This marketing plan summarizes an IMC campaign for Five Below, a discount retailer. Five Below targets Generation Z consumers between the ages of 18-24 who make up 20% of the population and spend $143 billion annually. The plan aims to change perceptions that Five Below's products are of poor quality by using social media marketing, digital advertising, and billboards to increase brand awareness and drive traffic. If successful, the campaign could double Five Below's target audience by the end of the year.

1. IMC Campaign
Katerra White

2. 1
Table of Contents
Executive Summary…………………………………………....2-3
Backgrounder………………………………………………………..4-6
Swot Analysis………………………………………………………..7
Target Consumer Definition………………………………..8-9
Customer Profile…………………………………………………...10-11
Points of Parity……………………………………………………..12-13
Creative Brief………………………………………………………...14
Promotional Mix…………………………………………………...15-16
Creative Execution………………………………………………..17
Conclusion……………………………………………………………...18
References……………………………………………………………...19-20

3. 2
Executive Summary
This marketing plan is for Five Below, which has become one of the most popular
discount retailers in the United States. The company got its start back in October of
2002 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since then, the company has been a

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great place for consumers with medium to low incomes to shop at. They offer a variety
of items to choose from such as school supplies, electronics, fitness, sporting
equipment, clothes, candy, cosmetics, and many more. With over 1,107 stores across 40
states, they have been able to gain a lot of momentum at a steady rate. They owe a lot
of their success to their ability to already having such a strong brand image. Five Below
strives to deliver its core message “let go and have fun” by creating an elevated in-store
experience. It’s what makes them stand out from competitors like Dollar Tree, Dollar
General, and Walmart. They’ve been working to improve their efforts to stay ahead of
the competition and enhance their brand image. Though product quality remains equal
or better than their competition, the demand for their product has fallen off. Recent
research has shown that consumers think their products are of poor quality and
unreliable. The products consumers are purchasing aren’t functioning properly as it was
perceived to be on the packaging. Our goal is to try and change people’s perception of
the brand by tapping into a different market and upping our game on our marketing
tactics. Five Below will be targeting Generation Z. We feel it’s very important to capture
this specific group’s attention because the mission of Five Below perfectly aligns with
the ambitions and values of Generation Z. They’re always looking for something new
and different. Also, they get bored with trends very easily. Five Below is always hopping
on trends as quickly as they come. They never have the same item twice after two
months. When you go into Five Below, you never know what you’re going to find. They’re
always going to surprise you with something extraordinary. Furthermore, they offer it at
an inexpensive price that Gen Z will be able to afford. Since this tech-savvy generation is
always on their phones, our strategy will include the use of Social Media Marketing and
Digital Advertising. We will also be using Billboards to get their attention because Gen Z
is outside 70% of the time. Billboards aren’t as disruptive as digital advertising. This will
be the last-touch to in our marketing efforts to reach our audience because it will give
them that reminder of the brand. With this plan, Five Below the opportunity to increase
brand awareness, drive traffic to their website, improve social media efforts, and double
the size of their target audience by the end of the year.

5. 4
Backgrounder
History
Back in the day, in the early 2000s when people used to identify discount retail
stores they would usually refer to stores like The Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Big Lots,
Dollar General, or Walmart. However, ever since 2002, there’s been a new company on
the rise that has worked hard to get itself on the list: Five Below. This multimillion-dollar
company got its start back in October of 2002. The first Five Below store was built in
Wayne, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by David Schlessinger (former
founder of Encore Books and Zany Brainy) and Thomas Vellios (former CEO of Zany
Brainy). Also, another very important member of the team is their CEO, Joel Anderson.
By May of 2005, they had 300 employees, but they hadn’t yet become profitable. So, they
decided to get some help from friends and family and then started soliciting
private-equity money, all the while building more stores. Since 2008, the growth has
been self-funded — and consistent. Then, in 2011 Five Below began expansion. In the
July of 2012, Five Below finally became a publicly traded company and secured a spot in
the marketplace on Nasdaq. Since that time, it’s nearly tripled in size. Five Below ended
2020 with 1, 020 stores across 38 states. It plans to open between 170 and 180 stores
in 2021. The company’s main goal is to acquire 2,500 stores in total.
Mission Statement
True to its name, Five Below is a store that sells most of its products for $5 or

