Marketing communications plan
Sales promotion and marketing form the basis of a company’s success. Promotion is a significant element of marketing mix. The main components of promotion include direct marketing personal selling and advertising. While developing an appropriate promotion strategy, a company should put into consideration the purpose of marketing message. 110% Audi is a new product which will be marketed applying various promotion strategies which will help the brand to be known (Grosse, 20).
Audi is considered as one of the world’s most renowned brands in the global automobile industry. The reason for its success is not due to its ability to create innovative products over and over again which give it a first mover advantage, but also due to the effective marketing practices that the company uses. No matter how good and useful the product is, it can only be successful if the products values are communicated in the right manner. Audi has capitalized on this basic concept of marketing and due to which it is known as a market leader to the automobile. Audi’s success lies in how well it has set out its media objectives, strategies and plans so that it may communicate to its target audience through advertising in the most efficient and effective manner.
Media Objectives
Before we start discussing the advertising strategies which Audi uses for the promotion of its products, identifying the media objectives is very necessary. The media objectives for Audi vary both with the situation and the product. As a whole, the media objective revolves around retaining the existing market share and focusing on finding new customer segments for the products. Similarly, when the company comes up with new product lines such as the launch of the 110% Audi, the primary media objective was to create awareness in the minds of the customer. The ads would tell the audience about the usefulness of the 110% Audi and how it can blend into the life of the customer (Kotler and Armstrong, 79).
Advertising Schedule
The effectiveness of the advertising program lies in the scheduling of the advertisements. Unless the advertisements are properly scheduled, it would be very difficult for the message to break through the clutter and gets hold of the customer’s attention (Chernev & Kotler, 39). The company came up with the 110% Audi when the market was already captured by other brands. Moreover, they had created such a value amongst the customers that it was very difficult to change their mindset and try the 110% Audi. The objective of the advertising schedule was therefore such that it was designed to break through the clutter and the brand identity that the two competitors had created in the market.
The advertising schedule was therefore incorporated in the marketing objectives of the company which helped the company break through the clutter. The schedule of the ads was dependent upon the occurrence of some events as it reflected the brand identity of the company of providing the customers with the same experience which they would receive using the car in the reality. The advertising schedule is also dependent upon the market conditions of the industry. As such, when any of these companies come up with an advertising campaign, in order to create or retain their respective market share, the company has to put up its own advertisements which would make it retain its market share (Grosse, 26).
Frequency or Reach
The 110% Audi is a leading brand in the car industry with a very high brand image amongst the customers. The industry has a high regard on the 110% Audi, which the company realizes very well. Therefore, steps have to be taken to ensure that whatever is done, the advertisements do not damage the company’s image. Advertising when used continuously damages the brand image of the product, a fact that company realizes well. It is due to this downside of advertisements that the 110% Audi advertisements are focused on reach rather than frequency. Through reach, the product makes sure that there is a larger audience which is able to see the ads.
Due to this large number of audience, manufacturer is able to sell the 110% Audi all over the world. We must not forget that frequency is also important in making sure that the customer is able to retain the message in the ad, but there must be a limitation of the frequency of these advertisements. Advertising repeatedly will only damage the brand image of the 110% Audi and the consumers would take it for a low value brand. Audi manufacturer believes that the ads should be able to reach more customers as it would help in retaining the brand value. Creativity is therefore essential in the advertisements as it helps in breaking through the clutter. Moreover, since manufacture is using a reach based approach on the 110% Audi, creativity helps in breaking through the clutter and enables the ads to be retained in the customer’s mind. Thus, manufacturer is able to achieve the objectives of frequency through the limitations of its ads (Kotler, 231).
Mediums of Advertisements
The 110% Audi is advertised by three advertising mediums; television, print advertisements and sponsorship of major events. Television advertisements are usually aired during the programs which focus on the automobile industry. It must be kept in mind that the 110% Audi caters to a particular market segment and advertising would only be effective when the target audience is able to watch it. The television advertisements also help in the reach based approach of the 110% Audi. The same is the case with the print media where the 110% Audi is advertised only on selected magazines which cater to computing. The aim of manufacturer is to reach to its customers as directly as possible. However, we must say that the real mode of advertising for the 110% Audi comes from Sponsorship. In 110% Audi advertisement strategy, sponsorship is the main medium which is also used to advertise in other mediums as well.
