“If you can’t turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn’t be in the ad writing business at all.” – LeoBurnett.
I decided this quote would be the perfect recollection tool in commencing with this article as most have forgotten about the paramount importance of understanding the target market and their buying behaviour. Once this first crucial step has been determined, one should be hot on the heels of understanding the company and their product offering.
Firstly, let us take a look at the brief. How much information has been given? Is this adequate enough to make an informed decision? Ironically, the brief I’ve received from The Media is exactly the kind of material that is provided to planners and strategists by clients and account executives today. I cannot stress the single-handed importance of “More is More”. The more detailed and accurate a brief – the better the result at the end of the day.
THE BRIEF
Your product is a new nutritious preservative-free “Two-in-one lunch box” aimed at single mothers in their thirties whom have children in primary school. The meal is designed to be tasty and time-saving for both mom and child. The campaign will run over three months with an overall budget of R6-million.
Critical information for media strategy
Budget: R6-million
Timing: Three months (December 2007 – February 2008)
Primary Target Audience: Single Mothers (Purchaser/Decision maker)
Secondary Target Audience: Children in primary school of single mothers (Influencers)
Campaign objectives
To create and sustain awareness of the new nutritious preservative free “Two-in-one lunch box” and convince the single mother that the product will save time and also give her children the best they deserve. In other words, the product will offer immense value.
Strategic considerations
Seasonality will definitely play an important role in that single mothers often enjoy the security of routine when it comes to their children entering into primary school. The need to now balance their personal life and career and are thus left with limited time to worry about the smaller details in life. Therefore the lunch box would need to be positioned as an answer to a need and the beginning of a school year will be advantageous and critical for a massive burst.
The rest of the year shouldn’t mean ‘no advertising’ though; it should rather imply that the investment is minimized to such an extent that they just keep a presence for the remainder of the year.
The price of the lunch box in this instance will give a clear indication as to who we’ll be targeting with this product. Already we can safely say that for a single mother having to look after a child has absurdly high expenses and that only the higher end of the market will be able to afford this on a daily basis. I would suggest an LSM (Living Standard Measurement) 7+ market, but we’ll go into finer detail on this when considering the research.
The next question relates to the distribution channel. Is there is a channel already in place? This kind of information will play a major role in making decisions on the various channels and influence BTL (Below-the-line) activities where we’ll consider doing in store promotions. This obviously screams co-op advertising and serves as a great opportunity to dove-tail our campaign with that of a relevant retailer.
Research
We know from AMPS 2005/2006 that there are 1,938,000 female single mothers within the age group of 25-34. This group will serve as the primary target audience. From the IMS runs I am able to conclude that within the age group of 35-49 there is also a lucrative market with 1,730,000 and the touch points to reach this secondary target audience will be similar to that of the primary target audience.
Communication channels to consider
We can already conclude that the budget allows enough expenditure for a three-month television burst. This medium not only provides a visual and audio element but a chance to reach a broad and national market. Care should always be taken when considering the specific programming chosen to reach the market. The likes of talk shows, soaps and programmes pertaining to motherhood/parenthood should be used to reach these mothers.
Newsprint wouldn’t be suitable for this specific audience as the medium is skewed more towards the male audience. However magazines on the other hand will play a vital role in reaching these mothers and is targeted enough so that the wastage is minimal. Female titles include the likes of: Shape, Finesse, Sarie, Fairlady, Cosmopolitan, Womans Value, just to name a few. These have all been considered for their relevance.
Radio with its wide reach will also need to be considered but only once the product has been accepted within the market. Radio will enable us to keep a presence and to keep the brand top of mind. Outdoor should only be considered in the densely populated areas such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban and will have to be strategically placed to reach the target audience. Outdoor provides the opportunity to act as a constant reminder and will help with the branding of the product offering.
PR will have to form part of this campaign as this is that extra golden exposure on top of the cherry pie that client need not invest a cent towards. In order to get this free publicity, client will have to get a renowned dietician for instance, to act as a spokesperson for the brand. This will also provide an opportunity for the brand to gain the trust of the target market by aligning themselves with a professional who is skilled and experienced in the filed of nutrition and healthy living.
The secondary target audience should also be exposed to the message, however in a different approach to the content. Depending on the distribution channels in place it would make sense for a product like this to align themselves with a major retailer like Woolworths or Pick-&-Pay for instance. Woolworths would be my choice because of their positioning as a healthy alternative which aligns perfectly to the positioning this product needs to consider. They’ve also got the distribution network that is able to reach the primary target audience in question.
Not only does this provide the product with a distribution channel it also provides the product with a BTL aspect of in store promotions. This will enable the client to leverage spend for one another and enable the client to stretch their budget a little further. The children similar to the mothers will be reached with television but as per the mothers, the programming and message content will have to be carefully selected and composed to be relevant to them. The production cost on producing two contrary adverts for two different target markets will definitely pay off in that the relevance in itself will influence the impact.
If there is no distribution channel in place whereby we can leverage the environment for in store promotions we can also consider the likes of using “Till Top advertising”, which will reach these single mothers within the shopping environment and bring the touch points closer to the actual purchase decision.