Marketing
Introduction
Marketing communications are important in order to inform, convince and remind the customers either directly or indirectly about the brands and the products that are offered by the companies (Varey, 2002). The marketing communication is regarded as the voice of the brand, because it creates awareness about the products among the customers (Amoako, Dartey-Baah, Dzogbenuku, and Junior, 2012). Similarly advertising is done so that information can be communicated to the dispersed people and the customers can be facilitated with the product or the service. In this paper, being consultant of the Airbus Ambulance, marketing communication campaign of the Airbus Ambulance is described, in which marketing communication objectives, tactics that are used for advertising the products, press release as the main tool for advertising the service provided by Airbus Ambulance and textual promotion material is discussed.
Suggested marketing communication objectives
Marketing objectives are the blueprint for the product’s success. Marketing objectives for Air Ambulance are SMART in that they are:
Specific: a low cost marketing communications strategy will be used to create awareness about Air Ambulance. This strategy will include writing and publishing a Press Release and using Social Media to advertise the capability that Air Ambulance can provide to the community.
Measurable: we will establish income targets and deployment timeframes so that we can determine if we are on track to achieve our income targets given our level of investment, or return on investment (ROI).
Achievable: an established timeline for the launch of Air Ambulance, complete with specific milestones will be used. We need to ensure that we set our sights on what is good enough in order to achieve our deployment and income goals.
Results-focused: based on the timeline established, we will want to have twenty new customers within the first six months of operations. As we implement a scorecard to monitor this, we will know if we are on target to achieve these results, or if we need to adjust the marketing communication plan accordingly to gain share.
Time-bound: our efforts are bounded. We need to drive business to our Air Ambulance within the first couple of weeks of operation in order to continue to go forward. This metric will also be tied to the results-focused goal of establishing a customer base of twenty new customers within the first six months of operation.
The objectives of the marketing communications of the Air Ambulance are to provide the overview of the plans of service and maintain a high level of the awareness of brand in the country. Marketing communication is intended to achieve income targets in retail. It creates actions by engaging all parts of the community at the grassroots level in order to increase the brand awareness and the reputation of the brand. Furthermore, local and social media will also serve the purpose of providing detailed description of the service and assist in changing the attitude of people. Changing the perception of the company and product is the major aim of marketing communications.
The main purpose of the Air Ambulance is to move the patients rapidly to the medical centers for the provision of the health care facilities. The objective is specific as the service will be ready to serve the customers by the end of April. It is measureable because it will be able to facilitate approximately 500 individuals within a day. It is achievable because it will follow an organized plan of providing services to people, particularly the injured people. It is time bound because of the fact that the service is introduced in order to save the life of individuals. So, the Airbus Ambulance will reach to the customers that need their service within the shortest possible time, to give proper help to the individuals. Creation of such an understanding helps the customer to get the idea that how this service is facilitating and benefitting them. Furthermore, marketing communication is also essential in order to motivate and convince individuals to buy the product or avail the service. Similarly, superior benefits of the service are communicated through persuasive advertising for attracting the customers towards using the service of Air Ambulance.
Furthermore, in order to target the potential and new customers, their demographics such as age, education level and gender will be considered, the psychographic factors such as their lifestyles and social class and the behavioral factors such as their buying pattern will be considered, and then they will be encouraged for utilizing the Air Bus service. This is done, awareness is created among people about the service, they get the desired knowledge of the service that in case of any serious accident and injury, Airbus Ambulance can provide rapid service for saving the lives of people. It creates liking of service in the individuals that finally lead to their actions of using that service, and then in case of satisfaction, people prefer to avail the service again.
Tactics
Before specific advertising campaigns can be launched, market research should be conducted in order to determine the target audience for this new product. It is likely that the target audience for this new service will be the sick and elderly. To that end, the target audience should be narrowed in order to determine which portions of this population could best benefit from this type of service. The elderly and sick are treated at hospitals, and this is the first, obvious population to target. In addition, Physicians offices should be targeted. Brochures and other marketing communications materials can be placed at the front counter at the Doctors’ offices. The same marketing materials can be used at the hospital cafeteria and gift shop.
In order to advertise the product such tactics should be used that can position the brand and build the brand. Considering this, for the Airbus Ambulance, local and social media will be used, and the traditional print media will also be considered so that all people become aware of the new service. The broadcast media will also be taken into consideration for delivery of the product information to the desired people. Local support will be developed though the volunteer information and training will be improved.
