Apple iPhone – The world’s most powerful device

Apple iPhone – The world’s most powerful device turns 7

This is 7

Apple Inc has for the longest time earned the reputation for being innovative, with its brands and especially the iPhone. The product has evolved specifications on an almost yearly basis, since it was first released in June 2007.  Watch timeline of iPhone key features – iPhone turns 7.

 

 

 

 

Sales and Profitability

The sales of approximately 590 million units indicate that fans and followers of the innovative smartphone, not only expect but almost demand the next iPhone model release, which occurs every 12-18 months.

Apple iPhone Brand Positioning

The effectiveness of the Apple iPhone marketing campaign was due to two factors –  it introduced a new “smartphone” and targeted customers who were early adopters and influencers. The identified segment was seeking a revolutionary product which combined both internet, phone and email.  Apple Inc, was advanced in understanding its target customer and how they would be intrigued by the Apples’ new brand, the iPhone.   Apple’s  iPhone when first released was superior to its competitors eg Samsung and Nokia, with innovative features such as a touchscreen and virtual keyboard, and resulted in increased category growth in the smartphone market.

Advertising, in the form of television commercials, print ads, and online digital usually form part of the typical marketing budget.

The objective of advertising is to show the customer intended positioning of its brand and to aid consumer awareness. (Iacobucci 2013).  Apple advertising for the iPhone began primarily online through digital advertising on its website http://www.apple.com/, and in print media for example, computer technical magazines and also featured in its own, Apple Magazine.

Publicly launched  in 2007,  through television commercials, the ultimate focus was to generate sales and profitability.  It achieved this by driving growth for the smartphone market, and reached sales in its first year of 1.4 million iPhones.

In February, 2007 the first teaser advertisement for iPhone Apple “Hello” iPhone Commercial aired at the US at the Academy Awards and was then followed with four advertisements. Click below to view the first TVC for Apples iPhone. 

Goals of Advertising

Marketers need to think about the objectives of an advertising campaign and how it engages particular behaviours. A well known theory is known as AIDA – attention, interest, desire and attention.  Customers knew about Apple, but identified the brand with computers and tablets. With the introduction of the iPhone brand product, Apple expanded to other markets. It helped to raise consumer interest in a product with features and benefits, first to market. The scarcity of the product created desire, in customers needing to pre-order, and create excitement whilst they waited in line for their early purchase.

Customers queue for Apple iPhone release

In this way Apple Inc knew it captured action, with customer ‘intent to buy’.

The goal of each advertising campaign is to affect customer decision making. Iacobucci in Marketing Management (MM4) states that advertising goals should take into account cognition, affect, and behavior.

Iacobucci Marketing Management Chapter 11

Next Generation – 2016:  The new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

The iPhone brand has gone through the growth stage and could be perceived as reaching maturity as customers are loyal, and conduct repeat purchases. The user experience is positive, brand image is favourable, and the iPhone is now into its 6^th generation, with iPhone 7 due for release on September 16, 2016.  Sales have risen to almost 170 million units and a total of 590 million iPhones sold between 2007 to 2014,

View the new iPhone 7 digital campaign

New iPhone 7 features

Overall iPhone Integrated Marketing Campaign 

Promotion	Product	Place	Price
The touch points of each Apple advertising campaign, can be seen through consumers shopping in Apple stores and online.  The customer is able to touch and experience the products, and compare between different models.  The Apple store has a hub of specialists “Geniuses” with technical support and product knowledge, unlike any other retailer. Promotion: Advertising (Commercials, Magazine, Billboard), Internet and Press Releases	The use of the Apple logo is identified in by almost all consumers, and all Apple products have this logo prominently featured	The channels by which Apple iPhone is purchased online via App Store, iTunes, or apple.com. Alternatively, Apple retail stores located in malls and high end shopping centers..	High priced products give image of quality and durability

Kathy Tourgelis ID: 212243981

References:

http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/advertising-branding/apples-iphone-tv-ads-complete-campaign-143628#hello-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone

http://www.statista.com/statistics/263401/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-3rd-quarter-2007/

Iacobucci 2013, Marketing Management

Marketing can save the world!

Have you ever seen this particular panda? Of course you have! It is famous! Not only because of the cuteness of panda bears but also because of the master minds behind this particular one.

Globally recognized, this logo glorifies one of the best examples of Integrated Marketing Communications: World Wildlife Fund, best known as WWF.

This conservation organization has positioned itself globally by generating brand awareness through various types of media. The techniques utilized by WWF manage to cover every customer touchpoint, reaching large audiences in every corner of the globe.

By evaluating the strategies of WWF’s communication, we can classify their advertising as both emotional and cognitive:

• Emotional: WWF knows that the target audience cares for nature, and what better way to touch people’s sensible fibres than with cute fluffy animals in the picture!
• Cognitive: due to the nature of the causes that WWF supports, its communication is aimed at informing the audience. In general, their messages inform about two basic elements:

1. An update or background of the situation, for example: a species being on danger of extinction and why.
2. Impacts or possible ways of helping each cause, for example: natural reserve areas sustained from donations.

With that in mind, we can classify their ads as two-sided cognitive ads, because they mention the negative side of the situation. Their “products”, in origin, offer a solution for an existing problem through the fund’s initiative; hence, their communication can also be considered as drama ad.

According to Keller, the processing of any communication effort is defined by two aspects: intensity and direction, which means, the elements that draw attention and the number of effects generated on the audience, from thoughts to feelings. WWF campaigns catch the attention of the audience with mainly visual elements and informative aspects that generate intense feelings and judgement. These outcomes help to define the future outcomes of later communication efforts as well. These thoughts and feelings remain linked to the brand in the consumer’s mind, generating brand association.

WWF uses a broad variety of media to reach the market, from printed to social, as a mean to increase brand awareness and eventually, funding, which for this type of institution can be considered as the feedback provided by the receiver, due to the fact that donating represents an engagement from the receiver in the form of action-taking and is also a measurable impact of the communication effort.

