Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for Sainsbury plc - BTEC

This report provides a comprehensive integrated marketing communication plan for Sainsbury plc, a major UK retailer. It examines various marketing communication channels, including direct marketing, digital marketing, advertising, public relations, and sales promotion, detailing their advantages and disadvantages. The report designs communication objectives for Sainsbury and justifies the integration of marketing communication channels to meet these objectives. A detailed marketing communication plan is presented, followed by an evaluation of the plan in relation to its communication strategy, channel choice, and content. The analysis includes a target market segmentation (STP) and recommendations for enhancing online presence and leveraging social media and advertisements to increase brand awareness and sales. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of setting SMART goals and objectives for successful marketing communication.

Submission Front Sheet
Programme BTEC Higher National Diploma (HND) in
Business (RQF)
Unit Number and Title Unit 23: Integrated Marketing Communication
Distribution Date
Word Count 3976
Is this a first sub mission Is this a Referral
Submission
Y
Learner’s Statement of Authenticity
I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own. Where the work of
others has been used to support my work then credit has been acknowledged. I have
identified and acknowledged all sources used in this assignment and have referenced
according to the Harvard referencing system. I have read and understood the
Plagiarism and Collusion section provided with the assignment brief and understood
the consequences of plagiarising.

Executive summary
In today's business world, integrated marketing communication plays a vital role for the
success of business. The present report will be based on Sainsbury which is one of the largest
retail industries in the world providing various types of products. It includes financial services,
clothing, homewares, and groceries. The company focus on quality and sustainability which
helps them to attract more customer every year. In addition to this, the firm focuses on increasing
brand awareness and enhancing customer confidence and their purchasing behaviour. The report
is going to present a marketing communication plan that Sainsbury can use and an evaluation of
the plan concerning the communication strategy, channel choice and content. The major purpose
of doing this report is to develop the understanding of marketing communications and the
techniques used. With the help of theories and framework, students can relate the understanding
to real world examples which includes promotions that businesses nowadays are likely to
encounter in their daily lives. So, to be successful, companies need to use the most appropriate
methods of promoting its products or service to their target audience.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
Marketing communication channels and how they serve communications objectives for the
Sainsbury plc...................................................................................................................................5
Designing communication objectives for Sainsbury.......................................................................9
A justification of integration of the marketing communications channel to meet the objectives. 10
Marketing communication plan to meet the objectives of Sainsbury............................................11
Market plan evaluation in relation to the communication strategy, channel choice and content. .15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
In today's business environment, marketing communication plan is very essential for the
business success (Juska, 2021). It refers to the ways through which companies can easily present
themselves in front of customers and target audience effectively. With the help of integrated
marketing communication, the company can easily promote their services and products as it can
support business efficiently. By using appropriate marketing strategies, the company can easily
attract more customers and facilitate a better flow of operations. As we all know that in this
world where competition is very high, all businesses need to establish better communication
networks so that it would easily influence productivity and performance in a positive manner. As
a lead consultant at Sainsbury company in the UK, it has been asked to write a report that
evaluates the marketing channels and how they can easily serve communication objective of the
business. The present study is going to provide information about different marketing channels
and devises communication objectives and justifies the appropriate channel integration. Plus, a
market communication plan has also been designed to meet the objective of the firm with an
evaluation of communication strategy, content, and choice.
 Sainsbury is one of the largest retail industries in the world providing various types of
products and services to customers. It includes financial services, clothing, homewares,
and groceries. Basically, it is a wholly owned food retailer which operates for satisfying
the basic needs relating to homeware and groceries. The company focus on quality and
sustainability which helps them to attract more customer every year. The company has
14.9% of market share in the supermarket sector and hold second position in the UK. It
employs over 153000 people and having 600 supermarkets and 800 convenience stores.

Marketing communication channels and how they serve communications
objectives for the Sainsbury plc
As we all know marketing is very essential for company, it provides value to the target
audience (Hayes and Sharma, 2021). Basically, it is the way businesses deliver their products
offers and value to the customers. To be successful in the competitive world, the firm can easily
promote their brand name and create brand awareness. By using marketing channels based on the
structure of business, the managers can easily make connection with the customers and aid in
creating strong professional relationship. It leads to increase in sales and performance of the
company. It has been said that customers attract towards those companies who focus on new and
modern techniques of marketing (Hänninen, and Karjaluoto, 2017). To attract customers, the
company use media such as television and radio to communicate about its corporate image.
Direct marketing- it is a marketing communication tools which can used to
communicate with target audience effectively. By using direct marketing, the company can
easily communicate with retailers such supermarkets since they are able to deal directly with the
audience. For example- as we all know that sales team approach clients and convince them to try
the products of firm to get a unique experience. This is one of the most effective tool Sainsbury
can use as it is less expensive as compared to advertisement. Methods like brochures, online ads
and telemarketing are included in it.
Advantages & disadvantages of direct marketing
By using this method company can easily create strong relationship with clients and suppliers.
However, it is a time-consuming as it takes up a lot of time this is the major drawback. The
reason behind that is if company wants to create a personalized message to inform everyone it is
essential for them to make marketing list, then it is going to be a time investment. While
implementing this strategy the company needs to take this disadvantage into consideration as it
can build trust among customers.
Digital/internet marketing- Digital marketing is one of the most used and effective
method of marketing communication that would provide success to any business. The power of

