Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign Proposal For Cathay Organization s Loyalty Programme

Transcription

1 Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign Proposal For Cathay Organization s Loyalty Programme 5/1/2015 Republic Polytechinc SHIONA OOSHA RAJ DINAH QISTINA BTE ROZAWI DAVINDER SINGH ODILIA TAN SI YUN MUHAMMAD NUR ARIF 1

2 Executive Summary This campaign is done by a PR team which consists of students from Republic Polytechnic s Diploma in Mass Communication (DMC) known as House of Mafia for Cathay Cineplex to come up with a series of activities as well as ideas for Cathay s new and upcoming loyalty card. Cathay Cineplex requires the House of Mafia to conceptualize, develop and execute a public relations and integrated marketing campaign (IMC) to promote the loyalty program. The proposed IMC plan is designed to help increase awareness of the loyalty program to our target audience, who are youths aged between years old. The IMC plan is also developed to encourage said youths to purchase and use the new loyalty program. The team conducted extensive research inclusive of a SWOT, competitor and target audience analysis. From the findings, it was discovered that youths are attracted to activities that require a degree of involvement such as ice skating and watching movies. It was also found that loyalty programmes are not popular within the target audience. The campaign would feature the use of several IMC tools such as personal selling, internet marketing, digital posters and events to achieve the objectives. The campaign is designed to start in Mid June 2015 till the end of August One of the main tools in the campaign is an event held in Republic Polytechnic and improving Cathay s social media strategy. There would be an evaluation conducted after the conclusion of the campaign to gather feedback and measure the effectiveness of the IMC tools used to achieve the objectives. Some of the measuring tools include a questionnaire as well as social media monitoring. 2

3 Contents... 1 Executive Summary... 2 SECTION A... 3 INTRODUCTION... 4 SECTION B... 4 SITUATION ANALYSIS SWOT ANALYSIS... 4 SECTION C... 5 Target Audience Analysis... 5 Significant Findings... 7 SECTION D... 7 Proposed IMC Plan Recommendations Communication Objectives... 8 SECTION E... 8 Communication Strategies & Key Message... 8 SECTION F... 9 Creative Strategy Concept Plan... 9 Brand New Social Media Strategy RP Event... 9 Budget...11 EVALUATION...12 CONCLUSION Appendix A...13 SECTION A 3

4 INTRODUCTION Cathay Cineplexes continues to be a choice destination offering quality films with state-of-art technology as well as service with a difference to continually ensure that movie-going is a preferred leisure activity. Currently, Cathay Cineplexes has many existing deals with external partners such as Mastercard, AIA and HSBC. This will pose to be difficult to create awareness for the in-house loyalty card/programme. Cathay Organisation s core target audience is 18 to 34 years old and the target audience for Cathay Cineplexes is 18 to 28 year olds, which is the focus for this proposal. The thing to note here is that youths are very digital oriented and that is a great plus for Cathay as it is in line with their direction of being a digitalized company. This proposal aims to target this segment of the population and ultimately inspire them to purchase the loyalty card and use it as part of their daily lifestyle. SECTION B SITUATION ANALYSIS The house of mafia team conducted several studies and research in early May 2015 to gather more information about Cathay, its competitors and its target audience. Studies included sending out an online survey crafted by the team to the given target audience via google docs and through online research for relevant data from the corporate websites and social media accounts of Cathay and its competitors. With a total of 151 respondents, the survey was shared through Facebook and the team s own personal networks. 2.1 SWOT ANALYSIS 4

