Brand Purpose, Millennials And The Epic Creative That Engages Them
Yogurt Beach strategic communications plan optimized
1. Yogurt beachS T R AT E G I C C O M M U N I C AT I O N S P L A N
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE JOSH PUTNEY Ÿ CREATIVE DIRECTOR NOELLE CROOKS
RESEARCH DIRECTOR MITCH KWITEK Ÿ CLIENT SERVICES LUIZA BENISANO
A L P H A + S O U LT I O N S P R E S E N T S
2. 02
Current Problems
MISSION STATEMENT
Optimize current approaches towards media to increase brand awareness and profit
margins to overall improve a company's prowess regarding consumer interaction.
Yogurt Beach’s as a brand is growing. New licensed
stores are being opened across the United States, but
there is a disconnect among the company and their
possible audiences. Current strategic approaches to
brand awareness are through fundraisers for local
schools, sports teams and organizations. These events
are effective at creating brand loyalty, but among a
very specific demographic. Yogurt Beach needs a way
to expand its brand to include a more diverse
customer base, while maintaining its core values and
positioning.
3. 01
Yogurt Beach is a fresh approach to the frozen yogurt industry. The market is saturated with
stores, but Yogurt Beach stands out because of their relaxed store experience and quality
product. The yogurt and custard that Yogurt Beach makes is higher quality. Unlike the icy product
competitors make, Yogurt Beach uses a more expensive machine in the production, and fresh
ingredients for their toppings.
Yogurt Beach’s current website shows their position as the following “Yogurt Beach is the
ultimate ‘10 minute vacation’ spot offering the highest quality frozen yogurt and custard in a
relaxed, laid back beach-themed setting. We are a family-owned and operated business that was
established in Reno, Nevada in 2010.”
CURRENT POSITIONING
Ultimate 10
minute vacation
Highest quality of
yogurt and
custard
Relaxed, laid
back beach
themed setting
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4. THE PLAN 01
Our goal is for Yogurt Beach to become the healthy, engaging and relaxing frozen yogurt
brand of Reno.
Our plan is to expand the current customer base to include other target audiences into the
brand’s culture.
This can be accomplished by effectively developing social media
communications and expanding efforts towards
news coverage.
START
DEVELOP
SOCIAL
MEDIA
INITIATE
STRATEGIC
COMMUNICATION
PLAN
CREATE
SOCIAL
MEDIA
CAMPAIGN
SUCCESS
04
5. 01
MARKETING APPROACHES
Marketing to children's extracurricular groups is a great approach at building a
customer base. This approach has two audiences: a primary of parents, and a
secondary of children ages 4-17. Parents of these children range from older Millennials,
Generation X, and younger Baby Boomers.
The Information Generation being the children of older Millennials and Generation X
will soon be an important customer base, but there will not be a significant return on an
investment on marketing techniques until these kids have their own money to spend.
Yogurt Beach's brand culture has embedded themselves into the community through
children's extra curricular activities. This technique is seen to have worked with the high
number of social interactions and reviews among the Older Millennials and Generation
X, however we would like to expand the active audiences to include the large number
of young Millennials in the Reno area.
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6. Current Demographic Insights (Primary Research) 01
Through analyzing Yogurt Beach’s Mayberry Facebook page we were able to see the audience that fundraising has created.
“Out of 1,041 page
likes, 81% of the
audience is
female.”
Of the female audience
there is a gap amongst the
generations for
engagement. Through
analyzing check-ins by
demographic,16% of
Generation X and old
Millennial females checked
in to the Facebook Page,
but only 1% checked in
among Millennial females.
Our research shows 19% of “likes”
were from male Facebook users. Of
those users, 70% are young
Millennials (age 18-24) and 23% are
older Millennials and members of
Generation X (age 25-44).
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7. A Mintel market analysis of Millennials was conducted in February 2015 which shows
many important insights on how Yogurt Beach can actively communicate to this
audience.
Millennials desire inexpensive high-quality items, 70% of Millennials surveyed about
their favorite brands answered that the quality of the product is what they admired the
most about their brand. Behind that, 58% of Millennials also admired the low price
range of the products made by their favorite brand, and 34% admired the rewards and
discount programs available by their favorite brands.
