Republic of the Philippine POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES PUP Open University System Name: Course: Subject: RAY

Y ALVIN O. RED Master in Communication Integrated Marketing Communication Strategies Date: May 5, 2011

You are asked to pick one product in the market which you think has been doing a good marketing campaign. Discuss its marketing strategies and promotional campaign based on our last lecture. Prepare a narrative report and a power point presentation due on or before may 6. During the presentation everybody must provide his/her insights on the product presented

PRODUCT:

COMPANY BACKGROUND: The product that I am introducing, which is surf, is nothing without the recognition of its creator the Unilever. The company before it became one of the biggest producers of detergent soaps; it was first introduced as Lever Bros., founded by William Hesketh Lever in 1890s. According to their official website (www.unilever.com), the founder William Hesketh Lever promotes its corporate mission that it was to make cleanliness commonplace; to lessen work for women; to foster health and contribute to personal attractiveness, that life may be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products. He actually started his ideas for Sunlight Soap under Lever Bros., a famous soap brand in 1885, for being a pure soap formularized in a village called Sunlight in Liverpool England and it is his revolutionary new product that helped popularize cleanliness and hygiene in Victorian England. In a history that now crosses almost three centuries, Unilever expanded its company to neighbouring countries of United Kingdom such as Romania, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, France and the whole European nations. The success of the company has been influenced by the major events of the day economic boom, world wars, changing consumer lifestyles and advances in technology. Due to the major changes happening in our world, they have created new mission and that is to add vitality to life and create products that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. The ultimate goal of the new products of Unilever in compliance to their mission is to cut the time spent on household chores, enabling people to enjoy food and meet the everyday needs for nutrition and take care of their homes, their clothes and themselves. At present, the Unilever expanded its empire globally by servicing almost 100 countries in the world including the Philippines and they are up to competition to its No.1 competitor that offers the same products and that is the Procter & Gamble.

SURFS EVOLUTION: Surf is the name of a brand of laundry detergents mostly sold in the countries being served by Unilever. The said product offers a variety of laundry detergents such as Surf Lemon (kalamansi), Surf Oxybubbles, Surf Sun Fresh with fabric conditioner, Surf Bleach, and Surfmatic that consumers can choose from depending on his or her desired use of the product like hand washing, soaking and using a washing machine. In the Philippines, the advertisement campaign of Surf Lumen ang wais na misis (Lumen the wise housewife) which primarily promotes the right and wise spending of savings boosts the sales of Surf products. The advertisement campaign reflects the culture of the Philippines and tackles the ordinary life of a Filipino woman having a simple family guided by the mother-in-law of Lumen (Lola Obang) who lives a Catholic doctrine of Christianity as its subliminal messages. Moreover, this powerful campaign led to the replacement of other laundry detergents of Unilever Philippines which is Breeze (from 1993-2002) and Sunlight (1991-1994).

MARKETING STRATEGIES: Marketing Mix The process and the development of relationships by carefully examining the needs and wants of consumers, developing a product or service that satisfies these needs, offering it at a certain price, making it available through a particular place or channel of distribution, and developing a program of promotion or communication to create awareness and interest. The four Ps in marketing mix, product, price, place, and promotion, are present in the marketing strategies of surf products but they focus more in price and promotion where: 1. Product It is given that you must produce a product before introducing it to the masses. In the case of Surf detergents, they introduced one-by-one the varieties of their detergents from Surf bar to the different Surf powders, and at present they also offer Surf fabric conditioner and dishwashing liquid. Guided by discipline of sales promotion and advertising, it reflects that the surf products have a huge demand in the market. 2. Price Compared to other detergent products especially from Procter and Gamble, Surf is less expensive and since the Philippines is a developing country where most people are suffering from poverty, it caters to the capacity of Filipino people to buy the product. It is easy to sell and use direct marketing if you are offering a product with quality but more affordable to the consumers. 3. Place (distribution) Surf is owned by a huge company which is Unilever; its key promotion strategies are the various tie-ups with merchandisers and distributors to retailers or distributing channels that distributes the product to the consumers. The constant general advertisements helped establish brand recall indicating the new products available in the market and the distributing channels where people can buy the products.

4. Promotion The offerings of promos beneficial to the distributors and consumers keep the life of Surf products in the market. The push and pull promotion strategy was used by the Unilever as producer in such a way that they pushed the products to the different distribution channels to the target consumers while the pull effect occur when the success of their advertisement Lumen put a mark in the mind of the consumers. The consumers demand products from distribution channel and the channel demands from the producer. The Unilevers Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) also provide avenue for the Surf products to penetrate and influence the mind of the consumers from being an environment friendly company to putting housing projects for the poor. As a whole, the aim to expand the distribution capabilities and the development in distribution system is common in all competitors to make their products more accessible to all. Hence, it is proposed for Surf to look into further innovation in its distribution capabilities and system to ensure their post in the market thus becoming the No.1 detergent company in the Philippines or in the world. All information in the 4 Ps of marketing mix can be explained further in my SWOT analysis (page 6) which reiterates that combination of different marketing and promotional mix disciplines provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact of the product. Promotional Mix It is the coordination of all seller-initiated efforts to set-up channels of information and persuasion in order to sell goods and services or promote an idea.

Compared to the four Ps of marketing mix, there are at least six tools in promotional mix as shown in the picture that can be utilized by Surf to persuade people in order buy their ideas and products. Since we have different products available in the market, it doesnt necessarily mean that you will utilize all the tools of promotional mix. It is also considered promotional mix even if you only have three of its tools used in your product because some tools are effective to small scale producers and others to giant industry producers. Surf detergents as you analyze its marketing strategy using the promotional mix utilized almost all the tools but they rely much on the capacity of advertising, sales promotion, and publicity/public relations.

