From this point-of-view the PR campaign's objectives in this case are:
Increasing the company's market share up to 6%
Increasing the company sales up to11%
Identifying the target customer segments
Identifying different categories of public relies on identifying values, behaviors, ideals, expectations, involvement degree or possibilities of acceptance of the ideas promoted by the campaign. Basically, for the new line of products for summer use, L'Oreal is targeting the same customer segments that the company has always addressed. There are two main target customer segments for L'Oreal's products:
The first targeted segment of customers is consisted of women between 25 and 35 years of age, with high education, with medium to high incomes, and with a high social situation
The second targeted customer segment is consisted of women between 35 and 45 years of age, educated, with medium to high incomes, and a high social situation
In both cases, the company is dealing with sophisticated women, both health and beauty oriented, with a very active social life, that need high quality products.
In our case, the PR campaign regarding the launch of the new product line for summer use will especially address the first targeted customers segment present above for the new line of products. Secondly, the campaign will obviously address the second targeted customers segment presented above, mainly for refreshing these customers' attitude towards other lines of products previously launched.
Establishing the strategies and tactics to be used in the PR campaign
The strategies must refer to the general concept leading to the established objectives. In our case, the recommended strategies are:
Activities regarding the information of the public:
Public appearances of the company's representatives or spokespersons, in our case the celebrities involved in promoting L'Oreal's products: this brings in front of the audience high social resonance names that can promote L'Oreal and its new line of products by distributing information about this new product line and its launch
Organizing special events. The company will organize a special event for launching the new line of products for summer. This will be the central piece of the PR campaign in our case. The entire campaign relies on successfully organizing this event. Given the fact that we are dealing with products addressing summer use, the event must have a strong connection with the concept of summer. The scenery the event will take place in must be in complete accordance with the concept of summer. Therefore, it I recommended to organize the event on a beach, whether it is a real or an artificial one, since the beach represents best the idea of summer. If possible,...
Of course, most locations will not allow this, therefore it is recommended to create, design, and construct an artificial beach. The artificial beach will however contain real palm trees and real sand, an artificial ocean, which is not very hard to build, since it is widely used in movies. The guests invited at the event will wear beach clothing. It is recommended to serve exotic dishes and drinks. The new product line to be launched is named Sublime Summer. The event, which will take place during the evening and night, should be named a Sublime Night for a Sublime Summer.
Promotional activities: during the event several dramatizations will presented to the guests and media, showing how the products work and how they were created.
Communication channels
Controlled communication channels: bulletins, newsletters, brochures, web sites, promotional videos, will be used for spreading information on L'Oreal's new product line. The advantage is that it allows the company to select the words and images and to elaborate the messages according to the specialists' intentions. The disadvantage is the lower credibility from the public and the high costs involved.
Uncontrolled communication channels: press agencies, newspapers, radio, TV, will used for transmitting the company's messages. The advantages are: high credibility and reduced costs. The company will create video advertisements promoting the new line of products. As before, the company will use a celebrity to advertise its products. The TV ads will air especially on TV channels that are especially created for women, on prime time mostly. On other TV channels the TV ads will be aired only on prime time. Also, written ads will be placed in every magazine that addresses women.
Activity calendar
Research activity: two months.
Establishing the PR campaign plan: 1 month.
Organizing the special event: 3 weeks.
Budget
It is recommended that the company establishes a certain percentage of the turnover for establishing the budget to be used in this PR campaign.
Control and evaluation of the results
For controlling and evaluating the PR campaign it is recommended to use the following methods:
Pre-testing the TV ads based on enquiries post-testing using marketing experiments, the Starch technique, the Gallup-Robinson technique sales analysis customer information analysis notoriety evaluation.
Reference List
L'Oreal (2007). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved June 5, 2007 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'or%C3%A9al.
Company Overview (2007). The L'Oreal Group. Retrieved June 6, 2007 at http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx.
