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Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Plan

Let’s Begin…

When one looks at Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), one should see more than “advertising.” An IMC approach is where the marketer truly recognizes the importance of creating that “one, clear, consistent” message that most effectively delivers the vital message that communicates to the target market.

The marketer wants to MEASURE how effectively that MESSAGE is recalled and remembered by the target audience. Remember this sentence – it is key to your IMC Plan that you will develop and submit in Week SEVEN.

When one looks at the PROMOTION “P” (also called the COMMUNICATION “C”), there are several components from which the marketer selects to communicate their message. Along with advertising, the marketer also blends – as appropriate – the elements of public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, and personal selling. Each of these promotional tools helps to communicate and reinforce that IMC message.

Thus, you need an IMC message. It should be short and punchy… and create ‘rememberability’ in the mind of target market. Some even call it “positioning,” a situation in which the BRAND means ‘something’ in the consumer’s mind. Many of the slogans that you see advertised are, in fact, the IMC message of that company.

Below, the instructor ‘walks you through’ key content information that will help you craft that effective IMC message and an IMC Plan that supports a marketing BRAND initiative.

It is important to realize that you are NOT creating a Marketing Plan – rather, you are focused on what would be a sub-set of that Marketing Plan, i.e., the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Plan.

OBJECTIVES of your IMC Plan Course Project

The first task is to determine a product or service for which your IMC Plan will be created. At the end of Week ONE, you will have submitted via the Dropbox your first assignment, using the template found in DOC SHARING. Here you will let your instructor know what you have chosen. Your instructor will reply back within 48 hours – if not sooner – to let each class member know of his support for your topic or, in a few cases, a suggestion to revisit your topic and to choose an alternative.

Once that support has been provided by your instructor, you are ready to begin the serious work of developing your Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Plan.

Key Things to Consider…

It is important to your instructor that you not look at your IMC Plan course project as ‘busy work’. For this reason, select a product or a service about which you have passion and interest. Because you will be living and sleeping with this IMC Plan for the next several weeks, your instructor wants this to be a positive learning experience for you.

The first step is to select a product or service. It could be a product or service that you would like to bring to market. Yes, become an entrepreneur! It might be an IMC Plan for a local retail store in your town that needs a marketing boost. You may be aware of a retail store that you personally like, but it is your feeling that no one really knows the brand or the value that this local retailer offers – how might your IMC Plan help this retail store?

I do not encourage your taking an existing brand, e.g., Apple iPod, and doing an IMC Plan for this product. Apple already has such an IMC Plan and the time required to create one – were you to attempt this – would take you well beyond this course, time-wise.

The instructor recommends that you do NOT take on a nationally-focused IMC Plan. Instead, focus on a specific metropolitan area of your choosing, e.g., Atlanta. The thinking is this – your IMC Plan for Atlanta would be transportable to other metropolitan areas (with some tweaks, of course). You select the metropolitan area, e.g., Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, etc.

This IMC Plan is YOUR plan -- demonstrate that of which you are made. Run with something “from scratch”.

Use the brand analysis document to gain an understanding of your selected brand. Work on gathering data, and map out your ideas for the Week 4 deliverable, the Course Project outline. The outline should help you determine what you know and where gaps still exist. This document will guide you through to successful completion.

The Week ONE LECTURE is your friend here. Read it carefully and ensure you are comprehending what is shared (and not just ‘reading it’ because you have to do so).

Your Deliverables

Your IMC Plan Course Project topic selection is due at the end of Week ONE.

Your Course Project Draft for your IMC Plan is due at the end of Week FOUR.

Your final report, i.e., the FINAL Draft of your IMC Plan, is due at the end of Week SEVEN. It should be about 10–15 pages. Please use the APA format for your paper and references. Keep in mind that you should use a professional writing style. This should be based on business English, and involve the correct use of marketing terminology. Use tables to summarize your information.

Your IMC PowerPoint Presentation, including notes underneath each PPT slide, is due on Saturday (not Sunday) of Week EIGHT. This will be 10-15 PowerPoint Slides. You will not actually GIVE a presentation to your instructor that is based on your IMC Plan; rather, you will prepare the presentation as if you were going to actually present your IMC Plan. Pretend that you were preparing a PowerPoint presentation for a colleague to give in your place – including slides and narrative NOTES on which they might draw content to “talk to” your PPT slides. The NOTES are a key part of your evaluation – do not skimp here.

A professional PowerPoint presentation in marketing should be based on good quality content; your slides should be clear and compelling. It is important to engage your audience and convey all of the important points that you have developed in your written report. Please include the artwork that you have developed; this is what your audience will want to see.

