Marketing Communications for Patagonia Town Council's Project on Recycling Water for Drinking - Example

Name Professor’s Name Course Date EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This account offers a, thorough integrated, marketing communications plan designed for Catagonia town council, which is undertaking a project on recycling water for drinking. Based upon background investigation on Catagonia town alongside prevailing water situation, it has been found that Catagonia has a vast potential to amplify its water supply to its residents annually; this is by shifting to expanding recycling water for drinking. Further, the expansion can be undertaken while still adhering to Patagonia’s corporate mission of conducting business while also supporting the environment. The plan is projected to augment the awareness of the advantages of using recycled water for drinking and eventually dispel the perception that recycled water is not safe for drinking. The plan includes background information, target audience analysis, and creative strategy sections. IMC objectives are also analyzed. In this plan, advertising, event sponsorships, and internet marketing will be explored and illustrated. Additionally, a media plan and means of appraisal for the accomplishment of the IMC are explained. The Catagonia town council conceived it as an idea in 2005 and turned into a reality in 2009. The idea was a creation of Victor James and Peter Sechelt, two students from the University of Catagonia after being concerned that the town is running out of sustainable water supply. They developed a proposal that they forwarded to the council for a design to obtain water from recycling and supply it to the town residents for drinking. Three years after the piloting the project, the town council of Catagonia has experienced mixed reactions. Some accepted the water, but others had apprehensions that drinking the water caused health problems. The town council, therefore, has initiated steps forward and embarked on investing in advertising and promotion. The council’s goal is to generate awareness. This will be realized by fashioning an integrated advertising drive, as it will lead to a strong market presence and acceptance alongside a new target group yet to be reached. Table of Contents Name 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 Table of Contents 3 BACK GROUND (INTRODUCTION) 4 TARGET AUDIENCE 5 Target Markets 5 Target Group I (The Industry). 6 Target Group II (Research Community). 6 Target Group III (Government). 7 Target Group IV (Community). 7 COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES 8 CREATIVE STRATEGIES 10 MEDIA PLAN 13 CONCLUSION 17 Works Cited 18 BACK GROUND (INTRODUCTION) Throughout the world, the water and wastewater businesses are rising rapidly. Recycling of water is a major measure being employed more and more to diminish the demand for drinkable water. Recycled water’ refers to the yield or the product from wastewater, storm water or sewage that is has been taken through treatment to some degree, and transmitted back into a water usage system (Jong & Wegelin 5). This demand satisfaction is being attained by the supply of recycled water as an alternative. Realizing prospective advantages of water recycling and water preservation are acknowledged as two of the utmost tests of this era (Hussey & Dovers 22). In the Catagonian milieu, demands on water services and provisions are anticipated to step up. Annually, on average, each Catagonian spends a minimum of 1 million liters of fresh water. Parallel with this increase in water exploitation is the drift towards water recycling seeing as undrinkable water recycling is now a more and more received practice. It is now acknowledged that re-use water is a precious supply that can be exploited by put into practice maintainable projects. Such projects can free up drinkable water provisions and refresh systems whilst improving the conservation of civic health and the atmosphere. The process of water recycling apes the natural water cycle by utilizing water repeatedly again. However, recycling schemes diverge from their natural equivalent by involving cautious deliberation of procedural, health, and social aspects when preparing, growing, regulating, and running the plants (Freebairn and Quiggin). Sustainable reuse procedures can be tenable through educated industry, high-quality integrated administration and water treatment methods with duly strict norms and practices. These are attained through systematically based value assurance and the application of best practices that integrate ecological standards to guarantee the upholding of the end user confidence. Due to various pressures, the exploit of water resources in Catagonia is fast draw near the limits of sustainability. With Catagonia’s fresh water demands doubling-up after every two centuries, the need for a dependable supply of hygienic and potable water to future success is a major concern for the town. Annual overheads on the town’s water supply and sewage cure is a considerable fraction of Catagonian fiscal overheads. Even though, Catagonia’s water provision and sewage treatment network are well in place, these structures are necessarily being grown to satisfy the requirements of industrialization and urbanization. The major obstacles to recycling of water in Catagonia are concerns of public confidence, healthiness, the ecosystem, consistent treatment, storage space, finances, the need of applicable law, and the need of knowledge. TARGET AUDIENCE Catagonia’s council has a distinctive corporate mission. The council aims at using commerce to encourage and execute answers to the ecological predicament. The target consumer markets of Catagonia council are many; everybody uses water for very many and different reasons. However, most of the Catagonia target consumers are dedicated to ecological, moral or ethical, and idealistic ideals. Target Markets The target market is made up of four foremost groupings: Target Group I, which is made up of the Industries in the town. Target Group II, which is constituted by the Research Community Target