One of the many techniques utilized by WWF is Direct Marketing. Through this type of media, the organization can make great use of personalized approaches to the audience. For example, back in 2002, in some European countries, WWF emailed an informative kit to the supporters of a project to protect a species of leopards that was in danger. Once the supporters would register their interest, they would receive through mail a package containing further information on the cause, along with visual elements such as pictures and factsheets.

This type of media, Direct Marketing, allows for great targeting and personalization capacity, by customizing the message according to the receiver. The power of individualized communication also reduces the breach between reach and response by controlling the stimulus and measuring the response in a faster and more accurate manner.

However, as in life in general, not always is everything nice and pretty; all the opposite, bad decisions are constantly being made in the Marketing world and it can happen even to the best, like it did to WWF.

Context: year 2009, WWF Brasil. In an attempt to generate consciousness over climate change, WWF Brasil approves a pitch from the marketing communications agency DDB Brasil. Even though the newspaper ad is not to be printed yet, it is submitted for an external advertising competition, therefore being shared outside the headquarters and eventually becoming viral. The content of the ad creates intense disturbance in the audience. Judge for yourself:

Due to the constant pressure to achieve top reach and frequency, corporations can sometimes find themselves in the risky position of trying too hard to draw people’s attention, “no-matter-what” (Belch et al. 2014, p. 183). WWF sure generated significant impact… but not a positive one. In IMC, this is considered as noise, the interference or interruption of the message at any part of the process. In this case, the noise was generated from the negative preconception in the receiver’s mind related to both catastrophic events, which damaged the message-decoding step.

We gain the most knowledge from our biggest mistakes, so what lessons can we learn from this? Based on the process of IMC, this extremely negative consequence could have been avoided by implementing a concept testing prior to sharing and before even approving the design. Also, the better positioning of the brand, the lower the impact of the downfall. With WWF having such a strong positioning, brand awareness and positive brand association, the incident was soon “forgiven” by the audience, something that would not be the same for low-recalled brands.

Georgina Pina Sevilla

ID 215469728

KNORR: VALENTINE OF FLAVOUR

As someone said love is  dark deep when you don’t see your LOVE. What IF! Love is just blind and you could taste it, AWW! Knorr the German food brand is gaining attention of date goers with its interesting campaign #Love at first sight, a filmed experiment in which strangers are matched only by flavour! Research shows that flavour compatibility is the new trend and company could create a buzz among millennial foodies, bloggers and youngsters. It’s an interactive tool for engaging the users to share their love for food on an online platform backed up an online global research project.

 

LOVE CAMPAIGN

Knorr stands for flavour and ideology is propagated all around the world. In order to engage with its customers Knorr relied focused on the integrated marketing communication by selecting the appropriate media outlets(Iacobucci 2013). To engage more customers in the campaign Knorr asked 12,000 people in 12 countries to describe what flavour means to them via a online quiz. Evidence speaks from the data proved that three in four people are attracted to someone who enjoys the same flavour.

LOVE WITH A TWIST

An experiment was conducted with twist pairing complete strangers on a SURPRISE  Date.Flavour is the slogan and yes they are matched only if they love same flavors ,discovered using the Knorr Flavour Profiler, to see if a shared passion for certain flavours would create chemistry between the couples.This tool provides consumers with a new and different way to learn more about themselves by discovering which of the 12 flavour profiles.

CUPIDS ARROW

This campaign is part of a wider drive to develop a more contemporary approach to communicate with Knorr’s consumers.Customers engaging in the social media is a sort of investments for the marketers and it also implies that social media investment is not measured in terms of the customer behaviour tied to social media applications and to grow the brand by targeting this new generation of food-obsessives who see social media as the place to share recipes, and engage in the ultimate food porn. Social media is the right integrated marketing strategy for Knor because every new chef (NOT me) shares his first master recipe in the social media with million hash tags( Hash tags are hurdle).

Kaplan defined social media as a a group of Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content’ or consumer-generated content distributed through easy-to-access online tools”. Knorr became the spicy conversation at the coffee shops with its million viewers in the soup bowl(Gulp!!!!!).

.The IMC approach used by the Knorr could be measured using various metrics. Engaging its customer in the communication process is the success factor and it involves sharing the posts of the brand and commenting or replying to a brand’s post.This campaign was solely based on the idea of  involving fun factor in the campaign and they didn’t rope in any celebrity for this campaign. The integrated marketing communication approach of Knorr is focused on the digital platform , connect Knor to its huge customer base with these mindspiring activities.

Being a  €4bn brand, Knorr utilize online media platform to connect with people because the content is shared must faster in the  social media and the  users memories the brand alive in the minds of customers.The consumers who become fan of these pages tend to follow and be loyal to the brand(Brookes 2011). Knorr has set its presence in many social media sites such as Facebook , by creating brand communities in the form of brand pages where customers can interact with a company(McAlexander, Schouten et al. 2002)

Marketers should take cues from Knorr and create a campaign that was successful in engaging the audience from different parts of the world. More innovative campaigns like being natural and promoting its products to be good for health will add next feather to Knorr Cap.

REFERENCES

Barger, V. A. and L. Labrecque (2013). “An integrated marketing communications perspective on social media metrics.” International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications, Spring.

Brookes, E. J. (2011). “The Anatomy of a Facebook Post: Study on Post Performance by Type, Day of the Week, and Time of Day.” Vitrue Inc. Retrieved.

 Hoffman, D. L. and M. Fodor (2010). “Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?” MIT Sloan Management Review52(1): 41.

Iacobucci, D. (2013). Mm4, Cengage Learning.

McAlexander, J. H., et al. (2002). “Building brand community.” Journal of marketing 66(1): 38-54.

https://www.unilever.com/brands/brand-stories/Knorr-love-at-first-taste.html

STUDENT ID: 215476679

Snickers-Stay Hungry!!!!