The Use of 4P’s
Advertisement can never be successful if the 4P’s of marketing are never understood. The consumers who have used the 110% Audi, they are aware of how the car is able to bring them closer to the entertainment experience through superior graphics. It is due to this reason why the 110% Audi is positioned as a comfortable car young people. The advertisements would never show the price of the 110% Audi, but they will surely show the other factors which make it such a success.
Messages for Products Promotion
The 110% Audi has been one of the company most selling brands since its launch in 2010. The success of this brand has been rooted to the vigorous promotion strategies applied by the company. After its launch, the product received positive publicity triggered by the good advertising policy which the company initially applied. It is worth noting that within a few years after its launch, the product was being promoted in one hundred and fifteen countries around the globe. This led to massive increase in sales volume thereby increasing the profitability and productivity of the company.
For special model website retail online, to be successful it should comply with certain requirements of doing a highly successful online retail business and they are described in the following sections.
Branding, Advertising and Public Relations
These are strategies that are used in traditional marketing as well as but they can also be used in online marketing. Create your own commercials on sites like YouTube by adding professional videos of your products, photos etc.
“After loading the video on YouTube, use social media and book marking sites to further spread the word around the web.” (Melissa, 2).
Create a good logo for your company and a very informative and user-friendly website that explains the products sold by the company. A good logo design is necessary for branding the company. Use social media sites for promoting the company’s brand but also note that they are good public relations spots for promoting the company’s products. Create a following for the company’s products on these social networking sites by building a network of contacts that can be targeted for promoting the product.
A Highly Efficient Search Engine for Marketing
Make sure that customers from a variety of choices can find your website when customers type in keywords of products that are sold by the company in any famous search engine like Google or Bing. A proper analysis of the company’s search engine marketing strategy is necessary before finalizing the online shopping portal of the company. The website should include key words that are used (Grunert, 3). The car should be sold at lower price by offering discounts.
Uploading the Latest Photographs of the Products
Make sure that the latest photographs of each product are uploaded onto the company’s shopping portal. Photographs taken in different angels for the same product should be uploaded in the company’s shopping portal under the product’s category.
“Demonstrate products in action or in use if it makes sense to do so. Make sure that if using models to demonstrate products, the model represents the target customer for the product” (Grunert, 4).
Testing Functional Aspects of the Site
A through testing of all functional aspects of the only shopping portal of the company should be carried out. Every button, text field, link etc should be checked for its functionality.
A Very Robust Check out Process
Every page on the site should be a sales page. The page should promote the product described on the page and the company itself. The check out process and thank you emails sent, as a confirmation of product purchase should act as very effective sales pages for the products of the company. Check the products of the company and see if any cross selling or up selling could be done of any of the company’s products.
Checking out Gift Wraps
Check out the gift wrappers and see if the information provided in the site is correct. Check if couriers can deliver late shipping packages and look out for cost effective shipping methods to save on costs.
Checking Out Shipping and Box Stuffers
Every box that carries the company products should be designed in a manner that it acts as a promoter. Ensure that they promote the product inside the box as well as other products of the company. Also, make sure that the company’s shopping portal is printed in bold on those cartons to facilitate the attraction of customers to the company’s shopping portal. These kinds of finer details can go a long way in promoting a company’s product and bring in more customers to the company’s shopping portal. Besides these, other regular retail marketing strategies such as solving customers problems, catching a wave –
“The need to respond to demographic, societal, economic and technological trends” (Isidro, 1),
Helping choose a product by educating people online about the purpose of the product etc can be used to effectively sell a product (Kotler and Keller, 312).
Create powerful website personas
Ask smart question to customers and check out about the needs, desires and wants. Create website personas based on the real personas that you get to see in your retail outlets.
“A persona is a composite person you create based on your knowledge of your customers. You can use this persona to guide every decision of your website creation” (Segel, 2).
