Marketing Communications Examination (Essay Sample)

Leeds University
Business School


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Question 4
According to Fill & Turnbull (2019), consumers of chocolate are categorized into three major age demographics. The most significant proportion of consumers who account for more than half of any chocolate sales are adults of range between 18-44 years, with older adults over 44 years and children 13 years and younger (Büttner et al., 2015). The preference of the various types of chocolates varies between the three demographics. Hence Tony's Chocolonely's likely consumers include the three demographics presented of teenagers, young adults, and older adults. Understanding the assumptions of each demographic group would be essential to determine the type of sale promotion tactics appropriate for each group.
Several assumptions can be associated with these demographic groups. For instance, the 18-44 population consists of young adults who spend most of their time on social media platforms. In the UK, young adults are invested in social media sites, with Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter having mass followings. Most of their purchases are made online, with a small percentage opting for physical buildings such as malls to shop for confectionery. Older adults 44 years and over are assumed to have a high per capita income; hence targeting this market would boost chocolate sales. This age demographic is mainly confined to traditional advertisement methods such as Television, Radio, and Newspapers. One main assumption regarding the teenage demographic is that they spend most of their time on the internet, gaming, and social sites. It is assumed that they are interested in both healthy brands and high sugar content confectionary when purchasing chocolate. Teenagers are assumed to be bulk buyers of chocolate, with bars being the most sought-after type of candy purchased. This information is essential to determining the correct marketing mix approach for sales promotion.
According to Fill & Turnbull (2019), sales promotion is regarded as the process of convincing potential consumers to purchase products. This tactic is designed to be a short-term aspect that aims at boosting sales. Sale promotion tactics include coupons, gift vouchers, discounts, loyalty cards, pairing suggestions, and prize-winning competitors (Büttner et al., 2015). To reach the intended demographics, Tony's Chocolonely needs to account for advertisement avenues for the sales promotion methods. Tony's Chocolonely needs to align its promotion methods with the various interests of each demographic, for instance, using social media sites and conventional advertisement media, promoting health and wellness campaigns in sales promotion, and gauging consumer preference. Following the assumptions made on young adults, they spend most of their time on the internet, utilizing aspects such as social media sites would prove instrumental to increasing sales.
Tony's Chocolonely's can utilize this demographics preference by suggesting chocolate with other items such as wines, entertainment, and friends. The justification behind this strategy would be young adults prefer wine and social groups hence increasing sales. Older adults are concerned with the health benefits of their chocolate products. Hence Tony's Chocolonely would increase sales by advertising on traditional platforms such as Television, radio, and newspaper new healthy facts about chocolate. Leveraging factors such as chocolate as a family treat would boost sales among older adults.
Advertising their coupons, vouchers, and competition on online platforms would also raise sales among teenage consumers. Teenagers would be more inclined to participate in fun competitions regarding Tony's Chocolonely, resulting in various prizes (Palazon & Delgado‐Ballester, 2009). Another instance of promoting sales to teenagers would be flavor combinations. Handing out coupons that reward chocolate combination purchases such as dark chocolate and caramel with Tony Chocolonely's gift baskets that contain branded merchandise would boost sales among teenagers. The justification for using this method on teenagers is because they prefer gifts and spend most of their time online; hence social sites would be effective.
A key concept in ensuring the success of these strategies would be framing the campaign tactics to identify the type of reaction they would solicit. According to Fill & Turnbull (2019), framing shows that consumer preferences are affected by how information is presented. For instance, in the case study, Tony Chocolonely may positively affect consumer reception of its products by detailing benefits of dark chocolate such as boosting brain function, moderating blood pressure, and helping in disease reduction. This would make the consumer want to purchase the product due to its delivery mode, increasing sales. A negative spin that would affect consumers includes stating that Tony Chocolonely's chocolate contains 10% percent fat. This would affect consumers due to the dangers of processed fats and rising cases of obesity hence reducing sales.
Question 5
According to Fill & Turnbull (2019), an advertising campaign is a strategy that utilizes various mediums and platforms to increase sales, brand awareness and improve communications. In developing an advertisement campaign, a range of creative appeals must be analyzed and implemented in Tony Chocolonely's case scenario. Another essential aspect of being integrated includes execution frameworks that would aid in developing an advertisement campaign.
Creative appeals
Regarding creative appeals, they are defined as communication approaches utilized by corporations and industries to capture consumer attention and convince consumers to purchase products (Okazaki et al., (2010). Creative appeals influence consumer buying habits either emotionally or rationally. There are two categories of creative appeals that contain numerous examples, including emotional advertisement appeal and rational advertisement appeal. Emotional advertisement appeals are tailor-made to persuade consumers to purchase by focusing on emotions and feelings through text, imagery, and music. Examples of creative appeals that would be instrumental to Tony's Chocolonely's advertisement developing campaign are personal, statistics, and popular appeal.
Emotional Appeals
The personal appeal aspect of emotional advertisement would be an instrumental avenue for chocolate companies since it shows their brand identity. According to Fill & Turnbull (2019), the personal appeal would bring humanitarianism and a sense of family for the brand and its consumers. Various chocolate manufacturing organizations have etched the aspect of anti-child labor in its overall chocolate-making process. Despite child labor being a worrying factor in chocolate making, millions of underage children working in Cocoa farms. These aspects would bring out consumer emotions in advertising the product.
On the other hand, a popularity appeal would also provide a suitable avenue for chocolate companies since it uses facts and figures to showcase products manufactured. According to Okazaki et al. (2010), consumers are more inclined to buy products from a popular brand. Despite world-renowned brands such as Mars being the main competitors in both local and international market scenes. Utilizing this aspect would create the snowball effect where many consumers would buy chocolate products increasing sales, popularity, and consumers.
Rational Appeals
An essential aspect of creative, rational appeals employed by chocolate companies is the statistics appeal. According to Lal & Matutes (1994), most consumers trust numbers on famous brands. Chocolate companies have utilized this factor by stating the cocoa content on various chocolate brands such as Twirl and Milky way for their consumers. The main aim of chocolate companies using this method is to convince consumers that the numbers presented are accurate and have been scientifically tested. This increases confidence in the brand of products, thereby resulting in more sales.
Executional Framework
An executional framework captures the interest, desire, and motivation to purchase certain products (Emamfir & Rasoulipour, 2019). It evaluates the structuring of an advertisement. Executional frameworks such as the informative framework would be beneficial to enhancing consumers. Since most consumers are health-conscious, the informative framework would provide an avenue to display important health information regarding the product for chocolate companies. Although the method has been around for yours, the company may transform the framework by providing the ingredients used and other product combinations such as wine to enjoy the chocolate products. This executional framework provides information that can attract consumers.
Another execution framework chocolate manufacturers might utilize is the animation framework. The use of animations has been prevalent in the past few decades, mainly in the entertainment industry. Animations have become a huge part of advertisement in recent years and have proven effective for many companies. This framework may be utilized in advertisement campaigns since it is...