Integrated Marketing And Consumer Loyalty For Samsung Smartphone

Question: Discuss about the Integrated Marketing Communication And Consumer Loyalty For Samsung Smartphone. Answer: Introduction Turner, (2016) defines Integrated Marketing communication as an element in the marketing mix of any organisation that is used to persuade, inform and remind the product market with regard to organisation of the company products. In this manner, integrated marketing communication will entail the use of various promotional tools and marketing, communication, techniques and advertising services to maximize profits for the organisation. This means that integrated marketing communication is realized with it is achieved through a consistent and concise messaging that will increase consumer affinity and familiarity(Hadjikhani, et al., 2016). The most effective messages will be those that are meaningful to the organisation customs and the branding and messaging consistency which is an important concept in their effort to yield loyalty and customer satisfaction. Early this year Samsung released its new brand of the S series the Galaxy S8 with an integrated marketing communication plan. In thi s manner they were able to profile the identified target market as both women and men between ages of 15-50. The campaign was meant to appeal to customers who use smartphones and also in an effort to retain customer loyalty after the fallout of the S7 series in September 2016(John, 2016). The changing Trend Integrated Marketing Communication Integrated marketing communication was developed to mainly address the need for businesses to offer their clients more than the standard advertising. The 4As originally brought to light the term for new advertising. However, this did not incorporate all the aspects of integrated marketing communication beyond the traditional advertising processes(John, 2016). In the present days the media has undergone a very new phase of development in the recent decades. In the past, companies would concentrate in promoting their products using traditional mediums like the television, newspapers and radio. This has however come to pass and the future of marketing is more digital as the new technologies are becoming a very important part of target customers. there is thus a need for convergence in bringing about a more versatility in the use of communication mediums. This presents a new paradigm shift toward the type of information that will be conveyed by a product on various channels and the increased interdependence of the communication systems and the different ways of accessing contents that are streamed in the media, bringing about a much more complex situation(Hadjikhani, et al., 2016). Literature review Marketing communication usually refer to the way that companies will persuade, inform and remind their customers about their products and service they are selling. This is an emerging and important element of marketing with reference to the rising information overload in the society, where the attention of human beings continue to become a scare of resource. For most industries, people may simply choose to ignore any message that is conveyed by the corporation with no regard to how much will have been spent on the delivery of the messages to the public(Turner, 2016). During the time the messages are not attractive or compelling from the perspective of the consumer. In this manner, the design of marketing will be very crucial in every part so as to reach their customers effectively and gain a high market position than their competitors. According to John, (2016), there are usually six main elements that are used in marketing communication mixes. These include, sales promotion, advertising, public relations and publicity, events and experiences, personal selling and direct marketing. According to John, (2016) the traditional advertising is the basic manner in which businesses and organisations communicate to their customers. In the general sense, advertising entails the non-personal presentation and promotion of products or services from the company that is promoting the goods or services. One of the main reasons companies conduct advertisements is due to the fact that the method is usually pervasive and will always be used to send recurrent messages to the consumer. In particular when it comes to the larger companies, the large scale of advertisements will usually communicate about the size, reputation, power and success of the advertiser. In this manner, the methods are also designed in a way that they will deliver amplified testimonies or experiences to the customers. for Samsung advertising has been one of the key areas of their marketing for new phone releases(Choi Park, 2016). The make TV advertisements to create the awareness of the brand. for example, during the release of Samsung Galaxy S5, together with an advertising agency in Chile, the were able to release funny campaigns showing how exciting the Galaxy S5 is with regard to quality. In the advertisement for example, one will see people who use other cell phone where batteries run out at the worst moment which the S5 allows for power saving(Park Gil, 2015). In this regard, there is also the aspect of online advertising which is now one of the most powerful tool with it comes to integrated marketing communication for the advertiser and the organisation. They can use this channel since people nowadays spend more time online through their smartphones, IPad and laptops. This has made the internet one of the channels through which organisation are able to market their offerings much more successfully. Also due to the veracity of the internet, it will be able to provide any organisation with a chance to interact and reach its target market very fast. A company like apple has been able to produce and Integrated marketing campaign which exclusively target a particular group of customer in a much more successful way with little budget as compared to other traditional methods where companies pay agencies huge amounts of money to conduct advertisements for them. According to (Turner, 2016), the online campaigns have been able to give organisation a new ability to organize themselves due reasons such as the return on investment whereby companies are able to understand more regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of their advertisements by use of analytical tools. Online advertising also enables organisation to have a worldwide reach. Lastly, it is focused on relevance, for example, most online advertising will show advertisements to potential customers that are actively searching for what the product has to offer. Value Proposition Table FEATURE VALUE Improved security The Samsung S 8 is installed with a GPS tracking system that allows the consumer to locate places, drive to desired destination and search for people. There is a new feature that allows consumer to use their retina as part of security. Unique user experience The product has been designed to make it easy for the user to navigate through various applications, document events, browse the internet, chat through social media sites and even access other services. Minimal Design The design is sleek, light and pocket size friendly. This makes it easy for the consumer to move around with the phone, worry less about breakage due to its strong cover and weight. Services at apple store The app store allows customer to access other services that include games downloads, music, applications etc. Performance Its performance is rated high as users are able to move from one application to another without the product slowing down or crashing on the way. The product also has a virus protection system which ensures applications are not corrupt. Methods In this study, the survey