Integrated Marketing Communication and Ferrari

Introduction

We are all living in the world where every product is been marketed to attract the attention of customers and the manufacturing companies are trying their best to market their product result oriented to increase its sales. Thus they are integrating each elements those are influential in the process of marketing and sales to adopt newer strategies to attract more customers towards their product. Marketing of a product should be effective and catchy to attract customers rather than the quality of that product. In this assignment we are looking after the various factors of integrated marketing especially in reference to Duncan model.

It is quite truth that IMC makes sure that “marketing communications elements all present the same position to the customer and other interested parties”. It is further combining all the elements of puzzle into one cohesive whole (Lucas, 1999). One the other hand Griffith says that “IMC means that all your company’s key product and corporate messages, positioning images and identity are coordinated across all marketing communication venues” (Griffith, 1997, p1).

It is truth that integrated marketing communication is not just meant for the promotion of a product but also to improve their contacts with their loyal customers. Thus their loyal customers can get useful information on the product and product related services and they are not just conveyed through well planned promotional messages. One other objective of integrated marketing communications is to attain synergy by combining all the aspects of marketing mix. Some of the features of integrated marketing communication are:

·         Builds good relationship between the customers and the brand

·         Increases the loyalty of the customers

·         Promotes the brand further and further

·         Improves the good rapport with the employees, stakeholders and the customers

·         Integrates and unites suppliers, media, government and consumers

Advertising was the first form of integrated marketing communication and the advertisements had become popular from 1960s in Australia. In the early advertisements they adapted British accents and later after 1960s and 1970s, they used their own accent and Australian advertisements become Australian by nature. It was the beginning and various changes were happened till this period and every change in this field is intended to make marketing effective and proper (Belch, Kerr and Powell, 2000).

This term IMC is indicated to explain it holistic approach towards marketing communication. The main objective of this is to make sure the consistency of communication messages and effective use of media. It involves both online and offline marketing mediums. Some of the popular online marketing mediums are email marketing, SEO, pay per click, Blogs, RSS, Internet radio, Podcast and Internet TV. Some of the offline mediums are newspapers, weekly, Radio and Television. The organisation forms its IMC programs by compiling the vital elements of marketing mix which is product, price, place and promotion. (Sudhir K and Rao V R, 2006)

IMC is a vital part in marketing and it involves and mixes marketing tools, various marketing approaches and the available resource within the organisation by realising the significance of consumers’ demands and identifying the chances of getting maximum profit. As we know marketing is all about marketing mix and promotion or marketing communication is only a part of it. There are various promotional activities in organisation such as promotion of sale, advertising and personal selling. All these promotional tools and activities are integrated through integrated marketing communication to have an advantage over the competitors (Harvey B, 2001).

Consumer is the king in any business and the strategies are made in the organisations to attract them. Therefore organisation should know the decision making pattern of consumers to make their marketing much more effective. Various aspects influences the decision making process of consumers. Marketing mix is the important factor in the decision making process of consumers.

Price: Customers always look for better quality products for affordable prices. Pricing is an important factor in the decision making process of customers. In the recession hit time, most of the consumers become more price conscious and they are not ready to pay higher if something is available for cheaper. Thus pricing is an important part which influences the buy decision of consumers.

Product: It is the wish and expectation of consumers to buy the best product from the shops. Everybody is look after the quality and usability of product. Consumers may buy product for higher prices if the product is of high quality and it has wide range of usability.

Place: Product should be available to the customers everywhere. Availability of products is also one of the influential factors in the decision making of consumers. They should not experience any difficulty in buying the products. Thus availability of product plays an important role in the decision making process of consumers.

Promotion: Consumers should be aware that they are having such options in the market. Once the communication message is send to the consumers on the advantages and benefits of the product effective, it would easily attract more customers towards them.

Basic model of consumer decision making was developed by Bernoulli and it was latter modified by Neumann and Morgenstern. According to this model, most of the decisions made by consumers are based on the expected outcome of their decisions. Thus consumers are acting as rational actors where they can assume the probabilistic outcomes of their decisions. However their assumption can also be faulty and wrong. Other elements are also affecting their decision making process. Most of the thoughts of customers would be based on the frequencies of events which they think may consider as probabilities. Even this basic model is a dominant decision making paradigm, it has its own limitations and shortcomings. There are other models as well those are developed by Herbert Simon in the year 1950. All these models are trying to define and trace out the basic factors those are assisting the customers to make decision to buy or hire product or service from the organisations.

Duncan Moriarty Integrated Marketing Communication Mini Audit is a great and helpful diagnostic tool to assist the managers to identity the strengths and weakness of communication tools. Duncan denotes this audit as “the evaluation of IMC relationship-building practices; in examining organizational structure and the extent of understanding of marketing communication objectives and strategies, it measures the extent to which company-created brand messages are strategically consistent” (Duncan, 2005).

In this mini audit we are evaluating ten brand relationship drivers and those are mainly categorised into three. The first category of these drivers emphasises the importance of building good relationship with stakeholders. As many expressed IMC is all about creating good relationships (Zahay, 2004). Second category of drivers is focussed on various dimensions and the ways to attain strategic consistency, effective interactivity, other mission marketing and zero based planning. Duncan and Moriarty suggested having a systematic process to make sure that proper dialogue has to be done with the stakeholders by sending proper messages. The third category of drivers is related with the cross functional management, company’s core competency, prospects in market and working with other third party agency to integrate the communication. It is the truth that organisation cannot combine their communication externally if they are not integrated communication internally.

