Marketing communication is considered as the complex and fundamental aspect of the marketing process of an organization. However, direct marketing, advertising, branding, sponsorship, sale presentation and the trade show are the major elements of the marketing communication (Blakeman 2018). Marketing communication helps an organization to promote their new product or service in the target customer domain. Marketing communication is involved in creating the demand for a product and shorting the sales cycle. Marketing of a product allows the business to communicate its product message to its target market. In order to market a new product different types of communications, as well as marketing channels, are required one of the most important is the internet (Groucutt and Hopkins 2015). This is considered as the modern marketing channel to promote a product.

To lead a new product to the target audience promotion is crucial. This promotion can be done through the marketing communication (Hänninen and Karjaluoto 2017). Marketing communication helps to maximize the brand value and the product value in the customer domain. This study deals with the application of marketing communication in the context of Aldi to promote their new product Nectar Coconut Water. This is an organic health drink. However, to promote their new product marketing communication is crucial for Aladi to maximize their sales revenue generation. 

P1 Evaluation of different types of marketing channels and their role to serve the communication objectives’ in Aldi

            Marketing channels include direct marketing, internet marketing, and marketing through the intermediaries. However, direct marketing helps an organization to promote their products through personal selling or through e-commerce (Köhler et al. 2017). Hence, direct marketing focuses on the direct selling of the product by promoting the product. Personal selling is one of the major tools of direct marketing. On the other hand, e-commerce is another tool of the direct marketing. Intermediary channels include the wholesaler who can promote the new product. Apart from these two traditional marketing channels internet is the most modern marketing channel. In order to use internet marketing channel social media, company website and Twitter are used. Therefore, advertising through newspapers, multimedia news release, exhibition, and trade fair can be done to promote a product. However, many organizations use direct marketing to build a good relationship with the customers. In this marketing process email, text messaging, email and advertising through websites are used.

            In the recent years, internet marketing has been using rapidly by various organizations to promote their business. This type of marketing is a fast marketing technique. This includes a large number of customers from the different geographical region. Among the other marketing techniques, internet marketing by using several shopping websites becomes popular in the business industry. However, intermediary marketing includes agents, distributors, wholesaler and retailers (Mena et al. 2017). These individuals are responsible to deliver the products from the manufacturing zone to the ultimate destination that is in the customer domain.

justify;”>            Aldi is a popular retailer of UK. In the recent years, Aldi has launched Nectar Coconut Water, which is their new organic product (Aldi.co.uk 2018). In order to promote this product their main communication objectives include:

• To increase the brand awareness among the target customers
• To increase the sales by 20% by promoting the new product
• To satisfy the customers by meeting their current needs
• To retain the existing customers through communicating the product value

In order to meet the above communication objectives by promoting the new product, Nectar Coconut Water Aldi needs to utilize the marketing channels. Applications of the above channels are considered as the marketing communication mix. However, by the application of personal selling a business is able to promote the new product after making a face to face interaction with the customers (Kellaris and Machleit 2016). In the context of Aldi, they can increase their sales by applying the personal selling and e-commerce approach in direct marketing. However, e-commerce is a big platform to promote and sell their new product Nectar Coconut water as in the recent year’s people are more addicted to buy the product through various shopping websites in e-commerce. 

Application of the social media is one of the major internet channels to promote a product (Petersen et al. 2015). In the recent years, people spend a huge time on social media and they often search best products and service through the social media. Aldi can promote their new product Nectar Coconut water by advertising it via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Aldi selected the middle and the young aged people as their target market to sell their new products. Hence, young aged and middle-aged people use social media thus, this marketing channel will be beneficial for Aldi to create brand awareness regarding their new product. Apart from the social media promotion through the company website will be helpful for Aldi to maximize their marketing communication. Social media marketing will help Aldi to satisfy their customers by meeting their demand. Maximum people of UK are health conscious and by getting the advertisement of the Nectar coconut water through social media they will influence to purchase it and they also get the product details via the company website. The wholesaler is the intermediary channel through, which Aldi can promote their new products in every location of the country.

Apart from this, the traditional media such as newspaper will be helpful to promote the product (Shen et al. 2016). In the context of Aldi, by focusing on the exhibition and trade fair they can introduce their new product in the consumer domain this also helps them to retain the existing customers by adding value to their business.

