Produce a marketing communications report addressing the requirements set out in the case study found attached

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INTEGRATED MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS

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Contents Page

Introduction …………………………………………………………………….……………………………….………… Page 3

1. Analysis of Crooked Beverages ………………………………………………….…………………..…………… Page 3

a. Analysis of the Sector and Key Trends and Issues …………………….……..……………… Page 5

b. Analysis of the Competition and Their Communication Activities…..……………….. Page 5

c. Analysis of the Crooked brand & competitor brands……………..………..…...………… Page 7

d. Analysis of the Current Target Audience……………………………………………...…………. Page 9

e. Current Market Expertise and Agency Availability…………………………….……………. Page 11

2. Marketing Communications Objectives……………………………………………………..……………… Page 12

3. Nature of Communications Strategy……………………………………………………..………………….. Page 13

4. Target Audience of Campaign……………………………………….………………………………………….. Page 14

5. Key Messages of Campaign……………………………………………………………….……………………… Page 15

6. Creative Message of Campaign………………………………………………………….….…………………. Page 16

7. Recommendation for Communications Tools……………………………….…..…………………….. Page 17

8. References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Page 22

9. Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………………………………... Page 28

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Introduction

“The first of their kind”, Crooked Beverage Co is a brand created from Global Brands (2020) in the aim to evolve

consumers’ perceptions of ready to drink beverages, with three variant flavours; Dayglo Skies (Raspberry & Lime),

Midnight Stage (Blood Orange & Passion Fruit) and Mother Moon (Peach & Pomegranate). The brand targets towards

the appeal of growing alcohol demands which are not synthetic or sugary for millennials, with vegan-friendly, deep

flavour orientated products.

1. Analysis of Crooked Beverages

1 (a) Analysis of the sector and key trends & issues

Political and Economic Impacts

Crooked launched in 2017 entering the Ready-To-Drink (RTD) market. With such a competitive market, the firm receives

positive and negative influences by their external environment. For example, the political environment, where

governments can implement certain policies which in turn affect markets, organisations and customers (Bassington and

Pettitt, 2013:55).

Due the crowded market, consumers are becoming increasingly inclined to making more informed purchasing decisions

because of the array of availability and alternative product options. Consumers are swaying towards drinking less/no

alcohol, with non-alcoholic beer sales growing by 3.9% on average for the past five years due to concerns with their

health (Taylor, 2019). Young people aged 16 to 24 years in Great Britain are less likely to drink than any other age group

(ONS, 2017). Innova (2019) concludes one of the top trends in the beverage industry is that brands must be transparent

within their marketing practices and their customers must know the story behind the brand to influence their

purchasing decisions.

Social and Technological Impacts

Social pressures can influence cultural trends widely followed by people and are increased by their popularity or by

conformity, as the more people who follow a trend, the more other individuals will want to follow this (Rani, 2011).

Across Britain today, veganism is becoming a trend within consumers in the market – with almost half of the vegan

market in the 15-34 age category (Hancox, 2018). Whilst some purchasers may not be vegan themselves, they could be

more likely to follow the trend and choose vegan alternatives if there is an option, over the choice of non-vegan

beverages. Thus, the attitude towards the packaging of goods is changing in the market, with 50% of consumers

agreeing they can control the amount they drink, the smaller the packaging (Mintel, 2018d). Furthermore, trends and

advancements in technology can impact on consumers buying behaviours – with a move towards buying their beverages

online, it is estimated that alcohol brands and retailers are missing out on billions of online sales annually (Upshall,

2020).

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Key trends and Issues relevant to Crooked Bev Co

Source Trend/Issue Sector analysis Relevance to Crooked Bev Co and their communications

P Mintel (2019)

Changing attitudes towards low/non- alcoholic beverages With encouraging moderation for cut-back on alcohol by the UK government, consumers appeal for low/ non- alcoholic (ABV of 1.2% and below) is growing.

Due to high-profile launches and strong marketing support, the sector has grown from £30 million in 2016/17 to £50 million in 2018/19. 47% of 18-24's drink low/no-alcoholic beers.

Crooked Bev Co’s main product offering contain 4.7% ABV is significantly higher than the considered ‘low-alcohol market’, therefore do not satisfy the needs of consumers who are attempting to drink ‘less’ (1.5% and under) or no alcohol. However, they currently communicate to the market a focus on their ‘light, fruity, refreshing’ beverages, rather than focus on the strength of the alcohol. The government is increasingly likely to encourage a shift towards ‘low/no’, so Crooked’s communication strategy could position themselves as a viable alternative for ‘low/no’.

E Innova Market

Insights

, 2019

Consumers developing interest about the ‘story behind’ their brands influencing purchasing Innova claims one of the top trends involves in the beverage industry includes consumers interest in the stories behind their brand.

When it comes to natural ingredients, brand storytelling is an important offer as consumers are looking for a great transparency in their brands.

The communication focus by Crooked is strongly based on their ingredients

and flavours, including how they use ‘no sweeteners or preservatives’ to

come across as a health-conscious brand which is fun and tastes good for

consumers. Although, Crooked do not tell the story behind their brand as

such. By developing a content strategy which tells their customers the story

behind their brand or their ingredients, this may make consumers make an

informed decision-process easier for their consumers. 60% of the content

which consumers read, they class as ‘clutter’ (McMenemy, 2017).

S The Vegan Society (N.D)

Veganism Across Britain, in attempt to reduce climate damage and the killing of animals, 600,000 vegans in the UK as of 2019.

The UK plant-based market is now worth £443m (Wocka-Gowda, 2019) with 250,000 of the population joining ‘Veganuary’ in January 2020.

The main product offerings are ‘vegan’, which makes the appeal to vegan customers and to consumers in which are wanting to change their consumption habits for sustainability reasons. Crooked communicate to their customer on the product they are vegan and registered ‘with the Vegan Society’ on their website. Crooked’s appeal to a mass market will be more attractive if they communicate this USP.

S Mintel (2018d)

Changing attitudes

towards packaging of

goods

Consumers are reacting

more to the label on

alcoholic drinks with

38% of consumers

reading the label of

alcoholic drinks. Those

with the most creative

branding stand out the

most, opposed to most

of the information on

the packaging.

