Integrated Marketing Communication For Great Wall Motors: Analysis Of Environmental Regulators And Competitors
Strengths and weaknesses of Great Wall Motors
Discuss about the Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for Brand Great Wall Motors.
The marketing communication refers the group of interrelated operations that help the business organisation to establish an efficient communicative environment for their existing consumers, potential consumers, business partners and suppliers (Shafer, Smith and Linder 2015). The integrated marketing refers the coordination of these multiple communication media. This paper is focused on the integration of marketing communication of an automobile company named Great Wall Motors. In this paper, the environmental regulators of this company that influence its brand value are analysed. In addition, the communication objectives have been identified with an applicable communication plan. Apart from that, the appropriate endorsement approach has been selected with proper integration strategy for both online and offline or traditional media. The way of maintaining effective integration between printing based and social media based communication has been also described. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most effective promotional approaches for the organisation that can maintain the efficient integrity between these.
Finding strength and weakness is essential in order to analyse the internal environment of Great Wall Motors within the automobile market China and Western Australia (Vollmer and Precourt 2012).
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Strength |
Weakness |
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· Advanced technology · Strong management and business operation · Higher pricing power · Significant brand value within Western Australia and China |
· Weak supply chain for regional and international distribution · Work inefficiency and weak labour power · Poor Acquisitions · Poor customer service and helpline · Poor cost-quality balance for both Australian and Chinese market. |
As a part of external environment measurement identifying and analysing competitors of Great Wall Motors within both China and Western Australian automotive market is crucial. This competitor analysis has been done on this following table.
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Country |
Competitors |
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China |
Geely Automobile |
Strength |
· Focused research and development · Technological invention · Cost saving price |
|
Weakness |
· Poor safety measures · Narrow market |
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Changfeng Automobile |
Strength |
· String market reputation · Specialised SUB manufacturer |
|
|
Weakness |
· Lack of innovativeness · Lack of product verity |
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Changan Motors |
Strength |
· High market recognition · Technological innovation |
|
|
Weakness |
· Weak employee integrity |
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BYD Auto |
Strength |
Distinctive Competence Low cost human resource |
|
|
Weakness |
· Limited working capital · Poor distribution network |
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|
Hafei Motor |
Strength |
· Profitable price-quality balance |
|
|
Weakness |
· Low brand identity · Lack of innovation |
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Western Australia |
Toyota Motor |
Strength |
· Strong research and development · Hybrid vehicle production |
|
Weakness |
· Negative publicity · Poor brand portfolio |
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Ford |
Strength |
· Strong brand image · Effective supply chain |
|
|
Weakness |
· High-cost low quality market position · Lack of innovation |
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Hyundai |
Strength |
· Vehicle safety and design · Huge market share |
|
|
Weakness |
· Lack of innovation · Declining quality management |
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KIA Motors |
Strength |
· Variety of products · Strong innovativeness |
|
|
Weakness |
· Poor brand recognition · Limited distribution network |
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Volkswagen |
Strength |
· Excellent brand portfolio · Efficient supply chain |
|
|
Weakness |
· Higher carbon emission · Weak price-quality balance |
Perceptual mapping:
Perceptual mapping is a diagrammatic representation of the market position of a company concerning the quality and price range of the products compared to other companies within the market (Ozer 2015).
Other external factors can regulate the brand adaptation of Great Wall Motors in Western Australia, which are described below.
- Australian Government limited strictly enforced the low emission regulation that has a high impact on manufacturing.
- Fuel cost is rising at an enormous rate that influences the customer base.
- Fluctuating death rate caused by automotive accident needs more innovative production.
The Integrated Marketing Communication objectives of Great Wall Motors are:
- To increase the brand awareness in the automotive market in Western Australia and China
- To increase the customer loyalty by interacting with potential customers
- To increase supply chain efficiency and partnership relation
These IMC objectives are highly related to the business objectives of the company, which are described below:
- To increase the sales margin through brand awareness
- To sustain the gross margin through customer loyalty
- To ensure strong inbound logistics with efficient supply chain management
In order to identify the most effective marketing strategy Great Wall Motors needs to identify their tools or attribute for marketing, consequence reflects the possible outcomes after using the attributes and values refers the way of converting the possibilities to companies value (Simpson and Power 2015). The associated attributes, consequence and values along with the brand making of Great Wall Motors are examined through this following table:
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Attribute |
Consequence |
Value |
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Location selection and positioning Using print advertising as traditional advertisement approach Selecting Digital marketing media for promotional activity Target specific customer Innovative implementation of research and development Effective distribution network Efficient consumer relationship |
Increase brand recognition through traditional and modern communication media. Increase consumer satisfaction Increase Market share Increase sales margin Greater potentiality to gain loyal consumer attract the new consumer base deliver the product to the consumer more efficiently |
Rising profit that can increase the basic capital for farther investment Customer satisfaction influence the brand value Consumer attraction influence the market share |
In the advertising plan the company choose a common people as endorsers. The basic cause of selecting common people as the endorser is it will help to interact with audiences’ psychology in more realistic way (Freire 2014). Although choosing a celebrity or endorsement is a very common promotional approach, consumer psychology and its needs are other important concerns. Faces of common people can influence the consumer attraction by interconnecting their needs to the endorsers.
- However, some characteristics of common people based endorsement are very noticeable and described below:
- Using alternative way rather celebrity endorsement is highly cost efficient.
