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Media Plan by Executive Summary Situation Analysis Index Brand History Past Advertising Marketing Problem/PLC BDI & CDI Market Share Report Advertising Expenditure Breyers Dreyer’s/Edy’s Häagen-Dazs Blue Bell SOV Media Mix Marketing Strategy SWOT Analysis Blue Bell Competitors Marketing/Advertising Objectives Target Selection Media Objectives, Strategies, & Tactics Media Objectives Target Coverage & Media Budget Regionality, Seasonality, & Scheduling Media Quintile Analysis Budget Constraints Media Vehicle Selection Media Mix Advertising Flowchart Creative Strategy Creative Concept/Sample Ad Promotion Strategy & IMC Efforts Integrated Marketing Campaign IMC Examples Copy Test/Evaluation Evaluation Referneces &YFDVUJWF 4VNNBSZ Situation Analysis Marketing Strategy Blue Bell Creameries has become one of the largest-selling ice cream brands in the United States. Their in-house advertising has produced traditional concepts tying to southern loyalty. Blue Bell Ice Cream is third in market share after Breyers and Dreyer’s/Edy’s. Blue Bell has high BDI in the South because it is only sold in 22 states, and a vast majority of advertising efforts are placed on local TV spots. Blue Bell is one of the top ice cream brands in the country beyond its limitations, such as a limited social media presence and only selling to 22 states. The goal of this plan is to set clear objectives that can be achieved within a year. Increasing market share, sales, social media presence and brand awareness are necessary steps to follow. Our target audience, adults with children, will experience new ways of seeing Blue Bell. Media Objectives, Strategies and Tactics Using traditional and online advertising will increase the success rate of a lasting legacy. We will focus our advertising efforts in 22 southern states with different frequency and reach weights throughout seasons using pulsing. Blue Bell currently uses local TV spots as their major form of advertising. We will use spot TV, spot radio, outdoor and the Internet to meet our advertising efforts. The quintiles for TV, radio and Internet are high and give an opportunity to meet advertising and marketing objectives for the fusion of different media to achieve goals. Creative Strategy Blue Bell Ice Cream, a family brand upholding traditional values, has achieved great concepts and gained loyalty. Blue Bell’s signature style has made it into what it is today, and we are not going to change that. Our mission is to engage audiences in a new and exciting way, while still providing the comfort of this long-established brand. Promotion Strategy and IMC Efforts Copy Test/Evaluation Blue Bell Ice Cream has to adapt to rapid changing technology. Through coupons and social media photo contests, Blue Bell will attract attention in a diverse way. Diverging from a completely traditional focus will grasp the attention of an audience otherwise obscure to Blue Bell. We will assess social media analytics and trial runs paired with tracking of sales volume and share to test the success of the campaigns and dictate the effectiveness of the plan. Research will also be conducted to test the efficiency and effectiveness of our outdoor advertising. 4JUVBUJPO "OBMZTJT Brand History Blue Bell Creameries, a limited partnership with headquarters in the rural town of Brenham, Texas, began in 1907 as a Washington County dairy farmers’ cooperative with the name of Brenham Creameries. The founders converted an abandoned cotton gin into a creamery making butter from the excess cream. Ice cream production began in 1911. The company name was adopted in 1930, and it comes from a Texas native wildflower. Now it is the thirdlargest ice cream maker with 250 products and 45 flavors available across the South. 6 Past Advertising Blue Bell Ice Cream has always advertised in-house and has created well-known concepts on television as well as popular radio jingles. Print Ad “The best ice cream in the country” print ad was depicted with the best-selling product Homemade Vanilla. The phrase was later used in many different radio and TV spots. TV Spot “The First Taste” television ad described the many first memorable events in life, like your first day of school, your first love and your first taste of Blue Bell Ice Cream. The TV spot included the phrase “the best ice cream in the country” and depicted scenes of cows running through pasture and people delighting in the taste of Blue Bell Ice Cream. 