The shape and feel of

the alcoholic drink can

sway the purchasing

decision of the

consumer, with cans

being the best

performers out of all

the packaging types.

This is due to their

convenience and

adaptability, as they can

be stored in the fridge

and are a good value for

money.

25% of consumers agree that the smaller packaged alcoholic drinks are better value for money. This suggests that most consumers may not choose to buy Crooked as it is packaged in a small can. However, 50% of consumers agreed that they would have better control of the amount they drink, the smaller the packaging. This demonstrates consumers awareness of how much alcohol they consume and their approach to a healthier lifestyle. Crooked would benefit as it is a low-calorie drink that has small packaging. Moreover, 68% of UK drinkers/buyers of alcohol agree it is acceptable to drink alone. Society is becoming increasingly focused on independence and individualism, with consumers feeling encouraged to do things independently. As Crooked is a mixed drink, it would be considered acceptable to drink it alone. (Mintel, 2018d)

T KPMG (2019)

Online generation KMPG reports a key trend within the beverage industry is consumers are starting to turn to the internet for their beverage needs.

IWSR (N.D) indicates that 1.8% of the value of all global beverage alcohol is sold online.

Crooked sell to their consumer base through both licensed locations and online, with their intermediaries selling their products through their website. Whilst the process is simple for consumers and accessible, majority of their intermediaries have sold out the product online (this could indicate a poor relationship). However, Crooked continuously direct their consumers to their online product availability through to their website through their social media marketing communications.

(Table 1.0)

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1. (b) Analysis of the competition & their communications activities

According to Statista (2020), the alcoholic beverage market amounts to $72,341 million (equating to £55,601 million)

which has grown annually by 3.5%. With such a large market, the industry can be further segmented in a variety of ways,

such as by the product category (beer, distilled spirits, wine and others) and where the alcohol is sold by their licenses

with on-license (pubs, clubs or restaurants) and off-license vendors (shops and supermarkets) (IAS, N.D).

Crooked’s ‘alcoholic soda’ product range aims to ‘revolutionising the RTD category’, with their cans in on-license and off-

license premises aiming to beat their competition. As they are low in fat and suitable for vegans, they become an

alternative for customers with these specific psychographic and behavioral needs. However, their competition can be

within any of the alcoholic market as their product can be substituted for the large variety of products in the market.

The top nine RTD brands recorded an overall growth in 2019, and figures show that the value of the RTD market in 2019

was worth a total of £472 million, of which £185 million was spent in the on-trade (Stone, 2020).

Undertaking a competitor analysis, this enables the evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of potential competitors

marketing communication strategies to enable Crooked to campaign in the aim of generating loyal fans and increasing

sales. This report critically evaluates the market leaders within the RTD market with the examples of Hooch, VK, WKD,

Smirnoff Ice and BrewDog’s new low-alcoholic beverage, which is beginning to dominate the rising low/no alcoholic

beverage trend. Hooch, VK and Crooked all belong within the brand portfolio of Global Brands, they have been selected

within this report to compare the communications activity within the brand.

Brand Market Value 2019 (£m) & (HL) sold

Unique selling point

Traditional communications Social media

Print Media TV Adverts Public Relations

11.7 (+10.1 %

change

2018-19)

14,768 (+9.1% change 2018-19)

The first Alcopop to be introduce d into the UK, strong customer awareness

✅ ✅ ✅ 59,137 5,750 9,444 247

Print Media: A yearlong London taxi

advertisement campaign with the tagline

‘Refreshment with Bite’

TV: Keith Lemon’s Hooch TV ad relaunched in

2014, which was seen on average 3.2 times by

52% of all UK 18-24 y/o

PR: #Hoochlife campaign to encourage drinkers to live the Hooch lifestyle, as 62% of millennials feel online content drives their loyalty to a brand Official partners for Bournemouth 7s tournament, a weekend festival of sports and music Source: (Hooch - Retail times, 2020), (Morning Advertiser, 2020).

Hooch have just launched their biggest ever promotion, which is expected to reach 10million consumers, Promotional packs have a scratch code that gives the consumers access to a free blockbuster movie, to encourage drinkers to have a ‘Big Night In’ Complementing the TV ad campaign, consumers can enter ‘Keith Lemon’s dream holiday’ competition by redeeming a code on bottles/cans with his face on. Source: (Hooch - Retail times, 2020)

44 (-1.2% change 2018-19) (Mintel, 2018b)

105,00 0(-3.7% change 2018-19)

Stylish product design, bright and colourful attracting consumer s attention to a refreshing drink. Vegan option.

✅ ✅ ✅ 263,968 14,700 13,100 N / A

Print Media: WKD’s Brand reinvention began in

2016, by global design agency JKR. They re-

designed the bottle’s image and highlighted the

three bold letters on the front to capture their

18-24 y/o target audience’s attention.

PR: The WKD brand was present at 11 UK

festivals in 2018. WKD’s £3m “Be the face

campaign” ran through 2018 summer and

involved a series of emojis on the bottle caps of

promotional products, giving consumers an

opportunity to win Ticketmaster vouchers to

gigs, festivals and events across the UK (Cronin,

2020).

WKD’s latest ‘For the Now’ campaign is centered around creating, capturing and sharing now moments with their audience, through events, social digital, outdoor media and new generation publishers

WKD is the Brand leader for the RTD market, with seven popular flavours (SHS Group, 2020)

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52.5 (+11.6% change in 2018 – 19)

The only RTD that is available in 7 PET flavours. It is the No.1 Traditiona l RTD in the UK. Loyal consumer base with students across the UK.

✅ ✅ ✅ 64,051 7,605 22.2k N/A

In 2019 VK revealed a bold new design for their

bestselling multi pack, modernizing and

increasing shelf stand out (Global Brands, 2020a)

PR: VK have Student Ambassadors across UK

universities, aiming to be directly involved with

the student community. This programme is

aimed to ensure that VK continues to be the

number one drink for students. Relatable role

models and ambassadors to represent the brand

gives the target markets an opportunity to

connect with the drink, creating a more loyal

customer base (Mintel, 2018a). VK targeted

freshers' week in 2018, giving away branded

portable chargers with special mixed multipacks

- this campaign was a follow on from their

doorstop giveaway of 2017, which increased

sales by 148% (Mintel, 2018a).

