Influence Of Consumer Promotional Budget On Organic Foods In Saudi Arabia Essay.

Analysis of the current market situation

Discuss about the Influence of Consumer Promotional Budget.

Marketing has evolved over the years in order to accommodate the changing preferences of the customers. The marketers are focusing on the creation of long-term relationships with the customers, members of the community, channel members and employees(Pearson 2016). There has been the development of holistic marketing initiatives in which the interdependencies of the marketing environment of today are incorporated. There are four important dimensions of the new form of marketing which includes the internal marketing, performance marketing, relationship marketing and integrated marketing (Pearson 2016). The integrated marketing communication plan should have relevant details about the marketing plan such as single voice, unique message, goal and consistent product features. The communication tools need to be strategically consistent with the aim of redefining the common brand associations.

The selected product for this assignment is organic foods. The selected country for promoting the products is Saudi Arabia. The analysis of the current market situation would be analyzed. The determination of the objectives for integrated marketing communications is being done. A suitable promotional budget would be made with special focus on the budgeting approach as well as budget allocation. One integrated marketing communication program would be prepared.

The organic foods are gaining worldwide popularity due to its huge benefits. The company aims to provide 100% genuine, authentic, natural and value rich organic foods to the people of Saudi Arabia. The company has its own farms, retail stores and distributes its products through sole agents so that they can reach wide range of customers. The company aims to give 100% satisfaction to customers while preventing any adverse effect on the environment.

The organic food is considered as the most rapid growing sector in the global economy and there has been double increase in its growth annually. This growth has already passed the overall growth rate of the food market (Pearson 2016). The primary driving factor of this kind of crops is the growing concern about the environment (Lee and Yun 2015). The pesticides are used to keep away insects, bacteria, mites and others, which accumulates in the water and soil. It gets consumed in the human body and it has negative side effects on the human body. This has detrimental impact on the health and wellbeing of the people (Lee and Yun 2015). This is the reason for gaining prominence of organic foods.

Determination of the integrated marketing communications objectives

The organic agriculture is a worldwide profitable business, which can be sustainable business for the producers who are willing to enter the market. The current growth of organic food market is 20 to 25 percent in the global sphere and the advanced countries are spending more amount on the organic farming (Willer and Lernoud 2016). However, the organic food market is highly unorganized and organic pulses/food grains dominate the market. The current market of the organic foods is growing at the rate of 25 to 30 percent at present and this figure s expected to rise in the coming years (Lee and Yun 2015). The current growth in this domain is being affected by the increased health consciousness, disposable spending, changing lifestyles and the increasing availability of the organic foods industry.

The organic food industry in Saudi Arabia is in nascent stage. The National Agricultural Marketing Co. is in charge of developing the idea of organic foods in Saudi Arabia and deriving ideas from Europe. The center is involved in adapting of the practices of the organic food farming in the country. The country is characterized with health related problems which are directly associated with diets (El Bcheraoui et al. 2015). The Saudi Agricultural market has shown quite improvement in the recent past and there is considerable amount of investment to grow organic foods. The Ministry of Agriculture in Saudi Arabia is active in the organizing of several support and movements concerning organic food products.

Organic food is quite popular in Saudi Arabia but people are sometimes averse about purchasing the product due to its high cost. Thimar is a popular organic food store in Saudi Arabia which offers healthy foods to the customers (Bush 2016). The organic food industry is concentrated on few important things such as water, air, mud and others. However, the production of organic food is low in the country owing to the impure water and lack of infrastructure for supporting this kind of farming (El Bcheraoui et al. 2015). The country has huge potential for the purpose of retail and distribution food products. It has also scope for the purpose of importing organic food materials. The consumption of organic foods in the country is expected to grow at the pace of 55% within the next couple of years (Memish et al. 2014). The country has supermarket chains such as Carrefour, Thimar and Tamimi that make available the fresh organic products and offer fresh products to the consumers.

Establishment and allocation of the promotional budget

The target market for organic foods would be from 18 years to 55 years and it includes both genders. The organic foods would be positioned within the middle income group and the high income groups.

