MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN WENDY S IT S FAST. IT S FRESH. IT S YOU. [Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.]
1 MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN TARGET MARKET To rebuild/rejuvenate Wendy s requires greater attention toward the younger generation of consumers for they are always on the go and in need of fast-food. PRIMARY TARGET Demographic Males and females 20-35 Post-secondary, graduates and young professionals Low/starting income Psychographic Busy, on-the-go lifestyle Need food on the go, but don t want to sacrifice quality Active technology/social media users Socially connected and interactive Geographic Canadian consumers Urban, city-centre CUSTOMER SNAPSHOT These Wendy s customers are constantly juggling multiple things on their plate as they are busy attending college and university or starting out working in the professional field. As these customers must skip from one activity to the next during their day, they often don t have much time to cook their own meals and must purchase food on the go. These customers are on a budget, yet don t want to sacrifice quality when they order their food, and they want a meal that suits their needs and gives them a break from their hectic day. Competitor restaurants typically offer only a few burger selections, often made with frozen ingredients, that aren t very satisfying. This new Wendy s campaign will offer these consumers It s fresh. It s fast. It s you. In other words, a customizable hamburger, made with the fresh, quality ingredients, that fits the need of every customer. There is no longer a need to compromise quality for convenience. SECONDARY TARGET
2 Demographic Males and females 35+ Working individuals, parents Average income Psychographic Fast-paced lifestyle Families, children, need quick alternative for meals Value quality Geographic Canadian consumers Urban areas POSITIONING STRATEGY STATEMENT Wendy s offers quality, fresh food that fits your fast-paced lifestyle. ADVERTISING PLAN ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES 1. To increase market share from 12% to 15% 2. To communicate the fresh, never frozen, quality ingredient image that Wendy s offers with its menu items 3. To increase awareness within a younger age demographic and create a personal connection between them and the brand 4. To inspire this new target to have Wendy s as their top choice CREATIVE PLAN CREATIVE OBJECTIVES 1. To communicate that Wendy s offers a burger that suits you - customizable burger made with fresh ingredients that appeals to everyone s taste buds
3 2. To promote Wendy s as the restaurant of choice in which to receive the balance between convenience and quality. Re-assures consumers that they do not have to sacrifice one for the other. CREATIVE STRATEGY Wendy s offers more than its main competitors which is quality and consideration in addition to convenience. The message will focus on Wendy s fresh, quality ingredients with emphasis on hamburgers. We will promote a new customizable burger made with fresh ingredients so that customers have a personal attachment to the food they re purchasing and our goal is to have them realize that quality is just as important to us as it is to them. The overall campaign will be targeted at all customers in both the primary and secondary target audiences, but there will be a greater emphasis on the primary target market for one section of the campaign. CENTRAL THEME All messages will promote the Wendy s customizable burger with a fresh selection of toppings to choose from. The blend between quality and convenience will be promoted through the It s fresh. It s fast. It s you. theme. APPEAL TECHNIQUE The messages will incorporate negative and lifestyle appeal techniques. The situation will start negative where the customer is on the fly and has to stop by a fast-food market for lunch. They are sad that they have to sacrifice quality for convenience because they don t have time to go to a sit-down style restaurant. The situation is resolved when they realize that Wendy s offers them a solution with a fresh, customizable burger that will fit both their desire for convenience and quality. Lifestyle will also be incorporated through the contest where customers will be showcased smiling and happy from the idea of creating their own burger. When you eat at Wendy s you don t have to change your lifestyle and sacrifice quality for convenience. You get the best of both worlds. COMMERCIAL IDEA The situation will start out where there are two burger chains side-by-side, Wendy s and the competitor. The scene starts out negative as the customer looks at the competitor s burger menu and sees only one option for burger selection. Disappointed, the customer looks over at Wendy s and sees a sign for the fresh, new customizable burger. There is a series of cut scenes where the customer walks behind the counter into the kitchen and starts making
4 themselves their own burger and walks out from Wendy s happily eating their new burger (takes off apron while walking). TONE AND STYLE Messages will be clear and consistently represent the same theme of It s fresh. It s fast. It s you. The television media will incorporate negative appeal technique to emphasize the product saving the day. The print advertisements and social media advertisements will be positive and include imagery of potential burger designs and happy customers and contestants. TAGLINE It s fresh. It s fast. It s you. CREATIVE EXECUTION/IMC ACTIVITIES SALES PROMOTION Wendy s will introduce and launch the new fresh, customizable burger in all Wendy s restaurants across Canada. During this time, Wendy s will promote the new It s fresh. It s fast. It s you. image to promote to customers that their food is made with quality ingredients and that Wendy s cares about providing not only food, but food that fits anyone s lifestyle. This will be promoted for 3 months through 30-second television commercials and printed on-package advertising. The on-package advertising will also promote a contest which will begin after the initial 3 month launch period. ONLINE COMMUNICATION At this time, the contest will promote Wendy s new fresh selection customizable burgers and will provide Wendy s fans and customers to participate in a burger creation challenge where they will create their own customized burger from a list of many different ingredients. Contestants will then upload a photo of their burger and the ingredients they chose to create the recipe onto the contest webpage at www.wendys.ca/freshfastyou. The website will be linked to Facebook where people can share and like each other s entries them to gain the most likes and popularity. The contest will run for 3 months and will be open to Canadian residents over the age of 18. Any time within the 3 month period people can like and share their favourite entries. Once the voting period has closed, the top 4 contestants will be determined by the most number of likes. The contest will be cross-promoted with the Food Network. Throughout the contest period, well
