Abstract
The purpose of this Pokito proposal advertisement is to fill a gap that the company actually is leaving uncovered. Our team realized the current Pokito campaign is focusing on selling the product by emphasizing its characteristics. Otherwise our proposal ad aims to sell the product’s values first, rather than the product itself. Firstly, the team did a broad brand, market and customer analysis, through the elaboration of a SWOT analysis. This framework allowed us to identify the actual position of the brand into the reusable cups market and into customers’ minds with the help of articles, extant literature as well as customers’ feedback. Secondly the team found the gap quoted above and concentrated on developing an ad strategy that was suitable to fill it. The third step explains the pros as well as the hurdles of our proposal TV ad. This part takes in consideration concept as USP, UCP, brand values, communication objectives.
Introduction
Sustainability was at the heart of the development of pokito, a reusable cup characterized by product design and creative engineering. Pokito is a practical alternative to disposable cups, being the first in a range of products to be reusable, portable and fully recyclable. Pokito was launched in October of 2016, after the product’s inventor, Andrew Brooks, identified the lack of positive and inventive solutions to the problems raised by a throw-away society in the market.
The core benefits provided by pokito are convenience and performance. By providing a collapsible, versatile and light cup the brand is able to benchmark pokito in the industry in terms of convenience. The dishwasher safe features combined with spill-proof and insulated technologies allow the brand to outperform its competitors and build competitive advantage.
In this project report, our team will illustrate the aims of our proposed advertising campaign and the elaborated piece of advertising. This advertising campaign was developed in accordance to the new brand’s UCP. As a result, by outlining and implementing a media strategy for Pokito, our team aims to achieve the proposed communication objectives. With this advertising strategy Pokito aims not only to improve the brand’s image and positioning in consumers’ minds, but also to raise awareness on the environmental issues caused by consumer habits.
Brand, market & customer analysis
Pokito is a type of collapsible, reusable coffee cupdesigned by the Canadian inventor Andrew Brooks in the United Kingdom. Pokito is a brand owned by the company Pocket Enterprises UK.
The cup collapses down into a 4.5 cm container when not in use. This allows consumers to easily stow their coffee cup in their pocket, bag or briefcase until they need to use it. An important reason why Pokito is successful is because of the possibility to change sizes. There are currently four different sizes you can choose: closed, espresso, grande and medio. This is the competitive advantage on which Pokito is based together with strong responsible values.
Moreover, Pokito is proudly supporting the National Breast Cancer Foundation donating $2.45 from every Pink Cup sold (www.pokitocup.com.au). After providing an overview of the Brand, we did a SWOT analysis to get a general picture of the product.
The target market of pokito is “green consumers”,those who choose to buy products that have been produced in a way that protects the natural environment, focusing on a 20 to 35 years old range. The brand’s target market is characterized by the commitment to live a greener lifestyle. This group of consumers tend to have a higher intellectual orientation towards evidences presented in support of environmental claims, and an eagerness to learn more about environmental protection and green alternatives to reduce their environmental footprint (IISD, 2013). Pokito aims to target individuals who believe that environmental protection should be easy and not entail major sacrifices. Therefore, by making small changes in their consumer habits, they can still enjoy their “coffee on the go” without harming the environment.
Pokito’s current USP is slightly different from the one we want to reach with our proposed campaign. With its adverts Pokito is currently focusing on the technical part of the product, its shape, comfort and portability. Pokito focuses on the benefits that their product offers and the competitive advantage they brought into the market.
Sales of reusable cup have been increasing in recent years in the UK, retailers are reporting.
Argos, which is portion of the Sainsbury’s Gather, said it had sold 537% more convenient mugs in December 2017 compared to the same month last year. Lakeland Company detailed an increment in deals of more than 100% month-on-month, whereas Homeware firm Robert Dyas detailed a 50% lift year-on-year. John Lewis said the week after Christmas was its greatest ever for deals of travel glasses (UK retailers see rise in deals of reusable coffee mugs, 2018).
As we can see, the reusable cup market is healthy, it is constantly growing and the forecasts are positive. The reason is that customers have become more responsible, they know the importance of recycling and want to contribute someway. Our aim is to underline this particular aspect in our proposed advertisement design.
Pokito is positioning in the market in a different spot compared to its competitors, trying to offer an eco-friendly and comfortable product at the same time. The main competitors of Pokito are products of much larger companies with significantly higher resources and budgets. Brands like Ecoffee or KeepCup offer cheaper products (10-11£) than Pokito with similar design and materials. Other companies, such as Amazon, offer products at the same price but with different characteristics.
The strategy that the brand used to advertise the product was to create some practical videos and publish them on their YouTube channel. The company also has an Instagram account and a Facebook page, but the online presence is still too low comparing to the competitors one. The contents should be published on a daily basis, to engage the community and provides interesting contents. The result that can be obtained from this strategy is to have a long-term relation with the customer.
