Integrated Marketing Communication Plan Management

Question: Discuss about the Integrated Marketing Communication Plan Management. Answer: Introduction: Over the past few decades, the clothing industry has been experiencing the robust growth due to the huge demand in both domestic and international market. The fashion industry has been changing its trends every day (Yeshin 2012). Consequently, the organizations dealing with the clothing industry need to follow the current trend for upholding the growth in the business. Without implementing innovative strategic approaches, the clothing companies would not be able to compete in the global market (Barker 2013). In this context, as an integrated marketing manager, I will discuss the integrated marketing plan of starting clothing company named Blush Boutique. The company is going to start up as the partnership based business. The particular business is a start-up establishment, which will be dealing with clothing for both men and women. By discussing the range of products of the company, it can be assessed that the organization will include the diverse products for enhancing the business within a short timeframe. As n integrated marketing manager, I can assess that the company will focus on the youth garments. The particular company will tailor the inventory process for meeting up the specific needs of the clients. Products: In the men section, the company will have the products such as T-shirt, Jeans, Formal Clothes, Party wear, under garments, etc. on the other hand, the organization will also include a wide range of female clothing. Besides this, the organization will also focus on the kid's department by including a diverse range of clothes. Blush Boutique also focuses on the style, color, and size of the products so that the clients prefer this particular brand repeatedly. Objectives: The Prime objective of the company is to enhance the sales by 10% within its 1st quarter. As an integrated manager of the company, I can assess that the particular organization will focus on spreading the products information to the large domestic areas. Without adopting unique strategic approaches, the organization would not be able to compete with the existing organizations in the market (Shimp and Andrews 2012). Aside this, the company is aiming at the establishment of an enhanced reputation in the domestic market. Moreover, the company will try to raise product awareness to 60 percent of the targeted customer market. The management of the organization has also discussed the fact that the company will focus on achieving a profit margin of 50%. The objectives can be summarized through below provided points. To enhance the sales of the business by 10% within 1st quarter To improve the profit margin up to 50% within the 1st year To raise the product awareness to 60% of the targeted customer Target audience segment analysis: Blush Boutique is a retail clothing organization including wide range of products for men, women, and kids. According to the management of the organization, youths are the prime target of the company. The company will focus on the current market trends so that they could easily understand the youths fashion demand. However, the organization will also include a range of products for the older audience. For instance, the company will also focus on female baby boomers. Hence, Blush Boutique would expect a particular section of the products to catch on the older generation. The company will segregate the products into different sections including festival wear, party wear, casual wear and formal wear. Moreover, each product section will be divided into two sections including youth and older collections. As discussed earlier that the company will focus on youth customers, Blush Boutique will manage to uphold a decent pricing policy. The management has discussed the fact that the high pric ing of the products may create challenges for them in engaging the youth customers. Beside this, at the initial stage, the company would not be able to enhance the business opportunities without offering high discount and low pricing. Communication objectives: As a start-up venture, Blush Boutique has several communication objectives including developing brand awareness, promoting products and services, influence the consumer attitudes, influence the buying intention, developing the product image, etc. (Blakeman 2014). In this context, some of these advertising objectives will be highlighted. Brand awareness: Brand awareness is one of the major parts of the business, as it facilitates the organization to enhance their trade opportunities in an efficient manner (Kotler et al. 2015). Blush Boutique will be facing high challenges from the existing companies. By enhancing the brand awareness program, the company would be able to spread their product knowledge to the large domestic areas (Thorson and Moore 2013). Without improving the brand awareness program, Blush Boutique would not be able to enhance the customer loyalty in an effective manner. On the other hand, the brand awareness would facilitate the organization in retargeting the audience of the business (Kim and Ko 2012). Promoting products and services: One of the major communication objectives of Blush Boutique is to promote the products and services in the large domestic marketplace. As a new venture, Blush Boutique will face huge challenges in enhancing the sales activities. As an integrated manager, I can identify the fact that the particular organization would not be able to improve the sales within small timeline without implementing the effective promotional strategies in the business. Blush Boutique will focus on delivering the high quality and unique range of products at an affordable cost. Hence, this particular services of the organization need to be promoted in an effective manner for the enhancement of the sales revenues within a certain timeframe. Influence the target audience: The prime objective of advertisement is to influence the audience for having the enhanced product experience. In this context, Blush Boutique will focus on targeting the youth audience for enhancing the business opportunities in an effective manner. According to the management, their high quality products and low pricing system would facilitate them in influencing the new customers to have the product experience. The organization will utilize the standard marketing strategies for influencing the audience of the business. Although the company has included the low pricing policy, they should focus on the product quality along with its availability to the customer. A wide range of unique product collection would facilitate Blush Boutique to target youth audience as well as middle age people. Creative advertisement style: In the recent years, most of the organizations focus on developing the creative the advertisement strategies in order to obtain profitable outcome out of the business (Parente and Strausbaugh-Hutchinson 2014). In this context, the organization called Blush Boutique would utilize the popular face of the fashion industry in order to promote the brand into the domestic market. However, the organization will try to consider the ethics of the business. For instance, the organization will provide all information about the product to the