Advertising and Promotion- the Pills - Case Study Example

? Advertising and Promotion- the Pills Contents Answer 1 3 Answer 2 3 Answer 3 4 Answer 4 5 Answer 2 5 Answer 2.2 6 Answer 2.3 7 Answer 2.48 Answer 3.1 8 Answer 3.2 9 Answer 4.1 9 Answer 4.2 9 Reference 11 Answer 1.1 Through the process of communication, the organisation exchange or share meanings through a set of common symbols. It is done through various promotion programs. There are two categories of communication. One is mass communication and other is interpersonal communication. Beats by Dre has used this mass communication to reach out to large target customers (Ansell, Harrison and Archibald, 2007, pp. 394-400). Beats by Dre has used Television to deliver its message through its advertisement. The communication process used by Beats by Dre to communicate the Pills campaign will be explained below. Sender Through the pills campaign Beats by Dre wants to send the message that users should destroy the use of cheap generic headphone and instead use their portable wireless speakers. Encoding Through this process Beats by Dre wants to give a sense that their wireless speakers are much more improved as compared to old generic headphones. Though they are small in size it is much louder (Bitner, M. J., Brown, S. W. and Meuter, M. L. 2000, pp. 138-141). Feedback The last process in the communication process is the receiver’s response to the message sent by the source. The Pills campaign resulted in positive feedback from the customers. Answer 1.2 The UK communicating industry has a lot of channels through which the messages flow. The traditional form of marketing channel consists of medium, agencies, media and production units. The media is the essential component which serves as the medium through which the campaign runs. There are many forms of media like print media, television media, social media etc. Majority of the companies now uses social media and television media as their medium of communication since it involves considerably lower cost and can be done at a cheaper rate (Botschen, Thelen and Pieters, 1997, pp. 38-42). They are using the social media to drive their advertising. There are many agencies which help in the production process like the pills campaign have been done by R/GA’s London and LA offices. Their job is creating and planning the advertising for their clients. It is an independent company which helps in the efforts of the clients in selling their products or services. They can also handle the whole marketing and branding strategies of the clients. There are many types of ad agencies in UK consisting of specialized agencies, full service agencies, Interactive agencies etc. There are separate media and production units which creates the advertisement on the basis of concept given by the company. After the production process, they hand over the media content to the ad agencies that can get with the marketing and branding aspects of it (Boulding, Staelin, Ehret and Johnston, 2005, pp. 155-159). Answer 1.3 There are many self-regulatory systems in UK like Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP). They adjudicate the complaints which they receive and its awards are published widely in the media. It is recognised as established means of protecting the consumers in non-broadcast marketing. There is legal regulation which opposes the unfair competition in the sales promotion activities in UK (Brangule-Vlagsma, Pieters and Wedel, 2002, pp. 267-270). There are a variety of legal provisions on this. These are Consumer protection legislation, Contract law, Copyright and passing off, Lotteries an Amusement Act. Copyright infringement is not uncommon in the marketing activity. There are number cases like Liverpool daily post and Express Newspaper plc where it was a case of copyright infringement. In case of absence unfair competition, the law of passing off assist the companies in protecting their sales promotion activities against ambush marketing by its competitors (Carson and Coviello, 1996, pp. 51-54). Answer 1.4 Media fragmentation is increasing in UK because of launch of new devices in the market. PVR allows the viewer to control the television through time-shifting and ad-skipping. Companies like Sky Plus have been installed in many homes across UK. There has been a shift in the consumerism because the shoppers are now becoming environmentally and health – conscious aware. The buyers now scrutinise prices and food labelling in any products (Claeys, Swinnen and Van den Abeele, 1995, pp. 193-197). If any product or service is not according to their taste, then they can reject it. The overall UK web economy is fast-growing. It is predicted that it is to expand at the rate of 11 percent per annum for the next four years, to reach a total value of ? 221 billion by 2016. In United Kingdom half of the adults now own a smartphone. It was seen that in February 2013, 30 percent of the web traffic came from smartphones or tablets in UK. This shows that the UK population is increasingly using the handsets or devices to access the internet (Coviello, Brodie, Danaher and Johnston, 2002, pp. 33-38). Answer 2.1 Integrated marketing promotional strategy is a synergistic approach used by the companies to achieve the objectives of any marketing campaign with the help of well-coordinated promotional methods. It is designed such that all the aspects of marketing communication work together like a unified force (Day, 1994, pp. 37-42). There are several tools through which it can be achieved. Some are Advertising, Public relations, direct marketing, personnel selling and sales promotion. It is mainly done to induce the buyer to