Media Planning - Case Study Example

?Business Report: Media planning The Village Surf Shoppe is one of the top players in the surfing business in the United s of America. It is located in Garden City near Grand Strand in South Carolina. It is in the “Myrtle Beach retail trade area” (Village Surf Shoppe, 143) situated on the eastern coast of the country land outlining the North Atlantic Ocean. Village Surf had been established in 1969 and is well maintained at present “in the classic 1960’s tradition” (Village Surf Shoppe, 143). The objective of this paper is to make a SWOT Analysis of this business organization and offer media strategies to help the firm move to a higher level of business. SWOT Analysis Strengths Village surf has held itself with firm loyalty towards the avid surfers since 1969. It is a genuine surf shop packed with all kinds of material required for a true surfing experience; “surfboards and beachwear among the others. The prices of the products are set to fit the budget of the middle class that earn an annual income of less than $28,000. The location is on the western coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The place is a simple structure made of cinder block with beach images hand painted on the walls, made for being the surfers’ hang-out and also a comfortable place for non-surfing tourists. Village Surf Shoppe is the only shop in South Carolina sponsoring team riders. To move ahead of personal selling and sales up gradation through word-of-mouth, the shop has used guerilla marketing as its primary media vehicle. The innovative tactics and elements of surprise lurking in this marketing strategy strikes the purchaser at a personal level, which makes the marketing campaign more successful than traditional methods. To build product awareness, Village surf stickers and branded t-shirts have gone a long way. Besides, it holds surf competitions quite regularly, which attract serious surfers from different places. Weakness Village Surf Shop is faced with local competition from Waller Bear’s, Surf City and Eternal Wave. Both Waller Bears and Surf City are within ten miles from the Village Surf Shoppe. Waller Bear’s offers skate merchandise besides surfing goodies. The shop area is tightly packed with merchandise. So it might be a trouble for the visitors to go around the shop with few friends or even locate a particular item form the lot. In today’s world the internet plays a major role in deciding the fate of a business enterprise. However, the Village Surf Shoppe does not seem to have a very strong website. The website does not provide enough information about the products it offers. A person would not find much information about the services that are available by going through Village Surf’s website. Opportunity There are more than five million surfers across the world and the market for this sport is growing at a rapid pace. Although it is a favorite choice for the surfers in the southeast, market for this surf shop is also growing inland in Columbia and Charleston in South Carolina and Charlotte in North Carolina. Hence it is not any more necessary to be an inhabitant of a beach town to be a serious surfer. The sports lovers are willing to drive for one to three hours in order to reach a surf shop. This provides unprecedented opportunity for the surf shop to expand its business. The target group is the population belonging to the age group of 18 years to 24 years. These men and women are young and energetic, and surfing is a healthy outdoor activity that provides a very good taste of adventure for these people to savor. The adventure loving young population also spends lots of time surfing the internet. Blogs and chat rooms help in the promotion of this sport via discussion among the like-minded people and serves as a strong medium of attracting potential customers in the Village surf. Village surf’s advertising slogan is “Hardcore since 1969”. Television programs, films and documentaries have assisted the growth of the market for surfing. Some reality shows like the one named Surf Girls have been successful in drawing the women surfers to this sport. Threat A hobby calls for a good deal of investment in to it. The current economic scenario in USA is not very flamboyant. The effects of recession still linger on and the people might think that they cannot afford to spend on a pastime. Surfing is an expensive option. Besides, it takes a long time to become a good surfer. People might choose some other sports option that would not take much time to master and allow them to enjoy the game much more. Media Objectives and Strategies The media objectives are developed with a well planned marketing research. These objectives are identified in order to make an idea of the goals of the firm that have to be pursued. The media objectives direct the way in which the brand’s promotion plans should move. The secret to writing a successful media objective is to “communicate with the target” (Village Surf Shoppe, 27) group effectively and gain a good understanding of their geographical and psychological settings. A good marketing research helps in the identification of target audience objective and leads to the formation of a good media objective, which in turn helps in the drafting of the media strategy that would explain how the objective can be accomplished. Although a specific number of objectives cannot be chalked out as an outline for all media plans, it has been found that six basic objectives along with their own strategies can help build a good media plan. Target audience and media mix Village Surf Shoppe is located in the Myrtle Beach which being a beach town possess stiff competition in the