ASSIGNMENT PROJECT FRONT SHEET

Strategy Registration No

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Assignment Title Module Title Study Center

Strategic Brand Audit and Plan for Elephant House Soft Drink Strategic Brand Management Strategy College- Sri Lanka

By submitting this assessment I confirm that I understand and abide by the Strategys plagiarism and collusion regulations.

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1.0 Executive Summary

By consulting trade magazines, internal and external business publications, company reports, analytic commentaries, brand audit, and consumer surveys, we investigated the integrated marketing communications and created a corporate profile of the Elephant House Company. The company markets its unique products to Sri Lankan markets which it feels are underrepresented and inadequately reached by its competitors. This is a difficult market for any company to communicate with, since todays consumers are growing harder to reach, as they tend to avoid traditional media outlets. In order to overcome this obstacle, Elephant House seeks to be seen not just as a beverage distributor and manufacturer, but also as a lifestyle company, promoting independence and alternative thinking. These marketing objectives are met by placing intense emphasis on consumer involvement within every aspect of the brand. For instance, customers directly influence product development and packaging. These tactics have successfully created a positive brand image for the companyone that seeks to avoid the more mainstream advertising and marketing avenues that other brands pursue. These strategies have also fostered strong customer loyalty. Elephant House uses creative methods to reach its target markets, primarily through the use of a powerful website that consistently features consumers and their various lifestyles. Additionally, the company employs the use of promotional recreational vehicles that travel to schools and alternative sports and music events across the country. Elephant House builds and improves public relations by sponsoring professional alternative athletes and independent music artists. Also, the distinctive nature of the companys products is a key factor in creating brand awareness, and it serves to pique customer curiosity. To date, the Elephant House Company has experienced extensive growth. But in order to continue this trend, the company needs to adjust and expand its marketing communications strategies. Surveys revealed that the brand has weak public awareness levels, even within its chief psychographic markets. One of the major challenges facing Elephant House is in developing advertisements that adequately increase brand awareness within all target markets, while retaining the companys underground and alternative image. The recommendations contained in this profile attempt to enlarge the scope of the companys reach while maintaining the consumer-focused identity that is uniquely Elephant House. The post war positivism also had a favorable impact, on the Retail business. More customers upgraded their shopping to Modern Trade and Elephant House their won supermarkets benefitted from this and able to record a double digit growth in the customer numbers that patronized those stores. Elephant Houses range of soft drinks competes with international brands and this year too she has been successful in retaining our market leadership. The introduction of KIK Cola has helped them to increase the lead. But, it does not mean that it will stay at the position in the future. So, the brand has to reinforce its penetration in leading audiences.

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2.0 Summary of the overall analysis

