Content
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Brand identity
Brand Prism Brand onion current brand image
This document contains...
Key Hannah Nina Grace Olivia Jodie
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big idea
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Supermarket competitors ice cream van competitors
Consumer profiles consumer engagement consumer decision journey
Competitors
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Creative idea The experience before - the pod during - the tongue during - scratch & sniff during - meal deal after - social media
Consumer
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photoshoot
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Market Trends
Inspiration seasonal affects sensory branding
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Conclusion
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ntroduction HL
This report will consider the brand Cornetto, discover their tone of voice, identity and target consumer. We will outline a way in which Cornetto could create a complete sensory retail experience that engages the consumer before, during and after purchase. It will present an insight into experiential retail and the future of the snacking industry within the 16-25 year old consumer market. It will also suggest a method of how to prolong the purchase experience through display, senses and social media. A styled photo shoot will act as a promotional tool to re-position the brand image and directly appeal to the 16-25 consumer market.
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methodology We have conducted various types of research in order to inform and locate us in the correct direction in terms of our final concepts that we propose. Qualitative research methods such as focus groups and interviews gave us insight into our consumer as well as giving us an in depth understanding of their current opinions and problems within the ice cream market and how brands advertise to them. These methods were beneficial as the questions were open questions requiring more of a discussion JT
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within a group in comparison to yes or no answers. Further primary research carried out included covert observations of consumer behaviour in terms of what ice cream products they were purchasing. Secondary research methods that proved successful in our report were looking at Mintel reports & Case studies as this gave us a clear understanding of the ice cream and snack market in terms of leaders and consumer attitudes, and most importantly how they have changed and impacted on sales over the past decade. With the emphasis of this report being on the importance and incorporation of sensory branding, we have read and researched many key articles from both books and newspapers online, as well as looking into important players within the industry who speak of the necessity of creating an experience for the modern day consumer.
BRAND IDENTITY
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Cornetto is a nostalgic ice cream brand with a mission to present its ice cream as an expression of love, whilst remaining the number one handheld ice-cream, they literally “own the cone” industry. Part of the Walls love brand; Cornetto is signified by its cone shape, whilst the new packaging design, using handwritten font reflects their friendly and fun personality. Cornetto sells a love story within its relationship with the consumer and engages them top to tip with the exciting chocolate ending. Cornetto’s reflection of the consumer in advertising is a tongue and cheek, witty persona, whilst customers of Cornetto are happy and content in life and love to share. Cornetto’s fundamental means of consumer recognition is the symbolic tearing of the wrapper, licking of the cylindrical lid and the chocolate plug ending. However essentially Cornetto’s brand proposition is to offer a delicious innovative ice cream whilst fostering a love story. HL
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touch points
The product is one of the most important vehicles through which a brand transmits its message, values and identity to consumers. The ice cream itself can be described as a brand touch point, acting as a point of interaction between the brand and the consumer. Each Touch point has the potential to make either a negative or positive impression (David & Longoria 2003) Touch points affecting consumers can be categorised into those that occur pre-purchase, during purchase and post-purchase. Each one of these touch points offer the potential for someone to be converted either for or against the brand, so it is important to get them right. The pre-purchase stage for example gives us the opportunity to convert people that aren’t aware of Cornetto to become conscious of it. Someone who is brand-aware may be converted and reconnect by taking the next step towards actually purchasing and perhaps even becoming a brand advocate. During the purchase stage a potential customer may be converted by the point of sale material and make a purchase, or they may be put off in some way by the shopping experience itself and then decide not to buy and to end further brand interaction. These brand touch points will represent a point of interaction between the Cornetto and its consumer, becoming representative and reflective of Cornetto’s brand identity. Through these strategic actions we will be putting into place, consumers should then identify the Cornetto brand as interactive, surprising, thought provoking and fun. ‘Brands aim to create connection by generating an emotional response.’ [Posner,H;2011-147] Brand personality and brand values are instrumental in achieving this, Kapferer’s brand prism takes this into consideration with the relationship and self-image elements. For Cornetto this includes delivering a love story, an exciting ending and the self-image of contentment. The brand onion positions the personality layer as the interface between the brand and the consumer, so our brand touch points will need to be reflecting a fun, surprising and innovative personality.
