LAUNCHING AN INTEGRATED MARKETING CAMPAIGN
During my second term at Southern New Hampshire University, I was given the task of imagining that I was part of the marketing team of a pet store that was launching a new pet toy line. This pet store used traditional marketing outlets, but wanted to expand their digital presence. As a marketer on this imaginary team, I was asked to research and create an integrated marketing campaign that fused traditional marketing with digital media.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND COMPANY BACKGROUND ANALYSIS
Our business, SNHU Pet Supply Company, is a large pet supply retailer that operates both online and within our 10 locations throughout New England. Due to the success of our recent pet food line, Fluffy’s Feast, we have decided to launch a pet toy line that includes our most innovative toy yet, TechnoFlight, an electronic flying disc that dogs and cats will love to chase. To promote this new product, SNHU Pet Supply Company will be launching an integrated marketing campaign that will incorporate our use of traditional marketing channels, in addition to new channels such as digital and social media marketing.
We will begin by outlining five goals thar align with our target market’s background. These goals will include partnerships with veterinary clinics, promotion through social media, and advertising through popular podcasts. In order for these goals to be met, our team has come up with five strategies to accompany each goal. These strategies also incorporate the use of multiple tactics that will be measured by several key performance indicators. It is important to SNHU Pet Supply Company that this campaign not only be successful, but that it remains in compliance with the standards set by the American Marketing Associations. We want our stakeholders to continue feeling confident about our company, and we want our consumers to establish positive thinking about our brand.
Our company has an excellent opportunity to grow their online presence. We have already taken steps such as creating a robust, user-friendly website, as well as creating a Facebook page to connect with consumers through social media. It will be beneficial to our company to grow our online presence because studies have shown that half of all pet owners use social media to research pet products and another 75% read online reviews prior to making a purchase (Watters, 2021).
SWOT ANALYSIS
In order for our campaign to be successful, we need to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats regarding our product. The following chart is our SWOT Analysis that identifies these aspects of our product.
Being able to recognize all aspects of the SWOT analysis is beneficial to our company as it will allow us to formulate goals that will capitalize on strengths and opportunities while also minimizing the negative impacts of our threats and weaknesses.
YOUNG BRIGHT PROFESSIONALS
Target Market: Young Bright Professionals
The group we have chosen to target is young adults ranging from ages 25-34. This group is very tech savvy. They are often up to date with the latest technology and view their social media presence as an important part of their identity. They also obtain most of their information through the internet. Most of this group own mobile devices that allow them access to things such as social media and blogs. They prioritize quality, and are willing to try new tech (Horton, 2021; Esri, 2021). For this reason, advertising through social media will be crucial to our IMC, as our target market makes up a high percentage of users on these sites. YouTube and Facebook continue to dominate across demographics, especially within this group, but 71% of individuals ages 18-29 also use Instagram regularly, and 65% say they use Snapchat regularly. This age range also has a higher usage of TikTok (Anderson & Auxier, 2021). Apart from daily social media use, this group enjoys listening to podcasts and audio books. They enjoy streaming music both at home and in the car, giving us an additional outlet for advertising TechnoFlight to our market (Boesel, 2021b).
Our target market is scattered all over the United States, but we see denser populations along the east coast (Esri 2021). These individuals view themselves as “pet parents” and take the ownership and care of their four-legged companions seriously. The seek the best care and put a lot of trust into the expertise of their veterinarians when making purchasing decisions regarding their pet (Boesel, 2021a). Due to the tech savviness of this group they like to shop online. They have a strong preference for online retailers that make their shopping experience as convenient as possible, with some consumers enjoying the advantage of buying directly from their most used social media pages (Smith, 2022). In addition to shopping online, these individuals are also more likely to support local businesses (Watters, 2021). This group is social, they enjoy attending events such as concerts, as well as eating out at restaurants or going to bars. Favorite outdoor activities of this group include jogging, hiking, and beach trips (Esri, 2021). We could use these activities to our advantage while advertising the portability of TechoFlight.
Based on our target market’s background, we have come up with five SMART goals that will aid SNHU Pet Supply Company in having a successful integrated marketing strategy.
• Partner with at least 100 local veterinarians along the east coast each month over the next year starting from the initial product launch date.
• In addition to our Facebook page, SNHU Pet Supply Company should also create an Instagram account and aim to increase our follower count by 1,000 users each month over the next 12 months.
• Increase website traffic through our Instagram by 25% over the next six months.
• Increase internet sales by 40% by partnering with 2 social media “petfluencers” each month for 6 months and offering a personalized 15% off promotional code.
• Sponsor at least 5 different podcasts each month for 6 months and have the host promote TechnoFlight along with a 15% off promotional code.
CREATIVE STRATEGY AND CREATIVE BRIEF
SNHU Pet Supply Company understands the connection owners share with their pets, and we want to strengthen that relationship through our newly developed TechnoFlight, an innovative toy that will provide a unique bonding experience through the use of a portable appcontrolled disc that pets will have fun chasing while also engaging in healthy active play on all of the adventures they’ll share with their owners.
