Table of Contents
ToggleImpact of Integrated Marketing Communication on Customer Perception in the fashion industry: A case study of Arcadia
As the day passes, the business environment is getting more complex. The market is becoming more competitive and the organizations are becoming more consumer-orientated. Marketing is one of the most important tasks that is needed to be done in order to connect with the consumers. The research is mainly aimed at identifying the impact of IMC on the customer’s perception in the UK. The research used the quantitative research method under the ontology philosophy to conduct research. The researcher collected primary data by surveying 200 consumers of Arcadia through a questionnaire. At first, the researcher reviewed some of previous research, literature and findings between the relationship of Integrated Marketing Communication and Consumer Perception to fulfil the objective which is listed in number one. The second objective is completed by investigating the influence of IMC on the perception of the consumers of Arcadia in the UK. IMC has no affirmative impact on the consumer perception in the UK fashion industry is the null hypothesis. On the other hand, the alternate hypothesis is, “IMC has an affirmative impact on the perception of the customers of Arcadia in the UK”. This research from its investigation accepted the alternate hypothesis and rejected the null hypothesis. The research gives clear hindsight that IMC has a positive influence on the perception of the consumers in the UK fashion industry. The research paper included some recommendations for improvement of the IMC process and building stronger customer perception which fulfilled the last objective if the research.
Chapter-1: Introduction
The business situation is very complex nowadays. An organization needs properly planned marketing strategies that could make it different from its competitors and give a competitive advantage over the rivals. This chapter of this study includes a brief introduction to the research. The background and rationale of the study are included here. In addition, the research will focus on the aim, objective, hypothesis of the research. Furthermore, this chapter includes the research question and research structure.
Background of the Research
Consumers are the most important element for any kind of organization and most of the business strategies taken by the organizations are mainly focused on the customers. Almost all the business organizations are competing for each other in order to make a loyal customer base by properly satisfying the customers. When the customers hold a positive feeling for a company, they get satisfied by that company. Nowadays customer is getting more convinced by the Integrated Marketing Communication which is a new strategy invented by the business firms to promote their products and increase their sales (Zimmerman, 2005). As incited by Mihart (2012), Integrated Marketing Communication work as a double-sided communication tool to the customers and companies. By IMC consumers express their message to the company, on the other hand, the company deliver their thoughts and messages to the potential customers (Rachman and Romano 2000). In order to make a customer-oriented marketing policy, the organizations prepare a database from the information of the customers by Integrated Marketing Communication which involves collecting feedback from the customers. Integrated Marketing Communication develops a customer-oriented marketing strategy which is very fruitful to divert the consumers’ attitude and behaviour to the services or products of any company (Pushparanjan, 2009). Nowadays it has been observed that the fashion industry is increasingly using Integrate Marketing Communication (Ahmed & Rafiq, 2002). The preference and tastes of the customers are largely responsible for the performance of the organizations in the fashion industry.
Arcadia, a young participant in the UK fashion industry, is founded in 2002 with its headquarter in London. It is actually a retail cloth and shoe store with more than 2500 branches across the UK. It has become an idol in the fashion industry of the UK by making the customers with its product (Arcadia, 2016). The researcher chooses Arcadia to detect the impact of IMC on its Consumers perception.
The rationale of the Research
In this modern complex business environment, consumers are the most important factor on which the organizations focus more to take dynamic strategies to retain the customers by attracting them to the organization’s product. A lot of marketing strategies are available that can be used for attracting the customer and Integrated Marketing Communication is one the most effective marketing strategies (Mihart, 2012). The effective promotion of a product or service is only possible by undertaking a correct marketing strategy to promote that product and services and most of the marketing research took place to sort out the most effective strategy that could best promote the product and enhance the number of loyal customers (McCarthy, 2008). The main intention of this study is to find out how IMC affects the customer’s perception of Arcadia. Some of the previous studies regarding Integrated Marketing Communication disclosed that it is only a simple marketing strategy like the other strategies. This study will investigate the relationship between IMC and consumer perception with the findings of the existing literature to get a new conclusion about the relationship.
Aim of the Research
This research is aimed at investigating the impact of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) on consumer perception of the fashion industry.
