Effective Marketing Communication Strategies For Samuel’s Furniture Store

Findings

The report is focused towards providing an effective marketing communications strategy for a new business named Samuel’s Furniture Store. The business is being started by Samuel Brown. He has 10 years of market experience in the furniture industry and is going to use the same towards enhancing his business prospects. The shop is located at a corner cluster of shops where Samuel has some important agreements with his fellow shopkeepers. Samuel has agreed not to sell television sets and in return the other shopkeepers will not venture into the bedding and mattress selling business. Samuel has certain advantages that he wants to utilize through an effective marketing communications strategy. He wants to utilize an effective marketing consultant towards increasing the reach of his business. The study will keep the business in focus in order to analyze the concerned market and formulate an effective communications strategy within a strategic business plan. The significant areas will be identified and the focus will be towards forming an optimally effective strategy.

Integration of messaging and media

One of the most important aspect to consider for an effective communications strategy is the integration of the message with the media that will be used. In order to this to happen integrated marketing communications have to be implemented. Integrated marketing communications is an approach in which various forms of coordinated promotional methods are effectively utilized to achieve the most important market goals for various organizations. IMC is an important aspect of marketing communications (Ots and Nyilasy 2015). This is because modern customers are widespread and are influenced by a number of communication media. Hence, utilizing a single or only a few promotional methods can mean that the audience reach of any business remains incomplete. Integrated marketing communication impacts the behavior of the buyer through psychological means predominantly. A person comes in contact with a promotional element many times and a natural curiosity about a product is created. In the case of Samuels’s furniture this technique of marketing communication can be utilized towards optimizing the promotional campaigns (Dahlen and Rosengren 2016). The audience can follow up a single message through various mediums. Hence, the reliability of the promotion also increases. This is an effective form of marketing communications.

In case of Samuel’s furniture store, the message that will be promoted is quite clear. The message will be that the customers will get the right prices with real deals. This is quite a clear and concise message to be disseminated through various media tools. Integration will be done is a way such that the customers can easily follow up with the communications campaign (Keller 2016). The most important things to be considered are the position of the company, the products being offered, the deals being offered and the value that the customers will be getting. As mentioned earlier integrated marketing communications can have far reaching impact on the customer’s psyche. This means that while following up on the messages through various media platforms the message is very deeply registered by the customers (Ots and Nyilasy 2017). Hence, people will remember the fact that they are getting realistic deals at reasonable prices at the Samuel’s furniture store. Moreover, the convenient location of the shop will add further value for the customers when included as a promotional message. Primarily an inside out approach will be focused in which the internal strengths of the company will be expressed through the message that will be created for promotion. However moving forward the marketing communication consultants would like to gradually focus towards building a strong customer focused outside-in strategy.

Integration of messaging and media

The tools that would have to be utilized primarily will be newspapers, television, online media, display media and other such media that the communication team and the furniture shop can decide. The analysis of the case at hand pointed towards the better usage proposition of a more pull based strategy for the furniture store. Considering this more direct forms of communication mediums should be used (Batra and Keller 2016). Thus, the focus has to be on the usage of media devices such as print media, television and online. Moreover, since much of the target customers of the company are localized, it will be much effective if display advertisements like posters, banners, flyers and floaters are used. It is very important to consider the fact that integrated marketing techniques will be used. Hence a clear message needs to be presented through all the essential marketing tools that will be utilized.

The primary marketing will be done through print media. The opening of the store and the value propositions for the customers will be provided through the first set of messages. Moving forward the integrated process will start. The TV advertisements will build and develop further on the message that will be provide through the print media. This time more detailed information about the store opening will be provided. The date and time along with the location will be given. Moving forward the messages will also be displayed through online media. Hence, the essential characteristics of the store will be given. The later part of the messages will focus more on the location of the shop. The location of the shop is a very important aspect and the owner wants to use this for increasing profitability by reaching the most number of audiences (Bughin, Doogan and Vetvik 2010). Hence, this is when the display tools will be used in and around the location. Banners and flyers will be installed at strategic places which are directly connected to the place. The sub urban areas will be targeted first and large banners will be installed in these areas that will be very close to the stores. In these banners or flyers more emphasis will be provided towards the locational significance of the shop. After the banners are put in place specific messages that complement the main message will be displayed through online and television media. After the opening of the shop initially the focus will be towards providing the value statements and the locational significance of the shop (Keller 2016). Moving forward in the next six months the focus will shift more towards online and TV advertisements emphasizing more on the products available for the customers. TV, online and display advertisements will cover most of the target audiences.