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less, similar to how many dollar stores operate. The brand’s defining mission then
simply became: “Five Below means you never have to pay more than $5 for the coolest,
trendiest, highest quality stuff you just gotta have.” Five Below strongly believes in “The
Five Below Way” which captures the brand’s five core values and behaviors that
associates live inside and outside the workplace. “Wow, Our Customers” means every
Five Below associate makes a positive difference in people’s lives. “Unleash Your
Passion” speaks to building people up and doing what you say you will do. “Hold The
Penny Hostage” means all associates treat Five Below like it’s their own business.
“Achieve The Impossible” is all about setting the bar high and taking risks to learn and
grow. Lastly, “Work Hard, Have Fun, Build a Career” means associates create the fun
they want at work while developing new skills. Furthermore, they have a variety of items
to choose from such as school supplies, electronics, fitness, sporting equipment,
affordable clothes, candy, cosmetics, and many more. To give customers the ultimate
in-store experience, the company has organized all its products into eight categories
that they call “worlds”. The little worlds that they have are known as Tech, Create, Play,
Candy, Room, Style, Party, and New & Now. This is one of the reasons why Five Below
stands out amongst the competition. Their purpose is to provide an elevated in-store
experience where consumers get to let go and have fun.
Competition
Five Below doesn’t have much direct competition but it’s really competing with all
dollar stores and all retail in general. One of Five Below’s biggest competitors is Dollar
Tree. They also have other huge competitors like Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and
Walmart but, Dollar Tree is the main one in the discount stores field. Although Dollar
Tree generates $23.6 billion more revenue than Five Below ($1.6 billion) and has way
more stores, they can’t beat Five Below’s overall in-store experience.
Target Audience
The target audience for Five Below is made up of a younger demographic. One of
the reasons why co-founders, David Schlessinger and Tom Vellios, started the company
was due to the fact that they too had children of their own and understood why teens
and preteens want to go shopping in the first place. They realized that they were
basically sleeping on a massively under-served market. So, they studied the needs and
wants of the average 8 to 14-year-old. They landed on the idea to create a place where
kids could go after they had outgrown the toy store. By focusing on what kids want to

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buy for themselves, they created Five Below. As the company grew over the years, their
target audience has gotten wider as well. What used to be a store catered to mainly
preteens, has now become a place that generation Z inhabits. Millennials are known to
be one of the largest single consumer groups out there. Their income is rather small
since the majority of them still live at home. Luckily, the founders were able to get ahold
of this knowledge early on. They made their stores the perfect place for young
customers with modest budgets.
Financial History
According to Five Below’s latest financial reports, the company’s current revenue
is $1.96 billion. In 2019, the company had a 22% increase from the previous year which
brought the revenue up from $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion. Over the years, Five Below’s has
grown at a steady rate as shown in the chart below:
Year 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Revenue $0.37 B $0.49 B $0.62 B $0.76 B $0.93 B $1.16 B $1.46 B $1.76 B $1.79
B
$1.96
B
Change 33.95% 26.44% 22.43% 22.01% 23.74% 25.85% 20.56% 1.62
%
9.5%
Marketing
Five Below has been working on expanding its digital presence through strategic
partnerships like Instacart, Disney, and Stranger Things. The company plans to increase
its marketing and advertising efforts after suffering a huge sales decrease during the
holidays. According to the article, “As Store Footprint Grows, Five Below Will Likely
Launch National Advertising in 2021”, sales declined 2.6% for the nine-week holiday
period that ended Jan. 5. Five Below plans to release a national advertising campaign
sometime in 2021.