Objectives of the Research
The objectives of the research are described below.
- To review various literature regarding Integrated marketing communication and Consumer perception.
- To identify the impact of IMC on the consumer perception of Arcadia in the fashion industry
- To critically assess the procedure how IMC affect the perception of the consumers in the fashion industry
- To recommend various strategies that are important to develop effective Integrated Marketing Communication for better consumer perception about the company.
Research Question
The research question is “How the Integrated Marketing Communication system affects consumer perception in the UK fashion industry?”
The hypothesis of the Research
H0: Integrated Marketing Communication has no affirmative impact on consumer perception in the UK fashion industry.
H1: Integrated Marketing Communication has an affirmative impact on the consumer perception in the UK fashion industry
Structure of the research
Chapter | Discussion |
Introduction | In this chapter, the background, rationale, aim and objectives of the research are included along with the question, hypothesis and justification of the research. |
Literature Review | The literature review chapter is consist of the discussion regarding previous literature, theories and research papers about Integrated Marketing Communication and Consumer perception. |
Methodology | The overall process that is used in developing the research is included here i.e. philosophy, approach, method, data collection process, data analysis method, limitation and ethical consideration of the research. |
Analysis, Discussion and Findings | In this chapter, the collected data are analyzed to make the result of the research. Also, the findings from the analysis process in the research are described here. |
5. Conclusion and recommendation | The concluding part of the research along with some recommendations regarding the research topic is described here. |
The research is going to disclose the impact of IMC on the perception of consumers of Arcadia in the fashion industry. The research aligned the background, rationale, aim, objective, question, hypothesis and structure of the research with the core objective to complete a part of the research process.
Chapter-2: Literature review
Chapter-3: Methodology
This part of the paper includes the tools and materials that are being used while doing the research. Philosophy, structure, method, approach, and strategy of the research are discussed here. The overall process of data collection is also analyzed here. Sources of data, analysis tools and techniques, sample size, sampling strategy, and method reliability are also conferred here. The problems of the study and the method of ethical approval also stated here.
Research Philosophy
According to Bryman and Bell (2003), philosophy of a research says about the concentration of the researcher to a specialized knowledge and theory. Most of the time, researchers call it theatrical set-up of the study. On the contrary, Coldwell and Herbst (2004) said research philosophy tells us the way that trough which a researcher think a subject matter. He proposed two types of research philosophy such as ontology and epistemology. In a paper, Bell (2003) said that ontology is the philosophy that is used by a researcher while doing a research on a particular subject matter that already available in the earth. That means ontology is used for doing a research on a well-known topic or subject matter. The ontology also has two part such as Interpretivismand Positivism. In positivism, the investigator holds a positive philosophy about the title of the paper. On the other side, Interpretivism means the research carries out the paper with a questioning mind. On the other hand, epistemology philosophy deserves a subject matter that is not available in the earth. That means it deals with the unknown topic or subject matter. Discovering new relationship is the main theme of epistemology philosophy. Science based researchers use epistemology philosophy.
According to Bell (2003), business related research should have a positivism philosophy in order to reveal the true relationship among business related variables. Positivism under ontology deals with a quantitative method that is easy to analyze and interpret. As the literature review chapter says that there is an existing relationship between IMC and consumer perception, ontology has been used by the researcher with positivism thinking in his mind.
Research Approach
According to Emory (2006), research approach says about the sequential steps of the study. It says how the research was started and how is was ended. Which task is undertaken after which one is told by research approach. There are two approaches to study. First one is an inductive approach that begins with observing the information of a subject matter and then set up a relationship or theory after evaluating the information. Krishnaswamy and Satyaprasad (2010) said it a bottom-up approach. The second one is a deductive approach that begins with a theory or relationship and collects the essential information to evaluate the existing findings on the theory or relationship. Satyaprasad (2010) called it top to bottom up approach in his book.
Deductive approach is the used approach in this study by the researcher. The topic of the paper is known one. So there are findings on the subject matter already. As a result, the researcher built a hypothesis and examined the consumers of Arcadia to prove the authenticity of the hypothesis.
