Capitalizing on Social Media to Grow Your Business - Research Paper Example

Marketing Communication Plan: Media Plan Student Name Student Number Lecturer, Date Name of the Institution Contents Executive Summary 2 Media Objectives and Strategies 3 Reach 3 Frequency: 3 Allocation 3 Coverage 3 Media Strategy 3 Target Audience 3 Justification for media selection 4 Media Schedule 8 Media measurement 9 Estimated costs 10 Brand Equity 10 References 11 Appendices 12 Executive Summary The purpose of this media plan is to promote Pampers diapers among Australian mothers. Currently the product is new to the market and looks forward to increasing its market share. The media objective is to reach target audience daily, remain consistent with social media while heavily advertising in August. Allocation of media is throughout the year covering Australia. The media strategy will be to combine print, digital and broadcast to reach more customers. Media Objectives and Strategies Reach Reach the target audience daily to increase the awareness of Pampers within the target market by 25% by December 1, 2015 Frequency: Conduct initial advertising will be heavy in August, while remaining consistent with social media. Have social media feeds weekly and coincide print advertising with broadcast advertising. Allocation The weight of the media will be 25% in May, 25% September, 25% in December and 25% in January. Baby diapers are used throughout the year and are not seasonal. Therefore advertising needs to be done throughout the year. Coverage The media will cover the target market within Australia. Media Strategy Use a combination of print (magazines), social (Facebook advertising, YouTube, Twitter, Google Adwords, and Facebook), broadcast (television) media to reach the target market. Target Audience The primary target audience is non-users and current users of disposable baby diapers. The media plan will focus on encouraging switchers, other brand loyalist and traditional cloth diaper users to try pampers. The primary target however is mothers with babies aged 0-3years old. The upper class of the social economic classes contains the majority of the target market. The price conscious segment and the middle income earners will be appealed to practicality and affordability of pampers, while high income earners will be appealed to perceived brand quality. Disposable diapers have high demand in urban areas where the majority of working mothers reside and have a need of meeting their domestic and motherly responsibility in the most convenience way. To attract non-users of disposable diapers, the media plan will put more emphasis on function benefits of using Pampers (e.g. enables the baby to sleep for a long time). Justification for media selection Online and Social Media Organizations today are striving to keep up with the evolution and change of modern technologies. They are building on their traditional marketing efforts with digital marketing strategies, in order to capture a lucrative and growing online marketplace (Taylor, 2013). A successfully thriving business will be differentiated from a failed one on the process of attracting customers online. Business owners have the best chance for business growth, survival, and competition if they incorporate digital marketing tools and techniques in their marketing strategies. For Pampers to penetrate the market in the world today, grow and compete in the market place it must use digital marketing tools. Sponsored articles will be featured in online magazines for babies and mothers and online national digital news websites e.g. mums and bubs. An online banner will be placed on websites targeting mothers and caregivers. Pampers forum for mums will be a platform for mothers to discuss their baby and diaper issues. Email marketing will be used to send monthly newsletters and offers. Pay-per-click campaigns on social media as well as Google ads will be used to drive sales. The online banner advertising will also work as a data capture tool to invite visitors to subscribe to eNewsletters for Pampers. Entertainment websites like pep.hp will introduce Pampers diapers to entertainment gossip, and complement efforts for Public Relations in making the brand more appealing to customers by featuring the product in its programs. Advertisement has become more and more important as competition arises in the business world, pushing companies to use Social Media (Tuten, 2008). Social media is used to watch the customer trends, tastes and preferences, promote company brand and research new product ideas (Meghan Ennes, Harvard Business Review). Social media will champion Pampers by increasing its awareness, seek to improve the diapers and services offered and, lure the Australian market into bonding with the product, and therefore nurturing a customer relationship with the brand that will last for a long time. Advertisements will be carried out on social media sites to attract the target audience and prompt them to enquire about the product or try it. The target audience will be sent posts regularly and discussions and feedback about the product encouraged from the audience by use of forums. Those customers interested in detailed product information will be provided with downloadable media like videos, photos, graphics and test. According to Meghan Ennes (2011) an estimation of 79% of the surveyed companies are either using or planning to use social media (Instagram, YouTube, and Google+. LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter). The social media tools are geared towards enhancing the brand of the product and strengthening customer relationships. Sara Benwell (2014) asserts that businesses are today capitalizing on the use of social media tools to grow and in a way that align to objectives of their business. Therefore, the social media tools that Pampers will use are Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pininterest. Twitter Hashtags, Google analytics and Facebook insights help in analyzing and understanding trends with demographics, consumption and growth of users. Print Media Despite the digital age the importance of print media cannot be disputed. Print such as magazines and newspapers enhance unlimited exposure. Potential customers have an opportunity of having exposure to print adverts at any time (Jones, 2009). Exposure is what Pampers diapers need to attract prospects and print media proves to support this. Prospects can repeatedly view a magazine or a newspaper left on a table, or can be viewed at the discretion of a reader. Unlike the television and radio adverts that are limited to 30 or 60 seconds the magazine or newspaper readers can read the advert at their own leisure. There is a high chance of readers viewing a print advert because of the positive perception they have towards it compared to the radio and television adverts, which are perceived as interrupting listeners’ or viewer’s programming, and can sometimes be annoying. The last thing that