Marketing Communications: Honest Tea Leaves You Feeling Refreshed - Case Study Example

Marketing communication for the Honest Tea. The Aim of this paper is to identify the success of the Honest Tea, the brand which has created a great impression among the consumers in UK. This paper would try to find out how vital are the importance of the legal aspects and the voluntary controls under UK norms for the marketing communication of the Honest Tea. One of the main aims is to find out the importance of the influence of the opinion formers and opinion leaders in the marketing communication and discussing the role of the pre-testing techniques for the proper marketing communication. And, finally discussing the importance of the changing media and the effect of the media melt down in the field of marketing communication for the brand Honest Tea. Introduction: Uniqueness is a great characteristic of any brand. There are many unique brands available in the market, and they have reached a respectable position by the virtue of their uniqueness and quality. Honest Tea is among the brands that are unique and respected by the customers. The Honest Tea is one of the best selling beverages in the nation. The Honest Tea is one of the nation’s fastest growing organic tea brads in a bottling format. The story of the Honest Tea is pretty much interesting and there are many unique passion related with the history of the brand. However, this paper would try to focus on the marketing communication for the Honest Tea and this paper will find out the importance of the many external factors which are very much important for the brand itself to have a sustainable marketing communication for the strong branding activities. According to the UK standards the Honest Tea should be consistent to maintain all the norms and the restrictions to practice the ethical approach towards the advertising and the effective marketing communications. Brief about the Honest Tea: To understand the proper blend of the planning and marketing communication towards the brand building process it is very important to understand the value of the brand itself. According to Conley and Friedenwald-Fishman (2006) the Honest Tea was founded by a person called Seth Goldman. The Honest tea has become the best selling bottled tea brand in the nation. Within a short time the brand has become one of the most successful beverage brands in the nation. Goldman was an employee of the mutual fund firm called Calvert Group. The main motive behind the creation of the Honest Tea was the importance of the creating something new out of a simple tea. Goldman wanted a tea which has a great taste and at the same time which has a great natural value. The unique test of the Honest Tea is the main feature of the brand. The organic value of the tea is very much appreciated by most of the customers. In the early 2002, the Honest Tea launched Haarlem HoneyBush a unique bottled tea which was unsweetened, no-caffeine variety tea. This launch was not a very promising launch in the beverage industry. However, the lack of proper marketing communication led the products unaccepted in the market. It could not catch with the market. For the inefficient marketing the Honeybush was not at all known by most of the customers as the name was not to easy to understand by most of the customers. According to Albion (2006) Goldman launched the first fair-trade-certified bottled ice tea called Peach Oo-la-long. It was a great hit and it has a great taste. With the proper and easy naming the people understood what they were getting in this tea. The label design of the Peach Oo-la-long was familiar to the customer as it used a famous comic strip. In this new product the company added little bit of sweetening to give it a great taste. With the launch of the new product the Seth realized the importance of the penetration power of the proper naming and marketing. Goldman understood that Honest Tea products should be accessible from different part of the country and he also promised to go with his heart to maintain the high quality but would not go too far from the market trend to maintain the high value. He also realized that packaging was a great way of effective communication technique. The perfect packaging can make a product big hit in the market. They started using plastic bottles instead of the glass bottle. This new packaging method helped the Honest Tea to maintain the environmental conscious. The new packaging of the Honest Tea allowed the brand to reach more customers through the discount stores and other small stores in the state. There are many ways of communicating with the customer in the market. However, the proper way should be selected. The way of advertising and marketing communication should be at par with the UK voluntary controls. Legal and voluntary controls of marketing communications in UK: In any business two things are very much important and they are marketing and innovation. According to Varey (2002) the managers need to be innovative enough to market the products in the competitive field and the main part to be focused on is the marketing communication. The organizational demand and the organization supply should be supportive to each other. And creating a demand for a product in the market is an art of effective marketing communication. Marketing communication is just the proper exchange of ideas among the marketers and the consumers. To generate the demand the proper communication process should be deployed. A proper marketing communication is the way of communicating with the target customer in many ways. The main processes of the effective communications are marketing and advertising through television, radio, news paper and direct