Integrated Marketing Communication For Children’s Health Drink Is The Essay.

Background Information of the Product

Discuss about the Integrated Marketing Communication for Children’s Health Drink.

The aim of the report is to understand the importance of integrated marketing communication and its use as an important element of the marketing mix. Integrated marketing communication is the means of integrating a number of communication tools to produce an impactful message that shall help to attract the target groups of people (Cornelissen 2014). The report focuses on selling a food product that is targeted on children less than 12 years of age. A creative strategy for the food product will also be highlighted in this report. On the basis of the creative strategy, best media channels will be recommended. A detailed media planning of the advertisement campaign of the food product will be carried on in this report.

The product is a beverage, basically a health drink. It is a consumers’ product, an FMCG product. The product is acts as a complete package for the grown up children. The drink will be targeted globally and not only in Australia. This drink provides extra energy and improves the immune system of children (Harris 2014). Other benefits of the drink include the correct proportion of the various nutrients present in it. This helps the children to get the nourishment by consuming a glass of this health drink and fulfils the nutritional requirement if children skip their meals. In addition to this, the drink can be consumed by directly mixing it with warm water and there is no need for mixing it with milk, unlike many other health drinks. Two glasses a day are enough for gaining the extra benefits gained from major health drinks (Breda et al. 2014). The drink is also available in a variety of flavors as well.

The food product or the health drink is targeted to the children below 12 years of age, but it has to be understood that the purchasers or the customers will be the parents of these children. Therefore, at the time of designing the media plan, the target audience should be both children as well as their parent. It is expected that the age of the parents would be between 35 and 50 years. In addition to this, if the income level of this target group of people is considered, it can be said that both the middle class and the upper middle class people will be targeted for the promotion of this product (Walker 2014).

Target Audience

The main objective of designing the integrated marketing communication is to improvise the sale of the product. In addition to this, a number of other integrated marketing communication objectives can be stated here.

1. To create brand awareness. Although, the product is aimed to sell health drinks for children, one of the important objectives of the marketing is to create brand awareness among the target group of people (Belch et al. 2014). This shall help them to create a positive image of the particular Company and people shall recognize the brand even if come across with other types of products.
2. To increase brand loyalty. Creating and increasing brand loyalty is a crucial thing in a competitive market. In order to create the scope for repurchasing even when there are a number of options available at the market can be achieved only by the means of creating brand loyalty (Argenti 2015). A well integrated communication plan can help to increase brand loyalty.
3. To target the maximum number of people. As it has been evident that the health drink is targeted globally, therefore the aim of the integrated marketing remains to target the maximum number of people. Therefore, confining only to a single media would not help to achieve the objective and thus, it is recommended to use more than one channel for the marketing and promotional activity.
4. To influence the attitudes of the consumers. The marketing should be conducted in a way to influence the attitudes and the interest of the target consumers. The marketing should differentiate the particular product from the other existing products in the market and shall influence the consumers to go for this particular product only (Thorson and Moore 2013).
5. To influence the purchase intention of the target consumers. The most crucial objective is to increase the sale of the number of products. This shall automatically increase the profitability of the company that remains the only objective of a company. Lastly, it can be said the marketing plan should be designed that shall help to boost the sale of the product.

Creative strategy is the outcome of the team result that is formed after the intense discussion based on the need of the marketing campaign and the way the plan is integrated to target the particular group of people. The creative strategy for the health drink should be focusing on the nutritional benefits that children would get when they consume it (Kitchen and Burgmann 2015). The strategy should involve the fact that children have to perform a lot of things regularly. They have to remain active throughout. They have to participate equally in academic as well as sports activities. Therefore, they should be supplied with sufficient amount of nutritional food that would help them to be healthy and active.

Apart from the importance of being active throughout, the creative strategy should include the role of the parents as well. Therefore, the advertisement should also focus on the fact that parents are only responsible to provide the adequate amount of nutrition and energy drinks to their children. Thus, only feeding children with regular staple food are not enough and that they should be given some extra nutritional food as well (Percy 2014). Moreover, it should also be highlighted that in a competitive world, in order to be at the top, the children should be given the best nutrition that they should surpass others in the competition. The creative strategy might also include the level of stress and hard work that children have to do at schools, tuitions and at other places where they have to participate regularly. In order to gain energy, this health drink will act as the perfect supplement (Moriarty et al. 2014).

If the media plan and the different media that to be used for the marketing purpose of the mentioned health drink is considered, it has to be said that if the advertisement remained constrained to one media, the objectives will not be accomplished. Therefore, it is expected to use both traditional and new and digital media for the advertisement and promotional marketing.   

1. Electronic media (Television commercial): The most important media to be used for the purpose of the advertising is the Television media. An advertisement has to be developed pointing the importance of the drink and how consuming this particular drink would benefit a child (Moriarty et al. 2014). This commercial should be telecasted during the daily soaps, reality shows and also during the cartoon or other children based programs.
2. Social media networking sites: As already mentioned, the target consumers fall between the age group of 35 and 50 years. This group of people is active users of social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well. Therefore, advertisement highlighting, the importance of the health drink, in the form of small story board or small duration videos can be made and uploaded on these sites (Walker 2014). This could be the most successful means of advertising if carried on effectively.
3. Promotional campaign: Apart from reaching out people virtually, the communication marketing can be carried on by the means of directly communicating with the target consumers. A promotional campaign can be carried out at various locations like malls or schools, where the parents shall be asked to participate in the campaign. This way the properties of the particular food item can be reached out to the target consumers directly. A free sample can also be offered to the participants (Harris 2014).

It is expected that if the above mentioned promotional marketing is carried on, the creative strategy can be easily made highlighted among the people and the promotional activity as a whole shall be a successful one.

Conclusion:

A detailed discussion has been made on the integrated marketing communication and the plan for the launch of a new range of food products for the children below 12 years of age. However, the target group of people is the parents and the guardians of these children. Therefore, the creative strategy had been framed keeping the target group of people in kind. The creative strategy has been focused towards the competitive nature where children as stuck into and that it fall under the responsibility of the parents to understand the needs of their children and fulfill all the needs. It is for the same reason, the media like social media networking sites or search engines have been selected that could easily target these people and the objectives of the marketing can be achieved easily.

References:

Argenti, P.A., 2015. Corporate communication. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Belch, G.E., Belch, M.A., Kerr, G.F. and Powell, I., 2014. Advertising: An integrated marketing communication perspective. McGraw-Hill Education.

Breda, J.J., Whiting, S.H., Encarnação, R., Norberg, S., Jones, R., Reinap, M. and Jewell, J., 2014. Energy drink consumption in Europe: a review of the risks, adverse health effects, and policy options to respond. Frontiers in public health, 2, p.134.

Cornelissen, J., 2014. Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage.

Harris, J.L., 2014, November. Sugary drink marketing targeted to children, teens and multicultural youth: A continuing challenge for public health initiatives to reduce consumption. In 142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15-November 19, 2014). APHA.

Kitchen, P.J. and Burgmann, I., 2015. Integrated marketing communication: Making it work at a strategic level. Journal of Business Strategy, 36(4), pp.34-39.

Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N.D., Wells, W.D., Crawford, R., Brennan, L. and Spence-Stone, R., 2014. Advertising: Principles and practice. Pearson Australia.

Percy, L., 2014. Strategic integrated marketing communications. Routledge.

Thorson, E. and Moore, J., 2013. Integrated communication: Synergy of persuasive voices. Psychology Press.

Walker, S., 2014. YouTube Strategies 2014: Marketing Strategy and Advertising Techniques-Making and Marketing Online Video.