Marketing Communication

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BUILDING BRAND AWARENESS
THROUGH MARKETING
COMMUNICATION

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................3
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE AND ANALYSIS .......................................................................3
Application of theory on Vogue Jeweller’s scenario ......................................................................3
Importance of marketing communication.....................................................................................8
Process of developing a communication plan ................................................................................8
Communication channels............................................................................................................10
Integrating marketing communication........................................................................................10
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................11
References.......................................................................................................................................12
List of figures
Figure 1- SWOT analysis on Vogue Jewelers (Vogue Jewellers, 2019) ..................................................4
Figure 2- Porter's five forces model (Porter, 2008)................................................................................4
Figure 3- Ansoff matrix (Ansoff, 2007)................................................................................................5
Figure 4- Segmentation bases (Kotler, 2010) ........................................................................................6
Figure 5- Marketing mix (Compiled by the author) ...............................................................................8

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INTRODUCTION
This study will be carried out on the theme of building brand awareness through marketing
communication. The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of various marketing and
marketing communication strategies that are required to create brand awareness in the market
where the organisation operates (Bird, 2012).
In developing effective marketing communication systems, it is very crucial for organisations to
pay attention on the internal potential and the external pressure on the organisational operations.
Further, strategic options should be evaluated. Apart from that an effective segmentation, targeting
and a positioning strategy should be developed to strengthen the communication process.
This study will carry out a SWOT analysis on Vogue Jewellers to discuss the internal position.
Apart from that Ansoff matrix, Porter’s five forces model and STP analysis will be carried out to
support marketing awareness activities.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE AND ANALYSIS
Application of theory on Vogue Jeweller’s scenario
SWOT analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 Effective positioning strategy adapted
by Vogue
 Hands on experience for offering
unique jewellery
 The past learnings that were gained
over the past five decades
 Geographic spread
 Inadequate attention on marketing
communication through digital media
 High costs on security systems
Opportunities Threats
 Vogue could develop an aggressive
digital marketing campaign
 Competition from other jewellers
 Changes in consumer behaviour

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 The company could use IT to obtain
customer insights and feedback
 Vogue could enter new countries
(Sjoerd, 2017)
 The company could introduce new
products like Silver and Platinum
jewellery
 Reputational issues
Figure 1- SWOT analysis on Vogue Jewelers (Vogue Jewellers, 2019)
Industry environment
Vogue operates in the gold jewellery industry of Sri Lanka. therefore, in developing marketing
communication strategies, it is very important to understand the industry environment. In order to
assess the industry environment, Porter’s five forces model will be used.
Figure 2- Porter's five forces model (Porter, 2008)
Bargaining power of the buyer
Gold is a luxury item therefore, regardless of the price people tend to demand gold jewellery for
special occasions in life. Therefore, Vogue has to freedom to increase their labour charges based
on the nature of the design without losing the customers. Hence, the bargaining power of the
customer is low.
Bargaining power of the supplier

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Vogue mainly depends on their own staff in producing unique designs. Apart from that, the
company offers branded jewelleries. Therefore, up to a certain degree, Vogue is dependent upon
the suppliers. Therefore, power of the supplier is at a medium level.
Threat of substitutes
There are lot of substitutes for Vogue’s products and them being silver jewellery, platinum
jewellery and costume jewellery. Therefore, this demonstrates that people have lot of options for
gold jewellery. So the threat of substitutes for Vogue’s products are very high.
Threat of new entrants
In order to enter the gold jewellery industry, there are lot of entry barriers. The main barrier is the
capital investment. Apart from that technology, capacity, knowhow and expertise. Therefore, it is
very unlikely that new players could easily enter in large scale. This demonstrates that the threat
of new entrants would be low (Colombo, 2018).
Competitive rivalry
In order to survive in the gold jewellery industry different jewellers like Raja jewellers and Swarna
Mahal carries out lot of television advertisements. Therefore, it is clear that competitive rivalry is
high.
Strategic options for Vogue Jewellers
Figure 3- Ansoff matrix (Ansoff, 2007)

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Market penetration strategies are directly involved in building brand awareness. When offering an
existing product to the existing market, Vogue has to use appropriate communication tools.
Television and radio advertising could be considered as a market penetration strategy. Apart from
that Vogue has a text message notification system for existing customers. Initially, Vogue was
offering yellow gold but recently, Vogue introduced white gold and rose gold jewelleries and these
efforts could be considered as product development.
After identifying the demand for gold jewellery after launching the first store, Vogue slowly
increased the store networks across the island. By now, Vogue operates in Colombo, Kandy,
Kurunagella and in few more areas. This is a market development effort.
In order to support marketing communication activities, Vogue could focus more on market
penetration strategies because these strategies are about creating customer awareness, interest and
desire of the existing customers.
As discussed under the opportunities, a digital marketing campaign and use IT to obtain consumer
insights. These are very important in strengthening communication channels. Further, these
strategies will be very supportive in market development and product development initiatives.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning analysis
Figure 4- Segmentation bases (Kotler, 2010)

