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Table of content

Executive summary

Starbucks is an internationally renowned retail shop for hot coffee. It is especially popular among young professionals who prefer having the hot beverage during the work day. The paper below will give an Integrated Marketing Campaign that the brand can use to promote tea as a product. The beginning will feature an analysis of the objectives of the campaign. Next, a market analysis will be done to figure out where the organisation lies within the society and the exact target market. This will include a SWOT analysis of the campaign, a look at market segmentation and the profile of the customers. The proposed channels of communication will be analysed as well as the communication schedule and proposed budget. The channels that will be analysed will include mass conventional media, social media as well as public relations, direct marketing and sales promotion. Recommendations on the best course of action will be made throughout the paper in order to come up with a campaign that can be used to promote the brand of Starbucks tea.

Finally, the time frame of the campaign has been mapped out with the best launch time and end times indicated. The prospective costs and budget have also been made clear. The final objective will be to create a marketing mix that is relevant and most likely to work for promoting the new product by Starbucks.

Introduction

Starbucks as a coffee shop is well known all over the world. However, how do they brand themselves as more than just a coffee producer but also a tea producer? That is the question I will be answering on this paper. In order to make a comprehensive marketing campaign, it is vital to look at three main things. First, what is Starbucks and what does the client think it can offer them. It is important to know how the customers view the brand in order to be able to enhance it. Second, who is the target for the campaign? And third, how to reach the target of the campaign i.e. Communication. Having all these will ensure that the campaign is relevant and efficient. The paper will show how the consideration of these three items will help make a comprehensive marketing campaign.

Objectives

The objectives of the Integrated Marketing Campaign are to increase the sales of the tea in Starbucks. This means that it is to promote a product that isn't traditionally recognised with the company. This will require that the campaign focus on bringing in new customers. Capitalising on the benefits that tea has over coffee will help reel in the customers who do not like coffee due to the high levels of caffeine and other health related issues. Therefore, the main aim of the campaign is to bring in a whole different set of customers.

However, this is not to negate the role that the current customers can play in the promotion of the brand. The tea is also to be marketed to the current customers. This will augment sales by encouraging them to purchase more units than they usually purchase. This will help retain the customers and be able to satisfy all the needs for variety.

The objective of the campaign is to promote the brand as a cool and fashionable with the option of choice and convenience. The increase in sales that will be caused by the campaign will ultimately increase company revenues and that is the main objective of the organisation as a whole.

Market analysis

SWOT

Starbucks has the advantage of having an already established market base that deals with coffee. This market base has helped keep the company profitable and therefore, the company has the strength of resources and loyalty. The fashionable nature of taking hot beverages in offices is also a strength and this trend is not likely to be phased out.

The weakness of the campaign is that Starbucks is traditionally known for its coffee. Therefore, people may be sceptical about having tea since they may presume that it is not as good as the coffee. This weakness also presents itself as an opportunity where the campaign can use the coffee brand and its popularity to help leverage the tea.

Other opportunities present include the internet. It is virtually free and instant to use the internet and through it, you can reach millions of people especially through social media. Yes, the campaign will use conventional media, but this is only to supplement the real campaign which will take place in social media platforms.

Some three that this campaign will face is from the tastes and preferences of most Americans and many other people. More people in the American population prefer coffee over tea. Tea is more popular in Asian countries. This preference will negatively affect the tea brand of Starbucks (Patterson et.al, 2004).

The marketing campaign is targeting young professionals. Those who are not well advanced in the cooperate ladder to get coffee in their offices. Drinking hot beverages in the office is a common trend that is fashionable and functional and therefore, these are the main people the campaign will target. The positioning of Starbucks has been relevant since it is a main seller of coffee. The shops are positioned in the central business districts with high numbers of working class people. This enhances sales since it is convenient to get the beverages in the morning. The campaign will use this convenience to its advantage during the campaign to make it obvious that on top of convenience, now the customers have choice.

The product that is to be promoted is tea. Tea is a caffeinated beverage like coffee. The customers will therefore find it relevant and useful to them. The brand is aiming for the young professional who is party to the trend of taking hot beverages during the work day. However, older professionals are also targeted partially. Starbucks is a good place to have meetings as they do this, tea is a good beverage to talk over. Therefore, the working class is the main target of the campaign.

The marketing channels that will therefore be used are those that will be most relevant. Was media and social media are the most preferred. However, direct marketing, and public relations will also be considered in the marketing mix.

