A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Master Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics.
“THE BIG BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY FOR THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BRAND IN IBERIA: Marketing Communications Plan”
ANA MARTA FONSECA DUARTE GAMAS, 2792
A Project carried out on the Master in Management Program, under the supervision of: Professor Jorge Velosa
JANUARY 2017
T
ABLE OFC
ONTENTS
MARKETING OBJECTIVES 3
TARGET AUDIENCE &ACTION OBJECTIVES 3
TARGET AUDIENCE DECISION MAKING 4
COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES 5
POSITIONING STATEMENT 6
CREATIVE STRATEGY 7
INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY 9
MEDIA STRATEGY 9
COMMUNICATIONS BUDGET AND CHRONOGRAM 11
CAMPAIGN TRACKING AND EVALUATION 12
MARKETING OBJECTIVES
The National Geographic Experience (NGE) is a new business model for National Geographic in the edutainment area that introduces a relatively new concept that is the Escape Games (EG). The primary marketing objective is the successful launch of NGE store in Madrid as first location, then Lisbon and Barcelona in the second year and Porto as final location in a 5-year plan. For the marketing strategy to have an agreed and consistent focus the objectives must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed. One of the subcategory challenges is the low awareness, making the branding objective for NGE to set EGs as the new trend in leisure/entertainment group activities for the millennial generation, by December 2019. In alignment, the long-term objective (5-years period) is to raise NGE’s brand awareness within the local millennial target by 70%. Furthermore, the communications plan is expected to attain annual revenues of €1.6M in all locations, by the end of the first year (see P&L in the main report). In this sense, the occupancy rate is aimed to be higher than 67% for the three main locations. It is also expected to reach a return rate of visits of 10%1 throughout the years.
TARGET AUDIENCE &ACTION OBJECTIVES
Since NGE services can satisfy leisure, education, and teambuilding activities the target market is segmented into three distinct groups: millennials, schools and companies. The two latter will be considered as secondary target due to its relatively low advertising leverage in respect to the millennial generation as the number of buyers in the prospects groups is lower and the service offer more costly (since it has to be a customize service). Thus, due to a limited budget the marketing campaigns are mainly focus on the primary target.
By applying the awareness-attitude-behaviour approach, the most prospective buyer groups for the NGE campaigns were determined: primary target audience will be New Category Users (NCUs), defined as those who are not aware nor have tried an EG, and Other Brand Switchers (OBSs), individuals that have tried other EGs and are always looking for different themes. Moreover, for
this case it is also appropriate to go further in the classification of each buyer group, and define an even more clear and concise target. Hence, geographic and psychographic criteria were additionally used to narrow down to the NGE’s store location and the consumer’s personality, lifestyle or general traits (Rossiter & Percy 1997). For the first one, the target is bound to the city area where the NGE will open, as the EG is a service mainly visited by locals (see research’ results appendix in the group report). For the psychographic criteria, regarding the primary target audience, NGE campaigns are set as an experience for young sociable individuals looking for exciting and challenging group activities. While for the secondary target audience the focus is on private schools since these are the institutions more willing to offer students an innovative and dynamic teaching method, and modern entities that care to provide a motivational and friendly environment for their collaborators.
Once the target is known, the campaigns message must stimulate an observable, measurable, and actual behaviour in the selected target audience (Rossiter & Percy 1997). Since NGE is in a new service (considering the low category awareness) the common action objective for both NCUs and OBSs is category trial. It is expected for the annual sales to be mostly from trial, however as the brand becomes more established the objectives will comprise also repeat purchases (by having customers trying at least two of the room themes). The annual repeat purchase goal is 10% (starting in the second half of the first operational year).
TARGET AUDIENCE DECISION MAKING
The Behavioural Sequence Model (BSM) helps to better understand the decision process of the selected target audience. The first step is to identify the stages involved in the decision-making, and then for each stage establish who are the parties involved, where the stage occurs, the timing on
when it happens, and how it is likely to occur (Percy & Elliott 2016). For the NGE campaigns a
BSM was develop to each target audience as the process differs slightly between them (seen in Appendix 1).
COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES
There are five communication effects the campaigns must consider when presenting the brand’s value proposition to set it as the first choice for prospective buyers. All the effects correspond to stages that costumers’ experience prior to purchase decisions, from where specific response objectives for the campaign’s target will be defined (Rossiter & Percy 1997).
