Comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy Report for PepsiCo Slice

This report provides a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for PepsiCo's Slice brand. It begins with an executive summary and then delves into a detailed buyer persona analysis, identifying the target customer as children under 15, with a preference for the mango flavor. The report outlines smart objectives focused on building brand awareness, creating new products based on customer feedback, driving customer satisfaction, increasing word-of-mouth recommendations, generating leads, and managing the brand's reputation. The strategy section emphasizes the use of social media platforms, celebrity endorsements (local/regional), and integrated marketing. The report highlights the importance of addressing customer concerns about product ingredients and the need for effective crisis communication. It also includes a table outlining the buyer persona's characteristics, preferences, and potential pain points. Finally, the report suggests tactics for leveraging social media to achieve the outlined objectives, emphasizing the need for consistent monitoring, engagement, and adaptation based on customer feedback.

Assessment 3
Organization Name:
Product/Service:
Student Name/No:
Date Submitted:
Word Count:
1

Table of Contents
Section One: Buyer Persona.......................................................................................................4
Section Two: Objectives............................................................................................................9
Section Three: Strategy Statement...........................................................................................11
Section Four: Strategy..............................................................................................................12
Section Five: Conclusion.........................................................................................................17
Reference List..........................................................................................................................18
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Executive Summary
This report is about the digital marketing strategy for the Slice brand of PepsiCo company.
The ideal customer for the PepsiCo product Slice is mostly children under the age of 15.
Although the soft drink product Slice is enjoyed by people of all ages, it is most popular
among children due to its sweet mango flavour. Apart from children, adults, especially
females prefer Slice more than male adults who prefer other products. Based on the customer
profile various smart objectives have been presented against which appropriate strategies
have been built. The report provides a conclusive view on the use of social media platforms
for promoting Slice and also improve the quality and flavour of their product based on
customer feedback. The three social media strategies used by slice can be used using the right
tactics. The use of celebrity ad campaign can be launched, but instead of using international
celebrities and public figures, they can hire national and local facilities based on the country
or region in which they are promoting.
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SECTION ONE: BUYER PERSONA
The identification and profiling of the target customers of Slice have been mentioned below
for developing a journey mapping of the buyer. However, as the customers are identified
through digital space, demographics of the customers have not been used as it is quite
meaningless in the digital context (Cruz & Karatzas, 2016). For understanding the buyer
persona, the various elements of their identity and profile have been mentioned in the
customer journey mapping table presented below.
Element Content
Who
The ideal customer for the PepsiCo product Slice is mostly children
under the age of 15. Although the soft drink product Slice is enjoyed by
people of all ages, it is most popular among children due to its sweet
mango flavour. Apart from children, adults, especially females prefer
Slice more than male adults who prefer other products. Additionally, as
Slice is a cold drink and has a mango flavour, it is also popular among
people of countries that have a warmer climate compared to countries
that have cold weather. It is quite a favorite drink in countries like India
due to its hot and humid climate and people who suffer the heat during
the day time, especially children prefer a chilled mango drink to quench
their thirst.
What As most prevalent in countries with warmer climates, the buyer persona
has some specific goals based on their geographic location and culture
(Newberry & Collins, 2017). The primary goal of the buyer persona is to
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Element Content
quench their thirst in the hot and humid weather with a cold beverage.
However, there are multiple choices of soft drinks to fulfil their goal.
However, as mango is a trendy fruit in countries like India, a cold
beverage flavoured like mango is very useful in the hot summer days.
Also, as people sweat a lot in the summer, a refreshing drink is very
rejuvenating for them, and the added sugar in the beverage acts as a
source of energy for the ideal target customers of the product.
Where
Presently in the digital world, an internet presence is very high in almost
all countries. Even in developing countries like India, the use of the
internet and social media is also growing, and due to its vast population,
it has one of the highest per day social media activities in the world
(Gamble, 2018). As the product Slice is mostly targeted towards children
and young adults, they are almost available in the online social platform
through their smartphones and not so much active in traditional
marketing mediums like television, radio, banner and hoardings.
Compared to their online presence, their offline presence is not so much
and using social media marketing strategy is much more useful for the
target customer group.
Content Social media is a wild combination of multiple contents, and it is tough
to pin out any specific content that the buyer persona might prefer.
However, based on the demographics and culture, a moderate estimation
is possible about their preference of content (Anderl, Becker, Von
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Element Content
Wangenheim & Schumann, 2016). As the target customer of Slice is
mostly young people, they are much more interested in pop culture and
western culture. Additionally, they also have a keen interest in the
celebrity gossips of movie stars, singers and tv actors. This type of
preference can be used to gain their attention and use it to promote the
product and brand name through social media marketing.
Channels
The channels through which the organization can promote their brand
name and product are mostly social media platforms and some other
traditional forms of marketing channels. As almost 75% of the world
