Media Management Marketing Planning

Question: Discuss about the Media Management for Marketing Planning. Answer: Introduction In this assignment, I am going to elaborate the strategies which are required for the marketing planning for the company. I have chosen Callaway Golf Equipment as the client company, whose products need to be a market. I will provide the insight of integrated marketing Plan and how its useful for the advertisements of a product. Callaway Golf Inc. is a Golf equipment manufacturer multination company and it stands in 2nd number in all over the world in manufacturing and marketing of different Golf equipment. The company is exploring new markets to sell the products and its using the advertisement to reach new markets. Marketing Planning is providing a blueprint of the strategies which are required for the advertisements of the products. In other words, this process begins with an analysis of the situation from the marketing plan and it does not include other aspects of production and evaluation. ( Percy, 1997) IMC: The Integrated marketing Plan has these processes and this must be reflected in the advertising campaigns of the company. The Integrated Marketing plan or IMC includes different marketing strategies such as, Print Interactive Outdoor Strategic Planning Media Planning Brand Partnerships Result Tracking IMC is a strategy which is defined and used to create awareness among consumers through different kind of marketing tools. In IMC the advertiser company, which is Callaway Golf in this case of the assignment, has used Television, radio, and Social media marketing for the advertisement of the Products. This kind of strategic marketing is becoming more and more important because the media fragmentation in the advertisement is considered as a good measure to promote the products. Another benefit of the integrated marketing is its creative approach and implementation. The creative approach in the marketing is successfully implemented for the Callaway Golf to sell their Golf equipment and accessories. Media Planning Media planning is not just answering some media means but its the process or a series of decisions that could provide the best solution for the problems which are needed to be answered for the marketing of a product. The planners recommendation is to balance the tradeoff within an organization. Planner mainly considers different problems which could be arising and a set of solution and recommendation for the company to follow. These solutions and recommendations about the media selection and advertisement of the products I considered as Media planning. Changing Way of Media Planning: Many marketers believe that the traditional advertisement means such as television, radio and newspapers are an outdated sources of advertisement. Its a wrong concept, as the internet is considered as one of the best sources of advertisement and its accessible to a large population but its still not is a position to considered as a major source of advertisements. Apart from this, the Internet marketing is considered as costly as well, top rated television programs have an impact on the population of different companies. In todays perspective, the consumers are being more information seekers and they also search different products over the internet so the marketing planning should also consider this case as well. Planning an IMC campaigns is a step by step process, according to the Heibing and Cooper the IMC planning is a communication tool which should be done by a set methodology to short out the overlapping elements and correctly and collectively address all the issues. The first things which need to be addressed are the outlining the relevant marketing issues which could affect the marketing and communication about the product. Following different steps regarding the campaign, the last and final step is the evaluation of the campaign. (Duncan, 2002). I will follow two different planning processes which are Outside- In Planning Zero-based Planning approach The Planning will constitute Marketing background, Target audience, Communication strategy, Behavioral task grid and creative grid. Market Analysis Callaway Golf is creating a marketing strategy which is needed by the company to create brand awareness to the consumers. The company is mainly dealing with manufacturing of Drivers, iron, Golf ball, Golf equipment, and bags. The company has a Callaways financial result do not reflect any single direction, basically, its mixed. After the year of 2000, its revenue has been decreased by the 5.4%, whereas the in the case of total asset turnover, its also declined by 12 % (Financial Statement, 2001). In the year of 2002, its NIAT has increased by 19%, which had a negative growth of 27.9% in the year of 2002. According to the report, the Z-score of the company is still 5.4 and its in Safe Zone (Financial report, 2002). Callaway Golf mainly operates in the Sporting and Athletics segments and Manufacturing industry. Callaways is mainly involved in the manufacturing of the Drivers, irons, golf balls and in the accessories. The products which are included in the driver categories are fairway woods and hybrid sold under the Bden hogen and Top- Flite brand name. The company stood in the # 2 position in this segments and the number 1 is the TaylorMade, which is an Adidas Company. The other products in these categories are Iron and Wedges, in this segment the Callaway is the number one. The market share of the company in this segment is still in a good number beside that the share of the rival companies such as Nike and Adidas in increasing. In the case of Golf ball which is being sold by the Callaway brand name, Top-Flite. In this segment, the company is in #2 positions in the market. Also in the case of the accessories and the company is selling Golf bags and Gloves under the same brand name. The brand r eputations of the company help them to sell. The company market strategy is to create and make brand awareness among the public about the products in which they are engaged with. The main Market of the Callaway products is the regions where Golf is most famous and