Advertising & Promotion: Overview of Strategy, Tools & Timing

General Advertising Strategy 

       We can think of different ways to present Neutrogena Wave in Russia. On the one hand, we could follow the general trend of Neutrogena Wave in other countries and just copy their actions there. However, since the market is specific, we can also offer different strategies. Since the management in Neutrogena is decentralized, we can hope that Russian department will have some right of vote in developing advertising campaign for Russia.

We suggest that in general we stick to the overall marketing strategy of Neutrogena Wave. However, in some part of our advertising campaign we could implement tools which will help us navigate the customers and address to their specific needs. For instance, we could develop an advertising campaign which is aimed towards a specific problem (e.g. acne). So, some ads will represent our product as a cleansing device which helps to get rid of problems with skin, but some part of ads will specify that exactly the acne problem will be solved. So far, this result was proven by the specialist and this is a considerable competitive advantage. As an example, we could issue banners or use more innovative instruments like a computer watch which reminds you of the problem and a solution for it. 

Further, to attract the customers and persuade them that they need your product it is important to support relations with your customers. You can use various techniques to establish good public relationships.

Tools

 Online communication

We suggest that Neutrogena develops a separate website in Russian or a microsite where customers can get the full information or even ask some questions online and get the answers from a consultant.

We could also organize some quizzes and competitions as it was done on other markets. A prize could be, for instance, a discount coupon for refilling pads.

Also there we could place some voting polls on this website to learn the needs and preferences of customers so that they felt our interest in them and got involved.

We can also organize a Facebook/VKontakte community to support two-ways communication with our customers.

We can also put our banners on the web and develop a contextual advertising.

Print Ads

We can print banners and ads to put them in fashion magazines and magazines for young women and teenagers. Also we need to make banners for outdoor advertising. Moreover, we can print promotion stickers and distribute them in shops for school goods and in beauty salons.

Promotional videos

Since the TV ads are pretty expensive, we could launch viral videos featuring Neutrogena Wave. We can use YouTube as a channel. These videos can show our satisfied customers telling about the products or some instructions how to improve the skin with the help of Neutrogena Wave. In connection to this, on the website we could also launch a competition for the best video advertising Neutrogena made by our customers. This would help us to see how our customers perceive the product and get them involved.

Consumer exhibitions

In the distribution locations we could organize small exhibitions and trainings and invite consultants to explain the customers how they should care about their face skin and in connection to this what the product is and what it does. This can be a short-term action, like a product launch event.

Special stands with Neutrogena Wave may be installed so that the product was separated from other products and was perceived as something special.

Celebrity endorsements

As it has been done in other markets we can invite celebrities to advertise the product. This will personalize the product and bring positive associations. We believe that since our product is new on the market and oriented at both teenagers and young women, we should find a person who is popular and promising but not overappearing in media. Some celebrities, like Vera Brezhneva, for instance, associate with too many things and ads with her will not differentiate our product from others. We suggest Svetlana Ivanova. She is a young and promising movie star in Russia; many women would like to look like her. Moreover, she perfectly suits our target audience.

Charity Programs

Probably, at a later point, we could also join some charity programs in Russia. However, at a launch stage, this could only weaken our position by taking the funds away and not bring the expected result due to the low brand awareness. 

Timing

We expect that our campaign brings positive results in a pretty short term perspective of approximately 3 months. As for the sequence of events, we consider the following preliminary schedule:

1st stage: 

• Launch of a website/microsite/Facebook community

• Print ads (celebrities)

• Trainings

• Product exhibitions

2nd stage:

• Viral videos

• Special Stands

• Quizzes/Competitions

3rd stage:

• Diversfying the ads: general and specific

• Charity Programs

• Active paricpation in the life of the market/country

Response targets

We expect to achieve the following targets as a result of our advertising & promotion campaign:

1) Customers learn about product and brand.

2) Customers have positive attitude towards our product and brand.

3) Customers understand what they need it for.

4) Customers associate the solution to their problem with our product.

5) Word-of-Mouth Effect starts.

6) The brand awareness increases.

7) Our sales and market share increase.

We can judge the success of our advertising campaign by:

1) the amount of feedback comments left on the website

2) the amount of visits to our website/Facebook-VKontakte community

3) the amount of people participating in our quizzes/competitions

4) performing a survey periodically on customer brand awareness/attitude towards the product

Budget

 The budget has been accounted for an advertising campaign in Saint-Petersburg only.

Type of product/service	Price, rub per 1 unit/1 period of time	Amount needed	Total Cost
Website Launch	6000	1	6000
Microsite Launch	6000	1	6000
Online Banners	4000	100	400000
Contextual Advertising	1,00	50 000	50000
Ads in magazines	130 000	5	650000
Banners on the billboards	40000	15	600000
Promotion stickers	7000	1	7000
Trainings in Beauty Shops	40000	5	200000
Celebrity Endorsement	1000000	1	1000000
Total Cost of Advertising Campaign	2919000