Marketing Communications Plan for New Ice Cream Brand Under Wall's Food by Nestle - Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

0.1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Advertising nowadays has propelled more than predicted by marketers. This has been mainly attributed to its essence of building and retaining huge markets for organisations that chose this marketing tool. Nevertheless, the impact of advertising on a product is unclear as certain advertising measures don’t tend to work as expected. This could be due to a company choosing the wrong approach or market for a specific advertising program.

This paper is an advertising program designed to market a new brand of ice cream under Wall’s foods in Malaysian. With a budgeted capital of RM 800, 000.00 (Eight Hundred Thousand, Ringgit Malaysia) and a timeline of 12 months, the program has been designed to propel all relevant advertising measures to catapult the new brand into the Malaysian market.

The advertising program includes new brand name, logo and slogan for the ice cream under Wall’s food. The chosen brand name is Mr. Bee’s, a replica of the wild bee that is known to produce honey. This brand name was chosen to present the idea of healthy (organic) and delicious on the market’s mind because honey is a sweet and natural food.

All advertising “Ms” Where analysed in this project, and they include the message to be communicated to the target market, target market definition, the advertising motives and objectives, projected expenditure of available budget, how the advertising campaign will be implemented and evaluated, media strategy and finally the merchandising approach. The concluding section of this advertising program provides relevant samples of intended adverts for each media described. The final page of this project provides references for al contents adapted into this project.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Advertising has evolved into a dominant element of the present day business world. This can be attributed to its features of appeal and positive results it returns to companies that undertake it. But, it must be understood that advertising does not create any product advantage, it only conveys it. This goes to say that consumer’s perception on adverts will differ in terms of the way they decode the message being conveyed to them.

Thus, this leads us to the main objectives of this project paper. This project paper is developed to design an advertising plan for new brand of ice-cream for Walls’s Food by Unilever Brothers in Malaysia. The project is basically divided into seven sections to cover the 7Ms of advertising. The first section is background information on Wall’s Food. The second section defines the target market for the new product through a market analysis and segmentation.

The project goes on to develop messages to be conveyed, how the messages will be conveyed and budgeted expenditure for the advertising plan. The concluding section is presents means to measure the impact of the advertising, and the media selected. Certain adverts were also created for the new brand to showcase the intended message and method in illustration.

This project is developed in compliance with the set integrated marketing communication perspectives of media, tool and message. This adoption ensures that all the basic advertising concepts are rationally incorporated into the project. Nevertheless, certain innovative measure were adapted to ensure that the advertising objectives are Smart and achievable by the end of the campaign.

2.0 BACKGROUND ANALYSIS OF WALL’S FOODS

In 1920, Mac fisheries bought over Wall’s, and they went on to sale the company to Unilever Brothers in 1922. By the mid 1950’s, wartime rationing produced a big appetite for ice cream and this saw the sale reach £46 million by 1959. (Anwar, 2008)  In other to carter for this growing market, Wall’s opened an ice cream factory in Gloucester, England. Market researches in 1970s showed that virtually everybody loved ice creams them, and Wall’s started to stock their products in supermarkets and street shops to reach consumers everywhere.

Unilever Brother have other 56 brands registered under Unilever brand besides Wall’s, this is aimed at their objectives of “Meeting the everyday needs of people everywhere”. Unilever is the world’s number one in ice-cream, margarine and tea-based beverages; as well as personal wash, prestige fragrances and deodorants (Anwar, 2008). Their packaged foods business is currently the world’s third largest after Nestle and Kraft, yet it must be understood that Unilever pruned about 75% of their portfolio, in other to concentrate on a smaller roster globally. By 2004, Advertising age measured an estimated expenditure of $3.5 billion to make Unilever the world’s third largest advertiser.

In their mission statement, Unilever stated adding vitality to life as the company’s mission. Thus far, Unilever have continued to ride on this mission by meeting everyday need for nutrition; hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. Among many loved ice-creams in the market today includes the Wall’s brand of Magnum and Cornetto (Anwar, 2008). Below are summarized facts about Unilever.

• Founded in 1930
• Headquartered in London, England and Rotterdam the Netherlands
• Employees an estimate of 350,000 staffs worldwide
• Generate annual sale of up to US $25.3 billion
• Generates up to US $982 million on profit per annum
• World’s biggest ice cream producer
• World’s 3^rd biggest advertiser (Anwar, 2008).

