Communications Plan Report: Harvey Nichols Marketing Strategies

This report presents a comprehensive communications plan for Harvey Nichols, a luxury fashion retailer in the UK. It begins with an introduction to the company and its history, followed by a situation overview that identifies challenges such as low footfall during weekdays in the Harvey Nichols Bar and Brasserie. The report outlines the company's marketing objectives, both short-term (increasing weekday footfall and sales) and long-term (raising awareness and boosting sales). It identifies the target audience as high-income, premium-class consumers and details marketing communication objectives, including increasing bar and brasserie sales and footfall. The report then explores marketing communication strategies, including brand positioning and relationship building, and emphasizes the importance of integrated marketing communications (IMC) through advertising, packaging, sales promotion, and personal selling. It also covers budget considerations and the implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and control of the IMC program. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for Harvey Nichols.

Communications Plan

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Situation Overview......................................................................................................................3
Target Audience...........................................................................................................................5
Marketing Communications Strategy..........................................................................................6
Develop integrated marketing communications..........................................................................7
Budget..........................................................................................................................................8
Integrate & Implement marketing communication strategies....................................................10
Monitor, evaluate & control IMC program................................................................................11
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
A Communication Plan can be defined as an approach that is opted by most companies to
provide information to the stakeholders. The plan outlines what information should be provided
to whom, when it should be delivered and what channels of communication can be used in order
to deliver the information (Ammigan and Laws, 2018). The communication plan is an important
thing that can help companies in identifying which stakeholders it needs to reach, what
information should they be provided and how can this be done. The plan comprises of various
elements like organizational and marketing communication objectives, background of the
situation, development of integrated marketing commutation etc. Organization chosen for this
report is HARVEY NICHOLS, which is widely known as the UK’s luxury fashion retailer. The company
was founded in the year 1831 by Benjamin Harvey. The report outlines a communication plan for
respective company in order to overcome challenges it has been facing.
MAIN BODY
Situation Overview
Harvey Nichols is a premium luxury fashion retailer in the United Kingdom and is known
for its edited beauty, fashion, food, award winning restaurants and wine products by experts. The
company’s retail departments along with a Brasserie, a Hairdressing salon, Beauty Treatments as
well as a Bar. Harvey Nichols’ large format store in Birmingham offers its customers a seamless
experience through the best possible service. The store responds and matches itself to all
customer expectations. On the other hand, the Brasserie offers premium casual and a flexible all-
day dining experience. A seasonal menu that contains flavors that are not only bud-tantalizing
but also sourced locally is also provided to the customers.
On the other hand, the bar is accessible via a staircase and offers after-hours drinks etc. to
the customers. It is a hub for people who love cocktails, wines etc. An exquisite list of different
wines, cocktails and spirits is provided for the customers to enjoy a relaxing evening (Aslam,
Azam and Jun, 2017). There are window-style display cabinets that have different jars full of
interesting and unique ingredients. Customers can come and relax with their friends as well as
partners away from the hustle and bustle of the city. They can also order from a wide variety of

dishes from the Brasserie. Both the bar as well as the Brasserie are also open after retail hours on
some days.
Harvey Nichols shares good relations with different media and press members. It also
offers a seamless experience to its customers. Apart from all this, the company has been facing
some challenges like The Harvey Nichols Brasserie as well as Bar only have high sales and
footfall on Fridays and Sundays, that too during the daytime (Browne and et. al., 2016). The Bar
has live music in the evenings on Saturdays whereas the Brasserie’s brunches on Sundays are
popular. The Bar is usually busy on Fridays and Saturdays with shoppers and lunchtimes
respectively. Business people hold meetings over coffee in the bar area during the week along
with people who shop during the week and stop either for lunch or tea.
The main challenges that Harvey Nichols is facing are that of sales as well as footfall
during the week. The Bar ad Brasserie do not have a shop window as compared to other
restaurants within the Mailbox, which are visible. Because of this, there are some customers who
have no idea about the hospitality offers of the company (Centenaro and et. al., 2016). This has
impacted the overall number of customers visiting the stores as well as the sales of the company.
The team within the company is planning to overcome this by securing corporate hire bookings
during the week as well as by driving business development. They are also planning to run
various offers in order to attract more people.
Organization’s Marketing Objectives
An objective can be defined as a goal, either short term or long term that an organization
wants to achieve over a period of time. The objectives of Harvey Nichols are stated below –
Short-term
 To increase footfall and sales into The Harvey Nichols Bar (Birmingham) in 3 months
during week days.
Long-term
 To create awareness of The Harvey Nichols Bar & Brasserie (Birmingham) to a wider
audience within 6 months.

