Jonathan Papazides October 30, 2014

S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communicationsat Syracuse University

Product develoPment Plan

table of contentssituational analysis - 1 Red Bull - 1

MonsteR - 2

Go Girl sWot analysis- 5

Primary research - 7 Product introductory Plan - 10 naMe RecoMMedation - 10

Positioning RecoMMendation - 10

PRicing RecoMMendation - 11

distRuBution RecoMMendation -11

creative brief - 14advertisinG Plan - 16 cReative idea - 16

Media RecoMMendations - 17

rationale - 20creative executions - 21

{situational analysis}{Red Bull}{MonsteR}

Situational Analysis

The energy drink market continues to grow even in light of the tough economy and increased health scrutiny. Soda sales have been declining steadily over the same period, while energy drink sales have been booming. Despite recent FDA scrutiny regarding the safety of these beverages, 2013 energy drink sales are up 6.7% over last year in the USA alone. A huge part of energy drink popularity is in the sponsorship efforts, with top brands spending large sums of money to achieve brand placement. A growing thirst for caffeinated “energy” drinks, which include the likes of Red Bull, Monster, and Rockstar, has spurred a heart-thumping surge in sales. The rise of Red Bull and Monster, which accounted for nearly 80% of US energy drink sales last year, is such that the energy drink category now legitimately rivals our old-fashioned caffeine delivery sys-tem—coffee.

Red Bull

Red Bull is the original energy drink. Endlessly copied by competitors, Red Bull offers a slender, eight-ounce, blue-and-silver can that is recognized worldwide. Crafted with ingredients like taurine (an essential amino acid), glucuronolactone (a carbohydrate) and caffeine, Red Bull claims to “Give You Wings” by improving concentration and alertness. Its taste is notoriously hard to describe is unquestionably distinctive. While imitators come and go, Red Bull continues to reign supreme, from bars to college campuses, truck drivers to tired office workers. Capitalizing on the success of its flagship product, Red Bull now offers a number of other beverages, including Red Bull Sugarfree, Red Bull Zeo Calorie, Red Bull Energy Shots and Red Bull Cola. A total of 5.387 billion cans of Red Bull were sold worldwide in 2013, representing an increase of 3.1% against an already very successful 2012. The Red Bull company slogan is “Red Bull gives you wings” and the product is marketed through advertising, events (Red Bull Air Race, Red Bull Crashed Ice), sports team ownerships (RB Leipzig, FC Red Bull Salzburg, Red Bull Brasil, New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Toro Rosso), celebrity endorsements, and music, through its record label Red Bull Records. Initially, Red Bull distributed free cases of the drink to college students in an attempt at viral advertising. This strategy was wildly successful, resulting in the rapid proliferation of sales. Red Bull has since become known for its sleek marketing targeted at young urban professionals through various sports and entertainment based advertising campaigns. The current mottoes, “Red Bull Gives You Wings,” and “No Red Bull, No Wings” are direct plays on the stimulating properties of Red Bull. Since the initial viral campaign, Red Bull’s efforts have included targeting young men mostly with extreme sports. These range from mountain biking, BMX, motocross, windsurfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, kayaking, wakeboarding, cliff-diving, surfing, skating, freestyle motocross, rally, Formula 1 racing, to breakdancing. Red Bull also owns and conducts the Flugtag

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(“flight day” in German), a competition where entrants launch themselves off a 10-meter ramp in homemade “flying machines” into a body of water. The Red Bull Art of the Can Competition, sponsored by Red Bull is an international art competition in which artists are asked to create works using the Red Bull can. Red Bull uses music and videogames, and has enlisted celebrities, such as Eminem (sponsoring the Red Bull “EmSee Battle Rap championships”). It hosts events like art shows and the “Red Bull Flugtag”

(German for “flight day” or “flying day”). Red Bull owns association football teams, with clubs in Austria, Germany, the United States and Brazil featuring the Red Bull trademark in their names. By associating the drink’s image with these activities, the company seeks to promote a “cool” public image and raise brand power. Red Bull has also become more visible in video games. In Worms 3D, Red Bull allows worms to move more quickly than normal. Red Bull is displayed on virtual track-side billboards during game play and in the opening cinematic in the video game Wipeout 2097. Red Bull Distribution Company is the largest distributor in North America of Red Bull products, including Red Bull Energy Drink, Red Bull Sugarfree, and Red Bull Total Zero. Currently, they have 30 distribution centers in these 12 markets across the country: Northern California, Southern California, Las Vegas, Denver, San Antonio, Detroit, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Tampa, Orlando, and Miami. . By energy drink standards, Red Bull is on the expensive side. An 8.4 oz. of Red Bull is $2.29, while a 12 oz. of Red Bull is 2.99.

