Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for Ford Motors

Executive summary

            An integrated marketing communication plan is a comprehensive plan to let customers know about a specific product. Today’s market is very competitive meaning that a producer must work hand in hand with the best marketers to ensure that products receive the best attention in the market and eventually increase sales.

This paper will analyze the Ford Motor Company, one of the largest global manufacturers of motor vehicles. The company is facing an increasingly difficult market place with a well knowledgeable and choosy customer base. In this paper, the company targets sale of motor vehicle to college students and recent graduates. This target market has been chosen as it does not have campaigns directed at its specific needs by any other car manufacturer. The paper will detail both above-the-line and below-the-line communication networks in order to best capitalize this market.

Background and target audiences

Ford Motors is the second largest motor vehicle manufacturer in the US which is a very strong position considering that the US currently is currently the second largest vehicle market in the world (Dassbach, 1988). The major advantage is that the company is already established with worldwide acceptability among numerous customer segments (Ford Investor Relations 2013). Furthermore, the company has embraced some green concepts especially with the ECOnetic that focuses on the production of highly fuel efficient motor vehicle engines which is a departure from the current trend in production of hybrid engines. The overall effect of these initiatives has been the reestablishment of Ford as a global car manufacturer of reckon with innovation being its key driver (The Motley Fool 2013). It has been found that the Ford Fiesta and the Ford Focus have better overall fuel consumption ratings than the Toyota Prius which is a highly acclaimed vehicle brand (Hardigree 2007).

This integrated marketing communication plan is aimed at promoting Ford among college graduates. It will outline the objectives of the company and its strategies and tactics in accessing the selected target market.

Objective

The ultimate objective of the company is to create an appeal within college students and fresh graduates as this target market has net been adequately catered for. Ultimately, the company targets to sell over 500,000 vehicles to this cluster within a two-year period.

The target market identified will primarily be reached by use of brand ambassadors, magazines and television. This will be an endeavor to utilize the media that are currently favored by this group. One fact that is undeniable is that members of this group always have a smart phone or a tablet with them and are constantly accessing the web, mostly to communicate with their peers on the numerous social media. A marketing campaign that is personalized in order to appeal to this target will achieve two major goals (Crosby, Evans & Cowles 2011). First, it will create awareness among the group and second, it will allow for a dialogue between the company’s marketing personnel and the group; and amongst the group members themselves (Kotler 2009). The social media platform will be controlled where information on all the tenets of the brand are communicated including accessibility, finance options, performance, innovativeness, and future plans (Fowler 2010). Thus, the overall aim of the marketer will be to create a family out of the target audience where they will be able to identify with the brand, ultimately attracting others and increasing sales.

Ford aggressively took to Twitter in 2011 to appeal to the youth in an attempt to spark a conversation on their trends and preferences in the automotive sector (Mays 2014). The company has been using the buzz generated on the social media to position itself as the brand of choice for the youth and to reach a larger audience. This medium has created awareness of the company brands but did little in terms of branding.

IMC plan

Marketing objectives

1. Ford aims at increasing its overall market share in the US by 20%;
2. By the end of the first year of marketing activity the company should have achieved 30% awareness in the target audience;

• Additionally, Ford desires to increase traffic through its website by about 40% as a direct result of an aggressive campaign targeting the youth.

1. By the end of the second year, the number of Ford accounts created to patronize specific payment modes should have risen by 30%.
2. Finally, the number of people visiting Ford dealerships should increase by 20% within the first year.

Integrated marketing communication is a concept that allows the marketer to aggregate the different messages aimed at a specific group of customers in a comprehensive manner that achieves desired results (Duncan & Mulhern 2004). It is theorized that due to the nature of communication – above or below the line – customers receive numerous bits of information pertaining a product and it therefore becomes incumbent upon them to aggregate them in a mode that best makes sense to them. In this regard therefore, IMC is important to manage perceptions as the sense made by customers from the numerous messages received may not be positive for the product (Ambler et al 2002).

