Close Up Marketing Plan: Digital Strategies & Analysis - South Africa

This marketing plan outlines a comprehensive digital strategy for Close Up in South Africa, aiming to achieve a €10 million brand value by 2020. It includes a situation analysis covering the internal environment, competitor strategies (Colgate, Aquafresh, Sensodyne), and a PESTEL analysis. The plan identifies two primary target audiences: Content Creators and Compulsive Chroniclers, detailing their consumer journeys. Objectives are set, and relevant digital channels like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are selected to engage the target audience. The action plan involves creating engaging content, promoting free dental checkups, and leveraging social media influencers. A budget of $1.5 million is allocated to the digital marketing campaign, with key performance indicators (KPIs) defined for measurement and evaluation. The plan emphasizes innovative digital marketing strategies to provide confidence to younger generations and enhance brand awareness and market penetration in the South African market.

Running head: MARKETING PLAN OF CLOSE UP COMPANY

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Table of Contents
1. Organizational Background.............................................................................................6
2. Situation Analysis............................................................................................................8
2.1. Internal Environment................................................................................................8
2.2. Competitor Analysis...............................................................................................11
2.3. PESTEL Analysis...................................................................................................13
2.4. SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................17
3. Target Audiences...........................................................................................................23
3.1. Content Creator Consumers....................................................................................25
3.2. Compulsive Chronicler’s Consumer.......................................................................26
4. Objectives......................................................................................................................30
5. Channels........................................................................................................................35
6. Action Plan....................................................................................................................41
7. Budget............................................................................................................................44
8. Measurement....................................................................................................................0
References............................................................................................................................4

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Chapter 1
Executive Summary
Executive Summary

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Executive Summary
Background: Close-up is the toothpaste which started to include crystals in its toothpaste which
is supposed to give icy-cool freshness over a period of time.
Situation Analysis: From internal environment analysis it is gathered that it seems that the
advertisements have jumped to the mobile-based applications so as to reach the consumers faster.
YouTube along with various other digital platforms have though created challenges but at the
same time it has opened options and opportunities for the organization to market their brands.
Based on the internal environment and competitor analysis, Close-up’s core product range is
recommended for Compulsive Chronicler’s as it provides the functional benefit of freshness that
is demanded to the target audiences.
Target Audiences: This target consumer group is concerned about presence and their online
behavior triggers for this journey as they primary focus on the events and have a general desire
to enhance aesthetics that is brought on by growing self-awareness regarding appearance.
Objectives and Channels: The advertisement campaign of Close Up is related to fashion and it
has been made stylish with endorsement from various famous celebrities to appeal young people
across South Africa. Generally, the toothpastes were of mint flavor but Close-up was introduced
with a spicy cinnamon taste. Close Up will also set geo-targeted campaigns on YouTube through
promoting free dental checkups on YouTube news feeds.
Action Plan and Budget: The budget that is set for this digital marketing campaign is $1.5
million and this budget is deemed to be suitable in case it attains the maximum followers, post
shares and views as determined.

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Chapter 1 Organizational Background

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1. Organizational Background
Oral care is observed to be €205 million size category which is growing at an alarming
rate of 10%. The toothpaste segment is increasing in value and represents €126m with
toothbrushes representing €32m. Unilever South Africa is observed to acquire Close-Up in the
year 2011 and re-launched the brand in the year 2015. Moreover, Close Up has recorded market
share of 1.4% that declined by 1.5% in the year 2015. Product ranges of the brand include two
variants such as Cool Breeze and Red Hot that contributes 60% and 40% of the sales respectively
(Armstrong et al. 2014). The new product range will encompass Close-up Core that offers
functional advantage of freshness along with a premium range that offers a whitening advantage.
The company will also focus on launching a toothbrush range.
Current Product Range
New Product Range
Close-up Core Close-up Premium
 Freshness  Whitening

