MKT 304: Strategic Marketing Proposal for New Product Launch in AU

This report presents an integrated marketing communication plan for launching Mountain Dew Kickstart, a new energy drink by PepsiCo, in Australia. It discusses Keller's branding theory and the AIDA model for attracting customers. A strategic marketing plan is framed, outlining marketing objectives, price skimming strategy, and a direct distribution channel. The plan incorporates the 4Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and suggests using print advertisements, online tools like SEO and social media marketing, out-of-home marketing, and sales promotions. The report also addresses competitive strategies, recommending an offensive marketing approach to capture market share from competitors like Coca-Cola and Rezee. The integrated marketing communication strategy aims to enable Mountain Dew Kickstart to quickly gain market share in Australia.

Running head: MKT 304: STRATEGIC MARKETING
MKT 304: Strategic Marketing
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Name of the university:

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Executive Summary
The purpose of the report is to make an integrated marketing communication to launch a new
product in Australia. In this report, PepsiCo is the chosen organisation and PepsiCo is going to
launch convenience good. PepsiCo has Mountain Dew under its brand category and PepsiCo is
going to launch Mountain Dew Kickstart, an energy drink to enter the new energy drink industry.
In the first part of the report, Keller's branding theory and AIDA model has been discussed to
attract the customers. In addition, a strategic marketing plan has been framed starting with
objectives of marketing. Moreover, price skimming strategy can be used and a direct distribution
channel would be used to reach large numbers of customers. Integrated Marketing
Communication plan is given so that PepsiCo can reach a wider audience with a new product.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Brand category and new product.................................................................................................3
3. Marketing theories to discuss a new direction for the brand.......................................................4
Keller’s theory of branding:.........................................................................................................4
AIDA concept of promotions:.....................................................................................................5
4. Identifying new strategic brand position using Ansoff Matrix and offering new strategic
marketing plan.................................................................................................................................6
4.1 Ansoff Matrix........................................................................................................................6
4.2 Strategic Marketing Plan.......................................................................................................6
4.3 Offensive marketing..............................................................................................................8
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
Reference List and Bibliography...................................................................................................10

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1. Introduction
Strategic marketing is the potential way to effectively differentiate the products and
services of the organisations from the competitors by enhancing the current strengths of the
organisation to provide better values to the consumers. The purpose of the report is to highlight
the integrated marketing communications in the launching of the new product. As stated by
Robson (2015), integrated marketing communication ensures that business organisations should
form all form of messages and communications to be linked together which means the business
organisations integrate all promotional tools to make the branding in harmony. In this report,
PepsiCo organisation is chosen and the selected brand category is the convenience good. In this
report, two key marketing theories are discussed to set the product in a new direction for the
brand concept. Moreover, new strategic brand positioning is provided using Ansoff's Matrix to
offer the new strategic plan.
2. Brand category and new product
PepsiCo is an American multinational snack, food and beverage selling company and it
has it headquarter in New York. It is mainly in the industry of food processing and beverage; this
company sells the convenience goods mainly (Pepsico.com.au 2018). According to Belch et al.
(2014), convenience goods are the consumer items which are widely available and these goods
are purchased by the customers with minimal effort. Convenience goods are found readily and
the consumers do not need to delve an intensive decision-making process. Mountain Dew is the
carbonated soft drink owned by PepsiCo and it was first introduced in the year 1940. Soft drink
is the part of convenience drink and PepsiCo is going to start its selling Mountain Dew Kickstart
in Australia. PepsiCo has decided to roll out the new drink in Australia named Kickstart under

