Analysis of a marketing campaign for a healthy snack bar product

University of Technology Sydney

24736 Marketing Communications Spring 2020

ASSIGNMENT #1: Individual

Analysis of a marketing campaign for a healthy snack bar

Value 30%

Overview The assignment requires you to analyse a marketing communications campaign within a specific product category. In doing so you will understand the managerial decisions that were made with respect to a campaign and appreciate the need to plan marketing communications in a comprehensive and integrated manner.

Details Select a communications piece (e.g., TV, digital, print, social media ad or guerilla marketing material etc.) from a marketing campaign related to healthy snack bars.

Ideally the communications piece should be from an Australian campaign.

You are required to critique elements of the communication piece for the brand (i.e. discuss the negative and positive aspects), in terms of the communications objectives, creative strategies & tactics used, as well as the target customer and category positioning (market partitioning) involved. In particular, look at positioning (market needs) and customer persona(s). Essentially you are required to apply many of the class concepts. Make sure to conclude with a paragraph stating how successful you think the campaign is in reaching the objectives you can infer they want to achieve, and, discussing at least one change (specifically to the material you chose for this assignment) that you think would make the campaign more successful (even if you think it is already successful) and why.

It is likely you will not have access to information about the entire campaign, so you will need to make informed inferences by using class content and researching industry information and other sources. You might not be able to consider all the stages (e.g., objectives and budgeting stages) as you would not necessarily have information, however, make an informed guess by stating for example what they “appear to” (or “don’t appear to”), and then provide an explanation to why you think they “appear to” (or “don’t appear to”).

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Formatting requirements

 The report should use standard margins (2.54cm) and 1.5 spacing, 12 size normal font.

 The report should include a cover page with student name and number, the tutorial the student is enrolled in (4pm, 5pm or 6pm) and the name of the brand/product chosen. This should be followed by a page with the chosen communication piece details such as an image of the print ad, a storyboard snapshot and link to a video ad, etc.

 In a new page start the critique, which should contain the following parts:

- Campaign Brief Description

- Category Positioning and ‘Involvement by Motivation’ Grid

- Target Customers

- Marketing Communications Strategy and Objectives

- Creative Strategy and Tactics

 Include references after the critique. If there are any appendices, include last.

 Maximum limit of 800 words, excluding cover, chosen communications piece information, references, and appendices (if any).

 Appendices should not contain any content expected in the main body of the report and should only be included if deemed necessary.

Submission requirements

 Uploaded on Turnitin via Canvas)

 Referencing: if the assignment is not properly referenced in text and does not include a references list, marks will be deducted. For further information on referencing see UTS Business School Guide for Writing Assignments.

Other requirements

 Marks will be deduced for late submission of the assignment.

 If there are any unforeseen changes to the information in this document, they will be announced on UTSOnline and/or in class. It is your responsibility to note any changes.

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Marking Criteria The assignment will be marked using the following criteria:

Criteria Weight Description

Conviction 50% Quality of the argument: strong, sensible, deep, focused, conclusive.

Completeness 40% How well the topic/issue is covered; both positive and negative aspects are covered; supported by reliable sources/materials.

Presentation 10% How well the paper is presented; written expression; proper referencing

Timeline Due date: Week 6 – 4pm, 2 September 2020

FAQs CHOOSING A COMMUNICATIONS PIECE  The communications piece should be delivering a more complete message by itself,

such as a print ad, a radio ad, a video (online or tv), one social media post with it’s hashtags, text, and image(s)/video, one outdoor, one guerrilla marketing campaign execution.

 Do not pick a picture of packaging, or a picture taken of a website.

 If you think it is necessary, you can include more than one execution of the same type of communication, such as 2 or 3 Facebook posts if they are all slight variations that would help interpret the same campaign, e.g., each post having a different ‘flavour’, or using a different actor to deliver the same message.

 You do not need to analyse all the campaign components, just choose one piece. Different executions could have different objectives etc. Obviously, your critique will be strengthened if you consider the broader context, e.g., the piece you’ve selected in contrast to previous campaigns (e.g., how it builds on their long-term branding, or whether they have repositioned, whether this is good or bad, etc.). You can also use information about the brand (is it a National brand, new brand, market leader, etc.); or, whether the campaign is a response or contrasts with a main competitor in the same market, etc.

WHAT CONSTITUTES A HEALTHY SNACK BAR?

This is something for you to consider. I would recommend you think about something that has natural ingredients only and is free from additives, etc.

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Feedback from previous projects

GENERIC FEEDBACK  Use spell check and grammar checking tools (e.g., Word or Grammarly, etc). UTS also has

assignment help available.  Objectives - Make sure you understand the difference between marketing and

communication objectives. Communication objectives – you should not state that a communications piece does them all, choose the main one. If you think that it is awareness, consider whether it is recall or recognition.

CHARACTERISTICS OF OUTSTANDING PROJECTS  Thorough understanding of circumstances in which chosen ad piece was likely to

be consumed by the audience, including:  How a media type/vehicle was likely to affect one specific or different

target audiences  Audiences likely previous knowledge/attitudes toward the product/brand  Overall campaign/brand objectives and how the chosen piece fit within an

integrated communications strategy  Use of these circumstances in developing balanced critique OF THE CHOSEN PIECE,

& focused word count on the critique (this did not mean that listing all the possible objectives that a communication can address form a good critique)

 Opinions were well supported, e.g., if you claim the ad is focused on BLs then a reasoning from within (& outside) the ad is used to support this.

 Good level of research undertaken  Clear focus on likely objectives of the chosen ad piece, including what the level of

motivation, e.g., sensory gratification, problem removal, etc., and level of involvement of the product and whether transformational or informational tactics were used.

 Fully addressed the brief with coherent analysis from start to end  Not spending words on tangential discussion; relevance is key

MAIN PITFALLS OF NOT-SO-GOOD PROJECTS  Failure to follow guidelines, including poor choice of ad, lack of discussion on

partitioning, lack (or wrong interpretation) of involvement by motivation grid, lack of discussion on likely objectives / creative strategies / target audience, etc.

 Inclusion of a token negative comment rather than development of a critique  Separate sections that did not seem to be connected to each other  Related to above, inconsistencies in argument  Spending word count on irrelevant / tangential discussion rather than deep

investigation of what mattered most (elephant in the room!)  Lack of understanding of circumstances in which chosen ad piece was likely to be

consumed by audience  Poor academic research use (either inexistent or used as a token, sparsely and / or

without real relevance)  Poor research overall showing lack of understanding of the ad chosen, target

market, brand, campaign, etc.  Poor writing, hard to make sense of sentences