This marketing plan will focus on Executive Decisions’ (ED) core strength in its IMC

arsenal – events planning and management. ED itself is an IMC or below-the-line

marketing firm but that does not necessarily mean that ED will rely on below-the-line

marketing for its promotional efforts, ED also needs above-the-line marketing to

generate brand awareness and capture more leads.

This marketing plan will solve ED’s above-the-line promotional problem by proposing an

online promotional strategy.

Established in 1998, Executive Decisions (ED) is an integrated marketing

communications firm founded by Mr Vicente S. Reyes that provides either holistic or

specific marketing services to clients belonging to different business sectors. ED’s

current roster of clients consists of different entities from various industries such as

pharmaceuticals, entertainment, consumer goods, agribusiness and animal health,

manufacturing.

Executive Decisions has several sub-business units among them are: ED Outpost (film

production), ED Art House (graphics and video works), Flair (talents), TEAMPLAY

(below-the-line manpower like bouncers and promo girls), and WE Boracay (Boracay’s

first local event management and production firm).

The IMC industry, focusing on event planning and management predicts a 44% job

growth rate up to 2020 as more and more industries like business, labor, and political

organizations seek the expertise help of these event planners and managers.1

The event planning and management industry is highly fragmented, with the majority of

events planners/managers controlling less than 1% of the market. Since the industry

largely provides a discretionary service, it is mainly driven by corporate profit, per capita

disposable income and the unemployment rate. The economic recession (2007-2009)

hit the industry hard, with many corporations and consumers holding fewer, smaller

events. However, the industry can expect to roar back to life with the improving

economy in the five years to 2017.2

There are three (3) main competitors of ED: EMPRO or Events Management Provider,

Events @ Work, and Saga Events. These competitors offer events management and

IMC services as well.

ED EMPRO EVENTS @ WORK SAGA

FACTORS

Firm’s years of

existence. 16 8 15 15

Firm’s affiliations to

associations. ✓ ✓

Broad client base

(past and present). ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Manages social

events (e.g. baptisms

and weddings).

Aesthetically pleasing

website.

✓

Possession of a

company blog.

✓

Updated website

content (including blog

content).

✓ ✓

Possession of social

media profiles. ✓ ✓

Updated social media

profiles. ✓

The main primary target market of ED are large organizations/businesses whilst its

secondary target market are small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with both looking to

boost their marketing campaigns with the use of IMC.

The main marketing problem of Executive Decisions (ED) is that it lacks promotional

efforts, both offline and online. There is an opportunity loss to acquire new clients that

not only increases their profits, but also improves the experience and portfolio of ED.

There are a lot of organizations looking to outsource their IMC efforts, that’s why they

look for IMC firms with the right expertise. ED has this expertise, history, track records,

affiliations, and such but the problem is that these organizations can’t discover ED

because of the lack of promotional efforts.

Finding the solution to this problem also prepares ED to secure a stronger client base in

the upcoming ASEAN integration 2015.

Solving this marketing problem will serve ED in two ways: one is via the given example

above, which is acquiring new clients while the other is to obtain high-quality employees

by promoting ED’s employment opportunities.

The objective of the marketing plan is to start a promotional campaign to drive ten (10)

new clients in the small to medium enterprises category and five (5) new clients in the

corporation category. The promotional campaign will focus on online integration that

starts on August up to December 2014.

Opportunities Threats

1. ASEAN integration

presents new

opportunities.

2. Positive economic outlook

in the Philippines that may

trigger client spending.

3. The growing market for

social events (baptisms,

marriages, and funerals).

4. New technologies such as

online hard drives (Google

Drive, Dropbox) and

collaboration software

(Basecamp) to take

advantage on.

1. ASEAN integration

presents threats,

competition-wise as

international IMC firms

also look to penetrate the

Philippine market.

2. Rising political tensions

and instability in the

Philippines that can

degrade the international

image of the Philippines

and therefore ED’s image

on foreign companies.

3. Climate change (e.g.

unexpected rains) that

ruins outdoor event plans.

Strengths SO ST

1. Executive Decisions

(ED) is a strong and

trusted brand since the

firm is 16 years in the

industry already.

2. ED has a strong base

of known loyal clients.

3. ED is a member of

different associations

including the Philippine

Marketing Association

(PMA) and the

Advertising Suppliers

Association of the

Philippines (ASAP).

