Executive summary Established in 1933, Bee Cheng Hiang (BCH) has since grown from a mobile stall selling barbecued pork to becoming today’s market leader with 28 retail outlets in Singapore. Barbecued pork is known to many as bakkwa, a festive nibble during the Lunar New Year celebrations. The following report has been divided into stage 1 and 2, each providing a more detailed understanding on the integrated marketing communication (IMC) program to market and position the brand by “building it into individual’s lifestyle”.
In Stage 1, the topics covered are the current situational analysis of BCH and the marketing communication objectives and budget for the implemented IMC plan designed. In the current situational analysis, the issue of repositioning the brand in consumers by advertising and promotion is highlighted and elaborated, followed by the competitive frame of the local bakkwa market, BCH’s market operations and the consumer analysis.
The key communication objective for the designed IMC program is A to change the public perception on the brand and its product offering thus helping BCH gain an increase in overall sales by 20%. The total budget for the IMC plan is divided into five portions with allocated percentages for the different costs. In Stage 2, a more comprehensive elaboration on the budgeting, the media types used and the timing for the IMC program are provided. The pulsing scheduling method for the campaign during the intended duration of six months is used for effective communication to the targeted audience.
A story board with the portrayal of four different scenes is included with the tagline “????? ”, meaning love in BCH to illustrate that there is love in BCH’s products. The media plan will focus on the aspects of television commercials, print advertisements, publicity, public relations, Internet marketing and sales promotion. Strategic, efficiency, profitability and annual plan controls are the various evaluation and control methods used for the IMC program. For example, to evaluate on the efficiency of the ommunication, a focus group session will be done comprising of family members of different families with different generations. 1. Problems Bee Cheng Hiang’s Advertising and Promotional Plans To Solve Currently, Bee Cheng Hiang’s (BCH) has established itself as the market leader of the bakkwa trade in Singapore, hence the team has concluded that BCH’s advertising and promotional plans does not intend to solve any problems but rather, continue to market and position the brand and its products by “building it into individual’s lifestyle”.
Based on their television commercials and print ads, observations can be made on how BCH incorporates eating bakkwa into individual’s everyday lifestyle; eating it with family, sharing it with a loved one. These are the numerous ways that the brand intends to develop an understanding amongst consumers of being able to enjoy bakkwa everyday. 2. Bee Cheng Hiang’s Competitive Frame BCH faces tough competition against key players such as Fragrance Foodstuff, Lim Chee Guan and Kim Hock Guan in the market.
As mentioned, BCH and its direct competitors operate within the same product category of food, for instance, their famous barbecued pork, floss and Chinese sausages. BCH versus Fragrance | |Bee Cheng Hiang |Fragrance | |Product |Sells mainly barbecued pork, floss, Chinese sausages, |Sells mainly barbecued pork, floss, Chinese sausages, | | |snacks (cuttlefish, prawn roll) and abalone. |mooncakes, snacks and a variety of cuttlefish. |Price |$45/kg (non-peak) |$43/kg (non-peak) | | |>$50/kg (during CNY) |>$50/kg (during CNY) | |Place |Very accessible, with 28 outlets, including franchises, |Not as accessible to tourists as compared to BCH, but 21 | | |situated all over Singapore, including heartland areas, |outlets across Singapore including franchises in the | | |airport and ferry terminals. heartlands. | |Promotion |Uses celebrity endorsement (Zoe Tay) |Uses celebrity endorsement (Sharon Au) | The obvious similarities in both BCH and Fragrance’s logos have created a baffling effect on their customers as these logos are being represented by the word “? ”, a Chinese word that symbolises the fragrance of the barbecued pork (refer to appendix pg 29). Rivalry between BCH and Fragrance has been very intense throughout the years.
From the above table, it illustrated that Fragrance and BCH’s marketing plans are comparatively parallel in terms of the marketing mix. BCH has a higher degree of competitive advantage with the number of stores and its location of the outlets in the airport and ferry terminals, being able to reach out to tourists as well as the locals. Additionally, BCH has also sponsored a family movie by Jack Neo named “The Best Bet” in order to attract attention, stimulate interest, create desire, and bring about action (AIDA) in families in Singapore.
