Marketing-IMC Plan-2 PDF

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Market Communication: Mon 11:30 tutorial IMC Plan Group Members: Ryan Rozario s3718445 Kexin Yang s3685701  Yu-Chi Wang s3736688  Sebastian Paul s3779256

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1.0 - Executive Summary The following Integrated Marketing Communication Plan (IMC) plan by Sebastian, Ryan, Yang and Ruby is aimed at detailing the planning and proper execution of a new marketing campaign by Monster Energy. Specifically, the purpose of this campaign is to to tap into a completely new demographic of young females in Australia. As per the following report, the campaign will utilise strong and iconic female characters, as well as influential personalities on social media platforms who associate themselves with a health and fitness lifestyle. In a more broad sense, this campaign is the first step in Monster Energy’s plan to overtake the leaders of the energy drink market in Australia, which is currently Redbull, who own 40%. 2.0 - Current Situation Analysis 2.1 - Background Research and Analysis

Internal Factors

Monster Energy is one of the brands owned by the Monster Beverage Corporation, an American company founded in 1935. The company manufacturing energy drink. The brands belong including Monster Energy, Relentless, Burn, Full Throttle, NOS, and Mother. It is originally a family owned company founded by Hubert Hansen named after the founder, selling juice to film studio and retailer. The following generation started selling multiple flavors of sodas and juice, and change the company name to Hansen’s Juices. Afterward, The Fresh Company of California and Hansen Natural Company has been changed as the company name in sequence. In the year 2012, the shareholders agree to rename the company Monster Beverage Corporation, which is the current name of the firm, based on the rapid growth of the brand Monster Energy, which launched in the year 2002. In 2015, Monster Beverage Corporation built a partnership with the Coca-Cola Company, which the Coca-Cola Company took the ownership of juice and soda product from Hansen’s Juices in exchange for the Coca-Cola owned energy drink brands, which brings benefit to the Monster Beverage Corporation base on the Coca-Cola selling channel.

The well-known green claw icon is Monster Energy’s trademark. The icon delivers the image of wild, aggressive, and unruly in order to capture their target customer segments—young male whose age between 18 and 25—attention. The diabolic potion is the brand image and value customer given when a research ask to give words about Monster. Monster delivers a dark side image to compete with their biggest competitor, Red Bull, and separate the target customer segment and market from them in order

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to attract and create new customer and market rather than trying to change the brand preference directly from the Red Bull current customers. This strategy brings the current situation, the second leading energy drink brand, owns 15.2% of market share in the US in 2018, to Monster. However, the act limited the potential customer. By focus on the market surrounding the sport or music, the Monster limited the potential customer segment that would also have a need or desire energy drink. For example, office workers who need to work overtime, students who need to work at daytime and writing report at midnight, drivers who are burning the midnight oil, or even people who get exhausted after working out. Moreover, there is a market that not yet been develop as any customer segment in the entire industry, the female market. Since there is no specific desire for energy drinks in the female market, it is still easy to build through marketing strategy, re-packaging, and conformity, the population and society effects. On the other hand, instead of traditional advertisement, the current marketing strategy Monster apply is mainly sponsor bands, eSport gamers, and extreme sports athletes including hard-rocking, surfing, snowboarding or even skating. Associates the brand image with those sports and gaming is the way Monster reach and attract their target customers. The sponsorship for these athletes also creates benefit as what celebrity usually brings. Once the athletes drink the Monster Energy or the icon shown at the event, they play the role of endorsements and drive fans and customers to purchase. It is an appropriate strategy to approach the target customer and market, moreover, it is one of the reasons contributing to the current market share. Decreasing the price is also the strategy that Monster take advantage to generate benefit. Energy drinks are generally considered premium product, Monster lower the price in order to create higher sales. This lead Monster gains more market share and even bigger profit with lower product price. External Factors

Legal & Demographic Negative news of energy drink is increasing in recent years. “Over drink and inappropriate consumption may cause death”, “Teens get kill by the energy drink”, these kinds of news title shows up in the search result everywhere when clicking the enter button with energy drink on the search bar. In the UK, selling energy drink to children aged under 16 have been banned voluntarily by the

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majority of stores from March 2018. (2018, BBC) These negative impacts affect the customer willing to buy to some extent. Moreover, the aging population exacerbates the supposed consequence. Energy drink often gives an unhealthy and even harmful image. Virtually, the ingredient contains in the energy drink do somehow cause damage to the body. Children and elder are not suggested to consume. The increasingly serious population aging issue may lead to declining sales in the following years. Governments worldwide may start to make laws on restricting energy drinks. The energy drink industry requires innovation in order to overcome the trend. Socio-cultural

Majority of energy drink brands target the male market, whether the brand image or package design tend to deliver a masculine and aggressive image. The female market is an undeveloped area within the industry which not yet been served. The rise of female consciousness these years in favor approaching this new market. Refresher, a series of energy drink product released by Starbucks is a new series of product targeting the female market. The pink and other warm color constitute the product package; more than that, the overall appearance of the package indicate a mild and gentle image, which in contrast with the general energy drink brand. This application can use in the product or package for the Monster inner innovation.

