Overview
A promotional campaign is a series of advertisement conducted through a number of marketing tools that have common message and ideas, aimed at promoting a business, event, or product to a target audience. A typical promotional campaign makes use of different media resources such as internet, radio, television, newspapers, print advertising, as well word of mouth (Heneric et al, 2005, 14).
Industry Overview
The UK automotive industry is a key part of the UK economy with an average production of 1.5 million vehicles annually, generating an estimated £50 billion in annual turnover. This translates into about £10 billion in net value-added to the UK economy. Since 1904, it has been mandatory for all motor vehicles in the UK to have official vehicle registration plates (Talon, 2009, p.65). The rationale behind the number is so that to facilitate easy tracing of vehicle in the case of an accident or breaking of the law. The law provides for rectangular or square number plates together with the specific permitted dimensions and lettering. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is the official numbering and registration system for Great Britain (Wilmshurst & Mackay, 1999, p. 49). The law requires of number plate suppliers to maintain records of every sale and confirm the client’s driving license along the vehicle registration certificate.
The Products/Services
The Private Plate Company uses the term “DVLA” to refer to the services and goods it avails to its customers. The company offers motor vehicle private number plates and car registration in addition to personalized number plates to its customers (Yadin, 2001, p. 65). The selection of number plates entails all new registrations and private number plates that have the latest DVLA registration numbers together with the dateless cherished registration marks from before the year 1963 (Hargreaves & Eisenstein, 2008, p.24).
The adoption of DVLA Number Plates as well as private plates have been on the rise since their first introduction to the market in the early 90’s (Trade and Industry Committee, 2007, p. 61). In 1993, the private number plate MJD 611 was introduced into the market but failed to sell. The company then purchased a much cheaper local number plate, the FWN 333, which was vigorously promoted and sold to a local solicitor. Since then, Private Plate has sold thousands of number plates and currently sells an estimated 4,000 of them a year (The Private Plate Company, 2010, p.1). Over the years, the company has enabled many motorists to acquire personalized number plates at premium prices. DVLA is currently the most popular model of vehicle registrations that the Private Plate Company sells. The private number plates on offer are in the range of £69 and £500,000, with the most expensive being the Cherished Registrations.
The DVLA number plates together with the variety of personalized registrations that the company offers serve as great gifts for such occasions as birthdays, anniversaries as well as Christmas presents. Currently the company boosts of a comprehensive database in excess of 35 million number plates which readily available on the website. They can also be accessed through directly calling the company’s, low cost, local rate telephone number (Lowe, 2012, p. 54).
The Target Market
With the DVLA and private number plate offering, the Private Plates Co targets a growing customer base in the entire UK. In addition, the promotion campaign is targeted at such major car dealers as Bentley and Aston Martin. The message is also aimed for the greater number of the rich and famous who have been longtime customers of the company.
The company, through its buying and selling online facilities, aims to reach a host of businesses as well as members of the public. The facilities are designed to be both cost effective and efficient for all customers. Private Plate Company also offers personalized services through to customers through our knowledgeable and friendly staff members who are dedicated to help customers to decide on the most appropriate method to arrange the number plates offered. The Private Plate Company also boasts of a highly professional and qualified team in all aspects of buying, selling, in addition to transferring of car registrations. The team is under the able leadership of the business owner, Martyn Davies who has a wealth of experience in the automotive industry and is keen on meeting interests of clients at all levels.
Objective of the campaign
The main objective of this promotion campaign is to make it clear to our existing customer and potential customers that we offer simplified, effortless, cost effective and faster purchase of DVLA number plates, personalized car registration, DVLA Registrations, Private Number Plates, Irish number plates among other related products and services.
Campaign Media
The promotional campaign will mainly use television and targeted Internet marketing as the two major media channel. Other supporting advertising media shall include radio advertisement, newspaper/newsletter and magazine advertisements, and road side billboards throughout the major cities in the UK.
In both urban and rural areas in the UK, it is clear that the television has transformed into an integral part of the day to day life of the common people. For this sole reason, the television is viewed as media of advertisement which captures the most extensive coverage geographically and additionally, has the highest audience rating. Still on this issue, television has the most contact with the public in general as compared to all other kinds of advertising media. Consequently, the effectiveness of television is clearly unmatched and all the other advertising media is trying to catch up with this. Advertisements through the television are not only used as important management strategies by the advertisers, but also enable are the television industry to take part in various social economic activities and influence the viewers. Presently, the only aspect that requires attention regarding this tool of advertisement is how to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the television advertisements.
