EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
With the passage of time, companies have enhanced their product offerings. Many of the products now are directly targeted towards the younger generation which leaves the older consumers with less motivation. In order to change such perception of the older consumers, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is aimed towards such market segment. In order to persuade the older consumers regarding the product, marketing communication mix would be used. Such a plan would help in promoting the brand in the older consumers due to its facilities i.e. convenient storage, portability and versatility. In order to persuade the older consumers to purchase the brand, the message would be conveyed through the use of Integrated marketing communication mix i.e. advertisement, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations.
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this report would be to persuade the older generation regarding the use of Amazon Kindle Fire HD for its convenient storage, portability and versatility. In order to persuade the older generation regarding the product, the current situation of the product would be evaluated. This would help in the identification of some key issues. The report would also focus on the elaborating the difference between corporate marketing strategies and marketing communication objectives. Based on which the strategies would be accurately applied in the context. Furthermore, the marketing communication plan would be elaborated in detail followed by the role of marketing communication in creating awareness regarding a particular product in the international and local marketing, across both commercial and public sectors. The elements of communication mix would also be the highlight of the report and each element of the communication mix would be integrated in the marketing communication plan.
Amazon Kindle Fire HD
Amazon’s first Kindle Fire HD was released on September 14th 2012. Kindle Fire HD is available in two different sizes. The first is the 7-inch version which is available in the market at $199 with 16 GB of storage. On the other hand, the second is the 8.9-inch version which is quite powerful as compared to the earlier version (Sims, 2012). Both the versions of Kindle Fire HD are available at cheaper price as compared to others in United Kingdom. As indicated earlier that this tablet model of Amazon is quite powerful and cheaper than others in the market. In addition, the company sells its tablets at a loss which ultimately means that the end users are provided with superior hardware at low price tags. Some of the additional features of this particular tablet include convenient access to Amazon stores, access to fast 4G wireless broadband networks and portability (The Erie Times-News, 2011).
Situational Analysis
In order to analyze the current situation of the Kindle Fire HD in UK, SWOT analysis would be used. This tool would help in analyzing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of Kindle Fire HD.
- Strengths
The core strengths of Amazon Kindle Fire HD are its low price tag. The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is available to the customers at competitive price. Kindle Fire HD is available in the UK market at £159 for 16GB and £199 for 32GB due to the value added tax (VAT) (Sims, 2012). This indicates that the product is quite low as compared to other tablets available in the UK market.
Other core strength of Kindle Fire HD is its high feature resolution screen which enables the users to read e-books, watch viral videos and video chat for free via Skype. Furthermore, the features and function are quite enough for the regular users to remain satisfied while reading news, internet surfing, media browsing etc. Another big plus for Kindle Fire HD is the availability of $G data at $50 a year. In addition, the cloud storage facility provided by Amazon is also strength of Kindle Fire HD. With such facility available, a user can watch online movies and listen to music whenever the user wants.
- Weaknesses
The major weakness of Kindle Fire HD is its limited resources. As compared to other tablets in the market, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD does not allow its users to choose any android application and the users would eventually be forced to use Amazon’s own application store. The restrictions imposed are the greatest weakness of Kindle Fire HD as the users would be provided with just Amazon’s app store i.e. limited resources.
- Opportunities
With distinct target audience as compared to other tablets in the market, Kindle Fire HD is provided with several opportunities. One of such opportunity is the expansion of online e-book resources. Such an opportunity would help in attraction of older consumers (50+) along with early adopters and young generation.
- Threats
The major threat for Kindle Fire HD is the competitors in the market. Although Kindle Fire HD gained a lot of popularity in quite some time but still the competitors such as iPad, Nexus 10, Galaxy Tab 2, Nook HD+ and Surface are constantly upgrading their offering and have higher demand for their products as compared to Kindle Fire HD.
Corporate Marketing Objectives & Marketing Communication Objectives
There is quite eminent difference in marketing objective and marketing communication objectives (Kokemuller, 2013). Marketing objectives includes the marketing mix i.e. product, price, place and promotion (Biggadike, 1981). The marketing objectives revolve around these elements so that the goals and objectives of the organization could be effectively met. Marketing objectives are defined in terms of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (Grönroos, 1990). Such objectives are aimed towards certain outcomes such as increase in sales volume, increase in market share, enhanced profit and return on investment. The achievement of marketing objectives relies heavily on the execution of marketing mix with proper coordination of all elements rather than just promotion (Varadarajan, 2012).
