Prepare an integrated promotional strategy for Beryl’s. Consider the following:
- Explain the principles and processes of campaign management.
- Combine appropriate techniques into an integrated and cost-effective campaign.
- Present promotional recommendations in the form of a promotional plan.
- Suggest appropriate measures for assessing campaign effectiveness.
A promotional plan is an outline of the marketing tools, strategies, and resources that a company intends to use to promote a product or service.
A promotional plan is considered a vital planning tool by most business managers as it helps contribute towards the successful launch of a new product or service or its expansion into a new market. Essentially, a promotional plan is created by a company to promote their product or service and measure their budget for promotion. The diagram below outlines the 7 steps involved in creating a promotional plan, starting with analyzing the market. Market research is commonly used to analyze the market.
One of the popular methods for market research includes observation, surveys, interviews, and collecting primary data. For Beryls to succeed in the Malaysian market, they must first understand the characteristics of the Malaysian market. This includes information on household income and population demographics, particularly in urban areas where Beryls can target their products. This information can be obtained through primary or secondary data sources.
Based on this data, Beryl’s will know which areas to focus on in urban areas to sell their chocolate. Urban areas are typically the best places to reach the target market due to the higher population density. I have chosen to focus more on the main towns in each state because they have a higher number of residents and are closer to retail locations like Seven Eleven, making it easier for people to buy Beryl’s chocolate.
The second step is to identify target markets. This process involves segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Beryl’s should notice that the audience should match the target market as closely as possible. The segmentation characteristics of the market are identified, so we will begin to identify promotional strategies to reach groups of consumers. Geographic segmentation divides the market into different geographical units such as nations, regions, states, counties, cities or even neighborhoods.
Beryl’s has decided to operate in specific geographical areas in order to pay attention to the differing needs and wants of consumers. To successfully introduce Beryls chocolate into the Malaysian market, we must first understand the population of Malaysia. An urban area is characterized by a higher population density and more developed human features than surrounding areas. Urban areas can include cities, towns, or conurbations. Typically, people who live in urban areas have a different lifestyle compared to those who reside in rural areas.
Other than that, we can segment Beryl’s chocolate in urban areas because the population is consistently high and people living in urban areas are more likely to consume chocolate and have the financial means to purchase it. Based on the table above, Beryl’s chocolate can be segmented in urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur and Penang. There are various places where we can distribute Beryl’s chocolate, including supermarkets, hypermarkets like Carrefour, 7-Eleven stores, and other small retailers. These locations provide optimal exposure for the product and make it easy for consumers to purchase Beryl’s chocolate.
Beryls offers more than 100 varieties of chocolates in different packaging. For small retailers, chocolates ranging from sen to ringgit are distributed, which are not expensive. However, supermarkets offer a wider range of Beryls chocolate varieties. In each state, there should be a Beryl’s boutique for all Beryl’s chocolates, making it easy for people to buy the chocolate they need. This means that customers have more places to buy instead of going to boutiques provided at Beryls factories.
Demographic segmentation refers to producing products suitable for specific customers based on variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, education, occupation, income, and family status. It takes into account factors such as family size and life cycle, religion, race, generation and nationality.
For the demographic segmentation of advertising Beryl’s chocolate in the Malaysian market, we focus on people with a salary above RM1,000. This is because Beryl’s chocolate targets people in the middle class. The price of Beryl’s chocolate is neither expensive nor cheap. As you can see, the highest rate starts from RM1,000. Therefore, this income range can help us market our chocolate product to customers.
Additionally, we target the mass market through concentrated marketing by focusing our efforts on one segment of the market.
The firm will develop a product that caters to the needs of a particular group. For example, Beryls focuses on Beryls Mini Chocolate to target its market. This means that all advertising is focused on this single product. Concentrated marketing can have lower costs than the other two options and can be a good option for small or new businesses. However, the disadvantage is that it reduces the number of customers that the firm is targeting, and it also means that the firm needs to be sure they have selected the correct segment of the market.
There are three targeting strategies that firms can use when aiming their products and services at market segments. Undifferentiated marketing implements a single marketing strategy aimed at the entire marketplace. Differentiated marketing tailors marketing efforts for each market segment chosen by the firm, while concentrated marketing tailors the marketing strategy for one particular segment of the market. Each of these three targeting strategies has its advantages and disadvantages, which should be weighed up when deciding which one to adopt.
Actually, Beryls can apply other targeting strategies because they have more than 100 chocolate products that could be targeted to all segments. However, for our Beryls Mini Chocolate, we use a concentrated marketing approach because we want everyone to notice Beryl’s chocolate in the market. I also suggest that the company focuses on the mass market as this strategy is more effective since we are not focusing on one product for one target like in niche markets. The mass market is more suitable for medium-quality products like Beryl’s chocolate because it is suitable for convenience products.
