Strategic Marketing Analysis: Patagonia's IMC Plan in South Africa

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Patagonia's Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) plan, focusing on its application in the South African market. The analysis begins with an introduction to Patagonia and its commitment to sustainability, followed by a competitor analysis, identifying key players like The Northface and Columbia Sportswear. A detailed brand analysis examines Patagonia's brand awareness and association. The report then explores market segmentation, defining demographic, behavioral, and geographic characteristics. The target market is defined based on lifestyle and the influence of social culture. A SWOT analysis evaluates the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The core of the report focuses on Patagonia's marketing communication strategy, including digital marketing, advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, mobile marketing, and sales promotions. The report also discusses the monitoring of marketing strategy, including sales strategy changes and surveys. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the importance of a well-designed IMC plan for long-term sustainability, considering market changes and competitive landscapes. References are included for further research.

STRATEGIC MARKETING

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Competitor Analysis..................................................................................................................3
3.0 Brand Analysis...........................................................................................................................3
4.0 Market Segment.........................................................................................................................4
5.0 Target Market............................................................................................................................4
5.1 Life-style................................................................................................................................4
5.2 Influence of Social Culture....................................................................................................5
6.0 SWOT Analysis.........................................................................................................................5
7.0 Marketing Communication Strategy..........................................................................................6
7.1 Digital Marketing...................................................................................................................6
7.2 Advertising............................................................................................................................6
7.3 Personal Selling.....................................................................................................................6
7.4 Direct Marketing....................................................................................................................7
7.5 Mobile Marketing..................................................................................................................7
7.6 Sales Promotions...................................................................................................................7
8.0 Monitoring of Marketing Strategy.............................................................................................7
9.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
Page 2 of 10

1.0 Introduction
The concept of integrated marketing communication (IMC) plan may be conceived to be one of
the most success critical aspects in the study of marketing. The instant paper deals with the
analysis of IMC plan of Patagonia, an US based apparel company.
2.0 Competitor Analysis
Patagonia is one of the topmost founders of the outdoor gear, whose base is in California and
maintains 100% organic material and cotton in its outerwear, underwear, shirts, and pants. While
introducing their products in the South Africa market, the competitors of Patagonia are like as
below:
 The Northface Apparel Corp is specializing in high-tech designing and distributing
outdoor gears and apparels. The products they include are tents, jackets, backpacks and
sleeping bags. There are many retail stored and online facilities of Northface in South
Africa that covers a high volume of customers (Batraga et al. 2019).
 Columbia Sportswear is another competitor of Patagonia that sold several gears to
mountain climbers and winter outdoor fanatics. Columbia Sportswear uses to divide its
end users into six groups such as winter, trails, water, golf, fishing/hunting, and travel
(Ahmad & Salleh, 2019). Regarding the various types of product lines, Columbia
Sportswear can give a great competition to Patagonia.
3.0 Brand Analysis
Brand awareness is very high in Patagonia to operate in the South African market as it has a
large network of international operations. Brand association of Patagonia is directly linked with
the products category and the brand name (Manoli & Hodgkinson 2019). Its product portfolio is
high with different outdoor items made of pure cotton for different weather conditions. In the
Page 3 of 10

South African market, Patagonia focus on providing good quality of delivery, product
innovation, and high-quality customer service provider ("Patagonia Outdoor Clothing & Gear",
2020). This company also focuses on providing value-added service to its new and existing
customers of South Africa. Employee base creation of Patagonia is highly reliable and looking
for local employees of the South African market to gain more customers is also one of the main
focus points of Patagonia (ALI, 2019).
4.0 Market Segment
Demographic Behavioral Geographical
 Age: 20-45 years and 45-
60 years
 Gender: Both male and
female
 Life-cycle: The students,
graduates young couple, a
married couple, old couple
 Occupation:
Professionals, students and
house makers
 Social class: Middle-upper
class and upper-class
people
 Lifestyle: Better and
higher standard of living,
professionally successful,
people day by day wants
to try innovative products
 Personality: Confidant,
hardworking, determined
and ambitious
 Domestic: Mainly focus
on urban part of
populations of South
Africa
 International: Patagonia
is established in America,
the UK, and the
Netherlands. Also operates
in the market of India,
China, and brazil (Rogers,
2018)
5.0 Target Market
5.1 Life-style
 Patagonia is targeting the middle to upper-class people of South Africa
 Affordability of the area will be on the priority
Page 4 of 10

 Quality control is on focused and considering on “green winter”
 Targeting the people interested in adventures of hiking, water driving, and forest
exploring
 Travels around the world
 People want to take a break from regular life activities
5.2 Influence of Social Culture
 Family: Many people in South Africa wants to give some more space to their children
and go hiking or any races for a long time. Patagonia targeting those people to provide
the needed types of equipment and types of wearing which might be helpful in their
adventures.
 Social class people: The people who live in society but like to spend time individually,
Patagonia tries to create a strong bond with these people.
 Reference group people: The people who have higher income and more free time, wants
to participate in the high range of adventures (LUTZ, 2014).
6.0 SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 Brand image is strong with the strong
distribution network worldwide
 The company has a range of innovative and
new products according to the need of the
South Africans
 The sales team has been involved in
researching different markets
 Product price is very high
 The website designing is not superior and
hence the order processing online is a time-
consuming process
Page 5 of 10

