Cobra Beer external environment - Value Chain Analysis - PESTLE Analysis - SWOT Analysis - Internal Environment
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Marketing Essay of Cobra Beer Ltd
Macro and Micro Environment of Cobra Beer Ltd
Value Chain analysis of Cobra Beer Ltd
PESTLE analysis of Cobra Beer Ltd
SWOT analysis of Cobra Beer Ltd
-STAIR model
-SUITS model
-RACES model
Marketing Mix of Cobra Beer Ltd
The purpose of this project is to create an outline for making Cobra beer a brand positioned over and above with synonym to Indian food. Since its establishment the beer has been conceived as a drink to be engaged with Indian food and specially curries, but now after award winning beer brand with a different taste and association the company wants to make it in to top 10 brands of UK. For this purpose an approach will be outlined in the project.
To do so, company has outlined the marketing activities around strap line saying, ``Cobra, Splendidly Indian, Superbly Smooth.`` The new changes marketing campaign came into effect since Molson Coors and Karan Bilimoria had a joint venture of the brand in 2009, after which in 2011 the brand made its first full profit.
Karan Bilimoria as owner of the Cobra group before the joint venture owned a substantial amount of money to creditors, which were losses of £71million. Since he got the dividends from the deal struck in late 2009, these debts were settled to some extent and as he promises even unsecured creditors will be paid in due time.
As per the company reports published in 2011, the company did financially well when the joint venture was struck between Molson Coors and Karan Bilimoria. On the turnover of £50.1million profit before tax achieved was £4.5million. This is explained graphically below.
Turnover (2009 - 2011)
3
Profit (Loss) before Taxation (2009 - 2011)
Cobra beer is the most celebrated beer across the UK, in 2012 grabbing the most prestigious award of Monde Selection, standing for high quality beer across the world. According to the Nielsen survey made in November, Cobra beer showed year on year volume growth of 20% which is stronger than any of the brand placed above in the ranking.
According to Molson Coors` Brand Co MD for the UK and Ireland, Chris McDonough the brand is setting up roadmap for 2020, these are the stepping stones kept by the company to make Cobra beer a mainstream brand to outperform so called world beer brand.
The path seen in cobra beers glorious past, the struggle to establish itself and making through mainstream brands excites a marketer to dig deep and understand its intricacies. And also comment on its future path for growth and recognition.
IMC project
As growth strategy of brand, a vision 2020 has been proposed by the company officials, for which stepping stones are being kept in its marketing strategy. The beer is marketed in a way which will focus on its resemblance to Indian heritage, depicting the rich heritage and culture where the original receipe of its brewing lies.
UK market is already saturated, declining in its lager consumption from last five years, on trade sellers having tough time to compete with the prices given by retailers, and consumer`s pattern changing of having a lager. All which will have impact on marketing a lager product in coming time.
Since Cobra wants to introduce itself to both On and Off trade market equally, this project will focus on developing an IMC plan to successfully introduce and enhance position of the brand in current market situation.
Situation analysis: Methodology
Factors to be considered for analysis.
Analysis of Cobra beer as a brand and its perception among the consumers will be done by analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data. Cobra beers research of their consumers and their choices lead them to understand of products perception. This ultimately affected the decision of entering in both on and off trade business, even though the product was doing well in Indian restaurants all over the UK. Primary research of consumer choices backed by detailed understanding of geographical areas and UK beer market, competitors, and the complete beer market composed the secondary research.
For the purpose of IMC situational analysis Mintel and FAME reports were used including relevant sites having information related to cobra beer. This has been cited in bibliography. To conduct the detailed analysis following models were used, helping to analyze the brand and its performance over the period of time.
PESTEL analysis: to understand UK beer market
Porters 5 forces: to understand the forces and its implications
SWOT analysis: determining SWOT of the brand
Ansoffs matrix: decisions taken and the reasons behind it.
7 P`s of marketing: detailed analysis with 7 parameters of marketing
BCG matrix.
Product Introduction
F:COBRA BEERpicscobranew.jpg
Brewed first in Banglore India, Cobra beer differs from its rivals appreciably giving a less gassy feel, adding a authentic feel of having an Indian Food which is highly appreciated in all parts of UK. Since its introduction to the market, the main basis of cobra beers sales in market was on sole understanding of being different than the beer or lagers available in the market, which were unfit for consumption with `curry` food.