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SWOT Analysis

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Target Consumer Definition
Five Below is quickly becoming one of the biggest most successful stores in the United
States. A big part of their success has been their ability to focus on a fast-growing
demographic (Real Money, 2018). Currently, Five Below’s target audience are women,
children, teens, and young adults. Five Below says its target market is the 60 million
Americans aged 5 to 19, who are estimated to account for at least $250 billion in annual
spending (BuzzFeed News, 2014). So, approximately ⅕ of the country’s population is
within this age group. However, Generation Z is starting to become Five Below’s primary
target market. Generation Z is one of the largest consumer groups in the market
(FokoRetail, 2020). According to the article on the Lexington Law website, Generation Z
Spending Habits for 2021, the 18-24-year-old group now make up 20% of the population
(LexingtonLaw, 2021). Also, their annual spending is estimated to be $143 billion
(Lexington Law, 2021). Because this group is pretty sizable, I will continue to target
Generation Z. In addition to this reasoning, I believe that Five Below’s strategy coincides
with Generation Z’s spending habits. Five Below offers a lot of items that play into a
customer’s perception of hype. Many of Five Below’s items are made up of trendy
gadgets that gain a lot of attention online. The only way people usually keep up with
trends is on social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok,
and Snapchat. Utilizing social media is what Generation Z is all about. This is the
generation that’s considered the most tech-savvy. Gen Z reports spending around four
and a half hours on their mobile devices per day in 2020. (Global Web Index, 2020) They
spend more time on socials than any other generation such as Baby Boomers,

10. 9
Generation X, and Millennials. According to the National Retail Federation, 26 percent of
Gen Z reported using social media to make a purchase in 2020 (National Retail
Federation, 2020). So, since trends on social media play a role into the development of
their products, Generation Z would be the ideal group to target. Also, they are the ones
with a fair amount of disposable income. They have money that they can spend on
whatever they want. A lot of teenagers have jobs but few of them have any bills or
financial obligations. Their income is also very small since most of them take on a
regular minimum wage job. This is what makes them a perfect target audience because
Five Below is a discount store and sells items at an affordable price. When people with
a low-income shop, they’re always going to go with the cheaper option because that’s all
they can afford. So, Generation Z is going to be looking for bargains and experiences
more than luxury. In conclusion, Generation Z is the ideal target audience because of
their ability to be the most tech-savvy and more profitable.

11. 10
Customer Profile
Meet Jasmine, the ideal customer for Five Below. Jasmine is 22-years-old and is a
senior at Penn State where she majors in Business Management & Marketing.. She
lives in a townhouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her boyfriend Anthony and her
4-year-old pitbull boxer mix. She is currently a full time YouTuber with a huge passion for
all things beauty. Her channel features a lot of beauty and lifestyle videos which include
lots of drugstore makeup looks, drugstore store shopping hauls, and vlogs. She’s half
Puerto Rican/half Guatemalan and she speaks fluent Spanish. Her family is from Puerto
Rico. She is the youngest out of her two siblings. She has an older brother and an older
sister whose names are Wendy and Justin. When she’s not creating content, she likes to
spend her free time either hanging out with her family or her friends on the weekends.
She has four friends that she’s been very close with since high school: Amaya, Taylor,

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Christina, and Shantel. They love to do activities like travel together and going out for
drinks once in a while. They’re always trying to find different traveling deals and bundles
that they can take advantage of. She also loves to spend a lot of time participating in
outdoor activities with her boyfriend like hiking and picnics by the lake.
Jasmine has always loved makeup. She’s been doing her own makeup by herself
since she was 15-years-old. She loved to experiment and try out new products. She
never had anyone teach, however. She learned from watching Youtube videos. So, she
basically taught herself. As she watched these Youtubers doing their makeup with these
high-end-expensive-products, she realized that she could probably find some similar
products with the same quality. Jasmine didn’t really have the money anyway to be
splurging because her allowance was only $50 biweekly. So, she started shopping for
affordable makeup that would give her the same results as the more expensive brand.
She ended up loving the results than the less expensive makeup was giving and
continued to keep buying it. She’s been in love with drugstore makeup ever since.

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Points-of-Parity
Rational Emotional

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Creative Strategy Statement: Five Below caters to those who like to have fun while they
shop.
Tagline :
“8 worlds, $5, let the adventure
begin!”
Rejected Statements:
1. At Five Below, we cater to your wants instead of your needs.
2. Your wants become what you need
3. Five Below, where the fun is in the journey
4. Never do we not have something that you don’t want
5. Five Below, many worlds, many items, lots of fun
6. When you change, we change with you.