 To increase footfall and sales into The Harvey Nichols Brasserie (Birmingham)
within 5 months during week days.
Target Audience
A target audience can be defined as a pre-determined audience of a particular
advertisement or a message. It is basically a group of customers within a particular target market.
The target audience of Harley Nichols consists of people who have high levels of disposable
income and belong to the premium class. The customers have a high social status. The company
also targets its customers based on age, their preference etc. For departmental stores, the target
audience of respective company is based on different geographic locations (Marketing
Development Of Harvey Nichols, 2020). Apart from all this, Harley Nichols pays its primary
attention to customers who prefer buying luxurious products. As a result, the company is not just
a retailer but rather a symbol for social status.
Marketing Communication Objectives
Marketing communication objectives are defined as long-term goals wherein the
marketing campaigns are particularly aimed at driving up the value of a particular brand. Harley
Nichols has planned to create awareness of its Bar as well as Brasserie to a large number of
customers in the coming 6 months. The company has decided to different channels of
communication that are cheap and would not cost a lot of money to it. The company has been
planning to make use of the different media such as newspapers, magazines as well as different
platforms of social media. Although the company has accouts on Faebook, Twitter and
Instagram, it is not active on them very much and only guests tag the location.
The company also shares a good relation with the press and plans to use the same as well.
The other objective of the company is too increase the sales as well as footfall in the Harley
Nichols Bar within 3 months. In order to achieve this marketing communication objective, the
company will have to create a shop front that the customers find welcoming (de la Cierva, Black
and O’Reilly, 2016). It can also provide various offers as well as loyalty schemes to the
customers in order to keep the sales high. Reason as to why the company is different from other
brands in the market should be communicated. The ain focus should be kept on providing a
lasting experience to the customers. They should be offered more than what they expect.

Lastly, the company also wants to achieve the objective of increasing the footfall at
Brasserie dring the weekdays over the next five months. This is because currently, the customers
only visit the same during weekends. Therefore, if the company wants to increase its footfall, the
primary thing it has decided to focus on is making a presence online which will of great help to it
in achieving all the objectives.
Marketing Communications Strategy
Marketing Communications Strategy can be defined as strategy that is used by different
organizations to send correct messages to the correct audience or customers by using right
channels in order to achieve a growth in the overall sales. In order to formulate the right
strategies, a company must target the right customers based on their needs as well as preferences.
The different marketing communications strategies for Harley Nichols are explained below -
Brand Positioning – It is a positioning strategy in which the primary aim of a brand is
create a unique and special position in the minds of customers (Fearn-Banks, 2016). It should be
clear and specific as compared to other brands in the market otherwise the customers will not be
able to remember the brand. In context of Harley Nichols, the company is positioned as a high-
end luxury brand in the minds of customers. If the company will have an effective brand
positioning strategy, it will be able to distinguish itself from other players in the market. This
will help it in attracting a lot of customer and further increase sales. For the respective company
to improve its position in the minds of customers, it should identify the way in which other
brands have positioned themselves and then seek something unique so that the customers
attracted towards it (Brand Positioning: Definition, Importance, Examples and Steps, 2019). This
way the company will also be able to gain a competitive edge against others in the market.
Relationship Building – It can be defined as the process of building social connections
with businesses. Harley Nichols maintains good and positive relations with the press and other
members of the media. The company should not only focus on building external relations but
also encouraging healthy connections within as well. This will lead to an increased satisfaction
among the employees as well as help it in seeking new opportunities of growth. Also, it will
promote the idea of teamwork within the company (Henry, 2018). As a result, the employees will
be more satisfied and engaged to their jobs. On the other hand, in order to build healthy relations
with the customers, respective company should understand their needs and requirements clearly.

