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2141172
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MG5547
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Marketing Communications
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Liyuan Wei
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e.g. Coursework 1, Coursework 2, Coursework 001
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2141172
PLEASE START YOUR ASSIGNMENT HERE
Title: NEW IMC CAMPAIGN FOR GROOMING SERVICES AT ‘PETS AT HOME’
Executive Summary
The rapidly growing pet care industry is dominated by Pets At Home group in the UK. With
command over an industry worth 6.7 billion GBP (Pets At Home, 2022), the organization
maintains a market strategy that has driven profits consistently in the recent past.
To keep up the momentum of success, the new campaign proposal directs itself towards the
younger generations who have recently become pet owners or are planning to do so. In order to
do this properly, the communications utilised will be innovative and relatable which is what the
demographic responds to most strongly (Munsch, 2021). The grooming services are responsible
for half the revenue made in a year (Pets At Home, 2022) which means that marketing them
more effectively is a strategic decision that will benefit the company.
It is recommended that the company uses the implementation of social media as well as
experiential marketing to further improve the profitability of the grooming services. This
requires effort but the expected growth rate of the pet industry allows room for such steps to be
taken. The campaign in this essay tries to build on the very prominent increase in pet ownership
across the UK and combine it with the already established image of Pets At Home to vastly
influence the potential sales in the next year.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ………………………………………………… 4
2. Critical Literature Review …………………………………. 5
3. Target Audiences and Positioning ………………………… 7
4. Marketing Communications Objectives …………………... 9
5. IMC Campaign Planning ………………………………….. 11
6. Conclusion ……………………………………………….... 13
7. Reference List ……………………………………………... 14
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1. Introduction
According to the UK Pet Food (2022) organization, 62% of the population are pet owners. This is a very
significant percentage of the population which makes the market for pet products quite large. The leading
organization in the UK is ‘Pets At Home’ with a market share of 24% (Pets At Home, 2022). One of the
most recurring purchases for pet owners through the course of their pets’ life is that of grooming services.
Pets-At-Home has an in-house grooming service that brings in 50% of revenue (Pets At Home, 2022)
making it an essential contributor to the profits.
Pets At Home has employed an omnichannel marketing method which has proven successful since they
have seen a consistent increase in revenue over the last decade (Pets At Home, 2022). The proposed
campaign in this paper uses the company’s tried and tested formulae as well as new communication tools
to generate greater sales numbers.
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2. IMC Critical Literature Review:
With the everchanging nature of consumerism, there are several theories that corporations or
organizations rely on while employing marketing strategies. The integrated marketing communications or
IMC theory is a long-standing one and its proponents have been employed since the start of industrial
revolution. Miller and Rose (1994) observed the need to have a singular idea that incorporates all the
elements of communication in its framework.
Many researchers have critically evaluated IMC and there are varying opinions on the theory. It is
believed that there is no concrete definition to the IMC which makes it difficult to classify it as just a
concept and not a process (Duncan and Everett, 1993).
The IMC is perpetually evolving. Recently, the digitisation of communication tools has facilitated
accessibility of information which has proved to be a plentiful data resource for market research
(Mulhern, 2009). Due to the fluidity in its parameters, there are many varying versions of the IMC.
Nowak and Phelps (1994) recognized that there are different types of IMC frameworks that organizations
can employ in their marketing initiatives. The most relevant out of them is described as coordinated
marketing communications. This involves utilizing multiple forms of communication and employing
them as marketing machinery simultaneously. It is clear that consumer patterns are different in the
present era when compared to how they were in the at the time of the theory’s conception. Kliatchko
(2002) highlights that the main idea behind IMC is old but due to multiple methods of customer data
collection and interactions, the theory can be applied more efficiently in today’s world.
Applying the IMC to a specific target segment is a fundamental step for any marketing campaign. For the
campaign this paper is proposing, the target audience are young and unmarried working professionals
belonging to Generation Z and Millennial groups who have steadily growing buying power (Munsch,
2021).
i.
Ads
To generate maximum revenue through marketing, advertisements are an imperative tool included in the
IMC. The growing popularity of direct response advertising as a result of ease of connectivity has
increased scope for organizations to use ads in a more diverse and personal manner (Rossiter, Percy and
Bergkvist, 2018). The IMC combines the strengths of ads and other communication gateways to give us a
stronger communication effect than simply using a singular tool (Griffin, 1998).
ii.
Events
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Events can be an important part of the IMC as they stimulate a consumer’s senses and allow them to have
a completely immersive experience (Pine II and Gilmore, 1999) as opposed to other two-dimensional
communications. There has been a spike in the use experiential marketing in campaigns in recent years
because the highlight that draws consumers in is the element of uniqueness and anticipation that feels
individually directed (Zarantonello and Schmitt, 2013). For an event to be a successful marketing
communication tool, it has to have certain attributes. These can be described as the “7 Is” which are
involvement, interaction, immersion, intensity, individuality, innovation and integrity (Wood and
Masterman, 2007). The events for the campaign discussed in this paper will be planned in accordance
with these attributes.
iii.
