Marketing Advertising Vitamin Water and Smart Water - Research Paper Example

10th December Marketing Advertising IMC Plan Targeting Targeting means splitting the market into different segments and analyzing each segment for the benefit it offers to the company. This is a primary requirement for any company before it decides to spend a large amount of money on advertisements and other marketing methods. Targeting helps us to decide which segment will give the best value for money. A firm can adopt 1 of the 3 strategies to target customers 1) Undifferentiated Marketing This type of marketing does not target 1 particular segment of the market. The firm adopts one marketing strategy and tries to attract as many customers as possible through this strategy. Customers are not segregated on the basis of age, sex, color or race. 2) Differentiated Marketing In this sort of marketing strategy the firm tries to target different segments of the market and a different marketing strategy is adopted for each segment of the market. 3) Concentrated Marketing In this strategy the firm chooses one segment of the market and focuses exclusively on that particular segment for its products. The product fulfils the needs of that particular group of customers only. For our product –Glaceau Smart and Vitamin Water; we have decided to apply the concentrated marketing strategy. We are going to target only one section of the customers for our products. The target market which has been selected for our product has the following features – Smart Water Men above 35 years of age Economically successful – main target is upper middle class male; more than $ 60,000 income. Marital status : Married Focused on staying young and healthy – visits the gym regularly or exercises ,buys health drinks Occupied in sedentary jobs like management, software professionals etc. Vitamin Water Women above 35 years of age Economically successful-main target is the upper middle class Focused on health and staying young-visits the gym regularly or exercises or diets. Occupied in sedentary jobs Smart Water and Vitamin Water can be put under the functional foods category. Functional food may be defined as any type of food product where a new ingredient has-been added in order to make the product healthier. (Glenn R. Gibson)Thus Vitamin Water and Smart Water can easily be defined as functional foods as they add nutrients to water and make it healthier for the body. Functional food industry has been witnessing increased growth in USA these days. According to a survey conducted by Nutrition Business Journal a US citizen spends $50 per month in order to buy functional foods and this amount is increasing each day. It also says that only 8.7 % of the population has never purchased a functional food product – rest 91.3% has at one time or the other bought some or other category of functional foods. (Nutrition Business Journal).This report shows the vast potential for functional food products. So our decision to market Vitamin Water is both timely and fulfils a major consumer demand. However the question still remains as to why have we decided to target people above 35 years of age and why only those who are economically successful. A research by Mintel states that people prefer functional foods due to the following reasons- Reasons for functional food purchase % Make up for unhealthy eating 48 Weight loss 44 Supplement my diet 35 Address health issues 30 Avoid eating empty calories 26 In place of a meal 16 Others 7 Source: (Mintel International Group Ltd.) Vitamin Water and Smart Water can be targeted to all the people who are mentioned above except probably those who eat functional food in place of a meal or for other reasons. Vitamin Water and Smart water contains additional supplements which can provide supplement diet , addresses health issues due to lack of vitamins , helps you avoid calories and still intake vitamins and can also assist you in weight loss as you can replace water for your nutrient intake instead of food. Thus our products can be sold better to those who are concerned about health and want to stay healthy and young. Although it is a lifestyle product but it has to be targeted to that section of the population who are concerned about health. Although there is sizable section of those below 35 who are very particular about their health and have health related issues such as obesity; but this section of youth is still in the minority. Most of them are healthy in spite of bad habits as their young bodies can cope up with their bad habits. The overriding concern of youth is to look cool and not health. However men and women above 35 are increasingly concerned about health disorders. A university of Western Ontario study shows that 63% of the middle age men and women interviewed by them define health issues as their primary concern in life – much ahead of money or marital problems. (Yaffe).So it makes sense to target a health product towards a section of the population which is already concerned with health rather than creating