Question

ssion 1 Imagine that you have been hired to create an advertising strategy for the release of a new line of basketball shoes produced by the athletic apparel maker Under Armour. The Maryland-based business has seen rapid growth in recent years, but it is not considered to be the same kind of globally-recognizedbrand as Nike or Adidas Beyond the central advertising campaign (i.e., TV, Radio, and Print ads for the new shoe line, what tools would your team recommend employing to achievelntegrated Marketing Communication (IMC)? Explain how you would coordinate those efforts to ensure maximum effectiveness. You should demonstrate a full understanding of the various tools available for IMC from event sponsorship to direct marketing to billboards and blogs

Answer 1

The basic objective of Integrated Marketing Communication(IMC) is to integrate the various promotional tools for the communication massage to have achieved the following:

1) Clarity in communication message

2) Consistency

3) Maximum Communication Impact.

In today's well advanced digital environment, to rely only on the traditional media tools will not suffice to achieve the above objectives. The novel approach in IMC broadly consists of the following promotional tools:

1) Advertising (Print, Broadcast, Transit Outdoor etc.)

2) Sales Promotion (Consumer Oriented, Trade Oriented)

3) Public Relations/Publicity (Events, Editorials, Sponsorship etc)

4) Direct Marketing & Interactive/internet including Social Media Marketing ( Social Media, Blogs, etc)

5) Personal Selling

The goal of achieving effective promotion for "Under Armour" would require a careful integration of the various promotional tools mentioned above rather than focusing only on the TV, radio and print advertisement.The company will have to employ an appropriate combination of all or at least few of them.

Recommendation:

- Beyond the traditional methods, I would recommend the following tools should be included in order to achieve the objectives of IMC

1. Public Relations & Sponsorship

Public relations is the planned and paid promotional tool to create a favorable image of the brand. The product line is the basketball shoes a very good PR campaigns across the states among the schools and undergrad colleges will be an effective tool. Sponsorship of the events at various sports events and Basketball events in particular in the schools as well as the community and also at the league level will be a handy tool to reach to the masses.

2. Social Media Marketing

The usage of the social media in the mentioned target market is wide spread. There are specific channels and groups across the platforms. A communication message on such platforms may help not only create awareness but also to generate and pursue interest of the individual or the group of users.

Hiring a professional bloggers to endorse the brand and the product as well as the editorials on the online platforms

3. Direct/ Interactive tools

A personalized way to target each individual potential buyer can be accomplished  by using the e-mails or cellphones with the help of the direct marketing tools. The internet consumption habits can be understood and thoroughly analyzed of the target group and customized the persuasive message.

4. Outdoor Media,Transit ads, Point of Purchase

These are also the tools which may increase the visibility of the brands and also may directly help to influence the actions of an individual or group of buyers. Billboards, Hoardings, Point of Purchase or in-house store ads with transit ads will be a creative and digital way to enhance the brand-image and purchase actions.

5. Personal Selling

Well trained sales persons will play a crucial role as this product belongs to speciality goods category.     

Following are the few points which must be kept into consideration:

- A clear positioning strategy must be defined, in basketball shoe category User based positioning will be fruitful.

- There must be an alignment in the communication message by all the media tools in order to avoid any confusion regarding the brand image.

- The objective should be well defined and should be converted in to specific tasks in order to achieve the same, bench-marking will help in that.

- The reach and frequency of the exposure to the message must be optimized within the allocated budget with an effective media planning strategy.