Integrated Marketing Communications Plan for the Rejection of the Euro.

        From the polls and surveys that have been carried out there seems to be a wide variation in type of person who would vote for the Euro, surveys have also shown that a significant part of the population are within the ‘don’t know’ category.  The general public are also stating that they are “not very well informed or “not at all informed” (see appendix 1) about the ‘pros and cons’ of joining the Euro. Also within a similar survey (see appendix 9), a total of 46% said that their opinion could be persuaded either way.

Groups to be targeted to vote against joining a single European currency:

Generally, the Conservative Party needs to plan a ‘marketing’ promotions campaign to target the whole population of Britain against the joining of the Euro. From the figures that have been provided the majority votes are against joining, although only slightly, it would be essential that all of these ‘voters’ are re-enforced against the joining of the Euro to ensure the majority vote is maintained.

3. Stakeholder Context

A stakeholder is “any individual, group or organisation that influences your project or is affected by it”.

There are many organisations and individuals who do not support the joining of the euro, and therefore would be classified as stakeholders.

Many of these ‘anti – euro’ groups and organisations have “extensive websites linking to each other”

        

• New Europe
• No-euro
• Democracy Movement
• Business for Sterling
• Global Britain
• European Foundation
• Bruges Group
• Congress for Democracy
• Labour Euro – safeguards campaign
• People’s Europe
• Campaign against Euro-Federation
• Keep the £ campaign
• Campaign for an independent Britain
• Fringe Groups such as – Albion Movement, New Alliance, Oxford Campaign against a federal Europe group, Critical European group, Campaign against the single currency.
• UK Independence Party
• Federation of Small Businesses
• Green Party
• Conservative Party
• British National Party

Many of these groups have a number of ‘influential’ people within them, Lord Owen, Paul Skyes, Margaret Thatcher, Norman Lamont, Iain Duncan-Smith, plus many other MP’s and Lords.

All of these ‘stakeholders’ must transmit the correct message at the same time to influence the opinion of the British population; failure to ensure this would result in mixed perceptions and possibly losing voters.

4. Organisational Context

The ‘internal’ members of the organisation also receive the message that the organisation sends out, and how they perceive the message will affect the external audience. The members of an organisation need to interpret the message and believe in its values, the identity of the organisation along with a member’s concept will also affect the perceived image.

The conservative party needs to ensure that all their members have the same beliefs and opinions to enable them to transmit the message correctly. The stakeholders within this campaign also need to have the same beliefs and opinions as the organisation to enable them to perceive the same message to the target audience. Similarly the labour party needs to ensure that all their members and stakeholders are transmitting the same message.

5. External Context

“Marketing managers must deal with two basic types of variables in matching needs and wants of the market with the capabilities and resources of the firm – those which they can control and those which they cannot”.

Covering the broader environment, these factors “are substantially, outside the control of the organisation, although to a varying degree it may be possible to exert some form of influence”.

In order for a company to analyse these broader factors a ‘PEST’ analysis is normally undertaken, this takes into consideration the Political, Economical, Socio-Cultural and Technological changes that may either have a positive or negative effect on the situation.

        Political/Legal – 

Government Policy – the ‘five economical test’ that has been set by the government currently is the criterion that decides when Britain is ready to join to Euro. At present Britain does not meet the criteria, although this policy may change at any time, allowing the government to decide that the time is right.

European Union – the European Union must ensure that joining the Euro is economically beneficial for Britain, failure to ensure this would result in economical problems for Britain.

        Economic and Monetary Union – they must ensure that the British economy will correspond to the economic situation of the other countries within the EU.  

        

        Economic – _        

Exchange Rates & Interest Rates – “Britain’s economic cycle has historically been out of phase with those in mainland Europe”, this along with the volatile pound will make it difficult for the interest rate to be at the correct rate to join. If Britain joins the euro at the wrong time, the economy may suffer from major problems.

Effect on Businesses  - some of the larger multinational companies such as ‘Sony’ are pulling out of Britain because of the increased cost and differences in exchange rates between here and Europe, these and many other multinational companies may also pull out if Britain do not join the Euro. In Britain the majority of businesses are either sole traders or small businesses that may not be able to cope with the cost of the change over. Either way Britain may face losses whichever they decide, and in turn it will have an effect on the economy.

