Woolworths Marketing Strategy Analysis

This assignment requires a detailed analysis of Woolworths' marketing strategy. Students need to examine their public relations campaigns, advertising efforts (including billboard examples), and overall approach to consumer engagement. The analysis should consider the effectiveness of these strategies and how they contribute to Woolworths' brand image and market position. Students are expected to draw upon academic literature and real-world examples to support their arguments.

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Integrated Marketing communication Plan
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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

3INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
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).

4INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
(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

5INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
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

6INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
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

8INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
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.

10INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
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).

12INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
The company for public relation activities has kept public relation- A lot of fund because there
are a number of activities that the company has decided that it would carry out under public
relation (Erevelles & Fukawa, 2013).
The company has decided select media tours, audio releases, newsletters, and two events that
would be sponsored by the company.
Media Tours- For media tours three locations have been selected, Sydney, Perth and
Wellington, New Zealand, the reason behind selecting New Zealand for media tour is that
Woolworths stores are also available in New Zealand with another brand name Countdown, ALT
soft drinks are also available at those stores and hence Wellington has also been selected for
media tour. The PR agent of the brand will go to all the three locations and communicate and
create brand awareness, free samples will be distributed to some of the random people who
would be selected through the lucky draw (Ryan, 2016). Small press conferences would be held
in these places to create the brand awareness. The aim of these media tour would not just be
creating awareness about the product rather they will focus on the sustainability of the brand,
apart from sales growth most importantly they will focus on business growth through aggressive
marketing. The media partner for the media tour is Double J, the local radio channel of Australia
(Sharma & Bhatia, 2015).
Audio releases- Since the media partner of the brand is Double J radio channel, all the audio
releases will be done through the local radio channel (Armstrong et al., 2014).
Newsletters- Newsletters are report of information about the business, the report of the brand
will be sent to the customers through mail.

13INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Press releases- The press releases will be done through the local newspapers for creating
awareness of the brand so as to make the business grow by showing their media presence. The
newspapers selected for press releases are The Herald Sun, The Australia and Daily Telegraph,
press releases would be done bi-monthly for the next six months of the IMC plan.
Concert- In the third month of the integrated marketing plan the company has decided to
sponsor a concert of the famous Darwin Symphony group, which is a famous orchestra of
Australia. The concert will be held in Sydney. A major portion of the budget would be allocated
for the concert. Approximately $ 10,000 has been kept as the amount for organizing the concert
(Rinrattanakorn, 2012).
Cricket Match- On the sixth month of the marketing planning activities a friendly cricket match
between Australia and New Zealand. Woolworths and the soft drinks brand ALT would sponsor
the cricket match. Woolworths would sponsor the uniform of the cricketers and the softdrinks for
the refreshment of the cricketers would be sponsored by ALT. The total cost estimated for this
cricket match would be 15,000 Australian dollars (Palmer et al., 2014).
Budget
The budget for the various activities that would be carried out will be 55 thousand
Australian dollars. The cost of all the activities is $ 53,400 but $6,600 has been kept for other
miscellaneous costs, since it is a huge plan so budget has been designed accordingly. The budget
will be allocated for the advertising, press releases, media tours and the two events that will be
sponsored by the company. A portion of the retained earnings will be used for the funding and
the rest of the amount will be raised from the banks and other financial sources. 11 percent of the
total budget has been kept for national marketing and 10 percent for local marketing. For public

14INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
relations 63 percent of the fund is allocated. The social media marketing has been allocated 2
percent and 1 percent is for content marketing. One percent of the budget has been allocated for
online marketing and for advertisements, 3 percent of the budget has been allocated. 2 percent of
the total budget has been allocated fir market researches. The sales campaign budget is 4 percent
of the fund. Other costs, premiums, corporate branding and business cards has been allocated 3
percent of the budget. (Ryan, 2016).
Timeline
The period for all the activities to be carried out will be six months. The two major events
to be organized will have a gap of three months, in the third month the musical orchestra will be
held and in the sixth month. The friendly cricket match between Australia and New Zealand will
be organized because the event is big so the company requires ample time for all the
arrangements its needs for the sponsoring the event, including the fund raising. Advertising will
be done throughout the six months of the plan, the sales will have to be promoted every now and
hence the sales promotional activities will also be carried out throughout the six months. The
same is for direct marketing which has to be almost every week therefore its duration will also be
six months. The orchestra will be organized on the third month of the marketing plan. The
cricket match will be organized after a three month gap from the orchestra, at the sixth month of
the marketing plan. After the cricket match, an impact study will be conducted to measure the
impact of the integrated marketing mix. (Hair et al., 2014).
Action/Tool Objective Target Timing Responsibility Detail /
Integration
Progress

15INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Advertisements To create
brand
awareness of
the product
and to
communicat
e to the
customers
about the
offers of the
brand
Customers
of all age
group who
like soft
drinks
1st to
sixth
month
To use various
media platforms
for
advertisements
Print,
electronic and
social media
would be
selected for
adverting the
brand ALT of
soft drinks
which is
offered by
Woolworths
supermarket.
The me
has b
selected
the
responsibi
is given
the marke
departmen
plan
advertisem
campaigns
Sales
Promotion
To promote
the brand
and create
interest
among the
customers
Target
would be
people who
live in
Sydney,
First to
sixth
month
Sales executives
will promote the
product to the
customers who
visit
Woolworths
supermarket.
With the help
of discounts
and free
samples sales
promotion
would be
done
Offers wo
be given
the custom
from
month
November
Employee
are gi
training
that they

16INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Perth,
Canberra
and
Wellington
and those
who visit
the
Woolworths
stores.
approach
potential
customers
the m
appropriat
manner
Direct
Marketing
To
communicat
e to the
customers
about the
offers and
discounts
that will be
available
under the
marketing
campaign
Existing
customers
of the
company
First to
Sixth
month
Cold call will be
made to the
existing
customers to
communicate
about the offers.
Newsletters
would be sent to
the customers
The existing
customers
who
frequently
purchase from
Woolworths
would be
called and
mailed for
product
promotion
The
marketing
team
collected
the details
now
existing
customers
Darwin To increase Target 3rd month The Woolworths The event will Event

17INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
symphony
Orchestra
the customer
base of the
brand
would be
the people
who would
come to
listen to the
orchestra
of the
IMC plan
would sponsor
the event.
n Sydney and
Woolworths
would provide
fund to the
orchestra and
also organize
the event
managers
have b
hired.
Cricket match To increase
sales of the
company
Target
would be
cricket
lovers
Sixth
month of
the IMC
plan
The cricket
match would be
co sponsored by
Woolworths and
ALT soft drinks,
they will be
sponsoring the
sports uniform
and soft drinks
during the event.
The match
will be
conducted in
Perth.
Woolworths
and ALT with
some other
sponsors will
provide funds
for the
organizing the
cricket match.
The winning
team of the
match will get

18INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
$5000 cheque
Evaluation Metrics-
For the evaluation of the marketing plan, impact studies will be conducted, in the fourth
month and the sixth month of the IMC plan. The impact studies will help the marketing team to
know the reaction of the customers after the activities are conducted. Other tools that will be
used for measurement of the marketing effectiveness would be search engine traffic,
identification of unique customers. Page views of facebook and instagram and most importantly
the increase in the number of customers (Bobbitt & Sullivan, 2012).
Conclusion
ALT is a soft drink brand that is available at all the Woolworths stores. The product sales
was falling hence the brand owner and Woolworths decided to promote the product to the
customers and increase the sales. An integrated marketing plan will be implemented in the time
span of six months, which aims at creating awareness and promotion of the brand through
various tools like, advertising, sales promotion, public relations and personal selling. Integrated
marketing mix is a very effective tool that helps in promotion of the brand and further increases
the sales of the company. The purpose of IMC is not just to increase sales rather long term
sustainability in the market.

19INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

20INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
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