P2 Design of the communication objectives in the context of Aldi

            Aldi has recently launched their new product Nectar coconut water. In order to enhance the sale of this product, they need to promote this product by using different marketing channels. Their main target market is the middle-aged and young aged people in the UK market. Nectar coconut water is an organic drink thus, its promotion, as well as marketing, needs the delivery of the detail product information to the consumer domain. Hence, to market Nectar Coconut water Aldi has established some communication objectives are as follow:

To increase the sales revenue by 20%: Sales revenue generation is the major objective of Aldi by promoting their new product Nectar coconut water. In the recent year’s competition is high in the UK supermarket. In order to get a competitive advantage, it is crucial for an organization to increase their sales as well as their profit margin (Bacile et al. 2014). Nectar coconut water is an organic drink and maximum young aged people of UK are highly health conscious. Thus, by using the marketing communication Aldi will be able to increase their sale up to 20% as this product will influence the health conscious people.

To create brand awareness: Creation of the brand awareness is a vital objective of an organization while they are going to promote a new product or service (Shen et al. 2016). In the context of Aldi, they need to increase the awareness regarding the Nectar coconut water in the consumer domain. For this, purpose they need to create awareness among the consumers regarding their new product. In order to create instant awareness in the customer, domain communication is crucial. An effective communication will help Aldi to market their new product by delivering the information of the product. To market or advertise a product an organization needs to adopt an effective marketing communication. In the context of Aldi, they can create their brand awareness regarding the product Nectar Coconut by using effective marketing communication.

To satisfy the customers by fulfilling their needs: It is important for an organization to understand the current needs of the customer before the introduction of a new product in the market (Finne and Grönroos 2017). Aldi is going to introduce their new health drink Nectar Coconut hence, it is important for them to analyze the current demand of the customers regarding the food product. However, in the recent year’s people are more health conscious in UK, thus, the retail sectors try to introduce healthy food products in the market to meet the customers need. Introduction of the Nectar Coconut by Aldi will be an effective approach for such organization to meet the need of the health-conscious customers. Hence, for the introduction of this product marketing communication is necessary as by developing a proper marketing communication Aldi will be able to understand the market need and leads the product to the customer domain to fulfill their need. An organization needs to keep in mind that without analyzing the market need introduction of a new product will be meaningless. Hence, Aldi aims to satisfy their customers by launching their new product in UK market. This aim can be fulfilled by the help of marketing communication during the advertisement of the product.

To retain the existing customers by communicating the value of the new product: One of the major goals of Aldi is to deliver the product value to their customers. This is to retain the old customers and to gain new customers by satisfying their needs through a new product. Launching of the Nectar Coconut is a new initiative for Aldi to make their brand popular and to increase the number of customers. For an organization, it is important to capture new customers besides retaining the existing customers (Patti et al. 2017). This enhances the strength of an organization in the market. In order to fulfill this objective, Aldi has decided to innovate the Nectar Coconut in the market as it will help them to enhance the customer loyalty. The customer of this organization will be influenced by this new health drink, which will retain the old customers and cover a huge range of new customers. To fulfill this objective integrated marketing communication is required as it is the only way, which delivers the product information to the consumer domain.

P3 Justifications for the integration and selection of the different communication channels in the context of Aldi

            Marketing of a new product needs different communication channels. The major communication channels are direct marketing via email and mobile phone, advertising through social media and building the public relation through intermediaries. However, Aldi is has introduced their new product Nectar Coconut in UK market. Hence, for the popularity of this product, they need to use different communication channels. Establishment of the public relation via intermediary marketing communication is an effective approach for any organization to promote their product (Vembu et al. 2017). However, in the intermediary marketing channel consists of agents, wholesaler, distributor, and retailers. The main role of the agents is to represent the product to the final user during the selling. On the other hand, the wholesaler sells the products to the customer. Therefore, the distributor takes the ownership of a product and the retailers purchase the product before its selling. These intermediaries are involved in building a public relationship. In the context of Aldi, they focus the public relations and publicity by using the intermediary marketing communication channel. In order to lead their new product, Nectar Coconut to the customer’s development of public relation is crucial, which can be done by intermediary marketing communication.

            Direct marketing is necessary to promote a product in the customer domain. In the context of Aldi, they can use mobile phone and email as the communication channels to carry out their direct marketing process in the context of Nectar Coconut. Integration of the mobile and email is beneficial to enhance the direct marketing of a product as it allows the organization to make a direct connection with the customers (Kim and Kumar 2018). Email and text messaging via mobile allow Aldi to communicate with their customers and deliver them product details regarding the Nectar Coconut. This will help this organization to promote their new product as the customers will be able to know about the features and importance of their new product. Social media is a part of internet marketing. In the present time, most of the business organizations prefer social media to introduce their product in the large consumer’s domain (Swani et al. 2017). In the context of Aldi, traditional communication channels will not help to cover a large number of customers as different geographical regions will be the major barrier.

            In the modern era, competition is high in the global retail industry thus, every retailer try to increase their customers’ number by innovating new product (Escobar-Rodríguez and Bonsón-Fernández 2017). Hence, social media will help Aldi to advertise their new product to the customers. The young and middle-aged people have a strong addiction towards the social media and they spend a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Therefore, often the customer search new products and observe the advertisement through this sites. For Aldi advertisement of Nectar Coconut through the social media will allows them to cover their target customers easily and create awareness among them regarding the product feature.

