Intergrated Marketing Communication Plan

1.0 Agency Philosophy SRI CONSULTANTS was established in year 2000 as an advertising agency who undertook many advertising campaigns of different organisations. Since 2000, The Ad Agency has been recognized as one of the pre-eminent full service marketing, advertising, design, and public relations firms serving a regional, national, and international client base. As an aggressive and agile firm, we believe in the fundamentals of communication strategies and have developed a reputation for effective, on-target marketing. We are known for building and positioning brands and maximizing the exposure and response to our clients’ marketing efforts.

Mission, Vision, Values

Mission Our focus is on complete brand development with our clients brand positioning being consistent across all media. We guarantee the positioning being consistent across all media. We guarantee the quality, creativity and innovative designs of our in house team in bringing our head turning ideas to reality.

Vision We will maintain a financially strong, growth-oriented company for the protection of our employees and clients.

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Values Result Oriented Philosophy Our team is oriented to results. Creativity, visuals, originality are tools to achieve better results in communication and advertising.

Expertise We have implemented various projects for largest advertising Customers. They rely on us, we proved, that we are worth to rely on.

Saved Time Working with us you will get all communication services from our hands. You will save your time and therefore money and you will benefit from concentrated project management.

Saved Money Our rates are lower than rates of other advertising agencies. We save our customer's money as our own. By placing your advertising message you can use our accumulated discounts. Also we will advise how to save money in production of advertising materials.

We will do our best to fulfil your ideas and satisfy your needs.

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2.0

Executive Summary

Swadeshi industry’s is one of the leading herbal beauty soap manufacturer in Sri Lanka has introduce new soap “Men Plus”. This is a new soap for the Sri Lankan market by targeting men. Men Plus will clearly distinguish itself from all the existing soaps in the market, because of its unique attributes. This report comprises the integrated marketing communications plan for Men Plus.

Time period for the marketing plan The time period over which this IMC campaign will be operating will be one year.

The target audience Our product “Men Plus” secondary target market audience is the men in Sri Lanka where as the primary target market audience are the young males of Sri Lanka in the age group of 15 – 30.

Campaign Theme

“ T ime to change for the men revolution ” Product Slogan The slogan which will go alone with the product would be;

“ M en Freshness ”

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Objectives The communication aims and objectives of Men Plus as follows:

 Make consumers aware of the uniqueness of the “Men Plus”.

Ex. Unique men soap with real men freshness  Change the men attitudes towards soaps  Increase top of the mind awareness of male youth in Sri Lanka  Position the “Men Plus” on the top of male youth mind  Build top of mind awareness of Swadeshi brand image  Motivate men to use “Men Plus”

Overall Budget total Overall Budget

Rs40000000

(100%)

Advertising Budget

Rs.29200000

73.00%

consumer sales promotion

Rs.2400000

6%

Trade oriented sales

Rs.2400000

6%

Direct marketing budget

Rs. 1200000

3%

Public Relations

Rs.2800000

7%

Agency Commission

Rs.2000000

5%

promotions

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3.0

Industry review

Swadeshi industry’s is one of the leading herbal beauty soap manufacturer in Sri Lanka, it has performed very well in last few decades. It is established in 1941, during that time period they have achieved their organizational goals as well as the marketing goals. Therefore still now the company was able to captured 20% of market share in domestic soap market. The people (soap consumers) who have a better image about the Swadeshi products because of the company strategies were prepared by Sri Lankan way so it is a greater advantage for them. Always they were identify wants and needs of Lankan people, for an example using herbals (Sandal wood, Neem, Aloe Vera ) for their products, because of these are the aurvedic herbals, Sri Lankans used by many centuries ago. Regarding to their perceptions, these herbal has been extracts to ensure cleaning body skin and hair very healthy and lustrous looking.

After the 1970, Swdeshi has faced by many difficulties to survive the market, due to the certain circumstances such as when changed the close economy to open economy most foreign products are directly came through the Sri Lankan market. As a result of that international company’s granted and their products are dominate by the domestic market, because their quality was so good, promotion methods are so effective and prices are less than the local products (they used advanced technology).

Therefore these things are helped to create high competition in soap market. Today’s consumers have a good opportunity to choose alternative products as their preferred because of many range of products exist in the market.

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Thus, they will continue to focus on improving distribution, availability of products across the country and to enhance brand image. New consumers’ trend in personal and fabric care categories have been identified and new product development opportunities will be pursued. At the same time cost management initiatives will be introduced in all divisions in the organization to reduce costs and maximize margins.

3.1 External environment

The Sri Lanka economy recorded a GDP growth of 6.8% in 2007 compared to 7.7 % in 2006. However inflation and interest rates continued to rise and remain high during 2007/08. They must need to expansion of the distribution network, timely introduction of new products and continued brand development activities contributed positively to higher turnover. During the year ended 31st March, 2008 turnover increased by 37% to record Rs. 1292 Million.

