Introduction
There are many ways Edible Arrangements can run a digital campaign for Mother’s Day. The campaign running on social media and the company’s website forms the main channels through which the company will advertise to consumers. Their target market is anyone looking for a memorable and unique gift for any event or non-special occasion. This digital marketing campaign is on the Mother’s Day event on May 9th this year. The main reason why I chose this as my campaign is that Mother’s Day is a huge event with sales that add up to at least 25 Billion dollars in one single year (Luo et al., 2019). There is, therefore, a need for a good marketing strategy that will take advantage of this need for gifts.
In this campaign, I present several ways through which the company will run the campaign. Social media sites and email marketing will be the main channel through which the company will drive up sales for the company’s website. By leveraging the established ad network provided by Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, the campaign can perfectly curate the Mother’s Day messages to attract shoppers to click through to the company’s website. Furthermore, email marketing is one of the significant ways that marketers use to attract shoppers. With a good email list and an estimated 4200% return on investment, Edible Arrangements is sure to see an increase in revenues (Hartemo, 2016).
The call to action offering buyers discounts for products of over 200 dollars is an incentive that the campaign will use to vamp up sales. The campaign’s central message is “Let your mom glow in your love with sweetness this Mother’s Day.” The point of this message is to combine the products offered by Edible Arrangements with the feelings of the shopper. Each ad campaign has its analytics that shows the data on the interaction levels between the users and the ad. Together with the revenue generated and the analytics data, the CEO of the Company will know how well the campaign performed.
Company Background
Founded by Tariq Farid in 1995, the company is a Franchise with more than one thousand stores in eight countries worldwide. Edible Arrangements is a company that specializes in making unique gifts crafted to entice people (Edible Arrangements International LLC, 2020). The gifts are aimed towards any occasion, from birthdays, get-togethers, work events, or even random impromptu gifts. Edible Arrangements is known for its freshly made gifts that go beyond the basic and traditional flower arrangement. The company is mainly known for its edible fresh fruit arrangement and chocolate-covered fruit boxes.
The company also offers fruit gift items, like their signature chocolate-dipped strawberries, teddy bears, and personalized gift boxes. In every Edible Arrangements store, there is a service of on-the-go fresh fruit treats like salad, parfaits, smoothies, froyo blends; all fresh that are personal-sized and can be picked up on the spot. Edible Arrangements targets anyone who is looking for a sweet gift reward for themselves or someone else. Edible Arrangement mainly utilizes events like Mother’s Day, birthdays, work promotions, and life milestones to offer personalized services to its customers.
Campaign Strategy
The event that I have chosen for this campaign is Mother’s Day taking place on May 9th this year. The main reason why I chose this specific event is that it is one of the most celebrated special occasions. It is also nearly personal to everyone as it means something different for everyone who celebrates it. The relevance of this event to Edible Arrangements is in the numbers. According to statistics, 8 in every 10 Americans plan to celebrate Mother’s Day. In 2019, they planned to spend an average of $196 US dollars on Mother day gifts, with a total of 25 billion dollars being spent in this year alone (National Retail Federation [NRF], 2020).
Furthermore, half of Mother’s Day shoppers look for personalization in their gifts (NRF, 2020). With targeted marketing towards Mother’s Day shoppers, Edible Arrangements can cater to the need for personalized gifts and, in return, post a considerable amount of revenue from the total spending of the shoppers. The main objective of this campaign is to leverage this day to increase the customer base of Edible Arrangements, increase awareness of the products it offers, and increase revenue.
Target Segment
The targeted audience is any person or group inclined to extend a kind gesture towards the mother figures in their lives. Identifying the target audience is essential for a marketer’s must-do for a successful campaign (Luo et al., 2019). I am primarily targeting 24-32-year-olds as they are the largest age segment that shops for mothers’ day gifts (NRF, 2020). I need them to feel that they do not have to go for the traditional flowers, jewelry, and greeting cards. The campaign aims to connect the time and attention the mothers in the shopper’s lives give them to the time and care that goes into making gifts from Edible Arrangements. The call to action will be 10% off for any order that exceeds 200 dollars. The 200 dollars target is in line with the estimated statistics of Americans using 190 dollars on Mother’s Day gifts. This offer will incentivize shoppers, and in turn, Edible Arrangements will hit the goal of increasing revenue from Mother’s Day sales.
