Unilever Close-up Toothpaste: Digital Marketing Strategy Report

This report analyzes the marketing strategies of Close-up toothpaste, acquired by Unilever South Africa, focusing on its digital presence and targeting of young adults in South Africa. The report examines the brand's repositioning, research methodologies (secondary and primary), target audience (millennials), and the impact of digital technologies. It details key findings from secondary research, including campaign performance and content analysis, and primary research, such as surveys and in-depth interviews, to understand millennial consumer behavior. The report identifies core Close-up consumer personas, evaluates the influence of technologies, and predicts future trends affecting the target audience and industry. It also provides statistical data on the South African digital landscape and insights into content preferences on social media. The report concludes with an overview of the brand's digital journey and strategic recommendations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.Executive Summary..............................................................................................................................4
2.Research Methodology........................................................................................................................8
2.1 Secondary Research ......................................................................................................................9
2.2 Primary Research .......................................................................................................................13
2.3 Key Findings from In-depth Interviews.......................................................................................16
3.Target Audiences................................................................................................................................20
3.1 How the Consumer Personae fit in the Closeup Grid..................................................................20
3.2 Core Closeup Consumer Personae...............................................................................................20
3.3 Core Closeup Personae................................................................................................................21
...........................................................................................................................................................21
4.Evolution of Technologies and The Impact on Closeup’s Target Audience......................................23
5.Digital Technologies and their Impact on Industry, Locally and Globally........................................29
5.1. Instant Messaging Platforms ......................................................................................................29
5.2 Self-Expression ...........................................................................................................................30
5.3 Social Networking Platforms.......................................................................................................30
5.4 Search .........................................................................................................................................31
5.5 Artificial Intelligence ..................................................................................................................32
6.Future Trends that will Impact Target Audience and Industry...........................................................33
6.1 Drones ........................................................................................................................................34
6.2 Bots..............................................................................................................................................34
6.4 Amazon Dash Button...................................................................................................................36
...............................................................................................................................................................36
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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Close-up toothpaste was acquired by Unilever South Africa in the year 2011. The
vision of this brand is to become a Euro 10 M brand by the year 2020 with a mission of
becoming South Africa’s no. 1 oral care confidence brand for the youths. Its new positioning
was facilitated to profitably differentiate this brand by connecting it with the target group of
young adults by converting them from an unconscious to a conscious behaviour. This can be
done by creating a sense of awareness in them by which they can avoid using the products
made for family’s oral care and start using their own Close-up oral care product, specially
designed for youngsters.
With such new set of objectives and a refreshing mode, this brand was relaunched in
the year 2015 where they also made a significant use of digital media tools as a leading
channel of communication to reach the target audiences of bull’s eye. The present report is
based on a correspondent research work carried out to scrutinize the undertaken strategies of
Close-up in terms of marketing and other related areas of their business. It is based upon both
primary and secondary sources of data where a comparative evaluation has been done to
analyze the performance of the campaign and future opportunities to drive the brand.
Further, this paper has assessed the growth drivers in the digital landscape and how it
is going to impact the targeted audiences of this industry. At present, South African digital
usage is spreading rapidly and influenced by high mobile penetration. Instant messaging,
social media have been used to express how youth feels in a highly diversified culture and
searching is being done to determine their zero moments of truth. At the same time, a major
digital transformation is happening in the FMCG industry due to the development of
technology. Only companies that are quick to adapt can survive and thrive in the new digital
landscape.
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2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Digital
Landscape
Total
Population
Internet Users Active Social
Media Users
Mobile
Subscriptions
Active Mobile
Social Users
55 Million 29 Million 15 Million 80 Million 13 Million
Analysis
Total Number
of Monthly
Active Users
Percentage of
Users
Accessing Via
Mobile
Percentage of
Facebook Users
engaging Daily
Percentage of
Female
Facebook
Profiles
Percentage of
Male Facebook
Profiles
15 Million 87% 40% 51% 49%
Total Social
Media Use
Total Number of
Active Social
Media Users
Active Social
Users as a
Percentage of
Total Population
Total Number of
Social Users
accessing via
mobile
Active Mobile
Social Users as a
Percentage of
Total Population
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15 Million 27% 13 Million 24%
Ages of Mobile
Users
Source: (Avinash,
2017)
According to
Avinash (2017),
mobile phones are
the most
widespread media
platform that is
used in South
Africa. The
diagram above
illustrates that
mobile users are
diversified over all
age groups.
The South African digital landscape statistics were gathered from the Digital Yearbook,
written by Kemp (2017).
2.1 Secondary Research
Close-up was launched on digital the platform in the month of July 2015 as part of a re-
positioning strategy where the youths aged between the year 18 – 24 were targeted. This
section has intended to analyze the internal data and learned at a deeper level by conducting
secondary research.
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The following are the key secondary research objectives-
 To understand the brand's digital journey.
 To learn key success factors of the current digital strategy and areas to improve.
 To understand requirements of the target audience and enhance strategy.
The timeline below illustrates Close-up’s digital journey so far. Refer to appendix 8.2 for the
campaign links.
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An internal report by Reddy (2017) from Mindshare provided media insights on the
performance of content shared on Close-up’s social media platforms. Top and low-
performance content will be illustrated in the tables below, and insights will be discussed
from July 2015- April 2017. For campaign analytics, refer to sections 8.7- 8.9 in the
appendix.
Time Period: July 2015 – December
2015
Top performance* Low
performance*
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Insights For the period, July 2015- December 2015
Posts with music related content received high-performance ratings while posts with
stock imagery were viewed less favorably, suggesting that millennials prefer content related
to music and dance. It was also proposed that Millennials appreciate authentic and humorous
content (Reddy, 2017).
Time Period: July 2016 – December
2016
Top performance* Low
performance*
Source: (Reddy, 2017)
Insights for the period, July 2016- December 2016,
Time Period: January 2017 – April 2017
Top performance* Low performance* Insights
The risqué content was well received and the best performing posts played on the concept of the hea
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