Sell Category Need – when introducing customers to a new service there is a need to educate about
the concept features and benefits that the new service brings (Micael Dahlen Fredrik Lange & Terry Smith 2008, 95). EG are a relatively new service in Iberia (in the research conducted for the project one third of the respondents were not familiar with the concept and 70% had never tried2), thus the primary objective is to sell the NGE experience as the new, exciting, fun and challenging group activity. A category need is directly linked to purchase motivations, meaning buyers first experience a motivation and then pursue to satisfy it (Rossiter & Percy 1997). In this sense, advertising campaigns are a key element in the promotion of NGE by highlighting the emotions behind the purchase motivations – sensory gratification and intellectual stimulation. A high investment is necessary when talking about selling a category as in order to be effective it needs to reach the target audience at a high frequency, which may require the use of multiple channels.
Create Brand Awareness – This is the first mandatory stage in communications objectives that set
the grounds for the other universal communication objective, brand attitude (Rossiter & Percy, 114). If the customer is not aware of the brand, he/she will not buy the brand’s service, which means awareness creates brand association with the category need. Brand awareness entails either brand recall or recognition or even both (brand recall-boosted brand recognition) depending on how the purchase decision is taken: the first happens after the customer identifies the category need (before the point-of-purchase) while the latter occurs at the moment the consumer is taking a decision (at the point of purchase). For NGE, the primary concern is to increase and maintain brand recall when prospective buyers look for a leisure group activity (edutainment and teambuilding
activities for the secondary target). Before going to the NGE the costumer must think about the multiple brand alternatives that offer the service (or similar) to then pick one that potentially meets the need. Thus, it has to recall NG brand prior to the point of purchase.
Set a Favourable Brand Attitude – This secondary universal communication objective can also be
named brand preference as it refers to the customer’s likeness towards the brand in respect to the others. Thus, brand attitude can be the key element on the final decision of a consumer between two similar offers. NGE primary target audience are NCUs, which implies the need to create brand attitude, as they do not have a previous idea of the service. For the OBSs, when considering the ones with previous bad experiences in the category, the objective is to change the attitude towards EG. For this objective, NGE will benefit greatly from the brand association with NG, a international known and high reputable brand.
Generate Brand Purchase Intention – The link between the customer’s attitude and actual
behaviour is the intention behind the purchase decision. As so, based on Rossiter & Bellman (2005, p.111), when the target is unaware of its preferences in a high-involvement decision, the communication objectives must include the creation of a strong preference to achieve an immediate and definite response. For NGE the use of advertising and promotions can stimulate the prospective buyers’ response.
Mention Purchase Facilitation – The ultimate objective regards other marketing variables
(product, price, place, and personal selling) that may affect the easiness of making the actual purchase (Rossiter & Percy 1997). For NGE’s primary target it is should be stated the store location, open hours, duration of activity and payment methods available. For the secondary target it should be mention the capacity of the rooms as this segment looks for activities that can be done by big groups.
POSITIONING STATEMENT
The positioning strategy is nothing more than how the brand presents itself to the costumer, and stands out from other competitive services. The positioning presented is based on three models: (1)
X-YZ, the macro level that defines where the brand is position within product category, general target audience and regarding the other brands, (2) I-D-U, meso level of positioning that identifies which benefits are the most important for the target, that are deliverable and can be provided uniquely to the target audience relatively to competitors, and (3) the a-b-e, the most specific level that defines from the attributes, benefits and emotions linked to the service which one to focus for the campaigns’ message (Rossiter & Percy 1997). Thus the positioning statement for the primary target is: To NCUs and OBSs within local Iberian millennials looking for leisure activities, NGE is a differentiated brand of Escape Games (with the service-as-hero) that offers a complete engaging experiences through EGs with high tech rooms in realistic scenarios. This is because NG (2) has partnerships with high tech expertise companies and escape game designers making EG a more immersive, physically, and psychological experience while (3) offering an unique retail mix by being located in the most central area and complementing it with cultural and social elements that transmits a cool and trendy environment. Since the targets have an “entrenched” brand attitude towards other leisure activities, it is used an attribute-to-benefit approach – focus on the fun and intellectual challenging elements that enable players to feel in out-of-daily-life scenarios. The
advertisements should: emphasize the use of high-tech in rooms, mention the complete offer NGE
provides with a coffee store and expositions area (secondary target’s positioning in Appendix 2).
CREATIVE STRATEGY
This section is about gathering all the information analysed before and build a compelling ad/promotion for the target audience selected that entails the objectives defined previously. The creative brief (Appendix 3) guides the creative execution; a crucial element in the success of a communication strategy as high-quality ads gives the brand a great visibility and can increase the sales of its service. Rossiter and Bellman identified the following 4 elements in a creative strategy:
Key Benefit Claim – The first step is to define a tagline for the campaign that do not necessary has
defined was: “NGE, a high-tech, fun and immersive EG experience” and the creative strategy is focus on integrated campaigns that are believed to best support the statement.