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Creative Brief
What are we advertising?
Five Below is the perfect place for Generation Z to stay-on trend while on a budget. We
offer high-quality trendy gadgets for a cheap price.
Whom are we talking to?
Generation Z women, ages 15-23 who love to always try-out new products that gain a lot
of attention on social media.
What do they currently think?
They think the items are poor quality and not reliable.
What would we like them to think?
Five Below offers hot exclusive products at an affordable price.
What is the single most persuasive idea we can convey?
At Five Below, you will discover things you didn’t know you wanted.
Why should they believe it?
Five Below is always offering the latest and greatest products at an affordable price.
Are there any creative guidelines?
Digital ads on social platforms

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Promotional Mix
Social Media Marketing: The first advertising medium that I choose to use for Five
Below is social media. Social is a great way to reach Five Below’s audience which is
Generation Z. Generation Z is regular users of social media. The two most popular
platforms are Instagram and YouTube. According to a Business Insider survey (granted,
of just 1,884 people in the US between the ages of 13 and 21), 65% of young people
check Instagram every day, while 62% are daily YouTube users (Forbes,2019). Also,
Tiktok has recently become the new way for companies to target their Gen Z audience.
More than 40% of TikTok users are aged 16-24 and 90% of those users go on the app
more than once daily. As a result, the platform provides a unique and targeted means of
reaching Gen Z consumers (Forbes, 2020). One of the main reasons why videos on
Youtube, Instagram, and Tiktok gain the hype that they do is that they are created by
well-known influencers like Charli D’Amelio, Baby Ariel, PewDiePie, James Charles, and
Emma Chamberlain. This is one of the ways how Five Below can implement this into
their social media strategy. Five Below will be able to have the opportunity to form a
collaboration/partnership with a well-known influencer in order to help them promote
their products and increase brand awareness. For example, giveaways are really popular
when it comes to introducing your audience to a new product. Giveaways occur when a
brand provides the influencer something of value that the influencer can then offer to
their followers through a giveaway or contest. Five Below should find an influencer
related to their brand and get him/her to post a giveaway on their platform. Gen Zers
typically see influencers as more relatable and reachable than celebrities. Gen Z looks
for real brands and real people. They want to make a connection with brands. This

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makes influencer video campaigns more effective because viewers are more engaged
and responsive. Since the cost of an influencer depends on the number of followers
they have, we will be looking at mid-tier influencers who charge $500-$5,000 per post
(Influencer Marketing Hub, 2021).
Display Advertising: The second form of advertising I choose to use for Five Below
is display advertising. I think they should use display because it’s a great way to reach a
broader audience across the internet. Five Below will be able to reach their audience
whenever they’re searching for a product, service, or news on Google. There are several
display ad networks to choose from but the one that Five Below will be utilizing is
Google Display Network. The average cost per click for an ad on the Google Display
Network is $0.58 (Wordstream, 2021). Google Display Network can reach up to 92% of
all internet users (Search Engine Journal, 2017). The aim is to make sure that users are
automatically drawn to an ad when they visit a website or a social media platform.
Because Google serves online ads that are highly relevant to the search query,
businesses that use Google advertising are able to drive highly qualified traffic to their
site (Wordstream, 2021). Five Below will also be to narrow down their consumer target
by using demographic targeting. The targeting feature ensures that their ad reaches the
right audience and ad spend isn’t wasted on a demographic that isn’t interested in their
product (ToolBox, 2020). Instead of them showing their ads to huge audiences that may
or may not be in the market for their products, they can target their ads at people who
are searching specifically for the kinds of products or services they offer. For example,
a consumer could be searching for room decor and an advertisement for $5 room decor
from Five Below appears on whatever website the consumer may be visiting. We’re able
to still target the consumers in our market. We want to drive traffic to our website and
get our audience to answer that call to action. We want to get them to go on our website
and make a purchase.
Billboard: Lastly, I believe Five Below should start utilizing billboards as one of their
advertising methods. The average cost for a billboard is between $6,000-$18,000
depending on location. According to a recent global study by Kantar Millward Brown,
OOH is the #1 preferred ad format among Millennials and Gen Z (Billups, 2020).
Consumers are also 48 percent more likely to click on a mobile ad after being exposed
to the same ad on an out-of-home advertisement first (Billups, 2020). Five Below will
have billboards in high traffic areas such as along highways and in cities. Consumers
will be able to spot the billboard whether they’re a pedestrian or driver. Generation Z
finds billboards appealing because according to a 2017 study by Kantar Millward Brown,
55 percent of Gen Zers favor outdoor advertising because they find it “relaxing” (Gen Z
Insights, 2018). It’s a refreshing break from the digital media that is always pushing its