health concerns among the younger generation and then selling the product. Women were more concerned with nutritional value of their food intake as they resorted to dieting more often than men (Yaffe) - thus we have targeted Vitamin Water for women. Vitamin Water as the name suggest contain supplementary vitamins. These vitamins will help the women make up vitamin deficiency they may think they are having due to diet and limited food intake. However men undertake fewer diets and thus Smart Water is targeted at them. We are not explicitly saying to a man that he is unhealthy –this will offend them but are asking them to make a Smart choice so that he stays healthy. We are not targeting the product to any particular class or to people who have an income above a particular bracket. We are targeting it to anyone above 35 years of age who considers himself/herself as economically successful. Thus what we are going to sell is the idea of economic success and not economic success itself as economic success means different things to different people. The reason for targeting men who consider themselves as economically successful is the premium pricing of the product. The survey by Mintel mentioned earlier also states that 43% of people do not buy functional food products as they think it is overpriced. (Mintel International Group Ltd.)This mental block can be overcome by targeting only those who consider themselves as economic success and thus do not think twice before paying a premium price for their health. The premium pricing of the product is also one of the reasons it is not targeted at the younger population-they find it difficult to shell out this sort of money for water. Media Plan The job of a media planner is to find out the best combination of media which will be needed in order to achieve the marketing objectives of the company. (Larry D. Kelley)A media plan usually has 3 components; these are –defining the marketing problem, translating the requirements into objectives which can be attained by the company and defining a media solution by formulating various media strategies. Advertising media consists of Television, Radio, Billboards, direct mail etc. The following factors are considered for finding out the effectiveness of the media plan- Reach – The percentage of target audience reached. Frequency –number of times the average target consumer should be exposed to the product’s advertising. Media Plan Objectives Create awareness regarding Vitamin Water and Smart Water within the $8 million budget to ensure top of the mind recall. A top of the mind recall is necessary because of a lot of competition in the functional food products. The job performed by Vitamin Water can also be performed by vitamin supplements and there are water products from other companies other than Glaceau Target white males and females above 35 years who have income above $60000. Media Strategy Focus on television advertisements to create awareness and ensure recall of the product. Use of newspaper advertisements. Advertisements through billboards and leaflets. Television stations We are using Television as one of the main media of advertising for our products. This is because our target segment -35+ married males and females usually watch TV a lot after coming home from work. Most of the prime time TV viewership consists of our target segment. Apart from this specifically for Smart Water we will also target sports channels like ESPN which are watched by the male target audience of our product. (Nielson) The following channels are most popular within our target segment: ABC CBS Fox ESPN History Channel Some of the shows which are most popular according to the Nielson Report 2012 among our target segment and will be used for advertising are: Sunday Night football Modern Family The Big Bang Theory The Voice Grey’s Anatomy We have selected the top 6 shows as of October 2012 across the various channels mentioned above. All these shows will be used by us for advertising. The shows we have selected based on their ratings are mentioned in the excel which has been attached in the end. All these shows have a rating of 5 or above. Day parts where the advertisement campaign will be targeted: Monday-Friday – 8 PM to 11 PM. This time slot is the time when most of our target segment reaches home after office. We will be targeting this time slot to make them aware about risks of a sedentary lifestyle as the realisation of not doing any physical activity will be maximum at this point of time in the day National Television spots targeted: 9 Prime time slots Our target is to target the primetime audience primarily as this is the time that most of our target audience watches TV. They are unlikely to watch television late in the night as they are service class people and need to attend offices in the morning. Also as most of them are married and have kids –they are likely to retire to bed early. Reach We have targeted a reach of 70 and above. Although it is on the higher side but is achievable .We have kept a high reach as we want maximum number of people in the target group to be aware of the product. In order to achieve this reach we will have to target shows which have fairly high TRPs. Frequency Our frequency goal is 6, again on the higher side. Frequency has been kept high so that people are able to recall our product while demanding for water. As we have to create a demand for the product and also ensure top of the mind recall, the frequency of advertisements needs to be on the higher side. Budget The budget which has been chosen for the media campaign in $8 million. 