population is available on Facebook and 37% on Twitter, using these two
social network channels to reach out to the target customers is the best
way to promote the product (Rosenbaum, Otalora& Ramírez, 2017).
Additionally, they can also use other traditional channels like television
ad which still has quite a reach in the target customer persona.
Trust
touchpoints
As the target customer persona mostly prefers content based on pop
culture and celebrity lifestyles, using recognised and well-known
celebrities and movie stars in advertising campaigns in the social media
is very useful to gain the attention of the public. Using these ad
campaigns in social media as well as other traditional medium is useful
for brand promotion and recognition. Using a social media platform with
the preferred content of the target customers is the best way to create
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Element Content
brand trust among the customers (Lemon &Verhoef, 2016).
Pain
touchpoints
It is quite possible that the buyer persona is unhappy with our brand,
content or channels and as an organization, we should be careful about
their objections. About the brand, Slice is a carbonated sweet drink, and
many customers are against such products as excessive consumption on a
daily basis might have health concerns. The high sugar content in the
beverage is a significant area of concern for many activists who are
against the promotion of such unhealthy drinks. As for the content, using
celebrities for ad campaigns are ideal for promoting the product as they
have high popularity, but in case a celebrity is in some kind of
controversial scenario, it is also harmful to the brand that they are
promoting. As of the channels, social media being a top-rated channel,
there is hardly any objection regarding the use of this type of channel.
However, lately, concerns about sharing of private data of customers to
consumer-based organizations have been a significant concern as people
are manipulated through social media into buying certain products and
prefer certain contents (Bernard &Andritsos, 2017).
Customer,
consumer or
influencer
The role of the buyer persona as a customer is to trust the brand, get
accustomed to the product and prefer it over other cold beverages due to
social media marketing. As a consumer, it is quite common to get
manipulated through social media marketing and celebrity ad campaigns
to prefer Slice over other beverages. For the role as an influencer,
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Element Content
recommending other friends and family about buying the same brand is
useful for the company as word of mouth in such product promotions are
very helpful (Stein &Ramaseshan, 2016).
‘They say.'
"Slice is refreshing and tastes very similar to fresh mangoes even when it
is not the season for mangoes."
‘We say.'
“The taste of pure mango fun in every sip.”
Keywords
Young, active, high presence in social media, pop culture savvy, easily
manipulated, mango lover, addicted to sugary drinks, updated on
celebrity gossips, etc.
Table 1: Buyer Persona
Source: created by the author
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SECTION TWO: OBJECTIVES
The smart objectives of the campaign of Slice to promote the brand through social media are
based on the opportunities mentioned in the SWOT and PESTLE analysis of the brand and
product. The strategic objectives can be gained by combining the overall goal of the
organization and the practicalities of completing sales actions. Based on these smart
objectives, a short-term strategy and campaign for the product will be developed. The smart
objectives of Slice are as follows.
Build Brand:
Specific
It is necessary to build the separate brand value of Slice as a popular product of PepsiCo
Measurable
Having a very strong brand awareness in the market along with high brand positioning.
Achievable As social media has the very strong reach to the target young customers of Slice,
a social media advertising campaign through popular celebrities will be helpful in promoting
the brand and also keep the customers enthusiastic about the product (Iglesias, Ind & Alfaro,
2017)
Relevant
It is necessary to build brand value through social media marketing.
Time-bound
3 months.
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Create New Products:
Specific
Developing new products based on customer choices is a great driver for selling a product
Measurable
The company can gain essential and valuable feedback through an online poll in the social
media platform about the quality and flavour of the product.
Achievable
Based on their choices and preferences about the product, the data from the customers can be
combined with the creativity of the product team in the company to develop a completely
new product which will gain popularity among the customers.
Relevant
Developing new products helps in prioritizing customer preferences will make the product
very attractive for them (Pansari& Kumar, 2017)
Time-bound
3months.
Drive Customer Satisfaction:
Specific
Slice also wants to address the concerns of the customers about the product.
Measurable
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they should keep in mind that too much interaction with customers might result in nagging
issues and might backfire if customers start complaining about them (Hill & Alexander,
2017)
Achievable
Feedback from the customers can be used to improve the quality and flavour of the product
further.
Relevant
Keeping the interaction limited would help to gain valuable insights about the product
Time-bound
3 months.
Increase Word-of-Mouth Recommendations:
Specific
Boost sales of their product through recommendations via word of mouth.
Measurable
As customers become satisfied with their product, recommending the products to others
increase sales.
Achievable
If the company can target a specific range of customers through their social media marketing
strategies, recommendations from these customers to their friends and family would help
further to increase the sales of the product (Zhang, Hu, Guo & Liu, 2017).
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Relevant
In the present consumer market, word of mouth is an essential tool to boost sales of the
product.
Time-bound
3 months
Generate Leads:
Specific
The company must take customer feedback during each step of the customer journey mapping.
Measurable
Customer feedback about their experience with the company and how they interact with the
company on a personal level.
Achievable
Interacting with the customers on a personal level through the exchange of email and the mobile
number would enable them to gain valuable data about the product (Umashankar, Ward & Dahl,
2017).
Relevant
This information and data at every stage of the customer journey are helpful in keeping the
customers active in product development and complete the sale.
Time-bound
2 months
Managing Reputation:
Specific
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