Integrated Marketing Communication Report for Sainsbury's

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Sainsbury's integrated marketing communication (IMC). It begins with an overview of the company, its communication objectives, and a critical evaluation of these objectives. The report identifies and evaluates Sainsbury's communication channels, including direct marketing, advertising, social media, public relations, and sales promotion. It then delves into the development of an IMC plan, including a situational analysis, audience identification, objectives, strategies, tactics, budget, implementation, and evaluation. The report concludes with recommendations for Sainsbury's to enhance its revenue and overall marketing effectiveness, justifying each recommendation with relevant insights and analysis. The report uses marketing concepts and theories to provide a comprehensive understanding of how Sainsbury's can optimize its marketing efforts and achieve its business goals.

Integrated Marketing
Communication
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ACTIVITY 1....................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the company......................................................................................................3
Communication objectives of the organisation......................................................................4
Critical evaluation of the objectives ......................................................................................5
Identify the channel of communication of the organisation...................................................6
Critical evaluation of the channel of communication.............................................................6
Critical evaluation of the overall marketing communication plan to enhance the organisation’s
revenue ..................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations to the organisation and justification to the recommendations ................7
ACTIVITY 2...................................................................................................................................8
Overview of the company......................................................................................................8
IMC situational analysis ........................................................................................................9
Audience and identification..................................................................................................10
Objectives.............................................................................................................................11
Strategy and Tactics.............................................................................................................11
Budget and Control...............................................................................................................13
Implementation ....................................................................................................................13
Evaluation and Control.........................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing communication is the techniques which are used by the company to express
their message to their targeted customers with the help of various promotional techniques. While
integrated marketing communication is an emerging concept which aims to link all the activities
related to communication with each other. The organisation needs to develop their
communication plan which is based upon the organisational objectives that they want to achieve.
To promote the brand well and to create awareness of the products the organisations have to
focus on the brand which eventually will help them to increase their sales and profitability. For
this report the organisation that is taken into consideration is Sainsbury which is one of the
largest chains of supermarkets in UK. This company operates in various segments such as food,
clothing and general merchandise, even in financial services. The report is prepared to develop
an effective communication plan which will help the company to make their customers aware of
the products and services. For this an understanding of various types of marketing channels need
to be studies along with the communication objectives. In the report the communication plan is
prepared which will help them to decide upon various strategies that facilitate the marketing
team to achieve their goals.
ACTIVITY 1
Overview of the company
Sainsbury is one of the largest supermarkets in UK which had its first store in London. It
is one such company who has adopted the concept of self service retailing in their early ages.
They deal in products such as groceries, foods products, financial services etc. which they
provide through the supermarkets, their cafe, they even have their fuel stations. Sainsbury
operates not only through their stores but also online i.e., they sale their products through their
websites as well. Their core business is of supermarket where they provide diversified services to
their customers. They have been facing an issue of ineffective marketing plan which affect their
customer base. For which their communication channels, objectives need to be reviewed on the
basis of which a communication marketing plan will be developed for them (Batra and Keller,
2016).
Marketing communication is the process which the help of which the companies convey
their messages to their targeted customers with the aim to directly or indirectly convince them to
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make purchase. It helps to create awareness among the customers regarding their offerings
(Valos and Ewing, 2017).
Integrated marketing communication refers to the integration of various promotional
techniques of the organisation that helps them to promote their specific product. Integration of all
the activities helps them achieve their objectives easily as it reduces the chaos and confusion.
Importance of marketing communication: The marketing communication offers various
advantages to the organisation. It helps the company in various ways:
 It develops strategic vision which helps the organisations to grab the opportunities by
devising the plan which helps them to create different identity in the eyes of the
customers.
 It creates awareness in the eyes of the customers regarding various products and services
so offered by them.
 It offers competitive advantage to the company as it helps them to make their brand
renowned (Turner, 2017).
Communication objectives of the organisation
Communication goals are long term as they aim to create the value for the brand overtime.
On the basis of such communication objectives organisations the targets which has to be
achieved. The objectives of the communication may vary from situation to situation and
company to company. Sainsbury undertake various researches before setting up any objective.
Various communication objectives of Sainsbury are:
 Establish product image: This is the objective of the marketing communication when
company launches any new product as they have to create awareness about their products
in the eyes of the customers. Sainsbury also have this objective when they introduce
either any new product or a range of existing product. They promote their products by
communicating their benefits to the customers by effectively reaching them. This helps
them to establish the image of their products (Spiller and et. al 2015).
