M3 Alternative Market

A coherent marketing mix for Brain Food could be women between the ages of 30-35. They have a family, and a busy working life to attend to. The main benefits of Brain Food are that is an ‘on-the-go’ product for a fast yet healthy breakfast. This could be perfect for women in this target age range. The women I am going to be targeting are mothers of a family, they spend money on the weekly shop and treats for their children, and after having children they are very weight conscious and are always on the lookout for a new trendy way to lose weight. They usually spend their lunch break in coffee shops like Starbucks and Costa; this could be an alternative place for the product to be sold for this market. Instead of being a breakfast cereal bar, Brain Food could be turned into a light snack bar for any time of the day. Instead of having the slogan ‘learning starts at 9am’ it could be changed to ‘working starts at 9am’, the product as a whole would be advertised as a healthy wholegrain snack; because the target women are the type of people who worry about what they eat, they would be on the lookout for calories and healthy positives involved. Promotional TV adverts would be on while all the evening soaps are on, for example Emmerdale or Coronation Street this is when the target audience would be watching the TV, they would listen to the radio the most in the mornings on the school run. The price would probably stay the same as £1.29 per bar, but mothers shopping for their family weekly shop are always looking out for deals in supermarkets such as Tesco, so they could do a lunch deal with Tesco where they could buy a sandwich and a drink as well as Brain Food.

M1 Comparision of Kellogg's and Diesel

Kellogg’s and Diesel both have different marketing techniques in the way that they attract their customers.  Kellogg’s are definitely more of a family, trustworthy brand in the way they advertise. They have products for everybody in a family, whereas Diesel’s products show you have to be a sort of person to buy into their brand. Kellogg’s adverts are happy and upbeat, they attract children with characters they can relate to, and attract women with huge plans to get healthy by making their cereals look positive. On the other hand Diesels advertisements are darker and the music is rocky; it includes the ‘type’ of people who can get away with wearing the loud brand that Diesel is. You can have any type of personality to eat cereal from Kellogg’s as it doesn’t show who you are as a person whether you eat Nestle or Kellogg’s whereas wearing Diesel shows who you are as a person and what type of personality you have. Where Kellogg’s uses relationship marketing Diesel uses transactional marketing, the difference between relationship and transactional marketing is that transactional is when the conversation is quite persuasive and less emphasis will be on the actual service. Relationship marketing is the opposite; they try to create a lot of trust between them and the customers, in which a kind of relationship is formed. Kellogg’s will use relationship marketing as, unlike Diesel, they do not have a Kellogg’s store, they are sold in supermarkets and corner shopped mixed with other brands that are competition for Kellogg’s; they need to create  an excellent reputation so customers will chose Kellogg’s over other brands. Diesel, on the other hand, uses transactional marketing as they are based in their own store with no other competition. Their aims are to concentrate on making sales there and then.

Kellogg's Advert

Task 2 Corporate Communication

1.       How effective is this communication?

The communication online they use is very useful for their customers; it is able to answer any questions on problems they might come to the website to answer. They include different links to who they are and background information on their aim.

2.       What type of communication does it use?

They use many different types of communication to get across the information to the reader; different media also makes it more interesting. They have videos/short advertisements to give them an introduction to the company. It explains strategies and how they control their business. There are case studies and brochures that the customer can download to their computer, and also blogs to view with different sections of information. If a customer needs to contact somebody for further information then there are contact details for useful people, they have sub-sections where customers can choose a country to make it easier for them to understand.

3.       What are the positives of using this type of communication?

From all the different types of communication available on the website, people viewing are given a wider range of information about the company. It is useful for people to have all the information in one area and it makes the company look professional and efficient. They will save time and money creating a website full of different links and communication as customers can get all they need in one place.

4.       What are the drawbacks of using this type of communication?

The problem with the internet is that it needs high security to prevent it from being hacked. Somebody needs to monitor the website at all times and also it needs to be updated for new or changed information about the website, as the company grows new videos will need to be made and also blogs/brochures/contacts will be changed. There is somebody that needs to be employed to answer the calls and emails to make sure all customers’ questions are answered.