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BRAND PRISM Brand Identity
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BRAND ONION
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Brand perception
These lines outline the perceptions that our brand holds to the customer that we conducted our consumer profiles on. This gives us an idea of how the brand is seen through their eyes and whether this aligns with the brands identity. The most coherent brand perception was associating the ice cream with being on holiday; we then took forward the recall of memories like being on holiday to use as a basis for our creative idea. HL
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BRAND IMAGE JT
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Looking at competitor advertisements and Facebook pages allows us to get a feel for their marketing strategies and the type of creativity and promotion that stands out within the industry. A few in particular stood out for us and enabled us to analyse what was successful and what was less so.
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Ben and Jerry’s are a great example of a fun and lighthearted brand. Two attributes we hope to encourage Cornetto to further adopt. Its Facebook page concentrates on sarcasm, wit and cartoon like imagery to keep its readers in tune with the brand. “Please don’t sit on the fence, it makes the cows jealous fool. Eat our ice cream”
Magnum have really started to focus in on Romance, this adds a more mature and sexualized personality to the brand making it appeal more to their chosen demographic. Its new online game ‘Pleasure Hunt - 5 Lost Kisses’ is a Lara Croft inspired game, in which the player controls a female character and helps her on her quest to save the Prince. This is a great example of consumer interaction with a brand in a light-hearted, fun way. “The pleasure is all yours”
In comparison to Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s, Carte D’or has a more sophisticated, sleek look and feel. This is emphasized on its Facebook page as it provides suggestions for dinner party desserts and table decorations. The aesthetic of the Carte D’or website and Facebook page have a clear appeal to an older audience, who enjoy the luxuriousness of the brand. “Once you’ve got Carte D’or you’ve got dessert.”
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We also looked at Galaxy, although not an ice cream brand we think Galaxy has a very relatable, relaxed feel towards advertising and promotion. Its most recent adverts celebrate nostalgia and romance in a soft, enticing way. Galaxy’s tranquil personality helps the brand appeal to a wide range of females. “Why have cotton when you can have silk.”
supermarket trends In 2012 a study shown on Mintel showed that 35% of consumers purchase ice cream cones over any other variant of ice cream. Ice cream sticks and tubs/ pots are the top 3 with cones like Cornetto placing them 4th. It also indicated that it is in fact Unilever that dominates the ice cream tubs segment, owning three of the top ten brands. With these brands being Ben & Jerry’s, Carte D’Or and Wall’s. This indicates to us that Ice cream sticks and tubs are on top of consumer’s lists when it comes to ice cream purchase, which means we have to think of an innovative concept in order to gain growth of sales of the ice cream cone.
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With the re-invention of Cornetto in terms of graphics and brand identity from Carter Wong, we believe that by creating moments that customers can identify with in terms of the Cornetto brand is the key to boosting their popularity and capital.
Brian Wong, co-founder of Kiip [a mobile app rewards platform] speaks successfully about ways to go beyond the regular ways of advertising and marketing. His ideals can be applied to branding for Cornetto, as ultimately, he suggests that the key is in the humanisation of the product. The problem – Ice cream sticks and ice cream tubs are more popular in supermarkets, outselling ice cream cones. The Solution – We feel that there needs to be a unique element to the Cornetto purchase process in store. It needs to tap into how people think and feel, this is the whole idea of creating moments instead of touch points. We will think about this in further detail in terms of the process of the Cornetto consumer decision journey.
