Marketing Communication

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION PLAN

Spoonfed Co. UK: To launch the Spoonfed Website and their services to tourist to London at Hong Kong.

19th April 2013

Summary:

Full service agency “ABC Company” has been asked to prepare a one-year communications plan for the introduction the website “Spoonfed.co.uk” which is to be launched in the Hong Kong.

Spoonfed ’s business scope is to concentrate on events within London & central area, as market research suggested their 250,000 students’ spend was to some extent recession proofed ( over 90% of undergraduates came from outside London) and students on average were spending up around five thousand pounds per annum on consumables. This gave a market size alone of 1.5 billion pounds at around 62% of all graduates remain in London following the completion of their studies and thus provided “ Spoonfed” with a platform for sustained user growth.

Introduction

This plan will help them launch their website and got business of service to tourists to London from Hong Kong. The budget has been set at 100,000 Sterling Pound.
HK British Council creates and supports some advertising campaigns together with most of UK Universities to organize some exhibition at Hong Kong Exhibition Centre. This Campaign is designed for promotion of education at UK but also providing tourist information as support national and tourism in London, UK.

The UK Tourism Market in Hong Kong

The website for the Arts, Music, Clubbing, and Theatre and Cultural events in London , like “Spoonfed” is quite limited in the industry of Hong Kong. The Spoonfed.co.uk team can provide expert quotations, industry statistics and experienced insight about Entertainment trends, how to save money on going out, hyper local London, brand-building and business development.

Whilst Spoonfed has not specifically targeted the 26 million annual London tourist to date, this would be the year to start with London predicted to see an influx of tourist over and above this figure in coming years with world stage events coming to London such as the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and the World Athletic Championships in 2017.

The competition in London is dominated by Time Out, which is available as a free physical magazine available in nearly all London hotel rooms and is backed up by an event’s website similar to Spoonfed but does not go as deep into the events market as Spoonfed does.

In Hong Kong tourist market is changing to more self-organized small group travelling pattern instead of a well-organized tourist group to destinations. Most of such group will search all information from the concern website to find the fit to their interesting / tasteful restaurants or special dinning places. This is quite popular in the overseas students staying aboard of their home countries.

Spoonfed Target Market

Spoonfed’s business scope is to concentrate on events within London and in the initial years was to focus on the 250,000 students within London. Over 90% of undergraduates came from outside London and their average spending around 5.000 sterling pounds per annum on consumables. This gave a market size alone of 1.5 Billion pound in addition, 62 % of all graduates remain in London following the completion of their studies and thus provided Speenfed with a platform for sustained user growth.

Demographic

The consumer is both male of female and between 25 and 35 years’ old young men. They are likely to be married and without family responsibilities. They are affluent and well-informed and educated adults, classed in the AB socio-economic segment.
Therefore they are more creative mind, higher administrative professional at the middle class.

Psychographic

Within the demographic profile 3 main mindsets of probable buyers could be identified

Environmentally Friendly – somewhat concerned and recommendation to others to go with them. ( followers )
Media usage –
Print ( Newspaper – Apple daily , Oriental )
TV: TVB , ATV
Other: Occasionally use internet & poster at some tourist exhibition.

Intensive students (Target audiences)
Media usage-
Print Quality Daily Newspaper ( Apple Daily, Oriental , Tourist Magazine )
TV: TVB , ATV & Tourism board casting channel
Other : intensive use of the internet, possible website –heading search engine

Value Conscious – comparatively the economical scale, good value of money for the good show.
Media Usage: - Print Quality Daily Newspaper , Tourist Magazines - TV TVB , ATV and some Tourist programs - Other Internets , Face Book or Twister

All three groups are likely to be exposed to the same degree of outdoor and ambient advertising while it mainly based on internet and direct mails.

Geographic

There are over 92% of graduate students coming from oversea for studying at London. This is around 50% from Hong Kong. There are also some graduated students still remain working in London but traveling frequently between Hong Kong and London.

Spoonfed: SWOT

Internal strengths

Spoonfed is one the leading tourist services provider in London. It provides a reliable and high quality image to the market. Its website provide a very much specialized dinning , entertainment, high classic concert and popular pops show information to targeted customers. Very Strong website search for information of the dinning, clubbing events website search.

Internal Weaknesses

Spoonfed has recognized that their customers group 250,000 students and many of them coming from overseas. The understanding of Hong Kong Market / culture is not the same as UK. The distribution network is mainly rely on online sales and need to find out B2B or JV with some local related tourist agent company. Sometimes the performance of UK shows may not be so attractive to HKG audiences due to difference of culture and educated level.

External Opportunities

With sustained Hong Kong growth in employment, wages and the tourist industry, the leisure economy is one of the fast growing sectors in the capital. For the coming years, there are some world stage events coming to London such as the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and the World Athletic Championships in 2017.

External Threats

Strong competitors of existing website in every segment – British Tourism Broad , Vist Britain , British holidays ,etc.
The heavy UK airport taxation and the fuel surcharge on air fare ticket to London are also affecting the tourist emotion to London.

Campaign Objectives

Objectives are the successful introduction of a new website (Spoonfed) for tourist service as recommendation some dinning, clubbing, performance, shows in London.

Marketing communication activities are a vital part in achieving the above mentioned objective and have to be coordinated with all other company activities ( booking , sales, purchasing)

- Increase the consideration of Spoonfed when planning a trip to London - The target market should be reached as fully as possible - Ultimately communications should lead to purchase; a higher percentage of website visits should be turned into sales.

Creative Strategy

The “Spoonfed” Promotional message at early stage should concentrate on the awareness and education aspect, whereas later executions can focus on creating excitement and focus on specific benefits.

