Use of Integrated Marketing Communications in Marketing of Coopers Brewery Ltd - Case Study Example

The success of the company is largely attributed to the marketing strategies it employs. The company employs niche marketing strategies that capitalize on the family nature of the firm and emphasis on the premium nature of its products. The integrated market communication strategy applied by the company has played a great role in the success of the company since its inception. Through the strategy, the company is able to manage customer relationships which drive brand value primarily through communication efforts. The efforts create and nourish profitable relationships with customers as well as other stakeholders through strategically controlling and influencing messages sent to target customers. The integrated marketing communications (IMC) helps in maximizing the impact the company’s promotional efforts has on end users at a minimum cost. This has the effect of increasing sales while at the same time reducing the overall cost incurred resulting in improved profitability. Use of IMC in marketing helps Coopers Brewery wrap communications around customers and help them through various stage of the buying process. The company simultaneously consolidates its image, develops a dialogue and natures its relationship with customers. This cements a bond of royalty with customers which protects them from the inevitable onslaught competition (Shridha, 2008). For example, the niche marketing strategy employed by the company helps in retaining customers for life hence leading to a competitive advantage over other breweries. The establishment of a loyalty scheme named coopers club as part of the IMC has also greatly helped in strengthening the bond between the company and its customers hence ensuring that they are royal to the Coopers brand. This has ensured that the company has a base of 6000 customers who are shielded from competitors as they feel part of the Cooper’s family. Integrated marketing communications strategy employed by the company also helps in increasing the company’s profits through enhanced effectiveness. In all the company’s marketing efforts, a unified message is conveyed. The IMC is greatly centered on the history and tradition of the company. This is seen in the presentation of the company’s history in its website and marketing collateral including fliers, physical design of the company’s products which have a traditional feel as well as the company’s logo. The naming of the company’s products also conveys the same message and gives a traditional feel of Cooper’s products when compared to competing brands hence giving the company a competitive edge. This unified message has a greater impact than a disjointed myriad of messages (John, 2006). In the busy breweries industry, consolidated and crystal clear messages such as the ones conveyed by Coopers has a greater chance of cutting through the noise of the numerous commercial messages. The IMC strategies employed by the company boosts sales by stretching across several communications tools to create more customer avenues to enlighten them arouse them and ultimately make them to purchase. In the company’s EMC strategy is the company’s staff. Making the company’s staff part of the Cooper’s family greatly boosts the company’s marketing effort. All the Cooper’s staff are kept informed and motivated about any new developments from new advertisements, to new corporate identities, as well as new service standards (Institute of brewing, 2007). This keeps the staff motivated and is responsible for maintaining the products quality as well as the Cooper’s image greatly boosting the company’s marketing efforts. 2. The company’s is largely attributed to the marketing techniques that the company has employed. In its effort to market its products and hence remain relevant in the market, the company has used a number of different promotional levers. The different levers are aimed at encouraging consumers buy its products and engender loyalty amongst its target market. The firm has advertised its products across a range of media which includes television, radio, television, radio, billboards, and print among other forms of media. The company’s advertising is handled by an external agency and carries a common theme of the unique nature of Cooper’s products as well as the cooper’s family concept. The company uses a public relations company to promote itself through the media and event management and sponsorship. Some of the promotional opportunities that the company has utilized include ‘lingerland’ in summer 2007 which involved Cooper’s lager ambassadors visiting households in Adelaide and providing tasting sessions for consumers (Glenn C, 1999). The company has also developed a website that consists of informational content on various parts of the company business. The website carries information on the firm’s activities including its products, history, activities in the society as well as details on the firm’s business from students’ point of view. The company’s online store also avails its various beer related merchandise which include branded apparel, barware and stationery items. In 1996, the company also established a loyalty scheme known as The Coopers club in its bid to promote its family nature. The club invites potential members to be part of the Cooper family for a small annual fee of 35 dollars. Members are entitled to various privileges including receiving beer related merchandise, regular club magazine, access to special club nights, discount on merchandise, and purchases among others. The Cooper family concept makes the consumers feel that they jointly own the brand. The extended family metaphor has also been used on the Company’s staff. The company offers brewery tours to its employees and has also built a museum to complement the tours (Robert, 2004). The museums and such sites have the potential of enhancing customer interactions with a product by enabling the firm communicate elements of the brand to its various stakeholders and providing a site where consumers can pay pilgrimage for their favorite brands. The museum is located in the company’s home state capital where the company ahs a major market for its products. The company has also opened a bar –Alehouse and a ‘general store’ that retails cooper merchandise. The outlets which avoid more contemporary wording convey further traditions of the company. It is worth noting that in all the company’s efforts to market its products, the company conveys a message of the unique nature of its products as well as the Cooper family concepts (Institute of brewing, 2007). The promotional levers employed by the company as well as the message conveyed in the company’s promotional efforts have largely contributed to the company’s success. 