Integrated Marketing Communication Plan For Billabong - Essay.

Multichannel Strategy for Promotion

Discuss about the effectiveness of the IMC campaign in the context of Billabong.

Integrated marketing communication or IMC plan is crucial for every organization to link with all communication strategies. In order to introduce a new product in the market, an organization needs to communicate with this product (Camilleri 2018). Billabong becomes the world-class brand by using their unique advertising technique. They use unique methods to improve their product features. In order to increase the surf-culture Billabong has decided to introduce a new earplug for the customers. However, the objectives of IMC plan show that Billabong wants to serve best quality product and to develop best brand recognition across the world. Their target market includes different ages and gender. However, for their new product, they are targeting the high-class people and frequent surfers especially the teenagers, old people and the children who go to the beach and have a high addiction to the earplug. They aim to offer good opportunities to the customers to meet their demand. They are going to take SMART marketing strategy to increase the quality of a product based on the customer feedback.  On the other hand, they are going to develop a brand awareness program in Australia, USA, and Asia. However, based on the feedback of the customers they can modify their products and increase the sale of earplugs at different geographical regions.

Adoption of multichannel marketing strategy will be effective for Billabong to introduce their new products in the consumer domain. Multichannel strategy is an effective way of advertising as this method allows an organization to use various channels to promote their products (Blakeman 2018). Billabong focuses on both traditional and modern media to advertise their products. They use TV, radio, newspaper, billboard, and brochure as the traditional media. On the other hand, they use social media marketing and sales promotion to improve their brand image. Hence, by taking multi-channel strategy they will able to promote their product by using various devices. E-mail, print ads, mobile app, messaging, website, social media are the vital channels of the multi-channel strategy.

The target market of Billabong includes different age’s people and different genders. In the recent years, they have targeted the frequent surfers and the high-class people to sell their new earplug products (Us.billabong.com 2018). Therefore, development of strong brand recognition is the main purpose of their advertising campaign. In order to achieve this goal multichannel strategy will be effective to give shape their IMC technique. Advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, events and sponsorship and the personal selling are categorized under the promotional mix strategy (Kumar and Patra 2017). Hence, by taking promotional mix strategy this organization will be able to promote their product in large consumer domain. However, the multichannel approach will be helpful to implement this promotional mix strategy successfully.

Promotional Mix Strategy for Improved Brand Recognition

Multichannel approach will allow Billabong to increase the customer engagement. However, the multi-channel strategy is about casting the widest net to gain maximum customer engagement (Ailawadi and Farris 2017). Frequent surfers are the main target customers of Billabong hence, by using multi-channel strategy they can give best holistic experience to their customers through the online marketing. Multichannel approach enables the customers to gain excellent product experience through all touch points. Another benefit of the multi-channel approach is to generate a consistent brand message. Therefore, through the sales promotion technique, this organization will be able to introduce their product by using media and non-media communication. On the other hand, direct marketing is another element of promotional mix strategy. This allows the organization to sell their product directly to the consumer via mobile phone, online advertising and messaging. Such direct marketing will be effective for Billabong to meet the needs of the high-class customers as e-mail and online marketing are preferred by this class. Apart from these events and sponsorship is useful to create strong brand recognition in the high class people.

From the entire analysis, it has been addressed that promotional mix strategy supports the IMC as it includes multichannel approach, which makes a link between the various communication channels. Therefore, customer engagement is done successfully by this strategy (Blakeman 2018). The teenagers, old people, and the children belong from the high-class family have a great attraction to the online marketing. Hence, by using promotional mix strategy and multi-channel approach this organization will be able to represent their brand worldwide and to meet the demands of the current market. Therefore, this strategy also helps them to gain competitive advantages by increasing then customer engagement.

Creative strategy is crucial for the promotional campaign. However, in the context of both print and digital media creativity is crucial to attract the customers (Choi et al. 2018). Billabong wants to grab the attention of the customers through using their advertising content. In order to do this need to adopt unique content development strategy. Unique content development strategy is an effective way to make the business different from other organization. Incorporation of the unique idea into the contents allows the business to grab the customers easily. Creativity should be done in the messaging technique to develop a unique content. It is important for the Billabong to determine what the advertising message will say. However, it is important to make the information easy by using simple language, which allows the customers to understand quickly. Billabong needs to create detailed information of the product in by using specific word. This will save the time of the reader and they get the appropriate product information. The message should be cognitive, affective and conative. Billabong is going to sell their new earplug to ensure the safety of people. This earplug protects the individuals from water, cold air, and noise. Hence, in the content of the advertising, they need to clear the importance of this product. As a result, the customers will be to understand this necessity of this product in their daily life.

Creative Content and Messaging

Billabong needs to create a sense of urgency through their messages. To maximize the sale and to increase the customer engagement it is important to create an urgency of the product purchasing through the advertising (Flores 2017). This will create an importance of the product in customer mind and they will be influenced to purchase it. The message should be generic that means Billabong needs to promote the product category rather than the brand. This will make the message creative and more transparent to the target audience. In the context of earplug, Billabong needs to reveal the product category to the customer domain, which will increase the customers. This strategy needs to follow in case of both print and digital media.