Ale vs. Lager
Ale
Lager
Thousands of years old
Relatively new
Fermented warm
Fermented cold
Top fermentation
Bottom fermentation
Quick brew cycle - as little as 7 days
Longer brew cycle - up to several months
Usually brewed between 59 - 77 degrees F
Usually brewed between 40 and 55 degrees F
Strong, assertive, and more robust in taste
Smoother, crisper, and more subtle in taste and aroma
Served not too cool, usually 50-55 degrees F, 10-14 degrees C, sometimes called "cellar temperature".
Served cold, usually 40-45 degrees F, 4-7 degrees C.
Cobra beer belongs to lager family, where fermentation is cold and at the bottom, its smoother than ale subtle in taste and aroma. This contains brewed maize, rice, barley and hops adding a smoother taste and less gassy feel.
Cobra beer and Competitive advantage:
A competitive advantage is the achievement of superior performance through differentiation to provide superior customer value or by managing to achieve lowest delivered cost, Cobra beer is a good example of this. When regular lagers and wine overpowered the taste f Indian cuisines cobra beer was introduced, giving it an edge over others. Now this lager positioned as Indian lager is sold in 50 countries in bars, pubs and restaurants. It certainly met the customer need of less gassy, suitable for Indian food drink which was better than competition of standard available lagers and beers.
UK beer market:
The beer market of UK is going through a rough patch, since last 5 years it has seen decline from £17.7 billion in 2006 to £15.5 billion in 2011. The main factor which affected the decline in beer performance in the market is that, this drink is more relied on the on and off trade sales. Since the economic downturn has struck and the difference between the prices of retailers and pubs serving the drink have increased 44% of people see outside of home drinking as too costly.
There is huge shift in demand from the 18-35 aged drinkers, who are more inclined towards sweeter versions of alcoholic drinks like cider and vodka. According to a survey conducted by Mintel, 45% of responses from this age group proffered to have sweet tasting lagers, Prompting companies to diversify the product line.
Following is the index showing comparison between lager and cider according to age group.
Age group and drink choice
(Mintel, 2011)
This shows age group of 18-24 are more inclined towards sweeter version of alcohol, where lagers are losing the ground. Attitude of youngsters is the band of consumers companies producing lagers have to take care of by producing new kind of lagers with different taste.
Since the change in taste and preference of consumers came into light, Cobra beer introduced the new Cobra zero, which saw a great acceptance and a growth over the period of time snatching the share of Kaliber by Diageo. .
Drinking Out of Home
(Mintel, 2008)
Another hindrance to the sales of lagers in recent time is, people reduced the pattern of going out and drinking, most of them prefer to be at home and drink, which showed decrease in the sales on trade platform.
New Trends:
Beer is expected to show 9% volume decline over 2011-2016 to 3.9 billion litres. The on-trade will continue to be worst hit by the economic situation.
Traditionally men are the main consumers of beer in the UK. However, but there are efforts from big brewers to attract more female consumers. (Molson Coors has initiatives to attract more women to beer with its Bitter Sweet Partnership.)
The largest product area within beer is standard lager, which accounted for 41% of total volume sales in beer in 2011. However, this product category continued to see a sharp decline, with sales dropping by 6% in total volume terms in 2011.
Macro environment Analysis:
In terms of understanding the performance of brand or a product its very essential to recognize the factors included in macro environment. To analyze the factors which affect the entrance and performance of a product in market, we will analyze them according to PESTEL framework.
Political factors
The government introduced a ban on the sale of alcoholic drinks below duty and VAT tax levels in January 2011
2011 also saw the introduction of 20% VAT and further excise duty increases
Rise in duty on beer, lagers .
Duty free shopping is only available for those travelling beyond the EU, affecting buyers.
Economic factors
Economic downturn all over the European countries
Higher prices, lower rates of drinking and reduced spending capacity
Rising unemployment rates, public sector cuts and stunted retail sales growth also impacted consumers
drop in disposable income
Economy being vulnerable to the euro sovereign debt crisis and any collapse in EU economies.
Social factors
Awareness about health and effects of alcohol.
Decreasing fashion of drinking out with friends, more in-house parties than pubs & clubs.