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Above diagram illustrates that there are four strategies that could be used in segmenting the market.
Presently, Vogue Jewellers has used psychographic basis in segmenting the market. Under the
psychographic basis, the organisation has paid attention on the lifestyle, social class and the
attitudes on a design. However, marketing communication activities are presently directed only on
the existing customers (Gruca, 2001).
Targeting
There are three targeting strategies and them being undifferentiated targeting, differentiated
targeting and concentrated targeting. Presently, Vogue adapts a differentiated target marketing
approach in targeting the market. This is because the organisation offers a range of jewelleries to
suite different social classes, attitudes and life styles.
Positioning
Positioning is the process of increasing the consumer perception of a brand among other brands.
With regard to Vogue jewellers, the company mainly competes with Raja Jewellers. Therefore, in
influencing the consumer perception, Vogue has highlighted the reliability, quality and the
uniqueness of designs (James, 2011).
Current marketing mix
Product The main product offerings are yellow gold, white gold, rose gold, diamond
jewellery and gem studded jewellery. The items that are purchased are placed in
a finely designed box that highlights the Vogue logo.
Vogue offers a diverse range of products ranging from rings, earrings, bangles
and much more.
Price When compared with small scale and medium scale jewellers, Vogue charges a
high price from the customers due to the exclusiveness. The jeweller further
offers convenient payment plans to attract and retain the customers.
Place Vogue is located across the island but there are lot of Vogue branches in Colombo
district. Most of the branches are accomplished with car parking spaces which is
considered as a very important factor.

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Promotion This component has a direct link with marketing communication activities.
Presently, Vogue mainly focuses on bill board advertising, television/radio
advertising and text message updates. The main concern of this study is to
strengthen marketing communication at Vogue (Banerjee, 2018).
People Vogue employees a set of experienced and friendly staff. The staff are capable of
managing relationships with customers over the long term.
Process The main process is to offer high quality and unique pieces of jewellery.
Therefore, the process starts from the factory and delivered to the branches
through secured modes.
Physical
evidence
Under the physical evidence the organisation has paid attention on the store
appearance. In all the Vogue branches, illumination is a very clear feature. Apart
from that air conditioning is also available to make the environment pleasant.
Figure 5- Marketing mix (Compiled by the author)
Importance of marketing communication
Marketing communication is the process of using different channels to communicate with the
desired target market. Some of the main marketing communication channels are mass marketing,
digital marketing and personal marketing (Mihari, 2012).
Process of developing a communication plan
1.0 Identifying the purpose
The purpose of developing a communication plan is to increase customer awareness which is
essential for maximising market share and profitability of Vogue (Gomez, 2018).
2.0 Identifying the audience
Vogue targets at psychographic customer segment. Therefore, the communication efforts have to
be directed at this segment.
3.0 Defining the message

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In defining the message, Vogue has to highlight the unique value propositions of the company and
them being reliability, quality and uniqueness. The message should be defined in such a way that
it will impress the target audience.
4.0 Resources
In order to implement an effective marketing plan, Vogue has to firstly acquire technology, devices
and the knowledge of the employees.
5.0 Anticipating obstacles and emergencies
In Vogue’s scenario, when implementing a communication plan, the main obstacles would be
inadequate experience in developing digital marketing solutions and reliability of the service
providers. Apart from that contingencies could be economic downturns, political instability and
changes in social trends. Therefore, these things have to be anticipated in designing and planning
a marketing communication plan.
6.0 Strategy of spreading the message
This study is stressing more on the digital media because Vogue is far behind the digital strategy.
Therefore, Vogue could use few social media networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,
Myspace and etc. apart from that blogs could be created to obtain customer feedback. In order to
understand the nature of consumer behaviour and the preferences cookies could be used on the
webpages (Hollensen, 2010).
7.0 Creation of an action plan
Identification of the market trends with regard to communication
Assessing the costs of developing a suitable communication strategy
Deciding whether to outsource or to design the strategy in-house
Testing the new communication strategy
Eliminating the weaknesses and implementing the strategy
8.0 Evaluation

