BUS599 Assignment4 IMC and Customer Satisfaction

BUS599 Assignment4 IMC and Customer Satisfaction

Ken’s Cakes Company has laid down an effective advertising strategy that will be in tandem with its marketing goals. The main marketing goal is to attract more customers, increase their satisfaction with the products, and ultimately increase its sales (Hiam and Charle, 2002). The company plans to use several Medias and other advertising channels in order to realize its marketing goals. In selecting the channels to utilize in the advertising strategy, the company looked at the coverage of the media, the target market, and taking the cost of the advertising channels into consideration.

 To achieve the company’s goals, the company will use news papers, magazines, and internet, television and radio advertisements. News papers are read daily by a large number of people, thus allowing the information about the company’s products reach a bigger percentage of the country’s population (Lacobucci, 2010). The news paper will highlight specific details of the products and where the products can be accessed. This may attract the attention of the reader as he read other important headlines.

Magazines are also an important advertising element that may be implemented in the quest for more customers. The company will have its own monthly magazines; however, magazines from other media houses may be utilized. The company’s magazine will be issued for free as it is aimed at attracting more customers to purchase our main products. The magazines will highlight many issues about the Ken’s Cake Company: the background of the company, the managing directors comment, description of the company’s products, promotional activities, and the location of the company’s retail stores will all be part of the company’s monthly magazine.

 The company will open its own website, which will be loaded with attractive graphics that may attract the attention of many internet users. This may allow them to know about our products and make a choice of whether to purchase them. Radio and Television will be our main advertising point. These two types of advertising have a wider coverage than other types of advertisements. This advertising strategy will definitely align with the company’s marketing goals. All the types of advertisement mentioned above have a wider coverage; hence potential customers from every corner of the company may be reached. Though not everybody who will get the information will consume the product, but a number of them will buy the products, increasing the company’s sales.

The effectiveness of the advertisements can be measured in several ways depending on the type of advertisement that is being used. Advertisements may be seen as incomplete if its impact on the potential customers is not assessed. Measuring the effectiveness of the advertisement is the only option to know if the set marketing goals through the advertisements are being achieved. It may not be possible to have an accurate analysis of the effectiveness of the advertisements but at least the estimates will be sufficient for the marketing manager of Ken’s Cake Company to reinforce the advertising strategy. According to Thompson there are two features that need to be tested in order to gain some information on the effectiveness of the advertisement (Thompson, 2010). These features are sales effect and communication effect.

 When looking at the sales effect, the company will try to establish if there has been an increase in sales due to the advertisements. If the sales have increased after the implementation of the advertising strategy, then it will be proved that it is effective. In communication effect direct rating method may be used by the Ken’s Cake Company. The customers may be required to rate the company’s advertisement, from which the effectiveness of the advertisement may be calculated. Internet is one of the recent methods of measuring the effectiveness of advertisement.

The Ken’s Company will use the analysis tool and “integrated direct marketing” in measuring advertisement effectiveness from the internet. The analysis tool may help the company know how many people visit its website, the number of pages they view, and those who shop online for the company’s product (Thompson, 2010). This statistic will help in establishing the effectiveness of the advertisement.

 To add on the analysis tool, the “integrated direct marketing” will assist in getting the customers responses. In the internet advertisements the company may put a response corner where the company may give their feedbacks and contact details. The feedback will assist the company to know the reaction of the customers towards the advertisement and the company’s products in general. The Ken’s Cakes Company will use the internet more in measuring the effectiveness of the advertising strategy since it’s cheaper and easier to access the response of the potential customers.

In addition to advertising strategy, there are additional promotional strategies that Ken’s Cakes Company will use. The company may take advantage of media releases. The media releases may be significant in passing the products information to a great number of people (Joseph, 2011). The company may get this chance by breaking down the information about the product into an attractive story that may attract the attention of media houses that will pick the story. The story should be interesting for it to be picked. The company will come up with events that may be similar to trade fairs and exhibition. The company will make effort in inviting renowned celebrities in these functions, in order to have a big number of people attending the events. In the events the company’s management may meet with customers, tell them about the products, and also seek their opinion on how their satisfaction with the company’s products may be reached.