Monster

Monster burst onto the energy drink scene in 2002 and has been snapping at Red Bull’s heels ever since. They own a 39% market share, second to Red Bull’s 43% market share. Monster represents the biggest threat as it contains natural ingredients, which seems more desirable than Red Bull for some consumers. The original flavor, Monster Energy, is a carbonated, citrusy beverage that offers a combination of sweet and sour flavors. Its patented “Energy Blend” is a mixture of taurine, ginseng, B-vitamins and guarana, a South American shrub whose berries contain a caffeine-like substance. With about 33.81mg of caffeine per 100ml, Monster Energy is slightly stronger than its rival Red Bull, at 32 mg per 100 ml. There are now 34 different drinks under the Monster umbrealla in North America, including Monster Java (coffee-flavored), Monster M-80 (made with tropical juices), Monster Assault (twice the caffeine), Extra Strength, Muscle Monster, and Monster Khaos (made with fruit juice). Monster’s slogan is “Unleashing the Beast” and they advertised mainly through sponsorship of sporting events, including motocross, BMX, mountain

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biking, snowboarding, skateboarding, car racing, speedway, and eSports. In August 2014, Coca-Cola agreed to buy a minority stake in Monster as the they looked to offset a slowdown in traditional drinks by capitalizing on rising popularity of energy beverages. Coca-Cola, which already distributes Monster products, will become Monster’s preferred distribution partner, while Monster will transfer its non-energy brands, such as Hansen’s Natural Soda and Peace Tea, to Coca-Cola. While Coke already distributes Monster’s drinks in the US, this agreement will be rolled out globally, helping the energy brand expand overseas. One of the main differences between Red Bull and Monster is in the size of the can they come in. Monster energy drink comes in a larger can than Red Bull. Where Monster comes in a 16 oz. can, Red Bull comes in an 8.4 oz. can. The price of these two energy drinks is the same ($2.29). So for the same price, you get more when buying Monster than when buying Red Bull.

{go giRl sWot analysis}{stRengths}{Weaknesses}{oppoRtunities}{thReats}

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Strengths:

• Brand identity – marketed towards women which is a generally untapped market when it comes to energy drinks

• Sponsors events giving the brand good publicity

• Proceeds of the sales go to cancer research and prevention

• Design of can• Go Girl name scored well.• Contains Garcinia Cambogia extract,

which helps to suppress appetite. • Only 5 calories per can• Healthier alternative beverage than

some of their competitors• People may not feel as guilty drinking

it knowing that the proceeds go to a good cause

Weaknesses:

• Lack of advertising could cause customers to forget about the product

• Price is not low enough for people to ask for Go Girl rather than a larger and cheaper Monster, Red Bull for virtually the same price, etc.

• Small geographic presence. Only available in 9 states with that number decreasing.

• Limits itself to women, but no real demographic.

• Category limitations – In overall soft drinks, Go Girl has a limited product portfolio compared to the rising number of competitors.

Opportunities:

• The energy drinks market is on the up and expected to keep rising (about twice the rate of coffee sales)

• Emerging market: 65% of the current market are males, meaning there are plenty of women who are not yet drinking energy drinks

• The recession could cause many to people to choose the cheaper brand

• Stock in larger stores such as super-markets to reach larger market

• Vending can also help to increase the sales. The use of vending can present Go Girl’s with the opportunity to diver-sify their distribution network.

• Offering new formats, sizes, etc. may help Go Girl to improve sales.

• Positioning toward specific day part is underutilized among energy drinks.

Threats:

• Increasingly popular views and change in the consumer’s taste towards healthy eating is causing people to choose other drinks

• Strict government regulations on caffeine could leave Go Girl having to change their recipe, perhaps effecting the taste

• Tough competitors in the energy drink market. Competitors are constantly seeking to regain the highest market share by introducing energy drinks to compete with each other.

