Integrated Promotional Strategy: Pepsi Max - Report Example

Integrated Promotional Strategy: Pepsi Max Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 2 Campaign Objectives 3 Target Brand: Pepsi Max 3 a) The market: 4 b) Competitors 4 c) Market performance 4 d). Target customers 5 2. Promotional Campaign budgeting 5 a) Television: 5 b) Radio: 5 c) Print: 6 c) Online: 6 3. Integrated promotional tactics 7 a)Message Design 7 b) Communication Process 7 Campaign tools 7 a) Television: 7 b) Radio: 8 c) Billboards and banners 8 d) Online: 8 e) Print: 9 3. Evaluation 9 Conclusion 10 Reference List 10 Introduction The integrated promotional strategy is developed for the promotion of PepsiCo’s new drink called Pepsi Max. The plan is targeted at informing and communicating the aspects of the new drink to males aged between 16 and 29 years old (AdWeek 2015). A fundamental objective, however, is to attain PepsiCo’s increased profitability. This integrated promotional plan is mission-oriented, as well as market-driven. The plan lays out a structured tactical approach that integrate media and marketing in order to pass promotional message to the targeted customers and to build brand identity (Ghodeswar, 2008). Campaign Objectives In particular, PepsiCo’s integrated promotional campaign has three levels of objectives: marketing, communication, and organisational objectives. The three promotional objectives also are consistent with PepsiCo’s core organisational objectives. The marketing objectives adequately influencing the target customers to buy from Pepsi Max and to promote Pepsi Max voluntarily The communications objectives include effectively integrating communicating the Pepsi Max products to the target customers. The organisational objective entails the revenue and profit maximisation by increasing the sale and revenues. Target Brand: Pepsi Max PepsiCo is a beverage company based in Australia. It needs to capitalise on its formidable position in the Australia’s food and beverages industry in a bid to increase its revenue base through the sale of its new soft drink called Pepsi Max (Deichert et al. 2006; PepsiCo 2015). a) The market: At present, a majority of Pepsi Max consumers are drawn from Australia and New Zealand, with a greater proportion being the major Australian cities. While the company has achieved its objective of appealing to the customers in major Australian cities, the rural and remote regions in Australia have not been sufficiently targeted with the product. Hence, the company will need to take this idle market into perspective (Berch et al. 2014). Pepsi Max is yet to achieve an international appeal that obviously offers a potential for rock solid financial growth. This shows that while PepsiCo operates in a thriving market, it still needs to focus more on international customers, such as in New Zealand and the larger Australasia. At any rate, current estimates show that PepsiCo operates in a thriving market that provides much potential for growth through 2020 (PepsiCo 2015). b) Competitors Currently, PepsiCo is a leading macro snack product operating in Australia. Its key competitors include Solo, Passiona, Schweppes, and Coca-Cola. Each of the four competitors has brands in similar soft drink market niche (PepsiCo 2015). The new brand diversifies PepsiCo’s offering and Australia’s food and beverage industry (Deichert et al. 2006). However, none of PepsiCo’s worthy competitors currently runs an integrated promotional strategy. PepsiCo’s should take advantage of this to promote its new offering in order to strengthen its footing in the industry. c) Market performance Pepsi Max has performed poorly since its launch in 2012 (Isapien 2012). PepsiCo’s annual report for 2014 indicates that its ineffective marketing strategies have affected its sales revenues. This is also linked to the major changes in the food and beverage industry globally, where the industry has witnessed significant transformation due to the adoption of online retailing and use of discount channels (Deichert et al 2006). Indeed, this has affected the company’s competitiveness and sales output prompting a need to have an effective marketing strategy. According to its annual report for 2012, the company reported a decrease in profit by 5% because of higher costs of commodity and costly yet non-rewarding advertising (Isapien 2012). d). Target customers Primary: The end consumers targeted include young men between 16 and 29 years old males who are virile and sexually active and, therefore, love the macho-man looks (AdWeek 2015). Hence, this plan is intended for the end consumers, who are mostly males. 2. Promotional Campaign budgeting A budget of £1,130,335 is suggested for the integrated promotional campaign. The budget is applied for each communications objective. The budget will be divided among the three objectives: organisation, communication, and marketing (Kotler 2003). Overall, the campaign will use television, radio, internet, billboards, print and packaging. a) Television: The television will run for 30 seconds. 15 channels will be used all costing a total of £107,850 (Seee Table 1). b) Radio: Radio ads running for 30 seconds will be used. Ten radio broadcast stations will be used all costing a total of £62,045. c) Print: Print media, including billboards, banners and newspapers will all costs a sum of £$124,640. c) Online: Online ads, including building websites, web banners and social media platforms will all cost £124,640. In-the-game ads will cost £100,000. Table 1: Pepsi Max promotion campaign budget 3. Integrated promotional tactics a) Message Design Since the end-consumers of Pepsi Max soft drink generally have low-involvement decision-making while selecting a product range in the soft drinks category, a simple yet effective message is framed to catch their attention (Belch & Belch 2003). The proposed message is “give your imagination energy.” The campaign will inform the target consumers that the drink stimulates their vigour and virility. To this end, the message tagline framed is “give your imagination energy.” b) Communication Process