7 Marketing Problem Although Blue Bell Creameries only sell their product in 22 states, it falls third in market share at 6.6%. Its primary competitors, Breyers, with a market share of 11.5% and Dreyer’s/Edy’s, with a market share of 7.4%, lead the market by a small margin with Häagen-Dazs only slightly trailing behind with a market share of 6.4%. Blue Bell needs to differentiate itself as a comfort brand with strong family values. How can Blue Bell outshine the competition to dominate the market in its target geographic area? Product Life Cycle Blue Bell Creameries has been around for 102 years and stayed a strong and prominent company, despite the fact that their product is only sold regionally in the South. The ice cream brand would be considered in the maturity cycle. Blue Bell has a continuous flow of sales and has reached its peak growth with different products and flavors. 8 BDI & CDI Map 1 indicates the BDI and CDI for Blue Bell. According to our Simmons OneView research, ice cream does not have high category indexes across the United States. Blue Bell has low indexes in the Northeast, Midwest and West regions since it is only sold in 22 southern states. Blue Bell does, however, have an extremely high index in the South, with the population being 142% more likely to buy Blue Bell brand ice cream. For this reason the southern region should be our only target audience. MAP 1 BDI: 20 CDI: 99 BDI: 31 CDI: 102 BDI: 4 CDI: 101 BDI: 242 CDI: 99 9 Market Share Report As seen in Figure 1, Private Label ice cream brands dominate the market. However, our main competitors are Breyers, Dreyer’s/Edy’s and HäagenDazs, all within a very close market share range. Blue Bell serves as the third largest in the market with 6.6% market share, even though the brand is only sold in 22 states. FIGURE 1 Private Label Breyers 11.5% 24.9% 7.4% 6.4% Dreyer’s/Edy’s 6.6% Blue Bell 10 Häagen-Dazs Advertising Expenditure (000) Breyers Dreyer’s/Edy’s As shown in Figure 2, Breyers has a very large advertising budget and spends most of it on magazines. They diversify the rest of their budget by spending large portions on syndication, cable TV, and network TV, as well as small parts in spot TV and magazines. As shown in Figure 3, Dreyer’s/Edy’s spends their advertising budget mostly on spot TV, but also uses almost 20% of their budget on magazines. They also allocate a small amount to newspapers. Cable TV Magazines $3,584 $535.3 $2,325.8 $2,325.8 Syndication $53.1 Spot TV $6,576.5 $3,584 Magazines $1,197.5 Spot TV $3.9 Newspapers $1,701.2 $1,701.2 Network TV $769.3 Spot Magazine FIGURE 2 FIGURE 3 11 Häagen-Dazs As shown in Figure 4, Häagen-Dazs spends their entire advertising budget on print, mainly focusing on magazines. They also allocate a small part of their budget to national and local newspapers. $16.6 Newspaper $173.6 Natl. Newspaper Blue Bell As shown in Figure 5, Blue Bell spends the vast majority of their budget on spot TV. A small amount is allocated to outdoor advertising, and only $1,000 is spent on newspapers. $1 Newspaper $72 Outdoor Spot TV Magazines $4,264.9 $4,418.5 FIGURE 4 FIGURE 5 12 SOV (%) As shown in Figure 6, Breyers has the largest SOV in Sunday magazines, network TV, syndication and cable. Dreyer’s/Edy’s does not have a high SOV in any category. Häagen-Dazs has the highest SOV in newspapers. Blue Bell leads in spot TV and outdoor advertising. We plan to continue having the largest SOV in spot TV and outdoor, but also increase advertising in radio - an untapped medium. 100 100 40 100 100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 77.94 37.48 21.12 19.02 4.70 FIGURE 6 100 57.80 20 0 100 80.98 80 60 100 .0088 0 Magazines 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.43 Sunday Newspapers Natl. Network Magazine Newspaper TV Breyers Dreyer’s/Edy’s 0 Spot TV Häagen-Dazs Syndication Cable Blue Bell Outdoor Media Mix (%) As shown in Figure 7, Breyers uses a diverse range of media in their advertising. The only medium they do not use is outdoor advertising. Dreyer’s/Edy’s stick to mostly magazine and spot TV for their advertising. Häagen-Dazs uses almost all of their advertising budget on magazines, with a small portion going to national and local newspapers. Blue Bell spends nearly their entire budget - 98% - on spot TV advertising. 