Rip Curl Marketing Strategy
1.0 Introduction
Rip Curl, one of the world’s largest surf-wear companies which designed to meet the needs of the young and vibrant men and women who commonly enjoy surfing and seek for premium products. The purpose of this report is to create an Integrated Marketing Communications plan based on the situational analysis and research about the company Rip Curl. The IMC objective for this plan is to increase Rip Curl’s brand awareness by 10% among the target group of people aged 18 to 34 via learning about Rip Curl’s products through public relations, advertising and personal selling, starting from 1 January 2014 till 31December 2014. The reason being to focus on this IMC objective is because of the current fierce competition in the surf wear …show more content…
industry and discovering the brand’s regular customers, the older generations, have outgrown the brand.
Having mentioned, the target audience for this IMC plan are men and women aged 18 to 34. This group of people were chosen based on three factors which are lifestyle, buying habits and media habits. Thus, it is can be summarized that this group of people who are representing 28.5% out of the total population in Australia generally use internet more than once a day, nearly half of the group enjoy surfing, meanwhile 39.7% of the target group visited a clothing store 2 to 3 times a month (refer to appendix 1).
2.0 IMC Strategy
2.1 Overall IMC strategy and rationale
As referred to IMC plan part A, the IMC objective is to increase Rip Curl’s brand awareness by 10% in the target group from the segmentation (age 18-34) by utilizing IMC plan by 31 January 2014. In order to meet this objective, advertising, personal selling and public relation are chosen as the main IMC tools for the company Rip Curl to increase brand awareness. Apart from that, these communicational tools will help the target market to learn more, engage, and purchase Rip Curl’s products. Moreover, advertising will work in synergy with personal selling and public relation in order to reinforce the achievement of increasing brand awareness and potential customers in the target group.
2.2 Breakdown of IMC functions
2.2.1 Public relations
Rip Curl cares about its brand reputation that is why Rip Curl will hire an external PR team to enhance brand reputation and increase the amount of news about Rip Curl. The new PR team will be in charge of monitoring internal and external publics and will provide positive information about Rip Curl, which will make it newsworthy (Wynne 2013).
Next, PR team will educate the Rip Curl’s employees about Rip Curl’s core values, concepts as well as its company’s background. This is to ensure Rip Curl’s customers will be able to differentiate Rip Curl’s product from other surf wear companies. Besides that, the PR team would be updating Rip Curl’s stakeholders about the new IMC strategy that has been developed by the company.
Through public relation, the main goal is to sustain Rip Curl’s image as a premium producer of surf wear products and accessories and also active in the community within the age group 18 to 34 years old. PR helps the company to generate a positive image by bringing the following information to the customers: “Our brand is made for active people in any age all over the world”. Public relation can also be conducted via organizing sport tournaments and providing sponsorships to famous sportsmen. Hence, utilizing public relation will help to increase the brand awareness among the target group (Gabbott & Gillian 2013).
Apart from that, the advantage of PR is that it will improve the image of Rip Curl as a socially responsible corporate citizen by making several charity events. This will create a better image for Rip Curl as well as sustain the company’s positive image, which ultimately will also help to achieve the IMC objective.
2.2.2 Personal selling
In personal selling, Rip Curl will improve the work of personal selling by increasing the quality of the work of our sales representatives. In order to increase the productivity of personal selling, Rip Curl Company will train the retailers by ensuring that they are skilful, experienced and have required knowledge to create high quality customer service while introducing our brand effectively. The customized customer service as compared to mass market is believed to be able to bring higher customer satisfaction. These sales representatives will continue to follow-up with these customers and ensure that they are well informed about the updates and provide necessary assistance (Erevelles & Fukawa 2013). In addition, all sales representatives will be wearing Rip Curl’s newly introduced products, which will encourage Rip Curl’s customers to buy these new products. All aspect of personal selling will work in synergy with the above mentioned suggestions. As such, this will be a great advantage for Rip Curl to achieve the IMC objective.
2.2.3 Advertising
Rip Curl has decided that the best way to advertise Rip Curl would be through the internet. It was found that 67% of people online own a Facebook account (Bennett 2013). Having known the high frequency of the target market surfing the internet, this explained that the high possibility of the target group seeing the Rip Curl’s advertisement on Internet becomes the advantage of advertising. This powerful communicational tool will thus again help Rip Curl to increase brand awareness when seeing the advertisement in the Internet engages the brand with the target market (Baker 2010).
