Integrated Marketing Communication Plan of Blackmores Limited

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Plan of Blackmores Limited, a leading Australian health and vitamin supplement company. It begins with an executive summary and an introduction outlining the report's objectives, which include examining Blackmore's marketing strategies, target audience, and communication objectives. The report delves into the company's background, its marketing objectives, and a detailed analysis of its target audience, primarily focusing on young adults and health-conscious individuals. It then outlines the company's communication objectives, creative advertising styles, and advertising messages, including the tagline 'Stay healthy, Stay powerful.' The report explores various media strategies, including online media (social media, email marketing), events, and traditional methods. It concludes with an evaluation of the IMC plan's effectiveness and ethical considerations, such as product affordability and advertising regulations. Overall, the report provides a thorough overview of Blackmores' marketing communication efforts.

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Integrated Marketing Communication Plan of Blackmore Limited

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Executive Summary
The major reason behind an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan (IMC) is to enhance the
impact of organization on customers. It is a way to attain the objectives promotional campaign
by implementing different advertising and promotional strategies, which assist each other. As a
leading player of health and vitamin supplement industry, Blackmores Limited has attained as
better position in the industry. In its history, the company has been identified as a leader of
health, dietary and vitamin supplements. Blackmore implements different promotional and
advertising campaigns to capture the attention and interest of customers. This report examines an
alternative marketing communication plan for its new and existing products in the market. The
organization is adopting different media vehicles for attracting the customers.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Company background......................................................................................................................4
Marketing Objectives.......................................................................................................................5
Target Audience Segment Analysis.................................................................................................5
Communication (Advertising) Objectives.......................................................................................5
Styles of creative advertising...........................................................................................................6
Advertising message........................................................................................................................7
Media Plan.......................................................................................................................................7
Online Media................................................................................................................................8
Events...........................................................................................................................................8
Traditional method of media........................................................................................................8
Print Media...................................................................................................................................9
Evaluation of IMC plan effectiveness.............................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
This report is going to examine the Integrated Marketing Communication Plan of a popular
Australian organization, i.e. Blackmore Limited. Blackmore Limited is a popular organization in
Australia, which is engaged in manufacturing the vitamin and dietary supplements. The
organization is adopting many effective promotional and advertising strategies in introducing the
products to market. This discussion includes the integrated communication plan for Blackmore
Limited.
The following report is significantly emphasized on the products and services of organization, its
target market and communication objectives like; brand awareness. Creative styles of advertising
and media plan for Blackmore Limited. At the end, it evaluates the effectiveness of media plan
and communication strategy of the organization. Thus, the entire communication plan will focus
on the advertising and marketing activities, which will assist it in approaching to potential
customers. By using effective communication strategies, it is expected that the intentions behind
products will be communicated to the target audiences properly. Currently, the market position
of Blackmore Limited is adversely affecting, so this communication plan assist the organization
in introducing its products and services successfully.
Company background
Blackmore Limited is a popular organization in Australia, which was found as a naturopathic
organization in the year 1938. It was established in Brisbane by Maurice Blackmore. Currently,
the organization has emerged as a household health ad vitamin supplements. This organization
has been an industry leader for over 70 years. Now, Blackmore is offering over 150 products and
catering all the areas of health supplements and vitamins. It supplies its products via different
distribution channels, like; retail pharmacy, supermarkets and food stores. The company has
established its image as a most trusted organization in Australia (Blackmore, 2013). It has
increased its revenues and profits over past few years, because of its huge demand from China
country for high quality dietary and vitamin supplements. The major attraction towards company
is that its products are not too much expensive and affordable for each and every level of people.
At the end of financial year 2015, its revenues were over $471 million. There are many
competitors in the industry, like; Swisse, Nature’s way, Cenovis Berocca etc.