Through our creative strategy, we want to demonstrate to our audience that we are advertising TechnoFlight to them because we want to strengthen the bond they share with their pets by providing them with an innovative toy they can use and have fun with on all of their adventures. Our target audience of young adults ages 25-34 are currently skeptical about our product, as many are wary of pet tech, often shying away due to the price tag and lack of perceived value and benefits (Watters, 2021). We at SNHU Pet Supply Company want to change this mindset. We want our market to view our product not just as another toy that’ll end up gathering dust, but as a tool that will allow for a unique bonding experience with their pet through engaging play wherever they may be. By capitalizing on the fact that our market views themselves as pet parents, we can convince them that our pet tech differs from others on the market because it provides their pet with a fun way to exercise and stay healthy. We can also highlight how this time spent playing together at favorite leisure spots can strengthen their bond. We should plan to use a penetrative price strategy, offering a lower price at the initial launch of our product, as well as discount codes through some of our partnerships to demonstrate to our market that profit is not our only priority. We can also work to appeal to our market’s values by allowing them to support their local economy. Our goal of partnering with local veterinary clinics and other small businesses such as local pet supply retailers can help us appeal to this value. Lastly, we want to remain inclusive by appealing to our market’s geolocation across the United States. Being that SNHU Pet Supply Company has 10 locations throughout New England, we have so far focused our efforts on appealing to the dense population of our market that lives along the east coasts by planning to use tactics such as visuals that include TechnoFlight being used at the beach, an area that is frequented by our market. But we want to make sure we find ways to include the part of our market that is not on the east coast but rather scattered throughout the United States. An appropriate approach to this would be to target our Facebook, Instagram, and Podcast ads using geographical location. We can curate different ads to fit with what different areas have to offer, such as lakes and rivers, pet friendly national parks, even an owner’s backyard. Doing this will also highlight the portability of TechoFlight.
STRATEGIES AND TACTICS
In order to reach our goals outlined above, we have developed strategies and tactics that will drive us further to where we want to be, they are as follows:
• Have veterinary clinics advertise TechnoFlight, utilizing print and digital advertising methods.
Tactics for this strategy would include the use of an in-office display that our market could view while in the waiting area of their veterinary clinic. This display would list not only the features of TechoFlight, but it would highlight how our product would be beneficial to the wellbeing of both an owner and their pet (Decker, 2022). We could integrate digital marketing within this print advertising to appeal to the tech savviness of our market by adding a dynamic QR code that they could scan to be redirected to our website to learn more about TechnoFlight and make a purchase.
• Engage with users on our Instagram account.
Tactics for this strategy would include visual targeted ads launched on Instagram to our target market 2-3 times a week, as studies have shown users are more likely to stop their social media scrolling and view a post with visuals (Poelking, 2020). After stopping to view our posts, users would then visit our profile to learn more about our company and products. If our page is appealing enough, they will give us a follow. We should also aim to engage with users everyday through comments and voting polls within our 24-hour stories. Doing so will create a positive image in the minds of our consumers, leading them to tell friends and family about our product and page.
• Set up a URL in our Instagram bio that links to several destinations.
The tactics for this strategy will be similar to those used in our second strategy. But instead of launching ads 2-3 times a week to all users who fall within our target market, we will create permanent posts on our account that are broadcasted to our current followers. These will be visually appealing pictures and videos with a caption that prompts the reader to visit the link within our bio to learn more. Studies have shown that 60% of Instagram users learn about new products while scrolling, and an additional 75% of those users will take action by doing things such as visiting the company website or telling a friend about their find (Lua, n.d.).
• Partner with two pet influencers each month, sending them a complementary TechnoFlight to review.
In the last several years pet influencers, or “petfluencers” have become a trend on Instagram, with some pet accounts racking up millions of followers (Yarlagadda, 2021). Since our target market makes up a large percentage of Instagram users, a high percent follow these pet accounts and interact with the posts (Anderson & Auxier, 2021). Seeing their favorite pet influencer trying out this fun new toy will make them more inclined to buy it. Additionally, we can have the petfluencer offer an account specific limited time promotion code for 15% off TechnoFlight. By having a short term offer we will create a sense of urgency in users to purchase TechnoFlight, this exciting offer will also be a good way for us to attract new customers (Gyant, 2022).
• Find popular podcasts relevant to our target market and have them promote our product through a sponsorship.
The tactics used will be similar to the ones used for our partnerships with our pet influencers. We will have podcast hosts offer a 15% off limited time promotion code for listeners to purchase TechnoFlight. Additionally, we will base ads on the location of our market. By doing this we can advertise the versatility of TechoFlight based on where our market lives. We can tell our audience that they’ll have so much fun playing with our product at the beach, the lake, their local dog friendly national park, or even in their backyard.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
KPIs
In order to measure the success of our tactics and strategies, we will need to implement key performance indicators (KPIs) that will tell us if our campaign is successful, or if we need to reevaluate and formulate a different approach. For our first goal, we will be using metrics that evaluate number of QR code scans and increase in web traffic. One of the KPIs we will be using is QR Code Analytics. Marketing company Beaconstac offers software that will allow us to view the number of scans our code receives each day. We will be taking this a step further by connecting our QR codes with Google Analytics and setting the codes up as a traffic source on their Web Traffic Source Metric, which will measure how many consumers are visiting our website by scanning our code. An additional benefit to using Google Analytics will be the opportunity to receive end-user demographic data to find out if we are reaching our target market with this tactic, allowing us to reevaluate our strategies if necessary (Arun, 2022).
