Managing The Commercial Communications Process (Week 27)
Kopparberg Fieldwork
Initial Thoughts & Secondary Research
After looking at past Kopparberg campaigns within the past
2-3 years, they are very heavily reliant on music festivals and campaign/events
ideas around this motif, particularly in the Summer. Secondary Research has
also given Black Sheep an insight into how Kopparberg’s competitors also follow
this trend on a long-term religious basis. Cider is more commonly known as an
alcoholic beverage which is mostly consumed during the Summer season each year.
With the increase of music festivals around the country (including V,
Creamfields, Isle of Wight, Wireless etc.), cider has also become a popular
beverage of choice amongst guests and key target audiences of the Kopparberg
brand. A brief outlook of past Kopparberg and competitors’ campaigns is
outlined below in the following images and analysis;
Previous Kopparberg Campaigns:
Competition - Previous/Current Strongbow Campaigns:
Each year,
Strongbow build “pop-up” pub venues at popular music festivals each year to
attract festivals go-ers to the large set-up where they can purchase Strongbow
beverages to enjoy along with the atmosphere and music. It’s currently very
successful and attracts vast audiences every year.
Strongbow also
currently have a strong partnership with “Tough Mudder”. The competition is
advertised well via the Strongbow website, all social media platforms as well
as the Tough Mudder official website. The test has proved extremely popular
with Strongbow fans for the past couple of years and in particular, to males of
a similar target group to Kopparberg; making it the brand’s key competitor in
the market at the moment. Tough Mudder describes their events as “a hardcore 12
mile-long obstacle course designed by The Special Forces to test your all
around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. With the most
innovative courses and 1,000 inspiring participants worldwide to date, Tough
Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world.”
Competition - Previous/Current Magners Campaigns:
Magners
currently already have a television advert running to help promote their brand
as part of their Summer 2013 campaign which is currently proving successful
amongst audiences. The new ad features
a wise sage helping people notice and make the most of 'The Now'. Yesterday's
gone and tomorrow will be, so life is all about enjoying the moment you're in.
Similarly to
Strongbow, Magners also create pop-up booths at popular events and festivals
around the UK during the year. They mainly focus more towards entertainment and
music events with a photobooth including fun, comedic accessories available to
take pictures with your friends either just for fun or to keep hold of the
memories forever! Magners also target the “Underbelly” festival every year. Underbelly
is a UK based live entertainment company. Underbelly runs at the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe - one of the largest venue operations at the largest arts
festival in the world - and Udderbelly Festival and Priceless London
Wonderground at Southbank Centre in London.
Competition - Previous/Current Bulmers Campaigns:
Bulmers
currently have an ongoing Facebook competition which has been well advertised
via social media. This gives the brand a great opportunity to interact with
their audience on a much more personal level as well as taking advantage of the
recent rise of digital in the marketing communications industry.
However, the
Bulmers Facebook competition does have its disadvantages. Although the content
if filled with words, statistics and pictures, it is not clear what entrants
actually have to do to win nor is it clear what is available to actually win.
As a result, this can cause confusion between their target market and a
negative public image for the brand.
Kopparberg Secondary Research
Kopparberg’s Marketing Expert Rob Calder was interviewed by
top journalist Elisabeth Fischer on what the cider brand’s key unique selling
points (USP’s), how the brand’s products stand out from other competition
within the market and more importantly, how Kopparberg prides itself on being
“different”;
Elisabeth Fischer: “What differentiates Kopparberg from other ciders in the UK?
Rob Calder: “Firstly, there is the taste, which is entirely different to
established ciders. We describe Kopparberg as a semi-sweet cider and it's
definitely a big part why people love the brand so much. Many people have come
into cider because of the different taste of Kopparberg. The other thing
that differentiates Kopparberg from other ciders is the way that the brand has
grown, namely by gaining listings in pubs and bars in really opinion-forming
places across the UK. Originally Kopparberg
wasn't a brand with a big budget so we had to promote it throughout pubs and
bars, and it was adopted by a real creative set and a lot of bars in East
London. As a result it gained popularity in very cool places.”
