Integrated Marketing Communications/Promotions

Integrated Marketing Communications

Marketing Communications Mix

While developing communications mix, it is very important to ensure that the process starts with a clear target audience in mind, potential buyers, current users, deciders, influencer etc. The target audience is a critical influence on the kind of communication campaign we choose.
It consists of Eight major models of Communication - 

1. Advertising

Any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas,goods or services via any from of media. All Out, over the years, has done a number of television advertisements and print advertisements to keep the audiences' engaged. Their longest running advertisement was with the Frog, and the tagline "Maccharron ka Yamraj".

Below is the link to their advertisement - 

Macchraon ka Yamraj

They even used cricket matches and aired their advertisements between the breaks to catch the eye of the match viewers.

As the positioning of the brand changed, the frog was replaced after 15 years of the ads running. It was now being changed to a more family oriented brand.

2. Sales Promotion

A variety of incentives to initiate trial or purchase of the product. It includes trade promotions, sales rep promotions and consumer promotions.  All Out's advertising campaigns which promised to protect the family from Malaria and Dengue were in a way sales promotion techniques. There was no direct selling in the channel as All Out was not a direct selling product but more of a general store purchase product. A lot of other incentive schemes were used such as super savers, One plus One, Deadly Exchange Scheme etc. These schemes impelled the customer to try the product at least once.

 

3. Public Relations & Publicity

A variety of programs directed internally or externally to promote the company's image or product. All Out did happen to use quite a lot of PR when it got caught in a controversy involving the use a chemical called Allethrine, which was supposedly poisonous. The PR of the of firm came into picture and managed the situation while the company shuffled their ingredients to make them more society-eco-friendly.

4. Word-of-Mouth

People to people, oral communication or written or electronic communication that relate to the experience of using the product.

5. Events 

All Out has also been a part sponsors of cricket tournaments at the lower tiers of the game to increase visibility.

There are other modes of the communication mix but aren't that dominant in case of All Out. They are - 

Direct Selling

Personal Selling

Interactive Selling

Distribution

Distribution

By Definition, Marketing channels are a set of independent organizations participating in the process of making a product or service available for consumption to the user.

There are different kinds of channels based on the number of levels between the manufacturer and the consumer/customer. They are - 

• 0-Level : Manufacturer : Consumer

• 1-Level : Manufacturer : Retailer : Consumer

• 2-Level : Manufacturer : Wholesaler : Retailer : Consumer

• 3-Level : Manufacturer : Wholesaler : Jobber : Retailer : Consumer

AllOut currently follows the 2-Level strategy. The product is first taken by the distributors/wholesalers and then distributed to the retail outlets from where the customer purchases it.

Company data shows that in 2001, there were 120 distributors of AllOut and of the 900,000 outlets that sold repellents in the country, AllOut was available only in 20% of the outlets. The lack of an established distribution setup was one of the major reasons why GSLL and R & C had an advantage over KPLL, with the former two being multi-brand companies.

Relationship between Life Cycle Concept & Marketing Channels

The marketing channels used to get the product through to the consumer also depends on a number of factors. We can also relate the marketing channels picked based on the Life cycle stage. 

• Introduction Stage - Selective distribution; more focused.

• Growth Stage - Increase the distribution; make the product available in more outlets to ensure maximum reach.

• Maturity Stage - Maintain the distribution reach acquired in the growth stage or maybe even increase it by a little to prolong the maturity stage by keeping the reach broad.

• Decline Stage - Gradually withdraw the product from intensive distribution and make it more narrow.

As and when the life cycle stage evolves, the distribution also varies. This is mostly done to cut down on excessive distribution costs, quality control etc. 

Pricing

Pricing

Pricing is a very integral part of the mix as it affects how customer perceives the product on offer. There are a number of different strategies that a brand may adopt through the course of the life cycle.

For instance, AllOut priced the product high when it was first launched in the market. This created a premium image for the brand as the amount that it was priced at, it could not be purchased by the mass. Also, being a first mover in the market, a category creator, it could afford to charge a premium rate as there was no competition in the vaporizer market.