Environmental Due to the globalization, energy drink brands start to extend to other countries. The most successful case is Red Bull, which sells its product to 169 countries currently. The distribution of Red Bull opens new markets for the energy drink industry. Moreover, the growing demand for caffeine benefits the industry. However, the increasing competitors make energy market become saturated. Some brand launch alcoholic product in order to approach new segments of audiences, while other release product like energy shot, for example, the 5-hour energy, which is mainly the product innovation. Technology

Obtaining information through internet become the tendency these days. Moreover, the psychology of conformity also compiled in the world of internet. Business not only able to advertise and appealing to customers via social media, but also can take advantage of the conformity to create benefit. The

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marketing strategy Monster use so far does not include advertising, but accompanying with this tendency, Monster may able to reach different demographics. Competitive Analysis

The major players of energy drinks in the Australia market are V Energy, Rockstar, Red Bull, Monster, and Mother. Below are the original prices before special sale from Woolworth of 500ml can of the 5 major providers in Australia

V Energy

$ 2.95 AUD

Rockstar

$ 2.7 AUD

Monster

$ 3.6 AUD

Red Bull

$ 3.8 AUD

Mother

$ 2.85 AUD

provider of the industry when consider the global market, occupying the highest market share among all, which followed by Monster. As a result, it is easy to found out that other players reduce the price to compete with the leading brands.

The marketing campaigns of Red Bull is similar to Monster, but with the most successful result. Red Bull’s original target audience is Generation Y, young males age between 18~34. However, by the year 2011, Red Bull start to branch out the generation 35~65 by invited the sponsor athletes in their 40s to challenge and fulfill their most significant dream in life. Stimulating interest to the new audience by reflecting the exciting memory can be created even though not a teens, and that life can be exact fun regardless the age. Moreover, hosting sports events, involving art creation, and authorizing the record of sponsor sports games are all Red Bull's Integrated Marketing Communication methods.

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Consumer Behavior Analysis Current Brand Evaluation

Product

Customers who enjoy extreme lifestyle is the target audience of the Monster’s niche market. Infiltrating the extreme sport, music event, and the gaming market, stimulating the audience by the brand image creation and celebrity, athletes and musicians endorsement is the strategy Monster Energy satisfy the customer need in the emotional aspect rather than fit the concrete product job-to-be-done. This fit also shown on the strong and discernible package. In addition, Monster is trying to target different demographics by releasing various series of products for the corresponding demographics. Monster Energy, Monster Energy Ultra, and Monster Energy Juice are three series of product selling currently. There are six product belongs to the original Monster Energy which are respectively classic Monster Energy, Monster Energy 44, Monster Energy Absolutely Zero, Monster Energy VR46, Monster Assault Energy, and Import Monster Energy. Besides the original Monster Energy, Monster Energy Ultra provide drinks with less sugar, targeting those who have higher health conscious. Monster Energy Ultra is currently two products on the market as well as the Monster Energy Juice. Moreover, there are also products for fitness fanatics, the Muscle Monster, but only sell in the US currently.

Price There are two volume provided in Australia, regular 500ml, 550 ml, and 250ml. Apart from single can sales, 4 pack and 6 pack a package also offered in the size of 500ml and 250ml product respectively. The product series and flavor does not affect the price but the package. Below is the price of different package sells in the main retail store in Australia.

500ml x 1

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Coles

Woolworth

3.6

3.6

500ml x 4

12.3

550ml x1

3.65

250ml x 6

10.7

12.5

10.7

The average price per milliliter each package are 0.0072, 0.0061, 0.0066, and 0.007 respectively according to the above table. It is clear that 4 pack package of the original size 500 ml is the most cost-effective package among all. As a result assuming there are other needs for premium volume, the 550ml, and smaller size which do make profits for the company.

Energy drinks are considered the premium product, as a result, the price is fundamentally higher than other drinks. However, Monster lowers their price in order to compete with other brands in the industry, making profits with lower price and even increase the percentage of occupied market share.

Distribution

Monster Beverage Corporation does not manufacture and distribute their product themselves, instead rely on the third-party to process the packaging and delivery. (Bailey, 2015) On the other hand, Monster Beverage Corporation apply intensive distribution as their distribution strategy, which distributes to the retailers who have an intensive number of outlets. As a result, chose chain retail store like Woolworth, Coles, Aldi… etc. in Australia. Since Monster has expanded to a global business, the worldwide distribution territory contains nearly every country in the Continent of America, countries in Europe, Australia, and some nations in Africa and Asia. The partnership build between the Monster Beverage and Coca-Cola Company benefits the aspect of distribution for Monster by allowing the Monster Beverage to use Coca-Cola’s sales channel. The figure below is data from 2015, illustrating the global Distribution after the partnership built.

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Promotion

As Monster state —“We back athletes so they can make a career out of their passion. We promote concert tours, so our favorite bands can visit your hometown. We celebrate with our fans and riders by throwing parties and making the coolest events we can think of a reality.” Instead of spending money on advertising including TV commercials, radio advertises, or other traditional advertising, Monster sponsor athletes and musician, infiltrate sport and music events.