Social media
When it comes to information, it has been observed that consumers regard content they see on social
media shared by their network as more reliable than when received directly from companies
(Constantinides et al., 2014). The rise of social media has given consumers an easy way to research and
evaluate their choices more intricately prior to making purchases (Albors, Ramos and Hervas, 2008).
Social media also allows communication that is unprovoked, informal and instantaneous which is
beneficial to companies in the context of brand promotion but it also opens them up to issues with
copyrights that can be misused by other companies (Steinman and Hawkins, 2010). As a part of the IMC,
social media marketing pros can outweigh the cons if used systematically. It gives consumers the chance
to play the role of marketers and a company’s branding can be determined by how they communicate
with customers online (Roberts and Kraynak, 2008).
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3. Targeting Audiences and Positioning
For this campaign, the target audience are individuals who are in their early 20s to late 30s. Since the
concept behind the campaign will emphasize strongly on the emotional dependency that people tend to
have on their pets, the subgroup would mainly be single/unmarried people. This target audience is
expected to see an increase disposable income in the coming years (West et al., 2006). As a result, this
group will be more open with their spending.
Within the aforementioned demographic, the audience can be categorized using the Five Buyer Model
(Rossiter, Percy and Bergkvist, 2018). The potential buyers for this product are those who have been
‘brand loyals’ which means that they are regular visitors/users of products and services that Pets At
Home has to offer. They will be the primary target audience but components of the campaign will also be
marketed towards the secondary audience group which will be new category users. It is predicted that
there will be an 8% increase in revenue next year (Pets At Home, 2022) which means a significant
amount of people intending to buy pets in the near future. There are lot of new category users that will
have to choose between Pets At Home and their competitors in the coming months. The campaign’s
success rate, if high enough, should directly influence the influx of new users into this category because
those considering becoming pet owners should be further motivated to do so once exposed to this
campaign.
This campaign is designed in accordance with the TCB branding model (Rossiter, Percy and Bergkvist,
2018). In terms of this model, the relevant target customer (T) would be the consumer. The grooming
services offered at Pets At Home outlets is the brand-item that can be positioned in a way that increases
the flexibility and mobility of the offerings as well as provides a social community for pet owners which
is not seen in other companies that provide similar services. This categorical expansion is done in order to
move past the regular parameters of the customer’s expectations from the service and provide them with
additional, newer reasons to opt for Pets At Home grooming. The act of taking pets for grooming is a
necessary form of care. However, this campaign intends to build beyond that. It will aim to cater to the
target’s emotional arousal. As opposed to just taking the pets for their routine procedures, the campaign
will position the brand-item in such a way that makes it like an elaborate and interesting bonding activity
for the pets and their owners. With this kind of targeting and positioning, the customer should be able to
recognize the increased benefits of opting for Pets At Home over any competitors. When making a
decision, there are two types of emotions that customers act on. It includes either basic arousal and its
effect on behaviour or more complex feelings like euphoria or nostalgia that usually translate into wellthought out actions (Wilson, 2002) according to the brain-levels theory. This campaign employs an
instinctual selling proposition because of the nurturing instinct of its target audiences but it also has
strong emotional and rational selling propositions that make it a better choice than competitors in the eyes
of customers.
Positioning Statement:
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This Pets At Home grooming services campaign is targeted towards end-customers who are from the
younger generation belonging to ages between their 20s and mid 30s. More specifically, single and
unmarried subgroup of the pet owner population will be targeted via the use of relatability in design as
well as by playing to their emotional instinct.
The necessity of providing grooming to pets already exists but the activity will be presented to customers
as a more indulgent and engaging one. Through the communications and their effects, the customers will
feel personally fulfilled as a result of employing social and emotional elements in the campaign. They
will perceive the services to have more than just the obvious practical benefits of getting their pets
groomed.
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4. Marketing Communications Objectives
i.
Category need
For the most part, the target audience is already existing ‘brand loyal’ customers that need grooming
services at least sporadically if not regularly. However, the secondary group the campaign targets are new
category users. These are people that are still considering becoming pet owners and are in the arousal
stage of decision-making (Rossiter, Percy and Bergkvist, 2018). They would have to be convinced to put
themselves in the position that creates a need to purchase this service. This means that it would have to be
exponentially more beneficial for them. For this group to progress in their decision-making, the campaign
has to be strong enough to sell not only the offered services but also the need to own a pet.
ii.