Proposed advertising strategy
With the rise of green consumption in nowadays society, the interest of consumers on topics such as environmental protection and sustainability is prospering. Green consumption is a form of consumption grounded on the preservation of the environment for present and future generations (Gilg, Barr and Ford, 2005). Consumer preferences and motives are constantly evolving, forcing marketers to acknowledge those changes and seek to further comprehend the green consumer purchase model so that such can criteria can be incorporated in the overall message of the advertising campaign (Young et al., 2009).
In order to successfully launch an advertising campaign, it is necessary to begin by defining the communication objectives that the brand aims to achieve (Chand, 2018; Cowman, 2018). In this advertising campaign, Pokito intends to build a strong brand image and improve brand awareness within the clearly identified target audience, enabling the brand to strengthen its current position in the market. The message of the advertising campaign of a brand is tailored with base on the brand communication objectives and the target market (Blakeman, 2014). Therefore, in order for a brand to influence the consumers’ buying decision and induce them to choose pro-environmental products, it has to fully understand the target market’s preferences and motives (Van Loo et al., 2014; Marchand and Walker, 2008).
As previously mentioned, Pokito targets “green consumers”, individuals between the ages of 20 and 35, who are committed to live a more sustainable lifestyle and make better informed purchasing decisions. The brand target market is defined by its desire to continuously increase its knowledge on environmental matters. Researchers on the area acknowledge “education” as the key for green marketing success (Ottman, Stafford and Hartman, 2006), where green consumers expect the brand to further educate them and increase consciousness on environmental issues caused by consumer habits and the throw-away society. Educational messages represent a great opportunity for a brand to increase engagement, improve brand image and boost credibility among the target market (Ottman, 2011).
In order to improve Pokito’s current positioning in the market, it was necessary to first identify the direct competitors of the brand and understand how they were positioning their brands in the market. Afterwards, we had to develop a unique value-based positioning idea.
The unique value proposition of Pokito is based on selling on value rather than price. Value-based pricing is a pricing strategy which sets prices that customers are willing to pay based on the perceived value of the product to them, rather than the cost of providing it (Donelly, 2011). For that reason, the brand’s target market tends to have a higher purchasing power than the average consumer. However, reusable cups offer a long-term economic rational decision. The UK Parliament recently enforced a 25p tax on disposable cups, this measure aims to help reduce waste and encourage more sustainable consumer habits. By offering financial incentives such as a tax on single-use coffee cups or free reusable alternatives, the parliament is able to remind customers of the environmental impact of disposable items and influence consumerbehaviour (Cowburn, 2018). The measure was announced early this January through the main social communication medias in the UK.
Advertising is an essential tool for a company to build sustainable advantage and differentiate itself from competitors. According to Kaldor, “the introduction of advertising causes a competitive field to become ‘gravitationally unstable’” and as a result generates a ‘concentration-effect’ on the market (Doraszelski and Markovich, 2008; Kaldor, 1950). Advertising may act as an effective way for Pokito to communicate several dimensions of the brand. Dimensions such as the story behind it, its core values or the product’s attributes, and how they benefit both the consumer and the environment.
The current UCP of Pokito focuses on increasing the brand notoriety through a range of mass medias and social media networks. For the past few years Andrew Brooks, the founder and CEO of Pokito, has been acting as the main communication vehicle of the brand in combination with the brand’s social media profiles. Brooks has been able to share the story of Pokito in several media outlets in and outside of the UK, generating a lot of buzz around the product. Networking is an effective way of building brand awareness within the brand’s stakeholders, this technique has been validated as a business activity that enhances the ability to expand contacts, accelerates business processes and improves relationships with the brand customers (Bennett et al., 2010). Even though, Pokito is present in multiple social media networks; including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube. The brand tends to be inactive on those platforms and subsequently the social media strategy of the brand is inefficient.
The UCP proposed by our advertising team focuses on the brand’s digital marketing strategy. Being the main purpose of this approach, to ensure that Pokito is engaging with the target audience across multiple platforms. In order to improve brand awareness and reach the target audience, we propose the creation of an advertising campaign for the Pokito Cup. This advertising campaign would consist on a captivating TV advertisement in combination with a strong presence in social media, with an underlying message of this campaign the environmental impact of disposable cups. Our team defined two hashtags to drive this advertising campaign, #DrinkGreen and #ChoosePokito. The creation of hashtags provides a great opportunity for the brand to boost brand engagement, through direct communication with the consumers. This marketing technique allows consumers to feel as they are part of the brand and encourages them share their experiences with the product and the brand community behind Pokito.
Proposed advertising design
Pokito website (https://pokito.net) gives the customers the opportunity to understand what the product is about, providing useful information about the brand values and long-term goals. But, nowadays, the problem is how to attract customer attention. “Users often leave Web pages in 10–20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people's attention for much longer. To gain several minutes of user attention, you must clearly communicate your value proposition within 10 seconds” (Jakob 2011).
