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Introduction

Pure Almond Milk is a new entrant in the market, and its value proposition is the brand name, logo, and slogan, which promises healthy and fortified bodies to our customers. Personalization needs and consumer health drive consumers to adopt alternative milk contributing to an increased demand for plant-based milk products. Blue Diamond Almond Breeze and Sanitarium Almond Milk are the two major competitors to the Pure Almond Milk brand. Diamond Almond Breeze and Sanitarium Almond Milk have an advantage since their products have been in the market for a long time and have an established market share. However, due to increasing health awareness and benefits, the Pure Almond milk brand can differentiate its product and establish a market niche in the country.

Product Analysis

Consumer awareness and preferences underpin the need to develop a marketing strategy to control the market segment. The strategy for the Pure Almond Milk brand is to provide consumers with plant-based milk whose value mimics that of cow milk, with reduced fats, lactose intolerance, and cholesterol levels, and superior to other plant-based products in terms of nutritional value. Providing customers with plant-based milk with the same nutrients as the actual milk, but suitable for people with lactose intolerance. Consumers can obtain nutrients from almond milk without compromising their health. Since most customers in New Zealand are concerned about their health and the choice of foods is dictated by health benefits accrued from the products, almond milk is suitable for the population. Research shows that 90% of the Asian population is lactose intolerant, an indication that alternative milk products have an already target market to share (Zoe, 2019).

Blue Diamond Almond Breeze currently uses TV adverts such as "the girl on the breeze," which are emotional marketing strategies to create awareness of their products. Blue Diamond Almond Breeze also uses a functional branding strategy by developing different almond milk brands to meet different customer needs, such as unsweetened, sweetened, and vanilla brands. On the other hand, Sanitarium Almond Milk focuses on functional branding where they focus on reaching children with healthy milk substitutes. The main challenge for the Pure Almond Milk brand is creating the required awareness to tap into the market with already established brands. The idea is to create a viral branding strategy that will try to overcome the challenge. The consumer insight information we have found is that most New Zealanders are intolerant to natural milk. The current competitors are not capitalizing on the allergic reaction, which plant-based milk can solve. With an increasingly health-conscious population, consumers are looking for products to prevent health issues and satisfy consumer needs. Our campaign strategy will focus on stimulating consumers to purchase our product to gain the benefits associated with our product. A significant strategic gap our competitors have not utilized is connecting the emotional branding strategy with functional branding strategy to completely address consumers' perspectives on consuming alternative kinds of milk. The idea is to combine emotional and functional branding strategies to capture the customer's attention, use paid adverts on major television networks in the country, and create a viral branding strategy where influencers will circulate the advert on all social media pages.

Branding Strategy

Pure Almond Milk brand will use a campaign mantra, “Drink Pure Almond, fortify your cells," accompanied with the simulation of body cell transformation resulting from drinking the Almond milk. A combination of functional and emotional branding strategies will use singer Keith Urban, born and raised in New Zealand. Keith has a perfect body shape that can influence people to consume the Pure Almond Milk brand. A simulation of body-transforming drinking milk will accompany the TV ad. People are shifting their focus to healthy living, and combining both functional branding and emotional branding will capture the imagination of the consumers (Baltezarevic, 2016). Most consumers have TV stars as their role models, and their body goals are influenced mainly by what they see on their televisions. Choosing Keith, who has acted in many TV shows, will motivate consumers to buy our brand. The mantra and slogan of the brand will touch on the functional part of the strategy, as consumers look for products that can transform their bodies. Choosing a local star brings the idea home in that it is possible to have a specific body shape while in New Zealand. Our product will easily connect emotionally with our target customers in New Zealand. Unlike our competitors who are using a girl without cultural linkage to the country, our celebrities advertise our product, hence, appearing more authentic in the customers’ eyes. The idea will be to inspire the consumers to live healthily. Such a campaign will perfectly align with consumer expectations, hence commanding customer loyalty to the Pure Almond milk brand while increasing the brand awareness to potential customers. Having his music accompanies the advert will also connect with locals and easily identify with the product. Consumers will likely prefer our product because it will feel more authentic and more local than other brands using association with foreign people (Grencíková et al., 2016).

Local products have other attached benefits, and in the era of sustainability, customers will be attracted to buy local for environmental protection. Most of our competitors' products are made in other countries and take long before they reach the market and sometimes shortages are reported in the market. Our product aim to have local manufacturing, which will cut the transportation and storage costs. And reach consumer shelves in the shortest time possible. Convenience is critical in securing the market segment, and niche and Pure Almond Milk will always be available in the nearby retailer point. Some products do not gain prominence because of their superior qualities, but they do so due to convenience to customers.

