Marketing Communication Plan of Blackmore-Samples for Students

Question: Develop and Write an alternative IMC plan that Involves the Company you Currently work for or the Company you want to start up. Answer: Introduction This report is going to examine the Integrated Marketing Communication Plan of a popular Australian organization, i.e. Blackmore Limited. Blackmore Limited is a popular organization in Australia, which is engaged in manufacturing the vitamin and dietary supplements. The organization is adopting many effective promotional and advertising strategies in introducing the products to market. This discussion includes the integrated communication plan for Blackmore Limited. The following report is significantly emphasized on the products and services of organization, its target market and communication objectives like; brand awareness. Creative styles of advertising and media plan for Blackmore Limited. At the end, it evaluates the effectiveness of media plan and communication strategy of the organization. Thus, the entire communication plan will focus on the advertising and marketing activities, which will assist it in approaching to potential customers. By using effective communication strategies, it is expected that the intentions behind products will be communicated to the target audiences properly. Currently, the market position of Blackmore Limited is adversely affecting, so this communication plan assist the organization in introducing its products and services successfully. Company background Blackmore Limited is a popular organization in Australia, which was found as a naturopathic organization in the year 1938. It was established in Brisbane by Maurice Blackmore. Currently, the organization has emerged as a household health ad vitamin supplements. This organization has been an industry leader for over 70 years. Now, Blackmore is offering over 150 products and catering all the areas of health supplements and vitamins. It supplies its products via different distribution channels, like; retail pharmacy, supermarkets and food stores. The company has established its image as a most trusted organization in Australia (Blackmore, 2013). It has increased its revenues and profits over past few years, because of its huge demand from China country for high quality dietary and vitamin supplements. The major attraction towards company is that its products are not too much expensive and affordable for each and every level of people. At the end of financial year 2015, its revenues were over $471 million. There are many competitors in the industry, like; Swisse, Natures way, Cenovis Berocca etc. Marketing Objectives As discussed above, Blackmore Limited is a leading player in natural health and vitamin supplement industry. By following its mission and mission, the organization is working on its marketing objectives. The major marketing objective of Blackmore is to make the people aware about the vitamins, minerals, nutrients and herbs (Andrews and Shimp, 2017). The organization is looking towards natural health and motivating the population to invest money on their health and well-being. Target Audience Segment Analysis Market segmentation consists of categorizing the total population on the basis of different characteristics. These characteristics are like; demographics, psychographics and some other factors. The major target market of the Blackmore Limited is the young generation that is between the age group of 25 to 35 years (Young, 2014). The reason behind targeting this segment is that youth is a key pillar of the community. It is concentrating on the people, who are very conscious for their health and youths are very concerned about their health, so it can easily convince them for consuming their health and vitamin supplements. In addition, the company is targeting female consumers also because female group is more interested in buying dietary supplements. Organization emphasizes on behavioral characteristics because once the customers know about the quality and standard of products, they always prefer to consume those products due to their brand and quality (Daoud, 2016). Blackmore Limited i s focusing on offering best quality in products. Communication (Advertising) Objectives There are several players in the vitamin and supplement industry, such as; Swisse, Cenovis, Berocca and Natures Way. So, Blackmores need to set its communication objective and create a well-organized promotional campaign before launching new products in the market. The company has covered almost entire market in Australia, but still there is need to use effective strategies to gain competitive advantage in the market (Fehrnstorm Rich, 2009). By looking the market and potential customers, the Blackmore is developing its communication objectives, like; The first communication objective of company is to cover most of the Australian market with its major products, i.e. health and vitamin supplements. It will make the customers aware about the benefits of its products. This communication objective of Blackmores can be attained by collecting the information regarding the customers and available products in market. Another objective of Blackmore is to increase its market share in pharmaceutical industry. For this, it will focus on attracting new customers, who have never consumed these products. This objective of organization can be attained by enhancing brand awareness among Australian population. The last objective of the company is to increase its sales by focusing on the reviews and feedback from its existing customers. It will help the organization in enhancing the quality of products and gaining