The main objective of the integrated marketing communication is to enhance the levels of interaction tools that would create seamless experience for the customers as well as reinforcing the core messages of the brand. The broad objectives of the organic foods is enumerated below-

The marketing communication plan would be helpful in understanding of the consumer behavior of the nation. These would help in the better formulation of the promotional strategies as well as programs. The primary target market for the organic foods would be women and men aged between 18 years to 55 years. This group of population comprises of the productive age group who requires fresh, healthy and nutritious foods so that they can carry out their daily activities in a better manner. The marketing campaign would also help in the determination of the actual preferences of the target market.

The integrated marketing communication campaign would helpin the generation of sufficient product awareness among the target audience. There is low level of awareness regarding the organic foods and their subsequent benefits (Solomon 2014). The marketing campaign would not only be profit centric but it would also highlight the advantages of consuming organic food products. This would not only help in gathering new customers but it would also aid in higher retention of the existing customers.

The basic purpose of the campaign is to enhance the product image in the minds of the consumers (Solomon 2014). The organic food is often perceived as snob and middle class income segment are reluctant to try them. This notion needs to be changed and improve the image of the organic food industry. Stimulation of desire

When the consumers are better aware of the benefits of the organic foods, then they would be highly attracted to their consumption (Solomon 2014). Even if there are people in the target market, who have a pre-conceived notion regarding the consumption of organic foods, this campaign would help in the stimulation of desire to consume healthy food alternatives.

The marketing communication campaign would aim to increase the revenues gained from the sale of organic food products (Solomon 2014). It would help in better projection of the products among the consumers and increase their purchasing frequency.

The promotional budget is an important thing to be considered while trying to implemented integrated marketing campaign (Ismail and Bawa 2013). The promotional budget can be estimated by calculating the last year’s sales percentage as well as the projected sales which is estimated for the next year. The budgeting process should take into amount the type of money that should be spent on type of media. There should be more budget allocation for the digital media campaigns as compared to the traditional marketing methods (Bimber 2014). The marketing campaign considering the organic food promotion should take into account the mobile marketing as it is a popular mode of promotion. It is especially common among the youths of today’s population and more people are opting for them. There should be fairly large amount of budget allocated for social media networking as it is the best cost effective method for promoting a new product (Ismail and Bawa 2013). A big part of the growth of the product is possible through effective social media marketing. This kind of marketing would allow greater interaction with the target audience since the more number of people use these media to stay connected with their friends and peers..

This promotional campaign would use the zero-based budgeting, in which the onset of budgeting process would start from zero and there is little reference made to the earlier year’s budget (Callaghan, Hawke and Mignerey 2014). The budget for the overall promotional would be proposed to the senior management for their approval (Ismail and Bawa 2013). The components of the marketing campaign need to be reviewed with all the different heads requiring approval. This would ensure an optimal allocation of the resources in the most important promotional tools. The allocation of promotional budget is illustrated below-

Fig: Promotional Budget for organic foods

Source: Created by author

The development of an integrated marketing communication program is essential for the purpose of promotion of the organic food products in Saudi Arabia (Ismail and Bawa 2013). The integrated marketing communication would use two different tools for promotion. The two tools used are digital marketing and advertising. The digital marketing comprises of the different search engine optimization, mobile marketing and social media marketing.The first is the identification of the target market in which the campaign would be aimed at (Ismail and Bawa 2013).A message would be created that would be circulated to all the social media websites and mobiles marketing tools. This would be done in an attractive manner and interactive manner, which grabs the attention of the readers. The campaign would also be used for development of brand awareness, building of relationships and the generation of website traffic. The following illustration is the poster that would be circulated in digital marketing campaign

The above poster would be posted live in various social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and others. This can be posted in the company page of the social media website. It would also be used in various video websites such as YouTube. This would also be posted in the official website of the company who is promoting the product.The digital marketing should be done in such a manner that the target market of organic food is catered to. In Facebook pages, there are pages of organic foods in Saudi and these should be targeted. The product should be advertised on these channels. The creation of the company page would also be helpful in reaching out to the masses.

