BBMK401 Integrated Marketing Communications Proof Reading Services

BBMK401 Integrated Marketing Communications Oz Assignments

BBMK401 Integrated Marketing Communications Proof Reading Services

Issues around the objectives of the IMC

The company is the only regulatory authoritative organisation in Australia that regulates the medical community in the country. The objectives of the IMC are focused around the idea f promoting health care and improve awareness among the people. In order to do so the company is planning to develop a campaign to stop promoting or advertising Junk food in the country as well as introduce taxation upon sugar, which would regulate the consumption rate. The objective it itself revolutionary and is a cause of challenge and barriers in the process. There will be a number of people and businesses that will be impacted with this campaign. The confectionery business in Australia has revenue of US$5,746m as of 2018 (Statista.com, 2018), and the market is also expected to grow. If the campaign is successfully implemented this growth rate and revenue will fall and thus there will be a number of legal and social conflicts. As previously mentioned food and lifestyle habits develop during the early stage of an individual’s childhood, therefore it will be challenging for the association to instill the objectives of the Campaign (Statista.com 2018). On the other hand, there are a number of people who love having sugar in large quantities on a daily basis and it forms an important part of the diet, the conflict and resistance will be seen from these people. Hence, imposing tax will be deemed as a conflict to the personal choice.

Economic factors

As mentioned above in Australia there are a number of people whose livelihood depend upon the sugar and junk food industry. These two aspects cover a large number of companies starting from large scale to SMEs therefore they have a significant impact on the GDP of the country as well. On the other hand, promotion of such brands are also a source of income for a number of advertising companies and media planning organizations etc. even that would be impacted. The revenue of the confectionary industry is stated above and the revenue of the fast food and take away services in Australia is around $20bn (Ibisworld.com.au, 2018). This sector has around 24,984 businesses in the country, thus a restriction on the advertisement will impact this revenue and growth and in turn impact the economy as well. Since this is the situation, the IMC plan will face legal issues as well, because people want to improve their business opportunities and not reduce them. However, the report also suggests that there is increase awareness among the people regarding living a healthy life. Companies already pay a high amount of taxes in the production process if the taxation is increased even more there is ought to be a lot of conflict. And moreover the reduction of sugar consumption will impact on the revenue of the confectionery etc businesses directly (Statista.com, 2018).

Social factor

The lifestyle choice of a person is a completely an individual decision. The intervention of the association in the personal choice of the people to direct what he or she should consume is an issue that the campaign can face (McCombs, 2018). The objective of the campaign is not only to spread awareness but also to take measures which may make the consumption difficult for the people. If the campaign was just awareness related the issues and the challenges would have reduced but this is not the case. As far as advertising of junk foods are concerned the people are becoming more and more aware of the repercussions of consumption of junk food. The camping to stop promoting will not have a direct social impact in a negative way (McCombs, 2018).

Targetmarket of the IMC program

An IMC campaign is always directed towards a particular target market; however this IMC program is more like a public service campaign that is targeted towards the overall betterment of the people of Australia. When an IMC plan is developed for a business organisation, the target market is set by the company which corresponds with the target market of the product or service that the company would sell. In this case the idea that AMA wants to communicate is not based on any kind of particular target market rather the population of Australia is the target. But in order to ensure that the communication is effective and the campaign is successful the Plan should be targeted towards a certain population which is discussed below. However, obesity is a major cause for a number of health issues in the country. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, around 63 percent of adults were found obese in 2014-15 survey. Overweight and obesity are common among certain groups including the indigenous people of Australia. Therefore the target market of the campaign will be targeted towards these groups of people (Aihw.gov.au, 2018).

Demographic: The people who are being targeted with the campaign are from 15-55 years old and are of any gender as the statistics of 2014-15 does not show a lot of discrepancy in the rate of obese men and women. The socio economic group of the target market is not important as the graph below showcase that there is not much difference in the population among the segmentation.

