Marketing Communication Plan for Green and Black Organic - Essay Example

?Marketing Communication Plan for Green and Black Organic Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Company’s Brief- Green and Black Organic 4 SWOT analysis: 4 Analysis of the Primary and Secondary Research 6 Marketing Communication Objectives 7 Models of Marketing Communication: 7 Marketing Communication Strategy: 12 Marketing Communication Mix 13 Public Relations: 15 Event Sponsorships 15 Sales Promotion 16 Internet Marketing 16 Print advertising: 16 Other Promotion Mix Tools: 17 Scheduling and Implementation of Marketing Plan 17 Budget Evaluation and Control 18 Introduction Green and Black organic is basically a premium priced chocolate manufacturing company founded in 1991 in United Kingdom by a couple named: Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley. The name of the brand Green and Black Organic is very meaningful. The Green in the brand name represents the organic quality of the brand and Black represents the dark chocolate which is basically the specialty and core product of the brand. The brand expanded and added Maya Gold to its product range in the year 1994 when the two founders of the Green and Black Organic met up with some Mayan smallholder farmers who planted cocoa trees and agreed to buy at a fair price. These cocoa beans were used to create the traditional flavor of Mayan chocolate drink. Green and Black Organic earned the UK’s first Fair-trade mark as a result of Maya Gold. In the year 2005, Green and Black Organic was bought by Cadbury Plc. Kraft foods finally got hold of the company in the year 2010. The competition of the Green and Black Organic includes; Toblerone, Lindt and Thorntons. Green and Black Organic has asked the A team agency to come up with a Marketing Communication Plan to help it to not only sustain its market share but also work to increase it. The marketing plan will aim to create increased awareness about the brand so that consumers do not mind paying the extra pound. The A team agency has been provided with a budget of 750,000 pounds to develop a marketing plan for Green and Black Organic. The team will first conduct out a primary research to get insight in to the decision making process of the chocolate buyers. A small secondary research will also work to identify the trends in the consumption of dark chocolate and its related products. This paper will focus on marketing communication strategies, objectives and finally the plan proposed for Green and Black organic chocolate that aims to convert dark into rainbow. This proposal is prepared to be presented before an agency by Green and Black organic for illustrating their communication strategies they are thinking to opt. Company’s Brief- Green and Black Organic Green and black organic is now owned by Cadbury, which has 30% of the total market share in London. The company was initially carrying out its operations individually, but later it came under the control of Cadbury. SWOT analysis: In order to assess the current and past performance of the company, SWOT analysis was carried out for the purpose of analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strength Following are the factors that made Green and Black organic a successful company in confectionary industry. Manufacturing chocolates from organic food. Dark chocolates prepared from 70% of cocoa beans. Operating under the name of Cadbury. Regarded as first manufacturers of chocolate from organic substance. Employment of good marketing activities as compared to those conducted by small brands. Weaknesses Following are the weaknesses of Green and Black organic Most of the people do not prefer eating dark chocolates so this can result in reduction in sales volume. The size of the company is too small and so, it cannot extend its operation in areas outside the borders of London. As the name of the company does not specify anything related to chocolate, so people can misunderstand the name green and black organic. Opportunities Green and black can earn huge revenues if it focuses and avail following opportunities Manufacturing of chocolate butters and chocolate spread can earn them huge profits. Manufacturing chocolate shakes can also be an attractive option for customers to direct their buying behaviors in favor of Green and Black Organic. Extending their operations beyond the territories of London is an attractive opportunity. Threats The company has the following threats that it can face from the market and competitors. The competitors have a very strong position in market for example Mars, Nestle and Ferrero. Because of its small size, company got acquired by Cadbury, which has destroyed its own repute and name as the company is now operating under Cadbury’s name. Few people are of the view that preparing chocolates from organic is not environment friendly and they perceive preparing them as damaging the nature’s beauty. Extensive marketing by competitors can result in customers’ switching behavior from Green and Black organic. After analyzing the