more profits (Freeman, 2010). For expansion of its business, the organization will start to sell pet care products in the market. For targeting segment for these new products, the company will perform the advertising activities with some repetitive messages. The above-mentioned communication objectives would be placed by Blackmores Limited for the integrated communication plan to get a better position in Australian industry. Styles of creative advertising In the modern business environment, there are so many organizations, which have adopted creative styles for advertising strategy to attract the customers towards their products. The organization creates these styles by considering different factors, like; behavioral, demographic, psychographic etc. creative strategy of a company is a strategy that is related to deciding on that what data and information must be included in the advertising message. Blackmores Limited is advertising its products and services by using a slogan or tagline, i.e. Stay healthy, Stay powerful. The promotional plan of organization will be prepared on the basis of this tagline, as it will retain existing customers and creating new customers. The advertisement is created to enhance the awareness of the vitamin and dietary supplements for Blackmores Limited. It will definitely enhance the brand image and reputation of Blackmore Limited Australia (Ibis world, 2016). It will increase the market coverage of Blackmo re in the Australian market. This creative style of advertising will be beneficial for this integrated communication plan of Blackmores. In addition, the organization will create a creative advertising message. There may be some ethical issues related to communication objectives of Blackmores Limited. Sometimes, advertising and marketing causes the people to buy the products, which are not affordable for them. This can be true in the case of Blackmores Limited. The prices of products are very high, so people cannot afford easily, but the advertising of dietary and health supplements influences the youths and female group, who are very conscious to their health. Another issue may be related to the advertisement of prescription products of company (Keller, 2009). The code of conduct of company includes that advertisements for the prescription products should not be sited in any part of prescribing software packages. In addition, the organization will not provide the comparative data about the advantages and disadvantages of other brands. These are the ethical issues, which can affect the future growth and success of organization. Advertising message Along with the creative advertising style, Blackmores Limited will develop a creative advertising message. In this, the information about companys products and services will be included in a creative and attractive way. There will be a special message for its new products, i.e. pet care products. This message will assist the organization in increasing product awareness among its potential customers. There are some marketing techniques, which can be used in the organizations promotional campaign, i.e. direct marketing, advertisement, public relations etc. These techniques will assist Blackmores Limited in creating awareness among existing customers and creating new customers. It can use public relation technique to collect feedback from customers, so they can make improvement in their current products (Luttrell, 2016). It will motivate the customers to purchase their products, because they will think that company cares about them. It will enhance the trust of population for the compan y. Media Plan In developing the media plan, Blackmores Limited will implement different media strategies and use many media vehicles, which will help the company in achieving its communication objectives and creative strategy. This media plan will be developed very efficiently and effectively, so that the organization can appeal the customers. Following are the media vehicles and media strategies, which can be adopted by Blackmores in being more competitive and increasing its presence among public (Luxton, Reid and Mavondo, 2015). Online Media Online media can work as most effective tool in the promotional plan of any organization. Blackmores Limited can use online marketing to promote its products to the bulk of population. Reason behind choosing this marketing tool is that currently most of the people are actively engaged in using the social media and networking sites. It is the most popular tool in todays era. So, online media marketing is the best, which can be used in its promotional plan. There are different modes of social media, like; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube etc. which will be used by Blackmore to promote its products. In the social media marketing tools, there are both paid and unpaid tools. The company will promote its products and services on these social networking sites (Mihart, 2012). It can create a page on Facebook, where it can showcase its existing and new products. In addition, it will use E-mail marketing that can also be implemented by Blackmores. Only 1% market will be taken by organizat ion for market increment. If the organization uses these channels effectively, it will assist in targeting the market and creating new customers in the market. Generally, online media marketing is considered as a two-way communication methods. Events Conducting different events are also a great way of reaching to the potential customers. There may be different events, which can take place for the customers. In these events, companys customer support executive can have a conversation with the