Figure:Proportion of obese and overweight adults, by socioeconomic group, 2014-15
Source: (Aihw.gov.au, 2018)

Figure: Proportion of overweight and obese population among the adults according to the region
Source: (Aihw.gov.au, 2018)

1. Behavioural: The advertisements are targeted to people who have unhealthy eating habits and are not consciousabouttheir wellness.
Obesity among the children will also be targeted with the help of these IMC campaigns, children in the age group of 2-17. It is found that the prevalence of obesity and overweight issues are significantly high among this population. Thus, it is a good idea for the IMC plan to develop content and focus on the children differently. About 1 among 4 children in the country are either overweight or obese, this amounts to around 1.2 million children and adolescents (Aihw.gov.au, 2018). However, it has been observed form the graphs that outer regional areas have the maximum number of children who are either obese or overweight. Therefore the reach of IMC plan should maintain its reach to these areas in the geographical boundaries of Australia.

Figure: Proportion of overweight and obese population among the children (2-17) according to the region

Source: (Aihw.gov.au, 2018)

The AMA is focused on spreading the awareness among the people of Australia in order to help them understand the side effects of the consumption of food items which can lead to an unhealthy life.

IMC Communication objectives

IMC is the plan that is developed to reach out to a group of people in this case the target market of the IMC plan can be simply said to be people are unconscious about their health and lead a unhealthy lifestyle. Therefore, the objectives of the IMC plan are:

1. To develop awareness regarding the ways Junk food and over consumption of sugar can cost a person
2. To ensure that the campaign reaches out to the target market
3. To develop a plan that has a clear message
4. To launch the campaign at the right time
5. To limit the plan within the budget that has been allocated
6. To ensure that the content and the creative of the campaign are focused on the objective that has been set by the company
7. To ensure that the medium that has been selected effectively reaches out to the people are the target market

Creative Strategy - your messages and positioning strategies

Creative aspect of the IMC plan is an essential part as it is the factors that attract the attention of the target market as well as engages them towards the message that is being conveyed. As the objective of AMA is to spread awareness with the IMC plan the company has to ensure that the cause effect impact of the issue is upheld in the creative. There are two aspects of the agenda that has been set by the association, first is the ban of advertisement of Junk Food and secondly the imposition of tax on sugar. Therefore the campaign will also be conducted in two folds.

The message for the two objectives

The language of the message is English as that is the widely spoken language in the country and the tone of the message is informal. The approach is to make people understand and not to impose the thought. The message is “don’t encourage junk food consumption”. The approach that is being taken in this campaign is not to stop but not to encourage consuming junk food; the idea is to tell the audience to look out for the ones they care about. Advertisement of junk food items showcase that the products are tasty, hence the message will be accompanied by alternatives to satiate the taste buds with a healthy alternative. The campaign will focus on the risks that a person pushes the ones they care for when they encourage consuming junk food. It is important for the people to understand the ways in which junk food leads to obesity and the number of health impacts that is the cause of obesity. The names of the diseases will not be used rather the impact and the cause will be explained.

For the second objective it is important for the company to focus on the fact that people know that consumption of sugar is not good for health, even then there is significant number of people who consume sugar and suffer the consequences. Thus the message of this objective will be “Spend less save more, loose sugar from the diet”. The people need to understand that the imposition of this tax will lead to a savings on their account when they do not have to spend it on medical bills.

All the creative of the promotion will be based on these messages, the two aspects have been kept separate as the two are targeted towards the same market yet the two have a very different objective and a different approach.

AMA is a reputed organisation and is focused on the improvement of the health and lifestyle of the people along with managing the people who are associated in the medical industry. The association has high regards among the stakeholders. Therefore, the positioning strategy of the campaign is also based on the facts that the junk food and sugar consumption can lead to health issues. The IMC will be positioned in the market in a way that the customer understand the consequence as well as support the cause that AMA is fighting against unhealthy food consumption. Underline idea of the plan is to make people understand and spread the awareness so that advertising junk food is stopped and a tax is levied on the sugar. Depending upon the area of promotion the language of the message will be chosen. Primarily as mentioned English will be used a medium of communication, however language can be changed based on the advertisement circulation.

