LIST OF TABLES Data Analysis And Interpretation Chapter Chapter Name [Link]. no. TITLE PAGE I LIST OF TABLES IL PREFACE 1 CERTIFICATE 2 STUDENT DECLARATION 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 4 1 INTRODUCTION TO INTEGRATED 5-11 MARKETING COMMUNICATION 2 INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE MARKETING 12-17 3 HISTORY 18-20 4 LITERATURE REVIEW 21-25 S OBJECTIVE 26-27 6 METHODOLOGY 28-30 \7 ‘Conceptual Framework 31-34 8 35-53 Il9 Summary of Findings 154-56 10 Suggestions 37 i Case Studies on IMC & Online Marketing [58-66 12 Conclusion,Recommendation& Limitations (67-69 13 pas [70-71 Bibliography 14 72-73 IlIntroduction to Integrated Marketing Communication 1.1 What is Integrated Marketing Communication? “At the heart of any business strategy is a marketing strategy; Businesses exist to deliver products that satisfy customers”. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an approach used by organizations to brand and coordinate their communication efforts. The American Association of Advertising Agencies defines IMC as "a concept thatrecognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines, and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact." The primary idea behind an IMC strategy is to create a seamless experience for consumers across different aspects of the marketing mix. The brand's core image and messaging are reinforced as each marketing communication channel works together in unity, rather than in isolation. According to William Stanton, “IMC is an element in organisation's marketingmix that is used to inform, persuade and remind the market regarding the organisation and / or its products.” Koekemoer & Bird, (2004) defines Integrated Marketing Communication as the collective activities, materials and media used by a marketer to inform or remind Prospective customers about a particular product offering and to attempt topersuade them to purchase or use it. IMC blends various promotional tools and communication/marketing/ advertising services and techniques to maximize profit. IMC is ultimately achieved through concise and consistent messaging that fosters familiarity and consumer affinity. Effective IMC messages and images are meaningful and useful to consumers, messaging and branding consistency - a proven IMC concept - yield customer isfaction and loyalty.1.2 Integrated Marketing Communication and its comparison with Simple Marketing Communication As per Don Schultz (2008), IMC is a strategic business process used to plan, develop, execute and evaluate coordinated, measurable, persuasive brand communication programmes over time with consumers, customers, prospects, and other targeted, relevant external and internal audiences. The key difference in this definition of IMC from that of simple Marketing Communication is highlighted by use of three words: i) 6 strategic, ii) evaluate and iii) measurable. In essence, IMC enforces use of marketing communication mix in such a way that it is strategically designed to achieve certain objectives, measured to enforce accountability over marketers and are evaluated over time. These elements are also stressed on by various IMC authors (Schultz, 1996; Duncan & Caywood, 1996), who believe that although the concept of IMC is not new, but the fact that previously marketing communication was not coordinated strategically and strategy is now believed critical, gives this concept a new look. In another definition of IMC given by a well-known author on IMC literature, Kliatchko (2005) reflects the same concept. As per the author, IMC is the concept and process of strategically managing audience-focused, channel- centered and resultsdriven brand communication programmes over time. This definition is a bit more specific and along with strategy and accountability it emphasizes specifically on communication being channel-centered and audience-focused. Managing and coordinating the integration of company’s communication across different media and channels is an important aspect of IMC. IMC does involve a process/plan aimed at providing consistency and impact through integration of communication via different mediums (Larich & Lynagh, 2009). Moreover, Kitchen and Schultz (1997) believe that integrated marketing communication has significant value for the organization, specifically in lowering costs and having greater control over the marketing communication program. This is supported by Duncan and Everett (1993) who extend the benefits to include gaining competitive advantage through IMC. The common point, however, in almost every definition of IMC is the fact that 6it enforces accountability over marketers and hence more and more marketers feel the need of using mediums that offer better measures of performance. It can be generalized that the idea of IMC used in above theories/definitions revolve around a 360 degree marketing communication programs for any of the brand that is strategically designed to achieve desired objectives. Hence, it would be fair to say that IMC includes all kind of communication programs that targeted for the same objective, regardless of the medium used, be it TV, Print, Radio, Street Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Internet Marketing, PR, Green Marketing, or any other thing 1.3 IMC- The Changing trend Media has undergone an extensive phase of development in the last ten years. Marketers were previously focusing on promoting their product/service through traditional mediums like TV, Radio, Newspapers, however, now the future of marketers appears to be digital as technology has become an important part of daily lives (Pall & McGrath, 2009). Concepts like convergence have come in to bring more versatility in the communication mediums being used. Convergence represents a paradigm shift - a move from medium specific content towards content that flows across multiple media channels, towards the increased interdependence of communication systems, towards multiple ways of accessing media content, and towards ever more complex relations 8 between top-down corporate media and bottom-up participatory culture.“ (Jenkins, 2006) The concept certainly suggests about making the communication mix — interdependent bringing in more integration and moving towards having multiple ways of accessing media ie. bringing in more versatility in the marketing mix by using a mix of traditional and new media. Moreover, it refers to the behavior of media audience as being migratory, i. shifting to the media that can provide them their desired experience. In such an environment, customers are actively involved in seeking new information and make connections among dispersed media content. 1.4 Benefits of IM 1) IMC helps to create Top of Mind (TOM) awareness with the aid of various 7marketing tools. 2) IMC not only creates awareness, but, evokes the purchase action. IMC persuades the customers to buy the product or service through creative messages, free gifts, trial offers etc. 3) IMC helps to develop brand loyalty that results in repeat purchase and favourable recommendations to others by existing customers. 4) By using various techniques of promotion, IMC may help expanding the market from local to regional, regional to national, national to international. 5) Different marketing tools may be aggressively used to block the competitor's marketing efforts. 6) All the above benefits of IMC lead to develop the brand image as well as the corporate image in the mind of customers. 1.5 Limitations of IMC 1) Lack of coordination within various departments within the large agencies over areas such as sales promotion, advertising, public relation. This may also lead to internal conflict. 2) It limits client’s ability to take advantage of specialists in various IMC areas. 3) Synergy and economies of scale are not achieved by a single agency handling all communication areas. 1.6 Future of IMC The conception of integrated marketing communication (IMC) is fairly new. The IMC tools allows marketing manager to plan and then execute his marketing communication programs, which create and maintain mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with the target market by satisfying their needs and wants. This means that promotion tools are used to create loyalty. ‘The future trends of IMC are discussed in the following:1. Competitive Advantage: The Various tools that organization has can be used as a competitive edge against the competitors. Competitive advantage is the edge and the ability of firm to provide superior value to its target market as compared to competitors. As IMC components are designed as a whole, the organization is able to focus its efforts in all the communication elements that create single, powerful brand equity by speaking with 10 one voice. This single brand message provides a competitive advantage to the company as the target clearly understand that what the company is communicating. 2. Brand Equity IMC strategies are essential to the company’s strategic brand management because IMC strengthens the interface between the organization's strategy of brand identity and the target market's brand equity. The organization that uses IMC strategies will be able to measure the brand awareness and brand image of its various offerings. Specifically IMC strategies and brand identity are the most vital parts of the company’s overall brand equity strategy. The brand identity strategy of the organization serves as a foundation for its overall IMC initiative and, for this reason, accounts for to the firm's brand equity. 