ASDA's Marketing Communication Plan: Analysis and Improvement

This report provides an in-depth analysis of ASDA's integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategy, focusing on the evaluation of various marketing channels and their contribution to communication objectives. It identifies key marketing channels such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media, email marketing, print marketing, referral marketing, and website marketing, detailing how ASDA utilizes them to reach customers and enhance brand awareness. The report outlines ASDA's communication objectives, including increasing brand awareness, boosting sales, fostering long-term customer relationships, and gaining a competitive edge. Furthermore, a detailed marketing communication plan is created, followed by a critical evaluation and justified recommendations for improvement, emphasizing the importance of digital media and social media platforms in ASDA's marketing efforts. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and suggesting strategies to enhance ASDA's marketing communication effectiveness.

INTEGRATED
MARKETING
COMMUNICATION

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Evaluation of various marketing channels and how they serve communication objectives.......3
Communication objective and justification of the selection and integration..............................6
Creation of detailed marketing communication plan...................................................................7
Critical evaluation of marketing communication plan..............................................................12
Justified recommendations for improving marketing communication plan..............................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
Books and Journals....................................................................................................................15

Introduction
Marketing communication it refers to the process in which the business organisation
communicate with the targeted audiences and market in effective as well as efficient manner. It
is considered one of the effective way of dealing with the customer and increase the awareness
about the product and services of the organisation. With the marketing communication the
business enterprises are able to deliver the right information to the right customer (Krizanova,
and et.al., 2019) .
The present report is based on the Marketing communication of ASDA store limited company
which is consider as the British supermarket chain. The organisation is obtaining continuous
success in united kingdom marketplace the headquarter of the association is located or
established in the Leeds, united kingdom. The company offer wide range of product and
services to the consumer in order to satisfy them.
The report will determine the various types of marketing channel and their contribution in the
communication objective of the organisation. Furthermore the report will develop the
communication objective for the organisation and deliver the justification for the selection of the
particular channel. The report will develop the marketing plan for meeting the communication
objective of the association and evaluate the communication plan.
MAIN BODY
Evaluation of various marketing channels and how they serve communication objectives
The marketing is one of the essential element for the business in order to increase the awareness
about the brand and the productivity of the company in effective as well as efficient manner. As
it is one of the leading company of the united kingdom the organization used the marketing
communication plan for promoting the commodity and services of the organisation. With the
utilization of the marketing communication the organisation is able to reach the customer in short
period of time and deliver right product to the right customers. It is responsibility of the
organisation is to deliver adequate information to the consumer for meeting their perceptive of
buying the commodity of the company. Basically the marketing communication deliver huge
support in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organisation. Along with that the
organisation is developing the better relationship with the consumer due to that able to survive
in the marketplace (.Amin, and Priansah, 2019) .

The organisation considers various marketing plans for accomplishing the communication
objective of the ASDA store Ltd. The objective of using the marketing communication strategy
is to attract large numbers of the customers and increase the sales of the company to earn more
profit as well as enhance the productivity. The marketing communication channels are
mentioned as follows:
search engine optimization: it is consider as the vital element for the success of business
enterprises. It is the process of promoting the product and services for increasing the sales of the
company. The ASDA company is using this tool to approach the customer and deliver
sanctification by offering the productivity as per the taste of the individual person. The
organisation utilized the SEO for searching the best product and on the basis of that the
consumer form the decision and develop mindset for purchasing of the product. It develop the
traffic on the internet and deliver best solution to the consumer of the ASDA. It allow the
consumer to make comparison between the brands product and competitors product
(Grudzewski, and et.al., 2018).
Social media: in them modern era it is one of the demanding tool which many organisations are
utilizing for approaching the customer along with ASDA. For developing the interest of the
consumer the organisation deliver the updates to the consumer about the new product, features ,
innovation and offers which the company offering to the clients. It is contributing largely in
increasing the brand value in the marketplace and most of the people spend their precious time
on the various social media platforms that includes Facebook, Instagram, snap chat, Pinterest,
whatsapp and many more. With the utilization of the social media plan the association is able to
determine the market trend, taste and preferences of the consumer in order to deliver the
effective product to the consumer. Along with that the administration develop the personal
business relationship with the consumers of the organisation for the long period of time. Apart
from that it deliver assistance in delivering transparency and build the trust f the consumer
(Kisiołek, Karyy, and Нalkiv, 2022) .
Email marketing: it is the suitable for the business class people as the people widely used in
their day to day life. For increasing the awareness about the product and services the company
send mail to the consumer regarding lunching of new commodity, discount, facilities and
innovative services. Due to that the association is able to acknowledge the consumer and attract
toward the brand of the company. It deliver assistance in keeping the consumer engaged in the

