Woolworths ALT Soft Drinks: Integrated Marketing Communication Plan

This report presents an integrated marketing communication (IMC) plan for ALT soft drinks, a product available at Woolworths. The report begins with an executive summary highlighting the low sales and the objective of increasing brand awareness and sales. It outlines the communication objectives, target market (ages 5-50), and creative ideas emphasizing the low sugar content of the drink. The positioning strategy focuses on differentiating ALT from carbonated and high-sugar alternatives. The report details the communication strategy and media mix, including print, social media (Facebook, Instagram), public relations (press releases, media tours), and events (cricket match, musical orchestra). It also covers advertising across various media, sales promotions, direct marketing, and website development. The report includes a budget, timeline, and evaluation metrics to measure the plan's effectiveness. The IMC plan aims to boost brand awareness and sales through a multi-faceted approach.

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Integrated Marketing communication Plan
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1INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Executive Summary
The following report is based on the integrated marketing communication of ALT soft drinks
that is available at the Woolworths supermarket. It was found in the research conducted by the
brand that the sales of ALT soft drink is not as it is being expected, the sales is very low. The
objective behind the marketing plan is to create brand awareness and hence increase the sales of
the of the product. The report begins with a brief introduction, then the topics are communication
objective, segments and target market, creative idea, position strategy, communication strategy
and media mix, budget and timeline. A marketing budget of all the activities to be carried out has
also been given with this report.

2INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Communication Objectives.............................................................................................................4
Segments and the target market.......................................................................................................4
Creative Idea....................................................................................................................................5
Positioning strategy.........................................................................................................................6
Communication Strategy and Media mix........................................................................................7
Budget............................................................................................................................................13
Timeline.........................................................................................................................................14
Evaluation Metrics-.......................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................20

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Introduction
ALT is a brand of soft drinks that is being sold by Woolworths which is an Australian
supermarket, the parent company of the supermarket is company is Woolworths limited. Only
Woolworths sell the soft drinks of ALT. It is available in several varieties like, passion fruit,
pineapple, cherry and apple. Woolworths has planned for certain activities in its Integrated
Marketing Communication for the promotion and advertising of soft drink brand named Alt, the
brand has soft drinks like Alt tropical passion fruit, Alt blood orange and citrus soft drink and Alt
mixed berry and apple soft drink. The report will have details of all the activities that will be
carried out within a period of six months. The total budget for carrying out the various
(Woolworths Group: Quality Brands and Trusted Retailing, 2017).

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(Woolworths Group: Quality Brands and Trusted Retailing, 2017)
Communication Objectives
 To increase the brand awareness of the soft drinks of the brand Alt by 20 percent
 To increase sales of the brand by 35 percent
 To communicate to the people of all the ages, children, young and old that ALT soft
drink is a healthy beverage.
Segments and the target market
The market segment of the product is people of all age who like soft drinks. However the
focus of the company will be on people from the age group of 5 to 50 years since the sugar

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content of the soft drink is not high old people who are cautious about their health can also enjoy
the soft drinks. The aim is to grab the attention of the people who visit the supermarket through
the activities that will be carried out for promotion of the brand, which will be done by giving
discounts, free samples so that the brand can increase its customer base (Dickenson & Crawford,
2017).
(Dickenson & Crawford, 2017)
Creative Idea
The creative message behind the strategy is to communicate to the customers that ALT
soft drink is safe because the sugar content is not high. It wants to communicate to all its
customers that it is not like other soft drinks that are carbonated and high on sugar content. They

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want to communicate to the customers that the brand is offering the best quality at a reasonable
price. It is safe for people of all the ages. To its loyal customers the company will be providing
free coupons as a token of appreciation for their loyalty (Armstrong et al., 2014).
Positioning strategy
The brand ALT has planned to promote and position themselves in the minds of the
customers as as a brand of soft drinks that does not offer carbonated and high sugar content
drinks to its customers because it cares about their customers. (Moriarty et al., 2014).
Perceptual map of different brands of soft drinks: Moriarty et al., 2014

7INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
The following perceptual map shows the different brands and people preferring those soft
drink brands. It clearly shows brands like Pepsi Light, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Pepsi Max
have high in caffeine and low sugar content females between the age group of 15 to 30 years
prefer it. Coke and Pepsi are two brands that have high caffeine and high sugar males, between
the age group of 15 to 30 years prefer these brands. There are no soft drinks that have both low
caffeine and low sugar, which is preferred by females above 30 years. Fanta and 7-up are two
such brands that have low caffeine and high sugar children between the age group of 5 to 15
years mostly prefer Fanta (Moriarty et al., 2014).
Communication Strategy and Media mix
The supermarket has decided to launch two five-advertisement campaigns in print media.
In print media newspapers, billboards, banners and flyers will be used. Woolworths will be
sending personal mails to the existing customers to make them aware about the discounts and
offers of the brand.
In social media, facebook and instagram will be used for advertising campaigns. The
website of Woolworths will be updated and offers and discounts will also be available at the
online portal of the company. For public relation activities the company will be selecting three
location for press releases. They will be conducting media tours in three locations will be
Sydney, Perth and Canberra, in the media tours the PR agent of the brand will go to the locations
and conduct editorial meetings to create brand awareness, they will communicate about their
plans of introducing more flavors of the soft drink and health drinks. They will also have audio
releases, these are pre recorded messages that will be distributed to local radio channels of
Australia. Two events will be organized which would be sponsored by Woolworths’ Alt brand of

