BBSG4103

OUM BUSINESS SCHOOL

JANUARY 2019

BBSG4103

MARKETING MANAGEMENT & STRATEGY

ASSIGNMENT 1

MATRICULATION NO : 930312085578002
IDENTITY CARD NO. : 930312085578
TELEPHONE NO. : 0103822852
E-MAIL : komalkhera@gmail.com
LEARNING CENTRE : PERAK LEARNING CENTER
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Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3

2.0 Secret Recipe Communication Objectives and “Appropriate” Communication Goals..............4

3.0 Factors Influencing Media Selection................................................................................................5

4.0 Advertising a Wise Choice?..............................................................................................................6

5.0 Ways to Generate Buzz with Less Requiring of Money................................................................7

5.1 Sales Promotion........................................................................................................................7

5.2 Public Relations (PR)...............................................................................................................8

5.3 Guerrilla Marketing..................................................................................................................8

6.0 Pull Strategy........................................................................................................................................9

7.0 Budgeting Approach........................................................................................................................10

8.0 Summary...........................................................................................................................................11

9.0 References...........................................................................................................................................12

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1.0 Introduction

The study presents an integrated marketing communication plan (IMC) for the fast-food chain
named Secret Recipe, originating from Malaysia, which has just opened its new outlets in
Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia. In order to get its fair share in the market, the
firm spent all its marketing expenditures through advertising its products in popular TV shows in
Saudi. Nevertheless, the price of advertising is pricey, where the advertising clipped can only be
presented 3 times for a 30 second advertising clip. On the other hand, KFC and McDonald’s,
which is recognized as the “big bosses” on block spent SAR350 million and SAR600 million
respectively in order to promote their ad effort. In order to maintain and compete with the new
kid on the block, they boosted their advertising campaign to maintain and mark their dominance
in the market. Unfortunately, Secret Recipe had been stumped without any promotional left,
therefore, it needs to act fast to catch up with the market.

Marketing is a vital activity of in an organization in order to survive and expand. With a view to
increasing product as good as brand awareness, not merely a single marketing activity, but also a
mixture of different strategies is needed. Therefore, IMC is considered a useful and efficient
solution for companies. IMC mix includes different elements, such as direct marketing,
advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations (PR), sponsorship and a great deal
more. Nevertheless, when applying to the reality of a business, flexible combination of
appropriate strategies is essential in producing an effective communication program. Integrated
marketing communications (IMC) is the use of marketing strategies to optimize the
communication of a consistent message of the company's brands to stakeholders (Kitchen and
Burgmann, 2015). Coupling methods together improves communication as it harnesses the
benefits of each channel, which when combined together builds a clearer and vaster impact than
if used individually (Pitta et al., 2006). As opined by Dahl et al., (2015), IMC requires marketers
to identify the boundaries around the promotional mix elements and to consider the effectiveness
of the campaign's message.

In this paper, the communication objectives and “appropriate” communication goals of Secret
Recipe which includes creating awareness of the existence of the product, deliver information

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and knowledge, creating interest and preference and taking actions to encourage buyers are
discussed. Also, the factor of media selection that the Secret Recipe emphasize of that includes
the message needs and requirements, target audience, the nature of the competition as well as the
nature of the product are also briefed on the details. Besides, this paper also answered whether
advertisement is a wise choice chosen by the fast food chain and several other ways that could
generate buzz with low cost. Other than that, Secret Recipe has also been identified in using a
pull strategy and competitive parity method of budgeting approach which is explained in detail.

2.0 Secret Recipe Communication Objectives and “Appropriate” Communication Goals

One of the objectives that Secret Recipe delivers is awareness of the existence of their product.
The fast food chain restaurant was trying to create and develop awareness among consumers, as
they are probably not aware and have not experienced high involvement of the Secret Recipe
products. If only, the consumers experience high involvement and is fully cognizant of the
product’s existence, attention and awareness levels, thus, the restaurant products only need to
keep up, and efforts need to be applied to other communication tasks, which may be best left to
the other components of the communications mix. For example, sales promotion and personal
selling would be more effective at informing, persuading and provoking purchase of their
cuisine, once advertising has created the necessary levels of awareness. Thus, it is not surprising
that Secret Recipe uses awareness campaigns and invest a large amount of their resources in
building their trade name or corporate name. Many brands try to establish ‘top of mind
awareness’ as one of their chief objectives of their ad spending.

