IMC/integrated marketing communications plan for apparel brand bodhi

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan IMC Assignment

Submitted By: Amit Kumar 2009B53 SCMHRD

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE BRAND- COMPANY PROFILE ...................................................... 3 Target Market ................................................................................................................. 3 Product Range ................................................................................................................ 4 Consumer Behavior and determining communication objectives .............................................. 4 Longterm Communication Objetive ...................................................................................... 5 Brand Personality .............................................................................................................. 5 Brand Identity Prism ...................................................................................................... 7 Designing The communications ...................................................................................... 7 Marketing Communication Mix ....................................................................................... 8 Advertising .................................................................................................................. 9 Direct Marketing ........................................................................................................ 10 Sales Promotions ....................................................................................................... 11 Personal Selling ......................................................................................................... 12 Events and Sponsorships .......................................................................................... 12 Word Of Mouth .......................................................................................................... 14 TOUCH POINTS ............................................................................................................ 14 SYNERGY AMONG TOUCH POINTS ........................................................................... 14 Ensuring MC’s effectiveness.......................................................................................... 14 Partners in communication ........................................................................................... 15 Implementation Plan ..................................................................................................... 16 Evaluation of imc program ............................................................................................ 17 References .................................................................................................................... 18

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A new Ethnic Apparel Brand INTRODUCTION TO THE BRAND- COMPANY PROFILE

The Bodhi Shop is a chain of few apparel retail outlets in Gujarat which stocks various fabrics, garments and accessories. Apart from the retail outlet, Bodhi has a wide range of products that are made to order for export and for the domestic Indian market. Filled with the aesthetics and values Bodhi, is a fresh and dynamic ethnic wear lifestyle brand that thrives to make both traditional as well as contemporary clothing and printed fabrics with a distinct flavor that comes from a sophisticated sense of aesthetics, attention to detail, quality and excellent craftsmanship. Bodhi's creations carry great designs which are hand printed on natural fabrics by a process that has minimal impact on the environment. Bodhi as a brand is since 1994 and has grown since but doesn‟t have a pan India presence through stores. Instead it takes up exhibitions for a period in different cities. Based on the IMC plan Pyramid we will take each tool to build a brand for Bodhi. The apparel brand was born from the idea to make a brand, which will take the Indian weavers and the centuries old Indian Embroidery to the organized market. The concept of the store is a place which brings these exquisite art forms, on Indian hand woven cloth.

TARGET MARKET

The target market for the salon is predominantly female. The female individual appreciates beauty, fashion and style and likes to show that. This female tends to take very good care of herself through exercise as well as numerous upscale beauty products. She appreciates quality and is willing to pay for it. Base on this the target customer can be profiled as a Woman o o o o o

Upper middle/ Lower Upper/Upper Upper class Age group starting from 18 - 40 Student Working professionals/Socially Active Women Having cultural and integral values

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PRODUCT RANGE

Garments Sarees Kurtas Indian Pants Skirts Blouses Kaftans

Products Home Linen Duvet covers Bed covers Table Cloths Napkins Tea-cozy Aprons

Accessories Stoles Scarves Dupattas String Bags

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND DETERMINING COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES The communication objectives are based on the response hierarchy models and can be set at any level. The model here we want to use is the HOE i.e. Hierarchy of Effects model. Awareness: If most of the target audience is unaware of the object, the communicator‟s task is to build awareness, perhaps just name recognition, with simple messages repeating the product name. Consumers must become aware of the brand. As most of the target segment is comparatively new to this brand so we need to aware the mass to build awareness. Knowledge: After making the target audience aware of brand, but still they do not know much, hence this stage involves creating brand knowledge. This is where comprehension of the brand name and what it stands for become important. Liking: After knowledge about the brand the feelings of consumers assosciated with brand should be analysed, and if the feelings are unfavorable then stress should be laid on this stage. Preference : even after the liking it may happen that many people may prefer another brand in the same category more favorable may be due to availability, prices, attitude etc.In this case, the communicator must try to build consumer preference by promoting quality, value, performance and other features. Conviction: A target audience might prefer a particular product but not develop a conviction about buying it. The communicator‟s job is to build conviction among the target audience. Purchase: Finally, some members of the target audience might have conviction but not quite get around to making the purchase. They may wait for more information or plan to act later. The communicator must need these consumers to take the final step, perhaps by offering the product

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at a low price, offering a premium, or letting consumers tried out. This is where consumers make a move to actually search out information or purchase.

