This media frequency schedule is designed for a US-based ice cream manufacturer. The selected ice cream brand will focus on local, national, and international media to promote the sales through effective marketing and advertising. Although, continuous advertising is the most appropriate advertising mode for year-long campaigns with maximum reach and highest frequency (Wells & Burnett 2006), the most suitable campaign in this case will be based on a combination of pulsing and continuous strategy for broadcast and print media. The frequency of the advertisements in pulsing strategy varies with seasons and with time of the year.
The spot campaign for ice cream will be focused on national newspapers and television for the months of April, May, and June at high frequency due to the summer season. Whereas, another high peak will be targeted in the months of November and December to cash the Halloween, thanksgiving, and Christmas festivities.
Proposed Frequency Schedule
The possible frequency schedule for the selected media can be given as:
Geographical segments: Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta.
In the above-presented frequency schedule, the allocated marketing budget of $3 million is effectively allocated in five various media of individual and mass communication. It includes newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and direct marketing activities. The variation of the budget allocation has been presented in view of the total allocated amount. The success of the above-proposed strategy largely depends on the appropriate ‘selection of target market’, effective ads production and execution, proper media selection, benefits of chosen frequency strategy, and on ‘media plan execution’ (Bernstein & Lynch 2002: 41).
Selection of Target Market
The target audience for this ice cream brand is composed of women of all ages especially in the range of 18-45 years, children under 15 years of age with liking for ice cream, and youth of 18-25 years of age with high emotional connections. The best approach is not to limit the campaign to existing brand users but to extend it to all consumers of target market. The perception change and awareness generation in all members of this target market will increase the brand equity and the market share of this brand.
Promotion Strategy
For this ice cream brand, various forms of promotions are advisable. The strong direct marketing campaign along with the mass adverting will certainly create a difference in brand awareness and sales volumes. Free sampling, discount coupons, consumers contests, and roadshows are some of the promotion tools along with effective print advertisements and TV commercials. Public relation activities and family-based event sponsorships are added features in successful media plans.
Objectives of Marketing & Advertising
The specific marketing objective of proposed frequency strategy is to increase the product sales by 10% within one year. The market of ice cream and other frozen desserts is substantially growing in US which possesses the title of ‘the founder of ice cream industry’ (Clarke 2004:7). The advertising goal for this campaign is to achieve the awareness and perception change of about 40% of the target market. The period of the campaign is based on one fiscal year. The media objective for this campaign is to reach at least 80% of the target market in period of campaign. The special objective is to reach the families and household women who decide the purchase of particular ice cream for the family.
Benefits of Pulsing Frequency Strategy
The national campaign for this brand is proposed to be based on the pulsing schedule of a year-long spot campaign. The months with high frequency of ads lie in 2nd and 4th quarter of the year. In other months, continuous campaign is also used at comparative low ads frequencies to reinforce the message concepts in the minds of consumers.
The benefit of selecting the 2nd quarter is that these months are just before and in the hot summer season. Children and families consume liters of ice cream in these months. Therefore, children and families will be highly influenced by heavy exposure to ads in these months. The last quarter of the year is embarked with holidays and festivals of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Social gatherings with heavy exchange of gifts increase the sales of frozen desserts in these months.
Another benefit of this spot campaign is the geographical segmentation of our brand. The geographical zones of Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta are comprised of heavy ice-cream consumption households. In these metropolitan states, the average television and other media exposure are also higher than in other regions. This geographical segmentation is aimed at generating highest reach in limited time.
One more benefit of this pulsing strategy is to intensify the advertising campaign to the target audience in selected months, so that the message should be properly stored in their memory. In other months, reduced frequency advertising will act as a reminder before the start of the new campaign (Shultz 2002: 65). This frequency strategy enables marketers to effectively allocate the limited budget, and to properly utilize the selected media vehicle. Therefore, the budget utilization and market exposure can be achieved through this strategy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the above-proposed frequency schedule for ice cream is primarily based on a pulsing strategy with high frequencies of advertisements in the 2nd and 4th quarters of the year in selected geographical segments. Five major media are used in this proposed schedule to achieve the desired marketing and advertising objectives.
References
Bernstein, H. & Lynch, K. (2002). Media scheduling and Carry-over effects. Admap, 23 (6). 40-42.
Clarke, C. (2004). The Science of Ice cream. Royal society of Chemistry: London.
Shultz, D. E. (2002). Outdated Approach to Planning needs Revamping. Marketing News, 42(3). 63-68.
Wells, W. & Burnett, J. (2006). Advertising: Principles and Practice. Prentice Hall: New Jersey.