Marketing Communication Plan for Marks and Spencer

This report discusses the development of a marketing communication plan for Marks and Spencer, including a brand audit, campaign objectives, target research, creative strategy, marketing mix plan, media plan, and campaign management plan. The report also includes personal reflections on the role of a leader in the development of the plan. The target audience for the plan is women aged 18-40, and the objective is to increase sales of cosmetic products by 10% in the next 3 months.

Marketing
communications

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marketing communication planning is a process under which plan has been developed by the
business organisation in order to performing the function of communication with the target
market. Marketing communication help the marketers in presenting the products and services in
front of target customers in an effective and efficient manner. This report deals with the several
factors include in the marketing communication plan.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
Brand Audit.................................................................................................................................1
The Marketing Communication Plan..........................................................................................2
Campaign Objectives..................................................................................................................2
Target Research/Target Audience...............................................................................................2
Creative Strategy.........................................................................................................................3
Marketing tools Mix Plan............................................................................................................3
Media Plan..................................................................................................................................4
Campaign Management Plan......................................................................................................4
Individual role and personal reflection.......................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
References:.......................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Marketing communication is defined as the modes which are being adopted by the
business organisations for the purpose of conveying the information related to the product to the
target market. The major purpose of marketing communication planning is to knowing about the
process along with the tools which can be adopted for the purpose of attaining marketing goals
and objectives (Juska, 2021). There are several kinds of plans of marketing and communications
which are developed in the structure of hierarchy and divided among the operational and
strategic. The chosen organisation for this report is Marks and Spencer which is a British
multinational company dealing with clothing, food products and home products. Its headquarter
is located in London, England, United Kingdom. The purpose of this report is to develop a team
plan in order to make the communication planning more effective. In addition to this, it also
include the discussion of personal objectives which I will achieve through the development of
team plan related to communication plan.
TASK
Brand Audit
Brand is defined as the business and marketing concept which aids the people in
identifying a specific product, company or any individual. In simple words, it refers to the
collection of properties within and outside an offering which provide different identification and
make them different from other products (What Is a Brand Audit?, 2022). There are several
functions of brand and some of them include creation of brand loyalty, differentiating marketing,
improving sales of organisation, commanding the premium price and many more. It perform the
function of identifier, promiser, asset, set of perception and many more. Visual identity, brand
associations, brand purpose, brand promise, brand identity, brand personality, brand voice, brand
image are the several elements of brand.
Brand audit is defined as a process of evaluation which state the process how the
products are specific company are positioned in the market. It also state how the clients recalls
the brand and where the organisation is sitting in the market. The major purpose of brand audit is
to create strong brand as it help the business organisation in ascertaining the performance of
business in front of customers.
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The selected brand is Marks and Spencer which is performing its operations in all over the
world. The target audience of the respective business organisation include male, female and
children of all age groups living in different parts of world.
The Marketing Communication Plan
It is defined as the policy which is being used by the management of business
organisation for the purpose of communicating with the audience and provide them information
related to their offerings. Steps of marketing communication plan include identification of target
customers, preparation of effective policies in order to successfully attaining the goals and the
modes or techniques of evaluating the performance (Lahtinen, Dietrich and Rundle-Thiele,
2020). The respective organisation is planning marketing communication plan for cosmetic
products. Hence, the target audience of this plan is women of age group of 18 to 40. The major
objective of the marketing communication plan is to increase the sales of cosmetic products.
Campaign Objectives
In order to perform the marketing campaigns in successful manner, the management of
Marks and Spencer is required to develop the SMART objectives. Below mentioned are the
objectives developed by Marks and Spencer related to their campaign:
 Increase the sales of cosmetic products by 10% in next 3 months.
 Improving the market share of organisation by 3% in next 6 months.
 Enhancing the engagement level of audience by 20%.
Target Research/Target Audience
The major objective of market research is to know about the target audience. Market
research help the management in reaching to the people who are really interested in the products
and services offered by the business organisation. Marks and Spencer is doing segmentation in
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order to analysing the target audience. Segmentation is defined as the technique under which
several of groups has been developed which include demographic, psycho graphic, geographic
and behavioural. The target audience of the marketing communication plan of cosmetic products
of Marks and Spencer include the females of all age groups. Hence, it has been identified that the
selected segmentation for the respective campaign of cosmetic products is demographic
segmentation as it classify the audience on the basis of age and gender. Along with this, the
products offered by the Marks and Spencer are good in quality. Hence, they are charging very
high amount in the exchange of products. The people with high income are the target audience
for the cosmetic products of Marks and Spencer.
Creative Strategy
While planning marketing communication plan, the management of Marks and Spencer is
require to develop the creative strategies which can attract the customers towards the
organisation and the offerings of Marks and Spencer. The marketers can add the colours and
attractive packaging in order to add creativity in the products offered by Marks and Spencer. The
marketers of marks and Spencer are using creative communication strategy for communicating
that they are using cardboard box for packing the products which are completely environment
friendly.
Marketing tools Mix Plan
Marketing mix is defined as the elements of marketing which help the management of a
business organisation in making decisions related to the products and services offered by them. It
involve four components i.e. product, price, place and promotion. While developing marketing
communication plan, the Marks and Spencer is required to develop the marketing tools mix plan.
