Promotional Campaign of Pepsi Max - Essay Example

Promotional Practice Report Table of Contents Introduction 2 Brief Description of Brand 2 Source: (Britvic, 2014) 2 Campaign Information 2 Target Audience of Campaign 3 Objectives of Unbelievable Campaign 4 Inform and Reinforce as Main Elements of Campaign 4 Promotional Tools 5 Source: (talkingretail, 2013) 6 Promotional media 7 Recommendation 9 References 10 Introduction Brief Description of Brand PepsiCo is one of the best known soft drinks and beverage firm in the world. It currently holds the second position right after Coca Cola in terms of revenue generation and market share (Statista, 2014). The PepsiCo holds a wide portfolio of beverage products each of them distinguished by a strong differentiation factors like brand image, target customers, product features, etc. The company seeks out new ways to create strong brand image and gain the maximum possible market share by increasing their customer base. PepsiCo invests large amount of capital in promotional and marketing communicational activities, to strengthen its brand equity, thereby creating a top of the mind brand recall among the customers (Smith, 2014). Figure 1: Pepsi Max: Unbelievable Campaign Source: (Britvic, 2014) Campaign Information This paper is based on the promotional campaign of Pepsi Max “Unbelievable” campaign. The company launched the “Unbelievable” campaign to promote the new product named Pepsi Max, which is a low calorie sugar free soft drink. The company has adopted several unconventional promotional mediums to create an effective marketing communication that has allowed the company to create a strong awareness among the customers (Thinkwithgoogle, 2014). The company has decided to step out of the traditional medium of communication and decided to try the internet as the primary communicational platform (Giogilo, 2014). The unbelievable campaign has highlighted the message of “no sugar, maximum taste” of the product Pepsi Max. This campaign is targeted at the customers who are quite conscious about their health and calorie intake. BBC (2014) has mentioned that the UK population is becoming increasingly concerned about their health and rise in obesity. This concern has been addressed by the company and in response the Pepsi has mentioned that the new product is capable of delivering the same great taste without compromising on the taste of the product. PepsiCo has broken the conventional belief that in order to reduce the sugar content, the taste has to be compromised. The central idea of this campaign is to target the young health conscious customers and attracting their attention by employing certain innovative promotional activities. Target Audience of Campaign The promotional activities of a company is to create awareness among the customers and to strength its brand image so that the customers can have a top of the mind brand recall of that particular brand or product. The primary objective of a promotional campaign or a marketing communication is to influence the purchase decision of the customers. Every brand prefers to attract customers to them and would want them to choose their products over that of the rival companies. This result makes it imperative for the firms to seek out for new ways to draw the attention of the target customers and influence them to buy a particular product (Fill, 2013). Almost every product available in the market has been designed by keeping in mind the needs and preferences of a particular group of customers (Alvesson, 2008). This group of customers are the “target customers” of a particular brand or a product segment. In this topic of discussion, Pepsi has launched a new product which is targeted at a narrow customer segment (Alvesson, 2008; Arnould and Thompson, 2009). This as a result has driven the company to design the marketing communication accordingly, so that it can effectively connect with the targeted customers. The target customers of the Pepsi Max and the “Unbelievable” campaign are the young population which fall under the age group of 18-24 year olds (Britvic, 2014). This age group may seem to have a large number of audiences and potential customers but the company has decided to fine tune its targeting by choosing the customers with an active lifestyle that is associated with sports, music and addiction towards social media and technology (LBB, 2014). To put this simply the company has targeted the customers who lead an active lifestyle and are also quite conversant with technology and internet and social media. The age group clearly indicates that the target audience of the company are college students and young professionals who are attracted towards surreal videos and advertisements that can closely connect to their lifestyle. PepsiCo has launched their “unbelievable” campaign in the UK, which has proved to be one of the most lucrative markets in the industry (Talkingretail, 2014). UK is currently an economically stable nation which suggests that the average affordability of the customers is also quite high (CIA, 2015). This as a result makes it easier for the company to launch its products in this area. Moreover, the soft drinks segments are categorized under the convenience products and are often associated with impulse buying. From the pricing of the Pepsi Max it can be stated that it is targeted at the middle and upper middle socio economic group of the society (Caffeineinformer, 2015). This suggests that the company has targeted at a particular demographic segment of the market, which perfectly fits the brand image of the product. The company has realized that the lifestyle