General Research
Integrated marketing communication is a vital concept in the management arena. The topic is intended to cover the various characteristics involving the nook and corner of intergrated communication in marketing which consists of advertising uses and benefits, sales promotion, the how’s and why’s in them, public relations and campaigning – which exert as a cohesive force – moderately allowing each to take up the activity in separation. “Marketing a product involves a marketing mix – also known as the four P’s: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. In social marketing, four more P’s are added: Public, Partnership, Policy, Purse String [5].
The first four P’s provide the environment in which people can act; the last four P’s provide the strength and support for the programme to operate in an efficient and effective way” (Considering a Marketing and Communications Approach for an Institutional Repository: The marketing mix in social marketing, 2006, para.15).
Public relation/publicity
Public relation/publicity means creating good relation with the media and with the ultimate consumers of the company, and creating good image for the company in the minds of consumers. It includes various activities like sponsorships, charity programs, etc. The main objective behind public relation is to create product awareness, interest, provide product information, and reinforcement of brand. “Often public relations are conducted through the media that is, newspapers, television, magazines, etc. As noted above, public relations is often considered as one of the primary activities included in promotions” (McNamara, n.d, para.5).
Pros of public relation
Main advantage of public relation is that it is one of the methods for getting visibility for the product among the clutter. Especially for an innovative product, public relation helps in the sharing of information and to bring awareness about the same among the public. Public relation has the third party credibility than other methods in promotion, and it has the longest life.
The public will give more credibility to the news/reports in the media than advertisement. A well-structured public relation campaign will provide more information than other forms of promotion. Public relation is the low cost method for communicating to the public.
Cons of public relation
The main disadvantage of public relation is that the marketers have no direct control over the messages and its delivery. The media will reject the news about the product if there is more valuable news in that time.
Personnel selling
“Personnel selling is oral communication with the potential buyers of a product with an intention of making a sale. The personnel selling may focus initially on developing relationship with the potential buyers but will always ultimately end with an attempt to close the sale” (Promotion: Personal selling, n.d, para.1).
Advantage and disadvantage of personnel selling
One of the best methods for getting personnel attention is personnel selling. Through this, the customer and salesman can interact with each other and clarify the doubts. In personnel selling, the salesman is able to customize the message in requirement with the buyer. Demonstration of the product creates more attention and interest, and the salesman can demonstrate the technicality of the product. It is the best way for building and retaining a good relationship with the customers.
Disadvantages of personnel selling
It is not a cost effective method and it requires transportation charges, hotels/other staying charges, etc. It is a time-consuming one. A salesman can meet only one consumer at a time but in other promotional methods, the marketers can meet a large audience.
Advertising
“Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media” (Taflinger, 1996, para.1).
Advertising has wide role in marketing. Each and every product is being sold by way of aggressive yet strategic advertising these days. Hot Noodles Company advertises their product features, color, packing style, and the price of the product. The Hot Noodles Company has a large number of customers in the market. They advertise there product through news papers and Television. Normally advertising promotes product-service or an event to the customers “Advertising is a major “phase” of overall product or service development and management. Advertising is specifically part of the “outbound” marketing activities, or activities geared to communicate to the market, eg, advertising, promotions, public relations, etc” (McNamara, n.d, para.2).
Hot Noodles Company provides the correct information at the right time and the Company is able to create a good relation with the customer and the marketer. And their main object is to maximize the sales of Hot Noodles.
Pros of advertising
- The main advantages of advertising Hot Noodles Company is its increase in sales and maximized profit
- The advertising depends on the needs and wants of the customer
- Advertising helps to increase the value of Hot Noodles product in the market
- The customer can easily understand the product features and market value of Hot Noodles Company
- The Hot Noodles Company produces the product in affordable rates when compared with other company products.
Cons of advertising
- The company suffers tough competition from other companies.
- The price of the product is corporately high, so the marketer can generate doubts regarding the product quality, and hence the marketer might increase the price.
- The Hot Noodles Company spends more money on advertising.
Direct marketing
“This is a type of advertising campaign that seeks to elicit an action (such as an order, a visit to a store or Web site, or a request for further information) from a selected group of consumers in response to a communication from the marketer” (Direct marketing, 2010, para.1).
The term, Direct Marketing means: the manufacturer produces the goods and sells directly to the market. Direct Marketing is also known as door-to-door marketing. Nowadays, Direct Marketing has wide roles in marketing. Direct Marketing mainly focuses on face-to-face contact between the seller and the buyer. For example, the Hot Noodles Company sells there product through Direct Marketing.
Pros of Direct Marketing
- the customer can easily understand the product features and quality.
- the manufacturer can maintain a good relationship with the marketer and consumer.
- the customer can check the product quality on their own during the time of delivery.
- 4. The company delivers the product in the correct time, at the correct place, and in correct time.
- 5. direct marketing helps to maintain a good relationship with the marketer and the customer.
- 6. The customer can ask the product-related queries at the time of delivery.
Cons of direct marketing
- the product price is corporately high which will affect the demand of Hot Noodles.
- The direct marketing marketer suffers bargaining from the customer.
- Direct marketing will affect the fixed shop marketer.
Application to the product
Product/Specific Features
The product which we investigated is the noodle named Hot Noodle, which is rich in nutrients, protein and health content. The product was innovated as the result of brainstorming exercises and the new product was made available in the market after conducting an intense research about the product, the market and was made available at a reasonable rate.
