Promotional Strategies

Walls by Unilever Pakistan

Introduction
Its not enough for a business to have a good product sold at attractive prices but to generate maximum sales & profit, besides the benefit of product have to be communicated to customers. In marketing this is commonly known as Promotion. Promotion is all about companies communicating with customers. A businesss total Marketing communication program is called Promotional Mix & consist a blend of Advertising, Personal selling, sales promotion, Public relation tools & Direct mailing.
PROMOTIONAL TOOLS Advertising Personal Selling Sales Promotion Publicity PROMOTION STRATEGIES Push & Pull Strategy Mix Strategies Product Life Cycle

Developing Your Promotional Strategy

Developing an effective promotional strategy demands more than just being aware of the tools of promotion. Promotion is an ongoing process that requires planning. Strategy is a careful plan. The following steps for developing an effective promotional strategy are:
Establishing Your Identity Developing a theme Identify your target Audience Establishing your objectives Developing your message content, Structure & formate Choosing your delivery System Evaluation Put into Action Stage

Company Introduction
The area in which we are interested is food and beverages. Unilever is one of the largest companies of this field and is a subsidiary of Proctor and Gamble (P&G). Unilever has many consumer products. Some of its popular brands are Surf Excel, Dove, Lux, Knorr, Brooke Bond, Lipton, Fair & Lovely, WALLS, Dalda, and Sun Silk etc. LBPL started its operations in 1948. And presently its headquarters is at Avari Towers Karachi. LBPL was incorporated as an independent Unilever company in 1955. Lever brothers have a sizzling market share of 60% in Pakistan. And their field of business includes Tea, Detergents, Personal hygiene, Edible fats, Consumer products and Ice cream.

Company History
Lever Brothers Pakistan Ltd. is a subsidiary branch of British Company UniLever. Unilever established in 1880 in Britain. Its founder was SIR LORD LEVER. Its has a chain of directors, which are responsible for its management. Its head office is in London. It's started its business in Indo-Pak Subcontinent in 1888 with the name of Hindustan Lever Brothers. After the independence of Pakistan, Lever Brothers with name the of Lever Brother Pakistan Ltd. Started its business in Pakistan 1949. First product they manufactured in Pakistan was sunlight Washing Soap. They started manufacturing Edible Oil in Rahim Yar Khan in 1952 and soon started manufacturing of Lux after two years.

Mission
Vitality is at the heart of everything we do. It's in our brands, our people and our approach to business.

Vision
The four pillars of our vision set out the long term direction for the company where we want to go and how we are going to get there:
We work to create a better future every day We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. We will inspire people to take small everyday actions that can add up to a big difference for the world. We will develop new ways of doing business with the aim of doubling the size of our company while reducing our environmental impact.

Walls
Walls came to Pakistan in 1995 establishing the Walls factory on Multan Road in Lahore. Fully equipped with state of the art machinery, the Walls factory is a standard of hygiene and technology in the region and has become synonymous with quality. In 1998 Walls acquired Polka, a local ice cream manufacturer. Some of the most popular brands loved by the masses were now linked to Walls; making an irresistible combination that few could refuse. Key facts about Walls Pakistan: Walls is the market leader of the Pakistani Ice cream market. All Walls products are Halal and are made with Halal ingredients in a Halal compliant manner

SWOT
Strength
Financially Strong. Wide distribution, due to establish distribution channels. High Quality Good image in the mind of Customer. Aggressive Promotion scheme's.

Weakness
Pure milk is not used in ice cream There is no variation in Taste.

 Opportunities
Gap in Mkt. for diet ice cream, which Wall's can cover because they are more, establish than other's. Walls proves itself to be quality oriented product and maintain good taste and standard, than it would be able to create a strong position in all (Pakistan) for a long period of time.

Threats
Omore is also new comer, but rapidly increase in their Market share is a big threat for Wall's

Promotional Strategies
Our aim is to spark the taste and feeling of summer in everyones day.
Life is there to be enjoyed and we are the fun part of vitality. We constantly provide new products and experiences that excite the senses and inspire people of all ages to 'taste the fun side of life--Promotion Statement.

Promotional strategies of WALLs ice-cream is consistent. It uses Pull strategy for promoting its product because WALLs spent a lot on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand.

 There are two main distribution strategies which are

Pull strategy Push strategy

Walls have very effectively used both of there strategies and its distribution plan has elements of both of them.

Push Strategy
Features of push strategy include incentives like free deep freezers, discounts on bulk purchases and eligibility for schemes such as free camera tickets based on specific columns of ice creams sole.

Pull Strategy
Pull strategy is supported by advertising campaign that reminds and persuades customers to buy ice cream. This is facilitated by price off which are frequently offered by the company.

Promotional Tools
Following promotional tools are used by walls. Advertising Sales promotion Publicity

Advertising
The theme of advertisement varies with the product image and positioning. But walls follow the same theme internally. The advertisement run on TV are made in for foreign countries but now they hire Nori, Call the band & other prominent stars for their promotion.

The objectives of advertising are the three basic areas which include informing persuading and reminding about different brands of walls.
Mediums: Electronic media Print media Outdoors

Sales Promotion
WALLS has been going a number of sales promotion activities like the:

1- Cycling System: WALLS started its cycling system for awareness but after that its task was modified into doing sales promotions for the company. And also cycling system has proved excellent in terms of sales and promotion. 2- Discount Coupons: WALLS launches very low price products for the purpose of both market expansion and sales promotion. Like Solo for Rs.2 and Liter pack for Rs.45 was also to boost sales. 3- Discounts and Offerings: Walls offered 5% discount in off-season.

 Public Relations
For strengthening itself in relationship markets WALLS is not only going for customer satisfaction but also stressing upon building strong public relations.

1. Customers
Price discounts Quantity discounts

2. Distributors
Shares 50% of the distributors' expenses Off season discounts: 5%

3. Retailers
Free freezers to retailers Investment on each retailer: Rs. 22,000 Free freezers maintenance

4. Street Vendors
Free Trikes To strengthen its relationship with the various public and customers WALLs sponsors an Art exibition.

Promotional budget
One of the hardest marketing decisions facing a company is how much to spend on promotion. How des a company decide on its promotion budget: WALLs ice-cream uses Objective-and-Task Method to set its budget for promotional activities. This budgeting method entails (1) defining specific promotion objectives, (2) determining the tasks needed to achieve these objectives, and (3) estimating the cost of performing these tasks. The sum of these costs is the proposed promotion budget. Walls determine its specific tasks to achieve its objectives which are defined by the companys management, to achieve these objectives WALLs estimates the costs of different tasks, which are to be done to promote its products.

Conclusion
Wall's select to promote its product, personal selling, advertising, and sales promotion. For personal selling it introduced "SPDs", for advertising, and sales promotion it used printed and electronic media. Advertisement of Wall's are eye catching and attractive. Through advertising it informs the consumer about new brands and flavors. For sales promotion Wall's introduced different Schemas which are:
In solo ice cream, one ice cream piece is free in the packet. In max-cup the Wall's gives bubble gum free. The Wall's launch the scheme for 15% extra in top ten. In family pack i-e King Kulfa, Mango or Select" special discount price scheme.

Recommendations
There is a gap in the market for Diet Ice Cream. Wall's should introduce it because they are financially strong company. Through this they can capture a big market of the people who are health conscious. Wall's should increase its distribution area and should goes in that area where Wall's is not available. They should continuously advertised on different media. Concentrate on delicious taste not too sweet or too fruity. Saving schemes should be introduced on special events like Ramadan. Through this their sale will increase