BCH and Fragrance also tend to be traditional (which explains why they kept the original sliced pork bakkwa), and innovative (gourmet fusion, which mix minced and sliced pork together) at the same time with the intention of retaining their loyal customers and at the same time, attract new ones. BCH versus Lim Chee Guan (LCG) and Kim Hock Guan(KHG) Both LCG and KHG have been renowned for their long queues during the CNY seasons although they only have a handful of stores. LCG and KHG build their brand mainly with their products that primarily consist of their well-known arbecued pork, floss and Chinese sausages. With regards to accessibility, with only a small number of stores, they are not able to reach out to as many customers in the market as how BCH and Fragrance do. LCG and KHG tend to be very attached to being traditional in their food products and do not offer as much variety. BCH and Fragrance probably made the most of the spill over effect during seasonal periods as customers who do not have the patience to queue for LCG and KHG’s barbecued pork saw BCH and Fragrance’s products as a reasonable alternative. Positioning of BCH
As quoted by Overseas Singaporean (2006), “In the quest for leadership position, Bee Cheng Hiang is fully committed to its value proposition of quality. Only the best quality ingredients are being used, with continuous research and developments done, to ensure that our products exceed customers’ expectations. Bee Cheng Hiang is also the first to incorporate a traditional business with modern retail methods. ” BCH (2009) has positioned its own brand as being the only choice of snacks and believes that it can help its customers in enhancing their quality of life.
Additionally, it places itself as being the leading brand in the industry and believes in providing quality and value to its customers with a modernised approach while retaining its traditional taste. 3. Bee Cheng Hiang’s Market Operations 3. 1Organisation Structure The chart under appendix pg 28 shows the possible organization structure for BCH. This is a matrix structure according to geographic areas. This structure is suitable as it focuses employees on serving customers and creating products, and at the same time allows each department to be specialized on their knowledge and use resources efficiently.
This knowledge and resources will be spread among the operations of BCH in different countries. In this way, consistency of the brand will be ensured in BCH. 3. 2Communication Process Communication is generally being summarized as the transmission of a message from a communicator to a receiver in a coherent manner, either verbally or non-verbally. BCH (the sender) uses an endorser, the Caldecott Queen, Zoe Tay to reach out to its audience, in forms of print advertisement and television advertisement.
As Zoe Tay is seen as an individual, as well as a celebrity with a high level of affective source credibility, it helps BCH to transmit the message easily across to the audience. Then, BCH encodes the idea through graphics. For example, pictures of Zoe Tay eating the barbequed pork could be observed. Followed on, in order for BCH to transmit the encoded message, the firm has chosen several channels such as billboards, magazines and television. Television advertisement for BCH is considered to be a rich medium as the message can be conveyed using more than one type of clue, namely visuals and vocal.
Subsequently, the intended message is being decoded and delivered to the receiver – the target audience. The target audience is mainly the general Chinese public who buys bakkwa for personal consumption, or as gifts of goodwill. This is the important stage as it determines whether the intended message has been delivered across correctly to the audience. Finally, feedback is the last link in the chain of the communication process. After the message is being delivered, the audience will respond in a certain way. BCH is able to calculate the response rate through their sales amount.
It is important for BCH to take into consideration the noise when developing effective marketing communication strategy. Noise can occur from the competitors’ advertisements and the receiver’s frame of mind which causes the message to differ from the intended message of the communications (Armstrong, Kolter & Silva 2005). Currently, BCH employs the flighting method of scheduling for it advertising; heavily during the festive periods especially the Lunar New Year. However, noise within the communication process will increase due to the competitive efforts from its other bakkwa competitors. 3.
Hierarchy of Marcom Effects Of all the marketing communication tools, BCH has managed to use advertising as one of the major platforms for the firm to gain awareness amongst the general public. They use favourable advertising strategies such as Zoe Tay as an endorsement and sponsorship in Jack Neo’s movie “I Not Stupid” from MediaCorp to reach out to their audience, because these celebrities are usually of a high source of credibility. As BCH is positioned as being the only choice of snacks and believes that it can help individuals in improving the quality of life, it creates an expectation amongst the audience.
Therefore, several programs were carried out to meet the expectations. BCH holds several sales promotions throughout the year, mainly during festive seasons. For example, during Mother’s Day, BCH came up with sales promotions of selling barbecued pork at a lower price. Additionally, heart-shaped bakkwa will be available during Valentines’ Day. Over the counter, free samples of bite-sized bakkwa will be placed on the glass to stimulate and entice trial. After customers tried the products, beliefs and attitudes would then be formed. For BCH, it is the taste of the bakkwa.
For instance, if the taste of the product varies from one point to another, consumers will have a higher tendency to lose confidence, as their expectations and satisfactions are not met. Hence, if BCH constantly lives up to their expectations, a strong attitude will be formed. Directly, it will increase brand loyalty amongst the consumers. 3. 4Outline and Rationale for Bee Cheng Hiang’s basic Marketing Strategy Michael Porter’s Generic Strategies model is used to analyze Bee Cheng Hiang’s Marketing Strategy. Bee Cheng Hiang is currently targeting at a broad industry target group with unique products offerings.
This shows that they are using differentiation-marketing strategy. BCH has established many stores in Singapore, and they are also operating globally; broadening their access to different markets. Stores of BCH can easily be found in countries like China, Indonesia and Malaysia. In total, BCH owns about 108 stores locally and globally (Chinatownology 2009). Moreover, BCH has been continuously doing research and development in order to develop new products to keep up with the changing market trends and attracting different target segments to increase demand.