selected promotional face (Percy 2014). As the business will focus on engaging the youth, the promotional face may be from the sports background. Consequently, it would facilitate the Blush Boutique in attracting the youth audiences in an efficient manner. The prime communication objective of the organization is to enhance the sales by 10% within the 1st quarter. Hence, it can be identified that the company needs to implement enhanced advertising strategies in order to obtain profitable outcome out of the business. Besides this, the organization would be able to engage the youth customers by hiring the sports model for the promotional activities. Development of the media plan: Nowadays, advertisement strategies are the integral parts of the business, as it facilitates the organization in enhancing the business opportunities in an efficient manner (Black 2013). By discussing advertisement strategies in business, different business tools can be highlighted including search engine optimization, frequency card programs, inquiry follow-up method, and online video promotion (Castronovo and Huang 2012). On the other hand, the different promotional strategies such as contest, social media promotion, customer referral incentive program, end cap marketing, digital media and printing media facilitate the new and existing organizations in spreading the products and services related information to the large marketplace (Lusch and Vargo 2014). Social media and online video promotion: As a new business, Blush Boutique needs to penetrate the product promotion for enhancing the sales activities within short timeframe. After the invention of social media, most of the small and medium organizations have been successfully promoting their products to the large domestic market and even in the foreign marketplace (Schultz, Patti and Kitchen 2013). Hence, the particular organization named Blush Boutique will utilize the power of social media for promoting their unique range of products and services to the clients. The social media websites including Facebook and Google+ provide adequate opportunities to the organizations to promote their products and services in a relaxed environment (Papasolomou and Melanthiou 2012). The social networking sites not only a cost-effective platform for the new organizations but also a potential business tool allowing the companies in spreading the product information across the global platform (Porcu, delBarrio-Garca and Kitchen 2012). Nowad ays, the social media platform indicates the integral part of the daily life activities. Hence, the engagement of the promotional activities with the social media is one of the important factors for the business enhancement process (Cornelissen 2014). In this context, the organization called Blush Boutique is a new clothing venture. For avoiding extra promotional cost, the management would focus on the social media marketing in order to promote the wide range of products and services to the large domestic areas. Besides social media promotion, online video promotion would be the best possible solution for the enhancement of the product advertisement (Reinold and Tropp 2012). Nowadays, online video streaming becomes increasingly popular due to its easy access. For instance, YouTube video promotion is one of the trendy gateways for the organizations to promote their products and services to the large marketplace (Jankovic 2012). In this context, Blush Boutique would focus on the video promotion on the online platform to spread the knowledge about the products and services within a limited timeframe. The prime target of the Blush Boutique is to engage the youth audience into the business. Consequently, social media promotions and online video promotion are the most effective process of attracting the youth audiences, as the youth customers frequently connect with the social medias including Facebook, Google+, Twitter. On the other hand, the YouTube is another platform that allows the youth customers to acquire the product information in an efficient manner. Figure: Media vehicle(s) for promotion (Source: Brunello 2013) Measurement of the IMC plan and its effectiveness: The concept of the integrated marketing depends on several factors. In this context, the organization has an objective of enhancing the sales volume of the business within small timeframe. Moreover, it can be assessed that the organization will focus on grow the sales by 10% within the 1st quarter of the business. Consequently, the organization needs to include effective promotional activities for the enhancement of the business. Being an IMC manager of the organization, I can assess that Blush Boutique needs to conduct a survey on their promotional activities. The target audience of the organization is youth. Hence, the advertising committee of the company needs to conduct a survey where youths will be asked to take participate into the process. With the engagement of this particular process, the organization will be able to identify the effectiveness of implemented advertising strategies in the business. Besides this, Blush Boutique could also evaluate the popularity of their online video advertisement for measuring the integrated marketing communication. At the initial stage, the organization would not be able to identify the outcome of the integrated marketing process due to lack of resources. Being an IMC manager of the organization, I would suggest the organization to implement an enhanced monitoring system consists of some potential members, who would be responsible for measuring the outcome of the product advertisement. On the other hand, the objective of the business is to attract the youth customers. Hence, the monitoring team would be responsible for identifying the source of sales (Shani and Chalasani 2013). Aside this, the management has discussed that they would try to improve their sales margin by the 1st quarter. Hence, the marketing team of the organization would focus on the promotional activities. The management would understand the outcome of the integrated marketin g communication through analyzing the 1st year annual report of the business. Hence, it can be assessed that the organization needs to analyze the advertising activities of the business for enhancing the trade opportunities in an efficient manner. On the other hand, the suggestion or the feedbacks of the customers would be beneficial for the company, as it allows Blush Boutique to understand the key development areas in the business. References: Barker, R., 2013. Strategic integrated communication: An alternative perspective of integrated marketing communication?.Communicatio,39(1), pp.102-121. Black, S., 2013.Practice of Public Relations. Routledge. Blakeman, R., 2014.Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to implementation. Rowman Littlefield. Brunello, A., 2013. The relationship between integrated marketing communication and brand equity.International Journal of Communication Research,3(1), p.9. Castronovo, C. and Huang, L., 2012. Social media in an alternative marketing communication model.Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness,6(1), p.117. Cornelissen, J., 2014.Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage. Jankovic, M., 2012. 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