Free Example of Marketing Communications Plan Memo Essay

A marketing communications plan is a written document that outlines various marketing strategies or approaches, tactics and activities that are to be carried out by an organization in order to ensure that the desired marketing messages or information reach the intended customers at the most appropriate time. A marketing communications plan usually outlines the approaches to be used when delivering information to target consumers. It also sketches out the schedule of activities to be carried out during the conveyance of marketing messages to customers. In addition, a marketing communications plan also identifies and establishes the most appropriate channels of communication to be used when communicating with customers. Most importantly, a marketing communications plan ensures that useful information that is deemed vital to consumers for making purchase or consumption decisions is conveyed to the customers at the right time to guarantee adequate persuasion of customers as they make purchases.

The following memo has been written to members of the management team of Best Lady Enterprises to provide an elaborative explanation of the importance of various demographic and psychographic factors during development of a marketing communications plan for the business. Best Lady is a small business in a metropolitan area that specializes in production, distribution and selling of high quality and customized designer clothes for women.

Memo

Best Lady Enterprises

DATE: March 5, 2013

FROM: Designer Specialist

TO: The Management, Best Lady Enterprises

SUBJECT: Importance of Demographic and Psychographic Factors during the Development of a Marketing Communications Plan

Dear Management Members,

The above subject matter.

This is to bring to your attention that Best Lady Enterprises has decided to increase the production of women’s clothing from fifteen thousand units to twenty thousand units per week. In addition, I would like to inform the top management as well as other employees that the business has also intends to increase the production of high quality and specialized women’s clothing in order to adequately meet the increase in demand for customized and designed clothing for women in the consumer market. With that in mind, this memo intends to inform the management about the importance of various demographic and psychographic factors during the development integrated marketing communications plan for increasing the customer base for the ’s clothing for women.

Demographic Factors

First and foremost, I would like to highlight the importance of two major demographic factors namely age and income to the development of the integrated marketing communications plan. In my opinion, the age of consumers has great influence on the type of information to be conveyed to the target customers via the marketing communications plan. People of different ages use varying communication tools to share information and usually have access to different communication channels or media. For example, women aged between eighteen and thirty five years often gain information through reading print media such as magazines and newspaper. This batch of women also gains information through active involvement in social activities such as weddings, get-together parties and special occasions like birthday parties and anniversaries. Szmigin (2007) also affirms that most youths, especially women, aged between sixteen and thirty years usually gain information through interactions with close friends and peers. Thus, they tend to consume products that are consumed by their friends and peers. These women also gain information from social networking media such as Facebook, Badoo and Twitter. On the other hand, women aged above fifty years are likely to get information from electronic media especially radio and televisions and from a few personal friends, family members and close relatives. Older women are also more conservative than younger women.

Therefore, it is important for the management of the organization to give adequate consideration of the age of the target customer during marketing communications planning. For example, the organization should place advisement about the designer women’s clothing fashion magazines if the target consumers are women aged between eighteen and thirty five years. The organization may also advertise its products in parties and weddings where a majority of attendants would be women aged below forty years who require trendy clothes. Moreover, the aging population of women presents a smaller market for designer clothes. They should target young women who provide ready market for the designer clothes. This is because most young women like highly customized clothes that make them look more beautiful and fashionable unlike old women whose focuses have been diverted to career development and family life.

Secondly, the level of income of the target customers also has considerable impact on the marketing communications strategies to be developed. In my view, Best Lady Enterprises should target women in the working or middle-class and upper-class brackets who have substantial amount of income to spend on designer clothes. As King (2010) asserts, designer clothes are viewed as a luxury that can only be afforded by women with additional or extra cash. However, Best Lady Enterprises may also consider manufacturing affordable designer clothes for women in the lower-class in order to increase its customer base. Kotler (2010) and Solomon (2008) also assert that the income of consumers is an important factor is determining marketing strategies of an organization because it directly influences the buying ability of the consumers.

Psychographic Factors

In relation to psychographics, I believe that personality and buying motives are the most important factors that the management of the organization should give greater consideration. This is because the personality of an individual directly influences his or her behaviors. For example, celebrity women are more likely to buy designed clothes whereas ordinary women are less likely to buy designer or customized clothes. This is because celebrity women have attention-seeking personalities, thus would prefer highly fashionable and well-designed clothes.

On the other hand, the buying motive of customers is important because it determines what customers buy and at what frequency. For example, women who require designed clothes for special occasions such as wedding and parties are motivated by the need to appear presentable, thus would buy more designed clothes during such occasions. As a result, Best Lady Enterprises should target such consumers in order to boost sales and increase customer base.

In my view, understanding the types of personalities and buying motives of the consumers would help the organization in identifying the various needs of the consumers. As a consequence, Best Lady Enterprises would be able to produce highly qualify designer women’s clothes that adequately meet and satisfy such needs. This would also result into increased satisfaction of customers; hence increase in customer base and customer loyalty. Barsky also asserts that satisfying customers through adequate focus, identification of needs of customers and striving to meet such needs is vital for any organization that wants to achieve high market share and increase the customer base.

Summary

I would conclude by asserting that I am confident that if the above mentioned demographic and psychographic factors are given adequate consideration during the development of market communications plan, the organization will be able to products that are customer focused, hence achieve greater market share and enlarged customer base. Through a comprehensive understanding of the discussed demographic and psychographic factors, Best Lady Enterprises would forge and convey useful information to the target consumers via appropriate marketing communications strategies, hence increase its market base.

Yours faithfully,