IMC project -Copag Jaouda

1. Promotional Communication
Midterm Project: IMC Project
Prepared by
Jihane Moussaoui
Dalal Oubraim
Instructor: Dr. M.Ibahrine
Spring 2009

2. Introduction
For our IMC project, we chose to perform our in-depth analysis on the
Moroccan Cooperative COPAG Jaouda. Actually, we found that COPAG Jaouda is an
interesting case to consider, first because the milk sector is of paramount importance
in Morocco in that the consumption of Milk in Morocco stands between 55 to 60
million liters per month (Telquel, 2008). Second, COPAG Jaouda is penetrating
heavily the Moroccan milk market, and it competes against a giant in the milk sector
which is La Centrale Laitière (Group ONA).
In this paper, we will analyze the marketing-communication program of
Jaouda in light of the integrated marketing communication principles, criteria and
strategies, especially the four fundamental decisions and the four implementation
decisions.
Before elaborating our analysis we shall first present an overview of the
overall state of Jaouda, in terms of: the mission statement, current state in the
Moroccan market, business goals, and SWOT analysis.
Presentation of COPAG Jaouda
Copag Jaouda was founded in May 1987, in Taroudant (Ait Yazza), by Mr.
Mly Mohamed Loultiti in collaboration with 39 farmers (M. Loultiti, direct
interview). The cooperative is taking in charge its products from the production, the
transformation until the commercialization step. Also, it employs 14 000 farmers and
3300 people. The cooperative’s social capital is of 140 000 000dhs, its investments of
700 000 000 dhs, and its annual total revenue of 1.8 billions dhs (L’Economiste
Magazine,2008). At the beginning, COPAG was only specialized in citrus production
and exportation. COPAG’s dairy activity “Jaouda” started in 1993: its production
per day has increased tremendously from 50 000 to 500 000 liters, to attain 700 000

3. liters today. COPAG’s success story is mainly due to its dairy activity “Jaouda”
which represents 70% of the total revenue of the cooperative COPAG against only
30% for citrus. In our project we shall focus on COPAG’s dairy activity namely
Jaouda (M. Loultiti, direct interview).
Mission Statement
According to Mr. Loultiti the top manager of COPAG Jaouda, the first aspect
of the mission is to develop innovating and good-quality milk products that will
enable the cooperative to meet the expectations of current and future consumers. The
second characteristic of the mission is that through the actions of supply, supervision
and training in close collaboration with national and international partners, COPAG
seeks to improve productivity, profitability of its activities, and hence to ensure
economic growth of the sectors of activities where it operates (M. Loultini, direct
interview,2008). The third aspect of Jaouda’s mission statement is to ensure socio-
economic development of the rural region of the Souss in the south of Morocco, and
to ensure stable revenues for farmers. Such a development is related to the
employment opportunities offered by the cooperative throughout the region.
The business current state of Copag Jaouda:
• Shift from being exonerated from taxes to being obliged to pay taxes
• Total revenue: 1.8 billion dhs (L’économiste magazine, May 2008)
• Market share: 20% (for Centrale Laitière: 70%) (L’économiste
magazine, May 2008)
• Dairy production: 500 to 700 Tons per day (L’économiste magazine,
May 2008)

4. • Copag Jaouda’s distribution circuits: from Tiznit to Meknes. The north
and east areas are being covered only starting 2008.
• Working on establishing a new production unit in Larache (M. Loultiti,
direct interview).
• Main competitor: Centrale Laitière (ONA), Chergui , Yogo, and
regional cooperatives
The Business goals of Copag Jaouda:
According to M. Loultiti the business goals of COPAG Jaouda are the following:
• Reach a market share of 30% by the end of 2010
• Increase total revenue by 4% by 2010
• Reach a customer satisfaction rate of 80% by 2010
• Increase the total production
• Launch new products: flan, crème dessert, different types of cheese…
• Ensure the expansion and growth of the company: cover the whole
Moroccan market and access the North African and African market.
SWOT Analysis:
The SWOT analysis will be conducted at different levels namely the
organizational, individual, and process level:
1. Strengths at the Organizational Level
• Related diversification of products (milk, yogurts, butter…)
• Cooperative status: according to the law 24-83 cooperatives
beneficiated from the exoneration of taxes namely IS and TVA until
the year 2005.
• Copag Jaouda detains 20% of the marketshare (in only 15 years)
(L’economiste, 2007).