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3.2 Soaps Industry Information

According to this graph categorized that usage of Lankan soap consumer. Herbal beauty and beauty soap dominate by the market. Currently men shouldn’t have a specific soap for them, because still they were much concerned about their skin fairness for example men’s deodorants and fairness cream are much popular in domestic market. Therefore

this is a greater opportunity to Swadeshi to make a

new soap for men that’s why we planned to introduced new innovative beauty soap particular for men. (Men plus)

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4.0 Marketing and Promotional Objectives

The basic objective of the marketing and the promotional campaign is to increase the knowledge and the awareness of the newly introduce soap “Men Plus”. As a basic objective through this campaign, it will introduce the especially design men herbal soap Men plus into the market by enhancing the brand image. During this introductory stage marketing and promotions will be carried out in an intensive way.

As mentioned above intensive marketing and promotion strategy is to make the customers aware of the unique qualities of the product and its market uniqueness.

Men Plus is the first and only Sri Lankan men soap exists in soap market. As an especially design men soap, it will do revolutionise change in Sri Lankan soap industry. We believe its unique image would change the men attitude towards the men soaps and would try the real men freshness.

Ultimate aim of this campaign would be to capture best market share while gaining the knowledge about the product. At the same time following objectives will be achieve.



Make full awareness about the product in the selected target market



Make 80% of target market accept the product



Increase sales by 10% monthly during the year 2009



Build maximum loyal customers through product improvement

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

Build an excellence brand image for “Men Plus” via continuous researches



Brake the soap market into mini segment for men

5.0 Product Review

Men plus is a specially design soap for men. Its herbal ingredients are use mainly to keep the freshness. The society today is dynamic. Fashions, attitudes and trends are rapidly changing. People are more knowledgeable and always try to experience new things.

Soap industry is a one major FMCG industry in Sri Lanka. Companies in this industry are preferred to introduce new products to market. As marketers we need to consider all these facts and trends and must need to take reasonable steps to promote products accordingly.

Swadeshi industry, one of the leading herbal beauty soap manufacturers in Sri Lanka, had performed very well in last few decades. During that time period the company was able to captured 20% of market share. The people (soap consumers) have a good image about the swadeshi products because of the company strategies were prepared by Sri Lankan way so it is a greater advantage for the company. But today Swadeshi Company is facing many challengers such as high competition, new technology. Therefore company should crate high competition with other companies exist in the industry where as consumers have good opportunity to close alternative product as their preferred.

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Taking all these factors into account the company is willing to enter into new market by introducing new soap especially for men. Within the soap industry of Sri Lanka there wasn’t any strong soap targeting men. Traditionally men were not too concern about the soap brand name and used normal soap regardless of brand name. But today this situation is changing accordingly. Especially within the youth they are seeking more male oriented products. Especially in beauty industry few of gent’s products were successfully established.

Thus this new soap “Men Plus” will be a product which would revolutionized the soap industry in Sri Lanka. This product will fit perfectly in to the society with above mentioned characteristics. The Men Plus is guaranteed to give the customers the natural men freshness.

6.0 Competition Analysis

When the company develops marketing strategies and plans for their products, the first thing that the managers do is carefully analyzing the competitors that they have to face in the market place. Here it should be noted that even though Man’s Plus soap face direct competition from the soaps Lifebuoy, Dettol, Lux They face indirect competition to a certain level from soaps such as Vendol, Khomba, and Rexona.

Marketers must understand the capabilities of the company and their competitor’s.

One relatively recent approach to understanding the competitor analysis is to use Porter’s five forces frame work.

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The five forces are as follows, 1) Intensity of competitive rivalry within the industry.

2) Threat of new entrants to the industry.

3) Risk of competition from substitute of products.

4) Relative power of industry members and suppliers.

5) Relative power of industry members and customers.

When considering about the above three competitors, they are already giving a good competition to the Men plus, because Men soap is a new market to the Sri Lankans.

As a Sri Lankans, we have no more ideas about the men’s soap. That’s the reason for every competitor put their more pressure to capture the market and also the advertising. Rivalry occurs among firms that produce products that have similar attributes. As the profitability decreases the rivalry increases. The soap market can be mainly classified into four segments as health, herbal, beauty and baby. Men Plus falls into the category of health soaps and currently their main competitors as we mention earlier Lifebuoy, Dettol, and Lux. But there’s no competitor for this newly launched product as this is the first soap with mainly targeting men in the Sri Lankan market.

6.1 Competitors Market share

Lux

c/s ann.

c/s ann.

2003

2004

%

c/s ann.