Awareness
The target audiences should be able to recognize and recall Pets At Home as the first choice for grooming
services. For the chosen buyer groups this campaign is targeting, there needs to be strong brand recall to
be able to make purchase decisions before getting to the point of purchase because of the nature of the
product. With respect to the new category users, both recall and recognition are equally important. The
idea is to have this group adopt or buy pets as a result of the brand’s strong communication effect. For
this to happen, brand awareness components need to be very efficient in their ability to sell the service.
iii.
Attitude
To make this campaign a successful one, the brand attitude has to be immensely positive. Since there is a
huge market for grooming services and most of the content used to promote them are similarly
emotionally provoking, Pets At Home has to raise the bar higher. In order to create (for the new category
users) and increase (for brand loyals) the positive outlook towards using Pets At Home grooming
services, the creative strategy implemented will be the use of relatable humor on accessible platforms.
Studies have shown that when an advertisement or promotion provides comic relief, it makes brand
perception more positive (Hyunju and Larson, 2018) and that’s what we will include in this campaign.
iv.
Intention
During the process of getting grooming services for their pets, the primarily targeted loyal customers
have high involvement while making a brand choice because of the nature of the product. Even though
they are loyal, the final choice is always made considering other convenience factors and the decisionmaking process differs at the individual level. For our secondary group, the objective will be to illicit low
involvement purchase intention. This is because new category users have been integrated into the pet
owner community as a consequence of the campaign and would ideally stick to Pets At Home for their
pet-related needs as an effortless instinct.
v.
Facilitation
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For this campaign, the communication effect will make purchase facilitation easier than any other
grooming service. The plan includes making all bookings and appointments digitally accessible and even
placing rewards for early bookings and offering discount codes for subsequent purchases. New category
users will be able to enjoy first purchase offers as well as infantile pet discounts. Overall, the campaign
will allow Pets At Home to become a more convenient and fruitful choice amongst competitors.
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5. IMC Campaign Planning
There are several platforms that can be applied for this IMC campaign. Considering our target population
and communication objectives, there will be three separate platforms used to drive sales. They are as
follows:
i.
Advertisements
The intention is to make sure that the advertisements are seen by the appropriate demographic. Young
urban citizens tend to take public transport more than older people (Loos, Sourbati and Behrendt, 2020)
and consequently get exposed to ads during their commute. This is why ads on buses and inside tube
stations could effectively influence subliminal messaging which is great for brand recall and recognition
(Atrees, 2015) These would be strictly visual. This platform will consider both our chosen targeted
groups in the text and design.
ii.
Social Media
This platform is extremely relevant for the age group of our targeted audience. To maintain daily
communication with customers and wield the newly bestowed power consumers have through constant
connectivity, use of social media in business is imperative (Kasemsap, 2019). Hence, the campaign will
use the already existing user traffic to improve brand awareness and even facilitate purchases. The format
of this platform makes its content most suitable to be marketed to brand loyals. Of course, new category
users can also be reached through this depending on which decision stage it can bring them to. To
increase purchase incentives, the campaign on social media will include subsidized prices and
competitive giveaways.
iii.
Events and experiences
The third platform used in this campaign are events. Instead of just promoting a grooming service, the
Pets At Home brand-item will utilize the time and effort that pet owners take to bring their pets in. The
plan will include monthly or bi-weekly events that give customers a well-rounded communal experience.
Additionally, to cater to our new category users’ wants, there will also be activities that attract them to
the pet owner lifestyle. The events will be organized as a social gathering for pets and their owners.
Owning a pet will not be mandatory and the events will keep adopting agency kiosks which will be draw
in the new category users.
A) The Creative Strategy
The key benefit that this campaign plans to highlight is the emotional fulfilment of owning a pet. The
emotion that the advertisements will try to stimulate is that of comic relief. The long used green shade
seen in Pets At Home outlets and previous communications will be incorporated into all visuals to sustain
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brand recognition. This is because repeatedly seeing a colour has been known to instigate people to make
instinctive emotional connections (Ou et al., 2004). Advantageously, the colour green has been associated
with nature and positivity (Kimp, 2002). Hence, the campaign will use multiple shades of green in
designs for the advertisements and social media promotions. In addition to that, the communications will
employ user-as-hero strategy which focuses on the altruistic and nurturing elements of animal care.
B) Media Planning
The schedule pattern that this campaign is designed to follow will be that of continuity. When exposed to
ads, the first 50 times have shown a linear relationship with the intended effect of the advertisement
(Johnson and Lewis, 2016). The advertisements will be on out-of-home as well as digital platforms for
four months. Since the print ads will be throughout the five-kilometre radius of each store offering the
grooming services, there will be a total of 50 ads in these designated areas. For social media, the amount
will be determined depending on the cost of creating content. This will come out the stipulated amount
set to spend on social media communications. There will mainly be videos that are 15 seconds long
which is the amount of time millennials and Gen Z claims to be most attentive for (Munsch, 2021). The
cost of using this media mix and frequency will be discussed in the following section.
