IMC Tactics, Essay Example

The Fortune 500 Company I have selected to analyze for this assignment is Walmart. Their primary strategy is to sell high quality goods for low prices. Therefore, the company’s marketing campaigns revolve around this concept. Three IMC tactics that are implemented by the company therefore include creating a campaign that demonstrate efficiency and consistency over a variety of media platforms, integration of the cognitive response theory, and a customer centric approach. It would be beneficial to look towards Walmart as a model for IMC due to the company’s demonstrated widespread success.

Since Walmart is has over 2.2 million employees and thousands of franchises across the world, it is important for the company to remain consistent. Therefore, it takes care to ensure that their stores offer the same shopping experience regardless of what state or country a customer visits a Walmart in. Thus, prices and store organization are equivalent across the board. This extends to its in-store marketing campaign, which has been mirrored by its television commercials in the past. Both advertise the store’s ability to “rollback” prices on common items, which has encouraged many customers to enter their stores. Furthermore, the store offers “the lowest price, guaranteed”. This demonstrates the company’s ability to remain consistent between their media campaigns and the products that are available in-store. With the advent of social media marketing, Walmart has continued this trend by advertising their discounted products on both Facebook and Twitter.

This IMC tactic is advantageous because it allows consumers to trust Walmart. Since it is a large corporation that offers many items, it is necessary for the company to market themselves in a manner that makes them appear reliable. Often, the “rollback” campaign is accompanied by a smile, which is intended to instill a feeling of happiness into customers. The company continued to succeed in this venture when it integrated social media into its advertising tactics. Since many of its less successful competitors turned to technology as a primary way to access their customer base, Walmart invested in this strategy as well. Currently, it has more Facebook likes, check-ins, and followers than its competitors (Wildfire, 2014).

The cognitive response theory states that audiences can become persuaded due to the self-talk present in messages (Eagly et al., 1993). This is a valuable IMC tactic for Walmart because the company uses the familiarity that customers has with its business to an advantage. Therefore, when customers enter Walmart or view a television advertisement, they are faced with a product that they may need. They become encouraged to purchase the product because they associate what they’re viewing with their needs. Since customers will become more likely to purchase a product the more they think about it and Walmart is targeting consumer needs by offering discounted prices, customers are more likely to visit Walmart to acquire their need.

This is a useful IMC strategy that Walmart will continue in order to remain successful. Many competitor superstores, such as Target, advertise on the basis of the store experience as a whole. Yet, despite the fact that it has been rated as having superior customer service compared to Walmart, it is not as successful. Therefore, Walmart focuses on its products to bypass its need to improve certain aspects of the store. By offering products for lower prices than the competition and advertising on this basis, it is able to attract a great degree of business.

Lastly, Walmart takes a customer centric approach to their advertisement. This is arguably not the case in their stores, yet their marketing strategy has branded them as a family friendly supermarket. They state that their essential beliefs that guide their practice include “respect for the individual”, “service to their customers”, and “striving for excellence” (Walmart, n.d.). To ensure that this image is able to be transmitted, Walmart will typically sell only products that are high quality. Therefore, its IMC strategy is tied closely into their product availability. Since the company wishes to only market their best products, they will only offer goods that are popular and will sell.

Walmart should continue this marketing strategy because it helps the company generate return business. When customers react to an advertisement and try a product, they are more likely to return to the store if they are pleased with its results. Therefore, Walmart’s management team hand picks products to sell based on popularity or proved successes. When the company is approached with a new product, they will try the item out in one or two stores to determine its ability to sell before they invest time and effort to place it in other stores. Ultimately, this provides Walmart shoppers with the feeling that the company is truly interested in them and is only willing to sell products that are of high quality. By reflecting this message in advertisements, the company is able to continuously attract both new and returning customers.

In conclusion, Walmart’s IMC strategies are effective. The company markets their products to their customers by stressing the low prices, by integrating the cognitive response theory, and by stressing the importance of the customer relationship in their advertisements. These efforts have increased the approval rating of the store and it is likely that the company will continue to be successful while employing these strategies far into the future.

References

Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Walmart. (n.d.). Culture. Retrieved from http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/working-at-     walmart/culture

Wildfire. (2014). Comparisons: Facebook and Twitter. Retrieved from  https://monitor.wildfireapp.com/comparisons/4386/checkins/walmart-vs-target-vs-amazon-vs-sears-on-facebook-and-walmartspecials-vs-targetdailydeal-vs-amazondeals-vs-searsdeals-ontwitter?https://monitor.wildfireapp.com/comparisons/4386/checkins/walmart-vs-target-vs-amazon-vs-sears-on-facebook-and-walmartspecials-vs-targetdailydeal-vs-amazondeals-vs-searsdeals-on-twitter=undefined#&data=daily&range=all