Advertising Management Assignment: Market Research For Shadow
Question
Task:
ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND
Shadow is a Spanish brand dedicated to the manufacture of guitars, basses and musical accessories.
They have physical stores in the main cities of Spain and a new online sales platform with which they hope to reach much more public. Currently, they want to carry out an advertising campaign to boost the sales of their flagship product: the electric guitar.
Shadow always uses good qualities in its products and sells at a very competitive price, but has not yet achieved the necessary recognition and hopes that this campaign will help it to consolidate and position itself properly among its public.
FORMULATE
- Conduct a market research of the situation, perform a SWOT analysis and determine the target audience for the campaign.
- Detail the team of workers that you would need/want to have at your charge: figures, personal traits, working groups ...
- Detail the steps you would follow, making a timing for each stage/action.
- Describe the motivations of the target audience and the message you want to convey. Create a slogan for the brand.
- Define the media strategy that you consider appropriate and the advertising formats you would use.
- Find a case of an advertising campaign that you find interesting due to its innovation and good results for the brand. Explain the case by delving into the brand and the product. What would you highlight? What strategies and techniques did they use to achieve success? How do they differ from their competition?
Answer
Introduction to Advertising Management Assignment:
Shadow Company is the Spanish brand. The company manufactures basses, guitars and other musical accessories. The company wants to get proper recognition by organising the advertisement campaign to get a competitive position in the market. This assignment conducted market research, SWOT analysis and analysed and determined the target audience for the advertisement campaign. It also described the detail of the team of workers that the company need to conduct an advertisement campaign. It also described the detail steps that the company need to follow, appropriate media strategy and advertising formats for the Shadow Company. Finally, it described the similar case of a successful advertising campaign by another company along with its strategies and techniques.
Market research, SWOT analysis and target audience:
This section uses the PESTLE framework to analysis the external environment of the market.
Political: This factor can create both positive and negative effects on the company. Positive governmental intervention can bring opportunities for the company. On the other hand, 25% corporate tax rate by the Spain government can create a big issue over the Shadow Company (Spain - Corporate - Taxes on corporate income. 2020).
Economic: According to this current situation, the outbreak of Covid-19 has been created a huge negative impact on the economy across the world. The negative growth rate of GDP (approximately -12.8%) declines the income of the industries and other companies. It created an effect on the business economy (Spain - Gross domestic product (GDP) growth 2021 | Statista. 2020). This situation can also create a negative impact on the advertisement campaign organised by Shadow.
Social: Based on the current pandemic situation due to covid-19, it changes the social norms, attitudes and behaviour of the people. They prefer to purchase the product from online instead of purchasing from offline stores (Camilleri, 2018). It can create a positive impact on the new online sales platform and advertising campaign of Shadow Company for their electric guitar.
Technical: Now, the majority of people tech-savvy person, they prefer to use technological advances instead of being physically present. Based on the situation of the Shadow, they need to provide an appropriate technological facility on their social media platform and explain it through their advertisement campaign. It can bring more opportunity for Shadow.
Environment: Several environmental laws by the government can create a negative impact on Shadow. Many discarded materials of the musical instruments end up in landfills. The material used in guitars are not sometimes biodegradable, and the use of woods (cut down of trees) can create environmental issues over the Shadow. It is necessary for them to focus on this matter, minimize the negative effect on the environment and spread it through their advertisement campaign that can be beneficial for garbing the attention of the public.
Legal: Governmental legal laws such as human rights law and employees’ safety law can create challenges over the Company. The Company needs to focus on this matter.
This section uses Porter’s five forces framework to analyze the internal environment of the market.
New entrants threats: It can create a high force on the Company because after using the good qualities in their products and sells their products at a competitive price, the Company has not achieved the appropriate hopes and necessary recognition still now to grab the attention of the public. Therefore, the new entrants can create a negative impact on business. It is necessary for Shadow to execute the advertisement campaign effectively to avoid this issue.
The threat of substitution: It can create a medium force on the Company because the Company offers good quality musical instruments at a competitive price. It is the strength of the Company.
Competitive rivalry: It can create a high force on the Company because the Company has not achieved proper recognition after offering good qualities instruments to their customers. Moreover, the huge presence of successful musical instrumental stores in Spain like Musitketon, Guitar shop, Diaz Luthiers is the threat for the Company.
Power of suppliers: It can create a moderate force on the Company because of the huge presence of suppliers of good quality raw materials for musical instruments minimizes the switching cost from one supplier to another.
Power of buyer: It can create a high force on the Company because of the huge presence of competitors who offer the same products can create a negative impact on the business.
Based on the above external and internal environmental analysis, It conducted the SWOT analysis of the Company.
