Sales Promotion
The sales promotion strategy for Pepsi Caribbean Twist implies an integrated approach on promotional actions and tools used for advertising this Pepsi product. In the sales promotion campaign, there will be applied sales princes, discounts, coupons, contests, sweepstakes, trade shows as direct advertising strategy, which will be promoted through various channels, with emphasis on social media, but also print, radio and television. There should be applied, as stated earlier, an integrated approach, which means that all the instruments should be combined and each one should mention the other promotional actions and instruments. For instance, the sale price and discounts should be announced during trade shows or sweepstakes. Likewise, when delivering the promotional coupons, the promotional agents employed for this job should be trained to also inform the clients about the sale prices and discounts applied for Pepsi Caribbean Twist.
Public Relations
Pepsi Caribbean Twist product possesses multiple public relations opportunities, benefiting of the fact that it is a Pepsi brand, and optimizing on Pepsi’s advertising experience and of course, Pepsi’s reputation. Likewise, the product could also be benefiting of PR opportunities by capitalizing on its cultural connection to Caribbean Sea, a dream like region, associated with ideas like holiday, fun, amusement and a never ending party. As such, an efficient PR opportunity for promoting the product would be to generate street events promoting the Caribbean culture: the dress code, the relaxed attitude, the Caribbean atmosphere and of course, the specific Caribbean drinks, with Pepsi Caribbean Twist included. Another PR opportunity would be to promote the product during various monden events, such as fashion shows, movie galas, books or album releases, etc. or sport events.
The channel management decisions might emphasize the impact of the marketing of Pepsi Caribbean Twist if it is properly coordinated. Coordinating manufacturing, wholesaler, retailer and consumer, the product should be properly managed when passing from a channel to another (Cant, Strydom, Jooste & du Piessis, 2007), for maintaining the Pepsi Caribbean Twist specificities. From manufacturing to consumer the emphasis on Pepsi Caribbean Twist being a Pepsi and a leisure drink should be the key to promote the product.
The actors involved in the distribution channel are interested in obtaining economic benefits from their distribution activity (Cant, Strydom, Jooste & du Piessis, 2007) and for Pepsi Caribbean Twist this should translate through a close selection of the distribution channels, in order to avoid the dissemination of its economic advantages, but in the same time to assure the quality of the distribution process. As such, a recommended distribution channel for this product should include: the supplier, the manufacturing, the retailer and the consumer, for avoiding the taxes paid to wholesalers.
This distribution channel implies costs for shipping and for placement, as well as middlemen expenses (Lake, 2009). The shipping costs will depend upon the location of where the product should reach, the placement costs will be given by the position chosen in the retail stores and considering the product is in a sales promotion campaign it should benefit of good positioning, which means bigger budgets and the middlemen costs, which might vary from retailer to retailer.
The product’s website should emphasize the distinctive flavors and the composition of Pepsi Caribbean Twist, mentioning the nutritional and caloric values. Fresh, relaxed, sunny, this is how the website should look like, proposing ideas for cocktail receipts and also indications regarding where the product can be found as well as a subscription form for those who want to shop online and to post feedback regarding the product.
Budget
Monitoring and Controlling the Process
The control and monitor of the marketing plan should consist in:
- periodically evaluating the results of the sale promotions activities (if the purchasing increased due to the coupons, sale prices and discounts);
- capitalizing the effects of PR activities (by evaluating the awareness of the product among the target audience);
- analyzing the results of the sale promotion and PR activities against the costs involved in the channel management process.
References
Lake, L. (2009) Consumer behavior for dummies. Wiley & Sons.
Cant, M.C., Strydom, J, W., Jooste, C.J, & du Piessis, P., J. (2007) Marketing management. Cape Town, Juta & Co. Ltd.