%

2005

300,000

312,000

4

318,000

1.92

Life buoy gold

84,000

96,000

14.29

84,000

-12.5

Dettol

12,000

6,000

-50

6,000

0

6.2 Competitor Analysis Refer Appendix, A – Table 01 MEN PLUS| Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

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7.0 Marketing Goals Swdeshi has given us its marketing goals for the next 1 year ahead. As Swedeshi we mainly concern about sales volume, Market Share and Profit. Swdeshi will be investing $80 million over the next two years in order to offer Men Plus soap to Sri Lankan market.

Sales Volume According to the given statistics Swdeshi will be estimating 300,000 users for this financial year.

Market Share Within this promotional program Swdeshi is not going to capture large share in the market. They hope to maximize their market share by 2-3%.withing its promotional program within the urban areas. Swdeshi aim is, basically inform customers about the benefits and uniqueness about the product.

Profit The Profit of Swdeshi is hold moderate value for past three years. For the reason they face some difficulties when they compete with other brands in the market. Some of those competitive brands for soaps include Lifeboy, Lux, Velvet etc... Swedeshi believe that they could be rapidly increased its profits through promotional campaigns Men Plus.

The Marketing goals stated above can be listed as followers;  Positioning the new Swedeshi “Men Plus” soap in the target market.  Increase sales of the company by 10%.  Introducing new benefits to the consumers through “Men Plus”.  To maintain brand identity as a unique, exclusive and quality service provider by strategic advertising.

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8.0 IMC Objectives and Strategies 8.1 Objectives

Swadeshi soaps dominated the soap industry since 1947. Since then, soaps like Khomba, Rani well known soap among the people in rural areas. Early 90’s Rani soap had a leading place in Sri Lankan soap industry. But in present the company willing to enter into new market by introducing new soap especially for men.

This promotional program is design to achieve certain types of aims and objectives of Men Plus. The communication aims and objectives refer to the goals that the organisation seeks to achieve through its promotional program in terms of communication effects. Establish potential communication methods – There are different methods of communicating. Therefore during this period Men Plus should use mass media such as television, magazines and targeted Medias will be advertisements and billboards.

The communication aims and objectives of Men Plus as follows:  Make consumers aware of the uniqueness of the “Men Plus”.

Ex. Unique men soap with real men freshness  Change the men attitudes towards soaps 

Increase top of the mind awareness of male youth in Sri Lanka

 Position the “Men Plus” on the top of male youth mind  Build top of mind awareness of Swadeshi brand image  Motivate men to use “Men Plus” MEN PLUS| Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

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8.2 Strategies

The main IMC objective has been set as, to communicate the uniqueness of the “Men Plus”. Integrate marketing communication strategies will define the ways in which the Integrated Marketing Communication objectives will be achieved.

The relevant IMC strategies are as follows:

 Target advertising campaigns towards urban areas. For example advertising in T.V , radio, newspapers and bill boards “Men Plus” is not a soap only design for men in urban areas, but through our promotional campaign we are giving some priority to men in urban areas.

Since after the introductory stage this soap plan to distribute among other areas, our advertising campaign also target rural areas people.  Publish news paper advertisements that give information about benefits and the uniqueness of “Men Plus”  Place billboards in places where people constantly hang around  Carry out advertisements on electronic media mainly focusing at the younger generation. 

Advertise in magazines and newspapers that reach to all our target people

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9.0 Positioning and Campaign theme

9.1 Product Positioning

Positioning can be defined as “the art and science of fitting the product or service to one or more segments of the market in such a way as to set it meaningfully apart from the competition.” (Belch & Belch, 2001)

As you can seen, the position of the product, services, or even store is the image that comes to mind and the attributes consumers perceive as related to it. This communicate occurs through the message itself, which explains these benefits as well as the media strategy employed to reach the target group.

9.2 Positioning Strategy

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) products cannot be contained into specific geographical locations. As a swadeshi company, it already has a good market with customer awareness in rural areas for the company past 60 years. But there most popular soaps like Khomba and Rani still have a huge competition within the rural areas like Colombo. As a new soap “Men Plus” initially plans to introduce into rural areas and willing to expand it in other areas. Therefore before coming up with a proper strategy we need to consider how the competitors of Swadeshi Company have position themselves in the market. Our prime focus should goes to giant competitor Unilever. Especially soaps like lifebuoy, Detttol were well establishing soaps in Sri Lankan FMCG market. But in herbal soaps industry Swadeshi Company is still having a good image within the most customers.

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Due to all these reason, from our campaign we would not be change the present position standard. We want to add some additional value to that while providing this plan.

