Advertising Planning and Implementationn

Advertising Planning and Implementation

This paper focuses on the key elements of Pepsi’s advertising plan and how putting that plan into action affects consumer behaviors. What the advertising message says to the consumers should match up with the reception the company expects to receive.

Many aspects of the plan includes it target audience, consumer behavior, positioning, media outlets, and the creation of the advertisement. These elements create the layout for the plan to be put into place for actions to be taken by the consumers. The advertising message is the “strategies used to convey what a company wants to say and how it wants to say it” (Arens, Weigold, Arens, 2008). This message also is known as the message strategy. Achieving the goal is meeting the message objective. Ads must portray the image necessary to achieve the message strategy.

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The agencies creative team must come up with a plan that “agrees with the target, product, media, and message” of the ad (Arens, Weigold, & Arens, p 374, 2008). Pepsi’s advertising messages of its new ad campaigns tells consumers that the product is still alive and in competition with Coke-Cola. The creatives of the ad must understand the target audience for which the ads are fashioned. Advertisers and marketers target audiences through segmentation. Some of these types of segmentation are demographic, geographic, geodemographic, psychographic, behavioral, benefit, and volume.

Many ads combine a mix of these to reach consumers through different levels of segmentation. Demographic segmentation targets consumers on the basis of “age, sex, ethnicity, education, occupation, income, and other quantifiable factors” (Arens, Weigold, Arens, p 174, 2008). Geodemographic segmentation is targeting on the basis of loyalty to a brand from the cause of a demographic influence, such as the Dancing Teddy commercial. Geographic segmentation targets a specific area, such as country, state, city, or providence, and its size (Dancing Santa).

Psychographic segmentation is on the basis of “values, personalities, attitudes, and lifestyles,” such as the new Pepsi ads competitive nature (Arens, Weigold, & Arens, p 177, 2008). Behavioral segmentation is on the basis of purchase behavior. These include “user status, usage rate, purchase occasion, and benefit sought” (Arens, Weigold, & Arens, p 170, 2008). Benefit segmentation targets consumers through ads on the basis of “high quality, low cost, status, sex appeal, good taste, or health consciousness” (Arens, Weigold, & Arens, p 173, 2008).

Volume segmentation is the basis on how often consumers use the product. However, Pepsi’s new commercials do fit a mix of these segmentations. Consumer behaviors are the “mental and emotional processes and the physical activities of people who purchase and use goods and services to satisfy particular needs and wants” (Arens, Weigold, & Arens, p 145, 2008). “Advertising’s primary goal is to reach potential consumers, and influence their awareness, attitudes, and buying behaviors” (Arens, Weigold, & Arens, p 145, 2008).

Understanding the buying behavior of the audience aids in understanding which segment to target. Just as, understanding the audience helps understand the buying behavior. Pepsi’s decision to stay out of commercials for the past three years has given the company plenty of ammunition against its largest competitor Coke-Cola. Positioning refers to the place a brand occupies competitively in the minds of the consumers. Positioning reflects the consumers perceptions about the product whether it is true or not.

Through differentiation or market strategy a company may pick a position similar to a competitor and fight for its market. The seven approaches to positioning strategies are “product attribute, price or quality, use or application, product class, product user, product competitor, cultural symbol, and by category” (Arens, Weigold, & Arens, p 241, 2008). Pepsi’s past positions have played from one or more of these strategies. PepsiCo’s current positioning strategy depends on which current advertisement is seen by viewers.

These commercials named “Summer Time is Pepsi Time” (product attribute), Dancing Santa (cultural symbol), Uncle Teddy (product competitor), and the “Refresh Project” (product user). Many types of advertising media exists, such as magazines, newspapers, e-zines, online newspapers, television, radio, Internet, cell phones, and others. PepsiCo uses every type of advertisement possible to reach its target audiences. PepsiCo also sponsors events, and has its name on Jeff Gordon’s car in NASCAR.