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) emerged in the late 20th century regarding application of consistent brand messaging across myriad marketing channels. Communication is the process of conveying thoughts and sharing the meanings among individuals or organizations which can be described as the paste that keeps combined a channel of distribution. Communication is a need which is being used to create network, spread ideas and promote the products or services.

Snickers is a chocolate bar brand made by Mars, Inc. which consists of chewy nougat topped with caramel and peanut, dipped in milk chocolate. Snickers uses a combination of traditional, promotional and digital marketing to build a strong consumer base. The campaign “You’re not you when you are hungry” worked perfect for snickers which was based on a universal assumption that hunger affects moods and abilities of a person. It incorporated the 4 Cs of integrating digital marketing which helped to grow sales by 13.4% in the first three months of the campaign and online views on Snickers increased markedly on YouTube and twitter.

• Coherence-Though executed differently across media and markets, the central theme and strap line remained the same worldwide.
• Consistency– The message was consistent across multiple regional campaigns and media which retained the effectiveness of the central proposition across markets
• Continuity– Communications are connected and remained consistent through time
• Complementary– Adherence to the previous Cs ensures that their combination will have a long-running, multi-channel, multi-million campaign.

The methods used to reach different audience in various countries was different and the challenge was to remind people why and when they can enjoy Snickers. All of us in life have irritable and bad tempered moments Snickers was best positioned with the hunger-busting solution.

“If you’re not you when you’re hungry, who are you?!”

The candy bar followed the footsteps of Coca-Cola’s personalized cans and is replacing its brand name on packaging with 21 different “symptom” of hunger-describing how the people react when they are hungry. Goofball, Drama Mama, Princess, Curmudgeon, Cranky, Irritable and Confused are among 21 different labels. The packaging will also encourage people to share photos of their bars on Facebook and Twitter with the belief that the new bar will not only satisfy their hunger but give them a fun way to call-out friends and family.

To support the new bars, online content ‘Dial-A-Snickers’ was created which allowed people to call in report their hungry friends by dialing 1-844-Hunger-Bar. Each hunger symptom was determined by the operator and that specific hunger bar was delivered via bike messenger. The idea was mainly to encourage the customers to call out their friends with a hunger bar and share using #EatASnickers and this Ad became the U.S. Ad of the week in 2015.

The previous commercials has shown the celebrity standing in for someone else in a strange context, whether Betty White playing football or Willem Dafoe playing Marilyn Monroe who is in a bad mood and someone says that they get quirky when they are hungry and offers the Snickers bar. Suddenly, the real person is in place and everything is fine. This Mars correlated mood with hunger and suggested Snickers- a delicious treat to alleviate hunger.

 

The Candy bar worked with convenience store chain 7-eleven in Australia and launched ‘Hungerithm’, a campaign which integrated social media, pricing and long-term brand positioning. The concept is built on the global creative platform, ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ and it adjusts the price of its bars in 7-eleven stores by gauging the mood of the internet where 14,000 social posts per day are monitored and analysed by the system and the bars are repriced more than 140 times a day. Also, the progress can be monitored by the consumers to lock in a price for a period of time. The entire concept reinforces the branding and marketing strategy and is an incredibly smart way of engaging people.

IMC is being used  worldwide at very large scale and form the above description conclusion can be made that if implemented properly with successful promotional integration IMC gives positive impact as brand equity, brand awareness, profitability and changing attitude of consumer.

References:

http://www.campaignbrief.com/2016/05/the-angrier-the-internet-the-c.html

http://current.effie.org/downloads/2011_5627_pdf_1.pdf

http://marketingland.com/snickers-rolls-new-hunger-bars-packaging-hunger-emergency-hotline-video-143107

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/snickers-swaps-out-its-brand-name-hunger-symptoms-painfully-honest-packaging-167061

http://journal-archieves35.webs.com/124-133.pdf

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/09/30/us-ad-week-snickers-dial-snickers

Student ID-215408752

SHOULD RUNNING BE EMPOWERING? NIKE SAYS YES!

Within the female running community, you must have heard of Adidas, Nike, Puma, Asics Reebok and many more (though these are the only ones that come to mind). Surprisingly, Nike® was not seen as a serious choice for runners within the female running community. Although Nike® had designed shoes explicitly to the specifications of women’s feet; they had not yet tapped in to the exclusive world of women as Asics® was seen as the most recommended brand for women. Nike® decided to find a way to connect with female runners and get them more involved with the brand.

SO WHAT DID THEY DO?

Nike® collaborated with the agency Razor to inquire more about the running trends among young women who were passionate about running and made a discovery. Women regarded running as an individual activity that was dominated by men. Nike® and Razor discovered that women often tend to run alone and are left to achieve their goals and overcome their fears on their own.

IDEA- STRONGER TOGETHER

 An idea was then born: to create a strong female community united by a passion for running. The thought behind this was that as a female runner, one is more powerful in a group than one could be as an individual. This would provide a forum for the women to communicate their dreams and goals and conquer their fears- not alone, but together! The relevance of this campaign was to introduce women to Nike® footwear.

STRATEGY FOR “SHE RUNS THE NIGHT”

The strategy for the campaign entailed the use of female runners who would consequently become the channel for growth and promotion of Nike within the female sector- which was a fine departure from dominated manly athlete feel of the brand one must say!

Digital communities – Nike’s aim was of starting the conversation with the help of social media for a cry for change in the way women perceive running. Chats around the barriers that women are facing were encouraged.

It was then realized that the biggest obstacle of all was –Running alone at night! Thus, the Nike® “She runs the night” campaign was launched which aimed to redefine the sport of running in the eyes of women and empowering them to change the way they train forever. It has been suggested by Schultz & Schultz (2003) that an effective integrated marketing campaign should result in long term brand awareness and sales. Results and stats show that Nike was able to fulfill these goals by launching a successful IMC campaign.

