Integrated Marketing Communication for Commonwealth Bank

This report focuses on the integrated marketing communication program for Commonwealth Bank to attain its goals and objectives. It includes communication strategy mix, media mix, and creative approaches for implementation.

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Integrated Marketing Communication

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Executive Summary
This report will focus over the integrated marketing communication program in order to attain
Commonwealth Bank’s goals and objectives. Primary objective of an integrated marketing
communication program is to develop a proper way through which information from
organization its domestic and global clients could easily be float. With the effect of globalisation
in the business market, functionalities of both local and multinational corporations have been
changed in various manners. Initially, organizations were used to promote their products and
services through traditional mediums of marketing but with the introduction of technology,
promotional campaigns have more shifted towards contemporary mediums of advertisement
which mainly includes digital media mix. Commonwealth Bank renders numerous banking and
financial services and it is one of the largest banking institutions in the local as well as in the
global market. With regards to this, organization has set up certain goals and objectives with the
aim of acquiring peak position in the global banking industry along with enhancing its market
value. In relation to this, this report will include an effective IMC plan which will be the
integration of all necessary mediums through which organizational goals and objectives would
be attained.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Communication Strategy Mix..........................................................................................................4
Advertising...................................................................................................................................4
Personal Selling............................................................................................................................5
Sales Promotion...........................................................................................................................5
Public relations.............................................................................................................................5
Direct marketing..........................................................................................................................5
Event sponsorship........................................................................................................................5
Media Mix.......................................................................................................................................6
Non-traditional mediums.............................................................................................................6
Social media.............................................................................................................................6
Email marketing.......................................................................................................................6
Website promotion...................................................................................................................6
Traditional mediums....................................................................................................................7
Television and radio.................................................................................................................7
Newspaper, magazine, pamphlets, etc......................................................................................7
Bill boards................................................................................................................................7
Implementation of creative approaches...........................................................................................8
Budget and Evaluation metrics........................................................................................................9
Recommendations and Conclusion................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Integrated marketing communication plan is an effective tool used by the multinational as well
domestic companies for transferring information from company to its stakeholders. In addition to
this, this plan will include communication strategy mix, media mix and the approaches for
implementing these mediums. Objective of this IMC plan will be attaining goals set up by the
management of Commonwealth Bank. The idea or the rationale here is to create the right impact
with the targeted content/messages onto the target audience, resulting in a scenario of “hitting the
bull’s eye”. Commonwealth Bank is a multinational Australian bank with its operations in New
Zealand, Asia, and United Kingdom and in the United States. With numerous financial and
banking services, organization has been able to acquire the position of being the largest
Australian bank with more than 1100 branches across the globe. In relation with enhancing
organizational performance along with gaining competitive edge over other banking and
international organizations, appropriate and effective marketing and promotional strategies will
be implemented in this IMC plan. IMC plan will help the organization gain its desired goals
along with making positive relations with its target audience. The role of IMC plan is to attract
its local and international clients with regards to the attainment of competitive advantage along
with enhancing its goodwill and the market values (Commonwealth Bank, 2018) (a).
Communication Strategy Mix
The rationale of communication strategy mix is to promote or spread awareness amongst the
target audience with regards to the organizational goals and objectives. Communication mix
refers to the integration of certain methods which are used for the objective of promoting
organizational products and services along with some creative and attractive content/message for
the objective of enhancing brand awareness (Commonwealth Bank, 2018) (b). Communication
strategy mix includes several components which are as follows:
Advertising
It is one of the most prominent tools of communication mix and it is used for the objective of
enhancing brand awareness and for spreading awareness amongst the target audience so that

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desired goals could be attained. This also helps the organization to enhance its customer’s base,
revenues, profitability, etc. which will ultimately help the organization to gain competitive edge
over its competitors. In relation with the scenario of Commonwealth Bank, with the help of
advertising, organization will be able to promote its products and services in the new as well as
in the existing markets. Advertising is a medium which includes all the relevant messages for
approaching target audience (Arnold & Boggs, 2015). Advertising could be done through various
mediums available in the market such as traditional and non-traditional communication channels.
Some of the effective channels will be used for the purpose of spreading awareness amongst the
target audience along with acquiring its desired goals and objectives (Knowthis, 2017).
Personal Selling
This is also known as direct marketing and this sort of marketing is helpful for the organization
to promote its products and services directly to the customers. In relation with the personal
selling, Commonwealth Bank could design certain products and services as per niche market’s
demands so that demand for the organization could be enhanced. This sort of advertisement is
time consuming but effective though, thus, it is used by the organizations to target their
customers directly through appropriate products and services (Beach, 2014).
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is the technique used by the organizations to enhance demand for their products
and services. With regards to this, they analyse their competitors’ strategies and on that basis,
new products are designed in order to acquire their customer share which ultimately results in
enhancing sales of the organization. Commonwealth Bank could launch certain offers by
enhancing the rate of interest and by introducing certain new investment schemes for targeting
middle and lower middle class segment people in relation with enhancing their sales, revenues
and profitability. This will ultimately help the organization to boost up the demand for their new
products along with targeting new customer segments (Belch, Belch, Kerr & Powell, 2014).
Public relations
This is the most effective strategy for retaining its existing and potential customers along with
targeting new customer segments. This is necessary in order to enhance the organizational
performance as well as to develop certain sort of reliability amongst target audience. In relation