Creative Idea – The formal definition given for an creative idea is: “(1) an attention-getting and
catalytically relevant representation of the brand position, (2) generated in a form that is detailed enough to be executed and tested, (3) and adaptable to multiple executions” (Rossiter & Percy
1997). The creative idea (Appendix 4) proposed focus firstly in NGE’s launching campaign and is based on the remote conveyor model where the main focus is to create an eye-catching ad, that prompts prospective buyers’ curiosity (riddles as the conveyor element) while making them experience the service (has they have to solve it to find the final solution) without realising it and unaware of the association with NG (remote from the brand).
Brand Awareness and Brand Preference Tactics – These tactics clarify how the target’s attention
can be draw to the brand for brand awareness, and communicate the brand’s positioning persuasively to achieve the brand preference objectives. Thereby, it is important to understand how and why the buyer makes the decisions. For this purpose, Rossiter and Percy develop a two dimensions grid that combines the motivations behind the purchase and the involvement in the decision. Being a new service and the first time the consumer will experience it and based on positive purchase motives such as sensory gratification and intellectual stimulus (John R Rossiter & Steven Bellman 2005), NGE positions in the down right quadrant corresponded to high involvement/transformational attitude (Appendix 5). The fact that the consumer’s decision is based in a comparison with other leisure activities (increase search costs), by being a premium service (price sensitivity) and a group activity, where there is a need to reach an agreement within all members, also makes the decision process more complex. In this sense, the following is advised: brand recall requires creation of brand association (sequence: category need à brand name) and ads repetition to ensure the learning, while high-involvement/transformational preference appeals for campaigns that translate emotional authenticity when representing the EG experience (e.g. use of challenging riddles), provide some credible informational benefits, and on top of enjoying the
ad/campaigns consumers have to identify personally with the service to the point of wanted to try the experience (John R Rossiter & Steven Bellman 2005). Another tactic suggested for brand awareness is the “frequent repetition of the category need-brand name association” in the advertisements. The use of the iconic NG logo (yellow frame), known at an international level, already helps in the brand recognition objective. These are the main tactics to be applied by NGE, however there are more that can also be taken in consideration.
Attention Tactics – With the increasing of digital content the average attention span has been
reducing until 8 seconds (Microsoft Canada 2015), which implies the look for new, persuading ways of grabbing millennial attention. Some proposed tactics are: use of personalized ads/messages, encourage customer interaction on social media, and make simple yet eye-catching content by using appealing pictures and not heavy on information.
INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
It is now time to select a combination of appropriated advertising and promotions channels that can add value to the communications plan by meeting the previous mentioned objectives while consistently passing the brand’s positioning message, and integrating activities over time through customer’s overview (Rossiter & Percy 1997). Since the main communications objectives are selling category need, create brand awareness and setting a favourable brand attitude the investment will be mainly done in advertising rather than promotions. The channels used for the communications will be further explained and justified.
MEDIA STRATEGY
The launch campaign will have the same format for the first NGE store opened in each country (Madrid and Lisbon) while for the second stores it will be adjusted as the surprise effect will no longer hold. The media plan focus is in reaching the highest possible number of prospective buyers in the catching area of NGE’s stores. In addition, as one of the main communications objectives is brand recall, there is also an intention to apply high frequency advertisements. Trying to combine both considerations at the same time can turn into a costly plan, so the key is to delineate a trade-off
between reach and frequency according to the minimum effective frequency3 (Percy & Elliott 2016).
In this sense, the awareness pattern (high reach but selective frequency) with the focus on keeping the target audience aware of the brand offer, so it will be an option whenever the category need arises in the prospect’s mind (Rossiter & Danaher 1998), even though being quite costly, is the most suitable for the long purchase and consideration cycle that leisure activities entail.
The media selected (Appendix 6) for the NGE service has to have in consideration visual content, the time available to process the message, and the frequency potential to meet the communications objectives (Percy & Elliott 2016). Even though not being a FTA TV, as a media company NG should use its own channels to empower brand association and take advantage of its partner’s channels (Fox) as they have a great reach near the primary target. In addition, TV penetration in Portugal stood at 86.6%4 (Anacom 2015) and Spain 88.3% (EGM 2015), which reveals to still be a
great marketing tool. In this sense, it was selected for the pre-launching campaign 2 spots in 5 channels during the day and prime time for one month and an annual ad in NG’s magazine to emphasize brand association and recall. The pre-campaign is also complemented by 3 advertisements per day in 3 radio channels, which will reinforce reach and frequency.