• Negative publicity of the energy drink market die to health concerns

• Becoming stale in market. As Go Girl’s market becomes saturated it will be harder to attract the core consumers further on.

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{Primary research}

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Primary Research

With the research, I am trying to learn more about consumer behaviors surrounding energy drinks and what people think of Go Girl, as an energy drink. I asked college students about where they buy their energy drinks and how many energy drinks or how much they consume per month, on average. I also asked potential consumers about what they thought of the brand, such as the design of the can, size, taste, ingredients, what flavors they liked best. I did a one-on-one interview and taste tests with five college students on the Syracuse University campus and an ethnography with five other Syracuse students after they had drank the Go Girl. All the participants were Syracuse University women. For the one-on-one interviews/taste tests, I purchased the different flavors of Go Girl from their website so each of the college students I interviewed could get a sample of each flavor that Go Girl offered. I then asked them to rate each flavor on a scale from 1-5 (1 being they disliked it, 5 being they liked it a lot). The results are shown in the table below:

RespondentOriginal Sugar

FreePeach Tee Pomberry Tea

Sweetie

GrapefruitLemonade

A 4 3 4 2 1

B 5 2 3 2 2

C 5 3 5 1 1

D 4 2 5 3 3

E 5 2 4 2 1 According to the results, respondents favored the Go Girl Original Sugar Free and the Go Girl Pomberry Tea, which is going to be discontinued soon. Respondents seemed to be indifferent to the Peach tea and did not like the Grapefruit or Lemonade. The main complaint I heard from the respondents based on why they did not like the Lemonade was because it did not contain any sugar and both their Grapefruit and Lemonade were just too sour. One girl said, “Why even have the lemonade? Why not go for a pink lemonade. The original drink is pink, pink symbolizes cancer, it markets more towards girls, and it sounds much more appealing.” Another girl said, “I really enjoyed the original one the most and the Pomberry a close second. I’d be open to trying more flavors like strawberry, raspberry, blueberry or mango too.” I gained great insights from the ethnography after the participants got to drink the Go Girl and let it marinate in their system for a while. Four of the five participants said they consumed the Go Girl in the morning, when they thought they needed energy the most for their early classes, as opposed to the other girl who drank it in the afternoon when she needed a quick energy boost. All the respondents genuinely liked the taste of Go Girl Original. One respondent, a senior, said “I really enjoy the taste, it’s sweet, fruity, and light and there isn’t a heavy after taste.” Another student said, “The flavor is light and pretty citrusy, similar to Monster Low Carb but with less aftertaste and carbonation. This does have taurine in it but does not cause my heart rate to increase in the slightest. The vitamins helped me feel more energetic because I did not get much sleep last night.”

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Additionally, of the five I asked, they all seemed to worry about the health aspects of energy drinks and preferred energy drinks that had more vitamins and minerals. A 21-year old graduate student said “As I get older, the more I worry about health and what I am putting in my body so only 5 calories per can is fantastic.” Three of the girls said that when they go to Starbucks in the morning, they like to get the Starbucks Refreshers because they taste more natural than the coffee, have fewer calories, is cheaper, and tastes better. One of the girls, a 22-year old graduate student, said that drinking the whole can of Go Girl in one sitting was a bad idea. She said, “I felt like my intestines were having a boxing match inside of my stomach. It was a horrible idea.” When I asked the other girls about this, only one did not agree with her. All five of the girls liked the design and colors of the can. One graduate student said, “The design and colors are cute yet simple. I think have a beautifully designed product with feminine elements is nice but highlighting the charitable aspect and “go girl” attitude is positive, but I would like to know how much of the proceeds from each case go to cancer research. There is a large difference between $0.50 cents from every case and $5 or more from each case.” Another Syracuse University graduate student chimed in on Garcinia Cambogia. She eloquently stated, “I know what it is and don’t think it should be highlighted because people could abuse it. I get why it’s an ingredient because hunger can be distraction while working or studying. However, when I realized what it was I thought to myself “go girl, go ahead and not eat food ever because you can just drink this instead,” and that’s probably not a good thing. It was great though, I wasn’t hungry for 3-4 hours after I drank it.”