3. Online Advertising: Online Advertising is becoming powerful IMC tool for advertisers and organization can use online advertisement as people are now spending more time online; the Internet became another channel via which companies can market their offerings successfully. (Google 2007) Because of the Internet's versatility, it will give an organization the opportunity to reach and interact with its target market. Companies can now produce an IMC campaigns that exclusively target the desired customer more successfully with less cost as compared to traditional communication efforts. Online campaigns will give organization new abilities to the organization due to the following reasons: + Reach: The Internet used by more than 170 million people only in the 9United States. * Relevance: Online Advertising shows ads to potential customers who are actively searching for what businesses have to offer. + Return on investment (ROI): Using analytical tools, companies can understand more about the effectiveness and efficiency of their ads. (Google 2007) . Viral marketing: Viral marketing is an IMC technique that is mostly used for trendy brands; Marketers are increasing acknowledging viral marketing as an important TMC tool because it offers the traditions benefits and effectiveness of advertising. In viral marketing the organization promotes its product using Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM), utilizing individual's communication networks, and relying on their individual recommendations to sell the product. Companies actively seek viral marketing, by fueling discussion on their offerings. (Groucutt, J. et al 2004). a. Multi-Channel Promotion: As multichannel media increases in reputation, the problem of IMC is to make sure that the IMC campaign reaches its planned audience. According Perkin (2003) “as media-blitzed, ad-cynical, time-poor, channel-flicking audience living in a fast-paced, attention-challenged world” The fact is that due to fast pace of technology, and globalization of the world, consumer behavior around the world is changing. Today customer have more control over what to see, and read and therefore IMC need to tailor the organization campaign as per the requirements of the market. b. Media Selection There are a huge number of magazines, each having its own focus, allowing segmented audience to the organization. The owner of these Magazines not only offers media planners a place to get the target audience, but also provide insights regarding audience and how to connect with them in the most excellent manner. Companies can use 10these magazines in there IMC efforts by effectively marketing their product and to utilize and ensure correct targeting, positioning and promoting the company offerings. (Perkin, N. 2003). Sponsorship Campaign Sponsorship of sporting events like football, cricket, or even horse race is recognized as a strong medium of promotion due to its focus of providing target audience on one platform event and the capability to attach with company target market by adding value to their behavior and interests. The finding of the response that how a particular customer or a group of customers will reveal some interesting aspects about the company sponsorship and will also reveal the form of sponsorship appropriate for the company products. Although sponsorship, like other form of promotional mix, has to prove its value in IMC, consumers are inner to a sponsorship strategy. Targeting the accurate event will take a lot of research on behalf of the organization while the exposure created by sponsorship is very short lived (Crow 2003). Market Positioning ‘The art of targeting customer to portray a product in a certain desired manner in known as positioning is the one of the most important factor while launching a new product and/or service for any organization. With the entire media overloaded, the consumer has closed mind to the new products, therefore, the company offerings should be exceptional, and supported by original, relevant, creative and really inspired IMC efforts. Advertising diffusion is exceptional and media fragmentation is growing now a days. In order to get a desired level of recall and brand awareness marketer need to target several medium. This is due to fact that consumer media habits are diverse and had led to higher IMC budgets and also waste of the precious organizational resources. llIntroduction to Online Marketing 1.1 What is Online Marketing? Online Marketing is the art and science of selling products and/or services over digital networks, such as the Internet and cellular phone networks. The art of online marketing involves finding the right online marketing mix of strategies that appeals to your target market and will actually translate into sales. The science of online marketing is the research and analysis that goes into both choosing the online marketing strategies to use and measuring the success of those online marketing strategies. Online marketing uses internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. It includes email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising (including web banner advertising), and mobile advertising. Like other advertising media, online advertising frequently involves both a publisher, who integrates advertisements into its online content, and an advertiser, who provides the advertisements to be displayed on the publisher's content. Other potential participants include advertising agencies that help generate and place the ad copy, an ad server who technologically delivers the ad and tracks statistics, and advertising affiliates who do independent promotional work for the advertiser. 2.2 Importance of Online marketing Growth of internet users must be credited for the growth of online marketing. With the advent of internet technology number of internet user is increasing at the greater extent across the world. India stands at second place with 755,820,000 internet users in 2021. 12OUNTRIES Peary Pakistan IE 10.679. Online marketing is becoming increasingly important to small businesses of all types. In the past, marketing online was something that local bricks-and-mortar businesses could justifiably ignore. It didn't make sense to waste time and money on online marketing when all your business was local Now with increasing local search and people's new habit of searching on the Internet first, it matters. Online marketing refers to a set of powerful tools and methodologies used for promoting products and services through internet. Online marketing includes a wider range of marketing elements than traditional business marketing due to the extra channels and marketing mechanisms available on the internet. Following are few specific contributed to the growth of online marketing — Online marketing can deliver several benefits such as: Growth in potential Reduced expenses Elegant communication Better control Improved customer service Competitive advantage VVVVVY 13Online marketing is also known as Internet marketing, Web marketing, digital marketing and search engine marketing (SEM). » Offline and online work together If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you know creating an image is key to bringing in customers. That's why online branding is vital. Com Score reports the average American spends 32 hours online every month. 42% of Americans report watching TV while browsing the Internet. Having 17 consistent messaging across different mediums reinforces your values and brand. Offline tactics will often result in larger online results. > E-commerce is not the future... it’s the present Forbes Magazine reports retail is down and e-commerce is up. One clear example of the power of e-commerce comes from Macy’s recent returns. Forbes reports the 154 year old retail chain saw online sales rise 40% in 2011 while same-stores sales grew just 5.3%. Maybe you're not a billion-dollar business like Macy’s, but the numbers don’t lie. Online sales are overtaking retail sales. Safe to say e-commerce is trending upward more and more each year. It’s not too late to jump onboard the e-commerce train. > Online marketing is cost-effective with measurable results In the old days, buying a newspaper ad was one way to reach potential customers, but now, newspaper circulation is decreasing dramatically. However a full or even half-page ad in a local paper could still run you thousands of dollars and may not reach your target audience. Web analytics tools allow you to track meaningful metrics and offer you the opportunity to make informed business decisions on data and not just assumptions. Based on data, one can determine the actual ROI of the online campaigns. If these are not meeting expectations then the data provides with the rationale to terminate the campaign. > Online business never sleeps ‘The Internet has no “business” hours. It’s open 24/7/365. That gives you the 14ability to promote, to engage and, most importantly, to sell around the clock. As mentioned above, traditional media advertising (like newspaper and television) may cast a wide net but is limited in scope. Online marketing is also a time and money saver in other ways. The proliferation of web-enabled smartphones has done nothing, but accelerates this development. It’s no longer even required that you be at a desk to access the internet. Whether customers are sitting in traffic, jogging in the park or eating at the dinner table, they have access to company’s website and the online advertising. 2.3 The Steady Rise of the Dot Coms in Business Business wasn't the fastest to embrace change, when it came over a computer screen and thorough an online modem. Back in the Clinton days of the 1990s, the internet was used by the public mostly as a means of communicating in chatrooms and most of that was hosted by America Online. Business began to see a future in e-commerce selling goods and services online, but that was before Amazon, and ebay was still an outback where (very) small sellers sold goods that were hard to find elsewhere, and waited for checks and money orders to arrive by snail mail. This clearly was not the most efficient way to do business, and larger brick- and- mortar ventures didn't see much use in establishing an online presence. ‘There wasn't any way to easily take credit card payments online - this was before the heady rise of paypal - so why bother? Who even heard of a checkout much less 19 cart for purchases on computer screen? There were free websites where one might set up a store, but most of the business was done the old fashioned way, by the customer calling in their credit card number, or by sending out a check or money order. The rise of the dot coms, though, was just around the bend, and when they came; business changed...forever. 2.4 Advantages of Online Marketing One of the most important advantages is the fast availability of the information. ‘The clients/users can easily get information, by navigating the internet, about the products that they wish to purchase, and besides that, they can check the information at anytime of the day. 151) It allows the companies to save money, an aspect that is really taken into account by the companies since the online marketing campaigns don’t require a large amount of investment. 