NGE’s website as a micro-site inside the National Geographic home web is crucial to support brand association and image as well as to provide relevant informational content. Nonetheless, it is also essential to complement the site with search engine optimization tools to drive traffic. Invest in e-mail marketing (newsletters) to create engagement and retention with the prospects buyers as well as to advertise occasional promotions. This is a rather cost-effective option at acquiring new customers than social media (Agius 2015), with CTRs ranges from 2% to 12% that can reach to 50% when using behaviour-based campaigns (Pelsmacker s.d., Chapter 5). The millennial spends 2.4 hours a day on social media; each with an average of 2.9 profiles pages (American Press Institute 2015). These are powerful platforms to engage with the customers and potential ones, to
3 Minimum level to sustain brand awareness in the target audience (brand recall)
reinforce relationships and increase brand awareness. Thus, for NGE it will be use social profiles in Facebook and Instagram complemented by a Youtube channel and presence in TripAdvisor to guarantee a continuous communication with the customers. All align with relatively high investment in Facebook and Instagram ads.
In addition, the other elements used for the campaigns are: corporate identity for visual stimuli (through NG yellow frame logo), use of public relations for selective projects such as news releases in their profile pages and events presence, sponsorship in the form of event marketing (in summer festivals/tech fairs to reach the primary target) and publicity through media coverage.
COMMUNICATIONS BUDGET AND CHRONOGRAM
The launch campaign budget will differ from location due to the prices and market size difference: in Spain the budget will be €220K for both locations, Lisbon will have half of Spain’s budget and in Porto it will only be invested 80% of Lisbon’s values as it is not a flagship store (Appendix 7). The on-going marketing budget rule applied is based on a percentage of annual sales (10%), which will then be equally divided with the partner, in order to ensure business sustainability. The budget split (Appendix 8) will be made evenly throughout the years and with the same percentage distribution for all locations, only following a burst advertising approach in years where there is the release of a new room/theme which entails an increase of 15% and 5% in the available resources (which are the established 10%), respectively.
Communications strategy will have two cycles in the launching years: one regarding the opening store event, and the other for the marketing in the following months. One month prior to NGE’s opening a contest will start using TV channels, radio, magazines, and NG Facebook page. TV is used for penetration purposes, which will imply a heavier investment due to its relatively high price, but still with a care to invest in social media channels too and for the on-going marketing in website optimization, Facebook and Google ads tools, as well as email marketing. At the end of the contest there will be one private event for the winners and known national personalities followed by the public launch. Both will have media and video coverage to then be displayed as ads in NGE’s
micro-website, Facebook tab, and Youtube channel. The second cycle will be mainly composed by constant social media content, newsletters and website optimization to reinforce presence and drive traffic. In addition, during the summer months, the high season for festivals, there will be two sponsors’ events. Ads in NG magazines will be done at an annual basis and NGE will also have occasional PR events during the year. Finally, the Explorer area inside the store will have a continuous share to stimulate visits and provide different, interesting activities to the public. Detailed chronogram can be seen in Appendix 9. In the years without any launch, having already a define presence in the market, the budget will not include TV due to the associated costs.
CAMPAIGN TRACKING AND EVALUATION
By keeping control of the campaigns, NGE will be able to assess which strategies are working or not, adjust the budget and the media plan while improving approaches. The overall metrics chosen are the number of visits to NGE’s store, and before and after sales analysis aligned with ROI supervision to assess each campaign’s effectiveness. To evaluate the effectiveness of e-communications the following tools will be use: Facebook’s statistics tool to analyse engagement, referrals, click-throughs rates, have insights on customers’ demographics and reviews, and on the effectiveness of content posted. Use websites proper plug-ins that can track the customer journey, identifying key terms used to find the website as well as links visited, and time spent in the website. And use Google’s analytics/trends/alerts tools to, for instance, update information on which terms are being used more in the search engineer. The specific objective and measurable metrics can be seen in the group report.
References
Bellman, Steven, and John Rossiter. Marketing Communications. Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2005. Dahlén, Micael, Fredrik Lange, and Terry Smith. Marketing Communications: A Brand Narrative
Approach. Chichester, UK: Wiley, 2010.
Elliott, Richard H., and Larry Percy. Strategic Brand Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Pelsmacker, Patrick de, Maggie Geuens, and Joeri van den Bergh. Marketing Communications: A
European Perspective. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2010.
Rossiter, John R., and Peter J. Danaher. Advanced Media Planning. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 1998.
Rossiter, John R., and Larry Percy. Advertising Communications & Promotion Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, 1997.