product and services of the company. Through the assistance of email marketing the organization
is able to resolve the issues of the consumer associated with the organization.
Print marketing channel: the organization also utilized the print marketing advertisement by
deliver the on billboards, television and radio. Due to that the large numbers of the customers
are able to approach the consumer in effective as well as efficient manner (Yoga,, Korry, and
Yulianti, 2019). Apart from that the organization is able to increase the presence of the company
in the marketplace. Along with that it motivate the workers to checkout the product of the
company. For the attraction of the consumer the company used the tagine and deliver the unique
selling price. It add the values in the position and market segmentation of the company.
referral Marketing: it is consider as the free marketing process that promote the commodity of
the company. In this marking the existing user or the buyer introduce the product and services to
the family and with the close one. Basically the individual person recommand the product to the
people for the own welfare. In the referral marketing the customer share the post on their social
media account. The social media influencer are also consider as the art of referral marketing as
they encourage their fans to buy the product of AIDA. The satisfied consumer of the
organisation provide feedback comments on the product and services(Blakeman., 2018). The
feedback reviews can be negative as well as positive as per the experiences of the customers.
Sometime the customers also deliver the issues they face at the time of purchasing the product
and services.
Website marketing: in order to increase the the sales of the company and satisfy the large
numbers of the customer the organization deliver the post and convinces them to must visit on
the online as well as offline platform of the organization. It deliver huge support in boosting the
confidence of the consumer. It deliver opportunity to the organisation to determine the
requirement and marketing trends in an appropriate manner (Arrigo, Liberati, and Mariani,
2021).
The integrated marketing play huge role in enhancing the growth of the organization as it make
sure that the employees of the association are working on the platform properly or not. It is
considered as the vital as it make sure that the organization is delivering right information to the
adequate candidate for developing their inters and attracting toward the brand. Furthermore it
deliver assistance in improving the image of the brand in domestic as well as international
marketplace. Moreover it provide huge support in boosting the profitability of the company and

defeat the competitors presenting in the marketplace. Integration of the marketing
communication is important for offering the competitive advantages and highlight the
uniqueness of the company. Along with that the company has the opportunity to improve the
quality and standard of the product as it allow the association to collect the feedback from the
large numbers of the customers(Mulyana, Briandana, and Rekarti, 2020) .
Communication objective and justification of the selection and integration
The objective of marketing communication is to increase the awareness among the people and
boost the sales of the company's product and services in an appropriate manner. Along with that
the organisation objective is to develop the long term relationship with the consumers of the
organisation and provide satisfaction to the buyer. It further help the company in improving the
productivity and services of the compand. The another objective is to defeat the compositors and
lea the domestic as well as international marketplace. The AIDA brand willing to improve the
way of increasing the brand awareness among the people and keep them up to date with the
modification in the associations product and services. Along with that with the assistance of the
communication the company increase the brand loyalty so the byers will not with toward
different brands(Kushwaha, Singh, Varghese, and Singh, 2020). The main objective of using
this plans of action is to change the buying perspective of the buyers and develop the interest of
the consumer in the organisations productivity. Basically the management of the association
willing to encourage the customer for increasing the sales of the company and contribute in
improving the services of the company. Apart from that the objective of the company is to
influencers the buying division of the buyers and attract them toward the program of the
company.
The company used the digital marketing media for the effectiveness in the domestic as well as
international marketplace. It is the fastest way to interact with the customers of the organization.
In the current period of time most of the population considered the social media platform for
determining the quality and standard of the product. It allow the organisation to grow higher by
increasing and spreading awareness about the commodity inside and outside the boundaries.
Many of the consumer make the decision of buying the product by impression of the product that
the company deliver through the advertisement post. It bring the conversation and interaction
among the people and resolve the issues of the consumer in effective as well as effective
manner. Apart from that it boost the network of the company in different marketplace. It will