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Marketing Objectives
As discussed above, Blackmore Limited is a leading player in natural health and vitamin
supplement industry. By following its mission and mission, the organization is working on its
marketing objectives. The major marketing objective of Blackmore is to make the people aware
about the vitamins, minerals, nutrients and herbs (Andrews and Shimp, 2017). The organization
is looking towards natural health and motivating the population to invest money on their health
and well-being.
Target Audience Segment Analysis
Market segmentation consists of categorizing the total population on the basis of different
characteristics. These characteristics are like; demographics, psychographics and some other
factors. The major target market of the Blackmore Limited is the young generation that is
between the age group of 25 to 35 years (Young, 2014). The reason behind targeting this
segment is that youth is a key pillar of the community. It is concentrating on the people, who are
very conscious for their health and youths are very concerned about their health, so it can easily
convince them for consuming their health and vitamin supplements. In addition, the company is
targeting female consumers also because female group is more interested in buying dietary
supplements. Organization emphasizes on behavioral characteristics because once the customers
know about the quality and standard of products, they always prefer to consume those products
due to their brand and quality (Daoud, 2016). Blackmore Limited is focusing on offering best
quality in products.
Communication (Advertising) Objectives
There are several players in the vitamin and supplement industry, such as; Swisse, Cenovis,
Berocca and Nature’s Way. So, Blackmores need to set its communication objective and create a
well-organized promotional campaign before launching new products in the market. The
company has covered almost entire market in Australia, but still there is need to use effective
strategies to gain competitive advantage in the market (Fehrnstorm & Rich, 2009). By looking
the market and potential customers, the Blackmore is developing its communication objectives,
like;

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 The first communication objective of company is to cover most of the Australian market
with its major products, i.e. health and vitamin supplements. It will make the customers
aware about the benefits of its products. This communication objective of Blackmores
can be attained by collecting the information regarding the customers and available
products in market.
 Another objective of Blackmore is to increase its market share in pharmaceutical
industry. For this, it will focus on attracting new customers, who have never consumed
these products. This objective of organization can be attained by enhancing brand
awareness among Australian population.
 The last objective of the company is to increase its sales by focusing on the reviews and
feedback from its existing customers. It will help the organization in enhancing the
quality of products and gaining more profits (Freeman, 2010).
 For expansion of its business, the organization will start to sell pet care products in the
market. For targeting segment for these new products, the company will perform the
advertising activities with some repetitive messages.
The above-mentioned communication objectives would be placed by Blackmores Limited for
the integrated communication plan to get a better position in Australian industry.
Styles of creative advertising
In the modern business environment, there are so many organizations, which have adopted
creative styles for advertising strategy to attract the customers towards their products. The
organization creates these styles by considering different factors, like; behavioral, demographic,
psychographic etc. creative strategy of a company is a strategy that is related to deciding on that
what data and information must be included in the advertising message. Blackmores Limited is
advertising its products and services by using a slogan or tagline, i.e. “Stay healthy, Stay
powerful.” The promotional plan of organization will be prepared on the basis of this tagline, as
it will retain existing customers and creating new customers. The advertisement is created to
enhance the awareness of the vitamin and dietary supplements for Blackmores Limited. It will
definitely enhance the brand image and reputation of Blackmore Limited Australia (Ibis world,
2016). It will increase the market coverage of Blackmore in the Australian market. This creative