The channels utilized by Nike to effectively integrate all promotional efforts were:

• Online recruitment of inspiring female runners who were comfortable running in the dark. Their stories inspired an online short film.
• Advertising– print ads were placed in female worlds predominantly.

Nike® then announced a 13 km night race exclusively for women.

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The online film acted as a registration device that could be personalized to every runner which then could be passed on to their family and friends, celebrating all of these inspiring runners by online means, in- store, print and outdoor which inspired other women to take notice of this campaign and join the fantastic movement. This app was downloaded by 87% of young female runners.

Within a month, more than 14000 people were talking about the night run and the Facebook page garnered more than 16,000 likes.

• Nike® decided to release an app with content generated the runners in collaboration with Nike to inspire and motivate more women.

Five young women were chosen as ambassadors and their untold stories were placed on posters with QR codes on running routes, gyms and other channels. These ambassadors networked within their own university campus, clubs and societies.

NIKE OPTING TO GO FOR COLLABORATIONS?

Nike® collaborated with Cosmopolitan ® to further enhance their promotions in the form of

• A workshop on running
• Print ads in the form of editorial features exclusively on night running
• Website integration with cosmopolitan so that users can go to the race registration site on Facebook.

On race night, the community of young motivated female runners got together to run. All journeys of the runners were published via Nike’s® media and other media partners.

RESULTS?

Nike’s® “She Runs the Night” campaign was one of the most successful IMC campaigns of the year with the following stats-

98% of the digital community of women showed brand recall and awareness and positively engaged with Nike®.

A huge community of more than 60,000 young female runners was created.

More than 90% of the digital community intends to run the race this year again

Over 3,200 women on the starting line for the race

44% of female runners bought a pair of shoes upon registration

Key styles of shoes were sold out before the race – exceeding sale targets.

SO DID NIKE USE THE IMC MARKETING TECHNIQUES EFFECTIVELY?

We know that social media has become the most popular way to express consumer feedback and research products through social network sites and brand websites (Iacobucci 2013). This fantastic direct marketing approach enabled the marketing team at Nike® to interact instantly with their audience. This also helped the team to gain more ideas for the run and get marketing feedback which played a significant role in inspiring the team at Nike® to organize a run in the night.

A combination of the IMC approaches sparked a movement which inspired a powerful community to run and be more empowered. Nike® ensured that race night became a celebration for women transforming how consumers connect with brands and unleashed a powerful flourishing community.

SHOULD RUNNING BE EMPOWERING? Yes, undoubtedly it should.

REFERENCES

Best Ads on Tv 2014, Nike: Kelly QR Activated video, Best Ads on Tv, retrieved 7 September 2016, <http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/42849/Nike-Kelly-QR-Activated-video&gt;.

Duncan, TR 2002, IMC: Using advertising and promotion to build brands, McGraw-Hill Companies.

Iacobucci, D 2013, MM4, Mason, Ohio : South-Western ; Andover : Cengage Learning [distributor], [2013]

Kotler, P & Keller, KL 2012, Marketing management, Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall, c2012.

Marshall, GW & Johnston, MW 2010, Marketing management, Boston : McGraw-Hill Irwin, c2010.

Nike 2016, Nike: She Runs The Night Campaign, Nike,, retrieved 7 September 2016, <http://news.nike.com/news/she-runs-the-night-sydney&gt;.

Schultz, D & Schultz, H 2003, IMC, The next generation: Five steps for delivering value and measuring returns using marketing communication, McGraw Hill Professional.

 

 

Posted by- Aditi Sharma

Student ID-215001193

Username- aditisharma03

 

Red Bull “Gives You Wiiings”

Dietrich Mateschitz established Red Bull in Austria and brought the caffeinated drink into Hungary, its first foreign business market, in 1992. Today, Red Bull sells 4 billion cans of caffeinated beverages every year in more than 160 nations. It has turned into a multibillion-dollar brand among rivalry from drink lords like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In less than 20 years, Red Bull has turned into the energy drink market pioneer by harnessing the work of mouth and skillfully connecting with the worldwide youth (Bughin, Doogan and Jørgen Vetvik, 2010).

NO traditional advertisement simple IMC mix

Since its starting, Red Bull has utilized very less traditional promoting and no print, boards, banner advertisements, or Super Bowl spots. Red bull runs negligible TV
ads, the animated advertisement and slogan “Red Bull Gives You Wiiings” are intended to delight its young group of consumers and bond with them in a non-traditional manner.

IMC- integrated marketing communications as defined by American Marketing Association is as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.”(Kotler, 2012).

With daily advances in technology and with new and wide range of audience and communication tools it has become necessary for the companies to move towards IMC. Companies must obtain a 360-degree view of the consumers so they can understand carious communications that can affect the behavior of the consumer in daily life

Do it Differently with ONE product

From the start to years Red Bull offered only one item, Red Bull Energy Drink, in one size—a smooth silver 250 ml. (8.3 oz.) can with an European look a. its ingredients makes it highly caffeinated and energizing so fans have called it “speed in a can” and “liquid cocaine. The IMC mix of the company has been really successful as it was able to create an entire new segment of energy drink. Since Red bull does not uses traditional media it creates hype about its products by using viral marketing tactics. It starts with targeting trendy shops, bars and clubs the rationale for this given by a Red Bull executive was that this way the products gets a lot of attention and visibility moreover people are open to new things in clubs (Farris, 2008). After the product has gained some pace it moves to stores which are near gyms and colleges so that they can target their segment of young males and females of aged 16 to 29 years. They are also known to distribute free cases of Red Bull and boost them to throw party and finally they make their product available at restaurants and supermarkets.

Viral and extreme!!

