Case Study - Water

Mahalo
Mahalo was the first brand of bottled water to ever enter the food and drink industry. It was sold more than ten times the price of oil in Japan. A Japanese man founded the drink, and it was created in Hawaii. The benefits of this water is that it comes from 3000 feet below the ocean's surface so the water is naturally pure and clean. The bottle features palm trees and and curling waves so this shows everyone where the water is produced which may make them more interested in buying the drink.
Mahalo means thank you in Hawaii and is said to be a health advancer. The sales of this drink have grown in the last few decades. The workers for the company have described the drink as 'Liquid Gold' as well as the 'Elixir Of Life' and saying it is Older than Jesus.
     

Evian
 Evian is a British brand of bottled water that originates from a spring in the french alps that was 100 million years in the making. The benefits of this product is that it uses product placement as celebrities drink it as well as using nature advertisements to market the product showing that the water is pure.
Evian promises health, convenience and youth, the advertisements show this as they use young, attractive people to drink the water. This gives the audience the idea of 'if you drink this water, you can look like this'. Evian is described as 'Nature in a bottle' and thats what they make out that they are selling to get people to buy more. The other adverts relate to this as they show mountains and the bottles water within nature. The competition for Evian are Highland Spring as it is another British brand. Pure Life is another competitor for Evian as they aim to sell pure water just like Evian. However, the only difference between these two drinks is that Pure Life is aimed for a more cultural audience. Evian costs more than the other bottled water drinks because they have to send it further after it has exited the warehouse. The manufacturing costs more for Evian and thats why it costs more in stores. The target market for this drink can be anyone as the water is pure and healthy. People who prefer their water to be more clean and nature based would choose Evian. The tools and techniques used for marketing this product are the slogans used such as 'nature in a bottle'. The global advertisements are effective as they use product placement as well as a certain type of manipulation to make people believe that the water can change who they are through the youthful adverts.


Highland Spring
Highland Spring water is also a British brand. The source of this water is Ochil Hill, Perthshire. The benefits of this product are that the company makes sure the water is pure before it is sold and also the advertisements used for the product include celebrities so they also use product placement.
Highland Spring uses nature adverts plus pictures with celebrities to help sell the product. The creators of the drink said 'We use product placement through celebs plus nature adverts.'
Highland Spring became the competitor for Perrier after it was taken off the shelves. This was mostly because British Airways chose Highland Spring as their leading brand.
Even though the bottled water is produced in the same way as Evian (put into a ship and taken to a warehouse to be placed in vans) it still is cheaper as it does not have to travel as far therefore reducing the carbon footprint. The target market for the drink could be anyone, especially in Britain as this year it  has grown to be the leading brand in the UK. The tools and techniques used have been pictures taken with celebrities to promote product placement. The advertisements used have been made to interest the audience through the use of role models for people to make them think that if the celebrities are drinking Highland Spring then they should too.

Pure Life (Nestle)
Nestle Pure Life is made in Switzerland but uses global advertisements to market their bottled water. These global advertisements include celebrities marketing the product in stores while families buy the drink and are then shown drinking it. This is a benefit because it makes the audience like the product because they can relate to the people used in the advert. It's competitor is Evian as they both aim to sell pure, clean water to the same audience. They also both use product placement to make their water seem more appealing. Pure Life is cheaper than Evian however, as its not as high a brand as Evian. Pure Life is aimed for a more cultural audience. The target market for Pure Life would be the same as Evian, except that Pure Life would be more popular in other countries as it's not just located in Britain. The tools and techniques used will be the product placement used in the advertisements which has been used to interest the audience and to persuade them that this product is the right one for them.

Perrier
Perrier is from the Languedoc Plain in France. It was around in the 80's and was very popular with everybody, including upperclass and stylish people as the bottle related to a wine bottle and this was an advantage as the drink then soon became the drink that people would have when they went out for a meal etc. It was described as the 'Godfather of the bottled water industry'. The advertisements would include seductive music as well as someone drinking to make the water seem desirable. The slogan 'Eau-la-la' was used which, in France, can indicate surprise. A worker for the company, as he was talking about the advertisement said 'Water can be anything you want old/young etc'. This means that water can be anything and make you feel anything. For example, in the advertisements there are a lot of close-up shots of attractive, young people. Therefore, this may give people the idea that they can become like this by drinking Perrier. The ideal target market for Perrier would be anyone who drinks alcohol as it soon became more popular than this drink. However, after eight weeks of the drink being on top of it's game, it had to be taken off the shelves as there was a Benzene contamination. Highland Spring then became the competitor to this drink as it was placed on the shelves and took over the place of Perrier. Because of the popularity of Perrier, bottled water jumped from number seven to number two in the most popular drink behind carbonated drinks. The tools and techniques used for Perrier were mostly the advertisements using close-up shots and music to make people think of a good time. This was effective as it would draw the audience in and make them want the product.

