P4: Promotions and Integrated Marketing Communication

Developing Effective Communication

1) Identify Target Audience

Going by the TV commercials, it seems that Snickers is targeting young males of the age group 20-30.
They are also aiming to connect with people of higher age groups by using iconic heroines like Betty White, Joe Pesci, Robin Williams abroad while Rekha and Urmila star in the Indian version of ads.

2) Determine Objectives

The objective of Snickers is to position itself as a snack rather than a chocolate. While this approach is working abroad, in India it is a different scenario. Indians view Snickers as a chocolate and not as a snack. Hence, they might not purchase a Snickers bar when hungry but rather go for a Vada Pav instead.

3) Design Communications

What to say: Snickers is a hunger killer
How to say: With humour

Who should say: Usage of celebrities

4) Select Channels

Snickers focuses on mass communication instead of personal.

5) Establish Budget

Snickers spends millions on it's advertising campaigns.

6) Decide on Media Mix

a) Advertising

Snickers uses pervasiveness and relies a lot on TV and digital advertising.

The budget of a product varies according to it's PLC, Market Share, Competition, Advertising frequency, Product substitutability.

Currently, in India, Snickers is in it's growth stage, has a very small market share, has enough competition from chocolates to Vada pav and is substitutable in the mind of the Indian consumer.

In May 2014, it went a step ahead and tied up with the movie Godzilla. A commercial was released in which Godzilla is shown hanging out with humans on the beach, riding dirt bikes, and water skiing; he only begins rampaging once he's hungry. After being fed a snickers bar, he resumes having fun with the humans. Needless to say, the ad was a huge hit.

Ads involving celebrities: You are not you when you are hungry

These series of ads featured young guys acting as divas when they get hungry. The humour was very well captured.

b) Sales promotion

Snickers uses the ability to get attention with it's unique and humorous ads.

It relies maximum on TV and digital media. It sometimes feature in print as well.

Since 2012, Snickers has also delved into mobile marketing through banner-ads and mobile optimized landing pages. The details of the same can be found here.

c) Events and Experiences

In 2012, SNICKERS Ice Cream is took to Twitter to award fans by giving free ice cream worth $1000 to the winner.

d) PR and Publicity

For 3 years in a row, Snickers has donated 2.5 million meals to Feeding America, an NGO that aims to end hunger in USA.

This was a part of a campaign where consumers where asked to SMS the code written on the wrapper. Each time a code was entered, Snickers would give away one meal to the NGO.

In 2012, Snickers paid several celebs in the UK to tweet pictures of themselves eating Snickers bars.

e) Direct Marketing

Snickers directly reaches out to it's consumers through the website: www.snickers.com

f) Interactive Marketing

In public places like malls, Snickers organizes games to involve the customers and consumers. This helps consumers to interact directly with people from the Snickers company.

g) Word-of-mouth Marketing

The brilliant humorous ads have started off word-of-mouth marketing worldwide.
Visit this link for some funny print ads as part of the campaign "You are not you when you are hungry".
In this, Snickers developed it's own language or words. It is called SNACKLISH. (Snacks+English)

http://adland.tv/ooh/snickers-nougetaboutit-snacklish-poster-campaign-usa

7) Manage Integrated marketing Communications

Snickers aims to build a strong consumer base by mixing all the three ways of marketing: Traditional, digital as well as promotional.