Pineland Farms Dairy Company Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign cover

Marketing Strategy – Pineland Farms Dairy Company

KatelynMarketing Strategy, Portfolio

Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign

For my strategic communication class, our semester-long project involved creating an integrated marketing communications campaign for a company of our choice. I had recently accepted an internship with Pineland Farms Dairy Company and used this opportunity to learn even more about the company as I started my class and job at the same time.

The following sections outline the rationale for my proposed campaign, entitled "This Is The Way Cheese Should Be."

Introduction

What comes to mind when you hear the name “Pineland Farms Dairy Company?” Is it our delicious, all-natural cheeses? Our dedicated Maine dairy farmers? Or maybe it’s the fact many consumers haven’t heard of us yet. This integrated marketing campaign is aimed to address each of these statements.

Pineland Farms Dairy is a relatively young brand who lacks awareness among our target market of middle-aged females from northern Maine. Our “This Is The Way Cheese Should Be” campaign will increase awareness, encourage trial purchases, and eventually develop brand loyalty. We want to convince our target audience why our cheese is the best and what makes us so unique.

SWOT Analysis

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Target Market

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Suzy is a 47-year-old Caucasian female from Aroostook County, Maine. She makes about $38,000 a year as an administrative assistant. Together with her husband, they have an annual family income of $98,000. Her hometown in northern Maine is a tight-knit farming community, which affects the culture and environment in which she lives.

Using the VALS System, Suzy can be identified as both a Believer and a Maker. She is highly motivated by her ideals but has relatively low resources. She values loyalty and consistency, so she does not venture outside of her comfort zone very often. Suzy is also practical and self-sufficient, valuing her family and saving for her children’s college educations.

Suzy typically buys “everyday cheese” such as Kraft, store brand, and occasionally Cabot blocks for parties. She is a firm believer in the adage, “You get what you pay for.” While she is often content with her current purchase decisions, she doesn’t mind paying more for a higher quality.

To give you a better picture of her background, Suzy grew up in the same community she lives in now. She went to the local community college, got married, and started her family and career shortly after. She works at the hospital, so she is very busy and doesn’t have a lot of time to spend researching new products. Her high-school aged children are active in school activities, and Suzy wants to provide healthy meals for them at home. Some of her hobbies include cooking, crafts, and spending time with her family.

Advertising Goals & Objectives

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Our first goal will be to create brand awareness. We will achieve this by increasing our B2C advertising using media and messages relevant to our target audience.

Our second goal is to build sales of our existing brand. While we are a young company, we are already established with many commercial customers and brokers. By increasing the frequency and variety of use with direct consumers, we will expand this area of sales as well.

Finally, our third goal is to inform customers of brand improvements. This will highlight our unique selling proposition against our competitors’ and how we achieve our all-natural, gluten-free standards.

Marcom Hierarchy of Effects

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Suzy can be thought of between the “Unawareness” and “Trial” levels of the hierarchy, focusing more on the “Trial” level. She may have heard of Pineland Farms Dairy once or twice, but she probably has not tried our product. She may understand that Pineland Farms in New Gloucester is our parent organization, but she may not understand that Dairy is located in Bangor. By encouraging her to engage in trial purchases, she can then form beliefs and attitudes about our brand and what we stand for. Through the use of future campaigns, Suzy will eventually develop full brand loyalty.

Brand Personality

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Some of the words used to describe a “sincere” brand are down-to-earth, honest, authentic, wholesome, and cheerful. These are the qualities of Pineland Farms Dairy we want to portray whenever some sees or hears one of our ads. Our company prides itself in hard-work and dedication to our community. Let’s show that to the rest of the world, too.

Message Appeals

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Appeals to functional needs are designed to solve consumption-related problems. For Suzy, that would mean providing healthy, “real” food for her family to enjoy when she goes to the grocery store. Pineland Farms Dairy’s specific benefits are our handcrafted, all-natural, and 100% gluten-free cheese that comes from local dairy sources.

