Integrated Marketing Communication Mix by PERKii

Question

Task: Individually, you required to write a 2000-word report based on the scenario provided in the assessment instructions below.

Assessment Description
This assessment is a culmination piece, in which you will be given an opportunity to combine the information you have accumulated in Assessments 1 and 2. More importantly, you will need to showcase an understanding of marketing issues related to consumer behaviours such as perception, attitudes, motivation, culture, family and lifestyle influences, group and individual differences, social class, consumer learning processes, and personal buying decision-making processes.

Answer

Executive Summary
The report provides the detailed examination of the strawberry watermelon drink from PERKii and the integrated marketing communication mix adopted by PERKii in order to achieve potential market and certain strategies in developing integrated marketing communication mix in the organization. With the help of research and analysis it has been observed that the drink has a potential to survive in the market because of its immense benefits. Being an energetic drink with great taste and many health benefits, it helps in attracting customers around the world. To gain the market share, examination has been done on current integrated marketing communication mix of the company and strategies to further develop it with the view to increase in potential customers and overall success of the organization.

Overview of product and its market performance

With the increase in health awareness among people, PERKii has emerged as great source of health gain for those who believe in healthiness and wellness. It is one the most innovative scientific research carried out at the University of Queensland and was launched in 2016. It is the first probiotic drink that has a good taste and various health benefits. Benefits of having PERKii drink are- increase in immunity, improve mental health, protect good bacteria in the stomach, and improve in digestion, controls acidic issues and increase in calcium intake. It is a probiotic drink that contains 85% of water and natural juice/ flavors, having low calories which also helps in controlling weight and contains other health benefits as well (Queensland Government, 2018).

It is the only health drink in the market that provides immense health benefits with great taste. It is further promoted by government and other organizations because of the increase in health awareness and several advantages of consuming this probiotic drink. PERKii is supported by $1.5 million from the Queensland government’s business development fund and further received aid from various Australian government programs and other investors to increase the production and expand the market around the world. With the exclusive support and its innumerous benefits, it has a market of over 2000 stores across Australia and New Zealand and is working on taking the product to US, Japan, China and other Asian countries. And the most important factor which enables this product to gain popularity and laid to expand is due to the increase in health consciousness among people and is easily available in the market at an affordable price. Therefore, this extraordinary drink containing 1 billion CFUs (colony forming units) and having very low calories with tremendous health benefits helps in developing potential market for the product (Manson, 2019).

Analysis of integrated marketing communication mix

Integrated marketing communication mix is a process of attracting consumers by providing them knowledge about the product and incorporates various techniques that help in gaining potential customers and eliminating competitors with the use of communication mix in the company. In other words, it is the use of some specific methods by the company for the promotion or expansion of their product’s market which helps in increasing number of customers. Factors to be considered in adopting integrated marketing communication mix are: consumers purchasing attitude, culture, family/lifestyle influences, social class and standard of living, consumer learning processes, and personal buying decision-making processes (PR, 2016). Incorporating these factors help organization to achieve success in expansion of market, increase in productivity and potential customers (Ismail, et. al. 2018). Methods adopted by PERKii for its promotion and expansion are-

Advertisement- The technique used by PERKii during advertisement is providing facts and benefits of drinking strawberry watermelon health drink from PERKii. Advertisement is the main integrated marketing communication mix adopted by the company. The main methods used by the company for advertising are- Magazines, Newspapers, Television ads, Radio. With the help of advertisement company was able to change the perception of people towards the brand. As it gives importance to various health benefits involved in drinking PERKii which lays a great impact on human psychology of becoming more conscious towards health. Advertisement ensures in providing message that clearly indicates the benefits of the product that helps to aim the target people who are health conscious and provide knowledge to others to become health conscious.

Online Advertisement – This platform is the most effective way which is used by business irrespective of their market size to reach to new customers. PERKii has also established online means to reach to its target customers through making alliances with different online stores and by developing its own online portal. Now days, social media plays a very important role in businesses as it helps in targeting mass population with limited resources. PERKii has gained a huge customer through this means of integrated marketing communication mix as it helps in developing personal buying decision (Liu, et. al., 2017).