Based on the above we have to set our long term objectives and subsequent IMC strategies. The IMC Plan would focus on three main things: 1. Creating general Brand Awareness 2. Taking products to preference level 3. Increase sales through above said objectives.

LONGTERM COMMUNICATION OBJETIVE Based on the above done customer behavior study the long term objective would be a multiple one with following objectives: Brand Awareness  To promote the awareness about Bodhi and to make it be the first brand that comes to mind for ethnic,elegant and colorful clothes. Brand Attitude  To make the brand more preferable by 50% for the target customer in view of customers Brand Purchase Intention  To get each target customer to visit a “Bodhi” store at least once every season, and to get new referred customers equal to 100 % of existing customer base every year. The key to any apparel brand‟s success is to become a style mirror for the person who wears it. Thus with the range and the regularly updated designs , our communication should ensure that the customer gets to go through the collection at least once. The communication should excite and encourage the customer old and new, that Bodhi is the place where they will definitely be items which they would like to own or gift. The clothes should make the person feel comfortable and good, get attraction and attention from others and then reply back as the question of “where did you buy it from?”. Thus referrals, positive ones are the brand builders. BRAND PERSONALITY The brand personality is basically what a brand would look if it was a person. Based on the target market analysis and brand image and positioning Based on the Aaker’s model of brand personality the “personality” of a brand can be described and measured in five core dimensions, each divided into a set of facets and each facet is in turn

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measured by set of traits. The trait measurements are done using a five point scale (1= not at all descriptive, 5 extremely descriptive) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Sincerity(Down to Earth, Honest ,Wholesome, Cheerful) Excitement( Daring, Spirited, Imaginative, Up-to-date) Competence(Reliable, Intelligent, Successful) Sophistication( Upper Class, Charming) Ruggedness( Outdoorsy, Tough)

Dimension 1 Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness 

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3

4

5 

  

Based on the above analysis Bodhi scores high on sincerity as it projects itself as Gentle, honest, sensitive and complete as personified by a Family Oriented Woman which also describes it as reliable and successful and thus high scores on Excitement and competence dimensions. It can‟t be described as rugged as it is projected as contemporary, bright and lively, caring, confident and in control. So in all the brand personality that emerges is:

Bodhi can be seen as a brand which will have the characteristics of being a global Indian , a person who is cheerful and makes you feel good , works hard to do everything with perfection , caring and sensitive to people around, and Modern yet an Indian at Heart.

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BRAND IDENTITY PRISM

DESIGNING THE COMMUNICATIONS The designing of the communications would be based on the idea of one voice-one message strategy. The strategy would be to address the three problems: WHAT TO SAY (MESSAGE STRATEGY)

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The brand is basically for the woman and home décor, thus the theme of message should be targeted on the housewife. Based on the brand positioning the theme would be : “The primary theme will be that Bodhi is for the sophisticated, successful woman of today, who plays all responsibilities of life – family and carrier excellently. Celebrate your Lifestyle with Indian Colors” This theme would be directly appealing to the social(social conformity) and the ego satisfaction of women. HOW TO SAY IT (CREATIVE STRATEGY) The creative strategy would be based on the Transformational appeals i.e. which elaborates on a non-product-related benefit or image. As discussed above the appeal would be to depict a confident elegantly dressed Global Indian woman successful on both professional and personal front. WHO SHOULD SAY IT (MESSAGE SOURCE) The spokesperson selected should portray the appeal we want to create. So qualities of being successful, elegant and truly Indian with global appeal should be there in the spokesperson. Based on the three dimensions of expertise, trustworthiness and likability the spokesperson for this brand would be Mrs. Aishwarya Rai Bacchan. As she has carved a niche in global arena as she was ex Miss world, and has been a quite successful actress. Not only that after marriage she has balanced perfectly between her home and professional responsibilities. So, she provides the perfect personality for the brand. SELECTING THE COMMUNICATION CHANNEL The communication channels for such a brand would include both the types of channels viz. Personal as well as Nonpersonal. Personal: It refers to the channel when two or more persons communicate face to face, over phone, email etc. Rather than stressing on Advocate channels the more focus would be on the expert and social channels as this would be easier and more cost effective. This will include social media marketing and word of mouth marketing Nonpersonal: It refers to when communication is directed towards more than one person. This channel in our case will include the media, sales promotion, events and experiences, PR etc. MARKETING COMMUNICATION MIX Below are presented the implementation of the selected components of marketing mix. Throughout the focus is on building the desired image of the brand , and to get the customer to be interested in the brand by means of thematic communication. Once the customer has visited a store and experienced the brand , entice him with all possible touch points and after purchase , maintain a constant relationship with him , so that he is periodically remembered and informed about the brand , Thus engaging him. To build a trustworthy relationship , which the customer will trust enough to refer to friends.