Group III, which comprises of the Government Target Group IV, which is made up of the general Community This approach to the target population recognizes the overlapping possibilities for the target markets. Target Group I (The Industry). The target group I, comprised of industries is further subdivided into Primary and Secondary target groups. The primary target in the target group I, includes Industry grouping (in town), for example, Catagonia’s Prawn Farmers union, Catagonia Tasmanian Growers society, Catagonia Aquaculture Trade Association among others. The primary group also includes Aquaculture committees, (the town’s aquaculture societies), the farming sectors Communications groups and companies, for example, Agriculture, Intra-Farmer, Fish culturing, Aquaculturists, and ecological norms administrators. The Secondary target group in Target Group I comprises of farmers who are in quest of expanding prospects, the farming industry middle men and the supply chain affiliates (after yield, retail) and Small and medium enterprises support bureaus such as Catagonia Industry group. Target Group II (Research Community). The target group I, comprised of Research Communities in Catagonia Town. This target group is also sub-divided into Primary and Secondary target groups. The primary target groups in Target Group II includes the Catagonia salt Aqua-culture Research Centers (which includes CSW, MLD, GA, ZA), ISA Project administrators, relations workforce in research provider institutes, the Fisheries Research and Advancement firm, CSW Fisheries development supervisor. On the other hand, secondary target groups consist of CSILO, Aqua fin CRCs, AIMS. Institutions of Higher Learning and other TAFEs educational centers and the water culture scholars. Target Group III (Government). The third group is made up of national, state, and local government departments and political agents with a curiosity to study in aquaculture and issues regarding saltiness. The target group is only made up of the Primary group. It includes the town’s branch of the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, which serves the region, and the branch of the Ministry of Fisheries, Forestry, and Conservation, which also serves the town and its environs. It also includes the states government members whose tasks are related to agriculture and water in any other way, the subdivision of Environment and Heritage, Catagonia Basin Commission, the states branch of primary industry and fisheries, the state subdivisions of environment and local services, for example, water authorities and the chamber of commerce. The primary subdivision of the target group three also includes local regulators, financiers or funds providers and the local division of the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water. Target Group IV (Community). The last group targeted is the community, which has been labeled the target group IV. This group is also only made up of Primary targets. This group is made up of several groups and individual members of the society in the town. These include school institutions (which include primary as well as high school), the media institutions (which include ecology concerned media houses, farming media, fishing media and the general media in the town), and native communities. This group also includes the local communities in zones affected by circulation deficits and members of the town community who are directly interested in water conservation and ecological sustainability. COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES After identifying the target audience, it is importance to center on the communication objectives. It has been revealed that consumers react in terms of a chain command of effects, which is the series of phases a potential consumer experiences from early awareness of the product to the final action. Chain Command of effects i. Awareness: just like with any fresh, distinctive product being introduced into the market, generating awareness is critical for any product or new service success. Generating an awareness of 60% in the target group is the initial step. ii. Interest: Following awareness is interest. At this phase, the potential consumers start to have a yearning for the product or service. Out of the 60% in the target group who are aware of the product, it is anticipated that 40% will develop interest in using or supporting the use of recycled water in the town. iii. Evaluation: From the 40% of who are interested in the usage of recycled water in the town, we anticipate that they will evaluate, that is, compare the use of recycled water for drinking and natural source water that is available, and for the recycled water to make their list of probable choices more than 30% of the time. iv. Trial: Trial is the critical purchase phase. After evaluating the use of recycled water for drinking, consumers are projected to choose the option over other sources of water more than 20% of the time due to the environmental benefits and the risk of depleting other sources. v. Adoption: as consumers use recycled water in their homes, places of work and organizations, they will be able to experience the use of recycled water for drinking in a real-use setting. This should help them dispel any reservations, such as health problem risks, they may be having about using this recycled water. Should they use the water and not have a positive experience, he, she, or the organization will not adopt the switch. This possibly will hurt prospect adaptations with bad word-of-mouth promotion. We plan to build an adoption rate of 75%. While not all target group residents will adopt the use of recycled water for drinking in the end, they may use it for other domestic and farm activities, which will take the pressure off from the town’s natural resources, are under. This will bring about beneficial side effects of using the recycled water. CREATIVE STRATEGIES The Industry, organizations (government or private) have been considered as a target group with the intent of communicating programs advantages to promote investment in and use of recycled water for