make easy to target the customers of the organization (Loučanová, Olšiaková, and Dzian, 2018).
It increase the stratification of the consumer and offer better experiences to them. Apart from
that it is easy for the company to exchange the idea and creativity with the other people. With
the assistance of that the organization is able to keep an eye on the services and the productivity
of the competitors. Along with that it will be the easiest process to determine the performance of
the company and the value of the brand in the marketplace. Therefore the company is using the
social media and digital media for the marketing of the product and services of association
(Raja, 2020).
Creation of detailed marketing communication plan
Integrated marketing communication strategy
Integrated marketing communication aims at defining the company’s marketing
communication disciplines and its strategic roles in ensuring clarity, consistency and greater
communication impact over the target audience. ASDA has adopted integrated marketing
communication strategy where unified message through a common slogan “Get the ASDA price
feeling” across all medium of communication is used. Through this, they showcase that they are
concern about their customer’s consciousness towards the price than just providing greater value
products (Laurie and Mortimer, 2019).
Objectives of ASDA
ASDA’s integrated marketing communication strategy is in alignment with its mission which
involves:
“ASDA wants to become Britain’s best value retailer which value to customer must be always
higher than what customer needs”.
Also, the long term objectives of ASDA with regards to the fulfilment of its mission are as
follows:
 To produce & offer product & services that must be highly affordable for everyone.
 ASDA’s aim is to ensure greater value to customers through extending respect to each of
its customers, no compromising in quality and better customer services to ensure
customer delight (Duralia, 2018).

Communication objectives
 Reach target audience as much as possible.
 Enhancing customer awareness about the existing and upcoming products of the
company
 Motivating customers to explore more about the company’s product and services, so that
enthusiasm can be created among target audience to buy company’s product and visit the
stores frequently.
 Communication should ensure immediate purchase by turning new customer lead into
actual sales (Porcu and et.al., 2019).
 To deliver right message to customers through adopting appropriate media for giving
communication regarding usage, benefits and services attached to the products and
services.
STP analysis
To determine the target audience of the company, the STP analysis would be helpful in
identifying how ASDA has segmented its target audience, whom they are targeting specifically
and how they have positioned itself in its target market.
Segmentation: ASDA has chosen that segment of the total market which is desiring for
groceries and products necessary for daily lives. The segmentation is done on several grounds
which involves demographics, income, prices and location (Englund and et.al., 2020). In terms
of demographic segmentation, customers either male or female are targeted who prefer to buy
daily life products from ASDA supermarkets and accordingly, communication through television
is done to cater to the large number of customers. In terms of geographic segmentation, the
company communicates with its target audience across the globe through social media and
website marketing tool. Usually, the target audience of ASDA are from middle income group
and accordingly, the communication tools such as sales promotion, personal selling, etc. are
selected to reach the target audience.
Targeting: ASDA has a strategy of targeting married living people or families with moderate
means and accordingly adopted reasonable and cheap pricing strategy to attract the desired
customer group on a large scale.

