Integrated Marketing Communications Assignment Sample

Integrated Marketing Communications

1. Introduction to the IMC Plan

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1.1 Organizational Background

L'Oréal S.A. Is a French personal care firm based in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, with a registered office in Paris. As the world's biggest cosmetics firm and with a focus on hair color, skincare products, sunscreen, make-up, and perfume, it has established activity in the industry (Sutariani, Putri, and Ariyaningsih, 2021). The L'Oréal Group was established in 1909 by young chemist Eugène Schueller, who had an enterprising flair. Hairdressers in Paris were introduced to one of the earliest hair dyes that he designed and made himself. As a result of this, L'Oréal's founder laid the foundation for the company's core values: research and technology in the service of Beauty.

An English graphic director who was only 23 years old at the time of the introduction of "Because I'm worth it" as L'Oréal's advertising slogan in 1973 was responsible for the creation of the phrase. As part of its "Sharing Beauty with All" sustainability goal, L’Oréal committed to lessening the environmental effect of all of its goods (Campos, 2018). Among L'Oréal's pledged goals were reducing the company's carbon impact by 60%, empowering "every L'Oréal customer to make sustainable consumption decisions while improving the beauty of the planet," and providing care, social welfare, and training for its staff wherever they are in the world.

1.2 Chosen Product

It has been announced that L'Oréal S.A. is releasing a new line of CTM ("Cleansing, toning, and moisturizing") products in the UK that includes natural green tea extracts. A wide range of skin types would be able to utilize the products, which are mostly manufactured from natural substances like green tea as well as natural berry extracts, with no preservatives (González-Minero and Bravo-Díaz, 2018). The need for natural components and paraben and alcohol-free products will be the primary considerations in the development of this product. Because of this, instead of using plastic tubes, recyclable containers will indeed be utilized so that the items do not affect the environment in any kind. As a result, the items will be rich in antioxidants and nutrients, which in turn will assist to maintain a healthy complexion. As far as purchase and extraction are concerned, this cosmetics line promises a low carbon impact. Natural ingredients from the Pahadi community have been used to make these items, and they are provided to the customers in their purest form.

1.3 Target Market

Men and women between the ages of 15 and 55 are the target markets for this product line. Natural skincare products are becoming more popular in the United Kingdom, thus the items will be mostly marketed to women in that nation as the primary market (Lin et al., 2018). When it comes to organic cosmetics and personal care products, younger shoppers prioritize quality above all other considerations. It is the major mission to offer skincare for a broad variety of consumers, including spas, department shops, and hotels as well as lifestyle and therapy brands and infant care products for the general public.

According to the graph below, the market value of skincare goods for Great Britain has increased from 2009 to 2019. At 2.16 billion UK pounds, the entire value of the skincare industry increased somewhat from 2.14 billion UK pounds in December 2018. There has been an increase in the market value of skincare goods over the last ten years; in December 2012, they were valued at 1.84 billion British pounds (Statista, 2009).

The United Kingdom's skincare market is predicted to increase at a rate of 5.2 percent during the forecast period to reach a value of USD 24.37 billion by the end of the decade (2019-2024). As a result of this, Loreal's new natural skincare CTM collection has the potential to be a hit (Statista, 2009). According to market research, UK consumers are getting more and more concerned about the maintenance of their skin and hair, which presents a chance for Loreal to gain new customers.

 Consumers' increasing understanding was a major trend in this sector. Domestic clients are becoming familiar with their skin's characteristics and the adverse effects of various treatments. There has been a rise in the number of elderly persons in the United Kingdom, which is driving the growth of the UK cosmetics business as a premium, elite market. Natural components, such as herbs, aromatherapy, and fruit extracts, are widely available in the nation. Unilever, L'Oréal S.A., Clarins, and Procter & Gamble are the dominant companies in the UK market for skincare products. As a result, the danger of new entrants tends to be lower, which allows Loreal to succeed in the introduction of a new skincare collection.