9.3 Positioning Statement

“Men Plus is the only soap in the market which gives real natural freshness for men”

9.4 Campaign Theme

“ T ime to change for the men revolution ”

Most of the marketing researchers found, that most of the times men in Sri Lanka are using the soap which decide and purchase by others (family members). Main reason for this is, in many occasion women of the family (mother) purchase the products for the family including soap. And there is no strong soap segmentation in the market, which exclusive for the men. Even the famous germ killing soaps like Lifebuoy and Dettol were introduce as a family soap.

Therefore through this campaign we are tiring to have a conceptual change of men to select their own specific soap in order to spread the real natural men freshness.

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10.0 Creative Recommendations

10.1 Target Audience

The marketing communications process really begins with the identification of the audience that will be the focus of the firm’s advertising and promotions efforts. One way of viewing the target audience is to recognize that it may consist of individuals, groups, or a general public or mass audience.

Target audience is specified audience or demographic group for which an advertising message is designed. (Belch & Belch, 2004)

Our product “Men Plus” secondary target market audience is the men in Sri Lanka where as the primary target market audience are the young males of Sri Lanka in the age group of 15 – 30.

10.2 Advertising Objectives

 Increase the brand image

 Increase product image

 Increase the customer trial MEN PLUS| Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

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 Give knowledge to the customers about the advantage and the benefits of using “Men Plus”

 Communicate the innovative ability of the “Men Plus” brand to the target market.

 Develop and maintain the regular use of our product

10.3 Advertising Strategies Television, radio, news papers, poster and billboard advertisements have different advertising strategies. Television advertisement will be used in order to familiarize the brand name to people. Radio and news paper advertisements will be used to inform about the “Men Plus” Unique features. Billboard advertisements will be used inspire people to brand name and the slogan.

10.4 Advertising Appeals “The advertising appeal refers to the approach used to attract the attention of the consumers and/or influence their feelings towards the product, service or cause” (Belch & Belch, 2004).

There are literally hundreds of different appeals that can be used as the basis for an advertising massage. At the broadest level, these approaches are generally broken into two categories or classes, which are informational/rational appeals and emotional appeals.

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Our advertisements for “Men Plus” basically contain that slice of life, emotional, pleasant and humour appeals. We never use fear appeal within the “Men Plus” advertisements. Especially in our T.V advertisement we are basically used life & emotional appeal. But it’s more likely a mixture of emotional and some humour appeal. But in our whole advertising campaign has use emotional appeal in order to address the unique and attractive characteristics of the “Men Plus”.

Through our promotional campaign we are going to create the maximum awareness of product on the customers by 5materials, which are TV advertisement, posters, billboards, news paper advertisement and sales promotions.

Mainly in television advertisement we will focus on slice of life, emotional, pleasant and humour appeals. News paper advertisement will focus only on pleasant appeal and billboard advertisement will focus on both emotional and pleasant appeals.

10.5 Advertising Execution Format Creative advertising execution is refers to the way an advertising appeal is presented.

While it’s obviously important for an advertisement to have a meaningful appeal or massage to communicate to the consumer, the manner in which the advertisement is executed is also important.

The use of execution styles are often depends on this factor also. So then we thought of choosing Nostalgia, Animation and fun as our main focus on execution styles.

(Belch & Belch, 2004)

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10.6 Rationale for Creative Recommendations The Development of creative strategy and various appeals and execution styles that can be use for the advertising massage. Once the creative the creative approach, type of appeal, and execution styles have been determined, attention turns to creative the actual advertisement We are going to elaborate on each and every ad’s creative tactics, about the tone, style and etc. that have been used by our campaign as mention below: 10.6 - 1 Execution Television Advertisement It has often been said that television represents the ideal advertising medium. Its ability to combine visual images, sound, motion, and colour presents the advertiser with the opportunity to develop the most creative and imaginative appeals of any medium. However, TV does have certain problems that limit or even prevent its use by many advertisers.

To promote the “Men Plus” soap we clearly has chosen the target market, which contain the male youngsters and youth, it’s better to go with TV add “Television is a unique and powerful advertising medium because it contains the elements of sight sound and motion, which can be combined to create a variety of advertising appeals and executions” (Belch &Belch, 1995)

The main purpose of the “Men Plus” soap TV advertisement is to highlight its real value of the soap and to differ it with other soaps in the market

This TV advertisement contains a story of two youngsters. It’s a short running story with an idea of the real value of Men Plus soap. Each part of the advertisement will be about 10 seconds and entire advertisement will be about 60 seconds. End of the MEN PLUS| Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

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final occurrence Men Plus soap appear on the screen with the slogan of the soap “Men Freshness� with a sound of attraction.

10.6 - 2 Storyboard Refer Appendix - B

10.6 - 3 Television Advertisement Script 1st occurrence This story based on two youngsters. Both are calling through phone to go a party on that day night.

2nd occurrence Before go to the party both are take a bath by using two different soaps. One is using normal soap and the other person is using Men Plus soap.

