Analysis Of Integrated Marketing Communications Techniques: Always # LikeAGirl And GoPro Be A Hero Campaigns

Explain the basic features and philosophy of the integrated marketing communications concept. Differentiate between marketing communications tools, such as advertising and public relations, and apply the principles of marketing theory to analyse given communications problems.

Task You will write a report on two different campaigns that have used all or some integrated marketing communications tools to achieve marketing and communications objectives. A campaign has several creative executions under the same theme, so look for Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) campaigns where the same creative idea has been communicated across all or some IMC tools and media.

The primary objective of the given report is to anayse two sets of Interated Marketing Communications technique as used by two famous Advertisment campaigns. The chosen advertismet campaigns are Always # LikeAGirl and Go Pro be a hero.

The company Always, is a personcal care company which offers various items of women health. The section of camapign which was used as a part of this report was the campaign here the girl power was encouraged (Ahmed and Rafiq 2013). The second company Go Pro sells contemeporary cameras which are waterproff and can capture all the movements of a person. The section of IMC Strategy used is the Be a Hero one.  This campaign encouraged the users to live life like a hero.The given campaigns were chosen because they serve as an excellent example of how the integrated Marketing campaign should be ideally carried out by company.

The report follows a systamztized format whereby the compoenents of the two different advetisments have been discussed with respct to the Rationale, IMC startegies used, Communciation and Marketing Objective, Target audience and Campaign contents. Certain recommendations to improve performance and the comparison between different advertisments have also been provided.

The video starts with various girls and women being asked to do different activities like a girl. A man as well as a little boy was also asked about the same and they then portrayed how a girl typically behaves (Always.com. 2018). However, when the little girls were asked to do like one, they did not do it in a typical manner and instead acted as if the they were just asked to run. This way, each of them explained how they had understood the term wrong and how girls should break stereotypes and do what they want to.

The target audience for the give brand is girls.  The company states that during the phase of puberty, girls always find it extremely difficult to communicate their changing feelings to anyone and they have observed a decline in the confidence of the girls during this phase (Shen and Bissell 2013). Hence, the company wanted to provide empowerment to the different girls during this phase of their life development and for that reason it came up with this movie plan in order to showcase their support towards the girls and uphold their confidence level at all stages of life. Simply stated, the target audience comprises of mostly women between the ages of 12-60. It is also for those parents whose child is going through the puberty phase.

Campaign and Marketing Objectives

The primary objective of the given campaign was to raise brand awareness with regard to the company- Always which is a hygiene brand for women. Word of mouth was also a key communication objective for Always. The company was marketing through various advertisements on print media, social media advertising and television marketing. However, the company had conducted a survey through which they came to know that there lacks a sense of awareness among the girls and people in general who tend to consider being a girl as a point of weakness (Always.com. 2018). For this reason, the company wanted to turn the tables and change the manner in which the people think about the phrase: “Like a girl “. It wanted to make sure that after the campaigning was out people considered the given phrase #LikeAGirl in a positive manner.

Empowering the girl child was the primary motive of the company and for that purpose it started phrase #LikeAGirl  for  the campaign tagline. The brand Always wanted the audience to connect with the line and uphold the dignity of girls alongside supporting them by providing them confidence at their weakest moments. It also wanted to remove the stereotype that girls are weak . According to Always.com (2018), after the advertisements were published, the perception of the audience changed and they no longer associated the tagline LikeAGirl in an insulting manner but as a sign of strength. Through the advertisement , the company wanted to bring this tagline to life though IMC.

The key campaigning tool for the given idea was television advertisement in various channels and a video being published on YouTube. Series of advertisements were published in this aspect like a teaser and two three sets of complete clips(Andrews  and Shimp 2017).  Various print Medias, Social media posters and billboard were also published in the name of #Likeagirl.

In addition to the hashtag aspect, the company provided a link to the customers which redirected them to the company`s website where the page welcomed the user with the tagline and provided various details about the products which were being offered by the particular company (Armstrong et al. 2015). The company also has a twitter account which manages the different aspects of the campaign. Various magazines and other mediums like Newspapers were also used to spread the awareness.

Another unique aspect of the given campaign was that women were asked to share their experience about being treated or being humiliated by using the phrase like a girl. Thousands of women came up and shared their experiences which further helped the company to develop a unique connection with each of the target audience.

Campaign Idea

The given campaign leaves almost no are for improvement and was highly successful in engaging the larger audience (Wilson et al. 2016). As stated earlier the campaign attracted a huge crowd of women coming up and sharing their experience of how they always grew up to believe specially during puberty that women are supposed to be weak, and how the given advertisement gives them confidence as to that the given phrase is no  more an insult but and encouragement (Black  2013). The campaign had above 36 million views on Twitter.   The video released by the company went viral immediately  and was able to have a positive impact on the sales of the company as well.

The Hero Be a Hero began it operations with the videos and print media being published in various sources like that of YouTube, social media websites, televisions and other newspapers.  The campaigns showed various athletes and stuntman who attached their cameras to their body and shot the various action stunts which they conducted. The videos basically wanted to show that the camera could be used for any purpose and was durable even under water and high activity sports.