2) The previous mentioned aspect, gives less importance to the differences between large and small companies in some way, thus increasing the competition and giving that way advantages to the customers. w Presence on the Internet can help the expansion of the company from a local market to national and international markets at the same time, offering almost infinite expanding possibil On the internet everything can be measured, thus it’s easier for the companies to know almost instantly if their campaign is working or not, what company or user is interested in their products, from what cities or countries are they, etc. 2.5 Disadvantages of Online Marketing: 1) Slow internet connections can cause difficulties. If the companies build too complex or too large websites, it will take too long for users to check them or download them and they will get bored eventually. 2) The e-commerce doesn’t allow the user “to touch” the merchandise before purchasing it. Because of this, some salesmen are starting to guarantee the possibility of returning the product. In Germany, where a law that regulates e-commerce and guarantees the customers the total refund of the money exists since 2000, the electronic commerce is very popular. 3) Other factor is the payment: many users still don’t trust in the electronic methods of paying and give up buying online because of this. 4) One of the major disadvantages may be the lack of trust of the users because of the constant virtual promotions that appear to be frauds. This is an aspect that deteriorates the image and reputation of quality and honest companies. 165) Other disadvantage is the cash on delivery system, since it doesn’t guarantee the 100% purchase of the product. This is also the case of thousands of users that dedicate themselves to daily mock big companies by ordering on the internet using false —_ identities. 17History of IMC First defined by the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1989, IMC was developed mainly to address the need for businesses to offer clients more than just standard advertising. The 4As originally coined the term the “new advertising”, however this title did not appropriately incorporate many other aspects included in the term "IMC" - most notably, those beyond traditional advertising process aside from simply advertising. lace trends in the late 20th from the standard advertising Overall, an influx of new mark: century spurredorganizations to shi approach to the IMC approach: + Decreasing message impact and credibility: The growing number of commercial messaging made it increasingly more difficult for a single message to have a noteworthy effect. * Decreasing costs of databases: The cost of storing and retrieving names, addresses and information from databases significantly declined. This decline allowed marketers to reach consumers more effectively. Increasing client expertise: Clients of marketing and public relations firms became more educated regarding advertising policies, procedures and tactics. Clients began to realize that television advertising was not the only wayto reach consumers. Increasing mergers and acquisitions of agencies: Many top public relations firms and advertising agencies became partners or partnered with other communication firms. These mergers allowed for more creativity, and the expansion of communication from only advertising, to other disciplines such as event planning and promotion 18* Increasing global marketing: There was a rapid influx in advertising competition from foreign countries. Companies quickly realized that even they did not conduct business outside their own country, they were now competing in global marketing e Increasing media and audience fragmentation: With the exceptionof the decline of newspapers, media outlets, such as magazines and television stations, increased from 1980 to 1990. Additionally, companies could use new technologies and computers to target specialized audiences based on factors such as ethnic background or place of residence e Increasing number of overall products: Manufacturers flooded retailers with a plethora of new products, many of which were identical to products that already existed. Therefore, a unique marketing and branding approach was crucial to attract customer attention and increase sales. 3.1 History of Online Marketing Considering the current volume of internet marketing business, it's hard to believe how young the internet marketplace is. While the timeline of internet marketing has been short, the cumulative events leading up to where we are now have impacted the entire globe faster than any marketing revolution in history. In 1994, spending for internet marketing totaled nearly nothing, but increased to over $300 million in 1995. Now, little more than a decade later, marketing spending and internet marketing business has exploded to nearly $200 billion (according to Forrester Research). Today, it’s hard to believe in having an organization which doesn’t have some kind of online presence 19‘When the internet was first introduced in the early 90s, it wasn’t considered to be an advertising medium at all. Instead, the internet was treated as a tool for exchanging emails and digital information, but wasn’t yet considered valuable for reaching customers. However, it wasn’t long before marketing pioneers began to see the potential for internet marketing business as millions of web surfers logging on each day to find valuable and relevant information. Within just a few years, informative and educational marketing, as well as graphically enticing banner ads 20 began to be show up. It wasn’t long before results began to flood in which proved the value of the internet marketplace to even the most skeptical advertisers. Most importantly, companies which had been spending huge chunks of their marketing budget on offline list building, begin to realize that they could accomplish the same thing via email and for much less. It wasn’t long before everyone from industry giants such as Microsoft Corp. to small businesses began to build company sites and spend marketing dollars to attract qualified traffic. Next, search engine companies like Yahoo! began to create significant profits from advertising alone. Then came the great internet marketing business bust around the year of 2000, which marked the beginning of the end for interruptive marketing such as flashing banner ads. As interactive features were added to web pages, consumers were given the option of turning off marketing messages at will and they did. Then entered the age of education based invitational marketing, which crystallized with the creation of web 2.0 technologies. Suddenly, billions of “voices” began to rise all over the world, as the internet marketplace became as much a global community as it was an advertising medium. Who knows where the internet marketing revolution will lead us, but one this is for sure: Those who understand the principles upon which the thriving internet marketplace is built will most likely never want for opportunities to create internet marketing business success and to earn solidincome. 20Literature Review This chapter aims at exploring detailed information on major domains of the dissertation topic by reviewing past research, books and related articles. Modern studies and past theories concerning these domains are presented. These theories will be the foundation for the dissertation. Since the major domains of research topic are — Integrated Marketing Communication & Online Marketing. The review of literature will revolve around these. 4.1 Literature on Integrated Marketing Communication Philip Kotler & Kevin Lane Keller, Marketing Management, New Delhi, Pearson Education, 2006, Integrated marketing communication can produce stronger message consistency and greater sales impact. It forces management to think about every way the customer comes in contact with the company, how the company communicates its positioning the relative importance of each vehicle and timing issues. It gives some responsibility to unify the company’s brand image and messages as they come through thousands of company activities. IMC should improve the company’s ability to reach right customers, with the right message, at right time in the right place. Thus personal and non-personal communication channels should be combined to achieve maximum impact. Warren J. Keeyan, Global Marketing Management, USA, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Lid., 2002, pg. no. 3 A revolutionary development in the shift to the strategic concept of marketing is in the marketing objective — from profit to consumer benefits. There is a growing recognition that profits are a reward for performance (defined as satisfying customers in socially responsible or acceptable ways). To compete in today’s market, it is necessary to have an employee team committed to continuing innovation and to producing quality products. In other words, marketing must focus on the customers and deliver value by 21creating consumer benefits. This change is revolutionary idea that is accepted today by a vanguard minority marketing practitioners. According to Kotler & Armstrong (2003), there are five traditional IMC elements quoted as Advertising, Sales Promotion, Direct marketing, Personal selling and Publicity/Public relations. According to Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Advertising refers to "the means of providing the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects at the lowest possible cost". Kotler and Armstrong (2003), provide an alternative definition: “Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor’. According Perkin (2003) “as media-blitzed, ad-cynical, time-poor, channel- flicking audience living in a fast-paced, attention-challenged world” The fact is that due to fast pace of technology, and globalization of the world, consumer behavior around the world is changing. Today customers have more control over what to see, and read and therefore [MC need to tailor the organization campaign as per the requirements of the market. IMC tries to maximize the positive message and minimize the negative once and communicate them using the proper tools. A successful IMC program uses the combination of the right tools, define their role and coordinate their use. The company should use the contact method that offers the best way of