Our second goal will be measured using Sprout Social’s Follower Growth Metric. This metric will tell us not only how many followers we have gained or lost each month, but it’ll allow us to track patterns necessary to reach our goal (West, 2020). To gain followers we will be implementing strategies and tactics that’ll allow us to engage with users. We will measure our user engagement with Sprout Social’s Engagement per Follower Metric which will tell us our user engagement amount relative to our follower count (West, 2020). This KPI will allow us to determine if our interactions through Instagram are creating enough user engagement that’ll work in our favor too increase followers, or if the engagement is low despite our efforts, meaning we’d have to reevaluate our strategies and tactics.
Our third goal will be measured by revisiting our Web Traffic Source Metric through our Google Analytics account and adding our social media as a source of traffic (Google Analytics, n.d.). Additionally, we can utilize KlipFolio’s First Visit Metric, which will measure the number of new users that are visiting out website. This metric will also tell us if new visitors are staying on and engaging with our site or exiting within 10 seconds (KlipFolio, n.d.). This will give us an idea on whether our user-friendly website is working to attract customers, because the more engaging our website is, the more likely consumers will be to share it with friends and family.
Since our fourth and fifth SMART goals are similar, metrics we can use to measure both will be to evaluate the amount of TechnoFlight discs that were bought using the promo codes given out by our partners. Additionally, for our social media partnerships, we can review our Engagement per Follower Metric to see if there is an increase in user engagement anytime our partnered influencers release their content and promo codes.
Being able to share the results of our key performance indicators is crucial to the success of our company. All of our goals are to be measured monthly and communicated in different ways depending on our different stakeholders. Each month, employees that are in charge of the integrated marketing campaign, and monitoring KPIs will meet to discuss the measurements. How each measurement will be presented to different stakeholders will depend on how they well they are doing. If our KPIs indicate we are on our way to meeting our goals, we will post a bulletin for employees throughout the company. We will also send a detailed email to our CEO, retailers, and investors with the measurements. If our KPIs indicate that we need to reevaluate our strategies and tactics, employees in charge of the IMC will discuss new strategies that will then be directly presented in a meeting to the CEO, retailers, and investors. This information will then be sent in a mass email to the rest of the company employees informing them of the changes they can expect the IMC to have. Doing this will ensure everyone on the team is aware of where our campaign is successful, and where there needs to be changes.
ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Practicing ethical marketing is of utmost importance at SNHU Pet Supply Company. Our team members are all familiar with the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) ethical and professional standards and have identified ways in which these standards will apply to our integrated marketing campaign. We strive for honesty, truly believing that our newest product, TechnoFlight, will be beneficial to the health of our consumer’s beloved pets. It is for this reason we have chosen to partner with veterinary offices to promote our product, and why our internal creative strategy also reflects those beliefs. We understand our responsibility to serve our consumers and maintain fairness towards our market. Our company has chosen to implement a penetrative price strategy, to communicate with our market that we stand by our product and are not solely motivated by profit. We will also work to ensure our penetrative pricing never drops low enough to become predatory towards other sellers in the pet tech industry. We do this because we respect our market and our competitors, choosing to treat them in ways we would also like to be treated (American Marketing Association, 2021). Goals of SNHU Pet Supply Company will involve partnerships with social media influencers. To ensure we are complying with the Federal Trade Commission’s standard of protecting consumers, all of our partnerships are required to disclose that any content reviewing TechoFlight is an advertisement and that they were directly sponsored by our company (Federal Trade Commission, 2019). Doing this will further highlight our company’s beliefs of honesty and transparency.
CONCLUSION
Launching an integrated marketing campaign will be beneficial to the future of SNHU Pet Supply Company. Our company has a prime opportunity to grow online and in store due to the recent success of our pet food line, Fluffy’s Feast. Having an already successful line will help in creating a positive public relation in the minds of consumers. In addition, we have created a robust, user-friendly website and social media accounts that will allow our company to implement new advertising methods and further connect with our target market of tech savvy consumers. We stand by our product. We believe it will benefit both owners and their beloved pet’s long term and strengthen their bond. Communicating this through multiple channels such as print advertising in trusted veterinary clinics, digitally through our website, and on social media through our Instagram and Facebook accounts will result in a successful product launch that will boost sales within the company and satisfy our stakeholders. Our employees will see positive feedback in our campaign, and our investors will see a positive return on their initial contribution. Due to the lengthy research done by our marketing team, this campaign will lead to another successful line by SNHU Pet Supply Company.
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