Developing an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan for Woolworths: A Comprehensive Guide

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
Integrated Marketing Communications Planning
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1INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Company background, Products and services and Marketing objectives..................................3
Overview of current marketing situation...................................................................................4
Current segmentation and segment analysis..............................................................................6
Communication/Advertising objectives.....................................................................................7
Alternative style of creative advertising....................................................................................7
Media plan..................................................................................................................................8
Evaluation plan...........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................12

2INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
Introduction
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is a marketing management concept
which aims to carefully integrate all forms of communication and flow of information to
enhance the marketing capabilities of an organization (Luxton et al., 2015). The strategy
involves the integration of all forms of promotional strategies and tools in a synchronized and
interconnected manner. Integrating multiple strategies for communication can additionally
enhance the performance of each strategy as the sum of their impact is greater than the
individual strategies used in isolation (Camilleri, 2017). Thus IMC can harness the benefit of
different channels of communication and combining them to create a bigger impact to
improve effectiveness of a marketing campaign (Vernuccio & Ceccotti, 2015). The different
channels of communication that are generally implied within the IMC matrix includes social
media, multimedia, email marketing, print media & direct mail, search engines, websites,
social sharing, videos, offline media, public relations, blogs and mobile devices (Luxton et
al., 2015). These communication channels can help in several marketing activities such as
advertising, sales promotions; direct marketing, public relations, social media marketing and
personal selling (Vernuccio & Ceccotti, 2015).

3INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
Figure 1: IMC Channels. Source: Vernuccio & Ceccotti, 2015
The aim of this study is to develop an integrated marketing communication (IMC)
plan for Woolworths based on the market situation, segment analysis, advertising objectives.
A media plan as well as an evaluation strategy would also be outlined that can help to
implement and evaluate the IMC strategy being proposed in the study.
Company background, Products and services and Marketing objectives
Woolworths Supermarket is an Australian grocery/supermarket chain that is under the
ownership of the Woolworths Group (Bolton, 2015). The organization was founded in 1924
and it currently it holds about 80% of the market in Australia making it a leader in the
industry. As of 2018, the company earned revenue of AUD 56.72 billion and it employs more
than 11,000 people around the country (Ryan, 2015). The company operates 19 convenience
stores, 976 supermarkets and 1000 stores across Australia (Knox, 2015; Woolworths.com.au,
2019a).
The company primarily specializes in the sales of groceries such as packaged food,
meat, vegetable and fruits. Additionally, the company also sells health and beauty products,
stationary items, pet care products, baby care products, household products, hygiene
products, magazines and DVD’s (Woolworths.com.au, 2019a). The company also offers
value added services and discounts to the customers on various products and also allows the
customers to plan their weekly grocery purchase as well as order in bulk.
The marketing objectives of Woolworths includes the development of an end to end
process that can provide value for the customer and simpler management of the stores. The
organization aims to create differentiation in all the businesses by differentiating food
customer propositions, accelerate innovations in the drinking business and unlock the