Message Without Words - Essay Example

Message without Words An appropriate message for this image would be: “You are part of the Family”. This message together with the image will create an emotional appeal to consumers. All consumers are moved by emotional messages and the message will send emotional triggers that will connect the audience with the message. Through the use of profound emotion, odds have it that the message will improve brand consciousness. The message will speak to the consumer’s needs and wants and their interest. The most significant emotion created by this message is the sense of belonging. Arguably, no one desires to be alone or side-lined from the rest of the people. Nature commands that a great proportion of individuals want to feel as a part of a group, and consumers exhibit this human nature through buying products in order to feel as part of a group. This image portrays three topless kids, which may be viewed as pornographic. However, this is not the case. The topless kids’ image implies that the kids will get clothes at Benetton. It shows that a kid will get everything they require to be fully dressed. Needless to say, it is a symbol that Benetton offers all sorts of kids clothing. To all kids and parents, this advert shows them that they can get anything that they want from Benetton. This image makes a logical appeal how the products of the company solve clothing problems, therefore, causing some positive reaction. We will base this advert according to the requirements of Kotler et al (2013). According to Kotler et al (2013), it is imperative for a marketer to identify emotions that may be understood by the target market and conforms to their customs. In this case, this advert will consider the customs and traditions of the target markets before exposing it to them. Since Muslim religion does not allow people to expose any part of their body, the image will not be used to target any Muslim customer. Numerous researches have been carried out on the role of emotions in advertising messaging. Du Plessis (2005) links emotional adverts with construction of positive attitudes towards an advert such as likeability, and also associates it with brand recall and recognition. According to Kamins et al (1991), consumers viewing an advert will adopt the mood presented in it, for instance, an advert with a happy mood will leave the consumers with a happy mood while an advert with a sombre mood will leave them in a sombre mood. Therefore, this message’s primary goals are to create brand recognition and recall and generate positive attitudes among the customers. However, this message targets kids and teens. This is evident from the image, which portrays three kids. Marketing model A marketing model must incorporate and mirror the overall goals of the company. This advert will use a marketing strategy model that will elicit interest, attention, desire and action. The advertising strategy will revolve around positioning of the products of Benetton, communication media, and the target market. The positioning aspect of the advertising strategy will rely on the positioning message that will accompany the image. This statement, “You are part of the Family”, will give the values held by the company on customers. This will evoke emotions among the customers. This statement gives the customer a reason to purchase the products of Benetton. Additionally, a statement giving the attributes of the products offered that shows how the products are differentiated will be incorporated in the advertisement (Kamins et al, 1991). For instance, a message such as “Simply the best” will distinguish the products of Benetton from those of competitors. The target market will consist of parents and kids who will influence their parents to buy them Benetton products. After apprehending the target audience, the advertising strategy will now employ the numerous channels of communication. The different channels employed will be through the use of print media and the use of World Wide Web and direct mail, and outdoor advertising channels such as billboards and adverts on public transportation. In this regard, the advertising strategy will follow the following steps: first, the team will define and understand the Benetton brand; and secondly, the team will understand what the advert should accomplish then come up with the advert. Integrated marketing communications plan This plan summarizes the tactics that will be employed in order to raise awareness on the products of Benetton through the image. This image will focus on changing people’s opinions towards the products of Benetton. This message will be conveyed to the target audience through internet advertising, outdoor advertising and print media. i. Objectives of the promotion strategy The ultimate objectives of this promotion strategy are to create more brand awareness and increase the market share of Benetton, as well as the sales of kids and teen clothing collection. On the other hand, the communications objectives will aim at making 40% of the target audience of the presence of Benetton kids’ collection in the first round of promotion that will take almost two months. On the other hand, this plan will aim also aim at increasing the click on the company’s website by 40%. ii. Situational analysis After having identified the objectives of the marketing strategy, the integrated marketing plan will understand the relevant markets through conducting a situational analysis in order to evaluate the market trends, consumer attributes and competition in the market (Pride & Ferrell, 2012). The world clothing market is a multi-billion dollar sector. It consists of different subsectors, which have contributed immensely to the growth of the industry. The competitor analysis should focus on the different products offered by other organizations. This will highlight the differences between Benetton and the competitors. iii. Communication strategy The communication strategy will follow the cognitive pathway that the consumers follow resulting to purchase of a product. This pathway involves five stages that include knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation (Lamb et al, 2004). In the knowledge stage of this model, the consumers will need to acknowledge the existence of Benetton products and apprehend the company values. This messaging strategy should offer a new belief on the values held by Benetton