Branding

The Ford Fiesta will be the major brand marketed to this group (Interbrand 2013). This is because the car has been found to have stricken a cord with this audience according to recent sales figures. However, it is widely known that college students and fresh graduates are some of the hardest customers to pin down to a single brand. In order to convince them that Ford is the best model for their current situation, there will be need for an innovative and creative approach. The Ford Fiesta and the Ford Focus are currently the most fuel efficient vehicles in the market (Kiley 2010). Since this target market does not have high disposable incomes due to the fact that they are still in school and loans to repay, these vehicles offer the best value for money as they have low maintenance requirements.

Communication strategy

The first tenet of an IMC is that it must be consumer oriented (Cornelissen & Lock 2000).  This means that one must redefine the 4Ps of marketing as they are traditionally understood (Kliatchko 2008). Schultz asserts that a marketer should completely disregard the product as a first step towards success in marketing (1996). All the attention should be on the products that the customers are willing to buy and not what the manufacturer is able to make (McArthur & Griffin 1997). The second tenet is understanding what the customer perceives as the value of the products (Schultz, Cole & Bailey 2004). Professionals caution that the satisfaction of customers is never absolutely measured in dollars worth (Schultz & Kitchen 2000). This means that the products must satisfy a more inherent need. Ford should not produce vehicles for the simple convenience of the target audience but should avail products that are interactive with them. The third consideration is the convenience of the customers (Schultz, Patti & Kitchen 2011). In the present day and age, people do not have to physically present themselves to dealerships in order to pick their orders. This stage has been replaced by the internet where the customer interacts directly with the seller in purchasing and delivery of the items that best fit their needs. Finally, the promotion strategy chosen must reflect the trends of the target market. Experts posit that while traditional promotional activities cautioned the buyer to beware (caveat emptor), present endeavors entail beware of the buyer (cave emptorum) (Schultz & Schultz 2003).

Competition in the car market is very high meaning that the media selected must be more effective than that of the competition (Spear 2009). The major avenue for reaching the target market will be by use of the social media. However, as a preliminary promotional tool, the company will use brand ambassadors who will help create the initial buzz. This activity will consume nearly half of the total budget and will increase the overall awareness of the brand in a range of universities chosen. The advantage of this mode is that it allows for experiential marketing which will ultimately lead to an emotional experience between college students and the brand (Duncan, 2002). The choice of universities to have initial promotional activities will be as per geographic location. Brand ambassadors will begin by promoting the Ford Fiesta as the major brand in 20 universities across the nation which will spread into all others. These universities will be also selected as per their involvement in activities that draw large audiences like sports and also on the population of the student fraternity including those living around and in campus. The program will entail hiring 4 interns from these universities who will be paid a stipend of $800 in two semesters, which amounts to one year, and a further $200 for those that exceed the benchmarks of: collecting over 200 contacts that will form Ford’s mailing list for electronic or direct contact, participating in at least two charity events that will involve a majority of those students that are in their final year, organizing and hosting 4 promotional events for Ford and participating in chosen experiential marketing activities like sports.

Since IMC plans entail coordinated activities, the various media used will have to compliment each other (Caywood 2012). After the first year of having brand ambassadors combined with the use of social media, the ambassadors will be discontinued from actively seeking contacts. These activities will be done together with having creative television adverts in popular television channels like sports and in popular magazines like university publications and entertainment magazines. Another important avenue for the creation of awareness will be use of internet ads in popular sites like Google and Facebook. All these activities will be coordinated by an established marketing center solely focused on the promotional activities targeted at the identified audience.

The information gathered by the sales ambassadors will be used for below-the-line (BTL) communications (Akhil 2002). The advantage of BTL initiatives is that they are cost effective and do not require as hefty a budget as the ATL ones. Ford’s BTL communications will entail direct mailing to client lists or through emails. These initiatives are important since they give the consumer direct information regarding the products on offer rather than them relying on information in other forms of media. Product features can be directly communicated to potential clients ensuring that they easily recall the products once they decide to make a purchase (Swain 2004). The advantage of using promotional events unlike other media is that marketers gauge reactions of consumers (Ranjana 2007). BTL promotions are important in the communications mix as they are customer-oriented with the intention of communicating the genuine attributes of the products directly to the customers (Akhil 2001). Most marketers advocate the use of young women in the BTL initiatives (Christensen & Cornelissen 2011). Ford will focus on contracting young people who have basic sales training to ensure that the products reach their desired targeted audience

Schedule        

Vehicle

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

Apr.