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ICE CREAM VAN
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We waited outside an ice cream van for an hour and observed which ice creams were being bought by which type of consumers. This is what we found:
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The majority of consumers purchased their ice cream in couples Most popular ice creams are usually 99 flakes and twisters 3 out of 52 ice creams sold were cornetto
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Cornetto is so un-popular that the ice cream man we spoke to said that he is going to stop selling them
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THE CONSUMER
The target consumer that we have chosen falls within the 16-25 age range. We feel this age range fits best with Cornetto’s recent packaging revamp, using Carter Wong’s design to give the brand a more youthful appeal, it feels like a natural progression to keep the same target audience. From our focus group the consumers were unaware of the packaging renovation; therefore our retail proposal and promotional strategy will aim to target the younger market to make them aware of the new brand image. To gain better insight into our target consumers, we asked a variety of ages from the 16-25 bracket to create profiles. We then collated the information and from that created information graphics, presented on the next pages, so that the data was visually easy to understand. These questions gave us insight into the way our consumers brought ice creams, their snacking habits, internet and television usage, and if they used branded apps or not. We then considered this information and it informed us about which aspects we needed to focus on e.g. none of the people asked, snacked on ice cream, therefore we needed to think of ways in which Cornetto could appeal and compete against the foods that they do snack on. Further information that we gained was that they do use branded apps so this could be an avenue that could be taken with the pre or/and post purchase of the item.
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nibbler
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Licker cool, calm and collected. Likes to take her time and savor every moment!
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Biter Not the shy and retiring type, isn’t afraid to put himself out there and enjoys every minute!
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Nibbler Shy and timid, she takes her time and considers every move she makes!
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Demolisher Jumps right into any situation and knows how to have fun!
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Perfectionist Things must go her way or else!
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To keep the consumer connected with our proposal and the brand we would target them both online and offline. We would use the existing online touch points that the brand already have such as their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites, their Youtube channel and their website. We would look to give our consumer an experience that would travel around the country. Use traditional advertising to cover all the media outlets and encourage word of mouth advertising.
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consumer engagement
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consumer DECISION From our consumers we found that they have no loyalty to the brand and would only consider Cornetto as an option when they saw it in store. It would not automatically come to mind when thinking about wanting an ice cream. We also found out that the main inspiration that would drive a consumer to want to purchase a Cornetto or ice cream full stop is that of hot weather and therefore cuts off the consumer journey when the inspiration (hot weather) isn’t present.
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Taking on board Cornetto’s current consumer decision journey we wanted to really play upon the experience side of the journey therefore we created the traveling pod as a promotional tool for the brand. This will create a memory for the consumer that will link directly to the brand therefore giving them an inspiration that is constant. Our proposed point of sale material will create relevant abruption in store to excite and entice consumers to approach, and to subconsciously reposition the brand in the consumers mind with a fun, interactive and easy way of buying the ice cream. This will tap into the dead time consumers spend while queuing in store, making them consider Cornetto as a quick snack choice.
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“Shopping has changed from being leisurely and enjoyable to becoming what is often a stressful and tedious chore.” (LEWIS, D;2001,147) We propose stress could be an important consideration in store switching decision, and we assume individuals will tend to shop in the most satisfactory and least stressful conditions. - Russell Aylott & VincentWayne Mitchell New consumers may be more susceptible to shopping stress than are Old consumers due to personality differences between the two groups (LEWIS, D;2001,147) “More and more retailers are fighting back by creating environments that recapture the lost elegance and enjoyment of the late nineteenth-century shopping. “ (LEWIS, D;2001,147)
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Taking this into consideration from our local supermarket, the entrance being on the right hand side, meaning that customers would pass both the meal deal section and the freezers, then returning to the tills to pay. As you can see, relatively few customers enter the area that is circled because the aisles in this area are quite narrow compared to the aisles in the remainder of the store. The freezer isle in the supermarket are always quite congested as consumers are making their decisions from behind the freezer door without opening it.
“Unless customers walk to the checkout area right after entering the store (which is unlikely), they are more or less forced to walk first to the back of the store on the right then eventually turn left.� (Ebster,C, Garaus,M ;2011,10)
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inspiration
We wanted to research into what kind of trends are currently out there within experiential retail, particularly in the industry of food. We looked into Bompas and Parr to see what they are currently doing and the technologies they are using. Examples of this can be found in our research document.
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seasonal affects The demand for ice cream is that of seasonal variation. From our survey and focus group held, we found that most of our target consumers are affected by the seasonal limitations that ice cream has. By repositioning Cornetto as a snack food we would try to reduce the effect of seasonality and optimise sales as the need for a frozen snacks is apparent as there is nothing in the snack market that covers this sector according to Keynote’s Snack Food Market Report [2012]. We will need to use various techniques to reposition the product in consumer’s minds to consider Cornetto at times i.e. lunchtime, after school or work and 9 pm.