Elisabeth Fischer: “What's the vision behind the ün-established marketing campaign?"
Rob Calder: “I think the reason why our ün-established campaign works is
because it's true. It's not just a made-up brand story; this is genuinely a
business that does things differently. The Kopparberg brewery
came together in the town of Kopparberg in 1882 when lots of brewers got
together and decided to do things their own way. Really what we've
done is just continue this story. Kopparberg is not owned by a big
multinational business; it is a small Swedish business that has grown during
the last 20 years. It has always had
that challenge and mentality and that's what has come across in the UK market
as well. You need the challenge and mentality to succeed in this market.”
Source: http://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/features/featuresummer-cider-marketing-kopparberg-uk
As a result, Black Sheep Marketing has decided to play further
upon the “differentiatality” of the Kopparberg brand for initial thoughts for a
Summer campaign. As Kopparberg’s large investment for their Spotify 2012
campaign unfortunately did not perform as well as they hoped it would. Overall,
Black Sheep have decided to steer away from the music theme and focus on the
narrative of comedy instead. As the cider market is a high-competitive industry
in the UK with the overwhelming majority of popular brands strongly relating
their campaigns to the music industry and popular Summer festivals; Black Sheep
hope that Kopparberg will truly stand out from its competition with a unique
and brand-new idea for a Summer campaign.
In addition to this Black Sheep analysed the current social
media market in relation to our target audience. “The Lad Bible” is an
extremely popular Facebook page with over 1.6 million likes which is
continuously growing every day. The majority of these users are also aged
between 18-24 (a good proportion of the target audience Kopparberg hope to market
to with their Summer 2013 campaign). The Lad Bible often uses “banter” between
users, jokey statuses and pictures, external comedy links etc. They also make
reference to many events around the UK that “lads” or men around our target
audience’s similar age group to get involved in.
The Lad Bible (Secondary Research)
Initially, Black Sheep thought that this could be a great way
to increase online coverage for the brand and comedy competition campaign. Our
Summer campaign idea closely links in with the page’s current content well and
can ultimately, further the success of the brand’s campaign and competition
entries. It can also help to improve digital marketing strategies for the
business as well as Google Analytics and SEO for the cider brand and stand out
from competitors with the Unique Selling Point (USP) of targeting comedy rather
than music (like many other cider brands tend to do with their campaigns during
the annual Summer period). However, we did rethink this strategy as the page
can be seen as “trashy” or “chavvy” by some and does target the lower aged
range of Kopparberg’s target audience. As a result, this could in turn create a
negative brand image for Kopparberg and target the wrong end of the spectrum
which Black Sheep (and of course, Arena Media) do not wish to do. As a result,
this could be a potential idea for the future if Kopparberg wish to take the
risk and target younger males.
Tumblr (Secondary Research)
On continuation
from our primary research, Black Sheep Marketing decided to conduct some
secondary research into how individuals relate “buzz words” to the Kopparberg
brand and how we could potentially relate this to a Summer campaign across
different media channels. We implemented this research via popular social
network; Tumblr. A few results are shown below;
Tumblr is an online social media platform for people, brands
and businesses that want to excel online. It’s unique in comparison to other
networks already in the digital marketing industry, where rapid viral sharing
can take place. As of April 13, 2013; there are over 102 million users so
there’s no doubting that it offers many benefits to many brands; in this case,
Kopparberg. Just a few of the benefits Tumblr offers can be found on an earlier blog post found here.
In
addition to this, when brainstorming potential ideas for a possible venue for a
Kopparberg event or series of events (“The Kopparberg Komedy Klub”), Black
Sheep decided to research into the UK’s most famous and successful pub chain,
Wetherspoons. The chain has nearly 900 outlets and a market value of £561
million so the market and coverage that Kopparberg could receive would be
phenomenal.
