INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communications

Introduction

Marks & Spencer has become a strong company in UK after over 20 year's development. It is praised for its clothing products and has taken up big market share in UK. In order to extend to global market, the company penetrates UK market, however, it encounters the problem that UK customers do not know its products so that the turnover is low. Marks & Spencer needs to make some improvements aiming to solve the problem. This report analyses Marks & Spencer's brand identity, discusses its poisoning, and develops an integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategy for the UK market penetration.

Brand Identity

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a way of looking at the whole marketing process from the viewpoint of the receiver (Kotler, 2000:549). It emphasises the two-way communications between a company and its customers by the association with various media. From the whole marketing perspective, as Chris Fill argued, IMC integrates promotional tools, messages, marketing mix, branding, strategy, employees, technology, and agencies (Fill, 2005). Branding is an important element, because the brand of a company is the abstract image of its all products. Branding could add value of the brand and its products. So branding is vital to Marks & Spencer. It is an important process to UK market penetration.

Brand identity is an important action to branding. It is that what the consumers are expected to perceive a company's product and its brand. With Brand identity, Marks & Spencer could distinguish it from other competitors, and highlight its brand and products characteristic to create and maintain the competitive advantages.

Jean Noel Kapferer's prism is a good model to analyse brand identity. He (2004) refers to the brand identity prism and its six facets which are Physique, relationship, customer reflection, personality, culture, and self-image. The first 3 facets represent a brands-outward expression while the latter 3 ones are incorporated within the brand, an inner expression or spirit (Kapferer, quoted in Fill, 2005:396).

Physique

Chris Fill claims that Physique refers to the main physical strength of the brand and its core added value (Fill, 2005:397). It consists of core benefit or service, design, package, features, quality and so on.

The clothing products of Marks & Spencer are excellent, fragrant, effective, their packages are attractive, and the shelf display is novel. In these points, the most important ones are excellent and effective. Marks & Spencer use high quality materials. So the products have excellent colors range. Many competitors could not produce such products, so nature is the biggest differentiation between Marks & Spencer and many other competitors. Furthermore, the efficacy of Marks & Spencer products is high, in consumer quotes, it is easy to find out that customers are delighted by its products.

Relationship

Relationship defines the way it behaves and acts towards others (Fill, 2005:397). Different relationship will obtain different customer responses in terms of purchase, repurchase and word of mouth. So it is vital to brand identity.

Marks & Spencer's relationship is customer-orient. Marks & Spencer tries its best to delight ...