Individual assignment BUAD 6200

Individual Project (150 points)

General Guidelines for Integrated Marketing Communications Project Your project for this class should follow the proposed generic framework, with some modifications accepted, based on the specifics of your client. Part I. Strategic Plan

A. Background: describe the business you have selected as your integrated marketing communications client (it can be an existing local company with a need to redesign or crate from scratch an integrated marketing communications campaign, or a completely new start-up idea that you want to promote):

1. What industry it represents, what is its current status in terms of market share, income, growth trends, etc. If available, please provide concrete numbers (sales, revenues, profit, customer numbers, etc.).

2. Name its main competitors and analyze each competitor’s (including your client’s) competitive advantages and disadvantages. Include an illustrative table to drive your point.

3. Who are the current customers of the business: what are their demographics, geographic location, beliefs and opinions, lifestyles and interests? Can you identify separate segments within the target market that would react differently to different marketing activities (direct mail, broadcast advertising, social media engagement, etc.)?

4. SWOT analysis: summarize the internal strengths and weaknesses of the business, as well as the opportunities and threats it faces from the external environment (technological developments, economic and political trends, legal and socio-cultural changes, etc.)

Part II. Marketing Communications Strategy A MarCom manager must make four fundamental decisions: targeting, positioning, objective setting, and budgeting. These decisions provide the strategic foundation for the brand and guide subsequent decisions in implementing the MarCom program.

A. Targeting – The initial fundamental decision is the choice of primary, and perhaps secondary, groups of customers to whom the brand is to appeal. The targeting decision provides a clear-cut picture of the type of customers to whom the brand is most likely to appeal and who are most likely to purchase it. Targeting can be based on any combination of biographic, demographic, geographic, and psychographic characteristics. Research generally is needed to identify appropriate bases for targeting a brand’s MarCom efforts. Based on this analysis, the planner ultimately should estimate the number of consumers who comprise your target market and the proportion of those online. It is important to realize that a well-defined target market (including psychographic as well as demographic features) is critical for the selection of marketing channels and tools as well as for message-development purposes. You should also provide information on your target market internet habits in terms of shopping, price and product review research, socializing, information search behaviors, etc.

B. Positioning – Having identified the target market, a MarCom planner now can specify how a

brand is to be positioned. In other words, in this section of the plan, the challenge is to create a specific meaning for the brand vis-à-vis the positioning strategies used by competitive brands. A positioning strategy should be based on a brand’s competitive advantage with respect to specific product attributes or benefits. Because brands sometimes have no functional or utilitarian superiority over competitive offerings, oftentimes it is necessary to position brands in terms of psychological imagery.

C. Objective Setting –The campaign for a brand is undertaken to achieve a particular objective or set

of interrelated objectives. Hence, a MarCom manager must initiate a campaign by identifying what objective(s) the IM program is intended to accomplish during the campaign period. These objectives can be conceptualized in terms of achieving different levels in a hierarchy of effects. The specific objective(s) to be established for the campaign depend on a research-based determination of where

a brand is presently situated on the hierarchy and where it realistically can be expected to “climb” during the campaign period and in light of the amount of investment or budget that is to be spent on the brand. The objectives should be formulated along with the metrics proposed to evaluate their success. A MarCom campaign is created for a specified time period, which may be as short as a 13- week business quarter or for an entire year. As such, it can be conceptualized as an integrated set of marketing communications activities with planned starting and ending dates.

D. Budgeting – The budgeting and objective-setting decisions are inextricably related. The budget

amount imposes a constraint on how lofty the MarCom accomplishments for a brand might be during the campaign. At the same time, more ambitious objectives require larger budgets. It thus follows that budgeting and objective-setting are entirely interactive decisions. Because companies often set budgets using relatively straightforward procedures (e.g., investing a set percentage of anticipated revenue), the budgeting decision can be a rather simple determination, or, when more analytical budgeting processes are employed (e.g., the objective-and-task method), may require considerable research and deliberation. The budgeting decision should be based on considerations such as product category revenue prospects, competitive spending levels, financial practicalities, and so forth. Budget formulation should consider the interplay between marketing imperatives and financial obligations. In setting a budget, the planner can be very aggressive, very conservative, or somewhere in-between. Whatever strategy chosen, one must fully rationalize the chosen budget level and realize that the overall MarCom budget is a critical determination inasmuch as all other decisions will be influenced by the amount of available budget resources.

Part III. Marketing Communications Channels and Creative Decisions

A. Determining the Mixture of MarCom Tools – public relations, publicity, direct marketing, search engine marketing and optimization, advertising, email marketing, social media marketing, video and mobile marketing are some of the major tools that can be mixed to achieve campaign objectives. Determining an appropriate mixture is a complex decision that requires a combination of art and science. The mixture decision is influenced by budgetary resources, competitive activity, the type of objectives that must be achieved during the campaign, and, frankly, managerial faith in what works best. Whatever the determining factors, the mixture of MarCom tools should be continually evaluated to best accommodate current marketplace dynamics.

B. Creating Messages – The positioning strategy previously created for the brand must be

implemented in the form of a specific message execution for each marketing channel. For example, a brand of bottled water may be positioned in terms of a brand imagery that suggests that users of this brand are sexy. To implement this positioning, a humorous video might be designed to convey this notion. Alternatively, a subtle emotional message could be devised on a social media site showing users of your brand consuming the product and while doing so meeting a romantic interest. Brand managers have a variety of message execution formats at their disposal. It is critical that all MarCom tools “speak with a single voice” by employing the same consistent message in a seamless fashion.

C. Selecting Vehicles – For each MarCom channel, brand managers must select specific vehicles for

reaching the target market. For example, with online video, managers have available vehicle options including various platforms that allow video sharing (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.). In the area of search engine marketing, vehicles can be thought of as various search engine companies (Bing, Google, Yahoo, etc.). Daily deals (Groupon Living Social, etc.) and online games are also some of the available vehicle options. As always, vehicles must be selected that are best capable of reaching the target market and delivering the brand positioning message in view of available budgetary resources.

Part IV. MarCom Implementation Illustration. This part of your project consists of developing an editorial and/or marketing calendar detailing the proposed campaign steps. It should also contain examples of promotional materials developed by you to illustrate your strategic and tactical MarCom choices. Sample individual projects are provided in the Individual Project folder on the class webpage.