Live Project on Integrated Marketing Communications Student Meets the Real World

Description: Working in groups of 3, students will choose a local business or organization and design an advertising/promotional package for them. They will develop a list of appropriate questions, then interview a representative from the business and discuss different advertising/promotional materials that would benefit the business. Each group will make an oral presentation of their entire campaign before the class. As a part of the presentation, each student will make 1. A proposed television campaign and role play the ads to the class. 2. A Radio/Print/Billboard ad & present it in the class 3. A report on communication strategy The student must develop at least two TV ads as part of the campaign. This is important because companies rarely produce only one ad; they think in terms of a campaign or series of ads. You are encouraged to use your creativity and "have fun" with this assignment. Take help from your classmates to role play it. The report on communication strategy (15-to-20) page will detail the rationale and strategy underlying the campaign. As part of it, each student will submit an integrated marketing communications plan which brings all the key areas together. This written report must address each of the following areas: 1. Situation Analysis--What are the general dynamics of the industry and market which have an important influence on your promotional strategy? In particular, what is the nature of the consumer behavior in the product category and what is the nature of the competitive situation? 2. Target Market Analysis--How is the target market defined and why? What are the important characteristics of the target market? 3. Positioning Strategy--What positioning strategy will be employed and why? 4. Message Strategy--What message will be communicated to the consumers and why? How will this be communicated (i.e., what is your message strategy?)?

5. Media Strategy--Which media will be employed to get the message across and why? (REMEMBER!! Television must be one of the media) How will the message be executed in each media? What levels of reach and frequency do you hope to achieve?

6. Sales Promotion--What type of sales promotion will be employed and why (i.e., what are the objectives)? In general terms, what proportion of the budget will be devoted to sales promotion relative to advertising and why? 7. Direct Marketing--Will you employ any types of direct marketing as part of your campaign and if so, which types? 8. Public Relations--Please indicate any public relations activities you would engage in and why. What are the objectives of these efforts? 9. Integration- How are your different types of communications integrated to achieve objectives? How do you plan to influence the different stages of the consumer decision making process? It is important to emphasize the justification for each action recommended. Reasoning behind the strategy is more important than the actual plan itself. Class members will provide useful feedback to the student presenting. The quality of the feedback and the usefulness of the questions will be a component of the internals. The students will have four weeks to complete the project. At the conclusion of the project, an oral presentation to a panel consisting of teachers and the business representative will be given. The students will present their final advertisements and explain their development process in this presentation.