As opposed to our competitors who appeal to the emotions of their clients and address the functional branding by providing different brands, our Pure Almond Milk brand will go deeper in showing how drinking the milk will benefit their bodies, the message that cells will be fortified upon drinking the milk will appeal to people struggling with weight and obesity and are allergic to lactose in real milk. The campaign advert will have two parts; first, Keith will drink regular milk and show emotional distress and discomfort. Such will form an emotional connection with potential customers who will be aware that Pure Almond Milk company has done adequate research and knows the problems they are going through. Unlike our competitors, customers will be aware that we are solving their problems and easily connect with our product. The second part of the advert will involve Keith drinking Pure Almond Milk and expressing satisfaction, accompanied by a simulation of the drink through muscles and nerves, creating a sensation and modifying the cells. Again, the consumers will see the health benefits of drinking Pure Almond Milk and will seek to try the product back in their minds. Visuals are essential components when communicating, and in most cases, they touch on consumers’ needs.

The following branding method will be viral branding for our product. The world has become a global village, and online influencers are becoming important in reaching markets that traditional media cannot easily get. New Zealand influencers with higher following both in Instagram, Twitter and Facebook will be incorporated in the campaign strategy to reach as many people on the benefits of drinking Pure Almond Milk as possible. The influencers will be given the liberty to create their props accompanied by "Pure Almond Milk fortifies your cells" and post on their timelines. Giving the influencers the freedom to make their props will create mixed messages that fit each influencer's followers. Each influencer will customize the message to suit their followers, and such will increase the level of influence and increase the spread of the message and benefits of our product. Sponsored ads in social media with hashtags that fortify your cells will also spread these contagious messages to all potential clients. The influencers will also be paid based on the number of "likes," "retweets," and "share" their props receive on different social media platforms. The adverts on social media are likely to go viral because other influencers will be competing on who gets the most reactions from followers. So instead of competing to get potential customers, the influencers will be competing for their popularity, and in so doing, they will market the product beyond their influential reach. On the other hand, Paid ads provide an opportunity for the product to trend globally, not just in the country but reach more people than the targeted customer base (Jaikumar, & Sahay, 2015).

Creative advertisement implementation

The problem with our competitors is that they have used emotional branding without linking the emotions with the function of their products. Most of the target customers are struggling with weight and allergic issues originating from the consumption of dairy products and are seeking a substitute that meets the functional requirements of the dairy products without affecting their health. By choosing to integrate the two branding strategies, Pure Almond Milk aims to tackle the challenge. The advertisement using a known person to most New Zealanders and simulating the milk's effects give more effect than just using a random person. The emotional touch in the advertisement originates from the choice of the person, the music, the message, and additional simulation to show how Pure Almond Milk will address concerns and enhance human health.

Consumers are seeking a healthy supplement to natural milk. They want a product that solves the problem they face when they consume natural milk, and the product should be as close to natural milk as possible without the negative health issues of the milk. Therefore, for any advertisement to be creative, it must create a connection between the alternative milk and the natural milk to be considered a complete substitute. Consumers are becoming more informed and concerned about their diets and healthy living. The majority of consumers switch from dairy products and choose plant-based products that give almost similar nutrients to dairy products but are not allergic. The purpose of the advertisement should link these consumption insights by collaborating the expected nutritional values derivable from the consumption of Pure Almond Milk. The advertisement should not shy away from tackling the issue and advertise the product as though it's an isolated idea. Customers should be able to link the reason behind the creation of the product with the solution it offers.

The big idea in this advertisement is to demonstrate to consumers that Pure Almond Milk has come to fill the gap left by other plant-based milk products in the market and a solution to the allergic problems the majority of the population faces. Product success is based on the solution it offers competitors lack. Pure Almond Milk sells cell fortification, safety and that excites consumers to put a packet of Pure Almond Milk in the shopping basket on the next market day. The simulation triggers the urge to live a healthy life, and consumers are currently looking for ways to live healthy without compromising their safety. The advert creates safety and health assurance in the same display, declaring the problem and giving a solution in the same instance.

The advertisement will utilize a creative tone to reach the target audience. It will involve using simulated props for people drinking other plant-based milk and others drinking almond milk and simulating stomach health reactions to Almond milk and another unhealthy response to different plant-based kinds of milk. Such will paint to the consumers the friendliness of almond milk compared to the actual milk. The simulated tone should be accompanied by an advertising message indicating the benefits accrued from drinking almond milk instead of taking other plant-based kinds of milk. In addition, the style and the message should depict a picture of the difference between almond milk and different types of alternative kinds of milk. Other than the smooth reaction with the stomach, the simulated individuals should be shown to gain muscle strength and stamina from drinking the almond milk.

References

Baltezarevic, R. (2016). Emotional branding as a way of communication with consumers. Komunikacije, Mediji, Kultura, (8), 125-136. doi: 10.5937/gfkm1608125b

Grencíková, A., Krajco, K., & Sokol, J. (2018). Use of Viral Marketing by Universities. Marketing And Branding Research, 5(2), 100-110. doi: 10.33844/mbr.2018.60440

Jaikumar, S., & Sahay, A. (2015). Celebrity endorsements and branding strategies: event study from India. Journal Of Product & Brand Management, 24(6), 633-645. doi: 10.1108/jpbm-06-2014-0640

Zoe, W., 2019. The girl on the swing returns for Almond Breeze’s first integrated campaign. Mumbrella.