Shift in Marketing Communications practice from advertising to IMC
Different options are available for Shape n Shake fitness for creating awareness and attracting the clients and the customers. The different IMC options that are available in this case are:
Advertising is an important media of communication that would help Shape n Shake fitness to spread the awareness about the launch of the new brand. The management needs to consider certain aspects while developing the advertising strategy for the gym. Leiss, Kline, Jhally, Botterill & Asquith (2018) commented that advertisement helps in attaining the marketing campaigns through the utilisation of different promotional methods are intended for strengthening the position of the organisation.
The advantages that Shape n Shake fitness would be obtaining from advertisement are listed below;
- The management and the advertising department of Shape n Shake fitness have full control over the messages that would be delivered to the customers (Andrews & Shimp, 2017).
- The advertisement is an active process in the creation of the brand image and goodwill in the market. It would help Shape n Shake fitness to create a significant position in the market and attract the customers (Andrews & Shimp, 2017).
- Advertisement helps in attaining responsiveness with the customers and thereby generates loyalty of the customers.
However, the advertisement has certain limitations which Shape n Shake fitness needs to be aware of, and they are listed below:
- The advertisement is a quite costly activity, and it involves an investment of tremendous amount. However, in spite of the investment, the ability to determine the effectiveness is quite hard (Jhally, 2014).
- The advertisement may also include credibility issues, and the consumer scepticism may arise.
Risselada, Verhoef & Bijmolt (2014) commented that direct marketing is the process of selling products or the services directly to the public. It helps in establishing a relationship with the customers with the help of different media such as cell phones, text messages, emails, websites and newspaper. Through direct marketing Shape n Shake fitness can directly connect with the customers and at the same time obtain a response from the customers about the services which are offered by them. The management of Shape n Shake fitness can obtain suitable benefits from the campaign which are listed below:
- Shape n Shake fitness can select the target market for the sale of the service, and in this way, it can deliver the service to the customers who need them (Faruque, Khatun & Rahman, 2016).
- Shape n Shake fitness can alter the messages and the services for the selected and the targeted group of the customers.
- Direct marketing of Shape n Shake fitness would make it easier to measure the efficiency and the benefits it had provided to the organisation.
However, direct marketing can create certain disadvantages, and they are listed below:
- The response of the customers can vary considering the approach of marketing.
- Improper campaigning can be costly and can result in inefficiency of the organisation.
Interactive and the digital marketing include the usage of the different types of media that enable the consumers to connect and interact with the modified source messages and helps them in the process of obtaining information, change images and offer responses to various questions. The interactive and the digital marketing encourage two-way communication which implies that the messages of the customers can also be obtained (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). With the use of the interactive marketing, Shape n Shake fitness can understand the needs and the wants of the customers and thereby develop strategies and respond back quickly.
The advantages that Shape n Shake fitness would obtain by using interactive and the digital marketing are listed below:
- Interactive and the digital marketing can be used for the tailoring of messages for addressing the different needs and the wants of the customers.
- The involvement level of the customers and the management are quite high, and this increases the interaction and the loyalty of the customers (Stone& Woodcock, 2014).
- This form of communication strategy helps in converting a lot of information to the customers and thereby increases the transparency.
However, Shape n Shake fitness can encounter certain disadvantages from this form of communication campaign as is listed below:
- Often developing an idea about the audience size and its assessment become difficult as Shape n Shake fitness would have a wide range of customers in different parts of the world (Kannan, 2017).
- In interactive and the digital marketing campaign, one needs to provide service to the customers for 24 hours whenever they need assistance.
Sales promotion is one of the significant elements of the promotional mix, and sales promotion makes use of media as well as non-media marketing communication for a specific and limited period for enhancing the demand of the consumers. Sales promotion is essential to increasing the attractiveness of the brand and attracting new customers and retaining the existing customers (Van Heerde & Neslin, 2017). Shape n Shake fitness can make use of sales promotion to position gym, beauty salon and gym supplies in the market and attract new customers. Offering discusses, and a special coupon to the customers can increase the loyalty of the customers and this help in creating a strong presence in the market.
Factors that underpin the successful planning, development, and monitoring of an IMC campaign
The advantages that Shape n Shake fitness would obtain from sales promotion are listed below:
- Sales promotion is an active process to attract the customers and influence them to stay in Shape n Shake fitness for a more extended period.
- Shape n Shake fitness can attract new customer by offering sales promotion and can encourage the customers to try out the new gym and the salon.
- Sales promotion is a useful e tool that would help Shape n Shake fitness to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Offers and promotions would help to attract new customers and give fierce competition to the competitors in the market (Van Heerde & Neslin, 2017).
- Even during the peak-off season and hours, Shape n Shake fitness can get hold of the customers and thereby increase the revenue and maintain the profitability.
However, Shape n Shake fitness needs to be aware of the drawbacks that sales promotion can create in the IMC Campaign and they are listed below:
- Sales promotion is costly and requires investment.
- This strategy is short-term, and hence the customer may not be loyal.
Public relation deals with the function of the management in assessing the attitudes of the public and the identification of the policies and the regulations of the organisation in addressing the interest of the individuals. Public relation helps to extend the relationship of the customers with the organisation and would help in better understanding (Theaker, 2017). Shape n Shake fitness through public relation can create goodwill in the market and create awareness among the public to use their services and products. Publicity is a critical approach that can be used by Shape n Shake fitness to build a strong presence in the market.
The advantages of the public relation are listed below:
- The messages that are spread through public relation influences the audiences that generate trust as they appear from the objective sources (Pearson, 2017).
- PR strategy would enable the Shape n Shake fitness to aim and spread the messages to the target market properly.