delivering the message to the target audience. (Duncan, 2002) IMC supports the AIDA model where in it helps to gain attention of consumers, generate interest, create desire, and result in purchase action. AIDA model developed by Elmo Levis is the set of stair -step stages, describes the stages through which every potential customer passes till the act of purchase. This basic model guides the copywriters in writing persuasive copy. AIDA is an acronym of 22Attention — grab the attention of target audience and attract them towards ad message. It leads to generate Interest — in the central theme of the ad that presents a forceful selling point, which arouses — Desire — to give positive response and act in a favourable manner that ultimately leads to — Action — of purchasing product or making an inquiry for the product. Tools of IMC As stated earlier, more and more resources are allocated away from the traditional mass media advertising and used on other communication tools. This allocation of communication budgets is deeply connected to the appearance of, and is the major part of IMC. (Holm, 2006) The classic tools — It is very seldom that companies use one tool of marketing communication. Companies have used a mix of tools for a long time but that does not mean that they are practicing IMC. The difference when using IMC is the strategy behind the use and how the mix is coordinated. Duccan (2002) lists the different tools or functions as advertising, public relations, sales promotion, the personal connection 30 (direct response & personal sales) and experimental contacts (events & sponsorships). Advertising Personal selling Public relations Sales promotion Events & sponsorship 23Literature on Online Marketing Online marketing users in One to one marketing, Fosket, Sally, Direct marketing; Nov 1996, pg no 38 Online services will drive marketing to the opposite end of the spectrum from “mass” marketing to customized “one-to- one” marketing. Online marketers communicate instantly and directly with the prospective customers and can provide instant fulfillment as well. Marketers with carefully designed World Wide Web sites are already interacting computer to computer, with prospective customers or an individual basis, much as ATM does in very primitive fashion. Online one to one approaches while innovative and still glamorous in their pioneering aspects, offer significant new challenges. The significant aspect is the access with the customers. Communication and information technology development has encouraged the emergence of new communication channels that have increased the options available to organizations for building relationships with clients. How important is Internet marketing to the success of an organization? There are no exact answers for this question. It depends on the nature of one company business line. There are many companies currently using the Internet as their main business transaction such as DELL, AirAsia, etc... However, companies such as UPM, the world’s leading forest products producer only uses the Internet as a media to introduce the company and its products to customers via its website. Besides that, during the whole purchasing decision making process, customers not only use the Internet in isolation to search for products but other media such as print, TV, direct mail and outdoor as well. These media still play an extremely 34 important role for the marketers to communicate with customers, for example, direct or face — to — face marketing more or less helps marketers build up the trust in customers and encourage them to purchase the products. Therefore, it is better to use the Internet as part of a multi-channel marketing strategy which “defines how different marketing channels should integrate and support each other in terms of their proposition development and communication based on their relative merits for the customer and the company.” 24advertising messages can be conveyed to consumers. The marketing manager must utilize all of the mediums in their thinking in order to determine the right mix of mediums to use and in the right frequency in each to best convey their message to the selected target market. Online marketing is today seen by many practitioners as the new arena for market communication and on top of the list of users of the different mediums is Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn 25Objectives 4.1 Scope of the research The study aims to understand the massive contribution of Online marketing as a part of Integrated Marketing Communication and to know its splendid efforts towards promotion in practice and also to find out some challenges in using online marketing as a tool of integrated marketing communication. The recommendations of this research can be used to frame an appropriate Integrated Marketing Communication strategy in which companies can give special consideration to online marketing along with the other traditional tools of IMC. 4.2 Research problem This study focuses on following problems — > Should compani integrate various marketing tools to communicate about its brand? > How do consumers get awareness about different brands? > How online marketing plays important role in companies’ marketing strategy? > What are the reasons for growing popularity of online marketing among consumers? > How is online marketing advantageous over traditional marketing? ¥ What are the loopholes in online marketing? 26Research objectives : Based on the above research problems, the research objectives are as follows, i. To understand the importance of Integrated Marketing Communication. ii. To understand the importance of Online advertising in changing market scenario. . To understand the reasons for growing popularity of online marketing. iv. To analyze the effectiveness of online marketing as compared to traditional marketing tools. v. To identify the limitations of online marketing as IMC tool. 27Methodology The first step is to formulate a research design. This means planning a strategy of conducting research. It is a detailed plan of how the goals of research will be achieved. Research design is exploratory, descriptive and/or experimental in nature. It is helping the investigator in providing answers to various kinds of social/economic questions. After collecting and analysis of the data, the researcher has to accomplish the task of drawing inferences. Only through interpretation researcher can expose relations and processes that underlie his findings and ultimately conclusions. Interpretation refers to the task of drawing inferences from the collected facts after an analytical study. It is a search for broader meaning and research findings. It is the device through which factors that seem to explain what has been observed by researcher in the course can be better understood and provides theoretical conception which serveas a guide for further researches. It is essential because it will lead towards findings of the study and proper effective conclusions of the study. In the present study, researcher has followed Descriptive research. Descriptive research is usually a fact finding approach generalizing a cross - sectional study of present situation. The major goal of descriptive research is to describe events, phenomenon and situations on the basis of observation and other sources. Survey Method: The survey method is the technique of gathering data by asking questions from people who are thought to have the desired information, Every effort should be made to state the objectives in specific terms. The survey design can be defined as: “gathering information about a large number of people by interviewing a few of them.”"(BACKSTROM & HURSH P3) The definition can be modified by stating that collecting information with other data collection alternatives 28available to survey researcher in addition to interviewing i.e. questionnaire, personal observation etc. Surveys are conducted in case of descriptive research studies with the help of questionnaire techniques in most appropriate manner. Survey type of research studies usually have larger sample. It is concerned with conditions or relationships that exists, opinion that are held, processes that are going on effects that are 60 evident or trends that are developing. Thus in surveys variables that exist or have already occurred are selected and observed. It is the example of field research. Data Collection: Data collection means to a purposive gathering of information relevant to the subject matter of the study from the units under research. Primary data are empirical observations gathered by the researcher or his associates for the first time for any research and used by them in statistical analysis. There are several methods of collecting primary data particularly in descriptive researches. > Telephone enquiries > Postal/mail questionnaire > Personal interviewing > Panel research > Special survey techniques. Telephonic inquiries and mailing questionnaires are the best’s method for gathering quickly needed information at the cheapest way. Sampling methods: Sample selection is undertaken for practical impossibility to survey entire population by applying rationality in selection of samples we generalize the findings of our research. A complete enumeration of all items of the population is known as census enquiry. But practically considerations of time and cost almost invariably lead to a selection of respondents called sampling techniques. A sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. 29Sampling process: L i) w Define the population: the population is said to be completely defined if at least the following terms are specified i.e. elements, sampling units, extent, and time. In this research such terms may be defined as follows: > Elements > Sampling units > Extent > Time Identifying the sampling frame: a complete list of population units is the sampling frame it should be so selected which consist of almost all the sampling units. Popularly known sampling frames are census reports, electoral register, list of account holders, etc. . Specifying sampling unit: it is the basis unit containing the elements of target population. . Specify the sample method: it indicates how the sample units are selected, whether probability or non-probability samples are to be taken. . Determine the sample size: the decisions about the number of elements to be chosen ie. number of observations in each sample of the target. . Parameters of interest: one must consider the questions of specific population parameter which are of the interest. . Select the sample: final step in the selection of sample process where a good deal of field work and office work is introduced in the actual selection of sample elements: Descriptive type of study generally used probability sampling design (random sampling) and requires structured or well, thought out instruments for collection of data like questionnaire. 