Analysis of Integrated Marketing Communication at Tesco: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Tesco's integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies. It begins with an introduction to IMC, emphasizing its importance in linking communication forms and messages for promotional purposes. The report then examines various marketing channels utilized by Tesco, including direct marketing, advertising, social media, and sales promotion, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. The report also delves into the design of communication objectives for Tesco, such as establishing a strong product image, increasing market penetration, developing repeat purchase behavior, and fostering customer relationships. Furthermore, it outlines a marketing communication plan to meet these objectives and critically evaluates the plan in relation to communication strategy, channel choice, and creative content. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and providing recommendations for future marketing efforts. The report uses Tesco as a case study to illustrate the practical application of IMC principles.

Integrated
Marketing
Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Different types of marketing channels..............................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P2 Designing communication objectives for an organisation................................................5
P3 Justification for the selection and integration of communication channels......................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Marketing communication plan to effectively meet communication objectives..............8
TASK 4 .........................................................................................................................................13
P5) Critical evaluation of marketing communication plan in relation to communication
strategy, channel choice and creative content......................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Integrated marketing communication is a broad concept where utilise different types of
forms of communications and messages are carefully linked together. It is applied by all the
organisation with specific methods to to promote products or services for targeted customers
(Batra and Keller, 2016). All the aspects of marketing communication work together for
increased sales and maximum cost effectiveness. This concept involve in the coordination the
several promotional features and other marketing activities that use to communicate with the
firm's customers. The basis tool utilised to achieve a company's objectives are referred to as the
promotional mix. It is essential for an organisation to compete in the competitive market
effectively.
To better understand of the report selected organisation Tesco which is a British
multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer. The company founded by Jack Cohen
in 1919 (about 100 years ago) in Hackney, London, England. The header-quarter of the company
situated in Welwyn Garden city, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. In this report covers
several topic such as several kind of marketing channels and defined communication objectives
in the context of the business. Along with develop communication objective as per the situation
and choose several channel for integrated marketing communication. Additionally, produce
marketing communication plan to reach objectives and analysis of marketing communication
plan in the context of channel selection, communication strategy and creative content.
TASK 1
P1 Different types of marketing channels
Overview of the organisation: Tesco is the largest British retailer and world's third
largest grocery retailer that conduct their operations across USA, Europe and Asia. The company
was started business in 1919 to selling groceries in the East end of London. Tesco have about
2200 store from the large market hyper market style stores. The company also operated in Tesco
Bank, Tesco Ireland, Tesco Mobile, Tesco family dining Ltd and many more.
Marketing communication means to select the appropriate strategy for the organisation
according to structure of business to circulate message regarding to products and brands they
sell, either directly or indirectly to the consumer with the intention to influence them to purchase
(Blakeman, 2018). These channels are categorised into two parts such as personal and non
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personal communication. There are defined several marketing communication channel and their
importance regarding to Tesco such as: Direct Marketing: It is way of marketing communication channel that adopt by several
organisation in order to increase sales of company. There are using several options such
as direct Email, mail and telemarketing. Tesco send to mails to consumer regarding to
discount and offers to contact them direct manner. In the Telemarketing message send in
modify way to communicate win responsive manner. It is important for Tesco to
influence to customer to purchase product (Fill and Turnbull, 2016). Advertising: It is very important tool that used by organisation to reach large number of
people. Through advertisement they feel motivate and know proper information about the
product & services. Purchaser can easily compare of product through advertisement of
several companies regarding to same product. Tesco used the channel to influence to
large group for purchase products. Social media: in present time every organisation mostly use this communication channel
that impact on the people in effective manner. Mostly people are using different
application on the social media and when they see advertisement on these sites so it will
impact in positive manner. For this Tesco use Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram or many
more.
 Sales Promotion: It is a procedure of influencing a potential customer to purchase new
product. The particular channel designed for the short term goals and tactic to increase
sales. It is rarely utilised for the long term method due to create relation for long term
loyalty. Tesco apply this channel to create relation with the customer for short period of
time.
These communication channels are impacted in positive manner and help to increase
selling of the organisation. Through these channels custom,er know about the products &
services of the company and aware about the product & services (Finne and Grönroos, 2017).
