Integrated Marketing Communications Plan of Walmart

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OF WALMART
Integrated Marketing Communications plan of Walmart
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Authors Note:

1INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OF WALMART
Executive Summary
Wal-Mart offers an a wide range of services and merchandise at everyday low prices (EDLP)
and the company also has its business operation through three major business segments such as
Wal-Mart US, Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart International. The report reveals that the promotional
campaigns of Wal-Mart will feature its integrated market communications. This will include
certain traditional marketing communication mediums such as television, newspapers and radio
along with certain modern marketing communication channels that includes email, website and
social networking. The IMC plan of Wal-Mart will be implemented in a way that it appeals the
consumers to purchase its offerings through delivering a common message along with making
desired impact on its target consumers behaviour and perceptions. The IMC plan implemented
by Wal-Mart will be tested all through the year to collect information regarding increased brand
awareness and sales margin over the years.

2INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OF WALMART
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
2. Situation Analysis........................................................................................................................4
2.1. Organisation Overview.........................................................................................................4
2.2. Assumptions.........................................................................................................................5
2.3. Potential Competitors...........................................................................................................5
2.4. Overview of Current Marketing Mix....................................................................................7
2.5. Chosen Segments................................................................................................................11
2.6. Positioning Strategy............................................................................................................12
3. Objectives and Budgets.............................................................................................................14
3.1. Communication Objectives................................................................................................14
3.2. Budget Costing...................................................................................................................14
4. Communication and Creative Strategy......................................................................................17
4.1. Communication Strategy....................................................................................................17
4.2. Execution and Appeals.......................................................................................................18
4.3. Draft Communication Materials.........................................................................................19
5. Media Plan and Strategy............................................................................................................20
5.1. Media Mix..........................................................................................................................20
5.1.1. Direct Marketing..........................................................................................................20

3INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OF WALMART
5.1.2. Sales Promotion...........................................................................................................23
5.1.3. Public Relations...........................................................................................................24
5.1.4. Social Media................................................................................................................24
5.2. Media Coverage..................................................................................................................27
5.3. Media Schedule..................................................................................................................28
6. Campaign Evaluation.................................................................................................................30
6.1. Approach in Measuring Campaign Effectiveness..............................................................30
7. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................31
References......................................................................................................................................32

4INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OF WALMART
1. Introduction
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) serves as a strategy in ensuring the
communication channels or the promotional tools are integrated for attaining high brand
awareness among target consumers. Integrated Marketing Communication strategies encompass
discipline communications advertising, public relations personal selling along with sales
promotion (Andrews & Shimp, 2017). For analysing the ways in which Wal-Mart attains
competitive advantage in Australian retail market Wal-Mart Company is selected for its situation
analysis, media plan and marketing communications strategy along with associated budgets. The
objective of the report is to develop an integrated marketing communications plan for Wal-Mart
in Australia. Wal-Mart Stores is a leading retail organisation in Australia that operates a chain of
departmental stores in more than 28 nations (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Considering the success of
the company in the global retail market, Wal-Mart is focussed on sustaining its competitive
position through developing effective marketing communication strategies. The retail company’s
IMC is their approach to attain the objectives related with a marketing campaign by employing a
well-coordinated use of distinct promotional techniques that is intended to reinforce one another.
2. Situation Analysis
2.1. Organisation Overview
Wal-Mart offers an a wide range of services and merchandise at everyday low prices
(EDLP) and the company also has its business operation through three major business segments
such as Wal-Mart US, Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart International. The retail company is also
observed to run its business operation in approximately 11,600 stores under 59 banners, 28

5INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OF WALMART
nations and in the e-commerce websites all over 11 major nations (Walmart, 2019). The
company’s business is centred on developing an integrated communications plan for addressing
the changing requirements of a broad consumer ranges at a specific time and increase awareness
among them regarding the offerings of the retail stores. Wal-Mart employs more than 2.2 million
associates all over the world and has maintained its sustainably leading position through creating
opportunities along with bringing value for the consumers all over its international operations
(Brotherton, 2015).
2.2. Assumptions
The assumptions those are considered in developing the Integrated Marketing
Communications plan of Wal-Mart are indicated below:
 Behavioural dimensions can be ignored
 Strategy development is a rational process based on which IMC objectives can be
developed and alternatives can be optimised and identified
 Environmental forecasting is sufficiently accurate on producing the future
 Target based assumptions based on which the programs will be developed regarding
integrated marketing communications. It is also assumed that consumers persona in one
equal is identical to the ones in another.
2.3. Potential Competitors
Wal-Mart is one of the leading retail organisations in Australian retail industry and there
are several competitors of the company in the national and international level. While developing
an effective IMC plan, Wal-Mart must take into consideration certain necessary evaluation on
the competitors’ strategies (Batra & Keller, 2016). At the domestic market regional level the

6INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OF WALMART
potentialcompetitors of Wal-Mart are Howard’s, Duckwall-ALCO and Roses. At the national
level, the potential competitors of Wal-Mart are observed to be companies like K-Mart, Sears,
Kohl’s and Target. It is also important for the company to develop an effective marketing
communications plan in comparison to its major business rivals in the industry to attain an
increased competitive edge (Bruhn & Schnebelen, 2017).
The figure below indicates the direct and indirect competitors of Wal-Mart in Australian
retail industry. Costco and Target are the direct competitors of Wal-Mart on the domestic
Australian market and their strategic competitive strategies can pose a threat took the sustainable
market position of the company (Camilleri, 2018). Costco is one of the largest discount
wholesale retailer that has the potential to compete with Sam’s Club of Wal-Mart. Target can
also be a potential competitor to compete with all the operational levels of Wal-Mart for the
reason that the company is attaining high market shares by adding several grocery options in its
stores and also expanded its stores in the global retail market.
Figure 1: Direct and Indirect Competitors by Domestic Region
(Source: DiMarco, 2017)

7INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN OF WALMART
The figure below indicates the international competitors of Wal-Mart available in the
global retail industry and based on their strategic position the company’s IMC plan is developed.
The international competitors including Carrefour, Tesco and Metro are evidenced to expend
more stores in the global marketplace (Dixon-Todd & Hall, 2017). However, in competing with
these retail giants, Wal-Mart is observed to have largest revenue over the past years in
comparison to them.
Figure 2: International Competitors of Wal-Mart
(Source: Duffett, 2017)
2.4. Overview of Current Marketing Mix
The current marketing mix of Wal-Mart evaluates the brand that covers marketing
strategies related to 7Ps such as product, price, place, promotion, people, physical environment
and success. This marketing mix also elaborates the distribution along with the advertising and
integrated marketing communications strategies of the company in attaining competitive
advantages in global retail industry (Dumitru et al. 2015).
 Product- Wal-Mart sells its products in five major categories and each one of this
merchandise is segmented into five brad categories that serve as separate product line.