Report On Consumer Buying Behavior
1. Introduction
Reliance on Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach is needed for all brands to assure that target consumers are approached in effective way and are better engaged with the brand. MacPac also makes substantial reliance on IMC strategy, whereby brand makes use of both traditional as well as contemporary channels of communication. The brand has historically struggled to maintain two way communication with its target consumers and thus recently it has formulated objective to develop better engagement with the focal consumers. The focus strategy is being followed by Mac Pac and only adventure loving group of audience is being targeted and direct selling is made to customers through company managed stores as well as e-commerce stores of the company. The demand of consumers for innovative technical gears is being acknowledge by Mac Pac in its strategy. The marketing approach of company utilized both online as well as traditional tactics to communicate with the target customers.
Macpac provides exceptional quality products to its customers that too on high prices, based on the notion that quality conscious group of consumers is mainly targeted for technical clothing and camping equipment. Mac Pac positions itself as a brand that is targeted to address the interests of one specific group of buyers who love outdoor adventure, by delivering them innovative and high quality gears that can support their adventurous journey.
2. Target Market Analysis
The selection of right target segment is highly important to ensure that needs of target consumers are well complied with the capability of brand, which is reflecting in brand’s offerings. The key products of MacPac are outdoor gears, sleeping bags, back packs and camping equipment, which show that only specific segment of market is being targeted by the brand (MacPac, 2020).
Mac Pac has carefully chosen its target market by considering different characteristics of market into account. In terms of demographic segmentation, Mac Pac mainly serves consumers in New Zealand and Australia, who are approached through company managed stores as well as e-commerce platforms of the company (MacPac, 2020). The company offers technical gears for both genders who love camping and adventure. In terms of age, the company’s target segment is comprised of both men and women of all age groups and kids as well (MacPac, 2020).
Based on high pricing strategy of company, people with high income level are being targeted by Mac Pac. both The psychographic segmentation approach is also being used by the company, whereby target audience of Mac Pac have active life style, they love adventure and go for camping. The consumers are highly quality conscious and are willing to pay for technical gears which are innovative, comfortable, useable and differentiated. In terms of consumers’ behavior, the benefit sought approach is adopted by Macpac, which shows that consumers maintain focus on benefits of the technical gears, outdoor clothing and camping equipment (MacPac, 2020). Mac Pac’s products are considered as highly beneficial and provide quality as well as comfort to consumers, which encourages positive behavior of consumers.
The market of outdoor gears and camping equipment is increasing rapidly over the years. It has been highlighted that in New Zealand alone, this market offers revenue of $4.9 billion, which is expected to increase at CAGR 5.5% in the coming four years, till 2024 (Sport New Zealand, 2019). The users are penetrating in this market at high rate, given the notion that active lifestyle is being adopted by contemporary consumers based on enhanced awareness of health and wellness. Therefore, in order to address these trends, Mac Pac works with greater commitment to produce products that are appreciable by customers.
By placing high value on quality of technical and outdoor gears and equipment, consumers prefer to make purchase from brands that are well recognized and have standing position within market. Although consumers are well aware of MacPac, yet there are also other competing brands which have significant standing among consumers, for example, Cots Wold outdoor, Mountain Warehouse and Go Outdoor. It seems from the analysis of target market that consumers are highly engaged in comparing and contrasting different brands of outdoor gears and equipment prior to making purchasing decision for the same (Alalwan et al., 2017). The presence on online space, such as social media is highly appreciated by target consumers and it is considered as core source of generating brand awareness among consumers. If the brand fails to generate earned content on social networking sites, then its credibility is regarded as low by consumers, which might further affect their revenue. It shows that online presence is highly important for MacPac to excel within outdoor apparel and equipment market.
The consumers are motivated to make purchase of the MacPac products, mainly based on the quality and expected value of the products. If comfort, uniqueness and differentiated value is not being delivered to consumers, then loyalty of consumers is likely to decrease and re-purchase is likely to occur. Consumers also expect to get engage with the brand by maintaining two way communication (Sport New Zealand, 2019). Any discrepancy in terms of communication effectiveness from Mac Pac can also cause dissatisfaction among consumers. Therefore, the analysis of target market clearly highlights that there is huge importance of marketing communication for MacPac to encourage positive attitude of consumers and to realize its long run objectives.
Based on the research it is found that the key success factors which are needed to be considered by MacPac for excelling in the industry are related with clear market position, extensive communication and engagement with customers and attractive presentation of the products (Sport New Zealand, 2019). It shows that store layouts and in-store marketing and communication approaches are also much appreciated in sports and equipment industry.