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sensory Our main objective is to provide a multisensory experience for existing and new consumers. Sensory branding can help differentiate and position a brand within the human mind and offers the potential to create the most binding forms of engagement between brand and consumer. When combining multiple sensory stimuli it provides the consumer with a more powerful impact, in contrast to using a single sensory experience such as graphics. For example, it has been proven that smell associations are so strong that they can modify moods and improve symptoms.
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“40 % improvement in our mood when we’re exposed to a pleasant fragranceparticularly if the fragrance taps into a happy memory.” (Lindstrom,M;2010,105) To create a long lasting bond, the sensory experience must be unique to the brand as well as habitual. “Not all sensory branding initiatives will be able to necessarily be able to generate such high levels of loyalty, but if the brand maintains a distinct sensory appeal that is not imitated by an competing brands, loyal customers will follow.” (Lindstrom,M;2010, 111) Sensory branding aims to stimulate your relationship with the brand. You could say it sparks our interest , amps up our impulse purchase behaviour, and allows emotional response to dominate over rational thinking.
branding Two sets of stimuli can take place- branded and non-branded. By having the freshly baked cone smell wafting from the in store Cornetto tongue, and then the bold point of sale material helps create a brand association with the specific product. An association that will be made time and time again unintentionally the next time they smell a similar smell they will remember purchasing and enjoying Cornetto, and will hence by again. A branded stimulus not only motivates impulsive buying behaviour, it also directly connects emotions to the brand. “Building retail displays and in-store promotional stands that encourage shoppers to touch the merchandise is a powerful strategy to help consumers form a bond with products and to affirm purchasing decisions.� – (Perchinteractive, online,2013)
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the big idea JT
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We understand that company Carter Wong have re-branded the entire Cornetto image, including graphics, package design and the creation of a new strap line “enjoy the ride, love the ending�. We firmly believe that keeping the element of love as the big idea is crucial in order to keep in sync with Cornetto’s universal brand image.
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We will be maintaining Cornetto’s current creative idea “What the world really loves, is not a lover but a love story.” approaching it from another angle. Love is normally associated to just the romantic type, however we all obviously have other relationships with friends and family that are of equal importance. Our big creative idea that we have produced is to play upon the theme of memories. As love and memories are closely linked together. Being an ice-cream brand most people asked associated Cornetto with hot weather and recalled last eating one on a day trip, sharing an experience with others. “Travel is at the heart of displays as customers start to plan for summer. Retailers reflect on nostalgic holiday memories by using vintage-inspired props such as suitcases and maps.” (WGSN, 20013) However as Cornetto is launching into the snack market it needs to become repositioned in consumers’ minds. We can’t, and don’t want to take away the association with hot weather, however it needs to be thought of as a product that can be enjoyed throughout the year. So associating Cornetto with nostalgia and fun memories allows Cornetto to become not only a snack but a mood booster. Eat a Cornetto stuck behind your work desk, on a rainy afternoon in April and instantly flash back to the Caribbean beach with a loved one.
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It has been said that “it is hard to conjure up true representations of memories without a sensory prompt.’’(Proust, M.1939) By tapping into the consumer’s memory, they will feel closer to the brand as they are linking their personal experiences to the brand. We hope by doing this that the brand will become subconsciously embedded into the consumer’s memory. Our brain creates a memory due to the strength of emotion felt at that certain time, i.e. feelings of strong happiness or sadness. We wanted to use this to our advantage and align Cornetto with a happy memory.
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before The pod We are going to design and create an experiential pod; this pod will travel through all the major cities in the UK in order to promote Cornetto in a fun and memorable way. The pod will consist of four interactive rooms and each room will play on one of your five senses. They will track which of the three options they favoured in each room, by communicating with an interactive system.