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{Product introductory Plan}{naMe}{positioning}{pRicing}{distRiBution}

Name Recommendation

Based on the primary research that was conducted, none of the ten respondents had a problem with the Go Girl name. It should be noted that once I told them that proceeds go to cancer research they felt better about the name. Before that, they though the name objectified women. That being said, for people who are looking for the Go Girl website and type in go-girl.com or google ‘Go Girl,’ the first search result that comes up is for Go Girl, a female urination device. I would recommend trying to buy this domain from this other ‘Go Girl’ company, to avoid any confusion with your product and gain a better online footprint. Some of the respondents did think that the Go Girl logo on the can was out of date (“something from the 80s or 90s”) and they wanted it to be more modern. Going into the primary research I did have names to run by the respondents in case they weren’t as responsive to the original name. I suggested names such as Moxie, Pink, Kick it, and Pretty. ‘Pink’ scored the highest because it symbolized cancer and emphasized femininity. ‘Kick It’ also scored high because it was different than the others and focused on kicking out cancer and portrayed women as a stronger type than the other names did. As for what to include on the can, most of the respondents I interviewed said that they wanted to know what portion of the actual proceeds went to cancer research. I looked on the website and various Go Girl articles and this was not reported. I recommend including this on the can. Additionally, when marketing to energy drinkers, men and women should be viewed differently. According to Mintel, 79% of women ages 18–34 who drink energy beverages agree that companies should include recommended daily consumption limits on the packaging of their energy drinks. This will help to build the trust between the consumer and the brand, which can help to establish brand loyalty and eventually brand advocacy.

Positioning Recommendation

I want to position Go Girl as the healthiest morning energy beverage that college women could drink. I want it to replace coffee as the source of energy that women drink to get through the morning. While of course taste is important, I think it’s just as much about how consumers perceive themselves when they're drinking it. Many energy drinks have a marketing position that stresses energy, for good reason. I think Go Girl can be successful by going away from that model and targeting toward a specific day part. This could help increase sales by expanding the occasions and frequency. Morning has great potential for the category, as few brands are marketing for this time of day. In addition, positioning as a healthy morning drink could provide great benefits. According to Mintel, “current energy drink/shot consumers want to see vitamins and minerals added to energy products. This desire increases with respondents’ age. Offerings designed to cater to the nutritional needs of a specific audience, such as women, men, Millennials, or Baby Boomers, can attract new audiences to the category.” I think it would be wise for Go Girl to come in different sizes and formats. According to the primary research that I conducted, the respondents did not feel well at all after drinking the entire can in one sitting but it was something they took on the go so they didn’t really want to save it for later either. A smaller size can, bigger than an energy shot, could go a long way towards improving

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sales. Additionally, BusinessWire reported in March 2010 that a new product, Fein, had recently been launched. Fein is essentially made up of caffeine crystals that can be added to any beverage to make it into an energy drink. Fein states that the product is affordable in that it is “roughly ¼ the cost of leading energy drinks.” This is clearly a product that could come to represent a more formidable competitive threat in the category years to come and I recommend Go Girl getting ahead of the curve in that regard. Clearly, some are likely to prefer such an option as it allows them to develop the flavors they want and avoid excessive sugar, not to mention it is more convenient.

Pricing Recommendation

As it currently stands, I don’t believe Go Girl is low-enough from a pricing standpoint for people to choose it over energy drinks that are more established, such as Red Bull or Monster. Energy drinks tend to be more expensive than other non-alcoholic beverages, such as sodas and juices. The price of a Monster 16 oz. can costs over two dollars, which is the average cost for most energy drinks. Usually, the only way to get energy drinks a little cheaper than two dollars each is by buying them in four-packs. Therefore, I recommend a price of $1.50 for a can of 12 oz. Go Girl, that is cheaper than a Red Bull by a wide enough margin and a can of 16 oz. Monster for almost 30 cents less. I think this would be enough for a potential buyer to choose the Red Bull and by being able to buy a single can for less than $2.00, it gives Go Girl great value versus its competitors and is something that will differentiate them. If Go Girl were to broaden its availability, it would be wise to offer price promotions with incentives, such as coupons, sent by mail, offered on their point-of-purchase or available on the Go Girl website or the Go Girl Facebook page. These coupons would discount about 50 cents from the consumer’s Go Girl purchase or offer a free trial can. From my recollection, energy drinks have not offered coupons like this before so it would provide a unique opportunity for Go Girl to stand out, increase brand awareness, and motivate energy drinkers to try a new product.