3. The Coopers brewery success since its inception in 1862 is greatly associated with its effective marketing as well as promotional strategies. The company employs niche marketing strategies that capitalize on the family nature of the firm as well as the premium nature of its products. The company also uses multiple promotion levers to make its presence felt in the market and for it to remain a relevant brand in the market. The company has identified its target market as being the older Australian customers who form the greater part of its market. However, it is worth noting that all the promotional and marketing efforts could be cumbersome or even fruitless had the company lacked an understanding of its target market. In other words, it is very important for a company such as Coopers Brewery to have an understanding of its target market before it embarks in the execution of its IMC strategy. Given that resources are always limited, knowing the target market has enabled coopers to increase cost efficiency. This is because the company has focused all its marketing efforts towards the target market where the company’s products are most likely to be bought (John, 2005). This enables coopers not to waste resources in markets where the likelihood of its products being bought is limited. As a result, the company is able to decrease non-successful advertising expenses and to ensure that the company appropriately reaches its target market especially bearing in mind that Coopers is a small company without the marketing money and hence it has to apply grassroots marketing strategies. Understanding the target market helps the company to advertise directly towards the target market hence reducing on cost. Understanding the target market in executing the company’s IMC is also important as it has helped the company in identifying the customers’ needs of the target market. Therefore, the company is able to offer to the market what the customers want and to communicate messages that are tailor-made to communicate that what the company is offering in the market is actually what the customer needs (Institute of brewing, 2007). This further reduces the marketing effort that the company puts in its IMC and hence costs. By understanding its target market, Coopers Brewery is also able to know its customer base, the market demographics, growth trends, and the number of potential customers in the target market, customer requirements as well as their purchasing key drivers which include quality and price as well as the markets purchasing behavior (Rachael, 2005). Such information is important for the company as it is able to determine the level of effort to employ in its IMC strategy. This enables the company to have a realistic budget for its marketing as well as promotional efforts based on the information obtained from the market. Furthermore, this leads to more efficient use of resources and the farm is able to adequately reach the whole of its target market and realize the desired results leading to more sales and hence greater profitability. 4. Coopers Brewery’s success since its inception has been greatly attributed to the IMC strategy it has adopted. The company has employed niche marketing strategies which have capitalized on the family nature of the firm while laying emphasis on the premium nature of the products it produces. The company has also concentrated on marketing its products in its target market which is Australian older population (Robert, 2005). Furthermore the use of various promotional levers which include the use of the media as well as the loyalty club have further contributed to its success. However, as the company continues to grow and with passage of time, the company needs to modify its IMC strategy so as to remain relevant in the market while at the same time guarding itself from its competitors. In order for the company to expand its revenue base, there is the need for increased use of the media in reaching its customers. Although the company makes use of its website, the radio and television among other media in advertising, there is need to employ more modern methods of communication in advertising. Online advertising is one such area that can revolutionalise the company’s IMC. The company should examine the possibility of using such avenues as pop-up Ads, floating Ads, search engine advertising, blogs as well as link exchanges. In so doing the company can be able to reach a greater number of people. However, this would imply additional cost which the company should be prepared to incur if it is to grow. The company also seems to have concentrated its efforts among the Australia’s elderly. Although this is their target market, there is need to enlarge the target market outside Australia. Therefore, the company should explore ways of focusing its marketing efforts outside Australia. This is likely to bring in more customers for the company. Furthermore, the company does not seem interested in marketing its products among the youth/the young. However, for the company to ensure continued survival, the youth have to be brought on board. The company should therefore incorporate strategies meant to attract the youth (Holm, 2006). For instance, use of online advertising is likely to reach the youthful market. Another method that could be used to reach the youthful market is by sponsoring events such as football games. In so doing, the youth will want to associate themselves with the company’s products since they will associate it with the game. The loyalty club also needs to be enlarged to include more members. This is because the more members there are, the more people there will be who will associate themselves with the extended cooper family and this will result in an extended market. The company should also consider incorporating more modern products in its product mix (Robert, 2005). This way, the company will be able to remain relevant even among those not interested in the traditional products. Finally, the company should increase its funding on its marketing programs. This will enable them increase their customer base and hence become more profitable. Furthermore, they will be able to compete in an industry that is becoming increasingly competitive. References: Shridha, J2008, Integrated marketing communication: trends and innovations, Routledge, London. John, A2006, Cases in marketing management and strategy: an Asia-pacific perspective, MacMillan, Melbourne. Robert, F2004, Integrated market communications, Macmillan, Melbourne. Glenn C, 1999, Coopers brewery marketing strategy, The Australian and New Zealand wine industry journal, vol.22, no.5, pp.111-115 John, W2005, Target marketing, Australian journal of marketing, vol.15, no.3, pp.25-32. Institute of brewing, 2007, How coopers does it. Journal of institute of brewing, vol. 104, no.15, pp. 100-106. Rachael, B2005, Integrated organizational communications, Oxford University press, New York. Robert, M2005, Contemporary strategy analysis, Academy of management journal, vol.21 no. 14. pp. 592-610. Holm, O2006, From tactics to strategy, Emerald journal of integrated marketing communications, vol.13, no.21, pp.19-25. Read More