people. The organization can conducted these events in shopping malls and some other public places. These types of events will assist the organization in recognizing the demands and expectations of customers. Through these events, Blackmore can understand the attitudes and perception of customers towards their products and services (Ots, Ots, Nyilasy and Nyilasy, 2017). This is also a two-way communication method that can attract the people effectively. Traditional method of media There are some methods, which can be very effective for promotion for promoting the products, but these media channels are very expensive for the company. This method consists of broadcasting the advertisements of health and vitamin supplements on these channels, which are popular in the market. This media vehicle can help the Blackmores to approach the people, who are not using internet and social media networking sites. Moreover, distributing pamphlets and putting hoardings on roads will aid the company in increasing its public presence. This method of media is one sided communication method, which will be used by Blackmores Limited in communicating with its customers and promoting its products (Percy, 2014). Print Media Print media is an effective way to enhance the brand awareness of Blackmores. In this, the people can get the knowledge about companys products via print media, like; newspapers and magazines. For this, the organization will select the newspapers and magazines, which are highly circulated in the area. It will also place the ads in health and fashion magazines to attract the targeted customers. Thus, these media vehicles can help Blackmores Limited in implementing its creative style of advertising and attaining its communication objectives. The major objective behind choosing these media vehicle is to convey their advertising message and ideas to customers and motivate them to purchase their dietary and vitamin supplements. Evaluation of IMC plan effectiveness After developing the Integrated Marketing Communication plan, it is a significant task to get a confirmation that the implemented media strategies are on the target. The evaluation of this plan will be done on the basis of how Blackmores reaches to its target customers and achieve its communication and marketing objectives (Shimp, 2008). This evaluation will be done after implementing the promotional plan in the process. First, the company will evaluate the feedback of customers to the advertisement on the media channels. The people in marketing team will see that the advertisements are effective to entice the interest of people from their target market. As the organization is adopting different vehicles of media, so the effectiveness of plan will totally depend on these media, which showcase the introduction of products of Blankmores Limited. If there will more broadcasting and print media, there company can do more publicity among people. Blackmores uses the post testing and pretesting techniques for gaining revert from target market. The testing techniques will be implemented accordingly, like; post testing will be done after the promotional campaign. This organization will conduct this evaluate the impact of actions and change the mind of customers towards organizational products (Thorson and Moore, 2013). In addition, the organization will conduct a survey, in which it will take the opinions of customers. Furthermore, Blackmores will prepare a questionnaire, which will include some questions regarding the products of company. It will be filled by customers and other external stakeholders. After the implementation of promotional plan, the organization will observe the results of this campaign. By the evaluation process, it will be analyzed that whether the IMC plan of Blackmores Limited is successful in communicating to the people and achieving its objectives. Thus, the success or failure of integrated communication plan of Blackmores Limited can be evaluated by using different methods. After evaluating the plan, the company can make changes according to the needs of plan. Conclusion From the above analysis, it can be concluded that Blackmore Limited is a leading organization in Australia that manufactures and sells dietary and vitamin supplements. People can consume these supplements as medicines to improve their health and make them more healthy and strong. The organization is creating an IMC plan to promote its new and existing products. This plan will help the organization in attracting the customers and staying competitive in the market. Thus, the plan includes different media strategies and creative advertising strategies for reaching to the customers. It will help the organization in enhancing awareness among customers about its products. In this way, this promotional plan can be successful to the company for attaining its marketing and communication objectives. References Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017.Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Nelson Education. Blackmore, 2013, Blackmores Limited Presentation to Goldman Sachs Emerging Companies Conference 15 May 2013, retrieved from https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20130515/pdf/42fx2m44xv8zd4.pdf. Daoud, H., 2016, 8 Essential Elements of a Social Media Marketing Strategy, accessed on 5th October 2016 from https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/essential-elements-social-media-marketing-strategy/ Fehrnstorm, M. Rich, D.M, 2009, Using Events to Drive an Integrated Marketing Model. Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications. 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