C) Budgeting
In 2022, the company made an aggregate of 1318 million GBP and there was 494 million pounds spent
on expenses related to selling, general and administrative activities (Wall Street Journal, 2022). The
spending to sales ratio for the whole company (food, retail, vet, etc.) is 0.375. In this section, this ratio for
Pets At Home will be employed since it is a market leader in the industry.
According to Pets At Home (2022) annual report, the total market value is 6.7 billion GBP for the pet
care industry. The market share of the company is 24% making its sales valued at 1608 million GBP. The
annual report says there is an increase of 8% predicted in the year 2023 which means the projected
revenue is 1737 million GBP.
Plugging the estimated future revenue amount into the ad/sales ratio formula (Rossiter, Percy and
Bergkvist, 2018) gives the budget of about 651 million GBP for the company’s expenditures for the
whole year. This campaign will run for four months which means the corresponding fraction of this
budget is around 217 million GBP for the stipulated time period. Out of this, the campaign would need
10% which is appropriate since the services marketed bring in 50% of the total revenue at Pets At Home.
After considering these numbers, the aggregate proposed budget 21.7 million GBP.
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6. Conclusion
Pets At Home is the leading organization in the pet industry and to maintain this rank it is important to
weaponize marketing communications. The in-house grooming services provide an opportunity for the
company to strategically increase profit margins by employing multiple tools in innovative ways and
coordinating their effects to get the best results.
Through the observations and evaluations made in this essay, it is evident that the IMC is a theory which
has seen a lot of adaptations depending upon the context of its use. An industry with an expected increase
in profitability is definitely worth designing and planning a new campaign for to help sales grow
exponentially. Applying the IMC theory is most suitable for this campaign because it combines the
strengths and fills the missing gaps of each relevant communication channel.
Using the models and ideas described in the plan, the organization can use the discussed campaign as it
aims to at least maintain if not increase the income of the company. The desirability to own a pet is
clearly growing since there is a predicted upcoming rise in the overall revenue the pet industry rakes in
and Pets At Home is in a position to take advantage of the flourishing economy.
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8. Reference List
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objectives, crowdsourcing, wikis and open source’, International Journal of Information Management,
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Atrees, F. (2015) ‘The concept of subliminal messages in Brand design’, International Design Journal,
5(1), pp. 28.
Constantinides, E. (2014) ‘Foundations of Social Media Marketing’, Procedia - Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 148(1), pp. 40–57.
Duncan, T. and Everett, S. (1993) ‘Client perceptions of integrated marketing communications’, Journal
of Advertising Research, 33(3), pp. 31–35
Griffin, W.G. and Pasadeos, Y. (1998) ‘The Impact of IMC on Advertising and Public Relations
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Hyunju, S. and Larson, L. R. L. (2018) ‘Comic Relief: The Impact of Humorous Response in Service
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Kasemsap, K. (2019) Professional and Business Applications of Social Media Platforms. Social
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Kimp. (2022) Color Psychology: Using Green In Marketing + Design Tips, viewed 24th November,
https://www.kimp.io/green-in-marketing/
Kliatchko, J.G. (2002) ‘Understanding integrated marketing communications’, University of Asia and the
Pacific, Institute of Communication.
Loos, E., Sourbati, M. and Behrendt, F. (2020) The Role of Mobility Digital Ecosystems for AgeFriendly Urban Public Transport: A Narrative Literature Review. International Journal of Environmental
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Miller, D. A. and Rose, P. B. (1994) ‘Integrated Communications: A Look At Reality Instead of Theory’,
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Munsch, A. (2021) ‘Millennial and generation Z digital marketing communication and advertising
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Nowak, G. and Phelps, J. (1994) ‘Conceptualizing the integrated marketing communications’
phenomenon: an examination of its impact on advertising practices and its implications for advertising
research’, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 16(1), pp. 51.
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Pets At Home PLC. (2022) Annual Reports & Accounts, viewed 7th November 2022,
https://investors.petsathome.com/media/1vinyxhv/fy22-market-overview.pdf
Pine II, B. J. and Gilmore, J. H. (1999) ‘The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a
Stage’, ProQuest, viewed 19th November 2022,
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Roberts, R. R., and J. Kraynak. (2008). Walk like a giant, sell like a madman. Hoboken, New Jersey:
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Rossiter, J.R., Percy, L. and Bergkvist, L. (2018) Marketing communications: objectives, strategy,
tactics. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Steinman, M.L. and Hawkins, M. (2010) ‘When marketing through social media, legal risks can go
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Young People's Disposable Income and Consumer Culture, Journal of Youth Studies, 9(4), pp. 439.
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University: Extraordinary Experiences Conference.
Zarantonello, L. & Schmitt, B. H. (2013) ‘The impact of event marketing on brand equity’, International
Journal of Advertising, 32(2), 255-280
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