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ADVERTISING Advertising provides a platform to reach geographically dispersed buyers. It can build up a long term image of a brand. It will include the advertisements on FM,TV, newspapers and magazines. The strategies would include: 1. Adverticles The informative articles generally on new fashion trends, or Indian traditional themes such as marriage wears, occasional party wears etc. will be published in national newspapers with “Bodhi Indian Woman”as the author. The adverticles will be placed in the additional pages on Fasion/beauty page that actually appeals to woman. It will contain a weekly column related to topics like art forms , different seasons , flowers , Indian festivals , mythological characters and other Indian themes. Articles will we very enticing and create an image of beauty an aura for the subject. The language of these articles will be very urban and contain pictures of the art form. The “BODHI” Logo will appear with the article, with one line that will relate the News paper article with the current collection at the store. 2. Newspaper and Magazine Advertisements: The advertisements will be limited to media of English Newspapers and other local magazines as well as national magazines. The advertisements will have a theme running through the season, which will link to the collection at the store and display pieces from the collection.    

Each ad would be of the same size and have the logo at the same place. Indian Themes relating to the collection at the store The ads will appear on weekends, not on the main newspaper but on the additional. The ad should contain the website name

3. TV advertisements The advertisements of the brand would be shown only on cultural/fashion channels generally around 3pm and 8pm.the channels for this cause would be NDTV GOOD TIMES, Discovery Life & Travel. The advertisement would include a glimpse of Aishwarya Rai promoting the brand .

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4. Radio The radio advertisements would be generally on FM and would be done only near the launch of a store in the surrounding vicinity. Thus the AD can be aired at preferred location with less investment. As the target group we are considering , would generally travel by Car so FM is better way to target them.

DIRECT MARKETING

E-mails: Short and Concise newsletters that can entice customers can be sent to existing customer base, to prospects whose email ids are obtained by partnering with clubs and other social communities. For ex. : Tying up with the Spic Macay and other theatre groups and promote their plays by selling tickets and gathering the database of our target consumers. 

The emails should have interesting content like perfectly embroiders sarees, handlooms etc. with more visuals that are appealing to eyes and almost like forward mails , which people will go through and pass on.

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 

As the brand boasts about environmental security this can be weaved into the newsletters and direct mail cards can be sent to such people to join the Bodhi Community. Other type of newsletters could be about various city happenings related to cultural festivals , events , etc.

INTERACTIVE MARKETING

1. WEBSITE “Bodhi “website will be a very important communication, interaction and customer engagement tool. The colorful website with a green background will be an integration tool for the various communication efforts.         

Will have information about the “Bodhi” beliefs and dreams. Collection of all the print advertisements Customization of embroidery, printing of customer selected pics/prints facility Info about upcoming events. Information about the artworks. CSR information as to how we are working towards the betterment of the weavers and the artisans. Environment protection efforts taken by us Customers Articles and designs submitted at website Customer Feedback and complaint forum.

2. Social Media Campaigns After a planned roll out of all the other promotional tools the brand would like to make a community of its own. The customers would be sent a invitation to join on different social media sites. This will help in creating a intense brand awareness among the unreachable target segment otherwise and also will help the brand to get a international platform. The applications would be provided on these sites which will make active engagement and would in turn provide loyalty to the brand from its customers. SALES PROMOTIONS   

Initially for increased footprints and traffic a discount of 10% on MRP for irst 30 days would be run. Customer Relationship Management: With your first purchase of above 3000 a loyalty card would be given along with some points. These points could be redeemed at any store to get the free ticket to the events we are going to sponsor. Also a unique no. would be given to you by which you could access different applications on website and utilize additional and exclusive features on the site.( mentioned in the Website section.)

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 

The customers would be provided an in house magazine describing the facts and information about family,fashion etc.alongwith customer‟s experiences and articles. Weekend Guests: an artisan will come and demonstrate live, his artwork. Customers get a hands-on experience.