5. • Daily production: from 500 to 700 tones (L’economiste, 2007).
• Copag Jaouda has started with a unit of production in Taroudant, and
now it is working on establishing a new one in Larache (2000 cows so
far) (L’economiste, 2007).
• The high demand addressed to Jaouda Products pushed Marjane
(Group ONA) to reinstitute jaouda’s products in its points of sale (M.
Loultiti, direct interview).
• Large distribution represents 10% of the total revenue of Jaouda.
• Copag Jaouda has many distribution stores in the different cities of the
Moroccan territory.
• Jaouda’s success has been promoted by the traditional circuit: grocers
shops that are mainly hold by “Soussi” people. There was certain
solidarity between the vendors the drivers or distributors and COPAG
Jaouda due to the shared origin and culture.
• COPAG Jaouda is actively engaged in social responsibility: in July
2007: the firm has created a station for treating used water (M. Loultiti,
direct interview).
2. Strengths at the Individual Level
According to Mr. M. Loultini Jaouda has:
• 14 000 farmers and 3300 direct employees
• 3200 collaborators
• COPAG Jaouda provides trainings to its employees.
• COPAG Jaouda has qualified engineers and competent workers
especially in the technical department and laboratory.

6. 3. Strengths at the Process Level
• Good quality of raw material (good quality of milk, and cows).
• Good machinery and equipment.
• Copag Jaouda’s integrated activity: from the production,
transformation until the distribution allows more flexibility of its
processes.
• Logistic: 360 trucks for distribution: trucks’ drivers call each others
for free thanks to an intra network with meditel (M. Loultini, direct
interview).
• Respect of hygiene conditions: certified ISO 9000
• The factory is working 24/24 hours.
• COPAG Jaouda has recently (March 2005) created a common farm of
a capacity of 11 000 cows, and a new factory for cattle food (900 000
tonnes per year).
4. Weaknesses at the Organizational Level
• Jouada’s products distribution was limited to the circuit Tiznit –
Meknes until 2008. The north and east areas started being covered just
lately.
• At the macro level Moroccan consumers are not aware and informed
about Jaouda, and its products especially the northern and eastern
regions.
• Advertising and marketing is not very developed ( in contrast with
Centrale Laitière)

7. • The region of souss is not attracting too much investment in
comparison with other regions: Casablanca, Rabat…
• Because of the new taxation measures concerning the cooperative
sector Copag Jaouda is no more exonerated from taxes and is obliged
to pay an amount estimated of 110 million dhs taxes annualy.
According to Mr Loultiti (direct interview, 2008), the loss due to this
new measure is very important. It is estimated to 50 centimes per liter,
and farmers have been taken off 20 centimes per liter.
• Jaouda’s products are diversified but they are not offering: flans, crème
dessert, different types of cheese
5. Weaknesses at the Individual Level
• Recruitment is done mainly from the southern labour pool (region of
souss)
• Problem of qualification: it is too difficult to find qualified people.
• Bottom line employees are not committed, not motivated.
• Bottom line employees: high rate of stress and absenteeism.
• Considerable turnover rate in the laboratory department.
6. Weaknesses at the Process Level
• Logistic: High transportation costs since they are located in Taroudant.
• Machinery treatment capacity: previously the amount of collected milk
was hugely superior to the treatment capacity
• Production (or supply) is inferior to the demand. There is an amount of
10% to more than 20% of the demand that is not satisfied each year,

