Marketing Strategy Report For Danone’s Berofen Yogurt Launch

Current Positioning

Marketing strategy plays a prominent role for the company to enter a new market or enter with a new product in a market (Solomon et. al., 2014). Danone is one of the leading companies in the UK who involved in the production and marketing of dairy product and water. The company has a two brand Activia and Actimel for yogurt. Activia has a planning to introduce Berofen yogurt which is a new flavor in the whole market (Astashkina, Khudyakova, and Kolbysheva, 2014).

In the following part, there will be a detailed discussion on the marketing campaign that would be arranged by the company to launch a new product in the market which will be explained through different models.

The business of Yogurt in UK has reached to $2.5 billion in the year 2018; it has been grown by 4.3% over between the years of 2013-18. The product of Activia is environmental friendly product which includes recycled packaging or sustainable farming which mainly attract consumers at greater level (Mintel Store, 2018).Activia include in the healthy brand category. It is a class of Spoonable yogurt. Activia caters fat-free as well as low calories flavors through which customer see as a great benefit. The company has seen a rapid increase in the market share since its launch in 2002 (Nielsen, 2016). The other competitors brands are perceived as unhealthy with a great taste as well as their sweetens at greater level such as the competitive brand Muller are perceived as unhealthy due to the reason of their sweet taste in the product with the fact that the brands are positioned as all day snacks (Kent and Pauze, 2018).

The Activia has a wide range of flavor in their packs of four as well as eight pots. Recently, the company has been proposed to introduce a new flavor for their customers to enhance their taste buds in single pots for customers with a busy lifestyle or people on the go (Szucs, 2014).

The company has already gain market share of 32% in the market in the year of 2014, they are categorised as well-established players in the market. In the past scenario, the company has introduced the marketing campaign in which they gain the market share of 12%. Moreover, the target customers for the product are 30% of the recent consumers of Activia, who have been evaluated to be producing 90% of the business incomes. (Mintel Store, 2018)

There are certain objectives of marketing communication which are set by the company. it is explained in below points:

• The company has a main objective to reach twenty percent market share in the market of United Kingdom within three years
• The company has also a target to increase their turnover by 25% till the next year by introducing a new product in the market.
• The company has a mission to provide healthy food products to as many people as possible to cater to healthy environment among the people.
• The company has an objective to influence maximum customers to buy their product through effective marketing communication (Batra and Keller, 2016)

The reason for focusing on these objectives is that company need to grow in the competitive. With an effective marketing communication, the company would able to achieve the targeted goal as well as able to survive in the competitive market.

In the country like the UK, the people are suffering from under-nutrition which contributes to 25 percent under five each year. Iron deficiency is one of the most prevalent forms of malnutrition worldwide which affect an estimated two billion people. It greatly affects the mental development of 40-60 percent children in such country (Kaur and Singh, 2017).

Marketing Communications Objectives

The understanding of consumer requirement as well as satisfying their requirement is based on the marketing concept. Through the segmentation, the company would able to understand the need and preference of the consumer. The company will target for their Berofen yogurt are those who are most conscious related to health as well as pursue benefits of taste and health at the same time. The consumer of UK is sensitive to the Brexit negotiation narrative that remains a menace to their financial confidence as well as the spending habit of the consumer during the year is unlikely that could turn to wider economic growth (Mintel Store, 2018). Therefore, Activia will target this segment for their product.

The attitude of the people towards healthy food in the UK is positive at a certain level, as they are health conscious as well as prefer tasty food to eat. The majority of the adult see the healthiness of food as important. It will help the company to target that segment in effective manner as they will mainly prefer the product launch by the company. Spoonable yogurt enjoys high penetration that is mostly eaten by three-quarters of UK adults. 22% of adult eat yogurt on regular basis (Mintel Store, 2018). The company will easily target such kind of people in the country (Mintel Store, 2018). Therefore, the target market for the new product comprises of people with a range between the age brackets of 5 years to 45 years, mostly expected from backgrounds of educated of men and women. They are mostly well conscious of the impact of treated ingredients, added sugar, preservatives as well as sault on their health (Hui et. al., 2017).

