Integrated Marketing Communications Report: H&M Australia's New Line

This report details an integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaign for H&M Australia, focusing on a new clothing line designed for short-heighted men. The report begins with a creative brief, outlining the problem (limited clothing options for this demographic), the goal (establishing a fashionable clothing line), key insights (demand for stylish clothing), and the target audience (men aged 15-45, under 5.6 inches). The IMC strategy includes situational analysis (SWOT analysis), brand positioning (emphasizing the line's exclusivity for short men), and a budget of $5 million. A creative strategy statement, "Affordable and Stylish Clothing for Men of Short Height and All Ages," is presented. The report further outlines media strategy, encompassing target audience engagement through various channels. The report also details the media schedule, including a four-month plan and concludes with a campaign evaluation plan.

Running head: INTEGRAGTED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Integrated Marketing Communications
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. Unique Issue 5 - Creative Brief................................................................................................2
1.1. The Problem......................................................................................................................2
1.2. The Goal............................................................................................................................3
1.3. Key Insights......................................................................................................................3
1.4. Who will be engaged.........................................................................................................4
1.5. Main Message...................................................................................................................4
2. Unique Issue 6 – IMC Strategy................................................................................................4
2.1. Target Audience................................................................................................................4
2.2. Situational Analysis..........................................................................................................5
2.3. Brand Positioning..............................................................................................................6
2.4. Budget...............................................................................................................................6
3. Unique Issue 7 – Creative Strategy..........................................................................................6
3.1. Creative Strategy Statement..............................................................................................6
4. Unique Issue 8 – Media Strategy.............................................................................................8
5. Unique Issue 9 - Media Strategy Schedule............................................................................10
5.1. First Month......................................................................................................................10
5.2. Second Month.................................................................................................................10
5.3. Third Month....................................................................................................................10

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5.4. Fourth Month..................................................................................................................11
6. Unique Issue 10 - Evaluation of the Campaign......................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
H&M is one of the leading designer wear brands in the world today and is popular among
consumers because of the trendy styles and affordable prices of its garments. H&M garments are
meant for use by men and women as well as for customers who prefer exhibiting an androgynous
fashion sense (Andrews and Shimp 2017). This assignment prepares a marketing and
communications strategy that H&M Australia is going to make use of in order to create and
promote a line of clothing that is meant specifically for men who are of short height and who
normally don’t come across too many options at branded clothing stores. For this purpose, the
assignment designs a creative brief, describes the marketing strategy including the media and
IMC elements that are going to be used in the campaign, after which the creative strategy, the
media strategy, and the media schedule plan are mentioned. The assignment concludes with an
evaluation of the campaign.
1. Unique Issue 5 - Creative Brief
The creative brief that H&M is going to make use of in order to market its clothing line for
short heighted men, is something that is going to incorporate the following elements –
1.1. The Problem
The problem that seeks to be addressed by H&M is the fact that short heighted men in
Australia are currently faced with limited options in terms of clothing, and it is the aim and the
objective of H&M to introduce a brand new line of clothing for this category of people so that
they can dress up in style and look fashionable just like other H&M customers are able to do. It
is important to remember that H&M is one of the largest and most sought after clothing brands in

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the country of Australia, being popular among customers of each and every age group. The brand
intends on retaining this popularity among its clientele in the country by catering to a specific
section of the population, that is, the male members of the Australian population who are of very
short height, under 5.6 inches to be specific and who cannot come across stylish clothes at the
H&M stores at present that will fit them and which will suit them well. In doing so, H&M seeks
to establish a long standing clientele among all types of customer demographics and segments in
Australia instead of conventional and traditional clients only (Andrews and Shimp 2017).
1.2. The Goal
The goal as mentioned above is to establish a clothing line for short heighted men in
Australia. The clothing line will include garments and accessories, but garments mostly for men
who are of very short height, who are not taller than 5.6 inches and who are consequently not
able to come across suitable clothing options especially when they pay a visit to the H&M stores.
It is the goal of H&M to provide such people with suitable and trendy clothing options to choose
from, especially for a price that they can well afford rather than ill afford (Svetlik 2017).
1.3. Key Insights
Fashionable clothing is popular among customers of all age groups in the country of
Australia. People love to dress up and look trendy no matter what age it is that they belong to. It
is the right of all people living in Australia to dress up fashionably and to look good wherever
they go and this applies to people who are short heighted as well. There is no reason why people
of a short height should be denied the scope and the opportunity to wear decent clothes just
because their height is not the conventional or standard height that most clothing companies and
branded clothing companies at that, cater to, all over the world. It is based on this belief and
notion that H&M Australia has taken the decision to launch a new brand of clothing that will