As a whole, the synergy of the IMC tools (public relation, advertising and personal selling) are believed to be able to increase brand awareness significantly in the target group, which will defiantly increase the sales and market share of Rip Curl.
3.0 Creative Strategy
Rip Curl’s creative strategy focus on emphasizing advertisement and how to convey the message out from our advertisement to our target market. Hence, the first strategy involve is to reflect the preference of local markets and reflect that in the advertisement message to attract their interest. Therefore, the whole idea of Rip Curl’s advertisement will change according to the trend and region in order to make our target market aware of Rip Curl’s product.
In terms of specifying the objective, it is to increase the Rip Curl’s brand awareness and to ensure advertising message is delivered successfully to the target audience. The target audience involved are from the age segment of 18 to 34 of the Australian population. This age group has been chosen because their lifestyle, buying habit and media habit. Our target market usual interest is active on outdoor activities. They are considered a part of big spender in Australia who easily being influence by media.
Therefore, the message theme to this age segment would be based on to drive excitement among this particular age group where the message theme will be oriented towards both rational and emotional processes. The advertisement will be design with colourful effect and music along with the tagline of Rip Curl which is the “surfing is everything” would be place in the Rip Curl advertisement. By this the audience would be able to feel and picture the message from Rip Curl and the advertisement would be nailed in their mind as it captures their attention. In term of support, the team would bring in celebrities in the projected advertisement. Followed by the constraints, the logo of Rip Curl comes from the surfing move of ripping the curl of the wave and this is a copyright logo established by Rip Curl where it also helps in picture the brand to the audience.
Next, we will choose unique selling proposition and comparative as our message strategies. Unique selling proposition in Rip Curl would make the brand outstand in its advanced modern technology and unique heated wet suit according to the current trend (Australian Institute of Commercialisation 2010). Secondly, comparative advertising where TV commercial will produce in comparing Rip Curl’s quality with other no name brands to make Rip Curl brand stand out from the rest. The slice of life involve in Rip Curl would be a mimic of real life events during surf competitions where it would demonstrate the joy and excitement to our target market.
Lastly, in term of advertising appeals, the appeal which would be used would be music appeal (Miller 1985). This is because the age segment of 18 -34 emphasize more interest in it. When music attracts our target market and make them remember the brand especially the up-beat of music would influence them to purchase products of Rip Curl.
4.0 Media Strategy
For IMC plan, the team has chosen advertising as primary communication for attracting the target market in the age group of 18-34 of Australian population. The primary goal is to create brand awareness and to inform future customer about Rip Curl unique brand. All of the advertisements will be based on IMC creative strategy that was discussed on previous section.
4.1 Television
Firstly, it will start by placing ads on television programs such as ‘Talkin’Bout Your Generation’, ‘So You Think You can Danc’e and ‘Rove' in March 2014 due to the channels high popularity to the age of 18 – 34 group (refer to appendix 2).
The time period involved will be during March, April, May, June, July, August and September 2014. The team will be putting 2 spots of advertisement in each month in the mentioned television program. This is because those months are most suitable seasons for surfing in Australia (Swaylock n.d.). At night will be a good time for theadvertisement placement because the target group will tend to watch television before heading to bed. Television advertising can help to increase brand awareness by reaching majority of our target market (Clow & Baack …show more content…
2012).
4.2 Magazine
Studies shown that many of our target market read Cosmopolitan magazine and Cleo magazine (refer to appendix 3). Therefore, it is decided that Rip Curl advertisements will be featured in the mentioned magazines. The team will start placing Rip Curl advertisements in March and continue to do so until September 2014. The placement of the advertisement is very important in magazine. The team will place black and white half page advertisement in the bottom right hand of the magazine to attract the reader attention when they flip the page. Two advertisements will be placed in the mentioned magazines montly. Moreover, the team will also consider other alternative magazines as time travels. Clow and Baack (2012) stated that advertising in magazine maximize brand exposure, this is because consumers pay longer attention in magazine advertisement than other advertisements, hence facilitate the intent to purchase in their mind.