Rules and regulation for selling alcohol on and off trade both.
Responsive drinking awareness campaigns.
Technological factors
To capture drink at home market, technology is used at its best to offer products which will have similar to pub taste by giving built in CO2.
Packaging, cooling and bottle designs are the main purposes of technology used.
Innovating lagers with different tastes to attract woman consumers and students, eg. Cobra bite and Jubilee Strawberry Fruit Beer.
Environmental Factors
Low carbon emission is the key factor which is asking manufacturers to produce, package and sell the product in more environmentally way.
Using production waste in environment friendly manner, as animal feed and marmite production.
Saving energy and water in production.
Legal Factors
Legislation and government rules regarding selling, Consumption and marketing of products.
Practices to reduce underage sales in on and off trade.
Following Portman Group code of practice naming, packaging and promotion of any alcoholic product.
Porters 5 Forces analysis.
In the year 1979, Michel Porter introduced model of % forces to analyze the products competitive position in the market and the different factors which are affecting it. Following is the detailed analysis of these factors affecting Cobra beer and its market position.
Potential entrants: High
Even though beer market is declining, young generation is always ready to try new brand, new taste. Consumers are attracted towards specialty and craft brands. Consumers are day by day getting adventurous and open for changes. Imported premium lager was one type of lager which saw a growth in 2011. Strong brands with tradition such as Miller Brands` Peroni Nastro Azzurro, and new brands like
Carlsberg`s Mahou 5 Estrellas and KC Brands` Cambodian beer King are getting consumer`s attention. Attraction towards association of world food and complimentary premium lagers also helped to attract consumers towards imported lagers.
Bargaining power of Customers: High
Since UK`s economy is not in good health, it`s obvious to see that spending has reduced significantly in last 5 years.
Buyer and prices are closely related in any industry, in our case government regulations has set standard for minimum price to sell a beer. But at the same time due to economic situation and growing interest in other alcoholic products buyers are moving away from beers. Companies can`t reduce the prices after certain level neither they can increase the demand of products. So as they are caught in this situation the threat is high from this factor which needs to be tackled immediately and wisely.
Threats of substitutes: High
Beer industry as whole is feeling threatened by the developments happening in other alcoholic drinks. Cider, wine has made lot of ground, taking away beer`s market share. Vodka, rum, whisky is introducing sweeter and customer favored flavors.
Since the success of Ginger flavored Halewood International`s Crabbie`s Ginger in just two years since its launched, many new flavours in alcoholic drinks followed. Product innovation is going to be important for alcohol beverage companies, making the sector competitive and creating lot of substitutes.
This is where traditional beer, lagers are feeling threatened, yet people are attracted towards more premium brands, with quality, heritage and innovation. Rather than spending for regular brand people are ready to pay more for special and premium products. So to maintain profits premium, value added, limited edition products were introduced where quality matters the most.
So the substitute`s threat is high.
Bargaining power of suppliers: low/ Medium
Supplier relations are long term, constitute lot of faith, understanding and importance of service. In case of cobra beer, since the production of the beer is customized to give less gassy feel, production and constitution of raw material is highly complex. Also supplier of 330ml and 660ml bottles are at least for the year of 4 years, which make the company less vulnerable to threats from suppliers. This makes the supplier for long term so as to minimize the cost of changes and time consumed.
Industry competitors: High
In such a consolidated market of beer, top 5 brewers constitute of 80% share of beer volume sales. In such saturated market, with a single popular product the share in market can show difference. And that is why the threat from industry competitors is always high. Molson and coors maintained steady market share, with a marginal growth in sales, where brands like cobra beer are doing well from last 2 years due to new trends in consumption of lagers.
To summarize Porters five forces, our brand Cobra beer has threats from 4 factors which are high. And since cobra beer is trying to expand in existing market it has to tackle each of them with great precision and in dynamic way. A well planned strategy towards desired growth in sales needs to be established which will actually boost company`s expectation of brand to be the most popular in UK till 2020.
MICRO ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
Marketing Mix- 7P`s
Product:
Product is a good or service offered to customers by the company. It should integrate features and values that are important to customers. Since the beer industry scenario is changing a product with different taste, appearance and alcohol content needs to be introduced in the market. Cobra beer started with premium beer product then introduced King Cobra and cobra zero to attract customers with different needs.
