- ASSIGNMENT Development of a sales promotion plan with a digital activation channel component plan for a brand in the Greek market. A brief (regarding the brand that will be used) to accompany the instructions will be provided by the instructor during course’s lectures.
Length: 2.400 ±10%
Consider yourself as part of a sales promotion agency [find a name for your agency]. The challenge is to develop a sales promotion plan with a digital activation channel component for Nescafé. Each agency is competing against the other agencies (students). The Brief that follows, is designed to accompany Project Instructions for MK4345.
Brief: The Brand What is the case and what is your mission? Nescafé is a brand of coffee, marketed in Greece by Nestlé GR. More information about the brand can be found at: https://www.nescafe.com/gr/ (The website is in Greek but can be translated in English through Google Translate). You can also visit the brand’s pages on social media to collect data on how this brand presents itself, as well as its marketing activities. Nescafé is appealing to a wide range of consumers, utilizing several forms of communication for its campaigns. Even though the brand has been a leader in the Greek coffee market, it is now considering concentrating on the popularity of instant coffee by a more focused approach to reach its audience(s), by implementing a sales promotion plan-with a digital activation component, to appropriately communicate its message. For the upcoming summer period, they are looking to capitalize on new, innovative ideas and new insights on Greek customers, having in mind the challenging situation we are facing since March 2020. They want something original and intriguing to maintain loyal consumers, attract even more users, boost their sales, and encourage consumers to be engaged with the brand, within a highly competitive market.
In terms of its marketing objectives for the coming year, Nescafé aims at increasing overall sales more than 10% and expanding its market share by 2%.
You should synthesize and apply relevant theory to develop a sales promotion plan with a digital activation channel component to attract the interest of the prospective client and convince them to sign a contract with your agency.
For the purposes of this Project and in the interest of achieving the Learning Outcomes of the course, students should use this information (in addition to any other relevant sources) and taking into consideration the company, the brand characteristics, and the environment the company operates in, address the following:
– Which is the situation in which the company and the brand are operating in and which are the identified opportunities for sales promotional activities?
– Create a sales promotion plan with a digital activation channel component plan for the brand.
Your ability to locate data and information and to evaluate the quality of information found in other sources is part of this assessment; you must not repeat in your work opinions or analyses of the brand’s practices expressed by others. All of your work in the assessment must be original. All sources utilized to find data should be cited as appropriate (see Instructions). Once you find all the information required to answer the questions in the instructions, you should use the knowledge you have gained from this course (concepts and theories discussed in class and the core textbook, and additional knowledge gained through studying academic readings – you should cite all of these as appropriate), as well as your existing marketing knowledge, to analyze and interpret this information.
Timing & Budgeting Considerations:
– Time period should be June 2022 (start) – August 2022 (end).
– Budgeting: Total Budget: €250.000
2. OVERVIEW The major written project in this course will challenge students in analyzing, formulating, executing and implementing sales promotion strategy to meet the marketing objectives that will be specified by the brief provided by the instructor. The purpose of the project is to give the students the opportunity to work in an environment simulating that of a sales promotion agency and put theory to practice by exposing themselves to all the tasks and activities they will be asked to perform in the future. The general objectives of the project focus on providing the students with an opportunity to design a comprehensive sales promotion plan with provisions for digital support, enabling them to achieve a keen awareness and understanding of the decisions, issues, and activities involved in developing such a plan.
3. LEARNING OUTCOMES – Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the specialized area of promotion, including the full array of available sales promotion tools, strategy development, use of media and development of creative proposals. – Explain and evaluate the role of digital activation (including on-line, web, mobile and social media) in the sales promotion mix. – Analyze social media opportunities and evaluate their role in the sales promotion mix.
4. PROJECT REQUIREMENTS Taking into consideration the company, the brand characteristics, and the environment the company operates in, the written individual project should reflect the following:
1. Which is the situation in which the company and the brand are operating in and which are the identified opportunities for sales promotional activities?