 

Borrowing & Taxes – at present Britain can decide if it needs to borrow money; if a single currency is introduced then this would be controlled by Europe and would result in taxes being risen in Britain, again affecting the economy.

        

Socio-cultural –         

Mobility and travel – the introduction of the euro may encourage more people to travel within Europe, as the cost of converting money would disappear. 

Attitudes and opinions – at present the majority of people do not want to join the euro, and a significant number ‘do not know’ or are ‘unsure’. If the government decides to go against the public’s opinion it will no doubt cause problems at a later date for them.

Lifestyle – if Britain joins the euro and interest rates become lower, the amount of money that people will have will increase and their lifestyle will improve, leading to higher standards of living. Similarly if the interest rate increases then people will have less money, and if consideration is given to the large amount of debts that people in Britain have, then a lower standard of living will be the ‘norm’ for many. 

Technological –

Technology – the cost of converting from the pound to the euro will be huge for every business and bank. Every slot machine, accounting system, vending machine and ATM will have to be renewed, along side this many shops would need two sets of tills during the change over period. For most businesses this would be all cost and no benefit, which will lead to economic problems.

3. Promotional Objectives        

These are specific ‘goals’ that need to be achieved during the timescale of the overall plan. It is important that these ‘goals’ are clearly understood and accepted by everybody involved.  All of these ‘goals’ need to be measurable in order for the organisation to establish whether they have achieved the overall goal. The ‘SMART’ objectives are a set of guidelines to assist in measuring goals (see appendix 10).

1. Corporate Objectives

The corporate objective is normally included within the mission -statement and normally stems from the purpose of the organisation.

        The overall corporate objective is to ensure that:

“The UK does not join the European Single Currency in April 2005”

• To increase the number of parliamentary members by 40% by the election in 2005.
• To increase by 30% awareness of our identity and policies by November 2004.

2. Marketing Objectives

                

“Marketing communication objectives are specific communications tasks to be achieved among a defined audience to a defined extent and within a specific time frame”.

• Increase the number of people against the Euro by 10% by December 2004.

• To ensure that socio groups ‘A, B, C’, along with women receive the correct message by December 2004, and to change the votes by 5% in favour of not joining the euro.  

• To persuade and increase by 10% the number of people who are undecided on which way to vote by February 2005.

• To maintain the number of people (66%) not in favour of joining the euro.

• 6 months prior to the referendum evaluate ‘polls and opinions’ to assess whether the targets have been met successfully; if unsuccessful, plan an emergency advertising strategy for the following 3 months.

3. Communication Objectives

Communication objectives should “Enhance the image or reputation of a product or where promotional efforts are seen as a communication task”. Colley (1961) suggests that the communications task be based on a hierarchical model of the communications process (see appendix 11).

The overall communication objectives are:

• By December 2004 increase the number of people voting against the euro by 10%.

• To raise awareness and knowledge of the population by 20% by August 2004.

• To change the opinions (lower the number of ‘Don’t knows & unsure) by 5% by August 2004.

• To effectively use the £10 million budget to promote advertising with a variety of media (Television, Radio, Newspapers etc) by April 2005.  

• To inform at least 75% of the population on the issues faced if Britain join’s the euro in 2005.

• To gain 51% of the votes by the election in 2005.

4. Positioning

This allows the organisation to communicate information about themselves, to allow the consumer/customer to perceive them as being different from the competition. The positioning concept is also a statement about what the brand is, what it stands for and the values and beliefs that the customers should associate with the brand.

All products and organisations have a position and are positioned either by the ‘rational’ or ‘emotional (expressive)’ approach.

The Conservative Party will need to use the ‘rational’ approach, this will allow them to have “high involvement and provide hard factual information” to the general public.

A perceptual map will determine how the public perceives the organisation, and an overall perspective of the market area can then be developed. The map enables them to position themselves by using ‘key’ attributes on the axis.

Positioning map for a single European Currency

                                

= Direction they would like to go

                = Conservative Party

                = Labour Party

At present the Conservative Party is being perceived correctly to enable them to win, although ‘polls’ suggest that the figures are continuously changing, they need to continue and re-enforce their image to hold and increase the figures. They need to establish an image that represents stability, loyalty and trustworthiness to the public, by using a variety of methods (push and pull strategies) with the use of a simple statement such as:

“Joining the Euro will result in loss of power, the £ and economic benefits”

“Your Pension divided among the European countries if we join the Euro”

“Interest rates dictated by the EU, if we join the Euro”

The ‘quote’ will need to be strong and recallable, allowing the public to associate it will the referendum. They need to focus on the ‘negative’ aspects of joining the euro, and could use a variety of issues (see appendix 1).