 Facilitating customer behaviour: It may happen that customer knows about the product
but they do not purchase them. To push the client to purchase the organisations need to
facilitate the customer behaviour. Sainsbury facilitate the behaviour of the customers by
targeting their emotions, anxiety, humour etc. On these grounds they communicate to the
customers through various medium of advertising and promotion.
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 Increase market penetration: This is a communication objective where the companies
target to increase their market share by increasing their sales in a specific market with
their existing products. This is one of the most important communication objectives of
Sainsbury as they aims to increase market penetration. They have varied products for
which they want to increase their customer base by advertising their products along with
various augmented services (Singh and Singh, 2017).
 Establish customer relation: Every organisation has the objective to maintain the
customer relations so that repeated purchases can be made. Sainsbury tries to achieve this
communication objective by making their customers aware about various offers through
direct marketing. Also this helps them to make their customers loyal and satisfied.
 Influence sales volume: Communication is sometimes intended to increases the demand
for the products of the company and for which the sales has to be increased quickly. This
can be done by way of sales promotion techniques which help them to meet up this
objective.
Critical evaluation of the objectives
Every organisation has some communication objectives which they try to achieve through
various promotional mixes. Sainsbury also have some of such objectives which help them to
determine their targets. Various strengths and weaknesses of theses communication objectives as
given below:
Strengths Limitations
The communication objectives help the
organisation to determine their targets which
they have to achieve. On the basis of which
they further plan their strategies which are to
be undertaken by them. It clearly identifies
what the company has to achieve by
establishing a clear goal. From this it is
evaluated that the Sainsbury will be focussed
in one direction which will become their
strengths as they can easily achieve their
But the communication objectives that are to be
achieved may fail due to selection of
inappropriate strategy or change in taste of the
customers due to which the products becomes
no more attractive. This induces huge cost of
the company which may affect the other
operations and plan of the company. From this
it is evaluated that if the strategy fails then the
cost of Sainsbury will increase.
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targets.
Communication objective of Sainsbury are creating awareness among the customers by
providing the knowledge about their services and products. Also their aim to shape the attitude of
the customers as this will help them to increase their sales. This can easily be achieved by them
through a combination of various promotion mixes.
Identify the channel of communication of the organisation
Communication Channel: Communication channel refers to the medium with the help
of which the organisation convey their messages to their customers. Effectiveness in channel of
communication helps an organisation in increasing their sales as they can easily attract their
customers (Šeric, Gil-Saura and Ozretić-Došen, 2015). There are various channels of
communications which are given below:
 Direct Marketing: This is a methods with the help of which the organization directly
pitch the sales by promoting their goods through direct mail, texting to the customers.
This helps the Sainsbury in making customers aware about various offers that are
provided to them if they make purchases. The advantages of direct marketing is that it
helps in building loyalty among the customers as they direct communicate with them
through mails and messages while the disadvantages of direct marketing is that the
company can reach to the limited people only.
 Advertising: It is a media which help to attract customers by way of conveying the uses
of the product or services so offered by them. It can be done by way of television, radio,
print media etc. Sainsbury promote their stores by publishing weekly magazines and
television advertising on various local channels (Petersen, Kushwaha and Kumar, 2015).
The advantages of advertising is that they are attractive so it involves the customers. Also
they can communicate to the large number of people at a time. While the disadvantages
of Advertising is that it is very expensive channel and the message if not clear then it can
be misinterpreted by the customers.
 Social media: Social media is the source where content can be shared easily and quickly
at various online platforms. Sainsbury has their own websites and page on various social
media platform where they keep on promoting their services and products to attract more
of customers as people are more active on these platforms. The advantages of
communicating through social media is that the company can communicate to a large
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number of people and can have a direct communication with organic content. While the
disadvantage of this is that the company has to spend a lot of time on the campaign also
the customers can provides the negative feedbacks.
 Public relations: With the help of this method the companies directly or indirectly can
communicate to the customers who will help them to create the image before the
customers and improve their level of satisfaction. Sainsbury to maintain the relations with
the customers has appointed a PR team who cater them when they visit to the customers.
The advantages of public relations is that the customer can be easily influenced as they
are directly communicated by the sales persons of the team which will make them
understand the benefits of the products. While the disadvantages is that the evaluation of
this cannot be done.
 Sales promotion: It is such a channel which can help the organisation can increase the
short term sales of the company. This can be done providing discounts, coupons etc.
Sainsbury offer discounted products to the customers when they have to clear the stock.