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create garments specifically for men of a short height, so that they can sport this brand wherever
they go and look good and feel good while they do so (Manser et al. 2017).
1.4. Who will be engaged
As part of the advertising and marketing campaign, H&M Australia is going to rope in
clientele that comprises of teenagers, young adults and middle aged men, notably in the age
group of fifteen to forty five years, who are of a height of 5.6 inches or less and who are
currently finding it rather difficult to come across garments at this clothing store that are likely to
fit them well and make them look good. It is the hope and the aspiration of H&M Australia to
help young and middle aged short heighted men in Australia come across styles and designs of
clothing under the H&M banner that they can wear to work or to informal occasions and boost
their image of the self considerably (Key, T.M. and Czaplewski, A.J., 2017).
1.5. Main Message
Look Good No Matter how Tall or Short!
2. Unique Issue 6 – IMC Strategy
2.1. Target Audience
The target audience for the H&M marketing campaign will comprise of boys and men
who are in the age group of fifteen to forty five years and who are short heighted. Ideally, these
are men who are of a height of 5.6 inches and who do not readily come across proper clothing
options in stores, especially at branded stores like the H&M outlets in different parts of
Australia. Boys and men who are of a height of less than 5.6 inches will also be a focus of this
marketing campaign (Keller 2016).

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2.2. Situational Analysis
Based on the SWOT Analysis that was carried out for H&M Australia in the previous
assignment it is clear that this is one of the strongest and most popular clothing brands in the
country of Australia by virtue of the fact that it gives customers a wide range of styles and
designs to choose from, all of which are trendy and smart and which are well suited for men and
women of all ages. This is a brand that is also present in several corners of the globe as a result
of which knowledge about the brand is quite widespread and people can easily identify an H&M
garment or outfit when they see one (Keller 2016). Of course the chief weakness associated with
this particular brand is that it depends a good deal on the involvement of third parties in order to
get its products adequately marketed. Added to this is the fact that the low price of the garments
sometimes appears to manifest itself in the poor quality of these garments, with users having to
dispose of the garments within a few days and months of having bought and used them. There
are plenty of opportunities for the H&M brand to expand and grow in the country of Australia, as
discussed before, primarily because it makes use of the internet to market its products and
customers can simply visit one of the online stores of H&M Australia in order to buy something
from this store (Svetlik 2017). There are a considerable number of threats that the H&M brand is
faced with in Australia that can keep it from functioning as well and as prosperously as it
otherwise could, and which has also been discussed in detail in the previous assignment. To
begin with, there are many clothing brands that are emerging in the Australian cities and towns
and which are along the likes of the H&M brand, namely, that they provide stylish and
affordable clothing for customers of every age group. H&M Australia could very easily lose out
to any one of these competitors if it is not careful enough with its marketing strategy. It needs to