Role of Digital Marketing
With most people making purchases online or getting inspiration for gifts online, leveraging digital platforms is necessary if the campaign is to succeed. A carefully done campaign explicitly done for each platform has the power of reaching thousands of people and convincing them they should do their Mother’s Day shopping at Edible Arrangements. In this campaign, I will use three leading social media platforms, video, email, and the company’s website, to reach the shoppers. The platforms I plan on using are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The following is a description of how the campaign will use each of these platforms to draw in customers for Mother’s Day.
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are suitable as they reach different groups of people. According to research, Facebook ads are better suited for users who use their PCs; Instagram ads work best for mobile users and take a more social approach as they are also image-oriented (Kim et al., 2017). Combined, these platforms have millions of users who log in to these platforms every day (Ford, 2019). Additionally, the ads served on these platforms are targeted ads.
Algorithms are used to precisely aim at users searching for Mother’s Day gifts or something related to it. Edible Arrangements will display banners of the Mother’s Day message on the website two weeks before the event. The ad will display the edible arrangements video explicitly designed for this event first. The website can also incorporate a countdown to the day of the events to give customers a sense of urgency to purchase their gifts early.
In 2019, studies showed that video is among the primary channels used for digital marketing. 81% of Internet users spend time on their smartphones watching videos (Kotane et al., 2019). Therefore, using video will help elicit sentimental feelings from the consumers such that they will want to buy from Edible Arrangements. The shoppers will be directed towards the company website when they click through the campaign. The website, therefore, has to tie in all these ad campaigns and finally sell the product to the customer.
Message and Strategy Drivers
The main marketing message that this campaign will use is, “Let your mom glow in your love with sweetness this Mother’s Day!” This message, as mentioned, will serve to connect the shopper’s feelings towards their mother figure and the products being offered by Edible Arrangements. This message will be standard across all social media platforms. However, due to the different platforms having different ad requirements, the campaigns released on each of them will differ.
Twitter will incorporate hashtags and a grid of four images to showcase the Mother’s Day gifts available at Edible Arrangements.
” Let your mom glow in your love with sweetness this Mother’s Day! Go to order a personalized package of love and sweetness from Edible Arrangements #MothersDay.
On Facebook, the message will be accompanied by the video ad campaign showing women enjoying Mother’s Day gifts from Edible Arrangements.
“On this Mother’s Day, let your mom glow in your love with sweetness! Why go for a boring gift card while you can get a unique gift for her? Make her feel special with one of our personalized gifts from Edible Arrangements. Pre-order your gift today and get 10% off on all orders above 200 dollars!”
The message posted on Instagram will incorporate the content from Facebook but more concise. Instagram is more of a visual platform, so the message will have to be presented on attractive images of Edible Arrangements appealing to the customer.
“Let’s change it up this Mother’s Day!!!!!! Why get her the usual gift card when you can give one of our edible arrangements personalized just for her!! Use the code INSTAGRAMONLY for a 10% discount for all orders above 200 dollars.
We offer edible bouquets, fruit platters, teddy bears and balloons, and an array of chocolate-dipped fruits. Come check out our unique bundles and let your mom glow in your love with sweetness from us. #mothersday #ediblesarrangements #mothersdaygifts #mothersday2021 ”
Video Description
The video will start with a middle-aged woman opening a gift from Edible Arrangements with a happy face together with her daughter. The video will have an overlay of block sentences as other women happily open their gifts. The message line by line will be, “Now more than ever,” “We need to celebrate our moms,” “Spoil her with treats from us.” The video will then cut to a pink screen with the Edible Arrangements logo. The video is likely to garner viewers as it shows real people enjoying the Mother’s Day gift from the Company (Kim et al., 2017).
Email Campaign
Celebrate her TODAY… Save up to 10% on all Mother’s Day Orders!!!