Research Method
Research method says roughly the construction of the data processed in the paper. The research method is selected based on the conceptual framework of the paper. The conceptual framework defines which type of data will be most suitable to fulfill the objective of the study. Based on the construction of data, there are two types of the research method in practice. Qualitative and Quantitativeare the two types of research method. According to Saunders et al., (2003) about 85 of the data used in research is numeric data. The method that uses numeric data is called the quantitative method. On the contrary, a method that uses non-numeric data is called qualitative data. Behavioral information is one kind of non-numeric data. Some social and scientific research are done with qualitative data.
This research has been done under quantitative method. Though the dependent variable of the research is a behavioral concept but quantitative data from the consumer of Arcadia has been used to complete the paper. According to Lee and Lings (2008), quantitative method is easy to undergo. The collection, analysis, and interpretation of data are much easier and effective in the case of quantitative data. The qualitative method involves individual judgment of the researcher. But the quantitative method is free from any kind of judgment. So it is most suitable for business research.
Research Purpose
Research purpose answers the question “Why the research has been done?” There are three answers to this question. Exploratory, explanatory and descriptive are the three kinds of research purpose. Exploratory purpose involves discovering a previously unknown theory or relationship among variables. Explanatory explains the complex binding of the subject matters presently available in the research world. Descriptive research describes the unknown fact about the relationship newly developed by exploratory research (Zikmund, 2004).
The research has done this study to evaluate the influence of IMC on perception of the consumers of the fashion industry in the UK. There are existing findings on this topic. So the researcher has used descriptive purpose for doing the research and describe the dimension of the relationship between IMC and consumer perception and the degree of relationship.
The case studies strategy
In this approach, a single case or phenomenon is used to generalize a theory or relationship. It is very easy to have a real life case and examine the pros and cons of it to reveal the facts of the case and build a relationship or theory on the variables of the subject matter. Zwick. and Rapoport (2002) argued that is wired task to generalize a relationship or theory based on a single case or phenomenon. The case could be an extreme one to invalid the findings of the case and it may also develop a false concept of the variables of the case. Zikmund (2004) counter-argued that most of the cases in is impossible to use the whole population of the subject matter. So it a good idea to have a case and set up a relationship based on the case.
As it is quite impossible for the researcher to take the whole population of the fashion industry to do the research, the consumers of Arcadia have been used as a sample of the research. The researcher has selected Arcadia believing that it is a good representative of the whole population of the fashion industry. The company is running for more than 15 years but it has captured a large portion of the market by providing a good collection of fashionable accessories in the market of the UK. It has about 1600 stores in the country.
Data collection
Data is the main blood of research. According to Lee and Lings (2008), a valid and reliable data set is the prerequisite for doing a good research. The collection process of the paper has been discussed in the following paragraphs.
Data Source
There are actually two sources of data such as secondarysource and primary source. First-time collection of any data through the interview, survey, conversation etc. is known as primary data. On the other hand, data collection from a available source such as websites, articles, newspapers, magazines, books etc. is called secondary data.
The primary source is the selected source of collecting data for the research as it is more reliable than the secondary sources. A secondary source may include the biased presentation of data for any unethical purposes. So to avoid this problem, a primary source has been selected by the researcher.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire is a collection of questions or statements where the respondent is given the space to provide with his or her answers or responses. He also added that it an easy and effective way of collection information on the point of view of a person toward something. A questionnaire can be of two types such as structured non-structured. In structured one, fixed options are given for responses. On the contrary, in a non-structured one, blank space is given for a response.
In this particular research, the researcher has used a semi-structured questionnaire to accumulate the responses of the consumers of Arcadia. Some questions will be blanked spaced and some will be Likert 7 scale statements.
Measures
- Independent variable– Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is the independent variable of the research.
- Dependent variable-Consumer perception is the dependent variable of the research.
Type of Sample and sample size
According to Saunders et al., (2003), sometimes it happens that it is impossible for doing any research with the whole population of the subject matter. At this time, sampling is the only way to do the research and present a valid conclusion. According to Bell (2003), a portion of the population that almost represent the population in terms of different criteria is called a sample of the population.