towards its consumers. This image together with the message should create awareness of Benetton’s kids’ collection clothing through its emotive appeal. This will persuade consumers to try the new product. The implementation stage will be attained through identified channels such as direct mail, outdoor advertising and the internet. The identified advertising channels will be chosen on the basis of their effectiveness. These channels will be used through continuous and pulsing schedules. The primary channels employed include direct marketing, internet marketing, outdoor advertising and print media. a. The print media Newspapers and magazines are the most effective print media channels that this image can utilize. The most common magazines that this image can be portrayed together with the message include Glamour, Allure, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Details, Vogue and Redbook. These magazines will be selected since they have numerous categories of kids’ collection. Additionally, these magazines are available worldwide. The advert on these magazines will include the kids’ image together with the messages on “You are part of the Family” and “Simply the best”. Mothers love kids, and it is expected that this ad will be of great impact. Additionally, the image will be displayed in newspapers across nations in the target markets. The primary targets being the young children and teenagers, it is expected that they will influence their parents to buy them Benetton products since they will want to be a part of the family of the other kids. Another print media to be employed is the use of the image on packaging bags. This will assist in sending the message to all people in the streets and at home. On top of the high accessibility and involvement, these magazines will provide a unique duplication quality, permanence and creative flexibility (Kotler et al, 2013). They offer high discernment, both geographically and demographically, and provide this information to numerous special groups. This will allow the image and messages to be conveyed to the target customers. The use of these magazines will attach some prestige to the image and Benetton (Pride & Ferrell, 2012). It is estimated that the use of magazines and newspapers will be effective since almost 50% of households across United States, Asia, United Kingdom and the rest of Europe read a newspaper every day. The effectiveness of these media will be measured through the recall tests and recognition tests. a. Internet Marketing The team will advertise this image on the internet through using online banner ads and search engine optimizations. Banner ads will be purchased from the following websites: CBSNews.com, Social networks such as linkedIn, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Twitter, and other renowned websites such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, Photobucket and Ebay. This image will also utilize the search engine optimization where the ad will be paid when a consumer clicks on the advert. Google tops the list in the volume of searches among the search engines with 53% followed by Yahoo with 17% and Microsoft at 7%. The team will use the three primary search engines. The use of the internet is also expected to be effective since almost 70% of mothers are likely to use information available in the internet. Additionally, almost 60% of the population has turned to social networks. Additionally, research indicates that 65% of mothers are likely to rely on recommendations available when buying anything for their children (Balley, 2012). In this regard, the image will show the mothers that their children will be part of the Benetton family. On the other hand, search engine optimization will be effective as many people use search engine optimization in order to search for new products. The effectiveness of this media will be evaluated through such tools as click-through rate, time spend on the advert pages and the number of new visitors to the web ad. b. Direct Marketing For this image, direct marketing is one of the most effective and relevant advertising media. The advertising team will use direct mail to send postcards with the image on its cover. A primary facet of the direct mailing campaign will be the mailing list (Pride & Ferrell, 2012). This media will require access to a mailing list of mothers and fathers of the young children. By obtaining a list of these people, Benetton will reap a high return on its investments. A direct mail advert with a poster of the image and the messages will allow the company create awareness of its products and values to the people. By sending the poster with the kids, this will create a personalization touch with the parents and kids. c. Outdoor Advertising Outdoor advertising encompasses the use of billboards and the use of public transport vehicles. When using these advertising forms, the image is the first thing that a prospective consumer will see. In fact, it is expected that this will influence kids more as they will want to be a part of the Benetton family. It is expected that after the kids see the images, they will influence their parents to buy them clothes from Benetton. This image is expected to attract more attention as everyone will want to know why the kids are topless. The billboards are expected to reach a high number of people as it can be seen by almost twenty thousand people in a day (Lamb et al, 2004). References Balley, M. (2012, October 25). Getting to Know the Millennial Mom. Retrieved March 2014, from http://www.bsmmedia.com/2013/10/getting-to-know-the-millennial-mom/ Du Plessis, E. (2005), The Advertised Mind: Ground-Breaking Insights Into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising, Kogan Page Ltd. Kamins, M.A., Marks, L.J. & Skinner, D. (1991) Television commercial evaluation in the context of program induced mood: Congruency versus Consistency Effects, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 20 Issue 2, p.1-14. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Harris, L. C., & Piercy, N. F. (2013). Principles of marketing. Harlow (England: Pearson Education Limited. Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., & McDaniel, C. D. (2004). Marketing. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western. Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2012). Marketing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More