of the young population to which the campaign is targeted at, is quite different from that of the middle aged population. The young population spend most of their free time browsing in the social media and the internet. Moreover, they are also quite technology savvy and they are attracted to the new technological advancements and its implementation in daily life. Objectives of Unbelievable Campaign The main objective of the “Unbelievable” campaign of PepsiCo is to provide special message to the customers about their drink – Pepsi Max. Through this campaign, the company want to convey the message to the customers that their drink contains no sugar and it provides maximum taste which the people want from the soft drinks (Britvic, 2014). The objective of PepsiCo through the “unbelievable” campaign is also convey the message that a no-sugar drink can have a cola taste and it is unbelievably good (Lacy, 2014). Through this objective, the company want to reach a large customer base by providing them sugarless drink with maximum taste. DRIP (differentiates, inform, reinforce, persuade) is a system of reflecting the advertising message. It is used by the companies when they are setting broad goals of communication (Faamatau, 2015). Inform and Reinforce as Main Elements of Campaign Among the four elements of DRIP, the “Unbelievable” campaign is using ‘inform’ and ‘reinforce’ as main elements to reflect the objectives of campaign. PepsiCo is using ‘inform’ as a main element for the ‘Unbelievable’ campaign. By employing this element, the campaign is informing the customers about the offerings and advantages of the new drink. The ‘inform’ element will help to make aware the target segment about the advantages of the product (Baines, Fill & Page, 2011). Through this element, the campaign is communicating the unbelievable benefits of the product. This will help the company towards educating the target customers about their product (Fill & Hughes, 2008). The “maximum taste, no sugar” message of the product will help to inform the customers the special features of the product. The ‘reinforce’ element of DRIP explains that by employing this component, the company can remind the customers about the benefits or advantages of the product and also persuade the customers to begin a new transaction (Egan, 2007). By employing this element, the “Unbelievable” campaign can build strong connection with the customers by reinforcing the message of the campaign. The campaign communicates special message to the customers. The message is that their drink contains no sugar so it will provide no harm to the health of customers as well as it will provide extraordinary and refreshing taste through which the customers can do the repeat purchase (Britvic, 2014). Through the reinforce element, PepsiCo can describe that their brand i.e. Pepsi Max will provide unbelievable experience to the customers and this will help to reinforce the message of the campaign. Reinforcement will be achieved by means of demonstrating experience (Fill, 2013). Through the ‘Unbelievable’ campaign, the company is creating online content by teaming up with most unbelievable or incredible talent around. The campaign encourages customers to submit their video of unbelievable experience (Britvic, 2014). Such demonstration will show why the product of this company is different or superior to others. Promotional Tools The characteristics of the target customers are quite vital in choosing the right promotional tools which will help the company to attract the target customers. Pepsi has also adopted certain promotional tools to create the desired exposure to the target audience. The unbelievable campaign has been sole focused on the ATL (above the line) marketing communication, which targets the mass audience and there no face to face communication between the company and the audience. This as a result has enabled the company to use a limited number of promotional tools for this campaign. Pepsi has decided to make the “unbelievable” campaign quite unconventional by avoiding the traditional tools like sales promotion and direct marketing. 1. Public Relations The public relation has been used in this campaign. PepsiCo is known for its outrageous or despicable PR campaigns (Wordpress, 2014). In this case the company has adopted the public relation technique by doing sponsorship event with the favourite youth TV show called the X-factor (Talkingretail, 2013). The business collaboration between Pepsi and X-factor has allowed the company to launch contests for the tickets of the final X-factor finale show (Talkingretail, 2013). The X-factor is quite popular among the young populations and its theme is also closely related to the active and adventurous lifestyle of the young target customers (Talkingretail, 2013). This promotional tool will help the company to closely connect to the target customers by being associated with their lifestyle and preferences. Therefore by associating the brand image of Pepsi Max with X-factor, the customers has been able to easily relate to their personal choices and lifestyle with the brand of the product (Talkingretail, 2013).