30Conceptual Framework 8.1 Integrated Marketing Communication “It is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, and sources within a company into a seamless program that maximizes the impact on consumer and other end users at a minimal cost.” Generally marketing starts from “Marketing Mix”, Promotion is one element of Marketing Mix. Promotional activities include Advertising (by using different medium), sales promotion (sales and trades promotion), and personal selling activities. It also includes internet marketing, sponsorship marketing, direct marketing, database marketing and public relations. And integration of all these promotional tools along with other components of marketing mix to gain edge over competitor is called Integrated Marketing Communication. There are other levels of integration such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External and Data integration. Here is how they help to strengthen Integrated Communication. Horizontal Integration occurs across the marketing mix and across business functions — for example, production, finance, distribution and communication should work together and be conscious that their decisions and actions send messages to customers. Vertical Integration means marketing and communication objectives must support the higher level corporate objectives and corporate missions. Internal Integration requires internal marketing — keeping all staff informed and motivated about any new developments from new advertisements, to new corporate identities, new service standards, new strategic partners and so on. External Integration, on the other hand, requires external partners such as advertising and PR agencies to work closely together to deliver a single seamless solution — a cohesive message — an integrated message. 318.1.1 The Tools for Integrated Marketing Communication Each communication tools has its own unique characteristics & costs. The tools that marketers commonly use to achieve their communication objectives are: 1. Advertising: Advertising can be used to build up a long term image for a product or trigger quick sales. Advertising can efficiently reach geographically dispersed buyers. Certain forms of advertising (TV) can require a large budget, whereas other forms (newspaper) do not. Just the presence of advertising might have an effect on sales; consumers might believe that a heavily advertised brand must offer good value. Because of the many forms & uses of advertising it is difficult to make generalization. Yet the following qualities can be noted: a. Pervasiveness: Advertising permits the seller to repeat a message many times. It allows the buyer to receive & compare the messages of various competitors. Large scale advertising says something positive about the seller's size, power & success. b. Amplified Expressiveness: Advertising provides opportunities for dramatizing the company & its product through the artful use of print, sound & color. c. Impersonality: The audience does not feel obligated to pay attention or respond to advertising. Advertising is a monologue in front of, not a dialogue with, the audience. 2. Personal Selling: Personal selling is the most effective tool at later stage of the buying process, particularly in building up buyer preference, conviction & action. Personal selling has three distinctive qualities: 1. Personal Interaction: Personal selling involves an immediate & interactive relationship between two or more persons. Each party is able to observe the others reactions. 322. Cultivation: Personal selling permits all kinds of relationship to spring up, ranging from a matter-of-fact selling relationship to a deep personal friendship. 3. Response: Personal selling makes the buyers feel under some obligation for having listened to the sales talk. 3. Sales Promotion: Companies use sales promotion tools — coupons, contests, premiums etc. to draw a stronger & quicker buyer response. Sales promotion can be used for short run effects such as to highlight product offers & boost sagging sales. Sales promotion tools offer three distinctive benefits: a. Communicatio: : They gain attention & may lead the consumer to the product. b. Incentive: They incorporate some concession, inducement or contribution that gives value to the consumer. c. Invitation: They include a distinct invitation to engage in the transaction now. 4. Public Relations: Marketers tend to underuse public relations, yet a well-thought-out program coordinate with the other communication mix elements can be extremely effective. The appeal for public relations & publicity is based on three distinctive qualities: a, High Credibility: News stories & features are more authentic & credible to readers than ads b. Ability to catch buyers off guard: Public relations can reach prospects that prefer to avoid salespeople & advertisements c. Dramatization: Public relations have potential for dramatizing a company or product. 335, Direct Marketing: The forms of direct marketing — direct mail, telemarketing, internet marketing — share three distinctive characteristics. Those are: a. Customized: The me: .¢ can prepare to appeal to the addressed individual. b, Up-to-date: A message can be prepared very quickly. ¢. Interactive: The message can be changed depending on the person’s response. 34Data Analysis And Interpretation Introduction: The term analysis refers to the computation of certain measures along with searching for patterns of relationship that exist among data groups. The data after collection has to be processed and analyzed in accordance with the outline laid down in research plan or research design. This is essential for a scientific study and for ensuring that we have all relevant data for making comparisons and analysis. Technically processing of data implies editing, coding, classification and tabulation of collected data so that they are available for analysis. Analysis particularly in case of surveys involves estimating the values of unknown parameters of the population and testing of hypothesis for drawing inferences. “Thus in the process of analysis, relationships or differences supporting or conflicting with original or new hypothesis should subject to statistical tests of significance in order to determine with what validity data can be said to indicate any conclusions.” Analysis therefore may be categories as descriptive analysis and inferential analysis which is often known as statistical analysis Descriptive Analysis: Descriptive statistics is the term given to the analysis of data that helps describe, show or summarize data in a meaningful way such that, for example, patterns might emerge from the data. Descriptive statistics are simply a way to describe our data. “Descriptive analysis is largely the study of distribution of one variable This study provides us with profiles of companies, work groups, persons and other subjects on any of a multiple characteristics such as size, compositions, efficiency, preferences etc.” 35Inferential Analysis: Inferential analysis is used to generalize the results obtained from a random (probability) sample back to the population from which the sample was drawn-This analysis is only required when: a sample is drawn by a random procedure;and the response rate is very high. The methods of inferential statistics are (1) the estimation of parameter(s) and (2) testing of statistical hypotheses. In the present study researcher used descriptive statistical tools. Primarydata is used while analyzing and drawing inferences. Descriptive Analysis of Primary Data: This part of study is mainly focused on verifying main objectives of study. Researcher used statistical tools like mean, standard deviation and graphsfor analysis of primary data. 1. Sources of awareness for various brands [Sources of awareness [Frequeney [Percent [Print ads 18.3% Television 16.7% |store promotion lo0% [Outdoor media 9% |Online media 166.7% frotat 100.0 44Which source do you refer the most to get awareness of various brands? 12responses @ Pant ads @ Television © commercials In @ si0:0 promotion @ Outdoor mecia Online media Interpretation i 8.3% have chosen print ads, ii. 16.7% respondents have chosen Television commercial, iii. 00% have chosen In-store promotion, iv. Only 0% have chosen Outdoor media, v. 66.7 % respondents have chosen Online media, which is the higher of all. It means consumers do refer various mediums to get awareness but highest preference is being given to online media. Online media incorporates blogs, online PR, Window displays, banner ads etc. 452. Details for information and time spend to take purchase of any commodity Do not require muchinformation to take purchase decision ‘Frequency Percent ‘Strongly 00% disagree Disagree 25% No opinion 8.3% ‘Agree 417% Strongly agree 25% Total 100.0 Ido not require much information to take purchase decision. 12 responses @ strongly agree @ Aoree isagree @ No opinion @ Stongly disagree Interpretation i. 00% respondents shown strong disagreement to the first question, ii, 25% respondents were disagree to the first question iii, 8.3% were neutral for first question iv. 41.7% respondents were agreed to first question 46y. 25% respondents have shown strong agreement to first question Thus majority of consumers require more information to take purchase decision but they do not like to spend much of their time for purchasing any commodity. 3. Do not prefer to spend much of my time in purchase of any commodity Do not prefer to spend muchof my time in purchase of any commodity Frequency Percent Strongly 00% disagree Disagree 00% No opinion 25% ‘Agree 58.3% Strongly agree 16.7% Total 100.0 47| do not prefer to spend much of my time in purchase of any commodity 12 responses © stonaly agree © tore Disagree @ No Opinion @ Stondly Disagree Interpretation i. 00% respondents shown strong disagreement to the first question, ii, 25% respondents were disagree to the first question iii. 8.3% were neutral for first question iv. 41.7% respondents were agreed to first question v. 25% respondents have shown strong agreement to first question ‘Thus majority of consumers require more information to take purchase decision but they do not like to spend much of their time for purchasing any commodity. 