At events PepsiCo allows vendors to promote their products through handing out free samples and memorabilia. Pepsi’s “Refresh Project” is only viewable from the Internet. This advertising campaign medium is thought to attract more serious consumers who may vote on a project or create one to obtain votes for PepsiCo to sponsor, to help build communities worldwide. PepsiCo is advertising Pepsi via newspapers, the Internet, television, and radio. PepsiCo also uses the cases these are in to advertise. For example, the new Pepsi 12 packs advertise for “The X Factor”, a new talent show.

The changes one can make to the product positioning and the advertising message are to create messages that are as universal as the product. Pepsi products sell in more than 180 countries worldwide. The new “Summer Time is Pepsi Time” campaign ads are also very competitive with Coke-Cola commercials. The use of such ads is extremely dangerous to the company for consumers may begin to believe the company is desperate for consumers to purchase its products. Especially, because these commercials are the first for Pepsi in three years.

Researching how these advertisements were created, one is led to believe that PepsiCo outsources its agencies. BBDO was the agency for PepsiCo since 1960. “The agency that has replaced BBDO is also owned by Omnicom. This is the office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, and is part of the TBWA Worldwide unit of Omnicom, Los Angeles” (Stuart, 2008). Creatives in charge of the “Summer Time is Pepsi Time” ads are Chief Creative Officer: Rob Schwartz, Group Creative Director: Brett Craig, Creative Director: Xanthe Hohalek, Art Director: Chris MacNeil, and Copywriter: Michelle Lewis, according to Emma Bazilian of Adweek.

One may not believe that this would be an effective use of company resources because Pepsi has declared to refrain from advertising the product on television to avoid targeting a younger audience. For three years PepsiCo opts for the Internet, events, sponsors, and in-store advertising as a means to promote its products instead and allow healthier choices to be advertised on television. Other than its competition, consumers are left to wonder what has made the product come back to television, and if there will be a Superbowl ad to look forward too.

Consumers may agree after three years Pepsi should have come back to television using its greatest asset, its loyal consumers to promote the product. To make the campaign more effective the product could have entered back into the commercials using less competitive ads and focusing more on the consumers who already enjoy the product or through behavioral segmentation. The company should have declared to the press the reason for the sudden change of health consciousness with the decision to advertise on television, and its decision to use ads that will gain the attention of the younger generations that have been avoided in the past.

This will also create a better understanding of consumer behaviors toward the product, without the influence of the suggestive ads, whether negative, or positive. Creating an advertisement that could be understood universally, without depicting the specific product would have been an excellent way for the product to enter back into commercials. Press releases, newspaper articles, e-articles and e-zines, and speeches are ways that PepsiCo could have announced its decision to begin making new commercials for the product. Conclusion

Understanding the advertising message, target audience, consumer behavior, media sources, positioning, who creates the ad and why, are part of the advertising plan and lay out the actions necessary to carry out the ad successfully. Pepsi’s new” Summer Time is Pepsi Time” commercials are the first in three years to be advertised on television. The depiction of this can be relayed to the target audience’s without the use of its main competition.

References

• Arens, Weigold, & Arens (2008). Contemporary Advertising. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved August 23, 2011, from http://ecampus. phoenix. edu Bazilian, E. July 1, 2011) AdWeek.
• Ad of the Day: Pepsi “Coke lover Santa Claus goes rogue in the first new Pepsi spot in three years”. Retrieved August September 13, 2011, from http://www. adweek. com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-pepsi-133128 Stuart, E. (Nov. , 18, 2008).
• NY Times. Pepsi Shifts to New Ad Agency. Retrieved September 12, 2011, from http://www. nytimes. com/2008/11/18/business/media/18adco. html Pepsi Commercials. Ads and More.
• Pepsi. com. Retrieved September 12, 2011, from, http://www. youtube. com/pepsi? utm_source=pepsi&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=panel&utm_campaign=refresh

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