Justification of How the Advertising Campaign Will Work - Coursework Example

Marketing Report Student’s name Professor’s name Course title Date Promotion strategy Promotion entails creating awareness regarding a product, probably with the aim of increasing the product market share and consequently increasing sales (Nithya, 2012). In order to effectively undertake promotion, there is need of developing an effective marketing strategy. A market strategy refers to the planned prospective move that an organization wishes to take in order to effectively undertake promotion and achieve the objectives of promotion or advertising. Advertising strategies vary with products and that explains why other promotional or advertising strategies favor other products than others. For the case of Robert Menz intending to promote Fruchocs, one of its products, the following strategies are recommended, after having an understanding of the nature of the product. i. Making a post on the Social Media Advertising or promoting through the social media entails making an advertisement in the social media platforms like Facebook, twitter as well as Google plus, to name just but a few. Research shows that social media platforms like Facebook and twitter offer most companies a platform of advertising their products and services in a friendlier and equally relaxed environment. In fact, according Stokes et al. (2013), social media marketing is an effective form of direct marketing, usually at its best. Social media creates a platform where company’ potential customers have a capability of viewing the company and its products from a totally different view and perspective. In order to effectively market Robert Men’s Fruchocs, I would recommend the use of social media as an advertising strategy. This is because the strategy goes a great way in reducing the divide that exists between the company and both the potential and existing buyers, consequently resulting in improved corporate image identity. ii. Creating customer appreciation events This is a technique that involves organizing for an in store event for customers. In the event, refreshments and other prizes are issued to the customer’s in order to draw more new prospective customers into an organization’s store. Placing an emphasis on the appreciation part of the organized event without necessarily placing a purchase attracts not only existing customers, but also potential customers too. For Robert Men’s case, since the intention is to effectively promote Fruchocs, the company can give out sodas and Fruchocs as prizes at the store. Additionally, the company can make use of products like Pizzas and hot-dogs to attract more customers. The company can consider strategically positioning Fruchocs just before the event launch in order to ensure that the product is clearly visible. Therefore, the use of customer appreciation events as an advertising campaign strategy aims at letting customers know of the product and appreciate the product too. This gives the company an edge over competitors in the same industry. iii. Use of free sample and gifts This is an advertising technique that involves distributing free samples and gifts. The use of this technique has been known to increase sales revenue in the long run. Since Fruchocs is a fast selling product, the use of this technique could work for the company. Though it could appear as a loss to the organization, it will increase sales in the long run. It will change the customers’ perception about the product, especially for prospective customers who may have been thinking the product is not sweet and may also have been viewing it as expensive. Justification of how the advertising campaign will work According to Ferrell and Hartline (2010), for every advertising campaign to be successful, a purpose must be established. A purpose entails determining what drives the campaign to be undertaken. Additionally, Lancaster and Massingham (2010) recommend that an analysis of the advertising campaign problem is paramount in achieving a successful advertising campaign. The identification of the real market situation should be established by Robert Men’s for Fruchocs. Situations could vary from the inability of Fruchocs to meet customer needs. Customer needs variation and therefore understanding customer needs is important in undertaking a successful advertising campaign. In order for the advertising campaign to be effective, there is need to identify what needs to change (Lancaster and Massingham, 2010). This involves establishing the purpose that drives the print media advertising campaign. Additionally, the advertising campaign should incorporate the vision of the organization. According to Mullin and Cummins (2014), a campaign strategy should be formulated in a way that contributes to change. This necessitates identification of a theory that explains how the advertising strategy contributes to intended change. The theory of change in campaigning entails structuring the ways in which people think about the campaign (Fraze, Rivera-Trudeau, and McElroy, 2007). The theory suggests that marketers should have the capability of identifying problems, look for solutions and try as much as possible to influence people and their decisions in order to bring about the required change. Additionally, the theory of changes requires that a qualified marketing team should be put in place in order to make an advertising campaign strategy successful. Further, the marketers should be fully committed to the advertising process (Fraze, Rivera-Trudeau, and McElroy, 2007). Print media involves advertising through media such as magazines, leaflets and newspapers. Magazine and newspapers work by reaching the target audience on the power of assumption that the target audience can get access to the print media information. It is always important to undertake a feasibility study in order to ensure any form of print media is capable of reaching all the targeted audience more effectively and with the minimum possible cost. How I would want the advertising campaign to look like Because the marketing manager has already established that the advertising will be done through print media, I would expect the advertisement to be: i. Simple- A good print media should be simple and should not be filled with too much information because the main aim it to pass information and to ensure that information remains in the minds of customers. ii. Possess the stopping power- The print media ad should be sizeable enough to attract attention. This is because there is limited time as well and failure to pass the advertisement message within the given short duration of time will just turn out to be theoretical. iii. Capable of driving the message home- Customers are interested in knowing what the advertisement is all about and how they would benefit and would not want to know more about the history of the company. Therefore, I would expect to see statements that are so direct about Fruchocs and nothing about Robert Menz history. iv. Genuine – Many a times, organizations mislead their customers in terms of what they expect to receive as a result of using an advertised product. Taking advantage of customers’ ignorance or lack of knowledge is not only criminal but is also a demonstration of lack of ethics (Lancaster and Massingham, 2010). Therefore, I would expect the advertisement to covey true pieces of information in order to avoid