internet we see today is more than compared to traditional methods like advertisements and
newspaper.
Advantages & disadvantages
In today's technologically driven environment, using the internet and other digital mediums and
platforms as a way of promoting brands is the effective step one could take. This method
includes search engine optimization, blogs and digital platform through which Sainsbury can
easily target their audience. Security and privacy issues is the main disadvantage of digital
marketing because more cybercrimes attacks are going on with the increase in the use of internet,
hackers are hacking the customers identity and use it as fake profiles.
Advertisement- To be successful in the world of competition is one of the key objectives
of businesses. The Sainsbury always focus on quality with brand awareness and recognition. As
such, the company embraces an advertising marketing channels which helps them to create brand
awareness among customers. The company use media such as television and radio to
communicate about its corporate image. To draw customer attention and build its brand name
among people the company focus on advertisement to emphasis its sponsorship. Before modern
methods, the businesses focus on using traditional method like newspaper and magazines where
they print detailed information about their services and products and new offering as well. As
people are spending more time on internet using social media platform, the company can put
advertisement on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
Advantages & disadvantages
With the help of their website the company can make effective use of advertising method. Mass
audience can easily attract by using this potential tool. However, before implementing this
method the firm manager needs to focus on disadvantage of advertising such as
misrepresentation of facts regarding goods and some businesses says that it is very expensive in
nature.
public relations – as we all know that businesses rely on maintaining their positive brand
image to their clients to successfully build relationships. They are always ready to make
investment in branding. By using public relations model, the company can easily align to their
target audience (Ngamsutti, 2018). Sainsbury aims at building brand reputation and boosting

their performance relating to sales so that it would effectively attract more customers. When
done in a correct manner public relations can also turn into free publicity.
Advantages and disadvantages :
By using this method company can Mold the brand into consumer lifestyles and their social
norms which could enhance communication between them. Lack of control over message
content is the biggest drawback of public relations.
By using CSR policy, the company focus on food wastage, increasing recycling and
maintain sustainable eating for the betterment of people. For example- Sainsbury engages in
activities that are aimed at maintaining the atmosphere through its program, ''Helping everyone
eat better'' company reflect its focus on becoming one of the popular brands which is more
environmentally conscious and giving clients value for money.
Sales promotion- it has been noted that Sainsbury uses BTL promotional strategy to
draw attention of customers and build strong relationship with them.
Advantages & disadvantages
With the help of this method, the firm can increase its sales and enhance their
performance (Widjaja, 2022). Not only this, but it also helps them to build customer loyalty via
nectar reward card. By using this card, customer can easily earn points on every purchase they
made at the Sainsbury store. The interesting part is that customer can redeem these points at their
next purchase. In addition to this, with the help of these cards the firm can build a customer
database and can easily send tailored offers to the targeted segment of customers. By using sales
promotion, the firm focus on promotional campaigns and currently using live well for less slogan
for all its campaigns. Talking about its disadvantage, increased price sensitivity among people is
one of the biggest drawbacks of sales promotion.
Market plan evaluation in relation to the communication strategy, channel
choice and content
From the mentioned market plan, it can be evaluated that content of the plan has been
creativity designed so that it would allow the firm to successfully achieve its objectives. By this
the firm can attract more customers as people are spending more time on internet, they surely
spend more time on website of the firm. Good content will enhance customers to know what the

firm is offering (Blakeman, 2018). Therefore, if the traffic is more on the site than it will indicate
a positive influence and vice versa.
Target market- STP
The company segment their market and customer who love shopping online and offline
for groceries and want to purchase daily good at effective price. The target group of the company
is females who manage households and individuals. The family unit is selected by the company
as their market. Online selling should be increased so that clients can easily buy products and get
delivery at the doorstep (Morgan and et.al., 2019).
An increase in Online presence will come under the communication strategy used by
Sainsbury. Social media, sales promotion and advertisements will help firm to attract customers
and helps to create brand awareness. Based on past data, the company can make comparison
about the sales in order to determine the effectiveness of strategy (Jetter, Eimecke and Rese,
2018). A reduction in sales will indicate the communication strategy has a negative impact while
on the other side increase in the sale means it has positive impact.