Public relations will help greatly to advertise a product and service, because without public relations, it is difficult to reach the target audience, get their attention, and influence their actions and decisions (Karadeniz, 2009). So, direct communication will be established with the consumers, public and investors through social media marketing, the public relation specialists will further help to establish link with more people. Furthermore, in order to reach the online audience blogging will also be used, in which digital newsletters and press release are communicated to the individuals and two way communications is ensured. Further, general information and news will be shared to the customers by sending newsletters to them and keeping them updated about the latest offerings and newly added features to enhance the service of Airbus Ambulance.
Moreover, public events will also be used to create the awareness among the people about the service. They will be told about the service that Airbus Ambulance is offering, so that they also convey the news to other people and service can be availed at the time of emergency and loss can be prevented.
Public relations activity
For the advertisement and marketing of the Airbus Ambulance, press release is the most feasible option. The press release is also an effective tool of PR. It is one of the oldest methods but is still used today in order to communicate the information regarding new product introductions. An advertisement will be prepared and it will be on aired on the television channels including History, AXN, HBO, and National Geographic, Ten Sports, 2-3 times a day. Since, people’s first choice is to watch television in order to spend their leisure time, so they become informed about the service while watching their favorite shows.
The people who love sports typically watch sports channels, our advertisement will also be on aired on the sports channel so that they also become aware of the service that can be utilized in an emergency situation. Moreover, the service will also be advertised in the leading newspapers such as Tribune, Times, Daily News, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, so that people who enjoy reading newspaper in the morning will become aware of the latest offerings and introduction of the new service that is working for the benefit of humans and saving their lives. These mediums and used for communication due to the fact that people consider them as trustworthy and they contain meaningful information as compared to the paid adds that just advertise the products for their own personal motives and use tactics for doing false advertising by showing those features that do not exist in the product or service.
Textual promotional material
The words or text are the main tool of expressing something. Sometimes it is the text that describes the entire product. Most of the customers are attracted just because of the written material of the product in which all the features of the product are illustrated, that ultimately leads to the purchase of the product or service. Airbus ambulance is introduced in order to help people in case of accident, especially at the places where quick provision of medical aid are not possible. The Airbus Ambulance takes people to and from the medical centers and ensures that the individuals get the best possible treatment on time without any delay. The textual promotion material for our Airbus Ambulance is, “Proper care, to the proper place, at the proper time”. This will also help to communicate the purpose of the Airbus and the work it is performing.
Now that a tagline has been established, we can begin to work on the branding effort for this product. To do this successfully, we need to reach out some of the existing organizations where we can advertise. Promotional material will be created that is simple, easy to understand and cost effective. It is the words and meaning in the marketing communications that is important with format being secondary. That being the case, a simple one-page description of the service, its value and why it is compelling will allow us to reach out to organizations such as AARP and target a specific population.
Once upon a time, print newspapers were a good way to advertise a new product or service, but most papers today have seen a massive decline in their readership and today’s equivalent to reach a broad audience would be to set up pages on Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages. Again, the simple description can be used to promote Air Ambulance.
The design of this textual material will highlight the service that is used at the time of emergency is shown below. The red color depicts a potential emergency situation and the white color is indicative of the fact that Airbus Ambulance takes people out of the emergency situations and save their lives.
Conclusion
Marketing communication and advertising plays an important role in the spread of information about the product and service. It creates awareness about the product and service among people. Many tactics are used in order to attract the individuals and provide them information. In case of Airbus Ambulance, press release is used as an essential tool in order to convey the services offered. The source of press release is used because it helps to deliver the information by all means to the customers. The information becomes available to the customers through Television, Newspapers, and magazines. The customers like these sources because they are reliable means of communicating the information about the product or service. Additionally, the textual promotional material also plays a vital role for delivering the information about the product and attracting the customers to get the benefit by buying their service, which will ultimately be beneficial for the customers as well as for the organization providing the facility.
References
Varey, Richard J., 2002. Marketing Communication: Principles and Practice. Psychology Press: New York
Amoako1, George K., Dartey-Baah, Kwasi., Dzogbenuku, Robert K., and Junior, Samuel Kwesie., 2012. The effect of sponsorship on marketing communication performance: A case study of Airtel Ghana, African Journal of Marketing Management, 4(2), pp. 65-79
Karadeniz, Mustafa., 2009. The comparison of Public Relations and Advertisement Activities in a Successful Marketing Management, Which one Should be in Forefront? Journal of Naval Science and Engineering, 5(2), pp. 43-54
