Assignment Sample on MG5561 International Marketing
Introduction
IMC is the method by which companies specify their marketing communication strategies, which tend to communicate with their consumer regarding specific product details. It enables companies to enhance their brand image in the competitive marketplace. This study will highlight the topic of marketing communication and the environment of business. Hence, part A of the study will be focused on the IMC’’s role in the international market and its benefit to enhance brand image. Whereas, part B of the study will be highlighting the information about a country’s environment when developing a communication campaign for an international company.
Part A
Role of IMC in international marketing
The term IMC is also known as Integrated marketing communication in the world of business (Duralia, 2018). The method of IMC is a vital aspect in the international market place, which helps to ensure that all the communication processes followed by a company are linked or have been integrated together. The role of IMC is to ensure and provide companies with relevant nodes to integrate all the marketing or promotional strategies so that they can work effectively in the international marketplace. In recent years, it has been seen that technology and social media have had a major impact on the role of developing companies in the international market (Valos et al. 2017). On the other hand, it is a vital step for an international company to provide a clear and consistent promotional message to their consumer about their desired product to have a better understanding of the consumers’ needs. Thus, the major role that IMC plays in the international market is to increase brand image and portray their product to a larger group of consumers. Whereas, the method of IMC is a game-changer for smaller businesses in the international market (Blakeman, 2018). By using this strategy initially, the company will avoid the necessity to rework a sluggish marketing program in the future, resulting in cost savings. Even it will help them in not wasting as much effort on maintaining it if they have established a good IMC strategy.
For enterprises all throughout the world, IMC may provide a significant competitive edge. This may help businesses increase sales and profits while saving money and time for the company (Nankali et al. 2020). Hence, the process of integrated marketing has proven to be more beneficial by combining both traditional marketing and modern marketing, which ensures the best results for the marketing of the company. Although, IMC is based on the company marketing welfare it has also been seen that it has a beneficial effect on the consumers’ point of view. It enables good communication among the company and the consumer, which intends to help the consumer to move through various stages of the buying process with their product specifications (Ngamsutti et al. 2018). Hence, it is a successful way of building trust and good business relations with the consumers, which creates a positive reputation of the company in the marketplace. Hence, this bond between companies and their consumers helps them to ensure a successful position in the marketplace with the presence of other competitors. Keeping a client is a significant advantage in the competitive market, particularly when they intend to be a permanent consumer (Bormane, 2018).
Utilising IMC to maintain these consumers can open up more opportunities for them to be engaged, be conscious, and buy products based on their needs. It takes an amount of time for the company so that they can create a productive IMC for the welfare and longevity of the company. It is important for international businesses to implement IMC to earn profit and increase brand image in the market. As per the consumers’ point of view, it has been seen that there has been an adequate demand for companies who implement this method in their business (Valos et al. 2017). Thus, IMC helps companies to create a brand image, increase sale ratio and enhance their financial revenues.
Importance of IMC and the ways an effective IMC leads to the success of marketing in the international market
Integrated marketing strategy serves as an extensively important area for every sector of business, which assists in diversified ways in order to benefit the companies. The foremost thing which marketing does is that it helps to boost the sales of the company (Zhang, 2018). Marketing is referred as crucial, which is leveraged in order to communicate information to the consumer regarding the products and their benefits by the companies. Marketing assists in acknowledging people regarding the differentiated products that the company is offering and along with that related associate such as ingredients used in the product, which could benefit the consumers in several manners and other (Marušić, 2019). Specifically, the more informed the consumers are in regards to the products and the presence of the company, the more are the chances of increasing sales. Furthermore, marketing creates the options of the revenue for the companies. In order to maximise profits, companies use different strategies, and to attain such objective the company need to decrease the cost of products. With the decrease in cost of products, consumers can be more prone to make purchases, which simultaneously result in increasing sales of the company by increasing the numbers of potential buyers (Ngamsutti et al. 2018). Whereas, another way for gaining market presence and increase revenue is through media promotions and advertisements, which would acknowledge the consumers of the presence of the company and their associated products.
Furthermore, integrated marketing strategy assists phenomenally in building and increasing the reputation of the brand in a densely populated market. However, companies need to consider high emphasis on the quality and usefulness of the products, which would further facilitate in the success of marketing. By providing an extensively quality product, the reputation for the product would be enhanced along with the brand of the company (Ngamsutti et al. 2018). Additionally, marketing facilitates enhanced decision-making of the companies. While getting expert opinion of marketing specialists, a company would want to leverage every possible element in order to boost the sales. This mainly starts from knowing the consumers, analysing the market, analysing the trends to decide which products would have best sales marking according to the analysis or research of the market (Morgan et al. 2019). Different taglines and others can be used which would fit the purpose that the company is trying to convey to the consumers to attract and boost sales. Therefore, IMC can be extensively important in order to decide the areas, which turn out to be the best for the company and the people for the ultimate success in the market.