3rd Occurrence Both are meeting close to the party place and entering to the party together with gifts.

4th Occurrence Real surprises, The person who uses the Men Plus soap attracted by all the girls at party and the other person was really unhappy and ask himself why?

5th Occurrence The person who use Men plus soap showing to the screen Men Plus

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6th Occurrence Men Plus soap appears in 3D form on screen with a sound of attract action with the campaign theme “Time to change for men revolution” 10.6 – 4 Radio Advertisement The main purpose of the radio advertisement is to inform about uniqueness of the men Plus soap to the target audience. It contains voice that state brand name and the slogan of the soap men freshness with a background theme sound. Our radio advertisement will be about 15 seconds. This radio advertisement basically uses to remind the consumers about the product through high frequency.

10.6 – 5 print advertising

As we are using in our Men Plus a promotional campaign in this print advertisement it includes a poster. The basic components of a print ad are headlines, the body copy, the visual or illustrations, and the lay out.

The headline is the words in the leading position of the ad, the word that will be read first or are positioned to draw the attention For the Men Plus soap, head line would be “Time to change for men revolution”

The main text portion of a print ad is referred to as the body copy. The body copy of Men plus poster contain long enough two paragraphs to give an information about the newly introduce Men Plus soap, “Now you don’t have to depend on harsh treatments to keep freshness” “New Men Plus is clinically proven to fight germs and keep real body freshness”

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The visual element of the Men Plus poster would be created basically under a red and white colour theme, which would represent the Men plus soap colour. As a visual element we have put our selected male model in the side of the poster.

While the individual component of a print ad is important, the key factor is how these elements are blended into a finished advertisement. Through our promotional campaign, we have used same layout for all our outdoor promotional materials.

Within our layout product name and its colour displayed. In the Men Plus poster, the headline will be on top of the poster, and then the visual element will be on the centre of the poster. Finally, at the bottom of the poster, will be the body copy.

Refer Appendix - C

10.6 – 6 Billboard Advertisements Billboard advertisements hold an essential part of our promotional campaign. Within the billboard we are put our campaign theme with attractive background which is most suitable for Men Plus target market.

We identified areas within the Colombo city including Galle road, Union Place, Flower road. Two different billboards will be used in order to give the variety to the consumers. In these billboards we have used a male model and the Men Plus soap images with the associate brand colours (red and white) in order to attract consumers mind and eye on to it. We are basically places our billboards in Colombo areas in order to capture our primary market.

Refer Appendix- D

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11.0 Advertising Media Recommendations Media plan is “The process of establishing the exact media vehicles to be used for advertising”. Under media plan we are discussing about market analysis, media options and about the budget breakdown. If we consider about Media Mix we used television, radio, news paper advertisements and billboards. Under each media swedeshi focus on target market target audience, reach and frequency.

11.1 Target Audience The target audience is a specified audience or demographic group for which an advertising message is designed. Our product "Men Plus" secondary target market audience is the men in Sri Lanka where as the primary target market audience are the young males of Sri Lanka in the age group of 15 – 30.

11.2 Media objectives 11.2 – 1 Media objectives to television advertisement  Reach 90% of the target audience in urban areas and increase frequency.  To convince men about benefits and uniqueness about the men plus soap.

11.2 – 1.1Target market to television advertisement  Man who are living in urban areas and Man who are using other soap categories such as Lifeboy, Lux, Velvet etc…

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11.2 - 2 Media objective to radio advertisement  Since product and company is invisible in radio advertisements, provide more and more information about the company and the product to make awareness.

11.2 – 2.1Target market to radio advertisement  By our radio advertisement we are trying to reach all Men Population who live in both rural and urban areas. Therefore our objective of radio advertisement is to communicate about low prices.

11.2 – 3.1 Media objectives to news paper advertisement  Reach 96% of the target audience and stay at their mindset for a long period of time.

11.2 – 3.2 Target market to news paper advertisements  Young males of Sri Lanka in the age group of 15 – 30.

11.2 – 4.1 Media objectives to billboard advertisements  Reach 90% of the target market and maintain a high frequency.  To remind competitors that still Swedeshi in market place with high achievements.

11.2 – 4.2 Target market to billboard advertisements  Those who are interested in Men plus Soap.

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11.3 Market Analysis for Media Plan Market analysis can be defined as “Research and analysis of a particular segment that leads to feather predictions” In market analysis for media plan for Swedeshi Men plus, our agency mainly focus on media options, target audience, and the three questions which will help to analysis the market.

11.3 – 1 Media Options Mass media If we consider about mass media we are planning to advertise on Televisions, on Radio channels and News papers. Under television channels we are planning to use Sirasa TV, Rupavahini and ITN 11.3 – 2 Television Advertisement Sirasa TV: According to our research in their most popular TV programs are Mahagedara, Praveena, Api Nodanna Live and Dancing star. Since it’s hard to find a time in each of these programs and the high cost we are planning to advertise our advertisement in dancing star. Because majority of men are attracted to this dancing star program and we assume our target audience will watch the particular program.

