Outline for the Course Project
Strategic Promotion Plan
Due: Week 9
Format: 12-font, double-spaced
Length: 10-12 pages in length
MLA Format for References
You are assuming the role as an agency and will select a coffee brand of your
choice.
Step 1: Situation Analysis:
The coffee brand has probably have done a SWOT analysis (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) as part of their marketing plan already.
That’s where they have looked at the overall place of their brand product and its
distribution in the marketplace. In a strategic promotional plan you’ll want to do a
specific SWOT analysis on how the brand’s current promotions are working,
should work and how you want them to work. Look purely at the SWOT of your
product’s promotions and its relationship to competitors promotions.
Remember that promotion is a communication, what you perceive in the brand’s
present communications, what isn’t, what opportunities there are and how these
could be threatened.
The second part of the situation analysis is identifying, in the most specific way
possible, who the brand is – what is its value proposition to the market. As we
know from Marketing, the unique, competitive benefit of the brand is at the core
of its strategy and becomes the focus of a brand’s messaging. Who is the target
audience (profile) – i.e. who finds the most value in such a messaging? The more
information you have on your segment, the easier the other steps become and
the more likely you are to reach your objectives.
This section MUST include at least two cited references supporting the
messaging strategy for your brand. Do you see different trends in the endusers using the product? (product) Or do you see data on unmet demands for the
product that you could modify and then promote? (product) Or do you see data to
indicate different channels of distribution for your product that might be more
effective for your audience? (place)
The information above needs to be briefly stated (1 page or so) by Week 5
and turned in for review from instructor. This is referred to as the “Initial
Feedback on Course Project” (10 pts) to ensure the project is on the right
course.
For our purposes, although it is the client who provides the agency with this
information, we will identify such information through our own readings of the
brand and observing its current activities.
Step Two: Identify Your Objectives (1-2pgs)
Once you’ve identified where you’re starting from, then you need to identify
where you’d like to go. In the strategic promotion plan, you need to have
a promotional objective in mind. You might have one or more objectives.
Because promotion is a communication activity, in developing your promotional
objective don’t make the mistake of aligning it with anything other than a
communication goal – not a marketing or sales goal.
Ensure your objective is SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic
and Time-focused. Something like “Achieve 1,000 people to log onto the website
and sign up for the alpha invite before 10 August, 2009″ is a good promotional
objective. Ensure your promotional objectives are directly achieved with
communication, and that they support the overall marketing goals. Never think
you’ll be able to prove your promotions were directly responsible for an increase
in sales – unless you can prove nothing else changed in the environment,
business or marketplace. However, your promotional activity should be one
aspect which contributes towards an increase in sales. That activity should have
SMART attributes which allow you to prove they were successful promotions
(even if other stuff goes haywire).
Remember that Achievable and Realistic are two different things. Sure, sending
out 500 samples a week to people in the mail might be achievable if you never
spend time with your family, but is it realistic? Begin with brainstorming some
objectives that you’d like to achieve and then start adjusting and tying them down
with the SMART criteria.
Step Three: Choose your Tactics: (5-6 pgs)
Think of tactics as tools in your kit that will allow you to implement your strategy,
and get to your objectives. There are four general categories of tactics, these
are: PR, Advertising, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling (which includes Word of
Mouth and online communities), Social Media, Internet (Web site). Some of these
have cross over points and grey areas, and when done well, you should use
some in combination or at different points in order to achieve your objectives.
Remember the key to a successful campaign lies in its ability to integrate both
traditional and non-traditional forms of tactics. For example, very rarely do you
use a single way of transport to get from one place to another (you might walk,
then take a bus, then walk again for example), and the same is true of choosing
promotional tactics. You need to select promotions that are directly aligned with
your strategy. Think of what each of them will do for you, and then put them
together so they become a plan.
Please remember both the market and media considerations that go into
deciding what type of individual tactic makes sense for your brand. It is really
very useful to use a timeline.
Step Four: Monitoring and Evaluation (2-3 pgs)
Let’s provide specific metrics/strategies to monitor the individual tactics used
that will reflect their role in achieving the overall communication objectives of the
campaign.
