Introduction
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) entails merging all promotional instruments, both old and new, to ensure that marketing messages are transmitted consistently throughout all channels to promote corporate success. Because of the move toward “omnichannel marketing,” it is critical for marketers to employ both traditional marketing media such as television and digital communication tools. Multi-channel attribution and omnichannel marketing are the essential ingredients in the creation of integrated marketing communication. It enables organizations to create a unified story for their company, regardless of whatever platform their customers use. The “GoPro be a hero campaign” stand out as one of the top marketers who utilized IMC to develop effective campaigns for its cameras (Hambrick 2019).
According to research, GoPro boasts of at least nine million subscribers on YouTube, which is surprising since brands have been facing challenges growing on YouTube. Through strategic positioning, segmentation, and Targeting, GoPro’s campaign provides a framework for evaluating IMC applications.
Success Through Segmentation, Positioning, and Targeting
Segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) is an essential tool for strategic marketing. GoPro demonstrated the application of STP to facilitate brand growth in its “be a hero” campaign for its cameras. Market segmentation is preceded by market research that enables marketers to divide their target customers into several distinct groups and plan differentiated methods to reach each of them (Camilleri 2018). GoPro segmented its market based on consumer behavior and launched a successful campaign that made everyone feel like a hero.
The success of GoPro’s market division is associated with its focus on customer-driven marketing. Many companies prefer creating content and delivering it to their customers, which does not always generate satisfactory results. Families, sports practitioners, and students, for example, use cameras for various functions. GoPro created a variety of attachments and cameras to meet their requirements (Hambrick 2019). When deciding how many and what segments to target, it is important to consider which type of consumer needs the item most. Extreme sports enthusiasts, as well as nature walkers and mountain climbers, were the primary targets.
GoPro used its customers to drive the brand’s marketing by using top influencers in different industries to showcase the quality of its cameras. In a move that has recently dominated the marketing sector, GoPro placed its customers at the frontline of content creation (Mowat 2018). This way, customers felt like heroes, and everyone would create content to showcase the GoPro’s cameras with the hope of being the company’s star. This strategy was so successful that by the end of the first year, it recorded at least $350,000 from sales (Hambrick 2019). This marketing plan saved the company some money and drove high sales and publicity for its cameras.
GoPro’s targeting phase of the marketing mix majored the product quality and pricing strategy. This compact camera is designed to be waterproof and shock-resistant, with a wide-angle lens and the ability to produce high-quality photographs (Vannini and Lindsay 2017). It is a tiny camera that fits inside a strong plastic shell protecting it from stress and the environment.
The camera cover is compatible with GoPro and third-party mounting devices. The camera’s robustness and adaptability set it apart from the competition. The most recent model has a technology called the 3D Hero System, which combines two cameras into one shell and allows the user to shoot 3D footage (Vannini and Lindsay 2017). It is also a camera that anyone can afford; the pricing plan allows anyone to “be a hero.” The small size, lightweight, and wide recording angle make the cameras ideal for every situation, a factor that further contributed to its successful campaign.
Pricing is another important aspect of the marketing mix that contributed to the great success of the “GoPro’s be a hero” campaign. A company needs to ensure that its pricing attracts and maintains many customers from all its market segments. The pricing is highly appealing, and the cameras are available online and at any GoPro store outlet. The cost ranges from as low as ÂŁ150 up to ÂŁ300.
The cameras’ prices are directly related to the high quality (Hambrick 2019). This company has a low-cost, strategic location that is convenient for consumers and suppliers. GoPro has offices in all major cities around the globe. It has also linked its products with companies such as River Wood Capital, Walt Disney, U.S. Venture Partners, and Sage view capital, making the cameras accessible to all consumers globally (Faisal 2016). The company’s strategic positioning by availing its products in major cities with high populations increased the cameras’ popularity.
Product promotion is another area that demonstrates GoPro’s successful marketing campaign. Advertising is one of the crucial methods through which a company makes its products known to its potential customers (Danaher et al. 2020). GoPro advertises itself in a very appealing way, emphasizing the output rather than the device itself. They convey the message via videos distributed on social media and their website, with no need for in-depth explanations of the camera’s functionality.
