VISO BEVERAGE COMPANY PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN PLAN

By Kohl Calhoun

Kohl Calhoun 12/10/12 Principles of PR Final Project

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
Client Identification
The VISO Beverage Company is a privately owned energy drink company that is based in Portland, OR. Founded in 2000 by Alex Ilica, VISO makes a brand of energy drink that not only gives you a more stable, longer lasting caffeine buzz than most energy drinks, but also contains a large amount of the drinkers daily vitamins and minerals (Brinkman, 2008). After producing the first batch of his energy drink in a church kitchen in 2000 and being funded by his parents, Ilicas company reached $1 million in total sales in 2008. VISO is a small company, and currently only employs 15 people ("Viso beverage," 2012). VISOs mission statement is: The VISO Beverage Company is all about making great Energy and Sports drinks (About us, 2012).

External Environment
Due to the content of its products, VISO operates jointly in the energy drink and vitamin water markets (Brinkman, 2008). These markets are very large and dominated by a select few companies with already established names. In the energy drink market, Red Bull and Monster alone made up $3,282,300,000 of the $5,487,100,000 of total energy drink revenue in convenience store sales in 2011 ("Beverages: Specialty beverages," 2012). In the vitamin water market, the undeniable leader, Glacaus Vitaminwater, had over $700 million in sales in 2010

(Mozinski, 2012). These companies have a huge amount of money behind them, and thus are able to market their products very effectively at a national and international level. VISO on the other hand, is still a very small company and its products are only available at the retail level in the Pacific Northwest (About us, 2012). This economic factor not only limits the scale to which VISO can market its products to, but also the amount of advertising that can be purchased due to a small marketing and advertising budget compared to the bigger, more established corporations. Another factor that affects VISO is the general belief that energy drinks are harmful to consumers. A Brown University report on energy drinks states that they can cause dehydration, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and sleep deprivation ("Energy drinks," 2012). Also, the FDA does not review or approve energy drinks before they are sold, which means that it is unknown how bad they really are for you until there is a crisis involving them or someone files a complaint. The individual ingredients in energy drinks also cause controversy. Ingredients such as guarana contains caffeine, which means that the amount of caffeine in the average energy drink containing guarana is even higher than normal. This social stigma is an issue for VISO, as it attempts to market its products as more healthy than the average energy drink.

Business Analysis
VISO has no shortage of competition in the energy drink market. Its most successful competitors are Red Bull GmbH, the Monster Beverage Company and Rockstar Inc. These companies are much larger in comparison to VISO. In 2011, 4.631 billion cans of Red Bull were sold worldwide (Company figures, 2012).

Gross sales for Monster Energy in the 2011 fiscal year totaled $1.950 billion, a 31 percent increase from the previous year ("Monster beverage reports," 2012), while Rockstar sales also topped $1 billion in 2011 as well (Klineman, 2012). Comparatively, VISOs net sales for 2011 totaled $230,000, an incredibly small amount when compared to the titans of the industry. The main threat to VISO is its small size in the industry. As previously stated, while Red Bull, Rockstar and Monster have huge marketing budgets, VISO has to work on a much smaller scale. Another threat is its limited availability outside of the Pacific Northwest. Although one can purchase cases of VISO via the companys website, it can only be purchased at stores in the Northwest, primarily Oregon and Washington. Part of the reason that the bigger companies in the industry are so successful is because of their nearly universal availability, so comparatively VISO has a much smaller current audience to work with. On the other hand, 2011 brought with it a big opportunity for VISO. According to a sales report from Convenience Store Petroleum, a variety of Rockstar branded Rockstar Recovery entered the top 10 best selling energy drinks at convenience stores for 2011 ("Beverages: Specialty beverages," 2012). Rockstar Recovery is advertised as an energy drink that energizes you as well as hydrates you, making it the only energy drink on the top 10 list that advertises a positive health effect. This entry provides an opportunity for VISO, as it shows that energy drink consumers may be looking to try something different than the typical energy drink choices, and also may be looking to try something relatively healthier. This puts VISO in a very good position to capitalize on a potential change, distribution size notwithstanding. The strengths of VISO lie within its size and niche appeal.