4.3 Radio
Thirdly, the team will place Rip Curl advertisements in three different radio stations, namely The Today Network (Fox FM- Melbourne, 2Day FM -Sydney), ARN National Network(ARN - Classic Hits Network-Adelaide, ARN - Mix/AC Network-Sydney) and DMG National Network ((DMG - Nova Radio Network-Sydney, FIVEaa-Adelaide). Based on the research conduct, the target market are the three radios station primary audience in Australia (refer to appendix 4).Advertisements will be on-air starting from March 2014 to September 2014 in the morning time from 7-9am and also in the afternoon 4-6pm. The team will place 4 spots of ads, 2 spots in the morning, 2 spots at night from Monday to Friday. By placing ads on the particular timing will allow the media to reach to the target market more efficiently. Because in the morning 7-9am, this is the time when the target market are heading to school and work, the probability in listening to the radio is higher compare to other timing. 4-6pm will be the time where they are back from school and work, it will be the good timing for advertising on that time period. Nonetheless, radio advertising helps to narrow the target market and provide high segmentation potential to reach our target market efficiently (Clow & Baack 2012).
4.4 Internet
As per internet, the team will createa new Rip Curl website which targets onlyyoung men and women aged 18-34. This website will be set up and readyby January 2014. The name of our website is Ripcurl.Gen-Y.com. This is because the target group of 18-34 men and women are known as the Generation Y. The website specially caters for them. The design of the website will be in black and red with the latest pop-songs in the playlist. The website includes all the Rip Curl Surfing products which are available at all stores wide. Since nearly all of the people in the target group are active internet surfers, they can easily do online shopping on Rip Curl surfing products without going to the nearest Rip Curl retail store. Moreover, there are plenty of Rip Curl advertisements and news in this website. As such, it is proven that Internet website helps to increase Rip Curl brand exposure to our target market.
4.5 Newspaper
Based on our research we found that a big group of people age 18-34 read Herald Sun on weekdays and Saturdays as well as read Sunday Telegraph on Sundays(refer to appendix 5). Advertising in newspaper will commence from March 2014 to September 2014. It is planned that the team will promotethe brand Rip Curl in full page advertisement twice a month in the mentioned newspapers. In addition, the team will utilize local newspapers with strong audience interest to maximize our reaching to target market (Clow & Baack 2012).
Having mentioned, the team main purpose is to establish Rip Curl’s brand name in the consumers memory especially when they purchase surf wear products and accessories. Hence, it is important to integrate all of the media advertising by ensuring all of the advertisements that will be advertised are consistent, creative and effective.
5.0 Media Plan
Communication Advertising Vehicle Calendar
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
TELEVISION PROGRAM
Talkin’Bout Your Generation
So You Think You can Dance
Rove
MAGAZINE
Cosmopolitan
Cleo
RADIO
The Today Network
ARN National Network
DMG National Network
NEWSPAPER
Herald Sun
Sunday Telegraph
The primary objective for this IMC plan is to create brand awareness of Rip Curl’s brand by influencing consumer decision making process in purchase. The team plan to use continuity scheduling method to develop successful brand awareness. The team will keep continuity in the advertisement design and message. Because it is important for consumer to have Rip Curl brand in their evoked set just as they are contemplating a purchase. As a result, the team will do so by placing repetitive advertisements in all media such as Television, Magazine, Radio, and Newspaper. Refer to appendix 6 for the complete list of team proposed communication advertising vehicle schedule as reference.
6.0 Budget
Advertising media involved in this IMC plan which are television, radio advertising, newspaper, magazine and internet. The total amount spent on advertising is estimated as AUD 2,642,541. The total revenue of Rip Curl Company in year 2012 is AUD 416,265,000(IBISWorld, 2012). Hence, the advertising expenditure is 0.63% of the total revenue. The reason of these advertisements conducted is to increase the awareness from the target audience.
The biggest spending part on advertising is radio advertising. According to appendix 7, the total amount that is spent on radio advertising is estimated as AUD 924,000, which is 34.97 percent of the total advertising expenditure. This amount of expenditure is allocated to three radio stations which are The Today Network, ARN National Network and DMG National Network. Moreover, the radio advertisement will be distributed in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. The reason why so much funds are allocated to radio advertising is the cost per production is low. Therefore, radio advertising is suitable to be used to generate the jingle effect which can make audiences aware and impressed.
