Research Bickiepegs Healthcare Digital Marketing Strategy (Research Proposal Sample)

Digital Marketing & Social Media (26090)
Individual Assignment Brief
Semester 1 2016/2017
(8 pages)
Digital Submission on Canvas: 12th December before 16:00
Title: e1 Individual Assignment – Digital Marketing Plan
Infant Healthcare Brief Prepared by:
Bickiepegs Healthcare
Experts in Oral Health since 1925
Introduction to Bickiepegs Healthcare
http://www.bickiepegs.com
Bickiepegs Healthcare is an SME operating in the Infant Oral Healthcare sector
of the Baby Care Market. The company has 2 main brands each with substantial
brand heritage the earliest being created in 1925.
Bickiepegs Healthcare is situated in Aberdeen, Scotland and has sales
worldwide.
Key Products
Bickiepegs and Doidy Cups are traded from the same company - Bickiepegs
Healthcare. The two brands are linked by their common theme of helping in the
oral health of infants.
Bickiepegs Natural Teething Biscuits have an excellent brand heritage, (even
used in Royal Nurseries) being in their 91st year since their launch by a leading
Harley Street (London) paediatrician.
They help babies and infants 6m-3y cut their first teeth, build jaw and tongue
muscles, which help with feeding and speech development.
The Doidy Cup, also with a trading history of around 70 years, is a uniquely
slanted cup, which helps children to learn to drink from an open cup rather than a
bottle or spouted cup. Prolonged use of bottles and spouted cups is linked with a
number of health issues later in infanthood such as dental caries (tooth decay),
poor oral health and delayed speech development.
For these reason our brands have a strong health professional endorsement
from doctors, dentists, midwives, health visitors and speech therapists.
Competition
Bickiepegs is a unique product, 100% natural made from 3 ingredients; Wheat
Flour, Wheatgerm & Water, it is the only teething biscuit on the market. It is
merchandised in the baby snacks section so we see two groups of competitors.
Firstly, other snack brands such as Farleys Rusks, Kiddylicious, Heinz.
Other teething remedies are available such as Nelsons Teetha (Homeopathic
granules), Bonjela gel, Calgel (paracetamol gel) from the Calpol range and
Dentinox Teething gel.
The Doidy Cup is the only slanted training cup available in the Baby sector,
however, there is one other brand focussing their marketing on ‘open cup' theory,
they are called Baby Cup and retail as 4 small no handled plastic cups.
Key Consumer Data
The principle target consumers are mothers/parents. The average age of first
time mothers in England and Wales was 28.5 years in 2014, over half (52%) of
all live births were to mothers aged 30 and over and two-thirds (67%) of fathers
were aged 30 and over.
Core consumers of both products are parents, and as stated above brand
heritage and recommendation go a long way towards the purchase choice.
Mothers are keen to read up on all the information they can when purchasing for
their infants. Quite unique to both brands is their long heritage and therefore
grandparents should be considered as a target audience to help pass down the
message through the generations. Parents and carers trust professional opinions
and both Bickiepegs and Doidy are endorsed and recommended by Healthcare
professionals and bodies e.g. NCT (National Childcare Trust).
Please also see Mintel and market reports on the baby care sector and children's
OTC medicines (some are referenced in this brief under market reports).
Retail Information
Both products are sold via the company website( www.bickiepegs.com) along
with a range of smaller infant oral healthcare products i.e. toothbrushes and
toothpastes. They can also be purchased from Amazon.
Bickiepegs is retailed in Asda, Boots, Kiddicare, Superdrug, independent
chemists and independent baby shops.
Doidy cups are available from John Lewis, JoJo Maman Bebe, Kiddicare, NCT,
Independent Chemists and baby care retailers.
Health Professionals also purchase Doidy Cups and these are sold direct from
our Head office to NHS Primary Care Trusts and Sure Start Centres.
Communication Plan
Encouraging parents by offering good advice will raise confidence in our brands
and reassure parents of the expertise of Bickiepegs Healthcare. It is therefore
important that our Social Media objectives encompass our brand strengths of
heritage, loyalty, parental trust and medical endorsement. That said, there is
definitely a place for appropriate light hearted content as long as it links with
either children or parents of children and isn't deemed too controversial.
We include some social media icons across packaging, the company website
and on other media we employ as the business develops. Social media
interaction in our market is high and we wish to run a focussed campaign to both
increase awareness and build upon our brand heritage.
“Adopting a more holistic approach could give a good boost to the Children's
OTC market. Providing parents with skills to offer their baby relief from symptoms
of minor ailments such as (…,) teething…will be key to expanding the children's
OTC market. Independent healthcare companies could take a more interactive or
advisory role rather than a prescriptive stance, to reassure parents and reduce
current levels of dependency on GP services.” (Head of Beauty and Personal
Care Mintel)
Each of our two products have been redesigned and updated and now carry
straplines that encompasses our heritage whilst confirming our status as the
experts in oral care for infants and specifically in natural baby teething and
weaning.
Bickiepegs: Experts in Oral Care Since 1925
Doidy Cup: Unique Design in Oral Health
COMMUNICATION GUIDELINES
The overall task is to look at the options available for Social Media interaction
between our brands and consumers. The campaign must create a buzz and
interest amongst the target audience with the ultimate goal of raising awareness
in the brands, educating the consumer and creating a desire to try the brand for
first time users. Where possible, it should remind past users and by this we mean
grandparents who remember the brand from when they had children. We feel
there is merit in targeting this group as they play an increasingly important role in
child care as parents are out at work.