5. Promotional Strategies

There are three main promotional strategies, which are used to achieve the promotional objectives, and use of various ‘statements’ (see appendix 1) will be used to transmit the message.  

1. Pull Strategy

“A ‘pull’ strategy is one that requires high spending on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand for the product”. The pull strategy increases levels of awareness, builds up consumer demand to motivate them to ‘buy’ the product.

A pull strategy directs communication directly to the customer.

                                        Communication Flow

Flow of goods

and services

        

A ‘pull’ strategy uses a number of different methods of communication, directly aimed at the ‘target’ audience.

These strategies will be used to remind, reassure and raise awareness in voters, it will also be used to differentiate the party from others.

Press – newspapers have a short life, but a “high attention value and it is estimated that an 11 x 13 (inches) advertisement is seen by one third of the readers”. Newspapers are also bought for their regular features on certain days; this allows the press to establish segmentation and regional figures, similar to that of JICNAR. This system will allow the party to establish the correct days to publish an article to achieve the correct segmentation and geographical areas to gain to most readers.

Magazines – magazines vary from general through to specialist and retail trade subjects, advantages of using magazines is that the audience can be pre-selected, they have a longer life span than a newspaper and people also read them at leisure, taking more interest in the article.

Television – “television is a mass medium and can be received in over 99% of British homes”, ”on an average evening 50% of these homes are tuned in”. Britain has thirteen geographical broadcasting areas, where the viewing ratings are controlled by ‘BARB’, this will allow selection of known weak areas to transmit party political broadcasts, and also to raise awareness for the party.

Radio – In general “local radio listeners are more likely to be women, they tend to be young or middle-aged and probably downmarket”. From recent polls women tend to support not joining the European Single currency, so unless there is a change in opinions this option would be insufficient.

Cinema – “movie-goers are likely to be under 25”, this area of segmentation needs to be targeted as this section of the population are in favour of joining the single currency.

                

Direct mail/brochures/leaflets – using the JINCAR system information leaflets can be delivered to selected areas to promote the awareness of the Party, their policies and the European single currency and the effects. Consideration must be given towards the presentation of the mail, to eliminate issues such as it being perceived as junk mail and being binned.

Billboards and posters (on buses, lorries etc) – both of these promotions are seen by a wide selection of the public on a regular basis. This is a cheap way of continuously reminding people of the issues surrounding the Euro and also a reminder of the Conservative Party and its policies.

Internet Site – social classes ‘A, B, C1’ are in favour of joining the single currency, and are more likely to use and access the internet, so information regarding the euro needs to be placed within a web site. Other socio-economic groups that also need to be targeted such as students and lower economic groups, who may have access to the Internet through college or a local library, may also access this information.

Direct selling – by using ‘ACRON’ or ‘JINCAR’ to segment people who are local against the Euro, MP’s could target areas using loud speakers to inform the public, information leaflets could be handed out/delivered during this process.

1. Push Strategy

“A ‘push’ promotional strategy makes use of a company’s sales force and trade promotion activities to create consumer demand for the product”. The producer of the product promotes to the wholesaler, the wholesaler then promotes to the retailer and the retailer to the consumer. The push strategy tries to ‘sell’ directly to the consumer, bypassing other distributors.

A push strategy directs communication through all the channels

                                        Communication Flow

Flow of goods

and services 

Information Leaflets/Booklets – this is another cost effective way of informing the public, and if possible leaflets could be distributed in banks, building societies, post offices, air and ferry ports to provide information to the public. Distribution will allow wide coverage of the country ensuring that a selection of the population has access to the required information, which will reinforce and inform many socio-economic groups.  

Surgeries – local MP’s currently hold surgeries to provide help and information, these surgeries could be extended to include talks on the European Single currency and the affects of joining. This will allow various members of the public to access essential information, and the groups that need to be informed (A, B, C1) are more likely to attend these meetings to ‘hear what the other party’ has to say for themselves.

