There are a number of alternative media that could be used to advertise and promote lunchmunchies, in particular for this report the following have been selected to look at. Ambient which be the main focus of alternative advertising but it will also look at cinema advertising. Ambient is something that is a one off not like adverts on television or in the newspaper but things like a school tours or a major outdoor stunt, for example, FHM’s stunt of projecting a picture of a television presenter onto the white cliffs of Dover. This attracted major media attention for a one off cost and gave the magazine massive exposure throughout the country that would of cost 10 times the amount. With this product a stunt like that isn’t exactly appropriate with it being more aimed to attract children rather than adult aiming for the news isn’t the best approach.
A promotional school tour would raise the profile with the kids creating awareness of the product. It would also capitalise on the current campaign to get the government introduce healthier eating in schools that has created a lot of commotion in the press and with parent. Keeping in mine that even though the product will be advertised towards children it will be their parents that will be buying the produce for them. The benefits of a school tour will mainly be the level of awareness that is created by having the kids have full interaction with the produce, i.e. the brand, free samples and giveaways, such as t-shits and key rings. It will also create awareness with the buyer of the produce, the parents. The synergy with PR is also a bonus, being able to piggy back on the recent news created by the healthy eating trend that is sweeping the country because of this campaign. It also avoids problems found in more common advertising media such as clogging. Clogging is common in print advertising and television advertising it is when an advert can be lost amongst other adverts because the consumer is exposed to too many adverts.
However ambient advertising does have its drawbacks there is a lack of guarantee to how effective it is, television may be used by many but it is tried and tested and can reach any target market easily. With ambient advertising it also has its difficulties in targeting the right people and is hard to research accurately. Even though the school tour would target the kids the buyer i.e. the parent might now gain the awareness due to the fact its up to the children to tell them about it. The tour also could cause legal complications with it being allowed into the schools. The product could possible draw unwanted attention from the government as well and this could end up with negative press if parents are apposed to the advertising in the school.
Cinema advertising is another alternative to more common advertising, it has a captive audience that has nothing else to do but watch it which will allow full impact. Also with cinema advertising it is cheaper than television so for the amount of money it would cost to produce a 30 second ad and run it on prime time television, the company could create an ad that is much long and run it in cinemas before every showing of a particular film (most likely a kids film due to the target market) for weeks. This allows the company to also associate the product to the film and could lead to cross promoting between the film and the product. Choosing the film would also be quite easy as the launch of the product is in late summer it would catch a large amount of the major film releases for the year.
The downside is that the consumers may forget about the product after sitting watching a film for a good one and a half to two hours, remembering that it is kids that the advertising would be targeting they may not have the attention span to remember after the film, especially if they enjoy the film. There is also the fear that if they don’t enjoy the film they could link that with the product creating a negative image and making it instantly unpopular.
Section 2
The creative advertising appeals/styles for lunchmunchies with a look at similar products
Advertising appeals can be split into emotional and rational appeals, these appeals develop into other appeals including information, comparative, reinforcement, motivational and psychological and imitation. Lunchmunchies is ideally a product that would use emotional appeal seeing as the main target is children and it would be the easiest approach to make the product popular with them. However it also has to be considered that it will be the parents who buy the product mainly not the kids, with this in mind the products nutritional value is a key factor so a rational appeal such as information is essential in its advertising. Whereas from an emotional appeal stance for the children to want the product things such as humour must be added into the mix in order to get them interested in the product.
In adverts for similar products they use both emotional and rational appeals similar to what has been previously mentioned with the added appeal for kids of a brand character. For example dairylea lunchables is a product that is aimed at the same market as lunchmunchies and is a very similar product. Their advertising rotates round the children wanting the dairylea lunchables and this is what attracts the buyers i.e. the parents. It creates the image that this is what their children want so they buy them it, coupling that with the added bonus of getting calcium into their diet the parents believe that is product is the best thing for their children’s lunch. Dairylea has also recently introduced a new brand charater(s) into their advertising with the introduction of the dairylea cows who are “on a mission, to give mums delicious dairylea for their kids.” These characters are appealing to the kids and give the message to the mums (buyers) at the same time without making the kid feel like the advert is for their mums. It is seen that kids ages 8 to 12 years old start
“The development of the left side of the brain (analytical skills), together with social maturation, enables kids to appreciate the more complicated, sophisticated, edgier characters…”
David Lawrence (2003)
So it is important that lunchmunchies take this into consideration when they design their advertisement, if they do decide to use a brand character then they need to go for a more edger character that would appeal to a wider range of kids. It also helps the product maintain its staying power as the character will be suitable for kids going into their teens and that can carry though up to the top target age of 16.