Positioning: ASDA has positioned itself as a cheapest market destination of UK which offering
quality products necessary for leading daily lives.
Marketing communication channels
By adhering to its aggressive marketing policy to ensure higher brand visibility, ASDA
will adopt several promotional medias for communicating its brand among target audience such
as print media (newspaper, leaflets, billboards and hoardings), broadcasting media (television
and radio), digital medias (website, YouTube) and social media (Facebook, Instagram and
Twitter). A mix of marketing communication channels will be used to create positive brand
equity among the target audience (Juska, 2021). To ensure integrated marketing communication,
a common tagline that is “Get the ASDA price feeling” must accompany its advertisement from
each marketing communication channels. This will be done to ensure easy attention from
customers, building good image of the brand and ensuring easy brand recognition for higher
brand loyalty.
Whatever advertisement will be given by any means; the following factors will always be
taken into consideration:
 The primary concern for each advertisement would be on reasonability or
affordability of products offered by ASDA.
 All the standards within UK that are meant for healthy food practices will be
adhered to while promoting food products among the target audiences.
Creative communication strategy
To ensure creativity during marketing communication, it is necessary to create a message on the
basis of audience’s pain points and delivering the same through emerging technologies or the
way through which communication can be done to large audiences. In an integrated marketing
communication, creative communication strategies are adopted by taking into consideration the
two most important element (Blakeman, 2018).
Message strategy

It involves the information that the company uses in order to give details about its products &
services to the target audience. It is necessary to choose right message to reach ultimate
customers as message are deemed to be having direct impact over customer’s buying decision.
ASDA message in its all marketing communication is related to reasonability and affordability of
its products. ASDA is planning to use its similar slogan that is “Get the ASDA price feeling”” to
emotionally appeal to its target audience which is highly restricted to price conscious customers.
The message of the company is strong in itself in terms of appealing customers about its product
affordability and in turn acting as a strength for the company in developing good market position
(Pisicchio and Toaldo, 2021). There are several strategies used by companies to create message
for marketing communication and ASDA’s message strategy will be having the characteristics
such as emotional, informative and unique selling proposition.
ASDA’s message is very clear & consistent with its mission and long term objectives which
would focus specifically on the following areas:
 Creation of brand awareness
 Giving appropriate knowledge to customers
 Promotion of organic products
 Reasonable prices of products & services leading great savings for customers every day.
The unique selling proposition of ASDA is that it would always be connected with its target
audience through multiple marketing or media channels in order to serve them as and when
needed.
Message execution
ASDA’s message execution strategy would be attractive which will clearly highlight the aim of
the company and how the product would be beneficial for the target audience. The following
points shows how message would be executed with the help of promotional activities (Kushwaha
and et.al., 2020).
Message appeal: There are several options available for conveying message to the target
audience and ASDA has a strategy of appealing emotionally to its target audience. This is
because the target audience of the company are largely restricted to middle income group and to

convey reasonability of the products, message emotionally appealing is a good option. ASDA’s
message clearly defines the company’s reasonable pricing strategy.
Style of execution: The message is executed in a descriptive form to target the middle class
customers in terms of how the products & services offered by ASDA leads to attractive savings
for their customers every day. Such style will be beneficial for ASDA in educating benefits and
value to its customers.
SMART objectives
 To acquire 30000 new online customer and 35000 store visitors till the end of this
financial year by keeping average cost of acquisition at £ 20 and the average profitability
at 7%.
 Increase the order value of sales taking place at online platforms to on an average £50 per
customer by the end of this quarter.
Promotional media / Marketing communication tactics
A mix of promotion medias such as print, broadcast and social media (Widjaja, 2022). The
different vehicles under these promotional media through which marketing communication will
be done are as follows:
Print media would be the most cost effective tool for carrying out marketing communication
through vehicles such as:
Newspapers: Ads would be helpful in directly influencing and grabbing the attention of readers.
Also, effective ads could be placed through pictorial representation and use of animations.
Magazines: Suitable for promoting products and services among middle income group. ASDA
has its own magazine known as Good living.
Broadcast media: It includes television and radio where the media helps in placing good
impression over target audience along with the ease of grabbing attention of target. ASDA will
be going to aggressively air its advertisements through television and radio to target large
number of customers on a long term basis.