drinking. They will be informed of the technology that will be used to recycle the water. Thus, potential consumers can comprehend in a better way, the process, and the requirements for them to make use and invest in the project. The research community is targeted to make possible the exchange of data and information concerning the project and the wider scholarly community. This will make sure that project leaders are conscious of progress in other projects and promote additional study and awareness in this field. The research community is projected to be the major resource of information and data from which to support communication resources. Government stakeholders, who include politicians and leaders of dependable repute, will be expected to make sure they are alert of progress with the scheme. This cluster includes regulatory institutes and funding groups to which communication on project result is critical. The community stakeholder target-population is inclusive of a string of networks with whom we intend to correspond with in the project. Ecological sustainability in water use can be communicated to educational bodies for instance primary and high schools. Additionally, the media is a sub-set, and it is central in communicating advantages of using recycled water for drinking and dispelling the myths that surround the same, and strengthening the positioning of this Council’s project. 1.1. Key Messages i. Recycled water from the sewer and other sources is ecologically sustainable ii. Recycled water is safe for drinking and other domestic and farm use iii. Using recycled water in large scale offers a chance to turn troubles into solutions iv. Using recycled water is potentially beneficial to social and financial state of the town residents v. Wise investment in the project will bring about rewarding benefits vi. The project is attuned with resident title plans and is considerate of natural resources vii. Water resources are renewable viii. The project is a viable solution for water shortages and distribution problems ix. The use of recycled water presents social gains to the community x. The council has an extremely supportive policy agenda and support plans and inducements There is a high availability of R&D support & services 1.2. Goals The first goal of our strategy is to control communication, information, data and technology transmission amongst Stakeholders who include: i. Research bodies, ii. Funding groups, iii. Federal, State and Local Government, agencies, iv. Industry, and v. The Australian Action Plan for Water Quality The second goal is to improve the general awareness of advantages and scheme through these initiatives: i. Communication media, for example, information sheets, bulletins, media releases, website discussions such as blogs and social sites, ii. Investment information bank, iii. Research & growth priorities (as well as scientific expansions and best-practice enterprises) The third goal is to demonstrate the progress and growth of facilities through; i. Present standing of project at conferences in the city and outside it ii. Keep on communications actions to ease sustained awareness 1.3. Objectives Objectives of our strategy will keep on evolving with the development of the recycled water project and as prospect arise, and the communications plan is appraised. i. Handle the communication within stakeholder groups to realize recognition of the project as the key provider of recycled water ii. Raise awareness of the recycled water program in 20% of the primary target group stakeholders during the first half year of this campaign operation iii. Augment website input (measured by hits and duration of visits to the projects pages) by over 50% in the first year MEDIA PLAN Because the most important target for the campaign is multifaceted, we will be employing a number of approaches to get to our target group. The first step is to generate a 60% awareness levels among the target market. The market is sub-divided into the three groups with the aim of making it easy to profile the groups, therefore, improve our penetration. The intent is to make the target group aware of the project’s existence, its practicability, its accessibility, and ease of use. To achieve this goal, we will be employing several methods. 1.4. Advertisement First all of, we will be using advertisements to market the use of recycled water for drinking. As posited by Kerin, Hartley, Berkowitz, and Rudelius, it is mandatory for each advertisement to have a message, substance of the advert that centers on the chief benefits of the product or service that are essential to a potential consumer in making trial and adoption choices (505). The advertising for this project will have a message premeditated to be attractive to the target consumer. The fundamental message for the project will be that the use of recycled water for drinking is environmentally friendly. The message will be easy and uncomplicated. It will center on this fundamental advantage, the usage of recycled water for drinking, and how to access the water. The advertisement will not include any technological or scientific information. If not, target consumer will be weighed down with the information and fail to notice this product for what it is. We will also keep the message brief and to the point to ensure that the prospective consumers, who might have inadequate time to examine adverts, can learn about recycled water usage, its main advantages, and how to access it. The message of the advert will be draped in convincing content. Adverts will have two themes in appeal: i. Appeal to nature Lovers: We will seek to appeal to nature enthusiasts who will be fascinated to the depiction of nature at its best. We will use images of beautiful nature parks with beautiful landscape. Since the environment depicted will be clean and attractive, nature lovers affectionate and fuzzy feelings about the nature will be transformed to affectionate and fuzzy feelings for the usage of recycled water for drinking. The images will also evoke the connection that drinking recycled water is promoting environmental cleanliness. ii. Appeal