Building IMC Strategy for a new upcoming mall in the city. PLEASE NOTE: This is a pdf file. Scroll down to view of the full document.

1. INTEGRATED MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS PLAN FOR STEP IN
PRESENTED BY: (LG - 6)
DIYA BISWAS RITU SHARMA TRISHITA DEB SUTAPA KHATUA
SOMBINA BAKSHI SUBHADIP KOLEY SUBHASHIS MAZUMDAR

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Contained in this paper is an Integrated Marketing Communications plan for Step
In, a fashion & lifestyle destination for the growing affluent middle class of
Kolkata.
A great deal of research has been completed to identify and utilize Step In’s
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to prepare a plan most
beneficial to the organization.
This detailed plan includes marketing, creative, media, and public relations
strategies, as well as direct marketing and sales promotions suggestions. A
comprehensive budget and media plan flowchart map out the campaign and the
proposed measurement and evaluation plan will assess the campaign upon
completion.
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3. STEP IN is a shopping mall coming up in Garia, Kolkata. With a shopping area of
730,000 sq ft (68,000 m) and parking for 1,300 vehicles, STEP IN will be the
second largest shopping mall in Kolkata. It is also the first luxury mall of Kolkata
and also the whole of East India and the largest of its kind in India.
Step In accommodates 130 outlets of well reputed international & domestic
brands across various categories such as apparel, accessories, cosmetics, home &
kitchenware as also its own private brands.
The shopping mall has the top of the line Digital Public Address system supplied
by Bose Corporation. The entire shopping mall is covered by 217 no’s Bose
Loudspeakers beside the solution for Food Court and Game Court.
Step In houses a six-screen multiplex INOX and the biggest apparel store in the
city, with a total area of 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m).
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4. SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
 Availability of various domestic and International brands across product
categories.
 Facilities of Multiplex, Food court and Game court are available.
 Strong and well established management team
Opportunities
 Tapping the growing affluent middle class people of Kolkata with high
disposable income.
 No big malls in and around the place, so less competition.
Weaknesses
 Perception of people is that Pricing is higher than local market.
Threats
 Threat of New Entrants
 Competitive Rivalry in the Industry
 E-tailing capturing market at a high pace.
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5. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY
IMC refers to a co-ordinated communications program that is customer-focused
and internally consistent. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is the
application of consistent brand messaging across both traditional and non-
traditional marketing channels and using different promotional methods to
reinforce each other.
The different IMC elements are
• Advertising
• Sales promotion
• Direct marketing
• Public Relation
• Publicity
• Special Events
MARKETING GOALS OF INTEGRATED MARKETING OMMUNICATION
 Increase awareness with target audiences
 Increase social media activity, i.e., increase fans to STEP IN Facebook page
or website.
 Increase reach (or coverage) of the media vehicles
 Manage budget with flighting and pulsing strategies to maximize coverage
during different phases of the campaign: the initial groundbreaking, the
construction; the launching or grand opening of completed Mall.
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6. ADVERTISING GOALS
 Promote many features and benefits of Step In Mall.
 Reach the target audience during the period of highest buying decision.
 To build brand awareness in order to make people think of Step In first
whenever they think of any shopping mall.
MEDIA OBJECTIVES OF IMC
Reach:
Reach the target audience during the period of highest buying decision (like Durga
puja, Eid, diwali, Christmas, Poila Boishakh)
Frequency:
Broadcast advertising seasonal during The Voice. Social media feeds weekly.
Print advertising will coincide with broadcast. Initial advertising will be heavy in
September, tapering off during the remainder of the year with the exception of
social media, which will be consistent.
Allocation:
Media to be weighted 40% in September (Durga puja, Eid), 10% in December
(Christmas), 20% in January (new year), and 30% in May (Choitro sale, Poila
Boisakh). Budget for these promotional activities should be allocated accordingly
along with sales promotion strategies to attract more customers during these
peak seasons.
Media Strategy
Use a combination of broadcast (television), social (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
Google and Facebook advertising) and print (magazines, newspaper) media to
reach the target market.
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7. ADVERTISING
Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation of goods or services by an
identified sponsor. It can be done using any form of media like television, radio,
print media, street hoarding etc. The major advantage of advertising is its ability
to reach a large audience at a very low cost.
Print media:
Step In can give advertisements in daily newspapers and magazines as it can reach
to a huge number of people at a time. Apart from this also people take
newspapers on a daily basis, so if every day the ads come in the paper it will make
the people well aware about the new mall.
Television advertisements:
The TV ads can be a good option to promote Step In. In local cable channel a good
and attractive ad can be telecasted. TV is an wonderful media to reach people and
tell them about what you are going to do.