These products appeal to a large market segment and are consumed regularly. They are purchased frequently and targeted towards all people.
Positioning is the process by which marketers aim to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for their product, brand, or organization. There are various ways to conceive and develop positioning strategies. These can be derived from object attributes, competition, application, types of consumers involved, or characteristics of the product class.
All of these attributes represent different approaches to developing positioning strategies, even though they all have the common objective of projecting a favorable image in the minds of consumers or audiences. There are many approaches to positioning strategies, but I will only focus on the Quality Approach or Positioning by Price-Quality. Beryl’s chocolate is delicious with premium quality and an affordable price, as well as good services. Therefore, positioning Beryl’s chocolate is the best way to make it stick in customers’ minds. In this case, this strategy is important because we want customers to know about Beryl’s chocolate.
Our product’s success is based on both the brand name and competitive advantages. The first step is identifying potential competitive advantages for our new products. We will establish brand recognition for Beryl’s Chocolate and differentiate its image by creating a catchy tagline or Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that captures people’s attention. We have chosen Every Bite is Happiness” as Beryl’s Chocolate tagline. When people see this tagline in advertisements, they will feel excited and be drawn to it.
They must think that every bite of Beryl’s chocolate will bring them happiness, which may attract them to contact the company for more information on their website. The goal is to inform Malaysian citizens about Beryl’s chocolate and increase the number of customers by 70% in the next three months and by the end of 2014. The objective is to persuade Malaysians to choose Beryl’s chocolate over competitors and remind them of its existence. By having 70% of consumers switch to Beryl’s as their preferred brand, it sets it apart from other chocolate companies.
The third step is developing promotional objectives that are quantifiable means for getting the word out about a product or business. This direction will help create an effective promotional plan.
In general, an objective is broader in scope than a goal and may comprise several different goals. To make Beryl’s chocolate successful in the Malaysian market, Beryl’s company must set objectives. To inform audiences about the product through advertising, we must create objectives based on the SMART principle as a guideline to create clear and specific objectives. S stands for specific objectives, M for measurable ones, A for achievable ones, R for realistic ones and T for timelines. The objective will guide marketers on the course of action they will take.
In order to create objectives, we must communicate them to all employees and managers. Objectives should not be based on personal decisions, but rather receive feedback from everyone involved. The objectives that have been set will help identify the target audience and budget for Beryls mini chocolate advertising. It is important for Beryls to focus on who they are targeting with their product and allocate an appropriate budget for advertising.
The next step is to select the promotional mix. Before setting up our budget, we must first determine the most appropriate promotional strategies to reach the target market, achieve organizational objectives, and remain within our budgetary guidelines. The most suitable promotional tools are listed in the table above. Beryl’s has selected media for advertising their products using above the line” tools such as printed advertisements, radio commercials, billboards and TV commercials.
For the printed advertisement, Beryl’s will advertise in magazines with a large readership, especially among women. Therefore, I have chosen to advertise in NONA and RAPI as they are popular among women. As for TV commercials, we have decided to use TV3 as our medium and will air the commercial during program breaks. Using television and magazine media has several advantages such as reaching a wider audience and diversifying our target market.
As an advertising agency, we must be creative in exploring all opportunities for demonstration. When our advertising is able to convey strong messages, it will attract more audience and potential customers to buy our product. For Beryl’s below the line tool,” I prefer using sales promotion to promote Beryl’s mini chocolate to customers. As for trade consumers, direct marketing is the suitable method of choice. These promotional tools can be integrated into a cost-effective campaign that allows for wise cost calculation.
Sales promotion, direct marketing, magazine advertisements, billboards, television commercials and radio spots are all examples of promotional tools. The fifth step in developing a successful promotional plan is to establish a budget. It is important to determine the budget after setting the objectives and deciding on the promotional mix. If the budget is determined first, it may limit or eliminate certain objectives due to financial constraints.
There are a few techniques for budget planning, including the percentage of sale method, unit of sale method, competitive party method, and affordability. However, I chose the percentage of sale method to develop this plan because Dyson, who wrote another Admap article on how to budget better,” quoted research that shows promotional as a percentage of sales is by far the most popular method. 53% of companies seem to use this approach.
In order to forecast the promotional objective using this method, we should know the formula for budget calculation as shown below. Regarding the percentage of promotional budget we will use 15% from sales to advertise and make customers aware about Beryl’s chocolate. Our advertising budget is RM 1,500,000. Therefore, we expect Beryl’s chocolate sales to reach 1 million units within three months promotion.
To determine the promotional budget as a percentage of estimated sales, we need to refer to Table 1 below. Additionally, for information on the promotional budget for planned activities, we should consult Table 2. It’s important to note that these two tables are interrelated and can help us achieve our objectives.
After the budget has been decided, the sixth step is to implement the promotional plan and schedule.
