Critical Reflection on IMC Campaign and Course Learnings, MKT7209

This report presents a critical reflection on an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) campaign, focusing on the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. The student analyzes their experiences and learnings from the campaign, including the development of background analysis, creative briefs, and the overall IMC strategy. The reflection covers key marketing concepts such as media planning, target audience identification, brand positioning, and communication methods. The assignment highlights the importance of reflective learning, the application of marketing tools, and the value of understanding budgeting in marketing campaigns. The student also discusses the benefits of group work and the development of essential skills in the field of marketing. References to course materials and relevant literature are included to support the analysis and demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.

Running head: CRITICAL REFLECTION
CRITICAL REFLECTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Critical Reflection on IMC campaign
The course and the assignments have helped me to create a better understanding of my
entire chosen field of study. The course as well as the tasks that were associated with it helped
me to identify with the various communicational aspects that were much important aspects of the
course. The IMC campaign was to reach out the public for gaining their support concerning
blood donation campaigns. All the three assignments that I did as part of the course were
concerning the subject of the Australian Red Cross Blood Services marketing communications
campaigns to reach out to the most important customers. The knowledge that was gained through
working with all three of the assignments helped me to understand not only the marketing
concepts but essential concepts of public and social engagement as well. The assignments were
more important as all of the essential intrinsic concepts that were related to the course were
covered through the assignment s. I learnt more about placement, promotion, value and
communication mediums. The assignments actually helped to learn more about the Australian
public and how to gain their attention. Through the assignment I learnt more about the Redcrosss
and their functions in Australia. Their target audiences, their communication tools and their
strategies. Some of the important things that were learnt were concerning brand positioning,
brand promotion and communication method management. I had to create my own agency
named the Blood Donation Matter and help my clints Red Cross to reach different customer
segmentation. Before the assignments I was very limited in my understanding of all the
mentioned aspects but the assignments helped me greatly.

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Critical Reflection on the topics
The course topics that were focused on through the various weeks helped me to learn and
grow effectively. One of the concepts that really attracted me was media planning that were the
focus topics in week 4. This part of the Week 4 lectures on the subject of media planning and
media choices were my most favorite parts of the course. It helped me to learn more about the
concepts of the messages, the creative strategies, the modes and methods of sending the
messages and the media strategy. I learnt more about the promotional mix, the planning exercises
and the media strategies. This according to me was the crux of the learning as the larger part of
the effectiveness of any media plan actually depends on the value of media choices and planning.
It was also at this stage that I got to know more about the target audiences. Some of the other
important concepts that were learnt were. I learnt about how important social media and online
promotional activities have become in the field of marketing and promotions. More importantly I
learnt on how to utilize the media devices towards setting up effective and efficient campaigns
that can be used to reach a large number of target audiences. This was an interesting concepts
and I used this concept to actually improve my learning of the other important concepts related to
the course.
Key course learnings
Some of the key course learnings were in related to how effectively the audience of any
marketing campaign can be reached. Hill and McGinnis (2007) proposed that marketing should
be taught through inducing curiosity among the learner. Some of the key course learnings were
gained through this way. I learnt about how the various marketing tools need to be used as per
the marketing plan. However, my curiosity actually helped me more to understand about the
budgeting that needs to be done. The cost associated with learning was thus an important

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learning. According to Higgins (2011) reflective learning is very important to learn more about
management. This was both a good realization as well as a key learning that I derived. As an
example, I can says that the concept of marketing planning required much more of this reflective
process as a lot depended on practical application rather than theory. I engaged effectively in my
classroom to learn more about some of the most important concepts that were related to the
course (Hedberg, 2009). Each and every week I got to learn something interesting about the
marketing functions. Starting from the planning process to media choices to budgeting, the
concepts that were learnt were very effectively connected together. As discussed previously, the
course helped me to develop a holistic understanding of the entire media marketing process. The
course has been very important for my development from being a student to an enlightened
person concerning marketing knowledge.

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References
Higgins, D. (2011). Why reflect? Recognising the link between learning and
reflection. Reflective Practice, 12(5), 583-584.
Hill, M. E., & McGinnis, J. (2007). The curiosity in marketing thinking. Journal of Marketing
Education, 29(1), 52-62.
Raber Hedberg, P. (2009). Learning through reflective classroom practice: Applications to
educate the reflective manager. Journal of Management Education, 33(1), 10-36.

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Reflection