Using social media, a targeted celebrity influencer campaign in 2018 reached over three million consumers. This focused on promoting mixed packs, and more opportunities to win VK merchandise (Grocery Trader, 2020). A crowd surfing campaign across the VK website and all social media’s saw them receive 33,000 votes, of which were 19,000 for watermelon flavour. Leading onto the ‘Find the watermelon’ campaign, where consumers who find hidden bottles try it before the main release, and can win festive VK merchandise (Stein, 2020).

28.5 (-5.3% change 2018-19)

23,620 (-7.1% change 2018-19)

Establishe d branding across the globe. Primarily targeting a ‘mind set’/lifstyl erather than consumer

✅ ✅ ✅ 53K 15.6K 8.1K 4.51K (Smirnoff Europe brand)

PR: Aims to embrace inclusivity as a notion

through partnering with the LGBT foundation

promoting their products across pride events

across the UK (Roderick, 2017).

Tv Advert: To launch new flavour of the brand,

their ‘Keep it’s Moving’ campaign which relates

high energy dance music with an 87-year-old

grandmother to represent the inclusivity of the

brand with the distinct flavour of new products.

#SmirnoffIce has a reach of 103.3K posts on Instagram worldwide (hashtags), representing how brand recognition has helped to promote their product. By networking with the LGBT foundation, brand is marketed across social media with the use of #SmirnoffPride and by the high volume of images shared across social media during the events. The Smirnoff brand uses the LGBT foundation colour during these events to further promote inclusivity.

Brewdog PUNK AF (0.5% ABV)

57 (17.7% change 2018-19)

66,172 (19.7% change 2018-19) Note: Figure of total brand, not specific ABV product

‘New saviour’ of alcohol- free cans with 0.5% ABV with less than 50 calories.

✅ ✅ ✅ 378K 133.5K 303K 8.35K

(Brewdog brand)

Print Media: Their ‘Sober as a motherfu’

outdoor campaign ad banned for alluding a

swear word to promote the Punk AF drink.

Source: (Vizard, 2019).

PR: Opened the first ever alcohol-free bar called

‘Brew Dog AF” in London. Promoting their

product by offering unlimited refills during

January – tieing in with their social media

campaign of #PunkOClock.

#PunkOClock Campaigning across their social media networks to encourage workers finishing work for the week on a Friday Afternoon at 5PM to grab a Punk AF beverage. By sharing this hashtag in selected cities, consumers could earn a free pint during January. #VotePunk ‘1 vote = 1 pint’ By sharing a selfie on Instagram of voting outside the polling station on the election day, customers could enjoy a free Punk AF.

(Table 2.0)

Key themes throughout the communications

• Encouragement of the brands lifestyles to consumers – BrewDog are consistent in encouraging people to join

their alcohol-free trend lifestyle. Whereas, Smirnoff are encouraging their inclusivity image through their tv

advertisements, to encourage consumers their brand is a ‘mind-set’, rather than a direct consumer. Hooch using

their #HoochLife campaign to encourage their consumers to live their own lifestyle of a ‘Big Night In’.

• Brand consistency with engaging their following on social media – VK ‘Find The Watermelon’ campaign in which

they encourage consumers to find hidden bottles and share across social media to keep consumers engaged and

promote the ‘fun’ associations with brand. BrewDog using their #PumpOClock to encourage workers to share

their hashtag to earn a free pint.

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• Achieving reach across social media – brands are consistently using campaigns to network the brand through

networking events such as Smirnoff Ice networking with pride events across the UK to promote #SmirnoffPride.

WKD use their ‘For the Now’ campaign in which they capture and share moments with their audience through

various events and outdoor media.

• Influencer marketing is one of the newest forms of marketing, allowing user-generated content and brand

awareness (Kapadia, 2020)– with VK using a targeted influencer campaign to achieve a reach up to three million

consumers.

1. (c) Analysis of the Crooked brand & competitor brands

Brand essence wheel (Figure 1.0 Brand Essence Wheel, Crooked)

Within their marketing communications, all brands

attempt to create mass brand awareness through social

media networking and events to convince their

consumers’, they are a ‘fun’ choice. Using the Brand

Essence Wheel, we can identify the emotional heart of a

brand or product. This is important because brand image

is key to its short-term and long-term success. The term

is defined by De Chernatony and McDonald (2003) as “a

brand is more than just the sum of its component parts.

It embodies, for the purchaser or user, additional

attributes, which, whilst they might consider to be

‘intangible’ are still very real.” Through using this tool, it

sets out the consumer rewards for purchasing the

product and displays the emotional connection that can

be further used to increase customer loyalty and

maintain sales and subsequently market share.

The brand essence wheel can be used to distinguish

between companies at a brand level, so by looking at the

company ’Crooked’ brand wheel, the possible emotional

connections a consumer may have is clear. Weekly calorie

intake is a concern for 52% of UK adults, with nearly a third

keeping track of their total intake (Mintel, 2019f), at 47

calories per 100ml, this is the least calorific RTD alcopop on

the market (Crooked Beverage Co, 2020). This brand

identity of crooked being a healthy alternative can then be

showcased in marketing communications, in 2018 and

2019 two biggest trends in the food and drink market were

veganism and wellness, both identified in Crooked

products (Stone, 2020). The brand essence wheel of VK

highlights their main target audience as young consumers,

specifically students. The current number one RTD on the

market maintains this young consumer base using social

media channels and entertaining advertisement, which

(Figure 1.1 Brand essence wheel VK)

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incentivizes young consumers to engage with the brand continuing to build loyalty and interest (Mintel, 2018e).

The Brand Essence Wheel is a marketing format created by Bates (1995) and visually highlights and communicates the

emotional and physical benefits a brand may have on a consumer. Through understanding these key components, a

business can ensure their core values and marketing strategies are directed at the correct target audiences (Schmitt,

1999). Research on Crooked when creating its essence wheel highlights their target audience as young millennials who

are looking for a healthy alternative RTD alcoholic beverage, using this information within the communications strategy

of the brand, Crooked can target this audience through social media channels and promoting the drink in student areas

to increase awareness and loyalty through engagement. The Brand Essence Wheel of Crooked and VK clearly suggests as

to why their communications strategy differ, VK’s target audience is the student age group, which they currently

dominate in the RTD market, and focus on the colourful, fun and fizzy characteristics of their product to maintain

customer engagement with exciting advertising content on social media (Uyr, 2020). Crooked are looking to change

perceptions of the RTD beverages available, introducing a low calorie, vegan friendly, and alternative drink aiming at the

target audience between 20-30-year old's, and looking to infiltrate the 30 – 45-year-old age group with their

revolutionized alcopop beverage.