For example, they introduced the new healthy bakkwa that contains less calories and fat (Buy Singapore 2009). They also have EZ pack bakkwa that can store up to six months for customers like tourists to purchase the products back to their own countries. As BCH had always strived to provide products with the best quality, they had gained a well-developed brand name in the hearts of their customers. Furthermore, since its establishment in 1933, they have been recognized as the most premium brand of bakkwa, especially in Singapore (Bee Cheng Hiang 2009).
For this, BCH is able to charge a higher price in their products and customers will still continue to purchase. Although substitutes of BCH’s bakkwa can easily be found, they still cannot be easily replaced, as there are emotional benefits that cannot be substituted. In the future, BCH can still adopt the differentiation strategy. However, BCH should have more promotions in the future, in order to create more awareness for their current products or new products and promotions. More efforts should also be made to build the relationship with their customers.
If done successfully, loyal customers can even become their customers’ advocate, who goes around telling their friends or families the benefits of BCH. Thus, BCH can gain free word-of-mouth advertising from their customers. However, if BCH did not put in efforts to build a good relationship with their customers, soon BCH will lose them to their competitors. 3. 5Behaviour Sequence Model |Data Input |Decision stage | | Need arousal |Information search & evaluation |Purchase |Usage | |Who (roles) |Initiator to propose |Influencer and decider on the brands and |Family and post |User | | |category need |alternatives |purchase | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Where (location) |(NIL) |Public sources of information: mass media |Telephone order / |Personal consumption at home / | | | | |at outlet |offices as corporate gifts | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |When (time |Brand attitude |(NIL) |Mostly before/ |(NIL) | |&timing) |strategy | |during festive | | | | | |season | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |How is it likely |Purchase intention |Personal, commercial and experiential sources of|Sales promotion at |User’s needs recognised and | |to occur |strategy information |outlet |satisfied, repeats | | | | | |purchase/spread positive word of| | | | | |mouth | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3. 6Target Audience
BCH’s current primary target market is people of age 30 years old and above. They are mostly married and have a stable family with average or above average income annually. Thus, they have moderate spending power. This group of people view traditional culture importantly, especially during traditional festive season like Lunar Chinese New Year. They feel that brand name is an important aspect when it comes to giving presents or serving their guest. If they feel that a brand is good, they will be loyal towards that brand and will thus, become a habit for them to buy this brand. Therefore, they are relatively not price sensitive customers as long as the brand is able to give them expected benefits.
BCH’s current secondary target market is the tourists, especially the Caucasians, living in the Western side of the world. They can be of any age, gender or occupation. They have relatively high educational level and average income, thus have reasonable spending power. They are people who like or treasure the Chinese culture, therefore likes to buy traditional Chinese products. Price sensitivity will not be an issue to them as long as they find a value in the Chinese products. Similar to BCH’s primary target market, as long as the brand can satisfy them with psychological benefits, they will become repeated customers. 4. Communication Objectives A key issue in BCH’s IMC strategy is to change the public perception on the brand and its product offering.
The aim of our communications objective is to help BCH gain an increase in overall sales by 20%. Although BCH is already considered as a well-known market leader for its bakkwa and other wide range of food products, we hope to increase its customer base by another 15%, by persuading existing users from competitors’ brands to switch to BCH, as well as improving its brand image and maintain its brand awareness through our IMC program. It is important to take into consideration the worth of marketing costs that would incur when planning the IMC program as returns are expected from our investments of our advertising efforts and make sure our communication objectives are met.
Hence, a communications effect sequence has been planned to aid us in tracking our intended returns on the campaign. Using multiple popular communication vehicles allow BCH to reach out to their intended audience wider and successfully within 90% of the geographically dispersed audience of varied media consumption patterns, increasing the market outreach, for example popular TV media and printed publications. The advertisement will appear on a pulsing basis to maintain brand awareness since BCH is the market leader in its industry. Aside from reaching out to 90% of the target audience, our next aim is to get 70% of the selected audience to comprehend the intended message within the advertisement. Slice of life” message execution using the advertising appeals of meaningfulness and believability is utilized. This will allow shaping of BCH’s brand attitude and customer’s perception that its products are not simply a festive nibble but also can be part of their daily life. To capture the interest of the 40% intended audience, a successful message execution style is crucial. Inherent drama will be the approach used for the major selling idea. Using a family-focused theme will enhance the advertising appeal because it is easy for customers to relate to it. It is also inline with BCH’s brand vision “To be the best at helping others, to experience and share enjoyable moments in everyday life”.