company’s current position, it is assessed that company is not paying much attention to the marketing communication strategies and it needs to be taken care of as it has become mandatory for the organization to achieve competitive edge. Analysis of the Primary and Secondary Research The team A agency conducted both a primary and a secondary research. The primary research was basically conducted as a Focus Group in which the responses of six subjects between the age group of 25-35 were analyzed. The objective of the research was to get knowledge about the idea of attitude towards the branding of Green and Black Organic and also to gain insight in to the purchase decision process of Green and Black Organic. The research also came up with the findings that Green and Black Organic was preferred by the consumers primarily because of its organic label and it was regarded as the healthy choice. it was also found out that Green and Black Organic was not preferred by the consumers for snacking purposes. However it was on their priority list when they think about buying a chocolate for someone else. The secondary research also put forth the statistics that UK chocolate market is valued at 2.3 billion pounds (MINTEL Industry Report).The secondary research also identified some factors which has the potential to impact the chocolate industry. The identified factors are enlisted below: The downtrodden economy Increasing interest of consumers in particular brands Sales promotions and special offers of the competitors Retail Consolidation Marketing Communication Objectives The marketing objectives of Green and Black organic are as under: Increase unit sales of the product by 15% over next 12 months. Increase market share by 5% over the next 12 months. Increase distribution channel by 15% to 30% in next 12 months. To increase awareness among people from 15 to 30% within a period of 10 weeks in youngsters who are at the age of 25-35 years. To position the product as “infectious brand” with a tagline “organic for everyone’ within a period of about 10 months. To make Green and Black chocolate as the most preferred chocolate among huge proportion of youngsters from the total population, within a period of about 10 months. To establish small shops holding complete products’ portfolio over a period of 2 years. To announce the launch of any new product only when 50% of awareness has been created among potential customers. Models of Marketing Communication: We utilize three marketing communication models to be able to better understand and propose the marketing direction of Green and Black Organic. These models basically work to illustrate and reflect on our marketing communication strategies. The models along with their respective description and relation to Green and Black Organic are listed below; Model 1 Figure 1: A macro framework of Marketing Communication Source: Hughes and Fills (2007) Black and Green organic will basically make use of planned marketing communication from the macro framework of marketing communication. It will include three basic elements namely; tools, media and messages. The various tools proposed to be used by Green and Black Organic are; advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and sponsorships. The core message of Green and Black Organic ‘After the dark, here comes the rainbow’ is relevant, informative and emotional. It also subtly reflects the preference and need of the target market. The third element of the planned marketing communication is Media. Green and Black Organic plans to utilize both the traditional and untraditional means of communication and converse with the audiences. The traditional media includes: print and broadcast and the new untraditional means include the utilization of digital and internet world to reach the potential customers. This planned marketing communication of Green and Black Organic from the Macro Framework of Marketing communications aspires to achieve the following three motives: Differentiate it and set it at par from the other chocolates brands and competition Remind the consumers about the taste and experience of the brand Green and Black Organic Educate the audience about the nutritious value of the Green and Black Organic which is not evident in other chocolate brands Persuade the audience/target market to make the purchase Model 2 Figure 2 Heightened Appreciation Model -Source: Oliver, 1997 According to the heightened appreciation model, the marketer can achieve good reputation for his brand if he succeeds in identifying an important appreciable and distinct attribute of his brands product and amply convey it through its marketing (Oliver, 1997). Green and Black organic are looking to achieve the same appreciation for their brand by conveying to its target market that it’s an organic dark chocolate which is very different than its competitors. Through ample marketing the audience of Green and Black organic the consumers are being convinced about the importance of benefits associated with consuming the dark chocolate of Green and Black