Young Millennials (primary audience ) 07
8. Young Millennials (primary audience )
When Millennials were asked to project their goals for the next three years, 56% replied that they
would like to live a healthier lifestyle, 47% said they would like to travel, and 22% said they would
like to start giving back to the community. The 56% does not include those who are currently
keeping an active life meaning that possibly over 60% of Millennials are health-conscious
consumers. Those who would like to become health driven individuals will choose healthier
variations or substitutes to current goods.
Millennials want to be creative; they want to interject their personal preferences and identities into
a product (1). Millennials are not as receptive to traditional advertising. Millennials are more
receptive to a sincere brand with genuine core beliefs than a new product.
Millennials use social reviews to keep track of their consumer experiences. 36% of Millennials
actively communicate to brands through social review and 62% of these interactions are positive
towards their experience.
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9. College Students (portion of primary audience) 01
52%
FEMALE
48%
MALE
UNR STUDENTS
24,440
LIVE ON
CAMPUS
College students who are young Millennials,
will play a major role in the strategic plan.
However, marketing to them is difficult.
According to UNR’s Spring 2013 data:
The total student body was 18,227
§ 52% are female
§ 48% are male
§ 24,440 live on campus.
Mintel conducted a survey which reflects how
college students feel limited while eating on
campus. Research concludes, convenience is
the main factor in students’ eating habits.
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10. 01
Students value factors of
convenience by:
• 53% say it’s convenient to
their time schedule
• 47% say it’s convenient to
study or multitask while
eating (3).
Students’ main complaints on
campus are:
• Price- 60%
• Not enough healthy
options- 46%
• Lack of variety- 45%
College Students (portion of primary audience)
College students
habitually use
social networking
sites. A 2011 study
showed 74% of
students interact
on social networks
on a weekly basis
compared to 48%
of non students (7).
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11. 01
Mothers (secondary/existing audience)
Current marketing approaches include a large majority of mothers. The analysis
from current marketing approaches shows that the greater majority of “likes” on the
Mayberry Facebook Yogurt Beach Page are from older Millennial Females,
Generation X, and Baby Boomers.
Fundraisers for sports teams are a great strategy because 48% of mothers
encourage their children to be active in organized extracurricular sports (4).
Research shows 37% of mothers engage in companies’ social media outlets. This
number will grow depending on how effective a company uses their social media
page (4).
According to a Edison Research study on mothers in media, 49% of mothers are
checking social media sites multiple times a day. On average mother’s will check
their social media six times throughout the day (5).
Social media fundraisers engage
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12. For Yogurt Beach to keep up with
consumer habits it is essential to
remain prevalent in the frozen dessert
market. According to a study done by
Mintel in July 2014, consumers are
buying less frozen desserts because
48% find it unhealthy and 40% found
it too expensive (6). Consumers of
frozen treats search for brands that
offer inexpensive health conscious
products to satisfy their cravings.
GOAL: To become the first choice
yogurt destination among young
Millennials while still being the yogurt
destination for older Millennials,
Generation X and Baby Boomers.
Frozen yogurt
Yogurt Beach has the
ability to grow, the
research shows that
young Millennials are
receptive to Yogurt
Beach’s business model,
however that does not
mean they need less
convincing to become a
consumer. Developing a
yogurt brand that
includes Millennials into
the company image
through effective
communication will help
expand Yogurt Beach.
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13. 01
Repositioning brand
Current yogurt options are either marketed towards younger children or their parents. There is a lack of
healthy options that younger Millennials desire. With the current positioning of Yogurt Beach being your
“10 minute vacation,” we can develop a brand that is a destination for young Millennials to take a break
from their stressful exam-filled lives.
While repositioning the brand to appeal a new target audience, we want to maintain the current customer
base that marketing techniques have established. By working with two very different audiences we will use
different nodes of social and news communications to build a variety of key messages.
We have two objectives to successfully communicate to these audiences.
Increase profits attributed to school
fundraisers by 15% by May of 2016.
increase engagement attributed to
the age cohort of 18-24 (Millennials)
to 30% on media outlets from its
current sampled engagement of 1%
(Facebook data) by May of 2016.