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the brand Mountain Dew; however, this soft drink is made 5% juice and Vitamin C and B with
an extra power of caffeine. PepsiCo does not consider Mountain Dew Kickstart as energy drink
as it has less amount of caffeine than Red Bull or Monster.
3. Marketing theories to discuss a new direction for the brand
In Australia, PepsiCo beverage wants to enter the fast-growing energy market through
Mountain Dew Kickstart. The CEO of PepsiCo Australia and NZ averred that Mountain Dew
fans are looking for some alternative to traditional morning drinks and PepsiCo brought the idea
of caffeine drink.
Keller’s theory of branding:
Keller's brand equity model is a pyramid that tells how an organisation can build the
brand equity by realising the needs of the customers. In the first level, PepsiCo needs to
understand the brand identity as it is the way the consumers look up the brand and it makes the
brand different. PepsiCo always advertises much to establish the brand identity of Mountain Dew
to attract the customers. The second level is establishing the brand meaning ad this level has two
parts, brand performance and brand imagery. Brand performance is based on the products'
features, product reliability, customer service, design and style and pricing of the products
(Keller 2016). PepsiCo needs to advertise about the product and how it might help the customers.
Mountain Dew Kickstart can fulfil the customers' desires of drinking energy drinking and word-
of-mouth publicity can build the strong brand image. The third level of Keller's brand pyramid is
the brand response and it has two different segments, judgement and feeling. Customers use the
products and they post their reviews on the internet. This reviews and word-of-mouth reviews
are part of the judgement of the customers. In addition, if the customers like the services

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provided by the company, then it would advocate the feeling of the customers. As pointed out by
Cifci et al. (2016), judgement and feelings of the customers are very significant as these build the
brand equity. Finally, PepsiCo needs to build up the brand resonance of Mountain Dew where
the customers can connect the socially and psychologically. PepsiCo is an international brand
and Mountain Dew is also famous among Australians. Therefore, the customers would be
excited if Mountain Dew comes with the new image.
AIDA concept of promotions:
Mountain Dew Kickstart is going to be a new soft drink product in Australia. AIDA concept is
based on mainly four stages to attract the interested customers.
The first stage is to attract attention through product and it can be done by the advertising
materials. This advertising must be an eye-catcher to create a brand image (Hassan et al. 2015).
PepsiCo can use celebrity face or YouTube video clip to start the branding.
The second stage is to maintain interest among the potential customers and PepsiCo
needs to arouse the interest. PepsiCo can start the campaign regarding the detailed information of
Mountain Dew Kickstart and its benefits.
The third stage is to create desire as PepsiCo can persuade the customers to buy the
product. Advertisements of Mountain Dew Kickstart will create the desire among the customers
who like to drink a soft drink.
The fourth stage is to get action where PepsiCo must transfer the desire into action that is
purchase.

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4. Identifying new strategic brand position using Ansoff Matrix and offering a new
strategic marketing plan
4.1 Ansoff Matrix
Product development is the growth strategy of an organisation and it may require the
change in business operations. PepsiCo may take the strategy of product development as they are
going to introduce new product Mountain Dew Kickstart using their R&D. Mountain Dew
Kickstart will be unlike soft drink as it will have caffeine taste. PepsiCo will be in the existing
market which is Australia with new product assessing the customer needs. The customers of
Australia want something alternative of the breakfast energy drink like caffeine; therefore,
PepsiCo introduced Mountain Dew Kickstart. Launching of the new product by using an existing
brand name creates a brand extension (Rao and Kurtz 2015). Therefore, Mountain Dew Kickstart
hopes to leverage the existing consumers’ base along with brand loyalty.
4.2 Strategic Marketing Plan
Marketing objectives:
PepsiCo Australia can keep four objectives:
 To snatch 7% of the market share in the energy drinks market in Australia
 To have a loyal customer base of Mountain Dew in Australia
 To use promotional tools efficiently by PepsiCo
 To increase the profit percentage by 4% by the end of 2022
Marketing strategies and promotions using 4P’s of marketing:

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Product: PepsiCo Australia is going to introduce Mountain Dew Kickstart and with the
product extension of Mountain Dew, PepsiCo enters the energy drink industry. Mountain Dew
Kickstart will be a soft drink with caffeine touch and it also comes in the 16-ounce cans.
Mountain Dew Kickstart will have two different flavours in Australia, Orange Citrus and Fruit
Punch. PepsiCo observes the growth of Monster and Red Bull in the energy drink segment in
Australia and Mountain Dew Kickstart is the signal of entering the new energy drink category
for PepsiCo.
Price: PepsiCo can use price skimming strategy in which PepsiCo will set the price of
Kickstart relatively high initially. However, this international brand will lower the price over
time. PepsiCo wants to have the market craze by selling lots of amount of energy cans and the
people will buy heavily when the product will be launched in Australia.
Place: In Australia, PepsiCo already has its office and PepsiCo sells the product through
distribution to different supermarkets. Therefore, PepsiCo will use direct distribution strategy in
which PepsiCo itself will manage the distribution of the product in Australia. PepsiCo will
maintain a chain of intermediaries which would help to deliver the products to the wholesalers
and to the supermarkets. Mountain Dew Kickstart needs to be kept in dark and cold storage so
that it must taste good.
Promotions:
Print advertisement: PepsiCo can start their advertising in newspapers and magazines.
In print media, PepsiCo can advertise in The Guardian, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and
The Sydney Morning Herald. In food magazines, PepsiCo can advertise of its new Product
Mountain Dew Kickstart.

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Online tools: PepsiCo can use the online tools like Search Engine Optimisation,
Webinars, PPC (Pay-per-click) and online advertisements. In addition, PepsiCo can use the
strategy of social media marketing using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. PepsiCo has its own
social media pages and these pages are hugely popular. The marketers of these pages can use
image, content and video to promote the new product.
Out-of-home marketing: PepsiCo can also use banner, hoardings and billboards to
advertise the coming off new Mountain Dew product.
Sale promotions: PepsiCo can take the strategy of discount pricing at the beginning and
PepsiCo will also take the strategy of ‘scratch and win' to attract the customers. PepsiCo will also
start the ‘mobile recharge' campaign using the promo code on purchasing of new cans of
Mountain Dew Kickstart.
4.3 Offensive marketing
PepsiCo will face the competition from Coca-Cola and Rezee drink. PepsiCo will take
the strategy of offensive marketing strategy by attacking the market by targeting the weaknesses
of the competitors. The competitors in Australia do not have large numbers of product choices to
offer the customers. PepsiCo wants to have the market share from the target competitors within 3
years of selling their product. Integrated marketing communication strategy of PepsiCo would
allow Mountain Dew Kickstart to capture the market share in Australia sooner.
5. Conclusion
It has been observed that PepsiCo is coming up with new convenience good like
Mountain Dew Kickstart in Australia. Application of Keller's theory of branding would help
PepsiCo to get the brand image and brand resonance in the Australian market. In addition, the

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AIDA model of marketing would also help to attract the customers. 4P's of marketing would also
help to set the pricing and distribution strategies. Integrated marketing communication of
PepsiCo would be a help to reach large numbers of customers using offensive marketing
strategy.

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Reference List and Bibliography
Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated
marketing communications. Nelson Education.
Belch, G.E., Belch, M.A., Kerr, G.F. and Powell, I., 2014. Advertising: An integrated marketing
communication perspective. New Jersey: McGraw-Hill Education.
Çifci, S., Ekinci, Y., Wyatt, G., Japutra, A., Molinillo, S. and Siala, H., 2016. A cross-validation
of Consumer-Based Brand Equity models: Driving customer equity in retail brands. Journal of
Business Research, 69(9), pp.3740-3747.
Hassan, S., Nadzim, S.Z.A. and Shiratuddin, N., 2015. Strategic use of social media for small
business based on the AIDA model. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, pp.262-269.
Hill, T., 2017. Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing function.
London: Macmillan International Higher Education.
Keller, K.L., 2016. Reflections on customer-based brand equity: perspectives, progress, and
priorities. AMS review, 6(1-2), pp.1-16.
Luxton, S., Reid, M. and Mavondo, F., 2015. Integrated marketing communication capability
and brand performance. Journal of Advertising, 44(1), pp.37-46.
PepsiCo Australia. 2018. Available at: http://www.pepsico.com.au/company/history/ [Accessed
25th Sept 2018]
Rao, C.P. and Kurtz, D.L., 2015. Marketing strategies for reaching minority markets. In Minority
Marketing: Research Perspectives for the 1990s (pp. 1-7). Springer, Cham.

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Robson, W., 2015. Strategic management and information systems. Sydney: Pearson Higher Ed.
Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Abingdon: Routledge.