The essential elements of marketing mix plan is given below: Product: It is defined as the physical goods and services which are being offered by the
business organisation to the target customers. The products offered by the Marks and
Spencer include cosmetic articles which include compact powder, lipstick, Kajal and
many other (MASUD, 2020). The respective business organisation is offering cosmetic
products to their customers. Price: It refers to the value of amount which the business firm is getting in the exchange
of providing products and services to the customers. The Marks and Spencer company is
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providing cosmetic products to their customers on premium prices as they are providing
high quality products. They are adopting premium pricing policies. Place: It is defined as the location from where the customers can buy the products and
services. Distribution system of products and services of a business organisation is also
decided under this element of marketing mix. The Marks and Spencer is providing
cosmetic products to their customers through online and offline mode. The customers can
get the products from offline stores of Marks and Spencer. Also, the customers can order
these products from online website as well.
 Promotion: It is the way, through which the marketers of a business organisation is
communicating with their customers related to their products and services and influence
them to buy them. Marks and Spencer is using social media channels such as Instagram,
Facebook and many others in order to reach the customers and influence them to buy
cosmetic products.
Media Plan
It is defined as the plan under which a business organisation make the decision of their
investment on several media tools while executing marketing communication plan (Thabit and
Raewf, 2018). Below mentioned is the distribution of costing of Media tools by the management
of Marks and Spencer while developing marketing communication planning:
Tools Costing
BuzzSumo 10000
Google Trends 15000
Buffer Publish 5000
Canva 20000
Unsplash 7000
Total 57000
Campaign Management Plan
It is defined as the plan which is being developed by the management of Marks and
Spencer in order to perform all the activities of campaign in an effective and efficient manner.
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Stronger the campaign management plan help in avoiding the wastage of resources, time and
cost. The development of campaign management plan help the marketers in reaching to the
target customers and influencing them to buy the particular product and services. Below
mentioned are the several stages of campaign management plan developed by Marks and
Spencer:
 Production Plan: It refers to the plan under which the entire process or all the activities
related to the production process are being planned. Marks and Spencer plan their all
production activities under this phase (Nieves-Casasnovas and Lozada-Contreras,
2020). It involve the planning of all machinery, requirement of resources, funds along
with human resource.
 Budget Plan: It is defined as the stage under which budget has been prepared. It
present overall costing idea of entire project. Through the help of budget plan, the
management distribute cost to several activities comes under the process of marketing
communication process. Below mentioned is the budget prepared by the Marks and
Spencer:
 Evaluation Plan: It refers to the planning of activities which help the management in
analysing or evaluating the performance of success of the prepared marketing
communication plan. Marks and Spencer is using the technique of Benchmarking for
the purpose of evaluating the performance of organisation through the development of
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marketing communication plan (Rėklaitis and Pilelienė, 2019). Through the use of
benchmarking tool, the management of Marks and Spencer is measuring the difference
between the final results and the expected results.
Individual role and personal reflection
During the process of development of marketing plan, I was performing the role of
leader. During this process, I was responsible for making the effective decisions related to entire
team. I worked with the entire team and develop marketing plan which help Marks and Spencer
to properly and effectively communicate with the customers. As a leader of group, I worked with
the entire team and I also influence my other team members to develop plan. I provide the
opportunity to all my team members to put their point of view on a particular issue or problem
while making decisions. It help me to point out the best possible decision along with enhancing
the involvement of my other team members in the plan of marketing. Along with the
development of plan in the organisation, I also worked as performing the marketing activities in
an effective and efficient manner which result in the increase in sales and demand of cosmetic
pro ducts offered by the Marks and Spencer. Me and my team worked in a collective manner as a
team. It help me in developing my communication skills. As a leader, I was managing the entire
team and it was essential for me to communicate goals and objectives of marketing plan to all the
team members. I also develop the outlines of operations for my team members. It aids to perform
their assigned task in an effective and efficient manner which result in the success of the
marketing plan. Through working with the team during the development of marketing
communication plan, I realised that providing training to the employees is a best manner for
improving their performance and attaining the desired goals and objectives in an effective and
efficient manner. I realised that several of team members are not aware about the advance
technology of using the tools of media during the marketing communication process. The
execution of marketing communication plan can be effective, if all my team members perform
their functions with the involvement of advance technology.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that the development of marketing communication
plan is essential for the business organisation while working on doing the marketing of particular
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product or service. Marketing communication plan help the management in performing the
marketing activities in the market and reach to the target customers. The management develop a
strong relationship with their customers in order to sell the products and services. Campaign
management plan also aids in performing the campaign activities effectively. Marketing mix tool
plan aids to make the decisions related to offerings of organisation and make decisions related to
the costing, physical distribution and many more.
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References:
Books and Journals
Juska, J.M., 2021. Integrated marketing communication: advertising and promotion in a digital
world. Routledge.
Lahtinen, V., Dietrich, T. and Rundle-Thiele, S., 2020. Long live the marketing mix. Testing the
effectiveness of the commercial marketing mix in a social marketing context. Journal of
Social Marketing.
MASUD, M.F., 2020. Marketing research and integrated marketing communication plan.
Marketing research and integrated marketing communication plan, 65(1), pp.24-24.
Nieves-Casasnovas, J.J. and Lozada-Contreras, F., 2020. Marketing communication objectives
through digital content marketing on social media. In Forum Empresarial (Vol. 25, No.
1, pp. 57-82). Centro de Investigaciones Comerciales e Iniciativas Académicas.
Rėklaitis, K. and Pilelienė, L., 2019. Principle differences between B2B and B2C marketing
communication processes. Organizacijø Vadyba: Sisteminiai Tyrimai, (81), pp.73-86.
Thabit, T. and Raewf, M., 2018. The evaluation of marketing mix elements: A case
study. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 4(4).
Online
What Is a Brand Audit?, 2022 [Online] Available Through <https://www.indeed.com/career-
advice/career-development/brand-audit>
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