The advantages of sales promotion is that it excites the customers and helps the company
to clear the stock. While its disadvantage is that it limits the revenue of the organisation
and changes the perception of the customers regrading the prices of the company.
Critical evaluation of the channel of communication
The organisation uses various channel of communication to make their customers aware
about their products but all of them may not be beneficial. For this the strengths and weaknesses
of various channel of communication is identified.
Strengths Limitations
 Sainsbury uses social media to
promote their store which is their
strength as nowadays everybody is so
very active on social media.
 Direct marketing helps them to make
a unique identity of the company
before customers as they get
information directly either through
mails or text messages which make
 To maintain public relation they have
appointed a PR team in their stores
which is not as beneficial as expected
because the customers select products
which are displayed as per their taste
and they do not like interference
which is the duty of PR team to make
their customer understand the benefits
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them feels special (Pasquier and
Villeneuve, 2017).
of the goods.
 Advertising through magazines
increases their cost as it does not
attract a lot of people for the
organisation because very few spend
money for the magazine of any store.
The strengths and limitation so identified will help them to modify their existing channel of
communication.
Critical evaluation of the overall marketing communication plan to enhance the organisation’s
revenue
Marketing communication plan aims to capitalise the brand value of the organisation with the
help of various available promotional tools. This helps them to make their customers more aware
about their products and services which stimulates their sales and thus their profits. By
identifying the communication objective they can work in specific direction to achieve that goal.
But it may sometimes affect the performance of the organisation as message that they conveys to
the customers may not be able to persuade customers which will be advantages for the
competitors of the company such as Tesco Plc.
Recommendations to the organisation and justification to the recommendations
To increase their revenue by enhancing the customer base Sainsbury can use different channels
of communication for different types of products. Integration of various marketing
communication channels and activities helps the organisation in getting the competitive edge by
establishing profitable relations not only with the customers but with all the stakeholders (Ots
and Nyilasy, 2015). Various channels are recommended to Sainsbury to plan for an effective
marking communication:
 They need to focus on the advertising through television as with this channel they can
target a large number of people. Also the advertisements can be developed with
innovation which will make the customers understand all the benefits of their products.
The Sainsbury can easily use this channel as they have sufficient funds available with
them and it become easy for the customers to understand the message so conveyed by
the company as it is.
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 With the use of promotional tool of exhibitions time to time will make their customers
aware about all the products available at their stores and as the customers will get to
know about them Sainsbury can persuade them to purchase by offering them various
discounts. The increase in prompt sale will help to increase their market share
(Oluwafemi and Adebiyi, 2018).
 They need to increase the use of internet to promote their products as nowadays people
spend most of their time on internet. So it will be will easy for them to establish their
image in the eyes of the customers. This will help them to target the millennial easily and
through advertisement they can attract elder people. It will also help them to analyse the
taste and preference of the customers which will enable Sainsbury to determine the stage
of product life cycle which they offer to the customers.
These channels can be used by the Sainsbury as they are the one with which easily be used
as they have sufficient funds. Also these channels can easily attract a large number of people as
everybody uses television, social media very often.
ACTIVITY 2
Integrated marketing communication plan helps an organisation to determine various
components that helps the organisation to achieve their objectives. These plans are formulated on
the basis of various market research conducted by the marketing team of the organisation. It
includes marketing channel which is to be used by the company, budgeting, selection of the
target market and many more. IMC plan is useful as it facilitate to cater the customers by
customising the communications (Luxton, Reid and Mavondo, 2015).
Overview of the company
Sainsbury is one of the largest supermarket chains of UK which offers various goods to their
customers such as groceries, clothing, financial services etc. under different brands like Argos,
Habitat, Tu, Sainsbury’s bank. They have their stores only in United Kingdom. Sainsbury is
looking forward for an effective marketing plan which will help them to achieve their marketing
and overall objectives of the organisation by integrating all the efforts and various
communication channels. They are also planning to launch a complete range of organic
cosmetics under their own brand name. The plan is developed for improving the marketing
communication for existing products and to create awareness about their new organic cosmetic
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products, also it include various communication channels that will help them to promote their
new products also.
Vision of the company: The vision of the company is to be a trusted retailer for the employees
to work and for the customers to make purchases.
Mission of the company: The mission of the company is to make their customers aware about
various product and services offered by them. Also they aim to put their customers at their heart
by investing more in the stores and in the channels of communication.