2. Create a sales promotion plan with a digital activation channel component plan for the given brand.
4.1. Start Pick a name for your agency. Each agency is competing against all others to win the client’s account.
4.2. Content A brief introduction should be presented.
A. ANALYSIS Describe the internal and the external situation in which the company X and the brand XY are operating in and identify opportunities for sales promotional activities.
Understand the broad and specific context in which a sales promotion campaign is taking place. In this part, students should discuss the current situation and develop a SWOT analysis for the sales promotional plan with a digital activation component.
Address the following issues:
Company’s profile In this part of the assignment students are expected to give a description of the company’s general profile and provide an overview of the brand (brief background of the brand and its positioning, values, and personality).
Marketing mix strategies
In this part of the assignment students are expected to present the major elements of the brand’s marketing mix (product mix, distribution strategy, pricing strategy, promotional strategy). They should also justify the sequencing of all elements and explain how they interact to create synergy.
SWOT Analysis In this part of the assignment students are expected to provide a SWOT analysis, based on their own informed analysis:
– internal (consider previous sections) and
– external (consider market overview, consumers, competition, and some important macro environmental factors).
Please allocate to Part A approximately 35% of the word count
Sources of your information for Part A may be the company itself (company’s website), commercial websites and other publicly available data/information about companies. Passport database, internet research in general, books or articles in academic journals, etc. Always think of the relevance and the credibility of the sources you use.
B. SALES PROMOTION PLAN WITH A DIGITAL ACTIVATION CHANNEL COMPONENT In follow up from the previous section, design a sales promotion plan with a digital activation channel component.
Address the following issues in your sales promotion plan with a digital activation component:
- Statement of the overall marketing objectives In this part of the assignment students are expected to provide the marketing objectives they identified based on the situation analysis and the brief given.
- Establish specific and measurable goals that express desired levels of sales, market share, profitability, over a specific timeframe and geographic/sales market. 2. Selection and profiling of the target audience/s In this part of the assignment students are expected to provide a description of their selected target audience(s) for the sales promotion plan, and provide its profile, by using specific criteria and characteristics.
- Statement of the overall sales promotion objectives In this part of the assignment students are expected to provide specific objectives for the sales promotion plan. Justify your proposals.
- Construction of the sales promotion mix In this part of the assignment students should explain the big picture/idea for the sales promotion plan and include: – Blend of trade-oriented and consumer-oriented sales promotion tools Students should consider which trade and consumer-oriented promotions techniques they would apply according to the objectives set and the target audience(s)? – Provisions for digital activation Students should consider which digital activation component they would apply according to the objectives set and the target audience(s)? Justify your recommendations. Explain promotion vehicles, incentives based on price or value promotions, immediate or delayed.
- Media imperatives & Budget allocation (in brief) In this part of the assignment students are expected to provide which media channels they will use for their activities (where & when) – a summary of the previous section and an indicative budget allocation. Justify your answer.
- Methodology for evaluating the overall sales promotion plan relating KPI’s to stated quantifiable objectives (in brief) In this part of the assignment students are expected to provide measures/metrics for evaluating the sales promotion campaign. Consider the construction of the sp mix, the objectives set and your audience(s).
Please allocate to Part B approximately 65% of the word count – consider that 45-50% of the word count should be allocated to sections 2, 3, and 4.
5.2. Assessment Deadlines & Word Count Limit Students must submit work by the deadlines set in the course/project outline. Work submitted after the deadline will be graded according to the provisions of the current regulatory framework. Deree regulations and policies apply regarding late submissions. Word limit does not include cover page, contents, introduction, references, and appendices (if any). Please respect the word limit. Deviations from the word limit will receive penalties.
5.3. References It is good academic practice to include literature citations and a bibliography or reference list. Citations can be from multiple sources, including course materials, course readers and set books, academic journals, magazines, newspapers, websites, etc. All of them require an appropriate reference. Referencing should be according to the APA system. For more information contact the library (use APA Style: see www.apastyle.org, https://library.acg.edu/citations/apa/overview). References should be included in the main text AND listed on a separate page at the end of the report.
For your project, it is required that you use several sources of information – both academic and nonacademic (minimum 10 sources).