Since the company is so small and employs so few people, they can devote a greater amount of its budget to marketing since the money that goes to employee wages is much less than bigger companies. Also, due to its limited availability and non-typical products, it has developed a sort-of cult following in the Northwest and is a popular alternative to the norm in that region.

Target Audience
The target audience that will be used for this campaign is the general energy drink consumers of the state of California. This group generally comprises both men and women ages 15-30. According to a description from edrinks.net, energy drinks appeal to athletes, ravers, night clubbers, daredevils, shift workers, executives, long-distance drivers and the hip-hop crowd ("The energy drink," n.d.). Also, since the advent of products like VISO and Rockstar Recovery, energy drinks have begun to find a niche audience for the more health conscious types. This audience was chosen not only due to the fact that they are already drinking energy drinks, but because they are such an incredibly diverse group of people from many different backgrounds, disciplines and interests. Also, portions of this audience such as the ravers, night clubbers, daredevils and the hip-hop crowd tend to be spontaneous individuals, always looking for the next big thing. This is good for smaller companies such as VISO, since it could lead to an increase in sales. Opinion leaders will be important to this campaign, so the plan is to utilize them greatly. Due to the budget that VISO has for marketing and sponsorships, it is important for VISO to pick leaders that are relatively high profile, but not exactly household names. Good picks for these leaders would be professional boxer Andre Ward and rapper Tyler, The

Creator. Ward is the current WBO, WBC and The Ring super middleweight champion of the world and the former Olympic gold medalist at light heavyweight in the 2004 Athens Summer games (Andre ward, 2012). Ward, who was born in San Francisco, CA and fight out of Oakland, is also a consensus top 3 pound-for-pound best boxer in the world, according to The Ring magazine, Yahoo! Sports and Sports Illustrated. Although he is highly touted and undefeated in his professional career, Ward has yet to achieve mainstream success. Wards last fight against Chad Dawson for all three of his titles was watched by 1.3 million people on HBO (Christ, 2012). Although these numbers are decent, the event was by no means a huge hit that boxers such as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. get with every one of their respective fights. This makes him a perfect person for VISO to sponsor as an opinion leader. As for my other choice, Tyler, The Creator is a rapper and producer born and raised in Los Angeles, CA (Tyler, the creator, 2012). He is the co-founder and de-facto leader of the hi-hop group OFWGKTA, commonly known as Odd Future. In 2011, Tylers breakout song Yonkers won him the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist and he has since collaborated with popular rappers Lil Wayne, Game, Waka Flocka Flame and Pusha T. Tylers sophomore and breakthrough album, Goblin, sold more than 45,000 copies in its first week of availability (Langhorne, 2011) and also peaked at number 5 on Billboard Magazines Top 200 Best selling-albums list that week (Billboard 200, 2011). Although popular among those who heavily consume hip-hop music, he has yet to become a household name in America due to his welldocumented hate for overly commercial music made by artists such as B.o.B., Bruno

Mars and Chris Brown (Tyler, the creator, 2012). His independent credibility and unique style of music meshes well with VISO.

THE PLAN
Goal
The goal of this public relations campaign is to develop demand and steady sales of VISOs products in California. This goal was chosen because VISO and its products arent well known outside of the northwest and the state of California, which according to 7-Eleven.com is home to more of the popular convenience store than any other state at 1,200 (Fun facts, 2012), is the most logical place to start its campaign due to its large number of people and proximity to VISOs home state of Oregon.

Objectives
For this campaign, diffusion theory will be used for the objectives, strategies and tactics. According to the fourth edition of Public Relations: The Profession & the Practice, diffusion is a theory that people adapt an idea after going through five stages: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption (Lattimore, Baskin, Heiman & Toth, 2012). Due to the nature of the products, multiple steps in the diffusion process, like awareness and interest as well as evaluation and trial, can be combined into one step. This is due to the fact that finding out about a new energy drink can cause both awareness and interest at the same time. Likewise, drinking a new energy drink encompasses both evaluation and trial, since the drinker will be deciding if the drink is for them while drinking it. The first objective of this

campaign is to raise awareness and interest of the company and its products to 150,000 energy drink consumers in California. Given the previously stated small budget that VISO has marketing and public relations, 150,000 is a solid number for the initial push into this new market. The other objective that this campaign is striving for is to attain a 50 percent adoption rate for those in our target audience that reached the awareness/interest stage of the diffusion process. Given the size of the campaign, if VISO can create 75,000 regular users in the initial push into the California energy drink market, this campaign will be a success.

