Integrated Marketing Communications Plan
Introduction
Understanding the integrated marketing communications (IMC) assists in bringing together an effective marketing plan for products and services of an organization. Most organizations implement IMC in order to acquire a bigger market share that allows them to sell more products both locally and internationally. An effective IMC should put marketers and communication professionals in a better position to follow the marketing concept and improve sales. Consumer needs and wants are the main focus elements while designing an integrated marketing communications plan. The following is an ICM plan for MAC Cosmetics. Until recently, promotion of an organization’s products and services was done through mass-media advertising. Firms were dependent of their advertising agencies who took control of marketing communication. The evolution of IMC has assisted many business organizations improve on their promotion features through integrating different promotional elements and marketing activities to communicate with customers (Waller, 2012).
The IMC analysis provides a guide through of functions and assessment of the business environment under which entrepreneurs work. The company in question must be analyzed first in order to determine the industry it fall in, market and consumers behavior, and the product that the company offers and its demand in relation to the current markets.
Company analysis
Cosmetic Industries, Inc. is a company that specializes in production and selling of nail polish products. The company was started in 1993 and has grown into one of the biggest nail polish production firm in the world. Cosmetic Industries Inc. gives priority to good skin care irrespective of the customer’s budget. Specific company products are designed to fulfill every customer’s needs. The company also offers a wide variety of beauty products such as body decorators and labeling. The company’s main goal is to give customers good quality nail paint with either single or double coats depending on the demand of customer (Cosmetic Industries, Inc., 2014).
The market analysis for nail polish/paint
Present day consumers are much aware of the main sources of information that include the internet, television, magazines and word of mouth. The cosmetic and beauty industry is one of the most competitive markets in the world today. In the year 2010, the industry made approximately 35 billion U.S. dollars and experienced a yearly growth of 4% since the year 2006. The growth for cosmetic and beauty products might reach 42 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2015 (EY, 2013). Customer’s perception on a given product and decision-making process depends on various factors such as price, creativity, availability, fashion brand name, and the level of satisfaction the product offers. The nail polish market has expanded worldwide as customers, mostly girls and women between ages of 15 to 40, longs to get into the world of beauty. In the past, few types of nail paints were available, but the today’s market offers a wide variety of brands for customers to select. Developing a perfect IMC plan for Cosmetic Industry Inc would help increase the number of sales and create a good customer relation.
Cosmetic Industry Inc. product promotion mix
Cosmetic Industries Inc would wish to create an image of its products that is more sophisticated and coincides with the trending lifestyles. The company’s communications plan focuses mainly on nail polish. The research and development teams in collaboration with the sales and marketing department have designed a promotion plan aimed at communicating to every person the benefits of using nail polish from Cosmetic Industries Inc. the promotion plan involves conducting huge add campaigns. The company wishes to cooperate with Hollywood superstars and artistes, for example, Angelina Jolie and Christina Milian respectively, to promote their products through making them the new face of the company. Figure 1 shows examples of such posters. The company stands a better chance of attracting more customers who love these superstars by displaying their images on the company’s website and promotion messages (Cosmetic Industries, Inc., 2014).
Figure 1: Superstars advertising Nail Polish
In addition, the company uses in-store promotion strategies that are carried out in big retail shops and the company’s growing consumer electronics distribution network. Examples of in-store promotion strategies used by Cosmetic Industries are point-of-sale displays, floor displays, and in-store banners given to customers who visit their retail shops. Moreover, the company has implemented public relations programs that reinforce the credibility to the promotion campaign. The company ensures enough coverage of its products is done in every identified creative market. Other in-door promotion methods used are coverage in local and international newspapers, advertising through trade press, journals, magazines, and national network media outlets (Cosmetic Industries, Inc., 2014).
Target markets
In any IMC, the consumer lifestyle must be considered before designing the plan. Customer lifestyle plays a vital role in designing type of a promotion mix to use to communicate about the products offered (Michman, 2011). United States has a very big population, with the urban population leading the trend. The advancement of technology and innovation of new forms of communicating information to the public is changing consumer lifestyle and market behaviors. The cosmetic demand has changed, and its trend has seen tremendous growth in the cosmetic sector (Leonard, 2011). Cosmetic Industries Inc knows exactly where to place its advertisement in the social media and the mass media. The income levels, demographics, and psychographic factors are essential in determining the target audience of the promotion mix.