There are thousands of consumers of Arcadia. So it impossible for the researcher to do the research with this vast population. So the researcher has used stratified random sampling. At first, strata was created based on the geographical area. After that consumers were selected randomly for the survey. The sample size of the research is 200.
Pilot Study
Emory (2006) said that pilot study is a magical invention in the realm of research. According to him, a pilot study is a miniature sample of the proposed survey method. A pilot study is done on a few respondents to forecast the probable problems in doing the research and reformulate the method to solve those problems.
A pilot study has also been undergone by the researcher on 10 consumers of a local retail shop. After that, he founded that some statements are redundant and some are less informative, so he changed those statements. The sample size was increased after the pilot study.
Questionnaire distribution and collection
At present world, doing research is very easy and comfortable for the research with the magic of the present technology, most importantly the internet (Emory, 2006). Most of the questionnaire for the survey has been distributed through email. The researcher distributed only 20 questionnaires physically and remaining 180 questionnaires has been distributed via the internet. This questionnaire was collected after a week. About 67% of the total questionnaire was collected within the specified time. After that anther week was provided to submit the fulfilled questionnaire.
Data Analysis
According to Coldwell and Herbst (2004), a perfect data analysis tool and technique helps a researcher to make a reliable conclusion of the study. It gathers the required information, creates results from the information and interprets those results to identify the findings of the study.
Method Reliability
According to Coldwell and Herbst (2004), method reliability says about the acceptance level of the method used in the research. The accuracy of the findings depends largely on the reliability of the method. Cronbach’s Alpha is the standard measurement tool to examine whether the method is reliable or not. He said that if the alpha is greater than 0.70, the method is reliable. On the other hand, when the alpha is below than 0.70, the method cannotbe reliable.
The researcher has measured the alpha of the research and found that it is 0.727. So, the researcher insisted that the method used in the research is quite reliable to give a worthwhile result.
Limitations
It impossible for a researcher to do a research without any problems or limitations. As a result, the research also has some basic limitation.
- As it has been done on a sample of 200 consumers of Arcadia, it may not be a proper representative one for the population.
- The method used in the research has some limitations. Other method could have provided with a better findings.
- A small amount of budget and time allocation is another problem of the research.
- The researcher is not a professional researcher. So the limitation of his knowledge is another problem.
Ethical Aspects
Ethical aspects affect the reliability of a research. It is a basic requirement of a good research that the research must comply all the ethical requirements. Complying all the laws and regulations is the most important ethical factor (Lee and Lings, 2008). The researcher has given ethical aspects of the study highest priority. He provided with a consent form to the selected consumers to know who want to participate in the study and who not. The questionnaire was distributed to the consumers who were agreed to take participate in the study. The research has used proper referencing of the used sources and acknowledged the helpful persons. He also obeyed with all the laws and regulation while doing the research.
The overall methodology of the study is a good one to give a viable finding. Ontology philosophy has been used by the researcher with positivism thinking in his mind. Deductive approach is the used approach in this study by the researcher. This research has been done under quantitative method. So the researcher has used descriptive purpose for doing the research and describe the dimension of the relationship between IMC and consumer perception and the degree of relationship. 200 consumers of arcadia from thedifferent geographical area have been surveyed in the paper. A consent form was used to know the willingness of the consumers in the case of participating in the study.
Chapter-4: Analysis, Findings and Discussions
Demographic Discussion Figure 4: Gender Source: Primary Survey
The researcher has emphasized on the men as the sample of the study includes 40% women and 60% men.
Figure 5: Living place Source: Primary Survey
The research is well structured in the terms of a geographic area as it includes respondents almost all over the UK. 11% of the consumers lives in London, 12% lives in Birmingham, 9% lives in Leeds, 9% lives in Glasgow, 8% lives in Liverpool, 7% live in Manchester, 6% lives in Tottenham, 8% lives in Edinburg, 6% lives in Bristol, 8% lives in Southampton, and 9% live in Norwich.
Figure 6: Profession Source: Primary Survey
The left-hand graph shows that 17% of the consumers is a housewife, 29% is a service holder, 24% is Student, 18% is a businessman, and 12% is from another profession.
