PROMOTION

Promotion (also one of the 4P’s of marketing) which is known as marketing communication is one of the major attribute for any of the product or services. For any brand one of the major issues faced is that of sustaining its market share. They need to trade off between maintain their brand in the market coupled with making acceptable profits. To attract more customers and to increase their market share, companies adopt various promotion techniques which help in generating revenue. For this purpose there are 8 major modes of communication in marketing communication mix as follows:

In addition to that it is very important that we understand the concept of Above the Line (ATL) and Below the Line (BTL) advertising and Through the line (TTL).

-       Above the Line (ATL) advertising is where mass media is used to promote brands and reach out to the target consumers. These include conventional media as we know it, television and radio advertising, print as well as internet.  This is communication that is targeted to a wider spread of audience, and is not specific to individual consumers. ATL advertising tries to reach out to the mass as consumer audience.

-       Below the line (BTL) advertising is more one to one, and involves the distribution of pamphlets, handbills, stickers, promotions, brochures placed at point of sale, on the roads through banners and placards. It could also involve product demos and samplings at busy places like malls and market places or residential complexes. For certain markets, like rural markets where the reach of mass media like print or television is limited, BTL marketing with direct consumer outreach programmes do make the most sense.

-          Through the line (TTL): “Through-the-line” marketing is the combination of above-the-line and a specific type of below-the-line activity that is direct marketing. The essence of “through-the-line” marketing is to use mass advertising for forming a prospects / customers database which can be used for direct marketing activities e.g. an ad in a magazine in which a toll-free number is displayed that is used for direct contact with prospects.

MAGNUM uses all these kinds of advertising extensively. A pictorial representation of these concepts is given as follows:

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DISTRIBUTION

Distribution channel or the marketing channel plays a very crucial role in making the product available to the final customer or the target consumer. There are various types of marketing channels or distribution channels. These are:-

 Push and Pull Strategies:

In Push Strategy, manufacturer uses his sales force, trade promotion, money or other means to include intermediaries to carry promote and sell its products to end users. MAGNUM does not include any push strategies.

In Pull Strategy, manufacturer users advertising, promotion and other forms of communication to persuade the consumer. This is the form of communication MAGNUM prefers and uses. Magnum uses pull strategy as there is high brand loyalty and high involvement in the category. Kwality wall’s adopts pull strategy to persuade the consumers to demand the product from the intermediaries. It uses advertising, promotion and other forms of communication for generating the demand for the product. It also uses an exhaustive distribution network that includes kiosks, carts and stores spread across streets, malls and theme parks.

Direct and Indirect Channel:

Direct channel-In this type of distribution channel the direct they directly provide the finished goods to the customer without any intermediaries in between.

Indirect distribution- Indirect distribution channel consist of one or more intermediaries between the manufacturer and the final customers. MAGNUM uses indirect distribution for its products. 

 PRODUCER – DISTRIBUTOR – RETAILER - CUSTOMER.

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PRICING

Pricing is the process of determining what monetary benefit a company will receive in exchange for its products. Factors that affect pricing of any product are as follows:

i.         Manufacturing cost

ii.        Market places

iii.        Competition marker condition

iv.        Quality of product

Pricing is the revenue generating element among the 4 P’s of the marketing and is considered to be one of the major determinants of a consumers buying decision process.

Pricing strategy of products change due to factors like:

·         Income level

·         Standard of living

·         Competition in the market.

Price is an important evaluative criterion, A comparative pricing chart for MAGNUM and its major competitors in the Indian market is as follows:

Name of the ICE CREAM	Quantity	Cost (in Rupees)

Hence we observe that even though MAGNUM  is priced at more than a lot of its competitors, it still enjoys the luxury of being the highest seller of ice cream  in the world.

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PRODUCT MIX ELEMENTS

According to AMA, Product mix is defined as:

“The full set of products offered for sale by an organization. The product mix includes all product lines and categories. It may be defined more narrowly in specific cases to mean only that set of products in a particular product line or a particular market”.

Every company’s product mix has a certain width, length, depth. In case of MAGNUM, since it makes only ice creams, there will be no width of the product; however the rest will look as follows:

A product mix is the set of all products offered for sale by a company. Product line is a broad group of products for similar uses and with similar characteristics. An organization’s product mix has four dimensions: 

Width: The product mix width is the number of product lines in the product mix.