100 95.72 98.37 48.83 43.46 80 60 40 20 23.88 19.43 15.50 11.34 0 FIGURE 7 0 5.13 00 .022 Magazines .37.14 0 0 3.90 00 0 0 00 Sunday Newspapers Natl. Network Magazine Newspaper TV Breyers Dreyer’s/Edy’s .35 0 Spot TV Häagen-Dazs 0 00 0 0 0 Syndication Cable Blue Bell 1.60 0 00 Outdoor .BSLFUJOH 4USBUFHZ SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Southern Loyalty Advertising Although Blue Bell Ice Cream is only sold in 22 states in the southern region, they are third highest in market share. This is because the South is a very loyal customer base. Adults in the South are 142% more likely to eat Blue Bell Ice Cream than the rest of the population. There is a very strong and stable market in the states Blue Bell does sell in. Blue Bell does all of its advertising in-house. They have worked for years to create a country image for Blue Bell, but lack in keeping this image through an integrated marketing campaign. Blue Bell has also not had a new advertising campaign in several years. They have not adapted the company to make good use of social media, which is critical in today’s society. 64oz.Containers Sold in 22 States Because of the increased price of milk, many of Blue Bell’s competitors decreased the size of their containers to 48 oz. Blue Bell, however, kept their container size at 64 oz. appealing to their target audience of homemakers and adults with large families. Though Blue Bell does have a strong presence in the states they sell in, they only sell in 22 states. All of their main competitors sell their product across the United States. Blue Bell can’t increase their sales reach, and thus they cannot vastly increase their market share to become number one in the market. 16 Opportunities Threats Expand Market Private Label Blue Bell is already working on expanding product sales to close states it thrives in. This gives the company the opportunity to increase sales, brand awareness, and brand loyalty in other states. This all leads to Blue Bell becoming first in ice cream market share. Since the recession began in 2008, our target audience-homemakers and families-have turned to Private Label, or generic, brands to save money. This increase in sales has caused Private Label market share to skyrocket to the number one spot. Private Label brands serve a major threat since they share the same target audience as Blue Bell and continue to dominate in market share. Social Media Media Presence Blue Bell has almost no social media presence. This is a good opportunity to use the right strategies and tactics to create that lasting fan base on the Internet. Through social media, they will be able to connect and engage with customers in a way that a family brand, like Blue Bell, should. Though Blue Bell has the opportunity to increase their brand through social media, many of their top competitors have already done this very successfully. Not only do they have a strong social media presence, but they have integrated campaigns across platforms that have gained strong followings from their target that Blue Bell lacks. 17 Strengths Weaknesses Breyers Dreyer’s/ Edys’ Häagen-Dazs Top brand in the US Distribution reaches 70% of US households Available in 80 countries worldwide Bought Haagen-Dazs in 2004 Interactive social media Social media is split between both names; there are two pages for every platform posting the same content Low market share in the US Strong social media interaction Negative customer feedback on social media due to costcutting practices Opportunities Appeal to the healthoriented market with their less fattening “frozen dairy desserts” Manufacture ice cream for gourmet brands Starbucks and Godiva Threats Products are called “frozen dairy desserts” because they don’t contain enough milk to be considered ice cream Reduced their half gallon size twice since 2002 Net sales in 2012 increased by 16% Narrow target audience – young, rich, stylish females 18 Marketing Objectives Advertising Objectives Increase Market Share Increase Social Media Our major competitor, Breyers, surpasses Blue Bell’s market share by 4.9%. Our goal is to dominate our target market in the South to ultimately increase our market share by 5% and become the number one ice cream brand in the United States. Blue Bell is a familiar name in many households, but our goal is to make Blue Bell part of the conversation on social media platforms as well. Our goal is to increase social media presence by at least 60% to keep up with our competitors. Increase Sales Increase Brand Awareness By implementing multiple new advertising platforms, we plan to further reach our target audience and increase sales among homemakers and adults with families by up to 20%. We hope to strengthen brand awareness in order to persuade new prospective customers to choose Blue Bell over our major competitors. Our goal is to reach up to 20% more of our target audience and encourage them to make the switch to Blue Bell. 19 Target Selection Adults with Children FIGURE 8 160 140 134 120 136 