided its best services in the market with highly satisfied consumers (Retail world, 2012). The products of the organization are highly trusted by the consumers.
The advertisement of the campaign will include the overall information about the organization, details of the products related to the organization, effectiveness of the products, speciality of the products. A special attractive column for the new pet care products will also be provided in the messages to create awareness about those products in the market.
The main marketing tools that will be used in the campaign will be the Advertising, public relations and direct marketing. Advertising will help in creating the awareness of the product among the people. This will create a raw image of product among the people. Public relations will be used to popularise the brand in the market as well getting the feedback about the product so that the product can be improved every time to increase the trust of people in Blackmore products. Direct marketing will be done for two purposes (Sullivan, 2012). This will help in getting the people response towards the products of Blackmore and secondly, it will help in increasing the trust of people.
Online Media
The main promotional tool that should be used in campaign will be the online marketing. Currently, online marketing is the most effective and affordable way of marketing. Online social media covers half part of the world. The main online tools that will be used for the campaign will be the social media marketing. The main channels of the social media marketing will be Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (CFA Institute, 2012). The following table provides an image of the market covered by the different social media
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Social media Platform |
Market Covered (%) |
|
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55% |
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Google+ |
25% |
|
YouTube |
22% |
|
|
22% |
Table: Market covered by different social media platforms (Forbes, 2014).
All the above social media provides both paid and unpaid marketing facilities. 2% increment in the market will be performed by paid services and 0.5% of the market increment will be performed by the unpaid marketing.
Email marketing also comes under the online media. 1% of the market increment will be targeted through the email marketing. These ways can be used for both side communications.
These are the most expensive methods of marketing but are also very effective way of marketing (Sullivan, 2012). These marketing methods include the broadcasting of advertisements on the various television channels which are more popular in the market and are mostly seen by the people. This is also a great way to reach most of the people in a country. Hoardings also attract the people on road. The best way of performing hoarding marketing is to put the hoarding on most busy circle. People stuck in the traffic used to see these hoarding very carefully for time pass (Retail world, 2011). Thus, these ways of media communication will also be used.
Nearly 2% of the increase in market will be performed by these ways of marketing. These ways can be used by only one side communication.
The printed media that will be used are the most read newspapers, magazines, templates etc. These can also be used to cover large amount of people and can also be used for the one sided communication. Nearly 0.35% of the market will be increased using these tools of marketing.
Various small events in which the customer executive will directly communicate with the people will be used as these media. These events will be basically organized in the shopping malls, fairs and any other crowded place (Retail world, 2012). This will help in knowing the customers perspective directly and the attitude of the customers towards the product can be identified more effectively and efficiently. This will cover fewer people but is a most effective way of both side communications. 0.15% market will be increased by this way.
The following are the two mock up samples for the Alive brand of Blackmore (Retail world, 2012).
Figure : Stockist Incentives for Alive Campaign (Sullivan, 2012)
Figure: POS activity for Alive (Sullivan, 2012)
The above figures are the two sample mock ups for the integrated marketing communication. These mock ups are clearly describing the objectives of the marketing campaign.
The campaign will be evaluated both before the campaign, while the campaign and after the campaign.
The first step of evaluation includes the concept testing. The effectiveness rough idea that is going to be the brand or campaign concept will be measured (Sullivan, 2012). This will help in assuring that the concept is appropriate for the campaign. There are three steps in concept testing.
First step of concept testing is performed by intercept surveys and focusing on groups. The second step of concept testing is performed by attention, Emotional responses, brand awareness and physiological responses. The third step of testing is performed by Theatre test, Test marketing and tracking various studies related to integrated marketing communication (Retail world, 2012).
Theatre testing is one of the effective ways of evaluating the concept. In this testing, various people will be invited to the location and the campaign sample will be shown to the people to evaluate their responses. In test marketing, a research test will be organized. In this test, the IMC campaign will be run in 2 to 4 markets and the response of the people will be examined. All the above evaluation will be performed before the campaign (CAAD, 2014).
The tests which will be performed during the campaign is concurrent testing. Concurrent testing is a test that will track the performance of campaign and messages used in the campaign. For concurrent testing, various surveys will be performed for getting the performance of the organised campaign. These surveys will help in getting the user’s experience in the campaign (Sullivan, 2012). Various interviews will also be performed for testing the response of the campaign.
The testing which will be performed after the campaign will be the evaluative testing. In evaluative testing, the end result of the campaign will be examined. Whether the end result will be fulfilling the objectives of the campaign or not. The success of IMC program is evaluated using this test. This testing will help in improving the next campaign (CAAD, 2014).
Thus, the above evaluation is necessary for any campaign to be successful. These evaluations help in enhancing the performance of any campaign. Evaluations before and during the campaign will help in present campaign while the evaluation after the campaign will help in making the strategy for next campaign (Forbes, 2014).
The budget for the above described campaign is as follows:
Budget for online Media
Facebook Campaigning $5,000
Google+ Campaigning $2,500
YouTube Campaigning $2,000
Twitter Campaigning $2,000
Total Social media campaigning $11,500
Total budget required for online marketing $17,250
Budget for TV channels broadcasting and Hoardings
Total budget required $175,000
Budget Required for Printed media
Total budget required for printed media $20,500
Budget Required for events
Thus, the budget required for the full campaign is around $332750.
Conclusion
The above report is the result of various studies and research. According to the above report, it can be concluded that Blackmore Limited deals with the products related to diet and vitamin supplements which can be taken as medicines for fulfilling the essential components like Vitamins. By seeing the performance of the company for year 2011 and 2012, it can be said that Blackmore popularity is decreasing (Forbes, 2014). Thus, it is very necessary to build an integrated marketing communication campaign for Blackmore Limited which will help Blackmore in gaining the market again. The IMC campaign for Blackmore will be done by performing the proper planning of campaign. The planning of IMC campaign will include the various sources like online media, T.V. channel broadcasting and hoardings, printed media and various other types of events which will create the awareness about the Blackmore products among the people (CFA Institute, 2012).
Thus, this campaign will aim to create the awareness of Blackmore products among the people so that Blackmore can gain its defined objectives.
References
Sullivan, A. (2012). Blackmore Alive! Trade Presenter [online].
Retail World (2011). Annual Report 2011, retail world Vol. 64 23(4) pp. 81-82
Retail World (2012). Annual Report 2012, retail world Vol. 65 23(4) pp. 81-82
CAAD (2014). Integrate Marketing evaluation [online].
Forbes (2014). Watch out Facebook with Google + #2 and YouTube at #3 [online].
CFA Institute (2012). Blackmore Limited [online]
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