4. ED’s growth is evident

in the recent

- (S1,S2,S3,O1) Use ED’s

history, track records, and

affiliations as a selling

point to gain new clients in

the neighbouring ASEAN

countries.

- (S4, S6, O1) ED should

consider acquiring foreign

international firms (or

partnering with them) to

serve as their local

foothold in the country

using the ASEAN

integration as the

gateway.

- (S5,O3) Venture out in the

social events industry and

- (S1,S2,S3, T1, T2) ED

should use its history,

track record, and

affiliations to maintain its

image, positioning, and

market share in the

ASEAN and international

environments.

- (S4, S7, T3) ED should

include in their growth

plan a construction of a

solely-owned indoor

events place when there

is uncertainty in the

weather.

construction of a four-

storey building (debt

free) that will be ED’s

new house.

5. ED has a number of

young employees that

will serve as the

business’ core

members for the next

generation.

6. ED has a lot of

subsidiary business

units specifically

catering to different

IMC needs, including a

Boracay-based events

and production

company.

7. ED has a visionary

managing director at

the helm, PMA’s IPP

and director for foreign

affairs, Mr Vincente S.

Reyes.

delegate the task of

managing social events to

ED’s young employees so

they will gain enough

experience to step into

bigger shoed of managing

corporate events.

- (S6, O4) Leverage on the

new technological

advancements for

collaboration and better

communications from the

main firm to the sub-

business unit (SBU), vice

versa and SBU to SBU.

- (S4,S7,O2) ED should

take advantage of the

economic prosperity that

the Philippines is

experiencing by continue

growing and adapting,

come a time when there is

an economic depression.

ED will be armed and

ready.

Weaknesses WO WT

1. ED suffers from

high employee

turnover.

2. ED lacks

experienced

employees, a result

of high employee

turnover.

3. ED lacks

promotional efforts

- (W5, W6, O1) ED should

start thinking of promoting

internationally to obtain

international clients ahead

of the ASEAN integration

2015. It should start with

an updated website that

builds a brand persona by

being a thought leader in

the industry.

- (W1, T1) ED should

protect their valued

employees against piracy,

especially when the

ASEAN integration is fast

approaching where

experienced employees in

the industry is highly

valued.

- (W7, T3) ED can update

for employee hiring,

relies on referrals

too often.

4. ED lacks a clear

organizational plan.

5. ED has no assigned

middle managers

that can ease the

managing director’s

workload when it

comes to checking

of proposals,

signing of forms,

etc.

6. ED lacks of

promotional efforts

for new client

acquisition, relies

on networking too

often.

7. ED has an un-

updated website

(updated last 2012).

8. ED is experiencing

an unorganized file

keeping system that

leads to losses of

documents and

such.

- (W2, W3, O1) ED could

take advantage of the

ASEAN integration to

promote employment

opportunities to gain

foreign experienced

employees in the IMC

niche.

- (W5, O4) ED can use

online collaboration

software like Basecamp

and assigning a few

middle managers who can

check an employee’s work

which can drive

productivity in the

organization.

- (W5, O3) ED’s managing

director could delegate

social events to the middle

managers.

- (W8, O4) ED can use

online hard drives to

database contracts,

documents, receipts, etc.

in the online cloud.

its website with a CSR

theme in mind: promoting

the usage of green

products and recycling, in

which ED practices both.

There are three (3) Alternative Courses of Action (ACA) presented in this marketing

plan:

Offline Promotion: Create a full-page print ad that runs every third week of the month

for the newspaper Business World and every month for the magazine Entrepreneur.

PROS CONS

Targeted demographics: these print

publications are read by entrepreneurs,

top management, and business minded

persons who may have special interest in

hiring ED for their IMC campaigns.

Expensive to run and unproductive: might

create brand awareness but not

conversions.

Cluttered advertising landscape: it may be

harder for a potential customer to find or

read about ED’s service because with the

other ads alongside it.3

Online Promotion: Update the Executive Decisions (ED) website with a visually-

appealing parallax design, a blog so ED can establish itself as a thought leader in its

industry in the cyberspace, and a careers page where applicants can view available

jobs at ED and subsequently send their resumes.

PROS CONS

Affordable and sustainable: With starting

quality web development rates of Php

15,000, it is wise for ED to invest in a

sustainable company website that can last

for decades.

Requires time to handle: Creating content

like blog posts, infographics, and videos to

develop a brand persona and establishing

the thought leadership status requires a lot

of devoted time.