A separate document that is available to you in DOC SHARING shares great ideas for making a professionally-appearing PowerPoint set of slides. Your evaluation, in part, will reflect how effectively you have embraced this learning tool via your PPT slides

A report is more likely to be implemented effectively if it is brief, but sufficiently detailed, clear, and relevant. Remember to experiment with the demand metric tools that are included in the Week 6 Lecture; these may give you some ideas for organizing your campaign.

For each of your communications strategy plans, you should identify a specific objective, a media strategy, a media plan, and a budget. Research will involve contacting media to learn the actual cost to utilize the media that you have selected, e.g., Parents Magazine, WMMR-FM radio, etc. You may find a media kit is sometimes available to you on the web. Do not wait until the last minute to research this. You will get burned if you do. Start your research on your media budget at least three weeks before your IMC Plan is due.

You are asked to provide the five typical elements that form the communications strategy mix. Marketers must think about how they need to match competitors or provide novelty, you may want to substitute a campaign for something different—check this out with your professor.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary is a SUMMARY of your entire IMC Plan that is presented as an Abstract of the IMC Plan. It lets the reader know what the gist of specific information that they will find on the following pages.

For this reason, you can’t write it until you have completed your IMC Plan. As your IMC Plan is a "work in progress" and the Executive Summary is a synopsis of all of the sections and a general overview of key facts that follow, you would not want to insert your Executive Summary until Week SEVEN… and place it at the very front of your IMC Plan.

The last time you went to the movies and just before you saw the main feature, you were likely exposed to “Coming Attractions”. Movies that would be coming to the theatre shortly were featured, including the action shots, all designed to whet your appetite to want to come back and see the movie.

Of course, they had to make the movie first… and then they took abstracts from the finished product to show you the “coming attractions” snippet that you saw. That’s what an Executive Summary is -- it’s a snippet of what the reader will see when they begin to read the entire IMC Plan.

Your Executive Summary is placed at the very front of your IMC Plan.

Some things to remember, however, are that the Executive Summary should include a synopsis of the key sections that follow. A good rule of thumb: a short paragraph for each of your key sections. Some consolidation is fine. Your Executive Summary should clearly communicate what your company does, where it is located, the product and service on which your IMC Plan is based, your rationale for selecting the product/service that you did, the measurable communications goal that your IMC Plan is intended to accomplish (don’t forget this), and other key items.

In effect, it is a mini-version of your IMC Plan, and includes key factoids or information from each of the key sections on which you are being evaluated.

An Executive Summary does NOT, however, provide generalities. You do not want to be saying, “The Target Market section will describe the target market”. The reader already knows THAT! Instead, provide the gist of what the reader will find when they arrive at your Target Market section, e.g., “The Target Market will be men, ages 25-49, with four or more years of college education, with income in excess of $45K, located in Des Moines, Iowa.”

Does your Executive Summary tell the reader WHAT your IMC Plan is designed to measurably accomplish and within what window of time? IMC Plans that lack measurable goals cannot be measured for success, which means that the reader of the IMC Plan won’t know where the plan is intended to take them or what it is that needs to be accomplished. In effect, the reader will have absolutely no idea what your IMC Plan is intended to measurably accomplish. Thus, you want to list your IMC objectives, both communication objectives and marketing objectives.

Introduction

This is where you provide your approach to the entire IMC Plan. Tell the reader how you decided to select the product or service that you did and the gist of what your IMC Plan will generically share with the reader (Try not to duplicate the content of your Executive Summary). This Introduction can be written in one-half page.

IMC Objectives

These should be measurable objectives on which the success of your IMC Plan – when executed – would be based.

This would include your communications objective in which you determine the percentage of your target audience that – via marketing research once the IMC Plan has been executed and completed – tells you that your IMC Plan was successful.

The IMC Objectives are NOT marketing objectives, e.g., increase sales from $10M to $11.5M. That increase in dollar sales would be a marketing objective

A communications objective allows the marketer to set a percentage goal by which at the end of the IMC campaign, a pre-determined percentage of the target market will be able to recall, recognize, and/or remember the message. What is the message? That’s for you to determine. What’s the percentage goal? You determine this.

Identify the brand and the principle objectives of the campaign and quantify where possible. You will have two kinds of objectives: marketing objectives and communications objectives. Examples of each will be share in the threaded discussion, but to simplify, this will be helpful.

