IMC tools of H & M

For a company to reach it's organizational goals, the key termpromotional mixis used; it includesadvertising,public relations,personal sellingandsales promotion. A concept which goes hand-in-hand with the promotional mix is theAIDA concept;Attention, Interest, desire and action. These are the four stages a consumer goes through to make a purchase decision.

H&Mis a successfull clothing company, that is proud of being able to offer their consumers with their latest fashion of good quality, and to provide an affordable price. ForH&Mto keep growing and to continue being successfullthey needed a functional promotional mix to build up the relationship with their costumers. IfH&Mwouldn't get the consumers attention, and interest the consumer would not get the desire for H&M's products, and would not make an action to purchase it.

This is howH&Mgets from stage 1-4 in theAIDA concept.

ATTENTIONandINTEREST:

Through advertising and public relationsH&Mgets the consumers interest in looking online or to come in to a retail store to check out the newest product lines.H&Malso have an app where upcoming informations can be viewed, and what dates the newest collections are being released.

More informations can be viewedhere.

WhenH&Mhas the costumers attention it's easier for the employees to do additional selling which makespersonal sellingan important part of theINTERESTstage.

A successful promotional mix!? - During MARNI for H&M.

DESIREandACTION:

Public relations, sales promotion, andpersonal sellingare the most involved promotional tools to get a consumer to feel the desire to further take action.Sales promotionsas "25% off" will get an interested consumer to increase it's interest in buying a product they at first though wasn't worth the price. So with decrees in price the consumer feel more of a desire of the product and no longer just the interest in it. the last stage as above isaction = purchase the product, and by using personal selling to raise the desire for the product the consumer will get closer to making the decision of buying the good. As an example, if I try on something I consider overpriced atH&Mand a sales person tells me information about that particular product or gives me a compliment about how great it looks on me it will make me want the item more.

The sale promotion in United States and inH&Ms home countrySweden is made in two different ways. While H&Ms sales only are done in retail stores in the US, they have their sales in Sweden divided between online, catalog and retail stores. So sale promotions have to be handled differently. Here, H&M is not as focused on service and personal selling as in Sweden, and I find the reason to its great success is mostly because of its business concept To offer the latest trends of great quality to the best price, not to charm the costumers with excellent service.

Because in Sweden H&M has a Club system that excellent. For every purchase you make in store, online or through a catalog, the member will make points. And with these points the club member gets coupons with, 20% off,50-500kr($7-$70) off or get two pay for one deal. The member can also get invited to "members only nights where they get to take advantage of campaigns before everyone else and other deals that are only available at that particular night.

A great advantage with this membership is that you can have one account for the whole family. So if a whole family is frequent H&M shopper they all get separate cards and even greater deals because of the amount of money they spend together as a family. What I also would love to see in the US is the system Sweden uses for their employees. The employees are all competing with each other in personal selling so they have campaigns that they have to offer the costumer to gain points to the store as well as to their own "extra sales" list.

Not to forget, H&M does have promotions in American as well. But they are the same for all consumers. They will have campaigns such as 10% of any $50 purchase or any blazer for $15. And whats exciting here and not in Sweden is the constant sales stand. Because of Americas consuming habits. An item a consumer is dying to buy but find to expensive can likely go on sale in a couple of weeks. I've saved many dollars on waiting a week or two for the price to drop.

An average H&M ad is usually a poster of the hottest items of the latest collection posted on a phone both, bus-stops booth, or a ad box in your email or your social networking site.The more noticeable and famous ads H&M has released are on their collaboration collections with their guest designers. Two famous Ads and commercials are Versace for H&M and David Beckham Body wear for H&M. They might both be talked about but for two different reasons. The Versace for H&M ad with Donatella Versace as a head character, is about control and command. She is handling and manipulating the modelswith mind-control. She treats the models like puppets. It has a powerful feeling and gives you the impression that the message of this ad is to tell everyone that Donatella through Versace can control what people want and fight to be be wearing because of her The latest Ad that got a huge amount of attention (at least among women) was the David Beckham Bodywear for H&M which was released on the years Superbowl. I would guess most men when to the bathroom or went to get another beer at this pint but a heard every woman at the party I attended whistle and clap their hands. And I would assume many of them ran to the store as soon as they came out to buy their boyfriend a pair or two from the collection that was marketed, because later that week when I visited one of the stores located on Manhattan the collection was sold out.Who doesn't love walking by a retail store and seeing that big red and white sale sign. It automatically incites me to go in. As for H&M sales promotion is a frequent activity at their stores. Sales promotion is defined as a short term incentive by lowering the price or adding value. When a season is about to end H&M reduce their prices to about 50% off. In addition, they create a section in every store that consist of products at the prices of 5$, 10$, and 20 dollars. Although H&M does not give out coupons, rebates, or online sales promotion they do in fact give out discounts card to their consumers. These discount card can consist of 5$ off in any purchase you make for friends and family. Even though H&M has affordable prices on regular basis discounts wont hurt us! and remember that time of the year is coming around where the word SALE is going to be around more often.