2. Profile Strategy

Traditionally referred to as corporate communications, profile strategies deal with the corporate entity or organisation. “On some occasions it is important to communicate with all the stakeholders to convey information about the organisation itself rather than its products and services”.

The main task is to project a suitable identity and to build and maintain a solid reputation of the Conservative Party, and also to ensure that any conflicting interests between the different stakeholders are resolved so that everybody involved in the anti-euro campaign is sending an identical message.

Leaflets/Meetings – to enable all the stakeholders involved in the campaign to correctly transmit the same message, leaflets could be distributed to them and also a number of ‘meetings’ could take place to insure that ‘They are all singing from the same book’. Provided that everybody involved agrees, it will promote a ‘solid’ perception of them to the public.

1. Co-ordinated Communications Mix

Consisting of five main elements, Advertising, Personal Selling, Public Relations, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, “The promotional mix is the direct way in which an organisation attempts to communicate with various target audiences”.

How people process communication is important, there are various theories that show this. Phillip Kotler (1983) suggests there are nine elements to a communication process which, belong to four major factors (see appendix 12):

It has already been established how the message is to be transmitted to the selected audience, using a variety of ‘pull’ and ‘push’ strategies. The issue now is that the message is received and understood correctly.

It is unlikely that the target audience will receive and accept the message instantly, as most people will pass through a number of stages before they either accept or reject the product/service. The ‘AIDA’ (see appendix 13) model suggests that the advertiser must ‘raise awareness’, ‘Interest’ and ‘Desire’ before any ‘Action’ will take place.

Consideration must also be given to the perception of the target audience; the message must be ‘encoded’ so that it will be understood by the receiver “to increase the chances of achieving the objectives of the communication”. Once the message is delivered it then has to be ‘decoded’ this will depend on the “receivers perceptions and whether they are willing to accept” the message. Once received, it would be important to gain some feedback to establish whether the message has been understood and interpreted correctly.

 

1. Promotional mix for Pull Strategy

It has been decided to divide the communication mix as follows:

2. Promotional mix for Push Strategy

It has been decided to divide the communication mix as follows:

3. Promotional mix for Profile Strategy

It has been decided to divide the communication mix as follows:

7. The schedule

 

It as been decided that the referendum will take place in April 2005, the scheduling for the communication mix will begin in May 2004, this will provide twelve months to communicate with the ‘target’ audience in a variety of ways to ensure that the message is delivered.

Schedule for Push Strategy        

Schedule for Pull Strategy        

Schedule for Profile Strategy

It is important that the profile strategy occurs early in the communication mix to ensure that throughout the whole campaign all the stakeholders are sending the same message

8. Budget/Resources

The amount of money that is spent on marketing communications varies between different companies and can be determined by:

• Percentage of previous years turnover
• Percentage of product gross margins
• Percentage of anticipated turnover
• New products
• Residue of last years surplus

The Conservative party has a ten million pound budget for the marketing plan.  The overall budget has been divided as follows,

70% = £7 million on Pull Strategies – the pull strategy will access most of the target audience.

20% = £2 million on Push Strategies

10% = £1 million on Profile Strategies

9. Implementation

In order for all of these strategies to be achieved a large number of ‘professional experts’ such as graphic designers, photographers, commercial artists, media and production companies are required. It will be essential that an ‘advertising’ manager be appointed to oversee the employment of these companies, coordinate them and ensure that the budget along with target dates are maintained.

10. Control and Evaluation

The evaluation of any campaign is important to establish whether the objectives were met, and also they “can provide a rich source of material for the next campaign”.  Evaluating a campaign can be done by a variety of methods:

Pre-testing – involves showing the advertisement to selected audiences to gain their opinions.

Post-testing – this will measure inquiries after the advertisement has been released.

Financial test – measures how much money has been spent and compares to the financial intake received since the campaign.

Tracking study – collects information from customers on a regular basis to assess their perception of the advertisement.

Due to the nature of the campaign it would be advised to use the ‘post’ testing method to assess if the correct strategies were used to increase the number of rejection votes for the Euro. The results of the campaign could be sought through various ‘polls’ carried out by different organisations; also a market research team could be employed to gather this information. Similarly and interactive page within the website could request feedback from users.

Bibliography

Baker Michael. 1996. “ Marketing an Introductory Text”. Macmillian Bristol.