- When compared with the other promotional activities, public relation is much cheaper regarding cost, but it would help to Shape n Shake fitness to generate good amount lead that would increase the revenue of the organisation (Pearson, 2017).
- PR strategy would help to create a right image of Shape n Shake fitness in the market and thereby attain competitive advantage.
PR also has certain limitations which are listed below:
- In most of the cases, the market of Shape n Shake fitness would have no direct control over the message which is delivered to customers (Pearson, 2017).
- In some cases, the promotional message can turn out to be negative.
Fill & Turnbull (2016) commented that sponsorship is the process of offering financial support to the organisation, person or the activity in exchange for the brand publicity and the association. The number of the companies providing sponsorship has increased as it helps to enhance the awareness about an organisation. Shape n Shake fitness is associated with staying fit and healthy, and hence it can sponsor different sports events or health campaigns which would help to increase the goodwill of the organisation but would help in the process of growing awareness among the customers.
The advantages that Shape n Shake fitness would obtain from sponsorship are listed below:
- Sponsorship would help to increase the brand awareness of Shape n Shake fitness which implies an increased number of clients (Camilleri, 2018).
- Sponsorship would help in increasing the efficiency of Shape n Shake fitness by creating brand enhancement.
- It would also help Shape n Shake fitness to tie with other organisation and create an excellent reputation in the market.
The drawbacks of sponsorship are listed below:
- Shape n Shake fitness would have limited control over the promotion activity.
- This is quite costly as it will require an investment of funds (Camilleri, 2018).
Monitoring and evaluation help in the collection and the evaluation of the information regarding a program or project while evaluation program helps to create periodically and assessment of the organisation or the project that would be carried out by internal or external evaluators (Serrat, 2017). The development of the IMC program would create a far-reaching effect on the business of Shape n Shake fitness. Hence, it is essential to monitor and evaluate the plan to understand the impact that the IMC program would create on the customers.
The primary advantages of Monitoring and Evaluation for Shape n Shake fitness are listed below:
1. It helps to assess the effectiveness in attaining the objectives and evaluate the impact on the lives of the people.
2. Improve the process of undertaking decisions develop a better implementation plan.
Creative strategies, execution techniques, and media placement best suited to different target markets and product/service categories
3. Empowering and motivating the member of the organisation.
4. Increasing the accountability of the prime stakeholders of the organisation.
Shape n Shake fitness needs to develop useful tools and strategies for the proper evaluation and the monitoring campaign.
- Evaluating the aims and objectives: The first stage of the monitoring and evaluation is the assessment of the goals and the goals of the IMC Plan. Based on the review of the aims and objectives, it would be possible for IMC to clarify the efficiency of the activities (Wettstein & Suggs, 2016).
- Change Assumptions: The next stage includes setting the assumptions which imply that the management needs to consider the changes that Shape n Shake fitness needs to have after the implementation of IMC plan in the organisation.
- Information identification: The management of Shape n Shake fitness needs to be aware of the information that they need to collect for monitoring and evaluating the success and the failure of the plan. This would help to understand the changes and alter the perception of variation ((Wettstein & Suggs, 2016).
- Setting indicators: The management of Shape n Shake fitness needs to establish the indicators that would help to assess the failure or the efficiency of the IMC plan.
The M&E Plan ought to incorporate a presentation and a marker framework table. The display ought to quickly depict the points and goals of the program, systems used to get the information, the arranged mediations to be executed, the first suspicions hidden the intercession and the foreseen essential deterrents that may affect the undertaking (Wettstein & Suggs, 2016).
The matrix table of the monitoring and the evaluation of the IMC plan gives an outline of the task and makes a superior comprehension of the linkages of the different exercises of the venture. The marker framework ought to be created by the set destinations of the investment. To operationalise the task, every target will have various exercises detailed. Hence, Shape n Shake fitness needs to be aware of the different strategies for carrying out the proper evaluation.
References
Andrews, J. C., & Shimp, T. A. (2017). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Ontario: Nelson Education.
Camilleri, M. A. (2018). Integrated Marketing Communications. In Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product (pp. 85-103). Springer, Cham.
Faruque, S. A., Khatun, M. A., & Rahman, M. S. (2016). Modelling a direct marketing campaign on social networks.International Journal of Business Information Systems, 22(4), 422-435.
Fill, C. & Turnbull, S., (2016). Marketing Communications. Pearson Higher Ed.
Jhally, S. (2014). The codes of advertising: Fetishism and the political economy of meaning in the consumer society. London: Routledge.
Kannan, P. K. (2017). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), 22-45.
Leiss, W., Kline, S., Jhally, S., Botterill, J., & Asquith, K. (2018). Social communication in advertising. London: Routledge.
Pearson, R. (2017). Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). London: Routledge.
Risselada, H., Verhoef, P. C., & Bijmolt, T. H. (2014). Dynamic effects of social influence and direct marketing on the adoption of high-technology products. Journal of Marketing, 78(2), 52-68.
Serrat, O. (2017). The future of social marketing. Knowledge solutions (pp. 119-128). Springer, Singapore.
Stone, M. D., & Woodcock, N. D. (2014). Interactive, direct and digital marketing: A future that depends on the better use of business intelligence. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 8(1), 4-17.
Theaker, A., (2017). What are public relations?. The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit (pp. 17-27). London: Routledge.
Tiago, M. T. & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.
van Heerde, H. J., & Neslin, S. A. (2017). Sales promotion models. In Handbook of marketing decision models (pp. 13-77). Springer, Cham.
Wettstein, D., & Suggs, L. S. (2016). Is it social marketing? The benchmarks meet the social marketing indicator. Journal of Social Marketing, 6(1), 2-17.
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