Strategies
Objective #1: Raise awareness and interest of VISO and its products to 150,000 energy drink consumers in California. The strategies that will be used to accomplish this objective are to use sponsorships of the opinion leaders identified in the target market section to raise awareness and interest to a large number of the target market in two distinct markets in California: The Los Angeles Metropolitan area and the San Francisco Bay Area. Due to the differences in these two areas and the two opinion leaders, there will be a similar strategy for each area, yet the tactics will be implemented differently, thus making the strategies for both areas distinctly a separate strategy. These two areas were chosen because they are the two largest combined statistical areas (CSA) in the state of California according to a July, 2011 estimate by the United States Census Bureau (List of combined, 2012). Due to the large amount of people, and therefore a large number of potential target audience members, the L.A. Metro and San

Francisco Bay areas are the natural areas for the first push into the general California market. Also, the opinion leaders from these areas, although known nationwide, are strongly associated with their respective cities, giving them a place of influence not only for the area in general, but specifically to the target market in those areas. Objective #2: Attain a 50 percent adoption rate for those in our target audience that reached the awareness/interest stage of the diffusion process. The strategies that will be used to accomplish this objective are to use uncontrolled media in the two previously identified two markets in California to emphasize the benefits of drinking VISO. As stated in the previous objective, the differences in these two areas will lead to a similar strategy for each area, yet the tactics will be implemented differently, thus making the strategies for both areas distinctly different. These strategies were chosen so that the target market, which will become aware of VISO through the strategies described for the first objective, will have an incentive to purchase the companys products when they discover the health benefits of drinking VISO compared to other energy drinks. The reason that the two areas are relevant to these strategies, other than the previously mentioned population reasons, is because both Los Angeles and San Francisco are generally known for being very health conscious and forward thinking, liberal areas. This is good for VISO since its products, on paper, mesh better in these areas than the typical energy drink.

Tactics
Strategy #1: Use sponsorships of opinion leaders to raise awareness and interest to a large number of the target market in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. The first tactic to implement for this strategy is for VISO to sponsor Tyler, The Creator. This means that Tyler will have VISO products in hand at his public appearances, such as concerts, award shows, on the Odd Future television show Loiter Squad on Adult Swim and any other television appearances such as talk shows. This will raise the profile of VISO significantly to Tylers audience, which fits in the target market of this campaign. The next tactic that will be utilized for this campaign is using Tyler and Odd Futures rabid self-promotion and fan base to spread the word of VISO. For example, Supreme, a street wear clothing brand based in Los Angeles, is a sponsor of Tylers due to the close connection that he and the owners of the company developed over the years (drineee, 2012). Tyler is also notorious for mentioning the clothing brand in his songs. Since his rise to fame in 2010 and 2011, the amount of Google searches for the brand has increased significantly, rising steadily between July of 2010 and April of 2012, the month that saw more searches for the brand than any other month in the search engines history ("Interest over time," 2012). Although there could be other reasons for the increased interest in Supreme, the fact that its rise corresponded with Tylers rise to fame seems like proof enough that the rappers constant shout-outs of the brand have led to its increased profile. It can be assumed that if Tyler uses a

similar strategy with VISO that he has with Supreme, VISO too could see a rise in interest about the brand and its products. Strategy #2: Use sponsorships of opinion leaders to raise awareness and interest to a large number of the target market in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first tactic to implement for this strategy is for VISO to sponsor Andre Ward. This means that Ward will have VISO products in hand at public events he attends, such as press conferences, public appearances to hype any fights he may have coming up, weigh-ins for said fights and post-fight interviews in the ring. This will raise the profile of VISO to Wards fans and to boxing fans in particular, especially since the more big fights Ward receives, which should increase due to his high pound-for-pound ranking, the more people will tune in to see his fights. The second tactic that will be implemented for this strategy is to produce a weekly video blog featuring Ward that will also be sponsored by VISO, called VISO presents: WardWeekly. This series will be available on YouTube on both VISOs channel and also on a new WardWeekly channel that will be created for the series. This series will feature Wards activities throughout the week, for example him training, sparring, hanging out and all of his activities throughout the Bay Area. All this will require is a camcorder and editing software, which can be purchased for under $1,000. This series will be a stipulation in his sponsorship contract, but since being a professional boxing champion already requires one to be available to the media and in front of cameras a lot anyways, this small extra commitment shouldnt be an issue for him.