8. especially during the summer and Ramadan when the demand is
relatively high.
7. Opportunities at the Organizational Level
• Opening of a production unit in Larache: easy access to resources
(large area, good weather conditions, labor…) which allows on one
hand the company to minimize its costs of production thanks to its
strategic location and on the other hand to cover larger distribution
areas (North & East of Morocco).
• Establish partnerships / alliances with foreign brands like Yoplait.
Especiallly that La Centrale Laitière encounters tensions with its
French partner Danone because the visual identity of Danone is
slightly visible on the packaging of the products
• Covering larger distribution areas
• Expand its products in the North African & African market.
• Develop its organizational structure (expand its growth)
8. Opportunities at the Individual Level
• Hire more skilled workers and also from foreign market pools.
• Importing good and efficient machines
• Expand its stockage and treatment capacity
9. Opportunities at the Process Level
• Improve the logistic.
• Improve the research and development process

9. • Improve the speed to market
• Improve the marketing, innovation, advertisement …
10. Threats at the Organizational level
• Competition: Copag jaouda’s main competitor La Centrale Laitière
(Groupe ONA) detains 70% of the Moroccan marketshare and is the
leader of milk industry in Morocco. Other competitors: Chergui, Yogo
and regional cooperatives.
• La centrale laitière is investing heavily in innovation, marketing,
research & Development…. According to Mr Driss Traki La Centrale
Laitière’s strategy consists of launching a new product each month.
• Until 2005 l’ONA has forbidden jaouda’s products to be sold in
Marjane (Group ONA). Marjane constitutes an important distribution
channel in Morocco.
• La Centrale Laitière has been exerting too much pressure on the
government especially the finance ministry, denouncing the unfair
competition: La Centrale laitière is obliged to pay taxes while its major
competitor Jaouda is realizing huge benefits (without paying taxes) and
gaining more and more market share. The exoneration from taxes has
enhanced and facilitated the company’s success. In order not to
penalize the entire cooperative sector, the government decided to
cancel the exoneration from taxes for cooperatives that have a revenue
of more than 1 million dhs, and that have an industrial or semi
industrial process.
Consequently, Copag Jaouda has been obliged to pay taxes since 2005.

10. 11. Threats at the Individual level
• Being obliged to pay taxes has pushed copag jaouda to reduce its costs:
reduce price of milk purchased from farmers. Reduce wages and the
workforce as well
• La Centrale Laitière is having more qualified and high skilled
employees.
12. Threats at the Process level
• Crisis of the milk sector
• Milk sector is experiencing shortage and high increase of
prices. (importation of cows, milk powder, cattle food… ).
Actually, globally, the milk sector experiences a high increase
of prices. This raise is experienced by the Moroccan milk
sector as well, which moved from an average price of 20 000
DHM per ton in 2005, to more than 25 000 DHM in 2008
( Telquel, 2008).

11. MARCOM Program
Now that we have presented a snapshot of the situation of Copag Jaouda, we
can shed more light on the MARCOM strategies and efforts of the company.
Fundamental Decisions
Targeting:
Targeting specific market segments is a fundamental step to all Marcom
programs. Indeed, it allows the company to deliver its messages and efforts in a
precise and efficient way.
Jaouda is targeting the local Moroccan market. The population representing the
target market segment of Jaouda consists of common Moroccans having the following
characteristics:
- Different ages: children, adolescents, and adults. Yet, here we can say mainly
children and young people, because at the cultural level in Morocco yogurt is
more synonym to childhood and youth.
- The majority of Moroccans is illiterate and lives in rural areas.
- The majority of Moroccans earn a low income, which means a limited
purchasing power.
Due to the lack of studies and data in terms behaviorgraphic and
psychographic dimensions, we decided to rely on our own observation and
experience during the past concerning goods of the same product category
(milk products) for example yogurts of La Centrale Laitière. In this context,
we can say that in general (talking about an important part of the population)
Moroccans are having modest lifestyles that are determined mainly by their
income, area of living and level of education. The most important factor that
will determine Mroccans’ decision to buy or purchase a product is the price,