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The first room will play on your sense of touch, it will be a low lit room and there will be three separate walkways. There will be one strip of grass, one strip of sand and one strip of pebbles. This will hopefully spark associations in the consumer’s mind of a hot summer’s day. The second room will play on your sense of smell, it will be a well lit room and all of the walls will be covered in ‘scratch and sniff’ wallpaper that will have three certain smells. The third room will experiment with your sight, you will be placed in the room and the screens around you will give the illusion that you are out on a day trip to the beach. It will appear like the sun is shining in your eyes and you are sat on a picnic blanket on the sand. There will be the typical things you associate with the beach around you like dogs running around, children playing in the sand and birds flying over your head. The idea is that this room will spark a happy memory.
The fourth room will experiment with sound, you will be placed in a low lit room where you will walk through and hear sounds like the sea crashing against the beach and bees making a buzzing noise. It will be noises you would associate with a summer’s day. The fifth sense, taste will be at the end of the pod where you will be given a free, personalised Cornetto. This will have the name of a randomly selected person on the packaging. Our thoughts are that this name will spark associations in the consumer’s mind, hopefully reminding them of someone they have previously met or are who they are yet to meet in the future. This is tapping into the idea of nostalgia and memories that we have previously explored. This will be dispensed through the same point of sale as in store, as explained in the next but one section.
When you have your Cornetto, you will enter a photo booth where you will have a photograph taken of you and your Cornetto in a summer’s day setting. This will be a free service and the consumer will be given a printed copy to take away with them. This will hopefully act as a promotional tool when remembering your experience in the pod.
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We did not only want to focus on how to promote Cornetto as a brand, we also wanted to improve the consumer’s in-store buying experience. We started off by looking at the problem areas when buying a Cornetto in a local shop and found that:
To buy a single Cornetto, You have to reach into a Children are crammed freezer which allowed to reach in, usually isn’t organised or often being indecisive sectioned very well with and dropping the ice creams the different brands back into the wrong sections of of ice-cream. the freezer, crushing and cracking the underneath ones. We found it very The ice cream freezers disappointing when the chocolate are not always close part at the end of our Cornetto to the till, therefore on a cone had actually snapped hot day there is the risk that off into the packaging. your ice cream will start melting before you’ve even purchased it. We thought that by providing the Cornetto customer with an easier and more stress-free experience, there is a chance the sales may increase and Cornetto may start to be chosen over the competing brands more often. OS
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during The tongue Our first proposal to improve the in-store experience is to design a new point of sale. This will be the Cornetto dispenser we used in our experiential pod. We chose to use a large opened mouth with a long tongue coming out, acting as the slide in which the cornetto will roll down into a holder when dispensed. The tongue will emit the smell of freshly baked cones, which will help to further lure the consumers to the point of sale and encourage impulse buying. Each Cornetto will be released one at a time to prevent crushing and to provide a more personal touch that this Cornetto has been dispensed just for them. The long tongue is also a link to the lick competition Cornetto currently have online.
We hope that the consumers will recognise the point of sale from their positive experience in the pod, therefore improving chances of them buying one. For customers who didn’t get the chance to experience the pod, we hope that the point of sale we have designed will stand out to them and as it is interactive in the way that you have to push the button to choose your flavour between mint, chocolate and strawberry, we feel this provides a fun way to buy an ice cream.
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To prevent the problem of people putting the ice cream back, once the Cornetto has rolled down the tongue, you cannot put it back into the machine so the consumer will have no choice but to take it to the till and go through with the purchase. We decided that the customer shouldn’t have to put their money into the machine in order to dispense it as they may not have the correct change on their person and this may prevent them from choosing to get one. We also wanted to consider the placing of the point of sale. As Cornetto are currently trying to move into the snack industry, we thought about trying some cross merchandising and placing this dispenser at the front of an express/ grocery store where you would usually pick up last minute snacks on your way out of the store before the till.
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This could potentially reposition Cornetto in the consumer’s brain as a snack product as they are buying them from the section of the store where they would normally purchase snacks and drinks. It could also be a last minute buying decision and as the dispenser will be placed by the till; they may just choose to pick one up on their way out when usually they wouldn’t. By giving the consumer the option of having a frozen food-to-go this opens up a new section on the market and will steal a march on competitors. In a big supermarket we would aim to to position the point of sale in the food to go section at the front of the store, so the consumer wouldn’t have to go to the frozen aisle to get a Cornetto as part of their meal deal. This would also enchance Cornetto to be obtained as a snack.