A brand audit is a thorough examination of a brands current position in an industry compared to its competitors and the examination of its effectiveness. When doing brand audit for Elephant House, five questions were carefully examined and assessed. These five questions are how well the business current brand strategy is working, what are the companys established resource strengths and weaknesses, what are its external opportunities and threats, how competitive are the business prices and costs, how strong is the business competitive position in comparison to its competitors, and what strategic issues are facing the business. To conduct Elephant House brand audit we used 21 tools. A brand mantra is a 3-5 word shorthand encapsulation of particular brand position. It is not an advertising slogan, and, in most cases, it wont be something we use publicly. What businesses should Elephant House be in? What businesses should Elephant House not be in? How should Elephant House handle this crisis weve gotten ourselves into? How does Elephant House make this painful choice? Let the brand mantra be the guide. Brand function term describes the nature of the product or type of experience or benefit the brand provides. Elephant House soft drink brand nature is carbonated soft drink function is thirst quenching. The descriptive modifier further clarifies its nature. Since Elephant House soft drinks comes with different flavors to suite different circumstance, will take Flavors as a descriptive modifier. And finally emotional modifier provide another qualifier how exactly does the brand provide benefits and in what ways? So Elephant House soft drinks position her product portfolio to suite different moods, from kids to elder at any time in the day. So will select moods, as an emotional modifier. (see Figure 1.11) for the brand mantra to be effective, no other brand should singularly excel on all dimensions. Part of the key to Elephant House soft drinks success is that for years, no other competitor could really deliver on the promise suggested by their brand mantras as well as they did. Brand mantra also can used to capture the brands points of difference, that is, what is unique about the brand. (see Figure 1.3) by develop POD & POP Elephant House soft drinks can identify positive and negative aspects of individual attribute. A long heritage would be seen as a positive attribute because it can suggest experience, wisdom, and expertise. On the other hand, it could be a negative attribute because it might imply being old-fashioned and not contemporary and cutting-edge. Elephant House soft drink has more PODs than other industry competitors. Those attribute will gain the highest market share from the soft drink market. When launching marketing campaigns, Elephant House can launch one advertisement addressing natural ingredients, Sri Lankan Culture & Heritage. And another one emphasized the different package size. The hope is that consumers will be less critical when judging the POP and POD benefits in isolation, because the negative correlation might be less apparent. The CBBE model looks at building a brand as a sequencing of steps, each of which is contingent on successfully achieving the objectives of the previous one. (see Figure 1.1) Elephant House soft drink is well position on Salience building block. when consumer feel thirsty, he/ she will easily recall or recognized Elephant house soft drinks because it position
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as a natural drink, Sri Lankan brand and more volume for same price. And also, it suite for any moods. Since brand awareness refers to customers ability to recall & recognize the brand under different conditions, Elephant House soft drink is linking with logo, symbol and so forth to certain associations in memory. When buying a soft drink consumer think about psychological needs as well. It means more intangible aspect of the brand. So Elephant House comes as Sri Lankan brand, number one soft drink brand in the country, fix with any moods etc. After consumed the product, customers emotional responses and reactions to the brand is very important. With Elephant House customer feel, calm, joyous, playful, cheerful, accomplishment etc. The emotions evoked by the brand can become a strongly associated that they are accessible during product consumption or use. By doing marketing campaign also need to focus on these sensual experiences. The final step of the model focuses on the ultimate relationship and level of identification that the customer has with the brand. Elephant House soft drink has high resonance in terms of the depth of psychological bond, feeling and functional attributes. This will repeat purchases of product, love to the brand, buildup brand community online or offline, for the Elephant House. We can define five level of meaning for a product (see Figure1.5) Harvards Ted Levitt has argued that the competition is not between what companies produce in their factories but between what they add to their factory output in the form of packaging, service, advertising, customer advice, financing, delivery arrangements, warehousing, and other things that people value base on that elephant house clearly plan out product levels. Elephant House by understanding consumer motivations and desires and creating relevant and appealing images surrounding their products. Often these intangible image associations (see Figure 1.2) like natural goodness, traditionally trusted, pure Sri Lankan, may be the only way to distinguish different brands in a product category. by creating perceived difference among product through branding and by developing a loyal consumer franchise, marketers create value that can translate to financial profit for the Elephant House. Perceptual mapping has been used as a strategic management tool for communicate the complex relationships between marketplace competitors and the criteria used by buyers in making purchase decisions and recommendations. (see Figure 1.14) by understanding Elephant House soft drinks current position they can used it for redesign the market segmentation, concept development and evaluation, and tracking changes in marketplace perceptions among other uses. For an example Elephant House can produce low volume bottles. That will affect increase the revenue as well. By using perceptual map Elephant House can fulfill the gap areas as well, like low price wide available soft drinks are not available in the market. But using strong distribution channel Elephant House can address this segment. BAV (Brand Asset Valuator) provide comparative measures of the brand equity. Base on the core five pillars, Differentiation, Energy, and Relevance combine to determine Energized Brand Strength. This will reflect the brands future values. Esteem and Knowledge together create Brand Structure, which is more of a report card on past performance. (see Figure 1.8) Base on these relationship elephant house can reveal much about a brands current and

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future status. It will clearly show who are the Leaders, Who are the future competitors, what kind of marketing activity need to execute by Elephant House against the competitors positioning. According to BrandDynamics pyramid, Elephant House brand building follows a sequential series of steps, each contingent upon successfully accomplishing the preceding one (see Figure 1.16). Elephant House soft drink goes through all the steps with successfully it became a Highly recognized only Sri Lankan brand. Presence- with traditionally trusted brand, award winning soft drink, Relevance- address customers concern like high volume, less price, Performance- comes with natural ingredients, widely available, Advantage- it offer unique flavors, natural goodness, more volume for less price, then ultimately it become bonding brand with consumers. The marketing challenge in acquiring new customers, however, lies in making a brand seem relevant to vastly different generation and cohort groups or lifestyle (see Figure 1.18). When considering Elephant House they position their products with all the age groups from 100 years time. But unfortunately, even as younger consumers age, there is no guarantee they will have the same attributes and behaviors of the older consumers who preceded them. So Elephant house must consider alternative approaches for this challenge. In brand plan we explain the activities which required overcoming these issues. When considering brand Elephant House soft drink brand position strategies they already address required all the levels (see Figure 1.20). As an example, brand positioning by competitors were already won by the Elephant House been no 1 brand in the country. Brand positioning by product use, that also carefully analysis and provide products for Beginners, Youngers, elders and professionals as well. By assuming that the value of a brand ultimate resides with customers, Elephant House plan brand value chain as a structured approach to assessing the sources and outcomes of brand equity and the manner by which marketing activities create brand value (see Figure 1.19). Through market program investments (for TV Commercials, cutouts, paper advertisements, sponsorships, trainings, and CSR activities) with quality (clarity of the massage, relevance to the audience, and consistency of activities) Elephant House soft drinks can increase the brand awareness and finally company turnover and shareholder return. Elephant House should be confident that the investment made in revitalizing the Elephant House brand will continue to provide the impetus for growth in volumes and profitability in the future. They have to plans for both beverages and frozen confectionery include increasing their range of products to give consumers a choice and stay ahead of competition both in our offerings and market share.

