Situational Analysis And Imc Objective Marketing Essay

Situational Analysis And Imc Objective Marketing Essay By referring to Jacobs website, Jacobs is a brand names which well-known for quality and whole meal biscuits and their reputation that has already existed over few generations. Jacobs success can be attributed to the companys high standards in manufacturing best quality of biscuits, its continuous research and product development, and its commitment to ensure that its product are suit to the changing of consumer needs, taste buds, and lifestyles. Over the years, range of products of Jacobs has grown and changed from a plain cracker to a wide-ranging range of quality crackers and biscuits, including Wheat meal, Cream Cracker, Low Salt Hi-Fibre, Hi-Cal, Hi-Fibre, and Oatmeal biscuits. Jacob is using several ways of IMC strategies to promote its products to consumers. Advertising Referring to Jacobs website, Jacobs Original Cracker mainly advertises on TV channel such as TV 1, TV 2, TV 3, NTV 7, and 8TV. Jacobs advertise with different languages, included Malay, Chinese, and English. By doing this, we can say that Jacob is targeting general group of market which are Malay, Chinese, and English. According to Utusan Malaysia website, Jacobs also advertise on newspaper such as language in Bahasa: Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian. In the newspaper, they are not directly advertising their product; Jacobs providing such as dessert recipe with Jacob cracker and educates consumers the correct ways for consumption. Contest Campaign By referring to the Jacobs website, Jacobs organized contest at the past with the title Jacobs Ibuku Inspirasiku, the prize worth up to RM 300,000. To join the contest, participants first have to gather any Jacobs cracker product that with the promotion label on the packing, minimum of 10 points for one submission. After that, participants have to click on Join Now at the website and fill in the details when prompted and key in the codes on Jacobs products pack to determine the accumulated points. Over the past few years, we can see that Jacobs not only advertising on newspaper and television but also organizing healthy campaign such as in year 2010, Jacobs Walk of Life and Strong Support for 1Malaysia Sihat. Apart from the 5 kilometre walk, participants also enjoyed of continuing booth activities that designed by co-sponsors such as free health check by Selangor State Health Department, free bone health check by Anlene, balloon sculptures, childrens face painting, and childrens inflatable at Kids Fun zone. There were also special performances by popular local artist, Black and One Nation Emcee entertained the crowd with their music. Due to the strong support by peoples in 2010, therefore in year 2011 Jacobs continued to organize the event with the title Jacobs Walk of Life 2011, Pledge to Health Social Media According to the websites of Jacobs, Jacobs is using social media platform, Facebook to communicate with their fans or followers. New information, updates, and sometime Jacobs will share the happiness or interesting news through Facebook. This social media platform allowed customers to interact with the company and its popular now. IMC objective Strengthen image The main objective of Jacobs is to build a strong image of the brand. In the strong competitive market, loyalty of customer is very important in the industry. When there is a strong image, customer will have awareness with and make it as one of the preference. With the higher recognition of the brand, the chances to increase loyal customer is also high. Increase sales Sales are one of the important factor for a company, because the revenue is generate by the sales. Every company will try to archive sales target to have more profits. More profit is needed in order to run a business. Creative Strategy Creative strategy is generally the outcome of a team with one or more copywriters, an art director and a creative director. It is to explain how the advertising campaign will meet the businesss advertising objective. The outline is prepared by the creative team of an advertising agency for the launching of an advertising campaign or message. Creative strategy includes unique selling proposition and emotional selling proposition; both can determine the advertising messages that deliver to target audiences in a creative manner. Unique Selling Proposition Unique selling proposition normally is a critical component of a promotional theme that contributes to the building of an advertising campaign. It states the real or perceived benefit of a product or service and then differentiates from its competitors. This would also affect the buyers purchase intention as it can give its buyer a logical reason. Jacobs using a unique and innovative technique for Jacobs Cream Crackers to remain, the classic cracker brand using the traditional special baking techniques since 1885, to make crackers outside distinctively crispy and the center is slightly softer textured, with a yeasty dough classic flavor. Jacobs product contain wheat, this is a source rich of nutrient, this makes Jacobs cracker position in a healthy food industry. Therefore, Jacobs uses USP to