Consumer perception and brand associations

Consumers perception and associations on brands have a big impact on any organizations, as image and reputation build

a strong brand and drive sales (Gbadamosi et al. 2013). With the use of Mintel (2018a) and other sources listed in

Appendix 1, this tool has been created to give a further detailed view of the perceptions on brands within the market.

(Figure 2.0: Brand association model. - See appendix for references)

• Hooch is associated as a ‘traditional’ choice of RTD due to their strong presence in the 1990’s before their nine-

year ban in the UK market (The Telegraph, 2012). Due to their absence in the market, their communication

campaign encourages a ‘Hooch Lifestyle’ to millennials.

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• WKD is the brand most likely perceived as ‘cool’ and 53% of under-35's perceiving the brand as ‘fun’ (Mintel,

2019). Their communication strategy has attempted to reinvent the brand as a choice for ‘18-24’ demographic,

as the ‘alcopop’ market has received negative publicity over the years.

• VK - With the highest market value (Stone, 2019), VK can be perceived as one of the most trusted RTD’s, which is

highly accessible to young people. The brand targeted university freshers which increased their sales by 148%,

keeping the young demographic frequently engaged with their celebrity influencing and social media campaigns.

• Smirnoff has universal awareness with a long history on the market, their global reputation gives the perception

the brand has value and is easily accessible for consumers. The brand is perceived as ‘fun’ by a rising 54% of

under-35's (Mintel, 2019) with associations with networking events. Their strategy communicates Smirnoff as a

‘lifestyle’ brand (Brownsell, 2009).

• BrewDog have positioned themselves as a trusted brand amongst young people, as they have recognized the

importance of the low/no-alcohol trend (Mintel, 2020) with their market leading product, Brewdog Punk AF,

first ‘alcohol-free’ bar and strong communication strategy. However, whilst they target more health-conscious,

‘low’ drinkers, the product is not vegan friendly (Hallett, 2019).

1. (d) Analysis of the current target audience

The current target audience of Crooked is aimed at 20-30 year old's (Global Brands, IBID) that includes those in

Generation Y (millennials) and Z (Kasasa, 2020). The typical RTD drinker would usually be between the age of 18-24

(Mintel, 2018), therefore Crooked is targeting a slightly older age group. Figure 3 demonstrates the lifestyle of a typical

consumer of Crooked in this target audience.

(Figure 3.0): Crooked Buyer Persona. (See Table 3 for justification of Persona)

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(Table 3.0: Content behind the development of ‘Anna” for Crooked)

It is evident that people do not need to be going out to drink alcohol as 53% of people who consume RTD alcoholic

drinks preferring to drink it at home (Mintel, 2020). As demonstrated in the persona, Anna is someone who prefers to

stay at home making Crooked a suitable beverage for her. Furthermore, with Crooked being a member of the Vegan

Society (Crooked Beverage Co, 2020), this makes it suitable to all vegans, together with being considered the ‘healthy’

choice of alcohol. It has been suggested that being vegan is associated with being healthy (Mosley, 2018), therefore

Crooked targets consumers who want to be healthy, but also want to enjoy alcohol. One of the leading reasons people

choose to limit their alcohol intake, is to improve their health (47%), with consumers wanting to manage their weight

(38%) being the second leading reason (Mintel, 2019). This makes it crucial for Crooked to deliver on these wellbeing

considerations. Crooked ensures it targets these consumers with their drinks being very low in sugar with less than 5

grams (Crooked Beverage Co, 2020). In addition to this, Crooked targets healthier consumers with its small packaging in

a can (as identified in Section 1 (a)).

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1. (e) Current Market Expertise and Agency Availability

Current Marketing Expertise

The parent company Global Brands owns an array of drinks including spirits, soft drinks, tonics, RTDs and alcoholic

beverages. Due to the variety of diverse products, Global Brands has the financial capability to support their own team

of expertise. As evident through their 2017 campaign (Global Brands, 2020), Crooked use the marketing team within

Global Brands to advertise their products. There are two sources that Crooked have used in the past for their marketing

needs, both under ownership of Global Brands.

• Internal Marketing Team - Global Brands have a broad marketing department that oversees all tasks for each

marketing project they create. The team is involved with anything from analytics to decision making to

maximizing any business opportunities allowing the team to further increase the understanding of the

customers and the market (Global Brands, 2020).

• Clay Creative - Clay Creative is an online in-house creative studio owned by Global Brands created with a

primary focus on product and brand design, development of new design ideas, and the creation of a online

product portfolio (Clay Creative, 2020)

Potential Marketing Agencies

Crooked is a new brand launched in 2017 (Global Brands, 2020) and has little to no experience in marketing and

advertising. However, with support from their parent company Global Brands, Crooked have launched several

campaigns such as their 2017 poster campaign. Despite their limited experience, there is an abundance of marketing

agencies deemed suitable for Crooked in potential future campaigns including ones that branch further into the

increasing use of social media, online marketing and digital promotions.

Agency Brief Company Background Objectives and Values Company Service Focus Company Awards

Media Bounty (Media Bounty, 2020)

An agency with a “conscience”. Operating in over 20 countries. Working with World Land trust and NGOs to protect rainforest through campaigns.

“We aim to do our bit to protect the world and future generations”

With a specialisation in social media marketing and focusing protecting the environment, their focus aligns with Crookeds focus on vegan markets.

Top accolade awards at the Drum 2019 Business Awards

Little Media Agency (Little Media Agency, 2019)

Based in Birmingham, the company is acknowledged for its efficient communication with an abundance of social media experts.

“Creating adverts and posts designed to keep you ahead of the competition and up to date with the growing trends in social media marketing”

Focused on improving their client's social media presence through their passion for researching the markets their clients are seeking to breech. For example, Crooked’s and the vegan market.

BusinessOfApps Top Social Media Agencies 2019.