purchase, because it gives some extra value to the customers. It speeds up the selling process of a company. It is like an acceleration tool. It can be done through trial and purchase or other programs which makes the consumers consume more. Promotional communication and advertising consists of important part of the marketing strategy. Through advertising the companies can reach out to the consumers with the message which they want to communicate. Beats by Dre had launched an effective campaign known as the pills, through which the tried to come up with headphones which increased is far better than other ordinary earphones (Dibb, 2005, pp. 13-18). It faces tough completion from competitors like Bang & Olllufsen, Bose and Sennheiser. This is targeted towards tech savvy consumers or those consumers who buy headphones to increase their self-esteem. Beats have made a significant move by including their product in the Apple stores, and in Best Buy which is the largest US electronics retailer. They are now trying to have their presence across all the relevant retail stores like Walmart, Dell, and Amazon etc. They have made their headphones available in limited edition colours like pink, silver and orange. It offers in-ear and over-ear headphones along with good speakers (Dibb and Simkin, 1994, pp. 55-59). the have partnered with HP so that they can produce laptops and desktops with quality speakers in it. Answer 2.2 Branding is one of the strategies employed by the companies to employ effective marketing strategies. Through good branding strategies it is possible to deliver the message of a product clearly. It helps to connect the target prospects emotionally. It also motivates the buyers. It helps to concrete the user loyalty. Through successful branding the company can reach the hearts and minds of the consumers (Doyle, 2005, pp. 272-275). The branding on their products is done by sportsmen and popular musicians. They have used Heartbeats by Lady Gaga, JustBeats Solo by Justin Bieber, PowerBeats by LeBron James and DiddyBeats by Sean Combs. They have also used these celebrities as spokesperson of the brand. Their headphones often appear in the movies and music videos. It indicates that they are relevant in the music business. Like the Beats headphones are seen in Lady Gaga’s Love Game and Poker Face, David Guetta’s who that Chick is (Evans, Arnold and Grant, 1999, pp. 34-39). Answer 2.3 Reach means the total number of customers that will be exposed to their message through one particular media over a specific period of time. The purpose of a reach is to make an optimal exposure for the company. It is usually expressed as percentage of the total number of people that have been exposed to their advertising message. Through this campaign the company has been able to reach out to a large target audience. Through the campaign the company have targeted the tech savvy consumer or the ones whose self-esteem will rise by owning the headphones. Through their effective brand promotion more number of households has been reached out. Again they have used duplication in their promotion activity. The target audience has seen their promotion through many channels. One is through television advertisement and other is through video music of many well-known stars like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga. This helps the consumers in knowing the products since they can identify such products with the personalities. Using multiple channels helps the organisation reach out to many consumers spread their message over a wider consumer segment. Effective frequency means the number of times a user as to be exposed for an advertisement before it is accepted by the audience (Forsyth, Galante and Guild, 2006, pp. 42-53). Since the campaign runs across many mediums like in video songs, television a single user is exposed to it many number of times and hence the campaign becomes more effective. Answer 2.4 To The Internal Communication Manager From Marketing executive Sir, in relation to the pitching of advertising agencies we need to come up with a decision regarding selecting an advertising agency. We must first look at the background of the company. Who has this agencies previously worked with (Campaign, 2013, p. 1). What are the accolades received by them. We need to know if this advertising agency has been involved in any illegal working or is engaged with immoral practices. Again the commission charged needs to be compared with other agencies. We need to take at a look at the commissions charged, fees etc. After taking into consideration all these parameters we will settle for one from among them (Fill, 2009, p. 32). Please do take this into your consideration before choosing for the right agency. Answer 3.1 One part of the appeal of Beats electronics is the name attached to it. The earphone come sin limited edition colours like pink, silver and orange. They offer in-ear and over-ear headphones which are connected to Lady Gag, Diddy and Lebron James. It is distributed across many places like Apple, Amazon, and Target etc. The celebrities are much made brand ambassador and their music videos include those earphone or headsets. This helps the product get proper positioning in the market (Belch, Belch, 2011, p. 41). Answer 3.2 The product is targeted at young tech savvy consumers. Hence they need to come up in different colours or shapes. This help the company create a difference between them and other products in the market. They need to use social media marketing to campaign for the product. This will help in reaching out to wide variety of consumer at a low cost since the advertising through a social medium