Cobra beer as a product is associated with rich Indian heritage, culture and fine quality of beer production. It depicts the premium quality of lager produced and served keeping in mind the needs of customer. The reason behind this products success is that, it was introduced to feel the void between a complimentary drink and a lager, an experience which every customer wants to be pleasant. A less gassy, extra smooth premium lager beer product was hence introduced and it`s still doing strong.
To make the product more likable it depends on how it`s shown, designed, served (in what size, color so on).
How it`s different than competitors?
How does it look? What experience customers will get out of it?
Cobra beer, answers this all.
The design and appearance of the product is unique. Depicting products history and journey till now in the form of encrypted icons on each bottle.
Catchy color combination, simple yet unique bottling and off course the taste gives it differentiation than competitors
Place:
This is most important factor for product to do well. As cobra beer is Indian beer, it was first made available in Indian restaurants all over the UK.
Distribution channel of cobra beer is now taken care by UK`s 3rd largest brewery molson coors, who have presence, reputation and experience of distributing famous brands.
As a bid to become one of the top beer brands, cobra beer is served not only in Indian restaurants, but also in pubs and retailers such as ASDA.
Price:
Cobra beer being a premium lager is priced competitively with competitors; a standard bottle in ASDA costs £2.10
To attract the customers cobra has introduced smaller bottles in the pack of 4 bottles costing £4.48 on which discounts are also offered various times.
Promotion:
Initially cobra beer got benefit of word of mouth to market its product. But as time changed the owner of the firm Karan Bilimoria and his own story became a good PR campaign making the product awareness.
Advertising through TV, press, cinema started when product was made available in pubs; where `pub cast campaign` and `Now you are talking` campaigns were executed as part of marketing strategy.
Currently new TV advert `India Live` is catching the attention of consumers.
People:
Specialist team of people for Cobra beer`s branding is limited, but the front end staff of all the Indian restaurants across UK where the product is available are the one who are main marketers. Their support and faith in the brand creates its image of the most successful Indian beer in UK.
Process:
More the crystallized process is customers get benefits. Demand and supply should be balanced in order to reach customer all the time. Cobra beer is available in on and off trade markets making customers easy to get one.
Physical evidence:
"Is the environment in which the firm and customers interact and in which services or products are delivered; it can also be any tangible commodities which facilitate performance or communication of the service"
Physical evidence refers to all the tangible, visible touch points that your customer will encounter before they buy, from any point of sale. Cobra beer`s bottles and appearance is important physical evidence for the brand.
F:COBRA BEERpicscobra_story_0312.jpg
Segmentation, Targeting and positioning:
Karan Bilimoria, as entrepreneur was very clear of what he was targeting as a market when he launched this less gassy, premium and mild beer. He wanted everybody who had Indian food to drink a beer which will not affect their appetite and taste.
Following is the discussion about three factors.
F:COBRA BEERpicsstp1.png
Cobra beer introduced through Indian restaurants is now in both on and off trade outlets, and so the Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning will have different approach.
Segmentation:
Having status of established beer brand in restaurants, cobra beer has awareness in customers. Having said, following is the segmentation done keeping in mind the required criteria`s.
Geographic:
Country- United Kingdom
Demographic:
Sex: Male and female
Age: 18+
Life stage: Single, young, couples (flown the nest, Nest builders), Parents with one or more kids and retired population.
Social bracket: ABC1
Origin: religion and origin does not matter, until and unless they are alcohol consumers.
Lifestyle: People, who find irresistible to have Indian food, are fond of to go out for a night out at pub, bars and clubs. Who adore beer of premium standard and enjoys good tasty beer.
Behavioral: Provides scope for analysing who buys cobra beer, when, how often, how much they spend, and through what transactional channel they purchase (On or off trade) since it`s a dissimilar product than competitors choice of buying a cobra beer gives image of different, new, premium, intelligent buying.
Targeting:
This is second part of STP process, where it`s determined which segments are to be targeted and have to be focus of marketing program.
Previously as a standard product targeting process of cobra beer was simple and niche. Since its trying to break in to mainstream brand it needs to be carefully drawn and executed to draw maximum results and profits. Current market scenario demands brands to serve male and female consumers keeping in mind their demands and changes in preferences.