Volvic
Volvic is another British brand that was made popular due to the Volvic challenge. The advertisement showed the Volvic challenge which was a man talking to the camera about how he is going to drink Volvic bottled water for 14 days and see how much healthier he feels as well as his skin. This made the brand more popular, especially for men because of the men in the advertisement. The competitors for Volvic would be Highland Spring and Evian as they are both British brands too. Volvic would not cost as much as Evian however, but will be around the same price as Highland Spring, making this to be Volvic's biggest competitor. Anyone can be the target market for Volvic as people who watch TV are more likely to see the advert and therefore more likely to buy the drink. Like a lot of the other competitors, Volvic uses nature advertisements to promote as well as the Volvic challenge advertisement. This is an effective marketing tool as it gives viewers a sense of hope that if they take the 14 day challenge, then their skin will be much healthier.

Aquafina, Dasani and One Water
Aquafina and Dasani became competitors as they are both bottled water made by two fizzy drink companies. The reason they did this was because obesity led to demand for healthy drinks instead of Coke and Pepsi. Therefore, Pepsi decided to make Aquafina which made them the biggest competitor to Coca Cola. Aquafina was very popular but Pepsi wanted to use more advertisement for it to make it as big as their original fizzy drink. The advertisements for Aquafina became more appealing through creativity as they started using adverts that would make someone thirsty for someone to buy the drink. An example of this advertisement is here:

After all the marketing techniques used for Aquafina, it became America's number one brand. Dasani was a brand of bottled water that was created by Coca Cola to compete with Aquafina. America started to love Dasani and Aquafina became mainstream. However, when Dasani was brought to the UK, they realised that all Coca Cola had done was purify tap water and use that in Dasani. The British thought that this was a step too far as why buy something that you can get for free? 

Five weeks after the launch of Dasani, the chemical Bromate was discovered in the drink. This made people start to think 'In a world where people are dying of thirst, they're moving water from people who  have it to other people who have it.' 

This made the companies realise that bottled water does not have to make loads of money but instead provide the whole of Africa with a chance to live. This is how One Water was created and 'Love One' which was made into water projects for Africa. 100% of the profits went to Africa and they also used product placement for their marketing techniques. This included an advertisement with David Tennant who said 'When you drink one, Africa drinks two.' 

This made other brands such as Volvic and PureLife to take action too as Volvic made an advertisement that said 'For every one litre bought - 10 litres go to people who need it.'

PureLife started taking the minerals out of their water when filtering and then adding them back in to make the taste better. Now, sales of bottled water have decreased over the years.

Case Study - Virgin Atlantic!

The Marketing Mix:

Product
Virgin is a huge brand. It has very clear values. The product range is wide and growing.

• TV
• Planes
• Broadband
• Trains

Virgin's success has been facilitated by one single factor, Richard Branson. He is more successful than any other businessman. 

Promotion

Virgin Atlantic Advertisement:

-Colour: Red is the main colour and that is because it's the main colour that is associated with the brand. In this sense, red could mean adventure and ambition, giving viewers a sight of what it in store for them if they decide to use Virgin Atlantic. 

-Luxury and Quality: The advertisement looks very luxurious as it makes you feel like you are there and you can see how the guests are treated. The quality of the advertisements involves a lot of men and women dancing and looking quite seductive and the whole point of this is that sex sells and that is part of what they're trying to get people to see.

-Comfort with travel: You can see from the advertisement that everyone who uses Virgin Atlantic are very relaxed and comfortable and the reason for this is because the air hostess' are spending time with the people and bringing them whatever they wish. The advertisement has a part that shows a man sleeping on some clouds with the air hostess saying 'Shh' to the camera. 

-Places to travel: The idea of the advert is that you can travel anywhere with Virgin Atlantic and the advertisement makes you see this through use of different props to make viewers believe they are in different places. 

-Success: The advertisement makes you think of success as it shows drinks like Martini's and food like shrimp to make people think of posh places and therefore showing that the airline is very posh and successful. 

-Caring: From the advertisement, you can see that the air hostess' are caring as they are looking after every customer and making sure that they have everything they need, including food, drink and comfort for sleep.

-Appearance: The appearance of the advert is very posh and sophisticated and gives off the idea that Virgin Atlantic is a wise choice to make when deciding who to fly with when going away. They show the air hostess' dancing and looking very smart in their uniforms, making everyone see that they are always going to stay in this smart attire and not slack when doing their job.

-Opportunities: The advertisement gives off opportunities as they show places to travel and therefore gives viewers a chance to see what they can choose from. It also includes a chance for people to see what they can have when flying with Virgin Atlantic through the comfort and luxury side.