PERSONAL SELLING At Bodhi every artist or salesman will acts as its own salesperson. Every employee that is involved with the customer has to make sure that she / he comes back. At the end of the service treatment the person that handles the customer has to make sure to set a future appointment, and that the customer feels obliged not to miss it. Secondly he should try to engage the customer in the community projects for example: CSR activities and environment protection activities so as to make resonance with the customers Sales people should provide needed information only and just find things according to their need. All the sales person should have same yet ethnic uniform The Sales team should be very responsive, friendly, well informed and well dressed. Trained to understand the taste and needs of the customer when she walks in.

EVENTS AND SPONSORSHIPS The events that need to be sponsored need to be in sync with the message that is conveyed through the brand and its products. BODHI has an Indianised image, depicting and celebrating the success of today‟s age women with traditional values, sophisticated with a status symbol and the „Be a Proud Indian‟ attitude. The followers or enthusiasts of the event could possibly be the influencers or share the values with which the brand empathises with. Based on the above attitudes this can be done by associating with: 1) Local Theatre Groups In Metros As many upper middle and upper class ladies are much into such events so they can provide a good medium to reach the target.Moreover such theatre groups generally correspond to our message of ethnic appeal and thus are a must to go for. 2) Classical Dance /Musical Concerts As these are core essence of Indian culture they can correlate better to our target group. Thus sponsoring such events will greatly enhance the brand equity. Spic Macay and Pancham Nishad organize many such events and sharing name with them will definitely make our brand popular as well as strong. 3) Folk events / Handicraft Exhibitions The folk events that are generally held in metros for example :Dilli Haat in Delhi where the target segment capturing probability is highest exhibition and events for example TEEJ fest etc. can be sponsored so as to increase the awareness

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PUBLIC RELATIONS 1) NGOs For the CSR activities to engage the community and to make a resonance with the customers some events assosciated with the NGOs could be done. o o o

There will be donation campaigns at the store and on the website. The customers will be informed about the NGO, and the relationship „Bodhi‟ shares with it. Customers will be told about how they can help other than by money

2) Trade shows The exhibitions along with the new collections that entice the women can be made in big trade shows like Trade fair at Pragati Maidan in Delhi and similarly in other metros can be done initially to make the business community aware of such brand. 3) Exhibition by customers for customers Invited to come and exhibit their artwork, etc 4) Contests for Customers o Contests will be held where customer can show their creative talents

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o Contests for best ideas, design and themes for future collections 5) Sponsoring of a handicraft festival in NIFT/NID every year

WORD OF MOUTH 

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Socialites: Being the focal points for the line of business, its very important to be in contact with the socialites of Delhi, Mumbai, etc so that the product can get free publicity via word of mouth and these socialites can also serve as the Brand evangelists Also,For word of mouth publicity the main source would be to satisfy and amaze the existing customers , which will be greatly dependent on the brand image built by the quality , uniqueness and customer engagement with the brand.

TOUCH POINTS 

Adverticles

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Store Billboard

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Mail Cards

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Trade shows

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Sponsored

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Promotional

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Products

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NGOs

Events

Pamphlets

Coupons

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Carry Bags

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Events billboards

Communities

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Bills

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Contest forms

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Catalogs/Brochures

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Brand Tag

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Social Media Page

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Emails

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Sales Person

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Applications

and

Other

All the touch points reinforce what brand stands for, they draw synergy from each other as each focuses on making the brand more and more attractive to the customers, reinforce the correctness of the purchase decision , and increase the value of the bought products. SYNERGY AMONG TOUCH POINTS The touch points should synergise and in turn should potentiate each other. It should be in the concordance with the one voice one message strategy. For example:The models portrayed while doing the photoshoots for the brand should be in Indian ethnic wear and should be Indian. A foreign model won‟t be able to make the product Indianised and thus would defeat the purpose of the brand. Also the other touch points that are there should provide a feel of sophistication. The touchpoints shouldn‟t show vulgarity but should have a family appeal.

ENSURING MC’S EFFECTIVENESS

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   

All the marketing communication mix elements used for BODHI and the various touch points available, will be controlled by the one agency only so that message is coherent in each medium Moreover if possible the in-house agency would be given the task of whole IMC plan To ensure effectiveness, the communicated message should actually be fulfilled by the brand. Thus effectiveness in case of the apparel brand like BODHI will be a joint effort of the operations and merchandize planning, and collection designers.