Marketing objectives are measurable goals in number and by a date. Provide measurable objectives that your marketing efforts are designed to accomplish, e.g.,

· Increase product sales from $11.5M to 13.2M by 31 December 2017

· Gain 38% of the market share (vs. current 36% market share) by 31 August 2016

· Sell 140,000 units of our company’s three key products by 31 December 2017

· Attract 125,000 new customers by 30 June 2016

Communications objectives are measurable goals and focus specifically on communicating a message and how effectively this communication occurs. In effect, we have a MESSAGE and we want to measure the new percentage of the target market that recalls that message. An example of an IMC communications objective might be:

· Increase from 26% to 44% the percentage of our target market of women, ages 25-45, with some college education, who have children, and who reside in the greater Chicago area, including seven surrounding counties, who recall that “Tide Liquid gets out stains best” by 31 August 2016”

Recognize that if you are bringing a new product or new service to market, your audience awareness is essentially “0%”. Thus, your communications objective might be to “Increase from 0% to 30% the percentage of our target market....”

Note that we have described the target market via both demographics and geography. We have indicated a percentage of who NOW remembers the IMC message (26%) and that we WANT to have recall/remember the IMC message (44%) after the promotional campaign is over. Note, too, that we have a clearly defined date (31 August 2016) by which the IMC Plan will be completed and that marketing research can determine if we attained our 44% goal.

As you identify the brand on which your IMC Plan is based, you may set other principle objectives of the campaign and quantify these in terms of what you are hoping will be results of an effectively executed IMC Plan. You will want to clearly state which are communications objectives and which goals are marketing objectives; all should be quantifiable.

Market Analysis

Understanding the marketplace is paramount. If you are going to promote a product/service via your IMC Plan, you need to understand the world into which this promotional effort will be communicate.

In this section, you will want to demonstrate that you understand the marketplace that currently exists for your product/service, as well as your specific target market of consumer (or business, if this is the case). These are two different terms. Let’s look at each.

Marketplace

In this marketplace section, you “paint the picture” so that the reader understands the current marketplace that you wish to enter and the problem that your product/service is designed to fix or fulfill. You will need to do research to demonstrate your awareness of this marketplace.

This way, when you eventually describe your product or service that you bring to the marketplace, the reader of your IMC Plan says, “Okay, I see what the problem is. What you want to promote to the marketplace makes perfect sense.” Otherwise, we have the cart before the horse!

THEN briefly describe what it is that you want to promote to the market and that solves the problem that is not being currently addressed (or is being poorly addressed). Look at the marketplace into which you wish to enter. How would you describe this marketplace and what is the market potential in terms of the number of consumers or businesses for your product or service?

Might you project via your research the revenue potential in this marketplace? According to your research, what is the growth potential of the marketplace and the trends that you are seeing? As a marketer, why is this marketplace attractive to you?

As you look at the marketplace over the past several years:

· What significant changes have been occurring?

· What products have been marketed and which ones are current leaders?

· Why have those products been successful?

· What problems currently exist in the marketplace and for which a solution has not yet been found (or the ones currently available lack something that had they possessed that ‘something’ would have made them ideal?)

Research! Research! Research!

Target Market

If you are going to communicate a message, you need to understand your target market, and what messages to which the target market will respond. In addition, your target market needs to have a problem/concern if they are to seek a solution (what you are promoting). If the target market does not have a problem, the target market doesn’t need what you are promoting… which means that the target market likely will not be responsive to your IMC message, regardless of how ‘good’ it is.

Think about what you just read. Do you go out and buy anything for no reason at all? Of course not. You buy because you are trying to fulfill a want, need, or desire… yet, these were caused by a PROBLEM (e.g., you need a new sweater because your old one has holes where the elbows have worn through) or the desire to avoid a PROBLEM should it arise (e.g., you want automobile insurance to protect you should your car get into an accident). Consumers have PROBLEMS – marketers offer SOLUTIONS.

How would you describe your target market, using demographic, geography, psychographics, and usage segmentation variables? Demographics are popular – how would you describe your target market by – as appropriate – sex, marital status, age, income, education, and/or ethnicity (may or may not be appropriate, unless the market is one for whom the product is specifically made, e.g., hair shampoo for African-American women whose hair tends to be more coarse and that would benefit by different ingredients not normally found in some shampoos currently on the market).

If your target market is a business, how would you describe it in terms of industry(ies), NAICS codes, number of employees, annual gross revenues, location, etc.?

What’s the problem that your target market has? Do some informal research with your friends, colleagues at work, etc., who fall into your target market, as you have described it. What might your product/service provide your target market insofar as a solution?

SWOT

What are the Internal Strengths and Weaknesses, and External Opportunities and Threats?

You will want to offer a situation analysis (i.e., a S.W.O.T. analysis). A SWOT is written in bullet form (not essay), with each bullet running one to two lines at the maximum.

Any bullet over two lines is too long! Adhere to this, please!