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14. 01
Social media
Interface Designer
24
Optimizer
32
12
Advertising Web Design Corp Analysis Public Relation
To increase engagement attributed to the age cohort of 18-24 (Millennials) to 30% on media outlets from its current
sampled engagement of 1% (Facebook data) by May of 2016.
Connecting social reviews to profit may not be directly proportional to total sales from a demographic, but social
reviews rely on a transaction. Social reviews occur when a customer shares their experience on a social media site.
When faced with a consumer decision, Millennials will default to reading social reviews. Depending on the voice of
the review Millennials will heavily weigh it into their decision. Targeting social reviews can be difficult because a
college student millennial will not listen to someone who does not speak their own language. For instance a
Generation X review of a product will not be useful to a Millennial.
Social reviews will monitor the expansion of Millennial culture in our target market.
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15. REBRANDING SOCIAL MEDIA 01
Re-brand the approach to media platform usage to appeal to the cultural aspects of college Millennials.
In school or not, Millennials associate with the culture of a college student. The college atmosphere plays a major
role in Reno because of the university.
Given the research behind college students and Millennials
our strategy is to develop nodes of social communication
which resonate with the college culture. By positioning Yogurt
Beach as a health conscious vacation from the books,
students will be able to interject their preferences into the
brand.
This strategy will be built through creating and giving unique
identities to social media platforms, while connecting the
platforms through specific posts. The connectivity of social
media is essential as they build off of each other. By only
using one platform, a company limits themselves to one area
of outreach. A collective approach can accumulate more
follows and direct them to the home-base of the company. In
this case the home-base would be Facebook. Many social
media platforms work directly with Facebook and offer a user-
friendly method of cross promotion.
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16. 01
Facebook (the home-base platform)
Posting tactics work like roads
with the same destination.
Tactics may take different
approaches to get there but
they end up in the same
home-base. Here we can see
an example of how posting
connects social platforms.
Instagram, Twitter and
Pinterest all have the ability to
share their diverse content on
Facebook. This allows an
audience to pick and choose
which method works best for
them. The goal is to be
prominent in other avenues of
social media to bring them
back to the home-base,
Facebook.
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17. facebook 17
Facebook will work as the home-
base social media platform. By
posting a variation of content along
with engaging with other users we
can develop a stronger social media
presence.
Commenting, sharing, and “liking”
followers’ posts will promote
engagement and effectively
integrate Yogurt Beach into the
online community.
Curating content such as:
• Events in the community
• Promotions
• Community recognition
• Community fundraisers
• “Fun facts” about Yogurt Beach
18. Twitter is a platform where users share their thoughts, news, information and jokes in 140 characters of
text or less. Twitter makes global communication cheap and measurable. Anyone in the world can see
what you write, unless you elect to make your profile private.
01
Create a twitter
Re-tweet (RT): Re-sharing or giving credit to someone else's tweet.
By using a re-tweet someone can reach out to another influencer in the community and also draw attention to
themselves. People can also re-tweet content and posts you make as well.
You can mention someone directly if you are partnering
with them by including in your tweet the @ sign
followed by their Twitter handle.
Users are notified when they are mentioned in a
Tweet. It's a way to conduct discussions with other users
in a public realm.
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19. 01
twitter
Mentioning an individual or organization is more of a direct approach similar to re-tweeting.
Direct Message (DM): A private, 140-character message between two
people. You can decide whether to accept a Direct Message from any
Twitter user, or only from users you are following.
While you can only DM people who follow you, this is a good way to
continue relations with a company or reach out to someone specifically.
This can be called the last step in making a social media connection to a
prospective partner.
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20. A hashtag (#): is a way to denote a topic of conversation or participate
in a larger linked discussion (e.g. #FroYo #Yogurt). A hashtag is a
discovery tool that allows others to find your tweets, based on topics.
You can also click on a hashtag to see all the tweets that mention it in
real time — even from people you don't follow.( importance of an
effective hashtag)
twitter
Hashtags are an integral part of any social media usage. You can create
your own or capitalize on ones already prominent online. By using
hashtags you allow people to be drawn to you post from various
communities. For example in regards to frozen yogurt you might add the
hashtag #healthy or #healthyliving.