Targeting needs to be concentrated, adopting exclusive marketing strategy to attract consumers.
Positioning:
"Positioning is not what you do to a product; it is what you do to the mind of a prospect." Ries and Trout (1972)
Purpose of positioning a product is to understand what the nature of the competition is in the beer market and what tangible and intangible attributes are customers looking for when buying these types of products? Since cobra beer entered on trade market also, one has to take in account what are the attributes that a customer looks for when he/she goes out to have a drink in a pub, club or bar.
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is the most fundamental tool for analysis of strategic analysis. It analyses companies existing strengths, weaknesses and possible opportunities, threats.
Strength:
Strong Indian heritage
Presence across Indian restaurants
Unique brand appearance and image.
Unconventional branding.
Winner of Golden Monde award for high quality product.
Entrepreneurial work culture
Karan bilimoria`s vision and determination.
Molson & Coors expertise in Beer market.
Weakness:
Market presence from 1989, whereas competitors are in market longer than that.
Limited presence in market.
Other products less popularity and availability.
Within the boundaries of Indian curry complimentary lager.
Mainstream status not yet achieved
Opportunities:
On and off trade market yet to tap.
Indian restaurants are increasing in numbers.
New marketing approach and campaign.
Threats:
Sweet alcoholic beverages are gaining more popularity. (ciders)
Extensive marketing and sales by mainstream brands.
Decreasing trends in beer consumption.
Introduction:
Cobra beer and its efforts to become top ten brands in UK are the most ambitious projects that we are going to discuss. Having discussed the company, its history and way of working we have an aim to
Achieve increase in sales
Increase brand presence in on and off trade market
create a market reputation for sustained growth and popularity
Develop a strategy with help of IMC combining various marketing frameworks to achieve project objectives.
IMC and its importance for brand:
A brand needs to utilize all available media, method and technology to build solutions for problems and framework to capture available opportunities in the market. IMC helps us to merge marketing communication and advertising activities to build a strong brand and its market position.
imc
corporate advertising
sales force communication: trade shows, packaging, direct marketing, sales promotion
pricing, logistics, new product development
investor relation, media relation, public affairs
product publicity, sponsorship, brochures
Traditional mass media advertising.
As we can see from the figure, integrated occurs at consumer or perceiver level, by presenting the message in integrated way. In other words there is need to manage each point of contact between consumer, product or organisation.
Successful IMC campaign rests on integration of advertising, public relation, sales promotion and personal selling. This creates an added value for receiver or consumer in terms of faster and better comprehension of communication.
Above ingredients of marketing and communication, should be working together to achieve common goal of producing maximum result for particular product or a brand. When we are applying IMC, we need to merge the communication plan and the communication activities together, for desired results.
The communication plan:
Situation analysis and marketing objectives: why?
Target groups: who?
Communication objectives: what?
Tools, technique, channels and media: how and where?
Budgets: how much?
Measurement of result: how effective?
To design a marketing communication plan for Cobra beer, we will follow the standard IMC planning, where the plan will discuss in deep the brands current position, our aims, steps to be taken and effectiveness to be expected.
IMC approach for cobra beer will consider all forms of communication, all message delivery channels, customers and prospects, and all brand contact points while they plan and achieve communication to capture attention of targeted population.
Target population:
UK population above 18 is allowed to drink alcoholic beverages; according to mintel`s research 18-24-year olds (male-female) are 19% less likely than average to choose lager as their first choice pint/volume drink but 86% more likely to choose cider. Target group will comprise of people who are not satisfied with mainstream lager brands and want a change which will be less bitter and smooth in taste, since this is our USP of Cobra beer. As more of the alcohol consumers are from the age group 18-24, 25-34 we need to address them by attracting towards our product and its different status in the shelves of on and off trade.
Following is distribution of our target group.
General segmentation
Geographic: all united kingdom.
Demographic: a) 18-24 and 25-34 male-female (flown the nest, nest builders)
b) ABC1, C2 social class
c) Generation X, Baby boomers, singles, just married
Geographic: Urban and semi urban.