widely played by the masses. The focus should be on those countries, some of them are United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and England. The main market of the company exists in these countries. The developing Countries such as China, India and Brazil is also a lucrative location to sell the products (MONROE, 2014). Now the company is targeting in the market where they can grow further, such as USA, CHINA, and EUROPE. In Australia, the companys presence is somewhat good but they can grow further in Europe and Asia. The marketing strategies will be focused on these areas. The other developing countries are being focused on the future market of the company. Objectives of IMC: Marketing Background: The marketing background includes the evaluating the present hurdles and challenges with the company and brand. This will examine and help the organization in finalizing the marketing process and plan. It would contain some questions which will help the planner to create the effective plan for the product they have chosen to market (Percy, 1997). Target Audience Objective: The IMC planning tries to look beyond the traditional Golf equipment purchases and it's also focusing on new age customers. This is done to achieve a more holistic view regarding the target audience. According to Percy (1997) to get a more holistic view regarding the target audience we need to look beyond the target audience and the IMC planning should also include the behavior patterns as well as the attitude patterns of the audience. We should also try to know the audience linkage to the contribution as well as the media. One more important thing which needs to be known is the decision grid of the consumer, why they are choosing and why they have chosen the product. Which things have motivated them to make the decision of the product? Percy also suggested a Grid which is known as decision grid contains different essential questions which could be used for the understanding the factor of decision. Role consumer Trade initiator Influencer Decider Purchaser User These are essential steps which are required prior planning the planning of the marketing media. These reviews and studies are required to know the present and future target customers; this will help the company to make the strategy easily and more effective. There are different Processes which will be used to determine and implement the planning. Communication Strategies Objective This objective mainly deals with the communication strategies which will be needed for the marketing communication. This is further divided into 5 groups, which are category needs Brand awareness Brand attitude Brand purchase Intensions Purchase facilitation Planning Process Zero-based Planning Process: As the marketing conditions are changing, so the IMC Planners should use Zero-based planning Process. (Duncan, 2002). This process is used to determine the objectives and strategies based on the current marketplace conditions. This process consists of 8 steps which are applicable to each of the consumers and B-B brand whether they are operating Multinational or domestically. The Steps are; Source: Duncan, 2002 Swot analysis of a company and brand provides the Strength, weakness, Opportunity and threat of a company. The SWOT analysis can help a company to address the weakness and leverage the strength of the company. Internal Situation: In the case of Callaway Company, the strength of the company is the brand name and Research and development. These two can be leveraged by the company so that they can explore and penetrate a new market and increase the revenue. These can be addressed so we can make a proper contribution to the marketing planning. The weakness of the company consists of the low Multinational presence and sort of products which they can offer. The weakness must be address while making the plan of media. External Situation: The opportunity ad threats are considered as the external factors, in the case of Callaway Golf the opportunity is the Growing Golf market in the Developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil as well as increasing market in USA and Europe as well as In Australia. The threat includes the increased competitions from Global brands such as Nike and Adidas. Strategies Callaway Golf needs to use different means of advertisement under the integrated marketing Campaign. Television, radio as well as the Social media marketing should be widely used by the company so that they can attract more customers. The must use the benefits of endorsements by the professional golfers; this is defined as a target based marketing strategy. Apart from this Callaway Golf need to be widely popular in different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In present time when most of the peoples are engaged with the different social media websites, creating awareness about the product by the Social media is a well-maintained strategy. Callaway has to use IMC in different measures to reach to the customers; Callaway is also focusing on hosting and sponsoring different Golf competitions in different companies so that they can present themselves as a one stop solution for the golf equipment. In present Callaway Golf is #2 in sales of Drivers and #1 in sales of Iron. The main competitor of the company is Taylor Made, Titlists, and Nike. These companies are also increasing their market segment and the innovation which lead them to take on the market and the challenge the Callaway. Revenues of the companies are mainly driven by the market share and the Global economy, declining Golf industry also adversely affect them in the short run (Gordon, 2013). Competitive Analysis Callaway Golf mainly operates in the Sporting and Athletics segments and Manufacturing industry. Callaways is mostly concerned in the manufacturing of the Drivers, irons, golf balls and in the accessories. The products which are incorporated in the driver categories are fairway woods and hybrid sold under the Bden hogen and Top- Flite brand name. The company stood in the # 2 position in this segments and the number 1 is the TaylorMade, which is an Adidas Company