134 120 117 107 100 161 112 109 97 96 94 Two 10-17 3 or More 10-17 One 10-17 3 or More 6-17 Two 6-17 One 6-17 Two 12-17 One 12-17 Two 6-11 One 6-11 Two Under 6 0 One Under 6 80 As shown in Figure 8, adults with children of various ages have high indexes and are more likely to eat Blue Bell Ice Cream across the board. Homemakers, or possibly stay-at-home moms, are 29% more likely to eat Blue Bell Ice Cream, and adults who are married are 11% more likely to eat Blue Bell. Adults with 5 or more people in the household are 15% more likely to eat Blue Bell. We can assume that people of these demographics are part of large families and are our target audience. Our target is 2% more likely to frequently eat sweets and 4% more likely to say that there is nothing wrong with indulging in fattening foods. They are 5% more likely to be swayed by coupons and 4% more likely to pay attention to commercials. They are 5% more likely to remember advertised products when shopping. Adults with chidlren are 31% more likely to use advertisements to help them choose products to buy for their children. .FEJB0CKFDUJWFT 4USBUFHJFT5BDUJDT Media Objectives It is time for Blue Bell to break the barrier and reach its target audience through a medium they trust - Internet. We will use integrated marketing campaigns through social media to increase our internet presence and brand awareness, as well as increase our reach to new prosepctive costumers. This will also maintain brand loyalty by allowing fans to connect with us through social media and reap the benefits of loving Blue Bell ice cream through coupons and recipes. Though we plan to introduce this new medium to the brand, we will also continue to use the advertising that has worked for them in the past - spot TV and outdoor. We will make campaigns more cohesive while still capturing the traditional values that reflect our brand and continue the long lasting legacy that our customers know and love. We will also be taking advantage of spot radio advertising, since it is a medium that our target audience frequents and trusts, but is still untouched by our competitors. Overall Target Coverage Overall Media Budget The overall coverage we plan to achieve is a reach of 80% of our target audience. The target audience will have an average frequency of 5. Blue Bell Ice Cream has a satisfactory situation in the market place. It is one of the market leaders, and it is the best-selling ice cream brand in the South. The marketing and advertising efforts will be placed in the 22 states in which Blue Bell Ice Cream is sold with a focus on our target audience: families. A defensive strategy is appropriate because we are focusing on markets where we have strong brand sales to avoid risk and maximize our potential. Blue Bell Ice Cream has been successful in expressing their content with traditional media, but online advertising is inadequate. There is not enough presence online and by succeeding in this endeavor we would increase the overall reach with the blending of different media. We propose to increase the budget by 5% to help reach a greater audience online through various social media platforms. We would also like to increase spot radio advertising to become the leader in Share of Voice for this medium. The quintiles and psychographics for both Internet and radio advertising are high, so increasing advertising in these areas while still keeping our highest Share of Voice in TV spots will greatly increase awareness and presence. Regionality Seasonality Our focus for regionality is 22 states in the southern region. Our target audience and consumers are located in the South since this is the only area Blue Bell sells their product. At this moment, expanding to northern states is not a viable option and not the main goal. Our entire advertising budget will be allocated toward the southern region. Our media plan will carry different reach, frequency, ad weights and ad budget allocation for different seasons because not all seasons have the same amount of sales. There are peaks during the summer and during holidays, and there is a decline at the beginning of the new year because of New Year’s resolutions. Our reach and frequency will be divided in three sections with the months of summer being the highest with a reach of 80% and a frequency of 5. Most of the ad weight and budget allocation will go to these months. Scheduling Ice cream is a product that sells throughout the year with peaks and declines depending on the season. We will use pulsing so there can be a continuous advertising schedule within the year with concentrated bursts during high seasons. The season with the biggest burst is the summer. It will also include our highest reach and frequency efforts. 