3.0 NEW PROPOSED BRAND FOR WALL’S ICE CREAM

Figure 1 Proposed Logo

3.1 LOGO DESIGN

Brand name – the brand name “Mr. Bee’s”, was chosen to position the idea of “natural and sweet” in the consumer’s mind.

Logo painting – in compliance with the brand name, the colours were distinctively selected to represent energy (Yellow), natural and healthy (Green).

Design structure – the unfolding paper represents “professional production”. This implies that the production is done following certain assigned standards and precisions.

3.2 SLOGAN

“Nothing tastes better than Mr. Bee’s” is a strategic slogan chosen basically as a competitive tool to persuade the market that Mr. Bee’s ice cream is the best ice cream and no other ice cream taste better than it.

4.0 TARGET MARKET

Target marketing is a vital stage in decision making for all organizations undertaking marketing and strategic planning (McDonald, 1995; Piercy, 1992). It is the part of marketing segmentation process that groups consumers with similar needs and buying behaviours together (Dibb and Simkin, 1996). Identifying target groups are important for conquering niche market, direct marketing and increasing brand loyalty (Arlen, 2000; Baldwin et al., 1996; Wang, 2006). The table below illustrates Mr. Bee’s ice cream target markets.

Table 1 Target Market analysis

TARGET MARKETS	MARKET DESCRIPTION	CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
INDIVIDUAL MARKETS	Junior market:  between 2 to 12 years old. Intermediate market: between 13 to 23 years old. Senior market: From 24 years old and above.	Junior market – Low purchasing power but can influence purchase decision making process. Their behavioural pattern is mainly reinforcement. E.g. their parents will reward them with Mr. Bee’s or money to buy Mr. Bee’s if they obey their parents/guardians. Intermediate market – better purchasing power than the junior market and have high influence on purchase decision making. They apply cognitive behaviour. E.g. most members of this market are studying and can differentiate products based on their features. Senior market – highest purchasing power and exercise high influence on purchase decision making process. Members of this group apply a cognitive form of behaviour and can differentiate between brands in various aspects.
BUSINESS MARKETS	Wholesalers:shopping outlets and restaurants. Organisations:all firms and companies.	Wholesalers – this group will buy Mr. Bee’s based on discounts obtainable and sales volume. Organisations – can use Mr. Bee’s for party and organisation’s meeting or gatherings.

 5.0 ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES

• Achieve 50% brand recognition within the target market as defined by their ability to; recognize our logo, describe at least one of Wall’s products by Unilever Malaysia and associate the quality of Mr. Bee’s when prompted for brand characteristics by the end of the 12^th month.
• Develop and deploy strategic differentiation measures to better position Mr. Bee’s ice cream in the customers mind without confusing the brand with other brands in the market. This will ensure customer loyalty, re-purchase and retention.
• Achieve 5% response rate from the target market within 2 months of launching the products and up to 70% by 12months.
• Yield at least 15% of the total annual sales of ice cream by Unilever Malaysia for the year ended 2012 (February 31^st).
• Use the new brand “Mr. Bee’s to reposition Wall’s ice cream by Unilever as a new food trend. This implies a repositioning strategy that will change customer’s idea of seeing ice creams as just a junk food, but rather to see it as a menu, a part of every dish and something more nutritional for the family.

6.0 MESSAGE

6.1 JUNIOR MARKET (2– 12 YEARS OLD)

One sides and emotional messages to position Mr. Bee’s as the ultimate fun ice cream.

The main idea behind messages adopted for this target market is to induce a conceived attitude of passion towards the brand. Taking their ability to decode messages into action, the messages created for this market group is simple and distinctive. They include:

• Mr. Bee’s is fun.
• Mr. Bee’s should be shared with friends.
• For play time is Mr. Bee’s.

Figure 2 Photoshoped Images as Adapted from: Google Images (2011)

6.2 INTERMEDIATE MARKET (13 – 23 YEARS OLD)

One sided message to convince them that Mr. Bee’s is good for health.

It is obvious that member of this group have gained certain level of analytical skills. Therefore, the message for this market group is more concise and comparative. The messages include:

• Healthy.
• Mr. Bee’s is more than an ice cream, it is a food.
• Good for spending time with loved ones.

Figure 3 Photoshoped Images as Adapted from: Google Images (2011)

6.3 SENIOR MARKET (> 24)

Another one sided message to convince them that Mr. Bee’s is good for the family.