The graph shows that 20% of the consumers have an income of less than £ 2,000, 19% has more than £ 2,000 but less than £ 4,000, 35% has more than £ 4,000 but less £ 8,000 and 26% have more than £ 8,000.
Figure 7: Monthly income Source: Primary Survey
Figure 8: Consumer of Arcadia for number of years Source: Primary Survey
The figure shows 13% of the consumers are purchasing a product of Arcadia for less than 1 year, 34% is purchasing for more than 1 year but less than 5 years, 35% is purchasing for more than 5 years but less than 10 years and 18% is purchasing for more than 10 years.
Frequency of Responses
Figure 9: Percentage Frequency
Source: Primary Survey
16% of the consumers strongly agrees, 20% agrees, 24% somewhat agrees, 21% is neutral, 15% somewhat disagrees, 4% disagrees and 1% strongly disagrees with the statements of public relationship and publicity. 32% of the consumers strongly agrees, 30% agrees, 18% somewhat agrees, 10% is neutral, 6% somewhat disagrees, 4% disagrees and 1% strongly disagrees with the statements of Direct and Interactive Marketing. 3% of the consumers strongly agrees, 10% agrees, 16% somewhat agrees, 25% is neutral, 24% somewhat disagrees, 15% disagrees and 8% strongly disagrees with the statements of Personal Selling. 28% of the consumers strongly agrees, 22% agrees, 23% somewhat agrees, 14% is neutral, 10% somewhat disagrees, 2% disagrees and 1% strongly disagrees with the statements of Sales Promotion. 33% of the consumers strongly agrees, 34% agrees, 19% somewhat agrees, 10% is neutral, 3% somewhat disagrees, 2% disagrees and 0% strongly disagrees with the statements of Advertising. 26% of the consumers strongly agrees, 29% agrees, 22% somewhat agrees, 15% is neutral, 5% somewhat disagrees, 2% disagrees and 1%
Figure 10: Mean Source: Primary Survey
strongly disagrees with the statements of consumer perception.
The mean of the replies of the consumers of Arcadia is shown in the left-hand side figure.
Figure 11: Mode Source: Primary Survey
The mean of the responses regarding Public Relationship and Publicity is 4.4, regarding Direct and Interactive Marketing is 6.4, regarding Personal Selling, is 3.4, regarding Sales Promotion, is 5.9, regarding Advertising, is 6.3, and regarding Consumer Perception, is 5.8.
The mode of the responses of the consumers of Arcadia is shown in the left-hand side figure. The mode of the responses regarding Public Relationship and Publicity is 5, regarding Direct and Interactive Marketing, is 7, regarding Personal Selling, is 4, regarding Sales Promotion, is 7, regarding Advertising, is 6, and regarding Consumer Perception, is 6.
Figure 12: Median
Source: Primary Survey
The median of the replies of the consumers of Arcadia is shown in the left-hand side figure. The median of the responses regarding Public Relationship and Publicity is 4.5, regarding Direct and Interactive Marketing, is 6.5, regarding Personal Selling,is 3.3, regarding Sales Promotion, is 5.7, regarding Advertising, is 6.1, and regarding Consumer Perception, is 5.9.
Figure 13: Standard Deviation
Source: Primary Survey
The standard deviation of the replies of the consumers of Arcadia is shown in the left-hand side figure. The standard deviation of the responses regarding Public Relationship and Publicity is 0.9, regarding Direct and Interactive Marketing, is 0.2, regarding Personal Selling, is 1.2, regarding Sales Promotion, is 0.8, regarding Advertising, is 0.6, and regarding Consumer Perception, is 0.7.
Correlation
|
Public Relation & Publicity |
Direct & Interactive Marketing |
Personal Selling |
Sales Promotions |
Advertising |
Consumer Perception |
Public Relation & Publicity |
1.00 |
0.15 |
0.04 |
0.23 |
0.18 |
0.26 |
Direct & Interactive Marketing |
0.35 |
1.00 |
0.16 |
0.15 |
-0.31 |
0.71 |
Personal Selling |
0.14 |
-0.12 |
1.00 |
0.07 |
0.13 |
0.10 |
Sales Promotions |
0.14 |
0.15 |
0.41 |
1.00 |
0.51 |
0.31 |
Advertising |
-0.45 |
0.08 |
0.07 |
-0.14 |
1.00 |
0.52 |
Consumer Perception |
0.26 |
0.71 |
0.10 |
0.31 |
0.52 |
1.00 |
The correlation coefficient between the responses of Public relationship and Publicity and Consumer Perception is 0.26, between Direct and Interactive Marketing and Consumer Perception is 0.71, between Personal Selling and ConsumerPerception, is 0.10, between Sales Promotion and ConsumerPerception, is 0.31, and betweenAdvertising and Consumer Perception, is 0.52.
