Background to Media Plan of Unpackaged Grocery Retailers - Coursework Example

Background to Media Plan of Unpackaged Grocery Retailers Unpackaged Grocery Retailers is one of the grocery retailers in London, which allow the customers to purchase items free of package. They are always “encouraging the customers” (Unpackaged 2010) for a shopping that is package free. They have won several awards for their eco-consciousness, and the fact is, they still remain well-liked and accepted by the local consumers only. This generated the need for preparing a media plan for the organization, in order to reach out to more and more targeted consumers. “Media planning - is the choice of optimal channel advertising (advertising contacts), conducted in order to maximize the effectiveness of advertising campaigns” (What is a Media Plan? n.d.). Situation Analysis: About Unpackaged and its Products: Unpackaged, is an organic grocery store set up locally in North London in the year 2007. (Unpackaged: Using Less Wasteful Packaging n.d.). It makes use of the design which helps its local customers to purchase products using less wasteful packages, and thus helps them to remain more eco- friendly. Unpackaged sells environmentally friendly standard mass items such as grains, sugars, flours, spices, and the traditional grocery products like oil, milk, eggs, cheese, wine, and beer. “Unpackaged was founded in 2006 by Catherine Conway,” who recognized that it is important to work with designers to be more successful for the plan of alternative to supermarket shopping” (Unpackaged n.d.). With the aid of design agency Conway managed to develop a strong brand and certain new ways of shopping. Unpackaged began its operation “as a market stall at Exmouth Market” (Easy Tips to Being Greener (and Better off)! 2007) with Conway pointing out the type of grocery people like to buy loose and “lots of feedback from customers” (Diamond 2012) regarding the reasons behind to stay off from buying Unpackaged products. So they created a jar icon when they remain still in the small business in the market. The business still found it difficult to brand the organization as it removed the essential thing i.e. the vehicle for branding purpose: packaging. Later they designed a flyer that utilizes icons with the same ratios as the unpackaged jar to clarify how the new concept of shopping works. They moved from the stall into the retail shop in the market, and more versions of the icons in gold foil were put on the door, so that everybody who comes into the shop can effortlessly make out how it will work. The movement of Unpackaged into a shop, intended for a new style of shopping, proved to be popular in the market. “The mantra of Unpackaged is: Reduce by only buying what you need, Reuse by bringing your containers for a refill, Recycle what you can’t reuse. And… if you can’t reuse or recycle it then don’t buy it!” (Unpackaged Shopping without Packaging 2012). About the Market: The grocery market in UK has been growing steadily. Exhibit 1: UK grocery market performance “There are 92,796 grocery stores in the UK” (UK Grocery Retailing 2004) which can be divided into four different sectors such as traditional retail, convenience store, superstore and supermarkets, hypermarket, and online channel. (Li 2008). The grocery market of London has developed a lot. In the last few years, however, the London grocery market has faced uncertainties like, high unemployment, financial crisis, and tough household budget to a greater extent. Even though the London market for grocery could not get rid of the effects of those uncertainties entirely, it has attained still a reasonable rate of growth. The biggest chain in London is Tesco, Asda, Morrison, and Sainsbury, and they have gained a market share of about 71% of the grocery market. “Tesco remains the top player in grocery retailing the UK,” (Grocery Retailers in the United Kingdom 2012) and it was set up in London. For the last 25 years Tesco has remained as a market leader in the grocery market in UK with a market share of 28%. Sainsbury has a market share of 14.30% and remains in the third position in the UK grocery market itself. Its market position is strong in London and in the South East part of UK. The market share of Asda is 15.2%, and Morrrison is with 10.4%. The market share of Unpackaged remains too low, when compared to other grocery retailers. Target Audience: The market segmentation of the Unpackaged is done on the basis of lifestyles and income. The target audience of Unpackaged consists of one person household under state and over state pension age, family household, pensioners, duo family households, single parent households with dependent children and non-dependent children. The spending habit and the consumption pattern of each and every consumer of Unpackaged may vary according to their personal traits. The knowledge of consumers also influences a lot. But the geographical coverage of the targeted audiences is confined to the local area. So the sales of the products remained among those people. All the items purchased by consumers from grocery stores are packaged. This leaves “no choice” (Silverstein 2011) for the consumers, but to carry on purchasing packaged items that are not recyclable or reusable all the time. The Unpackaged retail store aims to endorse health and lessen waste by ditching packaged and processed food, and thus revolutionizing the shopping of grocery items. The company doubts whether the consumers will accept this revolution, as they are used to convenient shopping. The retailer still hopes that the customers will become a part of this food revolution, as they can do shopping by refilling the essentials by themselves. Media Analysis: The total media budget for the unpackaged retail grocery store set aside is £10,000. The media plan is prepared for three months- April, May, and June. The advertisement cost in TV per second is £85. The cost for the hoardings depends on its size. The sizes available for hoardings are 10x20, 20x20 and 30x20. The allocation of budget (in percentage) is 48% for April, 31% May, and 21% June. Marketing Objectives of Unpackaged: 1. To increase the awareness of retail brand concept of the Unpackaged within significant audiences in London. 