Wetherspoons (Secondary Research)
“Wetherspoons, the chain known
for cheap alcohol and budget food. Once found almost exclusively in busy city
centres, Wetherspoons pubs – usually cavernous affairs because they were former
banks, cinemas, funeral parlours and fire stations – are now springing up in smaller
towns and threatening existing pubs with cut-price offers.” – This easily
relates back to our initial target audience as we established previously, our
target consumers tend to care about price. As a result, the Wetherspoons pub
chain would be ideal for this market as they are very inexpensive in comparison
to other brands.
Secondary Research into the
Wetherspoons pub chain currently has different “clubs” for each day of the week
which are extremely popular with pub-goers (for example, curry club on a
Thursday and fish Friday on a Friday afternoon). After looking at our primary
research (as explained earlier), our target market for the Kopparberg brand and
Summer campaign care greatly about price. As a result, conducting weekly events
at Wetherspoons venues could be highly successful for Black Sheep Marketing,
Arena Media and ultimately, Kopparberg itself. It’s also advantageous in the
fact that no other brand currently employs weekly events or campaigns at such a
large publicly popular location. Kopparberg have also worked closely with
Wetherspoons in the past (as shown in the screenshot above taken from a
successful previous campaign in relation to both brands in a 2011 competition).
This has shown us that the cider brand does already have a strong partnership
with the pub chain and could potentially be highly interested in forming a new
partnership with Black Sheep’s Summer 2013 Campaign ideas.
The Focus Groups (Primary Research)
Traditionally, focus groups are held in a location where
participants feel most comfortable. As a result, Black Sheep’s two group
discussions were held in a local Wetherspoons pub during the day. As food and
drink is provided, this assists in relaxing the overall atmosphere. It is the
role of Black Sheep to bring together a group of participants, build a rapport
between them, focus their discussions on appropriate topics and ensure that
they all have an equal opportunity to contribute. As the venue was also
essentially part of one of the campaign ideas Black Sheep had in mind for
Kopparberg, this helped to add to the effectiveness of the answers given from
respondents. The focus group discussion guide for the two focus groups is
as follows;
The Introduction Phase
Warm-up techniques
The research objectives of the session
The general agenda of topics regarding Kopparberg
Prompts for the participants to introduce themselves
The Discussive Phase
General topic areas to be discussed
Potential prompts and stimulus material
The Summarising Phase
Prompts for summarising what has been discussed
Thanks to participants
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Conducting
The Focus Groups’ Sessions
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First Half
Warm Up
Techniques
To feel more comfortable and to get everyone into a
relaxed state of mind, participants have been instructed to split into pairs.
Each pair learns something about their partner and then introduces their
partner to the rest of the group, so everyone if introduced in a relaxed
atmosphere.
Result
Participants agreed this method made them feel more at
ease and gave them a sense of feeling more comfortable with the other members
of the group. Black Sheep Marketing came to a conclusion that it would be
beneficial not to focus on the specific Kopparberg brand in the first half of
the session, however just about generic cider itself. This gave a broader
outlook on how the participants perceived cider in general.
Second Half
Warm Up
Techniques
Before the second half of the focus group started,
warm-up techniques such as the “word association” game were implemented to
help the respondents feel more comfortable and relaxed with other members of
the focus group that possibly they did not get to interact with in the
previous half.
During the second half of the focus group, the
conversation was guided to focus on what respondents relate to cider and the
Summer season, gradually going deeper in the conversation to Kopparbeg in
particular. This half was also carried out to meet the research objectives
for Kopparberg and Arena Media as one of their aims is to increase coverage
for their brand during Summer 2013 via a multi-media effective campaign plan.
The focus group was carried out in a casual but still professional
environment to help the respondents feel at ease with one another and get
their opinions across easily and effectively.
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Sample of the Focus
Group:
The full list of followed on topics related to all guided questions are as follows;
- Likes/Dislikes
- Any personal brand preferences
- How often do you drink cider?