Ideal customer portrait:
Male: Karl is a happy go lucky person, with lots of friends, in his mid 30`s he is working with reputed firm. Loves to go party, his friends often visit him on weekends. His love for travelling is known by his knowledge of different cultures, heritage and history. He has visited India quite often and loves the food. On special occasions he loves to visit an Indian restaurant with his girlfriend and enjoy the food.
Female: Jessie is a girl who lives on her own terms. Strong decision maker, lives away from parents due to her work in a big MNC, has lot of friends from different countries. Loves to try out new places of food and party. More than pubs she and group of friends like to come back home watch their daily shows and have nice drink and food.
IMC campaign objectives:
IMC objectives are largely dependent on product life cycle position. Choice of goals depends on factors that are originating in situational analysis. Cobra beer is going through growth stage, and hence marketing communication goals need to be determined regarding that.
Emphasize cobra beer`s premium positioning. : Off trade sales to be maximised by changing brand appearance and packaging. Also upgrading the positioning of cobra beer in retail stores such as ASDA, Tesco by placing product visible to consumers.
Creating new brand identity & awareness (modern and sophisticated): influencing at least 60% of on trade consumers to taste Cobra beer.
As cobra beer is well known in United Kingdom, our communication strategy will be focused on increasing the awareness focusing mainly on its core properties of Indian international lager, with distinct taste than its competitors. As a marketer we will device strategy based on brand and products features, benefits and uniqueness; emphasising on right brand feature and benefits to differentiate between competitors product.
Proposed Planning with respect to Marketing Mix:
Product:
Making strong statement in market, product will focus on its image to be stylish, young, premium, modern. For the same purpose new product packaging and new font will be introduced in later months of 2012 in all pubs and off trade market.
Place:
Indian restaurants is a forte market for cobra, special efforts will be made to make that experience of custoemers to make more enjoyable, and worth money they spend.
Since cobra beer will be maximising its attention in off trade and on trade market, retail outlets will be covered all around UK to place the product where customer could site it easily, with other mainstream brands to make proper decision.
DSC_8544
New packaging of product will be introduced, giving customers option of choosing cobra beer in smaller bottle as well as cans. Making it easy for carrying and giving it updated look in sync with competition demand.
coba new look
Price:
Competitive price is set by the producers of cobra beer, which is according to the other lager competitors in the market.
1*660ml bottle = £2.10
4*330ml = £4.73 (in ASDA)
Promotion:
£4000000 will be spent on promotions of the brand for coming year, which has main motive to increase brand sales in on and off trade. Tools used for the purpose are explained later.
Campaign Proposal
After micro and macro analysis of cobra beer, we will pen down the proposal for marketing using various tools. Which will be complimenting our IMC objectives. A complete IMC proposal will be introduced comprising of various tools, their timeframes and budget. Followed by evaluation of each.
Essence of organization and its image will be taken care of while planning a campaign. Its heritage, entrepreneurial history will be an inspiration for us to work.
Assess communication environment: spending nature of beer brands in competitive context. Beer industry of UK is spending huge on communication instead of plummating sales. Topping the spending chart is AB Inv.
Top five spenders from 2008 to 2011
E:COBRA BEERpicsspenders.jpg(Mintel, 2011)
Describe target audience
To attract younger audience brands are capturing the summer festivals like reading, download, leeds, hard rock. Also football season is great time for sponsorships and marketing of a product due to its wide followers from all age groups.
Set media objective:
Beer is not a homogeneous product, every product has different perceived value, taste and quality. And the difference is unique due to difference in advertising. And hence usage of media and its objectives differ from product to product. We have following reasons to considre before setting our media and its objectives.
Growth in premium lager concept.
Wide variety of imported beer (international beer).
Substantial growth in light beer and cider consumption.
Hence, while setting the objectives and usage of different media we need to understand the implications of beer inndustry environment and consumers changing attitude.
Selecting media mix:
For selecting media mix of cobra beer we have to keep in mind,
AIDA model
Potential consumers and their media touch points.
Effectiveness of media for specific target group.
Media types which are over crowded by other brand promotions.
For cobra beer, we will explain the media to be used as per AIDA model of `Hierarchy of effects` by St Elmo Lewis (1900).