method was used. This is a technique of gathering data through asking question from people that have the desired information. In this study, every effort was used in meeting the objectives in specific terms. The study design involved the gathering of information from the chosen sample through interviews. The definition of methodology also involves the gathering of information alternatives that are available to the survey research in addition to interviewing. This involves observation and questionnaires. Surveys were also important in the case of descriptive research studies by using a questionnaire in the most appropriate method. The survey type of studies according to (Abraham, 2015), are usually done with a large sample. This is because it will be concerned with the relationship and conditions that exist, held opinions regarding the product and the processes that will be done on effect to the trends that are developing. In this manner the surveys variables which exist or those that have occurred are also observed and selected . During data collection, this was purposive with regard to gathering information that was relevant to the subject matter which is the integrated marketing communication and customer loyalty at Samsung. The primary data contained empirical observations that was collected by the research for the further use in statistical analysis. The methods used during the collection of data included: posting emails and questionnaires, personal interviewing, panel search and other special survey techniques. This was important as it ensured that the collection of data was straight to the point and that it was descriptive enough(Collis Hussey, 2013). Findings According to the findings, the customer integrated marketing communication and customer loyalty to Samsung product was still very intense. This was especially true given that the company has been facing a lot of competition from the Apple IPhone. As of the present time, IPhone still leads in most of the regions of the world. however, that market leader position with regard to growth was being challenged by the new Samsung galaxy s8. According to Park Gil, (2015), apple IPhone still lead in the market even in their home country in Japan. In addition, it is seen that there is a lot of competitive battle which is intense for both companies. In this manner, online advertising can be one of the best ways that the company will be able to gain more grounds and reach more customers. in this research it was found that Samsung does not have a better formulated and delivery marketing communications mix that will convince the mass public to regain loyalty after the mishap of S7. This difference are perhaps the advantage that apple has been using over Samsung in the past two years(telegraph, 2017). Discussion In the general sense, for Samsung to gain customer loyalty, advertising should be concentrated in both offline and online. When it comes to online advertising and awareness, they will need to generate more traffic on YouTube and Facebook as they are the largest online social networking sites. They need to initiate challenges like the one they did on s8 to apple, Nokia and HTC on Facebook and YouTube for the sake of promotion. In order for the company to attract customer loyalty, they should come up with things like bonus packs for people who buy the new s8 series and exchange their old ones so as to receive their old phone value with regard to the money they will use in shopping for the iconic(Hadjikhani, et al., 2016). The phone should also be featured in worldwide popular channels, talk shows, YouTube channels with most hits among other national and international events. This was done well with the s5 where Ellen DeGeneres was taking selfish with the new product. Whenever this was done by Ellen DeGeneres on stage during the Oscar award ceremony, she was also wielding the s8, live tweeting and taking selfish as she hosted the show. This is all about a celebrity endorsement of a new product. It provides for great PR as millions of people love to be associated with what celebrities love. Even much more better, in their latest advertisement the newest models have been the talk in the news technology segments all over CNN and other media networks(telegraph, 2017). When it comes to direct marketing, it is important that Samsung comes up with a campaign that can promote the new product well. Their main target needs to be people of technological age where they can advertise their products through popular social networks and personal emails. As it is known, market is the most competitive venue for smartphones and especially Samsung after the fallout of s7. In this manner, the company is still fighting to survive and retain customer loyalty for its betterment. In this way, they can eventually beat their biggest rival. To match competitors and be able to survive or gain new markets, Samsung needs to continue doing all their integrated marketing communication(Park Gil, 2015). The first thing will be to work on their TV commercials to ensure that it captures all the features of the new s8 that is not available in other smartphone for example the security features. They also need to create a competitive advantage then sales promotion can be done through offering bonus pack. Other activities like the ice bucket challenge over the social media and other form of online advertising will also ensure that the product is trending and more customer are loyal to the product. Conclusion Recommendations and Limitations In conclusion, it was observed that the Samsung smartphone segment is quite similar to that of apple with regard to integrated marketing communication. However, the strongest point for Samsung is in advertising, which they need to improve especially when it comes to online advertising. Websites need to be designed in a manner that it is attractive and endure the needs of their customer especially after the disappointing release of the S7 series. One of the other focus needs to be on direct marketing through the use of digital media, like emails, which are performed by the company. publicity on the other hand should be increased for the new S8 series so that they will be able to gain more grounds before apple releases their new I8 series later this year. Publicity should ensure that the company utilizes all the tools of integrated marketing communication. They need to focus more on innovation and value proposition of the new product. This should include the advancement of technologies , applications and speed. The marketing communication mixes in this manner will be able to practice consistency, ensure proper delivery and congruency and also reach the marketplace with the required impacts. This is definitely very crucial for the marketers and managers to learn from the outstanding company. Research Action Plan ACTIVITY MONTH 2017 1 Research Proposal May 2 Review of Proposal May 3 Training of Research Assistants June 4 Distribution of Questionnaire June 5 Data Collection June 6 Data Entry July 7 Data Analysis July 8 Report Writing August 9 Editing September 10 Presentation September References Abraham, S., 2015. Stretching strategic thinking. Strategy Leadership, 33(5), p. 512. Choi, S. Park, H., 2016. Investigation of Strategic Changes Using Patent Co-Inventor Network Analysis: The Case of Samsung Electronics. Sustainability, 8(12), p. 1315. Collis, J. Hussey, R., 2013. Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students.. s.l.:Palgrave macmillan.. Hadjikhani, A., Lee, J. Park, S., 2016. Corporate social responsibility as a marketing strategy in foreign markets: The case of Korean MNCs in the Chinese electronics market. International Marketing Review, 33(4), pp. 530-554. John, D., 2016. 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