Introduction: Nura’s History
Technological innovations that have revolutionized nearly every aspect of people’s lives have found their way into the music industry as well. Nura, a Melbourne-based company, has been working to promote innovative solutions in the music realm by creating personalized sound technology (Nura 2019). Founded in 2016 based on a Kickstarter campaign, Nura has been striving to integrate state-of-the-art technology into its projects, thus designing products of impressively high quality (Nura 2019).
Although the company is comparatively young, it has already managed to gain quite an experience in the target industry, yet it lacks a recognizable and memorable brand identity. Therefore, to improve its current position in the sound technology market, Nura will need to make its target audience pay attention to its competitive advantage, which implies incorporating the notions of innovative technology and high quality into its brand identity.
As a sound company, Nura needs to expand deeper into the Australian market and then represent itself on the international scale. At present, the firm remains mostly unknown in the international and global markets, which can be attributed to the marketing strategy that it currently uses and the communication approach associated with the promotion campaign. Therefore, to enter the target segment of the global economy, Nura will need to create a strong brand strategy by establishing its brand name and cementing its image as a company offering innovative sound technology of the greatest quality.
To become easily distinguishable among its competitors, Nura will need to use Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) such as mobile and social network marketing along with traditional advertisement tools (Stewart, Atilano & Arnold 2017). With the help of the specified tools and an improved brand image, Nura will be able to gain a strong position in the global IT market.
Current Communications and the Brand Identity
Keeping consistency in communication with clients is a necessary element of a company’s marketing strategy. Although Nura has been engaging with its buyers, the current level of connection might require further enhancement since very few people outside of Australia are familiar with the firm and its products (Nura 2019). Therefore, Nura’s leaders should establish a better communication model for connecting to their target audience (Percy 2018).
Specifically, it is strongly suggested that Nura should incorporate traditional marketing research and the approach known as deep customer insight (Price, Wrigley & Straker 2015). The described combination will help the firm to introduce an appropriate Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) framework that will help Nura to define the best ways of meeting the needs of its buyers.
The brand identity is another concern from which Nura and especially its public image suffers. After experiencing three name changes, the company’s brand image has become slightly blurry and lost a significant amount of its uniqueness (Dahlen, Lange & Smith 2010). Therefore, the first step that Nura has to take to represent itself to its target buyers in the most beneficial light is to connect its brand name to its identity and, ultimately, its brand image (Sasmita & Suki 2015; He et al. 2016).
For this purpose, the organization should justify the choice for its name by connecting it to the corporate philosophy and values (Hollander et al. 2016). The search for identity or nature thereof should not be complex, yet it has to result in a well-established idea behind which the organization can start building its positioning and a general marketing strategy (Zhang 2015; Seo 2016). Without the specified change, the organization will be unable to connect to its buyers emotionally and, thus will fail to attract the required number of customers on both an international and global scale.
To succeed at both establishing an elaborate communication framework and a well-developed brand image, Nura will need to connect the two notions and position itself as the company that incorporates innovations and the idea of the consistent, uninterrupted conversation with its target audience (Nura 2019). The described approach will lead to the company gaining the attention and trust of a larger number of people (Price, Wrigley & Straker 2015; Wrigley 2016).
Therefore, Nura must engage with its audience via events arrangement, public relations, and social media marketing. These may include demonstrations, premiums and gifts, print advertisements, entertainment festivals, press kits, blogs, and applications (Keller 2016). The described techniques will help the organization to cement its personality and image in the minds of its target audience.
Current Communications: Problems and the IMC Approach
At present, managers at Nura focus far too much on creating the first positive impression, yet they seem to have a very vague idea about the next steps that lead to a rise in customers’ interest and loyalty. Apart from the specified issue, Nura also seems to have a rather flawed corporate hierarchy, where gender stereotypes seem to hamper the firm’s progress (Nura 2019). Currently, most decisions concerning the development of the company, along with the marketing steps that it should take, are made by male participants that predominantly belong to the ‘geek culture’ (Hiler, Cook & Northington 2018). The specified approach hampers the dialogue within the company, as well as between Nura and its clients due to the presence of one-sided opinions and the lack of new insights into customers’ needs and demands.
While there is certain legitimacy in giving the voice to the ‘geek’ team as the people that are technologically savvy and aware of the latest trends, diversity will allow introducing new opinions that may propel the company to the top due to the shift in the marketing priorities. Specifically, by paying more attention to the communication with clients and establishing a rapport with a larger community, Nura will shape its brand image into a progressive and innovative one, thus becoming instantly recognizable and more memorable (Tran et al. 2015). For this purpose, the company needs new ideas, new opinions, and, thus, more diversity in the decision-making team.
Due to high diversity levels among its clientele, Nura has to revisit its approach toward communication by accessing as many segments of its audience as possible. The use of the “5Rs of marketing communication and planning” will stretch the boundaries of Nura’s communication opportunities (Dahlen, Lange & Smith 2010, p. 104).
The principles of responsiveness, relevance, receptivity, recognition, and relationships will help Nura to create a rapport with its customers fast and represent itself as a caring company that is highly attentive to its buyer’s demands. Thus, the brand image of the firm should be intrinsically connected to the notion of responsiveness, diversity, and innovativeness, in which the incorporation of the latest IT and ICT tools into the company-customer dialogue will make it possible.
Nura’s Communication Framework and Its Competitors
Applying an appropriate communication strategy defines a firm’s ability to succeed in the selected market. The communication framework used presently at Nura is far from being perfect since it fails to appeal to its target audiences. The company fails to elicit any emotions in its buyers, the current brand image, and Nura’s approach to communication is very dry and lacking personality (Nura 2019).
Therefore, it is highly recommended that Nura shapes its communication style to engage its customers into an emotional dialogue (Cha, Yi & Bagozzi 2015; Sharma, Davcik & Pillai 2016). The IT-related change can be made by integrating social networks and using an interactive feedback system. Compared to its competitors, Nura lacks a distinct approach toward the dialogue with its customers. To consider the available options for changing the corporate strategy, one may take a look at the rivals such as Sennheiser and Audio-Technica (Van der Aerschot et al. 2016; Romney 2017).
The specified organizations adopt an approach that allows them to keep the conversation consistent and mutual, thus eliciting important information from customers’ feedback and shaping their service, as well as their marketing strategies (Godey et al. 2016; Cawsey & Rowley 2016). Although copying the described examples would not be a legitimate idea, Nura may need to follow the described examples by establishing a clear personality and conversing with its clients regularly using blogs, consultations, events, and other tools.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Building a well-developed presence in the global technology market is very challenging due to high levels of rivalry. However, for Nura, an Australian-based organization producing high-quality headphones, the specified goal will become possible once it creates a unique brand image and eliminates its intrinsic HR-related biases. By increasing diversity and using innovative IT and ICT devices to communicate with its buyers, Nura will build the image of a reputable and innovative company.
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