Spin Brands (Spinningbrands, 2019)

Company founded in 2016 compiled of an expert team of digital media marketing experts. They are a “strong team with a powerful culture”

“We are the go-to scaleup social media specialists, delivering impact and expertise from day one”

Focus on content marketing, as well as a specific focus on “digital strategy, and graphic design”

Clutch Top Design Agency 2019. UK Agency Award Finalist

(Table 4.0)

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2. Marketing communications objectives

The DAGMAR and AIDA approach to setting communications objectives helps to influence the mind of the target audience. DAGMAR allows goals to set to measure advertising response, thus AIDA provides attention, interest, desire and action within the objectives (Smith and Zook, 2015). For Crooked, the communications objectives should allow them to generate their mass awareness, drive visibility on-trade and increase their engagement levels across social media

1. To triple the following on all social media platforms in the next 12 months of trading, increasing brand loyalty

Crooked have a social media following of 6K on Facebook, 388 on Twitter and 6K on Instagram, within their current communications they persistently drive traffic to their website for consumers to purchase their products. By being consistent with their social media marketing by engaging with their following, Crooked can increase their interest and brand loyalty with their consumers. According to Mintel (2019a), 17% of drink buyers follow their brands on social media, with under 35’s mostly likely to do so. 78% of consumers’ purchases are impacted by companies’ social media posts (Forbes, 2012), Facebook continues to be the most used platform, with nearly three quarters of people using it in the last three months (Mintel, 2019a). This is a cheap marketing tool that can be highly efficient to access our target market, as Facebook usage peaks between 25-34-year old at 83% of the age group, and still has a high usage of 80% between the ages 16-24-years old. By increasing social media following on all platforms will subsequently increase sales and brand awareness to our target audience, as 74% of young consumers make decisions based on social media (Barker, 2017).

2. To drive consumers to intermediaries to increase On-Trade to 25% in student-friendly areas such as Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield and London.

Looking at the consumer market for alcoholic drinks, the younger demographic is the most experimental and has an open attitude to new drinks, flavours and quirky designs (Global Data, 2017). A survey by Global Data discovered that four out of five millennials enjoy trying new and foreign products, and so promoting the sale of Crooked beverages in these selected geographical locations would be successful due to the high demographic of young adults. Manchester has nearly 80,000 students, with Leeds and Sheffield both having roughly 60,000 (HESA, 2019), all students fitting perfectly in our target market age group. Making the beverage available in these areas would subsequently see sales increase, due to the demographics’ explorative nature and 36% of UK adults already drinking RTD beverages which would further increase with brand awareness (Mintel, 2018).

3. To change consumer attitudes towards Crooked as a healthy and vegan-friendly lifestyle alternative

For millennials, wellness is an ongoing commitment, with consumers becoming increasingly focused on their ethical concern and consumption. Whilst the market shifts towards ‘low/no’ alcoholic consumption (see Section 1a), Crooked remain one of the healthiest RTD alternatives in the market, vegan friendly and are sustainable with their recyclable goods. According to Influencer Intelligence (2020), most millennials purchasing decisions have been swayed by digital influencers, with 61% of consumers being more swayed by ‘micro-influencers’ as they have a more relatable connection with their content - the opposite of which has been used by competitors Hooch. By introducing ten ‘enthusiast’ vegan influencers, with a reach below 50K, the attitude towards Crooked can be changed towards a ‘healthy’ alternative for alcohol with medium-level consumption.

4. 10% of the target audience have trialed at least one of the three flavours by the end of 2020

Tasting sessions are the primary means to entice people to try a new drink by 38%, as consumers are looking for shortcuts to make processing choices faster, more relevant and personal. By introducing tasting sessions via PR events, such as ‘free giveaways’ during University Freshers Weeks (targeting 18 to 24 year-olds) and through intermediaries (targeting 30-45) - allows Crooked to appeal to their target market whilst becoming an appeal to the 30-45 year old demographic in which they are looking to target. This allows the brand to come face-to-face with consumers to give the story behind their brand and promote their availability of products in the premises of their intermediaries. Tasting opportunities would apply a ‘try before you buy’ element (Mintel, 2018c), which helps targeted the younger demographic as they are more explorative.

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3. Nature of communications strategy

Pull (Positioning) Strategy -

According to Fill & Turnbull (2016), a pull strategy is targeted towards the end-consumers and is designed to encourage customers to “pull” through the channel network. The intentions are a pull strategy are to increase level of awareness, reduce risk, change or add reinforce attitudes, and increase involvement and provoke a motivation in the target audience group. Generally, the effect of this motivation would be to stimulate action to ensure that the product/ or service is available and ready for purchase as soon as they make the decision to purchase or enquire about the product/ or service. As a result, customers will expect there to be accessibility to the product/ or service in the form of a retail outlet or using internet or direct mail. In addition, Fill (2011) states that B2B customers are incited to buy directly from distributors and dealers, even though both consumers and BRB customers can purchase directly through marketing channels whereby there is no intermediary.

One way in which the proposed campaign uses a pull strategy is using advertising. Advertising seeks to catch the attention of the end-consumer by targeting them directly in their local areas (Hackley & Hackley, 2018). This is a form of pull strategy as it increases the general level of awareness, as well as persuading customers to be motivated to engage with the campaign. It aligns with Fill & Turnbull’s (2016) definition as the campaign will stimulate action to ensure that they are taking pictures with their crooked beverage.

Another pull strategy used in our campaign is demonstrated by a sales promotion tactic. Our campaign uses a three-

stage incentive strategy whereby customers can post a picture of themselves with a Crooked beverage and in turn, they

will receive a free beverage when they visit on of Crooked’s On-Trade locations. This pull strategy targets the end-

customers and encourages them to buy and promote our drink on various social media platform. In addition to visiting

the bars and clubs that sell our product (Ailloni‐Charas, 1984).

Push Strategy

According to Blythe (2012) a push strategy involves promoting the product/ or service to only the next link down in the distribution channel. Meaning that they would have to sell hard to the wholesalers and then allowing them to hard sell to the retailers, who continue by pushing the product out to the consumers. Each section of the distribution channel does not consume the product they buy, but in turn performs an added-value activity before selling the product and then moves the product through to the next section of the marketing channel network.