2.2 - SWOT Analysis

Strengths ● ● ● ● ●

Strong brand image Separate the target customer and market from the primary competitor Partnership with Coca-Cola Second leading brand in the industry Marketing integration relating to target audience activities

Weaknesses ●

Niche market and customer segment

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● ●

Brand image (package) limited the potential customers Lack of traditional media advertisement

Opportunities ● ● ●

Raise of female consciousness Growing demand for caffeine Saturating market may drive innovation

Threats ● ● ● ●

Increasing negative news of the energy drinks Increasing aging generation Unhealthy and even harmful ingredient Increasing competitors

2.3 - Key Marketing Problem or Opportunity The key marketing problem of Monster Energy is the limited market. Although the niche market creates the current status for Monster Energy, as the growing competitors and the social culture change, Monster has to innovate whether the product, brand aim and objective, or the demographics. Coupled with relevant and appropriate strategy.

3.0 - Key Strategic Decisions 3.1 - Marketing Objectives Market Objective: To increase market share by 10% totalling to 50% Right now Red Bull is in front of the market share with 45% of the market. This 45%, around 2-3% of it is female sales. We at Monster feel as if this is an opportunity for us to penetrate the market with a new campaign that focuses on selling to women in particular. We want to keep the same shape of can and the same base design for the logo to keep our current existing product and to not try and separate the two entirely. Prices will not change as we don’t want pre-existing customers shying away from us. We will be putting a strong emphasis on advertising and promoting our new brand as a primary objective of ours. Right now no one in the energy drink market has a complete line or even campaign for women when it comes to energy drinks. We want our potential customers to know this and

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therefore see our brand as unique. If done right customers can build a sense of trust and loyalty knowing we are a cut above the rest. 3.2 - Communication Objectives Monster energy is 2nd in terms of market share with 40% falling only behind Red Bull who has 45%. Not only this but monster is also in major supermarkets and food outlets and as a result exposure isn’t hard to come by. As we look to target females, especially those who need energy throughout the day we hope to use our brand image to boost this. From our new design with the colours and imagery associated with the letter “m” we aim to be more inviting and welcoming with our new enhanced logo. We found that most females were deterred when it came to buying a Monster drink due to the packaging alone. We want our new customers to feel as if they are calm and relaxed, not intimidated. 3.3 - Positioning Monster Energy has always been second when it comes to Energy drinks with Red Bull being on top. We want to change this through adding a more female friendly product. In doing so we want to position ourselves as a market leader when it comes to female demographics within the energy drink industry.

Our competitors include Red Bull, rockstar and NOS. However both Rockstar and NOS are much lower in terms of market share with rockstar coming in with 10% and NOS with just 3%. Our real main competitor is the sub brands of red bull such as red bull no sugar 3.4 - Campaign Target Audience Our target customers for Monster Energy were females aged 16-25. We found that these people are those who are turned off from regular Monster drinks as they are to masculine and in your face especially when it comes to the presentation of the logo. If purchasing Monster potential female buyers would be intending for the product to be inviting, calm and relaxing. Females attitudes towards Monster is very important as they will be the ones who make the final purchasing decisions in the end.

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3.5 - Campaign Budget The aim of our new campaign was to increase the market share of Monster to therefore increase the revenue in turn. The amount we are going to use in this campaign is based on the percentage of sales from the previous year. With Monster Energy pulling in 4 billion dollars in 2018 for the campaign budget we’ve decided to spend 1% of that being 4 million.

3.6 - Brand Personality / Character The current brand personality of monster energy is one that is fun and dynamic，and monster also represents a free, young, fearless attitude to life，which is the brand feature we have always wanted to maintain from start to finish. Young male groups who loves extreme sports account for the main part of our existing target market.In particular, extreme sports have even become a big feature, in people's perception of Monster. However, based on the original brand characteristics and the new marketing strategy we are about to launch, which is target young female market, our brand personality now is to emphasize the features which is positive, free lifestyle , energetic and young ,all these features can be on anyone , rather than focusing on the unique people who love extreme sports.This brand personality has been established in order not only to retain our original male consumer market, but also when we target the new female market, not to differ greatly from the original product characteristics. 4.0 - Integrated Communication (Creative) Brief

1. Key Fact/ Background/ Overview We realise that everyone knows who Monster Energy is as well as the other major energy drink company in Red Bull. Red Bull seems to be more appealing to mainstream audiences through their various sponsorships and overall dominance in the market share. However we see an opportunity to grow our brand and expand in a particular area that hasn’t necessarily been explored in the energy drink market and that is females. Energy drinks are targeted towards men, especially Monster Energy, with our logo and designs and advertising we focus only on one demographic. However while we want to keep this the same we also want to invest in targeting a new demographic of females aged 16-25. As there is no previous target to females from any energy drink company we see this as a way to gain a competitive advantage over our biggest rival in Red Bull

2. Problem / Opportunity / Prospect Need

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We want our female orientated Monster Energy drink to stand out from our other more “male” drinks which can be a challenge within itself. We want to make sure that females feel compelled to purchase the drink, something th...