Profitable Marketing Communications - Essay Example

? Marketing of the of the Answer International expansion has become one of the most efficient methods of growing a company. It is a business development strategy where an organization expands its business into another country through various approaches. While preparing for international expansion, it is critical to understand the overall political, economical, social, technological as well as legal and environmental aspects. It is rather important to have synergy in terms of vision and long term goals of the firm as well as host nation. In the current case, an expensive line of women bathing suit is to be launched internationally. For this, the bathing line will have to create strategic alliance either with the host nation or with a local organization. The various criteria for choosing a country are as follows: Political assessment- It means accessing government stability as well as friendliness to foreign market entrants. Economic assessment- It involves documenting and analyzing of economic indicators such as, health, foreign investment activities, taxes as well as history or mergers and acquisitions. Social assessment- It involves collection of demographic information such as, age, employment rates, income history and population. Infrastructure assessment- It involves evaluation of ground conditions like, power, roads as well as telecommunications reliability. Legal assessment- It includes preparation of all regulatory compliances which the company is not following currently. Each of the countries chosen, Brazil, UAE and Spain are politically and economically suitable for the expansion business. Also, the infrastructure in all three countries is well established and shows constant growth (Lawrence, 2000). Brazil and UAE are major emerging economies and Spain has an established market for luxury swimsuit line for women. Thus, all these three countries are suitable according to most of the chosen criteria. Marketing communication Before entering into an international market, it is extremely important to understand the foreign market and the industry environment. Before marketing communication planning, the Swimsuit Company will have to look into following criteria: Assessment of growth potential It involves projecting realistic and opportunistic growth trajectory after entry into the market. Spain is one of the major European markets for swimsuits, after Italy and France. The overall yearly swimsuit sales are increasing. This can be attributed to huge tourist footfalls as well as local market consumption. Brazil has become one of the hottest destinations for luxury apparel market, as a result of increasing number of international brands as well as affordability among consumers. Even though apparel sector has seen a constant growth in UAE, the sale of men’s luxury swimsuits is much more than the ones for women. Competitor evaluation It involves identification of top players in the industry. Spain is the home for some of the top-notch luxury swimsuit brands such as, Women’s secret and Oysho, which are market leaders. Other prominent market leaders are Andres Sarda, TCN and Selmark. Brazil is still an emerging market in terms of luxury swimwear. Local brands such as, Gap and H&M, are not doing a good job. Brazil has the opportunity for luxury swimsuit market. Most of the women swimsuits in UAE are available only in malls. Customer evaluation It involves gathering customer behavior insights which can help in making useful adjustments in product designs as well as marketing communication strategies (Young & Aitken, 2007). Tools such as, fit matrix and customer opportunity matrix, can be used. As discussed earlier, both Brazil and Spain are preferable markets for expansion. However, Spain can be considered as a mature market and competition will be tough. Compared to this, Brazil has fewer competitors in luxury swimsuits category and market demand is constantly increasing. Pricing and positioning analysis It is important to forecast appropriate approaches for pricing as well as market positioning. Although the company will be able to launch its high-end apparel segments in Spain, Brazilian customers will prefer middle range and affordable lines of luxury swimsuits. Mailing lists Mailing lists are a category of consumer database. They consist of customer information and are expected to provide authentic and accurate information to various marketing campaigns. These lists are gathered from various sources such as, business seminars, trade shows, B2B forums, online and government directories and print subscriptions. Most of these authenticated and government mailing lists contain nearly 80 to 90 percent of the target market data. In order to find out the best location or country for expansion, external environmental analysis of the countries can be done: Brazil Brazil is at present one of the most stable economies of Latin America. The Brazilian government is mostly focusing on social, energy and urban projects. Outside ventures and companies are welcomes, but strict regulations are to be maintained. In terms of exchange rates and purchasing power parity, Brazil ranks as the 7th largest. Women have greater freedom in the business market as well as in the society. Also, Brazilians spend more on leisure and pastime activities. Thus, it makes Brazil a hot market