 Personal selling may also be effective as a promotional strategy. The company will employ sales agents who will look for customers in the field with an aim of selling the company’s products. Personal selling will assist to build a relationship with customers, consequently making a sale. The company will invest in sales promotion to attract more customers. The company may come up with a competition where lucky customers may win several prizes. This will entice customers to buy the products in order to be part of the competition. Networking is also vital in the company’s marketing success. It helps in getting the company and its product noticed in the concerned industry. The company will not miss out in the networking functions, and there will always be a good story prepared to be presented in the functions in order to leave a mark that might be remembered by people. These promotional strategies may help in reinforcing the advertising strategy, consequently achieving the marketing goals.

If there is high competition in the market and businesses are competing for customers, customer satisfaction is vital element in the company’s business strategy. It is essential to allow customers to give their feedback on their satisfaction level of the company’s products. This satisfaction level should be measured and monitored in order for the company to get more opportunities and have a competitive advantage (Joseph, 2011). The best marketing approach to measure customer satisfaction as considered by Ken’s Cakes Company is the “customer satisfaction surveying program.” To succeed with this approach, its system should be easily understandable and also to design. Actionable reports should be generated for the management, and the system should be credible enough such that the performance of the employees can be compared to the results.

This marketing approach for measuring customer satisfaction meets several objectives of the company. It understands the requirements and expectations of most of the customers. It helps in determining if the company is meeting customers’ expectations better than the competitors. The findings will be crucial in developing the company’s products based on the information gathered. Trends over time may be examined, in order to establish standards and priorities that will tell the extent to which the marketing goals have been met. Before the survey program has been structured the company will investigate the best ways of gathering information, the reaction of the organization towards the information, and the how the information will be utilized to maintain customers loyalty and attract potential customers.

After getting the information on the needs of the customers and how the information relates to customers loyalty, the company will now examine the thinking of the customer at the point where they want to make a decision on purchase or even recommendation decision. Surveying of the decision made by the customers at that instance will measure the customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. Generally, the customers thinking when they want to make a purchasing decision may be categorized into three: rejection, acceptance, and preference. Rejection means that the customer will try to avoid buying the product if there is that chance. On the other hand, acceptance implies that the customer is satisfied but if there is a better deal somewhere he will opt for the latter (Lacobucci, 2010). Preference signifies that the customer is happy with the product. There are is complete satisfaction, and the customer can buy the product even at higher prices.

The Ken’s Cakes Company needs to address the gaps in customer expectations and experience for reach to attain the high level of satisfying customers. The company will have to do an analysis to determine what the customers require in order to feel they are satisfied. When this information is analyzed the company will now need to establish how they will develop the products to meet the demands of the customers. The cakes should be baked with caution to avoid any case that will dissatisfy the customers. The product should be of high quality and affordable price in order to increase its demand. It will be also prudent for the company to conduct the research on what its customers do differently and what they like. This will make the company to develop a product that suit their activities, hence increase their satisfaction.

The company will also invest in research and development. Innovation is the best method to beat competition and draw customers’ attention (Hiam and Charle, 2002). The customers always have the enthusiasm of knowing and testing new products. When the novel product is launched the customers tastes and preference changed, nevertheless their expectations. In addition to this the company will set up a customer care desk and a comment line to address the market gaps in customers’ expectation and experiences. The customer care desk will operate in the day while the comment line will be open for 24 hours. This will give chance for the customers to express their views and dissatisfaction. Through this the company can get to know its misgivings and take corrective actions. The official website of the company will also be available to the customers to inform the company on how it can improve its services to the customers.

References

Hiam, A and Charle, D. (2002). The Portable MBA in Marketing. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Joseph, C. (2011). Examples of Advertising Objectives & Strategies. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-advertising-objectives-strategies-3271.html[Accessed on 26^th November 2012]

Lacobucci, D. (2010). Marketing Management. Chicago: Cengage Learning Press.

Thompson, A. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and cases: 2009 custom edition (17th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill-Irwin.