Throughout our campaign there was a lack of use for any form of a push strategy. During the development stage of the campaign it was evident that there is limited contribution from many sections of the marketing channel, because they did not perform an added-value activity. For example, the On-Trade locations do not add any value to the product, they job is solely to continue selling the product.

Profile Strategy

A profile strategy looks at a range of external stakeholders that a both the push and pull strategies fail to assess. It is vital to consider all stakeholders as many need to know and understand the business itself rather than have a sole interest in purchasing the product or service. Some examples of stakeholders are the local community, employees, trade unions, media, distributors, and banks and finance houses (Fill & Turnbull, 2019). Many stakeholders have an influence on the organisation and, because of this, often deem it necessary to receive and respond to various forms of messages.

A profile strategy is adopted in our campaign through the discussion of the idea of influencer marketing, and the role in which social media and the users with large followings play in the context of marketing. Many stakeholders play large roles in marketing decisions and social media has recently become a favourable and often cheaper form of advertisement for various products. For our campaign, Crooked has chosen to use paid partnership with vegan micro-influencers in order to increase the reach to newer customers and publicly generate paid content. This is a profile strategy due to its focus on media as a stakeholder. Another justification as to why this campaign uses influencer marketing as it generates measurable return on investment, because there is flexibility as to how much or little you spend.

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4. Target audience of campaign

For the campaign, our target audience consists of:

University Students:

Students at University comprise of people aged 18 and over, which is the legal age for people to buy and try alcohol in the UK (GOV.UK, 2020). Furthermore, a survey completed by 2,215 students in higher education discovered students’ behaviour towards, approaches to, and observations of alcohol use. Findings stated that 60% of students drink alcohol as it helps them to socialize and relax, therefore finding it hard not to drink too much. Moreover, it has been agreed by 79% of students that drinking and getting drunk is part of university culture (NUS, 2018). This is appropriate for our campaign as we will be targeting Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and London, which all contain thousands of students as mentioned in our second marketing communication objective. This high number of young adults in these demographics will ensure we succeed with our campaign.

Generation Y/Millennials & Generation Z

Those who were born between 1980 and 1994 are classed as Generation Y,

otherwise known as Millennials, meaning they would currently be between the

ages of 25-39 years old. Moreover, our campaign will also be targeting the newest

generation, known as Generation Z (Kasasa, 2020). Our campaign is targeting a

wider audience as opposed to the current target audience of 20-30 year old's

(Identified in section 1d – Analysis of the current target audience).

(Kasasa, 2020) - (Figure 4.0)

It is appropriate that we target these generations, in particular Generation Z, as they are considered to be a very tech-

savvy generation having been born during the fast-paced growth of technology (Barr, 2019). This is beneficial to our

campaign as we will be using social media to do Sales promotions, together with connecting with social media influencers

to promote our campaign.

Figure 5 - Social Media Use by Age group

It is evident from Figure 5, practically everyone in the UK

between 16-24 uses social media (99%) every week.

Additionally, 84% of 25-34 year old's use social media on a

weekly basis, therefore our use of social media is

guaranteed to reach our target audience, which is

Generation Y and Z.

(Elder, 2016)

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Vegans/Environmentally Friendly

As acknowledged in Table 3, there are around 600,000 vegans in the UK, which rose significantly from 150,000 in 2006.

This means our campaign will reach these thousands of people across the UK, as we will be using vegan influencers to

target this market. Veganism is one of the best ways to reduce our environmental impact on the planet (Petter, 2018),

therefore our campaign will target these consumers with the use of our campaign slogan, ‘Keeping an Eye on the Planet’.

5. Key messages of campaign

(Figure 6.0 – Mind Map of Suggested Ideas)

A message that will be portrayed through the campaign is the way in which Crooked promotes veganism and a healthy lifestyle to its consumers. The product is primarily aimed at the 20 – 30-year-old market and in 2018, 6-8% of the population aged 18 - 28 are vegan or highly consider vegan options. While results for the population aged 28 – 38 stands at 4% respectively (Martinelli & Berkmanienė, 2018). With all-natural ingredients, Crooked aims to breech the ever- increasing market that helps drives public awareness towards the issues presented from pastoral agricultural practices. Recent studies show that even though meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories and 38% of protein, the meat and dairy farming uses the vast majority of farmlands at 83% of total last usage (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). According to Grossi et al. (2019), the livestock sector requires a considerable amount of natural resources and is accountable for 14.7% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission equivalent to 7.1 Gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions. Through our “Keeping an eye on the planet” campaign we strive to convey a message that attempts to combat these global environmental issues and penetrate the vegan and environmentally friendly market.

6. Creative message of campaign - (Figure 7.0)

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7. Recommendation for communications tools

The ‘Eyes on the Planet’ campaign involves convincing consumers to share their moments with their vegan-friendly

beverages through social media, recycling their cans to reduce their consumption waste and then collecting their free

beverage from their local Crooked On-Trade location. The use of the Crooked brands ‘eyes’ theme is aligned with the

campaign, which aims to position the brand as ‘keeping their eyes on the planet’ with their vegan-friendly, recyclable

product. If the appropriate recommended tools are implemented, the campaign aims to:

• Spreads awareness of the brand and the story behind Crooked

• Encourages current customers to engage and post content for social media

• Encourages potential new customers to join the trend, engage and post content for social media

• Changes the attitudes for consumers to a ‘vegan-friendly’ brand which promotes recycling and vegan

consumption

• Drives consumers to On-Trade intermediaries in student-friendly, eccentric areas for their free beverages to help

increase their On-Trade sales in bars and restaurants

• Drives consumers to purchase the product at intermediaries to get involved with the campaign, to increase their

Off-Trade sales in shops (Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose and ASDA)

• Creates content to be promoted by vegan-influencers to share the competition across a high reach of followers

• Allows Crooked to build a better relationship with their customer base.