product. The other products in these categories are Iron and Wedges, in this segment the Callaway is the number one. The market share of the company in this segment is still in a good number beside that the share of the rival companies such as Nike and Adidas in increasing. In the case of Golf ball which is being sold by the Callaway brand name, Top-Flite. In this segment, the company is in #2 positions in the market. Also in the case of the accessories and the company is selling Golf bags and Gloves under the same brand name . The brand reputations of the company help them to sell. Proposed Marketing Strategies Marketing Strategies is one of the essential things in every company. The company must perform therefore to aim the consumers and raise the revenue. The companies have to set up strategies to cover border market, 1. Target oriented marketing 2. Marketing should be more focused on the populations which could be the future customer 3. Reflect the Superior Quality and pocket-friendly 4. Brand Endorsements by the Professionals. 5. Association of the Clubs and the Events which are related with the Golf. 6. Online Presence The company should spend and sponsor on humanitarian activities with the Brand name this will create a good image and people's will be attached to it emotionally. Another increasing aspect of the marketing is the online marketing or Digital marketing. Digital marketing is widely used by the company so that they can target large audiences and create traffic over the website. E-commerce is on the boom so that they can make it more fruitful by taking the traffic towards the website. Media for the Advertisement The market uses various alternative media to advertise their brand which helps to reach their brand to each and every customer. So the company Callaway also uses different alternative media to advertise their brand like: 1. Television: It helps to reach to a large number with a single exposure. As it is mass communication and it was seen by each and every customer. It is a network that helps to improve their targeting effort (Voorveld and van Noort, 2014). 2. Radio: This media is being used for over 80 years. As many countries use the geographical distinct radio station to broadcast simultaneously. As nowadays many people have a habit of listening music and news to the radio so it also helps to advertise the brand Top flight and their equipment which they sell like bags, golf driver, shoes, etc. (Lovejoy, Riffe and Cheng, 2012). 3. Printing Publication: The Company prints various magazines, books, newspaper to advertise and highlight their brand (Voorveld and van Noort, 2014). The magazine is more target audience than the media, as the magazine shows the product with every detail. 4. Internet: As the technology is moving very fast and everyone use the internet so it is the fastest media outlet for advertising any brand or product. So the company advertises their product on their website. And this media help to get the feedback of the customer directly through the website. And it helps the company improve their product. 5. Direct mail Advertising: It is also a type of medium to advertise the brand. Directly mailing to the customer about the brand in their email. So the company collects the email id from various social media like Facebook, twitter, etc (Lovejoy, Riffe and Cheng, 2012). 6. Product placement advertising: It is an advertising approach through the entrainment like movies, TV serials, and video games. 7. Sponsorship advertising: The Company also provides some sponsorship for advertising their brand Top flight. Implementation Process The company has to expand the current Market and they are also wanted to increase the revenue in this competitive market. This can be achieved by the applying a proper set of proposed marketing strategies which the Company has to follow. The Callaway Golf should make a creative and lucrative website which will be beneficial for them to reach new customers. The second thing which they should do is make a team which will be responsible for the marketing of the products and their advancements to the public. This will be helpful as this can create awareness among the consumers. This team will be responsible for the Digital marketing too; marketing through the Facebook and Twitter will help the company. The Social media marketing is one of the best options to create traffic on the website and attract customers. According to the Scott Gorayl, the global communication head of the Callaway Company, Social media is one of the biggest and easiest ways to market our products thats why the company has a good presence on different social media websites. (App, 2013) Evaluation and Control The company has to manage different things at once; this includes Manufacturing, marketing, advertisement, and Innovation. The Callaway Golf has a number of employees who are involved in different works and management. The management and administrative teams are responsible for the implementation of each process. The management Team must divide the work according to the team present and how they must help them in achieving the target. Availing all the resources which are needed to the process must be provided by the company management. The matrix which they have to follow is, Conclusion I have described the IMC and its objectives for the marketing and communication in an organization for a product. Media planning is an essential thing before going for marketing; this helps a company to find him most accurate and visible objectives of the products. I have described the Media Planning and its requirements. The marketing strategies and the evaluation and control of the Marketing campaign are also essential things to do. This helps the company to track the progress of the communication tool, either the company is choosing online marketing or the traditional strategies, evaluation and control help the company to set up an objective and be attached to it. Although, the Media Planning is an essential thing which needs to be address perfectly as per the companies target market and product portfolio. 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