Television advertising is one of the major parts of the advertising expenditure. Television advertising is the most expensive advertising media in term of cost per production. According to appendix 8, there is AUD 680,400 allocated to Rip Curl television advertising, which is 25.75% of the total advertising expenditure.The television advertisements will be placed on three programs. The reason why the television advertising is chosen is that it can increase awareness effectively by reaching high frequency of target audience.
Newspaper and magazine advertising are another media that are selected. The amount spent on newspaper advertisement and magazine advertisement is estimated as AUD 524,321 and AUD 491,820 which is 19.84% and 18.61% of the total advertising expenditure, refer to appendix 8 and 9. The reason that Rip Curl spend on newspaper and magazine advertisement is relatively low cost as compared to television advertisement and it can be used to reinforce the effect of advertisement.
In addition, internet is also a tool that Rip Curl chooses to reach the target market. The cost spent on internet is estimated as AUD 22,000. It is the lowest spending part of advertising and it represents 0.83% of the total advertising expenditure. Internet has become one of the most important trends of advertising mainly due to the huge audience and low cost. Thus, it is used by Rip Curl to reach the target market.
7.0 Evaluation of Campaign
7.1 Message evaluation techniques
From the launching of the 3 promotional tools which are advertising, public relations and personal selling, it is wise also to evaluate whether the IMC activities conducted or to be conducted are helpful for Rip Curl to achieve the IMC objective which is increasing the brand awareness. Firstly, to measure the effectiveness of the suggestions that have been addressed in the previous part, the company is encouraged to hire a company to conduct advertising tracking research. For example, the hired company could copytest a target group to evaluate if the right message has been sent, and most importantly whether the message and the brand name Rip Curl stays in both their long and short term memory to encourage them for repeat purchase. This is to ensure that the positive brand reinforcement by the PR team and sales representatives from personal selling to be evaluated so that the IMC strategy could be carried out more effectively in the future.
7.2 Online Evaluation Metrics
The company should measure on the dwell rate and time of the consumers on the company set up website. These would help to provide necessary feedbacks and measures to sustain a cost efficient and effective promoting tools for Rip Curl. In other words, this is vital for the company as through these measuring techniques, this evaluation reflects also the engagement between the brand and the consumers.
7.3 Respondent behaviour evaluations
Nonetheless, Rip Curl Company should assess the behaviour of the target market too. One method is to measure the sales of the company. If a company’s sales revenue increases after the launching of the three promotional tools, this positive response received from the Rip Curl’s target market possibly indicate that the three promotional tools are helpful for the company to achieve the IMC objective. Lastly, Rip Curl will also measure the response rates on the target market by conducting surveys on the streets and online surveys at locations that reflect the lifestyle and habits of the target market group (Russell, Flattau & Pope 1990). By this, Rip Curl would be able to measure the level of brand awareness among the target group.
8.0 Conclusion
As a whole, there are three promotional tools to help to achieve the IMC objective which are advertising, public relation and personal selling. Having known the advantages these promotional tools could bring to increase brand awareness and attracting more potential customers, the company Rip Curl should continue to also keep track the activities of the rivalries such as Quiksilver and Billabong so that Rip Curl would be able to continue increase its market share and sustain its position as the one of the leading premium surf wear producers in the world.
Word Count: 3301 words
Reference List
Australian Institute for Commmercialisation 2010, TectFast Client Case Study, Queensland, Australia, Viewed 12 September 2013, <http://www.ausicom.com/filelib/RipCurl_Jul10_-_updated_100510.pdf>.
Baker, R 2012, Brands must advertising to promote good causes, Marketing Week, viewed 27 September 2013, <http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/brands-must-use-advertising-to-promote-good-causes/3020237.article>.
Bennett, P 2013, Social media 2013: User demographics for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, the Australian,viewed 20 September 2013, <http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-user-demographics_b38095>.
Clow, KE & Baack, D 2012, Integrated Advertising, Promotion and Marketing Communication, 5th edn, Essex, Pearson Education, Ohio.
Erevelles, S & Fukawa N 2013, ‘The role of affect in personal selling and sales management’, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7-24.