2. To encourage brand awareness in inexperienced consumers, regarding the use and visit of Unpackaged. “Marketing objectives define what you want to accomplish through your marketing activities” (What is Marketing? n.d.). Media Objective: The media objective is to increase the awareness of the brand of Unpackaged among more number of customers and to reach and convert the inexperienced customers as the users and visitors of the stores. The total percentage of the inexperienced customers of the retail shop constitutes 59% of the total customers. The reach targets for the first month that is April is 42326. The reach for next two months, (May and June) is 27336 and 18518 respectively. “Reach is simply the percentage of persons in a target population that is exposed to an advertising schedule at least once” (Understanding Reach and Frequency n.d.). The frequency rate at which each household receives the messages is expected as; for April 2.1, for May 3.2, and for June 4.7. Frequency is the number of times an advertisement touch upon each consumer with the message. (Chance 1999). GRP means gross rating point. It is defined as "The sum of all ratings delivered by a medium" (Taylor 2009). Budget Analysis: The budget for the month of April is £4800, i.e 48% of the total budget. The total cost for placing hoardings is assumed to be £705 and that for TV ad is 4095. The budget allocated for the month of May is £3100, and the cost for placing hoardings is assumed £500, and that for TV ad is 2600. The budget allocated for the month of June is £2100, and the cost for placing hoardings is assumed to be £450 and that for TV ad is 1650. Unpackaged is expected to reach the target at an increasing frequency within the budget and within the span of time. Media Strategies: The Unpackaged tries to reach out to the targeted customers by way of advertisement in Television, and by way of placing hoardings in the main towns. The main towns include: Amwell Street, and Lloyd Baker Street, Mylne Street, Claremont Square. On the first month the 10x20 and 30x20 sized hoardings will be placed in Amwell Street. In the second month of May 30x20 size hoardings will again be placed, and in third month the size may be reduced to 20x20. This is because more the size of hoardings the more the chances to gain the attention of the customers. The size will be reduced in the third month and the replacement of the size is in accordance with the changes in the messages form, and creativity of the ad. The maximum utilization of the hoardings helps to reach out to the target groups more effectively, as it reaches to the wide group of customers either way whether the people wish to see it or not. It is not possible for the people to "switch it off" or "throw it out" (Outdoor Advertising Advantages 2009). In this context, hoardings or outdoor advertising will always “capture the attention” (The Most Effective and Remembered Form of Outdoor Advertising n.d.) of the customers who are targeted. Its messages will work on the “advertising principle” (Bruneau, n.d., p. 14) which is none other than frequency. Most of the advertising messages remain for a period of one or more month in the same place. People who walk or drive through the same place will see the advertisement and messages several times. Media strategy is defined as “A plan of action by an advertiser for bringing advertising messages to the attention of consumers through the use of appropriate media” (Lake 2012). The broadcast scheduling will be done on a pulsing basis. Pulsing means a pattern “in which equal amounts of spending are allocated to all time periods of the schedule” (Media Strategies - Flighting, Pulsing or Continuous n.d.). The advertisement is shown on continuous but on an alternate periods. The advertisement in TV is shown in seven channels namely; Comedy central, I TV1, ITV2, I TV3, ITV4, Sky living and Challenge. The time scheduled for the ad is between 11 a.m and 4 p.m. The timing of the ad telecast is on the basis of the popularity of the program, among the targeted customer group. Media Buying: For Unpackaged to reach out more to the target customers, the best alternative is outdoor advertising, as they reach more to the target groups. “Media buying refers to buying time and space in the various selected media” (Media Buying Process 2010). They can also use the TV advertising on an alternate period basis. After attaining the target the store can go for other medium of advertisement to capture more shares in the market. “A media buyer is any advertiser, advertising manager, or individual who buys the commercial time or the advertising space” (Media Buyer 2012). Reference List Bruneau, EA n.d. Advertising. U.S. Small Business Administration. 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