Little Trendyz IMC Plan

Little Trendyz is a business that specializes in the creation and production of Zippyz, a one-of-a-kind footed pajama for babies. The company was formed in 2010 by new mom Lisa Feder Youngelson. Like many new moms, Youngelson was constantly waking up in the middle of the night to change her newborn son Ryan’s diaper. She was so exhausted that matching up the snaps on Ryan’s pajamas was a constant struggle. Youngelson decided to try a zippered pajama to ease the routine nightly changes, but when she went to change Ryan, he began to cry from the shock of the cold air hitting his exposed chest.

Youngelson searched for a pajama that was both comfortable for her son and hassle free for her, but she couldn’t find any such product on the market. That is when she came up with the idea of Zippyz; a footed baby pajama with three snaps on the chest and a zipper from foot to belly. 

Zippyz are made from a combination of bamboo and organic cotton, making the pajama both soft for babies and eco-friendly. The design of Zippyz cuts changing time in half. See how Zippyz works (right). Little Trendyz comfortable and convenient design targets new and expecting parents.

Little Trendyz's biggest strength is the product. As stated above, there is no similar product to Zippyz on the market, so Little Trendyz has the opportunity to capitalize on Zippyz's unique design. Little Trendyz's weakness is a lack of brand recognition. Because Little Trendyz is a relatively new company, the brand hasn't become a household name yet. In November 2013, Little Trendyz will receive its first major production order (8,000 Zippyz). Little Trendyz's biggest opportunity is to use the brand's recognizable celebrity endorsements to sell out of the major production order in the first quarter of 2014. The biggest threat standing in the way of Little Trendyz's goals is the fact that the brand is essentially a one-man production, and it's difficult for Youngelson to keep up with the brand's marketing, public relations and social media needs.

An integrated marketing strategy that utilizes various multimedia communication channels would be beneficial for the Little Trendyz brand. In today’s world, consumers are harder to reach through all of the white noise of advertising. An Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) strategy puts out the same message on multiple communication channels, so the brand’s message can cut through the white noise and make an impact on consumers. In order to be successful at IMC, Little Trendyz should produce consistent content that is engaging and relevant to their target audience. By producing this type of content and engaging with consumers, Little Trendyz will form real relationships with consumers, and consumers will be converted into brand enthusiasts. Once consumers are loyal to the brand, they will start to share the brand's message with all of their connections, and this will help Little Trendyz to establish brand recognition.

When developing an IMC plan for Little Trendyz, I would focus on the content being produced on the brand's website, blog and social media channels. Simple tasks like posting regularly on all social channels, and including industry-related keywords into content, would help Little Trendyz increase SEO and reach company goals. I would also try to increase brand engagement by cross-promoting social media platforms, and holding contests to get social media followers more engaged with the brand. 

I would suggest Little Trendyz invest in a tool like HootSuite, so the brand could post on multiple social media networks throughout the day, without having to constantly log in and out of each individual network. HootSuite would also allow the brand to automate social media posts, which would help the brand stay ahead.

Little Trendyz has developed a quality product in Zippyz, and with a couple minor changes, the brand could have a quality integrated marketing strategy that would help them reach all of their first quarter goals.

Measuring the Success of Your Integrated Marketing Campaign

An integral part of any successful integrated marketing campaign is tracking analytics and measuring results to see what content worked, and what content didn't. Figuring out your analytics will allow you to make real-time changes to your ongoing campaigns, and it will help guide you to make future campaigns a success. Below are examples of analytics from a company's Facebook page and email campaign, and a review of what the statistics mean and how the company could improve in the future.

Facebook

The graph above shows an overview of the company's Facebook posts for the month of May (purple), with the number of people mentioning the post (green), and the total number of people who have seen each post (blue). The numbers above the graph show that brand has increased total likes, friends of fans and weekly total reach, but fewer people are talking about the brand's content. To make more sense of the graph above, it's helpful to look at the chart below. The chart below shows which type of posts correspond with the days above, so the company can have a better idea of what specific content is engaging their Facebook fans.

Based on the second chart, the company's best post was a call to action on May 29. This post was seen by 509 people and 30 people were talking about the post. The more people are talking about your content, and sharing and commenting on it, the larger reach your content will have. Similarly, in the post on May 28, the company was calling followers into action with the word "Join." Once again, followers responded well to the call to action. The post was seen by 428 people, and 18 of those users were engaged in the content. You have to engage your followers in order to reach more people. 

From this chart the company can also learn that links don't perform nearly as well. The links the company shared on May 29 and June 2 had a significantly smaller reach, and few followers were engaged in the content or talked about it. In the future, the company should share less links.

The company's Facebook analytics are broken down even further into what specific demographics are seeing the brand's content (reach) and talking about the brand (above). From the charts the brand can learn that their content is most engaging to 25-34 year old women. If this demographic is the brand's target audience, they're clearly doing a good job with the content they're posting. If the brand was hoping to target another demographic, they should try posting different types of content, and see how that specific demographic responds.

The graph to the right shows where the brand is receiving traffic from. From the graph, the company can see that most of their traffic is coming from their viral content. As the company's social media manager, I would look at increasing the brand's total reach by focusing on the organic reach. It doesn't look like the company wants to invest in paid advertisement, so organic search is the best area for improvement. A company can increase organic reach by producing consistent, quality content that includes keywords and links to reputable sources. Once a company is producing that type of content, they will appear higher in search engines, and more traffic will be driven to their page.

Another way the company could increase traffic and the reach of their content, would be to include links back to the Facebook page on other social media channels. Maybe one of the brand's followers is really engaged on Twitter, but they're unaware the brand is active on Facebook. By linking between all of your social media pages, as well as your webpage, you will have a truely integrated marketing campaign that will be more successful.

In the future, this company should really focus on content that will keep engaging the 25-34 age range. This group already seems to be more captive, so capitalize on that. I would also post more call to actions on Facebook, because the brand's followers respond and share that content with their followers, and the brand has the potential to reach more people. Finally, I would look to improve how the brand is being found on Facebook by having a more integrated approach to the brand's marketing communications.

Email

Below you can see an overview of an email the company sent on May 21, 2013. The graph tells the company how many emails were sent (2,624), and how many emails actually made it to an inbox (2,606). These numbers show that the company has done a pretty good job of keeping their email lists updated, and they're not wasting time and resources sending to email accounts that are no longer in service.

The chart then proceeds to show how many of the delivered emails were actually opened (661), how many people clicked on the links within the opened emails (72), and how many of those people who clicked on the links made a purchase (0). 

Besides the delivery rate, I think the company has a lot of work to do in future email campaigns. Only a quarter of the people they're sending the email to are even opening the email. As a consumer, I get sent a lot of email from brands every day. I don't have the time to open up and go through every single one, but I will click on the emails with intriguing headlines about sales or promotions. If I were this brand's marketing manager, I would include more industry-related keywords and information about sales within the subject line. The subject line determines whether or not someone opens an email, so you have to make sure you're subject line makes people want to open your email.

The other drastic drop offs are the number of people opening the email, to the number of people clicking on links within the email, and then number of people who are making a purchase. This 10.9 percent click rate and 0 percent conversion rate may mean that the brand's email and website aren't user-friendly. In future campaigns, the brand may want to consider restructuring emails and the website so they're seeing a larger return on investment.

Another way the company could increase the success of email campaigns in the future, is by incorporating links to the brand's website and social media networks in the email. Social media buttons allow recipients to easily share the