Distribution Recommendation

Go Girl should continue to distribute in convenience stores and improve their footprint in the larger grocery stores/supermarkets. In addition to California and Sacramento, where Go Girl enjoys a relatively high penetration, I want to take advantage of the energy drink boom across the US by heavily promoting Go Girl Energy drinks on college campuses for free, like Red Bull started out with. If this is done, I would also top off each can handed out with a pink ribbon. By doing this, it seems like you are putting your own customized touch on each can and making it seem like a gift. It also hammers home the cause marketing aspect of Go Girl and what is really behind the name. In addition, distributing on college campuses would be a good way to get the name out to our target market, college-aged women. I would also distribute them in vending machines on college campuses because that is easily accessible for everyone and where a lot of girls go if they don’t have time to stop at a coffee shop in the morning. It would also be easier for them because many colleges and universities charge vending machine purchases to a students bursar account so it would be efficient for the student knowing they don’t need to come up with the cash and they can pay for it

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later. From personal experience and on the primary research conducted, this adds up. Additionally, I recommend putting Go Girl in local coffee shops and local Starbucks near college campuses. According to Quartz, “in 1999, coffee sales in the US outpaced energy drink sales by a factor of nearly 36 to 1. This past year, coffee sales came in at just above $12 billion in the US, while energy drink sales were just below $9 billion—a gap of less than 1.5 to 1.” This was also noted in the primary research that I conducted. Many of the girls went into Starbucks in the morning, not for the coffee, but for the energy drinks. According to Simmons data, of all Starbucks goers, 60.6% are females (117 index), and in the 18-24 age range there is an index of 156. I then combined the data to include Females and ages 18-24, that index calculated out to be 222, which means that females in that age range are 122% more likely to go to Starbucks. Therefore, putting Go Girl in Starbucks or other coffee shops on college campuses may help sales because it will be more visible and easily accessible to our target market during a portion of the day when they drink it the most. Lack of distribution and brand awareness are two of Go Girl’s major weaknesses. Energy drinkers may not consume Go Girl simply because they do not know the product exists. Once the Go Girl line distribution widens, it will have the advantage of offering different varieties and formats for consumers to choose from. Go Girl also offers consumers a healthier alternative compared to other energy drink competitors because of its 5 calories per can and other vitamin ingredients. Presently, there seems to be a lack of brand loyalty for energy drink brands not named Red Bull. If Go Girl increases its brand visibility and awareness, it offers the potential of forming a bond with its target market. Brand loyalty will result in increased sales and provide valuable positive word-of-mouth (brand advocacy) among energy drinkers.

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{creative brief}

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What is the objective?

To position Go Girl Energy Drink as the healthiest and most-effective morning energy drink that also tastes great and is desirable. The people who drink Go Girl rely on the drink to give them a more natural boost of energy and get them through the day. The advertising needs to reflect this need. We want the advertising to be able to show College-aged women that they want and need Go Girl as a staple in their morning routine.

Who is the target audience?

College-aged women (18-24), who are infrequent or non-users of Go Girl. Our target is Ashley, a Sophomore college student at Syracuse University from Manhattan, NY. She spent 8 hours studying the night prior for a Organic Chemistry exam and only got 45 minutes of sleep. She is too tired to even function properly and is wearing sweatpants, hooded sweatshirt, glasses, and has her hair rolled up in a bun for her class. She wants a quick pick-me-up that is inexpensive, healthy for her with minimal calories, but it also won’t make her want to throw up.

What does the target currently believe?

Energy drinks are only targeted for men, unhealthy, and mix well with alcohol. They also are heavily associated with extreme sports.

What do we want them to believe?

Go Girl is not your typical energy drink. It will turn your typical and usually boring morning into an extraordinary one. They will look forward to waking up in the morning to experience Go Girl.

Single-minded proposition

Go Girl is the perfect way for a woman college student to start her day.

Reason to believe?

Go Girl has more caffeine and only 5 calories for half the cost of other energy drinks on the market. If that doesn’t make you feel good and awake, maybe donating to cancer research will.