Company Website Campaign
The first thing a visitor sees when they visit is a huge banner covering half the page. On one side of the banner, there are cupcakes and a giant red bow. The words “Mother’s Day Gifts” are in bold letters on the other side. Below there is a message in a smaller font that says, “We offer edible bouquets, fruit platters, teddy bears and balloons, and an array of chocolate-dipped fruits. Come check out our unique bundles and let your mom glow in your love with sweetness from us,” and write below it a semi-rounded button with the shop now text redirecting to the Mother’s Day items.
Metrics
Clickthrough Rate
Clickthrough rate is the data showing how many people navigate to the company’s website. It is important in indicating how appealing the website is to users. The clickthrough rate, in this case, measures the success of the ad campaign in creating a buzz around Edible Arrangements.
Analytics Data from Social Media Sites
Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all provide feedback on the ads that are run on their platforms. The data includes the number of times the ad was on the screen, the clicks it garnered, and in general, interactivity data. Work sho
Average Time on Marketing Page
The average time spent by a user on Mother’s Day will indicate the level of interest the campaign generated for the products. The more time spent per visitor, the higher their likelihood of purchasing a product or returning to the website.
Referral Traffic
Referral traffic is the data showing specifically where the website visitors are coming from. The CEO can, therefore, easily monitor where bulk referrals are coming from and the ad platform that is performing the best. The ad campaign can then be pivoted towards the channels that are performing more.
Open Rate
This is the rate at which email subscribers open the email sent to them by the company. The open rate will be a clear indication of the success of the email subject line copy. If the copy is successful, the email will increase the website visitors, and consequently, the revenue generated.
Global Reach
While some marketers believe in standardized international advertising, a global campaign that caters to everyone in different countries is difficult to optimize (Bhatia, 2019). The company could recycle the campaign by considering the language used. Depending on the country, the ad can translate the message into a language the people its reaching understands. The offers and gifts sold by Edible Arrangements could also be more tailored to fit the target market. The change would be after research is done on what sells more in that region. For instance, if flowers sell more in one region, the ads served in that region would emphasize the edible flower arrangement. Depending on the demand, the ad would be designed differently.
Ethical Concerns and Management
The issue of privacy in digital marketing is one that arises when the campaign is rolled out. By advertising through digital platforms, Edible Arrangements is sure to collect some information about its customers. It can be email addresses, their online behavior, and their comments. Edible Arrangements can manage this concern by making the type of information they collect public. Furthermore, the company can give its users a way of reaching the company for any privacy concerns they might have.
Conclusion
With a massive event like Mother’s Day that drums up sales to 25 billion dollars in the “Let your mom glow in your love with sweetness this Mother’s Day,” a message that is both personal and achieves to connect what Edible Arrangements is selling and the shopper’s maternal figure.
Using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter coupled will email marketing increases the reachability of the consumers. These platforms are the best for the campaign as they provide data and analytics feedback that marketers can use to understand how the marketing campaign is affecting sales. The call-to-action in this digital campaign is a 10% discount to customers who make purchases above 200 dollars. The discount is in line with the 180 dollars average of Mother’s Day spending. The use of major social media sites combined with email campaigns is bound to increase the Mother’s Day revenues of Edible Arrangements.
References
Bhatia, T. K. (2019). World Englishes and global advertising. The Handbook of World Englishes, 616–634. Web.
Edible Arrangements International LLC. (2020). About edible arrangements – The fruit experts since 1999. Edible Arrangements. Web.
Ford, J. B. (2019). What do we know about social-media marketing?Journal of Advertising Research, 59(4), 383–384. Web.
Hartemo, M. (2016), Email marketing in the era of the empowered consumer. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 10(3), 212-230. Web.
Kim, D. H., Seely, N. K., & Jung, J.-H. (2017). Do you prefer Pinterest or Instagram? The role of image-sharing SNSs and self-monitoring in enhancing ad effectiveness. Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 535–543. Web.
Kotane, I., Znotina, D., & Hushko, S. (2019). Assessment of trends in the application of digital marketing. Scientific Journal of Polonia University, 33(2), 28–35. Web.
Luo, J., Pan, X., Wang, S., & Huang, Y. (2019). Identifying target audience on enterprise social networks. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 119(1), 111–128. Web.
National Retail Federation. (2020). Mother’s Day. NRF. Web.