24 “Blue Bell Country” Media Quintile Analysis Radio In radio, our target audience has high quintile rankings and very positive responses to radio in psychographic questions. Adults with children are in the top 20% of adults who listen to radio while driving and are 21% more likely to see ads on the radio. They are 8% more likely to listen to the radio from 6AM-10AM and 6% more likely to listen to the radio from 3PM-7PM. They are 5% more likely to always listen to the radio in a car and 6% more likely to use the radio to keep informed and get quick news updates. It is safe to assume that they are listening to the radio as they are driving their children to and from school or driving to and from work. Internet Internet quintile rankings for our target audience are extremely high. Adults with children are in the top 20% of Internet users and are 41% more likely to be active on the Internet at home. Our target is 19% more likely to use social media and 8% more likely to purchase products if it is recommended on social media. We can assume that these women may be stay-at-home moms who are active on social media and mommy blogs to stay up-to-date on all the latest parenting trends. They trust online sharing sites and rely on their friends and word-of-mouth for purchasing decisions. 25 Television The top 20% of prime time television watchers are 9% more likely to have children and the top 40% of early and late fringe TV watchers are 27% more likely to have children. Adults with children are 7% more likely to watch the local news at these times as well. We can assume that they are watching television as they get home with their children from school and watch the news as they are preparing dinner for their family. Outdoor Outdoor advertising quintile rankings are just average. The top 60% to notice outdoor advertising are 8% more likely to have children. From our radio information, we can assume that our target are travelers that would be on the road often and notice outdoor advertising. Magazines Adults with children are 5% less likely to enjoy ads in magazines and 5% less likely to buy magazines. They are also 5% less likely to believe that magazines are worth the money. We can obviously see that our target doesn’t care much for magazines and probably doesn’t have the time to read them because of their busy schedules with their families. 26 Budget Constraints Print Network TV Though newspaper can reach specific geographic markets, it is a poor medium to use for Blue Bell. For similar reasons, magazines are a poor choice for Blue Bell as well. It is expensive to buy advertising space in print media, and they have a high CPM. Also, our target audience has negative responses to psychographic questions about print media. Blue Bell also has a very low Share of Voice in print media compared to our competitors. Network TV is extremely expensive and far out of our budget’s range. Because Blue Bell only sells their product in the southern region, it would be wasteful to advertise nationally. Instead, we will use spot TV to reach our target markets. It’s less expensive than cable and has a lower CPM. We will also use spot radio in the South because it’s inexpensive. Radio has a high exposure in the summer, when we will be spending most of our budget. 27 Media Vehicle Selection Internet We are going to use the Internet strategically to reach our target audience of moms who are extremely active on social media. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will be utilized to interact with consumers. Through social media, there are many ways to share infomration and show your loyalty to a brand, which is what we hope to achieve with our target audience. Social media campaigns that are cohesive throughout each site will allow followers to recieve coupons and recipes, as well as win prizes. We will also use sponsored status updates, tweets and Instagram posts to increase our reach through these sites and gain more followers in addition to the loyal consumers we already have. We want to connect and interact with the target audience on a personal level and use the information we learn to better reflect our ads to their beliefs and values. Through social media, we will be able to reaffirm our image as a traditional, southern brand while still adapting and evolving with today’s growing technology and dependency on the Internet. 