Strategy #3: Use uncontrolled media in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area to emphasize the benefits of drinking VISO. The first tactic to implement for this strategy is to send a press release to the

alternative newspaper LA Weekly, a Pulitzer Prize winning publication that currently reaches 160,128 people in the Los Angeles area (La weekly, 2012). The niche nature of VISO fits in perfectly with the typical reporting style of alternative newspapers, which often do reviews on new and exciting products in the area. The press release will detail VISOs new availability in the L.A. area and make sure to emphasize the health benefits of drinking VISO compared to other energy drinks and also emphasize the fact that VISO is a new, upstart company. The trendy, healthy types in L.A. that read LA Weekly comprise a large amount of the target market chosen for this campaign. Assuming a story about VISO makes it to publication, the circulation of LA Weekly is over the 150,000 people who were identified in the first objective, which would be great to not only inform people about VISO, but also to explain the benefits of the products and background of the company to a city that sees rags to riches stories every year. The second tactic that will be implemented for this strategy will be sending press releases via email to the editors of the health and living sections of The Los Angeles Times, with the intent of the stories published about VISO being featured solely online. The press release will feature the same content as the one sent to LA Weekly, however this one will be sent with the intent at getting the story online as opposed to the print version. In this initial push into the new market, it is to much to hope that VISO can produce anything deemed newsworthy enough

to make it into the print version of the fourth most circulated daily newspaper in the country (List of newspapers, 2012). Making it onto the Los Angeles Times website in either the health or living section is much more achievable at this stage, and would actually be more beneficial in the long run, since the target market of this campaign is much more likely to read their news online rather than in a traditional daily newspaper in the first place. Also, the online version of the story is available basically on demand and for free to a much larger audience. The same benefits that were identified in the LA Weekly tactic are applicable here. Strategy #4: Use uncontrolled media in the San Francisco Bay Area to emphasize the benefits of drinking VISO. The first tactic to implement for this strategy will be to send a press release to the alternative newspaper The San Francisco Bay Guardian, a free weekly publication that currently reaches 106,708 people in San Francisco and the Bay Area at large (The san francisco, 2012). Much like with LA Weekly, the niche nature of VISO fits in perfectly with the typical reporting style of alternative newspapers. Like the last tactics, the press release will detail VISOs new availability in the Bay Area and make sure to emphasize the health benefits of drinking VISO compared to other energy drinks, while also emphasizing the fact that VISO is a new, upstart company. The forward thinking, health conscious liberal types that read The Guardian make up a large percentage of the target market for this campaign that lives in the Bay Area. Once again assuming that this story makes it to publication, The Guardians current circulation makes up a

large amount of the 150,000 people that were identified in the first objective, which would be great to not only inform people about VISO, but also to explain the health benefits to a population that is known for being extremely health conscious and forward thinking. The second tactic that will be implemented for this strategy will be sending press releases via email to the editors of the food and living sections of The San Francisco Chronicle, with the intent of the stories published about VISO being featured solely online. The press release will feature the same content as the one sent to The Guardian, however this one will be sent with the intent at getting the story online as opposed to the print version. Getting a story about VISO into the print edition of the Chronicle would be much more manageable than the Los Angeles Times since it is currently the 23rd most circulated daily newspaper in the country (List of newspapers, 2012) while the Oregonian, the 19th most circulated paper in the nation, ran a story on VISO in 2008 (Brinkman, 2008). However, due to the target market of this campaign being far more likely to seek their news online rather than in a traditional newspaper, it would be much more beneficial for VISO to aim to get its story posted on the web. Also, the online version of the story is available basically on demand and for free to a much larger audience. The same benefits that were identified in The Guardian tactic are applicable here.