As for the more adult market late night adverts could be run along the same lines as the recent kellogg’s adverts aimed at students for late night snacks. The adverts could go for a rational approach with information about it having less fat, salt and sugar then other products. It could be the ‘a healthier quicker option to fast food’
Section 3
A brief look at how the budget could be allocated over the first six months including the launch.
The budget for this product launch and first six months of advertising in the UK is £1 million. First it must be decided what media will be used in the launch and for the six months following. The budget should be set up as two separate ones, one for the launch and one for the following six months reinforcement. Assuming that the launch will use cinema advertising and a School tour to firstly promote it and create awareness in the market, it would be advisable to have £500,000 for that and £500,000 for the next six months. Figures such as £140,000 for cinema advertising with about £100,000 for the production of the ad itself which could be shortened for television to save on production cost, a further £150,000 for production and running should be made available for more adverts to be produced. The production of adverts can run into many thousands of pounds but it is down to how complex they are made, if they are simple they can be made as cheap as £1000. The example below is an ideal one for this product as it has a good base for the target market and it gives a huge exposure all across the country.
Example for cinema advertising:
Comparable profile: Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets
The school tour should not be overly expensive but taking into consideration the amount of schools too be visited and the possible cost of the free giveaways there should still be an allocation of about £200,000.
As for the second half of the budget £150,000 should be allocated for further advert production, as for placement of adverts with the market aimed at kids there is no need to pay for prime time space which means that the cheaper sports can be taken and the adverts can be shown more. This gives repetition and allows the adverts to be seen by more viewers. So with day time advertisement it would acceptable to allocate £300,000 for the placement of the advertising. This leaves a total of £110,000 combined from both budgets that should be used to sponsor a programme on children’s television.
Section 4
The advantages and disadvantages of the other marketing communications tools in conjunction with advertising
The main marketing communication tool that could be used with advertising is sponsorship as it can make a direct impact and is almost the same as advertising.
Sponsorship is defined as
A form of enlightened self interest where a worthy activity is supported with cash and/or consideration in return for satisfying specific marketing objectives’
Paul Smith
The sponsorship of a television programme allows a brief advertisement at both the start and finish of the programme and also at the start and finish of its advert breaks. This allows a high repetition of a short advert in a short period of time, which can help increase the effectiveness of the message that is trying to be conveyed. For this product it would seem that children’s programming would be absolutely ideally and it could also open up an opportunity for synergy between this product and the programme. Either the characters from the programme could become the face of lunchmunchies or there could be competitions on the packs to win prizes connected to the programme, which in turn can increase sales. Associating it with a popular television programme can also help the products image and instantly gain it popularity by association.
The drawbacks surrounding sponsorship can be that even though the programme is popular when the sponsorship starts half way through it could lose its popularity and with it can hinder the products popularity at the same time. There is also an issue that the programme may alienate other potential buyers due to them not liking the programme that has been sponsored. Also choosing the right programme can cause problems due to many considerations such as the time the programme is on and what channel it should be on. Complication my also occur if the programme moves stations this could cut the sponsorship short and but could still result in the company paying out the full sponsorship.
Summary
In completion of this report it is seen that the product lunchmunchies should aim its advertisements towards schools and children’s television to ensure that it captures the right market. For the launch period it is important for the company to establish the brand and to create a brand awareness. This awareness should not only be for the target market of 5-11year olds but to all the consumers especially the buyers, which will more than likely be the parents of the 5-11 year olds. Synergy with other businesses such as television programmes and films is essential to differentiating this product from all those similar to it. Using the nutritional benefits is also the main area of information that has to be transmitted in the massage to the buyers thought the advertisement.
Reference
Lawrence, D. (2003), The Role of Characters In Kids Marketing
Solomon, M. (2002), Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective
Smith, P.R. (1994), Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach
Websites
/Television-Advertising-Costs.htm
http://www.pearlanddean.com/planbuy/film.html
