Marketing Plan Definition

Everyday as we go on with our lives, we see numerous advertisements of various products and services. Watching television, reading the news, listening to the radio and even driving down the highway our eyes and ears are exposed with different types of advertising. Just as we thought we could get away from it all, we open our computers read our emails, then voila, another advert will just pop-up in your screen. It just seems we can do nothing about it, but those ads will always be there to influence us consumers to buy their products or avail their services.

In general companies advertise to generate more sales and in turn, profits (Tellis 2004:64). But there are also a lot of reasons firms use advertising, such as brand recognition, target market segmentation (Yeshin 2005:417), and also the competitors of the firm are also advertising (Morrison 2002:68). But you may ask what about those nonprofit organizations ads? Obviously being nonprofit they are not after the money, but they are also selling, they are selling us a message. But the question always is, is the particular marketing strategy for advertising always effective?

Meaning does it really translate to more sales and for nonprofit organizations more awareness was created from its message? In this study we will attempt to do just that. We will create a marketing campaign for two commercial companies namely Jaguar an automobile manufacturer and Zara a clothing line company. We will also attempt to create an effective antismoking campaign for World Health Organization, a nonprofit organization. Anti-Smoking Campaign Campaign Slogan: “Smokers Don’t Grow Old; They Die Young, That Ain’t Cool”.

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This campaign slogan explains that all regular smokers will not have the chance to enjoy reaching their retirement age, since continuous smoking will lead to various diseases such as cancer of the throat, mouth, Heart, lungs, lips, bladder, and in women the cervix, that could be fatal in an early age, and this slogan contradicts what the main stream perception especially targeted on youth, that smoking is cool and for men makes you look more masculine, well in fact it does not do that at all.

This campaign will adapt almost the similar successful strategy of the Truth campaign conducted by Florida teens on 1998 (Social Marketing Institute 2010). Although there are a lot of the same types of ads for awareness out there, the originality will come in the overall theme itself. Streamers will be posted nearly every space in which there is a store selling cigarettes. The streamers will contain the campaign slogan and different pictures of people which have been infected by a smoking related disease.

The streamers will be big in size to really catch attention and the pictures will definitely be grotesque but real. These streamers and posters with the help of the local government officials of the state will be placed everywhere in which the occurrence of people smoking is prevalent like open coffee shops, open bars and street corners. There will also be van created like a pack of cigarettes float with people with zombie make up and attire in it. Those people will create the drama of how bad smoking can really be and not just what people will see on the posters.

Some volunteers will be either placed with a wheelchair and has a dextrose attached to its arm, others will be put into a makeup of red eyes, destroyed teeth and some with a hole on their neck to emphasize . The van will roam around the area twice a week where the posters and streamers are placed and the highlight would be the mascot named Butt Ugly to establish the brand of this awareness campaign. The van will also be equipped with stereo and loud speakers, in which an audio of an interview with real people who have been badly affected by smoking.

After circling the area, the group of volunteers will hold a program in a famous spot like a plaza or a park, they will entice the audience by having a popular local band or dance group to perform just to attract the crowd, afterwards once the crowd settled heavy and dramatic messages of the dangers of the smoking habit will be discussed. A presentation via power point of factual data on the number of deaths per year by smoking will be displayed. And another barrage of grotesque before and after pictures of people picking up the habit and the effects on their lives will also be shown.

The potential impact of this campaign is definitely not just to create awareness, but to create a sense of shock upon the realities of what may happen to one if he or she decided to try smoking and continue the habit. The purpose is also to attempt to unlearn the concept of coolness among the people who smokes, the slogan is clear; you are not cool when you are sick or worse dead. People will hopefully tend at least to think about it and realize that what they knew before is wrong and action to change should be done immediately. Appropriateness of the evaluation plan

It is important also to monitor the progress of the awareness campaign, research and evaluation will be done on a monthly basis to guarantee that the strategy’s goals which is an awareness target of at least 90% is being met and if not to improve further by conducting random surveys on the effectiveness of the overall campaign, and based on those results will either correspond on continuation of strategy or some minor improvement modifications. The surveys will be structured by a 15 straight answer requirement questions, like is the campaign effective? Yes or no?

And will be given to the audience exposed in the overall campaign. The most important goal here is both the advertising weight and number of exposures and the overall quality which could be presented by the shock value of this program. Campaign for Jaguar X-type Campaign Slogan: “Jaguar. The Muscle Behind the Hustle”. This slogan appeals very well to the target segment of 20-26 years old wealthy students and young entrepreneurs. Simply because this age group usually is what we call the young blood. In general, they are always eager to prove something, by climbing their way to reach their goals.

The slogan means Jaguar as the muscle, since the literal Jaguar has the characteristics of a compact and well-muscled creature, they are also considered a stalk and ambush predator and is opportunistic in prey selection (Animal Corner 2010). Just like the young people of our times, this group tends to grab any opportunity available to reach their dreams and use passion, or aggression or assertiveness as their fuel to accelerate and win. The muscle here adds to that image of power and dominance not just by the male segment but also to those young women passionate about their work and achievements.