Integrated marketing communication is an effective channel through which the company would able to communicate their targeted audience in an effective manner. The concept of IMC has received greater attention in the sphere of academic (Valos et. al., 2016). Most of the academic journal has devoted their space to explore the deeper implication of IMC in the planning and advertisement (Kitchen and Burgmann, 2015). Through the knowledge and understanding of the process of communication, the actor would likely to achieve their target of influencing attitudes, knowledge, as well as behavior to persuade. It is one of the most prominent reasons why companies need to communicate (Luxton, Reid and Mavondo, 2015). The integrated marketing communication has main aim to increase the consumers through cognitive, effective, as well as behavioral stages of decision making as exemplified (Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017). There are various models in IMC such as BSM model, A-B-E model, and T-C-B model. A behavioral sequence model is a planning tool in which it explains how decision is made and the role of people play in the decision making process (Tsiotsou and Wirtz, 2015). The a-b-e model focus at the structure of benefits claim as well as distinguish between attributes (a), which are “ what the brand has”, benefits (b) which include “ what the consumer wants” and emotions (e) which include “what the consumer feels” (Stump, Joshi, and Kim, 2015). T-C-B model is one of the traditional messaging approach as well as the notion that that would help in defining the brand positioning of the company. The t stands for Target, C stands for Category, and B stands for key benefits (Tsiotsou and Wirtz, 2015).

Target Market

 It is one of the effective manners of promoting the brand in the market. It helps the company to reach out to maximum consumers within the shortest possible time frame. Advertisement in newspaper, radio, television, billboards helps the audience to believe in the brand as well as motivate them to buy the product (Blakeman, 2018).

The company can also use the tool of sale promotion to target their consumers. They can provide discount coupons, lucrative schemes, and attractive packages for loyal consumers, specially designed deals and so on.

This tool will enable the company to communicate directly with the end-users. The company can communicate through emails, catalog, brochure, and promotional letters and so on (Schultz, Kim and Kang, 2014).

It is also an effective tool of integrated marketing communication. It takes place when marketer or sale representative sells their product or services to their consumers or clients.

It is an activity which will help the company to promote their brand through news, events, press release, as well as public appearance (Babin and Zikmund, 2015).

It is the concept under which Activia would carefully integrate their many communication channels to deliver clear, compelling, as well as a consistent message about the company and their new product. Integrated marketing communication leads to total marketing communication strategy with a target and objective at building a strong relationship with their customers by showing how the company and their products can help the consumers to solve their problems (Kitchen and Burgmann, 2015). The company can convey their message from the following manner which is explained in below points:

	Need Arousal	Go to the store	Purchase	Eat
Decision Role Involved	Self, Family, and Friend as initiator as well as influencers (Target Audience)	Self, Family as well as Friend as a consumer	User, Women or children of the family as a purchaser (Mostly)	The user, Family as well as friends as an end user
Where the purchase is likely to occur	Any place such as home, on the way or friends home	While doing shopping, during dinner, before going to the store, on the way to store, Watching TV	Retail stores, Company Outlet	Workplace, home, everywhere
Timing of stage	With dinner and lunch	Just after need arousal	After 15 minutes	Can eat after purchase
How is it likely to occur	Through promotion, advertisement	Try to find out a new product	Discussing what kind of new flavor when seeing the choices in the store	Whenever feel hungry

It is one of the final stages of positioning.

Activia caters most popular fermented dairy product. The product has considered as nutrition-dense food due to its nutrient profile as well as the Berofen yogurt is also a rich source of calcium which also covers tasty ingredients with lots of herbs. It has less fat contents which can be used for fitness as well. It helps in enhancement of immune system, prevent from a gastrointestinal disorder, and also improve lactose tolerance.

The yogurt contains various type of basic nutrition as well as considered as probiotic carrier food. The product is sugar free which make it healthier. It promotes bone health and aiding digestion.

By knowing such benefits, the consumers of UK prefer yogurt or yogurt related product as well as considered as the fastest growing dairy category in the global market. The consumer wants a healthy lifestyle which increases the demand for yogurt in the market.

The reason that consumer wants such product due to the reason that most of the people in UK are health conscious as well as they want to follow healthy lifestyle. This psychology would create the reason why they want the product. The product is ready to eat this is also another reason to buy that product.

Through T-C-B model, Activia would able to know their target audience to who, they will sell their product. The company mainly focus on the women as well as children to target because they are the main influencer as well as have purchasing habits of such products. The consumer target for Berofen yogurt product is “Consumer of healthy and tasty preference”

A Literature Review of Integrated Marketing Communication

Some of the experts have reviewed that it is essential to understand that what category the audience need will get from the product. The product of Activia comes in the category of basic food as well as healthy which can be eaten on regular basis. The company can target any consumer because it comes in the category of basic product which can be used by anyone. The category into which Berofen yogurt is to be positioned is defined as “Basic healthy food”

It is a method in which the benefit of a product to their consumers is the value of the targeted audience will receive from the product. It will help the audience to get more satisfied with the products of the company. Activia cater healthy food to their consumers with full of taste which make the consumer more healthy as well as feel delicious while eating the Berofen yogurt. It would help in increasing the healthy eating habits of the consumers which benefits them in sense of health as well as money and taste. The key benefits are identified as “Healthy and Tasty Lifestyle” (Bandewar et. al., 2017).