Opportunities Threats
 The offering may provide a green lifestyle
 There is a scope to expand in more regions
 The management may have the scope for
diversification in future
 Competitors are available with the good
area covered
 The threat of imitation of the products is
very high
7.0 Marketing Communication Strategy
To reach different types of customers, Patagonia has designed marketing communication
strategies which a given below
7.1 Digital Marketing
Patagonia is promoting their products and innovative plans and offers through social media sites.
It is identified that the internet is the second largest medium of connecting people in South
Africa (Rossmann, 2019). Most of the customers of South Africa are following the information
provided on social media. Patagonia directly interacts with the customers by replying to their
queries and acts on the feedback. It is seen that South African students are many follow different
types of blogs therefore Patagonia also starts blogging to get to them (Sultoni, 2019).
7.2 Advertising
While researching the advertising market of South Africa, it has been noticed that the advertising
industry of South Africa is very big which includes TV and video advertising (Kembau et al.
2019). Patagonia has released different advertising on the local TV channels of South Africa
where customers are not only getting the information about the products but also can understand
which products are suitable for which situation. Advertising is also done through printing banner
in the roadsides, railways and airports and printing magazines.
Page 6 of 10

7.3 Personal Selling
The salespersons of Patagonia are travelling around in different malls, streets, and markets of
South Africa with the leaflets of the products and interact with the people face to face and give
them the gist information of the products.
7.4 Direct Marketing
The marketing team of Patagonia is also putting efforts to connect with customers through
telephone, emails, catalogs, text message and brochures.
7.5 Mobile Marketing
The text message may be used to connect to the customers or the promotion of new products.
Bulk messaging service may be opted for in this regard.
7.6 Sales Promotions
Patagonia is also investing in providing incentives, discount coupons, premiums, contest, low-
cost deals, etc. to the existing customers while they accelerate the sale of the company (Sultoni,
2019).
8.0 Monitoring of Marketing Strategy
Changing the sales strategy
 The management focusses on the effectiveness of implemented marketing strategies
 The success of Patagonia's marketing strategy will be reflected in the increasing sales
 Sometimes new marketing promotions also bring success to the company
Survey
 The survey is conducted by the Patagonia marketing team of South Africa to recognize
the brand worth
Page 7 of 10

 The brand value, brand recognition, and brand recall are also identified using these
methods (Rogers, 2018)
9.0 Conclusion
The discussion herein shows that the brand may be involved in successful implementation of
IMC plan for their products and offerings. There will be number of issues and challenges that the
management of the firm may need to perceive and face while implementing the same. However,
the management may need to be cautious about any changes in the market in terms of regulatory
changes, changing pattern of customers preferences and competitive landscape as these factors
may have adverse impact on the successful implementation and subsequent execution of IMC
plan. Finally, therefore, it may be concluded that a well-designed IMC pan supported by the
consistent monitoring and supervision by the efficient leadership will significantly help the
management of a firm to achieve the long-term goal of sustainability in the most optimum
fashion.
Page 8 of 10

References
Ahmad, A., & Salleh, S. M. (2019). Brand Related Capabilities and the Process of Integrated
Marketing Communications (IMC): A Resource Based View (RBV). Journal of
Contemporary Research in Social Sciences, 1, 136-150.
ALI, M. A. Y. (2019). Concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC).
Batraga, A., Šķiltere, D., Šalkovska, J., Bormane, S., & Legzdiņa, A. (2019, May). Influence of
Integrated Marketing Communication Tools Upon Consumers’ Buying Decisions in the
Context of Sustainability. In Proceedings of the Conference “New Challenges of
Economic and Business Development–2019 (pp. 53-62).
Kembau, A. S., Supit, V., & Langi, C. (2019, October). Implementation of Integrated Marketing
Communication (IMC) In Higher Education as An Adaptive Move in The Era of
Industrial Revolution 4.0: A Case Study in Manado State Polytechnic. In Journal of
International Conference Proceedings (Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 7-18).
LUTZ, A. (2014). A Clothing Company Discourages Customers From Buying Its Stuff - And
Business Is Booming. Business Insider. Retrieved 13 April 2020, from
https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/a-clothing-company-discourages-customers-from-
buying-its-stuff-160and-business-is-booming/articleshow/42060334.cms.
Manoli, A. E., & Hodgkinson, I. R. (2019). The implementation of integrated marketing
communication (IMC): evidence from professional football clubs in England. Journal of
Strategic Marketing, 1-22.
Patagonia Outdoor Clothing & Gear. Patagonia.com. (2020). Retrieved 13 April 2020, from
https://www.patagonia.com/home
Page 9 of 10

Rogers, C. (2018). Patagonia: You can't reverse into purpose through marketing. Marketing
Week. Retrieved 13 April 2020, from https://www.marketingweek.com/patagonia-you-
cant-reverse-into-values-through-marketing
Rossmann, D. (2019). Creating an organizationally embedded strategic communication plan for
libraries. Library Leadership & Management, 33(2), 1-17.
Sultoni, M. H. (2019). INTEGRATED MARKETING STRATEGY FOR BEVERAGES
FRANCHISE INDUSTRY. JURNAL MAKRO MANAJEMEN, 4(2), 170-178.
Page 10 of 10