Critical evaluation of selected channels of communication
Tesco has been selected several marketing communication channel according to their
strategy and structure that impact positively. There are critical analysis several channels of
communication according to strength & weakness of organisation. It means communication is all
about its products & services to its target marketing or customer to maximise its resources.
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Direct Marketing: It is a communication channel that will provide guidance to Tesco in
order to gather all important information regarding to consumer behaviour and latest wants.
When company provide products & services with quality to fulfil the expectation of customer.
The advantage of this channel that customer retain long time with same company and will not
switch the products (Gambetti and Schultz, 2015). Face to face communication, internet, mobile
are the inexpensive types of communication channels that easily apply the company in order to
increase sales. There are defined some advantage of direct marketing channel in the context of
Tesco to assist company to achieve various objectives:
 Due to direct contact of the people they know about the product specification and
services that will fulfil the expectation of customer and engagement.
 Consumer easily visit on the site of the company and know more offers about the
products that provided by the company.
 Targeted: Through this communication channel target to specific customer and send
specific messages in some groups that depended on the buying behaviour and
demographics.
 It is affordable by the Tesco such as Telemarketing, email market that helps to in time
saving due to send mail more people in same time.
Disadvantage: It is affecting of the environmental activities due to connected with the
direct mail. There are some people use marketing mail to create a negative brand association.
Social media marketing: These types of channel utilise by the organisation to gain
traffic or attention from the customer by several social media sites. Through this channel Tesco
gain information about customer perception and which type of marketing trends are running.
According to that they are preparing the strategy and communicate for brand awareness or an
organisation. It will assist by the organisation in order to stay in competitive environment and get
benefits these are:
 It will helping to increase traffic on the site of Tesco in proper manner (Herman, 2015).
 Through this channel provide proper customer satisfaction to customer and take reviews
about the products & services. So it will help to apply changes in existing goods.
 It is cost effective channel that easily adopt by the organisation to communicate with
customer which are belonging from several areas.
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Disadvantages: The particular channel take more time to acquire more benefit out of the
social media. There is creating risk of the negative comments from the customers.
Sales Promotion: It is utilised by Tesco to sell out product through selling efforts where
company set the target to sale out products in certain period of time. The seller promote the
products by attitude, appearances and specialist of product knowledge. The main aim of Tesco to
apply this channel that inform and motivate the customer to purchase or at least trial the product.
There are defined some advantage of this channel that is good for selected organisation:
 To increase sales by publicity by the media where complementary to press and poster
advertising
 It is more influencing type of marketing where customer easily does not refuse for the
product and make effort to listen them (Hsu, Lin and Tsai, 2016).
Disadvantage: Through this promotion channel affer to sales demand only for short term and
customer may be come to anticipate or expect.
Advertising: To being most powerful require to apply this channel to provide products
through advertising and make easier to reach people and high frequency of message delivery.
This method id not applying by the every organisation but it is more beneficial rather than to
other communication channel. Tesco apply this method to gain many benefits to approach
different kinds of people.
 Introduce new product in the market: Through this method Tesco easily launch new
product in the market.
 It will help to increased sales regarding to mass production to goods and increase the
volume of sales effectively.
 Educate the customer: The advertising method is dynamic in nature that impact on the
perception of customer for diverse use and educates them about the uses of existing
products.
Disadvantage: It is expensive methodology which is not afford by the every one and use
one way communication.
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TASK 2
P2 Designing communication objectives for an organisation
Marketing communication is important for the organisation in order to deliver messages
and provide customer satisfaction through the product. Every organisation set particular
objective in order to achieve them in effective manner. There are defined several purposes of
integrated marketing communication such as:
Accomplish Positive Outcomes: Integrated marketing communication utilise by the
organisation to advertise techniques to alteration market effectiveness ( Juska, 2017). Through
marketing communication interact with different types of people and define about the product
speciality. As a result it will increase sells and provide positive results.
Sales Overall Costs: Through the consistency of the organisation focus on the several
strategy in order to save overall cost. As a result it will show good impact on the organisation to
focus on the flow of data in market.
These are the purpose of the integrated marketing communication that impact on the
organisation to promote their product. For this Tesco set communication objection according to
situation of the organisation such as:
Establish Product image: The main objective of communication with customer to set
good brand image of the product in the mind of customers. Tesco want to establish product
image in particular market to attract customer for increase selling. Through communication sales
agent talk with the people about the product and influence them to use it. As a result they
become customer of product and ask to others (Keller, 2016).