That is why we are planning to advertise our TV advertisement in every weekend day at 9.00pm- 10.00p.m from December to April. This will give a good first impression to audience.

Rupavahini: This is a government channel. In recent times the watching rate of Rupavahini has been increased rapidly due to the success of war against LTTE terrorists. Therefore numbers of people who watch Rupavahini news have been increased tremendously. Success of war reflects the power of Sri Lankan men.

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Majority of men are attracted to this war news therefore we assume our target audience will watch the news of battle field which telecasts in the Rupavahini news.

We are planning to put our advertisements in the time slot just before the war news in Rupavahini. We do this because exposure of men to our advertisement would be great and also there would be high response rate also.

ITN: This is the oldest TV channel in Sri Lanka. Their most popular programs are Paba, Atapattama and Doramadalawa. ITN is the main advertising TV channel for our TV advertisement; because it’s covers larger area of Sri Lankan boundaries including rural areas and trustable TV channel for our target market. We able to achieve our target market and media objectives through this TV channel. For above reasons we planning to advertise Swedeshi Men plus advertisements all over the year.

11.3 – 3 Radio Advertisement Radio advertisements are much cheaper when comparing to the television advertising. So according to our target audience and target market we are advertising more and more in radio.

The main objective is to convince about uniqueness

(power, attractiveness, healthy life) of Swedeshi Men plus soap comparing with other soaps available in the market.

Neth FM: Since this is a new radio channel and it is very attractive among men due to new creative songs. We recommend to broadcasting our radio advertisement five times a day around 4pm to 8pm from June to December without Sunday. Majority of men who are in our target market will listen to Neth FM when they are travelling back to home from the office place in the time period which is mentioned above.

Therefore we assume that the advertisement would be directly exposure to majority of target market in effective manner at this time period. Not only that but also MEN PLUS| Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

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majority of men who are in the target market in Sri Lankan work force. Sunday is a holiday for those people. So we assume those men would listen to Neth FM in Sunday evening (1pm to 6pm) for relaxation. Therefore the advertisement will be telecasted ten times in every Sunday 1pm to 6pm from June to December.

Sirasa FM: We are planning to broadcast our radio advertisement on Sirasa FM at daytime from January to May. From this radio channel we are targeting security field and also men who are driving for long hours at daytime.

Swedeshi Sewaya FM: This is one of the oldest and trustworthy radio channels in Sri Lanka. Not only that this channel has higher coverage in all over the country.

Therefore using this channel would help to exposure the message about Swedeshi Men Plus soap to men who live in rural areas also.

11.3 – 4 News paper advertisements Our consultancy group made one news paper (in English and Sinhala languages), advertisements to swedeshi Company. We recommend to publishing those news paper advertisements in Daily News, Lankadeepa, Sunday observer and Sunday Lakbima news papers.

Daily News and Lankadeepa: By these news papers we are trying to increase people awareness about the new Swedeshi men plus soap. Therefore we try to increase the frequency to stay in our audience and target market’s mind set. We are planning to publish our advertisement which convinces men about the attractiveness of men who use the swedeshi Men Plus soap.

Sunday observer and Sunday Lakbima: Since this news papers are well established news papers; there is no doubt about the information and about the product in MEN PLUS| Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

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reader’s minds. From this media we are trying to give information and try to reach 96% of the target audience. We are planning to publish our third news paper advertisement of detail drawing (includes brand name, colours, fragrance) about the Men Plus soap in Sunday observer news paper from January to June and in Sunday Lakbima news paper from July to December.

11.3 – 5 Billboard advertising Since high competition in developed areas our main objective of this campaign is to promote our product in urban areas. To answer competitor’s competitive advertisements we planted our billboards in high traffic areas. Those are in Bambalapitiya, Kolpity, Pettha, Peliyagoda, Boralle, Maharagama and Nugegoda.

First billboard will convince people about attractiveness of men who use the Swedeshi Men Plus soap.

First billboard will be placed in Kolpity, Peliyagoda,

Boralle and Nugegoda. It will be there for four months. Mean time our second billboard will display in Bambalapitiya, Pettha and Maharagama for four months.

Then after another two months we will start to advertise our first billboard in Bambalapitiya, Pettha and Maharagama. Same time our second billboard will be displayed in Kolpity, Peliyagoda, Boralle and Nugegoda area.