12. and then comes the quality. Thus, we can conclude that Moroccan consumers
demand simple, practical, and inexpensive products.
Accordingly, Jaouda is offering simple types of yogurts (not
sophisticated products such as crème dessert, or mousse au chocolat for
example), of a good quality, with simple and very basic flavors (vanilla,
strawberry, apricot, peach…), and with reasonable and competitive prices
(they offer yogurts starting only one dirham). Here, we can say that Jaouda
starts with the consumers (constituting its target market segment), and then
elaborates its products according to their expectations.
Positioning:
Jaouda establishes its central idea that enhances its distinctiveness towards
competition on its good quality and good taste. The positioning statement of Jaouda
that is consistently delivered throughout its MARCOM efforts is: “Jaouda c’est bon!”
Besides, after asking some people (friends, family) they all stated that Jaouda
products have better taste than Centrale Laitière yogurts, and this statement includes
as well our own point of view. This is mainly due to the fact that Jaouda has a limited
number of production units which makes the managing and controlling processes
easier, in contrast with Centrale Laitière which has several production units.
Setting Objectives:
The role of MARCOM strategies in achieving the business goals of Jaouda
mentioned above, are of paramount importance. Jaouda is using different MARCOM
strategies: ranging from the least frequent such as TV and radio commercials, to the
most frequent such as billboards, wall ads, and ads in newspapers and magazines. We
will develop these communication media later in the paper.

13. Budgetting:
This part is concerned with the amount of the financial resources or budget
allocated by Jaouda to its MARCOM strategies. Actually, Jaouda does not devote as
much financial resources to advertising as its main competitor La Central Laitière.
This is because of, first the belonging of La Centrale Laitière to the Group ONA, and
its co-branding relationship with Danone (France). This fact allows La Centrale
Laitière to allocate huge investments to its advertising campaigns. Eventhough, given
the size, budget, and benefits of the company (jaouda), the MARCOM efforts of
Jaouda are of considerable significance.
Moreover, the budgeting decision in Jaouda is mainly a “top-down” one in
which the senior management decides how much money will be devoted.
Implementation Decisions
Now, we will see how the fundamental decisions of Jaouda are influencing the
implementation decisions.
Mixing Elements
Jaouda is combining between different communication tools instead of
focusing on only one medium, in order to produce a synergistic effect. Concerning
advertising, namely on TV and radio, it necessitates huge expenses ( 20000-30 000
dhs for only 30 seconds on TV), that is why the company is not very frequent on TV
ads. Thus, the strategy of Jaouda is to invest enough on promotions through: points of
purchase communication, taste marketing, rebates… to ensure enough short term
sales, and at the same time spending enough money on advertising in particular in
newspapers and magazines in order to ensure the maintenance and development of its
brand equity at the long term.

14. Creating Messages
As it has been stated earlier in the positioning section, the main message of
Jaouda stands on offering good products of good quality and good taste at a
reasonable and low price accessible to all Moroccans: “Jaouda c’est bon!” as we can
see, the slogan does not reflect any kind of rigorous work or creativity. However, this
is valid only if we compare with foreign advertisements, but if we consider the
Moroccan context, people will not understand a complicated, implicit, or
philosophical slogan. That is why Jaouda’s message is as simple and as basic as the
products it is offering.
Selecting Media
As we have said, Jaouda’s MARCOM efforts in advertising are targeting
mainly newspapers and magazines such as L’economiste, La vie économique,
L’économiste magazine, Telquel… and billboards and wall ads as well. In this
context, L’économiste Magazine, has published in its first issued number in May 2008
five full pages about Jaouda. These five pages included a detailed presentation of the
company with an interview with the top manager M. Loultiti, and a page of
advertising of the different products the company is offering namely: Cremy, and
Mixy (yogurts).
On the other hand, the different communication tools in terms of promotion are:
- Point of purchase communication mainly taste-marketing: setting Jaouda’s
stands proposing to customers to try Jaouda’s products for free, especially in
the large distribution: Marjane, Assouak Salam, and Label vie. Actually, this
communication tool is highly effective in establishing quick and efficient
touch points with consumers.