- Common people based endorsement is more words of mouth type approach that can help indirect promotion too.
- Endorsements through common people can bring lots of opportunities to direct psychological interpretation of promotional keys.
The company has to identify the most acclaimed offline promotional field before selecting the write advertisement platform for promotional activities. For offline promotion and advertisement, the best platform for the advertisement would be the newspaper (Hampel Heinrich and Campbell 2012).
Competitor analysis within China and Western Australian automotive market
The main objectives of this traditional offline based communication tool are:
- To target the older generation of potential consumer, who can be influenced by printed advertisement.
- To make a regular communication through the newspaper that can be found in almost any house or office premise.
- To make wider the possible consumer base and recognition platform
Some specific technique can add extra advantages to this communication media. These detailed techniques are customisable as per the current trends of the consumer base. These additional detail techniques are:
- Making good partnership relation with newspaper organisations can reduce the possibilities of misinterpretations.
- Regular advertisement can require more investment while it has more extensive capability to attract the customer.
- Exchanging the advertisement approach interpretation of the business tagline can gain more consumer attention.
- Using updated information and event as a pushing equipment of the advertisement can have more sustainable impact on consumer’s mind.
This offline printing based advertisement campaign is an event based practice. In this strategy, the organisation can communicate to their potential customer to inform them about new offers and facilities (Kramer and Ning 2012). Specifically, this advertisement campaign will sustain almost five months after the initial declaration. A newspaper advertisement can be made throughout five months after the initialising of the launching of a new car model.
In this era of digitalisation choosing the online based promotional tool is highly effective decision to make that can increase the consumer base and brand recognition to the significant level (Alhabash, Mundel and Hussain 2017). Social media is one of the most effective tools that can reach the larger segment of the new generation. Facebook is a widely popular social media and it choosing the Facebook as the advertisement toll will be very productive.
The main objectives of this online social media based communication tool are:
- To target the new generation of potential consumer, who can be influenced by attractive social media based advertisement.
- To make frequent communication through Facebook, this is used by every social media user at least once in a day.
- To make wider the possible consumer base and brand recognition through advance social media based tools.
Some technique can add extra advantages to this social media based promotion (Chu, Kamal and Kim 2013). These additional techniques would be formed as per the current trends of social media. These techniques are:
- Creating Facebook page allows subscriber can get a daily update about the company
- Facebook based consumer forum will allow the marketing team to conduct their market research as per the feedback from the users.
- Posting attractive offers and launching of new product in an official Facebook page will increase the prominence of potential consumer base.
Online social media-based advertisement and communication is a long-term approach where the promotional campaign does not have any time barrier. It should make a consistent attachment to the existing and potential consumer base.
Integration of two media refers the coordination and interconnectivity of two communication media that can complement each other. For an automotive company, this types of integration can come from utilising consumer loyalty in online marketing (Scheinbaum 2012). In other words, The company can share their consumer experiences about a particular brand with their Facebook members while advertising about the same brand through newspaper based advertisement.
Some additional factors like previous brand reputation and the negative review can regulate this integration negatively. However, keeping the social media communication updated and strategic can be beneficial in these conditions (Barker 2013).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be said that Great Wall Motors needs to build appropriate communication plan that helps the business operations to establish an efficient communicative environment for their existing consumers, potential consumers, business partners and suppliers. Additionally, finding strength and weakness of competitors is essential for Great Wall Motors within the automobile market China and Western Australia. On the other hand, Perceptual mapping helps to analyse market position of a company with respect to the quality and price range of the products compared to other companies within the market. In order to identify the most effective marketing strategy, Great Wall Motors needs to identify their tools or attribute for marketing, consequence and values. According to the above discussion, it can be said that although choosing a celebrity or endorsement is a common promotional approach, consumer psychology and its needs are other important concerns.
References:
Alhabash, S., Mundel, J. and Hussain, S.A., 2017. Social media advertising. Digital Advertising: Theory and Research, p.285.
Barker, R., 2013. Strategic integrated communication: An alternative perspective of integrated marketing communication?. Communicatio, 39(1), pp.102-121.
Chu, S.C., Kamal, S. and Kim, Y., 2013. Understanding consumers’ responses toward social media advertising and purchase intention toward luxury products. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 4(3), pp.158-174.
Freire, N.A., 2014. When luxury advertising adds the identitary values of luxury: A semiotic analysis. Journal of Business Research, 67(12), pp.2666-2675.
Hampel, S., Heinrich, D. and Campbell, C., 2012. Is An Advertisement Worth The Paper It’s Printed on?: The Impact of Premium Print Advertising On Consumer Perceptions. Journal of Advertising Research, 52(1), pp.118-127.
Kramer, J.F. and Ning, P.C., Hoozware Inc, 2012. System for marketing campaign specification and secure digital coupon redemption. U.S. Patent 8,103,519.
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Prajogo, D.I. and Sohal, A.S., 2014. Transitioning from total quality management to total innovation management: an Australian case. International journal of quality & reliability management, 21(8), pp.861-875.
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Simpson, D.F. and Power, D.J., 2015. Use the supply relationship to develop lean and green suppliers. Supply chain management: An international Journal, 10(1), pp.60-68.
Vollmer, C. and Precourt, G., 2012. Always On: Advertising, Marketing, and Media in an Era of Consumer Control (Strategy+ Business). New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill.ement on newspaper, Facebook based social media advertisement