Exhibition Planning for Ocean Spray Product Re-Launch - Case Study Example

Marketing Events Plan for Ocean Spray December 4, I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ocean Spray is set to embark in another marketing milestone. After decades of being a market leader, both in the US and in the UK market, it is ready to shift gears and introduce to the market another innovation in cranberry production and distribution. Part of this innovation strategy is its plan to widen market presence by tapping other nontraditional marketing channels to get its marketing message across a captive market. An example of this is by joining trade events and exhibits, such as the Taste of Christmas in London, to be able to reach potential clients on a personal level. However, it will take the management team various processes to come up with an effective marketing event strategy. From market and situational analysis, to planning, execution and even up to event evaluation, the marketing communications team has to pay attention to every detail, be conscious of market and competitor trends to be able to position the improved category accordingly. Taste of Christmas in one of the channels that management is tapping to assist them into achieving their business and corporate objectives. Ocean Spray’s participation in this popular event is seen as a milestone and a major stepping stone towards further market advantage. II. INTRODUCTION Ocean Spray’s monumental re-launch of its cranberry sauce line is all set to happen this December. Having completed its Product Development in the third quarter of this year, and its complete production this November, the company is ready to introduce to the market its improved product line – the all new Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce in the new Orbit™ Easy open lid. Part of its Marketing Communications Plan is a massive and country wide re launch implementation that will encompass both above the line and below the line marketing efforts. Kicking off with the tri-media ad placements simultaneously released in December 1, the Marketing Communications team will stage a series of exhibits and events sponsorships the whole of December, in time for the holidays. The aim is to sustain the tri media ad placements and continue building up market interest in this product innovation. The biggest anticipated event is Ocean Spray’s participation in the Taste of Christmas London Exhibition, an annual event showcasing the city’s best culinary offerings. With the target market captured in a perfect setting, where food sampling often leads to repeat product purchase and loyalty, Ocean Spray’s management is optimistic on catching up on their year-end targets during and after this three-day event. This Marketing and Events plan seeks to outline the company’s event objectives by providing an analysis of the previous marketing and sales for this particular product line. It further aims to illustrate the execution plan through a discussion of the processes entailed to possibly reach the given objectives. III. ANALYSIS The plan to participate in the city’s biggest annual food festival is in synchrony with the company’s 5-year marketing and business objectives, which is to push Ocean Spray’s Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce as the leading product in the UK under its category. The Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce was introduced in the UK in the 70s and has since become a popular brand, often associated with roast Turkey. The company welcomed the 90s with the vision of further market international expansion, therefore exerting more marketing efforts overseas, including the UK (Ocean Spray 2011). For over a decade now, it has become the leading cranberry sauce brand, ahead of the locally produced Schwartz Cranberry Sauce (Schwartz 2011) and other imported cranberry sauce brands, Canada’s Port Cranberry and Australia’s Wood’s Cranberry Sauce. Distributed by Ocean Spray International Services (UK) Ltd., it estimates annual sales of $ 3,199, 473 (Ocean Spray International Services UK Ltd 2011). However, in 2010, there was a noteworthy decline in company sales in the UK, which resulted to a decision to do a massive advertising and promotional campaign to sustain the brand (Ocean Spray Turns to Ads after a fall in Market Share 2011). This decline put immense pressure to the Product Development Team to find ways to innovate and improve the product lines, thus the current development status. IV. OBJECTIVES 1. Increase category sales by 30% in 2012, to restore its loss in 2010 and 2011. 2. Distribute the product in 100 more retail outlets all over the region. 3. Increase product patronage among age groups 20s to mid 30s, which is usually not the target market group of this category. V. THE PLANNING PROCESS Below are the processes that the Marketing Communications Team have undertaken to come up with the implementation plan: 1. Analysis of Exhibition Project Knowing what to do, where to do it and how is basically one of the first things that the planning committee should be able to identify. Now that the business and marketing goals have been identified, we start looking into the opportunities that would allow the team to work towards achieving their objectives (Planning a Successful Exhibition 2011). Having a set of prospective exhibition events, going through the process of evaluation and elimination until finally identifying the right venue are three of the first decision making processes that the committee has to make. Exhibition events are