Executive Summary
The health awareness in the recent past has led to many consumers to avoid sugary and carbonated drinks, thus leading to a drop in the market share of Pepsi in the US. Conditions like obesity and high blood sugar are associated with such drinks. Pepsi, therefore, has refocused its business to manufacturing healthy drinks like water, teas, juices, sports drinks and healthy snacks. This advertising plan is designed for those products among the young people in the US aged between 12-28 years both male and female. A market analysis has been carried out which revealed that Pepsi currently holds a market share of 30% in the US soft drinks market, Coca-Cola leading with 42%. The observation was made that the young people mostly opt for soft drinks and snacks for their lunch. The advertising plan targets them, and they have been segmented into school high students, college students, and young professionals. The advertising campaign is aimed at increasing awareness among the young people by 50%, and grow Pepsi’s soft drinks sales revenue by 10% in 12 months. The message objectives for this advertising plan are; to promote brand recall, persuade the consumers, define the brand image, persuade the consumers and situate the brand socially. The target market will be reached through the cyber where Pepsi will set up a website and create a Facebook page and a twitter handle where advertisements will be done; the target market can post queries and Pepsi can respond.
Market Analysis
Market research shows that Pepsi Cola has the market share of 30% compared to Coke's 42%, in the carbonated soft drink market in the US("Coke Vs. Pepsi: By The Numbers", 2014) . Due to health concerns among consumers of soft drinks, the sales of carbonated sugary soft drinks have dropped and therefore Pepsi needs a strategic advertising plan to grow its sales revenues of its soft drinks mainly water, teas, juices and sports drinks and snacks.
Target market
Pepsi soft drinks and snacks currently target major the young people between the ages of 12-21 years, both male and female. However, this does not mean that the other age brackets are not consumers of Pepsi soft drinks. There is still potential among the young people, and, therefore this advertising plan targets the young people in high school, colleges and young professionals aged between 24-28 years, in the US market.
Target market segmentation
The target market is young people in the age brackets of 12-28 years, both male and female, in the US market, who will be segmented into three segments. The first segment is the high school kids between the ages of 12-17 years. The second segment will be the college students mostly between the ages of 18-24 years. The high school and college students mostly depend on the pocket money from parents to spend. The third segment is made up young professionals between the ages of 25-28 years old, who have their income since they are working. This target market is mostly vibrant and outgoing, fond of socializing over drinks and snacks. The young people also like to spend on soft drinks and snacks for their lunch mostly because they too busy to prepare real food or are on the diet.
The market goal for these segments is to increase market share of Pepsi soft drinks and snacks among the young people in the existing United States market.
Estimate demand
Pepsi currently has a market share of 30% in the US soft drinks market ("Coke vs. Pepsi: By the Numbers", 2014). The advertising plan is intended to grow this market share by at least 10% in the next 12 months.
The figure below shows Pepsi’s market share in the US soft drinks market.
Source: "consumption soda statistics for Pepsi in USA - Google Search", 2016
Objectives of the advertising plan
The advertising plan is intended to create awareness among the young people about Pepsi's new health sugar-free drinks and snacks. The advertising plan is also aimed at growing Pepsi's soft drinks and snacks sales by 10% in 12 months.
Benchmark
Currently, the target market is aware of Pepsi's products. However, they are not aware of the refocus of Pepsi on healthy sugar-free drinks and healthy snacks. At the end of the advertising, 50% of the young people in the US must be aware of Pepsi's new products; the soft drinks and snacks.
The sales revenue for carbonated and sugar drinks have dropped in the recent past, in the US market, due to increased healthy awareness among consumers. The advertising plan is therefore aimed at growing the sales revenue by 10% in 12 months.
Criteria for Success and measurement method
Awareness among the young the youths will be measured by the number of new Pepsi's soft drinks, and snacks consumers gained, at the end of the advertising period. The number of customers visiting the Pepsi website, posting feedback and inquiries will also be used as a measurement tool to measure the success of the advertisement.
The sales revenue will be measured by comparing the sales revenue for the past financial year with the sales revenue of soft drinks and snacks achieved for the current financial year.
Time frame
The advertisements will run for three months. The target rate of awareness among the young people is expected to be achieved in the first six months of the advertisement. The sales revenue growth of 10% is expected to be achieved in 12 months.
Copy strategy: print, broadcast, cyber.
The objectives of this plan are to increase Pepsi's soft drinks and snacks among the young people by 50% and grow sales revenue of the products by 10% in 12 months. To achieve these objectives, Pepsi will use the cyber to reach its target market. Pepsi will create a website where the products to be advertised will be uploaded to the page with full information on the products content and health benefits. The company will also create a Facebook page, and twitter handles from where it will advertise the products and respond to customers' queries and feedback.
The target group is composed of people who are constantly using the internet for socializing and getting updates on what is going on around the world. Therefore, the choice of media is the most appropriate and will reach massive numbers of the target market.
Message Objectives/Methods
The message objectives for this advertising plan are; to promote brand recall, persuade the consumers, define the brand image, persuade the consumers and situate the brand socially. The methods that will be used are; repetition ads, slogans, and jingles for promoting brand recall, reason-why, hard sell comparison testimonials and demonstration infomercials for persuading customers. To define the brand image, the image ads will be used and to situate the brand socially, internet short films will be used ("Advertising Final Message Strategies and Objectives flashcards | Quizlet", 2016).
References
Advertising Final Message Strategies and Objectives flashcards | Quizlet. (2016). Quizlet.com. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from https://quizlet.com/3727967/advertising-final-message-strategies-and-objectives-flash-cards/
Coke vs. Pepsi: By the Numbers. (2014). NASDAQ.com. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from http://www.nasdaq.com/article/coke-vs-pepsi-by-the-numbers-cm337909
PepsiCo: A company overview - Market Realist. (2016). Marketrealist.com. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from http://marketrealist.com/2014/12/pepsico-company-overview/
Soda consumption statistics for Pepsi in the USA - Google Search. (2016). Google.com. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from https://www.google.com/search?q=soda+consumption+statistics+for+pepsi+in+USA&espv=2&biw=682&bih=670&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqyPWv2cLMAhWM7xQKHU3VBBkQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=830I3Ubo7LFQ-M%3A