Advertising Appeals

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One of the advertising appeals we can use in this campaign is that of testimonials. By interviewing real people who buy our product, and real farmers who supply the milk to make it, Suzy would feel at ease with the honest, practical advice we’d be sharing with her. An example would be the well-known manager of the Presque Isle Governor’s or Grave’s Shop ‘N’ Save Hannaford store.
< Another appeal would be music as this sets the mood and attracts consumers’ attention. By employing popular country, folksy sounds behind any video or audio advertisements, Suzy would be intrigued to listen and open to our new ideas.

Tagline

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The current Pineland Farms Dairy tagline is “Maine Cows. Maine Milk. Maine Cheese.” This effectively sets us apart as a “Maine” brand but doesn’t tell our audience much about our other values. Our commitment to all-natural product, supporting local farmers and economies, and keeping Old World cheese traditions alive are also important to share with our target audience.

“This Is The Way Cheese Should Be” encompasses all our values into one phrase. It’s also a play on the Maine tourism slogan, “The Way Life Should Be,” so we don’t lose our Maine heritage. However, by explaining our all-natural ingredients, who our local farm partners are, and how we make our delicious cheese, we can prove that Pineland Farms Dairy Company truly is the way cheese should be–from pasture to package!

IMC Tactics

Radio Advertisement

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This radio advertisement was written to be about 30-seconds in length and aired during the 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. morning drive daypart and 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. afternoon drive daypart. Two local stations Suzy would listen to are the country station on 96.9 and Channel X radio on 97.7. Our radio ads would run consistently throughout the media schedule to trigger the memory of our other tactics while Suzy might be on her way to work or to the grocery store.

Newspaper Coupon

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This is an example of a newspaper coupon to be included in The Star-Herald. It would stand out against saturated and overcrowded grocery store ads and provide an incentive to purchase our product. The coupons would be distributed 2-3 times during the heavy quarters while a modified, no coupon ad might be included in the light quarters.

YouTube Advertisement

YouTube advertisements would provide a relatively inexpensive chance to tell our story through video and audio without having to advertise on television. Our target audience should be moved to share the video with their friends and family and spread the word about who we are.

The heaviest use of the budget would be in the first quarter in order to initially produce the video. We would target videos related to Suzy’s interests and run them in a cycle of heavy quarter, light quarter, and so on throughout the year.

Direct Mail Postcard

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Direct mail would also provide an opportunity to encourage trial purchases through coupons or announcements of new products, both of which are seen in this example. We would use direct mail lists from an agency such as the U.S. Data Corporation to target Suzy’s demographic, and these would be run opposite of the newspaper coupons.

Email Marketing Piece

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Finally, email marketing would provide a platform for a promotion other than couponing. A BOGO premium announcement at participating stores would entice Suzy to visit her local store to check out what they have in stock. In addition to the premium, this email would share some recipe ideas and links to our website and social media accounts to get connected.

This would be a great opportunity to introduce an opt-in newsletter for customers who buy our product and engage in some public relations as well. Email promotions would be run alongside the direct mail schedule and similarly targeted at Suzy’s demographic using specific email lists.

Media Schedule

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Following the key above, one can see the radio advertisement would be consistent while other tactics would follow an alternating pulsing schedule. The total amount allocated to each tactic has been divided based on the level of usage in each quarter.

IMC Budget

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Traditional media tactics would be our largest expense, including the professional video production for our YouTube advertisement. Overall, a proportionate amount will be distributed to each tactic. Also, 4.5% of the budget has been set aside for contingencies and 3% has been set aside for research and evaluation. These numbers are based on estimates of area advertising costs and would be adjusted if needed.

Evaluation of the Campaign

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Each tactic will be evaluated by the measurements listed here:

  • The effectiveness of our radio ads will be measured based on the reach of each station and the return on ad spend.
  • We will measure the redemption rate of the newspaper coupons as well as the return on investment based on the discount, cost of campaign, and revenue generated from it.
  • The YouTube ad will be measured by click-through rates to our website for more information and how many users watched the whole video or skipped it.
  • Direct mail should have a high redemption rate and low cost per acquisition as long as the total cost of the campaign justified the total orders placed.
  • Finally, our email promotion effectiveness will be measured based on click-through rates, similar to the video ad, as well as the open rate to see if our target audience is even reading our emails.