 Strength – The strength of this objective that it will help to introduce new product in the
market easily and ask to people to buy it. Limitation – Due to good product image require to maintain good quality if it is going
down so impact in negative manner.
Increase market penetration: Market penetration is the successful selling of a product or
service at particular market area. It is measured by the sales volume regarding to existing goods
or services with compare total target market for the product as well as services. Through
communication increase market penetration where consist of market development, product
development, diversification etc.
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 Strength – Due to increase market penetration develop effective strategy that apply by
selected organisation to promoting products. Limitation – Many time market situation different so all the strategy are not working on
time.
Develop repeat purchase behaviour: To attract customer require to communicate with
people for again purchase from the store. When Tesco provide good quality & services so people
influence by them and repeat purchasing behaviour.
 Strength – It will increase the sales volume and build up organisation reputation in good
manner (Kerin and Hartley, 2015). Limitation – In a limit agent communicate with customer other wise it shows negative
impact on the organisation.
Establish Customer Relationship: When organisation continue connect with customer
and provide preference to their taste. So it will helpful to develop good customer relation and
visit more time in the organisation.
 Strength – Communication is important tool that will help to achieve all the objectives of
the organisation.
 Limitation – Many customer change product due to available other product in same price
in other store.
Critical evaluation of organisation's communication objectives
There is analysis communication objectives that will helpful to increase profitability and
productivity (Litovchenko and Shkurupska, 2016). For this require to communication will assist
in positive manner and face every challenge in adequately manner in competitive scenario. It will
intensify value of organisation to develop groceries & supplying according to customer
expectations. It will impact positively and rise sales margin. Due to negative sense, it will
improve the spending on communication channels and budget necessities will not be met
adequately. Company mainly use social media marketing in order to interact with customers
effectively. Direct marketing will be utilised to communicate with face to face to defined about
the commodities that sell out by the Tesco. Company will apply personal selling to to stay long
time in the market and increase brand awarenesses among the target customers.
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P3 Justification for the selection and integration of communication channels
Communication channels is served as a medium through which all the information related
to products and services by business organisation is introduced in general public. These
communication channels helps in establishing good brand image in the market. Communication
channels used by TESCO are direct marketing, adverting, social media and personal selling.
Direct market selected for marketing of TESCO helps in providing a direct connection among
business and targeted consumers. Through this method business personally communicate to its
consumers and their personal experiences are used to serve them with best of they want. This
method of marketing helps businesses to gain large market share as more and more consumers
will feel their connection with organisation (Luxton, Reid, and Mavondo, 2015). When
consumers views is counted in decision making then TESCO will able to gain more satisfied
consumers and through which ultimately large market share will be acquired.
Social media has become one of the most important tool to market a product among
youth generation. Advertisement to social media helps in grabbing attention of all the users and
on the same time marketing can be done at mass level. Following current trend of marketing
through social media becomes cost effective for company as through this millions of consumers
can be targeted. When advertising is made through television and newspapers then it helps to
reach to generation which is bunging on television. Marketing through social media and
advertisement helps in reaching large amount of consumers and helps in attracting more
attention (Manser Payne, Peltier and Barger, 2017).
Adopting different communication channels leads to provide number of benefits and
some of them are as follows-
Increase marketing market share: Improvement in number of channels through which
marketing is performed leads to enhancement of market share. As through different channels
number of consumers are attracted and this leads to generate more and more consumers for
TESCO in long run.
Type of target market: When number of channels for marketing is used then in that case
it leads to enhancement to selected target market. As online media target young generation and
offline marketing is for all age group.
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Funds availability for marketing communication: In TESCO network for marketing
that are selected justifies the budgets that are allocated as these selected methods are beneficial
for marking and helps in achieving targeted goals of marketing.
Sales promotion technique of marketing is used by TESCO will help in higher market
penetration. As consumers will be more aware regarding products that are served and quality of
the goods this will improve sales in particular market and in long run it will lead to profit
maximisation and getting large market share.