for swimsuit expansion (Prlog, 2013; Marketing week, 2012). United Arab Emirates UAE has its own government system rules set by a royal family, responsible for president election and making policies. The economy is majorly based on gas and oil exports and Islam plays an influential role in every aspect of business. The women of UAE have still not achieved various rights and privileges, like those enjoyed by women in other parts of the world. Launching swimsuit in UAE will require a lot of work as the company will have to change the mindset as well as perception of general people towards women and their freedom. Spain The country is experiencing a slow rate of growth as a result of the huge fiscal deficit. However, the geographic location of Spain makes it an attractive sport for market expansion. Markets are readily inviting foreign direct investments. The investment policies are well defined and government is supportive to foreign ventures. Looking at the opportunities and threats, it is evident that Brazil will be the best market for expansion. Consumer expenditure towards luxury apparels is increasing. Women are enjoying better status as well as freedom in terms of work and lifestyle. Also, the geographical location is much encouraging for women to spend their time at the beaches (Sakarya, Eckman & Hyllegard, 2007). Answer 2 Catalogues can be itemized display or a list showing various offerings from an organization and can come in many forms. They can be a pamphlet or book and card or online catalogues. The chosen merchandise for catalogue will be female apparel from brand, Guess. The main motive behind catalogues is to increase interest among the target audience through pictures and information. Merchandising of female apparel brands will be an attractive awareness and promotional strategy as it will include major offerings from the brand as well as important information related to the products. The target market selected for the catalog will be women from the age group of 18- 35. This will include affluent college goers, young and mid-level established working women as well as affluent married women. This market will be suitable for catalogues in various ways. Firstly, catalog will provide important information such as, fabrics and maintenance, which are overlooked while shopping or browsing. With the increasing popularity of online shopping, catalogues will come as a handy informational source which can be further persuaded through online mediums (Holm, 2006). Consumers also prefer a hard copy of catalog so that they can review items before final purchase. Thus, catalog is an added advantage which helps in enhancing the overall purchasing decisions of the customers. Positioning is the way through which issued products or existing bands are placed in a market by customers. It can be explained as development of product image against competitor products. With the help of unique positioning strategy, the company is able to disseminate their distinct image to their target customers (Karadeniz, 2009). Various types of strategies for the brand to follow can be low pricing strategy, targeting specific demographic, high pricing strategy and distribution or affinity strategies. Positioning strategy can be brand wise or distribution wise. In brand positioning strategy, the company tries to send a specific image of the brand to its customers. The catalog for Guess will be positioned as trendy, passionate and luxury clothing range, available at affordable pricing. Another brand positioning strategy for Guess will be availability of a large variety in terms of sizes and fits which are not available with other competitive brand. Positioning strategy in terms of distribution will include placing the catalog in appropriate places inside the store as well as to the retailers. Inside the store, the catalog can be kept at the counter. Another unique positioning area will be placing the catalogs in between the floors on designer tables. The two of the closest competitor for catalog marketing of Guess will be Alloy and Fossil. Both of these catalogs are updated with latest fashions and are available at affordable prices which make them attractive to the target consumers. In order to differentiate the brand from the competitors, the company can add special features such as, seasonal sales and discounts. The catalog can also be a medium for building relationship between the customer and brand. This can be done through free membership forms in the catalog of various clubs. Another way to differentiate from other catalogs is by adding size and shape variations, which is unusual in other catalogs. The brands catalog can make special catalogs for different categories such as, oversize, petite and plus size. This differentiation strategy will be successful as it will help in building a long term relationship with the customers. It will also reach out to the niche segment neglected by other brands. Various customer data lists can be used to launch the catalog. The first list will be the existing customer database which includes regular customers for the brand. They will be approached via personal mails. The company will also distribute free hardcopy of the catalogs, if requested by customers. The personal mail will also be a channel for present as well as future catalog promotions and seasonal discounts. The next list will