By doing this, it will be able to produce products that they prefer and are also trending the
market, in terms of fashion. Also, through the process of relationship building, the company will
be able to communicate with both its employees as well as customers more effectively.
Develop integrated marketing communications
Integrated marketing communications or IMC can be defined as a concept wherein a
company coordinates and integrates its different communication channels carefully in order to
ensure that a message is delivered clearly. IMC plays an important role in delivering a message
that is clear and specific by using different channels of communication. The different ways in
which respective company can develop integrated marketing communications are explained
below-
Advertising and Packaging – Advertising as well as packaging of products play an
important role in enhancing overall sales of a company. Advertising helps the customers to know
about the products of the company as well as their prices (Ilčev, 2017). The customers get to
know about any products that the company is planning or has already launched in the market and
thus wants to create awareness about the same. On the other hand, the major purpose of
packaging is to protect the product from any kind of damage during its transit from the
manufacturers to the retailers. As an advertising strategy Harley Nichols should make sure that
all the products are properly packed and labelled with important information so that the
customers have knowledge about the same. The products should be packaged using sustainable
material so that they act a tool for promotion in the market.
Sales Promotion – It is a kind of promotion that is primarily aimed at either the channel
of distribution or the consumer. Sales promotion acts as a channel between personal selling as
well as advertising. Over the years, the importance of sales promotion has increased very much
which has further made it important for the companies to promote their products in an innovative
and unique way. This will help the companies in enhancing their overall sales and performance
in the market as well. In order to effectively promote its products, Harley Nichols can provide
different offers to attract more customers (Lasswell, 2017). Discounts as well as loyalty points
can also be offered to the customers through which they will get attracted to the products and
thus buy them.

Personal Selling – It can be defined as the process in which organizations use people to
sell their products by interacting with customers face-to-face. The personal seller sells the
products by talking about the products and using their attitude as well as knowledge abut the
product in front of the customers. The main objective of the respective company behind using
this concept will be to generate awareness among the customers about the products as well as
enhance overall sales. Different personal selling strategies that Harley Nichols can adopt include
improving overall feedbacks of the customers and improving their relationships with them. The
company can do this by hiring different sales representative who will visit customers or contact
them through phone calls.
Interactive Marketing – It can be defined as a marketing practice in which customers
express their preferences so that marketers of different companies produce marketing messages
that are more relevant. Interactive marketing is a customer-centric strategy, involves reacting to
customers’ expectations and satisfying the same (Liu, 2016). There are different ways in which
Harley Nichols interact with its customers like publishing content that is personalized by using
advanced technology, interactive storytelling, two-way interaction etc. Interactive marketing will
help the company in increasing its overall sales as well as footfall at the Bar and Brasserie. Also,
the company will be able to reach out to new segments of customers. Thus, interactive marketing
will increase the company’s overall chances to meet the needs of customers as well as reduces
risk.
PR/ Publicity – Publicity create awareness about a brand among people and is used to
only gain attention. On the other hand, Public Relations is what shapes the image of an
organization as it builds the brand by spreading the message of the organization and thus
minimizing the negative effect. Public relations strategies will help Harley Nichols in
maintaining its position of a luxury brand in the market, building loyalty among customers as
well as increasing its brand awareness among untapped sections of the market (Ma and et. al.,
2017). The different PR strategies that the company can opt are hiring influencers or bloggers to
talk about and promote its products among customers. This will lead to an increased number of
people engaged with the content relating to the company. Social media platforms can be used in
a much more efficient way to generate awareness.

Sponsorship – It can be defined as an act wherein a company invests or puts in money or
some of its resources
Budget
A budget can be defined as a financial plan that is fixed for a particular period of time,
usually a year. It enables a company to get to know what are the things that it needs and also tells
it how far has it come from when it first started off. A budget tells what is important for the
company based on the funds available with it as well how can it allocate its resources. The
management can get to know about how much money is flowing in the company ad how fast is it
moving out of the system. By using a budget, a company can balance out on its savings as well
as expenditure and thus have a control on the monetary goals (Merwaday and et. al., 2016). The
budget for implementing the various communication strategies by Harley Nichols is as follows –
Budget: 1:10, as there is cost is 1% and revenues are 10% on cost of different items.
Particulars Amount
(cost)
Revenues Net
profit
Private dining
set menu
(three courses)
80 800 720
Afternoon tea 54 540 486
Bottomless
brunch
90 900 810
Summer
market menu
42 420 378
Winter market
menu
42 420 378
Prix Fixe 42 420 378
Christmas
menu
33 330 297

