This assignment consists of:
· A 2000-word report that develops an integrated marketing communications campaign (IMC) for a brand or company of your choice
A suggested outline for this report:
Executive summary
About 200 words
Situation analysis
About 300 words
Target market profile and communication objectives
About 300 words
Marketing communication program and activities
About 1000 words
Evaluation plan and possible corrective actions
About 200 words
Executive summary：
An abbreviated version of the entire marketing communication plan. It serves as an overview for the decision makers (your client) and should hit the highlights of your campaign recommendations.
Key elements of an executive summary should include:
• The central thrust of your campaign
• Whom you are targeting
• The campaign concept
• A brief summary of your strategical recommendations
It is for your busy client: It should be clearly written and organized so that the client’s management team can understand your recommendations without having to distill them from the detailed report.
Situation analysis:
1. Goal: To determine the current situation for the brand and identify key problems (= key challenges)
• Internal factors: The brand/company itself & its communication strategy
• External factors: Consumer trends, industry situation, competitors
2. There are several ways to make the situation analysis concise (to save space).
• Convert your data into graphs, charts, and tables to make it easier to digest. (Examples: Pie charts to illustrate market share or media spending; bar charts to compare data or indicate trends, line graphs to illustrate expenditure or sales trends )
• Use bulleted list to highlight or summarise key information.
• Make good use of heads or subheads, but don’t use too many subheads.
3. SWOT can be a useful tool to summarise your situation analysis. SWOT can also be used as a bridge from your situation analysis to your objectives because campaign objectives are often derived from the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are uncovered in your situation analysis.
Internal:
Strengths: Internal capabilities that may help a company reach its objectives.
Weaknesses: Internal limitations that may interfere with a company’s ability to achieve its objectives
External:
Opportunities: External factors that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage.
Threats: Current and emerging external factors that may challenge the company’s performance
4. Provide a problem statement as a conclusion of your situation analysis. • Problem statements are conclusions drawn from your situation analysis. • Client’s problems are drawn from the internal weakness and external threats found in your situation analysis. What is the key problem? • Remember: Not all problems are equally important, and not all problems can be resolved by marketing communication.
The title page, references and appendix will not be included in your word count.
This assignment will ask you to develop an integrated marketing communications campaign (IMC) for a brand or company of your choice and describe it using the key concepts of this course. You will provide an executive summary of the campaign, complete a situation analysis, define the communication objectives of the campaign, describe the target market profile and audience for the campaign, outline the marketing communication program and activities of the campaign, and finally, evaluate the campaign and make recommendations for possible corrective actions. Your campaign plan must be a practical document that you anticipate the brand would adopt and put into effect.
Please remember: one or two media executions do not make an IMC! An IMC contains multiple media executions all working in an integrated way to communicate a single message. One ad or influencer post is not an IMC.
You are expected to use the textbook, readings I provided below and own independent research to develop the IMC.
Reference style: APA, Chicago, Harvard or Vancouver (as long as the reference style is consistent). would generally expect 15 or more references for a report of this type. Make sure to cite the textbook and readings provided below, as well as your own independent research
FAQs:
1. Can I create a new product for the brand?
No, this is not what Marketing Communication does. As this subject explores Marketing Communications, you are required to focus on Promotion (from the 4Ps). The 4Ps include Price, Product, Place, and Promotion. Focus only on Promotion! This includes significantly changing a brand’s offering in an illogical way i.e. taking a brand that only offers size 0 – 2 and making an “inclusive sizes” campaign. This would require significant product overhaul and is not what Marketing Communication does. In this case, it would be better to choose a brand with inclusive sizing and develop a new campaign for them.
2. What if after conducting a situation analysis, I derive objectives that happen to be similar to an existing campaign? Is this considered plagiarism?
This will not be considered plagiarism as long as you as your detailed media/messages strategies are original and unique. In your proposal, you may want to mention that similar campaigns have been implemented by the brand or competitors. Then, you can explain why you want to pursue the similar objective and how your campaign will achieve the objective using new ideas and strategies
3. I came across an existing campaign that could use some improvements. Would I be able to just suggest improvements as an extension to the current existing campaign?
In the case that you find a brand has not been successful in its campaign or have your own thoughts on how this campaign can be improved, you would need to create the next version of that campaign rather than just an extension to add on. For example, Dove’s Real Beauty campaign has had several iterations, but each iteration is a new campaign.
4. Are appendices required?
Appendices are optional. They can be used to include any additional resources (such as figures, visuals of the campaign). You also have the choice to integrate photos within the paper, but do make sure to label everything properly and place these in a well-presented manner.
5. Should I create designs for the new campaign?
This is not a creative/design course. If you want to do that, there are several subjects in the Master of Marketing Communication where you can showcase your creative talents. However, if you do want to include mock ups or other creative in your appendix, you will not be marked down for this.
6. Does the problem statement only need to address weaknesses or threats the brand is facing? What if the brand I’ve chosen doesn’t have specific issues but rather opportunities it can seize? Most companies do have problems – it’s very rare that they don’t. However, you can choose to focus on opportunities rather than problems and end the situation analysis with an opportunity statement. Sometimes, some brands don’t have any specific issues, but they want to expand for better opportunities. That can motivate a new campaign. 14. How many subject theories should I integrate? The number of theories is up to you. What matters is correct and in-depth use of theories to support arguments and sustain a clear line of thinking. Keep in mind that this is the final assignment so it should represent your understanding of the key concepts of the entire course.
7. Can I use a campaign from anywhere in the world?
Yes.
8. Am I expected to include a positioning statement and perceptual map in my analysis? You are not expected to include either one. A perceptual map can be integrated if it is based on a good idea and credible research. However, a map based on your own opinion/thoughts would not be considered good supporting evidence to sustain your argument.
Some link might be useful：
https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/case-study-fame-made-snickers-youre-not-when-youre-hungry-campaign-success/1410807
https://pediatrics-aappublications-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/content/pediatrics/140/Supplement_2/S117.full.pdf
https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-promoting-your-business/false-or-misleading-statements