Television commercials have been prioritized because of their relative high ability to grab attention of most of the target market, especially metropolitan audiences. In addition, television is more believable, credible, and informative and depicts important information easily. The success rate of this advertising tool can also be easily quantified and major decisions such as the change of the promotional message can be discussed.
To reach more target audience, the promotional message shall also be spread through outdoor media. As such, the company will run a number plate campaign in motorway service stations around Swansea area. Taxi advertising, which is a new and rather exciting advertising tool, shall be employed for the promotional campaign. In this arrangement, taxis in Swansea will have DVLA number plates not only on the front and back but also on the sides. The company shall also take advantage of shopping centre advertising by placing messages at main entrances as well as in the washrooms. Private Plate Company further would be keen to carry out advertising in ‘Style Bars’ in order to improve brand awareness for the target market.
Online advertising refers to the conveyance of messages through the wide world web. over time, online advertisement has matured, and presently, Internet advertisers have a wide range of online advertising tools which include: contextual ads, pop-up ads, banner ads, email ads and more (Bush, Bush and Harris, 1998) . Online advertisement has been fuelled mostly by the continuing and rapid milestones in technology and innovative ideas from entrepreneurs. These have helped in making online advertising exciting for users, interactive for users and advertisers, and affordable for both large and smaller organizations (Bush, Bush and Harris, 1998).
The popularity of this medium of advertisement has been influenced by certain factors such as the changing reading habits of internet users. For instance, most potential and existing customers spend a considerable time online than on traditional media such as newspapers hence making it a lucrative advertising platform. Secondly, the internet enables extensive geographical coverage since it has the potential to reach a global audience at a very fast rate.
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Additionally, online advertising features unparalleled multimedia tools such as videos and audio that can transform ads into very powerful and effective modes of conveying information (Broussard, 2000). Lastly, the biggest strength of online advertising lies with its ability to facilitate a direct response to any ad, for both the advertisers and the customers. This creates a unique, never-seen-before opportunity for the advertisers to engage in a meaningful and resourceful two-way communication with the buyers (Broussard, 2000).
The Internet-based campaign shall employ expert website and database management systems which will be focused in managing viral promotional campaign tactics. Given that the human and financial effort involved in developing the promotional campaign is bound to be greater than may be anticipated, financiers of the campaign shall have to manage it with the sustained commitment, effort and investment of a major political campaign so as to achieve the main objective. (Yadin, 2001, p.185).
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Promotional Message
In order to carry out a successful promotional campaign, the promotional message to be conveyed to both existing and potential customers is of the greatest importance. The message has to be concise, accurate, catchy yet simple. Therefore, in order to come up with the promotional message, the following factors about the company have to be considered.
First and foremost, Private Plate Company has established a track record of quality service through a healthy business relationship with a number of other reputable car registration dealers in the UK and efficient service delivery to all of its customers (Ryan & Turton, 2012, p. 21). A significant majority of car dealerships from the entire nation make arrangements for private number plates via Private Plate Company on a regular basis as a result of the efficiency and speed with which our team delivers number plates to our clients. These services are also availed to our customers at pocket friendly rates as compared to other competitors in the market.
Our location, in South Wales near DVLA Swansea, gives us a major strategic advantage which enables us to easily process our clients’ orders efficiently and effectively. We are able to get instant DVLA approval of all our number plate transfers. We are also able to hand deliver your documents thus saving a lot of time that results from backlogs characteristic with postal delivery. Private Plate Company thus transfers your car registration numbers in a much faster, efficient and simpler way compared to our competitors. Furthermore, Private Plate Company offers unmatched personal level of service – and the client has no need to worry about paying extra to the Department of Transport fees, nor any administration and paperwork fees. This is all taken care of for the client for the same premium amount indicated on all car registrations!
Speaking of second to none convenience of payment, at Private Plate Company we accept payment delivered through most credit/charge cards. As such, customers are guaranteed of retaining convenience and insurance protection afforded to by their credit card company. In addition, our clients can rest easy knowing that we can instantly reserve your car registration number plate using this revolutionary method at no extra cost.
Do you have Car Registrations for sale? If so, you can take pleasure in knowing that Private Plate Company would advertise them for you absolutely free of charge! All you need to do is to email us your details and we will host them on our website (www.theprivateplatecompany.co.uk) until they are purchased.