-Equality of genders: The advertisement can be aimed for both males and females, as the advertisement includes both men and women dancing and showing the opportunities for people. However, some people have argued that it is based more for men as there are lots of women in the advert that dance around and look after the men. This can also be deemed as sexist as not once does the advert show a man looking after the customers.



Price:
Virgin Atlantic is a high end brand and therefore prices are quite high for a flight. Compared to other brands, the cost of Virgin Atlantic will be somewhat higher as they include a lot more comfort and quality into their flights than a lot of other brands such as Thomas Cook and British Airways etc.


Place:
Virgin Atlantic can take you anywhere you wish to go as they travel everywhere. However, they are an American company and mostly fly out to/from America.

What is Marketing + Marketing Mix

Class discussion plus extra research:

What is Marketing?

Marketing is a form of communicating information to certain audiences. It is there to promote/advertise a product. Marketing often involves the product development which identifies the audience for the product as well as when the right gap in the market is for the product to be advertised. Marketing is a thought out business process that involves building up a relationship between the product and the consumer.
However, products are not the only things that can be marketed. People and places can also be marketed. For example, X factor contestants are marketed as the judges let them through based on the audience's opinion as well as if there is a gap in the market for a certain singer to release an album.
Another example would be South Downs as it is promoted to students who want to participate in something that appeals to them with what the college has to offer.
The place and price are a big part of marketing because this helps connect with the audience. For example, it wouldn't be useful to advertise the new iPhone on a poster in an old people's home as it would not appeal to them in any way and they are not the target audience for that particular project. However, placing this advert on the internet, would be a better idea as younger people are drawn more to this product and are the main users of the internet.

The price of the product is important because it may put people off to buy a product that is out of their price range. An example of this would be if someone were to go out clothes shopping and only had around £30 to spend, their shop choice would more likely be Primark than Topshop as Primark is a lot cheaper. Therefore, Primark would be marketed more for this person than the Topshop market.
Above all, marketing is an activity and a strategy that results in making products that satisfy customers while making profits for companies.



What is involved in a marketing campaign? (Tools and Techniques)

There are many ways to promote a product, including Posters, Internet, TV and Competitions. However, the promotion choice depends on the target audience for the product. For example, if the market wants teenage girls to buy their makeup, they use the TV and celebrity endorsements to promote the makeup. This is an effective choice as teenagers have looked up to celebrities and grown up with them, therefore they are more likely to wear something if they see a celebrity wearing it.

Web Marketing has become a very popular way to promote a product over the years as now there are more users and the internet is cheap. Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have helped make the internet popular, especially with the younger generation. So Facebook now includes advertisements that will relate to the user. 

Another way to promote a product for a marketing campaign is a tie-in, which basically means using more products of the same brand that keeps audiences interested. An example of this would be the Harry Potter film and the lego game. The lego game is based on the film and will be a good market for the fans of the film as this may make them interested to buy the game.

                                     

The main tool that is used in a marketing campaign is us, as people. If someone hears about a new product or company that they are interested in, they are more likely to tell somebody else and so on. Word of Mouth is the best way to promote something as people don't even realise that this is what they're doing. The more people talk about something, the more it promotes the product and then everyone knows about it, making the product so popular that the marketing campaign no longer need to  promote the product as much as they could have.

What is PR? (What is distinctive about these activities/Relationship with news forms)

PR means Public Relations which means using media to communicate the message. Press Releases are very different from advertisements as they include interviews and reviews across the media, e.g. magazines. Celebrities and companies need PR to help promote them to the audience. For example, Celebrity Big Brother is used for celebrities that are no longer in the spotlight to put their name back out there. Kerry Katona went on Big Brother in 2011 to help her money situation and for her children. Big Brother helps keep celebrities on the television for up to three weeks, giving them a chance to prove themselves differently if they did not like how they were perceived before.

The Electronic Press Kit is a big part of PR as this is used through digital communication like photographs, moving images and interviews. This is the most important for marketing as the Electronic Press Kit involves the internet which is the main form of communication lately so more people will see it. PR has a low cost compared to advertising, mostly because it costs a lot of money for advertisements to be placed on technology such as the television. The marketing campaign need to find the right channel to place the advertisement as well as the space between all the other advertisements that have been used. 

                                                        

How has marketing strategy/technique evolved over the past 10 years and how has our understanding of marketing audiences changed in the 21st Century?

The biggest change over the past 10 years is that the internet is a big way of how we communicate now. For example, there are so many sites such as Facebook and Twitter and we communicate to others through these sites. Social networking is a huge part of the 21st Century as more people are joining these sites and meeting up with old friends or talking to celebrities. So, these sites are a great way for celebrities such as singers, to promote their next album. Another site that is used very often is YouTube, as people are recording themselves singing and putting it on the website to help themselves get seen by others. Justin Bieber started off by placing videos of himself on YouTube and now he is the most popular teenager on the planet.