In order to develop a creative content, it is vital to make the message preemptive (López-Paredes 2018). Billabong needs to make a claim that no other competitors have such type of product feature. This claim should be incorporated into the content of the advertisement. Therefore, the message should be comparative that means Billabong needs to compare their product directly or indirectly with the competitors. Billabong has both national and international competitors but the major competition occurs from Australia. RIP CURL, Hollister, Quicksilver are the major competitors of Billabong. In the context of earplug market EQ Seal, Surf ears, Macks and Creature Alpine are the major are rivals. However, except Surf ears, the other competitors offer silicon made product and maximum people do not prefer this. Hence, based on this analysis Billabong has decided to introduce healthy earplug to the people. Hence, the comparison of their product quality with the other competitors needs to mention in their message. This action will make the message comparative.

After creating the message it is important to execute the message. In order to execute the messages development of an emotional appeal is necessary. Marketers use the emotional appeal based on the emotions of the target market (Demir et al. 2017). In the context of Billabong, the target customers or the surfers need a healthy product. Hence, they need to offer their healthy earplug in a way, which supports the emotion of the customers. Use of the spokesman in the advertising process such as hiring the celebrities will be an effective approach to execute the message. This allows the consumer to trust the brand. Creating a fantasy around the product will be a good way to execute the message. Billabong needs to reveal what can do the product for the consumers. This often aligns with the social appeal and meets the campaign objectives.

Spokesperson and Celebrity Involvement for Emotional Appeal

Media strategy includes types of media that are used for the integrated communication. Billabong has decided to use both printed and digital media. In order to cover a large population both printed and digital media are required in the advertising process (Alfifi et al. 2018). Billabong will use newspaper, magazine, and brochure as the printed media. Therefore, social media and TV will be used as the digital media. Newspaper is a part of the daily life. Therefore, old population has a tendency to read newspaper. On the other hand, the old population is included in the target market of Billabong. Hence, by using the newspaper advertising, this organization will be able to connect with this target market and to meet their needs. Therefore, advertisement through brochure will enable all age groups to gain the new product information of Billabong. Use of digital media such as social media, websites, and TV are effective to cover a large population. Advertisement through television needs celebrity involvement. In the recent years, social media gives the best platform to the marketers to connect with a large audience in a cost-effective manner. In the modern era, teenagers are highly addicted to social media. They spend a lot of time on the internet and searches new products or service via social media. However, teenagers are the core target area of Billabong as they have a tendency to go to the beach. Hence, they have a need of earplug. Hence, by introducing their new healthy earplug product on social media Billabong will be able to reach in a large consumer domain.

Radio and Television advertising is used for the old population and the children. However, old population has an intention to use radio and the children have a high attraction to the television (Bowen and Bowen 2018). Hence, by using such media Billabong will be able to cover this target market. Therefore, advertising through the company website is an effective way to cover the potential customers. This media advertising will allow Billabong to introduce their new products to those customers who check their websites regularly.

Time scheduling and publications or sites are the major components of the media scheduling (Perreault and Mosconi 2018). However, for the Billabong they need to set the websites, time and the publications to execute their advertising. The will use Newspaper-Perth to advertise their new product throughout the year. Therefore, they will use Magazine-1 to advertise their product from January to June. Magazine Cosmo will be used from July to December to advertise the product. Apart from these Facebook and YouTube will be used as the social media sites to promote the products. Such media are categorized under creative production and these will be used for 12 months.

Media Strategy for Maximum Coverage

(Refer to Excel Sheet)

Evaluation of the integrated marketing communication or IMC plan highlights the measurement of the effectiveness of the multichannel marketing campaign (Eagle and Dahl 2018). Billabong is going to introduce their new earplug in Australian market. In order to promote their product, they have decided to conduct a multi-channel campaign. Besides promoting a product is crucial to understand the effectiveness of the promotional campaign. For Billabong they need to identify how well the different channels are working together. Synergy between the various channels boosts the outcome of the product. The IMC strategy of Billabong includes promotional mix, which highlights different aspects of product promotion by using the multi-channels. Therefore, to create a strong brand image is one of the major objectives of Billabong. Hence, by using the multichannel approach this organization will be able to deliver their product information in different consumer domains, which strengthens the brand image. Therefore, to meet the need of the consumer is another objective of their IMC campaign. Hence, by using social media advertising and company websites they will be able to collect the feedback of the consumers regarding their product. This will allow them to modify the product feature based on their consumer demand.

Billabong aims to achieve competitive advantages through their IMC campaign. Maximum marketers want to achieve competitive advantages while promoting a product (Raudeli?nien? et al. 2018). Hence, by using creative messaging this organization will be able to make a unique advertising. By delivering the creative content such organization can provide a clear message to the customers, which executes an emotional appeal to the customers and they are influenced to purchase the product. Creative content in the advertising will help this organization to make their product different from the competitors. From the entire analysis, it can be said that the proposed IMC plan is effective to meet the campaign objectives in the context of Billabong. Selection of media and creative strategy are beneficial to fulfill the objectives and leads the organization towards the success.  

Conclusion

The above piece of work reveals the IMC campaign in the context of Billabong. However, they are going to introduce earplug through IMC campaign. Their main target markets are children, teenagers, and the old population. They have decided to use both printed and digital media to give shape their IMC plan. It has been found that social media advertising is the most effective way to connect the people from different geographical regions. This also enables an organization to enhance their customer engagement. Therefore, it can be concluded that the proposed media strategy and the creative strategy will be effective for Billabong to meet their promotional objectives

References

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Us.billabong.com. (2018). Billabong. [online] Available at: https://us.billabong.com/global_home.htm [Accessed 30 May 2018].