Over the years, AllOut has adopted a number of pricing schemes. They are - 

• Captive Pricing - The basic product is sold at little margin where as the ancillary product is sold at a higher margin. The vaporizer is the basic product and the ancillary is the refill. The customer can keep replacing/purchasing the ancillary as and when required.

• Product-Line Pricing - Companies normally develop product lines to cater to a varied class of customers. There can be the same product priced at different amounts to show maybe a quality difference. For instance, AllOut & Baygon serve the same purpose but are priced differently.

 

• Optional-Feature Pricing - Some products have an entry level price with the product having the basic features where as other modifications or additional features in the product has a different price tag to it. In cars for example, basic model may cost different and the high end model with leather seats and air bags may cost different. In case of AllOut, AllOut, the regular vaporizer is priced differently from AllOut Total, which claims to have twice the power of any other regular vaporizer.

Both the above products served the same purpose, but were different;y prices with one having said to have more power than the other.

The Product

Customer-Goods Classification

All Out as a product falls under the category of convenience goods as these are the goods which the customer buys frequently, immediately, and with minimal effort. All Out falls under this category of goods because of the basic benefit it provides - protection from mosquitoes and a good night's undisturbed sleep. It caters to the customers requirement of keeping mosquitoes away from biting them. This basic benefit makes the product a frequent buy.

Product Mix

A product mix consists of the set of all products and items a particular seller offers for sale. 
The parent company - SC Johnson has the following items on offer - 

Product Levels

Five product levels constitute a customer-value hierarchy. They are - 

Core Benefit

Fundamental level. It defines what the customer is really buying. In case of All Out, the customer is really buying a mosquito repellent.

Basic Product

The core benefit is then converted to a basic product by providing the customer with the liquid vaporizer that will help them keep mosquitoes away.

Expected Product

The customers expect a set of attributes when they are buying the product. In case of All Out, the customers expect to have a sound night's sleep and keep mosquitoes away. 

Augmented Product

Here is where the product has reached a maturity stage in the life cycle where it has to play around with the positioning of the product. In case of All Out, they positioned themselves as "Maccharro ka Yamraaj" for 15 years. With their Frog having outlived it's utility, they re-positioned themselves with the focus shifting to - "Maccharro pe Vaar, Surakshit aapka Parivaar". This re-positioning can be looked upon as a sign of an evolving market with the focus of All Out shifting. New features such as the Japanese Wick replacing the ordinary wick & All Out Total (claim to have twice the power of the regular repellent) are examples of new variants to cater to different customer requirements.

Potential Product

Potential product is one where the companies start to look for new ways to satisfy the customer requirements. For All Out it could be increasing the life of the repellent for a few more days or different quantity of refills of the liquid or maybe even introduce a new product in the same category.

Relationship between Product Levels & the Kenichi Ohmae model of 3 C's.

The Product Hierarchy

Item

AllOut Liquid Vaporizer w/ 90n refill

Product Type

It is the Brand variety that is referred to in the product type.

In this case, it is a Liquid Vaporizer w/ 90n refill.

(AllOut also has other varieties like 45n refill and a 60n refill)

Product Line

We refer to the Brand that the company has built for catering this particular requirement of the people. In this case SC Johnson has 2 brands for catering to the same need in the Indian market - AllOut & Baygon. 

Product Class

Here we essentially are talking about the sub-category to which the item belongs to. AllOut belongs to the Insect Repellent sub-category.

Product Family

We refer to the Category to which the item belongs to. We can place the Insect Repellent sub category under the umbrella of Home Care Products.

Need Family

It caters to the customer requirement of having a clean and safe and disease free home.

Marketing Mix

The Marketing Mix

Product :

• First Mover
• Technologically advanced
• Quality
• Category creator

Place :

Right from it's introduction in the Indian Market, the distribution for All Out has been a little disorganized, much owing to the fact that it's competitors (Godrej and R & C) were multi-product giants who already had well established distribution networks.
Even today, studies show that a major reason why Good Knight could take over as the market leader from All Out was because of the fact that they had a better distribution network and a strong product mix.