marketing through calls and internet. However, in UK there are many norms and voluntary controls on the communication processes. Any company should remember all of these legal boundaries and the voluntary controls to make an effective marketing campaign. There are many important socio-economic and socio-cultural factors are associated in the marketing process and they are basically the religion, art, politics, economy, technology, science and ethics related to the society. Each and every country has their own norms and voluntary controls over the effective marketing communications and the laws are enforced to make the voluntary controls more serious in nature. Most of the promotions and marketing activities are regulated by voluntary controls in UK. However, the voluntary controls are self regulated by the industry itself. According to Lewis and Trevitt (2000) all of these voluntary controls related to the advertising and the related laws with them are there to maintain a sustainable controlled situation in the UK market for the interactive marketing communication. The key features of all of these controls are to provide and maintain standards to make the advertising and marketing communications legal, truthful, decent and honest. Brand is a name or a logo or may be a though which are intangible in nature and which can be treated as the intangible asset for any organization. It is very vital to give the name of the brand cleverly so that they get a respected space in the customers mind. The existing consumers are there to produce the recurring sales but for the growth and future prospects creation of new customers are very much important. The effective communication is the main work to be done wisely as per with the industry and the legislative standards. Maintaining the ethical manner is the best way of doing business in the UK. According to Ross (2010) the Honest Tea had selected a very proper brand name which has a great touch of nature and truthfulness. However, the brand name of the organic tea has great implications to produce best quality products honestly from the beginning to the end of the production. This noble notion required the products that are honest at any cost. The Honest Tea seeks the honest relationship with the consumers and the community where they are selling their products. The society is the place which creates the market and consumers so it is very important to create an honest impression among the communities and the consumers. The organization should focus on the marketing and communication techniques which are supported by the UK laws and voluntary controls. Lewis and Trevitt have explained the voluntary controls for the marketing communication in their book Business for advanced Gnvq (2000). According to them the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) plays the vital role as a voluntary body in United Kingdom. The ASA is the regulatory body which is financed by the advertising industry in the United Kingdom to make the regulations work appropriately. The most interesting part is the formation of the ASA, the ASA has an independent chair person and two third of the members from outside the advertising industry. But, it does not have full power to regulate the whole advertising critics. It acts as a supervisor for all the advertising processes but it does not include the radio and TV ads. The main focus of the ASA is to protect the consumer’s interest in the advertisements. It is expertise in administering the British code of advertising practice and the British Code of sales promotion practices. However, it very important to know that the ASA tries to stop the objectionable advertising but, it is not enforced by the law. According to Lewis and Trevitt have explained the voluntary controls for the marketing communication in their book Business for advanced Gnvq (2000) the radio and television advertisings are controlled by the Radio authority and Independent Television Communication (ITC). ITC have the power to take the advertising off the screen. The guidance for the advertisements is shown in the ITC code of advertising standards and practice and state. There are many rules and regulations are there according to the ITC and they are shown bellow. And these are the regulations should be followed by the Honest tea for the suitable marketing communication processes. 1. Direct imitation of the programs is strictly not allowed for any branding and advertising. 2. Phrases such as news flash are not allowed, it means that advertising through news flash are not legal. News is treated as the great and true source of data and information and the advertising cannot be made through news flash. 3. Honest Tea should remember that lucrative advertisements which are not ethically acceptable by the authority are totally unacceptable in TV ads. 4. Ethical constraints are another factor which is very much important. Organization like Honest tea should pay more attention towards ethical advertising or marketing communication which has the essence of truth, decency and honesty. 5. UK regulation doesn’t allow product to get advertised which are harmful for the health of the community. This practice is done in most of the countries. However, the honest tea is a great organic tea which has a great nutrition value for the health. 