Identified barriers to purchase ( high initial cost, unproven technology, too classic of events, Chinese/Asian culture ) should be overcome by stressing the response, popularity, well received in London.

Communications Mix

Two important factors have to be considered when selecting the communication for the Spoonfed website. The type of product (high involvement) and its stage in the searching product by consumers ( introduction). These two factors influence the consumer/customer buying behavior and therefore the mix has been adjusted to fit these conditions.

Personal selling is very important because those special dinning restaurants, classical music concert is a high involvement product and affords more conviction for purchase which is given by Personal Selling.

Advertising, a paid form of non-personal mass communication from an identified sponsor, should be the major communication mix ingredient for this campaign. Advertising is controllable, but expensive “ TV. Advertising can be used to increase awareness, create interest and information about “Spoonfed” contents of tourist attractions in London.

Direct mail in the form of newsletters can useful for this campaign to create awareness (pre-launch) and inform or offer opportunity to visit the website for exploration of new attractions in London. Direct mail is also important when targeting the 250,000 students and provides them with detailed information about the Spoonfed website.

Recommended Campaign

Pre-testing is important esp. for a totally new product, to check if the message sent is conceived as intended by the target market. Testing will help to determine the optimum mix between imagery and copy and reduce the risk of failure in general.

Direct mail should be one of the first activities with pre-launch awareness letters being sent to existing Spoonfed’ customers. A second wave of direct mail upon the launch with more discrete information should follow and formally announce the launch of the “spoonfed” website to all related target audiences ( students coming from overseas of UK ). Their mailings should be customized to emphasize the hot and favorable visiting spots of London to the viewers.
The Spoonfed will be exhibited in suitable shows and exhibitions in the Education/ tourist industry to initiate some buzz and prepare the Hong Kong market.

Advertising will be utilized as one of the most important communication methods, along with Public Relation. The use of TV, Print, Internet and Outdoor seems most promising to reach and affect the target market.

Obviously the campaign will be a mix between push and pull, the consumer market should be driven rather by a pull predominated strategy whereas the business customer market is recommended by a slightly more aggressive push strategy.

Media Strategy

TV is a favorite medium because of its wide reach and its high impact for highlight the special events in London which only show on “Spoonfed” website only. Identified TV stations: TVB , ATV

Print adverts will be placed in quality newspapers and esp. their weekend supplements (back cover & second page). Additional ads are placed in Tourist/Education industry magazines and those read by the target group.
Such as : Ming post , SCMP , Travel News , TTG, Studying aboard.

Internet plays an important role, direct mail will be sent as email where possible and enable buyers to purchase the London events through Spoonfed website online. A Spoonfed specific microsite will offer all information e-brochures for download.

Timing and Budgets

It is important to notice that marketing communications should start before the website is actually launched, for launch activities to unfold their full potential.
All departments that contribute to the website and communication will have to meet regularly to tune into an integrated strategy.

Pre-launch: The setup of a microsite “Spoonfed.hk” round the parent “Spoonfed.uk” will happen once the local website setup and shown on exhibitions. Direct mail will be sent before and after the launch. Advertising and will set in once the microsite is available.

Considering the target group of the website and the small projected sales figures a budget of GBP100,000 over 2 years seems appropriate, however we would recommend reallocating the budget 50% for starting up and rest 50% on 2 years.

Post Campaign Testing

Post-testing ( during and after campaign) is important because it helps to evaluate the actual success of the campaign ( was the money worth spending, were objective achieved) and feedback can also help when planning future campaigns.

Post-testing will be counted on the website visiting e-record and we may specialize in conducting surveys to determine the public’s reaction to the communications.

The hit rate results can then be compared with results measured before the campaign launch to state the impact the campaign had.

Conclusion

We recommended a communications strategy that makes use of advertising, PR, new media and direct mail. Personal selling will be provided by the B2B extending the existing network of local agents. Advertising will use TV, Print and outdoor media to initiate awareness of website.

The internet will play an important role for both advertising and direct mail, using a modern medium to underline the advanced, exciting, classic happenings and events
Are available in the ‘Spoonfed.hk” website.

However ,this plan so far is only a model/plan, and not definitive, it can and is likely to change , if pre or post-testing give negative results.
References:

1. Financial Times 1999 – 2001, Various issues.
2. Yadin, Daniel. 1994 Creative Marketing Communications. London: Kogan Page Limited.
3. Westwood, John. 1990. The Marketing Plan. London: Kogan Page Limited
4. Varey, Richard , 2002. Marketing Communication. London: Routledge.
5. Fitzgerald, Maureen and Arnott, David. 2000. Marketing Communications Classics. London: Business Press, Thomson Learning.
6. Pickton, David and Broderick, Amanda. 2001. Integrated Marketing Communications. Harlow: Prentice Hall
7. www.spoonfed.co.uk
8. www.startup.co.uk
9. www.google.com

References: 1. Financial Times 1999 – 2001, Various issues. 2. Yadin, Daniel. 1994 Creative Marketing Communications. London: Kogan Page Limited. 3. Westwood, John. 1990. The Marketing Plan. London: Kogan Page Limited 4. Varey, Richard , 2002. Marketing Communication. London: Routledge. 5. Fitzgerald, Maureen and Arnott, David. 2000. Marketing Communications Classics. London: Business Press, Thomson Learning. 6. Pickton, David and Broderick, Amanda. 2001. Integrated Marketing Communications. Harlow: Prentice Hall 7. www.spoonfed.co.uk 8. www.startup.co.uk 9. www.google.com