create positive and unique identity in customers mind. (Belch Belch, 2009) Uniqueness Jacobs cream cracker made with whole grains. Grains are grasses that produce edible starchy seeds that can be processes as a source of nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fiber. According to the JACOBs website, foods such as wheat, rice and oat are considered as cereal grains and these cereal grains are high in carbohydrates that provide energy for humans daily activities. Therefore, Jacobs cream cracker also considered as healthy cracker which provides 72mg calories per serving. Jacobs Actimix standard, Jacobs cracker is a 92% wheat cereal, low fat level, no added sugar, coloring, flavoring and preservatives. Whole grain provides nutrients from all parts of the grain. Whole grain must consist of three parts: bran, germ and endosperm. Figure1 below is a graph that cropped from the Jacobs Malaysia website (http://www.jacobs.com.my) that well explains the whole grain and its nutrient consist: C:UsersK3nnyDesktopUntitled.png Figure1 Benefits Jacobs cream crackers mainly consist of 5 ingredients: wheat flour, palm oil, salt, sodium bicarbonate and yeast. Wheat is rich in essential nutrients that offer important health benefits to consumers. It is also a good source of energy from carbohydrates. It contains B-vitamins and minerals to help release energy from carbohydrates. Besides, wheat also contains protein that supports the body building process while fiber that helps to maintain a healthy digestive system. Therefore, by consuming Jacobs cream cracker, consumer can lower the risk of getting several chronic diseases and condition for examples, heart diseases, cancer, diabetes and gastrointestinal troubles. Furthermore, consuming wheat diet also benefits consumers in terms of boosting immunity, bone health and other wellness goals. So, according to the nutrient fact of Jacobs cream cracker, it is not more than 6 grams of fat per serving and it is useful in fat-restricted diets. Potent Jacobs cream crackers are well known for its richness in nutrients and healthiness. Since 1885 until today, Jacobs using the same special baking techniques, to make crackers outside distinctively crispy and the center is slighter softer, together with the classic yeasty dough flavor. In Malaysia, Jacobs cracker was manufactured and produced by Kraft Food Malaysia. Kraft was awarded the Prime Minister Award during year 1993 for the quality biscuit standard. This would increase the purchasers confident towards Jacobs cream cracker. DRIP Framework Differentiation Jacobs cream cracker position itself as healthy cracker which it is made with wheat flours. Therefore, Jacobs cracker can be taken as a source of nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fiber. It also stated that Jacobs cracker containing Actimix. The USP allows Jacobs to differentiation itself from other competitor with the nutrients and healthy fact. Furthermore, Jacobs in under the Kraft Food Malaysia, the quality of cracker can be assured. Reinforce Jacobs cream cracker is healthy and nutritious that can provides energy for daily activities. Besides that, Jacobs also come out with more range of crackers. For examples: High-iron, Hi-Fiber, Low-Salt, Hi-Calcium and etc. This can fulfill the different needs of nutrients by consumers. Jacobs can emphasize more on nutrients and healthy lifestyle information to consumers. Inform Jacobs mainly advertises in television and newspaper. The advertisement is created to build awareness of audience and reader. Besides, Jacobs also having a Facebook Page called Jacobs Malaysia. It is a platform for Jacobs to share information of its products and also let its consumers to share their experience on consuming Jacobs cracker. Moreover, Jacobs also organize special games and activities such as Jacobs Walk of Life. Participants that complete the walk will be given a gift bag with Jacobs products. This is also a form of introducing Jacobs cracker and building healthy brand images for Jacobs. Persuade Jacobs emphasize on the crackers nutrients and healthy facts. Besides, Jacobs cracker contain Actimix is a great cracker that made up of 92% complex carbohydrate and provide consumers energy to meet the demand of the day. It is also specially formulated to provide low fat per serving, suitable for fat restricted diets. Therefore, Jacobs can strengthen or concentrate on this point when communicate with audience. Those who concern on healthy meal and lifestyle will attract by Jacobs cracker because it is made by wheat and contain a lot nutrients that needed by human being. Media Planning Strategy Media planning is a series of decisions that involved the delivering of promotional message to target audience. This set a direction to guide the strategy formulation of media such as broadcast, print, promotion, public relationship and other relevant media strategies. Therefore, media planning and strategy can assist Jacobs in determining the best way to reach their target audience. Jacobs media objective is to deliver the information of Jacobs cracker can help consumers to maintain their health and live a healthy lifestyle. So, media strategy will be formulated to achieve the