EVENT MARKETING COMMUNICATION

Event Marketing Communication

Event Marketing Communication

Introduction

In today's competitive business environment is has been difficult to attract as well as retain customer's interest in any kind of goods. The purpose of marketing communication is to increase brand awareness (Kimmel, 2006). The ultimate aim of marketing strategies is the development and superiority of a brand. It is a fact that importance of marketing communication cannot be ignored in the current business environment. The marketing communication efforts allow companies to deal with customers in an effective way because the recognition and development of their brand is directly related to the success of their marketing communication plan (Kimmel, 2006). In fact, customers are willing to purchase brands that they recognize.

The Great North Run (GNR) is usually recognised as second largest half marathon in the world and the largest one in United Kingdom. The interesting thing about the Great North Run is that the marathon is organised every year but in the month of September only. It is important to know that this marathon started in 1981 with the participation of 5,000 runners. However, number of people has significantly increased over the period of time and today 54,000 runners from different countries participate in this marathon every year (GreatRun.Org, 2012). Charity can be seen as the most praising element of this marathon that not only benefit the needy persons but also motivate people to participate in the event.

As far as marketing communication of Great North Run is concerned, it is important to understand that Marketing communications is all about the art, as well as, the science of communicating the information about the marathon to masses. It enables the organizing committee to disseminate and divulge to the target audience about their event. This paper aims to develop a marketing communication plan for the great British marathon of Great North Run.

Market Needs

There is no doubt about the fact that there are number of people who want to participate in physical activities but they do not get awareness of such events. Similarly, there are many people in or outside United Kingdom who wish to participate in this event but unfortunately they do not get information about the event on time and remained unable to participate. In addition, there are also many people who wish to raise their participation in local as well as global charity and seek for new charity places. The GNR tries to offer a platform for people to build on to change their lives for the healthier whilst trying to help a good cause.

SWOT Analysis

Further, in order to succeed in this medium or market, it is important to analyze market situation, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the market by using SWOT (Fill, 2010).

Strengths

Major strengths of Great North Run include:

2nd largest marathon in the world and largest in the United Kingdom.

Well established event with31 years of marathon history and reputation.

Participation of celebrities and other big names from the world of sports.

The event maintains a great race brand and plays a vital role in attracting ...