induced buying and contravention of ethical principles. v. Realistic- Realism in this case involves designing the advertisement within the limits of the budget. Most advertisements fail because of the problem of underfunding and tendency of working above the set budget. Therefore, I expect the advert to work within the limits of the set budget which is $75,000. Target audience Having the right target audience is usually the most important move towards development of effective marketing strategies (Venzin, 2016). The campaign is directed towards customers of ages between 20-35. Ideally, this age classification falls under the bracket of the youth. This is the most effective and productive part of the population. Fruchocs falls under the class of chocolates and pizzas. This is mostly consumed by the youth, which is an age classification of between 20-35yeras. Company’s statistics show that the product registered high sales among the youth unlike sales registered among the old, aged above 40 years. Directing the marketing campaign towards the youth aged between 20-35 years is very effective in this case. Therefore, I would not recommend a change of the target audience because to me, that is the appropriate audience because most of the targeted audience largely consumes the product. Product differentiation and USPs Product differentiation is a marketing strategy or process that aims at bringing out the difference between products (Colombo, 2013). Differentiation aims at making a product appear more attractive than other competing products. This is possible through the creation of a contrast between a given product and rival products in order to enable customers make a distinction between the company products and products from rival companies. Product differentiation adds on different product qualities in order to create a competitive advantage. For the case of Robert Men’s Fruchocs, product differentiation would really work in making customers’ belief that Fruchocs from Robert Men’s is different. This can be done through proper packaging and reduced pricing. Developing Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) is an important move in developing an effective marketing strategy. Developing a good, effective and recognizable USP gives a business entity a competitive edge over competitors. In fact, according to Colombo (2013), USPs has the capability of making or breaking a company in a competitive business environment. The idea of developing a USP to make Robert Men’s the only Fruchocs selling business firm in Australia is good for the growth of the business. Therefore, Fruchocs should really focus on both product differentiation and establishment of Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) in order to obtain the competitive advantage in the industry. Print media Print media is one of the most popular advertising methods that have received publicity in the recent past because of its ability to reach targeted customers more effectively (Kaptan, Acharya, and Kaptan, 2000). Print media include magazines, newspapers, leaflets to name just but a few. For the case of Fruchocs, i would recommend the use of print media because of the following associated benefits: i. Print media is the best method can be used to advertise in any given geographical area. The campaign is directed towards the youth aged between 20-35 in Southern Australia to be specific. This makes print media the best promotional strategy for advertising Fruchocs. ii. Some forms of print media command huge trusted group of followers. For example, the target audience in this case being youth aged between 20-35 have lots of interests in magazines and newspapers. This makes print media suitable However, besides the argument for print media, there are a number of limitations of print media as an advertising technique. The limitations include: i. Advertising through the print media is not only costly in terms of money but its demanding too in terms of time. For instance, the budget of $ 75,000 might not be enough if print media is to be used as a campaign strategy. Additionally, in terms of planning, print media requires a lot of time for planning. ii. Advertising through print media has a limitation in terms of Audience reach. Not all target audience can be reached through the use of print media. Budget and timing A budget, being a form of plan, is important in in ensuring that the advertising campaign is done within the constraints of limitation of resources. The budget for advertising campaign for Fruchocs has been set at $75,000. The advertising technique being the use of print media, i tend to belief that the set amount is not enough owing to the fact that print media is one of the most expensive form of advertising technique. The budget should indicate a breakdown of each and every activity. It should take the following form: Week Print media Duration Estimated Amount ($) First week Magazines Every day for one week 25,000 Second week Newspaper Every day for one week 30,000 Third week Leaflets Distributed for one week in South Australia 20,000 Total 75,000 In my opinion, in order for the advertising campaign to emerge successful, it should take duration of three weeks. However, the allocation has been done based on the availability of funds. The marketing manager should have allocated more money to the event, in order to enable the event take a minimum duration of three weeks. Other factors or aspects to consider i. Psychology Advertising entails communication with target audience. Target audiences are human beings and are characterized by different human behaviours. An understanding of their behaviours and psyche is one of the factors that the marketing manager must consider (Sheth, Mittal, and Laroche, 2007). Undertaking a research to understand how the target audience behave is important ii. Experience A successful advertisement is dependent upon the customers’ experience regarding the product as well as brand category. This is an important factor to consider because it establishes which factors have the greatest impact in terms of whether to re-brand or price the product a new. Bibliography Colombo, S 2013, ‘Product differentiation and collusion sustainability when collusion is costly’, Marketing Science, 32(4), pp. 669–674. Ferrell, O.C and Hartline, M.D 2010, Marketing management strategies, 5th edn., Boston, South-Western, Cengage Learning. Fraze, J.L., Rivera-Trudeau, M. and McElroy, L 2007, ‘Applying behavioral theories to a social marketing campaign’, Social Marketing Quarterly, 13(1), pp. 2–14. Kaptan, S., Acharya, A. and Kaptan, S 2000, Advertisement in print media, Jaipur, Book Enclave. Lancaster, G.A. and Massingham, L 2010, Essentials of marketing management, New York, Routledge. Mullin, R and Cummins, J 2014, Promotional marketing: How to create, implement & integrate campaigns that really work, 5th edn., Philadelphia, Kogan Page. Nithya, A.N 2012, ‘Advertising strategy’, Paripex - Indian Journal Of Research, 2(2), pp. 1–3. Sheth, J.N., Mittal, B and Laroche, M 2007, Customer behaviour: A managerial perspective, United Kingdom, Thomson Nelson. Stokes, R., specialist), R.S., e Marketing, Q and Quirk e Marketing (Firm) 2013, E-Marketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world, 5th edn., Quirk e Marketing. Venzin, M 2016, ‘Strategies for marketing to your target audience’, Nonprofit Communications Report, 14(7), pp. 8–9. Read More