The web persona can help you in deciding the right layout for a menu on the company’s online shopping portal and other things like the language used on the portal etc.
Introduce Microsites for Shopper Marketing
Introduce micro sites for shopper marketing promotions, for online coupons, recipes, food solutions, for online promotions like rebates, discounts, geographically targeted advertisement banners, downloadable shopping lists etc.
“These efforts have resulted in a substantial number of impressions and have generated significant word-of-mouth impact with interest and postings by target-relevant bloggers.”(eMarketer, 2).
Marketing website for 110% Audi
The website seems to have tremendous scope and a great future. Besides the predictions for the future being good for model, the current business scenario for 110% Audi also looks impressive. Therefore, the company should not only create an online shopping portal for customers to make purchases online but also it should strive to improve the online shopping experience of customers, as there is a lot of competition in retail marketing. For company website to be successful, it should comply with certain requirements of doing a highly successful online retail business. For example, branding, advertising and public Relations, a highly efficient search engine for marketing, uploading the latest photographs of the products, testing functional aspects of the site, a very robust check out process, checking out gift wraps, checking out shipping and box stuffers etc. The advantages of marketing website are low capital investment, contact information offered by customers and a global market space. The disadvantages are problems in shipping, costly shipping, doubt and fears, no physical view of the product, harmful programs, absence of the shopping experience.
Segmenting the Target Market
Europe is a growing economy, which is now playing a significant role on the overall world economy. The Europe is financially stable, which means that the cars cannot be differentiated over the price at all. However, the European market still has key market segments, which can easily be differentiated form, the other.
The first segment includes those who are aware of the rising fuel prices and the global carbon emissions. Thus, they seek cars, which are not only economical in giving better mileage, but they also give out very low carbon emissions. For them, the most important factor is the car making them go from one place to another, but at the same time, the car should be economical. These people do not need power or torque from the car, and obviously, are in no need for the cars to go to higher speeds.
The second market segment includes those who are conscious of their cars. They prefer cars as a luxury, which should have all things such as air conditioning, radio, mp3 player, leather seats and good styling. They do not care about the car’s fuel consumption or the emissions it is giving out.
The third market segment is those who see the car as a status symbol. For them, everything should be top notch, and should be able to make the cars stand out from the competitors. The quality of the materials used should be high, as they are paying a high price for it. Moreover, this market segment, if provided with the right product will buy it without thinking about any other factor.
Company’s Purpose and Implementation Plan
Audi is set out to make itself a global brand, which can be recognized by the global audience. In this regard, Europe is serving to be a great market which, when captured, would be able to give access to the other parts of the world. Thus, the existence of 110% Audi in Europe is very essential for its long time strategic goal.
For 110% Audi, the implementation of the marketing plan is very essential. The company must make sure that while advertising, it must maintain the same message across the channels.
Conclusion
In order to make sure that 110% Audi is one of the biggest market shares in Europe, the advertising strategy should be very effective. This can only be done if the company is able to segment the market effectively and then position its products as needed by the European market. Moreover, the objectives planned should be reasonable and within the reach of the company.
Works Cited
Chernev, Alexander., & Kotler, Philip. Strategic Marketing Management. New York: Brightstar Media, Inc, 2009.
eMarketer. Digital Intelligence. Kraft Transforms Digital Marketing into Shopper Marketing at Retail. eMarketer. 2010. Web.
Grosse, Robert. Thunderbird on global business strategy. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2000.
Grunert, Jeanne. Six Tips to Improve Online Sales this Holiday Internet Retail Tips to Make More Money. 2008. Web.
Isidro, Isabel. 10 Opportunities for Retail Innovation. 2005. Web.
Kotler, Philip. Marketing management. Toronto: Pearson Education, 2001.
Kotler, Philip., & Armstrong, Gary. Principles of Marketing. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2009.
Kotler, Philip., & Keller, Kevi. Marketing Management. New York: Prentice Hall, 2008.
Melissa. Online Retail Marketing. 2009. Web.
Segel, Rick. Create a Powerful Online Shopping Experience Using Website Personas. 2010. Web.