This market posses the highest purchasing and decision making power, and their perception on a brand can totally influence the perceptions of the junior and intermediate markets negatively or positively. The messages delivered to this market are based on three concepts:

• Mr. Bee’s is nutritious
• Family time is Mr. Bee’s time
• Mr. Bee’s ice cream can be enjoyed by both young and old

Figure 4 Photoshoped Images as Adapted from: Google Images (2011)

6.4 OVERALL CONCEPTION AND EXPECTED PERCEPTION

The comprehension above has vividly described the intention of this advertising plan, but our understanding could differ with the ways each consumer decodes the message. Nevertheless, the overall message encoded in this advertising plan is based on the following comprehensions:

• Mr. Bee’s ice cream is Nutritious and made from natural organic products.
• Mr. Bee’s ice cream can be shared with friends or loved ones.
• Mr. Bee’s ice cream is not a junk food; it is a natural food.
• Mr. Bee’s ice cream is Healthy.
• Mr. Bee’s ice cream is fun, and good for play times.

These messages are the expected perceptions that consumers will conceal with the brand and the above messages is still in line with Wall’s food by Unilever’s objectives  “Making life fun”, “Bringing out the best in you” and their mission  “Providing everyday needs for people everywhere”.

7.0 MEDIA STRATEGY

Research has studied the impact of message repetition on audience response towards advertising and reveals that ad repetition increases accessibility of information featured in advertising (Calder and Sternthal, 1980). This is because ad repetition can facilitate learning, contribute to liking a message, increase consumer’s familiarity with the product and enhance positive association of customers with the messages directed at them (Machleit and Wilson, 1988; Moorthy and Hawkins, 2005). From the above argument, the media strategy was developed to ensure repetition throughout the advertising campaign.

Table 2 Media Strategy

MEDIA CLASS	MEDIA VEHICLES	MEDIA TRENDS AND SCHEDULE
TELEVISION	Network TVs – national television networks selected (e.g. RTM 2 & NTV 7).	Network TVs – the chosen trends are NTV7 and RTM 2. These are the most popular Network TVs in Malaysia and the coverage frequency is high, thus the opportunity to see is also high. Ads will be displayed on these networks twice per week ( 2 x 2 x 30seconds) for the first 3 and last 3 months of the campaign.
RADIO	Hitz.fm Light Fm My Fm	These chosen radio stations are the top English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese speaking radio stations respectively in Malaysia. Adverts will be available on a random frequency basis for 60 seconds on weekdays and 90 seconds on weekends.
NEWSPAPERS	Star Borneo post	The reach of this print cast is substantially high and the advert is expected to cover an 50 reach.  Adverts will be placed on the newspaper thrice per week. Weekday adverts will be an ear piece ad (4.5cm x 4.5cm) , and weekend ads will be 8cm x 8cols full colour
MAIL ORDER	Homes Post Boxes	Brochures and pamphlet will be distributed in various homes across Malaysia, to inform them of the new product and the product features. This will be done on quarterly bases.
OUTDOORS	Posters.	Posters will be placed at outdoor stations such as bus stations and shopping outlets to further promote the new product. The reach is expected to be up to 70 reach per coverage area because the audience will have more time to read the information contained in the advert.
MASCOTS	Mr. Bee’s	Mr. Bee’s Mascots will be deployed to schools and kid’s playgrounds to offer free ice creams, play with the kids and put them into exciting competitions. This will be done on New year day, Hari raya day and Chinese new year.
INTERNET	Website Fan page Forums	A personal website, Fan page (FaceBook) and Forum page (Tweeter) will be created to run throughout the advertising campaign.

8.0 MERCHANDISING

The primary goal of merchandising is to offer balanced assortments. A balanced assortment is a result of adequate variety to attract target consumers (Kunz, 2005). As an advertising measure to ensure that full awareness is created for the new product, certain merchandising plans will be adopted and they include:

8.1 RETAIL AND BRAND MERCHANDISING

The ice cream will be placed in Mr. Bee’s and Wall’s Foods freezer only and no other brand will be placed inside this freezer. This will be applicable in all the shopping outlets where Mr. Bee’s ice cream is sold. Free gifts such as pen will be give out to customers that make up to RM 50 purchase of Mr. Bee’s ice cream. Other gift such as Mr. Bee’s hats and shirts can be redeemed by customers. The requirement for redeeming such gifts will be based on customer’s ability to collect up to 20 Mr. Bee’s ice cream stamps. This merchandising strategy is expected to increase sales, products awareness and brand recognition.