The footage, which was shot using a GoPro camera, speaks for itself. They have a partnership with Red Bull, which is a marketing strategy for the company. They also advertise it by sponsoring events, placing products in them, and endorsing them. These strategies enabled the company to reach a wide market, thereby getting satisfactory results from its marketing campaign.
With a large market, product differentiation stood as a crucial determinant in GoPro’s successful marketing campaign. The second edition cameras were designed with sports in mind; they were all priced the same, but the customer could choose between a motorsport edition, a surf edition, and an outdoor edition. Each edition was strategically fitted with pre-installed mounting components relevant to the activity (Danaher et al. 2020).
For example, the GoPro Hero3 is targeted based on price; they sell the black edition, white edition, silver edition, and black edition surf, covering a range of prices to appeal to a wide range of consumers. All of the cameras are suitable for a variety of applications and market segments. Successful product diversification gives you a leg up on the competition, an element that GoPro capitalized on and received great results.
Recommendations
GoPro stands out as a hero in the campaign strategy for its cameras. However, it needs to improve some of its gadget’s properties to stay ahead of competitors and continue to deliver value to its customers in all segments. Its IMC strategies have been successful so far, but the campaign could benefit more from an enhanced user-generated content (UGC) plan, as shown by (Monem and Hisham 2021). To facilitate UGC, GoPro could offer incentives and offers to users with the highest number of views featuring their products. This is important because a large number of views implies a wider market.
In addition to UGC, mergers and affiliations could also significantly improve the campaign. The company could partner with more companies with a high presence on social media. It would also be good to collaborate with phone companies such as apple as they have a good reputation for producing high-quality products. Timing is an essential factor that should be taken into consideration in marketing campaigns. The company could use current events such as the Olympics for advertising its products. People tend to concentrate on current issues and would learn about the cameras if they were integrated into the adverts on the news appealing to customers.
Lastly, showing more applications for the camera part from shooting videos and taking photos could improve its marketing campaign. The world is changing, and technology continues to impact lives in different ways. Therefore, there is a need to show a growth in the functionality of the camera apart from its original purpose (Park et al. 2017). For instance, the company could add the tracking functionality to help investigators and security departments. This addition would facilitate its campaign and enlarge the customer base.
Conclusion
In conclusion, from its inception to the present, GoPro has supplied a solid business strategy, and the company is rapidly expanding. The “be a hero” campaign demonstrates the importance of IMC in creating brand recognition. The use of UGC helped the company gain a wide market quickly and cut promotion costs. Strategic positioning in the highly populated areas and the use of social media also helped in the marketing campaign. The cameras were of high quality and convenient for every use, making them more popular than their competitors. However, GoPro still has a long way to go in terms of promoting its brand recognition. This could be achieved through a greater emphasis on UGC and developing fruitful cooperation with major companies globally.
References list
Camilleri, Mark Anthony. “Market Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning.” In Travel marketing, tourism economics, and the airline product, pp. 69-83. Springer, 2018.
Danaher, Peter J., Tracey S. Danaher, Michael Stanley Smith, and Ruben Loaiza-Maya. “Advertising Effectiveness for Multiple Retailer-Brands in a Multimedia and Multichannel Environment“. Journal of Marketing Research 57(3) (2020): 445-467. Web.
Faisal, Abu. “Marketing Strategies in Online/Digital Marketing.” Account and Financial Management Journal, 2016. Web.
Hambrick, Marion E. Investigating GoPro and Its Diffusion of Innovations. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals, 2019.
Monem, Abdel, and Hisham Nagy. “The Effectiveness of Advertising Personalization.” Journal of Design Sciences and Applied Arts 2, no. 1 (2021): 335-344. Web.
Mowat, Jon. Video marketing strategy: harness the power of online video to drive brand growth. Kogan Page Publishers, 2018.
Park, Min S., Andrea Brock, Vance Mortimer, Philipp Taussky, William T. Couldwell, and Edward Quigley. “Gopro Hero Cameras for the Creation of a Three-Dimensional, Educational, Neuro Interventional Video”. Journal of digital imaging 30, no. 5 (2017): 561-565. Web.
Vannini, Phillip, and Lindsay M. Stewart. “The GoPro Gaze”. cultural geographies 24, no. 1 (2017): 149-155. Web.