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with setting public relations, Commonwealth Bank will introduce customer centric products and
services and these will be promoted through mass media along with effective messages. The
rationale of making public relations strong is to gain desired goals along with gaining the
competitive advantage in the target market (Blakeman, 2014).
Direct marketing
This is the effective combination of personal selling and sales promotion. This activity is being
activated when consumers shows certain level of interest in the company’s products and services.
As Commonwealth Bank is engaged in providing financial and banking services to its customers,
thus, when their target audience will show interest in their new products and services, they will
be approached directly by the employees of banks in order to convert their interests into sales.
Email marketing is one of the effective elements which could be used along with effective
messages for targeting customers directly who showed interest in the organizational products and
services (Garvey, 2014).
Event sponsorship
Although, this is an additional element of communication strategy mix but as per the latest trends
in the market, event sponsorship is an effective element for promoting organizational products
and services. Event sponsorships include sponsoring sports events, entertainment, not-for-profit
events, corporate events, etc. Commonwealth Bank sponsors Australian Cricket team which
plays at both domestic as well as international level. Thus, spreading awareness which is one of
the primary motives of marketing strategies could easily be done with the help of sponsoring
events (Jensen, 2013).
Media Mix
Marketing and promotion is essential for the organization to promote their products and services.
Apart from this, organizational motive with regards to the advertisement and promotion is to
spread awareness amongst their existing, potential as well as new customer segments in order to
retain and attract them towards the organizational products and services. With regards to this,
organization needs to showcase their products and services unique as well as effective at the
same time in comparison to their competitors. Along with this, organization needs to integrate
their media mix on the basis of requirements and on the basis of market trends and consumer

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behaviour. Commonwealth Bank will focus on both traditional as well as non-traditional
mediums of marketing and promotion with the objective of promoting their products and
services. Following are the tools which will be used by Commonwealth Bank for promoting their
products and services in order to gain desired goals and objectives:
Non-traditional mediums
These are trending mediums as penetration of digital media users are more in comparison to the
users of traditional mediums of marketing. With the effect of internet and technology, users of
internet are increasing rapidly and their effectiveness is also high in comparison to the traditional
mediums of marketing (Richards & Schmidt, 2014).
Social media
Social media platforms are the effective platforms for promoting products and services and
various companies’ irrelevance to their nature of operations, they have adopted this platform.
Popular social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. Facebook was
launched in 2004 and since then, approximately 2.6 billion people actively use Facebook which
is almost one fourth of the total population of the world (Commonwealth Bank, 2018) (c). Thus,
Commonwealth Bank will use these platforms as these are cheaper yet effective through which
organization would be able to enhance their customer base which will ultimately result in
sustainable growth and development (Sharma, 2015).
Email marketing
Email marketing is another form of effective communication and marketing platform through
which organization could approach to its target audience personally. Organization would be able
to promote their products and services in relation with new investment schemes and many more
to attract their target customers segments. This will ultimately help the organization to uplift
their customer base as well as to enhance their market share in both domestic and international
market (Thorson & Moore, 2013).
Website promotion
This will be another effective and efficient source of promotion for Commonwealth Bank
because promotions of their new services will be done directly from their official website which
will be quite cheaper in comparison to the other mediums. This is because number of users