Figure 5 Photoshoped retail shop freezer for Mr. Bee’s ice cream as adapted from: Google images (2011)

9.0 BUDGET

Total budgeted capital for the campaign = RM 800,000.00. The figure (3) below is an analysis of how the budget will be spent, taking into consideration all the media and tools listed above in the media strategy section.

Table 3 Budget analysis

Item (s)	Projected Expenditure (2011) First Quarter March - June	Projected Expenditure (2011) Second Quarter July - October	Projected Expenditure (2011 / 2012) Third Quarter Nov - Feb
One marketing consultant and two marketing executives	24, 000.00	24, 000.00	24, 000.00
Production cost (TV Ads)	27, 000.00
Production cost (Radio Ads)	11, 000.00
Production cost (Printed Ads)	3, 000.00
Cost of Airing (50,000 views per 30 seconds on air) Network TVs	142, 000.00	132, 000.00	122, 000.00
Cost of Airing (10,000 views per 30 seconds on air) Radio	35, 000.00	35, 000.00	35, 000.00
Newspapers	14, 000. 00	13, 000.00	14, 000.00
Merchandising	10, 000.00	10, 000.00	10, 000.00
Mail orders	3, 000.00	3, 500.00	3, 500.00
Poster Ads	5, 000.00	5, 000.00	5, 000.00
Internet Ads	3, 000.00	3, 000.00	3, 000.00
Mascot Ad and Free Gifts for Kids	27, 000.00	27, 000.00	27, 000.00
Total cost = RM 800, 000. 00	RM 304, 000	RM 252, 500	RM 243, 500

10.0 IMPLEMENTATION

In advertising, the implementation stage can generally be understood as the stage where the respective individuals to undertake certain tasks, are assigned with the tasks they have to perform. To ensure that the advertising objectives of this campaign are fully achieved, the advertising program will be undertaken by both in-house staffs and advertising firms.

10.1 ADVERTISING FIRMS

GRIG DESIGN AND ADVERTISING: CHOSEN ADVERTISING AGENCY

Location: 707 Menara Mutiara Majestic, 15 Jalan Othman, Section 3, 46000 Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03 7781 9177, Fax: 03 7781 92 77

Website: http://www.grig.com.my/

The above advertising firm is the chosen advertising agency to undertake the campaign. Their responsibilities will include production of the TVs, and Radio commercial for the campaign. It will comprise of three commercials for television and radio adverts respectively. The above budgeted production cost is based on quotations received from Grig Design and Advertising.

10.2 IN-HOUSE STAFFS

The in-house staffs will be headed by a marketing consultant and two marketing executives as mentioned in the above budget plan. They will head the marketing department and their responsibility will include every other task that will not be handled by the advertising agency. Such tasks include designing of poster and newspaper adverts.

11.0 EVALUATION

Progress of the campaign will be measured by post-testing approaches and research.

Figure 6 - Post Testing Approaches

Aided recall - in this approach, consumers will be presented with certain ad contents and asked if their previous exposure to the content was through reading, listening or viewing. This tests the consumer’s ability to recognize the brand within certain information.

Unaided recall – this approach is designed to ask consumers what adverts they saw few days ago knowing that Mr. Bee’s ads where on show but not prompting to determine if the consumer saw the ads.

Attitude test – responders will be asked certain questions to measure change in their attitudes before and after the advertising campaign.

Inquiry test – ads generating the most inquiry will be presumed to be the most effective.

Conversion test – this will measure the percentage of inquirers who visited the office.

Sales test – the total sale at the end of the year will be compared with the previous years and the sales when the ads where running will be compared with sales when the ads off.

Research questionnaire – research questionnaire will be conducted on quarterly bases to determine the progress of the advertising campaign. Certain questions will be asked to determine the market perceptions about Mr. Bee’s ice cream. 

12.0 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN ONE SIDED EMOTIONAL ADVERT TO CREATE AWARENESS

Legal disclaimer: the girl in the picture is an original picture adapted from Google images, all right including but not limited to (intellectual and copyright) are reserved for the respective owner or owners of the adapted image. Other contents besides the girl in picture are all original contents from Iloka Benneth. C hereinafter referred to as Mr. Bee’s (Mr. Bee’s ice cream).

Explanation of ad: this is an informative poster advert created for awareness to inform the target market of the new product by Wall’s Foods. The advert is a one sided message format, showcasing only the entire positive (benefits) features of the new Mr. Bee’s ice cream. The advert also draws a conclusion for the customers by adding in contact details so that customers can take quick actions after viewing the new advert.