Gabbott, M & Gillian, H 2013, ‘Purchasing Public Relations: the case of the Public Relations industry in Scotland’, Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 437-453.
IBISWorld 2012, Rip Curl Group Pty Ltd – Premium Company Report Australia, IBISWorld viewed 24 September 2013,
<http://www.ibisworld.com.au/car/default.aspx?entid=3538>.
Miller, F 1985, Music in Advertising, 3rd edn, Omnibus Press & Schirmer Trade Books, Calgary, Alberta.
Swaylock, n.d. When Is The Australian Surf Season? viewed 21 September 2013 <http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/when-australian-surf-season>.
Russell, RW, Flattau, PE & Pope, AM 1990, Behavioural Measures of Neurotoxicity, 2nd edn, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Wynne, R 2013, What does a public relations agency do?, Forbes, viewed 20 September 2013, <http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwynne/2013/04/10/what-does-a-public-relations-agency-do/>.
Rip Curl, one of the world’s largest surf-wear companies which designed to meet the needs of the young and vibrant men and women who commonly enjoy surfing and seek for premium products. The purpose of this report is to create an Integrated Marketing Communications plan based on the situational analysis and research about the company Rip Curl. The IMC objective for this plan is to increase Rip Curl’s brand awareness by 10% among the target group of people aged 18 to 34 via learning about Rip Curl’s products through public relations, advertising and personal selling, starting from 1 January 2014 till 31December 2014. The reason being to focus on this IMC objective is because of the current fierce competition in the surf wear …show more content…
industry and discovering the brand’s regular customers, the older generations, have outgrown the brand.
Having mentioned, the target audience for this IMC plan are men and women aged 18 to 34. This group of people were chosen based on three factors which are lifestyle, buying habits and media habits. Thus, it is can be summarized that this group of people who are representing 28.5% out of the total population in Australia generally use internet more than once a day, nearly half of the group enjoy surfing, meanwhile 39.7% of the target group visited a clothing store 2 to 3 times a month (refer to appendix 1).
2.0 IMC Strategy
2.1 Overall IMC strategy and rationale
As referred to IMC plan part A, the IMC objective is to increase Rip Curl’s brand awareness by 10% in the target group from the segmentation (age 18-34) by utilizing IMC plan by 31 January 2014. In order to meet this objective, advertising, personal selling and public relation are chosen as the main IMC tools for the company Rip Curl to increase brand awareness. Apart from that, these communicational tools will help the target market to learn more, engage, and purchase Rip Curl’s products. Moreover, advertising will work in synergy with personal selling and public relation in order to reinforce the achievement of increasing brand awareness and potential customers in the target group.
2.2 Breakdown of IMC functions
2.2.1 Public relations
Rip Curl cares about its brand reputation that is why Rip Curl will hire an external PR team to enhance brand reputation and increase the amount of news about Rip Curl. The new PR team will be in charge of monitoring internal and external publics and will provide positive information about Rip Curl, which will make it newsworthy (Wynne 2013).
Next, PR team will educate the Rip Curl’s employees about Rip Curl’s core values, concepts as well as its company’s background. This is to ensure Rip Curl’s customers will be able to differentiate Rip Curl’s product from other surf wear companies. Besides that, the PR team would be updating Rip Curl’s stakeholders about the new IMC strategy that has been developed by the company.
Through public relation, the main goal is to sustain Rip Curl’s image as a premium producer of surf wear products and accessories and also active in the community within the age group 18 to 34 years old. PR helps the company to generate a positive image by bringing the following information to the customers: “Our brand is made for active people in any age all over the world”. Public relation can also be conducted via organizing sport tournaments and providing sponsorships to famous sportsmen. Hence, utilizing public relation will help to increase the brand awareness among the target group (Gabbott & Gillian 2013).
Apart from that, the advantage of PR is that it will improve the image of Rip Curl as a socially responsible corporate citizen by making several charity events. This will create a better image for Rip Curl as well as sustain the company’s positive image, which ultimately will also help to achieve the IMC objective.