3D Marketing is a big way to promote something to an audience lately. For example, new films that are coming out are being used in 3D to interest the audience. Also, old movies are being brought back in 3D to excite the audience. An example of this would be Titanic, James Cameron decided to bring the film back in 3D in cinemas and came third in the list of most anticipated movies behind The Hunger Games and American Reunion.
In the 21st Century, a lot more research goes into the way in which individuals respond to marketing messages. Producers are asking questions about the product and wondering if people will buy it and asking themselves if there are other products like it around and if the audience would be interested in a similar product.
Society has changed over the past 10 years and consequently, marketing methods have adapted to suit growing trends and customer behaviour. Marketing nowadays is more flashy, colourful, fast-paced, energetic, more witty, more everything. Generations now want things faster. Marketing caters to these trends.

What is more important, the product or the marketing?

The product and the marketing for the product are both as important as each other, they both rely on each other. Marketing is a big part of the product development. Some may argue that the product is more important however, for example, with the iPhone5, the audience that are interested in the product were going crazy over it even though they hadn't seen what it looked like yet and hadn't heard anything about it. All they knew was that it was the new iPhone and that is what interested them. This is an example of brand loyalty as people generally stick to what they are used to. For example, someone who buys food from Tesco, may find it strange then going to get food from Asda because it is placed differently and from different makes.
However, others may argue that the marketing for a product is more important as otherwise there will only be a product that no one knows how to use. Advertisements need to be made for this certain product otherwise the audience will not be interested in buying it.

Unless the product is acceptable, no amount of marketing will make up for it. But the greatest product in the world will not make a profit if it is not marketed. It would take a cheat and a liar to push a product that isn't of at least some value to the customer.



Case Study: The Sweeney

Who are Vertigo Films? What do they produce? Who is their target audience?
Vertigo Films are a UK media company founded in 2002 to create independent cinema. Vertigo Films have produced movies such as The Sweeney, Streetdance 3D, Monsters and The Children.
The target audience includes anyone who likes Independent/British films. Vertigo Films have created many different genres of film which gives each type of film a different target audience. For example, The Children is a horror movie, The Sweeney is an action movie and Streetdance 3D is a dance/romance/drama film.

Who is the target audience for 'The Sweeney'?

The target audience for The Sweeney will be based from teenagers to adults. Anyone who enjoys action movies will like The Sweeney as well as people who love British Films. Adults who grew up with the TV show of The Sweeney will enjoy the film because it is based on the television show.

What tools and techniques were used to market the film to the audience?
A lot of the usual PR for movies was used to market The Sweeney. For example, posters and trailers. Interviews were used on the television with the main actors and these interviews were then placed on the internet for more people to see. Then, the film was given its own facebook page and hyped about on Twitter and other social networking sites. Here is the link to the trailer for the film on YouTube -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuYj4q7s8rc


Why were these techniques used?
A big part of the reason the film needed so much marketing was because it was based on the television show and therefore needed more for it to seem interesting to the public and make them want enjoy it as much as they enjoyed the TV show. Another reason these techniques were used was because it was a low budget film and needed as much advertising as it could so that all audiences could view it, whether that be on the internet or on the television.

SWOT Analysis of 'The Sweeney' Marketing Campaign: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats?

Strengths: The film was successful with the public so therefore all the techniques that were used to market the film did it justice as the public enjoyed it.
Weaknesses: Marketing could have gone further and used more advertisements as well as trailers on the TV so even more people could see it.
Opportunities: The Marketing Campaign could have tried getting the film into America through advertisements and such to see how the audience would react over there.
Threats: A threat to the marketing campaign could be the fact that they made this film from the television show because it was a risk incase the public may not have appreciated it as much as they did the TV show.

Bibliography:
www.youtube.com
https://www.google.co.uk/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi
http://www.vertigofilms.com/home.php
http://zenmastersales.com/marketing/could-marketing-be-more-important-than-the-product/
http://businesstm.com/internet-marketing/marketing-in-the-21st-century.html
http://marketing.ezinemark.com/how-marketing-methods-have-changed-over-the-past-decade-560fa87e6e4.html
http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/titanic-3d-opens-to-surprisingly-strong-matinees/
http://inventors.about.com/od/fundingucensingmarketing/f/Marketing.htm



Marketing Mix (4 P's)

Marketing Mix: The Marketing Mix includes the 4 p's. These are Product, Price, Promotion and Place. It is a successful recipe for effective marketing and it is based on results of market research.
To create the right marketing mix, businesses have to meet these conditions:

• The product has to have the right features
• The price has to be right. Consumer will need to buy in large numbers to produce a healthy profit.
• The goods must be in the right place at the right time. Making sure the goods arrive when and where they are wanted. 
• The target group needs to be made aware of the existence and the availability of the product through promotion.

Product: The quality of the product needs to be good, so do the features.