Integrated Marketing Plan
Assignment 3: IMC Plan Project
1.1 Purpose of Assignment 3 The purpose of this assessment is for students to apply all IMC content covered in the course to a real-life business context and create a thorough IMC plan.
1.1.1 Course Learning Outcomes This assignment addresses the Course Learning Outcomes of:
1. Outline the nature of IMC and describe its environment; 2. Explain how to set IMC objectives and formulate an IMC budget; 3. Evaluate creative strategies in the light of given marketing objectives and strategies; 5. Explain the behavioural factors that influence the effectiveness of communications; 7. Prepare an IMC Plan.
1.2 Assignment Description and Instructions Following on from Assignment 2, Assignment 3 requires you to develop a full IMC Plan specifying the marketing communications strategy for 1 year, given a budget of $100,000. You are to use the same company that you used for Assignment 2 (unless feedback was given advising you to pick another company) and include the sections that were completed for Assignment
2.Once you have received feedback from Assignment 2, ensure that you read through and understand the comments made, to improve these sections of the report for this assignment. Remember that this is a report, so the flow of argument is important. Each section should build upon the previous sections and support the overall argument being made (What is your Big Idea? Is this explained or acknowledged throughout your report?).
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1.3 Assignment Components The sections you will need to include for this full IMC Plan are:
1. Background – Apply from Assignment 2
Provide context to your report here by discussing the business you are focusing on. Introduce the company and explain the industry it operates in, the products/services it sells. Keep the discussion concise and only provide information relevant to the reader.
2. SWOT – Apply from Assignment 2
Undertake a SWOT analysis of the current situation of the business. Discuss the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, based on any information you can find. This can be presented in a table format if desired. Make sure the SWOT is focused on analyzing the marketing strategy specifically, don’t go too broad here. The SWOT should set a foundation for the rest of the IMC Plan, so only state information relevant to the IMC strategy.
3. Key Communications Problems – Apply from Assignment 2
State some key communications problems you have found from an analysis of their current marketing materials. This should draw from and link to your SWOT analysis section. Link to theory and the course content to support the discussion.
4. Communications Objectives – Apply from Assignment 2
Drawing from the communications problems you identified above, state at least two communications objectives. These objectives will be what your IMC strategy for the year will be trying to achieve. Use the Facets Model of Effects to support your objectives. Base the objectives on a specific facet or a strategic combination of facets.
5. Target Audience – Apply from Assignment 2
Identify and explain the target audience for the proposed IMC strategy. Apply multiple segmentation bases to specifically define the segment. Briefly explain here if the chosen segment is in line with their current target audience.
6. Brand Positioning Strategy – Apply from Assignment 2
State the brand positioning strategy, in other words what position will you be aiming to achieve? Based on an analysis of their current marketing – what brand position is the company currently trying to achieve? There should be links to the current positioning strategy here (will the positioning strategy be different or similar to the current perceived strategy). If their current brand position is unclear, this should be identified as a weakness in your SWOT.
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7. Media Platforms
Identify and explain the various media platforms you have chosen (e.g. Facebook, television, outdoor advertising, radio). Justify the choice of platform by linking to the target audience and objectives of your campaign. You will need to pick a range of media platforms, not just one. There is no maximum amount or ‘perfect’ amount, sometimes the budget will determine how many platforms you can include. Keep in mind that you will need to develop a draft communications material for EACH of the media platforms you choose.
8. Platform Objectives
Identify and explain the platform objective for EACH of your chosen media platforms that were identified in Section 7 (Media Platforms). The platform objectives should have a clear link to the overall communication objectives (Section 4 of the report). Make sure to consider the reach and frequency aiming to be achieved by each platform.
9. Platform Synergy
Briefly discuss how the media platforms will integrate to achieve the overall campaign objectives. Discuss both how the media platforms integrate AND how the objectives stated integrate as well. In other words, explain how the different platforms will work together to achieve the overall campaign objectives, and how the objectives set for each platform work together.
10. Message Strategy
Identify and explain the message strategy for each of the media platforms chosen. You can structure this section in terms of the media platforms chosen (use subheadings to improve structure). There should again be links to the Facets Model of Effects here – e.g. Emotion facet will be targeted by employing an emotional appeal. Discuss the reasoning behind your creative choices (visuals and text) linking to theory wherever possible.
This section should be clearly and strongly linked to the draft communication materials provided (Section 12).
11. Strategic Consistency
Identify and explain the strategic consistency of your proposed campaign (all media platforms, objectives and messages). If there is one platform or message that is inconsistent with the rest, explain the reasoning behind this choice here. Briefly discuss whether the strategy proposed is in line with, or different to the current strategy (link back to the first half of the report).
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12. Draft Communications Materials
Provide a draft communication material for EACH of the media platforms you have chosen. There needs to be strong links to the Message strategy section (Section 10) here. You can put the draft communications materials in the body of the report OR in an appendix. You will be marked on the components of the draft communications material (choice of visuals, text, layout). This is not a course in graphic design, you do not need to provide perfect or final advertising communications. This section is not counted in the word count. You will lose marks if you do not provide a draft material for a platform that was identified in Section 7.
13. Media Scheduling
Provide a schedule for when EACH of the media platforms will be used throughout the 1-year period. Justify and support your choice of scheduling for each media platform. Your schedule should be easy to follow and aesthetically pleasing to view. You are encouraged to use a table or Gantt Chart to present the timeline. Think about whether pulsing, continuous or flighting strategy will be used for the relevant media platforms. Again, you may also need to consider budget restraints when scheduling your media.
14. Budget
Based on your media scheduling and choice of media platforms, you will need to provide a budget for the proposed campaign. You have a limit of $100,000 – make sure you consider this BEFORE getting to this stage of the report. Your budget should include all media expenses, there is some guidance to help, provided on blackboard. Some media companies are willing to share cost information, use this wherever available. You can show this information in a table, but make sure there is enough information presented to explain the budget and costings.
15. Evaluation of Effectiveness
Identify and explain how the campaign will be measured in terms of effectiveness. For each of the media platforms chosen you will need explained how effectiveness will be evaluated, you can have the same measure for multiple platforms if appropriate. Consider the feasibility of your suggested evaluation technique e.g. a small organization will not be able to run a large-scale research project to determine the effectiveness of a campaign. If any costs are involved in the evaluation stage, this should still be included in the budget.
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Other Information:
There will also be marks given for logic and argument, and formatting. You will need to have a logical and critical analysis that is well-researched and justified. A minimum of 12 academic sources are required for this assignment. • This is an individual assignment, do not work in a group • Feedback from assignment 2 should be used and applied to this assignment • You can use an appendix to show your draft communications materials. This is not included in the word limit and should be placed after the reference list in your report. • Have an appealing title page to create a professional report (this is part of your format mark) • Include a table of contents (this is part of your format mark) • 5,000 word limit