Communication strategy Mix

Communication mix is a part of the marketing function which directly connects the customers to the organisation. AMA is set to draw a plan that is aimed to curb the consumption of unhealthy food and thereby improve the lifestyle. Awareness among the people is important and the approach that has been taken in the creative is to take care of the loved ones and to save money by consuming less sugar (Brunello, 2013). The effectiveness of the message depends upon the clarity of the message as well as the channel or medium of communication that is chosen. This is dependent on the target market, as the idea is to reach out to the target market of the plan in order to effectively implement the same (Brunello, 2013). Here are the following tools that will be used to position the campaign among the target market:

1. Advertising: it is the paid form of promotion which contains the message along with creative elements in order to attract the attention of the target audience as well as help them convince the idea (Belch, Belch, Kerr & Powell, 2014) of AMA to improve the standard of living by leading a healthy lifestyle. Advertising will be used in both traditional and contemporary medium to reach out to the people. The message that has been discussed above will be the focus of any creative that will be developed (Luxton, Reid & Mavondo, 2015). Advertisements will be developed by the agency along for both the objectives. In order to ensure the effectiveness the placements of the advertisement as well as the clarity of the message will be focused. Along with that the image or the visual elements of the advertisement will be such that the people can relate to it. However, it is important to keep up with the creative elements in the advertisement promotion concept so that it can grab the attention of the customers. AIDA model of advertisement is the correct way to approach the customers (Wijaya, 2015). According to this model, the objective of any advertisement is to develop awareness among the target market and then create interest on the subject of the advertisement. The advertisement should be such that it creates desire among the target market to act according to the information that has been provided in the message. The objective of AMA is to provide the people with a better quality of life and to reduce the impact on health that is induced by leading an unhealthy life.

2. Sales promotion: sales promotion is the strategy by which the company uses push strategy to improve the sale of the products or services. In this case, in order to sell the idea order to increase awareness among the people and stop encouraging and advertising junk food as well as impose tax on sugar (Todorova, 2015). The agency can appoint people to communicate and distribute pamphlets and brochures regarding the cause in public places. AMA can collaborate with the doctors and the medical facilities who are a member of the association to promote the campaign. This will directly help in spreading the message and the idea.

3. Direct marketing:This is the method used by business organisations to push the product or service to the customers (Mulhern, 2013). Since the idea is the element that has to be pushed the company can use a personalized approach of communication with the help of e-mail or SMS will be used to communicate with the customers on a personal level. Management of Big data will help in assisting this strategy. This approach will also help the association to build a valuable relation with the target market (Naeem, Bilal & Naz, 2013).

4. Public relations: Medical practitioners and others associated with the association will be requested to align with the ideas of the company. The association can arrange a convention of scholars on the subject matter and invite the doctors of practitioners to participate; they can use their social media accounts to discuss their views with their connection. This can be aligned with the digital marketing strategy of the IMC plan (Naeem, Bilal & Naz, 2013).

5. Digital marketing: This is the contemporary method of marketing which includes the usage of ICT in the promotion and marketing of the products. Since the target market of the plan is wide and vivid the company has to keep up with the latest trends in marketing in order to effectively maximize the reach of the IMC plan (Mulhern, 2013).

6. Media Mix: The effectiveness of the marketing plan is highly based on the medium that is selected. For example: in order to reach out to the customers who are in the age group 10-16 the company will require to choose the medium that is most popular among the target market.

