Marketing Communication Mix

According to Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler, the marketing communication mix is the specific blend of advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, and direct marketing tools that the company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and build customer relationships. I believe that UGG Australia has some upsides and downsides that come out of the marketing mix for them.
"Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor."UGG's advertising is very scarce. I personally have never seen an UGG ad in a magazine that I have read nor have I ever seen a commercial on television for them. I believe UGG puts their ads in magazines that older women may read, such as Lucky. So, I went online and found some pictures of UGG ads that people have gotten from magazines, and I would have to say that some of the ads are more risque than I would think them to be.

http://www.bwgreyscale.com/ads/ugg.html ; http://www.visit4info.com/brand/UGG-Australia/7045  ;  http://www.uggaustralia.com/experience/index.aspx

"Sales promotion are short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service." UGG rarely does many sales promotions, they may every once in awhile lower their prices for a sale, but again, that does happen rarely. The only way that you would really see UGG footwear discounted would be through a shoe website that does offer discounted footwear. Other than discounts and coupons, the authorized UGG stores will have displays of the footwear that they have to promote the line. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/326754456_b683fe0814.jpg?v=0 ; http://www.evansonthecommon.com/Footwear/website%20jan%205%20012.jpg

"Personal selling is the personal presentation by the firm's sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships." UGG has their sales force that keeps their relationships with retailers who sell their footwear. Also, the people who work in the stores can also be considered part of their sales force since they do help to sell UGG footwear. UGG's sales people have kept a good relationship with many stores for years who continue to sell their footwear, such as Nordstrom. 

"Public relations is building good relations with the company's various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good 'corporate image', and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events." I know from time to time, UGG Australia has special events that allows some of their profits go to a non-profit organization. They also do have press releases and conferences sometimes. I also believe that they have to take a lot from critics or consumers who compare UGG products to their competitiors products, so they need to handle the stories in an ethical manner. Also, they have kept a good 'corporate image' with many of their consumers, since many keep purchasing their products.

"Direct marketing is the direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response to cultivate lasting customer relationships." UGG does not generally use too much direct marketing, other than using the internet. They do not use telephone, kiosk, or catalogs to market their products. The internet is how many people do find UGG products, with their website and many stores who do sell their footwear. There are also ads that come up, such as on Facebook, that markets along with what your interests are, allowing more consumers to see the products, and possibly go and browse on the webiste.


I believe that UGG can do a lot better with their marketing communications mix. I believe that they can advertise more, including more magazine ads and possibly commercials. I also believe that they should try using more direct marketing, such as sending small postcards or catalogs to consumers, allowing them to view the products. This can allow a neighbor or friend to be at their house, and also view the catalog and possibly purchase a product from them. They cannot really do much more with their sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations; I think that they are doing as well of a job as they can with these.

*Definitions are from 'Marketing: An Introduction' by Armstrong & Kotler

UGG Australia Pricing & Distribution

UGG's Pricing Strategies:

Currently, UGG uses marketing-skimming pricing for their new arrivals. They are setting a very high price for their new summer arrivals, to attract the target markets that will agree to buy these products at the prices. http://www.uggaustralia.com/ProductsList.aspx?gID=w&categoryID=451&page=1 
With their regular UGG boots, I personally know that they used a market-penetration price when they first got to be in bigger demand, to attract a larger amount of markets that will buy the products at the price. Recently though, they have raised the prices of the boots, and a few other of their footwear products.
In other countries, for example, their prices are much higher for their footwear than they are over here. I would have to say this may be because they sell them in more "expensive" countries, and they have larger markets in the U.K. When I converted the euros to U.S. dollars, they came out to be much more expensive than they are sold for here. (http://www.translatum.gr/converter/currency.htm?texaccept=site+operator+accepts+conditions+at+http://cconv.textor.com&val1=149.99&cur1=1.000000&cur2=0.760648) 

UGG also uses value-bases pricing because everybody who has owned a pair of UGGs before knows they live up to their expectations, and they are worth the price that they are buying for them. I think that this is a good strategy for UGG because it will keep their large target market that they have acquired to this point in time, because these customers know they are getting the right value for the higher prices of the products. They also use psychological pricing, because again, the target market they have set and loyal customers know that the product is worth it, and the people who don't normally buy UGG products will see the higher prices, and know that they are a higher-end footwear company. They use geographical pricing as well, as I mentioned earlier, they set a higher price for their footwear in other countries than they do in the U.S. I think they do this because they know the prices that other people in countries will buy, so they can make a larger profit. Lastly, they use captive-product pricing. UGG sells different care products for their footwear, including replacement insoles, and spray to protect the outside sheepskin from getting damaged. http://www.uggaustralia.com/ProductsList.aspx?gID=w&categoryID=173&page=1

http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=365

In this article, they discuss how much UGG's profits went up for their footwear over just a few years, which goes to show that even though they do set higher prices for their products, they are now a well known company that can be trusted with their products. 

UGG's Distribution:

UGG has grown throughout the past 11 years, distributing to more and more places. UGG first started out just distributing on the shores of California, and grew through cities in the U.S. to New York. Once they became a hit in New York, they kept growing to large cities throughout Europe and other countries. (http://www.uggaustralia.com/experience/history.aspx?p=ex)  
UGG footwear has many places that it has authorized to be sold in, which include online retailers, flagship stores, and just regular stores that can be found in most malls. You can find all of these authorized stores on their website, http://www.uggaustralia.com/customerService/dealerLocator.aspx?store=retailer, which you can search where the closest store is to your town.
At first, UGG Australia used selective distribution, selling mostly only in Nordstrom stores, until they started to advertise more and the demand went up for the product. Since UGG does only authorize certain stores to sell their footwear, and sell in more stores other than just Nordstrom, they now use exclusive distribution. I think that this type of distribution is great for the company because since they are a high-end brand of footwear, they only sell it in stores where they will sell it for their going price, and where the demand is highest for the products.