- What time of week do you drink cider?
- What season do you mostly tend to drink cider?
- What venue/environment do you mostly tend to drink cider?
- What atmosphere do you mostly tend to drink cider? (e.g. socialising with friends, listening to music/dancing at a nightclub, at home watching television/sports etc.)
- Who do you mostly drink cider with? Friends? Family? Colleagues? Partner?
- Are there any cider advertisements and/or campaigns which stick out in your mind?
- What attracts you to drink a certain brand of cider (if any)?
- What factors might lead you to consider drinking a certain brand of cider (if any)?
- What would entice you to purchase a specific brand of cider (if any)?
- What would put you off your opinion of a certain brand of cider (if any)?
- Are there any changes you would like to see within the advertising industry in relation to cider?
- Are there any changes you would like to see within the advertising industry in relation to Kopparberg?
- When I say summer what ‘buzz’ words come to mind?
- When I say Kopparberg what ‘buzz’ words come to mind?
- When I say Cider what ‘buzz’ words come to mind?
- If you had to paint your perfect picture of a typical summer day what would it be?
- What kind of discussions come up when socialising with your friends?
- What weekend activities do you get up to on the summer weekends?
- What do you think about other cider brands?
- Do you remember any recent cider campaigns?
- Can you recall any recent Kopparberg campaigns?
- Do you associate music/festivals with cider?
- Do you think festivals have too much of a heavy relation to cider?
A few results (comments from respondents) from the focus
group are as follows;
- “Nothing is better than having a cider after work on a Friday; I leave the hard liquor for Saturday!”
- “Summer, Friday, Fruit, Friends, Pub, Sunshine, Weekend, Refreshing, Socialising...”
- “Sunshine, Pub, Beach, Music, Weekends, Holiday, Bright, Friends, Alcohol, Cider...”
- “Relaxed pub garden on a Sunday afternoon having a great time with friends ‘cracking’ jokes.”
- “They (Kopparberg) are a well known brand; however I can’t remember them having a heavy presence in the media.”
- “I think cider brands focus too much on music, people my age don’t go to festivals every other weekend in the summer”
The Questionnaire (Primary Research)
After we conducted our face-to-face focus groups, we then
proceeded to carry out an online questionnaire via Smart-Survey. Black Sheep
decided to implement the questionnaire via an online website as we felt this
would be the most effective way to reach out to our target audience
(particularly with the large increase in digital in recent years amongst a
similar age range). We also advertised the questionnaire through LinkedIn (as
well as Facebook and Twitter) in order to reach the higher spectrum of
Kopparberg’s target audience of late 20’s to early 30’s in professional
careers. Overall, online questionnaires have many advantages. A few are;
- Reduced Costs & Time; By producing online questionnaires rather than conducting telephone or street face-to-face questionnaires can cut costs dramatically as there are no personnel/staff involved in administration and there are no call charges. Results are processed automatically and results can be accessed at any time. This is also much less time-consuming. Smart-Survey explains that “the time span needed to complete an online survey is on average, two-thirds shorter than that of a traditional research method”.
- Fast Delivery; “There have recently been a growing number of online software packages and survey hosting sites that make the design and analysis of online surveys very straightforward” (Wilson, 2012, p.142). As a result, online questionnaires can be designed and despatched to numerous respondents quickly and efficiently.
- Penetrating Different Target Groups; Additionally, online surveys can access a wide variety of audiences and individuals who may be difficult to reach through other means of communication. By executing an online survey, Marlow FM can also potentially reach a much wider market.
- Easy to use/style; Smart-Survey indicates that 90% of people with internet-access prefer to answer surveys online rather than any other form of communication. This gives them the chance to answer questions at their own leisure and time. The overall style and design of the questionnaire can also be personalised according to the business. For example, including multi-media components such as images, audio, video, colours can be changed and brand logo can be included. Consequently, this can make the questionnaire more interesting for respondents.
