Mkt_561_Communication_Plan

One-click Flooring Communication Plan MKT/571 April 19th, 2010 Nancy Johnson One-click Flooring Communication Plan The success of One-click’s marketing strategy through Europe will heavily rely on communication efforts with its local and foreign markets. Strict financial planning will be crucial to ensure One-click does not exhaust all its resources. Different media outlets as well as implementing new marketing technologies will allow all potential customers the opportunity to learn about the variety of products available and possible promotions. Environmental preservation is a large concern for many European markets therefore On-click will make sure that these markets understand the eco-friendly products available. Diversity and product awareness are key aspects allowing One-click to reach a large spectrum of potential customers. One-click Flooring has the ambition to become Europe’s largest online laminate flooring retailer. Marketing plays a key role in fulfilling this ambition. This paper describes One-click’s communication plan for the European market. Factors in Effective Marketing The communication plan's ultimate focus is to brand a product or service to potential customers at the right time, at the right place. There are many important factors that are critical to the success of the communication plan for One-click such as: financial budgets, marketing time span, consistency, and internal and external resources to help implement the plan. This plan will be linked to the overall strategic business plan that aligns with the organization mission and objectives and must be reviewed and revised as often as business demands require. Flexibility in the plan is also important to be able to quickly adapt to new market trends in order to lead in consumer spending (Creating an integrated, 2010). One-click will need to design a marketing budget and promotion time span in order to determine the most cost effective means of communication product awareness and advertising whether through websites, visual publications, television and radio, or trade shows. Developing clear and consistent branding and marketing communication will help in developing a theme and getting the same message across to consumers, regardless of the method of marketing. Selecting the appropriate internal and external marketing resources to implement the communication plan will also impact the success of the plan as these people will be representing the organization. Advertising and Promotions To promote the new flooring product, One-Click, will draw in customers with an advertising and promotion campaign. To develop an advertising program, One-Click must identify the target audience by understanding consumer’s lifestyles, attitudes and demographics (Rohan, 2009). One-Click will use advertising as a form of communication to persuade consumers to take a look at what our company has to offer. The advertisement will include our product name and explain how that product will benefit the consumer by using our brand (Advertising, 2010). The media that One-Click will use will consists of radio, TV, newspaper, magazines, radio, direct mailing and billboards. Advertising will be one of the most effective tools for building awareness for our product. Advertising for One-Click will be relatively inexpensive based on the cost per thousand consumers reached (Wen-fei Uva, 2010). One-Click’s sales promotion will consist of short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of our product. Our promotion will attempt to provide incentives or added value to our consumers, retailers, and wholesalers to create instant sales. These efforts will stimulate product interest and product sales. The sales promotion will include strategies that include samples, coupons, rebates, point-of-purchase, sweepstakes and contests (Dolak, 2010). One-Click will use a combination of the push and pull sales promotion strategies. A push strategy will involve convincing the trade intermediary to push the product through the distribution channels to the consumers using promotion and personal selling efforts. The objective is to persuade wholesales or retailers to give carry our brand and promote it. Using a pull strategy One-Click will attempt to get consumers to pull the product from the manufacturer through the marketing channel (Dolak, 2010). Marketing Technology Trends According to Kotler and Keller (2006, p. 612) new technologies have greatly changed marketing strategies. Marketing has become an interactive process that is increasingly customer-initiated and customer-controlled. Ads now contain rich media such as animation, video, sound, and interactive features. One-click Flooring as an internet based retailer is planning on using all available interactive marketing technologies. These include a website, search-related ads, banner ads, and personalized marketing emails. Minnick (2004) describes how new technology can be used to sell stones and tiles, and their advices can be easily translated to laminate flooring. Minnick explains that internet tools should be used to better inform, demonstrate, and show product programs and features. One-click will help customers visualize the finished product. An online design tool will be added to the website, where customers can upload a picture of their living room and where an impression of the new floor can be given by selecting different styles and orientations of laminate. For the do-it-yourselfers videos of floor laying will be added. The website and videos will be available in all major European languages. Contact information for customer service, construction workers, and showrooms will be locally adapted. Domestic Versus International Marketing Strategy One-Click Flooring will incorporate all of the standard advertising mediums discussed prior in both the Netherlands and Spain, the biggest difference naturally being the language in which the advertising is done. Another critical difference is to determine the reason Spaniards would choose laminate flooring over other types of flooring and market to that reason. As noted in Team C’s Flooring Channel and Pricing Strategy paper, “The new generation Spaniards are interested in modern and stylish furnishings” (Bijlsma, Leonard, Todd, Weaver, & Welch, 2010). It would stand to reason then that marketing the modern and stylish aspects of One-Click laminates would be beneficial in Spain. European countries, and Spain and the Netherlands in particular, are very conscious about the effect that products have on the environment and marketing to the eco-friendly aspects of laminates would also be a marketing strategy. According to Professor Rainer Marutzky’s technical position paper for the Wilhelm-Klaudiz-Institute Holzforschung on the ecological profile of laminates; laminates are an environmentally friendly product made of wood, they are odorless and have a very low emission of harmful substances, and they are easy to clean and suitable for allergy sufferers (2007). Conclusion Entering a market with competition can be difficult. Many organizations fail due to poor financial planning and lack of proper marketing research. With plans in place to reach a variety of customers through different outlets by traditional methods as well as new technology, One-click can rise above as the industry leader in flooring. References Advertising. (2010, April 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:16, April 18, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php'title=Advertising&oldid=356135134 Dolak, D. (2010). Marketing Communications Mix: Sales Promotion. Retrieved April 18, 2010 from http://www.davedolak.com/promo.htm Kotler & Keller. (2006). Marketing Management (12th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson-Prentice Hall. Minnick, R. (2004). Interactive retailing solutions for the 21st century. Stone World, 21(11), 168. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database. RD Marketing. (2010) Creating an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan. Retrieved April 19, 2010 from, http://www.rd-marketing.com/communications-plans.htm Rohan. (2009). Advertising, Sales Promotion, And Public Relations. Retrieved April 18, 2010, From http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~renglish/370/notes/chapt19/index.htm Wen-fei Uva. (2010). Develop a Successful Promotion Program. Retrieved April 18, 2010, from http://hortmgt.aem.cornell.edu/pdf/smart_marketing/uva%2012-00.pdf