Critical Analysis of the Target Market for Plastic Whale

The target market for Plastic Whale (PW) identified in report 1 is high school students in Sydney. This segment is most appropriate as PW is driven by environmental concern of global warming and population, which is in correlation with the Australian youth’s values. The recognition of youth activism was validated in 2009 when children were given official constituency status by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Fisher.S, 2015). It is clear that governmental bodies are slowly recognising the importance of youth activists in climate change decision-making. The Australian youth engagement in this activism was highly evident when Sydney high school students participated in the protest for climate change in October 2019 which had over 10,000 school student protesters. In a study by Camilla Schreiner (2018), one of the key findings was that peers respect those who are concerned about the environment and do not perceive them as controversial or radical. Peers who are concerned with the environment are held in high regards by fellow peers. Therefore, this target market is driven and perceived as popular among their peers. The consumers of high school students are aged between 12-18, being both males and females. However, studies conclude that girls are more likely to hold a ‘pessimistic future images’ when compared to boys their age. (Eckersley, 1999). Through identifying a target market, PW should seek to differentiate themselves from other social enterprises such as 4ocean, Sand Cloud and United By Blue, while also establishing its competitive advantage. The competitive advantages for PW would be the popular location of Sydney Harbour, the benefits to the economics, the social activism. However, to create superior customer value, PW should focus on two of these advantages: the activism of climate change and the education and awareness that stems from their program. When compared to their competitors, it is clear that PW allows customers to experience and be among the process, fostering a sense of community and belonging, which ultimately leads to customs loyalty to PW. PW should adopt the following positioning statement: ’Plastic Whale will stand alongside the ambitious youth wanting to lead their generation to a brighter and greener future through sociable activism of cleaning the waters of Sydney Harbour and spreading awareness so that the youth can and will be heard.’

Sales promotion has been defined as ‘a direct inducement that offers an extra value or incentive for the product to the sales force, distributors, or the final consumer with the primary objective of creating an immediate sale’ (Haugh 1983). There are many ways PW can benefit from sale promotions such as encouraging consumers' behavioral responders such as ‘brand switching, stockpiling, purchase acceleration, product trial and spending larger amounts’ (Mittal, M. and Sethi, P., 2011). One strategy that stems from sales promotion that PW should incorporate in their marketing is buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO). BOGO should be offered to potential clients at the regular price which will contribute value to the service. This strategy will persuade consumers to buy into the service as an additional amount is given free of charge. BOGO will be every effective as their tours go off in groups making it a social activity, therefore customers are not likely to be individual buyers but in a pair of a group, therefore BOGO would be a great way to promote the project, particularly if Plastic Whale are worried about the appeal of picking up rubbish. Among all sale promotions strategies, BOGO deals are among the most effective promotional methods that are suitable for PW. This strategy will not cost Plastic Whale anything as it’s designed to increase revenue as well as awareness therefore they minimise the potential of losing business. BOGO always encourages purchase acceleration as it is also a great way to fill their schedules during their launch in Sydney Harbour or getting new clients during the slow season. BOGO will also help with purchase accelerations and increase brand awareness as customers purchase a product at an earlier time (Shoemaker 1979) as the result of a sales promotion. The target market are millennials who thrive in the social context so it is most likely they will ask for friends to tag along and organise a group to participate. BOGO will encourage them to get their friends and family involved. Due to how PW is a service based business, during the off-season, BOGO deal will be well worth the investment if it leads to new customers in the long run. Another sales promotion strategy that should be implemented is customers loyalty programs. The use of customer loyalty programs should be employed by PW as a tool for creating relationships with their customers, which encourages customer loyalty (Roking 2005). Customer loyalty is an important issue for the success of PW as researchers have found that drawing in new customers is more expansion than keeping existing ones (Singh & Imran 2012). In fact, Singh & Imran (2012) have estimated that on average online companies lose 25% of their customers every year, and a small increase in customer retention can increase profits by more than 25%. Loyalty programs are effective in creating long term customer relationships because when customers develop trust with a company, they are ready to forget any other competitors offer. Additonilty, the need for climate change will always be relevant and trending, therefore encouraging more protests and activism which PW can benefit from. The profile of the target market as young citizens of Australia, they are likely to regularly contribute to the activism and clean up of Sydney hence they should be benefited from their contribution by PW. Hence, BOGO and customer loyalty programs should be incorporated by PW during their launch in Sydney Harbour in order to encourage consumers' behavioral response to the brand and accelerate the purchase rate and increase brand awareness.