Sales Promotion- There are various sales promotion techniques used in an organization which has a motive to increase in number of customers. PERKii has implemented several techniques like selling its products through online stores who initially provide free product in order to gain loyal customers. With the help of this marketing mix company target social class and evolve consumer’s attitude towards strawberry watermelon health drink from PERKii. By adopting various offers and benefits, provide home delivery, discounts, coupons which helps in increase of market share of PERKii.

Public Events- This type of integrated marketing communication mix enable to promote the product in the live audience. It becomes easy to introduce product in public events as it helps to provide all the information about the product directly from the manufacturers to the consumers and further help in taking questions of people if there is any. PERKii watermelon health drink is being promoted many a times in public events that help in influencing group of people and analyzing their purchasing attitude through direct communication.

Others- It is very much important to analyse customer attitude, their culture which includes their lifestyle and their preferences in order to develop any promotional technique. For understanding the consumer behaviour PERKii establishes several other integrated marketing communication mix such as- direct marketing, maintaining public relations, personal selling. With the help of integrated marketing communication mix PERKii watermelon health drink establishes a great market. Communication plays a crucial role in the success of an organization. Word of mouth took the business of PERKii to another level in just few years (Genchev, and Todorova, 2017).

What is the alignment of integrated marketing communication mix

Integrated marketing communication mix adopted by PERKii is very much aligned with the research executed in Assignment 1 and 2. From previous assignments it was observed that PERKii has developed a proper communication bridge between the company and its customers. As gathering information of customer’s taste, preferences, needs, desires and satisfaction and adopting a method of promotion according to the market condition is one of the advantages of PERKii to survive in the market and achieve great success. The integrated marketing communication mix of PERKii is designed in such a way that it influences the buying decision making of the consumer. It was observed that more than half of the people came to know about the product through family, friends and relatives which shows word of mouth has a great influence in the business process. PERKii has adopted various promotional techniques such as public events, personal selling, direct marketing which shows proper alignment with the findings. Further Advertisement and other tools will only be considered needful when the claims and information regarding the product stands correct. With the survey in the assignment 2 it was analysed that many customers researched about the product’s information and benefits and were satisfied with the product and its claims.

Use of social media and online platform proved to be a great means to conduct business. PERKii is using various online stores to provide strawberry watermelon drink and further developed its own official site. With the help of survey, it has been observed that most of the customers are using online platform for the purchase of strawberry watermelon drink then stores. Online portals not only help in easy and quick purchase but also provide various offers and discounts on prepaid payment method. Now days, people prefer online mode of payment by using wallets instead of using traditional way of payment that is cash. This behavior of customer helps in ascertaining their attitude towards other benefits available with the product and not just sticks to the product’s uses and benefits. Moreover, it was examined that people generally purchased strawberry watermelon drink from PERKii after going through the reviews on online stores and platform which shows that external influences have a direct effect on buying decisions of the customers. Developing online platforms aids customers in providing feedbacks, reviews and necessary information which is aligned with consumer learning process (SEUKINDO, 2017).

Theory Application- PERKii has included various integrated marketing communication mix and promoting process of strawberry watermelon drink which can be observed with different theories such as- awareness theory, social exchange theory, desire theory and action theory. Awareness theory can be observed with the increase in the knowledge of brand and people are aware of the existence of product in the market and their attitude towards the drink. Social exchange theory can be seen through the adoption of virtual communication instead of face to face conversation. PERKii to maintain public relation and influence mass group of customers have incorporate online portal and feedbacks platform so to achieve proper communication platform with the customers. Desire theory has been achieved by generating interest in the benefit of the drink and encourages customers to research about the drink and then induce to buy it. With the increase in health consciousness among people they are inclined towards healthy drink and providing them knowledge through different means of communication enables them to take buying decision. Action theory is observed through feedback platform implemented by the company. Customers are able to give their feedbacks and necessary actions are being taken accordingly to gain customer satisfaction. With the help of integrated marketing communication mix it has been observed that all the theories of customer’s attitude, group influence, consumer learning process and decision- making ability is achieved in order to gain market share and increase in customers (Smedescu, et. al., 2016).