Price :

High in the introduction phase. This positioned All Out for the premium class.
Later moved to targeting the mid income group post the introduction phase.
Techniques like Product Line Pricing (Different variants of the refill) & Captive-Product Pricing (Refills sold on high markup)
Now priced competitively with other players of the market.

Promotion : 

Aggressive marketing strategies adopted. They've tried a number of offers and schemes (Twin pack, Exchange offer etc)

The iconic Frog of All Out still has impressions in the minds of the viewers.

Use of taglines such as - "Maccharro ka Yamraaj" & "Maccharro pe Vaar, Surakshit aapka Parivaar" were an instant hit.

The Maccharro ka Yamraaj Campaign.

Life Cycle Concepts

Life Cycle Concepts

Life Cycle concepts basically indicate the stage at which the product/brand/industry is currently at. The stages are broadly classified into - 

• Research & Product Development
• Introduction
• Growth
• Maturity
• Decline

Industry Life Cycle

The concept of a product life cycle showcasing the product as a mortal with stages of life and death has often drawn a lot of criticism. For instance, there are a number of examples were the product has reversed the life
cycle stages and successfully managed to revive the brand with brilliant re-positioning and marketing strategies. It also doesn't take into consideration other factors like competition and innovation while plotting the graph. Therefore, an Industry/Brand Life cycle can give us a clearer picture.

The industry life cycle takes into consideration the entire industry including the competition, innovation, sales, profit factors etc. In this case, the Mosquito Repellent Industry. As per estimates, the mosquito repellent industry is slated to grow in the coming years owing to the increasing demand of mosquito repellents in form of mats,coils and liquid vaporizers. This puts the industry in the growth phase of the life cycle. 

However, another important thing to note is the fact that with the development of every new category, there could be a fall in the other. For instance, the development in the vaporizer category saw a dip in the mats category. In such cases, a rise in one and a fall in the other can be seen simultaneously in the life cycle graph. 

  

Competition

Competition

All Out is an interesting brand for studying the concept of Competition and the Industry.

A brand faces competition at different points of time, be it while entering the market or after being in the market for a considerable amount of time. In case of All Out, it faced the initial challenges of being the First Mover in the Category. It entered the industry at a time when it was dominated by mosquito coils and mats, and developed a new category of its own - Liquid vaporizer mosquito repellents.

Category & Industry Competition

As a first mover and developer of a new category, it did not face competition in the initial phase of its entry in the Indian market. Back then it was more about the various challenges they faced in the industry for starting a new category. Challenges like creation of demand for the category, studying the potential, mastering the resources' flow etc. However, there were a number of players who were already vying for the market share in the then mats/coils dominated industry. Some of these brands have also moved toward more innovative tools of repellents. The Mosquito Repellent industry has the following major segments -

• Coils
• Mats
• Creams
• Vaporizers
• Sprays

Bayer  

• Baygon Spray
• Baygon Power mats
• Baygon Knockout 

Balsara Hygiene

• Odomos

Tainwala Chemicals

• Casper mats & coils

Jyoti Laboratories

• Maxo

GSLL (Godrej Sara Lee Limited)

• Jet Fighter (coil)
• GoodKnight Jumbo (coil)
• GoodKnight Instant (coil)
• GoodKnight Smokeless (coil)
• Jet Jumbo (coil)
• Banish (mats)
• GoodKnight Activ + Liquid (vaporizer)

Reckitt & Coleman (Now Reckitt Benckiser)

• Mortein
• Mortein King
• Mortein Red

GSLL launched it's own vaporizer under the GoodKnight brand in 1996-1997. It soon acquired 40% of the market share of the vaporizer market. Instead of eating into All Out's sales, GSLL ended up expanding the market. However, by 1999, GoodKnight lost most of it market share to All Out and dropped to 19%.

 As of 2012, GoodKnight leads the market with All Out coming in at a close second.