surfing industry. The shop targets the population group within the age bracket of 18 years and 24 years. The guerilla strategy has worked well for the firm in the past years. Hence the firm has decided to increase its sales by 20 percent in the coming three years using the guerilla strategy. The firm aims to become the top choice for the surfers of the Myrtle Beach, men and women alike. However it wants to step up the process of campaigning and improve upon the strategies for its next moves. Strategy Besides launching new promotional products like stickers and t-shirts, a pre-autumn party will be organized just before the end of school year. It is expected to be attended by at least two hundred people from the Myrtle Beach and also the inlands. Prizes and food parties will retain the attention of the crowd and induce them to return in the surf season. Reach Frequency and GRPs Objective “The actual number of people households exposed” (Webster, Phalen & Lichty, 237) to an advertising schedule at least once within a given time period, expressed as a percentage of a population is considered as the reach. “Frequency is the number of exposures” (Tellis, 45) or “how often a person is exposed” (Webster, Phalen & Lichty, 237) to the advertisement among those who could be reached. Frequency is usually accounted for “as the average number of exposures among those who were reached” (Webster, Phalen & Lichty, 237). The surfing business experiences a slowdown during the winter season. Hence the objective should be to achieve the maximum reach all through the kick-off months. This could be set at 60 percent reach during autumn. The social media can be effectively utilized to promote awareness among the target groups. Although arithmetically GRPs are the products of reach and frequency, the GRPs do not give practical information about the effectiveness of the campaign since many alternative combinations f reach and frequency can produce the same GRP. But it can be used to draw an inference useful in taking further actions. Strategy The status updates in the page of Village Surf Shoppe in ‘Facebook’ will help in keeping the fans interested in the different events. Chat rooms will be opened and discussions posted on ‘Facebook’ page would help in keeping in touch with the fans. Scheduling and Timing Objective Good sales owe a lot to good scheduling of campaigning. Since autumn brings the best season to surf in the southeast of the country, campaigning should be one throughout the season starting from the month of April. When competitions are to be held, campaigning should continue until the day of the launch of the competition. Strategy Campaigns running during April would generate the required enthusiasm that would be reflected at the surf shop at the end of school year. This would mark the start of the surf season. Enthusiasts can pour in with friends following the end of the school year. Media Budget Objective Village Surf Shoppe has allocated a budget of $200,000 for “inland advertising and promotion for the upcoming year” (Village Surf Shoppe, 144). It would be judicious on part of the firm to allocate one third of the entire for meeting promotion costs in each year. At one time, focus should be given primarily on the current year. Strategy The allocation can be divided in the following way for one year: $10,000 can be allotted for each of the two categories; promotional products (like stickers and t-shirts) as well as for the awards and certificates that are to be handed out for at different events. $10,000 can be kept for meeting the cost of advertising over the social media. $15,000 would be required for billboard rental. $65,000 would be used for the essentials in the pre-autumn party as music, foodstuff and prizes. Geography Objective Since inland market is growing quite rapidly, promotional strategies should be taken to cover not only the Myrtle Beach but also Columbia, Charleston and Charlotte. Strategy A billboard has to be placed on the highway connecting Charleston, Myrtle and Columbia. This would be noticed by the avid surfers on their drive to and from the beach. Sales Promotion Objective The effectiveness of a good media plan is judged by its ability to push up sales. The goal is to bring a rise in sales by 20 percent in a time span of three years. This can be done by setting the target at 10 percent in the first year. Depending upon the actual figures at the end of the first year, the next year’s target should be set. Strategy The social media is a strong tool for making publicity for the firm. Besides a summer party arranged just before the arrival of autumn would help bringing the customers back during autumn, on expectation that they accustomed to the pace and like its arrangements. Conclusion The media objectives should have an alignment with the marketing goals in order to deliver desirable results. The key responsibility of the media planners is to craft the media objectives into measurable targets. Once the marketing objectives are articulated unambiguously, the media objectives can be materialized without much hassle. Village Surf Shoppe has been in the surfing industry for 43 years and has been one of the top choices of surfers. A good marketing strategy would help the firm to reach higher steps in this industry. References 1) Tellis, Gerard J. Understanding Effective Advertising: How, When, and Why Advertising Works. London: SAGE, 2004 2) Webster, James G., Phalen, Patricia F. & Lichty, Laurence W. Ratings Analysis: The Theory And Practice Of Audience Research. Routledge, 2006 3) Village Surf Shoppe: A 1-2 day case study to test your knowledge of three concepts: SWOT, Media Objectives & Media Strategies Read More