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Targeting opinion leaders is the preliminary step in company’s marketing which focus on to build authenticity and community. So, to achieve this company provides free drinks to sports competitions and to young individuals in college campuses who look like they need energetic drink. Red bull is a leading sports entrepreneurial brand. It has been associated with various extreme sports, events and athletes (Gorse, Chadwick and Burton, 2010). The limit of craziness of Red bull event is yet to be decided. It aligns with almost every extreme event ranging from dancing to sailing, snowboarding, mountain biking and motor sports

 “Wiiings”

To stay true to the brands slogan “Red Bull gives you wings” company organizes an event known as “FLUGTAG”

 

 

This kind of an event represents a unique integrated market communication in which participation of the consumer helps to develop a positive brand identity. It also helps the marketers to have a sound understanding of what a customer seeks to benefit from the product and event (Wohlfeil and Whelan, 2006). At the Flugtag the participants make their own flying machines which should not be more than 10 meters in size and weighs approximately around 200 kilogram which includes the weight of the pilot also. This homemade aircraft is then launched from a designed Red Bull ramp which launches the machine 30ft above water. A gathering of approximately 300,000 young consumers can be seen on this event that applaud for the planes and enjoy the vibe of the event.

Another such extreme annual event sponsored by the company is Red Bull Air Race in which pilots fly a plane with wingspan of 26ft at the speed of 230mph through a gap of 33 ft.

Company utilizes its IMC mix network to promote its brand equity. After targeting the segments through various channels and promoting positive brand image Red Bull website helps to provide consumers with videos, interviews and how to find new and net events. The company’s mission to be different and rebellious aligns with the IMC strategy which has helped them to connect with its young consumers.

 

References

 

Bughin, J., Doogan, J. and Jørgen Vetvik, O. (2010). A new way to measure word-ofmouth marketing. McKinsey Quarterly.

Kotler, K. (2012). Marketing Management. Pearson Education Limited.

Farris, P. (2008). Red Bull. University of Virginia.

Gorse, S., Chadwick, S. and Burton, N. (2010). Entrepreneurship through sports marketing: A case analysis of Red Bull in sport. Journal of Sponsorship, 3(4).

Wohlfeil, M. and Whelan, S. (2006). Consumer Motivations to Participate in Event-Marketing Strategies. Journal of Marketing Management, 22(5-6), pp.643-669.

 

Harpreet Singh 215478804

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Taste the feeling’ with Vitamin IMC…

What is IMC?

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) can be understood as a marketing strategy employed by organizations for branding and coordinating their communication efforts of conveying product information to the target audience (Iacobucci 2014). Coming up with a credible integrated marketing communications strategy is integral to any business in order to successfully gain proximity to its targeted consumers (Shimp & Andrews 2012).

A multi-step process to reach consumers…

IMC is not a one-step process. It requires planning, formulation of a fool-proof strategy and utilization of different media in order to successfully reach a consumer (Iacobucci 2014).

Source: Tumblr

The ‘Integrating’ element in IMC…

IMC strategy developed by an organization is not limited to a single media platform; rather it involves several forms of media likeTV/ radio advertisements,social media propaganda, public relations and e-mail marketing to name a few (Iacobucci 2014).

Several organizations spend millions of dollars on developing IMC strategies every year in order to lure customers towards their brand (Shimp & Andrews 2012). One noteworthy organization that has successfully paved its way in the consumers’ hearts year after year is Coca Cola with its new ad campaigns that are always stronger than before.

The success story of Coca Cola continues in 2016… ‘Taste the feeling campaign’…

In January, 2016, Coca Cola came back with a new ‘one brand’ global IMC campaign, ‘Taste the feeling’ that brings together all the brands of Coca Cola i.e. Coca-Cola, Diet Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero and Coca-Cola Life under one roof (The Coca-Cola Company, 2016). Replacing the ‘Open happiness’ campaign, Coca Cola has employed ‘emotional product communication’ by using creative storytelling and regular people endorsements in everyday moments to connect with the target audience across the globe.

Source: Pinterest

The campaign has been brought to life across the globe through a comprehensive IMC campaign comprising TV advertisements, video demonstrations, cinema buy, social media and public relations (Iacobucci 2014) among others in order to convey Coca Cola’s perceived benefits as a beverage. Focusing on the Australian market, the ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign reached consumers through a range of platforms…

The IMC element mix in ‘Taste the Feeling Campaign’…

In Australia, ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign reached the masses through the following mix of IMC tools (Campaign Brief Australia, 2016):

Media

Media is a broad term for a range of platforms employed to send and receive a variety of IMC messages (Duncan & Thomas 2005). Media is an extremely integral IMC tool employed by Coca Cola to create global brand awareness and strengthen their brand value.

Source: Tumblr

In ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign, Coca cola used TV, cinema and Out-of-home advertising to convey the brand message (Campaign Brief Australia, 2016).

‘Taste the feeling’ campaign was showcased through 10 TV advertisements across metropolitan, regional and subscription channels as well as video demonstrations through an extremely relateable global anthem, ‘Brotherly love’ and ‘Breakup’ advertised on TV (The Coca-Cola Company, 2016). At the close of each commercial, the famous red Coca-Cola disc unites the entire family of Coca cola trademark products.

Source: Coca-cola, 2016

‘Taste the feeling’ campaign showed its presence in cinema wherein the campaign aligned itself with the title of the movie screened.

The presence of the campaign was strongly noticed in ‘Out-of-Home’ advertisements (Roux & Waldt 2016) in the form of large blow-outs in metropolitan areas across the country, presence on retail furniture as well as retail proximity media (Campaign Brief Australia, 2016).

Source: Coca-Cola, 2016

Social Media

Social media plays an increasingly important role in marketing as individuals enjoy interacting with people from different socio-cultural backgrounds along with providing rich sensory experiences of different products and services (Erdoğmuş & Cicek, 2012). ‘Taste the feeling campaign’ has widely employed social media by providing interactive and entertaining campaign-specific websites, amplification through music streaming providers like YouTube and working with Avicii featuring the Australian singer, Conrad Sewell in the anthem to rightfully engage the Australian audience (Campaign Brief Australia, 2016).