The tongue
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during Scratch & Sniff
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To relate the pod experience to the product we will have a peel back scratch and sniff panel on the lid of the Cornetto. The scent of the panel will be something obscure that you wouldn’t associate to Cornetto or ice cream itself. By positioning the smell on the lid of the product it will not interfere with the taste or smell of the ice cream itself and will also attract attention. This concept will be part of a competition. The consumers will text in what smell they think it is for the chance to win 2 tickets to a festival, we would suggest Bestival. To carry on the ice cream’s persona, which we have generated through the use of names as a promotional tool. The consumer would then text the name on the side of the ice cream and what they believe the smell to be, e.g. the ice cream name is Barry therefore I would text in ‘Barry likes the smell of leather’. The smells would be released in series so it would be a continual guessing game and to keep answers at discression.
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during Meal deal We recognise that sensory experiences have a huge impact on consumer engagement, but we also acknowledge the most important factor, which is selling the product itself. To ensure Cornetto increases sales as well as consumer awareness, we propose that the products become a part of supermarkets meal deal offer. The meal deal offer includes a snack, which currently is either; Crisps, fruit or a chocolate bar. We see huge potential for a frozen snack like Cornetto, as it adds further variety. By adding themselves into this choice not only does it create more options for the consumer but it will aid the idea of Cornetto being an all year round product and not just a seasonal treat. One of the main problems with buying ice creams, according to our primary research is that consumers can’t seem to break away from the philosophy of only purchasing ice cream when the weather is warm. By JT
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incorporating the Cornetto product into people’s daily decisions [lunch purchase] it eliminates the association of treats or seasonal buys, perhaps without the consumer even realising. The meal deal concept that supermarkets and various stores offer is a cheap and easy way for students and workers to grab their lunch on the go. The process is simple as there are a wide variety of sandwiches and wraps to choose from, however the choice element of the snack, is limited. According to a Mintel study looking into Sandwiches & lunchtime foods [2012] it was said that operators have been increasing snack ranges as they look to make their menus better able to cater to differing meal occasions. In addition to this a study conducted by GMI for Mintel asked consumers “From which of the following places, if any have you bought lunch, to eat out of home in the last three months?’’ and from the 13 possible answers, the most popular place for the 2000+ consumers aged 16+ to purchase lunch was from grocery stores such as Tesco & Sainsbury’s. It was concluded that Grocery stores lead the lunch food market due to their competitive pricing, as ultimately that is what consumers want. Further research told us that pressures on household incomes have resulted in around a third of the 2000+ consumers reducing their lunch purchasing out of home. However 1 in 10, particularly aged 16-24, which is our specific target market have increased their expenditure and frequency of lunch purchase. This study fully supports our initiative to bring Cornetto into the meal deal as part of the snack aspect of the deal, as 51% of participants admitted to purchasing from Supermarkets over any other store or bakery.
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Our social media strategy will provide a friendly, fun and sociable platform for all things Cornetto. For the pod visitors, scratch and sniff competition winners and other Bestival-goers, there will be endless opportunities to enjoy the Cornetto photo booth. Once your photo has been taken it will give the option to be automatically uploaded to the user’s Twitter and/or Facebook. The specific hashtag ‘#mm’ (making memories) is an easy way to promote the experience. By using just initials this creates intrigue and encourages social networkers to find out more. As the Pod will be travelling the Facebook and Twitter pages will be constantly updated to the whereabouts of the pod and which city it is next approaching. Therefore it is widely advertised giving the opportunity for as many people to visit the pod as possible.
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conclusion
To conclude, in this document we have used our promotional and communicational expertise within the UK retail landscape, to analyse and advise Cornetto on how they should create a retail idea to engage the consumer through sensory branding whilst recommending how to reposition as a snack. Our sensory recommendations will help to engage and excite the younger consumer that Cornetto are now targeting. By following these recommendations outlined below we think that Cornetto will be successful in achieving their goal to target the 16-25 age range.
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recommendations
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travelling experiential pod
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point of sale
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positioning of the product in store
sensory branding
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post purchase competition GB
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alignment with music festival
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