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Strengths: Shadow always uses the excellent and sustainable qualities in its musical instruments. The company also sells its products at a competitive price. |
Weaknesses: The Company has not achieved proper recognition due to a lack of online presence. The vast corporate tax by the Spain government and current poor economic condition is the weakness of the Company.
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Opportunities: The Company newly started their online sales platform to attract more publicity for their business. The Company now wants to organize an advertising campaign to boost its sale of the electric guitar. Current social condition and social preference of purchasing product from the online become opportunity for Company. |
Threats: The massive presence of competitors like Musitketon, Guitar shop, Diaz Luthiers. The negative growth rate of GDP. Environmental and legal laws of the government.
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Target audience:
Based on the situation of Shadow Company, the primary target audience of the advertisement campaign of the company is young generation from the age 12 years to 40 years, male and female both, people from all race, religion, and ethnicity, medium and higher income level people, according to the demographic segmentation.
Based on the geographic segmentation, the company newly introduced the online platform for their business. Therefore, the primary target audience is people from Spain and across the world.
Based on the psychographic and behavioural segmentation, people who love music, prefer modern lifestyle, maintain average social status are the primary target audience of the advertisement campaign of Shadow Company.
Detail of the team of workers:
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Figures |
Personal traits |
Working Groups |
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Marketing Manager |
The ability to empower production. The ability to collaborate with team members. Good direction ability to direct all activities, Should knowledgeable in all areas related to advertising campaign creation and strategy. The ability to develop long-term marketing goals through short term campaign directives (The 5 Members Who Must Be On Your Advertising Conversions Team. 2020). Innovative thinking and creativity skill. Good adaptability and sales-minded skill |
Marketing team members should be responsible for developing the accurate market campaign strategy, project guidelines and deadlines of the project. |
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Search Engine Advertising or paid search manager (PPC) |
Effective communication skill. Should be pro-active, organised and data-driven. Should be creative and have effective analytical thinking skill. |
The Group of IT personnel and PPC manager should be responsible for reporting on the advertisement campaign and carrying out the campaign (The 5 Members Who Must Be On Your Advertising Conversions Team. 2020). They are responsible for identifying the best places to regulate the pay-per-click campaign. |
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Graphic designer |
Should be imaginative, creative and innovative, Should have the ability to take criticism (The 5 Members Who Must Be On Your Advertising Conversions Team. 2020), Should be consistent and have patience. Should be adaptable to learn new things. |
The group of IT personnel, the graphic designing team, should be responsible for creating landing pages and eye-catching advertisements. |
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Data Analyst |
A data analyst should be methodological and have a problem-solving approach. Should be imaginative. Should have the capability to spot particular patterns of collected data. Should have the active listening skill, decision facilitation skill, analytic skill etc. |
Data analyst team should be responsible for analyzing the market, customers’ choice, preferences,
, |
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Copywriter |
Should have proper communication. Knowledge of search engine optimization techniques. Should have a good grasp in grammar, punctuation, Should have knowledge about content management system, Should be creative and flexible (The 5 Members Who Must Be On Your Advertising Conversions Team. 2020). Should have refined writing skill, and be creative. |
The team of copywriters should be responsible for writing original copy and slogans for the advertising campaigns, editing articles and maintaining the brand consistency across the several online channels. |
Details of steps:
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Stages and actions |
Timetable |
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Defining the goal of advertising that is effective and suitable for Shadow Company. The goal of Shadow company is to promote and boost the sales of its flagship product through advertising campaign such as electric guitar and reach more public through online sales platform. |
7 days |
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Picking up the particular product that Shadow Company wants to promote |
2 days |
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Identification of the target audience based on demographic, geographic, behavioral and psychographic segmentation. |
5 days |
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Analyzing the market to determine the effect of external and internal environmental factors over the business and campaign(How to Launch a Marketing Campaign for Your Small Business in 7 Easy Steps. 2020). |
10 days |
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Determine the platform through which the company can find its target audience: Social media platform, printing advertisement, TV and radio ads. |
5 days |
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Deciding the timing of the advertising campaign: Social media ads for 24 hours. TV and radio ads during the evening from 6 pm to 10 pm, |
3 days |
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The setting of the budget for an advertisement campaign |
6 days |
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Selection of outlets to promote the advertising campaign |
5 days |
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Creating advertising images and graphics for organizing the advertising campaign |
20 days |
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Measuring the Final results |
Minimum 30 days. |
Motivation of the Target audience and the message for advertising campaign:
The Company needs to develop its message in such a way that will express the positive vibes among the target audience. The Company needs to give multiple reasons to purchase their electric guitar instead of purchasing a product from other competitors. The Company needs to keep the message and slogan simple for promoting their electric (Lewis & Schneider, 2019). The Company needs to be honest and transparent that will help them to create motivation among the target audience. This strategy will help the Company to reach more public for their product through conduct their advertising campaign both offline and online.