28 Spot Radio We will be using spot radio to reach our target audience. Local radio stations allow us to cover large areas while still reaching the exact geographic locations in the South that we need to focus on to increase sales and gain new customers from our target. We will choose stations that play music that would most appeal to our target audience, such as country, talk radio, easy listening, or even oldies and stray away from busy stations that have a lot advertising clutter. We will run radio spots at the times our target most uses the radio: 6AM10AM and 3PM-7PM. Though morning drive time is the most expensive time for radio advertising, we feel it is cost-efficient because it is a critical time to reach our target audience. Spot TV Blue Bell already has a very strong Share of Voice in spot TV advertising and we plan to continue this, since it has been successful in the past. We will run spots during prime time and early and late fringe, when our target audience is most likely to be watching television. Local news stations will give us the opportunity to reach our target geographically. We can precisely define our target while still having a relatively low cost. We will use frequency to reiterate our position as a brand with strong values . This will allow the target to remember Blue Bell’s brand and effectively change their purchasing decisions. Outdoor With outdoor advertising, we will have wide coverage of local markets and the high frequency we need to keep our brand fresh in the minds of our target. It is also efficient because there is high travel in the summer-our target season-and outdoor advertisng has high summer visibility. We will use simple copy on billboards and focus on covering high popualtion rural and subarban areas, as well as metropolitan areas. 29 FIGURE 9 Spot Radio Media Mix 5% $235.803 Outdoor .5% $23.580 Internet 30% $1,414.823 64.5% $3,041.868 Spot TV As shown in Figure 9, our budget will be dispersed through spot TV, spot radio, outdoor, and Internet advertising. We allocated 64.5% of our budget to spot TV. We are decreasing the medium from what it has been in the past, but still allowing enough money to have the highest Share of Voice in that category. We allocated 30% of our budget to radio so we can increase our reach and frequency in a medium that is so often used and trusted by our target audience. Also, none of our competitors use spot radio as a source of advertising, so we would have the highest Share of Voice in this category. We are increasing our outdoor budget to 5% to reach those travelers during our peak summer season. Since Internet advertising on social media is inexpensive, we allocated .5% of our budget to be spent on sponsored status updates, tweets, and Instagram posts. 30 Advertising Flowchart JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Reach 30% 30% 50% 50% 80% 80% 80% 80% 50% 50% 30% 30% Frequency 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 GRPs 90 90 200 200 400 400 400 400 200 200 90 90 Cost 76,046 76,046 228,140 456,280 456,280 456,280 76,046 76,046 Reach 30% 30% 50% 50% 80% 80% 80% 80% 50% 50% 30% 30% Frequency 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 GRPs 90 90 200 200 400 400 400 400 200 200 90 90 Cost 35,370 35,370 106,111 212,223 212,223 Reach 30% 30% 50% 80% 80% Frequency 3 3 GRPs 90 90 200 Cost 5,895 5,895 Reach 30% Frequency SPOT TV 228,140 456,280 228,140 228,140 TOTAL GRPs TOTAL COST 2,700 $3,041,868 SPOT RADIO 106,111 212,223 212,223 106,111 106,111 35,370 35,370 50% 30% 30% 4 4 3 3 200 90 90 5,895 2,700 $1,414,823 OUTDOOR 50% 80% 4 5 5 5 200 400 400 400 400 200 17,685 17,685 35,370 35,370 35,370 35,370 17,685 17,685 30% 50% 50% 80% 80% 80% 80% 50% 50% 3 3 4 4 90 90 4 80% 5 50% 2,700 $235,803 5,895 INTERNET GRPs Cost TOTAL GRPs TOTAL COST 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 200 400 400 400 400 200 200 90 90 1,768 3,537 3,537 3,537 3,537 1,768 1,768 589 589 1600 1600 1600 1600 800 800 360 360 589 1,768 360 360 800 117,900 30% 200 589 117,900 5 30% 353,704 800 353,704 707,410 707,410 707,410 707,410 353,704 353,704 117,900 117,900 2,700 $23,580 11,040 $4,716,074 $SFBUJWF 4USBUFHZ Creative Strategy Blue Bell Ice Cream is a family brand upholding the finest traditional values. It is proud to provide a product that is manufactured in an old-fashioned way. This home-style ice cream brand is rooted in a classic concept that has helped families come together since 1911. Through new television ads, we can demonstrate and remind people of the comfort Blue Bell brings to them. Using family images and strong copy, we will reaffirm the well-established image of Blue Bell in the minds and hearts of our target audience. Sample Ad Scene I: There are people in the beach in the midst of the summer heat and they are eating Blue Bell Ice Cream. Voiceover: In the midst of the summer heat... Scene III: Bowl of ice cream on a table next to a Christmas tree. Voiceover: for the holidays.... Scene II: There is a couple on a date sharing dessert on a romantic evening. Voiceover: sharing with your loved ones... Scene IV: Small boy on a regular day eating ice cream. Voiceover: or for just any day... For every occasion. We are there for you. Blue Bell Ice Cream. 