5 The table below summarises the macro- and micro-environment that Cathay Oragnisation operates in. STRENGTHS: WEAKNESSES: External partners (MasterCard, M1, AIA, NTUC) Cathay Organisation has been around for 80 years 12 subsidiaries companies (Cathay Cineplexes, E2Max, Hangout Hotels, Cathay Properties, etc.) One of the leading leisure and entertainment groups Expanded to Malaysia Competitors might be slow to adopt new trends OPPORTUNITIES: Tight competition with competitors Low awareness on Cathay s subsidiaries Number of customers stay stagnant Poor service Growing competitive pressure Competitors might take over our market position if they implement new ideas THREATS: Businesses from subsidiaries could be expanded Sponsors for external events to gain awareness New advertising/marketing channels Study new trends to attract more consumers Cost of investing in new advertising/marketing channels Possibility of losing customers if resources are diverted to new marketing/advertising projects SECTION C Target Audience Analysis According to a survey of 151 respondents that was shared on social media, the profile of the target audience is as follows (refer to Appendix A for full details as provided by online survey): Profile of Target Audience 5

6 Geographic Segmentation Region Segregated across different regions in Singapore Demographic Segmentation Age Gender year olds Male & Female Nationality Singaporeans, Permanent Residents Salary $100 - $250 (part-timers) & $1,500 above Education GCSE O-Level / Diploma / Degree Psychographic Segmentation Personality Impulsive Expressive in voicing opinions Willing to volunteer for an animal charity organisation Hesitant to pay for a charity event Lifestyle Heavy users of social media (in order of Instagram, YouTube, Twitter & Facebook) Highly influenced by peers Enjoys hanging around with peers Attracted to the fun and exciting Often visits town; mainly Orchard, Somerset & Bugis Surfs the Internet during free time Usage Pattern Means of Communication Mobile Phones Whatsapp Social Media 6

7 Significant Findings 1. Target Audience generally like to use Social Media and head to Town areas According to the survey (please see Appendix A) conducted as part of the research, the Target Audience are heavy users of Social Media platforms. The most commonly used platforms are, in order of popularity, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Also, the Target Audience often visits town during their free time, typically during the afternoon or evenings on weekends. Most popular areas are Orchard, Bugis and Somerset. 2. More than 8 in 10 residents aged 15 to 34 years old use equipment to connect to the Internet wirelessly Research shows that connecting to the Internet wirelessly is a habit by most users of portable equipment. The Internet is mostly used to surf the web or look social media platforms. 3. A total of 14,500 students attend Republic Polytechnic Although promotional efforts may only begin once Polytechnic re-opens after holidays, a 14,500- strong student population attends Republic Polytechnic alone. This may prove to be an opportunity to reach out to the student population through an event in school. 4. Target Audience are attracted to the fun and the exciting Results from the survey indicate that the Target Audience are attracted to activities that are deemed as fun or exciting to them. Also, according to Expat Living Singapore, some activities that are fun and exciting to youths include ice-skating, watching movies, going swimming, visiting town areas such as *SCAPE to enjoy theatre performances and workshops among others. This indicates that any planned activity to appeal to the Target Audience should play on the fun element to draw them in. 5. Majority of Target Audience are not on a loyalty programme Based on research, majority of our target audience is not on a loyalty programme. If they are part of a loyalty programme, they are most likely female. The most popular loyalty programme mentioned was also Sephora. This indicates that we need to target male segment more and try to capture the concept that Sephora s adopted for their programme. SECTION D Proposed IMC Plan 7

8 5.1 Recommendations From the findings, the team understands that the Target Audience are drawn to activities such as ice skating, watching movies, visiting town areas or even going swimming. These activities require a degree of involvement on part of the Target Audience, and are deemed as fun and exciting to them. From this, the team recommends the use of several IMC tools (see Creative Strategy) such as events, personal selling, EDMs, display boards, flyers and posters to reach out to and effectively imprint the Key Message(s) to the Target Audience. 5.2 Communication Objectives a. Raise awareness of Cathay s brand new loyalty card to 500 youths on any given platform by end July 2015 in Singapore. b. To get 800 youths in Singapore to purchase and use the loyalty card by end July SECTION E Communication Strategies & Key Message The key message for this campaign is Free Yourself. This is driven by the fact that the one thing youths want the most is to feel like they belong. It is essential that people feel comfortable to express themselves wherever they go. The key here is to create an environment where our target audience feel that they belong with Us. Now, how do we do that. What is an organisation, a group people with the same sets of values and beliefs. What is a culture? A group of people with the same sets of values and beliefs. What is a family? A group of people with the same sets of values and beliefs. Why do people listen to their leaders? Why are they so loyal? Because leaders make their people feel like they belong. Well of course you can always give discounts and improve sales, but it does not breed loyalty and ultimately the whole idea of a loyalty program is to create that sense of loyalty. We feel that the best way to create loyalty is to be like our target audience and hence the term free yourself.. 8