Social media: It includes official website of the company, Facebook and YouTube will be used
for posting advertisement promotional material among large number of audiences to generate
higher customer leads and to attain the desired conversion rate and customer acquisition rate.
Celebrity endorsement: Several celebrities such as Richard Beckinsale, Victoria Wood and
Leonard Rossiter are some of the famous personality of UK. ASDA will promote its products
where the power of celebrity will be used for referring the products.
Critical evaluation of marketing communication plan
The current marketing communication plan of ASDA will be critically evaluated in this section
of the report on the following grounds.
Communication strategy: The communication is largely done through television media helping
ASDA in conveying to a large number of target audience over a long run. Almost all the
marketing message of the company reveals its lower pricing strategy and ensures reasonability
and affordability of its products (Adebiyi and Bello, 2018). This in turn is advantageous for the
company in targeting price conscious customers and middle income group people. However,
large group of customers are also quality conscious who prefer to pay more for higher quality
and this customer group generally avoid buying from ASDA stores as they consider their product
to be of low quality.
Channel choice: There are several channels through which ASDA market its products such as
print, broadcast and social media. Also, dropping catalogues and leaflets is a written
communication method to indicate all the products available at its stores. Leaflets are send to
customer’s houses from which they can determine the prices, promotions and specifications
associated with the product. However, ASDA has less accessibility to social media platforms for
promoting its products & services which is one of the necessary marketing tool of the
contemporary world. Accordingly, ASDA faces competition from Tesco and Sainsbury’s due to
their aggressive social media marketing.
Creative content: The marketing message of ASDA has the characteristics such as USP,
emotional appeal to customers and informative form of marketing message. Accordingly,
customer’s attention can be grabbed easily (Juska, 2021). However, the element of brand image

is missing in its marketing message which could indicate unique brand recognition and
differentiation from competitors.
Success of monitoring: Whether the plan get succeed or not can be determined through
measuring actual performance against the SMART objectives of ASDA. If the average cost of
customer acquisition would be higher than the average profitability would be lower and the
additional acquisition of customer would not be profitable for ASDA. To measure the success of
marketing communication plan, the website traffic, online orders and their value and number of
new customer acquired will be monitored.
Impact of marketing communication plan: The above SMART objectives and marketing
tactics would be helpful in meeting the marketing and business objectives in the following
manner:
 Brand earnings would get increased through constant revenues generated by publishing
advertising with appropriate schedule.
 Expenditure would be minimized as a result of higher demand for the products through
effective marketing communication and to meet this increased demand production will
get increased which in turn would reduce cost per unit (Porcu and et.al., 2019).
 Continuous advertisement would be helpful in creating positive impact over customer’s
loyalty leading to higher sales and greater market share which in turn would led to long
term business growth.
Justified recommendations for improving marketing communication plan
The following recommendations can be given for improving current marketing communication
plan:
 The promotional activities should be done through social media platforms which are
considered as the most effective marketing tool of the contemporary world reaching to a
large group of customers.
 It is to be recommended that ASDA should concentrate on keeping its marketing budget
low in order to ensure higher profitability per new customer acquired (Pisicchio and
Toaldo, 2021).

 ASDA should not restrict its marketing and pricing objective in the area related to lower
pricing, high affordability, etc. which the company is currently doing to target customers
with moderate means. However, they should concentrate on higher value to customers as
well and also should go for targeting higher income group customers. This is because,
better quality products that are priced higher is considered as the good way towards
achieving business goals and objectives.
Conclusion
From the above report it will be concluded that the marketing communication play huge role
in improving the standard of the company. Along with that it deliver hug support in
accomplishing the goal of the association. With the support of marketing communication the
AIDA company is able to survive and accomplishing the growth in the marketplace. The
company is utilizing the marketing communication plan of action for improving the brand image,
spreading awareness, acknowledge the people with the product and services of the association
and generating higher profit from domestic as well as international marketplace. The present
report highlighted that marketing communication to deliver the best experiences to the
consumers of the organization. Along with that the report highlighted further marketing plan for
the welfare of the company. Furthermore the report shade the objective of the company is to
generate 3000 online customers and 35000 offline customers with the utilization of the online
platforms. The organization able to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of the
company.

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Yoga, I.M.S., Korry, N.P.D.P. and Yulianti, N.M.D.R., 2019. Information technology adoption
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