Integrated Marketing Communication Report for Pebble Watch in Australian Market - Case Study Example

 Executive summary Smartphone technology has revolutionized the way communicate, and lead our daily lives through various apps designed to make the experience of using the phone one of a kind. The pebble watch has come in to make the experience even better by wirelessly connecting to a Smartphone to enable a user to access functions of the gadget without having to reach for it in the pocket. It’s a new consumer electronic product intending to launch in the Australian market. to penetrate the market, the new player will need to enhance brand awareness and get consumers interested in the product and eventually buy it for the company to make profit. An integrated marketing communication will help pebble technologies come up with a good strategy and a media plan to advertise its product effectively in the Australian market than it would have with a plan that is largely disorganized. Table of Contents Executive summary 1 1 Introduction 3 2 Background information 3 3 Target market 5 4 Communication objectives 6 4.1 Developing brand awareness 6 4.2 Influencing consumer attitude 7 4.3 Influencing the purchase intention 7 5 Creative strategies 8 5.1 Resonance strategy 8 6 Media plan 9 7 Conclusion 10 References 11 Integrated Marketing Communication Report for Pebble Watch in Australian Market 1 Introduction The smart phone technology is a new concept set to revolutionize not only how people communicate but also how people live. There are several apps and gadgets that fit together with Smartphone technology to solve simple day to day lives of users all over the world (Tech-Thoughts , 2013). One such gadget is the pebble Smart watch. Pebble Smart watch connects to iPhone and Android smart phones using Bluetooth, alerting the user with a silent vibration to incoming calls, emails and messages. Pebble is a simple fashionable yet highly capable of solving small everyday problems to make life enjoyable for users. The Pebble watch combines other features too with several Smartphone apps such as apps that enable access to GPS and golf course rangefinder apps (Pebble , 2013). 2 Background information Pebble watch is produced by pebble technology firm headquartered in downtown Palo Alto, California USA. Pebble has officially started mass manufacturing of pebble watch in the year 2013 after securing financing from a Crowd-funding platform made possible by Kickstarter, a venture financing firm. Pebble raised more than $10 million from the platform to start its manufacturing and distribution in the market. The manufacturing is currently being done in china targeted mainly for the United States market. By July 4th 2013 the firm had already sold 85, 000 units much of which had been pre-ordered during the financing stage of the pebble watch project. The company believes that the pebble watch is the ultimate 21st century watch built to offer convenience and fun to users in a simple yet sophisticated way (Hof, 2013). The product itself has been under development for four years going through a rigorous product development process that involved coming up with multiple designs until a final design with the current features were agreed on by the development team as the watch built for the 21st century. The CEO and the founder, Eric Migicovsky admitted to developing 10 to 20 designs, settling on about three and still designing more from the three until a final design had been agreed on (Hof, 2013). The Smart watch has the following features that explain why it has become such a huge success within such a short time. 144 x 168 pixel display black and white e-paper Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR and 4.0 (Low Energy) 4 buttons Vibrating motor 3 axis accelerometer with gesture detection In addition to these one can load multiple applications into its operating system using blue tooth. The Smart watch is compatible with iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5 or any iPod Touch with iOS 5 or iOS 6, Android devices running OS 2.3 and above. It is however not compatible with blackberry and windows phones (Pebble , 2013). The Pebble watch has a rechargeable battery witch can sustain the gadget for one week without the need to recharge. It is waterproof and can stay submerged in salty and fresh water for at least 50 minutes. One can customize the appearance of the outdoor electronic paper screen to suit a watch face desired. Pebble has developed several watch faces which can be accessed through an android or iPhone app. More are still expected to be developed by apps developers which the company has welcomed to suggest interesting items and apps that can be added into the gadget to enable it solve everyday small problems facing Smartphone users (Sherman, 2013). Pebble watch is a smart wearable that the designers believe will suit and complement the activity one is doing at a particular time. One is able to control music playing from their Smartphone without reaching for it. a runner or a bike rider can monitor their speed and distance. This is very important especially for people doing fitness activities as you can easily monitor fitness stats through integration with Runkeeper and other fitness apps available in the market. Pebble may also warn you of a bump ahead while driving since it will be integrated with Twine technology. Twine is a high tech device utilizing Wi-Fi to sense several changes in the environment and send useful signal to user’s Smartphone and can now send it to pebble watch (Hof, 2013). There is so much that can be done with the watch but the core product being sold by pebble technologies is convenience and fun using a Smartphone through a small wearable gadget that connects to the phone through Bluetooth technology (Sherman, 2013). The aim and purpose of this report is to develop an integrated marketing communication for pebble watch in the Australian market. The report will among other things; identify the target market for pebble watch in the Australian market, introduce the communication objectives, outline the creative advertising strategies and the media plan under respective headings. 