3. IMC Campaign Analysis
In order to achieve strategic goals of MacPac, the IMC strategy of company makes reliance on well formulated objectives that aim to;
- Increase awareness about the brand
- Increase level of sales
- Attract attention of consumers by highlighting ethicality and sustainability of brand
- Enhance two way communication with consumers
- Encourage customer engagement
- Increase earned content from consumers through their reviews and
- Encourage loyalty of consumers
In order to achieve these IMC objectives, MacPac uses mix of both traditional as well as contemporary channels of communication to ensure that target audience is well approached through effective promotional messages. For instance, in order to enhance awareness of brand and to ensure that consumers’ identify with the adventure promoting values of the company, MacPac arranges Hillary challenge for high school students. This challenge is highly popular that students struggle to win the title and recognize with the values of brand. Additionally, promotional campaigns with messages of “challenge yourself”, “cherish freedom”, “explore your backyard”, “encourage curiosity” and “discover the world” are few instances of campaigns which convey that brand values fun and adventure loving nature of consumers (MacPac, 2020). These messages are likely to attract attention of consumers who want gears and equipment to make their adventurous journey comfortable and enjoyable with high quality options. All of these adverts of MacPac with above promotional messages, are featuring people who are either climbing up the mountains, camping near the edge of adventurous lakes or exploring landscape. Therefore, the target consumers who love and value camping and adventure are likely to consider these promotional campaigns as highly appealing for them. Therefore, along with generating brand awareness and attracting attention of consumers, these promotional messages are also likely to help MacPac in enhancement of its sales volume. The positive purchasing decisions are likely to be encouraged when consumers feel that their focal brand values their interests and creates something that serves their needs and preferences (Godey et al., 2016). Another aspect of company’s promotional message is witnessed in figure 1, whereby advert features the message stating “challenge the cold”. It shows that season based gears are also made to increase the volume of sales (MacPac You Tube, 2020). This approach is highly effective as company shows concern for consumers’ changing needs with changing weather conditions.
Figure 1. Challenge the cold advert of MacPac
Source; MacPac You Tube (2020)
Additionally, the figure 2 shows some video adverts of MacPac featured on YouTube as well as all other social networking sites of company, whereby ethical responsibility and sustainability of brand is highlighted (MacPac You Tube, 2020). The promotional messages reinforce compliance with responsible down standard, 100% recyclable material and sustainable design of bags. These messages are successfully helping company to attract attention of its consumers and to encourage them for being part of an organization which is ethical and responsible.
Figure 2. Promotional videos of MacPac
Source; MacPac You Tube (2020)
Further, it is noted through exploration of IMC approach of MacPac that company uses its social networking platforms to maintain two way communication with consumers (MacPac, 2020). The comments of customers are appreciated and their queries are answered which fulfil the objectives of maintaining two way communication, getting engaged with customers and to encourage their long run loyalty.
3.1 The adoption of different channels to meet IMC Objectives of MacPac
First and foremost objective of IMC strategy of MacPac is to generate awareness about the brand among key target consumers. In order to accomplish this objective, the direct marketing through different channels is carried out, both traditional and online. The traditional methods include television commercial and print adverts of MacPac. For instance, recently brand has launched an advert in to promote its winter gears and equipment, whereby consumers are encouraged to challenge the cold. It shows that aspect of traditional marketing is appreciated by MacPac for promoting its products and for generating awareness among consumers. The online channels include the social networking sites and direct mailing to consumers. The website of company offers option for consumers to enlist themselves in the mailing list of company, such that they can directly receive any promotional message in their email (Wang & Kim, 2017; MacPac, 2020). The integration of both online and offline channels enhances the awareness of brand among consumers and partnership with other brands allow to enhance reach of communication messages of company.
In order to achieve its objective of maintaining two way communication with consumers, Macpac has made use of social media marketing channels, including Facebook, You Tube and Instagram (MacPac, 2020). The selection of these channels is based on the notion that consumers are highly engaged with social media networks and their purchasing decisions are highly influenced by the trends being promoted by people on social networking sites (Dahl, 2018). Through social networking sites, MacPac addresses the queries of consumers and maintains two way communication with them, which engages them with the brand (Godey et al., 2016).
Additionally, the earned media and viral features of social media marketing are also incorporated by MacPac, for realizing its objective of earning content from customers. It has been highlighted by Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch (2017) that consumers are more likely to trust the content which is being generated by other consumers. Thus, through viral features of the social media marketing, MacPac can create credible content for consumers.
Moreover, in order to achieve the objective of increased sales through IMC strategy of MacPac, company makes use of sales promotion tactic. This approach is implied through both in-store and online sale channels. The discounts, gift vouchers and 72 hour deals are offered to consumers as part of sales promotion approach, whereby consumers are compelled to make purchase of products by availing discounts (MacPac, 2020). The selection of this tactic is justified by the fact that consumers are motivated through discounts and sales promotions (Alalwan et al., 2017) and thus sales of MacPac can increase substantially.