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soft drinks. One of the events will be a cricket match between Australia and New Zealand and
another will be a cultural event, a musical Orchestra by Darwin symphony group. Woolworths
will sponsor the entire cricket match and ALT soft drinks will be provided to the cricketers as
refreshments (Wells et al., 2014).
There are variety of activities that will be carried out by the company under the IMC plan that
has been designed. The purpose of the plan is to create awareness of the product. The activities
that will be undertaken fall under the following categories.
Advertising- For advertising Alt brand of soft drinks have decided to select print media
electronic media and outdoor media.
Newspapers- In print media the brand has decided that it will advertise on the local newspapers,
the local newspapers selected are, The Australian, The Herald sun and The Daily Telegraph,
these three newspapers are selected because these are the most popular newspapers of Australia.
The advertisements will be done on every alternative day for the next six months. The brand is
very much sure that through these newspapers they would be able to target more customers
because their R&D team has researched that these are the most widely circulated newspapers and
hence have the most number of readers.
Magazines- The brand has decided that it will use the magazine “Media Week” which is one of
the most popular magazines read in Australia. Magazines are second most effective tool of
advertising after newspapers. Magazines are attractive and hence many people prefer reading
magazine and Media week is one of the most popular magazines in Australia (Benavides &
Leiva, 2014).

9INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Electronic Media- In electronic media the company has decided to choose the local radio
channels. Televisions were not selected for advertising because the cost of television
advertisements is very high. The local radio channel that has been selected for advertising would
be Double J, this channel is also the media partner of the brand. As per the IMC, the
advertisements of the brand would be aired very frequently. Radios are very effective tool for
advertisements because the success result of radio advertisements in creating brand awareness is
very high. With the help of advertisements in radio, the brand will tell the customers about the
offers that Woolworths is going to give in its brand Alt, which sells soft drinks of different
flavors (Albarran, 2016).
Outdoor media- In outdoor media the brand has selected billboards and flyers for
advertisements. Five billboards will be
Billboards- The most busies streets of Sydney will be selected for billboard advertising. The
streets selected for billboard advertising are George Street that is one of the busiest streets of
Sydney, second location would be central hall Sydney. Third location would be in Wellington
Street Perth fourth location will also be in Perth. Last two billboard advertisements will be
displayed in Canberra (Ju & Chung, 2016).
Flyers- Flyers containing the details of the product and the offers will be distributed outside the
Woolworths stores and other market places of the different cities of Australia where the products
wherever the stores of Woolworths are present in Australia (Hudson et al., 2015).
Online Advertising-
Web banners- Under online advertising web banners will be used for the promotion of the
product and the website.

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In online advertising the brand has decided to search engine optimizing and direct mails as its
tools for advertising. It would send mails to all its customers whose address they have collected
from the their previous purchase records. In this customers the brand will send details of the
discounts as well as aware them about ALT soft drink (Li & Kannan, 2014).
Social Media- Social media is one of the economic platforms for advertising. The brand has
decided to raise as many campaigns as possible through its social media advertising. Social
media is accessible and used by many people and one one of the best features about social media
is that one can instantly get feedback of the campaigns. The companies can hence get the opinion
of the customers about the products. They have selected facebook and instagram to raise
campaigns; in these two platforms, they will organize three advertising campaigns. There is no
facbook page of ALT soft drink so first a facebook page of Alt will be created and then few
contests would be conducted and the winners of the contest will get a ticket for the orchestra that
will be held in Sydney. ALT will have its own instagram account where a small contest will be
held where the participants will have to post pictures with an catchy caption the best the winner
will get a ticket for the cricket match that will be held in Perth (Singh & Bisawa, 2016).
Website development- The official website of Woolworths where the soft drink is available will
be developed and the same offers that are available at the store will also be available at the online
store. For promotional purpose the website will be slightly modified. Assessing the website will
become easier than before.
Search Engine optimization- with the help of search engine optimization the brand owners will
increase the visibility of the website, the digital marketers will ensure the website is visible to the
users.

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Sales promotion- For promotion of sales Woolworths will be giving offers and discounts on the
soft drink. They would also be providing free samples of soft drinks to its customers, this would
be available to those customer who will purchase more than $50 per day apart from that it would
give free samples to some random customers through the help of lucky draw. Woolworths will
give the customers one bottle of soft drink free with two extra bottle of soft drinks. A local
celebrity will be hired for promotion of the product. The brand for its loyal customers will give
certain gift hampers plus a bottle of the soft drink of whichever flavor they would like to choose
(Van Heerde & Neslin, 2017).
Direct Marketing- Under direct marketing the company has decided that it will be sending
mails to their loyal customers. It will also use other tools for direct marketing like, telemarketing
and voice mail marketing. The sales executives of the brand and Woolworths would make cold
calls to its customers and make them aware about the product and the offers that it would be
giving to its customers. The sales executives will also handle the queries of the customers and
give them all the details about the product in case any of the customers are curious about getting
more information about the product.
Personal selling- Woolworths would focus on personal selling of the product to the existing
customers. The sales executives of Woolworths would recommend the soft drink to the
customers, since they have to promote the soft drink brand they will recommend the product to
the customers and tell them about the offers that Woolworths would be giving if they buy the
soft drink. Handling the queries of the customers and giving them all the relevant information
about the soft drink is an important task of personal selling it is not about pushing the product to
the customers (Erevelles & Fukawa, 2013).