Complete 10 pages APA formatted article: Integrated Marketing Communications: Timberland.

Complete 10 pages APA formatted article: Integrated Marketing Communications: Timberland. The consumer product chosen for this research is footwear, which is manufactured and marketed by the Timberland Company. Timberland is a US based global manufacturer and retailers of products such as footwear, clothes, watches, and glasses. The company extensively uses traditional as well as modern advertising/promotion techniques to increase its market share. This paper will analyze the integrated marketing communications approach of Timberland Footwear. Promotion Mix The major five aspects of promotional mix are advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing. While analyzing the Timberland’s advertising practices, it seems that the company keeps its advertising expenses relatively lower than those of its direct competitors. Instead of spending huge amounts on advertising practices, the company emphasizes more on product availability and brand recognition. To illustrate, as Adhlakha, Baker, Decker, Iden and Xia (2010) reports, Timberland’s advertising expense was $43.1 million in 2009 whereas the firm’s direct competitor COLM incurred an advertising cost of $72.237 million in the same year. Even though Timberland uses web-based modern advertising techniques, the company still focuses more on traditional media outlets like television, direct mail, and digital communication. The company promotes its footwear business through personal selling also. The company management believes that the one to one marketing technique would assist the firm to build strong brand-consumer relationship, which is the key aspect of sustainable market growth. The firm’s consumer loyalty can be observed while comparing the Timberland’s facebook page with its competitors. Currently, the company has over 829,000 fans on its facebook page whereas many of its competitors have below 500,000 fans. The company largely depends upon sales promotion techniques like marketing campaigns. ‘Nature Needs Heroes’ is the most recent marketing campaign of the organization and it was supported by an integrated promotional campaign designed to attract more youngsters between the ages 18 and 35 (Adhlakha et al 2010). As Reidy and Staff (2009) point out, the company particularly highlights its reduced energy usage and eco-friendly manufacturing activities in marketing campaigns. As Billings (2002) reports, Timberland pays specific attention to direct marketing by operating its own stores worldwide. and the company considers the direct marketing as an effective mechanism to cut down intermediary costs and thereby pass the savings to buyers. Finally, the company gives due care to public relations as the management believes that this policy is necessary to build brand reputation. Hence, the company maintains close relationship with governments and many other social organizations. In order for promoting public relations, the company has taken a number of initiatives to enhance environmental sustainability and thereby public acceptance. This is the reason why most of the Timberline marketing campaigns particularly highlight the significance of eco-friendly business operations. Evidently, the company depends more on mass selling rather than personal selling. Clearly, store sales account for a large percent of the Timberland’s total sales.