5.       How could they improve their communication in the future?

To improve their communication they could add a FAQ page to their website to reduce any emails coming through that have already been answered, perhaps they could upload their emails to their website so people can sift through before they email their question to make sure it hasn’t already been answered.

Summary

The types of media that I have used are film, print and e-mail, I chose these because they are efficient yet effective, they get the point across to the target audience quickly yet successfully. My target audience for the advertising is new starters to the company; they are using my blog to find out more information on market research.

I made a short film/advertisement for my blog because I feel my target market will use the intranet which is what it will be sent around on. I created it to make my blog look interesting and professional and to get my target market to take a look at my blog.

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I introduced myself and told the audience the purpose of my film. It is only supposed to be short because they need to visit the blog to actually get the information they need. It is a useful piece of media because it will attract my audience to click onto my blog to improve their knowledge on market research.

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My flyer holds short and sweet information on my blog which is all my target market needs to know until they open the web link. I made it colourful because this will catch their attention; I also included the logos of my chosen companies Diesel and Kellogg’s. I decided to put my link in a bubble that will stand out because it is another attention seeker for my flyer.

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My email newsletter was supposed to be quite informal that is sent around in chain emails, my target audience being the people who will be sent these emails. I made it into columns to make it look like a newspaper article, I made it colourful and included pictures which will attract my audience’s eye, again I only included short information so they have to view the blog to find out more.

My other options would have been to perhaps expand my intranet video into a TV advertisement or maybe voice over a radio advert. MY target audience would use both of these types of media. Also magazine articles or billboard advertisements but these would not have been as affective because my audience would not see/use these as much.

Video to Advertise Blog

Email Newsletter

Flyer

Market Research In Action Task 2

Kellogg’s need to not only target consumers, but the customers as well, especially in Brain Food’s case, the customer is the parents of their teenagers as they are the people who will buy their breakfast. The customer needs to know that what they are buying is healthy for their children, so Brain Foods promotes that it is whole grain and includes naturally occurring sugars. It unique selling point is that it get the teenagers to ‘start learning at 9am’, something that doesn’t usually occur. The promotions that attract the consumer are that it could turn into a ‘cool thing to eat’ and could end up being a trend, something a lot better for you than the current Red Bull. Teenage boys tend to play Xbox or Playstation in most of their spare time, so if they advertise or perhaps sponsor then they are most likely to see and be interested in it, if it is involved in Xbox or Playstation, then again it could become a cool new trend.

An example of the customers being targeted as well as the consumer is Rice Krispies, the advert is aimed at children but the idea of the product is targeted at parents. Parents will be happy about their children eating Rice Krispies as it is healthy and a good start to their day. Whereas children, who tend to watch a lot of TV, will be attracted to the advert and the three characters, there is a slogan of ‘snap crackle and pop’ that they will remember. The adverts will be put on at times that children tend to watch TV and also on channels that children watch.

Brain Food Marketing Plan

I.             Executive Summary

Brain Food is a wholegrain, naturally sugar occurring cereal bar aimed at the teenage males. It is a product created to help give a mental boost in the mornings; ‘learning begins at 9am’. Over the course of this plan, we shall be describing the marketing strategy for Brain Food, we will show the planned promotions, prices, distributions and talk more about the product.

II.            The Challenge

We have been given research from Kellogg’s carried out about their new fictional product, Brain Food. Brain Food is targeted towards teenage students. Our task is, using the outcome of the market research, to create a marketing plan for Brain Food that would be carried out over the next year.

III.           Situation Analysis

Company Analysis

Kellogg’s main goal is to bring the best to their consumers all around the world. They focus on sustainable growth, which involves constantly looking for ways to meet the needs of the consumer by expanding its product portfolio and growing in the cereal business. The culture of Kellogg’s is corporate in that it promotes good and fair treatment to both employees and customers. Kellogg’s are one of the most influential and innovative brands in the world, they produce more than 40 different cereals with plants in 19 countries, marketing its products in more than 160 countries and employing 26,000 people in its worldwide organisation. To improve, Kellogg’s could expand their product range into producing for example an Energy Drink, as Red Bull is one of their direct competitors.