The primary target audience for the given camera products were adults between the age 21-45 as they are ones who generally take part in huge end activity tasks and underwater activities.

• The teens between the age of 12-19 were also used as a target market
• The people who like to travel frequently and engage in adventurous sports were targeted.
• The young adults between the age of 18-21 and lastly men and women who were earning more than $62000 in a year with the primary targets of the given firm.

The primary motive of the company was to build a long lasting and sustainable relationship between the GoPro product line and the sport enthusiasts. The company wanted to encourage the people who had an adventurous streak in them to fulfill their dreams by acting like a hero which is at one point of time, every child`s dream (Theaker 2017). For this purpose the company wanted to build an emotional relationship with the company and the customers to enhance long term sustainable relationships (Gopro.com. 2018).

Another objective of the advertisement was purely business oriented and aimed at increasing the revenue of the company which would then result in making the company more popular. It aimed to increase the GoPro users by 16% in 2016 (Tapp and Spotswood 2013).

The GoPro be a hero campaign idea was put up to reflect the adventures that people seem to enjoy. For the purpose of the advertisement the company hired athletes and professional stuntmen to use the given camera and take an amazing footage of the activity they are indulging themselves in (Hanssens et al. 2014). However, due to the unrestricted use of the camera various users started making alternative use of these cameras for purpose like to reflect how a child is playing, capture their pet`s journey.

Marketing Communications Tools Used

The tagline Be a Hero was to encourage the users to unleash their inner hero and conquer the world of adventures and success (Blakeman 2018). The Be a hero line became a huge selling point for the given product. The campaign also wanted to encourage good health which could have been achieved from indulging in various sporting activities which would be helpful for the individual.

The Go Pro tried to make use of a number of marketing tools and techniques for the successful communication of their plans and objectives to the target audience. It wanted to portray that people not only could enjoy experiences but also be able to capture these experiences (Helm and Gritsch 2014).  The campaign made wide use of the mass media to get closer to a large number of people in an easy manner.  With their campaign, Go Pro wanted to influence the audience into buying the given product and inform them about its benefits.

The primary IMC Tool which was used was the advertisement. Television and internet based advertising were used as the primary method to connect with the customers. A although these channels are non-personal, they help the organization to connect with the mass audience and reach out easily to the given target market.

Internet based marketing techniques like social media marketing on YouTube, Facebook and other sides were well used. A website was created which would have allowed the customers to make proper use of the information available and read about various users and their experiences with the camera.

Although the video advertisement techniques which were used were quite attractive and went a long way in convincing the customers to buy the given product, however, certain extra promotions except for the online channel could have gone a long way in convince the customers to buy the product (Leonidou, Katsikeas and Morgan 2013). This could have been accompanied by the idea advertisements which would have made the advertisements more popular. The impact of the video advertising was successful for a short period of time but failed to deliver a long term perspective.

Certain recommendations to improve the  Integrated Marketing communications have been given as follows :

• Indulging in relevant market research- Market research forms a critical aspect of any business enterprise and it becomes essentially important for any company to see to it that the plan which it aims to deliver is based on a practical and a well researched program which allows for proper execution and ease of functioning. Conducting baseless initiatives who do not hit to the relevant audience in the right manner will lead to a huge waste of time for the company (Khan 2014).
• Strengthen Public Relations- Public Relations are often not given importance but are one of the most important tools of the Integrated Marketing Communications plan. Whenever a celebrity or a known sports personality for that matter gets associated with any advertisement movement then the brand value of the product increases and the company will be able to make relevant use of the plan thereby fulfilling their objectives.
• Use of social media analytics- In addition to making use of social media marketing techniques, the social media analytics should also be used in order to see to it that the company is able to make use of these tools to predict the outcome of their movements and judge their execution plan (Keller 2013). This social media analytics includes details like who have been able to view the data of the company, how do they do it and whether they are interested or not. Using this, a company can alter plans and target in a refined manner.

The chosen two companies, Go Pro and Always create the Advertisement campaign which showed the power of successful marketing plan and execution. It also reflected how the IMC Strategy if integrated with proper cause can reach into the hearts of the customers. The primary aim of both the brands was to attract the customers to its brand (Huang and Sarigöllü 2014) the path taken by Always #LikeAGirl was more towards the support for equality whereas the Go Pro Be a Hero strategy was to encourage adventures. The major difference between the tools used by both the companies was that the first company made use of a variety of marketing techniques to attract its customers while Go Pro used a systematic and well targeted plan to reach out to the potential target market

Recommendations and Comparison

Conclusion

Therefore, from the given analysis on the two IMC Plans by Always and Go Pro respectively portrayed the importance of an IMC Plan in an organization and how the given plan should be executed well in order to ensure the success of the product or the Advertisement to be launched.  The IMC campaign which was most preferred by the author was the first campaign of Always. Always has always had a unique way of advertising and with this campaign they planned to break stereotypes by promoting and teaching a good concept. The marketing strategies used by the company were also very commendable. Hence, the given plan is largely preferred because of its ability to leave an ever lasting imprint on the hearts of the viewers.

References 

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

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Black, S., 2013. Practice of public relations. Routledge.

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YouTube. ,2018. Always #LikeAGirl. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs [Accessed 26 Mar. 2018].

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