media objective set through various media such as broadcast and print. Target Market/ Audience Jacobs focus on psychographic, people who concern on health issues and want to live a healthy lifestyle will be targeted. This group of people highly demands for healthy meal and snacks. Foods that they consume must be rich in nutrients and can benefits for their health. As Jacobs cracker contains rich nutrients, this would best suitable to consume by this group of people. Next, for the demographic segment, there is no restriction for age and gender. No matter male or female kids, teenagers, adults or golden citizens, all of them can consume the Jacobs crackers. Besides, Jacobs cracker is healthy and good quality it will be sold at medium price level. Therefore, medium level income group are targeted by Jacobs. In Malaysia, income amount between the ranges from RM2500 RM5000 will be considered as middle income group. This is the group can afford our products. Scheduling Jacobs can schedule its advertising in reaching their consumers through various media. There are 3 types of scheduling method which are continuity, flight and pulsing. Continuity means advertise evenly throughout the year while flight mean advertise in certain months that contain festival or event. Moreover, pulsing scheduling is the combination of continuity and flight. Since Jacobs cracker can be a daily consume product, it should adopt the continuity scheduling. In continuity scheduling, advertisement is continually maintained to send information and communicate with the target audiences. This is to keep target audiences aware of the brand and product and also promote product that newly launched. Advertisements that contain promotion, new product or contest will be spread evenly during every month. This would require a good amount of budget to adopt continuity scheduling. Broadcast media After all the steps, budget consideration is important in deciding and developing media strategy for various media. First of all, broadcast media will be the primary media for advertising Jacobs cracker. For Television advertising, TV channels such as Discovery Home and Health (channel 733), Asian Food Channel (channel 703), Food Network Asia HD (channel 727), TV 3, NTV7, 8TV and ASTRO would best to display Jacobs advertisement. It would spend a large amount to advertise in TV channels during prime time which means from 6 to 9 evening. Advertising on this time is effective in reaching target audiences because people normally will stay together with family for dinner and most of the people will have television switched on during their dinner time. Furthermore, the current TVC is using a family concept with caring to promote the Jacobs cracker. This does not contain much creativity because current and previous TVC also using the same concept. To avoid boredom of TVC, it should be more creative situation and ways to be used in future new TVC. Besides TVC, Jacobs also can use radio to advertise. Healthy people usually wake up early, so the suggested air time will be in the morning. Also, working group need breakfast for starting their day. Therefore, advertise during the morning session is more likely to be an effective way. Print media Next, print media such as magazines, newspaper also another media for Jacobs advertisement placement. Health issue related magazines such as Health Fitness Enthusiast magazine will the best to place Jacobs cracker advertisement. Normally health conscious group and healthy lifestyle maintainers will keep themselves update by purchasing health magazines. They concern on health issues, therefore the presence of Jacobs ad can easily attract their attention. Newspapers such as Sin Chew, The Star and Utusan Malaysia with different languages Chinese, English and Malay respectively are also suitable to place in Jacobs cracker advertisement. This is because newspapers are also an effective ways to reach different races of target audiences. Sales Promotions Jacobs can do promotion with different promotion techniques to attract purchasers. One of the promotion techniques will be pack 2 or more Jacobs cream cracker pack together to create a value pack and sell at a price. This value pack price normally is lower price than buy separately. Therefore, such promotion can attract and influence target audiences purchase intention. Moreover, Jacobs can increase the normal packing volume. For example, enlarge the packing volume from 800g to 850g, additional 50g added. This can considered as bonus packing that offer extra crackers but charged at normal price. Public Relation Publicity Jacobs can organize campaigns and events or roadshow to communicate with the public. Information of product or company can be delivered during the events. Besides, Jacobs can allocate a budget for sponsorship of events, for examples: exhibition and contests. Jacobs will be able to create brand awareness and high exposure by placing banners around the sponsor events venue. Others Billboard advertising usually is a large outdoor advertising structure, normally found along the side of highway, for example: PLUS highway. Billboard advertising is designed to grab audiences attention and create impression in their mind, leaving them think about the advertisement (Belch Belch, 2009). Transits advertising normally use in the cities with high volume of public transport such as buses and trains. Jacobs can print the advertisement on the public transports so that when the public transport move around in the city, it can grab citizens attention and create brand awareness. Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses Internet to deliver marketing messages in attracting customers. For example, Jacobs can use banner ads for advertise Jacobs cracker. Banner ads can be placed in health related blogs, websites and forums. Social network advertising is also another example. So, Jacobs can advertise in the Facebook social network platform. Although Jacobs Malaysia Facebook page exists, it does not seem to have frequent health related information sharing about Jacobs product. As a result, Jacobs should improve from this aspect. Broadcast Media Strategy Broadcast media is one of the important advertising strategies a company can use to create awareness, increase product or brand image. Jacobs can use broadcast media to reach the mass market since broadcast media is the most effective channel to achieve that; we are exposed to different broadcast media in every day. Jacobs original cracker is positioning as a healthy biscuit which is targeted on the healthy conscious people. Thus, they can create broadcast advertisements which are based on healthy conscious concept. Although they are already doing this currently, it should be continued, repeat it again and makes further improvements so that the target audiences are reinforced by this important message heavily. By reinforcing the message to the target audiences, the product image will be stronger. Jacobs original cracker is a consumer good. To effectively advertise it to the right target audiences, broadcast medias which are able to reach the mass market should be utilized heavily since the product is a consumer good and the target market is very wide, the healthy conscious people. There are two types of broadcast media Jacobs should use to advertise their product, television and radio. Television As mentioned in the earlier part, Jacobs is advertising their product through different television channels such as TV1, TV2, TV3, NTV7 and 8TV. This is actually a good effort to advertise the product and reach the target audiences. Utilization of television for advertising of Jacobs original cracker should be continued and make further improvements. Television allows the advertiser to create advertisement which is creative and high impact which is able to send the accurate messages well. Jacobs need this ability of television because concept of Jacobs original cracker which is the healthy biscuit is a vital message that should be sent to the target audiences accurately and effective. Jacobs has to utilize this ability of television to educate their target audiences well. To achieve that, a creative advertisement which includes the unique selling propositions and emotional selling propositions of Jacobs original cracker should be created with a suitable, attractive storyline. Furthermore, the advantage of coverage and cost effectiveness by television is another reason it should be used for Jacobs advertisement. As we know Jacobs original cracker is considered a consumer good and it should be advertised to the mass market, television can help Jacobs to achieve this very well. This is because everyone is exposed to television daily. Regardless of age, sex, income, education level, everyone at least watches some television. Moreover, advertising through television is able to capture the attention of the target audiences. Without making special efforts to avoid commercials, most of us are exposed to thousands of commercial in television each year. This indicates that television has a very high possibility to capture a very high population of people which includes the target audiences of Jacobs. This captivity is actually what Jacobs need because they need the attention of the target audiences before the correct messages can be educated. Although there are some criticisms on television, saying that television is not a good medium which is able to reach the precise target audiences. Fortunately, Jacobs can still use television to advertise their product. This is because one of the television companies in Malaysia, ASTRO offers different channels based on different interest. In case of Jacobs, there are channels like Discovery Home and Health(Channel 733), Asian Food Channel(Channel 703), Food Network Asia HD(Channel 727) which are suitable for Jacobs to advertise since the target audiences can be identified. Audiences who watch the channels mentioned would be a healthy conscious consumer and these audiences are exactly the target audiences of Jacobs. On the other hand, Jacobs should use network advertising for broadcast media to fully utilize the budgets. Network advertising is the most appropriate one for Jacobs. Although the budget would be higher than the spot advertising, network advertising provides Jacobs a few advantages. The purchase process of the airtime is simple for network advertising. Jacobs is dealing with only one