The hustle in clear definition means to move or act energetically and rapidly, or to push or force one’s way (The Free dictionary 2010). Even though with the familiarity of the word as an illicit or unethical activity due to its slang version, the context used here just explains the coolness of Jaguar X Type models, the slang term was used to attract that age group who is very much familiar with that term, and basically that is an original idea for a brand known for it’s a more mature market segment clientele.

The Muscle Behind the Hustle. Design The design shows a Jaguar X type proverbially cruising down the highway. The amount of light reflected and the partial blur of the landscape background focuses the importance on the car itself. The slogan written at the bottom of the image provides a foundation of aggressiveness to the overall picture balancing the acceleration by the car and the strong foundations of its brand. Promotion The image above will be shown to all major magazines usually being bought by the 20-26 age groups, magazines that cater to areas of sports, fashion, music, games, business technology and lifestyle.

A variety of newspapers will also be chosen for placement of this ad to create a large base of readers. Online media will also be utilized; this age group usually has registration on online social sites and other various community sites that again caters to the same specific areas being handled by the print media. But the campaign just barely starts there; Jaguar will hold series state tours for the next 3 months on famous local hangouts of this market segment. The composition of their tour will always include a model of the Jaguar X type and a banner for its slogan.

Celebrities will also be joining those tours. Celebrities will be carefully chosen by way of their character and what they represent. For example, Lebron James of the NBA would be a perfect representative for those who love sports, since Lebron at his young age have already accomplished a lot not only by his talent but his raw aggressive playing style which relates to the Jaguar brand and slogan and also to its target segment. Potential Impact The strategy was designed applying the concepts of the Elaboration Likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo 1986).

The persuasion through familiarity with the brand Jaguar and its pre conceived image preference have been slightly altered with the use of a campaign slogan that relates to the 20-26 year old group, the potential impact for that group based on first central information processing (same as Petty and Cacioppo 1986), is that Jaguar had suddenly changed their image in particular with the X type model, Instead of corporate sounding slogans, the usage of rhyme and slang words will hit the spot via a peripheral information processing (same as Petty and Cacioppo 1986) that in turn could lead to purchase opportunity situations.

On the marketing campaign overall another potential impact is that, Jaguar will be likened to previous muscle cars such as the Ford Mustang and the Cadillac, both have been successful on portraying coolness and power. Jaguar will deliver that kind of message through this campaign. Evaluation plan The evaluation plan will be a thorough plan from the start of the campaign until a year after the campaign. To have an early analysis of the potential impact of this campaign and ad, a focus group will be necessary.

Focus group is a type of qualitative research and is useful when we want to explore how our target customers will respond to this idea (Edmunds 2000:2). The participants of the focus group will be like their target market of rich and wealthy 20 to 26 years old customers with each have diverse interests, then based on that exploration, subtle improvements could be possibly made, but not really a total overhaul of the campaign slogan advertisement, unless the outcome is significantly negative.

But another key during this focus group discussion is the importance of a competent Moderator in which he could apply various techniques that can get the most out the discussion (Greenbaum 1997). During the campaign and tours, the focus will be on the advertising quality itself and not the advertising weight, to see how effective the slogan and the overall campaign can be by observing natural responses and people turn out on those tours. And after the planned tours, the most important translation of the effectiveness of this campaign can be assessed on its cash registers.

Literally checking on the X types sales weekly we could evaluate the impact of the proposed strategy. The effect could possibly have not that much impact on the first few weeks, but the expectations is that on the first month a 30% increase in units of Jaguar X type will be sold. Campaign for Zara slogan: “Go Less on Fashion Beat”. Zara’s product lines are diverse and respond with the change of the season creating constant variation without compromising quality and expanding upon successful products. From 1975 to present, Zara never stopped creating different styles.

With their fast-paced production of new designs, they have captured the attention of the market, giving them the ‘what’s-new-in-store’ feel. Fashion is a term for the style at a prevalent time. Mostly, fashion may mean adorning thru accessories and/or clothes. This continually changes and has a wide choice available almost anywhere. A clothing (fashion) company should recognize trends suitable for the mass-market considering the money a customer has to spend. With all of the flea market arising, competition also increases. Low-cost products give customers the feeling of excitement, making them go straight to the store.

This strategy will give a new face to the Zara Company, which in no doubt will be positively accepted by the market since Zara had already established a name for itself. This campaign may give an impression of a ‘downgrade’; however, customers would be more than happy if they buy something low-priced but of good quality, which Zara is known for.

There are a lot of media vehicles the company may use to promote this campaign. Streamers, Banners and Flyers These paraphernalia can be distributed on busy streets which may build customer interest.

Placing a banner in store front is also one way of capturing attention of the passers-by. Directly seeing that the products are of low-cost, customer will not have second thoughts of going inside the store and buy products that they need or want. Putting flyers inside a bag of a purchased item is also one of the many ways to communicate with the customers. This kind of strategy can go a thousand miles because others may also see it and not only the person who bought from Zara store.

