Marketing Communication at London Olympics - Essay Example

Marketing Communication Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Identify and discuss the specific challenges of communicating with today’s youth 4 Marketing communication strategies for London 2012 Games 7 Conclusion 9 References 11 Introduction Communication is simply the process of exchanging meaningful information, opinions or thoughts in the form of writing, speech or even signs (Robbins, Judge, 2007). Marketing comprises of identifying the target market, developing new product or new aspects of existing product, developing pricing, promotional and sales strategies, selling the products and finally providing proper after sales services and taking feedback (Kotler, Keller, 2007). According to American Marketing Association Boston, is “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (American Marketing Association, n.d.). Proper communication is very important for the success of any marketing strategy. Again proper strategy has to be adopted to communicate all those necessary information regarding the product, price, promotion and place. So it is clear that marketing and communication both are interconnected and success of one is dependent on the other. Marketing communication mix is comprised of different marketing communication elements like advertising, public relation, sales promotion, direct marketing etc. These are needed to be followed to achieve various marketing objectives. In 2012 summer Olympic Games will take place in London from 27 July to 12 August. Then there will be 2012 Paralympic games which would start from 29 August to 9 September. This is the third time that London would be hosting the Olympic Games. 2012 Olympic Games would be taking place in some of the new venues along with historic and existing facilities (London Olympics 2012, n.d.). London Organising Committee would be in charge of running the games. The logo of London Olympic has created lot of controversy in the recent past. Communication would be one of the most important factors for the success of such a mega event. Since it is a sports mega event quite obviously young generation of the world would be the major target of the communication strategies. But it has been found quite difficult to communicate anything to today’s youth. In this essay two major issues regarding this mega event are discussed. One is challenges that are likely to face by the organising committee while communicating to today’s youth and another one appropriate strategies and promotional tools for the communication of this event. Identify and discuss the specific challenges of communicating with today’s youth Youth represents the main section of world population in the world today. They are the future of this globe. It is their responsibility to show the way to others. Each and every country today depends on its youth generation for its future success that might be in the field of sports, education or anything else. As a result it is quite obvious that youth would be the target of any mega sports event. But it is very difficult to communicate with today’s youth as their character is shaped by various factors. These factors would include lifestyle, culture, associations, social and economic factors, psychological factors etc. Again all these factors vary from place to place. Lifestyle and culture of a young man and women of United Kingdom would vary by a large extent from a young man and women from China. Different country has different culture, different social and economic structure. As a result lifestyle is different in different countries. This in turn affects the process of shaping the character of youth. These are the major challenges regarding communicating with today’s youth. Moreover there are language problem which is a major communication barrier. Different languages are spoken around the world; as a result communication needs to be done in several languages so that youth from the whole world could be targeted. All the factors that are likely to be appeared as challenges in the process of communicating with today’s youth are discussed below. Lifestyle: Lifestyle is one of the major challenges in the process of communication with today’s youth. Different youth has different lifestyle. Some might be very rich by born whereas some might be struggling due to their financial condition. Some might be very much study concerned and disciplined in their life whereas some might like disco and pub culture and there is no sign of discipline in their life and they are last bothered about it. Some youth might be badly affected by drugs and alcohols. These two factors are very crucial in case of today’s young generation. It has been found that a major section of today’s youth is drug and alcohol addicted and this is a major cause of worry in the western world. Apart from drugs and alcohols personal relations also have major impact in the process of shaping the lifestyle of today’s youth. Teenage sex and underage pregnancy are the two important rising problems in the young generation today. These factors are creating huge mental and financial pressure among today’s youth and this in turn affecting their overall lifestyles. They are taking the help of drugs and alcohols in order to get the relief from this rising mental pressure. Beside this a significant section of today’s young generation is very much dependent on the technology which is reducing their creativity and innovativeness. All these factors are the major challenges in the process of communicating with today’s youth. Culture is another barrier in the communication process with today’s youth. Different youth has different culture. Youth with different cultures take various communication strategies differently. An advertising campaign might be designed to target to all the youth but it might be taken differently by the youths from different culture. As a result some time marketers forced to come up with different advertisement campaigns for youths with different cultures. Culture is often influenced by various factors which include education, income, occupation, friends and family members. As a result a marketing communication program while designed, these mentioned factors must seriously considered by the marketers. The social and economical structure of a particular country might also be barrier of the communication program. Some times it happens that the content of a particular advertisement is considered as vulgar in the society of that particular country. In that case the content might need to be designed differently for different society without changing the promoted product. Economic structure refers to the economic condition of the youth in a particular country. If major section of the country’s youth is financial struggling then it becomes difficult to get the desired objective from the communication program. Moreover it might happen that the product that is being promoted is too difficult to afford for the young generation of the country because of their financial condition. Technological condition of the region might also be a significant problem for the process of communication. If the advertisement is specially made for internet and if the facility is not there in a particular region, then youth of that particular region could not be targeted. Apart from these factors there are various other factors that might be considered as hindrance in the communication process. Today’s young generation is exposed to so many things that there are hardly time left for each of the aspects in their life. Perhaps the most critical aspect is that if today’s youth is engaged with one thing they prefer