party when come to the purchasing of airtime. Besides, audiences who watch the networks which are suitable for Jacobs such as Discovery Home and Health share the same interest, which is to seek a healthy lifestyle. Thus, when Jacobs advertise through the entire network, the target audiences can be reached in a higher chance. In terms of buying airtime method, participation should be chosen as a strategy of Jacobs. As mentioned earlier, Jacobs original cracker is a type of consumer goods which is to be advertised to the mass market. By participations through buying different commercial time, the advertisement of Jacobs can reach more audiences; this is what actually Jacobs need. Other than that, the expenditures of advertising can be controlled since there is no long term commitment to any program; Jacobs is considered only participate in sponsorship of the programs. In selecting the time periods for the advertisement, Jacobs should choose the prime time, 8pm to 11pm or morning time segment, 7am to 9am. Prime time is the time segment which is the most popular time period where most people watches television. Thus, for a consumer product like Jacobs original cracker, it should be advertisement in this time segment to have a greater reach of the target audiences. On the other hand, morning time segment can be chosen too. This is because most healthy conscious people who are the target audiences of Jacobs wake up early in every day. This can reach the target audiences effectively and efficiently. Radio Jacobs seldom advertise their product through the radio. Radio is actually another good media which can be used since it is able to reach the mass market too. Jacobs should start advertising more through radio as it can be used as an alternative medium instead of television. Radio is good in advertising because it can achieve the goal of most companies who are advertising their product, cost and efficiency. Cost for advertising through radio is low; radio commercials are inexpensive to produce and the cost for airtime in radio is also low. This is absolutely a great reason for any company including Jacobs to advertise. Other than that, low cost of advertising through radio in turn increases the efficiency. More reaches of the audiences and frequency of advertisement can be obtained since cost is lower down. Jacobs need this strategy to reach as much target audiences as possible. In addition, radio listeners are emotionally bond to the radio stations they listen frequently. In other words, they have a special, unique relationship with their preferred radio stations. Thus, advertise through radio is a good way to influence the thinking of the audiences. Since there is an emotional bond between the radio listeners and radio stations, advertisements appeared in the radio stations are easily accepted by these radio listeners. Jacobs should utilize this ability of radio to educate the target audiences about the concept of Jacobs original cracker, which is a healthy biscuit. Flexibility of radio for advertising is an ideal advantage for every company who wants to advertise including Jacobs. This ability is also unique as other media are not as flexible as radio. Messages can be easily adjusted any time before it goes out on air to suit the market conditions and situations. Other than that, another advantage which can be obtained through advertising on radio is mental imagery. The elements of the commercial on radio are only the jingle and the voice of the speaker. Although this is limiting the creativity of the advertisement, this allows the listeners to imagine about the product advertised. For instance, Jacobs advertised their Original Cracker through messages about how healthy a person will be by consuming their biscuit and the listeners may start imagine that they might becoming healthy as well if they eat the biscuit in every day. Spot radio is suitable for Jacobs to advertise their product. Network radio is not effective for Jacobs because there is no network of radio that attracts the specific interest of different listeners. Healthy conscious people may not listen to the same radio network. By spot radio, Jacobs can find suitable airtime on individual stations in different markets. This is more effective to reach the correct target market. In selecting the time periods for the advertisement, Jacobs should choose morning drive time or the daytime. The reason is simple. Healthy people wake up early in every day. Plus, working adults who drive in the morning have needs for a healthy breakfast. These supported the morning drive time is reasonable to be chosen. On the other hand, the second choice would be the daytime. This is because, except in the morning, people would like to eat biscuit in the daytime rather than other time periods in Malaysia. Print Media Strategy Print media is another media which advertisers use frequently to advertise their products. It is a popular media in addition to broadcast media. Print media is very much different with broadcast media. Print media allows the audiences to read the messages with own pace. Unlike print media, most broadcast media are on air for limited time period. Audiences may miss out some important messages