PARTNERS IN COMMUNICATION With a strong reliance on building the brand through rich experience of interaction with the brand touch points, direct marketing and customer relationship management, the partners in communication would be mostly from the creative fields. Media House The media houses would be according to the medium chosen. For example the media partners for the print media and TV would be the TV Today group as it will allow Bodhi to have a presence on NDTV Good times as well as magazines like outlook, India today etc. The newspaper media would be Times Of India which has the highest reach and has good supplements in which we want to place our ads. In-house agencies Bodhi Store will strongly rely on In-house agencies/ departments for communications associated with   

  

Direct Marketing – Designing , collating , Editing and finalizing the direct marketing mails. In-store event planning In-store décor planning o Poster designing o Interior decoration o Theme decisions and execution Package and Carry bag designing Brochure Designing Preparing articles for news papers

Internet and Web Designing Partners: These will be responsible for creating and maintaining the website. They will be adding new features from time to time. They will also provide Web Analytics data Design Studios: Will be consulted by the in- House agencies, and provide them with required resources like photographs, graphic art, etc.Used for print media communication execution

Frequent Buyer cards/ Loyalty programs agencies 15

Responsible for providing the system to run the program , and also maintain database of customers and their accounts . During evaluation of communication will help in analyzing the data. Celebrity Endorsers: The celebrity and the brand ambassador for Bodhi would put forth the idea of a perfect Indian woman. Suggested celebrity endorser would be Mrs. Aishwarya Rai Bacchan. The idea behind having her as endorsers is to convey the secondary association, with the achievement, success and family orientation of young generation Indian women. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Phase 1

Description Pre-Opening stores

Key role of  To create awareness

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Opening of stores

 

3.

Postphase

Opening

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Time Activities brand Before 2 months of  TV ads opening  Bill boards  Adverticles  Magazine Ads To increase brand Next 2 months of  Direct mailers awareness opening  CSR activities To create a  PR Preference for the  Events brand sponsorships To create After 2 months of preference/Liking opening till next 8 for the brand months

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Proliferation Phase

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To create After 3-4 months of conviction for the opening brand To Increase purchase and customer base

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Emails Social media engagement PR Events Sponsorships Sales Promotions TV ads Direct Marketing Personal Sales Word Of mouth NGOs sponsorships

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EVALUATION OF IMC PROGRAM The evaluation of the advertising and marketing efforts will take place on an ongoing basis over various levels. 

The store will receive the month‟s media schedules before the first of the month. It is the receptionist‟s/floor coordinators duty to ask how the customer (when they enter and enquire) heard about Bodhi.

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They have to find out if it was through a referral, a direct mail piece, or if they have seen an ad somewhere. After writing down where the prospect has heard about the store (in what publication, station or direct mail), he or she will be noted down in a set up computer program/software. The same is true for walk-in customers.

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After the purchase is finished the receptionist/floor manager has to also mark the amount paid for the product. This way the store can take exact control in measuring media effectiveness.

Sources of data: -

Data from loyalty cards Customer surveys in store and online Website ( Web analytics) trafific analysis Sales Data

Sales data analysis      

Merchandize wise (Artwork , Fabric , Size) Season wise Month wise Weekend/weekday wise Demographics of the customers wise ( from the Loyalty cards) Promotional coupons sold

Surveys Once a quarter the store will send out a direct mail piece as well as hand out a survey in the store/malls/cultural events to see what is the top of mind recall for the ethnic wear category? Which medium has the strongest recognition with the customers. Future advertising development will be tweaked accordingly .Conducted online and in-store to get to know    

How customers are actually coming to the store ? What is the perception about the brand ? What was most exciting part of shopping at Bodhi Success of in-store events

This will help us modify and redesign our communication mix to make it more effective and efficient. 17

Some of the observations that can be made from the data would be • How the How much the store made compared to how much they spend that month (Return on Investment (ROI)) separated by the medium or in total. • How many customers the ads pulled in, the referrals pulled in and othersin total or separated by hour, day, month, year. • What medium is effective, what medium is working. • What ad is working to drive in traffic, what ad is working to drive sales. • If the ad is driving in the right customer

It will take some time for the store to establish an effective database with the computer program, but it is only a matter of time. One of the most essential steps is to set up the system correctly from the beginning on to make the advertising work. The store will evaluate its communication effectiveness at the end of every quarter so that it can better it for the next season.

REFERENCES

1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

Marketing Management - Philip Kotler Principles of Advertising and IMC – Tom Duncan www.bodhi.in Photos – Google Image Belch and Belch

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