The Shadow Company can convey the message to their target audience that “The guitar is your weapon, is your shield to hide your weaknesses and to grow your self-belief. The guitar will help you to create something new and something unique that different from others. You just plug in the guitar and let’s go your pain. The guitar that expresses your own ideas and will help you to remove difficulties. Shadow gives you the opportunity to feel the essence of this super musical electric guitar”.
The main slogan for the brand can be “Song of your heart is best played with Shadow world”.
Media Strategy and advertising format:
Based on the current situation due to the outbreak of a covid-19 pandemic, Social media strategy and mass media strategy can be beneficial for Shadow Company. Shadow Company can reach much more audience through the social media strategy (Frandsen, Thow, & Ferguson, 2016). They can use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc., to promote their flagship products electric guitar to their target audience. In this current era, the majority of the young generation and approximately 80% of people engage with the social media platform and collect the review from the social media before purchasing any product. It will help the Company to grab the attention of an enormous public (Thornhill, Xie, & Lee, 2017).
The Company can also use the mass media strategy by conducting its advertising campaign through TV and Radio advertising campaign (Husain, Ghufran, & Chaubey, 2016). They need to conduct the advertising campaign in the time of evening from 6 PM to 10 PM to grab the attention of the young generation, both male and female.
The Company can use the attractive and emotional text ads, attention grabbing image ads and 20 seconds emotional and attention grabbing video ads formats for conducting its advertisement campaign to promote their flagship product electric guitar (Belanche, Flavián, & Pérez-Rueda, 2017). The Company can also use the same 30 to 60 seconds video advertisement format for conducting its advertising campaign.
Case of advertising campaign:
As an example, the Nike Company’s advertising campaign is one of the best advertising campaigns that are a mix of innovation, emotion and creativity. The main slogan of the company is “Just Do It” to inspire the young generation for sporting activities. It also inspires the players to do their best (Cox, 2020). Nike Company develops a really effective advertising campaign for promoting its products shoes, apparels and other sport-related accessories. The company always focuses on creating meaningful videos by including the meaningful stories in it to build a loyal fan base.
The primary strategy of the Nike Company is to induce the emotions in their target audience through emotional branding. The primary strategy of the advertising campaign organized by the Nike Company is to evoke the particular feelings of customers that make their products more meaningful in the eyes of their target audience.
The company uses a unique design, innovation and creativity in their products and advertisement process, providing an excellent quality of the product that makes them different from their competitors.
Conclusion:
As a conclusive statement, Shadow Company needs to apply the identified appropriate advertising formats and media strategy while introducing the advertising campaign. The company needs to maintain the above strategies and actions to achieve the success of their advertising campaign. It will help Shadow Company to reach much more public through their new online social media platform. It will help them to boost the sales of their flagship product electric guitar along with proper recognition for the company.
References:
Belanche, D., Flavián, C., & Pérez-Rueda, A. (2017). Understanding interactive online advertising: Congruence and product involvement in highly and lowly arousing, skippable video ads. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 37, 75-88. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1094996816300548
Camilleri, M. A. (2018). Integrated marketing communications. In Travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product (pp. 85-103). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-49849-2_5
Cox, L. (2020). The 18 Best Advertisements & Ad Campaigns of All Time. Retrieved 17 December 2020, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-advertisements
Frandsen, M., Thow, M., & Ferguson, S. G. (2016). The effectiveness of social media (Facebook) compared with more traditional advertising methods for recruiting eligible participants to health research studies: a randomized, controlled clinical trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 5(3), e161.
How to Launch a Marketing Campaign for Your Small Business in 7 Easy Steps. (2020). Retrieved 17 December 2020, from https://paysimple.com/blog/how-to-launch-a-marketing-campaign-for-your-small-business-in-7-easy-steps/
Husain, S., Ghufran, A., & Chaubey, D. S. (2016). Relevance of social media in marketing and advertising. Splint International Journal of Professionals, 3(7), 21-28.
Lewis, J., & Schneider, M. P. (2019). U.S. Patent Application No. 16/511,634. https://patents.google.com/patent/US20190342592A1/en
Spain - Corporate - Taxes on corporate income. (2020). Retrieved 17 December 2020, from https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/spain/corporate/taxes-on-corporate-income#:~:text=The%20general%20CIT%20rate%20in,taxed%20on%20their%20worldwide%20income
Spain - Gross domestic product (GDP) growth 2021 | Statista. (2020). Retrieved 17 December 2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/263610/gross-domestic-product-gdp-growth-in-spain/
The 5 Members Who Must Be On Your Advertising Conversions Team. (2020). Retrieved 17 December 2020, from https://instapage.com/blog/advertising-conversions-team
Thornhill, M., Xie, K., & Lee, Y. J. (2017). Social media advertising in a competitive market. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology.