6. In the recent time the internet is also protected by law from unfair deal of marketing and promotions. The new rule has imposed ban on almost thirty one practices outright (DIRECT). The regulation became active from May 26th 2008. Most of the regulation are one the unfair act of internet advertisings and sales practices. The direct marketing is the process to reach the customer directly via phone or mails. The direct marketing helps in creating new customers, but in UK there are many regulations which protect the customers from the unwanted disturbance by phone calls. According to Yadin (2002) the telephone preference service (TPS) is a very important service provided by the companies like British telecom to be taken very seriously in UK. Calling the TPS numbers are taken as a serious offence. It is one of the legal obligations in UK. The telemarketing department of the Honest Tea should know all the restrictions about the TPS customers for promoting their products via direct marketing through calls. However, the Honest Tea is having the products which cannot be sold via internet but it can be promoted by internet or via calls. For the detail media regulation the UK media law website (terramedia.co.uk) should be monitored intently by the Honest Tea employees. Opinion formers and opinion leaders: The opinion formers are very much important as far as the branding and marketing communications are concerned. The opinion formers are the trend setters or the strong personality who can mold the people according to their preferences. The opinion formers are the people for whom the brand or a product is recognized in the competitive field. The opinion formers have the direct influences among the consumers for their strong personalities. According to Dolphin (1999) for the last decade the opinion formers have played a very vital role towards the brand building process for any products. The professional communication industry has a great importance for the opinion formers as they are the hope of new trend and the market is driven by them. The communication and marketing personals of the Honest Tea should realize the importance of the opinion formers as they are the people who create the brand impression among the people in the society. The opinion formers are the people who create the brand impression among the consumers. However, the opinion formers are the people who are very much branding specific instead of the products specific. The opinion leaders are the entities which are very much important for the branding of any products. According to the Oinas-Kukkonen (2008) the opinion Leaders are very much important for any unique brands. According to the basics of the opinion leaders, it is the concept that says not all the people are equally persuasive towards a specific brand. The influencers are one of the main drivers of the branding and marketing communications. The opinion leaders have the power of changing the thought process of the others by powerful influences. According to the thought process of the opinion leadership concept there can be an involvement of an important person who can change the taste and preferences of others people in the community. These people have the extra ordinary powers to change the taste and preferences of the other individuals. The opinion leaders can be segmented in two ways and they are monomorphic and polymorphic. According to Rogers (1995) the polymorphism is the degree of opinion leadership where the individual acts as an opinion leader for the different topics where in the monomorphism the individual acts as the opinion leader for the single specific topic. The implementation of the social system is given to the polymorphic opinion leaders, as they are expert in many topics which might be helpful; for the society. The monomorphic opinion leaders are given the responsibility to create a brand out of a product as they are experts in one specific subject. Honest Tea should chose monomorphic opinion leaders to build their brand and to maintain the effective marketing communications among the consumers. The Honest Tea is the brand which has the product for everyone. It can be treated as the product for the mass. Now in these kinds of products the marketing communications are conveyed to the people with the proper branding personality. The opinion leaders are the persons who can create the good impression about the brand. For any new product from the Honest Tea should be supported by the opinion leaders. It is true that the Honest Tea has a great impression among the user for being the most honest brand. However, for the prospective new consumer the opinion leaders are very much influential. The role of research in pre-testing: Pretesting is done to check the impact of the advertising before it reaches to the viewers, it is very much important for any advertising and marketing communication department. According to Clemente (2002) the pre testing is very vital for any brand to be advertised in the corporate field in a systematic manner. The pre testing of the Advertisements before the final appearances in the media is very vital and most of the time it is must by the regulatory bodies. Honest Tea is the tae for the mass, so the advertising techniques and the communication constraints should be notified before putting the advertising in the TV or in any media. The pretesting methods are basically used to measure the impact of the advertising copy. The main focus of the pretesting is to identify the unethical way of doing any advertising. Advertising is one of the ways of doing effective marketing communication. However, there are many barriers in the advertising industry. Honest Tea is a brand which is for the mass; the advertisements should have the influences of the opinion leaders who can create a great influence over the prospective clients. The media melt down: The media industry is not bound on one specific media. The media means the whole field of putting advertisements to influence the viewers. According to Thomas and Carpenter (2001) the television media as the mass media is approaching towards the media melt down. The media is not only