Twitter offers a great node of direct communication and news sharing.
31% of all Twitter users are ages 18-29 meaning that developing a
millennial specific voice with sharing related content will promote a
successful social media presence in the community (8).
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21. Twitter will be used to share original content from the Facebook page, and non-original content
from other nodes of interests. following health accounts, local college communities, and vacation
destination pages will form a community, communicating the key values of Yogurt Beach. This
Twitter will also be used to share coupons or verbal promotions in the community. These verbal
promotions will not only give students a reason to follow, but will connect Twitter to in-store sales.
Twitter is one of the most direct interfaces with the ability to tag and connect to millions of people
in moments. Not only can one gain a huge following, but one can reach to a wide array of
individuals based on hashtags and promotions. Twitter is something companies must have in their
social media arsenal as it facilitates views on various pages.
twitter 21
22. Instagram will be used as a vision board of
Yogurt Beach’s values such as freshness,
relaxation and quality. Since 37% of
Instagram users are between the ages of
18-29.
The Yogurt Beach Instagram page will
communicate key messages to young
Millennials that the Yogurt Beach brand is
relaxing and healthy. Instagram will also
be used to monitor campaigns of social
imagery sharing.
Instagram's calling card is the photo filter,
a digital layer that, when added to a
standard photo, gives it the appearance of
professional editing.
Create an instagram 22
23. instagram
CONNECT
Instagram is a relatively isolated social app that
lives inherently on mobile devices. You may
choose to link Instagram to your Twitter and
Facebook. Each time you upload a photo to
Instagram, you’ll have the option to share to each
of the social networks you’ve enabled. If you
choose to share to no social networks, the photo
will post only to Instagram, viewable only by those
users who follow you on the app.
(Photo editing)
Easy to make aesthetically pleasing content of
events or products.
Mobile interface
Since Instagram is primarily mobile, it incorporates Millennials while still
including desktop users. This fits the diverse audience range of Yogurt Beach.
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24. pinterest
A study on social media platforms found 42% of
all female internet users are active on Pinterest
accounting for 77% of total Pinterest users.
Being an active part of the Pinterest community
will not only allow Yogurt Beach to communicate
with the Pinterest Community. Working with
Pinterest will also provide another outlet to find
creative content to post on other social media
outlets such as Facebook and Instagram. This can
be done by following pages and sharing content
related to health, fitness, vacationing and local
organizations
Health conscious organizations create boards on
pinterest for numerous audiences. Certain
companies may not be included in an individual’s
self interest, however by creating different boards
a company can successfully draw attention from
various users, for example, Whole Foods.
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25. Interact with millennials
To interact with millennial vacation
culture through a
Being a 10 minute vacation, it is
important for Yogurt beach to be
ingrained in vacation culture.
Communicating Yogurt Beach as a
vacation destination will market towards
the 47% of millennials interested in
vacation culture. By incorporating the
actual experience of what millennials do
when vacationing into Yogurt Beach’s
brand we will be able to build and
improve millennials perception of the
company.
“Share Your 10
Second Vacation
campaign”
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26. Share you 10 second vacation
The Ten second video campaign will occur during the three weeks in March
when students vacation. By promoting the presence of Yogurt Beach while
students are away vacationing, they will associate their experience with the
company when they are back at school. Young Millennials want to interject their
own preferences onto a company's brand, and with Yogurt Beach’s message of
a “10 Minute Vacation” this campaign will achieve a personalized definition.
We will monitor this campaign through #10secvaycay. This hashtag is unique to the
Yogurt Beach brand and is easy to monitor across platforms.
Students on vacation will use the #10secvaycay in Instagram posts. Instagram is a
great host for this campaign because of its dominant Millennial user base, video
capability and cross platform connectivity. Instagram video posts have a maximum
time limit of 15 seconds which is perfect for the video campaign.
use the #10secvacay
Use Instagram as the
host for 10 second
vacation campaign
Students on vacation
will use the
#10secvaycay on what
they post while they are
on vacation to
Instagram. Instagram
offers a great host for
the monitoring of the
campaign, with a
predominantly
Millennial user base, a
15 second video limit
and
Facebook connectivity.
