Crockpots at target

Digital Marketing Plan

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 4 3. Organization Vision, Mission and Values ....................................................................................... 5 4. Marketing Vision and Mission ......................................................................................................... 5 5. Situation Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 6 a. External Environmental Analysis ................................................................................................... 6 b. Internal Environmental Analysis ................................................................................................... 10 c. Assumptions ................................................................................................................................... 12 6. Organization and Marketing Objectives ........................................................................................ 12 a. Short Term (1 – 3 years) ................................................................................................................ 12 b. Medium Term (3 – 5 years) ........................................................................................................... 13 c. Long Term (5 years Plus) .............................................................................................................. 14 7. Budget ............................................................................................................................................ 14 8. Activity Plan .................................................................................................................................. 16 9. Control and Evaluation .................................................................................................................. 22 10. Appendix ........................................................................................................................................ 23

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1. Introduction The Crock Pot® brand needs some rejuvenation. Poor product differentiation has led to the generic labeling of all slow cookers as “Crock Pots”, a situation that makes it difficult for Crock Pot® to effectively communicate the features of their cookers. Although product development may result in features that could successfully differentiate Crock Pot® from other competing brands, the purpose of this paper is to describe the rationale and operationalization of two specific campaigns that will reenergize Crock Pot® and capture new customers who will show long-term loyalty.

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2. Executive Summary This proposal details the rationale, design, and plan of two marketing campaigns meant to differentiate the Crock Pot® brand and line of products from its competitors. As the original slow cooker, Crock Pot® benefits from a long and well-known history, positive family memories, and a legacy of innovation. Unfortunately, its overwhelming success and the ubiquity of its name means that the public generically refers to all slow cookers as “Crock Pots.” This is a problem for the brand since it shows that consumers do not differentiate Crock Pots® from the competition, making marketing of new features and product lines difficult at best. Although Crock Pot® built its success by focusing on working families, especially mothers, in the 1970s and 1980s, those customers are now in their silver years. It is critical that Crock Pot® both retain the base of customers who made Crock Pot® successful while simultaneously recruiting a new customer base with the potential for long-term product loyalty. We designed two campaigns featuring new Crock Pot® logos in response to this call to action. The first campaign, Crock and Roll, employs a mobile food truck that will travel from location to location over the course of the year to service large and popular events (e.g, the Super Bowl). By concentrating on social media (e.g., Facebook Live) and YouTube channels, consumers will be able to follow the adventures of the food truck as it meanders from location to location. Local renowned chefs will be contracted in each location to prepare Crock Pot® meals which will then be distributed by food struck staff. All of it will be streamed live or posted on media channels. By attending events that are known to be popular with millennials, the goal of the Crock and Roll campaign is to penetrate a new market segment that will offset the decline in Crock Pot’s® original customer base. The second campaign, Our Memories, My Crock Pot, focuses on retaining baby boomers by associating Crock Pot® with the special memories and events in life, many of which are family- oriented. We designed banner ads for social media that emphasize the associative pairing of the product with the meaningful holiday or event in order to evoke positive emotions for the product. Importantly, our focus was to market Crock Pot® subtly, focusing more on the good feelings surrounding holidays and family than the features of the product. As such, we are implicitly arguing that buying a Crock Pot® is tantamount to ensuring happy memories. Forming an emotional connection between the product and the customer, a connection that is mediated by positive memories, is a critical component of this campaign, and a final $500,000 will be used to support Crock and Roll food truck operations. Campaign utilization of each marketing activity varies by activity. Both campaigns emphasize a digital marketing approach by utilizing banner ads across channels, streaming online video, YouTube channels, and other digital platforms. The entire marketing budget for Crock and Roll, Memories, and Other Initiatives is $5.4 million. Of that, $1.08 million is devoted to social media, $1.39 million is devoted to search engine optimization (SEO), $270,000 is directed at display and banner ads, $810,000 is focused on grass root efforts, $540,000 pays for video production and streaming, $540,000 covers improvements in the website, $270,000 is allotted for customer relations management (CRM).

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3. Organization Vision, Mission and Values

a. Vision

Crock Pot is the original slow cooker. The small kitchen appliance debuted over four decades ago as a simple bean cooker. The value proposition was that a Crock Pot® could ease demands on working mothers (primarily) by transforming inexpensive cuts of meat into healthy, tender, and delicious meals. Although TV dinners offered a similar value proposition in the fifties, the Crock Pot ® represented a healthier and more wholesome alternative to industrialized food.