Organic. A positive brand image can be successfully built through utilizing heightened appreciation model. Model 3 Figure 3 Maslow Hierarchy of Needs (Original five stage Model) Source: (Kotler, Philip, Keller and Kevin, 2007) The third model selected to identify the future marketing strategy of Green and Black Organic is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. This model is very relevant and helps in proposing the future advertising techniques for Green and Black Organic. By looking at the Maslow hierarchy model, we can come to the conclusion that people buy chocolate to satisfy their social and self esteem needs. The fact that people buy chocolates to satisfy their social and self esteem needs can be cashed by designing the advertisements of Green and Black Organic in such a way that this fact is amply highlighted in them. Marketing Communication Strategy: Marketing communication, as described by Kimmel (2005), is a process that constitutes various activities such as advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing conducted to communicate company’s offerings to present and potential customers. Green and black organic, while keeping in view their position in market, is proposed to devise the following marketing plan for communicating benefits and attracting customers to their product portfolio. Pull Strategy According to Lamb, Hair and McDaniel (2008) pull strategy is employed by businesses when they want to achieve their promotional objectives by focusing only on the end user, rather than emphasizing the marketing channel. This creates such a strong impact that consumers start demanding the product from a retailer who buys it from the wholesaler. This is the reason that this strategy is referred to as a pull strategy because the product is pulled by customers through the marketing channels. A pull strategy will be used for getting the consumers interested in the product line of Green and Black Organic especially its chocolates. It requires high spending on the advertising and promotions to build the demand of the product which is the ultimate strategy Green and Black Organic aspires to follow through its diverse promotion mix. The marketing objective to make Green and Black chocolate as the most preferred chocolate among huge proportion of youngsters from the total population, within a period of about 10 months can be achieved through heavy marketing, advertising and promotion of Green and Black Organic. Pull strategy in Green and Black Organic: Marketing Communication Mix The key message that we are trying to associate with the Green and Black Organic is that it is natural and organic and gives good value of money to its consumers. Green and Black organic are going to use different communication tools or promotional mix. Figure 4 Marketing Communication Mix Source: www.devadolak.com The following are the promotional mix tools that will be utilized to deliver a clear and consistent message of Green and Black Organic. Social Networking Sites Print Media Direct Marketing Public Relations Sales Promotion We are planning to utilize a wide array of networks to reach our audiences as Green and Black Organic aspires to 15% share of voice within a year. The allocated budget of ?750,000 restricts us from utilizing TV advertising in our promotion mix. Public Relations: Green and Black Organic plans to hire a local PR firm or a manager to help it implement the marketing plan. The various publicity issues will also be handled by that specific PR firm. The marketing message, slogan and tagline of Green and Black Organic will be strategically exploited to keep it updated and aligned with the needs and wants of the target market/audience. The reputation and good word of mouth of the corporate will also be assured by the PR firm. Direct marketing (offline & online): The direct marketing of Green and Black Organic would primarily include mailing the newsletter directly to the customers. Direct and digital marketing has seen to be aiding in growth of all the business’s aspects including the return on investment, sales generation and employment (Malley, 1998). The Direct Marketing Association's yearly report, The Power of Direct Marketing also confirmed that there has been 5.5% increase in response rates in commercial email, Internet marketing and direct mail in recent times. Event Sponsorships The marketing plan of Green and Black Organic also includes different event sponsorships. It plans to make it presence felt at the events which the target market is bound to attend. It is under the marketing plan of Green and Black organic to sponsor the college functions, carnivals, concerts and other related activities that the target market enjoys (Skinner & Rukavina, 2002). The heightened visibility due to these event sponsorships will bring about more customer base and profitability for the corporate Green and Black Organic. This will work to increase the market share and unit sale of the product line of Black and Green Organic. Sales Promotion Sales promotion is basically providing short