1.4 Situational Analysis

Therefore, the below PESTEL analysis is conducted to present the situational analysis for the launch of the new product in the UK market: UK Business Environment

Situational Analysis

The British Government has recently scrapped the strict labour test rule and introduce many legislations in favour of the international students. Secondly, the UK economy is growing positively. The country is struggling to find effective and skilled workers. Thus, the industries require more skilled labour forces in the sustainable business growth. Britain has built a multicultural and multidimensional societies where innovation and skills are given priority over gender, race and religion. In terms of technological innovation and commercialisation; the nation has invested significant resources to meet the requirements of contemporary trends and pace. The UK is one of the countries that is highly sensitive in protecting and promoting environmental issues. However, the nature of business is not associated with environmental issues. The government has recently made new rules and regulations by inviting world-talents and innovators for contributing faster and sustainable economic growth (BBC, 2022).

The key strengths include 20 years of experiences and skills in this field and to provide service the company does not require huge amount money. The money only required for marketing plan, activities and marketing program. There are many competitors in the field but the organisation has developed competitive advantages by obtaining key competencies, building reliable relationship through effective management and quality services. As the invest is small or negligible; therefore, the risk factors or threats are almost nil but the opportunity is very high and wide. The company can recruit 200 students annually and create about £400000 in 2022 – 2023 financial year.

SWOT

Channels

Facebook and Instagram are two of the most popular social media platforms for beauty influencers that use this method. Thus, famous influencers such as Taylor Swift will utilise Facebook and Instagram to advertise their new organic beauty products. Additionally, since the majority of kids in today's generation want to be like Instagram influencers, Instagram will be utilised as a marketing tool for promotion.

IMC Objectives

• to promote organic beauty products using various social media platforms, for example, Instagram, Facebook, etc, broadcasts, and digital media.
• to increase brand sales and revenue collection by involving celebrity influencer for brand promotion.

2. Developing a strategic integrated communication plan

2.1 Setting SMART communication objectives

(Source: Weintraub, Cassell and DePatie, 2021; Bilgin, 2018; Rasoulinezhad, and Amrollahi, 2020)

2.2 Evaluation of different digital marketing channels including marketing communication mix

The marketing communication mix means a set of instruments that are used to sell products or services to a particular population (Camilleri, 2018). The collection of concepts and aspects that can go into branding particular goods and services, and also how these are applied, is what makes the communication special. Marketing mix involves the inclusion of various marketing channels including:

Advertising

Advertising is a remunerated kind of communication. This is one of the most efficient means of communication as it links a significant number of people at one time in a brief span of time (Camilleri, 2018). It not only increases revenue but also raises awareness among the customers. Marketers can guarantee that buyers are supplied with reliable information. Not only can advertisement strategies increase demand for one product or service, but they often improve client awareness of the brand (Camilleri, 2018).

 Marketers of L’Oréal can make it certain that every right service of the company is conveyed to the right audience at the right time. There is the usage of print, banners, radios, broadcast, and many other kinds of content.

Sales promotion

One of the integrated communication marketing techniques and networks that an organization uses to promote selling is sales promotion. In this form of channel, the marketplace tries to attract customers with reductions and discounts (Camilleri, 2018). The sales promotion that is used to promote the product and attract more customer incorporates certain beneficial regulations, appealing bundles, promotions, subscription discounts, and awards. Customers' experience and loyalty are significantly improved by this (Camilleri, 2018). Marketers of L’Oréal may use media articles to advertise brand companies at the proper moment by providing professional promotions, vouchers, and specials to boost and publicize their purchases.

Direct marketing

Advertisers strive to engage directly with end-users just using the style of advertising medium and network. Texts, emails, pamphlets, promoting letters, and also other marketing methods are all definitely beneficial for direct marketing (Camilleri, 2018). They receive communications straight from any of this form of marketing technique and learn about the services and goods, along with their capabilities, cost, and other data. Direct marketing is the most ancient way to communicate.

Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is a communication method that allows wireless networks to make connections with customers. It helps marketers attract customers to a business by providing notifications and promotional items (Camilleri, 2018).