TASK 3
P4 Marketing communication plan to effectively meet communication objectives
Marketing communication plan is a strategy for informing all the targeted audience
regarding goods and services offered by a business organisation. It is a customized blueprint for
an organisation that is based on specific situations. A market communication mix will be created
on the basis of service or idea and prevailing market conditions that will help in targeting the
predefined consumer group. Main goal of this communication plan is to identify the targeted
audience and a message is developed to inform them regarding goods and services offered by
TESCO. Communication plan this is introduced in TESCO so that effective communication can
be established among business and its consumers. To achieve overall marketing goals and
objectives a marketing communication plan implemented in TESCO is elaborated as follows
through its different stages.
Marketing communication plan: The marketing communication plan is a continue
procedure where utilise several communication channel to achieve organisational objectives.
This plan made by the Tesco to improve business strategy and increase sales (Ots and Nyilasy,
2015). There are defined different stages of marketing communication plan as follows:
Situational Analysis: To conduct business activities in the market require to analysis of
internal and external environment. It helps to understand the organisation's capabilities, business
environment and customer requirement. At this stage situation of market is analysed through
conduction SWOT analyses on same.
SWOT Analysis: This analysis provides information of internal strengths and weakness
and external opportunities and threats available to business. This will help in analysing
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communication process in most effective manner to give best results (Pearson and Perera, 2018).
There is TESCO conduct SWOT Analysis:
Strengths Weakness
 The strength of the company is to
create and execute best promotional
programme to communicate about
brand features and services effectively.
 Every member play important role with
responsibility in promotional strategy
and provide different facilities to
provide good services to customer of
Tesco.
 Immediately reply on customer
complaint and high online presence.
 Maintain good quality of product and
effectively engage with customer for
long period of time.
 In the market face high level
competition from rivalry such as H&M,
ASDA, Sainsbury, Morrison and wait-
rose. These are using effective
promotional and communicational
techniques.
 Not much innovative as compare with
other big retailer store and lack of
workforce.
Opportunities Threats
 People conscious for health so wanting
to quality product for eating food.
 Use of E-Commerce, online marketing
and advanced technology to expand
business at international level.
 World economy recession and Brexit
issue
 Increase competition regarding to price
of products.
 Open new store in the market who
provide product in low price with good
quality.
Hence, it can be said that Tesco have good opportunity to connect with different types of
customer use communication channels. It helps to attract more clients and engage with hem for
longer period of time. Tesco is planning to launch new Grocery Van to deliver grocery on time
to needed customers ( Perreault, 2018).
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Audience and identification: For this product target to hotels, restaurants, cafe who
wants to vegetable in bulk and have no option to carry so they are ordering online vegetables.
The van deliver grocery on time to customer as per the requirement. It support to Tesco to
increase sales and identify the expectation of customer regarding to products & services. For this
Van they take feedback and according to that apply required modifications. There are taking
audiences of individuals as well as families.
Objectives: The main objective of marketing communication ideas to target market to
attract more customer for products & services. Tesco follow the SMART objectives that
categorise into specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely achievable. The company has
been situated in London and across England. The company has started to export their product out
of country such as Australia, India, South Africa and USA purchase still principal market is in
UK only.
Therefore, it wants to make its product more popular in other places of world for better
growth of a company. Thus, the main purpose of Tesco for this marketing communication plan is
to properly communicate about the products and brand name. The main marketing
communicative objective of Tesco is to create brand and product awareness for vegetable van
will lead to accomplishment of following targets:
 To improve level of brand awareness from 50% to 80% in maximum parts of world in 1
year.
 To focus on the sales revenues and increase by 15% as well as profitability.
 To increase profitability level develop effective promotional strategy and marketing
communication plan (Porcu, Del Barrio-Garcia and Kitchen, 2017)..
Strategy: The particular strategy apply by a company to meet with target customer with
the help of various communication channels. There are consisting of the content of message, the
medium and target audience. It consist of various manner of marketing such as relation
marketing, door to door sales, paid advertising, word of mouth, internet marketing etc. The aim
of Tesco to develop brand awareness among the target people in order to increase sales and cover
whole market to increase profitability. Thus, Tesco use internet marketing to connect with
customer and effectively promote product with brand name. The company also use social media
for advertising where mostly people activate and through online website create better
communication and connect with other people to grab huge market. To advertise of grocery van
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