Now let us do a mini audit on Ferrari SPA and evaluate how they are informing their communication message to their respective customers and stakeholders. As we know, Ferrari SPA is the leading automobile manufacturers. They became an incorporated company in the year 1945 by Enzo Ferrari. The main objective of him was to use these cars for motor racing and he made sure that he had done everything to fulfil that. He started selling their road cars in an attempt to attract more funds for his racing team. The road cars are not built on the same way of racing cars. Even though these road cars are so expensive, the one who uses and purchases this type of car felt that they are also the part of this racing team. The red colour in Ferrari cars reminded to all who are watching those cars on the streets their successful stories in the racing competition. Ferrari just completed their involvement in the racing car competition and they are the forerunners even now in the racing competition. Now Ferrari has come up with more stylish, official, clothing and die cast models for their road car uses. The real objective of these is to cast a good image on the mind of customers and general public. Ferrari is sponsoring many mega events and they are popularising their brand name through those events. One of the advertising partner of Ferrari is Marlboro and the colour red always reminds Ferrari in the mind of the general public when they see an advertisement or event. The red emblem of Ferrari is used in Marlboro cigarette packages as well to popularise Ferrari. The computer manufacturer Acer is releasing limited edition of Ferrari Red laptops which are also made of carbon fibre which is the material utilised in Ferrari Cars as well. On the same way FIAT also comes up with FIAT500 model which uses the same colour red to remind the Ferrari racing cars.

Mini Audit

First Category: Ferrari always discusses their plans and suggestions with their stakeholders. They are trying to build a good relationship with their stakeholders. They are introducing various products related with their particular product. All these related products are just reminding us the main product of the company. They are having an effective discussion with their stakeholders and they are very much involved in extra activities as well. They show their corporate social responsibility through various social events. They use to sponsor various events those are meant to educate people on various social causes. Thus Ferrari is building good rapport with their respective stakeholders. Even though one of their sponsors is Marlboro, a cigarette manufacturing company, they have no decided to stop their joint advertisement with Marlboro as their campaigning against smoking.

Second Category: Ferrari is always keen to popularise their products among the public. They are releasing watches, toys, clothes and other small products to impress their customers. All these products remind us about their main product Ferrari Cars. They are popularising the colour Red and now it is almost associated with them. Whenever a common man sees something in red, he or she reminds of Ferrari Cars and such is the impression of Ferrari created by their advertisements and their communicative messages to the public. They are keen to impress the public by supplying the small models of their racing cars. Ferrari releases various types of toy cars which are reminding us the real racing cars and it increases the craze for racing among the public as well.

Third Category: As we know, Ferrari is the leading automobile manufacturers in the business world. Technology is the core competency of Ferrari and their technology is particularly meant for racing and it yields them great results in racing competition as well. They are coming up with innovative thoughts and ideas and they are working out on those ideas and bettering their performance. Ferrari is always known for their innovative advantages. They are keen to introduce newer technologies in their cars. It creates a good impression on the minds of consumers on Ferrari. Consumers know that even though the cars of Ferrari are so expensive, they are very well equipped with technologies as well.

This mini audit brought out the strengths and weakness of Ferrari in their marketing communication. Even though they are having strengths in sending proper communication messages, their advertisements with Marlboro creates a bad effect on their image as well. That is why they have stopped to advertise their product in Marlboro cigarette.

Ferrari is making use of the advancement in technology. They are using latest technology in order to inform their communicative messages to their consumers. They are using all sorts of mediums to convey their messages to their respective stakeholders and consumers. Let us see the communication model used by Ferrari.

Ferrari believes in real time communication with their respective customers or clients to identify their performance requirements and conveys them the guarantee on the satisfaction requirements. Ferrari also uses both traditional and modern mediums to communicate with their clients or consumers. Some of the mediums used by Ferrari are listed below.

Television: Ferrari finds this as the best medium to inform their messages to their consumers. They show their advertisement in between racing competition and other sport events. Thus most of the customers come to know of their new products and services provided by Ferrari.

Radio: Even though it can be considered as the traditional way of communication, the introduction of latest gadgets popularise the use of radios and Ferrari is making of use of this traditional communication medium to convey their messages to their loyal customers and stakeholders.

Online Advertisements: As the world is going online now, Ferrari has also started conveying their messages through their website, email, online marketing applications, advertising on other websites and so on. As online campaigning is getting more popularity, Ferrari is easily introducing their new products and service through these online mediums.

Flex Boards: Ferrari is still using larger flex boards in the streets to educate the customers on their new products and services. We can see those boards while we travel on high streets. It is also catchy at night to attract the attention of customers of clients. Even though they are traditional way of conveying messages, but they are very effective and catchy as well.

Sponsoring Events: Ferrari is sponsoring mega events regularly to attract the attention or to educate the customers on their new products and services. Thus more and more people are getting to know the messages conveyed by Ferrari. They are sponsoring environmental events as well to show their commitment to the society.

Releasing related products: It is usual that we have seen the small models of Ferrari cars played by the children. Ferrari releases such cars to attract more customers towards them. They are informing their messages through these small models. They also release watches, clothes, toys and other related products to convey their messages effectively.

Ferrari’s advertisements have a great impact on the minds of customers. It is everybody’s dream is to have a Ferrari Car and such is the impression created by Ferrari through their advertisements. They have integrated all the components of marketing mix for the effective way to inform their messages. They have integrated pricing, product quality, availability of product and better promotion. Thus they have mixed up everything properly to attract more customers. They are forcing the customers to buy their product by showing very impressive advertisements and great opinions from other experts in this industry. The colour of Ferrari attracts the customers towards it. It is known as premier brand and thus customers’ first priority in buying a car would be Ferrari as it is very expensive and known as a car of elite class. Such sort of messages was conveyed by Ferrari and that is the secret of their communication efficiency as well.

References

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