On the other hand, marketing communication objectives are quite opposite of marketing objectives. The difference between marketing objectives and marketing communication objectives is just like North-South (Varadarajan, 2010). The aim of such objectives is to create and enhance brand awareness, changing the attitudes of the customers/consumers, influencing purchase intent, stimulate trial purchases and drive brand switching (Goi, 2009).
Even though, both the objectives i.e. corporate marketing objectives and marketing communication objectives, are quite different from one another but both the objective helps the organization to accomplish its desired position in the market. Marketing communication plan is a part of marketing objective due to which the success of communication objective highly depends on the success of marketing objective.
Strategy and Tactics
In order to attract the older consumers in the UK market, it is essential to develop a communication plan that could persuade the older consumers as well as younger ones in the UK market. The objectives of the communication plan would be as follows;
In order to attain the desired goals and objectives, TV advertisement and catalogs would be the best source of communicating with the older generation. In addition, to be innovative, Amazon should provide the older consumers with free trials. This would help the company gain the consumer’s confidence and can even help the company to change the perception of the consumers regarding the use of Kindle Fire HD in forthcoming days.
Actions
The best action that Amazon could take to enhance its product in the UK market is to rely heavily on the promotional strategies. With an allocated budget of £500,000 Amazon could advertise heavily regarding Kindle Fire HD in the market. This would allow the older consumers to change their perception regarding the use of such tablet which provides the consumers with features like convenient storage, portability, versatility and low cost.
It has been observed that older consumers have weak eye sight along with weak hearing ability. Due to which they have constant troubles in reading magazines, newspapers and listening to music. With the help of promotional tools, Amazon would be able to change the mindset of older consumers which will eventually persuade the consumers to switch to Kindle Fire HD rather than any other brand available in the market.
Control
In order to control the communication plan, the plan should be monitored closely as the success and failure of Kindle Fire HD in the UK market heavily depends on it. The plan should be monitored on quarterly basis as it would help to evaluate the level of awareness created with the help of communication plan. In addition, this control would also help to identify the level of older consumers that were persuaded with the developed communication plan. For further control, the accomplished goals and objectives would be compared to the actual goals and objectives that were supposed to be accomplished within quarter of a year. This would help to identify the level of goals and objectives that were met within the 3 months.
Marketing Communication Plan
In order to create an effective marketing communication plan, it is essential to follow MarCom. The term MarCom indicates that Integrated Marketing and Communication Plan. The goal of such plan is as follows;
- Define the market
- Development of clear and concise message
- Ensuring that the message is accurate
- Positioning of the company and the product
- Tracking the result i.e. responses
- Forecasting
With such marketing communication plan in action, the Amazon would be able to create awareness regarding the Kindle Fire HD in the older consumers in UK. In addition, such a plan would allow the company to persuade the older consumers to purchase Kindle Fire HD in order to read newspapers and e-books without any disturbance.
As indicated in earlier studies, marketing communication focuses much of fourth P of the marketing mix i.e. Promotion (Greene, Walls, & Schrest, 1994). In addition, it has also been identified that marketing communication consists of three basic elements i.e. the set of tools, the media and the messages. The most often tools in promotion are advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing and public relations. Media is divided into six separate classes and within each class there are particular media types through which the company aims to convey its message. The classes identified were broadcast, print, out-door, new, in-store and other classes. The aim of such media is to convey the message to the target audience. In this case, the target audience is the older consumers that need to be persuaded regarding the Kindle Fire HD. Message is the last part of the marketing communication. The aim of this part is to provide information to the consumers regarding the product. The message could be either product oriented or consumer oriented. With such a part of marketing communication at work, the core message is delivered to the consumers in the most effective manner resulting in the arousal of feeling and emotions towards the particular brand.