Information: Based on the idea of “give your imagination energy” by consuming Pepsi Max, the information of the integrated promotional strategy would be ‘macho man,’ by informing the young men transitioning themselves into real mean can enhance the process by drinking Pepsi Max. Persuasion: the young men will be persuaded to consume the drink if they have to be vigorous, virile and powerful, or if they want to be a macho man, they have to consume the drink. To this end, the American pop song called “Macho Man,” by Village People will be used in the advertisements. Campaign tools a) Television: The principle form of advertising will be through the television. Since the campaign is expected to run for a short time, approximately three months, television as an advertising format will be the most efficient means of passing the message of ‘macho man; to the target audience. The television will run 30-second ads of the different personality traits targeted, and how they would be more virile, powerful, and vigour once they consume the drink. Fifteen channels will be targeted costing £107,850. b) Radio: Radio will be used to target the targeted consumers who are likely to be fond of driving or just listening to the radio. A thirty-second radio ad will be run that passes the message of a macho man. Ten radio broadcast stations will be targeted costing £62,045 c) Billboards and banners Billboards and banners will be used to promote Pepsi Max on the highways towards sports grounds, sports centres and other strategic places frequented by the targeted consumers. Banners will also be used to promote a motoring event to be organized by PepsiCO. The motoring platform is another perfect opportunity to use a food van particularly selling both products to identify the collaboration of the two brands, and how they effectively work together to drive awareness, as well as customers. d) Online: The social media, PepsiCo’s corporate website and strategic websites mostly used by the people with different personality traits targeted, in Australia, New Zealand as well as internationally. Facebook and YouTube will be used. They will contain an uploaded video with ads on macho man. Facebook page will be created specifically for Pepsi Max to enable two-way communication with online users. Instagram and Twitter will also be used. Additionally, web banners will be placed on strategic websites, such as soccer websites. In the game, ads will be run online. Online ads will cost £124,640. In the game, ads will cost £100,000. e) Print: Newspaper ads that show photos of different characters with the different personality traits targeted while holding PepsiMax will be showed, with the tag line “give your imagination energy.” Print ads will cost £124,640. Pepsi Max will also be packaged in product packages that show photos of the macho man. A tagline “give your imagination energy,” will also be used to link the products to the message. Packaging designs will cost £100,000. 3. Evaluation Direct customer response: At the end of three months, the company will run a consumer survey to inquire from the target consumers their experience with Pepsi Max as well as how they got the message. Similarly, a survey will be undertaken on social media platforms, such as Facebook, to inquire how the users of the social media got the message of the drink. The survey will also get the response from the social media users on the marketing tactics used. The generated data will be examined to establish what marketing tactics effectively reach out to the target consumers. Sales revenue: Monitoring of revenues will allow for tracking increase in sales, relative to the increased number of customer. Still, the evaluation will be done at the end of three years. Increased sales revenue will imply that the marketing tactics used are indeed effective. When it comes to return on investment (ROI), the generated revenues will be monitored continually to establish whether the types of integrated marketing tactics tools used rationalize their costs. Website review: The micro-site developed and specifically targeted for the international and remotely positioned consumers will have a customer review section. The reviews placed by online users will be monitored to establish any rise in the number of positive customers’ reviews. Higher aggregate of reviews that are more engages will signal the marketing tactics are effective. Conclusion The plan is targeted at informing and communicating the aspects of the new drink to males aged between 16 and 29 years old. The fundamental objective, however, is to attain PepsiCo’s increased profitability and increased sales output from Pepsi Max. A budget of £1,130,335 is suggested for the integrated promotional campaign. The budget will be divided among the three objectives of the promotional campaign: organisation, communication, and marketing. Overall, the marketing tools suggested for use include television, radio, internet, billboards, print and packaging. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated promotional strategies, return on investment (ROI), website review, sales conversion rates, direct responses, and sales revenue will be largely relied on. Reference List AdWeek 2015, Pepsi goes to the max in Australia By Penny Warnefor, viewed 19 Mar 2015, Belch, G & Belch, M 2003, Advertising and Promotion, McGraw-Hill, New York Berch, K, Montoya, K & Sawayda, J 2014, “PepsiCo’s Journey PepsiCo’s Journey towards an ethical and Social responsible culture,” Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative. Viewed 19 Mar 2015, < http://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu/pdf/PepsiCo%20Case.pdf> Deichert, M, Ellenbecker, M & Klehr, E 2006, Industry Analysis: Soft Drinks, viewed 19 Mar 2014, Ghodeswar, B 2008, "Building brand identity in competitive markets: a conceptual model," Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol 17 no 1, pp.4–12 Isapien 2012, Pepsi Max Kick product launch, viewed 19 Mar 2015, Kotler, P 2003, Marketing Management, Prentice Hall, New Jersey PepsiCo 2015, Our History, viewed 19 Mar 2015, Read More