basically aimed at sharing ones products to a wider community (Guide to a Successful Exhibition Planning 2011) Taste of Christmas is an annual food festival in London, showcasing the newest recipes and trends in the food business. Being conducted at the onset of the Christmas season, people flock in to get Christmas ideas and simply enjoy the culinary shows and the food and wine sampling. Moreover, for the cooking enthusiasts, this is a time to interact with renowned chefs from the local scene. Taste of Christmas is where local restaurants sample their recipes and get to interact with their target market through activities such as cooking demonstrations, cooking contests and product sampling. This is also a venue where these food stores launch their newest offerings, taking advantage of the swarm of people and the presence of all kinds of competitors. For those in the food business, this is one of the best opportunities to captivate the target market. Ultimately, exhibitors participate in the exhibit with one ultimate goal in mind, which is to sell their products. Given that product development wrapped up in time for the Christmas season, joining this food festival in London is a surefire marketing strategy for the company. Marketing budgets have already been prepared and approved, and upon further evaluation, the costs for joining such exhibit are aligned with the marketing plan. 2. Inventory Inventory not only means the availability of products and goods to be sold during the exhibit period. It also means the availability of materials, paraphernalia and marketing support materials that the whole team would need to sustain the effort. It would defeat the purpose of the whole exhibit if the team runs out of good to sell, or the marketing and operations support that it needs to aid the exhibit. Management ensured that the sales and operations team would have sufficient inventory of Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce packaged in the new Orbit™ Easy open lid. Since we have to take into consideration the shelf life and the expiry dates of the product, products on hand are on a rolling inventory of up to four months, or up to the end of the first quarter of 2012. Product replenishment is handled by the production team, with a 10% increase in the month end turn over to anticipate increase in sales and productivity. To support the exhibit itself, additional inventory was allocated to cater to product sampling and promotions. During the three-day event, the Ocean Spray booth will showcase the Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce category by product sampling, as applied to various recipes, most popular of which is the roast turkey. With approximately 20,000 attendees flocking the venue over the three day exhibit period, and with numerous recipe combinations to use the Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce, there should be a sufficient amount of sampling products on hand. Other considerations in inventory include the availability of ingredients for the cookfest segment to be conducted by Ocean Spray. Local chefs shall be invited to showcase the applicability of the Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce in various recipes, and therefore, much support is needed to supply the needed ingredients and paraphernalia. The marketing team shall initiate tie ups with suppliers to ensure inventory availability. On top of this, the exhibit supplier will also be tasked to ensure availability of the facilities and panels, to guarantee safety and efficiency particularly during cooking exhibits, and to the event as a whole. Particular attention is being given to insurance and facility management partners so that the marketing exhibit will run smoothly, and the implementation team can focus on achieving their marketing and sales objectives, and not worry about anything else. 3. Preparation One month’s worth of preparation seems to be too tight a timeline for the exhibit event, but with the Taste of Christmas organizers on top of the whole management, the Ocean Spray marketing team found it easy to put the pieces together. Evidently, Ocean Spray’s goal is to push the Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce category into market leadership. As a result, this enhanced category has been recreated to cater to the market’s discriminating taste. The new product line assures the market of a better tasting product line. The strategy is quite transparent: the company added value to the product by revitalizing the quality. The Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce category now has 50% more cranberries and are now stored in its signature Orbit TM Easy Open Lid. Loud and clear, the message for the target market is ‘value for quality’. 