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way onto their screens. It’s always just popping up in their face; which can be very
annoying. They have no control over whether they chose to see it or not--unless they
have ad-blockers. Whereas with the billboard, they are fully in control.
Creative Execution

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Conclusion
To conclude, Five Below has been presented as a major player in the discount
retailer industry which has attained a competitive edge over other companies that are
also doing business in the industry. It has become popular among its customers and
more so among Generation Z who have become one of the key target customers for the
company. However, it faces a threat of poor product quality due to the value of its
products. Nevertheless, it has adopted a number of strategies that if realized
successfully will see it maintain its top position and also venture into the other markets
that it seeks to operate in. Now that they’ll be working on capturing the hearts of Gen Z,
Five Below will have no problem staying on top.

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References
Adweek. (2020, Jan 13). As Store Footprint Grows, Five Below Will Likely Launch National
Advertising in 2021.
https://www.adweek.com/commerce/as-store-footprint-grows-five-below-will-likely-laun
ch-national-advertising-in-2021/
BuzzFeed News. (2014, Oct 20). Meet Five Below, America's Fastest-Growing Teen
Retailer. Retrieved from
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sapna/meet-five-below-americas-fastest
-growing-teen-retailer
Chainstorage. (2015, Oct 22). Five Below looks for sales to sizzle with new agency.
https://chainstoreage.com/news/five-below-looks-sales-sizzle-new-agency

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Fool. (2014, June 24). Don’t Get Too High on Five Below.
https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/06/24/dont-get-too-high-on-five-below.as
px
Fool. (2021, Mar 26). Why Five Below Is Set to Win in 2021 and Beyond.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/03/26/why-five-below-is-set-to-win-in-2021-and-b
eyond/
Fool. (2019, Apr 17). 7 Reasons Five Below Sets the Gold Standard for Retail.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/04/17/7-reasons-five-below-sets-gold-standard-f
or-retail.aspx
Foko Retail. (2020). Why Five Below is Beating Other Discount Brands at the Retail Game.
Retrieved from https://fokoretail.com/five-below-in-store-execution/
Global Web Index. (2020). Gen Z: Observing the latest trends on Gen Z. Retrieved from
https://fokoretail.com/five-below-in-store-execution/
Lexington Law. (2021, Feb 8). Generation Z Spending Habits for 2021. Retrieved from
https://www.lexingtonlaw.com/blog/credit-cards/generation-z-spending-habits.ht
ml
ModenRetail. (2019. Dec 6). How discount chain Five Below is plotting its expansion.
https://www.modernretail.co/retailers/how-discount-chain-five-below-is-plotting-its-exp
ansion/
Money Inc. (2019). 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Five Below. Retrieved from
https://moneyinc.com/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-five-below/

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National Retail Federation. (2020, July 23). How brands can use social to connect with
Gen Z. Retrieved from
https://nrf.com/blog/how-brands-can-use-social-connect-gen-z
Philadelphia Magazine. (2017, Jan 14). How Philly-Based Five Below Became a
Billion-Dollar Company.
https://www.phillymag.com/business/2017/01/14/five-below-business-strategy/
Real Money. (2018, Sep 7). The Power of Tweens: How Five Below Is Betting Big on this
Fast-Growing Market. Retrieved from
https://realmoney.thestreet.com/articles/09/07/2018/power-tweens-how-five-bel
ow-betting-big-fast-growing-market