5 known Canadian chef Michael Smith will tweet about the entries and promote the contest/event. As well, the Food Network will tweet about the contest/event. EVENT MARKETING The event will be televised live-on-location by the Food Network and will showcase the 4 finalists who will have their burgers judged by a panel of judges including Canadian chef Michael Smith who is known for adding a personal twist to classic and simple dishes. The event will be open to anyone who wishes to attend and there will be door prizes and free samplings of the top 4 burgers. The winner will then have their burger featured on Canadian Wendy s menus for 3 months following the finale. They will also appear in a special episode on Food Network to showcase the winning burger and promote the Wendy s, fresh, fast-food that fits theme. Creating awareness that Wendy s offers a customizable burger made with quality ingredients that suits you will be a heavily focused on throughout the campaign. MEDIA PLAN BUDGET A budget of $6 million has been allocated to cover the campaign costs for one full year. MEDIA OBJECTIVES Who: The primary target will be young adults and young professionals aged 20-35 who lead fast-paced lifestyles and live in urban city centres. The secondary target will be 35+ who have families and jobs and who live in urban areas. What: The message will communicate the balance between convenience and quality that Wendy s offers through the promotion of their new customizable burgers that suit your lifestyle. When: The new Wendy s customizable burger will be launched at the beginning along with the television commercials for 3 months. The contest will begin after the 3 month period to promote the new burger and the It s fresh. It s fast. It s you campaign. During this time there will be a significant amount of spending to get the word out and to set up the online campaign. The contest will run online for 3 months in order to create buzz for the new burger. During this time, spending will become moderate. After the contest closes, the next month will be spent determining the 4 finalists and setting up details for the live-on-location event in which a winner will be determined. At this time,
6 spending will increase again to cover costs of the event and endorsing the celebrity chef and Food Network to participate. The winner will then have their burger featured on Canadian Wendy s menus for 3 months which will conclude the campaign. Spending will decline and plateau at this point in the campaign until it is over. Where: The campaign will be nation-wide in Canada and the event will be held in Toronto. How: The campaign will start with focus on all target audience and shift to creating awareness among the younger target audience as the contest is introduced. Focus will shift back to everyone at the end of the campaign. MEDIA STRATEGY TARGET MARKET STRATEGY In the beginning of the campaign, a shotgun approach will be taken with television commercials to promote the new It s fresh. It s fast. It s you. campaign theme. This will be used to reach a broad audience which will pull both the primary and secondary target markets into Wendy s stores. As the campaign progresses and the contest is launched, a profile-match strategy will be implemented with the incorporation of online and social media to effectively reach the primary target market of 20-35. MARKET COVERAGE The campaign is national. The chosen media, television and social medias, are accessible to everyone across the country and will effectively reach the entire target audience. TIMING Spending will start off heavy in the first 3 months to initially promote the fresh, fast-food that fits theme. It will decrease until the launch of the contest and endorsements are made to the Food Network and celebrity chef to tweet about the contest. The remainder of the campaign will plateau at a medium spending rate. REACH / FREQUENCY / CONTINUITY The first quarter of the campaign is dedicated to reaching all of Wendy s customers to promote the It s fresh. It s fast. It s you theme and the customizable burger to ensure that all customers feel valued and we retain our already brand-loyal customers. As the contest opens, focus will shift toward social media and reaching the primary, younger target of 20-35. This will require higher reach and frequency to promote to this newer target and grab their attention.
7 MEDIA SALES RATIONALE Television, print, online. TELEVISION Television is an appropriate media choice to reach nation-wide to introduce the initial campaign concept. Customers will see the message of fresh, fast-food that fits their lifestyle promoted through the commercial. There is more creative flexibility with commercials that can incorporate colour, sounds and visuals to further emphasize the campaign theme. Therefore, television is the best choice to emphasize this message in the beginning of the campaign. PRINT On-package print will be offered on Wendy s products such as drink cups and fry containers as well as on paper take-out bags. These will include promotional details about the new It s fresh. It s fast. It s you campaign, the newly introduced customizable burgers and the upcoming contest. As customers are already purchasing these items, they will notice the promotions as they eat their food. ONLINE Online is the best fit to reach and connect with the primary target, 20-35, because they are upto-date with online and social media technology. This is also the best media in which to run the contest because it is easy for the customers to interact on social media with the brand and with each other which also provides extra, personal testimony and feedback. Customers will be prompted by the television commercials and the packaging advertisements to visit the Wendy s online website and Facebook page where they can enter the contest and it will further drive online visits with the potential to encourage repeat sales. MEDIA EXECUTION Television commercials will be shown on the Food Network and on CTV. These are channels that fit well with the target audience and will reach these consumers effectively. On-package print advertising will be distributed through all Canadian Wendy s locations in order to reach all customers at any time of the day. Online will focus on the Wendy s website, contest page and Facebook to run the contest and promote the new campaign. This media will act as a bridge between Wendy s and the younger target audience as they spend a lot of time online.