Constant exposure: a website works 24

hours a day, 7 days a week.4

Requires time to have continuous traffic:

Before having continuous traffic can arrive

at your website, it requires intensive

promotions in online advertising and social

media.

Can serve as a landing page for online

advertising campaigns: Running online ad

campaigns and linking those banner ads to

your website can increase leads.

Online Promotion: Run and online advertising campaign using the Google AdWords

and Facebook advertising platforms.

PROS CONS

Targeted demographics: online advertising

gives you the ability to geo-target your

ads, ensuring that they are only viewed,

and clicked, by your intended geographic

and niche audience. This allows you to

create localized messages that appear on

national sites.

Cluttered advertising landscape: again, it

may be harder for a potential customer to

find or read about ED’s service because

with the other ads alongside it.

Affordable: compared to newspaper

placements or TV spots, online banners

are still relatively inexpensive.

Testing: online advertising gives you the

ability to test creative campaigns and fine

tune messaging at an instant. This can

help increase effectiveness of the

campaign and enhance results.

The recommended ACA are both online promotion campaigns because: (1) the pros

outweigh the cons, (2) it is more affordable, (3) it is more productive, and (4) it is more

sustainable.

Because this marketing plan will focus on the firm’s promotional efforts, only a

promotional strategy is provided:

Expand – Expand ED’s current client acquisition tactics by using above-the-line

promotional strategies.

Digitalize – Rather than going print and media, ED will utilize the affordable,

productive, and sustainable power of online advertising.

The subsequent table are the specific action programs embedded in Gantt charts

followed by the budgeting plan.

Activities 2014

August September October November December

1) Scouting for potential web

developers who can provide

quality services at an affordable

price.

2) Meeting with selected web

developer for the front-end

design of the updated website.

Begin construction.

3) Development of the new

website with a new catchy

domain name: “edimcf.com”.

4) Development of an insightful

infographic about the IMC

industry today (growth, potential

revenues, etc.).

5) Publication of the website

and the developed infographic

as a first blog post. Promotion

of the website on advertising

platforms Google AdWords and

Facebook.

6) Development and publication

of the second blog post entitled

“How IMC changed the

marketing landscape”.

Continuous promotion on

advertising platforms Google

AdWords and Facebook.

7) Development and publication

of the third blog posts entitled

“IMC in the coming years: Bold

predictions”. Continuous

promotion on advertising

platforms Google AdWords and

Facebook.

8) Development and publication

of the fourth and last blog post

of the year entitled “Humble

beginnings: A short video

interview with Executive

Decisions’ managing director”. It

is a video capturing Mr. Vince

S. Reyes’ story on starting-up

ED. Included in the blog post is

a text transcript of the video.

Continuous promotion on

advertising platforms Google

AdWords and Facebook.

A sample navigation bar that can be used on the updated website.

Activities 2014

August September October November December

1) Development of one (1)

banner ad for the Google

AdWords advertising platform:

to drive traffic to the website.

2) Development of a graphic

and copy for the Facebook

advertising platform that will

drive traffic to the website’s

blog.

3) Launch of the Google

AdWords and Facebook ad

campaigns alongside with the

publication of the new ED

website.

USD ($) is the currency used for the budgeting because some of the products/services

that will be availed are on a fixed USD ($) denomination.

BUDGETING (ESTIMATED BUDGET)

PARTICULARS AMOUNT TOTAL AMOUNT

Updating of the

website

Hosting plan (5

years) $200

Domain name (5

years) $51.45

Themes and plugins $50

Web developer fees $250

$551.45

Online advertising

campaign

Google AdWords

budget $1000

Facebook Ads

budget $1000

Campaign manager

fees $150

$2150

Total $2701.45

1: Christina Dunham (July 08, 2013) Fun Facts about the Meeting and Event Planner

Industry. Retrieved from: http://froomzblog.com/2013/07/08/fun-facts-about-the-

meeting-event-planner-industry/

2: IBISWorld (September 2013) Party and Event Planners in the US: Market Research

Report. Retrieved from: http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/party-event-planners.html

3: Elle Smith (N/A) What are the Advertising Pros and Cons of Using Print Media.

Retrieved: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advertising-pros-cons-using-print-media-

41670.html

4: Mind Fire Communications (August 9, 2010) The Pros and Cons of Online

Advertising. Retrieved: http://www.mindfirecomm.com/news-detail.html?id=48