to engage with that thing only for next few days or months. As a result it is very difficult for the marketers to get the attention of today’s youth. Marketers’ one of the most critical challenges is to get the young generation exposed to their advertisement or other promotional activities. Moreover there are several social problems that are affecting today’s youth. Many of them are getting addicted by drugs and alcohols. They get involved in sex at a very young age which sometimes results to underage pregnancy and create lot of emotional and social pressure on them. As a result they simply can not give enough attention to other things in their life. It is difficult for marketers also to communicate with these kind of young men and women. Marketers need to develop promotional strategies in such a way so that these young men and women get attracted to their promotions. Marketing communication strategies for London 2012 Games London 2012 summer Olympic Games is one of the mega sports event in the coming decade. After many years such an event is going to take place in London. In fact this is the third time in the history of London that an event like Olympic is going to take place in the city. As a result it is quite obvious that the organising committee would be adopting several marketing and promotional strategies in order to make it successful. Basically there could be two types of promotional strategies that could be effective for the promotion of London 2012 Olympic Games. These two are ‘push’ and ‘pull’ strategy. The push strategy refers to strategy of pushing the product to the target customers. Generally push strategy is used for creating consumer demand and this is done by using organisation’s sales force. Theoretically in push strategy products are promoted by the producers to the wholesalers and then it is promoted to the retailers and finally to the consumers. Whereas pull strategy need huge spending on consumer promotion and advertising and it make consumers ask for the products. Successful pull strategy would make the consumers ask retailers for the product which in turn force the retailers to ask wholesalers for the product (Tutor2u, n.d.). In case of push promotional strategy various promotional tools are used in such a way so that products are pushed to the consumers whereas in case of pull strategy promotional activities would pull the consumers towards the product. In case of London 2012 Olympic Games both the strategies would be effective in order to make it a grand success. Organisers can adopt various strategies; use several promotional tools in order to make it a huge success. Various promotional tools include advertising, public relation, personal selling, direct marketing etc. Advertising would be best promotional tool in case of London 2012 Olympic Games. Organisers can advertise the brand London 2012 and its logo which has already created lot of controversy. Electronic and print media should be the primary tools for advertising. Internet and television would be two main electronic media vehicles. The reach of internet is huge and it is very much popular among the young generation in the world especially in the developed countries. Even in developing countries like China and India internet is getting hugely popular. The best part of internet is that it is global and can be accessed from any part of the world. There could be various online promotional activities. Organisers can use websites like Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia for promotion of the game. Exciting videos could be published in various websites. Television could be another important media vehicle. It is still one of the most popular electronic media in the world, although its popularity has reduced to some extent because of the arrival of internet. But it could be one of the most useful electronic tools for promotion especially in those countries where use of internet is not satisfactory. Most of the African countries and some of the Asian countries television is more followed as compared to internet. Apart from advertising organisers could take the help of various public relation strategies in order to promote the London 2012 Olympic Games. There would be several other sports activities in and around England. Organisers could target some of these sports events for promotion. There would be various Cricket and Soccer events in the country. Organisers could promote London 2012 in these events. They can hire some of the big stars of cricket and soccer as the brand ambassador of London 2012. They can hire different brand ambassador for different countries. The logo of London 2012 Olympic could be promoted by printing it on the sports wear of British cricketers and footballers. Several NGOs could be made to be associated with the games. Main objective would be to promote the event in various social activities. Apart from these organising committee members could make themselves associated with various seminars and conferences that would be taking place around the world in the next two years. It could be promoted in many international summits that are likely to take place on several global issues. Organising committee of the event should make themselves involved in various social projects that are likely to take place in various part of the world. Conclusion Events like London 2012 Olympic Games take place once in four years. This type of events has massive influence on the economical and the political situation of the host country. These events are the meeting place of several cultures across the world. Relations between the host country and other countries in world are greatly effected by this type of event. As a result it is very important to promote the event not only in the host country but in the whole world. This type of events mainly target the youth of the world. But it is very difficult to properly communicate with today’s youth. Today’s young generation is involved in so many things in their life that marketers face several challenges to properly promote an event to them. There could be several promotional strategies that could be adopted for promoting the events like London 2012 Olympic Games. Advertisement and public relation are the two most useful promotional tools for this type of mega events. Advertising could be done in both electronic and print media. Internet would be the most effective media vehicle for the promotion of London 2012 Games. Popular sports or film stars could be hired for the event. Organising committee should select a brand ambassador for the worldwide promotion of the event. Apart from advertising, various public relation strategies could be adopted for the promotional purpose. The organising committee of the event should be involved in various social activities not only in the host country but in the whole world. Finally it can be concluded that like many other mega events, the success of London 2012 Olympic Games is dependent on its promotional strategies. References American Marketing Association, No Date, Marketing, Definition of Marketing, [online] Available at: http://www.amaboston.org/definition-of-marketing.html [Accessed on December 10, 2009] London Olympics 2012, No Date, The Independent London Olympic Site, [online] Available at: http://www.londonolympics2012.com/ [Accessed on December 10, 2009] Tutor2u, No Date, promotion- push and pull strategies, [online] Available at: http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/promotion_pushpull.asp [Accessed on December 1, 2009]. Robbins, S. Judge, T. 2007, Organisational Behavior, Pearson Education Kotler, P. Keller, K. 2007, Marketing Management, Pearson Education ‘ Read More