International markets have a vast option for thriving with different opportunities and a variety of options and ideas for products. Every company wants to expand its presence in the international market after the saturation point has been reached in the home country and in order to do that, companies need to employ various marketing strategies, which would be helpful in fulfilling the objective of the companies. Primarily, the use of the internet has become a potential key for all the companies. As the world has been witnessed to be pondering in the social media sites for around 142 minutes per day in the year of 2019 which has further increased to 145 minutes per day in 2020 (Statista, 2021).
Figure 1: Increase in the number of social media users
(Source: Knowledge for policy, 2018)
From the above figure, the growth of social media users can be identified over the years. Therefore, the use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others can be used extensively in order to expand the presence of the brand in the international markets. Adding to that, celebrities can be approached for the purpose of endorsements, which would excessively drive the urge of people into making purchases.
PART B
Elements of a successful marketing campaign
Integrated marketing communication strategies are based on various factors and there are certain elements that determine its success. It is essential for every organisation to identify the specific elements that are elements to their marketing communication strategy and adopt methods that can help them to utilise existing resources in terms of developing their own strategy (Ilankoon et al. 2021).
Targeting
Targeting is the most important element of IMC and this includes the identification of the target consumers to whom the company is willing to sell their products. In order to identify the target customers, organisations often develop consumer profiles based upon their behaviour and purchasing pattern (Bormane, 2018). Hence, the demands in the market are identified based on the changes in the communication strategies that are done so that they can cater to the requirements of customers. For Instance, the target customers of Nike are within the age group of 15 to 40; therefore, the market communication strategy needs to be developed in a manner that can attract consumers from this age group. Moreover, it is also essential for organisations in the present generation to ensure that their communication strategy is applicable for both men and women else, they might fail to attract specific demographics present in the market (Vollero et al. 2019). While selecting of appropriate target customers for IMC, an organisation need to develop long-term brand loyalty essential for continuous growth and development in highly competitive markets.
Delivery method
The delivery method of IMC is another major concern for market, when it comes to the development of successful marketing campaigns. Formulating the most effective delivery method can be digital platforms where millions of customers are present at once and social media platforms are one of the most effective ways to deliver IMC (Kembau et al. 2019). Companies are expanding their presence on various social media platforms that have not only helped them in gaining visibility and have increased their engagement rate with their target customers. A higher engagement rate with the target customers ensures that the IMC of a company would be effectively delivered. Moreover, delivery methods also include national communication channels such as television, newspapers, radio, billboards, and others (ZD et al. 2020). However, in the present generation, social media marketing has become one of the ways to deliver market communication strategies that would specifically focus their expansion on social media platforms
Content of the campaign
The content of the campaign is equally important as the product the company sells. The organisation needs to develop engaging content so that the target consumers can be attracted to the products specifically sold by the company (Corkindale et al. 2021). Achieving a higher engagement rate is essential for the organisation on their marketing campaign and this can only be done with the help of effective content. If the content of the IMC is not attractive or fails to attract the customers’ attention then the entire IMC can feel leading to financial losses as well as a decline in the company’s ability to attract their potential customers.
Promotion
Promotion is another important element of IMC, which allows an organisation to promote their communication strategy on various platforms and channels (Butkouskaya et al. 2021). In terms of promoting, the company can either provide offers to customers as a part of their IMC or can utilise social media channels as well as advertisements on traditional platforms to create awareness among the target customers. Moreover, the utilisation of promotion requires a substantial amount of financial resources; therefore, it would be necessary for the organisation to measure the risks that are linked to their promotional strategy as well as the return on investment that can be achieved. For instance, global corporations such as Nike, Puma, Adidas, and others invest several billion in their IMC and promotional strategy, which allows them to recover these investments through sales and consumer engagement (Liu and Tu, 2020). Promotional strategies are also linked with the overall value proposition that the company can offer to the customers and this determines the ability of the company to attract and retain new consumers in the market. The value proposition is not attractive and consumers do not find value in the products and services that the company is willing to sell and there are chances that the organisation would not achieve their desired amount of sales (Anabila, 2020).