to the socially responsible “Yuppie.” The second appeal will be to the objective that the young college student or youthful adult might have to perform better, appear better, and be more socially responsible. Consequently, the communication will have a theme, “Get in front of the pack by being socially responsible.” The young people featured in the adverts will be in sharply dressed or ‘cool looking’ all of which represent a purpose. We will place print adverts in schools, college, and university magazines, daily newspapers and business magazines which a high readership by our target groups. We also intend to place adverts on a number of billboards and bulletin boards positioned in strategic locations such as near the premises of target institutions and shopping malls. Even as, print advertising offers a channel for generating awareness of the project, it is not as efficient as visual means (Surmanek 86). One on the most efficient way if communicating with the target group IV is through adverts on TV. We will set up a website for the project that will be used to effectively communicate with the young nature lover and the Target group I, II and III. Here, the visitors of the website will find precise and detailed information on recycled water. This will also provide plenty of information to potential financing institution. Additional electronic advertising will be placed in social media websites to widen the reach. 1.5. Event promotions The next step is to generate interest in the usage of recycled water by 40% of our target group. To achieve this, we will sponsor sporting events involving popular sports such rugby and football. We will sponsor popular athletes. During sporting events, we will have presence where we will draw interest with vibrant signs and posters and declarations by featured athletes. This will lead to the next step, which is the evaluation stage. Evaluation will be achieved through having the recycled water directly available to the end user. In generating our marketing mix, we will sponsor a number of school events (including sports events), and academic conferences, which will be concerned with environmental issues. These events will not only generate interest in the usage of recycled water for drinking but will also promote evaluation at a target rate of thirty percent. Evaluation will be made possible at the different events by offering the water for the event participants to try out. After bottling recycled water, it should be made available for both fans and sports persons will encourage the event attendees to try the product. 1.6. Discounts The fourth step is designed to promote trial (buying) by twenty percent. This will be achieved through the provision of rebates to consumers, for example, some amount off the product purchase price. Such cash discounts will promote consumers to suppose they are receiving a good deal. To promote sales by the dealers, the town the dealers will be offered trade discounts in the shape of promotion resources to support distributors and retailers in advertising and promoting the usage of recycled water for drinking. 1.7. Internet Coupons and Buzz Marketing Lastly, we plan to push adoption by seventy percent. To attain that objective, we will offer coupons for visiting some sections of our website. In addition, we will present various deals and packages for fresh and on hand consumers. The adoption stage is vital to the success of the project as customers who use the water are the greatest source of communication for the project. The consumers who adopted the usage of recycled water earlier on and are satisfied with the safety of the water will gladly express the product’s safety to their associates and family. This will help in dispelling apprehensions concerning the safety of the water. This use of the word of mouth for marketing is what referred to as Buzz marketing is. It is the interrelation of customers or consumers of a merchandise or service, which amplifies the original marketing communication. CONCLUSION Evaluation Criteria The appraisal of the campaign will be founded on how we contact our target market and realize our communication aims. Foremost, we will be evaluating target market response to the advertisements on the different media. Plainly stated, we will seek to find out if our advertising is efficient enough to grab our target market’s interest and attention. Next, we will be appraising customer experience on recycled water and how they perceive it. We intend to achieve this by carrying out surveys at the events we fund and through the mail and telephone calls to organizers and through surveys involving distributors and retailers. Through this way, we project that we can realize a better picture of the success of the both the promotion and the recycled water itself. Through this integrated marketing communications plan, the use of recycled water is established as a safe and environmentally friendly and sustainable for the town residents. However, the objectives and strategies aforementioned are merely a launch pad for superior ideas to come. As we keep on to researching, thinking outside the box and permitting ourselves to be motivated, the superior ideas are yet to be generated. As such, we will go on being motivated and nurture the vision of the Council of protecting the environment by promoting the use of recycled water for drinking in Catagonia. Works Cited Freebairn, John, and Quiggin, John. ‘Water delivery infrastructure, water trade and asset stranding’, Working Paper, Risk and Sustainable Management Group. University of Queensland, 2005. Print. Hussey, Karen, and Dovers, Stephen. Managing water for Australia: the social and institutional challenges. Collingwood, Vic: CSIRO Pub, 2007. Jong, De, D., and Wegelin, M. Public. Awareness and Advocacy for Sewage Management. 2000. Web Kerin, Roger, A., Eric, N. Berkowitz, Steven W. Hartley, and William Rudelius. Marketing. 7th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2003. Print. Surmanek, Jim. Media Planning: A Practical Guide. 3rd ed. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1995. Print. Read More