term incentives to the potential customers to lure them to make purchases. Sales promotion includes several communications activities that attempt to provide added value or incentives to consumers, wholesalers, retailers, or other organizational customers to stimulate immediate sales (ed: Cummins & Mullin, 2008). The techniques and examples of sales promotions include; couples, premiums, interesting and unique displays, contests, rebates and sweepstakes. The couple of Green and Black Organic can also work to involve some effort from the consumer by asking the customer to bring a newspaper clipping along or put their names in a lucky draw. Internet Marketing The today’s digitalized world calls for the corporate to go online and make their presence felt. It is under the plan of the Green and Black Organic to secure a domain name and provides its consumers an opportunity and a platform to accumulate online and discuss, appreciate and give suggestions to the organization. Green and Black Organic does and will nurture on the infamous online social networking sites e.g. face book and tweeter. The number of tweets and the fans on tweeter and face book will be kept a record of. The consumers will be kept updated through frequent tweets and face book statuses about sales promotions and new stocks. Print advertising: According to Wells (2007), print media is one of the most effective communication tools, even more than broad cast or electronic media because people can stop and re-read the publication. Another benefit of print media is that people can read at their own speed whereas broadcast advertisements either run so fast that people do not get anything or they run too slow that people get bored. Green and black, for the purpose of attracting new generation and for creating awareness of their product portfolio, will go for print media as well. It is also under the marketing plan of Green and Black Organic to utilize the print media to reach its audience. The substantial marketing budget of Green and Black Organic will be used to advertise in the most highly circulated newspaper or magazine to gain the highest probability of reaching the desired target market. The chosen newspaper will be the one the target market has most frequently reads and has subscribed to. This will work to achieve the marketing objective of increasing awareness among people from 15 to 30% within a period of 10 weeks Other Promotion Mix Tools: There are many other low cost publicity activities that Green and Black Organics plans to be involved in. Some of these activities are enlisted below: Billboards Radio Posting flyers Sending out brochures. Scheduling and Implementation of Marketing Plan The marketing plan will be scheduled and implemented keeping in view the long term objective of increasing customer satisfaction through high visibility and consistent quality. The short term advertising objectives are to generate profit through quick sales prompt by the sales promotions and other marketing mix tools. A schedule plan of Green and Black Organic is given below: December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 March 2012 Apri 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 Augu 2012 Public Relations --------- ---------- --------- ------ ----- ----- ------ ------- Direct Marketing -------- -------- ------ Event Sponsorship ----- ----- ----- ----- Sales Promotions ------ ------ ------ Internet Marketing ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ----- ------ Print Advertising ------ ------ ------ The implementation phase of the marketing plan of Green and Black Organic includes a detailed schedule of key tasks which clearly determines what will be done and in which time span. The implementation schedule will be referred to as many times as possible in order to not lose the sight of the big picture and achieve the corporate objectives by achievement of increments of the big goal. A clear timeline was drawn for the purpose of identifying who was responsible for what job of the Green and Black Organic marketing plan. The time was also allocated to performance of different tasks. Budget Evaluation and Control Description Cost (?) Source Website  Free Employee Expertise utilized Print Advertising/ Press Release  75000 Written and designed by marketing department and published in local magazine and daily newspaper Brochures/Leaflets  60000 Custom made by employee Sponsorship  200000 Sponsorship of fashion various events Direct Marketing  215000  Training of personnel Public Relations  100000  The local hired PR firm Internet Marketing  100000  -  Total  75000   Green and Black Organic is proposed to utilize a wide array of promotional campaigns and activities. The question now remains whether this strategic marketing plan will succeeded in helping the corporate reach its marketing objectives. In an ideal situation, the execution of various marketing promotions using different tools should result in reaching and achievement of the firm’s goal. The efforts of the promotion tools should work to positively influence