Source: Coca-cola, 2016

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is provision of a direct incentive over and above what the product offers at normal price in short-term marketing events with the intent of generating an immediate sale by an identified benefactor (Shimp & Andrews 2012). For Coca Cola to be distinguished from its competitors, the ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign employed consumer-oriented sales promotion tactics in the form of home delivered product sampling, street sampling and major outdoor sampling opportunities and trade-oriented tactics in the form of kiosk hot spots all across the country (Campaign Brief Australia, 2016).

Public Relations

Public relations strategies aid the firm and consumer to mutually adapt to each other to gather support as well as cooperation from the consumer (Iacobucci 2014). ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign used public relations in its strategy by keeping global as well as media market launches for the global campaign along with exercising leverage on music assets by partnering with the Swedish artist and producer Avicii (Campaign Brief Australia, 2016).

Source: (Coca-Cola, 2016)

Events & Sponsorship

These are extremely targeted brand-associated activities that are aimed at engaging consumers, prospects and garnering publicity by providing financial support (Duncan 2005). In order to have major events like the UEFA Euro 2016 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games campaigns coherent with the ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign, Coca Cola tapped into Avicii featuring Conrad Sewell to produce remixed versions of the campaigns for the respective events (The Coca-Cola Company, 2016).

      

Source: (Populäre Lampendesign, 2016)

Personal selling

Coca Cola has built relationships with its buyers and indirect consumers during the ‘Taste the feeling’ campaign through creation of temporary as well as legacy point of sale (POS) areas across cities, malls and markets along with product placement in grocery stores, for immediate consumption and vending machines (Campaign Brief Australia, 2016).

Coca Cola is central to each ad and each story. It is presented in an extremely disciplined manner that not only exemplifies the phenomenon of ‘product plus emotion’ but also succinctly communicates a thorough combination of product usefulness, everyday moments as well as brand value. This facilitates a viewer to personally relate with the campaign and encourages positive consumer behavior. At the end of each ad, all you would feel like doing is diving into a chilled bottle of Coca Cola.

Employing a comprehensive IMC campaign has reinstated Coca Cola’s positioning in the beverage market as the number one brand by successfully conveying perceived benefits along with stabilizing the down slide of the sales figures.

To conclude, I would like to point out…“Understand the customer and the brand to unearth a key insight for the communication/solution”.

References

Campaign Brief Australia. (2016). Coca-Cola launches new ‘one brand’ global ‘Taste the Feeling’ campaign via Mercado-McCann, Sra. Rushmore, Santo, Ogilvy & Mather New York. [online] Available at: http://www.campaignbrief.com/2016/01/coca-cola-launches-new-one-bra.html [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016].

Coca-cola, (2016). Anthem. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AmKP9VE2Ms [Accessed 10 Sep. 2016].

Coca-cola, (2016). Avicii vs. Conrad Sewell – Taste The Feeling. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F82W3tKtr8c [Accessed 10 Sep. 2016].

 Coca-Cola, (2016). Taste the feeling. [image] Available at: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/_taste-the-feeling-out-of-home-ads# [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016].

Duncan, Thomas R. (2005), Principles of Advertising and IMC, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Erdoğmuş, İ.E. and Cicek, M., 2012. The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, pp.1353-1360.

Iacobucci, D 2014, Marketing Management, 4th ed, South-Western, Ch 12.

Populäre Lampendesign, (2016). List Of Coca Cola Uefa Euro 2016 Images. [image] Available at: http://www.sh-dz.net/coca-cola-uefa-euro-2016.html [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016].

Roux, A.T. and Van der Waldt, D.L.R., 2016. Toward a Model to Enhance Synergy of Out-of-Home Advertising Media Integration Strategies. Journal of Promotion Management, pp.386-402.

Shimp, T.A. and Andrews, J.C., 2012. Advertising promotion and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Cengage Learning.

The Coca-Cola Company. (2016). Coca-Cola Announces New ‘One Brand’ Marketing Strategy and Global Campaign. [online] Available at: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/taste-the-feeling-launch [Accessed 11 Sep. 2016].

Presented by:

Sabrina Advani

WordPress ID: advanisabrina

Student ID: 215224798

 

eBay on marketing

In this modern scenario, every individual knows about “eBay”. Today we people are wrapped by technology. eBay plays a major role in introducing people to technological  world. eBay is an American -multinational organization contributing purchaser to buyer and business to shopper deals administrations by means of the internet. eBay was established in the year 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

The plan of action or the business model promoted by eBay is basic. It is a C2C (consumer to consumer) platform, where the buyers and vendors are linked through the internet.Potential merchants are charged a little expense for to rundown things that they need to offer. These can then be seen for nothing by potential purchasers. Purchasers can then place an offer on the thing that they pick, again at no expense. When offering shuts, the most astounding offer buys the thing much like any conventional sale.

There are many advertising strategies used by eBay.  This includes e-mails, social networking sites such as( Facebook and Whatsapp), newspapers, radios, and some kind of presentations. In marketing there is a term called word-mouth, this is a kind of advertising a particular kind of product or service. This is how it works, when one of your best friend speaks about the quality of a product, you get interested and purchase and your parents also make a shopping in search of that product and they share their opinions to their other friends and relatives. So, the basic thing coming to this point is “credibility”.

eBay uses three forms of auctions. They are mainly Auction-style listings, Fixed price format and Dutch Auctions. In Auction-style listings, seller is able to establish a reserve price, and they can make sales for specific days. In the case of fixed price format, the purchasers win the auction, without any offer, because the sales are done within time. In the Dutch auctions, allow seller to bid two or more items in the similar auction.