3 Target market Pebble is intending to launch its product in the Australian market. The product is a consumer technology item offering convenience and fun to its users. It is a new innovation in the market as it has not been present in the market before. Borg (2009) suggests that with the features being offered by the product to the consumers, the target market in Australia will mostly comprise people enthusiastic about new technologies that they can add to their list of exciting technologies. This group will most commonly be made up of consumers within the age of 16 to 45 years. This group is very much interested in trying out new things (Slater & Sengupta, 2009). Another factor is that they will have to Smartphone users of iPhone or android based gadgets. Currently android based smart phones control 62% of the Australian Smartphone market with iPhone controlling about 32% of the market (Tech-Thoughts , 2013). This means that pebble has quite good target of the market. the target market expects to get the spelt out benefits such as connectivity to their smart phones so that they don’t have to reach for the all the time, integration with day-to-day apps such as fitness apps, weather notification apps, driving apps and so on. It is therefore important that the target market needs be met something which the product has already achieved and now needs to communicate. 4 Communication objectives 4.1 Developing brand awareness Pebble is a new technology in the market. The product offers innovative solutions and convenience to Smartphone users through its ability to link with smart phones. There is so much that a consumer is set to benefit from by acquiring pebble watch. But at the end of the day marketing is all about meeting the consumers’ needs and letting consumers know that your product is best suited to meet their need notes (Barker, Michael, & Shimp, 2012). It is almost useless to have a product full of benefits but does not solve the problems being experienced by the target market (Percy, 2012). Gardner, Johnson, & Wilkinson (2000) point out that the first objective for an IMC is to develop brand awareness if a product is new in the market. The consumers in Australia need to know that the product exists and also what needs the product will meet for them. The brand awareness campaign will mainly target to highlight some of the daily activities that can become easy or fun to engage in when pebble is involved. It is expected that some consumers don’t know how the gadget works and as such don’t know the massive potential the gadget has when developers start building exiting apps for the pebble watch. The campaign will therefore purpose to explain to consumers how the new product works. It will also be important to point out to consumers which smart phones are compatible with pebble watch. The watch is only compatible with iphones and android based smart phones at least for the time being. Buchanan, Cruz, & Schroeder (2010) point out that the consumers in such a target market want a high performance quality technology product that simplifies their lives, something that the Smartphone has tried but has not achieved to address the small issues such as ease of handling, hardiness to tough environment such as water and high moisture, high outdoor performance including high screen visibility. The pebble watch addresses all these and much more and so it is extremely vital for the brand awareness campaign to bring this up as it maybe the determining factor to the success of the brand at the take of stage which is the introductory stage of the products lifecycle. At this stage, new products are highly susceptible to competition in the market and also consumer indifference and as such sustained efforts to communicate the products benefits as well as how they match the consumer needs is vital (Spake & Joseph, 2007). This will be a particular consideration for brand awareness campaign in Australia for pebble watch. 4.2 Influencing consumer attitude After consumers are aware of the existence of a brand or a new product, efforts need to be made to spark interest for the product in the consumers. A product may have all the best features and people know about it are not actually interested in the product (Pickton & Broderick, 2005). In the case of pebble watch, what may emerge to work against the product success in the market especially at the first stage is the customer asking himself/herself whether he/she really needs the product. Many may argue that the Smartphone can actually achieve all that the pebble watch does by itself without the need of thee extra gadget. It will therefore be vital that the IMC focuses its attention on differentiating the benefits of the product that add value to smart phones being used by the consumers. The main product being sold by pebble technologies in the watch is convenience and ease of use with Smartphone to make the experience enjoyable for consumers during their activities such as running, cycling, playing golf, listening to music or going about their daily activities. Communicating this connection may work to initiate interest for the product in consumers. Once a few consumers have acquired the pebble watch then the penetration rate may increase as consumers influence each other to buy the product. This kind of success in word of mouth advertising happens due to communicated benefits amongst consumers or through the fact that consumers don’t want to be left out (Ferell & Hartline, 2010; López & María, 2013). It therefore tells that the introductory stage of the product will be the most critical to the success of the brand in the Australian market. 