Specific tools

Figure 1: bedding shop

(Source- sleepwellbeds.com)

The communication program will be an important aspect for the effective promotion of the products that are offered by the company. The essential focus of the shop is towards selling bedding products (Karjaluoto, Mustonen and Ulkuniemi 2015). This is because the rest of the shops in the complex are already selling a variety of furnishing products. Hence, bedding is an important option for product specialization. Considering all these essential factors an effective communication program needs to be formed. The program has to be made essentially considering the target customers of the shop. It has been indicated through the business environments of the shop that the target group has to be the middle income buyers. The other shops cater to the requirements of the affluent buyers. The Samuel’s Furniture Store will focus more towards selling medium ranged predominantly bedding products to the customers. An effective communication program will have to be used for the benefit of the shop.

The primary communication will happen 2 to 3 months prior to the opening of the shop. This will be a display of merely the name of the shop and the products offered. The message should be made clear in a way that people understand that the company is focused towards selling more medium ranged bedding products. The display will be done in a way so as to generate curiosity among the audience. 1 month prior to the opening more aggressive advertising needs to be done through print, TV and online media. The message will be more detailed informing the buyers directly of the products that are available at a given price range. The program at this stage will be focused towards generating as much attraction as possible for the specific target group. The communication program after the opening of the shop will be more focused towards urgency. The audience will be informed of the initial discounts that are being provided for the company. This will be continued for two months. Moving forward in the third month the communication process will continue more through display banners, posters and flyers. The messages will be more formal in tone and will be specific at the same time. At this point the buyers would be told that the shop is already functional and has served many satisfied customers. The 4^th, 5^th and 6^th months will be focused more towards market segmentation. The audience will be divided among medium profile buyers, low profile buyers and buyers that are not interested in bedding products. The communication for customers that are interested in other products offered by the shop will be done effectively. The message at this stage will directly be divided among the three segmentations the audiences will be directly informed about the products available for them through a single message (Armstrong et al. 2014).

Communication program	Month 1	Month 2	Month 3	Month 4	Month 5	Month 6	Month 7
Planning of message	ü
Selection of media		ü	ü
Online and TV promotion activities			ü	ü	ü	ü	ü
Banners and Display activity				ü	ü	ü	ü
Opening							ü
Post opening marketing communication							ü

Communications program

(Figure 2- Gantt Chart)

It becomes much important that an effective monitoring plan is implemented towards assessing the effectiveness of the marketing communications. As mentioned previously the gantt chart displays the timelines of the various activities that will be taking place concerning the marketing communications of the company. The various theoretical perspectives will be used in order to monitor the marketing activities. Media fragmentation is referred to as the expansion of media. Moreover, audience fragmentation is referred to the division of audience base. Both will be used in order to evaluate how effective the promotion has been (McQuail and Windahl 2015). Audience engagement will be an essential part of evaluation. The customers will be segregated on the basis of how they came into contact with the advertisements. This can be known through customer interactions. In regards to online promotion this can be more efficiently known through online data. The communication mediums that have been the most effective towards drawing the customers will be given preference. The primary phase of monitoring will be done in the first month after opening. The secondary assessment and monitoring will be done in months 2-3. The tertiary phase will be from months 4 to 6. Hence, it can be understood which form of communication has been effective towards reaching the most number of audiences. The same will be used for promotional activities from then onwards. Media fragmentation and customer fragmentation will be done subsequently. This will help to understand which types of target audiences can be effectively reached through the usage of a specific media. This will create more opportunities for effective advertising in the future. The banners will be installed at specific places. It will be very effectively found how much people come into contact with the promotion at those place. Places with less amount of visibility would be scrapped from the list of display sites.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the planning and subsequent implementation of the communications strategy could be beneficial for the initial and future business effectiveness of Samuel’s furniture store. The marketing communication strategy was formed through effective analysis of the business environment of the company. Hence, the planning can be said to encompass all the essential requirements for attracting the specific customer segregations that the furniture store wants to increase its profitability. It is important that the follow up after the implementation is effectively done in order to realize the most important marketing potential.

It is greatly recommended that the shop targets specific customer bases more than the others. It becomes much important that the customers interested in bedding furniture are provided increased importance. This is largely due to the fact that bedding will be the main product sold by the company. It becomes much important in this case that more emphasis is provided to bedding solutions of the customers. The focus of the company should be towards providing innovative advertisements that can essentially attract the attention of the buyers in more ways than one. Since the emphasis is on realistic deals, this should be made one of the important strategies of the company. Moving forward the company should think about expanding beyond the bedding furniture and into furnishing products that will be innovative and quite different from the products being sold by the other businessmen.

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