Direct Marketing: Although H&M does most of their direct marketing through the internet. They create the awareness by their websites. This technique is mostly used in USA, UK, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and in many other countries. But there is a huge difference between the Direct Marketing technique of H&M in Saudi Arabia and in US. As we all know Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country where there is huge restriction on women to show off their body. So H&M needed to show their collection in a way so that the main focus would be on the clothing line. So their sales promotion and advertisement consists of women wearing such dresses that hide their whole body.

Where in United States there is not much restriction on women. So H&M did not have any trouble to openly promote Lingerie, miniskirts, sexy tops etc. If we take a look on H&M website in those two countries we can identify the vast difference in their direct marketing technique.

Through these websites we can clearly see the difference of the direct marketing methods of H&M.

H&M corporate and public relation: At present H&M is operating in 38 countries having 2206 stores (30 Nov. 2010) with 76000 employee working on the same philosophy i.e. to provide fashion and quality at the best price. H&M carry out its strategy by focusing on three main characteristics of business ((AR1 2008) :-

Price: - H&M controls price by limiting middlemen, buying in outsized quantity and appropriate merchandise and sustaining effectual distributing process.

Design: - The designing of the products is done in-house and production is totally outsourced.

Quality: - Main focus is on superiority with widespread testing and warranting less environmental harm.

The Corporate Communication strategy of H&M can also be well explained by The total communication domain model by Aberg, L., (1990). The model looks like a wheel having four sections:-

1 Support of Core Operating:-

H&M most valued assets are its employers working in the organisation which could be well understood by the statement issued by its CEO. He said that it is only its employee who makes its corporate strategy possible. He stated that H&M delegate a lot of corporate responsibility on its employers and they boost people to take own steps and initiatives. (AR1, 2008)

2 Profiling

H&M arrange a seminar both at home and abroad in order to understand various cultures, arrange exhibitions and inspires employees to study fashion magazines, watch movies and many more things.

3 Informing

H&M informs the stakeholders about the rectifications of internal as well as external information regarding the activities.

4 Socialising

H&M cheers its employees of various ethnic groups to work collectively and to gain experience and acquaintance from one and all.

image002

External and Internal Communication

External communication is the method of information outside the organisation.

Bovee and Thill, 2005 The external communication links the organisation with the outside world of customers, suppliers and investors. H&M use the following model for the effective external communication. H&M conveys all the newly made products to the customers by the medium of Newspapers, Magazines, and Websites etc. H&M dont have any industries but it works with 800 suppliers and around 2700 production units. H&M keeps transparency by publishing monthly, quarterly, half yearly and annually the financial reports. It organises general meetings annually.

Customers

Suppliers

Investors

H&M Stakeholders

Environment and Community

Internal Communication is a method by which the exchange of information takes place within an organisation. Every employee of an organisation is it the director or a small employee has some information that needs to send both internally and externally. The internal communication system has transformed to downward, upward, horizontal and diagonal communication from the downward communication. H&M everyone is approachable to one another and that clearly shows that everyone has got equal status in H&M. This is known as Lateral or Horizontal Communication.

H&Ms Internal Communication model can be explained by using Evan,1990 model.

Corporate Identity, Image and Reputation:-

Corporate identity is described as the tangible manifestation of the personality of a company. (Gregory and Weichmann, 1999, p.64) has defined Corporate Identity to be a visual statement of who and what a company is. The Berkigt and Stadler model of corporate identity (Cornelissen, 2nd edition, p.67) explains the H&Ms corporate identity. The model illustrates H&Ms organisational culture, its mission, vision and how it wants to be recognised as by the stakeholder groups outside organisation. The H&M communication aspires to assemble the brand in the long and the short term as well as communicating its offer. Costumers should be acquainted with what H&M stands for, i.e. Fashion and Quality at best price. H&M do a lot of heavy marketing of its diverse products to attract its targeted audiences and convey them what H&M stands for.