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operates their official website on daily basis for online banking and for relatable services. Thus,
organization would be targeting their existing and new customer segments through this platform
which will enhance demand for their new services (Askoul, Khan & Lalitha, 2016).
Apart from this, there are numerous online and digital mediums which could be used for the
objective of promoting new and existing products amongst the existing as well as in new
markets. These mediums are very effective in making the organizational integrated marketing
communication plan effective and efficient. Primary objective of organization from their IMC
plan is to enhance their customer base, revenues and profitability which could result in
enhancing organizational performance for attaining competitive advantage. Thus, the use of
digital mediums for the purpose of attaining these objectives will be proved as right decision for
the organization (Commonwealth Bank, 2018) (c).
Traditional mediums
Although, traditional mediums are not in trend but these are effective because every medium has
its own significance and target audience. Every market is a mixture of sundry customer segments
and every customer segment needs to be targeted through different promotional tools. Traditional
mediums include television, radio, newspaper, board hoardings, magazine, etc. With the help of
these platforms, Commonwealth Bank will be able to target people aged 45-75 because their
reliability level is more onto newspapers, magazines, etc. in comparison to the social media and
other digital mediums (Dwivedi, Kapoor & Chen, 2015).
Television and radio
Television views in Australian and other international markets are not much but as
Commonwealth Bank renders services for all types of customers, thus, television will also be an
effective tool for promoting their new products and services. Television and radio marketing are
known as one of the most effective tools because with the help of creative content, target
audience could be approached easily and it also helps the organization to develop an effective
brand image amongst their mind-sets’ which ultimately helps the organization to get positive
outcomes (Kasemsap, 2014).

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Newspaper, magazine, pamphlets, etc.
These are also known as print mediums of advertisement and promotion and with the help of
these mediums; organization would be able to target local audience as reachability of these
mediums are lower than the digital mediums of advertisement and promotion. Apart from this,
these mediums will help the organization to spread awareness amongst the local consumers
which will also lead to generate mouth-to-mouth publicity and awareness regarding the
organizational products and services.
Bill boards
Bill boards could be used for the purpose of setting an effective brand image amongst the target
audience. Although, this medium is not much effective in sharing messages/content of the new
products and services introduced by the organization but it is much effective in promoting
organization with its brand name and slogan amongst the customers (Roy, Salam Sarker &
Parvez, 2015).
Apart from these mediums, organization could also use other marketing and promotional tools
such as event sponsorships with the objective of setting their brand image amongst the target
audience. These are much effective tools for making an integrated marketing communication
plan appropriate. It is important for the organization to select the mediums of promotion and
advertisement in an effective manner so that the desired goals and objectives could be attained.
With regards to this, Commonwealth Bank’s focus would be more over non-traditional
promotional mediums than the traditional mediums due to high penetration in the digital
mediums of promotion. Along with this, these mediums are cost effective, high effective with
huge reachability (Sasmita & Mohd Suki, 2015).
Implementation of creative approaches
The rationale of selecting creative content/message for the advertisement and promotions are to
target their new as well as existing customer segment in an effective manner. Commonwealth
Bank is a financial institution and as banks have a huge role in an individual’s, business entities’
and industry’s lives, thus, they do not need to spend much on promotion and advertisement. But
due to intense competition in business markets with the effect of globalisation, technology and
internet, every company irrespective of their type of industry requires to promote their products

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and services to enhance their customer base, revenues, and profitability and to acquire other
goals and objectives. This helps the organization to gain competitive advantage in the target
market. With regards to the organizational new IMC plan, creative content will be used in the
manner to promote customer service as the organizational priority. Customer service is the major
element which plays significant role in the organizational success and failure and as
Commonwealth Bank is service based organization, they will outsource their promotional and
advertisement activities to the professionals and experts through which for the objective of
attaining positive outcomes along with acquiring sustainable growth, development and
competitive advantage in both local as well as in international market (Seltzer, 2017).

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Figure: Sample Advertisements of Commonwealth Bank.
Budget and Evaluation metrics
Platforms Reach Frequency/Continuity Budget
Newspaper 15.5 Million People Twice in a month
(Monday & Saturday)
$8600 Per day,
17200 in a month
and AUD 103,200
Social Media
Marketing (Facebook,
Instagram, Snapchat,
Twitter, Youtube)
Reach has to be
80%, 20 Million
People
Daily 4 Posts $300,000
Event
Marketing(Sponsership
)
Reach has to be 50-
60%
6 Events in 6 months $200,000
Billboard & Hoardings Reach has to be 50-
60%
50 Hoarding around
the city
On actual

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Digital Advertising
(Affiliate Marketing)
80% Reach Everyday, ads posted
on different websites
on the web
Commission basis,
1% of the sale value

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Recommendations and Conclusion
Organization is required to enhance their performance with the objective of gaining competitive
advantage, it is recommended to the organization to expand their operations in both international
and domestic market. With regards to this, organization could introduce new products and
services for the objective of acquiring market share as well as to target new customer segments
for enhancing organizational performance.
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that Commonwealth Bank is one of the
largest banks and financial institutions in the domestic as well as in the international market.
Their operations are expanded in various countries across the globe and due to immense
competition in the banking industry at international level, organization has planned to introduce
new services and products as per the various customer segments to enhance their market share.
With regards to this, integration of effective promotional and advertisement mediums have been
included for the objective of communicating with its existing, potential and new customers to
promote their new products and services.

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