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style of advertising will be beneficial for this integrated communication plan of Blackmores. In
addition, the organization will create a creative advertising message.
There may be some ethical issues related to communication objectives of Blackmores Limited.
Sometimes, advertising and marketing causes the people to buy the products, which are not
affordable for them. This can be true in the case of Blackmores Limited. The prices of products
are very high, so people cannot afford easily, but the advertising of dietary and health
supplements influences the youths and female group, who are very conscious to their health.
Another issue may be related to the advertisement of prescription products of company (Keller,
2009). The code of conduct of company includes that advertisements for the prescription
products should not be sited in any part of prescribing software packages. In addition, the
organization will not provide the comparative data about the advantages and disadvantages of
other brands. These are the ethical issues, which can affect the future growth and success of
organization.
Advertising message
Along with the creative advertising style, Blackmores Limited will develop a creative advertising
message. In this, the information about company’s products and services will be included in a
creative and attractive way. There will be a special message for its new products, i.e. pet care
products. This message will assist the organization in increasing product awareness among its
potential customers. There are some marketing techniques, which can be used in the
organization’s promotional campaign, i.e. direct marketing, advertisement, public relations etc.
These techniques will assist Blackmores Limited in creating awareness among existing
customers and creating new customers. It can use public relation technique to collect feedback
from customers, so they can make improvement in their current products (Luttrell, 2016). It will
motivate the customers to purchase their products, because they will think that company cares
about them. It will enhance the trust of population for the company.
Media Plan
In developing the media plan, Blackmores Limited will implement different media strategies and
use many media vehicles, which will help the company in achieving its communication
objectives and creative strategy. This media plan will be developed very efficiently and

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effectively, so that the organization can appeal the customers. Following are the media vehicles
and media strategies, which can be adopted by Blackmores in being more competitive and
increasing its presence among public (Luxton, Reid and Mavondo, 2015).
Online Media
Online media can work as most effective tool in the promotional plan of any organization.
Blackmores Limited can use online marketing to promote its products to the bulk of population.
Reason behind choosing this marketing tool is that currently most of the people are actively
engaged in using the social media and networking sites. It is the most popular tool in today’s era.
So, online media marketing is the best, which can be used in its promotional plan. There are
different modes of social media, like; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube etc. which will be
used by Blackmore to promote its products. In the social media marketing tools, there are both
paid and unpaid tools. The company will promote its products and services on these social
networking sites (Mihart, 2012). It can create a page on Facebook, where it can showcase its
existing and new products. In addition, it will use E-mail marketing that can also be implemented
by Blackmores. Only 1% market will be taken by organization for market increment. If the
organization uses these channels effectively, it will assist in targeting the market and creating
new customers in the market. Generally, online media marketing is considered as a two-way
communication methods.
Events
Conducting different events are also a great way of reaching to the potential customers. There
may be different events, which can take place for the customers. In these events, company’s
customer support executive can have a conversation with the people. The organization can
conducted these events in shopping malls and some other public places. These types of events
will assist the organization in recognizing the demands and expectations of customers. Through
these events, Blackmore can understand the attitudes and perception of customers towards their
products and services (Ots, Ots, Nyilasy and Nyilasy, 2017). This is also a two-way
communication method that can attract the people effectively.
Traditional method of media
There are some methods, which can be very effective for promotion for promoting the products,
but these media channels are very expensive for the company. This method consists of

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broadcasting the advertisements of health and vitamin supplements on these channels, which are
popular in the market. This media vehicle can help the Blackmores to approach the people, who
are not using internet and social media networking sites. Moreover, distributing pamphlets and
putting hoardings on roads will aid the company in increasing its public presence. This method
of media is one sided communication method, which will be used by Blackmores Limited in
communicating with its customers and promoting its products (Percy, 2014).
Print Media
Print media is an effective way to enhance the brand awareness of Blackmores. In this, the
people can get the knowledge about company’s products via print media, like; newspapers and
magazines. For this, the organization will select the newspapers and magazines, which are highly
circulated in the area. It will also place the ads in health and fashion magazines to attract the
targeted customers.
Thus, these media vehicles can help Blackmores Limited in implementing its creative style of
advertising and attaining its communication objectives. The major objective behind choosing
these media vehicle is to convey their advertising message and ideas to customers and motivate
them to purchase their dietary and vitamin supplements.
Evaluation of IMC plan effectiveness
After developing the Integrated Marketing Communication plan, it is a significant task to get a
confirmation that the implemented media strategies are on the target. The evaluation of this plan
will be done on the basis of how Blackmores reaches to its target customers and achieve its
communication and marketing objectives (Shimp, 2008). This evaluation will be done after
implementing the promotional plan in the process. First, the company will evaluate the feedback
of customers to the advertisement on the media channels. The people in marketing team will see
that the advertisements are effective to entice the interest of people from their target market.
As the organization is adopting different vehicles of media, so the effectiveness of plan will
totally depend on these media, which showcase the introduction of products of Blankmores
Limited. If there will more broadcasting and print media, there company can do more publicity
among people. Blackmores uses the post testing and pretesting techniques for gaining revert
from target market. The testing techniques will be implemented accordingly, like; post testing