The Campaign

There will be two main campaigns in promoting the tea brand. The first campaign will be a social media campaign. The social media campaign will target young professionals of between 25 and 35 years. This is the generation that puts up with trends and therefore, the campaign has to be trendy and relatable. The campaign can be split into phases. The first phase will focus on short clips while the other can focus on photography.

The clips and photography should depict the young professional. This will make it more relatable. It should also be very short precise and to the point. This is due to the busy and impatient nature of people in this generation. However, in as much as the campaign should depict the typical working class, it is important to understand that this class of people seeks success and fulfilment. Therefore, wiring the campaign to depict those who drink Starbucks tea as being more productive during the day and therefore, more productive and more successful will really appeal to the market (Subramani and Rajagopalan. 2003). There are known health benefits of taking caffeine and tea and how it helps keep us alert this can be stated to ensure that the clients see that the campaign in based on more than just words but actual proof.

In the second phase which will be a cumulative effort, Starbucks can participate in a social media presence throughout that spreads awareness of its products and in this case tea. The brain of the human is more likely to remember and feel more familiar with a brand that they consistently see on social media. While maintaining this social media presence, it will be mandatory for the page to keep up with trends.

There are a lot of popular trends all over social media such as the mannequin challenge. This has been popular in the past four months or so. The challenge basically entails staying in q static physical position for an extended period of time; say a minute to five minutes and the more the people involved the better. Then, these videos of people in a static position are shared and re-shared all over social media. Many young people identify with such things. Having random opportunities in Starbucks to be able to participate in such challenges and just sharing them online will appeal to the target market. It will paint Starbucks as a community of beverage lovers, not just a commercial brand. Such kind of familiarity will really help (Thompson and Arsel, 2004).

The online platforms that can be used for this kind of advertising include social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and other popular platforms. The campaign material is to be distributed by the platforms to the users of the sites. This is usually more efficient as the company can reach out to as many people as possible. The social media presence is overwhelming globally and therefore, having the advertisements up on social media will help spread the awareness for the brand.

Promoting the brand in the company website and other blog sites will also help raise the awareness. The brand should be clearly distinguished from the coffee brand that is overshadowing the tea brand that the campaign will be focusing on. YouTube advertising is also good and will help promote the brand. Having the advertising clips in the short advertising segment before starting a video on YouTube will help spread the campaign. However, for this clip, it should be able to deliver the message within the first ten seconds.

This is so since most people are not on YouTube to view the advertisements and they are forced to see the first five seconds before they can skip. Therefore, the first five seconds should be able to grab the attention of the viewer so that they don't skip the video. Still, he or she will be impatient to move on to the video that they actually went on YouTube to watch. Therefore, the message should be evident in the first ten seconds of the video so that the campaign will be efficient.

Conventional Media

Conventional media is also very important. This is so since it is still used by multiple people to access information and entertainment. However, it is important to note that a large percentage of those who watch television are families. Therefore, the campaign should be friendly for viewing by the whole family. However, this is not to forget the profile of the target market. The campaign can however, focus on other people other than the defined target age bracket. This means that they can also focus on an older population that gets most of its information from conventional media.

This means that the presence on television, radio and newspapers should be felt. This may not be the main platform but it is also relevant. In social media marketing, the videos were to be short and to the point, however, on a marketing campaign on television, the length is not so much the point but rather, the creativity of the video. What will make someone watch it time and time again without getting bored and feeling uncomfortable? These aspects have to be considered while framing the campaign.

The times that the campaigns will be showing on television is also important. Most professionals watch the evening news and programs that come on after the news and before them. This means that the best time to have the advert is during this period. However, this will make it more expensive since more companies prefer this time and the demand is therefore quite high. This means that the video has to be short and economical yet to the point.

The newspaper is another platform. The campaign here doesn't need to be too extravagant. Advertising the offers and sales promotion in the campaign through the newspaper will be the most efficient method of using newspapers. The best way to use the radio is to have presenters in radio stations to talk about the product especially in morning shows. This can be accompanied with a gift or prize when the listeners participate in some trivia or question segment. This is the most popular form of advertising on radio and it is so since it is more interactive and the listeners are able to give their feedback directly. It also appeals to the interpersonal aspect of human interaction.

Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion

Direct marketing also has an opportunity of working. This is so since Starbucks as a brand and in particular the coffee brand of Starbucks is well established and the network of customers is well established in the United States and outside. Therefore, this means that the contacts can be used to send personalised messages to the customers to inform them on the benefits of the new brand of tea and how it can be of advantage in their lives. This is more possible due to the availability of mass email that can be sent quite easily.

Sending postcards will not be very efficient as well as other traditional forms of postage. The average person gives more consideration to their emails than to their mail. It will also be cheaper and more convenient. This personalised direct marketing can go further to allow for sampling. Here, customers who come into Starbucks will be given the opportunity to have a sip of the tea then their feedback will be collected and sampled. Sometimes all it takes is a taste in order for the clients to realise they like the product. This will help more people figure out their taste without necessarily purchasing a cup of tea that they are sceptical about. It will eliminate the disappointment of buying the product and not liking it.

The use of coupons to promote the sales of tea will also be relevant. However, this may give an initial hiked sales numbers. It will show that more people are purchasing the product when it is indeed due to the coupons and free gifts they get. This campaign will encourage more people to interact with the product however, thus giving them awareness of the product's quality and benefits. Coupons can also be issued in online sales campaigns in social media where the customer is prompted to share the advertisements with a specific number of friends then they will be given coupons and other gifts that are relevant to the promotion of the tea.

Public Relations

It is important to have good public relations with the main shareholders within the marketing chain. This means the customers of the coffee, the media houses as well as the employees in Starbucks. Having friendly and inviting people running the counter is more likely encourage people to purchase more units of the item as well as to come back to get more units. Therefore this means that all the front office employees should be friendly and helpful to the clients. They can also be directed to encourage the clients to purchase Starbucks tea. On point advertising can be done all around the shop to encourage the clients to try out the tea.

The employees therefore have to be happy and fulfilled as well as motivated for them to encourage sales. Having good relations with the media houses by sending them regular gifts will also smooth out the process of getting the campaign running. Creating a viral slogan that is catchy and easily remembered will also help it to go viral and makes more and more people familiar with it (Gurau, 2008).

Communication Schedule

The campaign is to start immediately. Planning and consolidation of ideas should be a swift process of no more than two months. This will make sure that when the actual campaign is launched, the product will still be new. In the next two months, the whole campaign should be launched successfully on both conventional and social media. The initial campaign should be very aggressive. This means that the advertisements should be shown more often and sent frequently. However, after a month, the intensity is to reduce. The online social media presence is to be maintained all through and this should never stop even after the campaign has come to a close after approximately six months.

There, the effects of the campaign will be analysed. The strengths of the campaign as well as the effectiveness will be analysed. The weak points and failures will be taken into consideration to help in the next marketing campaign.

Proposed Budget

The budget for the whole campaign will be very costly since it will focus on almost all aspects of the media. This will be approximately three million dollars on total. The cost of the social media marketing will be about a million dollars, that of conventional media will also be approximately a million and the running of the direct marketing and other miscellaneous will amount to w million. This campaign will be aired on major television networks as well as radio and newspapers. This means that the advertisements may cost slightly more than the million dollars allocated. However, the miscellaneous allocation will comfortably handle this.

Conclusion

The integrated marketing campaign elaborated above is going to be effective with promoting the brand of Starbucks tea. The main objective is to reel in more customers who are not traditionally clients of Starbucks while keeping the old customers and encouraging them to buy more units. The paper has looked at the market analysis such as SWOT and the market segmentation. The target market has been analysed and identified. The particulars of the campaign have been made clear. The communication used and nature of the campaign hitch are mainly online marketing through social media and conventional media through television, radiator and newspapers has been done. Direct marketing and sales promotion has also been looked out and how they can enhance the sales. The time frame for the campaign has been mapped with a prospective budget.

References

Gallaugher, J., & Ransbotham, S. (2010). Social media and customer dialog management at Starbucks. MIS Quarterly Executive, 9(4).

Patterson, P. G., Scott, J., & Uncles, M. D. (2010). How the local competition defeated a global brand: The case of Starbucks. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 18(1), 41-47.

Thompson, C. J., & Arsel, Z. (2004). The Starbucks brandscape and consumers'(anticorporate) experiences of glocalization. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(3), 631-642.

Gurău, C. (2008). Integrated online marketing communication: implementation and management. Journal of communication management, 12(2), 169-184.

Subramani, M. R., & Rajagopalan, B. (2003). Knowledge-sharing and influence in online social networks via viral marketing. Communications of the ACM, 46(12), 300-307.