Meeting the Goals & Objectives

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Recall our three advertising goals and objectives shared earlier in the presentation. Our final step in this campaign is to evaluate them based on the measurable goals outlined here:

  • We will see that we have created brand awareness by improving our brand recall measurement by about 35%.
  • We will see that we have grown sales by at least 25% in the direct consumer market.
  • We will see that we have informed customers of improvements by seeing a 50% growth in our customer base.

All goals have been set to reach at the end of 2021, which is the end of the campaign schedule.

Conclusion

“This Is The Way Cheese Should Be” will increase consumer awareness and pull our target audience into our story. Sure, our cheese tastes delicious, but how do we keep them coming back? What is so important about local product? Why support Pineland Farms Dairy Company?

Because we are proud of our roots and where we come from–and we are hard-working Mainers just like them. This is the way cheese should be.

References

Advertising. (n.d.). The County: Bangor Publishing Company. Retrieved November 23, 2020, from https://thecounty.me/advertise/

Andrews, J. C., & Shimp, T. A. (2018). Advertising, promotion and other aspects of integrated marketing communication (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Award winning cheeses. (n.d.). Cabot Creamery Co-op. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://www.cabotcheese.coop/cheese/

Bars & blocks. (n.d.). Pineland Farms Dairy Company, Inc. Retrieved November 4, 2020, from https://pinelandfarmsdairy.com/pineland-cheese/bars-and-blocks/

Believers. (n.d.). Strategic Business Insights. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from http://strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/ustypes/believers.shtml

CabotCheese (2017, May 16). Cabot cracker cuts perfect for sandwiches! [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/2iAPwJ09rOs

Consumer lists. (n.d.). US Data Corporation. Retrieved December 3, 2020, from https://www.usdatacorporation.com/consumer-lists/

Direct mail marketing. (n.d.). US Data Corporation. Retrieved December 3, 2020, from https://www.usdatacorporation.com/direct-mail-marketing/

Email marketing. (n.d.). US Data Corporation. Retrieved December 3, 2020, from https://www.usdatacorporation.com/email-marketing/

Ferris, R. (2020, May 6). Pandemic fallout is severely threatening US dairy farms. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/06/pandemic-fallout-is-severely-threatening-us-dairy-farms.html

Find our products. (n.d.). Pineland Farms Dairy Company, Inc. Retrieved November 4, 2020, from https://pinelandfarmsdairy.com/pineland-cheese/find-our-products/

Madigan, J. (2019). US industry (specialized) report: OD4274: Cheese production. IBISWorld. 1-43. https://my-ibisworld-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/us/en/industry-specialized/od4274/

Maine farm partners. (n.d.). Pineland Farms Dairy Company, Inc. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://pinelandfarmsdairy.com/maine-milk/maine-farm-partners/

Maine milk products. (n.d.). Pineland Farms Dairy Company, Inc. Retrieved November 4, 2020, from https://pinelandfarmsdairy.com/maine-milk/products/

Marquardt, A. (2018, February 13). A marketing budget example that covers all bases and ensures ROI. Adhere Creative. Retrieved December 6, 2020, from https://www.adherecreative.com/blog/a-marketing-budget-example-that-covers-all-bases-and-ensures-roi

Sales: Let us help you grow your business! (n.d.). Channel X Radio. Retrieved November 23, 2020, from https://www.channelxradio.com/sales.html

Stafford, N. (2020). [Middle-aged woman reading] [Photograph]. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/images/id-5122505/

Welcomer, S., MacRae, J., Davis, B., & Searles, J. (2017). Maine’s artisan cheesemakers: The opportunities and challenges of being an artist, scientist, agriculturalist, alchemist, and entrepreneur. Maine Policy Review, 26(1). 59-71. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol26/iss1/8/

What does radio advertising cost in Maine? (n.d.). BestRadioAds.com. Retrieved December 6, 2020, from http://www.bestradioads.com/what-does-radio-advertising-cost-in-maine/

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