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will be done after the promotional campaign. This organization will conduct this evaluate the
impact of actions and change the mind of customers towards organizational products (Thorson
and Moore, 2013). In addition, the organization will conduct a survey, in which it will take the
opinions of customers. Furthermore, Blackmores will prepare a questionnaire, which will include
some questions regarding the products of company. It will be filled by customers and other
external stakeholders.
After the implementation of promotional plan, the organization will observe the results of this
campaign. By the evaluation process, it will be analyzed that whether the IMC plan of
Blackmores Limited is successful in communicating to the people and achieving its objectives.
Thus, the success or failure of integrated communication plan of Blackmores Limited can be
evaluated by using different methods. After evaluating the plan, the company can make changes
according to the needs of plan.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that Blackmore Limited is a leading organization in
Australia that manufactures and sells dietary and vitamin supplements. People can consume
these supplements as medicines to improve their health and make them more healthy and strong.
The organization is creating an IMC plan to promote its new and existing products. This plan
will help the organization in attracting the customers and staying competitive in the market.
Thus, the plan includes different media strategies and creative advertising strategies for reaching
to the customers. It will help the organization in enhancing awareness among customers about its
products. In this way, this promotional plan can be successful to the company for attaining its
marketing and communication objectives.

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References
Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated
marketing communications. Nelson Education.
Blackmore, 2013, Blackmores Limited Presentation to Goldman Sachs Emerging Companies
Conference 15 May 2013, retrieved from
http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20130515/pdf/42fx2m44xv8zd4.pdf.
Daoud, H., 2016, 8 Essential Elements of a Social Media Marketing Strategy, accessed on 5th
October 2016 from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/essential-elements-social-media-
marketing-strategy/
Fehrnstorm, M. & Rich, D.M, 2009, Using Events to Drive an Integrated Marketing Model.
Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications.
Freeman, R.E, 2010, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Cambridge University
Press.
Ibis world, 2016, Blackmores Limited - Profile Company Report Australia, accessed on 5th
October 2016 from https://www.ibisworld.com.au/enterprisefull/segments.aspx?entid=1165
Keller, K.L, 2009, Building strong brands in a modern marketing communications environment.
Journal of Marketing Communications.
Luttrell, R., 2016, Social Media: How to Engage, Share, and Connect, Rowman & Littlefield
Luxton, S., Reid, M. and Mavondo, F., 2015. Integrated marketing communication capability
and brand performance. Journal of Advertising, 44(1), pp.37-46.
Mihart, C, 2012, Impact of Integrated Marketing Communication on Consumer Behaviour:
Effects on Consumer Decision – Making Process. International Journal of Marketing Studies.
Ots, M., Ots, M., Nyilasy, G. and Nyilasy, G., 2017. Just doing it: theorising integrated
marketing communications (IMC) practices. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), pp.490-
510.
Percy, L, 2014, Strategic Integrated Marketing Communications. Routledge Publications.

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Thorson, E. and Moore, J. eds., 2013. Integrated communication: Synergy of persuasive voices.
Psychology Press.
Shimp, T.A, 2008, Advertising Promotion and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing
Communications. Cengage Learning.
Young, A., 2014. Brand media strategy: integrated communications planning in the digital era.
Springer.