1. Advertising in page 2 under Surfs evolution, it is already described that advertising play a very important role in the success of Surf products especially in the Philippines. The country has at least 12 television stations and the two leading stations, ABS-CBN and GMA 7, helped surf products in introducing its idea to the consumers. Lumen phenomena Away from the traditional TV advertisement commercial that creates a need for the consumer, Surf products were introduced by creating an ideology for the masses. It is an ideology which subconsciously penetrates the minds of the viewers creating a message that it is more than just buying a product for needs or satisfaction but implying from its creatively produced advertisements the right and wise spending of savings. The commercial applies the cultivation theory by Gerbner (1973) augmented in the book of Dennis McQuail (1987) Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction which states that: Television, among modern media, has acquired such a central place in daily life that it dominates our symbolic environment, substituting its message about reality for personal experience and other means of knowing about the world. Surfs television commercials/advertisements (TVC) cultivates the ideology that women or mothers in general as target consumers of the product has limited roles of a woman especially in our modern society where she is living. Lumen ang wais na misis (Lumen the wise housewife) is able to maximise her capabilities as a responsible mother in which she can provide for the day-to-day needs of her family with the help of Surf detergent products. It successfully created an image that represents an ideal Filipino woman. 2. Sales promotion is a marketing activity that provides extra value or incentives to the sales force, the distributors, or the ultimate consumer and can stimulate immediate sales. Surf capitalized on this tool to hook the attention of the distribution channels and product consumers. They offer the industry a great incentive in bulk purchases, incorporating product promos like 30% more or increase in the actual weight of the products, free fabric conditioner in every detergent powder, raffle promos such as living room showcase or sari-sari store, house and lot, trips abroad, and cash up to 3 million pesos. Consistency of their extra value and incentives in the marketing and production chain gained an immediate positive feedback to the products consumption system. And through the years, innovation in the products using sales promotion has produced new and improved Surf products.

3. Publicity/public relations Building good relations with the companys publics by obtaining favourable publicity, building up a good corporate image, and handling or heading off unfavourable rumours, stories, and events. Amplified by the promotional mix tools advertising and sales promotions, Surf succeeded in their PR campaigns in promoting an ecologically friendly image and with the help of their company Unilever, theyre claiming to be the leading laundry soap in the country. Surf also uses different strategies to be in limelight by producing activities sponsored by Surf, sponsoring game shows both in ABS-CBN and GMA7, and even following the life of January Isaac known as the Surfs model Lumen ang wais na misis beyond the camera just to create an issue. SURF: ITS FUTURE IN MARKETING: Among the tools in the promotional mix used by Surf, none of the three elements is inherently superior or inferior because they have their own capabilities in reaching their target consumers and they are expected to collaborate and create a web threading the elements present that will capture more the ideals and taste of the consumers or the masses as a whole. Each element has its function in an integrated marketing campaign. With this strategy, the brand SURF will always arise above the others while giving the consumers the chance to get the message and idea that they wanted to relay to them. We are living in a time where the demand for convergence of technology is on its summit and it also shows that our society seems to constantly crave the next level of innovation in information and communication technology. With the use of modern technology, Unilever will always have the chance to improve their products, including Surf, and create promotional campaigns that will reach the target market while achieving their companys main objective to help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

REFERENCES: 1. Campbell, J., An integrated marketing communications plan: photon dynamics, Masters theses, San Jose State University 2. Jones, S., Creative Startegy in Integrated Marketing Communications, Ferris State University 3. McQuail, D., Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction, SAGE publication Ltd, London 4. Pickton, D. and Broderick, A., Integrated Marketing Communications. Pearson Education 5. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Log-Mar/MarketingCommunication.html

SWOT Analysis
Surf is under a big company and one of the leading overall market companies in terms of detergent products which is Unilever. It has its own fabric conditioner that accompanies Surf powder and Surf bar in making your laundry smooth and fragrant. They have different detergent varieties being offered to the people depending on how they want to wash their laundries like Surf bubbles (bula), Surf kalamansi, and Surf bleach for hand washing and using a washing machine. They also formulated a Surf powder intended for washing machine. Considering it as a basic necessity today, it has a strong product distribution network that encompasses both urban and rural areas. Surf has quality product standards, innovative marketing and promotion strategies, and modern production technology. Does well in the bulk order category for distribution channels. It offers low cost suggested retail price to the market for the masses compared to other detergent products (Tide, Ariel, Pride, and etc.). Surf detergents have a chalk component in their powder and bar detergents that soon might affect the brands credibility. Some of the Surf products give allergies and skin problems to people who have sensitive skin. Improvement in the distribution systems among distribution channels like companies, distributors, merchandisers, and retailers should remain quantitative through increased numbers of promos and packages for the benefit of the channels and masses. Surf should capitalize on the increase of population, both national and global, because the more the people, the more the tendency to patronize the product and expand its product distribution. In relation to the population growth, poverty exists and banking in poverty can help Surf to survive in the national or the whole Southeast Asia market because they offer less expensive quality detergent products compared to other products. Big or main competitors are doing its best to be the no.1 in sales and expand their distribution of detergent products in the country. Small scale competitors are looking forward for a constant increase in their production capabilities until they reach the level of the main competitors in detergent products. Detergent products from other countries, regardless if its imported or smuggled, might affect the Surfs product distribution in the market. Merchandisers that illegally repackage the expired or about to expire detergent products and offer them at a low cost price compared to its original retail price. Merchandisers/Vendors that offer fake and sub-standard detergent products that sometimes use existing product names (including Surf) that might result to huge damage in Surfs brand name in the market.

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