Pampers want to do is to annoy its prospects, therefore print media is an excellent way of maintaining its reputation. Certain form of print media like magazines focus on a certain target market. They are highly specialized to appeal to a specific group of readers. The target market of Pampers is mother with children between 0-3 years. Adverts will be placed in magazines that target this target market such as Nurture Parenting Magazine, My Child Magazine, and Practical Parenting Magazine. There has been loyal readership in print media sources that has stood for long. People subscribe to specific magazines and read newspapers daily for long periods of time (Shimp, 2008). This act of reading frequently will help Pamper’s messages to be reinforced. Pampers will gain credibility by advertising in longstanding publications. With print media Pampers have a choice to choose where in the publication to place the advert. Depending with the budget above the newspaper fold or the back cover of magazines has the highest visibility. Customer engagement is key to every successful market, which involves grabbing customers’ attention through content before reading them with service or offer. Print media is trusted for legitimate information, entertainment, special offers, education, inspiration and news, all of which provide engagement generation between the advertised brands and the reader (Shimp and Andrews, 2013). Therefore, newspapers and magazines provide the right context for a relevant advertisement. The online platform is increasingly being flooded with customers. When they need to find something Google provides the assistance, what they do is described by social media, e-commerce sites like Amazon provides a platform to buy products, while newest videos are watched on YouTube. The ideal way of getting readers’ online (to Facebook page or Pamper’s website) is through the paper. With digital imprints, Augmented Reality and QR codes, readers can access appropriate online pages immediately. Therefore, a bridge between print media and the online presence of Pampers is formed by these technologies. Broadcast Broadcast advertising is radio and television which reach a wider audience when compared to print media. Television and radio fall under mass marketing category because the global and national audience can be reach through it (Kapoor, 2003). Mothers are all over the country, continent and globally. Therefore, mass marketing is ideal for advertising Pampers. The main function of broadcasat advertising is persuading customers about the product benefit, and that is why it is recognized as an effective advertising medium (Biagi, 2014). Pampers diapers have benefits one of which includes keeping the baby dry for eight hours. Mothers nationwide and worldwide need to know about this benefit among others. Advertising cost on Television and radio depends on the length of the commercial and the specific time that is to be aired (Hertz, 2013). Therefore, Pampers can choose the time and length of the advert depending with the availability of the budget. Media Schedule Jan Feb Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Print Adverts Practical parenting Herald Sun Newspaper Daily Telegraph Newspaper Digital Adverts Facebook Twitter Google Adwords Broadcast TV Radio Most advertisements will be done at the beginning of the year to introduce the product and at the end of the year to remind them of the product. Diapers are not seasonal because they are used throughout the year and that is why social media is used throughout the year. With print and broadcast advertising only two to three months are left of the schedule due to advertising budget, however, the rest of the months will achieve the objective. Media measurement Print Media The main measurements of print media will be circulation and readership, circulation being the number of print copies circulated to the public, while readership being the number of reads of a certain volume over a certain time period. Circulation will be measured from the sales while a survey will be conducted to measure readership. Online and Social Media Metrics of social media will be used throughout the campaign. Retention of consumers, acquisition, engagement, and reach will be useful for Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Page views will measure the number of times Pampers’ website was viewed and traffic sources will be useful in identifying whether visitors get to the website directly or through search engine or through a referring site. Unique visits will measure the number of visitors who visited Pampers’ website within a specified period of time. Magazine advertising effectiveness will be measured through customer enquiries, brand recall, download or visits from a digital platform, return on investments and lifts in purchase intent. Broadcast TV and radio advertising effectiveness will be measured by increase in sales following an advertising campaign. TV and radio ‘click through rate’ will measure the number of clicks made to Pampers website or social page handle, if the commercial calls-to-action. Estimated costs Medium Plan Costs Social media ads Facebook, twitter $2,500 Google adwords $80/day for 300 days $24,000 TV ad production 40 adverts during the News $400,000 Radio Production 40 adverts during the News $200,000 Video production 3 minutes video $200,000 Print adverts 10 half page ads in Practical Parenting Magazine $2,500,000 5 half page adverts in Herald Sun newspaper $1,420,000 10 half page adverts in the Daily Telegraph Newspaper $ 2,200,000 Brand Equity The brand equity of Pampers diapers will be ‘Building sleep into Pampers’. New and expectant mothers will be educated on the benefits of uninterrupted and longer sleep for babies, which is crucial for their cognitive development. References Benwell, S 2014. Capitalising on social media to grow your business. Viewed on April 8, 20015 from http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/feb/28/capitalising-social-media-grow-business Biagi, S 2014. Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media, 11th ed. Cengage Learning Ennes, M 2014. Social Media: What Most Companies Don’t Know. Harvard Business Review Hertz, T 2013, The 7 Secrets of Creative Radio Advertising. Ecademy Press Kapoor, N 2003, Television Advertising And Consumer Response: Children Buying Behaviour. Mittal Publications Jones, JB 2009, All-out for Victory!: Magazine Advertising and the World War II Home Front. UPNE Shimp, T 2008, Advertising Promotion and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, 3rd ed. Cengage Learning. Shimp, T & Andrews, JC 2013, Advertising Promotion and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, 9th ed. Cengage Learning Taylor, G 2013, Digital Age - Best Practices & Tips for Paid Search and Social Media Advertising. Global & Tuten, TL 2008, Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World. Greenwood Publishing Group Appendices Appendix A: Sample Advert Read More