Hallmark traditionally has been viewed as the company to use “when you care enough to send the very best,” which Hallmark would like to keep in the minds of the target market, but also use to increase sales for non-holiday seasons.
Hallmark believes with continuous marketing efforts they can appeal to more women to buy cards for all occasions throughout the year.Marketing Objective Hallmark has developed the following marketing objective for the year 2001. In preparing this objective, Hallmark has estimated the cost of everyday cards at $0. 9 per card.
During the calendar year for 2001, Hallmark will increase its dollar market share by two percentage points, from 40% to 42% in the $7 billion (volume) greeting card category. Advertising Objective The overall goal of this campaign is to increase brand consciousness among women age 18-34, who are employed full or part time or are full time students. Hallmark will use its new advertising campaign to convey this new image.From January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2001, Hallmark Greeting Cards will attempt to make 10% of the 22.
million females age 18-34, who are employed full or part time and have graduated high school aware that Hallmark Greeting Cards is just as important for daily use as it is for seasonal holidays.Media Objectives Target Market Concentrate message delivery toward current users of greeting cards, with primary emphasis on women, age 18-34, who are employed full or part time, or full time students. This gives Hallmark an estimated target market of 22,425,000. Promotion Recommend a promotion aimed at women in the target market in hopes that they will purchase Hallmark cards for all occasions throughout the year.
Reach and FrequencyDuring an average month of advertising, reach 40% of the target market at an average frequency of 9. Timing Increase competitive weight levels throughout the year as well as placing heavy advertising in the second and fourth quarters (specifically the months of April and November) in an effort to work in conjunction with normal seasonal increases in purchase. Geography Conduct a national campaign, with emphasis in the West region, where there is a high concentration of current Hallmark users. The West region includes the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Also targeting metropolitan localities, which accounts for 83% of target market. Budget Achieve all of the above objectives as efficiently as possible within the overall media budget of $9 million. This $9 million is only part of a larger advertising budget of $50 million. Media Strategy and Tactics This section contains the strategy and tactics Hallmark will use in the calendar year 2001.
Here, the recommended media types are identified for Hallmark in order to deliver its message to the 22. 4 million in the target market. Again, the selected target market is women, 18-34, who are employed either full or part time, or are full time students.In the past, Hallmark has targeted all women 35+, since they fall in the largest card-consuming segment of the market.
In order to reach this audience, Hallmark has primarily utilized television, magazine, and newspaper media types. For Hallmark in 2001, a different strategic approach is recommended from previous media plans. Since Hallmark is targeting a younger audience, different media types are suggested to more effectively reach that audience. The media types recommended for 2001 are radio, newspaper, magazines, as well as outdoor.
Hallmark has traditionally used television and magazines as the primary media types for advertising. However, for the 2001media plan, radio will replace television in order to more effectively reach the new target market. Radio Strategy When looking at the quintile index of radio compared to other media types, radio is a very effective means to reach the desired target market of women age 18-34 employed full or part time, or are a full time student. The quintile index for radio drive time reveals that out of all women, those ages 18-34 are more likely to be heavy users of this medium and 12% more likely to be an above average user.
This means that Hallmark s target market of women age 18-34 is 24% more likely to be heavy and above average users of radio during drive time that the average woman. Radio mid-day terciles support radio as being a highly effective medium to reach the target market. The terciles group consumers into high, middle, and low users of radio. The indexes show that out of all women, those ages 18-34 are 14% more likely to be high users of radio (SMRB).
So given both quintile and tercile indexes, radio proves to provide an effective amount of exposure to Hallmark s target market.Aside from being highly effective in reaching Hallmark s target market, there are several advantages of using radio as a media type. First and foremost, radio reaches light TV viewers. This is ideal for Hallmark because data shows that women age 18-34 had relatively high indexes in the lightest user quintile for primetime and cable TV.
Radio is also an effective medium in obtaining a high frequency. This goes hand in hand with Hallmark s objective of raising frequency levels in order to increase brand consciousness. Another advantage of radio as a medium is flexibility in terms of both time and geographic location.Although radio will be used nationally, geographic flexibility allows Hallmark to utilize spot markets, which play a crucial role in placing emphasis in the Western region.
There are however, some disadvantages involved with using radio that should be noted. First, radio has been criticized for being a background medium and containing fleeting messages. Hallmark will minimize these disadvantages with strong creative. Another disadvantage of radio is that many markets have so many stations that the audience becomes fragmented.
Here, Hallmark will minimize fragmentation of its target audience by selecting those radio formats with the highest levels of target market listenership. Tactics Both network and spot market radio will be used by Hallmark in 2001 accounting for % of the total media budget which is $136,884. From that total, $64,572 will be used for network while $73,312 will go to spot market radio. Hallmark has selected Adult Contemporary as the format in which the ads will be aired.
This format has been selected because it was found to be the most popular format among the target market (SMRB).Spots for network radio will be purchased Monday through Friday as well both Saturday and Sunday. The daypart the ads will run in will be from 6 a. m.
to midnight for weekday as well as weekends. This daypart has been chosen because research reveals that 93% (21 million) of women in the target market listen to radio between 6 a. m. and midnight (SMRB).
For local markets, Hallmark has selected the Los Angeles area to run ads Monday through Friday. The Los Angeles market has been chosen because it represents an ideal metropolitan west coast locale.
