Introduction
Primo smallgoods is a company located in Chullora, Newsouthwale in Australia, concerned with the production of bacon, ham and small goods. It is operated and owned by a family, with humble beginnings of 38 employees in 1985 compared to the current 2000 employees and high-tech machinery this is the most modern manufacturing plant in the southern hemisphere with the most modern and innovative high-tech facility. It owns and operates abattoirs, distribution warehouses, manufacturing plants and packing facilities. It has become a national brand within a short time due to effective communication involving advertising and still strives to be the top manufacturer and exporter of bacon, smallgoods, meat, ham, and packaged foods, in terms of quality and quantity. The company has utilized the services of advertising to further its achievements as can be seen below:
Corporate Advertising
It can be defined as a promotional strategy designed to attract consumers to the product and services the company is offering as well as create a good reputation both to consumers and the business world. The company is its focus, with customers’ attention being as a result of advertising campaigns’ focus on the products the company is offering. Its function is the generation of appeal and confidence in both its vendors and consumers. The aim of the advertising can be for the purposes of building a good reputation among the peers in the community or a given sector of the market. When some factors damage a company’s reputation, the company engages the services of the corporate advertising because the objective is not aimed directly at generating sales but rather the integrity the business employs on business relationships and the company’s plan on how it intends to improve the location it is operating on. When any merger or take-over takes place in a company, it is used to restore the confidence of consumers. Therefore, this has been the most effective tool, not only to promote primo small goods but also other companies to higher standards.
Integrated marketing communications
This refers to the concept of management which aims at unifying all marketing communication aspects such as sales promotion, direct marketing, advertising and public relations. It does not permit these to work on individual units but rather unified. It is not only about coordinating a company’s message getting spread to different media but also message consistency throughout. Considerations are made on the customer database, strategies, tactics and evaluation of results. The concepts are networked, related, and are believed to produce more output when unitedly working than in parts. There are other integration levels like external, vertical, internal, horizontal and data integration. Although it requires a lot of effort, Integrated Marketing Communication has extended its advantages to a Primo smallgoods company, such benefits include the creation of competitive advantage, the boosting of the company’s profits and sales, reducing stress, saving money and time. Therefore, all the company using this form of method acquires the image consolidation simultaneously, with dialogue development, and also through relationship nurturing between the company and its customers.
Internet
Internet, which is also a way of communication, is a process through which people exchange information. This is done through a client-server for the exchange of information and the protocol suite of TCP or IP for the exchange of data (Rafaeli, 1988). The data is encoded or decoded by use of media types such as video, graphics, and executable files, this may also include texts as well as sounds (Ford,1992). Internet communication is useful in several ways including scholarly activities, social activities, and information retrieval and dissemination. This is a very effective way of communication between companies and both clients and other support services. It has also promoted the expansion of primo small goods by ensuring that there is an adequate link between different organizations (Heeter, 1989).
Corporate social responsibility
This is a corporate with self-regulations put in the model of the business. It is also referred to as a responsible business. It eliminates practices responsible for harming the public sphere, voluntarily. There are arguments that with the corporate’s broader perspective operation, broader than their quick profit duration, are benefiting a lot and that it diverts from the aspect of economic importance of businesses. Between the 1980s and 1990s, an interest in business ethics was very radical (Dirk, 2007). Incorporating corporative social responsibilities in business is not only boosting the morale in the working place but improves a lot in the organization’s public image to consumers and the public, it also defines the way a company or business could respond to the clients’ problems. Some companies that place such organizational arrangement a priority, for example, the case of Primo smallgoods, have been successful in social, economic and political spheres. It takes several approaches like community-based development, philanthropy, direct incorporation of the strategies into organizational business strategy, and the increasing interest in corporate responsibility (Kim, 2008).
Some of the roles of corporate social policies in an organization include:
Human resource management
Human resource is helpful in the recruitment process, especially for the market of graduate students and potential employees, who may ask about such policies and also creates a good perception of the company among its staff.
Managing risks
It helps in reducing crimes and scandals that might attract great attention from courts, the public and the media. Ethical values may build a customer’s loyalty in the competitive market. Businesses offering services benefit greatly by maintaining integrity as well as success. Through persuading the public and the government about its concerns for both people and the environment, an organization may avoid taxes from the government (Kenny, 1997).
Green marketing and washing
Green marketing
Green marketing can be defined as the marketing of products considered to be green products. This includes activities ranging from product modification, packaging, and production process to advertisement modifications. It is spreading very fast due to global concerns on climatic change, with companies declaring their commitment to the reduction of the climatic impacts they cause. In the American population, only 12% can be termed true greens (buy green products) and 68% light greens, who may or may not buy, green products (Sheldon, 1995). Green marketing gains support from services such as Clean Development Mechanism, from the Kyoto protocol. Others include international trade in the reduction of greenhouse gas and sustainable development. Services of sharing cars, Philips lights, and control in the use of electronic hardware are some of the cases of ‘greening’. The greatest challenge faced by green marketers is customer confusion as the message grows common. The marketers grab this opportunity to make exaggerated ‘green’ claims (Grace, 2005).
Greenwashing
This can be defined as a company’s virtue appropriation of the environment with no justification. This also includes the actions of industries, non-governmental organizations, the government and politicians, to create a good environmental image, product selling, or trying to rebuild differences between them and the partners concerned (Tokar, 1997). This happens with a strong emphasis on a single environmental issue while neglecting the most important, issue in emphasis does not relate to the product, lack of meaning and specifics in marketing claims, false claims, making customers believe the product is ‘green’ when actually their products pose environmental hazards to the environment and creating a notion among consumers that the product has been certified as green when the documents and labels are false. These can be detected by checking the company’s reports, checking a company’s consistency on the policy, and the company’s membership trail. Just like other marketing strategies, the campaign on the green market can only be effective with the delivery of authentic difference, with clear as well as the compelling strategy of communication (Lubbers, 2002).
Conclusion
Marketing plays a major role in bringing out success in any business, however, it demands a lot of resources and time as well as analytical skills to be precise and produce effective solutions, since not only customers need satisfaction but also businesses utilizing the companies’ goods and services.
List of References
Dirk, M. (2007). The A- Z of Corporate Social Responsibility, SAGE publishers, London.
Ford, M. (1992). Motivating Humans Goals, Emotions & Personal Agency Beliefs, London, Sage Publications.
Grace, D. (2005). Business Ethics: Australian Problems and Cases. Oxford, University Press, Oxford.
Heeter, C. (1989). Implications of new interactive technologies for conceptualizing communication. J.L. New York.
Kenny, B. (1997). Greenwash and Corporate Environmentalism, Penang, Third World Network & The Apex Press.
Kim, T, & Crane, A. (2008). The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Rafaeli, S. (1988). Advances in Communication Science, Merging Mass and Interpersonal Processes, Sage, Newbury Park.
Sheldon, R. (1995). Industry, ME, Common Courage Press.
Tokar, B. (1997). Earth for Sale: Reclaiming Ecology in the Age of Corporate Greenwash, Boston, South End Press.
Lubbers, E. (2002). Battling Big Business: Countering Greenwash, Infiltration, and Other Forms of Corporate Bullying, ME, Common Courage Press.