10% of the budget has been kept as production costs. The manner in which the budget is to be allocated among the various chosen shows is given in the excel sheet which has been attached in Appendix A. Calculations 1) We have used the ratings which are given by the Nielson company as of October 2012 as the basis for calculating the amount of money to be spent on each of the shows. 2) On the basis of these rating, we selected the 6 most popular shows among our target audience. 3) Keeping in mind the frequency of 6 we allocated the amount of money which can be spent for each month of the next year. 4) The budget has been spread across 3 months –January, February and March- we propose to run the campaign for these 3 months. 5) We have selected frequency of 3 for the month of January which is to ensure that people become aware of the campaign initially. The frequency has been reduced to 2 in February and 1 in March. The reduction is done so that consumers are able to recall our product but do not feel irritated by constant and repeated advertisements. 6) Accordingly the amount of money to be spend on each of the shows has been calculated and shown in the excel sheet. We have allocated money in such a way so that CPM of each show remains the same. This will ensure fair returns for the investment. Newspaper Advertising Plan The Newspapers which have been selected by us for advertisements are – The Wall Street Journal USA Today The New York Times These are the newspapers with the maximum sales within our target segment (CISIONnvigator).As our target segment is the salried class; so we have decided to advertise on weekends as they are able to read the newspaper on weekends due to scarcity of time on weekday.We have selected a 1/6 front page color ads for the purpose. The amount of money which is to be spent on newspaper ads is 3600000.The ad rates for the three newspapers are- Wall Street Journal - $80000 (Wall Street Journal) USA Today - $69600 (USA Today) The New York Times (The New York Times) The frequency which hs been selected by us is 8 for the month of Janury and 4 for the month of Febuary and March each. The calculations regarding the money shown on newspaper ads are presented in Appendix A Other Media Options: Television advertisements and newspaper ads are going to be the mainstay through which we will spread awareness among the target population. However we also plan to advertise our products through billboards and leaflets. Billboards will be set up near the places of work of our target segment. The budget which has been kept aside for the billboard and leaflet campaign is shown in the excel sheet in Appendix A. Leaflets will be delivered along with newspapers in which we are not advertising but which have considerable reach among our target audience such as Los Angeles Times ,The Washington Post , Daily News and New York Post. The advantage of delivering leaflets along with newspapers is that they are a cheap way of advertisements and will still reach our target audience. Some other advertising options we have considered are free distribution of samples in gyms, free distribution of samples in supermarkets and malls, free vitamin intake check up of consumers to make them aware of vitamin deficiencies in their diet intake and how Vitamin Water and Smart Water can help them to overcome these difficulties. However our main advertisement option is going to be TV advertisements, other options will be used only to supplement this main media. Appendix Works Cited CISIONnvigator. Top 10 US Daily Papers. 16 2 2012. 13 12 2012 . Glenn R. Gibson, Christine M. Williams. Functional Foods: Concept to Product. New York: Functional Foods: Concept to Product, 2000. Larry D. Kelley, Donald W. Jugenheimer. Advertising Media Planning: A Brand Management Approach. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2008. Mintel International Group Ltd. Functional Food and Beverages. . USA: Mintel International Group Ltd., 2006. Nielson. State of the Media :Cross Platform Report 2012. Corporate report. New York: Nielson Company, 2012. Nutrition Business Journal. NBJ's Healthy Food Report. Journal Report. USA: Nutrition Business Journal, 2007. The New York Times. Media Kit. 1 12 2012. 13 12 2012 . USA Today. Advertising Card. 1 2 2012. 13 12 2012 . Wall Street Journal. MEdia Kit. 13 12 2012. 13 12 2012 . Yaffe, MJ. Family Physicians Awareness of their Ptient's middle life crisis. Thesis. London: University of Western Ontario, 1982. Read More