Ad structure and design: the ad is basically divided into three sections. The first section is the left side that introduces the new products and reminds the market that Wall’s ice cream is the best in the market “everybody wants a piece of wall’s”. The second section is the girl in the middle enjoying the new ice (assumptions only) to prove that the new ice cream by Mr. Bee’s is enjoyable. The final section is the right section that prompts customers to act now by giving them reasons to act “the new ice cream is packed with 7 minerals and vitamins”and where to act (all the contact information provided).

13.0 UNDRAWN CONCLUSION ONE SIDED COMPARATIVE NEWPAPER ADVERT

Legal disclaimer: the ice cream on display is an original picture adapted from Google images, all right including but not limited to (intellectual and copyright) are reserved for the respective owner or owners of the adapted image. Other contents besides the ice cream in picture are all original contents from Iloka Benneth. C hereinafter referred to as Mr. Bee’s (Mr. Bee’s ice cream).

Explanation of ad: this is a comparative newspaper advert created to inform the target market that the new ice cream by Mr. Bee’s is actually more nutritious than natural fruits. The advert is a one sided message format, comparing the product with banana and apples based on levels of potassium and vitamins contained. The advert does not draw any conclusion for the customers because the intelligent market will like to analyze the claims to verify if they are genuine or just a marketing strategy.

Ad structure and design: the ad is basically divided into three sections. The first section is the upper side that calls up the customer’s attention in an unlikely way “Surprise! Lightning has stroked twice”. The second section is the visual illustration of the ice cream in question being compared with the fruits. The final section is the bottom section that tells customers why one Mr. Bee’s is better than a combination of Apple and Banana.

14.0 MULTI-SIDED ONE DIMENSIONAL CONCLUSION DRAWN COMPETITIVE AND PERSUASIVE ADVERT

Legal disclaimer: the ice cream on display is an original picture adapted from Google images, all right including but not limited to (intellectual and copyright) are reserved for the respective owner or owners of the adapted image. Other contents besides the ice cream in picture are all original contents from Iloka Benneth. C hereinafter referred to as Mr. Bee’s (Mr. Bee’s ice cream).

Explanation of ad: this advert is created mainly for three reasons, inform, persuade and position. The advert contains all the contents mentioned in the message sections described earlier on. Mr. Bee’s is fun, healthy, offer variety, nutritious, enjoyable, relaxing, packed with minerals and basically all we have mentioned above. 

Ad structure and design: this advert is structured in a way that no matter where customers look from, they have messages pooping into their head to either act or learn. The advert design also informs the customers that the ice cream is by Wall’s food. Thus, giving them reasons to act and trust the new Mr. Bee’s ice cream.

15.0 SAMPLE TV AD

Legal disclaimer: the ice cream and mascot on display are original pictures adapted from Google images, all right including but not limited to (intellectual and copyright) are reserved for the respective owner or owners of the adapted imagee. Other contents besides the ice cream and mascot in picture are all original contents from Iloka Benneth. C hereinafter referred to as Mr. Bee’s (Mr. Bee’s ice cream). 

TELEVISION AD FORMAT/DESIGN

16.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arlen, G. (2000), ‘‘Hybrid content meets broadband convergence’’, Interactive Week, Vol. 7 No. 21, p. E-26. 

Baldwin, T., McVoy, D. and Steinfield, C. (1996), Convergence: Integrating Media, Information & Communication, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. 

Dibb, S., Simkin, L. and Bradley, J. (1996), The Marketing Planning Workbook, ITBP, London. 

Google Image (2011). Available at: www.google.com/image[Accessed on: 12 - 4 – 2011].

Kunz, G.I. (2005), Merchandising: Theory, Principles and Practice, Fairchild, New York, NY. 

Machleit, K.A. and Wilson, R.D. (1988), ‘‘Emotional feelings and attitude toward the advertisement: the roles of brand familiarity and repetition’’, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 27-35. 

McDonald, M. (1995), Marketing Plans, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. 

Moorthy, S. and Hawkins, S.A. (2005), ‘‘Advertising repetition and quality perceptions’’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 58 No. 3, pp. 354-60. 

Piercy, N. (1992), Market-led Strategic Change, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. 

Saroop A. (2008). Wall’s ice cream: the reasons behind the success in Pakistan. P. 1-22.

Wang, A. (2006), ‘‘Ad engagement: a driver of message involvement on message effects’’, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 46 No. 4, pp. 355-68.