Describe the current market situation, the opportunity you plan to address, any micro and macro environmental influences, and any relevant historical data you see as important. No FICTION. Don’t make up ‘stuff.’ A SWOT is a realistic assessment of where things stand at a given moment. Thus, there is no right or wrong answer – just truthful ones.

Your Kotler/Armstrong text provides some excellent insight. Please review these pages carefully so that you have the benefit of our author’s wisdom when you submit your SWOT Analyses for the product/service on which your IMC Plan is based.

To help you prepare a good SWOT, it is important to break down each of the SWOT elements and the product and/or service you wish to bring to market.

S.W.O.T. is an acronym for Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats. The first two (Strengths and Weaknesses) are found WITHIN the four walls of your company. The latter two items (Opportunities and Threats) are found in the macro environment in which your company operates… in effect, outside your company walls.

The purpose of a SWOT Analysis is to have YOU take a hard, realistic, candid look at your company. If YOU are going to compete, it is time to take an HONEST look at what you are about to face. Although you may think, “you’ve the greatest product since sliced bread,” that rarely is the case. Putting things on paper means that you are facing the reality of “what is.” This is not an exercise in fiction writing.

Here is a description/example of each SWOT component.

STRENGTHS – This is not a list of two dozen things that you have going for you. That you have enthusiastic employees or that they are well-trained is not a STRENGTH. As you look at what comprises a STRENGTH, it is something that you clearly bring to the table. Your competition may say, “Drat! I wish we had that… could say that… could do that!”

STRENGTHS consist of those things found within your company's “four walls.” It could be your management expertise within the industry… your financial backing… your manufacturing capability. Whatever it is, your STRENGTHS found within your company's four walls are what make you a formidable competitor. If you're lucky, you have a distinctive competency, i.e., something that no other company has!

STRENGTHS:

· Strong management experience with over 25 years in the widget industry, specifically in prototype manufacturing

· Guaranteed $4.2M financial backing from bank

· Strategic alliance with Chan Deng Enterprises (Beijing) to do manufacturing

· Patented product technology that gives company a competitive lead in the industry

· Previous success marketing two related products since 2008

WEAKNESSES – This is your “soft underbelly” at which your competition cackles with glee. It is where you are exposed. For many in our class, one weakness may be that you have no BRAND recognition – no one has ever heard of you. It could be your limited finances or that you have no line of credit with your bank. Whatever your WEAKNESSES, these are the things within your company's four walls that you need to address quickly. You're vulnerable.

If the “Weakness” that is list is something that you would be unable to control, it falls under the external macroenvironment and would be a THREAT. Some examples:

WEAKNESSES:

· Product lacks ability to interact with Apple products

· Company has no previous experience marketing this kind of product

· Dependence on external company in China for manufacturing

· Company has no brand recognition for this product

· Company lacks a financial line of credit

OPPORTUNITIES – This is where you see opportunities to grow your market, make profit, and establish a foothold. It may be where you can build upon your internal strengths to capitalize in your target market. Opportunities could be "other" target markets that you see as ripe for exploitation; it may be markets that your competition has overlooked or ignored. Tell the reader WHERE you see these opportunities.

Your OPPORTUNITIES are those business niches that you see yourself exploiting. Where can you find business that you might develop today... or tomorrow? Where can you increase your revenues were you to pursue such opportunities? What opportunity exists for your company and on which it can capitalize? Your bullets should focus on these areas in which you can grow your business and/or revenues

In effect, where is the money opportunity for you? If your bullets don’t answer this, you likely do not have a good OPPORTUNITY listed.

OPPORTUNITIES

· Expand product line to include offering of complementary services

· Create product line extension into complementary product sets

· Explore international licensing in Europe, specifically Italy and Germany

· Partner with XYZ Company to reach their online customers.

THREATS – THREATS are those things in your macroenvironment and about which you have virtually no control -- what is happening with your competition, technology, government/legal, environment, etc., that can have an unwanted effect on your business as you attempt to bring your product/service to market? You need to be aware of these… and never assume “that can’t happen to me.” It can… and they do.

A WEAKNESS (discussed above) is internal to your organization – it is something about which you CAN do something, given funding, resources, etc. Don’t confuse!

THREATS

· Recessionary economy means consumers may be unwilling to spend

· Competitive marketing from ABC and DEF companies may accelerate

· City zoning ordinance may not allow this kind of business on property

· New technology may make the product obsolete

Positioning

How do you want your company and its product “positioned” in the mind of your target market? Were we to approach individuals within that target market and mention to them your product or service and ask them, “What do you think of when you hear the brand name of XYZ?” what would you want them to say?

That’s the positioning that you want for your product or service in their mind.