15. Establishing Momentum
It is clear that Jaouda is not as frequent in advertising as La Centrale Laitière,
but an important thing to notice is that Jaouda maintains a certain ascending
continuity of its MARCOM efforts.
How is Jaouda enhancing its brand equity?
As we have seen earlier in the SWOT analysis, the main factor that has helped
Jaouda to penetrate successfully in the milk market is the traditional circuit (small
stores) throughout Morocco.
1- Speak for itself approach:
Consumers started trying Jaouda’s products and learned trough usage how
good they are. At this stage they know that Jaouda’s products have better taste than
others in the market, and that they really reflect the brand name meaning
(Jaouda=good quality).
2- Message-driven approach:
Once, consumers have developed a certain general idea of the brand and its
products, Jaouda started reinforcing this general idea in the consumers’ collective
mind through advertising and promotion tools (developed above). The role of
MARCOM efforts here is to build and maintain positive, favorable, strong, and
unique links with the consumer. When the slogan says “Jaouda c’est bon”, or when
M. Loultiti publishes interviews in magazines where he says that the company’s main
objective is to deliver good-quality products to its consumers, this is actually
emphasizing and reinforcing the idea that consumers has developed about the
products when trying them for the first time. Besides, the continuity of apparition of
the brand’s name in billboards, newspapers, magazines, TV … is necessary to
maintain the brand awareness and equity of consumers towards the company.

16. 3- Leveraging approach:
The main purpose here is to leverage positive associations through
establishing links with other brands, places, things, and people. Jaouda is so far
focusing on the conexion with places: the main production unit of Jaouda was
established in Taroudant. This region is well known for its richness with natural
resources especially in cows, greenness…
Thus, the associations of Jaouda that are stored in consumers’ collective mind are:
good quality, good taste, good (reasonable) price.
Furthermore, if we had to categorize Jaouda according to the five personality
dimensions, it would fit within the sincerity and competence dimensions.
Similarly, if we had to place Jaouda within the Brand Awarness Pyramid, we
would situate it with the Brand Recall level. Currently, people are very aware of the
name Jaouda, especially milk, and some well known yogurts such as Mixy, Cremy,
Ghilal, ladid… for example people can go to a shop and ask for a Jaouda product, or
they can easily recall the name during a discussion. However, to our mind we are
convinced that the Top of Mind level is undoubtedly occupied by La Centrale
Laitière: this is clearly reflected by the use of all Moroccans of the brand name
“Danone” to designate yogurts in general (regardless of the type or brand).
Positioning Via Brand Benefits
Benefits are the personal value consumers attach to the product or service
attributes.
Benefits are the need-satisfying features provided by brands. In short, needs and
benefits can be thought of as flip sides of the same coin. Brands present a combination
of functional, symbolic and experiential benefits. In the case of Jaouda only the two
first ones exist since there is no experiential benefit.

17. Functional benefits
Functional benefits offer to satisfy the consumer’s consumption needs and
solve problems related to it by spreading the idea which says that the brand has
particular benefits to resolve these problems.
The functional benefits in Jaouda are related to satisfying many needs of the
consumer. First of all, the most important need is having a high quality product; this is
to say, Jaouda must follow high standards to provide tasteful products that can face
competition. Second, the company provides services to its consumers such as offering
a call center where they can call to get information about the product or complaint if
they have any problem. The third need to be satisfied is associated to respect the
consumer’s good health and the cleanliness of the product. In fact, to buy the product,
the consumer needs to be sure that it would not affect his/her health in addition to the
fact that Jaouda has to respect cleanliness standards by making special packaging (As
we have stated in the SWOT analysis Jaouda has an ISO 9000 certification). One of
Jaouda’s functional benefits is that the whole family can enjoy it because it’s a
product that can be used by everyone young or old. Finally, the price is not very high
so that a large number of people can buy it.
Symbolic benefits
The symbolic benefits, in contrast with the functional benefits, deal with
associating brand ownership with a desired group, role or self image since name over
time becomes guarantee of quality and consistency. This allows the merging of the
consumer and the brand. In this stage, management should pay attention to create the
right personality for the brand and to update it when needed. In effect, the image of
the product must serve the consumer’s needs. For instance, Jaouda succeeded in