Sales Promotion

The campaign also aims to increase the brands social media presence through a sales promotion tactic that involves

giving away free beverages if customers send photographs of themselves with their vegan Crooked drink. In addition, it

will encourage customers to visit intermediaries by asking them to collect their free drink from on-trade location such as

bars and clubs in designated areas. The use of freebies as a sales promotion tactic in our campaign aims to:

• Increase social media presence

• Increase overall brand awareness

• Boost sales in local intermediaries associated with Crooked (bars and clubs)

• Encourage intermediaries to promote Crooked due to increase in customers

• Incentives customers to share and post on various social media platforms about their drink

• Improve competitive position and brand extension

• Drive new customers to purchase Crooked drinks through word of mouth of a “freebie”

A recommended tool used in our campaign is sales promotion tactics and more specifically the use of giving away

freebies as a tool that stems from the idea of using incentives to increase sales (Kotler and Armstrong, 2005). In terms of

marketing communication, sales promotion is defined as “a marketing communication function that offers a tangible

added value to motivate and accelerate a response” (Duncan, 2005, p. 461). As stated by Rudzki & Li (2007), the BIGI

model helps understand why freebies are sued as a sales promotion tool. BIGI stands for Brand building (including new

product launch), income generation, government legislation and information gathering.

(B)rand promotion is segmented into sales promotion (for example: new product launches) as well as brand loyalty systems. Many companies use freebies as to create, maintain and boost sales.

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(I) Income generation refers to the owner(s) of the company, examples would be free radio stations or newspapers. This would generate incomes for themselves and not directly from sales, because there are no sales. However, incomes are generated from other means such as advertising.

(G) Government legislation is often demonstrated through services or goods provided by operators such as free local phone services due to their rights to operate in the market. Companies provide such freebies because they legally have too.

(I) Information gathering is referring to freebies provided as a means of acquiring information from their customers, which can then be used or sold to third parties for profit.

(Rudzki & Li, 2007)

From the BIGI model, it is evident that our campaign uses freebies as a sales promotion tactic in order to promote the

brand in order to create and boost sales in general, and in On-Trade locations. Moreover, the sales promotion will also

require customers to send their pictures from their personal accounts, which can be used as a form of information

gathering. Having details such as account usernames and email addresses can also be used for further marketing

purposes.

Regarding the pricing of the sales promotion tactic, a study by Rudzki & Li (2007), suggests that when looking at the (B)

Brand promotion and sale promotion category, usually, the free giveaways are paid for primarily by the manufacturers,

not the distributors and wholesalers. In the expectation that the costs will eventually be paid off by future sales. For

Crooked, many benefits of the sales promotion such as increasing sales, increasing brand awareness, and boosted sales

in intermediaries will effectively cover the costs of giving away free beverages (Rudzki & Li, 2007). An estimation of the

cost of giving away freebies can be calculated under the assumption that 10% of the target audience in the location of

the campaign will actively engage. For our campaign, we targeted students in Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and London,

in total there are 570,000 students in said locations. Taking 10% of 570,000 equals 57,000 actively engaged customers.

According to ASDA (2020), the cost of a single Crooked can is £1.8, therefore, the total cost of giving away freebies

during our campaign is £102,600.

Public Relations

Public relations are a marketing communication tool that an organisation of any size can use as a tool to interact with its

major ‘publics’, with the manner and style able to be altered at any given time (Fill and Turnbull, 2019). The Institute of

Public Relations provide the definition of “Public Relations practice is the planned and sustained effort to establish and

maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics”. The use of public relations can

develop and communicate an organizations’ key competitive strategies, through the increased visibility of a brand and

subsequently increased target market awareness. Public relations can play three major roles, the first being the

traditional role of creating goodwill and stimulating interests between the business and key stakeholders, the second

role through supporting marketing of the current brand and finally by means which relationships are developed and

maintained (Fill and Turnbull, 2019).

The messages sent in a public relations marketing mix campaign carry greater credibility than messages sent in

alternative marketing tools, such as paid media. Public relations have little financial pressure, as the purchase of airtime

or space in media vehicles isn’t required, meaning a brands message and advertisement can be sent on low budgets. The

framework of Public Relations set out by Grundig and Hunt (1984) include four models to reflect the different ways in

which public relations is considered to work. Specific to Crooked and our recommendations, the two-way asymmetric

model can be relatable when we are distributing free tasters in off-trade locations, as in this given situation we are

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supplying the public and target audience with our product, with power not being equally distributed, but the main

purpose is to influence attitude and behaviour through persuasion. The two-way symmetric model represents how we

would recommend Crooked to approach their public relations campaign, as it is the most acceptable and mutually

rewarding (Fill and Turnbull, 2019). Through sampling in off-trade locations both Crooked and the public are prepared to

adjust their attitudes and behaviours towards the brand.

The use of public relations will create visibility for Crooked as a brand and alcoholic beverage on the market and support

the current and future marketing agenda at product level. The issues identified in our four marketing objectives set out

in section 2 page 11, can be supported with public relations. The sampling of Crooked beverage at off-trade locations

can influence the increase of followers on social media, as this will increase brand awareness and will then contribute to

the effectiveness of social media campaigns, which are targeted at 20-30-year old’s of which 73% have used social media

in the past three months (Mintel D, 2019).

Consumers who try the product and enjoy the beverage will then be further influenced to visit locations that sell it on-

trade, these sampling sessions is an opportunity to also promote the intermediaries that are associated with Crooked,

strengthening business-business relationships. This public relation campaign in off-trade locations is an example of the

perfect opportunity to advertise the brand, sample the product to our target audience and educate individuals and raise

awareness of the vegan nature of Crooked and the wider benefits the drink has to the environment.

Influencer Marketing

A recommended communication tool in our campaign involves Influencer Marketing, which is a Public Relations tactic.

This is a very effective communication tool as consumers are more likely to trust the people they see on their social

media feeds as opposed to conventional marketing (Koch Communications, 2020). 61% of consumers, aged 18-34, have

been persuaded by digital influencers in their decision-making process (Influencer Intelligence, 2020). This consumer

group is crucial to target as they have grown up with social media. Forbes described Influencer marketing like this: “The

voice of the customer has always been one of the most powerful concepts in marketing, and today’s social media

platforms act as one giant megaphone for that voice.” (Forbes, 2014). By efficiently linking social media influencers into

your public relations strategy, you can stimulate positive branding, influence wider audiences and increase customer

engagement and awareness. This communication tool that is more integrated and cooperative with social media will

unite your customer experience and deliver countable results for the campaign (Koch Communications, 2020).