entails much lower cost as compared to other mediums (Kelley, Hoffman and Davis, 1993, pp. 429-432). Answer 4.1 The Budget of the promotional activities had to be divided into a number of parameters. The first is the choice of advertising medium. The company can select for medium which will be most efficient. Then we need to determine the celebrities which will endorse the brand. It will incur a cost. Then the distribution mediums also need to be fixed. The period of time for which the promotional activities will be carried out is needed to be determined. This describes the exposure of the advertising for the target audience (Harris and Ogbonna, 2006, pp. 100-109). Answer 4.2 The beats earphone has launched new campaign for bringing out their new earphones which break away from the traditional earphones. Since this product targets young audience who likes to listen music, it should be directed at tech savvy consumers who are willing to buy this for having value to the consumers and those who think owning it will increase their self-esteem. Through the communication mediums the company has to understand the fact that they are targeting young audience and hence they have to use mediums like music videos or television which helps them readily connect with the target audience. The company has to integrate all the promotional tools like using different colours of the headphones to make it more attractive (Kale and Sudhir 2004, pp. 42-47). Reference Ansell, J., Harrison, T. and Archibald, T. 2007. “Identifying cross-selling opportunities, using lifestyle segmentation and survival analysis”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 25 (4), pp.394-400. Belch, G, Belch, M. 2011. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Bitner, M. J., Brown, S. W. and Meuter, M. L. 2000. “Technology infusion in service encounters”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 28 (1), pp.138-141. Botschen, G., Thelen, E.M. and Pieters, R. 1997. “Using means-end chain structures forbenefit segmentation: an application to services”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33 (1), pp.38-42. Boulding, W., Staelin, R., Ehret, M., and Johnston, W. J. 2005. “A customer relationship management roadmap: what is known, potential pitfalls, and where to go”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.69 (4), pp.155-159. Brangule-Vlagsma, K., Pieters, R.G.M. and Wedel, M. 2002. “The dynamics of valuesegments: modeling framework and empirical illustration”, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 19 (3), pp.267-270. Campaign .2013. Beats by Dre “The Pills and the Campaign of Destruction” Retrieved from: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/thework/1210679/beats-dre-the-pills-campaign-destruction-r-ga-la-r-ga-london//. [Accessed on: 19 December 2013]. Campaign. 2013 . The Pills. Retrieved from: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/thework/1210679/beats-dre-the-pills-campaign-destruction-r-ga-la-r-ga-london/. [Accessed on: 19 December 2013]. Carson, D., and Coviello, N. 1996. “Qualitative research issues at the marketing/ entrepreneurship interface”, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 14 (6), pp.51-54. Claeys, C., Swinnen, A. and Van den Abeele, P. 1995. “Consumers’ means-end chain for ‘think’ and ‘feel’ products”, International Journal for Research in Marketing, Special Issue: Means-End Chains, Gerry Olson (Ed.), Vol. 6(1), pp.193-197. Coviello, N.E., Brodie, R.J., Danaher, P.J., and Johnston, W. 2002. “How Firms Relate to Their Markets: An Empirical Examination of Contemporary Marketing Practices”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 66 (3), pp.33-38. Day, G.S. 1994. “The capabilities of market-driven organizations”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.58 (4), pp.37-42. Dibb, S. 2005. “Market segmentation: implementation barriers and how to overcome them”, Marketing Review, Vol.5 (1), pp.13-18. Dibb, S. and Simkin, L. 1994. “Implementation problems in industrial marketsegmentation”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol.23 (1), pp.55-59. Dibb, S. and Simkin, L. 1997. “A program for implementing market segmentation”, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 12(1), pp.51-58. Doyle, S. 2005. “Real-time technologies in marketing - interaction management”, Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, Vol. 12(3), pp. 272-275. Evans, K. R., Arnold, T. J., and Grant, J. A. 1999. “Combining service and sales at the point of customer contact: a retail banking example”, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 2(1), pp.34-39. Felt and Wire. 2011. The creative brief: 10 things it MUST include Retrieved from : http://www.feltandwire.com/2011/02/08/the-creative-brief-10-things-it-must-include/ [Accessed on: 19 December 2013]. Fill, C. 2009. Marketing Communications: Interactivities, Community and Content. Essex: FT/ Prentice Hall. Forsyth, J. E., Galante, N., and Guild, T. 2006. “Capitalizing on customer insights”, The McKinsey Quarterly, Vol.3 (1), pp.42-53. Grove, S. J., Fisk, R. P. and John, J. 2003 “The future of services marketing: forecasts from ten services experts”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol.17 (2), p.107. Harris, L. and Ogbonna, E. 2006. “Initiating strategic planning”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 59(2), pp. 100-109. Kale and Sudhir H. 2004. “CRM Failure and the Seven Deadly Sins”, MarketingManagement, Vol. 13 (5), pp.42-47. Kelley, S.W.; Hoffman, D. and Davis, M.A. 1993 “A typology of retail failures and recoveries”, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 69(2), pp.429-432. Read More