2.2.2 Personal selling
In personal selling, Rip Curl will improve the work of personal selling by increasing the quality of the work of our sales representatives. In order to increase the productivity of personal selling, Rip Curl Company will train the retailers by ensuring that they are skilful, experienced and have required knowledge to create high quality customer service while introducing our brand effectively. The customized customer service as compared to mass market is believed to be able to bring higher customer satisfaction. These sales representatives will continue to follow-up with these customers and ensure that they are well informed about the updates and provide necessary assistance (Erevelles & Fukawa 2013). In addition, all sales representatives will be wearing Rip Curl’s newly introduced products, which will encourage Rip Curl’s customers to buy these new products. All aspect of personal selling will work in synergy with the above mentioned suggestions. As such, this will be a great advantage for Rip Curl to achieve the IMC objective.
2.2.3 Advertising
Rip Curl has decided that the best way to advertise Rip Curl would be through the internet. It was found that 67% of people online own a Facebook account (Bennett 2013). Having known the high frequency of the target market surfing the internet, this explained that the high possibility of the target group seeing the Rip Curl’s advertisement on Internet becomes the advantage of advertising. This powerful communicational tool will thus again help Rip Curl to increase brand awareness when seeing the advertisement in the Internet engages the brand with the target market (Baker 2010).
As a whole, the synergy of the IMC tools (public relation, advertising and personal selling) are believed to be able to increase brand awareness significantly in the target group, which will defiantly increase the sales and market share of Rip Curl.
3.0 Creative Strategy
Rip Curl’s creative strategy focus on emphasizing advertisement and how to convey the message out from our advertisement to our target market. Hence, the first strategy involve is to reflect the preference of local markets and reflect that in the advertisement message to attract their interest. Therefore, the whole idea of Rip Curl’s advertisement will change according to the trend and region in order to make our target market aware of Rip Curl’s product.
In terms of specifying the objective, it is to increase the Rip Curl’s brand awareness and to ensure advertising message is delivered successfully to the target audience. The target audience involved are from the age segment of 18 to 34 of the Australian population. This age group has been chosen because their lifestyle, buying habit and media habit. Our target market usual interest is active on outdoor activities. They are considered a part of big spender in Australia who easily being influence by media.
Therefore, the message theme to this age segment would be based on to drive excitement among this particular age group where the message theme will be oriented towards both rational and emotional processes. The advertisement will be design with colourful effect and music along with the tagline of Rip Curl which is the “surfing is everything” would be place in the Rip Curl advertisement. By this the audience would be able to feel and picture the message from Rip Curl and the advertisement would be nailed in their mind as it captures their attention. In term of support, the team would bring in celebrities in the projected advertisement. Followed by the constraints, the logo of Rip Curl comes from the surfing move of ripping the curl of the wave and this is a copyright logo established by Rip Curl where it also helps in picture the brand to the audience.
Next, we will choose unique selling proposition and comparative as our message strategies. Unique selling proposition in Rip Curl would make the brand outstand in its advanced modern technology and unique heated wet suit according to the current trend (Australian Institute of Commercialisation 2010). Secondly, comparative advertising where TV commercial will produce in comparing Rip Curl’s quality with other no name brands to make Rip Curl brand stand out from the rest. The slice of life involve in Rip Curl would be a mimic of real life events during surf competitions where it would demonstrate the joy and excitement to our target market.
Lastly, in term of advertising appeals, the appeal which would be used would be music appeal (Miller 1985). This is because the age segment of 18 -34 emphasize more interest in it. When music attracts our target market and make them remember the brand especially the up-beat of music would influence them to purchase products of Rip Curl.
4.0 Media Strategy
For IMC plan, the team has chosen advertising as primary communication for attracting the target market in the age group of 18-34 of Australian population. The primary goal is to create brand awareness and to inform future customer about Rip Curl unique brand. All of the advertisements will be based on IMC creative strategy that was discussed on previous section.
4.1 Television
Firstly, it will start by placing ads on television programs such as ‘Talkin’Bout Your Generation’, ‘So You Think You can Danc’e and ‘Rove' in March 2014 due to the channels high popularity to the age of 18 – 34 group (refer to appendix 2).
The time period involved will be during March, April, May, June, July, August and September 2014. The team will be putting 2 spots of advertisement in each month in the mentioned television program. This is because those months are most suitable seasons for surfing in Australia (Swaylock n.d.). At night will be a good time for theadvertisement placement because the target group will tend to watch television before heading to bed. Television advertising can help to increase brand awareness by reaching majority of our target market (Clow & Baack …show more content…
2012).