Customer Analysis

Our target audience is male teenage student, aged between 17-21, but we need to make sure that it is appealing to parents as they will most probably be buying the product. We can do this by promoting the fact that it will ‘deliver a mental boost in the morning to ensure learning begins at 9am.’

Competitor Analysis

Direct competition within this product would be cereal bars from Nestle and energy drinks such as Red Bull. Kellogg’s need to make sure they are able to compete with these existing products by, for example, having a lower price or a new unique selling point.

Indirect competition would be companies such as McDonalds as they provide a breakfast service which teenagers tend to enjoy, Kellogg’s need to compete with McDonalds to also provide a breakfast service teenagers will want to eat.

Climate

In the current economic climate, with us heading a second recession, parents will be less eager to spend money on a product that might not be enjoyed as much as they already buy, this could also link to the legal environment in that the coalition government isn’t stable proving to parents it’s a risky move to buy unnecessary products. With the current social environment, teenagers are watching less television, resulting in a television advert campaign being more likely to be un successful. In these times, people are replacing sitting down for family meals with quick, ‘on the go’ ready meals. A bar like Brain Food would be perfect to fit into the latest social environment.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

It fits in with the current social ‘on the go’ trend, a bar is perfect for Teenagers to eat while on their way to school or college. By making it cheaper than a popular teenage choice, Red Bull, it will suggest that they will choose to buy Brain Food over Red Bull. By doing this they will also make their parents happy because of the ‘healthy’ side it promotes. Kellogg’s already know how to attract to children because of the cereals they have already created, so this experience and knowledge will provide trust between them and the customer.

Weaknesses

A new product isn’t always something that parents want to buy, because their money could be wasted if their children do not like it. By just aiming it at teenagers, they might find a loss in the market because adults tend to be ‘on the go’ on their journey to work every morning.

Opportunities

There will be opportunities for Kellogg’s to develop Brain Food because they could in the end turn it into a cereal, which could lead to different flavours etc.

Threats

The legal and economic environment at the moment could be a threat to Kellogg’s because customers will be reluctant to buy a new product that they haven’t tried or know that they like.

IV.          Market Segmentation

Segment 1

For our primary target group we’ve got 17 to 21 year old males, who are students single and still live at home. They drive and are heavy games console users. Their income average out at £6-8000 a year in which they spend on car insurance, mobile phones and clothes. They like football (playing and watching on TV) tier favourite programmes on TV being, Math of The Day, Inbetweeners and Misfits/. They like going to the cinema, pub and clubs and their favourite drink is WKD. Due to their low commitments to things they have a higher disposable income.

The Secondary target group that the research team came up with is 14 to 16 year old males, who are also single and living at home. They’re heavy game console players with an income of £2000 a year because they are still school students.  This person is very highly brand driven with a high awareness of what is “cool”. In their spare time they like going to the cinema and hanging out with their friends. They still live at home so it’s they’re parents would be controlling the purchase of the foods, with their favourite drink being coke. When watching TV they like to watch programmes like skins and Hollyoaks.

V.            Alternative Marketing Strategies

To market Brian Food, we wouldn’t just have to work out with advertising via television and radio because in this day and age our target market is spending less time watching it. So they are less likely to see an advert that was on there.  Sponsorships could be a better idea because if they sponsor another teenage aimed product or event then the product is more likely to be seen by them, for example music or sport events. Web adverts are also most likely to be seen by teenagers as they spend more time on websites such as Facebook and Twitter, than watching TV or listening to the radio. If a side advert is to be put up and catches the eye of a teenager then they are likely to consider buying it. Xbox or PlayStation could also help in the advertising for Brain Food as teenage boys spend most of their spare time playing so Kellogg’s could put in an advert for example in the instruction manual or on the start-up video.