Publication

This is one excellent, cost-effective way of marketing a campaign. This provides longer exposure as this can be retained. The company should choose illustrious magazines ensuring visibility of the campaign to their target market.

Internet Media

Their online site (http://www. zara. com/) can be used as a tool for marketing the campaign. Placing ads on social networking sites can go a long way as these are used globally and to an extent where almost everybody logs on to. Impact Using the abovementioned media vehicles may both impact the financial stand of the buyer and the Zara Company. Pay-less-get-more for the buyers; for a little amount of money, they can already buy what they want.

For the company, they will have an increase in sales, producing more items and possibly offering more jobs. This will not only increase brand visibility but will bring back the brand buzz as well. Evaluation This strategic campaign may bring out the competitive pricing from other clothing companies. It is true that price is an important indicator for customers in evaluating the quality of a product (Easey 2002). Pricing demands may need to change depending on different characteristics of the market (same as Easey 2002) but the campaign has to be communicated clearly.

This has to be directed to a projected result and performance for all its stores, to inform and show strategic planning and management ensuring responsible implementation of the campaign. Print media is an important part in branding a strategy. Marketing communication is produced to have an objective of developing customer awareness and increase in sales. Timing and use of media vehicles are crucial in starting up the campaign. The Marketing Department together with Research and Development of Zara Company has to do a research on the financial status of its consumers.

After the research has been made, the company can start with their campaign. The strategy of having print ads on banners, flyers, magazines and the internet will run for two months. This number is a conservative estimate knowing that Zara is known worldwide. Both departments will have to watch over the response of the consumers which can make or break the campaign. In connection with this, the “Word of Mouth” comes in. Consumer trust, satisfaction, expectation and competition (Smith, Taylor 2004:590), Zara must create a positive “WOM” to be able to get recommendations.

Conclusion

Advertising is a part of the whole marketing strategy that aims to create awareness and theoretically translates on purchase decisions by the buyers exposed with the ad in this study we have created three marketing campaigns in which the first one is to create awareness and the next two are focused on generating buzz and sales. The antismoking campaign with the slogan Smokers Don’t Grow Old; They Die Young, That Ain’t Cool is focused on the Shock Value Strategy by placing their print advertisements on regular spots where smokers hang out.

The aim of this campaign is to contradict the popular notion that smoking is a cool habit, which in fact it isn’t and can cause serious illnesses in the long run. The overall campaign theme for Jaguar is aimed at the target market segment of rich and wealthy 20-26 years old age group. Basically Jaguar wants its X type models to achieve almost the same status enjoyed by the cadillacs and Ford Mustang in which a generation of people loved. The slogan message Jaguar.

The Muscle Behind the Hustle plays well with the target market with the usage of rhyme and slang to capture attention. The print ad will placed on popular reading materials segregated by famous genres 20 to 26 years old used to like. Online advertising on social networks will also be done to capture a wide variety of readers. The campaign will start with a focus group discussion and will include a series of tours for Brand recognition and awareness. The campaign will also include famous celebrities that relates to the slogan to provide more value entertainment during those planned tours.

For Zara, in order for its goal to bring back the buzz it have achieved before, the focus would be creating product lines with a relatively cheap price, and heavy advertisement both on print and online using the slogan Go Less Fashion Beat, which exemplifies even though the prices comes cheaper the Zara signature design and quality has not been compromised. All three marketing campaigns will apply various evaluation methods to assess its impact and efficiency, since it will be useless to continue a specific campaign if organizational goals are not being met.

References

• Animal Corner (2010). Rainforest Jaguar. Available from < http://www. animalcorner. co. uk/rainforests/jaguar. html> [12 May 2010].
• Easey, M. (2002) Fashion Marketing 2nd edition, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Edmunds, H. (2000) The focus group research handbook.
• McGraw-Hill Professional Greenbaum, T. (1997) Internet Focus Groups: An Oxymoron. Available from < http://www. groupsplus. com/pages/oxymoron. htm> [12 May 2010].
• Morrison, M. (2002) Using qualitative research in advertising: strategies, techniques, and applications.
• SAGE Petty, R. E and Cacioppo, J. T. (1986) Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change.
• New York: Springer-Verlag. Smith, P R and Taylor, J. (2004)
• Marketing Communications An Integrated Approach. 4th Edition. London: Gutenberg Press. Social Marketing Institute (2010)

Success Stories:

• Florida "truth" Campaign. Available from < http://www. social-marketing. org/success/cs-floridatruth. html> [12 May 2010].
• Tellis, G. (2004) Effective advertising: understanding when, how, and why advertising works . The Free dictionary (2010) Definition of the word hustle. Available from < http://www. thefreedictionary. com/hustle > [12 May 2010].
• Yeshin, T. (2005) Advertising. Cengage Learning EMEA

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