Role of Marketing Communication
Marketing communication plays an important role in developing brand values in the international and local market by using advertisement as a medium to arouse the feelings and emotions of the consumers (Schultz, 1992). The second aim of marketing communication is to influence the behavior and attitude of the consumers. This makes the consumer behave in a beneficial way that the company wants i.e. making them purchase the product and using the product for their own good (Clow, 2007).
Integrated marketing communication plays an important role in delivering the message to the target audience by using all forms of contacts and message channels available (Bob, 1989).. In addition, usage of such marketing communication allows the company to gain competitive edge over other in the international and local market as it is a cost effective way to convey the message (Wood, Marshall, & Stuart, 2003)..
Elements of Communication Mix
The most prominent elements of communication mix are advertisement, personal selling, and sales promotion and publicity/public relations. Each of the elements that the company should undertake in order to persuade the older consumers regarding the usage of Kindle Fire HD is as follows;
- Advertisement
Being provided with a budge to £500,000, the company should use half of the budget on this specific type of promotion. Since advertisement could gain the attention of the target audience i.e. older consumers, the company would be able to provide them with the benefits associated with the use of Kindle Fire HD. The Advertisement should be more focused towards the older consumers rather than younger generation as the target audience would be them. In addition, the advertisement should focus on gaining the attention and changing the behavior and attitude of the older generation towards the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.
In order to further enhance the older consumer’s interest, TV and newspapers should be used as the primary source of advertisement as older consumers are more interested in such mean of advertisement. In addition, internet should also be used as the secondary source of advertisement. This would allow in changing the behavior and attitude of older consumers regarding Kindle Fire HD.
For gaining the attention and to create a demand for the product, the company should also use word-of-mouth advertisement. It has been observed that with such type of advertisement at work, an organization can persuade and influence consumers to purchase the product.
- Personal selling
This would be the most effective tool in the case of persuading older consumers. This tool should be provided with £150,000 of the allocated budget on personal selling. Such a high budget is being allocated to personal selling as it could be the most effective way to persuade the older consumers to purchase the Kindle Fire HD. By personally visiting the consumers door-to-door, the sales person would be able to elaborate the benefits and importance of such technology in the lifestyle. In addition, using of such promotional tool can lead to high brand awareness and high attraction level of consumers towards the brand.
In addition, this promotional tool would also be useful in promoting the brand. Furthermore, by selling the Kindle Fire HD personally, the collection of feedback from the consumers would also be a plus point. By the feedback of the consumers, the company would be able to evaluate the needs and wants of the consumers.
- Sales promotion
£50,000 of the allocated budget should be spent on sales promotion. By providing the older consumers with samples of Kindle Fire HD would lead to increase in awareness level of the consumers which might lead to sales of the product in UK. In addition, the older consumers should be provided with discount coupons to enhance their motivation level regarding the purchase of the product. Along with such offer, the older consumers should be provided with “Money Back Offers” if the consumers cannot get the hold of the product. Such a tool could be quite beneficial for the company in order to persuade the 50+ consumers in age regarding the usage of the product.
With the help of such promotional tool, the company would be able to accomplish its desired goals and objectives in the market i.e. increase in consumer awareness regarding the product offered. Furthermore, by encouraging sales promotion, the company would be able to create a unique bond with its older consumers and would effectively be able to provide them with the required product.
- Public relations
The rest of the £50,000 would be spent on public relation. This would be the last tool to attract the consumers in the market by press releases and product publicity. This promotional tool would be quite helpful in enhancing the awareness level of the consumers in UK. As this tool would be the most cost efficient in the promotional activities, this would provide the product with enhanced support.
Conclusion
In order to conclude, it could be said that the most effective marketing communication tool to enhance the awareness level of old consumers and to persuade the consumer would be advertisement. With the help of advertisement, the older consumers in the UK market would be provided with the benefits of the use of Kindle Fire HD. With the help of such promotional tool, the company would be able to gain attention of the consumers and create interest within the customers to purchase the product to read e-books and watch viral videos with the help of Kindle Fire HD. In addition, the company should focus much on word-of-mouth advertisement as it would encourage the older consumer in the UK market to purchase the product at competitive price.
Along with the advertisement, the company should also focus on personal selling, sales promotion and public relations to encourage the older consumers to purchase the product. With such promotional tools, the consumers could be significantly encouraged if the tools are accurately used and monitored from time to time.
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