AIDA
Usage through
Awareness
Interest
Advertising
Public relations
Direct marketing
Print and OOH
Beer fests, curry fest
Social media, you tube
Desire
Sales promotion
On and off trade promotions and sales offers
Actions
Company initiatives
Involvement of retailer and consumers in Cobra beer
DIM campaign:
Objective: To increase awareness and interest in cobra beer we will use direct marketing extensively, since the target group we are using is young, enthusiastic and love to socialize. To tap their interest we need to keep in mind the points from where socialise is happening. This indicated use of,
Social media (Facebook)
Google (search engine), mobile marketing
Email
To maximise cobra beer and its brand awareness we will create buzz around the target market which will give us an opportunity to connect with more people and creating interest about the beer and its perception.
Our main objectives will be,
Acquisition: Samples of cobra beer given at on and off trade by staff available signing consumers up for Facebook, email, twitter campaign for generating further contact points.
Retention: from databases of existing Indian restaurants and retailers of cobra we will send invitations for our new programme, and engage consumers with activities happening all through the year..
Approach:
Schedule
Social Media: June 2012- May 2013
Email, SMS: June, July, August 2012
December 2012, January, February 2013
Social media is revolutionising the way people do marketing and is one of the most important channels for strategic campaigns. People now tend to seek for the participation of online communities to communicate and exchange resources with each other. Therefore, Cobra beer can invest in a social media to increase the depth and breadth of its relationship with its consumers.
It will be a medium for us as marketer to showcase cobra beers heritage and premium image with followers and fans. Social media will also help to share new events, promotional activities with people at the same time getting their reviews. A fan page will be created which will serve our purpose as follows,
Focused Ads: Another way cobra beer can advertise through Facebook is by purchasing ads targeted toward a subsection of Facebook`s user base. Throughout the Facebook experience, an incredible amount of information is collected from each user. This information can later be used to create ads that target users based on a factor such as age from 18-24. Focused advertisements are good way to promote events, product launches and offers.
Twitter: Twitter is one of the largest, fastest-growing communication platforms across the world, with 190 million users. Twitter enables Cobra beer to write short blog up to 140 characters that allows users to keep all of Cobra`s followers up to date on the latest news and activities of the campaign. Also we can use Lord Karan Bilimoria`s tweets to get followers attention and create an image of brand.
YouTube: YouTube is a video-sharing social network, on which users can upload, view and share videos. Cobra beer will upload all of the videos entered from splendidly Indian campaign depicting Indian connection of beer and place URL on their Facebook page. In this way there will be awareness generation and consumer engagement towards cobra beer, soon competition will take place which will ask people their video blogs of India, and a winner would get souvenirs and gifts from cobra beer.
Mobile Marketing:
Mobile phone marketing has been increasingly popular, as it becomes an entrenched part of everyday lives, particularly for young audiences. Mobile marketing is defined as "a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network" . This medium consists of marketing via SMS, MMS, and QR codes and in game mobile marketing.
Cobra beer campaign is surrounded with media`s such as internet, and a Smartphone is an integral part of an individual`s internet use. In our campaign we will send messages with link to our Facebook page where consumers can get link to YouTube and twitter homepages. Also messages will be used to give customers discounts and offers in their geographic areas, which will be a support to sales promotion also. Databases will be shared with third party to conduct the campaign to increase effectiveness. Messages will be sent in every 3rd month before the sales promotion takes place.
Email campaign:
The purpose of email marketing for this campaign is to enhance the relationship between cobra and its customers and also encourage customer loyalty. Email marketing is proved to be very effective communication tool since 85% of Internet users in the UK use email on a daily basis. Cobra beer is also going to use their own in house database to contact these customers (from Facebook, YouTube, and twitter). Emails will be addressed by individual names in order to ensure the intimacy and privatisation. Recipients then will feel that they are treated personally and uniquely.
The emails contain the link to the website for further details. In order to maximise the effectiveness of the campaign, the idea is to remind the customers by a repeating strategy. We propose that cobra should repeat sending the message in the third month and the sixth month of the campaign containing Emails invitations, latest offers and benefits offered on every purchase. By doing so the consumers are not information overload but still have some necessary remind. A reliable external party is responsible to conduct the whole campaign under the quality control of Integrated Media.
Campaign measurement:
Campaign will be measured in two parts,
Pre Testing:
Pre-testing is imperative in determining the effectiveness of the campaign prior to its launch, thus minimizing any possibility of failure.