P4 Marketing communication plan to meet the communication objectives in the context of Aldi

            Marketing communication plan is vital for a business organization to meet their communication objectives as this plan will help an organization to get a primary framework based on which they can market a product (Serrat 2017). Application of the PASTA model is a helpful approach to develop marketing communication plan. The major components of the marketing communication planning include problem identification, analysis of the current market, strategy, tactics, and action.

• Problem identification

Identification of the communication issue is the first step of the marketing communication planning. In the recent years, the retailers have been facing issues due to the traditional communication channels. Traditional communication process includes advertisement via TV, newspapers, pamphlets, banner, and conduction of event. These are time-consuming and based on the budget of an organization (Sushchenko and Petrova 2017). On the other hand, traditional media are expensive in comparison the internet media. As for example, the television advertisement is expensive. In the context of Aldi, they are unable to respond to the change in a marketplace through the traditional communication. On the other hand, print media is not effective to provide clear information to the target audience. Based on these current issues of the traditional marketing communication channels Aldi has decided to use modern marketing communication channels in terms of internet marketing and direct marketing.

• Analysis of the current marketing communication

 An analysis is the second step to identify the needs of the communication channels based on the current market demand. It is important for an organization to understand which communication channel will be helpful to market a new product (Keegan et al. 2017). For this purpose, Aldi needs to analyze the preferable communication channel in UK market to introduce their new product Nectar Coconut. Hence, the current market analysis will help Aldi to understand the trend of the communication channel. They need to select the communication channel, which will be beneficial for them to create the brand awareness regarding the Nectar Coconut.

• Strategy development

            Development of the strategy is a vital part of the marketing communication planning. Adoption of the digital strategy will be helpful for Aldi to show their online presence in the customer domain. Digital strategy includes the involvement of social media, company website and online campaign to promote a product (Melewar et al. 2017). Such digital strategy will help Aldi to increase the sales of Nectar Coconut and to retain their existing customers. However, by the application of the digital communication especially through the internet marketing, they provide information to their customers regarding the product those belong from different geographical regions. This leads the customers to feel valued as a result they customer loyalty becomes enhanced.

Application of the tactics via selecting communication tools

            Aldi needs to use social media, direct marketing, and internet advertisement as the communication tool to market their new product Nectar Coconut. However, social media marketing, direct marketing, and advertisement through internet help an organization to communicate with the customers and to understand their current need, which is essential for the customer satisfaction (Bruhn and Ahlers 2017). For Aldi, these communication tools will be helpful to increase the customer engagement and to satisfy them by introducing new product information as per the current market demand.

• Action plan

Table 1: Action plan for communication marketing

  An action plan is required to resolve the issue based on the current situation. In this scenario, Aldi needs to promote its product to global market thus, they have to take an action plan based on which they can proceed to market their product. However, an action plan will help this organization to generate a preliminary framework, which will be beneficial for them to make a plan to market their product. However, they can get a budget for their promotional planning through this action plan. In the context of Aldi, such action plan has come based on their new innovation planning.

P5 Critical Evaluation of the marketing communication plan in relation to the creative content, channel choice and communication strategy

            According to the above marketing communication plan development of the digital strategy will be an effective approach for Aldi to deliver the information of Nectar Coconut to the consumers. As argued by Brassington and Pettiti (2012), digital communication marketing often hampers the brand image of an organization of the customer provides the wrong review regarding the products. In the context of Aldi, a threat is associated with their digital strategy that may occur due to the poor feedbacks of the customers on social media or their company website. However, choice of the social media will be the most effective communication tool for Aldi to make their Nectar Coconut popular. People can easily get in touch with this product through this communication channel. In the above marketing communication plan selection of mobile phone, email and social media are considered as the helpful approaches for Aldi. Among them social media will be more effective to generate a creative content for a product (Clow and Baack 2013). As criticized by Baker (2014), email and mobile are not able to develop a creative content. Hence, by using the social media Aldi will be able to add photos, videos, and information of their Nectar Coconut, which will attract the customer attention towards this product.

Conclusion

            The above work gives a brief account of the integrated marketing communication in the context of Aldi. However, Aldi has developed their new product Nectar Coconut in UK market. Hence, to create brand awareness for this product Aldi needs to adopt a proper marketing communication. In the recent years, digital channels are used to enhance the communication with the customers regarding a product. For the promotion of product, Aldi can use social media as the communication channel of internet marketing. On the other hand, adoption of the digital strategy will be beneficial for this organization to satisfy their customers and to retain the customers.

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