which the advertisers want to send to them. Print media solve this problem by printed out the advertisement and audiences can read as many times as they wish. This may lead to a high involvement by target audiences who are been attracted. There are many different types of print media. We would like to recommend Jacobs to use magazine and newspaper as the print media. Magazine Magazine is a very powerful print media especially for different lifestyles and specific interests such as sports, automobile, healthy lifestyle and others. Thus, magazine is an ideal print media for advertising. This is because the different market segment can be easily found out by different lifestyles and specific interest. Jacobs seldom advertised their product on the magazine. Magazine should be utilized well. Magazine would be a useful print media for Jacobs to reach their target market effectively. This is because of their ability to reach a specific target audience. Most magazines are published for specific interest groups; this is same to the healthy conscious people. In Malaysia, there is a popular magazine called Oh! Only Health. This magazine is targeted on people who want a healthy lifestyle. Jacobs can create own advertisement for Original Cracker and advertised in this magazine to educate the target audience that Jacobs is selling healthy biscuit and it is suitable for them. Apart from that, the quality of the magazines papers is good. Thus, creativity of the advertisement would be not restricted and as creativity is good, audiences would be got attracted and messages can be sent well to the readers once they are attracted. In addition, magazines are normally read over few days and being kept for a long time. This means that the advertisement would be repeated each time the reader flips through the page which printed the advertisement. Jacobs need a repetitive advertisement so that people can remember them well. So, magazine is a very useful print media for Jacobs to advertise their product, original cracker. Furthermore, magazine is a media which people search for specific information. Other than newspaper, magazine would be the most reliable source for information for the consumers. Consumers would likely trust whatever information provided in the magazine. Same to the healthy lifestyle magazine, healthy conscious people would likely to find and know more ways to be healthier in their life through getting information from the healthy lifestyle magazine. Jacobs should take this opportunity to advertise their product as a healthy biscuit in the healthy lifestyle magazine to gain trust and positive word of mouth from the target audiences. These people who read the healthy lifestyle magazine would likely to become an opinion leader for other consumers. Thus, positive word of mouth from these opinion leaders is very important. Purchasing suitable, enough advertising space and position in magazine is important. Space and position should be decided with considerations on budget and impact of the advertisement. In case of Jacobs, there is not much information needed to be provided in the advertisement. Thus, a quarter page of space is actually enough to provide relevant, related and important information. Although Jacobs position as a healthy biscuit, there are many other healthy related activities, foods and others in the magazine. So, position of the advertisement by Jacobs should be focusing on cost rather than good position. This is to save cost of advertisement as magazine is considered a high cost print media. Newspaper Newspaper is the second major form of the print media. It is as popular as the magazine. Newspaper is important for advertisers because there are many readers of newspaper. Moreover, mostly any types of advertisement are suitable to be advertised in the newspaper since there are many sections in a newspaper. Jacobs has been advertising their product through newspapers such as Utusan Malaysia. This act should be continued to send important messages to the readers. One of the reasons newspaper should be used to advertise Jacobs product is its extensive penetration. The type of newspaper Jacobs would advertise is definitely the daily newspaper. As we know, there are many readers read newspaper daily. This shows the high degree of newspaper market coverage. Jacobs as mentioned before, they are selling consumer good, biscuit, newspaper would be very suitable for Jacobs to advertise its product, Original Cracker since a very high population of audiences including the target audiences can be reached. Jacobs should advertise their advertisement in the healthy section of the newspaper to match the target market. People who are concerned on healthy would find information about the knowledge about healthy food, activities and others in the newspaper. When these readers read the advertisement advertised by Jacobs in the health section, they would trust the information given because readers of newspaper trust the information provided by the newspaper. Although the advertising rate for Jacobs which is the retailer advertising rate is already cheaper than the general advertising rate, budget can be save through using a black and white advertisement in the n