May

Jun.

Jul.

Aug.

Sep.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

Ambassadors

Experiential marketing

University Magazines

Other magazines

Internet ads

Television

Website

The table above represents a schedule of the media activity for the first year. The experiential marketing during the first year of the media campaign will be done during the months that universities are on holiday. From the month of January through April, students are usually in their first semester of university while the second semester runs from September through to December. Another variation in promotional activity is that university magazine ads will alternate with other magazine ads and together will alternate with internet ads creating a promotional network that will run all year round. Finally, television ads and the company website ads will run throughout the year. This schedule is designed to give maximum exposure of the company products to the target market all year round (Littlejohn 1999).

Budget

The largest proportion of the budget will be towards the university promotional activities that will comprise 50%. The utilization of 80 interns at $1000 each will amount to $80,000 on ambassadors alone in the first year. The other promotional activities will cost an estimated $120,000 to achieve the required outcomes. Television advertisement will take the next largest percentage of the budget with around 25%. Print advertising which includes both university magazines and popular entertainment magazines will account for 15% of the budget whereas the remainder will be utilized in internet advertising. The table below summarizes the tentative budget for Ford’s promotional activities in targeting university students and fresh graduates.

Media	Amount
Promotion	$200,000
Television	$100,000
Magazines	$60,000
Internet ads	$40,000
Total	$400,000

 

Measuring effectiveness

IMCs success in theory is almost guaranteed (Kitchen 2010). Therefore, there must be benchmarks in order to measure it after implementation. The best measure for ensuring that the plan is working is analyzing the effectiveness of the ambassadors in meeting the set targets. Meeting the marketing objectives will be the overall measure of the IMC but preliminary indications will be the response that is gotten from customers through the BTL initiatives.

 

References

Akhil, G. 2002, Importance of Competition in Telecommunication, Nasscom Telecom Conference. New Delhi, The Hindustan Times and Stanford University

Akhil, G. 2001, Telecom – Is the Future Finally Near? New Delhi, Asian venture forum

Ambler, T. et al 2002, ‘Relating Brand and Customer Perspectives on Marketing Management, Journal of Service Research, vol. 5, no 1, pp. 13-25.

Caywood, C. 2012, The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communications. Chicago, McGraw-Hill

Christensen, L.T & Cornelissen, J.P. 2011, ‘Bridging Corporate and Organizational Communication: Review, Development and a Look to the Future’, Management Communication Quarterly, vol. 25, no 3, pp. 383-414.

Cornelissen, J.P. & Lock, A.R. 2000, ‘Theoretical Concept or Management Fashion? Examining the Significance of IMC’, Journal of Advertising Research,  vol. 40, no. 5,  7-15.

Crosby, L.A., Evans, K.R. & Cowles, D. 2011, ‘Relationship quality in services selling: an interpersonal influence perspective’, Journal of Marketing, Vol.54, pp.68-81.

Dassbach, C.H. 1988, Global enterprises and the world economy: Ford, General Motors and IBM, the emergence of the transnational enterprise. Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Binghamton, United States — New York

Duncan, T. R. 2002, IMC: Using Advertising and Promotion to Build Brands. Boston, McGraw-Hill

Duncan, T. & Mulhern, F. 2004, A White paper on the status, scope and future of IMC. New York,  McGraw Hill

Ford Investor Relations 2013, Ford China Sales Up 46% for the Year, February Sales up 7%. Accessed 26Feb, 2014 from: http://corporate.Ford.com/our-company/investors/investor-news-detail/pr-Ford-china-sales-up-4625-for-the-37786

