Discussion 1
Choose a brand that you like or are familiar with. Identify and explain the elements of its "promotional mix". Do you think all the elements are integrated, resulting in an "IMC" campaign, or do you think the messages from various sources are inconsistent?
Notes:
• There is only one question this week worth 10 pts and the response to peer is worth 5 points. Hence your main answer is expected to be more detailed than usual. Please address all parts of the question.
• Please read the relevant sections in the book before participating in this discussion.
• Check to see if anyone else has already discussed the brand or campaign you are considering before responding to this question. Choose another brand if this is the case.
• Please include links to the sources of any information used in your response to this question.
For response answer
The elements in the "promotional mix" are advertising, personal selling, public relations, sales promotion and direct marketing. The brand I am going to discuss this week is going to be Nike. Nike uses all of the promotional elements when selling their products. Nike sells athletic wear and is most widely known for their athletic shoes with the swoosh logo.
-They use advertising in various ways, TV commercials, billboards, advertisements in magazines and newspapers, posters in malls and just about every other advertising strategy that is out there.
-Personal selling is a huge part of Nike's promotional mix. They have thousands of stores around the world. Nike store employees (salespeople) sell directly to customers.
-Along with those two promotional elements, Nike relies on public relations as well. There have been controversies in the past that Nike manufacturers their shoes for slave wages in awful conditions. When that became a public concern, Nike had PR officials come and speak out on behalf of the company to change back peoples opinions and gain their trust and loyally back.
-Sales promotion is used by Nike but isn't their major element of promotion. They do offer occasional sales and coupons but not as frequently as competitors. And lastly, direct marketing.
-Nike uses a few forms of direct marketing that range from email subscriptions to catalogs that are delivered by mail.
All of these elements are integrated and do result in an IMC campaign. Nike has made sure that all forms of "communication" with customers are linked together. Nike has followed all of the steps to develop a IMC program including identifying a target audience, specifying promotion objectives, setting the promotion budget, selecting the right promotional tools, designing the promotion and scheduling the promotion. Nike is an extremely successful brand and this success comes from their incredible promotional strategies.
Here is where I got a little of my information from:
https://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/PR/Nike.html