Marketing communications is recognized as the promotional element of the Marketing mix strategy. For Perfumes Guyana to achieve competitive advantage in the luxury sector, the marketing department can incorporate Integrated Marketing Communication strategies to build brand awareness hence increasing market share. As such, this report analyses the challenges the company endures while executing strategic marketing campaigns and the necessary conditions needed for successful results.The Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is defined by (Association, n.d.
) as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.” The company uses limited media channels including Facebook to convey its brand message “Authentic Designer Fragrances at competitive prices” but they are unable to target a wide geographic area due to unavailability of internet connection in certain regions within the local landscape. IMC requires a lot of effort it deliver fruitful results by utilizing more than one medium to communicate the brand.
(Luxton, 2014) Explains that IMC capability has a significant effect on the campaign’s effectiveness and an indirect effect on the company’s market and financial performance. “IMC strategies start from identifying the goals, analyzing the target audience, conduct a SWOT analysis to gain some insight, identify the competitive edge and creatively communicate your idea maintaining the original message (Kareh, 2017).Effective Integrated Marketing Communication allows a company to communicate their brand’s story creating brand recognition, customer loyalty by creating seamless purchasing experience, reinforcing the message, increased sales resulting in higher profits and creating competitive advantage among competitor, guides customer through the various stages of the buying process as explained by (Learning, n.d.).
Where the ethical aspects are involved IMC marketing messages should be legal, truthful and honest and decent with consistency (Stuart, 2018). The company is flawed with low risk decision makers. The marketing department at times propose short term marketing campaign but management act with little or no urgency and are hesitant to proceed considering the possibility of a positive feedback from the audience. This creates an atmosphere for demotivation in staff since no effort is applied to their thoughts. Insufficient marketing budget is a major challenge since this guarantees little or no executing of marketing activities.
The reality is that the company is small and marketing can be a great risk because every dollar counts and mistakes can negatively impact the bottom line. Currently, sales is at its minimum due political instability and inflation as an economical factor. Another challenge in achieving Integrated Marketing Communication is poor marketing skill sets within the work force especially the marketing department. There is an increase in brand competition locally with the driving force of technology and the presence of e-commerce. The brand marketers need to be creative and develop impactful brand campaign and possess the ability to assess how to capture customers through new and emerging media channels. Contributing to the challenges include lack of communication within departments. The purchasing department has a tendency failing to inform sales and marketing department of new product availability.
This result in the products not being introduce to the market. Also, when there is promotions on specific items the sales team are not aware. If properly planned and executed, personal selling could have occurred contributing towards the IMC goal.Difficulty arise in trusting the brand mainly because the company is currently in the phase of building awareness and establishing a presence in the market. Taking into consideration Facebook is used to channel the message along with the use of flyers occasionally.In order to have a successful Integrated Marketing Campaign, management needs to effectively reach and influence the target market and creatively employ multiple forms of communications from data gathered through extensive market research.
These marketing communications activities must be integrated to deliver a consistent message in order to achieve strategic positioning using different tools to suit different geographic (J.Kitchen, 2010). Together with the execution of a communication audit management will be able view profiles with customer’s interaction that they may have with the company and all its products and services (Kotler, 2012).
First and foremost, the company needs to identify the objective (s), maybe either to inform public of existence or correct a past message. The company’s ability to be agile, flexible and respond to changes will contribute towards the success of the company’s marketing goal. Due to constant changes businesses operate in an unpredictable and turbulent environment where the traditional way of planning does not seem to work anymore. Therefore, new approaches to the external and internal conditions need to develop in order to cope with the environmental turbulences (Hedlof, 2000).
Cross functional collaborative approach where staff and departments liaise with each other allowing an easier flow of communication. The company require employee’s engagement, commitment and creativity, amongst others. In time they will achieve a radical transformation, creating a working environment suited to the Age of Ideas and freeing up the energies of the organization’s members (Gifford, 2015). All staff need to understand the importance of a consistent message by carefully planning internal communications.The company can implement a marketing budget allocating sufficient financial resources for marketing campaign and human investment via training and workshops to strengthen the