eBay uses five digital advertising techniques, they are namely  Search Engine Optimization (SEO),  social media optimization, buying banner ads, a blog and pay per click marketing. In SEO, SEO includes advancing a site’s configuration and substance with a specific end goal to drive the site to the highest point of the web search tool comes about pages, or the “SERPs,” for focused watchwords. A site proprietor can utilize numerous viable SEO procedures as parts of a complete and extensive SEO battle, and some of these systems incorporate brilliant third party referencing, reliably fabricating new backlinks, utilizing web 2.0 pages, utilizing on-page SEO techniques and presenting a site to various web registries. Social media optimization means, when people open the webpage, they can notice different advertisements and it is a kind of marketing method used by website owner to attract the viewers. So they will try to purchase the desired items.There are numerous sites that permit the proprietors of different sites to buy standard advertisements, and as a rule, a site proprietor can buy pennant promotions that will be put on a site for a day or for a while. Standard advertisements are still exceptionally compelling promoting apparatuses, and a site proprietor ought to concentrate on putting pennant promotions on sites that have content that is identified with their own particular site. A website owner should try to maintain a blog attractive and catchy, because to get more profits from business, they should make the advertisement attractive.Pay-per-click, otherwise called “PPC,” showcasing includes paying a specific measure of cash for each focused on snap that a site gets. A site proprietor can without much of a stretch drive hundreds or even a large number of guests to any site by utilizing PPC showcasing regardless of the possibility that the site had no activity already. There are many other selling techniques performed by eBay and this helps them to compete with any large firm.

Ebay uses direct advertising apparatuses, for example, flyer’s, infomercials and radio advertisements even. Ebay is now a built up name and along these lines their utilization of these showcasing apparatuses is just to underscore any new data or arrangements they may bring to the table. Again like individual offering, direct advertising would pretty much be identified with outsider organizations endeavoring to offer their administrations of how to utilize the site, however not specifically identified with Ebay.

username: edwinpeter12345678

References:

Top 5 Selling Strategies to Get Ahead on eBay

https://www.cleverism.com/ebay-strategies-selling-products-online-ecommerce/

http://ebay-edorney.blogspot.com.au/2009/04/ebays-marketing-communication-mix.html

5 Digital Advertising Techniques That Produce Results

http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/ecommerce-strategy/ebay-case-study-2/

Making IMC Happen

Emma Ridley | 211263995

According to Ots (2015) Itegrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a strategic business  process for brand communications. Further to this Luxton, Reid and Mavondo (2015) suggest that IMC’s enable companies to execute more successful campaigns, driving improved brand outcomes.

Private Health Insurance

According to the Private Health Insurance Administration Council (PHIAC) report,  the PHI market is strongly competitive, with 34 insurers vying for business and due to the retail nature of PHI the products are heavily advertised – incase you needed reminding. Medibank and Bupa are leaders in Private Health Insurance (PHI) nationally, however are continually being rivalled by smaller non-for-profit funds like HBF, who we have thrown under the microscope today.

HBF is a Western Australian Fund who hold 56% of the market share with approximately one million members. Through an IMC Branding Strategy which is incorporated across the business and flows across many campaigns, HBF are holding onto WA market share and are beginning to etch into the national market share.

HBF Advertising

This advertisement, along with many other HBF ads, can be classified as a cognitive one-sided advert, presenting the positive attributes of being a HBF Member, attempting to influence decision making. This advertisement is non-comparitave ad, featuring only its benefits, attributes and image and fits into the Making Healthy Happen campaign.

Media Scheduling

HBF ads appear across multiple television shows, strategically placed in prime time slots, powered by OMD Media who HBF contract to handle their media buying and strategy.  In the WCE v Western Bulldogs AFL final on 8 September 2016, HBF played three ‘Tailor Your Cover’ ads in the half time break (personally viewed on Channel 7) on free-to-air.  The Scheduling of these ads at this time would cost upwards of $175,000 for a 30 second space. However with ratings of 1.564 million free-to-air viewers, the viewership is high, with speculative calculations resulting in a Gross Rating Points (GRP) of 4.692 million. The Target Audience Rating Point (TARP) refers to the number of the target audience that views the program, without fully understanding HBF’s target market it is unclear if this huge GRP actually cuts in the desired percentage of TARP’s. However Iacobucci (2014) suggest that TV yields the highest reach and although classified as a mass medium channel with a broad reach it is not targeted.

Out of Home 

Images sourced from BigDatr.

HBF’s campaigns are pushed out through Out of Home (OOH) channels including billboards, Adshell bus stop signage and bus wraps. Roux, van der Waldt and Ehlers (2013) conducted research that suggests that OOH media platforms should be considered in conjunction with alternatives, when integrating into the IMC plan in order to increase exposure and influence buying behaviour.

Above we see two different messages; Tailor Your Cover, and Grab Health Cover with MORE, both using the tagline ‘We’ve got your Back’. Both campaigns integrate the same message across the advertising as suggested by Iacobucci (2014).

Event Sponsorships

According to HBF they are ‘dedicated to creating a happier, healthier community’  with their key goal of becoming a health partner for each and every one of their members.  HBF have built their position as a Health Partner through their extensive sponsorship portfolio. HBF are the ‘Official Health Partner’ of both the Fremantle Dockers and West Coast Eagles and also hold naming rights to HBF Arena and HBF Stadium. Through these sponsorships HBF are able to give back ‘MORE’ to their members through discounted entry fees and a range of other football specific competitions. A current campaign in market is the HBF Golden Ticket Competition. These long term sponsorships allow HBF to integrate current campaigns and messages by leveraging contracted assets.

Events

HBF own, promote and deliver the HBF Run for a Reason, in 2016 it was officially Australia’s second largest fun run with 33,000+ walkers, joggers and runners. The event raised 1.14m for charity and sits in line with the core brand message of HBF – Making Healthy Happen.

 

HBF Digital

HBF support all of these campaigns, messages and strategies through their digital media channels. HBF Health and HBF Run for a reason have over 28,000 followers each, providing ano. According to Stephen (2016), information on social media is influencing consumer decision making and the digital environment is a part of lives on a daily basis.