Regression
Model Summary represents that the R of the model of the study is 0.807, the R-Square is 0.740, the Adjusted R-Square is 0.442, and the standard error of the estimate is 0.0334.
The ANOVA table shows for Regression, the sum of squares is 4.676, df is 7, the mean square is 1.114. For residual, the sum of squares is 211.517, df is 233, the mean square is 0.773. The total sum of square is 215.163 and total df is 240. The F value of the model is 1.314 and the significance level is 0.027.
Coefficientsa |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Model |
Unstandardized Coefficients |
Standardized Coefficients |
t |
Sig. |
Collinearity Statistics |
|
|
|
B |
Std. Error |
Beta |
Tolerance |
VIF |
|
|
|
|
1 |
(Constant) |
1.330 |
.594 |
|
5.331 |
.030 |
|
|
Public relationship and Publicity |
.460 |
.042 |
.318 |
.121 |
.119 |
.435 |
1.126 |
|
Direct and Interactive Marketing |
.810 |
.092 |
.698 |
-.321 |
.031 |
.551 |
1.316 |
|
Personal Selling |
.010 |
.041 |
-.080 |
-.216 |
.310 |
.664 |
1.114 |
|
Sales Promotion |
.316 |
.013 |
.297 |
-.265 |
.027 |
.663 |
1.229 |
|
Advertising |
.244 |
.031 |
.221 |
-.245 |
.023 |
.776 |
1.456 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
a. Dependent Variable: Consumer Perception |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
The beta of the constant is 1.330 with the standard error 0.594 and the t value is 5.331 with a significant level of 0.030. Standardized coefficients for Public relationship and Publicity is 0.318 with a significance level of 0.119, for Direct and Interactive Marketing is 0.698 with significance level of 0.031, for Personal Selling is -0.080 with significance level of 0.310, for Sales Promotion is 0.297 with significance level of 0.027 and for Advertising is 0.221 with significance level of 0.023.
The demographic analysis shows that the researcher has selected consumers from all over the country from all major profession. Students and services holders are the main consumer group of the company. High-income class people is the regular consumers of Arcadia as it provides with a high-quality product at the high price. This study shows that most of the consumers are purchasing the product of the company for more than 5 years that means the company has been able to build a loyal consumers base.
The responses of the consumers collected through the survey questionnaire have revealed some major facts regarding the effectiveness of IMC as the marketing strategy of the company. The advertising policy of the firm is very effective in attracting the consumers to purchase the product of the firm. The mean of advertising is 6.3, mode is 6, median is 6.1 and standard deviation is 0.6. So, advertising has the highest responses from the consumers in agreeing and strongly agree on thesection.All these elements say that advertising is the best mix of IMC of Arcadia. The percentage frequency shows that the company is very successful in implementing and operating direct and interactive marketing program as most of the consumers have strongly agreed with the statements regarding direct and interactive marketing. Direct and interactive marketing has the highest responses from the consumers in agreeing and strongly agree on thesection. It also has a high mean, mode, median and a low standard deviation. Sales promotion is another effective mix of IMC as it has the third highest mean, mode, median and a low standard deviation. The responses of the consumers show that the consumers are acquainted with the sales promotional tools. Public relationship and publicity have little bit low response from the consumers. The tools and elements of public relation and publicity are not much effective in attracting the consumers. It has little bit low mean, median, and mode with a high standard deviation. Personal selling program of the company is also another unsuccessful mix of IMC in the company. The sales people of the company who are responsible for personal selling have not been successful in persuading the consumers to purchase the product of the company. It has the lowest mean, mode, median and a high standard deviation.
