An in-depth analysis and review of an Integrated Marketing Campaign, detailing my endeavours to develop and market a CBD product for the growing market in Ontario, Canada.

What is an Integrated Marketing Campaign?

In summary, an Integrated Marketing Campaign is a showcasing of work in different mediums with the intention to provide goods or services. These combined works may include but are not limited to, print/broadcast advertising, public relations, direct marketing, email, digital and in-store promotions, in a promotional campaign to guarantee that the promoting message consistently received by the greatest possible number of people in the target market.

Step 1: Planning & Analysis

Here in the early stages of development, Seneca College graphic design students are challenged with the task of conceptualizing and marketing a unique and revolutionary CBD product for the growing market in Canada, following the lift of the recreational marijuana use ban.

Settling on a CBD infused multivitamin, my group’s next task was to decide a parent brand and our target audience.

Parent Brand: Bayer

Bayer is a German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It has many successful products including it’s One A Day Vitamins. It’s long standing reputation of 155 years (founded 1863) makes it a strong and essential parent brand for a sub-brand that produced CBD Oil infused products.

Sub-Brand: CBDaily

The first of these would be one that mimics it’s One A Day vitamin product line, called CBDaily.

Cannabis Product Line: Edible/Food (Vitamins)

CBDaily, would be responsible for a line of CBD Oil infused daily vitamins.

Target Audience:

These vitamins would provide additional benefits to that of the daily vitamin, and target those who are affected by:

• Anxiety
• Muscle/joint pain/arthritis
• Seizures
• Acne

Step 2: Competitive Analysis & Research

Following our planning stage our next step is to better understand your market.
Who are your direct competitors and who has a similar product? How can you differentiate yourself from the competition and ultimately reign supreme?

Step 3: Creative Brief

Develop a creative brief culminating a brand story, a positioning statement and insights.

Your creative brief should include:

• Pricing
• Competitor analysis
• Target audience (Include income, age range, lifestyle, interests, location and background)
• Develop

Next analyze how you plan to reach your target market. Consider what type of advertisement best suits your campaign, this may include but is not limited to P.O.P. displays, shelving, print ads and their locations, applications and more.

Consider business cards, commercials, videos and a website.

Consider your launch date, what makes the most sense, what time is most appropriate for your product.
For example: A hot beverage would best be launched during cold/winter season.

Remember to maintain your objective and check to see that you are still on brand and meeting the needs of your cosumer.

Step 4: Partnerships

Consider developing a brand character, mascot or partnering with a company or celebrity. Not only does it help establish the product and create exposure, but it also helps the consumer associate the product with the partner company or brand ambassador, furthering your sales.

This is not a required step, but can make a huge difference. Way your options before deciding if this is the best direction for you to take your brand.

Step 5: Own your brand

Developing your own logos and assets not only allows you to say the design is entirely yours, put can provide equity and makes you and your brand more valuable. Consider developing images and icons that support and compliment your brand, like these health symbols here developed to represent; performance based, mental health focused, and athlete inspired categories.

Step 6: Brand Development

Following your brief, and competitive reproach, it is time to combine your assets. Think about what your brand should look like. You have analyzed the market and are now able to pick colours, typography, and design that echos and communicates your values.

Appropriate ways to develop your brand might include:

• Brand Packaging
• POP Displays
• Applications
• Social Media
• Merchandise

Step 7: The future

Developing an integrated media campaign and it’s steps may seem rather simple, but the process is rather complex, and upon reaching the final step your work is only half complete. How you maintain your brand and interest with your consumers will determine the success and longevity of your campaign.
Make sure to consider the thoughts and feelings of the consumer:

How do they feel about the product? How are they using it? What is something consumers might ask for in a second run or a version 2.0? These are all things to consider post-launch.
Cement your brand, and engage your clients.

Below are examples of some package designs and in-store displays developed to support the Sunlit CBD infused Multivitamin from my personal campaign.

Review:

All in all, I feel as though the experience proved valuable. Though arduous developing an IMC helps expedite the process of developing brand marks and future marketing campaigns.
Not only is it a great way to become informed, but it teaches the skills necessary to launch a campaign on ones own.
That isn’t to say the process is without its difficulties. Working in a group capacity can be very trying. Mid-project our team switched leadership roles and lost a lot of the progress made.
Be prepared for change and be adaptive, as working in a team setting may mean compromise and sacrifice.

8/10 in terms of usefulness, 6/10 in terms of enjoyment, 10/10 in terms of knowledge gained.

Good Luck!