Task 2: Prepare and Apply Convergent Marketing Communications

In this task, you are required to identify, evaluate, select, and create convergent tools and
techniques in line with Crystal Apple’s organisational goals.

2.1 Identify and evaluate tools and techniques from traditional sectors to the IMC space
Insert your responses into the table:
Tools and Evaluation
techniques
Take the tools to Portable technologies, such as Personal Digital Assistants, cellular
the point of phones and the like, provide opportunities to put decision-making
decision tools right in the hands of consumers when they need them
Charge for Develop and experiment with more sophisticated decision-making
advice and tools, and use value-based pricing (directly or indirectly) for customers
decision who use their enhanced features
support.
Look for ways to Put tools in place that match customer preferences with products or
put value-added information, or that open up existing internal corporate tools to
tools into the customers, or that provide other mechanisms to enhance the value of
hands of a transaction.
consumers
Combining Whereas consumers were once passive recipients of messages
Company- delivered by companies, centaurs are now empowered to find the
pushed information they want and need most.
Messages And
Customer-pulled
Information
Assessor: Not yet Competent. Some examples of tools and techniques are Email
marketing, Facebook, Instagram, Posters, Tradeshows.
The criteria will be used to aid in your evaluation. Some examples are: mobile-
friendliness, cost-effective, high reach, integrability.
• note that there are a wide range of convergent tools and techniques that can be
used to develop an integrated marketing environment
• however, Crystal Apple has limitations and requirements as detailed in the
Simulation Background
• the student’s selection must:
marry with these limitations and requirements (e.g. national TV spots would be
over the budget)
 must be in accordance to the organisation’s communication goals, mainly: two-
way communication, mobile friendly, mass audience, and most-importantly, customer
centric

2.2 Write organisational policy and procedures for the convergent tools and techniques
Convergence requires a fundamental set of difficult changes (which we can call “c-changes,”
or convergence changes). Indeed, implementing convergence strategies entails a number of
significant challenges, among them:
● Do not make c-change an IT initiative. Just because your change involves business
practices transformed by the Internet does not make your c-change initiative a strict IT
initiative.
● Anticipate resistance. Everybody loves change, as long as it is not done to them. Expect
people to resist, and have responses prepared for each conceivable case.
● Change business practices, not just technology. New technology will not improve bad
practices — it will simply make them faster. Do not automate existing bad business
practices. Change these practices to meet your emerging, converging needs.
Embrace the Possibilities of C-Change
● Do not be limited by past experiences. Encourage the people involved directly and
indirectly with your c-change effort to embrace the possibilities of it.
● Make the path to change temporary. When you bring together a team to make your c-
change reality, make it known that team members will be returning to their original jobs in a
finite period of time. Continuously focus on transformation, but don’t make it an institution.
Assessor: Not Yet Competent. A template was provided.
R 1. write a policy and procedure document for the accurate utilisation of convergent
tools and techniques:
• use the organisational Policy and Procedure Template (see separate attachment)
• include the policy purpose and scope
• include a list of corresponding Acts and regulations
• include a minimum of ten procedures
• procedures must be specifically aligned to the use of convergent tools and
techniques
• use a language that is clear and easy-to-understand
• procedures must align to relevant legislation and legislative instruments
R 2. word count is not critical but the document must be a minimum of two pages
(without the cover page).
2.3 Create the convergent tools and techniques
 Recognizing the needs of the new breed of consumer. Crystal Apple make
purchasing decisions based on a set of needs, from the desire for
personalization to the need for interaction with others. By understanding their
desires and harnessing the power of the tools at your command, you can
reach them.
 Mastering the Five C’s of Convergence. Consumers can do things they never
could do before, combining their traditional behaviors with the constantly
advancing possibilities of technology. To meet the ever-evolving needs of this
audience, companies must address the convergence of the consumer with the
technology in five key areas: “customerization,” community, channels,
competitive value and choice tools.
 Redefining the Four P’s. The four traditional components of successful
marketing strategy — product, price, promotion and place — continue to be
important today, but each has been transformed by the Internet, raising new
challenges, applications and opportunities.
 Finding the Pathways to Convergence. To truly build an organization that is
open to the new hybrid consumer, you must be willing to transform the way
you do business, and feed that transformation into the messages you
broadcast to your increasingly individualized audiences.

Companies are in the midst of the realization that, with new technologies,
consumers can do things they never could do before, and with these new
capabilities, they are changing in ways heretofore unimaginable by combining
their traditional behaviors with the constantly advancing possibilities of the
technology. Indeed, there is a convergence of the consumer with the
technology, in five key areas:
● “Customerization”
● Community
● Channels
● Competitive value
● Choice tools
Assessor: Not Yet Competent. You need to fix task 2.1 before reviewing this answer. You
may need to create a Facebook page, Instagram page, email marketing and paste the print
screen in this question.