Target audience to TV advertisements •

Those who are watching television

Target audience to paper advertisements •

Those who are reading and willing to read news papers

Target audience to radio advertisements •

Drivers who are driving for long hours

•

Site workers who are listening to radio

•

Security field and people who are working at night shifts

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11.4 Media Flow Chart Refer Appendix, E – Table 02 12.0 Sales Promotions 12.1 Objectives

Sales Promotion consists of short term incentives to encourage purchase or sales of a product or a service. The main object is to penetrate the new product in to the market. This promotional method can be divided in to two categories;

12.2 Consumer-oriented sales promotion- These are frequently used by the marketers to encourage consumers to purchase their product.

Premiums- During the sales promotion of ‘Men Plus’ consumer purchase by this particular soap, get free soap box.

Price offs- when purchasing the new ‘Men Plus’ soap during the sales promotion, price offs will be given to the consumers who buy more than 2 bars of soap.

12.3 Trade-oriented sales promotion- These are frequently used by the marketers to motivate distributors and retailers to carry out a product and make an extra effort to push it to their customers.

Incentives- during the sales promotion when the retailers purchase the ‘Men Plus’ in bulk, they will be given incentives.

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13.0 Personal Selling

13.1 Objectives

Personal selling is a process where sellers attempt to assist or persuade prospective buyers to purchase the product, service or act on an idea. This involves person to person communication which gives an opportunity to customers to get information in detail about the newly introduce Men Plus. The key objective of using personal selling in this campaign is to persuade the target market to experience the Men Plus Soap by highlighting its benefits. Also to create a positive attitude toward the product explaining the advantages of using Men Plus soap which gives the men real freshness than using an ordinary soap.

13.2 Personal Selling Strategies

Have a couple of well trained sales representatives in leading supermarkets and exhibition centres so that the prospective buyers can get their issues cleared about the newly launched product.

Establish a counter in selected beauty salons (men) with one sales representative to give information about the product to the clients who visit the salon.

13.3 Allocated Budget Refer Appendix, G– Table 04 MEN PLUS| Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

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14.0 Direct marketing Recommendations

According to the Belch & Belch, Direct marketing is defined as “communicating directly with target customers (end users) to generate a response towards the product or services.�

14.1 Target audience As mentions in above our secondary target audience is men in Sri Lanka where as the primary target market audience are the young males of Sri Lanka in the age group of 15 – 30.

14.2 Direct marketing objectives

This is one of the main methods of promoting Men Plus to its target audience. The objective of using direct marketing strategies is to build a favourable brand image among the target audience. Then it will help to expand the benefits of the product to the target audience in the market. To reach our target audience and market with the product, directly and by that increase sales with minimum cost and within a least time.

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14.3 Strategies

•

Have advertisements in selected weekend news papers for four months.

•

Establishing leaflet counters and information stalls at shopping centres and exhibition centres.

14.4 Allocated Budget Refer Appendix, H – Table 05

15.0 Public Relation Recommendations A public relation is the management function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest, and executes a program to a public understanding and acceptance (.Belch & Belch, 2004) 15.1 Objectives Our main advertising objective is to familiarize our product. Some other objectives are increase target audience in to higher level and inform to people about the Men Plus and benefits.

15.2 Strategies

•

At the launch, a press conference with the media will contribute a lot to the brand image.

•

To publish several articles in selected news papers usefulness of the Men Plus and its benefits.

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•

Free Men Plus, T-shirts and caps in brand colours are to be distributed

•

Sponsor sports competition

15.3 Allocated Budget Refer Appendix, I – Table 06

16 Conclusions

The Integrated Marketing Communication plan for the newly invented soap, the Men Plus, is designed to address all the aspects of a successful marketing communication campaign.

Relevant information on which the IMC plan is based, were obtained through a thorough analysis of all the relevant aspects.

IMC are objectives and strategies are designed to initiate progress in overall marketing functions. These objectives were designed according to the results obtained through the target market analysis. The strategies were designed in a way in which it would be compatible with the target market.

All the aspects covered under this IMC plan is within the boundaries of an estimated budget, which could slightly vary according to the Economical and other external factors.

Upon the implementation of the above IMC plane, the Men Plus could be marketed successfully, achieving all the set objectives and goals.

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Appendix A) 6.2 Competitor analysis Table- 0 1 Lifebuoy

Dettol

Lux

PRICING

Rs. 32

Rs. 34

Rs. 32

DISTRIBUTION

Retailer’s

Retailer’s

40 g in rural

Groceries and

Groceries and

Super markets

Super markets

areas- retailers 80 g and 115g for super markets

Strong in rural

and groceries

areas

25 s is for hotels TARGET AUDIENCE

Young men and

Children and

Young women

aged between 21

working people.

aged between 21-

to 50 POSITIONING

35

Lifebuoy has

Dettol soap has

Lux has

three varieties as

three varieties in

positioned their

Gold, Herbal &

the market

products mainly

Milk and has

available. Dettol

by the attributes,

positioned these

has used their

price & quality.

products.

theme ‘Germ

Also Lux has a

Compared with

killer’ to position

range of soap

Lux, Dettol has

their products in

positioned their

the minds of the

product using a

consumers.

less price for the same weight.