be those accounts which visit the website, but rarely visit the actual store. Online catalog will be available for them too. These online potential customers will be requested to provide their emails, following which online as well as hard copy of the catalog will be distributed (Navarro, Sicilia & Delgado-Ballester, 2009). Answer 3 Integrated marketing campaign enhances the ability of the company to reach the right consumers at right time with the right message and in the right place. The objective of the marketing campaign is to send the message to the customers about the security breach that occurred at Epsilon. The campaign also aims to provide necessary measures to these consumers so that the damage can be minimized with appropriate preventive measures, thereby avoiding similar security breach in future. The primary target group for the campaign will be those customers who were directly affected by the security breach as they would be the most venerable. This will include some of the largest companies such as, Walgreens, JP Morgan and Target. Secondary target group will be other major account holders of the Security Company. They will be considered as target group as their hardware and software system were the most disrupted due to the breach. They are the most vulnerable group of customers, therefore, it will be the responsibility of the security of the company to warn them with possible consequences as well as provide them with necessary actions and precautions (Barnes et al., 1997). In order to communicate with them, the company can use the mailing list from the security company. This will include all the customer data and their relevant information such as, name, email-id, account activity and level of breach as well as helping the security company to provide right and appropriate information to each client in need. The major communication channel used for this campaign will be direct marketing which will create a two-way dialogue and also, build relationship. This will maximize the chances for the consumers to receive the reinforced message. Press media will be kept in order to inform the customers on a public forum. After that, direct mailers as well as personal meetings will be established so that individual customer’s issues are resolved. The campaign will also use social media sites such as, Twitter and Facebook, in order to convey the message as well as provide instructions to avoid future breach (Gurau, 2008). These channels will communicate messages in various steps. The first message will be to alert the most vulnerable customers about the possible consequences of the security breach. This message will be conveyed in official meetings such as, press and public relations meeting. The customer will also be communicated about various attacks such as, phishing, spam, stealing of project files, computer hacking and loss of consumer data. The message will also warn customers about various suspected emails, which can be a potential threat to the internal data. Customers can be requested to crosscheck any suspicious emails and alert the security company at the earliest. Customers can also be asked not to provide any information about their personal data until they are confirmed of the authenticity. They will be given a special malware to detect any hackers and phishing sites which the customers can inform to the security company. Apart from informing the customers about the attacks as well as implementing appropriate precautions for minimum damage to the existing system, the security company can also take extra security steps in order to avoid future breaches. The company can establish firewalls with trusted communication channels. The company should also implement better monitoring system into the supplier companies. Before choosing a supplier, appropriate background checking as well as internal analysis should be done. References Barnes, E., Meyer, R., McClelland, B., Wieseholfer, H., & Worsam, M. (1997). Marketing: An active learning approach. New Jersey: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Gurau, C. (2008). Integrated online marketing communication: implementation and management. Journal of Communication Management, 12(2), 169 – 184. Holm, O. (2006). Integrated marketing communication: From tactics to strategy. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 11(1), 23 – 33 Karadeniz, M. (2009). Product positioning strategy in marketing management. Journal of Naval Science and Engineering, 5(2), 98-110. Lawrence, P. (2000). Management in Western Europe. New York: Palgrave Publishers. Marketing week. (2012). Breaking into Brazil. Retrieved fromhttp://www.marketingweek.co.uk/breaking-into-brazil/3033886.article Navarro, A., Sicilia, M. & Delgado-Ballester, E. (2009). Integrated marketing communications: Effects of advertising-sponsorship strategic consistency. Euro Med Journal of Business, 4(3), 223 – 236. Prlog. (2013). Pestle and SWOT Analysis of Brazil. Retrieved from http://www.prlog.org/12185289-pestle-and-swot-analysis-of-brazil.html Sakarya, S., Eckman, M. & Hyllegard, K.H (2007). Market selection for international expansion: Assessing opportunities in emerging markets. International Marketing Review, 24(2), 208 – 238. Young, A. & Aitken, L. (2007). Profitable Marketing Communications: A Guide tom Marketing Return of Investment. Cornwall: MPG Books Ltd. Read More