18. enhancing its image in Morocco since it is now an official competitor to Centrale
Laitière and has more and more consumers because of the products’ high quality.
Also, the product is Moroccan, simple and basic.
Jaouda brand name
We can say that Jaouda’s brand name is appropriate because it satisfies the
four conditions of a good brand name:
“Jaouda” which means good quality is compatible with the brand positioning
statement of the company, and the brand’s benefits. Indeed, it reinforces what the
brand wants to convey to the consumers and what distinguishes it from the
competition. In addition, it is short, easy to pronounce, to spell and to memorize.
Nevertheless, the brand’s name is not conceived to be suitable for marketing in
multiple countries, but since basically Jaouda is targeting only the local Moroccan
market, this is not a problem.
Jaouda’s logo
The logo of Jaouda can also be considered as appropriate since it is legible, it
presents the essential idea of the company’s positioning statement, and it reflects a
positive meaning. The picture of the cow next to the brand name indicates that it is
milk product category, and that the product are natural and of good quality.
Moreover, if we take the specific yogurt “Cremy” one of the most successful
products of Jaouda, we can see that the packaging style is neither innocent nor

19. arbitrary. The use of the green color means that the product is natural, and healthy.
The different flavors are placed on the different sides of the product by pictures of the
fruits or flowers representing the flavor: again the notion of natural and healthy
products.
Motivation to attend messages
Jaouda uses different strategies in order to attract voluntary and involuntary
attention:
- Hedonic needs: In most of its advertising it presents enjoyment, pleasure,
nature, childhood, warm family scenes to appeal to hedonic needs.
- Use of intense and prominent cues: packages, billboards, and wall ads that
solicit involuntary attention.
- Using motion: Jaouda uses motion especially in packages, billboards, and
newspaper ads. They are using photographic techniques to produce an effect
of movement.

21. Recommendations
First, Jaouda has a good position in the Moroccan market, so there is a
perspective of developing its growth and accessing new market segments, namely the
North African, and African markets.
Concerning our recommendations, we encourage Copag Jaouda to build a
strategic relationship (Co-branding relationship) with a foreign brand such as Yoplait
(France). Actually, Yoplait would be interested in the positive evolution* of Jaouda,
and this will be an opportunity for the French brand to access successfully the
Moroccan Market, especially that Yoplait had a previous experience in Morocco.
Indeed, the co-branding relationship will allow Jaouda to increase its investments, and
to augment its production. In addition, Yoplait will help Jaouda to invest in research
and development, improve its marketing and advertising processes, and to launch new
products. Then, Jaouda will be able to face its main competitor La Centrale Laitière
and increase its market share.
*This graph shows the positive evolution of Jouda’s milk production.

22. Conclusion
All in all, throughout our project we attempted to elaborate an in-depth
analysis of the marketing and communication strategies of COPAG Jaouda. In this
context, we can say that even though the company does not have a developed
advertising as its main competitor La Centrale Laitière, its efforts in this context are
of considerable significance.

23. References
L’Economiste, 2007. Grande distribution: Menace pour les petits agriculteurs.
Retrieved from http://www.regoverningmarkets.org/en/filemanager/active?fid=421,
on the 04/016/2008.
Telquel Online, 2008. Les Greniers du Maroc; un autre Maroc. Retrieved
from http://www.telquel-online.com/106/couverture_106_4.shtml, on the 04/16/2008.
http://www.amdra.com/jaouda_laitsurnaturel
L’Economiste Magazine, 2008. “COPAG Jaouda”.
T.A. Shimp (2007). Advertising and Promotion. South Carolina: Stratford
Publishing Services.