9 The ideal platforms that we are using to send this message out would be social media such as snapchat, instagram, etc. The reason being this is where the youths thrive on and based on our research it is where we can expect to see the best results. SECTION F Creative Strategy 5.1 Concept Plan The campaign would feature three main ideas, namely: Brand New Social Media Strategy RP Event C-EX card Brand New Social Media Strategy According to the survey conducted, our target audience spend most of their time on social media For the use of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat we would want to send out personalised tweets to the consumer who are following the Cathay account. In this way, we would be able to build connections with our target audience. Using the Hashtag such as the C-EX freedom would be trending to drive awareness to the launch of our new loyalty card. We will be also monitoring our Social media account from Howsociable and list out key words such as the C-ExFreedom, Cathay. Objective(s): To raise awareness for the relaunch of the new loyalty programme Raise awareness of Key Message To bring the youths together that enjoys watching movie and hanging out to cultivate a culture 5.2 RP Event 9

10 Using our key message, Free Yourself there is no better way for students to let loose then to release their inhibitions in dance. Objective(s): Raise awareness of loyalty card Increase Cathay s following on social media platforms 5.3 C-Ex Card With the new loyalty card, youths can enjoy the benefits of having their customise and personalise card that can be used as a debit card to purchase. They could purchase their movie tickets and food though the card with great discounts and also share their experience though the app. It is catered to tech savvy consumers that would provide a more convenient method. You would also get to build connections by communicating with people who enjoy movies and transfer credit points to enjoys more benefits in Cathay. 10

11 Budget The following is the Budget for Cathay loyalty programme: Item Description Quantity Amount Digital advertising Advertise through paid online social media platforms Nil $ 8-12,000 App development Social media, Points transfer, Ordering of food and booking tickets functions Nil $15,000 Card manufacturing Customise card, Ability to top up points 1000 piece $10,000 Total Estimated cost: $ 40,000 11

12 EVALUATION No. IMC Tool Method of Evaluation Measurement 1 Social Strategy Social Media Monitoring (Twitter and Instagram) Track hashtags Number of re-tweets 2 Survey - 3 RP Event Social Media Monitoring (Twitter and Instagram) Track hashtags o Number of re-tweets 4 Online survey - 5 Freedom Pass Social Media Monitoring (Twitter and Instagram) Track hashtags Number of re-tweets 6 Online survey - The evaluation would be done by counting the number of re-tweets that contain the given hashtags above. The surveys would be conducted to find out the perception of the Target Audience of the events and the C-Ex Card. CONCLUSION Cathay would like to introduce a new loyalty card to youths from years. Though our research we found out that 64.2% of our target audience are part of a loyalty programme and brand was the third least important factor when choosing a cinema. In order to attract our target audience to obtain a Cathay loyalty card, we implemented the big idea of Freedom to the loyalty card. The C-Ex (short for Cathay Experience) Card contains perks that would benefit the loyalty card members to have the freedom to choose, customise, design, save and connect. To promote the card, we planned to organise an event in Republic Polytechnic and attract the students to purchase the card. The event would be linked to our big idea. 12

13 APPENDICES Appendix A Survey that was sent out to 150 respondents; survey was shared on social media platforms 13

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15 Appendix B Survey results gather from the 150 respondents; survey was shared on social media platforms 15

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