Budget
The budget of the IMC is another matter of concern for an organisation as this determines how expansive the entire IMC would be. The budget of the entire IMC determines the number of resources that are available at the companies and which can be utilised to achieve the goals and objectives of the market communication strategy. If the budget of the IMC is higher, than the company would be able to analyse their IMC on various traditional and digital marketing channels as well as follow up with a promotional campaign. Therefore, it can be determined that the higher the budget the more effective IMC can be achieved which is essential for marketers to understand regarding the budget of their IMC (Sibinovski et al. 2021).
Analysis of a country’s environment for IMC development
In order to successfully initiate IMC, it becomes essential for an organisation to properly assess the external market environment. The country’s external environment includes both macro and micro environmental factors where aspects such as a political environment the social-economic context and technological advancements play a major role.
Political
Developing an IMC is essential for the organisation to analyse, identify, and evaluate the political environment of the country. Countries like China that have a highly bureaucratic government can create issues in terms of developing an independent IMC. Organisations that operate in the markets of China are under strict observation under the Chinese government censorship due to which companies are not able to freely develop advertising campaigns (Muhammedrisaevna et al. 2020).
Social
In terms of social factors, it can be stated that consumer behaviour in a particular market plays a major role in determining the changes and development necessary to be created in the IMC of a company. Several cultural issues are there that companies need to take into consideration while developing their IMC for a particular country and its social-economic context (Goncharova et al. 2019). Being culturally aware certainly allows an organisation to effectively develop an IMC that caters to the satisfaction levels of consumers, which can help in increasing engagement thereby allowing the organisation to achieve their targets.
Technological
The technological infrastructure and technological advancements in a particular market is another important part of a country’s external environment. Countries that do not have technological advanced infrastructure are unable to provide opportunities to companies in utilising advanced IMC. For instance, countries like Somalia and other African Nations that have underdeveloped internet infrastructure would not allow global corporations to utilise social media marketing as an effective channel for their IMC. For instance, countries, organisations need to depend upon traditional marketing channels, which are not cost-effective in the present generation and might not yield the desired results (Pavenkov and Rubtcova, 2019). Similarly, countries that have highly advanced technological infrastructure can reduce the overall investment and cost linked with the development and propagation of IMC. Similarly, advanced technology also allows organisations to utilise current technologies such as blockchain, big data, and other tools to effectively improve the efficiency of their IMC in terms of reaching the target customers.
Ways to develop an appropriate communication campaign leading to greater success of marketing
An effective strategy of marketing assists extensively in order to define realistic, measurable, and clear marketing objectives for a smooth flow of business operation. Along with that, it helps in increasing the efficiency and profitability of the company. A well-developed marketing strategy can facilitate a business to get a clear understanding of the goal and allow it to focus on the areas in order to reach the target consumers. The primary objective of creating an appropriate communication campaign in order to lead the company towards a greater success is to identify long-term goals of the business (Business Queensland, 2021). Different diversified companies have different goals such as inclination towards selling products in order to maximise products, increasing awareness regarding the services and products of the business, reaching a new segment of consumer and others.
Several companies use different marketing strategies as per their need in order to expand in the home and international market. For instance, Nike is an American multinational corporation, which operates business in the genre of designing, manufacturing, and worldwide sales and marketing for footwear, accessories, apparels, and others. The core marketing strategy of Nike is to sell touching stores rather than amazing products. Skills of storytelling are extensively used in formulating a marketing strategy in order to become different in the pool of companies operating in the same industry, in order to create a sense of belongingness in the people and to complete a mission (Zhang, 2018).
Figure 2: Growth of Nike since 2005
(Source: Statista, 2021)
From the above figure, the growth of Nike can be identified leveraging several marketing strategies. Another marketing strategy is to leverage the use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others in order to reach customers. Adding to that, endorsements of the brand can be done through collaborating with the high-profile celebrities and others, which can massively trigger the people into purchasing the product. On the other hand, digitalisation has become a key aspect of thriving in the market. Appropriate channels or mediums are used by Nike in order to facilitate a smooth and hassle-free process of online purchasing (Zhang, 2018). Designing attractive websites also plays a crucial role in attracting the attention of the consumers towards the brand along with recommendation of products to the consumers, which triggered the motive of people into making the purchases from the company.
Conclusion
From the above essay, it can be concluded that the integrated marketing strategy has an extensive role in boosting the sales of the company adding to that the brand value and the recognition can also be promoted with the appropriate use of the IMC. Different companies make use of different strategies after analysing the market and the competitors in order to fulfil the objective of the company. The primary goal could be maximising profits, which can be extensively attained through leveraging effective IMC by the companies. Adding to that, marketing enables different companies to be unique among other companies operating within the same industry belt.
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