The main concept during the launch of the product was concentrated on the new product with distinct features and innovation. The features that make the product innovative are the shape of the noodles, designed in ‘C’ shape, which is different from the traditional ‘S’ shape of the noodles. The advantages are that this noodles are in the broken form. Hot Noodles in the broken form makes cooking much easier. The packaging was done in thick plastic containers, where the containers can be re-used for other chores. The product information including the web address and the mailing address are specified for any feedback from the customers and the suggestions were most welcomed.
The complimentary offer of the sauce packages and ketch-up were offered to make the product tastier and attractive. The sauces, as an additional taste maker, have not been implemented previously and therefore this is a new product that offers variety to the consumers.
Integrated marketing helps in maintaining a good relationship with the customers which in turn helps in increasing profits. Marketing communication is a small part in the marketing activity. Marketing communication is integrated so that all the messages are integrated together and are carried to the customers. Integrated marketing communication helps to increase sales and profits and also to save time and money.
Some of the main objectives of marketing communication are:
- To gain better knowledge about the policy of promotion and marketing communication management process.
- To build up a financial and original explanation for marketing communication.
- To understand the requirements of creating the marketing communication
- To implement the policy of marketing communication in a right and official way.
The rational approach in choosing the elements is much complementary to each other, and they are used to make the precise decisions where the products become much advantageous for the person.
The choosing of the product is restricted to certain criteria and they include mainly the demographic features, financial constraints and the psychological aspects in taking the decision for buying the product. The product decision mainly includes the product features, design usability and the extra benefits incurred while getting the product. The product Hot Noodle is designed in such a manner so as to suit the variety of the needs, tastes and preferences of the customers.
The main reason of the rejection of the product is under the misconception that the product and its contents do not contain any nutritive value and also that it is not good for health.
The research is conducted using the questionnaire and the survey method where the analysis shows that the majority of the respondents liked the product, at times they have complained about the non-availability of the required flavor in the market and for increasing the tastes of the noodles by the addition of any complementary agent; these were given as suggestions in the research. The price of the product was also a major factor found in the survey.
The rational of the product Hot Noodle is designed in such a way as to meet the major requirements of the customers and to make a product a customized one.
As the product matures, as in the stage of the product life cycle, various innovations have to be incorporated so as to avoid the decline stage. In effect, the product has to be innovative. And that we can add vegetables into it and make them colorful. Can also extend the product to soupy noodles where the 2-in-one system in incorporated in them. It can also make the product enriched with certain flavours. They can add the product in containers by giving a scoop with it. The Hot Noodle can also be marketed along with potato chips named as hot chip which can be used as a side dish with it.
Describe the message you wish to communicate based on your core strategy. Explain your rationale for the message. Formulate how you will communicate with your target market? Be specific. How will the internet be used in your IMC approach?
The core strategy of the product is the business and the marketing strategies, the various strategies of them include conveying the idea based on the core strategy, which mainly deals with the product launch in the market, product development process, operational excellence, customer relationship and the product leadership in the market.
The main messages to be conveyed in building up the marketing and sales values to the firm are to emphasize on the strengths, make the face-to-face and direct selling effective, so that it generates good results in the marketing of products. The messages conveyed should be precise and specific.
The way of communicating to the target market is through internet and print media, which are considered as effective ways of communication. The internet is a useful tool in marketing communication, where the communication can be conducted by the use of the wed address, direct mail and web advertising.
Select and explain the most suitable method for measuring advertising or promotional effectiveness. Your decision must include research to back up the selected method. Be sure to explain why this is the most effective method to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign:
Advertising is the backbone of product promotion. It plays a vital role in creating a wider scope for marketing of the products.
The effectiveness of advertisement is a complicated process. The need of advertising is to force the customers to buy according to their needs and wants. A successful advertisement puts forth and nurtures the necessity in humans, and encourages customers to purchase the product. The advertisement-effectiveness can be identified by conducting a survey and sales analysis in the organization.
The sales analysis can give a specific picture of the sales occurred and the enquiry reports of the same gives much information regarding the effectiveness of the operations. Nowadays, telemarketing is a known trend. The toll-free numbers help us to generate the number of enquiries the product received. Web access and direct mail can be useful in measuring the customer response towards the product which was generated as a result of the advertisement.
The method of toll-free and sales report are the most effective ones in measuring the effectiveness because,the advertisement is an important sales promotion technique and they are the only form by which the idea of the product is conveyed to the minds of the people and which acts as the catalyst in boosting the buying-behavior of the product. So, by analyzing the sales happened and the revenue generated in the firm, and depending on the enquiries for the product the effectiveness can be understood, which would be much useful in the promotional tactics.
Reference List
Considering a Marketing and Communications Approach for an Institutional Repository: The marketing mix in social marketing. (2006). Ariadne. Web.
Direct marketing. (2010). Search CRm. Web.
McNamara, C. (n.d.). Advertising and Promotions. Web.
McNamara, C. (n.d.). Basic definitions: Advertising, marketing, promotion, public relations and publicity, and sales. Web.
Promotion: Personal selling. (n.d.). Tutor. Web.
Taflinger, R. F. (1996). A definition of advertising. Web.