Integrated Marketing Communication Plan: Great Wall Motors Analysis

This report presents an integrated marketing communication (IMC) plan for Great Wall Motors (GWM), an automobile company. It begins with an executive summary and a table of contents. The report evaluates the GWM brand, analyzing its strengths, weaknesses, and competitive landscape within the automotive markets of China and Western Australia. It includes a perceptual map to illustrate market positioning. The report defines communication objectives focused on brand awareness, customer loyalty, and supply chain efficiency. It then explores creative strategies, advertising appeals, and endorser selection, advocating for the use of common people as endorsers. The report details media strategies for both print and digital platforms, particularly Facebook, and discusses the integration of these media. The print strategy focuses on newspaper advertising, while the digital strategy emphasizes social media. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and recommendations for an effective IMC plan. References and an appendix are also provided.

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
An Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for Brand Great Wall Motors
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Executive Summary
This paper has been discussed on the integration of different marketing communication media
of an automobile company named Great Wall Motors. The environmental regulators of this
company that influence its brand value are analysed along with the communication objectives
for an applicable communication plan. Apart from that, the appropriate endorsement
approach has been selected with proper integration strategy for both online and offline or
traditional media. The way of maintaining effective integration between printing based and
social media based communication has been also described.

2INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Table of content
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Brand Evaluation....................................................................................................................3
Communication Objective(s).................................................................................................7
Creative Strategy and Advertising appeals............................................................................7
Endorser(s).............................................................................................................................8
Media Strategy1: Print Advertising.......................................................................................9
Media Strategy2: Digitial or Social Media advertising........................................................10
Integration............................................................................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References:...............................................................................................................................13
Appendix..................................................................................................................................15

3INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Introduction
The marketing communication refers the group of interrelated operations that help the
business organisation to establish an efficient communicative environment for their existing
consumers, potential consumers, business partners and suppliers (Shafer, Smith and Linder
2015). The integrated marketing refers the coordination of these multiple communication
media. This paper is focused on the integration of marketing communication of an
automobile company named Great Wall Motors. In this paper, the environmental regulators
of this company that influence its brand value are analysed. In addition, the communication
objectives have been identified with an applicable communication plan. Apart from that, the
appropriate endorsement approach has been selected with proper integration strategy for both
online and offline or traditional media. The way of maintaining effective integration between
printing based and social media based communication has been also described. The purpose
of this paper is to identify the most effective promotional approaches for the organisation that
can maintain the efficient integrity between these.
Discussion
Brand Evaluation
Finding strength and weakness is essential in order to analyse the internal
environment of Great Wall Motors within the automobile market China and Western
Australia (Vollmer and Precourt 2012).
Strength Weakness
 Advanced technology
 Strong management and business
operation
 Weak supply chain for regional and
international distribution
 Work inefficiency and weak labour

4INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
 Higher pricing power
 Significant brand value within Western
Australia and China
power
 Poor Acquisitions
 Poor customer service and helpline
 Poor cost-quality balance for both
Australian and Chinese market.
As a part of external environment measurement identifying and analysing competitors
of Great Wall Motors within both China and Western Australian automotive market is
crucial. This competitor analysis has been done on this following table.
Country Competitors
China
Geely
Automobile
Strength  Focused research and development
 Technological invention
 Cost saving price
Weakness  Poor safety measures
 Narrow market
Changfeng
Automobile
Strength  String market reputation
 Specialised SUB manufacturer
Weakness  Lack of innovativeness
 Lack of product verity
Changan
Motors
Strength  High market recognition
 Technological innovation
Weakness  Weak employee integrity
BYD Auto Strength Distinctive Competence
Low cost human resource
Weakness  Limited working capital
 Poor distribution network
Hafei Motor Strength  Profitable price-quality balance
Weakness  Low brand identity
 Lack of innovation

5INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Western
Australia
Toyota
Motor
Strength  Strong research and development
 Hybrid vehicle production
Weakness  Negative publicity
 Poor brand portfolio
Ford Strength  Strong brand image
 Effective supply chain
Weakness  High-cost low quality market position
 Lack of innovation
Hyundai Strength  Vehicle safety and design
 Huge market share
Weakness  Lack of innovation
 Declining quality management
KIA Motors Strength  Variety of products
 Strong innovativeness
Weakness  Poor brand recognition
 Limited distribution network
Volkswagen Strength  Excellent brand portfolio
 Efficient supply chain
Weakness  Higher carbon emission
 Weak price-quality balance
Perceptual mapping:
Perceptual mapping is a diagrammatic representation of the market position of a
company concerning the quality and price range of the products compared to other companies
within the market (Ozer 2015).

6INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
High Price
Low Price
High
Quality
Low
Quality
BMW
Porsche
Volkswagen
Hyundai
Ford
Great wall Motors
Figure1: Perceptual mapping of the automobile market
Source: (Prajogo and Sohal 2014)
Other external factors can regulate the brand adaptation of Great Wall Motors in Western
Australia, which are described below.
 Australian Government limited strictly enforced the low emission regulation that has a
high impact on manufacturing.
 Fuel cost is rising at an enormous rate that influences the customer base.
 Fluctuating death rate caused by automotive accident needs more innovative production.

7INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Communication Objective(s)
The Integrated Marketing Communication objectives of Great Wall Motors are:
 To increase the brand awareness in the automotive market in Western Australia and
China
 To increase the customer loyalty by interacting with potential customers
 To increase supply chain efficiency and partnership relation
These IMC objectives are highly related to the business objectives of the company, which
are described below:
 To increase the sales margin through brand awareness
 To sustain the gross margin through customer loyalty
 To ensure strong inbound logistics with efficient supply chain management
Creative Strategy and Advertising appeals
In order to identify the most effective marketing strategy Great Wall Motors needs to
identify their tools or attribute for marketing, consequence reflects the possible outcomes
after using the attributes and values refers the way of converting the possibilities to
companies value (Simpson and Power 2015). The associated attributes, consequence and
values along with the brand making of Great Wall Motors are examined through this
following table:
Attribute Consequence Value
Location selection and
positioning
Using print advertising as
traditional advertisement
approach
Increase brand recognition
through traditional and
modern communication
media.
Increase consumer
Rising profit that can
increase the basic capital for
farther investment
Customer satisfaction

8INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Selecting Digital marketing
media for promotional
activity
Target specific customer
Innovative implementation of
research and development
Effective distribution
network
Efficient consumer
relationship
satisfaction
Increase Market share
Increase sales margin
Greater potentiality to gain
loyal consumer
attract the new consumer
base
deliver the product to the
consumer more efficiently
influence the brand value
Consumer attraction
influence the market share
Endorser(s)
In the advertising plan the company choose a common people as endorsers. The basic
cause of selecting common people as the endorser is it will help to interact with audiences’
psychology in more realistic way (Freire 2014). Although choosing a celebrity or
endorsement is a very common promotional approach, consumer psychology and its needs
are other important concerns. Faces of common people can influence the consumer attraction
by interconnecting their needs to the endorsers.
 However, some characteristics of common people based endorsement are very noticeable
and described below:
 Using alternative way rather celebrity endorsement is highly cost efficient.
 Common people based endorsement is more words of mouth type approach that can help
indirect promotion too.
 Endorsements through common people can bring lots of opportunities to direct
psychological interpretation of promotional keys.

9INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Media Strategy1: Print Advertising
The company has to identify the most acclaimed offline promotional field before
selecting the write advertisement platform for promotional activities. For offline promotion
and advertisement, the best platform for the advertisement would be the newspaper (Hampel
Heinrich and Campbell 2012).
The main objectives of this traditional offline based communication tool are:
 To target the older generation of potential consumer, who can be influenced by printed
advertisement.
 To make a regular communication through the newspaper that can be found in almost any
house or office premise.
 To make wider the possible consumer base and recognition platform
Some specific technique can add extra advantages to this communication media. These
detailed techniques are customisable as per the current trends of the consumer base. These
additional detail techniques are:
 Making good partnership relation with newspaper organisations can reduce the
possibilities of misinterpretations.
 Regular advertisement can require more investment while it has more extensive capability
to attract the customer.
 Exchanging the advertisement approach interpretation of the business tagline can gain
more consumer attention.
 Using updated information and event as a pushing equipment of the advertisement can
have more sustainable impact on consumer’s mind.

10INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
This offline printing based advertisement campaign is an event based practice. In this
strategy, the organisation can communicate to their potential customer to inform them about
new offers and facilities (Kramer and Ning 2012). Specifically, this advertisement campaign
will sustain almost five months after the initial declaration. A newspaper advertisement can
be made throughout five months after the initialising of the launching of a new car model.
Media Strategy2: Digitial or Social Media advertising
In this era of digitalisation choosing the online based promotional tool is highly
effective decision to make that can increase the consumer base and brand recognition to the
significant level (Alhabash, Mundel and Hussain 2017). Social media is one of the most
effective tools that can reach the larger segment of the new generation. Facebook is a widely
popular social media and it choosing the Facebook as the advertisement toll will be very
productive.
The main objectives of this online social media based communication tool are:
 To target the new generation of potential consumer, who can be influenced by attractive
social media based advertisement.
 To make frequent communication through Facebook, this is used by every social media
user at least once in a day.
 To make wider the possible consumer base and brand recognition through advance social
media based tools.
Some technique can add extra advantages to this social media based promotion (Chu, Kamal
and Kim 2013). These additional techniques would be formed as per the current trends of
social media. These techniques are:
 Creating Facebook page allows subscriber can get a daily update about the company

11INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
 Facebook based consumer forum will allow the marketing team to conduct their market
research as per the feedback from the users.
 Posting attractive offers and launching of new product in an official Facebook page will
increase the prominence of potential consumer base.
Online social media-based advertisement and communication is a long-term approach
where the promotional campaign does not have any time barrier. It should make a consistent
attachment to the existing and potential consumer base.
Integration
Integration of two media refers the coordination and interconnectivity of two
communication media that can complement each other. For an automotive company, this
types of integration can come from utilising consumer loyalty in online marketing
(Scheinbaum 2012). In other words, The company can share their consumer experiences
about a particular brand with their Facebook members while advertising about the same
brand through newspaper based advertisement.
Some additional factors like previous brand reputation and the negative review can
regulate this integration negatively. However, keeping the social media communication
updated and strategic can be beneficial in these conditions (Barker 2013).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be said that Great Wall Motors needs to build
appropriate communication plan that helps the business operations to establish an efficient
communicative environment for their existing consumers, potential consumers, business
partners and suppliers. Additionally, finding strength and weakness of competitors is
essential for Great Wall Motors within the automobile market China and Western Australia.