4.2 Magazine
Studies shown that many of our target market read Cosmopolitan magazine and Cleo magazine (refer to appendix 3). Therefore, it is decided that Rip Curl advertisements will be featured in the mentioned magazines. The team will start placing Rip Curl advertisements in March and continue to do so until September 2014. The placement of the advertisement is very important in magazine. The team will place black and white half page advertisement in the bottom right hand of the magazine to attract the reader attention when they flip the page. Two advertisements will be placed in the mentioned magazines montly. Moreover, the team will also consider other alternative magazines as time travels. Clow and Baack (2012) stated that advertising in magazine maximize brand exposure, this is because consumers pay longer attention in magazine advertisement than other advertisements, hence facilitate the intent to purchase in their mind.
4.3 Radio
Thirdly, the team will place Rip Curl advertisements in three different radio stations, namely The Today Network (Fox FM- Melbourne, 2Day FM -Sydney), ARN National Network(ARN - Classic Hits Network-Adelaide, ARN - Mix/AC Network-Sydney) and DMG National Network ((DMG - Nova Radio Network-Sydney, FIVEaa-Adelaide). Based on the research conduct, the target market are the three radios station primary audience in Australia (refer to appendix 4).Advertisements will be on-air starting from March 2014 to September 2014 in the morning time from 7-9am and also in the afternoon 4-6pm. The team will place 4 spots of ads, 2 spots in the morning, 2 spots at night from Monday to Friday. By placing ads on the particular timing will allow the media to reach to the target market more efficiently. Because in the morning 7-9am, this is the time when the target market are heading to school and work, the probability in listening to the radio is higher compare to other timing. 4-6pm will be the time where they are back from school and work, it will be the good timing for advertising on that time period. Nonetheless, radio advertising helps to narrow the target market and provide high segmentation potential to reach our target market efficiently (Clow & Baack 2012).
4.4 Internet
As per internet, the team will createa new Rip Curl website which targets onlyyoung men and women aged 18-34. This website will be set up and readyby January 2014. The name of our website is Ripcurl.Gen-Y.com. This is because the target group of 18-34 men and women are known as the Generation Y. The website specially caters for them. The design of the website will be in black and red with the latest pop-songs in the playlist. The website includes all the Rip Curl Surfing products which are available at all stores wide. Since nearly all of the people in the target group are active internet surfers, they can easily do online shopping on Rip Curl surfing products without going to the nearest Rip Curl retail store. Moreover, there are plenty of Rip Curl advertisements and news in this website. As such, it is proven that Internet website helps to increase Rip Curl brand exposure to our target market.
4.5 Newspaper
Based on our research we found that a big group of people age 18-34 read Herald Sun on weekdays and Saturdays as well as read Sunday Telegraph on Sundays(refer to appendix 5). Advertising in newspaper will commence from March 2014 to September 2014. It is planned that the team will promotethe brand Rip Curl in full page advertisement twice a month in the mentioned newspapers. In addition, the team will utilize local newspapers with strong audience interest to maximize our reaching to target market (Clow & Baack 2012).
Having mentioned, the team main purpose is to establish Rip Curl’s brand name in the consumers memory especially when they purchase surf wear products and accessories. Hence, it is important to integrate all of the media advertising by ensuring all of the advertisements that will be advertised are consistent, creative and effective.
5.0 Media Plan
Communication Advertising Vehicle Calendar
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
TELEVISION PROGRAM
Talkin’Bout Your Generation
So You Think You can Dance
Rove
MAGAZINE
Cosmopolitan
Cleo
RADIO
The Today Network
ARN National Network
DMG National Network
NEWSPAPER
Herald Sun
Sunday Telegraph
The primary objective for this IMC plan is to create brand awareness of Rip Curl’s brand by influencing consumer decision making process in purchase. The team plan to use continuity scheduling method to develop successful brand awareness. The team will keep continuity in the advertisement design and message. Because it is important for consumer to have Rip Curl brand in their evoked set just as they are contemplating a purchase. As a result, the team will do so by placing repetitive advertisements in all media such as Television, Magazine, Radio, and Newspaper. Refer to appendix 6 for the complete list of team proposed communication advertising vehicle schedule as reference.