48Knowledge about the use of internet [Code [Response [Frequency [Percent 1 INot knowledgeable about [8.3% 2 [Somewhat knowledgeable about [58.3% Is Knowledgeable about 16.7% ls |Very well knowledgeable about 16.7% frotal 100.0 Are you knowledgeable about the use of Internet? 12 responses @ Not knowledgeable about © Somewhat knowledgeable @ about Knowedgoable about © Very weil knowedgeable about Interpretation i. 8.3% were not knowledgeable about internet, ii. 58.3% were somewhat knowledgeable abou! iii, 16.7% were knowledgeable about internet. iv. 16.7% were very well knowledgeable about internet. It means major percentage of respondents is somewhat knowledgeable about intemet. They are well convergent with various usage, functions and benefits being offered by internet. 495. Frequency of being online [Code [Response Frequency [Percent 1 Very Low 16.7% 2 |Low 100% 3 Moderate [41.7% 4 |High 8.3% 5 Very high 33.39% \Total 100.0 What is your frequency of being online? 12 responses Interpretation iv. 16.7% chosen very low frequency, 00% chosen low frequency, 41.7% chosen moderate frequency, 8.3% chosen high frequency, 33.3% chosen very high frequency @ very Low @ Moderate @ High Very High 50It means majority of respondents i.e. 33.3% use internet with very high frequency followed by 33.3 % respondents with very high frequency of using internet. So, due to its attribute of making life easier by allowing the users to have instant access with every informational, educational, interactive & entertaining material; Internet is heavily used medium today. 6. Purpose for using internet Other Media Collaborat [Total Podcasts content | Online sharing | Blogs -ive & RSS sharing | shopping sites websites websites | Percent 25% 16.7% | 16.7% — | 16.7% 8.3% 16.7% — | 100 ‘Frequency Please indicate your purpose for using internet by ranking each purpose between the scale of 1 to 5 (where, 1is the most important and 5 is least important) 12 responses @ Modia sharing sites @ Biogs Podeaste & RSS @ Collaborative websites © Cither content sharing websites © Online shopping 51Interpretation ii. iii. vi Media sharing sites are considered most important 25% respondents Blogs are considered most important 16.7% respondents Podcast & RSS are considered most important 16.7% respondents Collaborative websites are considered most important 16.7% respondents Content sharing sites are considered most important 8.3% respondents Online shopping is considered most important 16.7% respondents Tt means that Social networking is the foremost purpose for which majority of respondents use internet. Certain social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut, Linkedin etc. have become popular in recent times, used to share the personal & professional views with known and unknown people who can be found out through these sites. After Social networking, second preference given to the online shopping. It allows flexibility to the consumers to view a wide range of products & brands, evaluate them online by reading their features and making an online purchase. Media sharing is at third place. It allows them to share media material such as photos, music, video, news etc. 8. Do companies include online activities in their marketing strategy? Code [Response [Frequency [Percent 1 [Strongly disagree loo 2 [Disagree loo 3 [No opinion [27.3% 4 [Agree [36.4% 525 [Strongly agree [36.4% [rotat 100.0 ‘Companies should use online activities in their marketing efforts. @ svonay agree tonal Disagree Interpretation: i. 00% were strongly disagreed. ii, 00% shown disagreement. iii, 27.3% had no opinion on this question. iv. 36.4% shown agreement and, v. 36.45% were strongly agreed. It means majority of respondents are completely agreed that companies should use online activities in their marketing efforts. Since online activities facilitate good access and higher reach to the customers; companies must take this advantage by incorporating online advertising in their marketing strategy. 53Summary of Findings This research work aimed at examining the effectiveness of online marketing on integrated marketing communication effort of organization. The study was carried in Lagos Mainland of Nigeria where three organizations; Coca-Cola Nigeria, Uber Nigeria, and ABC paint were all used as case study for the research exercise, The choice of the three organization were based on several criteria as discussed in chapter four of the thesis including the organizations marketing strategies. The research was guided by five specific objectives that was derived from the study research questions and the findings from the objectives are summarized in figure 3 below Specifically, it was discovered from the empirical findings that online marketing/the internet plays significant role is realizing the organization marketing strategy in the form of increasing the brand awareness as the organization products and services are exposed to more targeted global audience for avery long period of time. As long as the web page still exist. and remains relevant, the organization products and services are being displayed to the general public. The advantages of the internet on the organization marketing strategy is the fact that it cost less to carry promotional activities on the internet than offline in several platforms. Unlike offline promotions, there are several marketing done online that are free like e-mail marketing, viral marketing where organization customers or content readers shared the company products and services across different social media platform and more traffic and sales are generated as the page travel everywhere on the internet. Also, online marketing impacts is easier to measure compared to offline marketing impact and online also facilitates automation of online marketing activities through artificial intelligence or other technology that track customer information as they surf through the organization website in real ti 54rice 3: Summary of Research Findings ‘Roles of IMC in Marketing f \ © Blending marketing wok easily © Reduce cont of advert Alon marketing rategy to ergannation ‘© Reach more target audience goals ‘© Auortion in marketing © Moce marketing flexibility ard bi ‘* Faster consumer feedback #Eauily mectcusiorersutifiction ‘© Ensicr to meanire Consistent and uniform message 4¢ Provide longtime exposre + Source of competiive advantage et Reach wider audience cay et \ ~ . tec IMC y 1+ Improves customer service Reaches gloal audience faster Enable marketing automate Saves time, energy & ” © Generate faster consumer or | feedbuck - Source: Authors Schematization It was also discovered that integrated marketing communication is a marketing strategy employed bythe organization to provide a consistent and uniform marketing message to the target audience indifferent platform and ensure that organization marketing strategy is equally aligned with the overall company strategy and objectives. It was equally discovered that integrated marketing communication allows the organization to easily blend various marketing tools to reach the targeted audience and provide maximum impacts while speaking a consistent message all along. Customer satisfaction areeasily met with integrated marketing communication strategy as different customers are reached from different platform meeting their needs to know more about the organization, 55needs to know more about the usage of the products, effectiveness of the services among others. One of the advantages of using online for marketing is that it facilitates easy measurement of the impact of marketing activities. From the survey, it was discovered that among the leading medium of measuring the impact of online marketing is the achievement of the targeted objectives. For instance, if the marketing is aimed at increasing customer interaction in the web page and end up getting lots of traffic without any interaction on the web page then the aim of the marketing is defeated. Other measure of effectiveness of online marketing as identified includes the number of webpage a visitors opened on avisit, the activities of the web visitors, the repeated visit, and the number of unique visitors. The number of unique visitors is important metrics as it provides the organization insight as to whether new visitors makes up the traffic or existing customers. Another important component of the study is the findings of the trending marketing tools employed online to reach more targeted customer, accomplish more task and saves the organization an enormousre source. On the list of the trending online marketing tools is video content marketing. This is arguably the most important and trending tools used for advertising on the internet as it provides customers and prospective customers short and enticing description of the organization products, usage, and benefits of the products. Most organization have started converting brief description of their products in text content earlier to video content as more and more internet surfer is more interested in watching videos than reading texts. Organization who are able to package their products and services in short video clip scan be guaranteed of getting lots of converts instantly. Similarly, artificial intelligence (ai) and chart bot is another trending marketing tools employed by the organization to achieve more, stay focused and maintain strong customer relationship. With artificial intelligence, there is no limit to the number of information an organization can gather regarding the buying behaviour of the consumer, their likes and dislikes thereby helping the organization to focus its marketing effort where it is needed most. With chart bot, the organization can effectively interact with its customers 24/7 and easily guide its customers to different products and services it offers and answer any question that the customers need more clarification. 