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27. Share you 10 second vacation
Leading up to students spring break, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest posts will be
prompted to reach the college demographic. These promotional posts will include key messaging
of the incentive of winning a Tahoe vacation( $100 restaurant gift card/$200 hotel credit) with your
friends for including the #tensecvaycay and a video.
The company (or designated patron) will pick 3 top videos every day for the time
period leading up to the end of the campaign. We can link the campaign through
Antavo to provide points for posting. For instance, if someone posts a video they get
one yogurt point; if they make top 3 for the day they can receive 10 yogurt points. By
using Antavo, the company will be able to implement a campaign into their loyalty
program easily and effectively.
Facilitate in store social media action.
Have hashtags available in the store front. This will draw attention to your media
outlets or app of your choosing. While a QR code is something which can be efficient
social media outreach can be displayed very easily before or after the cash register.
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28. Displaying social media in the storefront can draw attention to
your media outlets or app of your choosing.
The current television screen at the Mayberry location can be
turned into either alive or curated feed displaying social media
platforms. You can display Facebook posts, comments, reviews,
pictures and events on this and have it stream in store.
Social media inside store
https://youtu.be/P15dLuQZWMM live wall demonstration
By using a social media visual generator a company can split up
content and have it update instantly on a television screen. When
people post a review or a pic it can be seen in seconds.
Companies have already started using Live wall feeds and have
reported positive feedback.
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29. A good example is a restaurant called La
Taqueria in San Francisco. La Taqueria
provided evidence that a social media wall
can even help boost your sales if done right.
La taqueria uses live wall software to automate
content on their displays, which stream
updates from Twitter and Instagram. Before
they had a social media wall, the restaurant
did no social media marketing of any kind.
Now, La Taqueria manager Angel Jara calls
their live social media feed “an endless cycle
of my customers growing my business for
me.” In just two months, La Taqueria grew the
number of users (or people posting about
their business online) by more than 3000%
and the number of posts by 6400%. This was
the result of the restaurant simply asking their
customers to post about their experiences,
which customers happily did. Their social
impressions totaled more than 116,000 and
sales went way up.
Social media inside store
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29
30. Create antavo account
By Using Antavo a company can effectively create a
loyalty program in the form of a game, which would be
available for users to play through different social media
platforms. Since Antavo can be linked to a user’s social
media it would make it easy to set-up and
easy to use for customers. The customizable
nature of Antavo can also make it specific to a
company such as custom badges with imagery
. A company can also set parameters for how to
collect rewards and earn points. By using this Antavo
a company can also monitor which media
outlets are the most responsive, so they may
better market to an audience in the future.
As research stated millennials are receptive to loyalty
programs. If a loyalty program is specific to the
audience it has been proven to increase their usage.
For example, Grey Poupon was able to reinvent
themselves through a loyalty program of their own.
They went from 20,000 followers to 66,000 by
connecting to their specific audience through a loyalty
program.
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32. Increase fundraising profits
To increase profits attributed to fundraisers
by 20% by May of 2016 by reaching out to
third party outlets towards targeting older
Millennials and Generation X
Become a sponsor of the Reno Moms Blog
Reno Mom’s Blog is a great target for
sponsorships because they are a portion of
our secondary target audience. A key to
getting placements on Reno Mom’s Blog is
to become a sponsor. Reno Moms blog has
various sponsor pricing and opportunities to
chose from. Through being a paid sponsor,
creative content will be written featuring
Yogurt Beach. The “10 minute vacation” key
messages will be integrated into blogging
content.
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33. Press Release
To get a placement in Edible Reno Tahoe, Yogurt
Beach should differentiate and position themselves
as a unique yogurt store. Sending press releases for
special fundraising events will allow Yogurt Beach to
create a foundation for Edible Reno Tahoe to write
stories on the connectivity of food and local culture.
By using this outlet one can receive placement on
their online review, magazine and Facebook page.
Edible Reno Tahoe is a place where locals and
travelers go to look up the best food options for the
Reno- Tahoe area.
Sending news story pitches on special fundraising and general events can boost the company’s reach to RGJ’s
network of readers.