To be able to persuade 25% of the intended audience to make BCH their preferred brand, the advertisements need to be attractive and associative to the needs of audience. Using the example of how bakkwa can be shared amongst loved ones and enjoying these moments might shed a new light on bakkwa consumption, apart from being a festive nibble. To obtain 20% of trial period, more emphasis on the advertising scheduling can be placed on the peak periods, e. g. nearing festive seasons so that this will stimulate a category need within the audience. 5. Communications Budget 5. 1Setting the Budget A total of $500,000 has been set aside for advertising and promotional activities that will last for a period of 6 months (September 2009 – February 2010).
The total budget for our integrated marketing communications program has been divided into five areas: • Production Costs: $55,000 (11%) • Television Commercials: $348,000 (69. 6%) • Print Advertisements: $70,000 (14%) • Publicity and Public Relations Costs: $25,000 (5%) • Internet Marketing Costs: $2000 (0. 4%) 6. Integrated Marketing Communications Program 11% of the budget will go to the production costs for the advertising agency engaged to produce our commercials and print media for the entire campaign from the agency. Regarding the production period, we would need to start production as early as June in order to have enough time to vet through the final products of the commercial and print media before the launch of our campaign.
And by the end of August, everything will have to be finalised and ready when we start to broadcast the commercial and printing the insertions in September as planned in our schedule. 69. 6% of the budget has been allocated to airing BCH’s television commercials, as this is normally the most expensive medium and by far the only channel with the widest coverage. Providing viewers with sight, sound, movement and colour, we believe that television commercials have the greatest impact to promote the brand image and product to consumers. Hence, by engaging the use of commercials, we would be able to reach out to 90% of the audience in Singapore as stated in our communications objectives. 4% of the budget is set aside for insertions of BCH’s print advertisements into everyday publications like newspapers in order to target 90% of the audience in Singapore as it is a general practice for most Singaporeans to read the newspapers daily. And in addition to the commercials being aired at night, the insertions made are used to serve as a gentle reminder to the readers of the brand and its products and most importantly the intended message that we want to convey to them; promoting the consumption of BCH’s food products into the daily lives of individuals. 5% of our budget accounts for the publicity and public relations activities of our integrated marketing communications program.
As most of the budget goes to television commercials and print media, the next thing we intend to invoke is publicity as it incurs low costs and has a strong credibility towards the public. Hence, we have decided to organise a photo-taking contest that will be inline with the rest of our marketing campaign and theme. This will help get our intended audience to be participative and active in our campaign. Hopefully, it will also help to forward our message to them. As for public relation activities, we have decided to set up a charity fund for the children suffering from the aftermath of Si Chua Earthquake. Another program utilised would be to engage in sales promotions. The remaining 0. 4% of the budget will be allocated to Internet marketing as BCH has their own website and it would be logical to make full utilization of it.
Internet marketing is also wide spread these days and the cost of this medium is low hence only a small amount is given for this channel of advertising. This would include updating the website more frequently, creating a “Tell a Friend” function into the website, and also adding the company’s website address to all our advertisements and commercials to create more awareness of the website. 7. Production Period (Schedule before the campaign) 8. Pulsing Scheduling Method (Schedule during campaign) Our team has chosen the pulsing strategy that uses a combination of flighting and continuous scheduling through a low level of advertising efforts during non-peak periods like the months of September, November and December.
Heavy advertising is applied during end September to October, and January to February due to the coming Mooncake Festival and Lunar Chinese New Year, during this span of 6 months. 9. Agency Brief 9. 1Bee Cheng Hiang Established in 1933, Bee Cheng Hiang is acknowledged as one of the premium barbequed pork brand in Singapore. Clearly recognized to be the market leader in the barbequed meat industry, it strives to be the only choice for simply delicious snacks solutions. 9. 2Characteristics of the product or service BCH’s products are considered as consumer products, products that are bought by final consumers for personal consumption. It can also be a gift for friends or families. Further classification, it is classified as a shopping product. The main ingredients of BCH’s products are pork.
Customers who purchase products from BCH are not only buying the functional benefits of consuming BCH’s products, they are also enjoying the emotional benefits of BCH’s brand name. The most important motivating factor for customers would be the brand name. Bee Cheng Hiang (??? ) in Chinese means beautiful and fragrance, this tells customers subtlety that BCH’s products are tasty and delicious. As BCH markets its brand, the more they can market it as the positive emotions into customers, the more customers would desire to have own the products from BCH. 9. 3Background research and information BCH’s main source of sales revenue is from the sales of its signature bakkwa. The consumers of BCH are the Chinese families, and business associates.