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keep its garments and other products as uniquely positioned as possible to keep competitors at
bay, ensuring that customer demand and satisfaction is high at all times (Patti et al. 2017).
2.3. Brand Positioning
The new brand of clothing by H&M Australia is one that is going to be advertised by
mentioning specifically, that this is a brand which will cater to the interests of people who are
short heighted. Every effort will be made as part of the brand positioning strategy to convey the
idea that this new line of clothing is meant exclusively for short heighted people, that is people
whose height is 5.6 inches or less and who ordinarily find it quite difficult to come across
clothing options in branded and other stores. The fact that this line of clothing is meant for short
heighted people alone, is what is hoped will turn heads towards the marketing campaign and
establish an interest in the target audience in the proposed line of clothing (Hewett and Lemon
2019).
2.4. Budget
As mentioned before, the budget for the clothing campaign, that is the launch of a new
clothing line by H&M for people of a short height will be restricted to five million dollars. Every
effort shall be made to conduct marketing and PR activities using this budget and to not exceed
this budget especially since much of the advertising and promotional campaign will be carried
out over the medium of the internet (Fill and Turnbull 2016).
3. Unique Issue 7 – Creative Strategy
3.1. Creative Strategy Statement
Affordable and Stylish Clothing for Men of Short Height and All Ages

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Through the above creative strategy statement, H&M will appear to attract members of
its target population towards the items of its new clothing line, meant for men who are in the age
group of fifteen to forty five years and who are of a very short height, that is about 5.6 inches in
height or less. The creative strategy statement will make it clear that the clothes that are being
marketed as part of this campaign are clothes which are stylish to look at and which are easy on
the pocket at the same given time, while being designed and tailored specifically for men who
are of a short height, and who do not have to get such clothes altered later on. This simply
creative strategy statement is something that is going to be highlighted and circulated in all of the
leading H&M stores in the Australian cities and towns and also on the website of the company so
that customers are well aware of what this new brand of clothing is going to entail and who it is
meant for. It is important to remember that H&M as a brand is one that already caters to clients
who are of an average or tall height hence it does not have to reach out to that same clientele
when marketing this particular line of products. This specific clothing line is meant for short
heighted men and hence the creative strategy statement of the line is going to drive home that
fact alone, that short heightened men in Australia can now buy H&M clothes without worrying
about whether such garments are going to fit them or not (Fill and Turnbull 2016).
The creative strategy statement of the new clothing line is one that is going to be
accompanied by exciting visuals of the products that are going to be featured as a part of this
line. Customers are going to get a full understanding of what it is that they are about to purchase
from this clothing line by taking a look at the visuals and the images that are circulated at the
H&M stores, on the website of the company and also on the social media pages of the company
for this purpose. Visuals are going to be used as part of the creative strategy marketing campaign
of the new H&M clothing line as visuals will give customers a thorough understanding of what it

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is that they are about to buy, how the products look and how it is that they may look when
wearing such garments (Turner 2017). By providing proper visuals of the clothes that are going
to be featured as part of this new line, H&M will be engaging in the greatest degree of
transparency with its customers, letting them know the good and the bad of what it is that they
are about to buy. The social media pages of the company are those that are going to be
particularly full of the new images, so that men get a thorough understanding of the styles and
designs of the new brand of clothing, all of which are going to be modeled by some of the best
known modeling faces in Australia. It is a fact well known that men tend to be quite visual in
their approach to anything in life hence the use of exciting visuals as part of the creative strategy
of this marketing campaign is something that is believed will go down very well with the target
audience (Svetlink 2017). Members of the target audience who are in the age group of fifteen to
twenty years and even those who are aged between thirty and forty years will be eager to know
and wear the type of clothes that are being marketed as part of this line. They will feel even more
inclined to make a purchase when they not only view the creative tag line that comes with this
brand of clothing but also when they see the various images of the clothes and the accessories
that they are about to buy. Every effort will be kept on the part of creative strategists to portray
exactly the styles and designs in the images that customers are likely to come across when they
hit the H&M stores in Australia, both online as well as physical, so that customers are not duped
into visiting these stores to buy garments that do not look like the ones which feature on the
creative advertising campaign (Patti et al. 2017).