VI.          Selected Marketing Strategies

The strategy we have selected is the sponsorship of a music or sporting event. We feel that this is what teenagers are enjoying at the moment; therefore they are most likely to respond to it.

Product

The brand name is Brain Food; it is catchy and gets across the positive ideas about the product. It has a certain quality to it as it will appeal to both customers and consumers in different ways. The customer, probably the parent, will like this product as it is healthy for their children as it advertises that ‘learning begins at 9am’ and it is made from wholegrain and naturally occurring sugars. It will appeal to the consumer as it has bright packaging and could be seen as the ‘new cool thing to eat’. It has a lot of scope as it could be made into an actual cereal instead of just a bar, or an energy drink to compete against popular choices such as Red Bull and Lucozade.

Price

A single bar will cost £1.29 a price that can compete with other rivals in the ‘on the go’ market. In popular supermarkets such as Tesco or The co-op, Brain Food could be launched into a meal deal offer which could persuade teenagers to eat it, once they have tried it in the meal deal, they might enjoy it and want to buy it separately in the future. Also, it could be offered in packs of 5 so it can become a regular morning snack for teenagers.

Place

We plan to sell Brain Food in large supermarkets such as Tesco, The Co-operative and Waitrose, but also in small corner shops and newsagents in local high streets. With locations like Tesco which is where most parents do their weekly shop it is more likely to be purchased as a multipack instead of the single bars, whereas at local corner shops, they are most likely to be bought as single bars. Like other Kellogg’s products, they would be stored in their warehouses, which is in Trafford Business Park. The supply chain would start off with the primary sector with the raw materials suppliers, this leads onto the manufacturers and the producers where the boxes and cereals are made, these are then transported onto the tertiary sector – supermarkets and local shops. The customer then buys the product and consumes it.

Promotion

For advertising, we are going to use media such as Internet and Television with the majority being via the internet. Our selected marketing strategy was to sponsor events such as festivals or football matches. With this strategy it’s more likely that the brand name will be heard, thus resulting in potential sales. We plan to spend approximately £200,000 on promoting Brain Food, this will include advertising and the sponsorships.

VII.               Short and Long Term Projections       

Within the next year we want to launch and market Brain Food, resulting in hopefully breaking even. The next year we plan to produce a profit from the sales of Brain Food, as the name will have hopefully become known and liked be teenagers, this will be through our different promotion schemes. The next five years we will have hopefully expanded the product line into different flavours, or perhaps a cereal or energy drink.

VIII.              Conclusion

To conclude, Brain Food is marketed to be a healthy breakfast cereal bar for the teenage market. The customers are parents and the consumers will be the teenagers, it appeals to both in different ways. Our plan for the next 5 years is to breakeven and possible break into a new alternative market. We feel our product is large competition to rivals such as Red Bull and other similar popular products.

Legislations

The Sales of Goods Act is a legislation that explains that if goods are sold, they are to be sold in the condition that they were labelled to be in. Customers from Diesel expect the products to be in excellent condition and that the labeling is correct, for example the price - the labeling needs to match the actual price of the product otherwise that is classed as false labeling and Diesel would have to sell the product for the price it is labeled with. Customers for Kelloggs expect the cereals to have to correct sell by date labelled and that the cereal has the correct ingredients labelled on the box. 


Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading act includes misleading actions from a brand or aggressive commercial practices, customers need to know that they are not going to be hassled to purchase something, and that the employees they talk to are going to be friendly and give you the correct information.
Diesel make sure that their employees have the correct knowledge and ability to perform an excellent service to their customers. 

What Is The Role Of The ASA?

The Advertising Standards Authority is in control of every piece of media used in the UK. They work to make sure that all advertising is legal truthful and open.

What advertising do they regulate?

They regulate with the most popular forms of advertising but not all. They usually regulate sales promotions, special offers and competitions through the use of advertising in magazines, television shopping, E-Mail, and most frequently through normal TV and radio.

What advertising don’t they regulate?

The ASA do not advertise through things like credit cards and telemarketing.

What is voluntary code?