The Private Plate Company invites all customers to take advantage of the widest selection of DVLA number plates and personal numbers plates on offer anywhere in the UK. Hurry and make a selection of your private car number plate from our large selection of personal stock, ex DVLA registrations and customer commissions. Our company has the potential to undertake transfer of a huge proportion of your DVLA select Registrations in a short period of just five working days. Private Plate Company is also very efficient in transferring cherished plates which take a little more time as compared to the regular number plates. This is because of the kind of paperwork involved and DVLA inspections for vehicles over 15 years old. Customers and potential customers are also welcome to seek advice on such matters as selling your car registrations or purchasing private number plates in the UK. Private Plate Company is a family-run business and we deeply believe in personalized service, we therefore believe in offering a more personal service as well as impartial advice relating to a variety of plates that customers are considering to purchase or sell(Thornton, 2013, 9). Private Plate Company is the sort of Car Registrations Company that you as a customer can fully count on and expect to earn value for your money.
Budget Summary
A large portion of the budget would be spent on targeted internet marketing. This will be achieved through the updating of the company’s website and undertaking any other necessary improvements. The hosting package shall be upgraded from time to time so as to give visitors a much faster browsing experience.
Prices captured in the marketing communications include VAT. Nonetheless, VAT-exclusive prices apply to customers to whom the price claim is targeted pay no VAT or are able to recover VAT. Such prices are clearly indicated as “trade-only price” (Abubakar, 2009, p.326). Also marketing communications where VAT-exclusive price are quoted are prominently clear on the rate or amount of VAT payable.
In our marketing budget, the company has totaled its expenditures on each of its inbound and outbound marketing strategies. In total, the company has spent $18,150.00 for the entire year on these marketing strategies. Next, the company then accounts for its yearly sales of $450,000.00 in order to determine the company’s marketing as a percentage of its sales. It does this by taking the company’s total marketing expenditures of $18,150.00 and dividing it by the company’s yearly sales of $450,000.00. This allows the company to express its marketing as a percentage of sales, which is 4.03%
Budget
Category Total
Advertising $3,000
Catalogs $2,100
Direct Mail and Internet Marketing $1,000
Literature $2,000
Product Launch $3,000
Public Relations $3,000
Resellers $1,000
Trade Shows $3,000
Grand Total A & P 18,100.00
Advertising Schedule
Theme Date
Winter 1/15/2013
Valentine Special 2/10/2013
Inventory Sales 3/26/2013
Midnight Madness 5/2/2013
Downtown Promotions 6/12/2013
Summertime 7/1/2013
Hot Rise 8/14/2013
Thanks giving 11/28/2013
Christmas 12/15/2013
References
Abubakar, B. (2009). ‘The Impact of a Promotional Campaign on Consumer Travel Behavior: Case of Baltimore, Maryland’, Journal Of Promotion Management, 15, 1/2, pp. 302-320.
Broussard, G. (2000). How advertising frequency can work to build online advertising effectiveness. International Journal of Market Research, 42(4), pp. 439-458.
Bush, A. J., Bush, V., & Harris, S. (1998). Advertiser perceptions of the Internet as a marketing communications tool. Journal of Advertising Research, 38(2), 17-27.
Great Britain. Dept. for Transport, (2004), The Stationery Office: London.
Hargreaves, B, & Eisenstein, P (2008), ‘Chain reaction’, Professional Engineering, 21, 22, pp. 23-24.
Heneric, O, Licht, G, Sofka, W. (2005), ‘Europe’s Automotive Industry on the Move: Competitiveness in a Changing World.’ New Mexico: Springer, pp. 32-.213.
Lowe, D, 2012, Lowe’s Transport Manager’s and Operator’s Handbook (2013), Kogan Page Publishers: London, pp. 21-342.
Ryan, B & Turton, H. (2012).‘ Sustainable Automobile Transport: Shaping Climate Change Policy.’ Edward Elgar Publishing: Massachusetts.
Talon, A, (2009), ‘Urban Regeneration in the UK’ Routledge: London, pp. 3-320.
The Private Plate Company. (2010) ‘DVLA Number Plates,’ Retrieved from: http://www.theprivateplateco.co.uk/private-plate/company
Thornton, MA. (2013) ‘Removing seasonality under a changing regime: Filtering new car sales’, Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 58, pp. 4-14,
Trade and Industry Committee. (2007) Success and failure in the UK car manufacturing industry: fourth report of session 2006-07, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence, The Stationery Office: London, pp. 14 -174.
Wilmshurst, J, & Mackay, A. (1999) ‘The Fundamentals of Advertising’, Routledge:London, pp. 35 –336.
Yadin, L, B. (2001) ‘Creative Marketing Communications: A Practical Guide to Planning, Skills and Techniques.” Kogan Page Publishers: London, pp. 5-252
Yadin, L, D. (2001) Creative Marketing Communications: A Practical Guide to Planning, Skills and Techniques. Kogan Page Publishers: London, pp. 9-224.