Focus groups will be used as a part of qualitative research to achieve in-depth understanding of how the campaign comes across to the consumers and how well it conveys the message. The focus groups will consist of 3 groups with 6 respondents in each group, each of which will include individuals between the ages of 18-24 and have tasted cobra beer before. This will help in determining the success and clarity of the direct marketing campaign and also provide a clear understanding of the audience`s points of interests likes and dislikes by means of feedback. This will assist in improvising on the campaign prior to its initiation.
Post-testing
Post-testing helps in measuring the success of the campaign in accordance with the objectives providing a clear understanding of the consumer`s attitudes and behaviour towards Cobra beer.
To evaluate sales response, we will invest in software`s that help track website traffic, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube following before, during and after the campaign. We will also maintain weekly and monthly records of the number of `new customer` response generated during and after the campaign period. In addition declared data i.e. information added by the visitor (email, online surveys or questionnaires, contact details) will be followed up thereby increasing access to the targeted audience.
We will also subscribe to Ugov Brand Index to conduct online surveys to track Cobra`s long run awareness and perception. This will enable us view the impact on consumers brand perception towards Cobra beer.
Budget:
For targeted 40000 People database
Cost
Social media (1 year)
£36000
Email & SMS (6 months)
£12, 96, 000
Total DIM budget: £13, 32, 000
Public Relation campaign
To build a successful brand, reputation of business house in internal and external environment is essential. To build this reputation public relation is the most important tool used. Stakeholders involved internally and externally need to be address with help of PR.
Cobra beer, as a premium beer brand has been always involved through its cobra foundation in activities of charity, health and education.
Through this campaign we will try and identify, build, enhance stakeholder relationship of cobra beer. To support our IMC campaign Public relation will help to enhance brand image.
Objectives of PR campaign:
Identifying primary and secondary stakeholders
Establishing communication between business house and stakeholders
To generate positive and credible reputation of brand in media
To keep communication flowing amongst media, stakeholders and organization.
To create awareness about cobra beers value and believe in stakeholders.
Approach:
Internal stakeholders: employees, suppliers, trade partners.
External Stakeholders: retailers, consumers, Pubs & bars, government, media.
Tools to be used:
Employee relations
Organizing employee welfare programmes, involve them in companies programmes with media and society. Arranging special employee engagement programmes and modules to retain best talent and increase credibility of their performances.
Newsletter
Updating stakeholders such as employees, suppliers and retailers about the new approach towards product and its marketing. Which will help in creating awareness before product reaches to consumer
Help on and off trade retailers to understand companies approach towards product and its sales. Through newsletters we will make a statement about our coming promotions and involvement of our stakeholders in it. This will make sure their inputs and suggestions for making it better and achieve wide reach.
It will be helpful to maintain conversation with retailers and traders about new offerings to them, discounts and special offers for weekends/ holidays/ Christmas holidays.
Create awareness about companies, environmental responsibility, community relation, governance and ethics reporting and responsible alcohol consumption activities.
Special events
Events will be organised where cobra beer will be centre of attraction, people from our target groups will be invited for special occasions and celebrations. Where curry week, beer festivals, fashion weeks, music festivals where cobra beer will be served specially.
fest
Also competitions involving cobra fans (help of social media) will be arranged winners of which will be felicitated during these events.
National curry week: 8-4 October 2012
National eating out week: 19-25 November 2012
Media release
Since media is integral part of a brand to portray its image to masses, we will be in releasing press releases. This will address cobra beer`s various initiatives and inform media about developments in brand and its approach. Media relations are important since it will give brand premium image, its attempts towards being government and law friendly approach towards sales. Releases will focus on Lord Karan Bilimoria`s association with various charities, CSR activities, involvement in business organizations.
Evaluation:
PR evaluation is done by measuring output, outtakes and outcomes.
Output:
turnout of people at events organised, sales generated
Employee perception and change in their attitudes after newsletters launched.
Outtakes:
Level of awareness amongst receiver
Level of recall, comprehension amongst stakeholders regarding cobra beer and perception about it before and after launch of PR campaign will be measured by a panel.
Response to cobra beer website before and after campaign.
Outcomes:
Change in stakeholder`s attitude before and after campaign.
What made the effective impression on particular stakeholder and why? Will be answered by the<
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