IMC situational analysis
Situational Analysis is used by the marketing team as a technique to analyse the market
conditions which can be related to both internal and external as both has influence on the
business and the channel which is being used by them to make their customers aware (Luxton,
Reid and Mavondo, 2015). For Sainsbury SWOT and PEST analysis is undertaken to analyse
various factors.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths: Sainsbury is one of the largest supermarket chains which have a large number of
employees who are well trained. This helps them to provide better customers services when they
visit to the stores. Sainsbury has more than 500 stores that are located across UK which are
opened every day in which they offers a wide variety of products and some of them are under
their own brand name. Also they have a strong brand image and name as they have good
reputation in the retail industry.
Weaknesses: The weakness of Sainsbury is their prices as they offered their products at
comparatively higher prices than their customers due to which they losses their market share.
Also they operates only in UK and do not have plan for expansion. Sainsbury has their online
presence but they are not efficient due to which customers do not prefer online shopping from
their websites. The inventory management and supply chain of the company is weak and
disturbed which affects the availability of various products in their stores.
Opportunities: The opportunity that they have is of product line expansion as it will help them to
increase their market share. So as they are planning to launch a wide range of organic cosmetics
will be an opportunity for them that they can easily grab. Also they can license their unique
product line so that their competitors cannot imitate them easily.
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Threats: Grocery industry is facing a stiff competition which is why their pricing strategies
become unstable as their competitors such as Tesco, ASDA etc. changes their food prices
frequently to attract customers. As the competitors keep on updating their services this becomes
a threat for Sainsbury of losing the market share. Also due to changing lifestyle the customers
consciously spend on the products (Lee and Coughlin, 2015).
PEST Analysis
Political: Political factors are those which influence the business on the basis of the decisions
taken by the government. Sainsbury has positive political impact as the government has reduced
the corporation tax which increases their profit margin as it enhanced their savings and due to
this their share prices increased.
Economic: Increasing prices in the economy has impact on the supermarkets. Sainsbury has to
modify their prices but it affects their procurement and disturbs the entire supply chain. Also the
rate of unemployment is high in UK which is why they can easily employee a large work force
for their stores.
Social: Due to change in taste and preference of the customers the businesses faces major issues.
Due to growing concerns for healthy and safe food Sainsbury has the opportunity as their major
focus is on the quality of the products and also they are planning to launch a wide range of
organic cosmetic which will easily be accepted by the customers.
Technological: Sainsbury need to adopt the technology frequently and need to update it in all of
their stores. They have adopted self-service counters and self-checkouts as and when this
technology emerged, this makes their customers satisfied and also provides them the competitive
advantage.
Audience and identification
The target market can be identified with the help of Segmentation, Targeting and
Positioning strategy. This strategy helps the marketing team easily identify their targeted
customers.
Segmentation: This is the strategy where company divides the market into groups on the basis of
various factors such as demographics, physiographic, behavioural etc. For the new products that
Sainsbury is launching, they will select the people on the basis of their age, class and perception
for the organic cosmetics. Basically they will be targeting college going and office going people.
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Targeting: The target market will be those who are conscious of the health and regularly uses
cosmetic. These are generally the office going people and the students who go to colleges. So
they will be directly be targeting the individuals and their families because family influences the
buying behaviour of the individual.
Positioning: The products that they are planning to launch will easily be available to the
customers in their all the stores. Along with that the customers can buy these goods online form
their website also (Keller, 2016)(Kerr and Patti, 2015).
Objectives
The objective of the company is to increase the sales of organic cosmetics by 10% through their
stores within 18 months and to make their customers aware about such products, the ingredients
and their benefits.
This objective of the company : is specific as they want to increase their sales by 40%; is
measureable as on the basis of ingredients used the customers can identify the benefits; is
achievable as they will be using various promotional tools to create awareness of organic
products; is realistic as customers are conscious of their health, taste and this product will
encourage this thought; lastly is time bound as they want to achieve within 18 months. Along
with this they aim to improve the quality of the products which they offers that will help them to
enhance their market share and promote their brand.
Strategy and Tactics
The company has already been using various strategies for their existing products. These
strategies are reviewed and on the basis of which new strategies will be determined for the
organic products so launched by the company. The aim of the product is to offer the customers a
healthy product of better quality (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017). The strategy that they
can adopt to launch their product effectively is of marketing mix that covers 4 P’s which helps in
decision making.
Product Sainsbury offers a wide range of products to their customers through their
supermarkets and convenience stores. They have been offering around 30000
products which includes food products, toiletries, stationery etc. Out of
which some of them are under their own brand. The new product which they
want to launch is a wide range organic cosmetic which will help them to
expand their market share as people are becoming health conscious day by
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