Evaluation
Overall, the campaigns success will be evaluated via sales of VISO products in California. In addition to this, each bottle of VISO sold in California will include a URL and QR code to an online survey. Everyone who takes the survey will be entered to win a free Apple iPad Mini. Website hits for the survey and amount of surveys submitted will be tracked to evaluate the success of the campaign. Also, there will be an individual evaluation technique for each of the tactics listed above. Tactic #1: Sponsor Los Angeles based rapper Tyler, The Creator.

To track the amount of people who witnessed Tyler with VISO products at his many public appearances, Neilson ratings on any television appearances he makes will be tracked. In addition to this, attendance at his concerts and award shows that he performs at will be tracked via comparing ticket sales to the capacity of the venues he performs at while in the L.A. area. Tactic #2: Use Tyler and Odd Futures rabid self-promotion and fan base to spread the word about VISO. To track the effect of Tylers mentions of VISO, Google Trends and Google Alerts will be utilized to track how many times VISO is searched and for every instance where someone on the internet is talking about VISO. Also, social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler and Pintrest will be used to track the amount of mentions and the response to VISO. Tactic #3: Sponsor Bay Area based boxer Andre Ward.

Much like with Tyler, to track the amount of people who witnessed Ward with VISO products at his public appearances, Neilson ratings for his press-conferences,

weigh-ins, fights and any HBO or Showtime specials that run about him will be tracked. In addition, the attendance for his fights will be tracked by comparing ticket sales to the capacity of the venues that he fights in. Tactic #4: Produce a weekly video blog featuring Ward that will also be sponsored by VISO, called VISO presents: WardWeekly. To track how many people see this weekly, the amount of views on YouTube for each video will be counted. To track the response to the series, likes and dislikes for each video will be tracked as well. Due to the notoriously inflammatory nature of the comment section of any given YouTube video, comments will be largely ignored unless found constructive. Tactic #5: Send a press release to the alternative newspaper LA Weekly emphasizing the health benefits of drinking VISO. The obvious way to track the success of this tactic is first off, see if the story was published. Once that happens, tracking the sales of LA Weekly the week the story comes out will be the way to evaluate the success of the article, along with tracking social media response and mentions in the Los Angeles area in the week that the story is published. Tactic #6: Send press releases via email to the editors of the health and living sections of The Los Angeles Times, with the intent of the stories published about VISO being featured solely online. Once again, the obvious way to track the success of this tactic is to see if the story/stories are posted online. After this happens, website views of the story will

be the way to evaluate the success of the article. Once again social media response and mentions in the L.A. area will be tracked.

Tactic #7: Send a press release to the alternative newspaper The San Francisco Bay Guardian emphasizing the health benefits of drinking VISO.

The obvious way to track the success of this tactic is first off, see if the story was published. Once that happens, tracking the sales of The Guardian the week the story comes out will be the way to evaluate the success of the article, along with tracking social media response and mentions in the Bay Area in the week that the story is published. Tactic #8: Send press releases via email to the editors of the health and living sections of The San Francisco Chronicle, with the intent of the stories published about VISO being featured solely online. Once again, the obvious way to track the success of this tactic is to see if the story/stories are posted online. After this happens, website views of the story will be the way to evaluate the success of the article. Once again social media response and mentions in the Bay Area will be tracked.

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Lattimore, D., Baskin, O., Heiman, S. T., & Toth, E. L. (2012). Public realtions: The profession & the practice. (4th ed., pp. G-2). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. List of combined statistical areas. In (2012). Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/b2lpfvk List of newspapers in the united states by circulation. In (2012). Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/3cvcqs Monster beverage reports record 2011 fourth quarter and full year financial results. (2012, February 23). Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/aqznmpy Mozinski, E. (2012, March 18). Splash down. Telegraph Hearld. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/aj3z2gp The energy drink market. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/ar6z5ed The san francisco bay guardian. In (2012). Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/365cq4 Tyler, the creator. In (2012). Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/3rq9p5r Viso beverage. (2012, June 30). Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/3ve7ajj (2012). Beverages: Specialty beverages. Convenience Store Petroleum, Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/ayzssrd