It is a code practice that you must have in order to advertise through a company’s chosen media. If a company does not have a code their advertisement will not be acceptable for publishing of transmission. The code says that there should be nothing involved in the advertisement that could cause offense to anybody, for example offence through things like religion, sex, age, and disability.

What is the drink-aware campaign about?

It is a campaign that brings attention to people about the problems we have today about drinking. They currently have an objective to change the way people consume alcohol.

Who funds the campaign?

Drink Aware has raised around £5.2 million in funding from clubs, pubs and other alcohol industries.

Why would they do this?

There has been a huge increase of deaths from the use of alcohol and it not being consumed properly. People like pubs and clubs like to get involved as they are the main source of alcohol for people who drink.

Ansoff Matrix For Kelloggs

Kelloggs develop their products to make new types of the same product for the same market. For example Coco Pops have been developed to make Coco Pop Rocks, Coco Pops Moon and Stars and also Coco Pop Bars for childrens lunchboxes.

Kellogs And Its Relationship Marketing

Kellogs is a brand that can relate to all types of people, they create a kind of relationship where a lot of trust is involved. Customers who buy Kelloggs trust Kelloggs to give them a healthy breakfast to start their day, in which they provide all different types of customers with their favourite cereals.

They have created a strong relationshiop with children because of the characters they have created, coco pops and rice krispies have advertisements that catch their eye and tunes that  they remember, children trust Kelloggs that they carry on stocking the cereals that they enjoy every morning.

For the women who worry about their shape and manage their weight they have Special K, these women trust Kelloggs to control their diet and let them have 'the perfect body for summer' or get involved in their 'drop a jean size' campaign.

Branding For Kellogs

How much cereal do you eat in a week? This could be on of the questions askedKelloggs in its market reasearch. Who makes most of it? The British are almost the biggest consumers of cereal in the world, and Kellogg are being positivly effected by this as they are the most prominent player in the world of breafast and they produce more than three out of every ten packets eaten in the UK. So what makes Kelloggs so great? Well compared to Diesel, they are more of a family orientated brand,  their cereals appeal to parents and to the children and you do not have to live a certain lifestyle to eat it. 

Everybody wants to know that they have had a healthy start to their day, and not only that Kelloggs flavours such as Cornflakes, or Kelloggs Crunchy Nut have tasted and proved to by quite tasty, which is why people continue to buy them.

Parents will feel happy that their children have had a breakfast that will give them energy for their day, they trust Kelloggs to look after their children, cereals such as Shreddies or Rice Krispies are seen as being 'good for children'. CoCo pops are often seen as a treat for children as they are the chocolate option which is less healthy, but the adverts on the TV have a catchy theme tune and the characters are well known and loved by kids, a clever way fot Coco Pops to be chosen over Shreddies. Rice Krispies are the same, they have 3 characters and a catchy slogan which kids remember.

The adults in the family who tend to 'worry about what they eat' will also be able to chose a cereal from Kelloggs, Alpen Fruit 'N' Fibre or Kelloggs have cereals that can help you keep in shape or manage their weigh such as Special K.  

How Does Diesel Use The Growth Matrix?

Diesel uses Product Development the most as they are frequently coming out with new products or improved products to introduce to their existing market, Diesel has a certain market that they wouldn't really want to change because of the 'lifestyle' they have introduced and will continue to promote. 

They would also use Market Penetration which includes promotions and also customer value so the customers return back for not only their products but for their service too. 

Ansoff Growth Matrix

The Ansoff Growth Matrix is a tool that helps businesses decide their product and market growth strategy. It suggests that a businesses attempts to grow depend on whether it markets new or existing products in new or existing markets.

Market Penetration is what is known as the safe route to go through and the most preferred as it focuses on selling more of the existing products to its existing customers, or to customers buying similar products from competitors. The emphasis is put on through promotions and creating customer value by strengthening the offer and effective marketing. 

Product Development is when business continue to focus on the needs of the customer but they start to understand their needs which is where they see opportunities for new products. They can either replace an existing product with something better, or start to sell other products that the customer buys to provide added convenience and customer/business relationships. The downside would be that you may attract other competitors if you start to sell the products they sell, meaning you may not be as successful as you originally thought. 

