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.
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Disadvantages:
In order to understand the attitude of Russian consumers towards Neutrogena, we examined several blogs and forums. The research revealed that the overall perception of Neutrogena products by Russian consumers is considered to be strong positive. They know about dermatologists’ participation in the creation of the product formula. Furthermore, they value quality of the product. Many of them having tried one Neutrogena product, planed to try other ones. That was interesting to notice that some consumers were familiar with the product before Neutrogena was launched in Russia (“When I was offered to try Neutrogena, I agreed with pleasure, because I have known this brand long before it appeared in Russia”)
Russian consumers are familiar with
all products of Neutrogena presented in Russia and even outside Russia. The main series of Neutrogena
in Russia today is Norwegian formula, is aimed to provide care for dry and
sensitive skin, which is highly required in Russia due to the climate conditions.
Nevertheless, cleansers and lotions for deep cleaning and oil removal
of other Neutrogena’s series are presented on the market as well.