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Close-up is amongst the most popular brands of toothpastes in various part of the world
including Africa which is produced and marketed by one of the biggest FMCG company
Unilever. Close-up could be considered as one of the important products of the organization
with its millions of users worldwide (Akande 2015). The product is mainly targeted towards the
youth crowd as it is marketed as the toothpaste that provides freshness for hours after use.
Though in South Africa, the organization has sold its license rights but it did not fail to entice the
crowd in various countries even today. The advertisement campaign of this product is related to
fashion and it has been made stylish with endorsement from various famous celebrities to appeal
young people across the globe. Generally, the toothpastes were of mint flavor but Close-up was
introduced with a spicy cinnamon taste.
Moreover, it was the first time a toothpaste was made as a gel with the benefits of both
toothpaste and mouthwash (Armstrong et al. 2014). This has been a huge breakthrough of this
product in the market. In their latest product Close-up has introduced many flavors with its main
motto is to keep breath fresh, enamel strong and while teeth to provide the users confidence so as
they could have close and person touch with their special someone. Therefore, this product still
campaigning its product symbolizing attractive smile when coming within close proximity of

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other people. Close-up is the toothpaste which started to include crystals in its toothpaste which
is supposed to give icy-cool freshness over a period of time (Batra and Keller 2016). Moreover,
it also came with two coloured get which provide both cooling sensation and long-lasting
freshness. The strategy on which they emphasize on is the white teeth, fresh breath, protection
from decay and confidence to come closer to the user’s preferred person.
2. Situation Analysis
2.1. Internal Environment
In this digital era, it seems that the advertisements have jumped to the mobile-based
applications so as to reach the consumers faster. YouTube along with various other digital
platforms have though created challenges but at the same time it has opened options and
opportunities for the organization to market their brands. The brand has also taken the marketing
campaign to another level when it launched “sing in your style” in Africa (Bickhoff, Hollensen
and Opresnik 2014).

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Close-up has performed a research and found out that the people of that country are fond
of singing reality show, therefore as lot of people lack the confidence of singing in front of
crowd, they started a campaign wherein people could sing in their mobile and send it to the team
of the brand. Moreover, Unilever also entered into an agreement with the media channel in the
country to raise the awareness about its contest. To make this happen, Close-up started
“iVoicetechnology” on mobile to provide with the singing platform for Close-up customers and
in the same it has spent nearly 69% of its marketing budget in one month (Chaffey 2015).
Therefore, the same strategies could be done on digital channels like YouTube in future as well
with certain content creators needed to edit. Hence, this requires the team of content creators and
video editors with a budget of as high as $ 50,000 as the video making is quite expensive.
Close-up has come up with an excellent idea by campaigning for selfie contest in South-
Asian countries. The marketing team of Close-up has trapped the lifestyle of the consumer in
general and understood their psychographics which generally revolves around value of self.

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Hence with this ‘selfie’ contest the brand has been able to connect with the target customer by
aligning with their lifestyle aspect. This requires a platform such as Facebook with a Closeup fan
page where the selfies will be uploaded and the winner of the contest will be rewarded. The team
needed for the same are the image editors and other content writers to maintain the webpage with
a budget of nearly $ 20,000 (Coles 2014).
Moreover, in some of the countries, the brand has tried to start a buzz wherein it urges
people to start conversation with their peers and other social connection. Therefore, in order to
do so, they have developed a communication strategy which encompasses the core elements
from previous campaigns of the brand including brand partnership, promos, radios as well as
naming a celebrity as ambassador. Moreover, they start influencing the network through the help
of bloggers and other social media influencers so as to tap the target market from the very
beginning. For such a strategy Twitter and other blogging websites can be the idle platform with
team of content editors with a low budget of $ 10,000 as well (Fischer, Shin and Hanssens 2018).
Other than the same, the brand has also put their advertisement in various movies to make its

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brand known to the entire market. The brand had an objective of striking a young conversation
and hence it rolled out various music videos on different digital platforms. This has been a great
success for the brand as it created a brand awareness, increased the market share of the brand and
improved the image of the brand.
2.2. Competitor Analysis
Digital Strategy of Competitors
Colgate The primary objective of Colgate, being the market leader is to increase
its reach as well as make people aware of the oral health so as to
increase it sales volume. The brand launched awareness campaign by
providing free dental checkups and even launched “Spreading a million
smiles with a mobile” (Gâdău 2017). In this, the core strategy of Colgate
was to mobile marketing which reflected a number on TV screen to find
nearest free dental checkup clinic. To reach more people, the brand has