56Suggestions Invest in Quality Product Images ‘There’s compelling evidence that well-presented food actually tastes better than sloppily plated dishes. Given how important appearance is in relation to how we perceive things (including other people), it stands to reason that investing in quality product photography will have a similar effect on visitors to your site. Use social media to engage with your customers Customers love to engage with brands and they really love it when a brand reciprocates. Take Wendy’s for example and the famous case of #NuggsForCarter. Carter Wilkerson tweeted at the major fast food chain and asked how many retweets he would have to get to receive a year of free chicken nuggets. Wendy’s replied with 18 million Offer free shipping According to BizReport, 77% of online shoppers insist on having the option to choose free shipping. Surprising customers with unexpected shipping costs at checkout may result in lower conversions. Incorporate video marketing If you haven’t already, consider folding engaging video content into the mix. Especially on social media, short, engaging pieces of video can be a major attention getter. An extremely effective technique is to create quick, fast moving clips (usually set to music) that demonstrate an interesting or popular product. 57Case Studies on IMC & Online Marketing 9.1 Use of IMC by Red bull Inspired by functional drinks from the Far East, Dietrich Mateschitz founded Red Bull in the mid 1980's. He created the formula of Red Bull Energy Drink and developed the unique marketing concept of Red Bull. In 1987, on April 1, Red Bull Energy Drink was sold for the very first time in its home market Austria. This was not only the launch of a completely new product, in fact it was the birth of a totally new product category. Today Red Bull is available in more than 166 countries and around 40 billion cans of Red Bull have been consumed so far. In terms of further expansion, Red Bull is targeting the core markets of Western Europe and the USA and growth markets in the Far East, while also focusing on the ongoing world-wide roll-out of the Red Bull Editions. In spite of the still uncertain financial and global economic climate, our plans for growth and investment in 2014 remain very ambitious, envisage a continued upward trend, and — as always at Red Bull — will be financed from the operative cash flow. 1. Public Relations Red Bull is successful in their public relations field because they plan accordingly through: > Generating extensive publicity across all mediums, such as: TV, radio, print, flyers, drinks, towels, stickers, cars, etc. > Launching parties, activities, events, press releases, and commercials that clearly communicate the meaning of their product. > Attracting spectators through fun and exciting projects. They make their product look interesting, intriguing, engaging to participate in and watch to. the-_~—general_~—opublic, —as._—swell, =a, 58[Link] Red Bull mainly markets through creative advertising, targeted sponsorships and events, and sampling to consumers, in order to receive their product. Media Advertising: > Red Bull uses media channels, such as: cinema, most important, the Internet. > Their focused advertisements are towards young people. V, radio, press, and thes Sports and Events Sponsoring: > Company’s concentration is on supporting the image, credibility, and visibility of their product. > They do this by sponsoring extreme athletes and events, as well as, with logos and stickers. Sampling: > Sampling the drink is a major purpose of Red Bull because Red Bull is all—. about being in the right place and the right time. 2. Social Media Red Bull invests in online platforms that will give them a better marketing ROI in the long run. Social Media Press Release — Red Bull Merges with Apple to Expand its Web TV Channel INNSBRUCK, AUS.. Aug. 7, 2012 In April of 2010, the Red Bull company launched its own Red Bull Web TV showing extreme sports competitions and following athletes such as Travis Pastrana and Felix Baumgartner all over the world. 59In carly January of 2012, however, Red Bull has extended this online network to Apple’s iTunes and app store for complete mobile access. By downloading the Red Bull TV app along with many others, Red Bull Web TV brings you a selection of international shows ranging from Red Bull Air Races to Red Bull Mountain biking Chronicles every hour on the hour. By having the web series available at {Tunes and the Apple app store, these amazingly rare video clips are ready to watch at the palm of your hands. The shows can stream live on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, with just a simple download and there are even breakdancing and music apps you can download from the Red 96 Bull record label app. From the Red Bull website, you can click “share” to post the link of the shows onto other social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. Many celebrity athletes associated with Red Bull use the Web TV shows to allow their fans to follow their everyday lives. One of these entertainers is Ryan Sheckler, an American professional skateboarder, and three-time X-Games gold medalist. “I want to make a huge contribution to skateboarding....the only way I will know that I have achieved legendary status is when my peers say I have. There is no other way,” he says. He makes his contribution through at least six shows on the Red Bull Web TV. Red Bull, known for its sensational digital marketing strategies, has truly “upped the anti” with its Red Bull Web TV series. It has especially made a lasting impression in its home-base country, Austria. Red Bull’s new mission at this time is to carry this social media movement to the United States. The plan is to more actively promote their international hardcore sport video clips and shows from their website on the YouTube homepage, Facebook advertisements, tweets, and other blog sites like Tumblr and Stumble Upon. 9.2 Cadbury Manages a crisis with Integrated Marketing Communication Understanding Integration: Cadbury had a crisis on their hands; worms were found in Cadbury chocolate bars in India, A swift response was needed to mitigate the damage ‘The problems were not caused by Cadbury but their distribution channels. Cadbury needed 60to get a number of messages across to its customers, distributors and retailers. The most efficient way was through an integrated marketing communication approach. The same message, although tailored to each specific party, was developed and put into action. The use of an IMC strategy helped Cadbury by making the advertising more efficient, all intended recipients of the advertising were targeted in a unique way that would generate the best results for Cadbury in terms of those recipients. The overall aim of the IMC strategy was to get safe product to retailers, have the retailers handle the product to a higher standard and for customers to have faith in the product once again and to start purchasing it. We can see that the IMC strategy by Cadbury had different messages for the different parties it focused on however the overall aim was the same for Cadbury, to reverse the damage caused by the worms. Specifically Cadbury launched 0800 number, did a monthly press ad, displayed posters and dropped off leaflets and started an education and monitoring program for retail outlets and wholesalers. All with the focus of the aforementioned aim 9.3 Case study on IPL : use of online marketing For cricket enthusiasts or recent IPL converts, the latest season of the IPL has been a rollercoaster living up to the twists and turns and the instant exhilaration that the format promises. While the novelty of the IPL format is often spoken about in 98 context of the growth in cricket viewership patterns it has contributed to, it’s also interesting to see how the adoption of social media tools has enabled the viewers/fans to extend their involvement beyond viewing and help the format gain a cult following. The recent study by CISCO (about India topping the list of nations with most restrictive policies towards social media tools usage among enterprises) notwithstanding, the success of IPL on YouTube has shown how consumption over internet is becoming mainstream. Watching the IPL through live streaming is also quite a departure from the days when one would go to Rediff / Yahoo to catch the latest scores. This story shares some whopping statistics about the number of subscribers/views of the IPL YouTube channel. It is also interesting to see this in context of the recent media reports 61about the IPL screenings on big screen not taking off. There may be a surge at the big screens during the finals but with fans and their peers present online for the most part, the internet now provides a unique community experience to these fans. Move beyond the post match mortem over the watercooler, it’s the age of Twittercooler One of the most favourite phrases that unite Indians in transit across class, caste, region, religion is ~ “Score kya hua hai” (What is the score?) With Twitter, one no longer has to worry about being on top of the score, with friends sharing a ball-byball update. If radio commentary was 1.0 and sms alerts 2.0, then twitter is definitely is 3.0 for all those looking for updates. More importantly however, no longer does one need to wait for that session in college canteen the next day or by the office watercooler, Twitter gives the perfect opportunity to broadcast why Sachin Tendulkar is the best and how Kings XI could have stood a chance if Yuvraj would have focused more on his game. A recent study by Nielsen shows how Twitter is the third most popular platform for IPL related discussions on social media. The Cricket pitch comes to Facebook As this title of a recent post on Facebook blog shows, there is a whole new world that has opened up for IPL fans on Facebook. Most of the teams such as Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals have their own fan pages where fans “can engage with other fans and get exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at your favorite teams and players”. With IPL online games to live chats with team captains, the experience truly extends from a few hours of mere sport to an-all pervasive lifestyle. Here are some of the other interesting resources we came across about the IPL — » The State of Indian Premiere League (IPL 3) on Social Media in 2010 — ane interesting analysis around the growing IPL social media pie > If IPL was played on the Web 2.0 — a humorous take on a fantasy