Designing communication objectives for Sainsbury
To be successful in the market every business needs to focus on setting goals and
objectives as this is the very first step one could take. Basically, communication objectives are
all about setting of goals which can be SMART goals so that the firm can easily meet the needs
of customers and can reach their potential target audience (Blakeman, 2018). The major purpose
of setting goals is to entertain and inform social expectation which can help in achieve future
success. To achieve goals, firstly company needs to do proper planning and research about
customers behaviours then only they can fulfil their objectives. Sainsbury has set objectives that
it strives at achieving because they can easily allow them to gain competitive edge and
advantages and promote growth.
As we all know that the major aim of the company to inspire customers to try something new
which could help them reduce their shopping bill and show them about its great quality and
create great value. Here are some SMART objectives which is designed for Sainsbury.
 To reach potential customer satisfaction level by adopting effective marketing strategy
such as internet marketing and direct marketing.
As we all know that people are spending more time on internet using social media
platform to search about anything online. This creates a great opportunity for the company to use
this as a marketing communication tool. The firm can easily influence the customers purchasing
behaviour and their attitudes in a positive manner by using this internet marketing which is a
modern tool. The customer's attitude regarding the company's services and products can be in
positive or negative terms. With a negative perception they boycott products of the firm and
influence other not to make purchases. While on the other side, the customers make purchases
and give positive comments on social media when the attitude is positive. This can help the
company to build strong relation and promote growth of the firm. To deal with negative attitude,
the firm needs to focus on market research so that they can easily understand about the
preference and requirements of the company and grasp the opportunities such as marketing.
 To increase sales by 10% and performance of the company by constructing media plan
in the next three quarters.
By constructing media plan the company can increase their sales performance. For this,
the firm is focusing on operating in multiple locations. By expanding its business, the firm can
easily increase their customer base and enhance profit levels in the long run. To increase sales,

company needs to ask for reviews and feedback from potential customers. Reviewing will help
firm to establish their reputation in the mind of people. By this they can easily build trust among
people. The more positive feedback they will have the more likely a potential customer could
help them to meet their goals and choose them over competitor in retail industry. Plus, increasing
social media presence will also be helpful for the company as it builds trust and enhance the
personality of firm. Firm needs to focus on increasing average order size so that it can increase
their sales. But before implementing any strategy the firm needs to focus on customer service,
research about strategies used by competitors and use effective pricing strategy.
 To enhance brand awareness by 5% with the help of personalized distribution
channels.
Brand awareness is all about showing customers about the products or services and offers
relating to it (Hayes and Sharma, 2021). Basically, company's ability can be well-known when
they attract customer and meet their needs. Sainsbury displays its products via television and
sales promotion method whereby they used slogans, which help the customers to uniquely
identify about the brand offering. Additionally, company offers an active kid vouchers scheme
where certain sport club can redeem these vouchers for sports equipment’s. Hence, in this way
Sainsbury create personalized distribution channels to explosion of customer touchpoints through
which company can reach out to their target customers or market. Also, with the help of
innovation the firm can easily concentrate on influencing the clients’ purchasing behaviours.
A justification of integration of the marketing communications channel to
meet the objectives
As we have already discussed about the communication objectives of Sainsbury which
involves enhancing brand awareness, increase sales and performance and reach customer
satisfaction level (Widjaja, 2022). To meet the objective, the firm uses various marketing
channels as elaborated below.
Social media marketing and ads are used in increasing brand awareness-
As we have already covered that people are spending more time on internet using social
media platform. With the help of online ads on social media platform the firm will repeatedly
displays its goods which form an impact on the customer buying behaviour. By reviewing the
comments on social media customers can make decisions whether to buy things or not. The

company has launched ad campaigns in radio, newspaper, radio, and leaflets to build its brand
name.
Sales promotion is used to increase sales-
In order to increase sales, the company focus on using sales promotion as a marketing
communication tool in which they offer cards so that they can easily be redeemed by people.
This method is effective and unique as it appeals to all the customers. Not only this, but the firm
also establish loyalty card called nectar which can be used after completing the registration form
online. With the help of card, the company can allow customers to collect and spend these points
later at the time of shopping (Widjaja, 2022).
Direct marketing used to reach potential customer satisfaction-
By using this method, Sainsbury can directly meet the needs of customer and
communicate with them as it can enable them to gather feedback on what they should make
improvement. This channel helps in creating a strong relation with clients (Widjaja, 2022). Also,
complaint raise by customer are being addresses which helps to improve positive attitude
towards firm. However, the method is demanding as the salespeople must be obtained and
trained on how to engage and address the customers.
From the above discussion it has been justified that, the most effective channels of
communication are sales promotion, social media marketing and direct marketing which needs
to be taken into consideration and applying this method will help Sainsbury to sell its quality
product to customers.
Marketing communication plan to meet the objectives of Sainsbury
Marketing communication plan plays a vital role in the business success as it is a strategy
which can help company to gain customer satisfaction level (Englund and et.al., 2020).
Basically, it is a tool used by firm for informing about their product or services to target
customer audience. When company design a plan then it will help them to enhance their
marketing strategies and reach their goals. Below mentioned marketing communication plan will
help Sainsbury to meet the objectives which can improve their performance in the long run.
Overview of the company
Sainsbury is one of the leading brands of retail sector providing clothing, groceries,
financial services and homeware to meet the needs of customers. While doing business
operations the company creates its value by using accountability, integrity, diversity, and