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4. Unique Issue 8 – Media Strategy
The new line of clothing that H&M is about to launch for short heighted men in Australia,
and of the age group between fifteen and forty five years is going to be marketed primarily
through the medium of social media. This is because knowledge dissemination takes place in a
quick and easy manner through social media. People who make use of social media channels are
able to see for themselves what it is that is being marketed and are able to post their live
feedback concerning their views and opinions about a product. H&M Australia will be able to
draw a lot of attention to its marketing campaign through the use of social media largely because
of the fact that social media is something that is so widely utilized by people around the world.
People of all ages and all backgrounds are seen to make use of social media because of the fact
that it is cheap and easy to use and it is definitely going to be convenient for H&M Australia to
market its new line of clothing via this particular medium as it is going to be able to spread news
and information about the new line very easily and readily using social media (Manser et al.
2017).
The fact that social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow
marketers and users in general to post pictures in great numbers implies that H&M Australia will
not only have the scope of reaching out to a lot of its target population for the new clothing line
in a limited period of time through the use of such channels, but it will also have the scope to
showcase images and visuals of the clothing line products to prospective customers. Social
media users will get to view firsthand, what it is that H&M is selling as part of this new clothing
line and will not be kept in the dark about the new products. They will be able to take a decision
of what it is that they wish to buy or are going to buy even before they actually pay a visit to the
H&M stores in the Australian cities or when they do their shopping at the online outlet of the

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H&M store in Australia. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will also
give existing and prospective customers of the new clothing line the option to make their
experiences known, whether good or bad, and this in turn will give the company an idea of how
well the new line of clothing is doing in the Australian market and whether or not it is managing
to meet its objective, that is, to cater to the needs and the interests of men and boys in Australia
who are in the age group of fifteen to forty five years and who are of a short height (Keller
2016).
5. Unique Issue 9 - Media Strategy Schedule
H&M Australia will launch information about its new campaign or clothing line for short
heighted men in Australia through a media strategy that will pan out over four months.
5.1. First Month
In the first month, H&M Australia will focus on generating awareness about the new
clothing line on Facebook given that it is the mostly widely used social media platform. For this
purpose, the page of the company on Facebook will be updated with new pictures and videos of
the garments that belong to the brand new clothing line for short heighted men. Viewers will be
invited to like and post their comments concerning the images and a launch date will also be
mentioned on the Facebook page of the company so that viewers are aware of when it is that they
can actually buy the products (Keller 2016).
5.2. Second Month
In the second month, advertising and awareness activities will be carried out through the
medium of Instagram. Efforts will be made to post images of the new clothing line and seek

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customer feedback for the same, in much the same way as was done on Facebook in the previous
month (Hewett and Lemon 2019).
5.3. Third Month
This is the month when H&M Australia will take recourse to the use of Twitter in order
to advertise its products. Regular tweets will be posted on the part of the H& M authorities to
make users aware of the new clothing line and the many benefits that this will bring for short
heighted men in Australia (Hewett and Lemon 2019).
5.4. Fourth Month
In the fourth month, videos on how to wear the new clothes and interviews of experts
about the new clothing line of H&M Australia will be broadcast on the Youtube channel of the
company. The videos will be of ten to fifteen minutes duration and will educate prospective
customers about how the garments of this new line were conceived, designed and marketed for
the benefit of its target audience (Patti et al. 2017).
6. Unique Issue 10 - Evaluation of the Campaign
The success of the campaign, that is the new clothing line by H&M for the benefit of short
heighted men in Australia is something that will be evaluated on the basis of the number of likes
and followers that the social media pages of the company are able to generate as a response to
the new clothing line that is advertised on these pages. Based on how quickly the likes and
follows are generated, a decision will be taken by the company concerning the actual launch date
of the new line of products and the circulation of the same in the Australian market (Andrews
and Shimp 2017).

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Conclusion
Thus, it can be said that the marketing and communications strategy for the new clothing
line by H&M for short heighted men in Australia, of the age group of fifteen to forty five, is one
that is going to be very elaborate and long drawn out and which will make active use of social
media to ensure that knowledge and awareness of this new line of garments is spread as far and
wide as possible.

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