Further in order to realize the objective of generating customer loyalty, Mac Pac makes reliance on offering membership options to its frequent consumers. The MacPac Club offers additional discounts of 20% to the members, which is considered as the ay to encourage consumers for making repeated purchases (MacPac, 2020). As mentioned by Chaffey (2019) the loyalty of consumers is generated by making them part of company’s family, whereby their each purchase is being valued by company through additional benefits for consumers, such as discounts.
3.2 Monitoring IMC Program
The IMC campaign is being monitored by making reliance on continual assessment method through Key performance indicators (KPIs). For instance, traffic on the website of MacPac is assessed to analyze any increase in it followed by IMC campaign. Likewise, sales volume of specific collection followed by its promotional campaign is checked. Such as, if “challenge the cold” campaign will enhance the sales of winter collection then its success will be notified. The number of subscribers of YouTube channel of MacPac and number of followers on instagram and Facebook pages of MacPac are also used as KPI for measuring the success of IMC campaign. For instance, there are currently 2.39k subscribers on its YouTube channel and any increase as result of new IMC campaign will show the success of campaign. Finally, reviews which are provided by customers on social networking sites of MacPac are also good source to assess the reaction of consumer towards the products as well as communication methods implied by company.
3.3 Major Issues about IMC Campaign
The key issue which is being found in underlying IMC strategy of MacPac is linked with the notion that company does not makes use of event sponsorship and has limited giving back programs (charity). For being a sustainable player, the reliance on this tactic is highly important, which is not realized by MacPac. On the other hand, company does not makes use of blogging, which is substantially popular among young and internet loving generation (Key & Czaplewski, 2017). Reviews which are obtained through blogging are seen as credible by consumers.
4. Conclusion
The exploration of IMC strategy of MacPac has highlighted that generating brand awareness, maintaining interaction with consumers, enhancement of sales volume, engaging in two communication with customers and generating their loyalty are fewer key objectives of the IMC campaign of company. In order to accomplish these objectives, MacPac makes reliance upon multiple channels of communication, including both traditional as well as modern internet based channels. However, it is found that company does not make use of event sponsorship, charity and blogging in its promotional tactics, which are also widely used methods by contemporary organizations. Although, the current research was inclusive and has highlighted the IMC campaign of MacPac in effective manner, yet the capacity of research is being hindered by few factors. For instance, the secondary data on measuring and evaluation methods of IMC campaign used by MacPac was not readily available and thus few assumptions have been used along with some evidence to assess the measurement of IMC campaign. The findings of this research are likely to aid practitioners in viewing that how IMC campaigns are being implemented by prestigious companies and how it help in fulfilment of marketing objectives of businesses. The literature on IMC is also enriched with insight of real world organization that is highly recognized among customers based on its products quality and effective communication mechanism.
5. Recommendations
Based on the IMC campaign evaluation of MacPac, the brand is recommended to make reliance on event sponsorship as part of its promotional tactic. The implication of event sponsorship as promotional tactic is highly important for increasing the visibility of brand, promoting positive recognition and for building positive relationship with other players within industry. The long run success of brands like MacPac is shaped by maintaining reliance on all effective channels of communication, such that brand is not suppressed in contrast to competing brands. This tactic can be implemented by sponsoring different awareness based events, whereby importance of active life style is highlighted for promoting health and wellness of consumers (Boronczyk & Breuer, 2019).
On the other hand, giving back to society is also regarded as important part of promotional strategy of brands and thus it should be considered by MacPac. It is noted by Purdy (2020) that customers hold positive outlook of the organizations who rely on giving back to society, as it is witnessed as way of caring for society. MacPac should lay its hand in charity and it will help the brand in generating positive image among its target consumers. It is also mentioned by Ul Haq et al. (2020) that charity serves as the way of generating free publicity for brand and is likely to help in receiving support of sponsors and partners.
Finally, it is recommended to MacPac that it should make reliance on blogging, which is an important way of providing most relevant and useful content to consumers. As suggested by Liu (2017) blogging is likely to give boost to website traffic of business and encourages inbound marketing efforts. Through blogging and by encouraging reviews of consumers and other bloggers on its website, MacPac will be able to encourage earned media. It is considered by Hollensen, Kotler & Opresnik (2017) that when consumers and prospects witness positive reviews of general public, bloggers or social media celebrities about specific brand, then they are likely to develop positive perception of the brand. Therefore, MacPac can also achieve its underlying IMC objective in effective way, by making use of these recommended promotion tactics in promotional campaign.
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