​ The “unbelievable” campaign includes celebrities or TV sponsorship (Britvic, 2014) in order to reach to the customers in an efficient way because, the celebrities have several followers and fans and the people have the perception that the product endorsed by renowned celebrities are unique or extraordinary (O’Guinn et al, 2014). Celebrities and TV sponsorship will create motivation among the customers and allow them to get involved in the campaign. Further, it will help to reach a large customer base (Holm, 2006). Figure 2: X- Factor campaign Source: (talkingretail, 2013) 2. Direct Marketing Direct Marketing tools have been used in this campaign. The Unbelievable campaign has used Social media marketing as a direct marketing tool in their promotional activities. It allows the company to connect to the customers at a personal level. It has been analysed that the young population spends most of their time in social media; therefore social media marketing is quite effective while targeting the young audience. The company has realised that the young target customers spend most of their time online, particularly in the social media websites and video sharing websites like YouTube. This as a result has enabled the company to focus mostly on the online advertisements. Pepsi Max developed a series of video advertisements to be launched in the social media which depicts youngsters engaged in active sports like free running, dub step dancing and card throwing tricks. These activities are closely associated with the preferences of the customers and often attract them owing to the surreal nature of the acts. PepsiCo has generated “The Unbelievable Channel” especially on the YouTube, which shows the videos of different people performing unbelievable things (McCabe, 2014). Pepsi Max will provide unbelievable experience to the customers and this will help to reinforce the message of the campaign. Through the ‘Unbelievable’ campaign, the company is creating online content by teaming up with most unbelievable or incredible talent around. The campaign encourages customers to submit their video of unbelievable experience (Britvic, 2014). Such demonstration will show why the product of this company is different or superior to others. Figure 3: Pepsi Max launched videos of unbelievable experience (Source: Wordpress, 2015) 3. Advertising Advertising is a form of marketing communication that delivers a set of messages to the target audience (O’Guinn et al, 2014). PepsiCo has used outdoor advertising by launching “innovative Digital Out of Home Campaign” (Grand Visual, 2014) which incorporates vine clips generated by consumer into the digital billboard of Pepsi Max. The billboards ask the consumers to send their own “unbelievable vines” to the company that can be used as video advertisement in YouTube (Grand Visual, 2014). These vine videos promote the tagline of “maximum taste, no sugar” (Grand Visual, 2014) and will also increase the brand awareness of the new product and will increase the preference among the target customers. Promotional media 1. Digital The digital media used by the company are websites like Twitter, Facebook and popular video sharing websites like YouTube. The focus on the internet marketing has also allowed the company to easily focus on the young customers who are closely associated with the interest and the social media. The video advertisements launched by the company have attracted a lot of customers which as a result has increased the revenue and market share of the company (Thinkwithgoogle, 2014). For the “Unbelievable” campaign, the target segment is the youngsters and the digital media is very effective for the youngsters and adults because they are the regular user of the internet and social media sites. The digital media will help the campaign to connect with the target customers in an efficient way. It also assists in generating higher rates of conversion and enables real-time or immediate customer service. Marketing by way of digital media will also assist the campaign to connect with mobile customer as well as help in generating higher profits for the company (Feldman, 2003). 2. Outdoor Pepsi has also incorporated technological advancements like “augmented reality experience” (Wordpress, 2015) in the bus stops of London to attract the customers. The augmented reality as a part of a promotional media has not been used before by any company. The augmented reality bus stops have allowed the company to offer entertainment and surprise to the people by displaying aliens and animals wandering in the streets. The young population is quite attracted to the technological implementations in their daily life, so it is quite justified that the company has chosen the right medium to draw the attention of the target customers (Talkingretail, 2014). The company showcased the abilities of outdoor through surprising the passengers with the unbelievable act. It is innovative as this practice is not adopted by any other company (Wordpress, 2015). 3. Print The traditional print media mostly include magazines, newsletters, newspapers, etc to advertise and promote the products of the company. PepsiCo has used both print and social media for promoting its product and to reach a large group of customers (Egan, 2007). However, for this “unbelievable” campaign, they have not used the traditional print media yet. The company have decided to break the clutter of promotional campaigns and implemented innovative strategies like generating of “The Unbelievable Channel” especially on the YouTube which shows the videos of different people performing unbelievable things. The unbelievable act is promoted to reflect the fact that like this unbelievable talent of people Pepsi Max is also providing unbelievable taste to the customers through their soft drinks. They want to convey the message that a no-sugar drink can have a cola taste and it is unbelievably good. The innovative strategy like augmented realty bus stops has allowed the company to create a top of the mind brand recall and influenced the purchase decision of the customers in favour of the