The correlation table shows that direct and interactive marketing mix is the most successful in affecting the perception of the consumers of Arcadia. The correlation coefficient between direct and interactive marketing and consumer perception is 0.71 that means 1 unit deviation of direct and interactive marketing can change consumer perception by 0.71 unit. Advertising is the second most effective tool in building a positive consumer perception. It also has a high positive correlation coefficient with consumer perception. It can deviate consumer perception by 0.52 unit. Sales promotion is also a good mix of IMC in developing a positive consumer perception toward the brand. But public relation and publicity and personal selling are the least effective tools of IMC mix of Arcadia. They have the lowest correlation coefficients with consumer perception.
The regression model says that the study has been successful in measuring the impact of IMC on consumer perception. The R-Square is 0.742 that about 74.2% variation in the dependent variable can be explained by the variation of the independent variable. So, it can be said that IMC will be able to deviate the perception of the consumers of Arcadia by 74.2%. The significance level of the model is lower than 5% that permits to accept the model. The F value is also acceptable in the model. According to the coefficient table, 1.33 unit of deviation in the perception of the consumers is not due to any deviation in IMC mix. Direct and interactive marketing the most effective tool as it has the highest coefficient in the model with a low significant level. Advertising and sales promotion are also two vital factor of the model. These two variables have high coefficients with an acceptable significance level. On the contrary, personal selling has a low negative coefficient that means personal selling negatively affect consumer perception. But the significance level is very high so it a matter of argument to say that personal selling negatively affectsconsumer perception. Public relation and publicity have a low coefficient in the model with a high significance level. So it can be said that Public relation and publicity has not been an effective mix of IMC in affecting the perception of the consumers of Arcadia.
So above discussion says that Arcadia has been able to create a good impression before the consumers of the UK by implementing IMC as the marketing strategy of the firm. IMC has five major tools that work coherently to attract the consumers in the best possible way. Public relation and publicity, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct and interactive marketing are the five elements of IMC that helps the company to develop an integrated marketing strategy. Direct and interactive marketing tool is the most effective mix that plays the major role in affecting the perception of the consumers. Consumers like to have the clothes or accessories that they like. Direct and interactive marketing connects directly to the consumers and collects feedback from those consumers regarding their taste and preferences. After that, it develops its overall marketing strategy according to the taste and preferences. It also produces clothes and accessories based on the collected responses from the consumers. As a result, these clothes and accessories are liked by the majority of the consumers. The sales promotional tools are also effective in building a mass awareness among the consumers of the industry. Discount is the major promotional tool of Arcadia. It provides with a good amount of discount to its regular consumer. Arcadia keeps the record of its consumers and try to find out the regular consumers and gives a special membership card to those regular consumers. This card holds a discount up to 10%. At the time of purchasing any product from the stores of the company, these consumers show those card and avail a discount that is allotted from the marketing manager. This discount attracts consumers and increasesthe amount of sales that ultimately increase the profitability of the firm. Advertising policy of the firm is also a good driver that attracts the consumers of the industry toward the company. The company creates anadvertisement with the popular sports person and actor of the UK. These advertisements are broadcasted through different online and offline media. This policy works very well in the country as people of the country love sports as well as the sports person. The company also have a good relationship with the general public of the firm. It undertakes different publicity programs such as contests, concerts, inauguration functions to build a good public relation. But personal selling program is not good for the company. It has invested theminimum effort to set up personal selling program. The sales representatives who are responsible for the program have been unsuccessful in persuading consumers. The target market for personal selling program is only the sports persons of the company. It must increase the scope of the target market. So it can be concluded that direct and interactive marketing, sales promotion, advertisement are the most successful element of Arcadia to develop a positive behavior and attitude of the fashion loving people of the country toward the clothes and accessories of the company. On the contrary, public relation and publicity and personal selling have less impact on the perception of the consumers of the fashion industry.