Next, Secret Recipe was also aiming to deliver information and knowledge to the audience
about their product, and this can be achieved by providing specific details about key brand
attributes. This means that the audience needs to be educated about the products. the change and
show how the use of the product may be affected. For example, in attempting to persuade people
to try a different cuisine and beverages of the restaurant, it may be necessary to provide
additional or specialty of Secret Recipe in which the “big bosses” does not provide.

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Having established that a product has particular attributes that lead to benefits perceived by the
target audience as important, it is then necessary to establish a sense of conviction. Buyers are
moved to a position where they are convinced that one particular product should be tried at the
next opportunity by initiating interest and preference. To answer this, the audience’s beliefs
about the product need to be molded and this can be carried out by using messages that establish
a product’s superiority over its main rival or by emphasizing the rewards conferred as a
consequence of utilizing the product. For example, the reward of self-gratification associated
with Secret Recipe product that they provide. High-involvement decisions are best supported
with sales promotion activities.

A communications plan is applied to encourage buyers to engage in purchase activity.

Advertising can be directive and guide buyers into certain behavioral outcomes, for example,
direct mail activities and reply cards and coupons. However, for high-involvement decisions, the
most effective tool in the communications mix at this stage in the hierarchy is personally related.
Secret Recipe may use public relations method to establish and maintain relationships with the
target audience and media. Common responsibilities include coming up with communications
campaigns, writing news releases and other content for news, working with the press, arranging
interviews for company spokespeople, writing speeches for company leaders, media interviews
and speeches, writing website and social media content and marketing activities like brand
awareness.

3.0 Factors Influencing Media Selection

Any advertising media must deliver the message in an appropriate form to the audience. Thus,
the media choice takes into consideration those characteristics of media that relate to message
needs and audience needs or requirements. Secret Recipe has an emphasis on the media reach,
which is generally regard reaching specific audiences efficiently. For instance, from all types of
media, Secret Recipe chose advertisement as they assumed they may reach and exposed their
product to different persons or large amount of audience. However, this concept is based on the
assumption that one exposure to an advertisement may not be enough to convey the desired

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message (Belch and Belch, 2003). The advertisement must be exposed to reach the consumer and
repeated exposure to positive emotions, reinforces product (Belch and Belch, 2003).
Target audience consists of the total number of people reached by the medium. The advertiser
has to apprehend the quantity of individual that are reached by a television station or a magazine
publication to create a practical judgment of a medium’s potential effectiveness. The advertiser
will also wish to know the degree of interest that individuals have in the program and how
closely the characteristic of the medium’s audience match the profile of the target market. Most
media provide the advertiser with data in their audiences categorized by demographic
characteristics (Kotler and Keller, 2009). For instance, Secret Recipe chose the popular TV show
to advertise their product as the show might be watch by most of the audience.

The nature of the competition exerts greater influence of the selection of the media as well.
Secret Recipe had to confront a violent competition with KFC and McDonald as the big boys
who dropped a great sum of cash for adds. Thus, Secret Recipe needed to receive its fair share of
the market and boost their products as well. In many cases, where the advertising copy is
similar or the choice of the media solely determines the effectiveness of the campaign as
compared with that of the other competitors.

Furthermore, Secret Recipe emphasis on their nature of the product, the intended objectives
and strategies and the primary and secondary target markets and audiences as they choose
advertising in a popular TV show. Via advertising, their products were capable to be
demonstrated with explanation, visualization and colour in order to attract audience. As opined
Chau (n.d), advertising is not that original. For me, it's,' How can I put all the things together,
combine and mix it into something that's unique?' And sometimes when I really need to think,
personally, I need a cigarette.

4.0 Advertising a Wise Choice?

Television is often known as the "king" of advertising media, since a majority of people spend
hours watching TV per day than paying attention to any other medium that exists. It merges the
use of sight, color, sound and motion and it works. TV has proven its persuasive force in

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determining human behavior time and time again and it's likewise the "king" of advertising costs.
Nonetheless, TV has such a larger Area of Dominant Influence (ADI), the stations can charge
more for commercials based on the large number of viewers reached. The monetary value of
television commercial time is founded on two variables which is, the number of viewers who
watch the program and the time during the day the program airs.