Personal selling

It is amongst the most popular advertising campaigns. The communications network employs personal selling marketing through many routes and instruments. Personal selling is that when sales staff and advertisers provide products or administrations to individuals (Camilleri, 2018). It contributes to the development of a deep association involving end-users and the firm, which may be the primary objective of personal selling.

Social media marketing

The value of social marketing services in an integrated communication marketing strategy is enormous. This is a popular marketing technique, and the use of social media marketing networks is fast growing. It offers a lot of opportunities for contacting a large number of clients at once to advertise items (Camilleri, 2018). Marketers utilize it to promote their companies since it is a high marketing medium. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media management platforms are examples. The primary goal of using various marketing tools is to quickly interact with a lot of individuals and consumers in order to advertise their services.

Public relations

It is indeed an element of marketing channel that is really employed in conjunction with integrated digital marketing systems. It is the process of establishing, maintaining, as well as nurturing a strong consumer-organization connection (Camilleri, 2018). A public relations advertising method is a two-way marketing communication process wherein the users provide feedback to the corporation. Public appearances, official statements, news, and sponsors are some of the key marketing methods employed in the marketing channel.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is a part of a promotion that combines sales promotion. This sort of instrument aids in the growth of a product's appeal and engagement (Camilleri, 2018). Customers also may distinguish between two items based on brand excellence, which enables the firm to compete effectively.

2.3 Appropriate channel selection and rationale to maximize coverage across media

The most appropriate marketing channel for the promotion of beauty products includes social media marketing that can be the most suitable aspect. Using social media marketing, L’Oréal can promote the products to the customers by identifying the needs and requirements of the customers. As the social media platforms connect a wide range of customers by consuming less time, the company can identify the customers who are interested in buying the beauty products of L’Oréal (Martinus and Anggraini, 2018). This is the main rationale for maximizing the coverage of customers using social media platforms.

Monitoring image and reputation and collecting customer insights nourish marketing and sales by attending to all digital profiles, blogs, websites, and media sources. Publication of material on a product's social media platforms and interaction with customers is also done using various social media platforms (Martinus and Anggraini, 2018). The social media management skills are used by the managers of L’Oréal not only to discover intriguing discussions and engage with clients in a friendly and tailored manner but also to the tasks toward boosting articles with paid advertising. These platforms are very crucial for the managers to connect with the customers.

2.4 Ethical considerations for the product launch

Ethics that are used and considered for the product launch of the company. The company needs to maintain the product quality and life cycle. As the products of L’Oréal are beauty and skincare related, the needs and requirements of the considered need to be maintained (Ghazali et al., 2017). Beauty products should be harsh chemicals-free. These products also need to be as per the dermatology prescribed that cannot harm the skin of people. Launching of the products of L’Oréal also need to maintain the ethics.

Marketers should concentrate on a few key difficulties, specifically when selling beauty products to people, such as misleading them about an item's emotional, psychological, or skin-related misconceptions. They should never promote any item by showing any person in a bad light (Ghazali et al., 2017). They are encouraged not to advocate that a customer who purchases a product for a certain objective buys the additional product.

They should also avoid using images of goods are chemical-free and can improve the skin texture, color or can make skin fair or some other advertisements regarding this to promote the product (Ghazali et al., 2017).

Consumer protection law is a branch of common law that governs the private law interactions that exist within an organization and the business that provides the products and services (Indradewi, 2021). It covers a wide range of subjects, including but not limited to: the company needs to maintain the consumer protection law before launching the products and services. Quality control, privacy rights, unethical business operations, deception, defamation, and other buyer interactions are all examples of this. 

Marketers of L’Oréal must abide by all applicable regulations, which will naturally bring value to their business and customers. Deliberately false or misleading sales promotion regarding beauty products should be minimized, and commodities should be acceptable for possible applications. To preserve consumer rights, ethical standards should really be adopted, promoted, and implemented (Indradewi, 2021). They should be accountable and embrace the repercussions of any marketing efforts and tactics. The company should be equitable and fair enough by balancing the requirements of the consumer also with the benefits of the supplier. The company should maintain all the customer's fundamental dignity.