Cocktail
master class
75 750 675
Wine testing 75 750 675
Wine dinner 50 500 450
0
Total cost 583 5830 5247
Integrate & Implement marketing communication strategies
If the integration as well as implementation of all the communication strategies is done
effectively, it will help the respective company in understanding the needs and requirements of
the customers more effectively. All the marketing strategies that are discussed above will be
implemented in this stage (Orihuela, Orihuela and Pacheco,2016). Brand positioning is one
strategy that Harley Nichols can implement in order to position itself as a luxury brand within the
minds of people to generate awareness. For this, the company will have to establish an emotional
connection with the customers. For example- before putting the product out for sale, the
company should have developed enough understanding of the customers’ preference as well as
the problem they are facing. The same should be addressed and the problem should be solved.
Harley Nichols already has a strong positing in markets that it operates and thus this will act as a
strength in increasing the awareness about the brand.
Primary focus should be laid on advertising and packaging of the products. Advertising
should be carried out in innovative and unique way. On the other hand, packaging of the
products should be such that the products are safe and secure during transit. All of the important
information like manufacturing details etc. should be clearly mentioned so that the customers
know all the details. Apart from this, the company should conduct a market research about
competitors in order to get insight about their competitors. Also, packaging of the products
increases its overall shelf life and protects it from any kind of wear and tear. Since the company
does not want to spend a lot of amount, it can opt for different ways like increasing its online
presence through various social media platforms. Other sustainable methods for advertising can
include traditional ads in the newspapers, purchased online ads, advertising on radio etc. This
way, more customers will be attracted to the brand and encouraged to purchase its products.

Integrating all the communication strategies will help the company to reach out to a wider
audience and also attract the ones who are willing to pay premium in order to purchase the
company’s products (Ukpabi and Karjaluoto, 2017). The communication strategies that are
discussed above can be implemented through various online as well as offline channels. The
channels should be used effectively so as to obtain the desired result. If implementation is done
properly, it will help Harvey Nichols in improving overall productivity as well as enhancing
sales. As for the Bar and Brasserie, customers would like to visit them and thus spend a relaxing
time with their friends or partners. Therefore, this step is one of the most crucial ones if the
company wants to achieve its set objectives within the time frame decided by it. Thus, it should
be taken seriously and effective mediums should be used to implement the strategies effectively.
Monitor, evaluate & control IMC program
Monitoring, evaluation and control is the last stage of a communication plan and thus is
also considered to be an important one. In this stage, all the promotional activities are monitored
and evaluated to ensure that all of them are carried out smoothly (Wallace and Webber, 2017). In
this stage, the marketing department gathers any mistakes or errors in the activities. On they are
identified, rectifications are made and if the management of the company thinks that any of the
activities is not going to be effective or there is a change at last moment, a replacement can be
made. It is important that the results that are achieved during evaluation should be used when
any strategies are formulated in the future. This stage ensures that any kind of errors or mirrors
are eliminated from the plan and the processes are carried out smoothly.
In order to evaluate and control errors, various tools can be used that are helpful and also
save a lot of time. Different quantitative as well as qualitative methodologies can also be used.
Quantitative methods are those that deal with numbers and thus are quantifiable. Evaluation
basically deals with examining and monitoring if the company has achieved its objectives
effectively or not. If the objectives are achieved properly, the steps can be implemented in the
future. Otherwise, changes and improvements should be made so that the objectives are achieved
in a proper manner. During the evaluation phase, it is important that all the promotional activities
are controlled so that no unnecessary time is spent on the same. Controlling helps in measuring
how effectively the objectives have been achieved. Budgets and market share can be counted as
important examples of control measures.

Therefore, the marketers of Harley Nichols should monitor and evaluate the various
strategies of promotion so as to know about the progress of the plan and if the strategies have
been effective or not. This is among the important stages of the plan as the company can get to
know about if all the activities are running smoothly or not (Wu, Aslam and Jun, 2017). If not,
the management can examine and evaluate the same. On the other hand, since the company
wants to increase its brand awareness in the market, it should use different measure of control so
that it does not lose track of the progress made by the plan. Different criteria can be set for
evaluating the same and if any error is identified, it can be rectified immediately. Professionals
usually carry out the process of monitoring, evaluation and control to ensure that everything is
running smoothly (Clow, 2016). So, Harley Nichols should implement the plan in order to
achieve its set objectives effectively and in the most efficient way possible.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that a communication plan is one of the most
important things that an organization can make use of in order to increase its overall sales as well
as profitability. A communication plan also helps in achieving the objectives a company might
have set for either a long term or short-term period of time. The target audience of the company
is decided and an analysis of the competition is done so that a proper understanding about the
customers as well as the competitors is obtained. Once this is done, effective strategies are
formulated so as to obtain the desired result. Therefore, a communication plan should be used by
all organizations across different industries if they want to achieve the desired results.

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Brand Positioning: Definition, Importance, Examples and Steps. 2019. [Online]. Available
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