Television, radio and newspaper. The media melt down has given a new approach towards the new age marketing and communication. The internet is among the most important media nowadays. According to the (GIGaOm) the media melt down is very much irresistible. However, there are six ways to avoid the social media meltdown and they are one: contemplate worst cases: it is to be remembered that the Honest Tea should not do anything desperately to do branding. The organization should be calm and selective about the media. Two: Monitor overtime: the different facts are getting uploaded in the social media network every hour. The Honest Tea should be focused in the social Medias to monitor the new trends. Three: don’t panic: whatever what the situation is the company should not panic for the media problems. Four: respond strategically: the organization has to be out of its comfort zone at the time of crisis, so it can handle the situation with ease. Five: wait for the right time: some times out of the frustrations the organization gets involved with wrong media network. So, Honest Tea should be calm and patient to get the perfect time for the perfect media. Six: be respectful: the Honest Tea should be respectful to itself. It should never say anything more than what it needs. Be short and simple and should always maintain the respect. The internet accessibilities are very much important for the countries and at the same time it is very important for any brand which is for the mass. The internet has become one of the most easily accessible media by the people of the UK. According to Kung, Picard and Towse (2008) the European countries have the higher accessibilities in the interment. Germany has the accessibility of almost eighty five percent. However, the UK has the prominent internet users who can be the great online users for the specific brand like Honest Tea. The Honest Tea should remember that internet is not the sales portal for the brand it can give an opportunity to promote the brand through the proper communication process through internet. The Honest Tea as its own website and that is very much interactive and it shows all the products and the unique properties of the products. The media melt down has a great impact on the traditional media. However, for a brand like Honest Tea the media does play a big role but at the end of everything the quality talks. The brand can be put to the internet for the visual merchandising in many stores. And the best part is the value of the brand itself irrespective of the branding and other advertising techniques. The brand Honest Tea has got a great place in the mind of the consumers and the media melt down has proven its potential in a clear manner. The growth in the internet user globally has shown a great endeavor towards the new trend of the advertising and the marketing media. Predicting the future of the mass media has become a very much risky business. The cable TV works as the mass media in the UK. However, the future of the cable TV questionable/. The advancement of the information technology has given a great space to the internet for being the primary media for all kind of businesses. The changes are occurring in such a place which no one ever thought even. According to Thomas and Carpenter (2001) the development of the internet and the digitization of the television network have shown the paradigm to the media industry. It can be predicted that within few decades the merging of the Telephone, cable television and the broadcast television would take place. However, the Honest Tea would focus on the marketing communications through the effective internet options for the future growth. Honest tea has a very interactive website and at the same time it should start to send news letters to the registered users. The existing clients do get the newsletters but the new client should not be neglected because they are the future client for the brand. The Honest tea should also look for stalls and kiosk places in the corporate offices to serve the corporate customers. The corporate offices are very important place to do the effective marketing campaigns. The products should be promoted through internet; the internet has become one of the primary sources of the information among most of the people. Conclusion: The Honest Tea is a brand which has the honesty and the quality attached with it. However, the honesty cannot not be judged by branding of the product in a expert manner, the word of mouth promotions sometimes is far more effective and that is possible if and only if the product is very much high quality in nature and it has a great emotional values attached with it. The Honest Tea is definitely one of the most appreciated bottled tea in the nation and to make it more acceptable the proper marketing communication is required which is irrespective of high budget marketing communication plans. The proper plan should be customer focused and it should have a great penetration power to give a lingering effect to the customers mind. Referencing Albion Mark S. (2006). “True to yourself: leading a values-based business”. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Clemente Mark N. (2002). “The Marketing Glossary: Key Terms, Concepts and Applications”. New Jersey: clementebooks. Conley Chip and Friedenwald-Fishman Eric. (2006). “Marketing that matters: 10 practices to profit your business and change the world”. California: Berrett- Koehler Publishers. Dolphin Richard (1999). “The fundamentals of corporate communication” Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann. Kung Lucy, Picard Robert G and Towse Ruth. (2008). “The internet and the mass media”. London: SAGE. 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