the consumers to making purchases and should aid in creating the awareness about the brand. For the purpose of evaluating marketing tools and techniques used in the proposed marketing plan of Green and Black Organic, extensive research was carried out prior to proposing the marketing plan. In the same manner, the effectiveness of the marketing campaign will be determined after the launching of the marketing campaign. The various marketing strategies of Green and Black Organic will be evaluated post their launch as well. The testing after the advertisement has been released is more difficult but the main advantage is that it is testing the advert when the consumer is in its own environment, and can be done by many methods. These methods include; Inquiry Measuring the Increase in sales Simulated market tests Single source tests Recognition and recall tests Usage and attitude measurement There are different techniques used after the marketing plan period to analyze success in achieving individual marketing objectives and to more broadly assess the entire firm’s marketing efforts. The various marketing techniques which can be undertaken by the organization might include sales analysis, market share analysis, marketing costs and profitability analysis, efficiency ratios, marketing effectiveness rating review and marketing audits (Cheverton, 2004). Green and Black Organics will try to make sure to use of all the above mentioned strategies. The smooth execution of the plan will be overlooked at the Green and Black Organic by ample controlling of the factors that can cause hurdles. The progress will be monitored very closely. The proactive approach to tackle any shortcoming in the schedule e.g. costs overrun will be adopted. The constant reviewing of the plan will help the marketers of the Green and Black Organic to learn and make necessary changes in the plan. The progress report and the outcome measurement will determine the future course of action for Green and Black Organic. The performance analysis will give a clear picture of discrepancies in the expected result and the original result. The marketing team of Green and Black Organic will also take various steps to find out if its marketing plans are successful and if not, then remedies regarding the loopholes will be suggested and recommended. References Cheverton , P. 2004. Key Marketing Skills. Kogan Page. Cummins, J. & Mullin, R. ed. (2008). Sales Promotion: How to Create, Implement and Integrate Campaigns that Really Work. Kogan Page. Hughes,G and Fill, C. 2007. Marketing Communications 2007-2008., 3RD ED., Butterworth-Heinemann., UK Oliver, R.L. (1997). A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Kotler, Philip and Keller, Kevin L. (2007). “A Framework for Marketing Management”. 3rd edition. Pearson/Prentice Hall Kimmel, A. 2005. Marketing communication: new approaches, technologies, and styles., Oxford Unversity Press., London Lamb,C  Hair,J  McDaniel,C . 2008. Marketing, 10TH ED., Cengage Learning., USA. Malley, L. (1998). Can loyalty scheme really built loyalty. Marketing Intelligence and planning, Vol. 16.1 pp: 47-55 MINTEL Industry Report Chocolate Confectionery - UK - April 2010 Our Beginning Green & Black's Organic Chocolate UK. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.greenandblacks.com/uk/our-story/our-beginning.html. [Accessed 22 March 2011]. Skinner, B. & Rukavina, V. (2002). Event Sponsorship. Wiley Wells. 2007. Advertising principles and practice, 7th ed., Pearson Education., India. Bibliography Dahlen, M Lange, F and Smith, T. 2009. Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative Approach, John Wiley and Sons.UK Evans. D. 2008. Social media marketing: an hour a day, John Wiley and Sons.UK Graham, H. 2008. Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning. Pearson Education., India. Hughes, G and Fill, C. 2007. Marketing Communications 2007-2008., 3RD ED., Butterworth-Heinemann., UK Iain MacRury. 2009. Advertising., Rutledge, London. Kwak, H  Forman, H Zinkhan, G. 2009. Consumer attitudes towards firms' marketing activities: the implications for marketing communications strategies., International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising., 5(3), pp. 131 - 144. Lamb, C  Hair, J  McDaniel, C . 2008. Marketing, 10TH ED., Cengage Learning., USA. Mullin. R. 2002. Direct marketing: a step-by-step guide to effective planning and targeting., Kogan Page Publishers., UK. Ries. 2003. Positioning: the battle for your mind., TATA McGraw Hill Education., India. Smith, P  Berry, C. Pulford, A. 1999. Strategic marketing communications: new ways to build and integrate communications, Kogan Page Publishers., UK Smith, P and Taylor, J. 2004. Marketing communications: an integrated approach.,4th ed., Kogan Page Publishers., UK Schultz, D. Robinson, W. Petrison,L.1998. Sales promotion essentials: the 10 basic sales promotion techniques-- and how to use them, McGraw-Hill Professional., New York Varey. R. 2002. Marketing communication: principles and practice, 2ND ED., Rutledge., London. Read More