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Direct and digital marketing should be considered as it will allow PW to interact directly with their target market, individuals customers and communities, which will act as an immediate response and build on a long term relationship with their customers. By using social media as a form of digital marketing, PW will be able to allow the target market to potentially engage in interactions which on another were they can communicate on and participate in decision forums, discussing PW and the issues that are arising from Climate Change. These interactions between potential users will be mostly synchronous and, because they rely on database information, they are conducted on a one-to-one basis and generate a measurable response, or fulfilment. One social media platform that should be utilised is Facebook. Facebook is a platform that is commonly used for creating large events and groups such as protests, environmental activist groups, youth in Sydney groups etc. In these groups, people can create events, discussion forums, image and videos content etc. The event function allows people to see who is in a group or will be attending an event as there is a going,maybe and not going responding feature which users can express their intention on events. This tool also shows the amount of people who are going to events which encourages and influences users to attend events. Facebook event tools were used for organising the Sydney Climate Change protest in 2019 therefore the target market is familiar with the platform. Through the social media platform of FaceBook, PW can convey a strong existence and friendly customer relationship. PW should take advantage of the platform as they can establish and enhance their brand image. PW can also create facebook groups of people of similar interest and create a network. With the invite feature on FaceBook, PW should invite these individuals who were in the Climate Change protest event in 2019. This invitation will supply a direct link to those who are interested and redirect them to the PW facebook page. Targeted Advertising, according to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is working on a system to allow targeted advertising to specific networks of people with similar interests. Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves. Eventually, it hopes to refine the system to allow it to predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area. Facebook Advertising campaign (online) to promote the offline event. And during the event (offline), collecting personal details of leads such as emails and phone numbers to follow up through email and mobile marketing (online).

Advertisements should be used by PW in order to increase brand awareness and brand exposure in their target market. Advertising will inform potential customers about PW and their service which is the first step towards attaining PW’s goals and objectives. These advertisements will be used to persuade customers to form a brand image and develop a favourable attitude towards PW. Due to how PW target market is high school students living in the city region of Sydney, a promotional strategy used could be transit advertising. Because PW’s target market is high school students, the advertisement will depict teenagers of both genders and different nationalities. This will evoke a sense of youth and community that PW is trying to capture. The image should capture the protesting, holding up signs for Climate Change. Transit advertising provides frequent exposure to a large number of residents in different urban regions. The target market frequently catches public transport to and from school everyday thus being exposed to PW advertisements. In order to launch a successful transit advertising, the advertiser needs to select several bus routes with the consideration of various factors in different scenarios, such as the topic of ads, the launching area and the role of bus stations (the station is a transfer hub or not). For example, it is easy to understand that hub stations are more important than common stations for advertising, i.e. to launch an ad to a bus route which contains many hub stations is more effective than to a bus route which contains many common stations. The reason is that more passengers who make a transfer at the hub stations will notice the ads. Based on that, the final solution should satisfy some conditions, such as maximizing passenger coverage or targeted region coverage. Hence these routines should be located on the east and inner west side of Sydney which is where predominantly most of the target market attend school. This will reinforce the brand message and to reassure the existing and potential customers about the brand vision. Advertising helps the brand to maintain top of mind awareness and to avoid competitors stealing the customers. This also helps in the word of mouth marketing.

In conclusion, the three main marketing tools that PW should incorporate in their marketing is sales promotion, advertising and direct and digital marketing. Sales promotion offers PW an extra value or incentive for their service to the sales force, distributors, or the final consumer with the primary objective of creating an immediate sale. There are many ways PW can benefit from sale promotions such as encouraging consumers' behavioral responders such as brand switching, purchase acceleration and product trial. Sale promotion strategies such as BOGO should be offered to potential clients at the regular price which will contribute value to the service. This strategy will persuade consumers to buy into the service as an additional amount is given free of charge. Direct and digital marketing should be considered as it will allow PW to interact directly with their target market, individuals customers and communities, which will act as an immediate response and build on a long term relationship with their customers. By using social media as a form of digital marketing, PW will be able to allow individuals and groups to interact with one another and with marketing organisations, ranging from not-for-profit organisations to commercial suppliers of goods and services. Advertisements should be used by PW in order to increase brand awareness and brand exposure in their target market. Advertising will inform potential customers about PW and their service which is the first step towards attaining PW’s goals and objectives. These advertisements will be used to persuade customers to form a brand image and develop a favourable attitude towards PW. Transit advertising provides frequent exposure to a large number of residents in different urban regions. The target market frequently catches public transport to and from school everyday thus being exposed to PW advertisements.