Length: The product line length shows the number of different products in a product line.

Depth: Some of the product types may be split into subgroups which is shown by the product line depth.

Consistency: Describes how closely related the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, etc.

Hindustan Unilever has a wide width offering personal care, home care, food and beverages, etc. Skin care, oral care, hair care, fabric care, beverages, food, etc are the product lines that Unilever as a parent company carries.The food line of HUL contains beverages like tea, coffee ,ice cream, food, etc.

The length of the ice cream line consists of the products of Kwality walls like frozen delights ,creamy delights, fruttare, paddle pop, cassatta, kulfeez.

The depth of the Kwality walls ice cream includes magnum, cornetto, feast, sundae, etc which are all chocolate related items.

Unilever’s ice cream product line is consistent as the distribution channels from which the ice cream products flow is the same.

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PRODUCT LEVELS

CORE BENEFIT : The benefit the customer is really buying is satisfaction and indulgence. Magnum being a premium ice cream brand has to offer these basic benefits to the customer in order to gain the customer value.

BASIC PRODUCT : The basic product is premium choco bar. A chocolate coated ice cream bar that gives a luxurious ice cream experience.

EXPECTED PRODUCT: The expected product of Magnum is that it would provide that quality others cannot. Magnum is an adult focused ice cream brand, therefore it is important for the product to meet the expectations of the young customers.

AUGMENTED PRODUCT: Augmented product would be more variants and innovation in design and serving of the ice cream bar as compared to other competitive ice cream brands. The brand would introduce flavors above the customer expectations.

POTENTIAL PRODUCT: Potential product would be introduction of Magnum in new jars. Novelties in ice cream is an important factor for the growth of the potential product.

THE PRODUCT HIERARCHY

 1.    Need family : Quality ice cream

2.    Product family : Food

3.    Product class : Ice cream

4.    Product line : Kwality walls

5.    Product type : Chocolate bar.

6.    Item : Magnum

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MARKETING MIX ELEMENTS

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PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is used to map the lifespan of a product. It is the period of time over which an item is developed, brought to market and eventually removed from the market. There are generally four stages in the life of a product. These four stages are the Introduction stage, the Growth stage, the Maturity stage and the Decline stage. There is no set time period for the PLC and the length of each stage may vary. One product’s entire life cycle could be over in a few months. Another product could last for years. Also, the introduction stage may last much longer than the growth stage and vice versa. The four stages in a Product Life Cycle are:

Introduction: Product is introduced in the market with intention to build a clear identity and heavy promotion is done for maximum awareness. Before actual offering of the product to customers, product passes through product development, involves prototype and market tests. Companies incur more costs in this phase and also bear additional cost for distribution. On the other hand, there are a few customers at this stage, means low sales volume. So, during introductory stage company’s profits shows a negative figure because of huge cost but low sales volume.

Growth: In this stage, company’s sales and profits starts increasing and competition also begin to increase. The product becomes well recognized at this stage and some of the buyers repeat the purchase patterns. During this stage, firms focus on brand preference and gaining market share.

Maturity: At maturity stage, brand awareness is strong so sale continues to grow but at a declining rate as compared to past. At this stage, there are more competitors with the same products. So, companies defend their market share.  At this stage usually loyal customers make purchases.

Decline: Decline in sales, change in trends and unfavorable economic conditions explain decline stage. At this stage market becomes saturated so sales declines. It may also be due technical obsolescence or customer taste has been changed.

PLC OF MAGNUM

Magnum was introduced in 15th of June,2001.

Effective weights of mass audience advertising publicly displayed in the summer landscape, would strengthen consumer attachment to the brand and develop strong associations with the summer season .The first premium-quality ice cream to enter the adult impulse market. Magnum was introduced in Chennai first and then rolled out in other cities like  Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune. Advertisements and campaigns were carried out to build the new product of Kwality walls-MAGNUM.As the chocolate bar is priced high as compared to other choco bars it was necessary to develop a demand for such a premium ice cream product in the emerging country like India.

Magnum is considered to be currently in the growth phase. The sales of Magnum have increased over the recent years as consumers now are more aware about this product through the expansion of intense television advertisements and creative marketing campaigns. Magnum’s goal during this stage would be to gain consumers preference and further increase their sales. 

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