C:\Users\21119444\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\BUHE4KG2\p%20001[1].jpg

The Birkigt and Stadler model of corporate identity

According to Dowling, 1986, Corporate Image can be defined as a set of meaning by which an object is known and through which people describe, remember and relate to it as a result of interaction of a persons beliefs, ideas, feelings and impression about an object. The corporate image of H&M can be explained by applying the corporate image model of Dowling. H&M provides its employees an open door policy in order to put forward any work related issues to the management H&M consider open and constructive dialogue with the trade unions as an essential aspect and it has a positive experience of it. Examples include its agreement with Union Network International and European Works Council (AR1, 2008).

H&M gives key focus on skill development of its employees by providing training on customer service, CSR, garment handling etc. (H&M, CSR, 2008, p.47).

Formal Communication Policies

Employees image of the company

External group image of company

Organizational culture

External interpersonal communication

Previous product experience

Support by the members of distribution channel

Marketing media communication

According to Balmer, 2001 Corporate Reputation is enduring perception held of an organisation by an individual, group or network. H&M uses its brand image and reputation for taking advantage over its competitors and to satisfy the different stakeholders.

Internal- The Role of HR and corporate communication

It is always seen that the work of role of HR is never given much prominence in wider communication strategies. HR departments are mostly excluded from the spheres of departments of communications.

H&M is operating its business in 38 countries and their staffs come from culturally widespread background. Whenever H&M opens any new store anywhere, it employs the local staff. Right form the process of recruitment to the process of rotating jobs, rewarding employees, developing guidelines etc, HR plays an important role. Turner (2003, p20) has given a model that links HRM with performance. Here the author has suggested good communication to attach the HR policies and HR strategies. For the HR practises the author has suggested effective management of people to the line managers and for performance he has suggested effective communication of good people practise which is quite important for H&M which is a big MNC.

Role of technology in corporate communication:-

Oliver (1997, p128) has given a communication framework related to the IT technology. The framework shows the cultural values and beliefs aligned with the vision of the organisation. He has put forward a model which is designed by Goldberg and Sifonis named as Communication Framework which depends on hypothesis of management taken on intuitive ground and should be imparted using internal and external stakeholders. H&M is using smart technology like semacode bar through their mobile phones so that they can products shown in the advertisements instantly. It is an outstanding utilization of the technology.

Culture and its influence in corporate communication

The culture clarifies the models of hypothesis and behavioural statements by humans for their environment whether it is a state, a local community, a market or an industry. No doubt a firm render guidelines, hand-outs and norms in the indigenous language but still it requires more than just the translation. To tackle it H&M chose and recruit present and future employees on the basis of culture where it is operating. This help in creating organisational culture in H&M which in turn helps in efficient management, inspires employees for effective teamwork and provides opportunities to them for growth. H&M venerates the local customs. H&M has a task oriented culture. It pays much emphasis on local recruitment so as to fit in the countries organisational culture. Think globally and Act locally is the success reason for H&M or we can say H&M is Glocal.

Determinants of Effective Communication of H&M can be demonstrated as (Linda Beamer, Iris varner 2001 p,351):-

1 H&M trains Employees at different level so as to enhance their intercultural business communication skills.

2 H&M send top employees to foreign subsidiaries which is more productive.

3 H&M starts training employees from the age above 16. This means the employees are more flexible and easy to afford.

4H&M carefully looks for employees not just with the technical skills but also the one who can fit in the culture and stimulating frameworks.

5 More important, H&M creates an atmosphere where the employees much freedom to express, speak and be open minded.

Determinants of Effectiveness of Message

Conclusion

.

The various Frameworks, the models and the Approaches shows the advantages and the disadvantages which depends on the organisation on which these frameworks and models are applied. H&M functions in a very high competitive environment. H&M enjoys outstanding corporate identity, image and reputation. The various frameworks and models used evaluates the effectiveness of H&Ms communication policies and its communication internally and externally. They also reflects the comprehension of the various communication policies and reflects the requirement for efficient communication in modern era. H&M is using latest technology for its effective corporate communication. H&M is a glocal brand that works globally but acts locally.

To conclude wecan say that H&M has a very effective operational communication model to administer near about 76000 employees from 38 countries working in 2206 stores.