Integrated marketing communication is a systematic process of managing good customer relations through effective communication. The process tries to ensure all procedures of communication and messages received are interlinked together. It mainly deals with interlinking all promotions tools in order to create harmonious relationship between the customers and the stakeholder.
Blizzard is cream product meant for people of all walks of life. It has been in the market for over 25 years now. Due to its long stay in the market, the product needs to adopt a unique marketing approach that would ensure that its market share remains with the targeted group.
Various techniques of communication should be applied in order to increase its audience and to reach as many customers as possible. Based on the stage of development of the product in the life-cycle of the product, the following combination of media approaches will be of great use to marketing Blizzard.
Use of media such as radio and television which are mostly used by many people this will ensure that a wide group of people will be reached by the information. Magazines and newspapers which have a wide popularity should be applied as a mean of communication, this will ensure that must people will read about the product also a lot of information about the product will be given in details. Internet is another good means of communication that can effectively be used to reach many youths across the nation.
The use of internet will enable the company to reach even those outside the locality of dairy Queens as far as sales are concerned. The advertisement by use of the internet can also incorporate social media which would promote the awareness of the product among the youths as they are known to be heavy consumers of the social media.
To promote the product, it is important to adopt a marketing approach that will ensure that the product achieves the targeted sales. The marketing mix that will be appropriate for the product will utilize four tools of the traditional five tools of marketing mix. The four tools as identified by Armstrong and Kotler, (2009), are advertising, sales promotion, public relations and finally direct marketing. Personal selling is not appropriate due to the small units of the product in question.
To promote the product it should be marketed to the specified niche whereby all efforts are concentrated towards the likes of the identified group. Blizzards do well among the youths, young couples and young families. The product shall therefore be marketed to this group by use of trendy adverts that captures the attention of the identified group. The advertisement shall be used to promote a good relationship of the target customers and the products.
To promote public relations, the company can also sponsor various events that the target groups are expected to attend. This would improve the product image among the people. In such events, the company can also use sales promotion to ensure that the overall performance of the product is good. As noted by Immonen, (2008), a good marketing mix must be able to address the desires of majority of the customers.
The identified marketing mix meets this criterion as it focuses mostly on what will please the target group. The identified approaches also may be aligned to the fast moving members of generation Y as well as young youths who are main consumers of the identified product. With such an approach, Dairy Queen can remain sure that the relevance of the identified product in the market remains high.
References
Armstrong, G., A. and Kotler, P. (2009). Marketing: an introduction. 9th Ed. New York: Cengage
Immonen, A. (2008). Product Lifecycle Management. New York: Springer.