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{advertisinG Plan}{cReative idea}{Media RecoMMendation}

Creative Idea

In the world of energy drinks, it’s hard to know which one is right for you, but as a woman, it can be especially intimidating. There are so many choices. Maybe you’re not trying to Amp up or party like a Rockstar. Red Bull is so unfeminine and Monster is so hard hitting and intimidating. But before you go running back to boring old coffee, take a second look at the one in the pink can. It seems to be calling out reassuringly ‘Go Girl.’ Finally, a sigh of relief because this is the “beautiful and natural energy” you’ve been seeking. This is what I want to do with this marketing and advertising campaign. I want to establish Go Girl as the new ‘in drink’ for college-aged women by distinguishing it from an ever growing field of competitors. Therefore, I positioned Go Girl as a healthy morning beverage/energy drink. My creative idea centered on the idea of “Get Up and Go, Girl.” The advertising idea it depicted is that go girl can enhance any morning. The Go Girl ads will be particularly effective if they can connect with the target audience and be relevant to their busy, active, and sometimes sleep-deprived lifestyles. If Go Girl highlights itself as the right choice for a morning beverage to supplement or replace breakfast and incorporates that advertising idea in its ads, it will provide a unique and memorable point of difference from the competition. In addition to the recommendations in the Product Introductory Plan, I want to place on emphasis on social media because that is what our target market consumes most frequently. With this advertising campaign, first and foremost, I want to generate buzz around “Get Up and Go, Girl” and actively engage the consumers rather than simply providing them with information about Go Girl. I want to establish meaningful conversations between the brand and their consumers. An idea there is how to incorporate other uses for Go Girl. How can they include Go Girl into their breakfast foods and giving consumers other uses for Go Girl? Such as using it in muffin, bread batter, smoothies, etc. Even showing breakfast foods that different Go Girl flavors pair well with (similar to different wines for dinner meals). Then take the social media campaign into the real world by hosting a cooking competition sponsored by Go Girl with money prizes and Go Girl apparel/gifts for the first three winners. Another social media idea I recommend is going beyond the usual “like us and we’ll give you a discount” tactic employed by many brands and instead offered to blow up one pink balloon (representing breast cancer) in its office for every new ‘like’ it got on its Go Girl Facebook page and then personalizing the campaign by reading out the names of some of the users in the form of a Facebook video and later uploading that onto their YouTube page. This could be a great example of a fun, interactive campaign that is more about the brand than the product itself. It can help earn Go Girl thousands of new fans and help to improve brand awareness in an emerging energy drink mar-ket. Go Girl can then sponsor an early cancer walk/run and release these balloons into the sky at the beginning of the race with Go Girl tables that have Go Girl energy drinks and Go Girl muffins on site. On Twitter and Facebook, I would employ a sweepstakes where Go Girl Facebook fans or Twitter followers could upload a photo of themselves with a Go Girl to Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #GetUpAndGoGirl and automatically be entered into a daily giveaway for Go Girl morning-themed products (pint glasses, phone cases, totes, bath robe, towels, t-shirts, etc.), concert tickets, etc. The relatively low cost campaign could build up their social network following and increased

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brand and product recognition. That hashtag is so broad that it could also be incorporated on Twitter for girls to post pictures and send tweets of their morning with a Go Girl. Another social media campaign for Twitter I recommend is giving visitors to their website 10% off coupon if they tweeted a selfie of themselves drinking a Go Girl for breakfast or incorporating it into their morning routine and use the hashtag #GoGirlSelfie. This would be a great campaign that accomplishes getting more people to their website, drinking Go Girl, and sharing their experiences drinking Go Girl with their social network. Independent of the “Get Up and Go, Girl” campaign, there should be more of a focus on cancer research and prevention across all social media. For example, on YouTube and Instagram, to educate guests about breast cancer and brand identity, Go Girl can create a YouTube video (or shorter Instagram videos) series known as “Go Girl Moments.” The campaign will feature the sharing of real life stories on women who have overcome and beat breast or ovarian cancer. I would also recommend donating $0.01 every time the hashtag #GoGirl was mentioned on a blog post, tweet or Facebook status update. Also, in 2011, Ben and Jerry have launched a clever Twitter campaign to help drive awareness for fair trade. They created an easy to use tool that allowed consumers to send tweets from their website and if the tweet did not use the full 140 characters, any space remaining was used by Ben and Jerry’s to add a message about Fair Trade produce. During the campaign, over 500,000 characters were ‘donated’ by Twitter Users, helping to spread the #FairTrade and #Fairtweet message around the world. This is something Go Girl could easily do with a #BeatCancer hashtag and it would also be fairly inexpensive. By getting Go Girl fans to drive the campaign, with this to spread the message far beyond their 2,200 followers. The good thing about this campaign also is that it requires very little from the user. Often you see campaigns that require you to connect with an app, perform a task and then auto-tweet it to promote a good cause, but this is simply fun, quick and quirky and a great way to spread awareness, not only for cancer but for Go Girl too. The concept also resonates with Twitter users because it has such careful consideration of the platform as well. If you’re not going to use the characters yourself, why not virtually donate them to a good cause?

