IMC Plan Assignment

For your IMC plan, your task is to develop a comprehensive strategy for an automobile or electronic product of your choice. This plan will cover all components of a proper integrated marketing plan including: positioning, communication objective(s), target audience alignment, background research, creative execution, creative support and a media strategy.

An IMC plan contains three key elements: research, business strategy and creative strategy/execution.

• You must conduct research on the market to understand where your product currently sits and where you want it to be

• You must use key strategic elements to select proper media, schedule the usage of such media and ensure it fits within your specified budget

• You must develop a creative strategy as to how you plan to advertise your product. What is the key messaging, or the big idea you will roll out your campaign with?

Your budget for this assignment will be $600 000. This should be more than enough, however you must work within this dollar constraint to produce a properly executed advertising schedule within the appropriately chosen media.

When writing your plan, you must consider the following components to maximize on the consistency and cohesiveness of your strategy and messaging:

• Your Business Objectives

  • How will your idea increase market share? By how much?

  • How many additional units will you need to sell to make this happen?

• Communication Objectives

  • What is the overall communication goal of this campaign?

• Target Audience Alignment

  • Who is your target audience? How will you be relevant and connect with the target demographic?

• Key Selling Ideas

  • What feature/benefits of your chosen brand are you using to engage the audience? Outline how you are using these to create a lasting experience.

• The Creative Approach to the Campaign

  • Describe the hook that will engage the consumer with your campaign. Outline the innovation, uniqueness and creativity delivered by your campaign to the target audience. What traditional and non-traditional media opportunities will be utilized throughout the campaign?

The following are the components of your IMC plan that must be included in your strategy. Please note that these are only brief outlines of each section. I have posted a supplementary document online that expands on some of the sections in more detail. I also encourage you to consult your textbook for further resources.

• Executive Summary

  • Open with a brief summary that clearly communicates the goals, findings and execution of your marketing campaign.

• Positioning

  • What do you want the customer to think of your product, relative to competing products?

• Communication Objective(s)

  • What are the goals and objectives of the communication program?

• Target Audience Alignment

  • Who is your target audience? How will you be relevant and connect with the target demographic?

• Background Research

  • You are encouraged to undertake primary/secondary research to guide your decisions. Provide the key findings of this research.

• Creative Execution Include:

  • An outline of the creative strategy you will use to achieve the communication goal.

  • A description of the mood or tone you are proposing.

  • An overview of the overall theme

  • An explanation of what human need is being satisfied.

  • An explanation of what the consumer know and understand about the product, and how they feel about the brand.

  • A description of the action consumers will take as a result of the campaign.

• Creative Support

  • Provide reason(s) to believe the campaign will drive consumer interest.

• Media Strategy

  • What media will you use to communicate the campaign? Detail your rationale and decision process using industry and consumer trends for support.

  • Include a media timeline, and discuss budget.

• Conclusion

  • Conclude why you feel the campaign will be effective.

You will be graded on the following areas:

Evaluation Area Final Creative Strategy	Percentage Weight (100% total)
In-depth review of the industry in relation to your product	/15%
Accurate research and analysis of your target market	/15%
Realistic review, identification and justification of your competition	/15%
Proper analysis, identification and description of your media selection and budget	/15%
Ability to develop a positioning strategy in relation to your communications objectives	/15%
Ability to develop effective creative messaging in relation to your communication objectives and identified target	/10%
Ability to combine all elements into a cohesive creative plan	/15%