1SPNPUJPO4USBUFHZ *.$&ĊPSUT Integrated Marketing Campaign To achieve our marketing objective, we want to reinvent Blue Bell’s social media presence. Blue Bell currently has a Facebook page but has yet to present itself on any other social networking sites. We want to revamp the Facebook page and create two additional accounts for both Instagram and Twitter, while still honoring the brands traditional and southern style. We budgeted for sponsored advertisements to appear on our three different social media platforms. The ads will be simple and traditional to appeal to our current customers, and feature new and interactive promotional methods to grab new ones. The paid-for advertisements will be wellcoordinated using different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other. Our debut on social media is the perfect way to reach out to new customers and further illustrate a positive image for the brand. We have implemented a hashtag that will be consistently used on all three of our social media accounts. The #iscreamforbluebell hashtag allows users to upload photos of and with Blue Bell products for a chance to win a gift from the company. When users add the #iscreamforbluebell, their photos are immediately tagged with the hashtag so that Blue Bell has a pool of pictures to pull winners from. The most clever, creative or awesome photograph that week will win a years supply of Blue Bell ice cream. The contest will be done during peak seasons such as holidays and early summer. Users will have one week to submit and hashtag their pictures and winners will be notified at the end of the week on Sunday evenings. Other promotional efforts done through IMC include the posting of professional looking photographs, reposting of photographs uploaded by users and fans, open ended posts allowing for user feedback and conversation, and surprise coupons meant to excite and reward loyal customers and our social media followers and fans. Our first coupon to launch will be the "buy one half-gallon, receive one half-gallon free!" scheduled to release at the beginning of December in honor of upcoming holidays. Coupons and other rewards programs will come out four to five times a year. 35 IMC Examples This week only! Buy one Blue Bell halfgallon, get one free! Scan this coupon at your check out to receive discount! II bb.cc/b1gof Buy one half-gallon of Blue Bell ice cream, get one free! Scan the QR code below to receive your discount. Offer expires 12/12/13. #iscreamforBlueBell Instagram Hasgtag “Buy One, Get One Free” Coupon Evaluation The effectiveness of the media plan will be assessed by testing the sales volume and share, discount trial run, and social media analytics. We will conduct a test for at least six months to see if sales and social media presence increase. With the discount coupons, there will be a trial in three cities at first. If the success rate is favorable, then we will proceed to use the coupons throughout our market. Social media analytics will be used to our advantage through the different posts we are going to create. The Blue Bell Ice Cream page will post at different times of the day either through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. With that information we can calculate the time of day that these posts are more likely to be seen and promote those posts to have more interaction and views. There will also be extensive research to test the effectiveness of our outdoor advertising. The quintiles for outdoor advertising are average and are said to have no major effect on our audience. A survey to conduct around cities where outdoor advertisements are placed should give an idea to the validity of this theory. 38 References *www.bluebell.com *Rajni Madan, "BLUE BELL CREAMERIES," Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/a rticles/dibgj), accessed December 01, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. *Market Share Reporter [serial] {HF5415.2. M3558*2011 Vol1 & Vol2} Thank You! Alyssa Bordelon Ana Argueta Isabella Diaz Maddy Broussard Taylor Kirkes Cody Pfister