2.5 STORYTElling for launching the product

2.6 Scheduling the Communication plan

(Source: Rasoulinezhad and Amrollahi, 2020)

2.7 Approximate budget

The budget plays a very interesting role in business organizations. Developing a budget can help the marketers fix a specific amount to complete the promotional activities.

(Source: created by author)

3. Justified recommendations

3.1 Monitoring the IMC plan by justified recommendations

Context monitoring method

Situation monitoring or context monitoring keeps track of the project's general environment. At any stage during the project cycle, context monitoring makes it possible to detect and monitor risk, misconceptions, or other unforeseen scenarios which may develop within the organizational, political, economic, and policy environment (García et al., 2017). Context monitoring allows to detect them in advance to impact the project's strength or weakness. With the help of this method, the various risks associated with the communication plan like customer negative reaction and feedback regarding the organic products can be monitored. And by identifying this, the marketers can improve those weak areas.

Financial monitoring

The primary goal of financial monitoring seems to be to examine a company's business efficiency (Oneshko and Ilchenko, 2017). It takes account of a project's expenses incurred in contrast to the budgeted amount and enables the project team to develop methods to enhance outputs with the least inputs. The markers can use this method to identify the areas that consume many expenses and thereby can implement necessary strategies to reduce expenses for the organic cosmetic products development (Oneshko and Ilchenko, 2017).

3.2 Resources to serve communication objectives

The marketers can use other resources to serve the communication goals. They can use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the most significant channels that can connect customers at a wide range (Desai and Salvi, 2020). Advertisements through posters, television, newspapers, and broadcast will also help in providing maximum information to the maximum number of customers. Thus, these can help in meeting the communication objectives of L’Oréal

3.3. Improvement of plan to maximize revenues

The communication plan can be improved for generating maximum revenue collection. The marketers can create a chain to communicate with the customers. Frequent promotional activities in the social media platforms can help the customers get in touch with the company's operations and they can develop knowledge about the organic products. It will increase the customer experience. By doing this, the company can increase the loyalty of the customers (Boonpreda and Ruan, 2020). When the customers have all the information regarding the formation of the product, discounts, benefits, they can build trust in the brand. It thus can help the customers make decisions to purchase the products leading to an increase in sales (Boonpreda and Ruan, 2020). Thereby, it will also increase the sales and revenue collection of the company.

3.4. Meeting communication and business objectives

Communication using various channels like social media platforms, digital media platforms, and different communication tools like television, pamphlets, etc. are the most crucial factors (Desai and Salvi, 2020). These communication channels not only help develop a robust relationship with the customers to identify their needs but also help increase the number of customers purchasing organic cosmetic products. It will increase the sales and revenue collection of the company.

Moreover, the brand image of the company will be generated. The main business objectives of L’Oréal S.A are to maximize sales and increase customer satisfaction by using integrated communication marketing. The marketing managers of the company need to interact with the customers to recognize what type of products they require. It will thus help in developing the quality and variations of the beauty products (Desai and Salvi, 2020). Providing the customers with the products they need thus can help enhance customer loyalty. It leads to a huge customers demand resulting in an increase in sales of the products. Thus, the communication system can help in meeting the business objectives.

4. Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that the importance of integrated marketing communication can never be avoided. It has huge importance for the development and growth of the company. Communication systems with the customers help in creating a relationship with the customers to provide information about the new products so that the product launching can be successful and reach out to the maximum purchaser.

References

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Bilgin, Y., 2018. The effect of social media marketing activities on brand awareness, brand image, and brand loyalty. Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 6(1), pp.128-148.

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Desai, Z. and Salvi, S., 2020. Social Media Marketing and Cosmetic Industry. ANVESHAK-International Journal of Management, 9(1), pp.22-49.

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González-Minero, F.J. and Bravo-Díaz, L., 2018. The use of plants in skin-care products, cosmetics and fragrances: past and present. Cosmetics, 5(3), p.50.

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Sutariani, N.M., Putri, I.V.W. and Ariyaningsih, N.N.D., 2021. Emotive Function Used in L’Oréal Paris Advertisements. Journal of Humanities, Social Science, Public Administration and Management (HUSOCPUMENT), 1(3), pp.93-100.

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