Chapter-5: Conclusion & Recommendation
This research was done on the consumers of Arcadia with an aim of examining the impact of IMC on the perception of the consumers. The overall methodology of the study is a good one to give a viable finding. Ontology philosophy has been used by the researcher with positivism thinking in his mind. Deductive approach is the used approach in this study by the researcher. This research has been done under quantitative method. So the researcher has used descriptive purpose for doing the research and describe the dimension of the relationship between IMC and consumer perception and the degree of relationship. 200 consumers of arcadia from the different geographical area have been surveyed in the paper. A consent form was used to know the willingness of the consumers in the case of participating in the study. The first objective of the paper is to examine the principles and process of IMC in Arcadia. Consumer orientation, aligned goal, and treating consumers as an asset are major principles of IMC in Arcadia. Identifying consumers, valuation of consumer prospect, creating and delivering the message, estimating return, and budgeting, allocating, recycling and evaluating are the steps in the process of IMC. The 2nd objective of the paper is to evaluate the tools and elements of IMC in Arcadia. There are five elements of IMC such as public relation and publicity, sales promotion, advertising, personal selling, direct and interactive marketing that are used by Arcadia in developing a loyal relationship with consumers. The third objective is to analyze how IMC influnce on the thought of the customers in UK fashion indsutry. IMC positively impacts the perception of the consumers of Arcadia as in this process the core focus of the firm is the consumers of the company and all marketing strategies include the consumer in the core point. The fourth objective is to recommend some ideas that may improve the performance of Arcadia. Arcadia should be more careful of personal selling and public relation as these two elements are not much preferred by the consumers. Arcadia should introduce One-Piece strategy and sells its premium product through personal selling program. It can also provide with membership card of renowned clubs of the country as a gift to its premium consumers. The question of the research is “How does Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) impact the perception of the customers. So, after analyzing all the results of the survey, it can be said that IMC builds a good relationship with the consumers of the company by providing with the highest priority to the consumers in all major decision of the company. That persuades those consumers to have a good thinking about the brand. IMC has no affirmative impact on the consumer perception in the UK fashion industry is the null hypothesis. On the other hand, the alternate hypothesis is, “IMC has affirmative impact on the perception of the customers of Arcadia in the UK”. This research from its investigation selected the alternate hypothesis as valid and eliminates the null hypothesis.
After scrutinizing all the results collected through the survey from the consumers of Arcadia, the researcher has been able to make some recommendations that may help the business firm to improve its performance and the overall profitability. The proposed recommendations are given below.
- The responses of the consumers show that the public relationship and publicity policy of the firm are not very much successful in attracting consumers to purchase the product of the firm. Arcadia has few programs to create public awareness about the brand. Mass marketing that is most powerful in creating public awareness is not applicable in the firm. The firm only does mass marketing for the general people when it introduces new brand or fashion. So, it is crying need for the firm to take some policies and programs to create public awareness and do publicity of its products for the general people. Newspaper and magazines can be used to implement mass marketing of their product on a regular basis.
- Personal selling program of the company is very bad and most of the consumers are not satisfied with the program. This happens because Arcadia does not emphasize too much on personal selling program. As Arcadia is a premium brand in the fashion industry, it can boost its personal selling program by taking a proper step. Its sales representatives should be encouraged to go the celebrities, sports persons, politicians, students who prefer to wear fashionable clothes and accessories.
- One-Piece strategy is very common in the fashion industry. But Arcadia has not adopted One-Piece strategy yet. One-Piece strategy means producing a premium product just one piece for premium consumers. There is a huge demand for One-Piece clothes or accessories. So, Arcadia may introduce One-Piece strategy and sells its premium product through personal selling program.
- Arcadia has a policy of doing a survey in a year among the consumers of the company. It takes major strategies based on the feedback collected from those consumers. As fashion is changing in every second along with the changes in the behavior and trend in the society. So, Arcadia should change its policy and do the market survey in every month. It can collect monthly feedback from the consumers who have purchased the product in that month. This will help the company to keep pace with the changes in the taste of the consumers smoothly and make the firm able to produce a product of new fashion and style before any other competitors.
- Arcadia provides with a 5% discount to its regular consumers. This is very low relative to other companies in the industry. So it must increase it a discount percentage. It will boost up its sales as well as the profit of the firm. It can also provide with membership card of renowned clubs of the country as a gift to its premium consumers.
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