17. Advertising, Sales Promotion, and Public Relations
Vignette: The "I Am Canadian" campaign and the Molson's promotions on the Web are part of the innovative strategies used to dominate the domestic beer market in Canada.
Featured URL: http://www.molson.ca
Drink Up!
Advertising is a powerful communication factor in promoting and maintaining customer awareness of products and services. As you have read in Chapter Seventeen, due to the critical nature of this communication and the high expenditures, understanding the nature of advertising and sales promotion is an essential aspect of marketing savvy. Once customers have been attracted, developing effective ways of maintaining good public relations is paramount to the longevity of any successful enterprise.
Drinking alcoholic beverages is part of the mainstream life style of North Americans just as it has traditionally through the ages in many cultures. It is not an essential but an enhancing option for many. Because it could be called a frill or luxury item it is important to promote the purchase and habitual use of alcoholic drinks in order to win a portion of the entertainment and social budget of Canadians.
Activity
In Chapter Three, the featured URL was LaBatts and you considered the contrast of the beer market versus that of the wine industry in Canada. In this web exercise, you will be expanding your knowledge of promotions in the alcoholic beverage industry to a more global stage by exploring the strategies used by companies that market distilled alcohol like rum and gin. In the Resource section, please visit and explore the sites that advertise liquor.
For each of the seven types of liquor, search the Web and find one other brand of this type of beverage. For example, for vodka, you might choose to compare Smirnoff's approach with that of Absolut.
Give the URL for the second site you find and write a brief description of comparison between the site given below and the one you found. Which has the most effective advertising and sales promotion campaign on the Web. Give reasons for your choices. Which would you buy based on the site you selected?
Alcoholic Beverages advertised on the Web
Canadian: Rye Canadian
Club
American: bourbon Maker's Mark
Mexican tequila: Tequila Sauza
Irish: whiskey Tullamore Dew
Scotch: whiskey Chivas
Regal
Russian: vodka Smirnoff
French cognac Remy Martin
Articles
"Labatt
employs dry humour" - Moderation campaign relies on insights from student
target
"Top
Ten Interactive Marketing Campaigns" gives Silver to Chivas Regal and
bronze to Molson Canadian
Advertising
http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Advertising/
- Google Directory for Advertising
http://solutions.yahoo.com/adspecs/index.html
- Yahoo Essential Marketing Solutions: Advertising
http://www.americanblimp.com/advert.htm
- American Blimp Sales Promotions
http://www.canad.com/ - Advertising
Standards Canada
Public Relations
Yahoo Canada Press Releases - 2001 - http://ca.docs.yahoo.com/info/releases.html
James Hoggan + Associates Inc -
Public relations and Investor Communications
FWJ Advertising and Public Relations
Job Bus Canada: Advertising
Marketing and Public Relations
Canada Job Futures: Professional
Occupations in Public Relations and Communications
Instructors: Optional Activities
As with all of the Web exercises, the exercise for Chapter Seventeen can be used as suggested or certain parts can be adapted to better suit your student population. You will want to estimate how much time is required to complete any part or all of the parts. It will be helpful to give students a suggested time frame for completing their assignments. It will also help to determine how much credit might be given for the assignment.
1. Strategies
Read the two articles by Bernadette Johnson found in Strategy Magazine - The Canadian Marketing Report - you'll find the links given in the resource section. After reading, discuss the marketing strategies that were used and how effective you think they were.
2. Ad Campaigns
a. Look at the sites listed in the Resource section under advertising. Get ideas from the Google directory. Check out the ad examples on Yahoo. Do You Have an Ad You Want to Try? Propose it! Be a part of Yahoo!'s ongoing ad research. Read about submitting something for research on Yahoo!
b. Create an ad for a Blimp after look at the site for blimp advertising.
c. Review the Advertising Standards Canada site to be sure you have written ads that are acceptable by these standards.
3. Public Relations
a. Review the press releases at the yahoo site in the Resource section.Write a press release about Yahoo that shows off your talent for public relations.
b. Check the job search sites in the Public Relations section of the Resources. Do you find any jobs in public relations? If so, describe the one you like best.
c. Visit the two Public Relations sites and decide which company you would rather work for based on your impressions of the business as represented by their web site. On what have you based your decision?