Barker Michael. 1999. “ The Marketing Book”. Butterworth Heinemann. Oxford.

Brassington F. Petitt S. 2003. “Principles of Marketing” 3rd ED. Pearson Education Ltd England

Browne Anthony. 2001 “The EURO Should Britain Join? Yes or No”. Icon Books. Cambridge.

Cannon Tom. 1998. “Marketing Principles & Practice”. Cassell London.

Clarke Kenneth. 1998.“Understanding the EURO”. Federal Trust. European Union.

Eric Davies, Barry Davies. 2002. “Marketing in a Week” CIM. London

Fill Chris. 2002. “ CIM course book, Integrated Marketing Communications”. Butterworth Heinemann. Oxford.

Griffin Tom. 1993. “ International Marketing Communications”, Butterworth Heinemann. Oxford.

Lancaster G, Massingham L. 1993. “ Marketing Management”. McGraw-Hill. England.

Perkins Anne. Thursday January 7th 1999. Guardian, UK

Redwood John. 2001 “Just say No!” Politico’s. London

Travis Alan. Tuesday 8th June 1999. Guardian, UK

 (Accessed 26/01/04)

 (Accessed 16/01/04)

 (Accessed 10/02/04)

 (Accessed 26/01/04)

 (Accessed 16/01/04)

  (Accessed 20/01/04)

 (Accessed 24/01/04)

 (Accessed 24/01/04)

 (Accessed 20/01/04)

 (Accessed 19/02/04)

 (Accessed 23/02/04

Appendix 1 

Taken from -  (Browne Anthony. 2001 “The EURO Should Britain Join? Yes or No”. Icon Books. Cambridge)

Appendix 2

Taken from  - Fill Chris. 2002. “ CIM course book, Integrated Marketing Communications”. Butterworth Heinemann. Oxford.

Appendix 3

(Joining the Euro (10/02/2002) – MORI poll – available online [.] (Accessed 24/01/04)

Q1a. Which of the following best describes your own view of British participation in the single currency?

Q1b. Which of the following best describes your own view of Britain joining the Euro?

Q2. How well informed, if at all, do you feel about the case for and against Britain joining the Euro?

Appendix 4

(The Euro –Its early history – available online – [] (Accessed 24/01/04)

Q1. If there were a referendum, would you vote to join the Euro?

Q2. Do you trust the government to make the right decision, in the interest of the British people, on whether we join?

Q3. If Britain entered the Euro, would a single European super-state become inevitable?

Appendix 5

ICM Polls - available online – [] (Accessed 26/01/04)

Q1. If there were a referendum, would you vote to join the European Single Currency (Euro) or would you vote not to join?

Appendix 6

Stanford Research Limited USA (CIM course book, Integrated Marketing Communications)

Appendix 7

Stanford Research Limited USA (CIM course book, Integrated Marketing Communications)

Appendix 8

Appendix 9

(Taken from - Joining the Euro (02/07/01) – MORI poll – available online [.] (Accessed 24/01/04)

Q1a. Can you tell me how likely you are to get along to vote in a referendum on whether Britain should be part of a single European currency?

Q2. Which of the following best describes your own view of Britain joining the euro?

Q3. You said that you could be persuaded to change your mind in favour of the British participation in the European Single currency. Which, if any, of these reasons, would persuade you?

I would be persuaded to vote for the Euro if:

Appendix 10

SMART Objectives (CIM course book, Integrated Marketing Communications)

Specific:                Is it awareness, perception, attitude or some other element that needs to be completed? Whatever it is, it must be clearly defined and must enable precise outcomes to be determined.

Measurable:        Make sure that a measure of activity is set, against which performance can be assessed. For example, this may be a percentage level of desired prompted awareness in the target audience.

Achievable:        Ensure that the objectives are attainable; otherwise those responsible for their achievement will lack motivation and a desire to succeed.

Realistic:        The task must be relevant to the brand name and the context in which they are set.

Targeted and Timed:        The target audience must be clearly defined and the campaign should have start and end dates clarifying the period over which results are to be considered.

 

Appendix 11

Colley (1961)

AWARENESS

COMPREHENSION

CONVICTION

ACTION

Appendix 12

(Kotler 1983)

Appendix 13

AIDA Model

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