These consumers purchase bakkwa for personal consumption, as well as for festive seasons as gifts for goodwill. As gifts are considered the norm for season festivals, bakkwa is especially bought during Lunar Chinese New Year to be shared amongst loved ones, since bakkwa is also seen as a symbol of prosperity. 9. 4Objective The team is seeking cooperation from the agency to develop an integrated and coordinated marketing communication program that meets the goals of our company’s communication objectives, which is to reach out to 90% of the audience in Singapore, ensure that 40% of the intended audiences understand our intended message and capturing 25% of these audiences to make BCH their preferred brand of snacks for everyday consumption. 9. 5Message
The idea being conveyed to the target audience includes the repositioning of BCH in the current market, as well as promoting the consumption of BCH’s food products into daily lives of individuals. 9. 6Key message Bee Cheng Hiang is suitable for daily consumption, not just only during the festive holidays. 9. 7The proposition BCH’s unique selling point is the ability to modernize their food products while retaining their ‘touch’ of tradition. For example, gourmet fusion is the combination of barbequed pork and bacon created to satisfy different taste preferences. 9. 8Positioning BCH should be seen as a brand that promotes warmth amongst families, loved one, and friends.
They should be viewed as a heart-warming brand, treasuring every bit of moment, yet being able to preserve the ‘traditional’ touch. 9. 9Target Audience Through demographic segmentation, the primary target audience should be individuals categorized under baby boomers and Generation X, born between 1965 and 1976. Additionally, psychographics segmentation is being analyzed. As the baby boomers and Generation X is more prone to protecting the family, and is more loyal to brands, the campaign should aim to target the housewives, as they tend to provide the best for their families. The secondary target audience would be the Generation Y and Z, typically the offspring of Generation X.
This group of consumers is generally more appreciative towards genuine efforts by marketers, and is assertive and curious. Hence, by targeting them, they are able to influence their family members. 9. 10Tone of message The tone of the message should be friendly and heart-warming while avoiding stereotyping, which reduces effectiveness in message comprehension. 9. 11Call to action The advertising should stimulate the buying of barbecued pork and other related food products that BCH is retailing at a more frequent rate. In addition, observations of the younger audience buying the products should be seen. 9. 12Campaign length The length of our marketing communications programme spans for a period of 6 months; from September 2009 to February 2010.
Within this duration of 6 months, pulsing method has been selected to broadcast the commercials and print the insertions respectively with heavy advertising during peak periods and low advertising during non-peak periods. These 6 months are then further segmented into peak and non-peak periods; peak period for festive seasons like Mooncake Festival and Chinese New Year during the months of end September to October 2009, and January to February 2010, and non-peak periods when there are no Chinese festive occasion going on during the months of September, November and December. 9. 13Deadline It is preferred that the campaign is presented before mid-August, as the campaign will schedule to commence during September. 9. 14Choice of media
To ensure that the promotional campaign achieves satisfying results on reach and frequency from the intended audience, the choices of preferred media are newspapers and the television. Television commercials are one of the selected mediums of media to advertise the brand even though it may be the most expensive medium. However, it is by far the only channel with the widest coverage, providing the greatest impact with sounds, movement, sight and colours to attract the audiences. It is also estimated that more than 90% of Singaporeans households own a television set, therefore we would be able to reach out to 90% of the intended audience by using this medium.
Insertions of print advertisements in newspapers would be the next choice as insertions would be a subtle and cheaper way of reminding the audience of the brand, its products and intended message. As most Singaporeans read newspapers every day, it would be logical to have our advertisements circulated through this medium. Hence, this would not only reach out to the 90% of intended audience, but also ensuring that 40% of them would understand the message we are trying to bring across. 10. Storyboard The recommended ad will be in the form of commercial television ad. It will only be advertised on Chinese-based channel, Channel 8. The reason behind is due to religious issues, as BCH is not Halah and Muslims does not consume pork.
It might be disrespectful to advertise on channels where are often viewed by them. The ad will be shown in a heart-warming and delightful style, illustrating that love is all around. The main objective of this advertisement is to communicate to customers that BCH is not only for adults, it is for everyone of any age and demographic. The ad will also show that BCH is not only available in festive seasons, it is here for customers everyday. At the end of the ad, the tagline “????? ”, meaning love in BCH, illustrates that there is love in BCH’s products. This will also silently influence customers to relate love to BCH in their daily life. The ad will show four different groups of people.