Street hoarding: A huge hoarding advertisement in the lap of the most busy and
congested road of the city is highly profitable and people love to see those.
Social networking site:
Today in the era of online trading it is very much important to advertise your
product/services in online also. So, to bridge this gap Step In should also advertise
in Facebook, Twitter, You tube etc. specially to attract the youth.
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8. SALES PROMOTION
It is a form of attracting the consumers by offering them various benefits in the
form of incentives or by adding value to the products. The various kinds of sales
promotional tools include coupons, discounts, rebates, samples, etc. Although
sales promotion is often considered a short-term tool to achieve immediate
benefits in the form of increased sales. Sales promotional activities like event
sponsorships, trade shows and such are used for attaining long-term benefits in
the market.
Coupons:
A coupon is a certificate that offers a price reduction for some specified items to
the holder. Coupons are distributed with magazines, newspapers, etc. It will be a
great option for Step In to start their sales promotion.
Free gifts/samples: Free samples/gifts of a new product are usually given to
customers, when it is launched in the market. It is also known as a “premium
promotion” as the customer gets something in addition to the main purchase. If
Step In starts with this kind of strategy then it will be successful to attract the
customers.
Frequent user incentives: Repeat purchases may be stimulated by frequent user
incentives. Hence, firms offer incentive schemes to reward their loyal customers.
Similarly Step In can come up with a plan like if a customer buy Rs.5000 and more
per month then that customer will have some discounts or lucky draw prizes.
Decoration as per the festivals:
To attract all the people Step In should decorate according to the various festivals
that will surely increase customer relation and interactions.
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9. PUBLICITY AND PUBLIC RELATION
According to the Public Relations Society of India, public relations help an
organization and its publics to adapt mutually to each other. A primary benefit of
public relations is perceived as having higher audience credibility than advertising.
Public relations are an excellent way to raise awareness of an organization or
event, which is one of our primary goals.
OBJECTIVES
 To create credibility with media and target audiences
 To create enthusiasm and excitement about Step In Mall
 To educate target audiences about the new Mall
 To complement the paid media advertising
 To generate interest and buzz about the new Mall
PR strategy for ‘STEP IN’ will consist:
 Brand Ambassador
 Special Events
 Public Affair Activities
BRAND AMBASSADOR: Endorsing a celebrity for promoting the brand of Step In
Mall. It will attract more people to visit the mall.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
 Host a launch event for the opening of the new mall.
 Host a daylong music festival that features bands from all across Kolkata.
PUBLIC AFFAIR ACTIVITIES
Step In planning to enter into an agreement with CRY (CONCERN INDIA
FOUNDATION) to retail eco-friendly paper bags designed by underprivileged
children. The part proceeds from the sale of the bags will be donated to project
supported by CRY.
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10. MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION PLAN
The objectives in this IMC plan revolve around two basic elements: increasing
sales and increasing interest, both in the mall as well as online. These elements
are the measurable criteria on which the plan will be evaluated. There will be
testing throughout the year to gather information about the specific aspects of
the plan as well as pre- and post-testing to evaluate the plan as a whole. The
measurement and evaluation plan will include a variety of methods and will
gather both qualitative and quantitative data.
Surveys will be used after purchases, with links to online surveys being printed on
the cash register receipts and emailed to customers. The questions will focus
primarily on why the consumer visited the store that day, how soon they plan on
returning, how content they are with various aspects of the shopping experience,
and how likely they are to recommend the experience to friends. The data
collected through this method will also be primarily qualitative.
Social media metrics will be used throughout the campaign. Measuring the reach,
engagement, acquisition, and retention of consumers will be particularly useful
given that a majority of the campaign will be delivered using social media
channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Pinterest. Not only do
these collected data provide insight into who the consumer is, but how many of
them exist and where they are? How much money did they spend? How often
did they return? How active are they in sharing the message?
This will allow Step In to make any necessary adjustments to future campaigns.
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11. CONCLUSION
A true integrated marketing communications plan is the development of
marketing strategies and creative campaigns that weave together multiple
marketing disciplines such as paid advertising, public relations, promotion, and
social media that are selected and then executed to suit the particular goals of
the brand. This plan integrates all forms of external contact into one message
that will help Step In grow over the course of the period. The objectives included
in this plan can be efficiently measured and the tactics are well researched,
thought out methods to improve the branding and positioning of the company.
Objectives and tactics have been designed to fall in line with Step In’s mission and
values. Many of the strategies to be implemented accomplish more than one
goal, making the plan more cost efficient.
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