RGJ Flavor Review
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34. Yogurt beach blog 34
Create blogging content featuring
local sports teams and school
organizations.
To use the current Yogurt Beach
news page effectively, local
organizations should be able to send
in their stories and special events for
posting. With current outreach
focused towards fundraisers and
community outreach it is important
to document the community
connections.
By posting content covering the last
big game that Yogurt Beach
fundraised, or a special event
coming up for a school club, Yogurt
Beach will be able to develop their
social media presence in relation to
the local community.
35. Although passing out flyers will promote an event, it is a messy and expensive approach to event advertising.
Simple social posts and shares through the organization receiving the fundraising will not only be easier to
distribute and set up, but will have a lasting impression in the company's online history. Customers will simply
show fundraising informational posts on their phone in the store to benefit the organization.
promotion
SAVE THE INK
ORGANIZATION UPDATES
35
To make fundraising integrated into social communication, organizations that have received funding are encouraged to submit special
events and other news to be posted to the Yogurt Beach Facebook page. This tactic will gain respect and sincerity among the community
towards the brand.
36. The above campaign may seem hard to implement with budgeting and current staffing, but with this considered, getting
started can be made easy by hiring a social media intern. The Reynolds School of Journalism currently requires students to
have field experience when they graduate, which means there is a slew of students willing to take on unpaid or starting
wage positions. By hiring three social media managers through the Reynolds School the above plan can be implemented
for Yogurt Beach.
The first social media manager will set up the preliminary aspects of an expansion to the social platforms. The intern will
write simple blogs, set up and rebrand existing social media accounts and create new ones. The intern will set up the
rebranding through an active social communication stream for both the audience of young Millennials and the audience of
older Millennials, Generation X and Baby Boomers. This intern will find pages to follow, types of content to post and
complementing themes to develop. The first intern will work during the fall semester of 2015 to set up the new expansion.
The second two social media managers will use the newly created and expanded social media platforms to start
developing the social campaign. These social media managers will focus their time on targeting and analyzing
communications to expand and implement the #10secvaycay campaign for millennials and develop online social
connections with the organizations and groups associated to older Millennials, Generation X and Baby Boomers. These
managers will work as a team on press releases, pitches, news coverage, content management and analytics.
Although unpaid interns may be a realistic approach for budgeting, to get a higher and more qualified managers we
suggest to offer a base rate of paid compensation. At $8.50 an hour yogurt beach will spend $1,275 an intern.
GETTING STARTED 36
37. budgeting
The current campaign is built off of very simple tactics that are either free or low price. The following are the tactics
and estimated prices associated.
Promotions leading up to spring break $200
Tahoe vacation- $300
In store Social media feed- set up technology price for HDMI, Computer $250
Loyalty program- $199 a year
Sponsor for reno moms blog- TBD
Paid social media manager - $1,275
Total without paid manager $949
Total with paid managers $4,774
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38. Citations
1. Mintel. (2015). Marketing to Millennials- US - February 2015. Retrieved from Mintel Group Ltd.
2. Mintel. (2014). Colleges and Universities Foodservices- US - May 2014. Retrieved from Mintel Group Ltd.
3. Mintel. (2013). Lifestyles of Moms- UK - September 2013. Retrieved from Mintel Oxygen database.
4. “Moms and Media in 2014.” Edison Research, 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
5. Mintel. (2011). Marketing to College Students- US - July 2011. Retrieved from Mintel Group Ltd.
6. Mintel. (2014). Ice cream and frozen novelties- US - July 2014. Retrieved from Mintel Group Ltd.
7. Mintel. (2012). Marketing to Baby Boomers- US - December 2012. Retrieved from Mintel Group Ltd.
8. Mintel. (2014). Seasonal Vacation Trends- US - June 2014. Retrieved from Mintel Group Ltd.
9. “Demographic, Population & Proximity Data.” Joe Crowley Student Union: University of Nevada, Reno. Web. 03
May 2015.
10. Duggan, Maeve, Nicole Ellison, Cliff Lampe, Amanda Lenhart, and Mary Madden. "Demographics of Key Social
Networking Platforms." Pew Research Center. 9 Jan. 2015. Web.
11. "The Best Way to Power Your Digital Displays." Enplug. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.
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