This includes naming the people or department responsible for implementing various parts of the plan and determining the timetable for each promotional strategy. Specific amounts from the total promotional budget will be allocated to each activity. In order to ensure that all activities are launched on time, I suggested to Beryls that a monthly schedule must be followed for the programs. The table below shows the schedule created to track progress towards completing activities related to specific programs.
The last step is to evaluate the results. After implementing the promotional process through the execution process, we should analyze and evaluate the outcome of the implementation process to determine whether or not it was successful.
Based on all the activities we have undertaken, we have successfully achieved our objective. To analyze the results, we should start from the first step of our promotional plan which is analyzing the market. This involves a basic overview of the Malaysian market. The second step is to identify our target market for introducing and selling our products. This step involves segmentation, targeting and positioning processes. The third step is developing a promotional objective which entails creating a new objective for Beryl’s.
The next step is the sales promotional mix. It involves a list of above and below the line techniques that Beryl’s has used to make its promotional plan activities successful, meeting the objectives set earlier. The following step is preparing the promotional budget. We should know and predict whether the forecasted budget is appropriate for the cost of business promotional activities to be carried out. Finally, an important step is implementing the promotional plan, where all advertising plans are put into action.
The success of all these advertising activities can be seen in this step. Based on the implementation process, it is evident that my advertising agency was able to execute the promotional activities for Beryls by adhering to the budget that was set earlier. Finally, to evaluate the effectiveness of our promotional plan, we can use a questionnaire method. After implementing the entire promotional plan for three months, Beryls should design and conduct a customer survey to determine what else needs improvement.
If the results of the questionnaire show good feedback, Beryls should maintain their quality and services. However, if they receive bad feedback, they need to improve in order to satisfy their customers. Based on the promotional plan that was designed earlier, there seem to be some limitations for Beryl’s company in using below the line tools” for promotional activities. This is because even though Beryl’s is not new to the Malaysian market, reaching customers on a large scale is still new for them and it may be difficult to compete with multinational companies.
After the three months of Beryl’s product promotional plan has been successful, I would recommend that they use other types of below the line techniques” such as publicity, public relations, and sponsorship. As we all know, publicity doesn’t involve money if Beryl’s masters how to publicize their public image to the market. Publicity is mentioned in the media. Organizations usually have little control over the messages in the media, whether it is direct or indirect publicity; both will still give a positive impact on the company.
Using publicity, whether it is printed, broadcast or online, can increase brand integrity and create customer trust in the product. Public relations and sponsorship are increasingly common forms of promotional activity nowadays. For example, supporting an event, activity or organization by providing money or other resources that are of value to the sponsored event. This is usually done in return for advertising space at the event or as part of the publicity for the event.
For example, Beryls can support events such as charity programs and educational events. For public relations, Beryls can cooperate with NGOs or non-governmental organizations such as Rumah Anak Yatim by doing corporate social responsibility or CSR. Through these activities, it could indirectly enhance the Beryls company name and public image because people love getting free chocolates and also knowing who is sponsoring it. By doing this, it will later increase Beryls’ sales as fans can also become customers after trying their chocolate.
This can also be a good way to convert people who are loyal to Cadbury or Hershey’s chocolate to try Beryl’s by letting them try it for free. Additionally, I suggest that Beryl’s use more sales promotions such as offering free gifts and coupons that could attract many potential customers to buy their other chocolate products. Beryl’s could also hold a contest where participants take pictures while enjoying their chocolate. The most creative and attractive pictures or videos could win prizes.
Measures for Assessing Campaign Effectiveness
There are many types and methods that can be used to measure the effectiveness of a promotional campaign. The most popular tools used by many Malaysian businesses are survey questionnaires, interviews, and referencing annual sales reports. To determine whether our objectives have been achieved or not, we could create a survey questionnaire and gather feedback from respondents to see if we have reached our target.
We could also gather customer opinions about our company and chocolate products through interviews with customers and other individuals. Additionally, we can evaluate the effectiveness of our promotional plan by monitoring sales revenue three months after implementing promotional activities. If sales increase significantly, it will indicate that our planned and executed activities were successful in meeting the promotional objectives set earlier.
If the objective cannot be attained, then we have probably made a mistake somewhere and corrections must be made.
As a conclusion, Beryls can successfully integrate strategies for its products using above and below the line tools. The marketing manager of Beryls has employed my advertising agency to create advertisements and promotions for the company’s selected product in order to remind, inform, and persuade Malaysian citizens to buy and enjoy Beryls chocolate.
In order for Beryl’s company to succeed in the Malaysian market, they must follow the seven steps of a promotional plan. These steps include analyzing the market, identifying the target market, developing promotional objectives, creating a promotional budget, selecting a promotional mix, implementing the plan and evaluating results. By doing so, Beryl’s will know how to effectively use promotion tools and plans to achieve their new objectives and increase sales profits as well as improve their public image.
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