One party from each group wants to make the other party happy by giving them BCH’s bakkwa. A storyboard had been drawn to illustrate the ad (refer to appendix pg 30-32). There are a total of nine frames in the storyboard. Each frame will last for 4 seconds, thus the total duration of the ad is 36 seconds. • 1st story Setting: Playground (refer to appendix pg 30) 1st frame: It talks about a little boy trying to make his little girl friend happy by inviting her to the zoo with the zoo tickets. However the little girl rejected. 2nd frame: The little boy then replaces the zoo ticket with bakkwa from BCH, little girl was delighted and accepts it right away. • 2nd story Setting: Concert stage (refer to appendix pg 30) rd frame: A punk rock star is pleasing his girlfriend by giving her the latest electric guitar. Yet the girlfriend is not pleased and rejected it. 4th frame: When the punk rock star gives BCH’s bakkwa to his girlfriend, the girlfriend felt so loved and accepted it immediately. • 3rd story Setting: Home, living room (refer to appendix pg 31) 5th frame: A mother is trying to give her son his favourite Transformer toy when he scored 100 marks for his exams. However, his son did not appreciate that. 6th frame: When she change and give him BCH’s bakkwa, he was elated and accept it without delay. • 4th story Setting: Park; by the bench (refer to appendix pg 31) th frame: A grandpa wanted to be sweet and tried to give grandma a kiss. However, grandma is unhappy and rejected it. 8th frame: When grandpa takes out his BCH’s bakkwa, grandma is overjoyed and kissed grandpa in return. • Ending (refer to appendix pg 32) 9th frame: All cast stood in the park, smiling happily and say “????? ”. 11. Media 11. 1Television Commercials As our selected audience are mainly Chinese, it would be suitable to broadcast our commercial on a local Mandarin-based channel such as Channel 8 and Channel U. However, we have decided to use only one channel for our commercial in order to keep to our communications budget; the selected channel would ideally be Channel 8.
It has been proven that Channel 8’s viewership has been rated the highest among all MediaCorp’s channel from a survey conducted by Nielsen Media Index with an overall percentage of 49%, beating channels like Channel 5 and Channel U (MediaCorpTV 2009). We have specifically chosen a prime time slot of 9 – 10 pm every weeknight as we feel that most audiences tune in to Channel 8 for the 9 o’clock local production drama series. It is also at this time slot that most people would be home watching television and relaxing with the family after dinner. Therefore, it would be a fitting choice to air our commercial during this prime time slot when almost everyone is tuning in.
Upon doing so, we will achieve our first goal in our communication sequence effect to geographically reach out to 90% of Singaporeans that we intend to target. The commercial is made up of 4 different scenes about different generations of people sharing BCH’s products with their loved ones and enjoying themselves. This advertisement runs on colours to attract attention and lasts for a total of 30 seconds, with minimal narration while being accompanied by soothing background music to portray a pleasant ambience and mood to our audience. During the non-peak months of September, November and December, the TV commercial would be broadcasted on Channel 8, during the evening prime time slots once from Mondays to Fridays, i. e. at during the 9’o clock programme’s commercial break.
Whilst during the peak periods of end September to October, and January to February, the TV commercial would be broadcasted on Channel 8, during the evening prime time slots for a total of 3 times from Mondays to Fridays, i. e. at the start and during and end of the 9’o clock programme. As most Singaporean watch Channel 8’s 9’o clock programme, we feel that we would be able to reach out to most viewers during this time and especially when everyone is home from work and school. Hence the whole family would be able to watch the commercials together. 11. 2Print Advertisements Our main choice of medium for advertising Bee Cheng Hiang’s print advertisements would be in Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Chinese newspapers – My Paper and Shin Min Daily News.
These two newspapers are selected because My Paper is one of Singapore’s free Chinese and English newspaper, hence readership rate on this publication would be high and at the same time, we will also be able to reach out to other potential customers that are English-speaking; and Shin Min Daily News is a another publication that most youths and elderly would read as this newspaper covers popular sections like sports and entertainment. It is also shown that Shin Min Daily News (2009) has an average circulation of 139,600 and My Paper(2009) with an average circulation of 280,000 as of August 2008. Hence we believe that through these two mediums of printed publications would be appropriate to advertise our new campaign and achieving our objective of reaching 90% of our selected audience in Singapore. These insertions would come in two sizes for Shin Min Daily News and My Paper; a half page, full colour advertisement on the third page of the publication for Shin Min daily News and a full page, full colour advertisement on the centrefold of My Paper.
As placing the insertions on the inside of the newspapers, the costs to do so would be much cheaper than placing the insertions on the front and back pages of the newspaper. For the insertions of print advertisements, we have decided to follow the pulsing method for TV commercials, applying more weight during peak periods like October, January and February, advertising 4 times a week – Mondays, Thursdays for My Paper, Saturdays and Sundays for Shin Min Daily News. While on non-peak periods like September, November and December, the insertions would be made twice a week – Saturdays and Sundays on Shin Min Daily News as My Paper is only printed from Mondays to Fridays only.