The consumer will have a clear expectation of what Bickiepegs and Doidy Cup
stand for and allow us to launch similar products or additional brands from the
company in the future.
Export is an important target and many of our overseas distributors are keen to
be part of Facebook/social media pages as their customers find it is reassuring to
know the products are made with passion and care in the UK. Made in the UK is
a key selling message for overseas markets (especially China).
Bickiepegs Healthcare current social media information:
Facebook pages for each Bickiepegs and Doidy Cup (DoidyCupInternational)
Twitter account for Bickiepegs (@BickiepegsCo) and the same for Pinterest
(BickiepegsCo).
We also have a corporate account on LinkedIn to drive trade awareness
(Bickiepegs Healthcare)
YouTube brand videos at Bickiepegs Healthcare
AREAS TO EXPLORE
We are keen to learn and utilise the ‘latest' methods of marketing brands used to
interact with their consumers. Being in the Baby Care market we are lucky to
have consumers (parents) who are eager to learn and gain informed opinions.
Recommendation in this market from opinion leaders and online influencers is
key. For information look at Mumsnet & Netmums which is a vast forum of
information for parents.
Aside from the main Social Media sites of Facebook and Twitter, we would like to
explore the areas online of mummy bloggers and parent/grandparent help
forums/websites. Bickiepegs Healthcare's existing social media is generating
interest and engagement, but they would like to develop this further to encourage
greater engagement/involvement, build repeat and new business through
electronic word of mouth (eWOM).
The Task
Acting as a Digital Marketing consultant, you have been asked to prepare a
Digital Marketing plan for Bickiepegs Healthcare, which reflects the information in
this brief and has in summary the following objectives:
1. Increase engagement and involvement amongst the Bickiepegs and Doidy
Cup target audience.
2. Generating eWOM from social media channels and influencers/opinion
leaders.
3. To identify ways to support their retail listings and drive consumers to the
Bickiepegs Healthcare websites; www.bickiepegs.com and
www.doidycup.com.
You will need to show that you understand the market environment. A key
aspect of this task is to explore the use of digital and social media marketing
tools and techniques, e.g. websites, search engine optimisation (SEO), PPC,
email, video, social media and mobile, among others, to reach and engage the
relevant target consumers.
Further information
• Doidy Cup consumer leaflet
• Bickiepegs Consumer leaflet
• Sample Doidy Cups
• Sample Bickiepegs
• Research papers
• Bickiepegs consumer video
• Doidy Cup consumer video
Market Reports:
Some of the following reports may help you, but please do not limit your work to
these sources.
GMID Euromonitor
• Baby Food in the United Kingdom, 2016
• Parents-in-Waiting: Global Perinatal Market Trends, 2013
• Baby and Child-Specific Products in the United Kingdom, 2016
• Consumer Lifestyles in the United Kingdom, 2015
Mintel
• Iceland channels its advertising focus on vlogging mums - 27th May 2016
• Nursery and Baby Equipment - UK - February 2016
• Oral Care - UK - June 2016
• Babies' and Children's Personal Care Products, Nappies and Wipes - UK -
March 2016
Other (please carry out your own research to find other reports.
• Chahal, M (201 The five myths of marketing to mums, Marketing Week 10
April, 2014: https://www.marketingweek.com/2014/04/10/the-five-mythsof-marketing-to-mums/
• Marketing to Mums: WARC
• Huntington, R. (2016). Stop faking it - Mumstock 2016 keynote. [online]
Slideshare.net. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/adliterate/stopfaking-it-mumstock-2016-keynote
[Accessed 7 Oct. 2016].
• Warc.com. (2016). Mums turn to online video. [online] Available at:
http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/Mums_turn_to_online_video.news
?ID=36220 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2016].
• Kemp, N. (2016). Why marketing to mums is broken. [online]
Campaignlive.co.uk. Available at:
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/1344066/why-marketing-mumsbroken#
[Accessed 7 Oct. 2016].
• McGrath, R. Know the audience: Mums, Admap,(WARC) November 2015,
pp. 14-16.
The Output
1. A formal digital marketing plan with a word limit of 3000 (excluding
references and appendices).
2. Date of submission is 12th December at 16:00 (see module handbook for
further information on submission).
3. The top 3 assignments will be selected to present to senior management at
Bickiepegs Healthcare in January where awards will be made.
Further Advice
It is recommended that you choose a strategy planning model to help you write
your report e.g. SOSTAC planning framework applied to digital marketing
strategy (Chaffey & Smith, 2008). You may also want to use the RACE (Chaffey,
2008) to assist your Objectives, Strategy and Tactics. Make sure that you apply
models to the case. You must as a minimum cover the following:
• An executive summary (a short summary of the main points of your report
– note that this is not an introduction)
• A brief analysis/introduction of the situation
• Objectives (SMART)
• Strategy & tactics detailing your digital-marketing mix, with reasons to
support them
• Control – how you will evaluate and review the digital marketing plan
Be critical and creative in your work. Make sure that your plan is integrated in a
way that it is clear that your tactics flow from your objectives and are relevant to
your target audience and your client. Previous examples will be made available
on Canvas.
Due to the nature of the assignment you might decide to make a number of
assumptions, on which you base your recommendations. Please make sure you
explain your assumptions clearly so that the marker can understand your
suggestions and rationales.
You are to present the assignment as a report, with a maximum length of 3000
words. It will be a challenge to get this into 3000 words, but brevity is a skill that
you will need in writing digital marketing plans. Use appropriate references and
include a bibliography in Harvard style.