6.0 Budget
Advertising media involved in this IMC plan which are television, radio advertising, newspaper, magazine and internet. The total amount spent on advertising is estimated as AUD 2,642,541. The total revenue of Rip Curl Company in year 2012 is AUD 416,265,000(IBISWorld, 2012). Hence, the advertising expenditure is 0.63% of the total revenue. The reason of these advertisements conducted is to increase the awareness from the target audience.
The biggest spending part on advertising is radio advertising. According to appendix 7, the total amount that is spent on radio advertising is estimated as AUD 924,000, which is 34.97 percent of the total advertising expenditure. This amount of expenditure is allocated to three radio stations which are The Today Network, ARN National Network and DMG National Network. Moreover, the radio advertisement will be distributed in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. The reason why so much funds are allocated to radio advertising is the cost per production is low. Therefore, radio advertising is suitable to be used to generate the jingle effect which can make audiences aware and impressed.
Television advertising is one of the major parts of the advertising expenditure. Television advertising is the most expensive advertising media in term of cost per production. According to appendix 8, there is AUD 680,400 allocated to Rip Curl television advertising, which is 25.75% of the total advertising expenditure.The television advertisements will be placed on three programs. The reason why the television advertising is chosen is that it can increase awareness effectively by reaching high frequency of target audience.
Newspaper and magazine advertising are another media that are selected. The amount spent on newspaper advertisement and magazine advertisement is estimated as AUD 524,321 and AUD 491,820 which is 19.84% and 18.61% of the total advertising expenditure, refer to appendix 8 and 9. The reason that Rip Curl spend on newspaper and magazine advertisement is relatively low cost as compared to television advertisement and it can be used to reinforce the effect of advertisement.
In addition, internet is also a tool that Rip Curl chooses to reach the target market. The cost spent on internet is estimated as AUD 22,000. It is the lowest spending part of advertising and it represents 0.83% of the total advertising expenditure. Internet has become one of the most important trends of advertising mainly due to the huge audience and low cost. Thus, it is used by Rip Curl to reach the target market.
7.0 Evaluation of Campaign
7.1 Message evaluation techniques
From the launching of the 3 promotional tools which are advertising, public relations and personal selling, it is wise also to evaluate whether the IMC activities conducted or to be conducted are helpful for Rip Curl to achieve the IMC objective which is increasing the brand awareness. Firstly, to measure the effectiveness of the suggestions that have been addressed in the previous part, the company is encouraged to hire a company to conduct advertising tracking research. For example, the hired company could copytest a target group to evaluate if the right message has been sent, and most importantly whether the message and the brand name Rip Curl stays in both their long and short term memory to encourage them for repeat purchase. This is to ensure that the positive brand reinforcement by the PR team and sales representatives from personal selling to be evaluated so that the IMC strategy could be carried out more effectively in the future.
7.2 Online Evaluation Metrics
The company should measure on the dwell rate and time of the consumers on the company set up website. These would help to provide necessary feedbacks and measures to sustain a cost efficient and effective promoting tools for Rip Curl. In other words, this is vital for the company as through these measuring techniques, this evaluation reflects also the engagement between the brand and the consumers.
7.3 Respondent behaviour evaluations
Nonetheless, Rip Curl Company should assess the behaviour of the target market too. One method is to measure the sales of the company. If a company’s sales revenue increases after the launching of the three promotional tools, this positive response received from the Rip Curl’s target market possibly indicate that the three promotional tools are helpful for the company to achieve the IMC objective. Lastly, Rip Curl will also measure the response rates on the target market by conducting surveys on the streets and online surveys at locations that reflect the lifestyle and habits of the target market group (Russell, Flattau & Pope 1990). By this, Rip Curl would be able to measure the level of brand awareness among the target group.
8.0 Conclusion
As a whole, there are three promotional tools to help to achieve the IMC objective which are advertising, public relation and personal selling. Having known the advantages these promotional tools could bring to increase brand awareness and attracting more potential customers, the company Rip Curl should continue to also keep track the activities of the rivalries such as Quiksilver and Billabong so that Rip Curl would be able to continue increase its market share and sustain its position as the one of the leading premium surf wear producers in the world.
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