The company conducts promotion campaigns in the whole of United States, where the integrated marketing communications plan is focused. The target market also falls under these market segments:
Income: The company products are produced to fit in three different classes of income class, the lower, the middle and the high income earners.
Demographic: The main audience for the IMC plan are female customers between ages of 30 and 50 because they are professional women who love being smart and maintaining their body beautiful. These women fall under the medium to high income class, and are more established in their careers. They always search for the best nail polish brand to use on their nails. Cosmetic Industries Inc. targets youth of ages between 15 to 24 years as secondary consumers to purchase fashionable and trendy nail polish. Customers above 24 years of age form the core target market that has a long lasting effect to the company sales.
Psychographic: The current working environment requires a cosmetic product capable of lasting throughout a busy day. The target market is made up of active women who love following fashion trends.
Increased promotion leads to increase in consumer demands. The company is ready to spend a large amount of money in promoting its products. The company saw the need of increasing their spending on promotion due to an increase in completion of cosmetic products. The company offers purchase deals, for example, special coupons, cash discounts, and free products as a way of fighting the stiff competition (Cosmetic Industries, Inc., 2014).
Product positioning
Nail polish product positioning is done very well by Cosmetic Industries Inc in order to attract as much audience as possible. Nail polish products come in a variety of brands, and different customers have their own likes and tastes. Nail polish made from natural products and has low possibility of causing any harm to a customer. This product has many benefits, and gives a customer a better look compared to other products. The company produces nail polish from natural products that help it come up with an effective positioning strategy. In order to generate more information about the product, the company conducts researches on consumer preferences, price of other related products, brand names of competitor products and their target market information. This information helps the company position its product better than competitors.
The analysis of Cosmetic Industries Inc. IMC plan
Cosmetic Industries Inc has put more effort in designing an integrated marketing communications plan. The plan has assisted the firm to create more awareness of its products in U.S. The company concentrated more on promoting its products through various modes of advertising. The Information Technology (IT) department has played a major role in designing a computerized model that the company uses to perform its operations. The market communications plan composes of many elements, which can be summarized in figure 1 below.
Figure 1: IMC plan for Cosmetic Industries Inc (Source: Cosmetic Industries, Inc.)
Recommendations for the company’s IMC plan
In order to make the plan more effective and win a competitive advantage, the following proposed solutions could be the best for Cosmetic Industries Inc’s IMC strategy. The company should concentrate more on the internet promotion and advertising modes compared to other forms of advertisement. A company website that advertises itself in the most opened sites, such as Google, would advertise products more. In addition, the company should subscribe to social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsUp and open their page where users can easily see their products. The use of social media has increased because of the easier access to the internet through phones, personal computers and cyber caves. An organization aiming at getting a large pool of consumers should subscribe to one of the commonly used social media sites.
Conclusion
An integrated marketing communications plan helps an organization market its products to a wide range of consumers. Coming up with a better plan that reaches more people through effective advertisement, market segmentation and positioning is the most crucial factor determining growth and expansion of the organization. With the high rate of growth in the cosmetic sector, Cosmetic Industiries Inc would stand a better chance of winning the global competition by implementing the above recommendation. Moreover, with the high rate of technology advancement and presence of many innovations, going deeper into customer segments assists an organization in determining the types of products and services demanded by customers and act accordingly. Marketing and communication are essential for any organization to achieve its objectives (Gurau, 2008).
References
Cosmetic Industries, Inc. (2014). Cosmetic Industries, Inc. Cosmetic Industries, Inc.. Retrieved March 13, 2014, from http://www.cosmeticindustries.com/
EY. (2013, June 2). Luxury & cosmetics financial factbook 2013. Luxury and cosmetics financial factbook 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2014, from: http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Industries/Consumer-Products/Luxury-and-cosmetics-financial-factbook-2013
Gurau, C. (2008). “Integrated Online Marketing Communication: Implementation and Management,” Journal of Communication Management, 12(2), 169-184.
Leonard, C. (2011). Global Beauty Industry Trends 2011. Retrieved from:
http://www.skininc.com/spabusiness/trends/126516783.html?page=2
Michman, R. D. (2011). Lifestyle market segmentation. New York: Praeger.
Waller, D. (2012). Developing your integrated marketing communication plan. North Ryde, N.S.W.: McGraw-Hill.