People are busier and in a more spasmodic hurry and we think that our young target will not take in consideration the written history. Furthermore, they will scroll the page down until the video promo. Here it comes our proposed Pokito advertisement which provides more details about the brand values with a brief and engaging UCP (TV advertisement) which will spread the main USPs (environmental and reusable messages) delivering a sense of commitment to our target without neglecting the cup’s characteristics.
As we know the main goals of a company is to sell its product, but is it really like that? What if we sell an opportunity before the product itself? The opportunity of being part of a community which care about our planet. The unique and appealing Pokito’s USP messages gave us the possibility to build an efficient and effective brand positioning and brand strategy in customers’ minds. The customer associate to our product a sense of convenience and ethical commitment, considering it a potentially desirable product with high social and environmental values which can cover the gap left from the previous pokito TV ad.
We are spreading the brand image as an eco-friendly product and our purpose is to receive the same brand values perceptions from customers’ feedbacks. If the customers have a brand perception that focuses first on the ethical aspect of our message and then on the product itself It will mean that we have spread pokito’s main values effectively. Otherwise we will have the same promo video results (Appendices 1-2), which emphasize first the product and then its values.
But, first we have to overcome many hurdles. As we all know the Pokito’s messages will not be perceived at the same way from all the customers/consumers. Thus, our Pokito advertisement, with an effective UCP, has to underline and rise more attention on the brand values. For one reason or for another, it seems that some customers don’t think that environmental emergency is their concern. In fact, they blame government for neglecting it and companies for not applying an efficient CSR approach. “Customers are becoming increasingly worried about environmental issues and are rightly demanding action from the people they are buying from” (Edie 2012).
Moreover, customers that lost loyalty on companies are reluctant to buy their products. They won’t buy as a sign of protest towards those companies that sustain ethical campaign without respecting the values they actually are spreading into the market and into customers’ minds. These misbehaviours affect indirectly the market, creating stereotypes and selling barriers. Furthermore, to fight these stereotypes, we have to deliver strong communication objectives.
The purpose of our advertisement is to raise awareness and get customers’ loyalty by developing a brief, direct and understandable Pokito advertisement. Our USP aims the reusable and eco-friendly aspects more than the other characteristics. We stress the need to change our misbehaviour towards our planet. We underline and we deliver to the future customers the possibility to, first, help saving our planet and, second, drink their coffee by using Pokito. Finally, we do not forget to deliver into customers’ minds the indirect message about Pokito’s characteristics which make it unique.
We give to our customers the possibility to be different and to differentiate themselves from the mass, that mass that uses disposable cups. We offer to customers the opportunity to be part of a good and ethical cause which can help our planet. We make feel our customers part of a big group that share the same values. We engage the customers’ attention with a catchy and strong UCP TV advertisement which differentiate from other brands. Finally, we satisfy their interests and support their ethical or only recreational aspirations.
Concluding critical reflection of your advertising campaign
The advertising campaign proposed by our advertising agency was designed to give answer to the Achilles heel of the brand, a not so efficient marketing strategy that fails to reach the intended target market. The proposed advertising campaign provides a paradigm shift to the current USP and UCP of Pokito, the fresh USP and UCP statements for this campaign were tailored to meet the campaign objectives and cater additional value to consumers.
This advertising campaign demands a strong and consistent online presence from the brand and the creation of organic social content to strengthen and deepen the relationships between Pokito and the target market. Offering a content-driven experience to the target audience, oftentimes leads to higher engagement and loyalty rates towards the brand. Therefore, for the proposed campaign to meet the established objectives with this campaign, the company has to drive additional efforts to improve Pokito’s social media presence.
Social media has revolutionised the way businesses and stakeholders interact and share information. Nowadays, several successful brands resort to social media to evaluate their customer service and determine how can the brand improve the relationships established with the target market, customer-relationship management (CRM). This approach manages a company’s interaction with current and potential customers, providing brands the opportunity to grow their customer bases and increase customer retention. CRM also provides relevant insights on how to meet the target market expectations. Pokito targets green consumers, hence, the company has to acknowledge in what does a green consumer differ from other types of consumers.
What differentiates our proposal from other competitors’ proposals is our unique value proposition, focusing on selling on value rather than price. Our advertising agency sought to further understand Pokito’s target market; their current perception of the brand or product, their preferences and motives for buying green products and how the product would be incorporated in their lifestyles. Only then, we began developing a strategy that would meet all the specifications mentioned above and the stipulated campaign objectives.
In brief, the advertising campaign proposed combines both digital marketing and content marketing strategies. In order for the campaign to strive, our team defined a clear marketing message directed to a specific customer segment. The highlight of our campaign is the TV advertisement, which promotes an educational marketing message, capable of raising awareness on environmental issues and improving Pokito’s brand image.
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