The advertisement function would comprise of the circulation of the content in various online as well as offline modes. There would be various media tools involved such as radio advertising, video advertising, print media, broadcast media such as television.

The above advertisements would make the audience realize the bas effects of non-organic food products and they would be more bend towards the organic food products. It should be decided regarding the number of times the advertisement would be broadcasted or published. The frequency is important for penetrating into the target market within short period of time.

The company can also engage in online coupons to the first 100 customers in their website, which would help in greater brand visibility. The objectives of the website are to display more number of organic foods and increase their interaction with the audience. There should be live chat services with the clients in the websites so that the customers are well guided once they visit the website. The major selling idea of the advertisements would be the emphasis of healthy aspects of organic foods. The creative tactics used would be text along with graphics. The objective of this advertising is to reach wide number of audience and empower them about the new product.

It is important to monitor as well as evaluate the marketing campaign so that it meets the desired pre-determined objectives (Andrews and Shimp 2017). It is important to assess the effectiveness of the digital campaign so that the objectives of the integrated marketing communication are fulfilled. The first following are the ways the integrated marketing campaign would be used-

• Google Analytics- The company website should be well maintained and updated at all times so that it can attract a high number of traffic. The Google analytics should be used to detailed information regarding important information such as landing pages, referring pages, site traffic and others (Andrews and Shimp 2017). These should also be used to track visitor’s pattern and their way of surfing online. It would also comprise of the feedback process of the digital marketing campaign.
• Monitoring the feedback- The marketers should try to analyze the feedbacks received from the customers and try to improve their product features in case of customer negative feedbacks. The products should be manufactured, packaged and distributed as per the needs and demands of the consumers.
• Interacting in social media- The company officials should involve in greater interaction with the customers in social media websites (Andrews and Shimp 2017). There should be proper interaction between the consumers so that they are free to express their concerns. Their queries, issues and problems should be addressed and relevant solution should be sought.
• Surveys- The organic food manufacturer should engage in surveys and polls, which would help the consumers to express their satisfaction levels (Andrews and Shimp 2017). It would help the marketers to understand the various thinking patterns of the consumers and if they are happy about the type of product offered to them.

The monitoring and the control of the program would be done by using the field tests. There would be customer interviews in which they would be asked about the feedback of the marketing campaign. The type and quality of the advertisements would be evaluated from the feedback received from the customers. There would also be phone surveys done, which would ask the customers about their views on the products and their perceived benefits. This type of monitoring would give more realistic view of the current situation.

Conclusion

The organic food industry presents interesting trends in the global market. The concept of organic food is gaining prominence and it is a fast growing alternative to traditional foods. The people are opting towards healthy food alternatives and hence they have started positive affinity towards organic food products. This report discussed about the analysis of the current market situation in global basis and particularly in Saudi Arabia. The organic food industry in Saudi Arabia is in nascent stage and hence it is important to perform extensive promotional campaigns. This would make it sure that the product is well visible among the target market. The integrated marketing communication is being determined. The promotional budget has been allocated which would help the campaign run in a successful manner. The development of the integrated marketing communication is being done along with two tools such as advertising and digital marketing. The concluding section discussed the several evaluation tools that would be used for monitoring the marketing campaign. This report would broaden the understanding of the integrated marketing communication campaign and how to implement it.

References

Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Nelson Education.

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Bush, R.C., 2016. Family farming in the Near East and North Africa.

Callaghan, S., Hawke, K. and Mignerey, C., 2014. Five myths (and realities) about zero-based budgeting. McKinsey & Company, p.2.

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Ismail, M. and Bawa, M., 2013. Influence of consumer promotional budget (CPB) on sales in retail marketing (RM).

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Memish, Z.A., Jaber, S., Mokdad, A.H., AlMazroa, M.A., Murray, C.J. and Al Rabeeah, A.A., 2014. Peer reviewed: Burden of disease, injuries, and risk factors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1990–2010. Preventing chronic disease, 11.

Pearson, S., 2016. Building brands directly: creating business value from customer relationships. Springer.

Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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