HBF are also playing in the space of content marketing with the ‘new-born’ website called Direct Advice for Dads or D.A.D; providing direct advice for dad’s, written by dad’s. Mumbrella reports that it is HBF’s first venture into the content marketing space and where HBF set’s itself apart is with a differentiated strategy from its ‘health  content based’ competitors.

HBF advertise through a range of other channels including radio, print, programatic marketing and direct mail, proving that HBF’s IMC continues to grow, evolve, challenge its competitors and strategically hit different target markets.

Nike’s guide to the ultimate IMC mix…

Brand promotion is a critical task which requires investment of time, money and knowledge on a large scale. Over time, organisations have realized the importance of selecting, persuading, informing and reinforcing the target customer segment as well as creating greatest impact on them.

Source: Pinterest

In order to capture the splintered audience, marketing experts have encouraged employment of a comprehensive integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategy. Various tools of IMC like advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, personal selling and public relation make brand promotion schematic. Effective integration of such tools makes consumer engagement efficient.

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Source: Commoncoremoney.com

One company that has made extensive use of integrated marketing communications is Nike, a brand associated with athletic activities and sport. Commencement of Nike’s success was with its “Just do it” campaign. With this campaign, Nike tapped into the spirit of the inner joy experience of consumers. The profound feeling of joy and fitness was communicated through this campaign. The company utilized various communication platforms for their advertisement in order to capture attention of their target consumer segment, increasing Nike’s sale by 1000% over a period of ten years.

With “Just do it” campaign Nike started its journey to success…

                       Source: (Irimescu, 2014)

Nike Swoosh is one of the well-known logos. The logo has made the organisation one of the most successful and valued brands worldwide as it has created a strong brand image which symbolizes performance, dominance and winning. Nike has been successful in spreading their brand message across the globe that has made them gain sustainable competitive advantage over their competitors like Adidas and Reebok.  

Talking about celebrity endorsements, this is one of the key strategies that Nike has adopted. They have been very careful while selecting the face of the brand. The idea is to ingrain the celebrity image in consumer’s mind which would help them associate with the brand product with famous personalities making the brand valuable and attractive. Famous athletes like Michael Jordan, Maria Sharapova, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tiger Woods have endorsed the brand and conveyed the importance of athleticism making the brand name heroic and iconic. Such celebrity advertisements create strong impact on consumers and further improves brand loyalty.

Source: Pinterest

Nike has set up a perfect example of efficient use of social media which has become an essence of brand promotion in today’s competitive world. Utilization of social media like Facebook, YouTube, twitter and many more in order to build public relation and to deal with criticisms has been aced by Nike. Evidence suggests that approximately 92% of consumers trust recommendations made by family and friends over advertisements,or ‘Word of Mouth’. Consistent efforts towards customer engagement and persuasion through application like Nike+ and even considering @Nike support where Nike responds to their followers on twitter has made Nike the best example of organised customer service. Such efforts has given Nike a huge fan following and loyal customer base, helping them to build company’s “word of mouth marketing”.

 Source: Pinterest

“Write the future”, a campaign during FIFA 2010 is a very good example of Nike’s skillful utilization of strategy. The prime goal was to become the top brand in the world of football beating Adidas as the official sponsor of FIFA 2010 and to achieve tremendous revenue growth in the football apparel segment. The gist of the campaign was to ignite communication with the epic 3-minute film which would inspire audience with flashes of success and failure, past and future. Some of the best players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and many others were featured in the film. Nike wanted to create an opportunity for their consumers so that they could participate in the experience via social media. Nike employed social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Xbox 360 to reach to their fans. During this campaign, the Nike Facebook fan following raised to 336% which was from 1.1m to 4.8m. The result was, Nike won the world cup and became world no.1 sports brand in the football field.

Source:(Football Star TV, 2015)

The IMC program of an organisation is a strategy which involves a perfect blend of several IMC tools. This would help an organisation to succeed in “connecting” with rather than “collecting” their fans and customers which is a need of today’s competitive world. IMC has a long term effect wherein unified, expressive and consistent messaging helps the brand to develop deeper relations and to build trust with the target audience thereby providing monetarily effective results to an organisation.

Nike has mastered the art of promotion and their “Write the future” campaign has proven that if  you “Want to make a statement at the party, just crash the party”.

Name: Prutha Pimpale

WordPress ID: pimpaleprutha

Student ID: 215221879

References:

 

Branding Strategy Insider 2015, The Brand Brief behind Nike’s Just Do It Campaign, Branding Strategy Insider, retrieved on 10^th September 2016, <http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2015/08/behind-nikes-campaign.html#.V9ZtWk197IV>.

Football Star TV 2016, ‘Nike Commercial: Write The Future (WC 2010) FT Ronaldo, Rooney, Drogba, Ronaldinho,…’, retrieved on 10 September 2016,< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7spydLmzLKU> .

Forbes 2016, ‘How Confidential are Exit Interviews?’, Forbes, retrieved on 10 September 2016, <http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/09/11/how-confidential-are-exit-interviews/#1db26acf3ed9>.

Iacobucci, D 2014, Marketing Management, 4th ed, South-Western, Ch 12.

Irimescu, G 2014, The Origins of Just Do It (Art and Copy 2009 excerpt), retrieved on 10th September,  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYC_5_9B1qY&gt;.

Nike 2016, About Nike, Nike, retrieved on 11 September 2016, <http://about.nike.com/>.

Magnetic State Design Studio 2014, What Does The Nike Logo Mean?, Magnetic State Design Studio, retrieved on 11 September 2016, <http://www.magneticstate.com/blogdept/what-does-the-nike-logo-mean/&gt;.

Marketing Mixx 2012, Marketing Plan of Nike, Marketing Mixx, retrieved on 11 September 2016, <http://marketingmixx.com/marketing-plan-2/164-marketing-plan-of-nike.html>.

Wieden & Kennedy 2016, Nike- Write The Future, Wieden & Kennedy , retrieved on 10 September 2016, <http://wklondon.com/work/write-the-future/>.