Advertising: Activia will advertise their Berofen yogurt through different media such as magazines, Grazia, The Time Evening Standards, Metro, Internet, and Channel 4.

Sales Promotion:  Activia will offer discount price such as 15% to their consumers in the campaign to attract maximum consumers.

Direct Marketing: Activia will promote Berofen yogurt through designing product literature which includes pamphlets, mail shots, as well as posters.

Personal Selling: Activia will arrange trade show to boost the promotion. It will help the company to strengthen their relationship with consumers as well as stakeholders.

With the help of such tools, the company would able to reach out to maximum consumers for their Berofen yogurt. It is one of the healthiest as well as tasty products which should be reached out to maximum consumers. These are one of the effective tools to target maximum consumers.

After defining the objective of business and audience, it is important to create a strategy of communication. Activia can sue the combination of a push as well as pull strategies. Through the pull strategy, Activia can focus on their activities of promotion to upsurge their demand for Berofen yogurt at the end of the consumer. Whereas, the strategy of push pursues to lift the trade channel to motivate as well as promote the product to reach out to the end user (Luxton, Reid and Mavondo, 2015).

Activia can develop a unique selling proposition for Berofen yogurt as well as promote the USP throughout the marketing campaign. The unique selling proposition of Berofen yogurt can be recognized as “hundred percent herbs” that are being used in the making of such delicious yogurt unlike products of a substitute that used artificial ingredients (Fill and Turnbull, 2016).

The plan of marketing communication should be a mixture of stirring as well as authenticating pleads, influential adequate for the targeted consumers. An exciting plead can be designed through linking the Berofen yogurt with the heart of individuals for example “care for the family by providing them hundred percent healthy product which is made with herbs such as fennel, rosemary, basil.”

Tools of IMC

Collateral advertising: the company will promote their campaign through the distribution of pamphlets, posters, as well as mail shots.

Social Media: the company will reach out to maximum consumers through Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  

Newspaper: Activia will give advertisement in the newspaper to provide information on their new product entrance.

Branding: along with branding Berofen yogurt, the brand development portfolio will run side by side. Developing online networks as well as communities are some of the proposed brand development initiatives to stay closer to the target audience.

Considering to the advertisement and sales promotion tools of integrated marketing communication, it would be a tough task for the company to evaluate the performance of integrated marketing communication campaign. It is possible to not have a straight impact on the sale or productivity the effect may come later. Therefore, it is essential for measuring the performance to make the evaluation possible (Jugenheimer, Sheehan and Kelley, 2015).

There are certain tools through which Activia will evaluate the performance of marketing campaign:

The survey would able to provide valuable information about the consumers, their perspective, or views for the campaign. Through which the company would able to evaluate their performance by comparing the actual performance and expected performance by the consumers.

Activia can also evaluate the performance through the number of sales by the sales team which will provide important information about the effectiveness of the integrated marketing campaign.

Activia can use different promotional code in each advertisement which would help the company to evaluate which advertisement work in effective manner to bring in calls and sales. The sales team of the company need to ask with the prospective consumers for the special code found in the ads and provide them, discounts or free products for such review.

Most of the email marketing programs offer tracking for each campaign the company runs. This will allow Activia to see how many people opened the email. It will help the company to evaluate how much the consumer take participation in such campaign and at which level it is effective.

The manager would able to get know about the outcomes by comparing the actual performance with the expected performance. This would help in further decision making (Montano and Kasprzyk, 2015).

Conclusion

Form the above, it can be concluded that integrated marketing communication plays a vital role in introducing a new product in the market. Activia is one of the leading brands in the UK which is mainly known in the yogurt related products. The company caters a variety of flavor ion the yogurt as well as planning to introduce new flavor which is Berofen in the yogurt. The company has adopted the integrated marketing campaign in which they will target their consumers through a variety of tools such as sales promotion, publicity, advertisement and so on. This would help the company to enter easily in the existing market of UK. The company would prefer to target women and children for their product because they have more influencing power than other with the person who is health conscious. In the end, they will evaluate their campaign by measuring actual performance with the set target.

Advertising

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