Media Recommendations

I recommend Go Girl to follow a pulsing schedule beginning in January 2015 to December 2015. Some media will run continuously from January to December. There will be 1-month bursts of heightened media presence in February, May, September, and December. The bursts of heightened media presence will coincide with specific promotions and events planned for these months. The remainder of the schedule has low-level media activity designed to support and maintain brand awareness during non-peak months. The months of peak activity were chosen to not directly compete with school vacation periods as it important for the selected target to be situated in their specified geographic locations when promotions are run. In addition, certain months of peak activity were chosen because they are particular months and time periods when students have final exams and they are more likely to stay up late and be tired the next morning. There were at least 2 months of low-activity periods that were chosen in-between peak activity periods to avoid overwhelming potential consumers and bombarding them with constant messages as there is a prevailing though

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that college students are generally cynical about advertising and I do not want to risk overexposing them. I recommend using traditional media such as magazines and newspapers to play more of a supportive role to the key drivers behind this plan, online (including branded media) and sponsored events. I recommend different event sponsorships too targeting different themes such as sports, fashion, food, and music. The goal is to dominate online advertising and event sponsorship. The traditional mediums will be college-centric. They won’t be traditional newspapers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, etc., but they will be student-run newspapers and magazines that are prevalent on college campuses. Some of the first things students do in the morning is read these forms of media because it has to deal with their own campus and is something they can relate to more than national and international news. By advertising in here, you can build brand awareness and inform the consumer about Go Girl. By supplementing that with social media and online media, you are generating more buzz and excitement around Go Girl and it will become more enticing to the consumer and become something that college women will start to add to their morning routines.

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{rationale}

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Rationale

This is the best possible plan and better than all the rest for a variety of reasons, such as:

• Relatively inexpensive advertising campaign.

• Will increase brand awareness and visibility due to engagement between the brand

and the consumer. Raising awareness of the Go Girl brand and the Go Girl products

will help to establish a competitive advantage.

• Taps into a generally untapped energy drink market (targets the morning day part);

unique positioning that is independent of positioning from its competitors.

• By engaging on social media, as this plan helps consumers do, will help develop

brand lovers and turn them into brand advocates.

• The mixture of traditional media (print – newspapers, magazines) and new media

(online, event sponsorships) as well as the staggered marketing strategy makes this

plan the best because it best fits the demographic and goals.

• I targeted and communicated with the right segment and the target market I

identified ensuring that I obtained the best possible research and insights. I target

college-aged women and talked to them. I didn’t talk to professors, college-aged

guys, adults, etc. because they were not in the target market I identified and would

not give me insights that college-aged women gave me.

• All ads across all media work together towards a common goal by using similar

messaging and a similar ‘look and feel’. An integrated approach can dramatically

increase the effectiveness of any campaign and will help create your brand image.

{creative executions}

Event Subhead !

A Girl’s Breakfast

#GetUpAndGoGirl

Event Subhead !

Love Every Morning.

#GetUpAndGoGirl

HOW ARE YOU GONNA START YOUR DAY?

GET UP AND GO GIRL

More Fab Less Flab

#GetUpAndGoGirl

Sugar? No Thanks.

I’m Already Sweet Enough.

HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR BREAKFAST TODAY? GET UP AND GO GIRL