league one social media comprising FB Super Kings, LinkedIn Chargers, Knight Writers among others 629.4 Case study on 7 up : use of social media Introduction 7 UP Lemon Pattalam Online Championship was an interesting and unique cricket game which was made on the lines of the on-ground version of the championship. The innovative and exciting online cricket tournament, which has 7 players a side, 7 balls per over and 7 overs an innings saw an enthusiastic participation from Facebook fans. With a total number 10015 teams, total number of fans who joined the Facebook page via the game: 61,760 —a growth of 52% in just 45 days. UP Lemon Pattalam was on Facebook in the form of an interactive application based game. Fans can create or join a team and play the game wherein they have to score maximum runs in 7 overs. The winner will get the opportunity to meet the Chennai Super Kings. Objectives The prima objective was to increase the consumer engagement and interaction on the 7 UP Facebook page while acquiring new fans. The on-ground Lemon Pattalam Championship activity gave the perfect chance to leverage on the same through the social media channels. Strategy and Planning The strategy was to combine the viral effect of a multiplayer game format with the online version of the Lemon Pattalam championship, an on-ground open format cricket championship. The online version of the project was to extend the exact 101 replica of the format from the offline version giving it to the 7UP’s Facebook page. This was to give it an instant connect with an activity the target audience was well aware of. Stakeholders The entire audience active on the social networking scene was targeted. Lemon Pattalam is acricket tournament which was happening on-ground. The company wanted to create an online version of the same and promote it on Facebook page of 7UP to increase engagement and also increase the number of fans. 63Choice of channel/s Facebook was the channel of choice in this case as it is the location which houses the maximum number of 7UP fans who are active online. Implementation ‘The 7UP Lemon Pattalam game is an online application which was ported on Facebook Here, the user needs to install the application and then log on, to play the game. The user can then either create his own team or join any other team (for which he needs to get invited) that’s been already formed. However, if the user creates his own team, he is asked to invite 6 of his friends (from his list) to form a team and then give it a name as per his choice The game was designed in such a way that of all the friends who will receive invitations in form of FEEDS on their profile, only the first-six friends who accept the invitation will be part of the team (first come first serve basis). Moreover, the 102 users can also be a part of multiple teams at the same time giving then the opportunity to perform at various places and having their best score acknowledged. Since the entire campaign was built with the South Indian essence and zest for cricket, company added a tinge of South Indian flavor by having cheerleaders dressed in their regional garb, performing various jigs to cheer the player. Within the game play there was a 7UP Float designed to hang around the boundary region, which awarded 7 runs to the batsman if he managed to hit it with the ball. In-game branding was carried out by using 7UP Drinks Trolley which would appear at random intervals. Further, fun bonus factors like “Double Up with 7up” and “Bonus Ball” were added where runs scored in the last delivery would get doubled in the former case and in the later case the user would get a special Lemon Bonus Ball. 64Impact and Outcome The activity got an overwhelming response from the online audience who managed to form over 10015 teams within the span of time. Also, the game drew attention of 61,760 new prospects that joined the fan page through the game. This pronounced a growth of 52% of the fan base in just 4Sdays. 9.5 Case study : [Link] — success story It was meant to be a portal that compared different e-commerce websites, only there weren't enough of them in the first place to be compared. Thus was born Flipkart, making sure that online shopping would never be the same again in India. From a two-member embryonic idea to a 4,500-member company, the Flipkart story is not just about stupendous success and mind-numbing numbers. Much more than that, it's about redefining customer experience and breaking online shopping inertia. Started in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, the Bangalore-based firm ships close to 30,000 items per day, in other words, 20 products per minute. Online group shopping catches bargain hunters’ fancy. The interesting part is that around 60 per cent of Flipkart’s orders are cash or card on delivery. Fashion stores go online to lure buyers Indian consumers are much more cautious about shopping online as compared to the West. They are reluctant to divulge credit card details. The cash on delivery service has helped a Jot of traditional consumers turn to online shopping. Also, the model has unbolted the lock to a whole new customer base which hasn't been exposed to the benefits of plastic money as yet or those with a default technological handicap. The superior customer service notwithstanding, Flipkart’s biggest draw has probably been the huge discount it offers - much to the envy of offline stores. Though all bookstores get up to 50-60 per cent discounts from publishers, the low overheads - one of the numerous virtues of online stores - enables Flipkart to pass on the savings in the form of discounts. 65Flipkart started with books, but now deals in 12 product categories. The company stocks nearly 11.5 million tiles, "making us the largest book retailer in India. Already, there are players like Infibeam, Naaptol and Letsbuy in the market. According to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) survey, the online retail market in India may grow to Rs 70 billion (over $1.30 billion) by 2015 from Rs 20 billion in 2011 as internet access improves 66Conclusion, Recommendation &Limitations ‘This chapter gives a positive ending to the study by drawing conclusions based on interpretations and accordingly putting forward the recommendations. The chapter ends with limitations occurred while conducting research, 11.1 Conclusion The study concludes that consumers rely upon more than one medium in order to enhance their brand related knowledge. It means that they use the combination of various sources for making final purchase decision. Along with the traditional sources, they heavily rely on modern marketing tool i.e. online advertising. Consumers do require detailed information about the brand so as to evaluate its strengths & weaknesses; this ample amount of information then saves their time by allowing them to make the purchase decision quickly. The study also reveals that main reason for growing importance of online marketing is the increasing literacy about internet among people. They have identified that intemet is truly advantageous through which they can serve their various purposes mainly social networking, online shopping & media sharing (photo, music, video) This efficacy of internet has intensified their tendency of being online. Today’s consumers strongly feel that every company must use this efficacy to strengthen its marketing efforts. So that they will get motivated to use online marketing with the intent of getting access to exclusive content about the brand and getting discount and sharing their feedback about brand with the advertiser . With the advent of internet technology, consumers’ preference towards traditional marketing tools has decreased. Most popular traditional marketing tools are television & print media. The major benefits of online marketing are its capability of interaction between consumers and advertisers followed by availability of wide range of information & ease of shopping. These benefits make online marketing superior than traditional marketing. 67But at the same time consumers are susceptible about the user-safety side of internet. They feel that online marketing is unsafe as it may lead to increase in frauds & privacy issue. 11.2 Recommendation Conelusion given above reveals that consumers use more than one medium to make brand choice, therefore it is recommended that > Companies should mix & match various mediums to reach their desired target audience. This will help to spread awareness among them and to influence buyers behavior thus companies must formulate an effective Integrated Marketing Communication plan where they can combine various tools to grasp maximum prospects. It is also revealed that consumers have good enough knowledge about internet technology and they are in favor of using online marketing, therefore it is recommended that > Every company big or small should grab this advantage and include online marketing in their marketing efforts. Online marketing forms can be mainly web marketing, E-commerce, social media marketing. > Consumers find certain benefits in online marketing over traditional5 marketing; therefore companies can spend more on online media rather than the traditional tools. But along with its advantages, online marketing has certain limitations also, limitations like possibility of fraudulent activities or privacy issues are beyond control. Cyber crime can not be eradicated easily or completely therefore, it is recommended that > Companies should not rely entirely on online marketing; they must make it a part of Integrated Marketing Communication strategy. As a result of which limitations of online marketing will be covered as the other mediums will build the required credibility and positive image about the brand. This credibility will generate trust among consumers towards the brand. 6811.3 Limitations of the study The study is limited to Mumbai suburbs. The study could be extended; so as to cover all the states of India as the researcher believes that consumer buying behavior w.r.t online marketing may be at the variance in different states. 69Bibliography 1. Philip Kotler & Kevin Lane Keller, Marketing Management, New Delhi, Pearson Education, 2006, pg. no. 537 2. Warren J. Keeyan, Global Marketing Management, USA, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., 2002, pg. no. 3 3. 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