Market Development is to take current products and create a new market for them, for example set up a student discount policy or for old age pensioners, or make your products available on the internet if you haven't already done so, a second place for customers to purchase your products will boost sales. Again your action to expand your market may attract the attention of competitors who currently only trade in places where you don’t.

Diversification is the most controversial as it is taking new products to new customers. There are three different levels to diversification,
-Diversification into related markets – while the customers and products are both new, customers understand the idea behind the business.
-Diversification into unrelated markets using existing resources and capabilities – while the customers and products are different, they all rely on the current strengths of the business.
-Diversification into unrelated markets which require new resources and capabilities.

Relationship Marketing In Diesel

Relationship marketing is a long term strategy to build relationships with customers. Success comes from attracting and retaining customers, with most companies marketing effort focused on attracting the customers, little attention is being paid to keep them. If a brand looks at a customer as an individual and tries to establish a relationship, then the customer is most likely to feel satisfied with the service and keep returning back. Diesel, however, focus on transactional marketing, techniques that focus on getting the customer to buy the product and walk away rather than immediately starting a relationship with the customer, the conversation would be quite persuasive and less emphasis would be on the actual service, the complete opposite to relationship marketing. 

Diesel And Its Branding

Branding is how your product comes across to your target audience, but to succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers. For example, Diesel is a global clothing and lifestyle brand, it is a remarkable company with a unique idea, an idea that puts sales and profit behind building something 'cool' through fashion. Diesel is well known to be a brand putting across a certain 'lifestyle' and if that lifestyle appeals to you, then so will their clothes, by having this lifestyle connected to their brand, customers feel as though if they buy from Diesel then they will be apart of the lifestyle they advertise. This comes as a positive note for Diesel as, as a brand, they have a selling point which doesn't go through marketing and advertising which is sometimes thought as forcing customers to be interested in a brand, as just being part of the lifestyle of Diesel, customers feel happy buying their products.

Once You Have Your Product...

You will need to carry on researching the market as there will be a lot of competition from others for your customers. There are different techniques that do this, 

-Branding

-Relationship Marketing

-Growth Matrix

These are all techniques used by the Companies Diesel and Kellogs;

RESEARCH;

Research can be collected in many different ways, and it is a technique that helps a business to understand what their target audience would like to see. There are two different research techniques;
-Primary Research
-Secondary Research


Primary research is research you collect yourself, for example in questionnaires or meetings with people within your target audience. This gives you a chance to launch and test out your product and for you to find out personally what their opinions are on your idea, you will then gather enough information to go back and perhaps change your product for the better. They will test out the look of the product, how it smells, feels, perhaps tastes or how it sounds, every bit of feedback they give you will help you towards the completion of your product, because at the end of the day, a customers opinions are the ones that count, they will be buying your product. 



Secondary Research is research carried out by somebody else, for example on the internet. Research can sometimes be very time consuming, but at the same time very important. You need to research or else you will not know where to start or where to finish with your product. 


Within your research you will need to ask you target audience groups different types of questions, as the larger range of answers you receive means the larger range of ideas you create. Qualitative and Quantitative answers will give you that range. Qualitative means answers in text form, so customers will be able to give out their opinion here, rather than just a yes or a no answer as these will not help you get any further with your research. Quantitative answers are in number form, so your target audience can perhaps rate a certain part of your product to tell you whether it is poor/adequate/good/excellent. 

MARKET;

If a business has an idea of a new product they will already have in mind a target audience, this is your market. You will need to think of something that will interest this certain age range/gender, if you are launching a new upmarket perfume, there is no point in targeting teenagers as they will not be as interested as 25-31 year olds, meaning your research will be unreliable. 

So, What Is Marketing?

Marketing is a very important part of starting up a new product or service for a business. You need to find out whether the idea you have will interest the customers within your target audience, and to do this you research the market to come up with a final idea.