Strategic Recommendation- With the desire to increase in productivity and increase in number of customers, PERKii is required to develop certain strategies. Development and execution of strategies enable PERKii to establish market not just domestically but also internationally. PERKii’s market is based in Australia and New Zealand and with the immense benefits and being the World’s first probiotic drink, it is very much important to develop strategy in order to make the drink available in the market globally. Further to increase the market of PERKii there is a need to develop strategies such as-

• To sustain in the market, it is necessary to understand customer’s requirement and their needs, which can be observed with proper evaluation of the feedbacks and reviews of the customers. And to implement strategies to resolve the issues examined in the feedbacks. It can be achieved through encouraging direct sales technique and personal selling element of integrated marketing communication mix in PERKii. Further it is important to provide proper training to the sales- person who can provide all the information and all the benefits of probiotic drink to the mass customers.
• Use of social media needs to be enhanced. Social media has a great power to reach mass customers across the world. Internet is available everywhere and more than half of the population is using social media. To expand the market globally it is important to encourage customers around the world. With the help of effective measures taken to improve the communication and advertisement on online platform, it can mitigate the issue of limited market access.
• With the analysis of market- structure it was found that most customers of Watermelon drink from PERKii are buying the product from online stores. Which help to understand the consumer behavior that maximum customers are now inclined towards online purchase. It is important to increase the online stores so that customers will be able to buy the PERKii drink from various sources. It further provide them to use different modes of payment as per their desire.

Therefore, as there is no competition of this drink, it is important to expand the market. And to increase the market share, productivity and the number of customers it is important to develop certain strategies which help PERKii to gain competitive advantage (Houghtaling, et. al., 2019).

To justify these recommendations based on the integrated marketing communication mix a recent literature on Zevia’s soft drink has been reviewed. Zevia is a zero- calorie soft drink producer based in America and to be entering into the German market. With the increase in globalization, it has become necessary to enter markets across the border with the view to gain competitive advantage. To survive in the international market, it is very much important to understand internal and external environment of the organization. And it is of great concern to adopt strategies to gain market share. To achieve this, Zevia has analyzed the market needs and requirements and use of social media platform to reach potential clients and other strategies like merger and acquisition, and making alliances in foreign market (Arnold, 2016).

Conclusion
The demand of healthy products has been increased tremendously. People are now becoming very much concern about their healthiness and wellness. With the increase in awareness towards health PERKii has developed probiotic drink with several benefits. Being an energetic drink with good taste PERKii has already developed great market. Since it is launched in 2016, market covered is restricted to Australia and New Zealand. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt various integrated marketing communication mix and strategies in order to gain market share and which will help in increase in consumers of PERKii drink around the world.

References
Arnold, V., 2016. The development of an international marketing strategy for ZEVIA on the Soft-Drink market in Germany (Vol. 2197). Integrated marketing communication mix GRIN Verlag.

Genchev, E. and Todorova, G., 2017. Sales Promotion Activities–Effective Tool of Marketing Communication Mix. Available at SSRN 3089894.

Houghtaling, B., Serrano, E.L., Kraak, V.I., Harden, S.M., Davis, G.C. and Misyak, S.A., 2019.

A systematic review of factors that influence food store owner and manager decision making and ability or willingness to use choice architecture and marketing mix strategies to encourage healthy consumer purchases in the United States, 2005–2017. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16(1), p.5.

Ismail, M., Zainol, F.A., Daud, W.N.W., Rashid, N. and Afthanorhan, A., 2018. Application of Entrepreneurial Marketing to the Marketing Mix: Why it Matters to SMEs in Malaysia?. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(12).

Liu, Y., Li, K.J., Chen, H. and Balachander, S., 2017. The effects of products’ aesthetic design on demand and marketing-mix effectiveness: The role of segment prototypicality and brand consistency. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), pp.83-102.

Manson.J. 2019. Aussie Start-up PERKii raises AUS $3M to launch probiotic drink tech in US. Integrated marketing communication mix Retrieved from. https://www.naturalproductsglobal.com/health-and-nutrition/aussie-start-up-perkii-raises-aus3m-to-launch-probiotic-drink-tech-in-us/

PR.T. 2016. PERKii- the probiotic drink making you feel a billion times better. Retrieved from. https://www.dailybulletin.com.au/news/food-dining/44622-perkii-the-probiotic-drink-making-you-feel-a-billion-times-better

SEUKINDO, N.O., 2017. Effect of Marketing Communication Mix on Sales Performance of Soft Drink Companies in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (Doctoral dissertation, KENYATTA UNIVERSITY).

Appendices

PERKii’s current marketing communication mix