The insertions would be scenes from our storyboard, hence serving as a gentle reminder to our target audiences of the brand, its products and our intended message in the advertisements after they have seen the commercials and to maintain their attention towards our advertising. 11. 2Publicity Photo Taking Contest In order for us to attract publicity, we have decided to organize a photo taking contest, whereby everyone is eligible to participate and the only conditions for this contest are to use any BCH products in the photos taken. Since our main message of our advertising efforts is to make BCH’s product an everyday snack or lifestyle product, the theme of the contest would be to how us how people are able to infuse these products into their everyday lifestyle with their loved ones. For example, the picture could be a family enjoying bakkwa together while everyone is happy and having fun watching television. Other examples of these photographic moments can also follow our print advertisements and commercials. Creativity is welcomed as long as the specific products are engaged in the photos. The contest would be held at during mid November after the first wave of heavy advertising is completed, and it would also be logical to have the contest away from festive seasons as we are trying to push the message of BCH can be an everyday product in the consumers’ lifestyle.
The contest will last till end December and the results would be announced during the second week of January. The contestant with the best photograph will win $4,000 in cash and $200 worth of BCH products or gift vouchers. The second prize would consist of a cash prize of $1000 and $150 worth of BCH’s products or gift vouchers; while the third prize is $500 cash prize with $100 worth of BCH’s products or gift vouchers. With these incentives in place, the contest would be able to attract much participation and interest from the public and it would also be inline with the rest of our commercials and insertions as these comprises of sharing BCH’s products with loved ones in an everyday scenario.
To make our contest known to the public, we will post insertions of the contest during the months of November and December twice a week (Saturdays and Sundays) during the slots that we have selected for our print media in the Shin Min Daily News, and also on the BCH website. Pamphlets of the contest will be given out when products are purchased at any outlets to every customer and posters of the contest will be put up by the entrance of every outlet to draw attention to the contest. Hopefully by engaging the public’s participation in this contest, they themselves are also able to learn how to infuse these products into their everyday routine and adapt it as part of their lifestyle. 11. 3Public Relations
A Children’s Earthquake Fund will be set up to provide direct assistance to the thousands of children who are suffering in the aftermath of destructive earthquakes in Sichuan Province and Chong Qing China. For every $1 that the consumer spends at any BCH outlets, 10 cents will be contributed to the fund. Hence, it would generate emotions that they are doing their part for charity. Posters and signage will be placed near the counter to spur the consumers on, as well as generating awareness amongst them about the ongoing charity project. Through this program, we aim to instil the thoughts of ‘family’s warmth’ in BCH’s prospects. In addition, the team seeks to effectively build the BCH brand in association with ‘goodwill’ 11. 4Internet Marketing BCH currently has an official website, www. bch. com. g that provides consumers with the company’s information; for example, company’s background, store locator, recipes, products range and online shopping for their products. In order for effective Internet marketing, BCH should promote their website frequently in order to create awareness for customers on their website. In this way, resources are utilized, and at the same time it will give customers a feeling that BCH is up to date. Furthermore, customers can get immediate information from BCH directly on the Internet. To advertise their website, we suggest including their website link below their company logo on their paper bags or on any of their advertisements. Advertising on popular websites, for example Yahoo!
Singapore, or Google, will also help to gain awareness for BCH. In the meanwhile, word-of-mouth marketing is being publicized by including a “Tell your friend” function on their products or promotion page on their website. When customers visit their website and find something interesting that they want to tell their friends about, customers can conveniently type their friends’ email addresses onto the function and send them the information right away. In this way, their friends would also be aware of BCH’s updates. 11. 5Sales Promotions Product bundled pricing and promotional pricing are being used to increase consumer demand and excite market demand through the lull period of sales BCH.
During festive seasons, bundling of bakkwa with the related festive goodies such as cookies during Lunar New Year or mooncake during the Mid-Autumn festival will be introduced. With every kg of bakkwa purchased, consumers can get 100g of pork floss for free, thus making purchase more valuable to customer. To stimulate market demand, a 15% cash discount on purchase of 2kg bakkwa will also be initiated. 12. Evaluation & Control There are 4 types of evaluation and control methods that we can apply to keep sight of and meet our objectives at the end of the day – annual-plan control, profitability control, efficiency control and strategic control.
All these control methods make up the control process by reminding us what we want to achieve from our goals, find out what is happening by measuring our performance, understand why is it happening by analysing our performance and lastly to think of corrective solutions if anything goes wrong. As this report revolves mainly around our IMC program, we will focus more on control methods that are relevant to the proposed campaign. 12. 1Strategic Control This control is done by top management and the marketing auditor of BCH to examine whether the company is pursing its best opportunities with respect to markets, products and channels through approaches like marketing-effectiveness rating instruments, marketing audits, marketing excellence review, company ethical and social responsibility review, etc. Hence we have come up with two ways of strategic control to assess the effects of the campaign on BCH.