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Once the communication plan is developed and implemented, Vogue has to assess the
effectiveness of the digital communication strategy. In order to do so, the company could assess
traffic generated on social media, website performance through digital marketing key performance
indicators (KPIs). The company could assess the bounce rate, conversion rate, click through rate
and much more KPIs to evaluate website performance. Apart from that customer feedback could
be obtained.
Communication channels
Mass marketing is where Vogue could market a product on large scale. Often television/radio/bill
board advertisements are targeted at a large market. This is a very traditional approach.
Apart from that Vogue could use digital marketing. Under this strategy the company could use
social media, digital screens, mobile applications, website advertisements to create customer
awareness of the target market. Presently, such efforts are limited.
Personal marketing is the process of marketing a specific product to customers individually.
However, Vogue could adapt this approach because it could enable Vogue to optimise brand
awareness in the long term (Jones, 2012).
Integrating marketing communication
It is very crucial for Vogue to ensure that all the communication tools are linked together in such
a way that it works in harmony. Presently, Vogue carries out mass marketing and personal
marketing. Therefore, when implementing a digital marketing, it is important to make sure that the
messages delivered to the customer are the same and are not in conflict (Abela, 2007).
In order to effectively integrate the marketing communication strategy, Vogue could set clear
marketing communication objectives. Then all the marketing communication tools could be used
with reference to the objectives.
Further, in developing the marketing communication strategies, all the channels could highlight
the brand name, logo and the positioning statement of Vogue because it could enable the
organisation to strengthen the brand awareness.

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Recommendations
 Vogue could strengthen the digital marketing channel and integrate all the communication
channels.
 The company could periodically upgrade the marketing communication channels with the
global trends to create brand awareness in a better way.
 It is recommended for Vogue to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing
communication systems and take remedial action to improve performance.
 It is further recommended for Vogue to highlight all the components of the marketing mix
through the communication strategy to build brand awareness through communication.
CONCLUSION
This report was written to understand the impact of marketing communication on brand awareness.
The body of the report mainly highlighted on the Vogue’s current state, importance of marketing
communication and the process of developing an integrated marketing communication strategy.
So the study clearly highlighted that Vogue could design a digital marketing communication
strategy to build brand awareness and enhance organisational performance.
It was further revealed that Brand awareness could be optimised by adapting market penetration
strategies. Market penetration strategy is about offering an existing product to the existing market.
Therefore, by adapting this strategy customer awareness, interest and desire could be optimised.
In conclusion, marketing communication strategies are essential to build brand awareness. This is
applicable for any organisation including Vogue jewellers. Therefore, it is recommended for the
organisation to strengthen the marketing communication systems to optimise brand awareness
across the island.

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References
Abela, A., 2007. Marketing performance management and firm performance. Journal of marketing, 12(3),
pp. 155-165.
Ansoff, H., 2007. Strategic mangaement. 4 ed. London: Springer.
Banerjee,S., 2018. Advertisement vs societal based marketing communication: An empirical analytic
comparison vis-a-vis profit contribution. Indian journal of marketing, 46(6),pp. 126-131.
Bird, S., 2012. Marketing communication. 4 ed. London: Jula and company.
Colombo, B., 2018. New players in entrepreneurial finance and why they are there?. Journal of small
business economics, 50(2),pp. 239-250.
Gomez, M., 2018. Communication as a marketingt strategy. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences,
12(4), pp. 176-184.
Gruca, J., 2001. Impact of market segmentation on marketing mix. International journal of research in
marketing, 18(1),pp. 53-66.
Hollensen, S., 2010. Global marketing. 5 ed. London: Pearson Education.
James,A., 2011. Positioning and competitive advantage. Journal of business management and
economics, 3(2),pp. 11-18.
Jones, D., 2012. Understanding digital marketing. 4 ed. London: Kogan page publishing.
Kotler, P.,2010. Marketing management. 5 ed. London: Pearson Education.
Mihari, C., 2012. Apart from that Vogue could use digital marketing. Under this strategy the company
could use social media, digital screens,mobile applications, website advertisements to create customer
awareness of the target market. Presently, such efforts are limited.. International journal of marketing
studies, 12(4),pp. 155-161.
Porter,M., 2008. On competition. 5 ed. New York: Harvard University Press.
Sjoerd, B.,2017. Cultural distance and firm internationalisation. Journal of management, 44(1),pp. 89-
130.
Vogue Jewellers, 2019. [Online]
Available at: http://www.voguejewellers.lk/about-us/
[Accessed 2 December 2019].

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