Fowler, L. 2010, Integrated Marketing Communications Plan for General Motors GM&U College Discount Program. University of Kentucky, Gatton Student Research Publication 2(1)

Hardigree, M. 2007, Ford Wins Clean Vehicle Award For hybrids [Industry News]. Gawke, Jalopnik

Interbrand 2013, Best Global Brands 2012. Accessed 26 Feb, 2014 from: http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/2012/Best-Global-Brands-2012.aspx

Kiley, D. 2010, Youth Cars are everywhere but where are the Buyers? AOL Autos, Accessed 26 Feb. 2014 from http://autos.aol.com/article/youth-car-low-sales/

Kitchen, P.J. 2010, Integrated Brand Marketing and Measuring Returns. Basingstoke, Palgrave-Macmillan

Kliatchko, J. 2008, ‘Revisiting the IMC construct: A revised definition and four pillars’, International Journal of Advertising, vol. 27, no 1, pp. 113-160.

Kotler, P. 2009, Marketing Management, 10^th Edn. New Delhi, Prentice Hall India Private Limited

Littlejohn, S. 1999, Theories of human communication 6th edn. Belmont, CA, Wadsworth

Mays, K. 2014, Toyota, Ford Top Consumer Reports’ Brand-Perception Survey. Cars.com Accessed on 26 Feb. 2014 from http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2014/02/toyota-ford-top-consumer-reports-brand-perception-survey.html

McArthur, D.N. & Griffin, T. 1997, ‘A Marketing Management View of Integrated Marketing Communications’, Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 37, no. 5, 19.

Ranjana, K. 2007, ‘Sharing the Spoils’, Outlook Business, Aug. 5

Schultz, D.E. 1996, ‘The inevitability of Integrated Communications’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 37, pp. 139-146.

Schultz, D.E., Cole, B. & Bailey, S. 2004, ‘Implementing the ‘Connect the Dots’ Approach to Marketing Communication’, International Journal of Advertising, vol. 23, no 4, pp. 455-477.

Schultz, D.E. & Kitchen, P.J. 2000, Communicating Globally. An Integrated Marketing Approach. Lincolnwood, IL, NTC Business Books, pp. 35-67.

Schultz, D.E., Patti, C. & Kitchen, P.J. 2011, Integrated Marketing Communications in the 21st Century. London, Routledge

Schultz, D.E. & Schultz, H.F. 2003, IMC The next generation. Five Steps for delivering value and measuring Financial Returns Using Marketing Communications. New York, McGraw Hill, pp. 1-97.

Spear, S. 2009, Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition and  How Great Companies Can Catch Up and Win. New York, McGraw-Hill

Swain, W.N. 2004, ‘Perceptions of IMC after a Decade of Development: Who’s at the Wheel, and How Can We Measure Success?’ Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 44, no. 1, 46.

The Motley Fool 2013, Despite Strong Earnings, Europe Weighs on Ford Motor Company. Accessed 26 Feb, 2014 from: http://www.insidermonkey.com/blr g/despite-strong-earnings-europe-weighs-on-Ford-motor-company-f-48589/

 

 

Appendix

Proposal

An integrated marketing communication plan is a comprehensive plan that lets customers know about a specific product. It is particularly important as the market is very competitive in this day. This paper will analyze the Ford Motor Company, one of the largest global manufacturers of motor vehicles. The company is facing an increasingly difficult market place with a well knowledgeable and choosy customer base. In this paper, the company targets sale of motor vehicles to college students and recent graduates. This target market has been chosen as it does not have campaigns directed at its specific needs by any other car manufacturer.

The paper will detail both above-the-line and below-the-line communication networks in order to best capitalize this market. Specifically, the paper will detail the use of brand ambassadors to promote sales in various events around chosen campuses as well as gather data for below-the-line marketing. The use of ambassadors will be used by advertisements through magazines, televisions and the internet. These media will be comprehensively coordinated in an effective marketing communication mix that will eventually lead to increased sales of Ford motor vehicles.

 

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