In summary, television audiences have become more sophisticated and have come to expect
quality commercials. A poorly produced commercial could severely limit the strength of the
message and may even create a bad image in customer's mind. Ad agencies or TV commercial
production facilities are the best systems for making a commercial that will be effective for the
commodities or service the company is offering, but the monetary value of a well-produced
commercial is often more expensive. More than anything else, when it comes in making a TV
commercial, the client gets what they pay for. Therefore, when Secret Recipe is buying
commercial time for only 3 times for a 30-second TV spot costing all of their marketing
expenditures, it shows that their advertising is not a wise choice to have the best sales
presentation possible. For instance, like radio, the message comes and goes and that's it. Thus,
the audience will not be able to watch their commercial again after 3 times unless there is more
budget allocated.

5.0 Ways to Generate Buzz with Less Requiring of Money

There are some other ways that Secret Recipe could generate buzz with less necessity of money,
that includes:

5.1 Sales Promotion

Sales promotion represents a mixture of techniques used to perk up the purchase of a

product or brand. Sales promotion encompasses a plan of action, rather than strategic role
in marketing communications and brand scheme, it is likewise a sort of advertisement used
within a short period of time. Every company wants to increase the sale of goods that they
deal in. They can take up various ways for that role. “Win a tour to Europe”, “30% extra in

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a pack of one kg”, “scratch the card and win a prize” and a lot more are few of the
techniques used. Other exchange offers for instance, in exchange of existing models of
television and in return, getting a new model at a reduced price. Secret Recipe can adopt
these incentives to increase the sale of their goods. For example, provide coupons, freebies,
point of purchase displays, premiums, awards, merchandise samples, and rebates, where all
these measures can motivate the customers to buy more and thus, it increases sales of the
merchandise.

5.2 Public Relations (PR)

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information between an
individual or an organization such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit
organization and the public (Grunig et al., 1984). Public relations may include an
organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public
interest and news items that do not require direct payment (Seitel and Fraser, 2007). It is an
idea of creating coverage for clients for free, rather than marketing or advertising. An
example of good public relations would be generating an article featuring Secret Recipe’s
products, rather than paying for an advertising company to advertise the products next to
an article. Moreover, Secret Recipe should also attract attention to their new products or
service by holding special events, such as interviews, seminars, exhibitions and
competitions to reach the consumer as well as establishing a positive image by becoming
involved in whatever public service activities.

Thus, Secret Recipe can include PR for the company’s growth and creating buzz.
Following out a PR plan enables the company to build their brand identity in a pragmatic,
cost-effective manner and helps to market their business in various significant ways. For
example, creating awareness, draws in new customers and a lot more. It also can regain the
customer satisfaction of prospective customer through the reliable information given and
also give a positive impression about the products offered which are suitable for their
needs, desires, concerns and interests.

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5.3 Guerrilla Marketing

Some other approach that Secret Recipe can adopt is the Guerrilla marketing. It is an
advertisement strategy to advertise products or services on the streets or other public
positions with small amount of money. This involves getting the attention of the public
(Creative guerrillamarketing.com, n.d). Guerrilla marketing is done in public places such
as shopping centers, parks or beaches to attract a big audience (Goldberg and Lena, 2014).
Secret Recipe may place digital billboard that is projected at night onto the side of a
building without permission of the governing bodies such as council permits, or the
permission from the owner of the building around the town. It is an alternative strategy and
is about taking the consumer by surprise to make a big impression about the brand (What is
Guerrilla Marketing, 2015), this in turn creates buzz regarding the brand or product being
marketed. It is a how advertising increases engagement with the merchandise or service,
and is designed to create a memorable experience for the consumer.

By making this a memorable experience for the consumer, it also increases the likeliness
that a consumer, or person who interacted with the campaign will inform their
acquaintances about it and via word of mouth the product or service being advertised
reaches a bunch more people than initially foreseen and means it has mass of audience.
The majority of them who have implemented the guerrilla and street marketing strategies
are small companies, but nowadays, there are also big companies that are involved in this
strategy.

6.0 Pull Strategy

The goal of pull strategy is to get the customers to come with the products, hence the term pull,
where marketers are attempting to pull customers in. Common sales ways used for pull
marketing include mass media promotions, word-of-mouth referrals and sales marketing. From a
business perspective, pull marketing attempts to create brand loyalty and keep customers coming
back, whereas push marketing is more concerned with short-term sales. In this case, Secret
Recipe used advertisement to advertise their products in order to raise awareness about their

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product to attract customers. The utilization of a pull strategy provides a competitive advantage
to all firms which have created amazing value over the years.