This integrated communication tool is recommended for Crooked to use in the campaign, to reach the target audience

consisting of Millennials and Generation Z. 56% say the digital-born generation of customers is proving the biggest driver

of change (Influencer Intelligence, 2020). Crooked will use Influencers in the campaign through Paid Partnerships. This

tool is used to publicly generate paid content, at the same time as expanding the reach to newer audiences through

collaborative advertising via branded content (Merchant, 2020).

(Figure 8.0) Example of a Paid Partnership (Buxton, 2020)

Establishing the collaboration between brands and influencers through the ‘Paid Partnerships with…’ tag guarantees an

enhancement in the experience of all the people involved, including consumers of content. Not only does this method

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inform the followers about the influencer's partnership with Crooked, but it also helps Crooked get access to the

perceptions of the branded content campaign (Merchant, 2020).

The Crooked campaign will be using ten micro-influencers, which is someone with a following between 2,000 and 50,000

followers on Instagram (Kelly, 2020). Micro-influencers have specific niche audiences, which in Crooked’s case are vegan

influencers. For Crooked to complete the greatest possible ROI on a campaign, it is suitable to use a group of micro-

influencers. This is necessary to increase the reach of a campaign as micro-influencers do not have the same number of

followers as a macro influencer (celebrity). Hiring a micro-influencer is a good communication tool as it will raise the ROI

of the Crooked campaign and lower the total marketing spend (Forbes, 2018).

Budgeting for Influencer Marketing

The budget plan for our use of Influencer Marketing will include us paying ten micro-influencers to each make three

posts. For each post, Crooked can expect to pay approximately £250 per post (Fitzmaurice, 2017), depending on the

number of followers the influencer has. For ten influencers to make an Instagram post this will incur a total of £2,500,

additionally for ten influencers to each make three posts, this will cost Crooked, £7,500 for the duration of three

months. Since the campaign will be running for 52 weeks, the overall cost for Influencer Marketing will come to £30,000.

Advertising

An essential tool within the ‘Eyes on the Planet’ campaign is advertising, as this projects the overall theme and the

message across to a large target audience. The campaign must stand out to catch the attention of the target audience.

With Crooked’s new market presence, outdoor advertising media could be a viable option as the campaign aims to raise

brand awareness and create the attitude of the brand being a ‘vegan-friendly’ alternative.

The ‘Think, Feel, Do’ process of advertisement looks into the psychology of how consumers consider acting upon a

campaign in a three-stage process (Arons et al. 2014). In this case, the ‘Think’ element makes the consumers analyse the

data, in this case, the advertising campaign aims to get the message across that the brand is a ‘vegan-friendly’ and

sustainable. Thus, the ‘Feel’ element inspires the target audience through societal benefits, where the consumer

considers the benefit to society. Finally, the ‘Do’ element, is where the customer acts upon the campaign, in this

instance, participates with the campaign through social media or purchases the product, as they have the desire to get

the experience of the brand.

Budgeting (Advertising)

In terms of costing, an outdoor media advertisement will need to be implemented in each of the areas of the campaign

– including Leeds, Manchester, London and Sheffield. City Centre locations which are close to the intermediaries will be

desired for the campaign – as this increases the footfall and gives a greater opportunity. According to Bubble Outdoor

(2016), large billboards cost £1453 in London for 2 weeks, whereas other larger cities cost £1147. If the campaign runs

across London for 52 weeks, the campaign will cost £37,778, whereas for the other three major cities costing £113,334

per billboard. If each city has eight major billboards, this incurs a cost of £302,224 for London plus £906,672 for the

other main cities – equalling £1,208,896.

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Overall budgeting

The four tools of the communications mix can be divided into two groups, the first containing advertising, sales

promotion and public relations, and the second group containing the financial aspects associated with personal selling

(Fill and Turnbull, 2019). There are techniques used to determine the funding required for advertisement campaigns,

sales promotion, public relations and other marketing communication activities. The role of the communications budget

for Crooked is to ensure the greatest efficiency with each pound allocated on promotional activities. There are a variety

of techniques and approaches that can be taken when budgeting the marketing communications, specific to Crooked

our suggestion would be to use the ‘Objective and task’ technique. Using this technique would involve the company

attempting to determine the resources required to achieve each marketing objective, and then aggregate the separate

costs into an overall budget.

To determine the overall communications budget organisations can consider several techniques, some of these are;

marginal analysis, arbitrary, Inertia, Percentage of Sales and so on. It is now common for organisations to use a variety of

approaches, and a study by Mitchell (1993) found that 40% of respondents used the objective and task approach, 27%

used percentage of future sales and 19% used a variety of company-specific methods. This report concludes that the

technique used to reach a budget total by a company and specifically by Crooked does not have to be singular.

The cost of public relation activities can be predicted with a degree of accuracy, as the staffing or agency costs needed

to perform the marketing communications tool is fixed, and there are no media costs involved with the only other factor

involved being the production costs. This recommendation of the use of Public relations assumes that Global Brands

would use PR agencies to sample the product in the off-trade locations. The average cost of a UK PR agency is £645 per

day, we would recommend having these samples on site three peak days a week for the full year, equaling to £100,620

base price, on top of this agencies may add extras to the invoice such as third-party costs, expenses, such as travel,

accommodation, refreshments, and general admin (Gamble, 2020).

In total, the budget for the campaign as a base price is £100,620 for PR, Sales Promotion £102,600 and £1,208,896 for

Advertising – totaling £1,412,116 equaling within their £1.5M budget.

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9. Appendices

Appendix 1: Sources

Appendix 2, Brand Essence Wheel for Crooked, information gathered from:

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Lemonhead. Management Decision.

• Holt, D.B., Quelch, J.A. and Taylor, E.L., 2004. How global brands compete.

Harvard business review, 82(9), pp.68-75.

Appendix 3, Brand Essence Wheel for VK Drinks, information gathered from:

• Global Brands. (2020) Globalbrands.co.uk. [Online] [Accessed on 19 January 2020] https://www.globalbrands.co.uk/brands/vk. • Jackson, M.C., Hastings, G., Wheeler, C., Eadie, D. and MacKintosh, A.M., 2000.

Marketing alcohol to young people: implications for industry regulation and

research policy. Addiction, 95(12s4), pp.597-608.

• Cooke, R., French, D.P. and Sniehotta, F.F., 2010. Wide variation in understanding

about what constitutes ‘binge-drinking’. Drugs: education, prevention and policy,

17(6), pp.762-775.