4.3 Influencing the purchase intention Once consumers are aware of the existence of the brand then the next logical step as suggested by (Percy, 2012) will be to influence the consumers into purchasing the product. This will be part of the three critical objectives that will be central to efforts made by the IMC to market pebble watch in the Australian market. The IMC will seek to persuade the target audience the benefits they stand to accrue by purchasing the product and why buying the product will deliver value for the consumers’ money. Jerome & Drewniany (2010) suggest that the campaign be integrated in such a way that the pricing and the promotional efforts complement each other. The product will not be marketed as cheap but rather as an affordable consumer technology product. This will resonate with the company’s intentions of moving fast in the market to beat possible competition that may arise from apple and Samsung who are at advanced plan to launch similar products in the market. It will be important to include statements such as “value for money”, “the Smartphone is not complete without pebble” “getPebble now”. Such statements according to Rotfeld (2006) influence the subconscious mind of the consumer, the consumer feels he/she is missing out on something and as such will be influenced to make a purchase decision. When it comes to high-tech gadgets, the market being targeted which is typically young techno savvy Australians and in other parts of the world too don’t like to feel as if they are being left out and as such a campaign targeted to make them feel it the new thing in town will influence purchase decision (Buchanan, Cruz, & Schroeder, 2010; Meldrum, 1995). 5 Creative strategies To achieve the above communication objectives of the company, the IMC will have to outline a set of creative strategies will have to be adopted in order to reach the target consumers of the pebble watch and to bring in revenue for the company. The strategies should be anchored on the needs, preferences and the market dynamics. The strategies will then determine which media will be suited to achieve the intended outcome of the strategies (Jerome & Drewniany, 2010). 5.1 Resonance strategy Resonance strategy will be adopted to actualize the marketing and income objectives of pebble in the Australian market. This is anchored on the fact that the product is new in the market and as such has to be positioned as a revolutionary consumer electronic gadget that every one using a smart phone requires. This will ensure that a market is created in Australia for the new product. Through enhancing brand awareness and influencing the consumers to make purchase decision. Resonance strategy is the strongest form of advertising which is specifically done to make consumers feel they need the product being advertised and cannot do without it (Jerome & Drewniany, 2010). The advertising then will make consumers with smart phones feel that pebble watch will come in to solve some of the few convenience issues they experience while using smart phones. It will make the target market feel the watch will come to enhance the benefits that can be realized from their smart phones. This calls for aggressive advertising which is at the same time convincing. 6 Media plan To raise brand awareness, newspapers and television will be the preferred media as they put across the message in a faster and more effective way. Newspapers and televisions are mass media channels that reach a large chunk of the target market that will most probably have access to these media (Joyner, 2009). The media also is in line with the fast moving intention of the company as it seeks to cash in on the fact that it is the fast product of its kind in the market and as such have to make profits before competition sets in and operational costs pile. The young population which is largely the target of the product is very visible on social media platforms such as twitter and facebook (Brown, 1993). This means that using the media will be appropriate in enhancing brand awareness. The company will create a facebook page for the product and a twitter account for the product to attract social media enthusiast who will help increase brand visibility across the media. These media channels will be best suited to enhance brand visibility in the Australian market and specifically in the target market which is largely constituted of young techno savvy Australians. To influence customer interests towards pebble watch, there will be sustained and aggressive advertising campaign in the mainstream media. The media which includes TVS, technology magazines, newspapers and billboards will ensure that the company is able to highlight how the product meets consumer needs and as such attract their attention and initiate interest for the product. The news papers and magazines provide an opportunity to interact closely with the consumer so that he/she can analyze the benefits closely without some details escaping as it is the case with short television advertisement programs (Pickton & Broderick, 2005). To influence purchase intention, all the media available will be deemed appropriate as it will be a chance to make impact no matter how strong or weak the impact. However it will be fair to say that TVs, newspapers, billboards and online advertising platforms such as Google ads, social media ads and YouTube advertisement videos will have a huge impact on this specific objective than the rest of the media available. The TV ads speak directly and can use the ability to demonstrate and convince to achieve the desired results as far as the intention to influence purchase of pebble watch is concerned (Altstiel & Grow, 2012). The media identified for this purpose also are very accessible to the target market as the market targeted uses these media quite often for social purposes and to gain information as well as entertainment meaning it’s easy to reach them through the mentioned media. 7 Conclusion An integrate marketing communication will help pebble technologies introduce its smart watch in the Australian market and exploit effectively the prospects of realizing massive profits from the target market considering it’s a new consumer electronic product which complements the use of Smart phones whose growth in the Australian market is currently very impressive. the major hurdle to overcome is to enhance the brand awareness in the market since many people within the target market are not sure such a product exists and also they don’t know what the product can do for them it is vital that efforts be focused towards informative advertising rather than publicity since the product is new in the market and consumers need to know how it meets their needs and whether they will be willing to pay for it. 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