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OBJECTIVES

To increase the

To penetrate their

To extend the

proportion of the

products to the

maturity stage of

market share by

markets in rural

the product life

introducing more

areas.

cycle by

herbal product

introducing new

lines. To gain the

soap ranges in

higher proportion

every 6 months.

of the market share.

PROMOTIONAL

Uses very

The latest

MIX

attractive

promotional

promotion

strategy used by

methods like

Lux was giving

price takes (‘buy 3 out Stone n and get 1 free’)

String necklaces for the lucky winners who took part in the sweepstake.

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B) 14.6 - 2 Television Advertisement - Storyboard

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C) 14.6 – 5 Print advertising Poster

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D) 14.6 – 6 Billboard Advertisements Billboard (Template) - 1

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Billboard (Template) - 2

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Newspaper Advertisement

Soap

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E) 15.4 Media Flow Chart Table - 02

Advertising

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Television Advertisement Sirasa TV Rupavahini ITN Radio Advertisement Swdeshiya seweya FM Sirasa FM Neth FM Newspaper Advertisements Daily News Lankadeepa Sunday Observer Sunday Lakbima

Billboard Advertisements

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Nov

Dec

F) 15.5 Advertising Budget Table - 03 Media

Amount

Television Advertisement

Radio Advertisement

Rs. 13140000 

Rupavahini-Rs.525600



ITN-



Sirasa TV- Rs. 262800

Rs.525600

Rs. 7300000 

Sirasa FM-Rs.3650,000



Neth FM - Rs. 1825,000



Swedeshi Sewaya Rs. 1825,000

News Paper Advertisements

Rs. 4380000 

Daily news- Rs. 1460,000



Sunday ObserverRs. 1460,000



Bill Board Advertisements

Lankadeepa- Rs. 1460,000

Rs. 2920000

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Posters

Rs. 1460000

Total

Rs. 29200000

Bill Board Activity Construction of a billboard

Cost details

Cost

8x4ft billboard

Rs.1022,000

Print size 8x4ft Billboard

Rs.467200

for 12 months

Rs.1430800

Printing charges

Rental to be paid to the municipal council

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G) 17.3 Personal Selling - Allocated Budget Table – 04 Personal Selling

PRECENTAGE

VALUES (USD)

% 1. sales reps. each at 50 5 supermarkets within

the

2000000

located city

limits

Colombo 2. sales rep each at 8 1

400000

salons located within the city limits Colombo Total

6

24,00,000

H) 18.4 Direct marketing Recommendations - Allocated Budget Table - 05 Direct Marketing strategies

PRECENTAGE

Expenditures in rupees

%

Advertisements

2

800000

Leaflets

1

400000

Total

3

1200000

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I) 19.3 Public Relation Recommendations- Allocated Budget Table – 06 Promotions

PRECENTAGE

Expenditures in rupees

% Press conference

2

800000

Free Men Plus, T-

2

800000

3

1200000

7

2800000

shirts and caps Sponsor sports competition Total

J) Agency Charges Table – 07 Description

Total Cost

Agency charges

Rs. 80000

Consultancy charges

Rs. 160000

Research findings

Rs. 150000

Data analysis

Rs. 150000

Conclusions and

Rs. 30000

report preparations Agency Commission

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K) Budget Summary L) Overall Budget Table - 08

Overall Budget

Rs40000000

(100%)

Advertising Budget

Rs.29200000

73.00%

consumer sales

Rs.2400000

6%

Rs.2400000

6%

Direct marketing budget

Rs. 1200000

3%

Public Relations

Rs.2800000

7%

Agency Commission

Rs.2000000

5%

promotion

Trade oriented sales promotions

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M) Time frame: Table – 09

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Advertising: Billboard News paper Television Radio

Sales promotion: Free soap box Price off more than 2 soaps Direct Marketing Public relations:

Key:

= Heavy promotion

= Light promotion

Notes: 

Light promotion, as in half the rate of heavy promotions.

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Evaluation Form for Group Members: Kushan Rathnayaka (RASKD61)  Marketing and Promotional Objectives  Marketing Goals  IMC Objectives and Strategies  Positioning and Campaign Theme  Creative Recommendation  Personal Selling  Conclusions Lahiru Rajapaksha (RALID63)  Advertising Media Recommendations  Agency Philosophy  Executive summary

Malinda Nawanage (NAMAD51)  Competitor Analysis  Direct marketing Recommendations  Public Relation Recommendations Chathuranga Perera (PECHD51)  Industry review  Sales Promotions

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