Question:
In early 2021, granddaughter Juliana took over Oliveira as the new Chief Executive Officer. While young, Juliana has worked in the fashion industry her entire life. She has seen the importance of sustainability and recognises the important role that slow fashion will play in the next decade. Juliana describes slow fashion as manufacturing which respects people, environment and animals and the opposite of fast fashion. She has set her sights on generating growth through innovation, and longer term, wants Oliveira to become a top 10 bespoke jeans brand in the world. To achieve this goal, Juliana began looking for a marketing communications expert to analyse the brand, with the view to launching a new product in early 2022. As part of RMIT’s LinkedIn involvement, Juliana became aware of the significant positive impact that Marketing Communications students were having on the product development and marketing communications environment in Australia and she was impressed by your resume. Congratulations, you are the newly appointed “Marketing Communications Manager” for Oliveira
After undertaking a thorough analysis of the situation facing Oliveira in the jeans brand category, you realise that bespoke jean customers are particularly brand loyal to their favourite brand, once they find a brand they like, they tend to stick with it. They can also be loyal to a particular style. Existing Oliveira customers (75% of whom are women) love and have a deep connection with the brand, inpart due to Oliveira’s country-of-origin and family-oriented emotional advertising. However, Oliveira customers have not had much of a product choice. The company has always produced three main styles for women, high waisted, relaxed fit and flared. For men, they make two styles, straight leg and slim cut. Apart from their brief, unsuccessful, foray into bubble skirts, they have only made jeans, no other denim garments.
Section A:
This section contains two compulsory questions. You are required to answer both of these questions in the order given. Each question is worth 18 marks in total. Please read each question carefully and answer what is specifically asked. Clearly state any assumptions you make.
Question One
You have a solid grounding in marketing communications theory and practice, but you feel that some of your Oliveira team aren’t sure what you mean when you talk about “marketing communications”. You decide to provide your team with a briefing to make sure that everyone understands.
Question Two
You realise the importance of developing a clear message strategy for Oliveira given the cost to reputation and branding the company has already experienced. You have carried out some preliminary market research which has led to the development of several insights and you are now considering the creative brief elements.
Section B
This section contains two questions. You are required to answer ONE of the two questions. Answer the sub questions in the order given and clearly mark which question you are attempting. Each question is worth 14 marks in total. Please read each question carefully and answer what is specifically asked. Clearly state any assumptions you make.
Question One
In your experiences with integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaigns you have seen endorsers used very well and very badly.
Oliveria has historically focussed on traditional marketing, but the rise in social media channels has also seen the rise of a new type of endorser: the so-called ‘social media influencer’.
Question Two
A well designed launch campaign for each new product line is going to be critical for success.
The marketing communication mix involves all the tools that can be used to communicate with both current customers and potential customers. In looking through Oliveria’s marketing materials, you realise that no one has ever applied the marketing communication mix to this firm.