Therefore, the fast food chain restaurant that wants to build a name for itself has to concentrate
on pull strategy. As the buzz increases and people get affixed to the television and their
smartphones, marketing will become tougher. At such times, unique methods with right
strategies will have to be implemented to create value and to attract the customers and
communicate the value to these customers.

7.0 Budgeting Approach

Money is the backbone of all organizations. The budget should be in conformity with the aims
and the chosen media. The budgeting approach that Secret Recipe used was competitive parity
method. Many companies base their advertising expenditure to vie with their rivals or their
competitors. The information concerning this can be found in business magazines, journals and
annual reports of the company. They do not only try to accept the same expenditure but also try
to choose the media accordingly. In order to match with the competitor, they also choose the
media vehicle and the frequency of advertisement. Firms believe that by adopting this method
they can attain the optimal expenditure to lead to stability in the market space. For instance,
Secret Recipe, which also employed the same method of promotional strategy as McDonald and
KFC.

This method may ignore the objectives of the society and concentrate solely on competitive
advertising. It may also ignore the other aspects like the creativity and the role of media. The
effect of expenditure is known after the advertisement has been released and one does not know
the next move of the competitor for expenses on the advertising and promotion. Therefore, for
new players in the market, following this kind of a model might prove disastrous. They will have
to be compelled with huge opportunity costs to be able to match up to the advertising and
branding budgets of existing big players in the market. This might prove destructive to their
financial health and therefore, lead them into huge losses. For new entrants, such as Secret
Recipe in Saudi Arabia, this kind of budgeting is not always advisable unless the market itself is

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very new and still in its nascent stages, in which case it makes sense as all the competitors are
relatively new too.

8.0 Summary

The main focal point of this paper has been on the integrated marketing communication of Secret
Recipe which is a new kid on the block of Saudi Arabia, which was contextualized by
commencing with a brief overview on communication objectives. This was succeeded by the
factors influencing media selection emphasized by the restaurant and in general, advertising is
not a wise choice made, by taking account the cost of it. The promotional element of the
marketing mix consists of the various means that are used to achieve the communication
objectives. The explanation of the promotional element included discussions on the tools used by
Secret Recipe in developing the promotional mix, namely advertising, public relations, sales
promotions and guerilla marketing. In addition, the pull strategy, utilized by Secret Recipe was
also mentioned. In the competitive world, budget plays a crucial function to an organization’s
survival and development. Budget is majorly performed to control the cost and maximizing the
profit of the organization, thus, the competitive parity method was explained.

(3086 words)

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9.0 References

Belch, G. E., & Belch M. A. (2003). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing
Communications Perspective (6th ed). Boston: McGraw Hill. Retrieved: March 5, 2019
from http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/12212/ABSTRACT.pdf?
sequence=3

Chau, E (n.d). Business Insider. Retrieved: March 5, 2019 from

https://www.businessinsider.com/15-quotes-about-creativity-2014-5/?IR=T

Dahl, S., Low, D., & Eagle, L. (2015). Integrating marketing communications and social
marketing: Together for a common good? Journal of Social Marketing., 5(3), 226-240.
Retrieved: March 8, 2019 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_communications

Goldberg & Lena G. (2014). "Taryn Rose Launches Dresr: Street Marketing a Luxury Brand -
Case - Harvard Business School". Hbs.edu. Retrieved: March 8, 2019 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing

Grunig, James E; Hunt, & Todd (1984). Managing Public Relations (6th ed.), Orlando, FL:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Retrieved: March 2, 2019 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relation

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Kitchen, P., & Burgmann, I. (2015). "Integrated marketing communications: Making it work at a
strategic level". Journal of Business Strategy. 36 (4), 34–39. Retrieved: March 7, 2019
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_communications

Pitta, D. A., Weisgal, M., & Lynagh, P. (2006). Integrating exhibit marketing into integrated
marketing communications. Journal of Consumer Marketing., 23 (3), 156-166.
Retrieved: March 11, 2019 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_communications

Seitel, Fraser P. (2007), The Practice of Public Relations. (10th ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Prentice Hall. Retrieved: March 5, 2019 from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations

"What Is Guerrilla Marketing?" (n.d). Creative guerrillamarketing.com. Retrieved: March 5,

2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing

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