company. The traditional print media is quite costly and they also limit the ability to the number of people the company can reach out to. Introducing the promotional videos in YouTube was virtually free of cost and it also allowed the company to publish advertisements of longer period of time that extends to 2 to 3 minutes. On contrary in case of television advertisements, the firms can only publish ads of 20-40 seconds (LBB, 2014). Recommendation The company has successfully launched the “Unbelievable” campaign and as a result have attracted a lot of target customers in UK. It is recommended that the company could have further increased their market segment by catering to the customers outside UK. USA could prove to be lucrative market for the company, owing to high popularity of social media and the overall technological advancements. Moreover, in the US market the popularity of low calorie soft drinks is also quite high. This as a result could have made it profitable for the company to launch the product and the campaign in the UK market as well. Since, Pepsi focused more on the internet marketing; this as a result has saved a lot of capital for the company. This capital could be further utilized to increase the number of augmented reality bus stops in the UK market. This as a result could have also increased the target audience of the company. Moreover, since the underlying message of the campaign is sugar less healthy soft drinks, so the company could have several business collaborations with popular gyms in the city to attract the fitness concerned customers. References Alvesson, M. (2008). Critical theory and consumer marketing. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 10(3), 291-313. Anderson, J. C. and Narus, J. A. (2007) Business marketing: Understand what customers value. Harvard Business Review, 76(6), 53-62. Arnould, E. J. and Thompson, C. J. (2009) Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 868-882. Baines, P., Fill, C., & Page, K. (2011). Marketing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. BBC. (2014). Obesity quadruples to nearly one billion in developing world. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25576400 Britvic. (2014). Pepsi Max Launches New UK Marketing Campaign. Retrieved from http://www.britvic.co.uk/en/Media-centre/News/Pepsi-MAX-marketing-campaign-2014_10_03.aspx Caffeineinformer. (2015). Pepsi Max. Retrieved from http://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/pepsi-max CIA. (2015). UK. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/print/country/countrypdf_uk.pdf Egan, J. (2007). Marketing communications. Boston: Cengage Learning. Faamatau, R. (2015). Insurance agency marketing 2015. North Carolina: Lulu Press, Inc. Feldman, T. (2003). An introduction to digital media. New York: Routledge. Fill, C., & Hughes, G. (2008). Marketing communications. New York: Routledge. Fill, C. (2013). Marketing communications: brands, experiences and participation. London: Pearson Higher Ed. Grand Visual. (2014). Pepsi Max Displays Fan Vines On Digital Billboards in Media-First. Retrieved from http://grandvisual.com/pepsi-max-displays-fan-vines-digital-billboards-media-first/ Gioglio, J. (2014). Pepsi Max Shocks and Delights Londoners With Augmented Reality Stunt. Retreived from http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-case-studies/pepsi-max-shocks-and-delights-londoners-with-augmented-reality-stunt/ Holm, O. (2006). Integrated marketing communication: from tactics to strategy. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 11(1), 23-33. Lacy, L. (2014). Pepsi Max brings Unbelievable videos and a Bus Shelter to UK Consumers. Retrieved from http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2331933/pepsi-max-brings-unbelievable-videos-and-a-bus-shelter-to-uk-consumers. LBB. (2014). Pepsi Max's 'Unbelievable' Loop-the-loop. Retrieved from http://www.lbbonline.com/news/pepsi-maxs-unbelievable-loop-the-loop/ McCabe, M. (2014). Pepsi Max launches YouTube channel for unbelievable feats. Retrieved from http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1281893/. O’Guinn, T., Allen, C., Semenik, R., & Scheinbaum, A.C. (2014). Advertising and integrated brand promotion. Boston: Cengage Learning. Smith. (2014). PepsiCo Pays Big Bucks for Powerful Brand Promotions. Retrieved from http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2014/02/03/pepsico-pays-big-bucks-for-powerful-brand-promotions/ Statista. (2014). Market share of leading carbonated soft drink companies in the United States from 2004 to 2014. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/225464/market-share-of-leading-soft-drink-companies-in-the-us-since-2004/ Talkingretail. (2013). Pepsi Max launches X-Factor promotion. Retrieved from http://www.talkingretail.com/products-news/pepsi-max-launches-x-factor-promotion/ Talkingretail. (2014). Pepsi Max launches new UK marketing campaign. Retrieved from http://www.talkingretail.com/products-news/soft-drinks/pepsi-max-launches-new-uk-marketing-campaign/ Thinkwithgoogle, 2014. How Pepsi Max's 'Unbelievable' YouTube Channel Helped Increase Market Share. Retrieved from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/case-study/how-pepsi-maxs-unbelievable-youtube-channel-helped-increase-market-share/ Wordpress. (2014). The five most talked about PR campaign plans of 2014. Retrieved from https://prgroupd.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/1/. Wordpress. (2015). Pepsi Max “Unbelievable” Campaign. Retrieved from https://bs2dm48.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/pepsi-max-unbelievable-campaign/. Read More