However, with any type of market research, the use of online
questionnaires can also have its disadvantages As a result, in order to reach
all members of Kopparberg’s target market; Black Sheep Marketing also conducted
in-depth face-to-face focus groups (as explained previously) to gain a wider
range of answers. As there are a small amount of disadvantages, Black Sheep
have taken these into consideration if the questionnaire were to be completed
again or for recommendations in the future for Kopparberg and/or Arena Media.
A
few examples are; 1) Limited Sampling and Respondent Availability;
Some members of Kopparberg’s target audience may not have the spare time to respond
to online questionnaires. “It is also harder to draw probability samples”
(Tyson Gingery, survey.cvent.com, 2011) and 2) Unreliable Data; A lack
of interviewer to assist respondents with information regarding the
questionnaire can lead to less reliable data.
The Questionnaire Results/Graphs & Analysis (Primary Research)
A total of 100 respondents filled out the questionnaire and were all of the male gender ages 23-34. The results and analysis are outlined below. The key aims and objectives we had for this stage of our primary research were to gain a deeper insight into our target’s audience’s consumption of cider. Whilst we had a few ideas already in mind after discussing with our focus groups, we decided to research this further within the survey to review whether or not our brainstorms for a summer campaign for Kopparberg would be a successful and viable plan.
Question 1
The
initial question of the survey was to clearly identify what members of our
target audience drink cider. As shown 76% replied “yes”. As 24% said “no”; this
could be due to a variety of reasons; the taste, personal preference etc. Also,
the question may have been slightly misleading/broad to begin with.
Question 2
The second question
aimed to find out the main competitors of Kopparberg. As there are many cider
brands on the market today, the industry is fairly overcrowded. Black Sheep
Marketing wanted to find the most popular brand(s) out there to research into
what organisations are doing particularly well or poor in the marketing sector
at the moment as well as any current campaigns or upcoming competitions. As
shown, Strongbow (with 24% of the vote) is Kopparberg’s main competitor.
Question 3 and 4
In relation to the
original brief, Black Sheep Marketing wanted to conducted additional
in-depth research into whether or not Kopparberg’s target market care about
brand names or price (and why). As shown in the first pie chart, the
overwhelming majority (79%) of respondents do not care about the brand name of
cider they drink. When asked to elaborate on their answers, most said “I do not have a personal preference” or
“the taste is the same no matter what
brand I drink” or “I drink which
ever cider is on special offer at the time!”.
The next pie chart
related to whether or not the target consumers care about price. Again, the
majority choice is evident from the results. 58% said “yes” they do care about
the price when drinking any type of cider. On continuation from the previous
question, when asked to give reasons for their chosen answer, the majority
quote was; “I cannot afford it”.
This may be due to a number of reasons
including their current working lifestyle, money may go towards other important
matters etc.
Question 5
Next, Black Sheep Marketing
wanted to gain an insight into the type of people our target audience mostly
drink cider with to achieve an idea of the type of drinking environment. For
example, 0% replied “alone” as cider is commonly known as a very social drink,
particularly in the Summer period (this is reflected in the next pie chart).
52% have shown they drink alcohol amongst friends.
Question 6
Although Black Sheep’s
idea for a Kopparberg campaign are primarily for the Summer season and cider is
the most common alcoholic drink to be consumed during this period, we wanted to
see if any other times of the year were popular amongst the target market. Over
a third of respondents answered “Spring” and 11% “Autumn”. As a result, this
can help Kopparberg and Arena Media to continue with the campaign into later
months if possible/viable.
Question 7 and 8
Finally, the last two
questions from the survey aimed to view the type of environment and time of the
week the majority of Kopparberg’s target audience drink in. This greatly helped
Black Sheep Marketing to gain an insight into the potential success of our
strategic campaign plan for Summer 2013. As shown the overwhelming majority
drink cider on a Friday (after work/during the evening etc.) and mostly tend to
be in a pub or beer garden venue.
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