4. Concept Development To effectively relay this message to the target market, Ocean Spray’s exhibit shall endeavor to show to the target market the many ways by which a client can enjoy and maximize this product line in their quest for good food. Prior to the exhibit, Ocean Spray has partnered with local Culinary Schools for an inter school competition that best depicts the product line in all new unique recipes. In doing so, Ocean Spray partnered with media partners and kitchen suppliers to minimize the costs. The recipes that won first to tenth prize are the ones to be brought into exhibition, with the support of participating schools. This is cost efficient marketing through simple tie up. Concept Development is essential for the management and implementation team to effectively visualize the whole event (Event Management 2011). Ocean Spray cannot just go the Taste of Christmas event and sell. First and foremost, it has to adhere to the basic every concept, which in this case, is Christmas. From there, sub activities and concepts shall be developed and designed to meet particular objectives. Ocean Spray Management has already established the reason for staging the event, which is essentially the basic prerequisite to concept development (Developing an Event Concept 2011). Realization Next process to consider is the actual execution of the plan and event concept. It’s time to put the plans into action. This is also what is to be the realization of the concept. Supplier partnerships, event reservations, contract signing and other essentials such as insurance are processed during this stage. This is also when Logistics Planning happens, such that all the necessary coordination with organizers and event suppliers are finalized. Exhibits can be a logistical nightmare if not much attention is given to delivery and maintenance assignments. Ingres and egress are two top most considerations. By the time the exhibit starts, everything should already be in place. And this only happens if proper assignment has been given to exhibit facility and furniture suppliers. Delivery and setup instructions must be in order. The implementation team is in charge of ensuring that all items are in place before the exhibit is opened. 5. Evaluation After the three day event comes the evaluation period. Management evaluates objectives on its short term and long term effects. Prior to the event, a sales target has been set form the exhibit team, and the rest of the Wholeberry and Smooth Cranberry Sauce distribution team. These quantitative objectives are the easiest to evaluate. Management can already assess sales upon closing of the event (20 Tools to Measure Event Marketing 2011). This is more of date gathering from the various sales channels. Evaluating your marketing program will provide you long term guidance for future endeavors (Marketing and Sales Info 2011). It does not only allow you to see where your budget allocation actually went, but more importantly, it allows you to have a clearer vision of the future. Ocean Spray’s evaluation of the planned exhibition will enable us to identify strengths and weakness, and use these towards a more effective marketing program in the future. VI. CONCLUSION Event Management is an important facet of any business. This is perhaps the most effective below-the-line medium which businesses may utilize to implement promotions, interact with the target market and conduct direct selling (What is Events Management 2011). Planning ones participation in a renowned event such as Taste of Christmas is about understanding what needs to be achieved as a company, and as a brand (Planning 2011). Ocean Spray, in this regard, has a clear vision of what is wants to achieve, thus taking this opportunity to join a prestigious event. Event planning is more that meets the eye. Logistics planning can be a horror. Prior to implementation, solid relationships must be built with suppliers and partners to ensure exhibit success. VII. RECOMMENDATION It is in this regard that the author recommends that Ocean Spray Management maximizes the opportunity to market and sell the newly innovated category in this annual grand food exhibit, and adhere to the event marketing planning process to ensure high level of performance and definite achievement of the corporate objectives. Reference List 20 Tools to Measure Event Marketing. Event Manager Blog. December 5, 2011 from http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/marketing/measure HelloTrade.com. December 5, 2011 from http://www.hellotrade.com/aimia-foods/cranberry-sauce.html Developing an Event Concept. Visionary Events. December 5, 2011 from http://www.visionaryevents.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:eevntarticle&catid=37:visionary-articles&Itemid=101 Event Management. December 5, 2011 form http://www.cbonline.org.au/resources/resources/219_79.pdf Guide to a Successful Exhibition Planning. Approvedindex.co.uk. December 5, 2011 from http://www.approvedindex.co.uk/a/eventmanagement/guide-to-successful-exhibition-planning/ Marketing and Sales Info. Business Knowledge Source.Com. December 5, 2011 from http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/marketing/importance_of_evaluating_your_marketing_plan_026252.html Ocean Spray. December 4, 2011 from http://www.oceanspray.co.uk/heritage Ocean Spray’s Creative Juices. Bloomberg Business Week. December 5, 2011 from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_20/b3984097.htm Ocean Spray International Services (UK) Ltd., Manta. December 4, 2011 from http://www.manta.com/ic/mvmtv9z/gb/ocean-spray-international-services-u-k-ltd Ocean Spray Turns to Ads after a fall in Market Share. Marketing. December 4, 2011 from http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/985669/Ocean-Spray-turns-ads-fall-market-share/ Planning a Successful Exhibition. Second Opinion Marketing. December 5, 2011 from http://www.secondopinionmarketing.co.uk/articles/communicationandpromotions/exhibition.aspx Schwartz for Chef. December 4, 2011 from http://www.schwartzforchef.co.uk/Brands/Schwartz-for-Chef/Accompaniment-Sauces/Cranberry-Sauce.aspx What is Events Management. About.com. December 5, 2011 from http://eventplanning.about.com/od/eventindustrytermsae/g/What-Is-Events-Management.htm Planning. Marketingesp. December 5, 2011 from http://www.marketingesp.co.uk/planning.aspx Read More