7. Television: The television is one of the most effective means of reaching out to the target market. As of 2014, there are around 9.01 million household with television in the Australia (Statista.com, 2018). The audiovisual advertisements are developed for the television market. The advertisements will be aligned with popular television networks in Australia, which will improve the reach of the advertisement. There are five major networks in Australia out of which two are selected network 10 and ABC (Australian broadcasting Corporation) (Statista.com, 2018). The advertisements will be developed for 30 sec. Four advertisements will be developed, two for each objectives.

8. Radio:Radio is also a means of communication which is widely used among the target market and hence audio means of advertisement should be created in order to connect with people with the help of this medium. Jingles will be developed in order to grab the attention of the audience.

9. Digital: As mentioned above there are a number of ways such as SMS, E-mail, social media platforms, digital billboards will be used by the company to connect with the target market. OOH is an important medium as the reach of this medium is significantly high. Social media is a medium that is a part of the digital marketing tool but the reach of this medium will be discussed separately (Wu & Chang, 2013).

10. Print: Daily newspapers will be used to advertise the two specific news papers that have a wide circulation are chosen these are The Australian and the Daily Telegraph (Statista, 2018). The advertisement will first appear on the front page as a cover on The Australian and later during the campaign it will appear on the lifestyle edition of newspaper below the fold (Burgers, Konijn, Steen & Iepsma, 2015). For the other newspaper the first appearance will be on page 1 below the fold on the right hand side however, one of the journalist will be collaborated to write an advertorial regarding the campaign and the message that the company is trying to communicate ((Barker, 2013).

Lifestyle magazine will be used to advertise the message like Vogue Australia and Gourmet this will help the association to reach out to a part of the target market. Apart from this the association will print brochures and standees to align with the public relation strategies as well as direct marketing and sales promotion. These brochures and standees are going to be designed by the agency that the association has contacted (Burgers, Konijn, Steen & Iepsma, 2015).

The content in terms of written message and the visual aspects should be attractive in a print advertisement. The message for both the objectives should be clear and center and the image of a child stopping an elder person with a bag of chips can be in the visual. The image can give an impression that the child is trying to stop the father to indulge in a pack of chips. For the other objective the image of an obese man having confectioneries with a very small pocket in animated from can be the visual with the written message.

11. Social media:Facebook, twitter are the two platforms that are chosen in order to run the social media plan. These two platforms are chosen because the association has their official pages on these platforms. Digital advertisements with audio visual elements will be used (Barger & Labrecque, 2013). The television advertisements will be uploaded in these platforms and will be encouraged by the people associated with the association to share and expand the reach. A hashtag trend will be developed in order to align with the public relation strategy that has been discussed above (Barker, 2013).

Basic budget concepts

Medium of communication	Cost (AUD) estimated	Time period
Television	$123,000 (4 of thirty sec)	Three months
Radio	$500 to $5,000 per week	Two months
Digital	$15000	Four months
Print	$2000-$5000 for ¼ page ad	12 times in a period of three months
Social media	$0.31 to $0.61 per click	Five months

Evaluation metrics

In order to measure the effectiveness of the IMC Plan a market survey will be conducted at the end of the period of the six months campaign. This will give an idea regarding the perspective of the target market. The market research will also help in getting idea of the issues that the target market is facing while adhering to the advice. As the campaign has the potential of significant conflict in the society and the economy, the outreach of the message can be determined by the way the people post their feedback on the social media (Blakeman, 2018).

Conclusion

It can be concluded form the above discussion that the IMC focuses on a number of medium of mass communication and a large budget. The Association has the resource and capability to fund the plan that has been drawn. The objective of the IMC plan is to provide the target market with a revolutionary change in their lifestyle, which is embedded in an individual from their childhood. Therefore, in order to do that this plan is the first step towards a remarkable change in the society at large. It is recommended that the Association build a legal and statutory back up to deal with the issues that has been indicated. Furthermore, there are also chances for the association to build another campaign during a gap of 8 months to reinforce the idea of the perks of living a healthy lifestyle.

Reference list

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