However if the campaign becomes a failure, the correct actions to be taken would be being more “holistic” and less departmental, constantly developing fresh and new ideas to prosper, gain customer insights and attend to their preferences, build the brand through the performance of promotions first to gain a larger influence on customers. An example of a marketing excellence review would be the annual “Viewers’ Choice Awards” programme. 12. 1. 1Viewers’ Choice One way of evaluating the effectiveness of our commercials would be through the “Viewers’ Choice Awards” which is an annual award program whereby viewers get to nominate their favourite or best television commercials. If BCH’s commercials are nominated for this program it would prove that the commercials are effective in leaving a lasting impression and impact on the viewers. This is one way of getting a qualitative evaluation or feedback of our commercials from our audiences. 12. Efficiency Control This control is the prime responsibility of the line and staff management and also the marketing controller of the BCH to evaluate and improve the spending efficiency and impact of the marketing expenditures through the company’s sales force, advertising efforts, sales promotions, distribution, etc. In order to improve our advertising efficiency should any problems or failures arise, we need to adopt a better brand positioning strategy, redefine our objectives, conduct pre-test messages and do post-testing, use computer technology to guide our choice of media selection and look for better media buys. 12. 2. 1Conducting Surveys
By engaging a professional consulting agency to help conduct surveys to evaluate if the commercials and insertions have manage to change the intended audiences’ perception of the brand and its products would be useful as our main objectives of the marketing communications program would be to change peoples’ perception and to promote the consumption of BCH’s food products into the daily lives of individuals, instead of being only a festive food products. These surveys can also be conducted before the launch of the campaign as a pre-test measure to test our advertising efforts on a small fraction of the selected audience and get their opinions and feedback before releasing it to the public. This helps to prevent any failures and mistakes from being caused by the campaign. Through the surveys, we would also be able to understand if there were any problems with or if there are any improvements that could be done and getting the consumers’ or audiences’ thoughts and feedback after having seen our commercials and insertions.
This would prove to be a very qualitative evaluation method for the company. 12. 2. 2Focus Group Session This evaluation test will be done with a focus group consisting of 3 different families with 3 generations – grandparents, parents and kids. This way we will be able to have a fair amount of feedback from people of the different age groups – youths, adults and the elderly. Likewise to surveys, this focus group can also be done before the start of our integrated marketing campaign as a pre-test measure to prevent problems from arising, allows us to make any improvements before launching the campaign to the public and also to test the effectiveness of the campaign on the audience.
During this focus group, the facilitator will be asking the respondents questions like how they feel about the commercials and advertisements; what comes to their mind after seeing the selected advertisements; how they feel about BCH’s products, comparing BCH’s brand and products to its competitors and what other improvements can be made to further improve our current and most probably future marketing communications program, after being exposed to the campaign. After obtaining and analysing the results from the focus group, we will then evaluate the results of our marketing campaign and conclude if it was successful or not. This evaluation method is also considered as another qualitative feedback. 12. 3Profitability Control This control is under the charge of the BCH’s marketing controller to examine where the BCH is making and losing money in areas like the products, territories, customers, market segments, trade channels, order sizes, etc. Listed below is one example of profitability control measure that we can apply after the launch of our campaign. 12. 3. 1Counter Statistics
BCH’s website could integrate a counter statistics system to track the number of visitors to the site before the marketing communications activities are executed. Once the commercials and insertions have started, BCH is able to note if there are any changes in the number of hits before and after its marketing communications program has started. Another way of using counter statistics could be applied in the physical shop itself. If BCH placed a counter statistics system at the entrance of every store, the company would also be able to study the number of people that patronize its stores. Same as for the website, this system should be implemented before the marketing communications program starts to study the before and after results of the program.
Using counter statistics would be considered as a quantitative evaluation of our marketing efforts, and based on the counter statistics of the frequency of visits to BCH’s stores, we would be able to roughly estimate if our customer base has gone up by 15% as intended by our objectives. 12. 4Annual-plan Control This control is mainly concerned by top and middle managements as they examines whether the planned results are being achieved through conducting sales analysis, market share analysis, sales-to-expenses ratios, financial analysis, market-based scorecard analysis, etc. BCH’s accounts would help to evaluate the results of our campaign by doing BCH’s income statement, profit and loss statement, hence measuring if the campaign has managed to reach our objectives of increasing BCH’s sales 20%. Reference List
Asian Perspective, Pearson Prentice Hall, Singapore Appendix [pic] BEE CHENG HIANG’S LOGO [pic] FRAGRANCE FOODSTUFF’S LOGO [pic] [pic][pic] ———————– Photo Taking Contest October January February Peak Period Peak Period September November December Heavy Advertising Low Advertising May Meeting up with agency to plan for the IMC program of BCH June Start production for commercial and print media July Make any improvement for commercial and print media August Finalize commercial, print media and their planned schedule Production R & D Marketing Sales Taiwan Indonesia Malaysia Hong Kong Singapore CEO