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3.0 Brand vision and brands core and periphery values

3.1 Brand Vision Our passion is to deliver pleasure and nutrition throughout peoples lives, through exciting and superior products, whenever and wherever they choose to eat and drink. 3.2 Brand Core Values LEADERSHIP: The courage to shape a better future; COLLABORATION: Leveraging our collective genius; INTEGRITY: Being real; ACCOUNTABILITY: Recognizing that if it is to be, its up to me; PASSION: Showing commitment in heart and mind; DIVERSITY: Being as inclusive as our brands. QUALITY: Ensuring what we do, we do well. 3.3 Periphery Values R&D: Continues Research and developments for new DISTRIBUTION: More efficient distribution system BRAND AWARENESS: educate everyone PRICE: ensuring competitive pricing DIFFERENT PACK SIZE: suit for consumers budget IT SUPPORT: for increase productivity

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4.0 Objectives
4.1 Corporate Objectives With the end of the war in 2009, the country has seen an up-tick in economic activity and development. The forecasted GDP growth of 8% was achieved in 2010 and GDP growth of 8.5% is expected in 2011. Inflation was contained at mid-single digit levels, resulting in lower interest rates. There was a reduction of import duties on several consumer items, while the Sri Lankan Rupee was stable against the US Dollar. From a carbonated soft drinks consumption perspective, Sri Lanka continues to be relatively low with a per capita consumption of 7.5 liters compared to that of developed economies in South East Asia, although we are hopeful that this trend will gradually change. This is evidenced by the fact that we achieved the highest literate in average per capita this year, an assured feature that Sri Lankans will begin consuming more soft drinks in the coming year. At a Company level Elephant House expecting revenue increased by 21% to stand at Rs. 6.4 billion, a significant improvement over last year. Through prudent cost management initiatives, somewhat Elephant House will reduce the impact of cost increases in key raw materials and manage to maintain selling prices at competitive levels, for most of the year. So by doing all Elephant House expecting Profit before tax growth of 4.5% . At a consolidated level EBIT will expect to increase by 6% than previous year. The tax charge for the year at the Company was Rs. 238 million (2009/2010 Rs. 189 million) - an effective tax rate of 49% which is expecting an increase of 9% compared to last year. At a consolidated level the Group total asset base amounted to be increase Rs. 9.6 billion from Rs. 6.5 billion in the previous year. The Companys strategic priorities are primarily focused on delivering shareholder value through the achievement of sustainable, capital efficient and long term profitability growth. The basic Earnings per Share (EPS) for the Group is at Rs. 9.24 . The Companys share price as at 31 March 2011 was Rs. 750.60 and expecting of moving within a range of Rs. 150 to Rs. 850 during the year. Return on Equity (ROE) for the Company at 7% whilst Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) is 11.32% as against the 14.27% in last year. The company need to redefine its manufacturing systems and adopted a new operating model. The changes were intended to increase manufacturing productivity and reduce procurement spending.
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The Elephant House will move to SAP Retail system implementation. It will add more power to the inventory system and the Central Distribution Centre. The front end Point of Sale system too will change to internally developed software. Which enables the Company to understand and service the customer better and cater to their specific needs in a more personalized manner. The Company expanded its chain by opening two new outlets during the year in Matara in October 2010 and in Moratuwa in January 2011. Company will add another collection center in Embilipitiya to its network of collection centers that collects vegetables and fruits directly from the farm gate.

4.2 Marketing Objectives Elephant House expecting revenue increased by 21% Expecting beverages business will saw a double digit growth in volumes. Increase householder penetration from 25% to to 35% To increase customer retention by 25% by 2010 To increase the number of new product per year for 2 to 5 by 2012 By doing redefine its manufacturing systems and adopted a new operating model company will intended to increase manufacturing productivity and reduce procurement spending. By implementing SAP Retail system which enables the Company to understand and service the customer better and cater to their specific needs in a more personalized manner. By opening a collection center company will expect to provide assistance to farmers in various ways, to ensure that they cultivate the required crops at the expected quality levels. Elephant House drinks are available in a number of ethnic shops in the UK, Europe, Australia and in the Middle East. They will expect to increase revenue on Export by 10%.

4.3 Brand Objective Move the possible brand image score in the Cola Flavor likers through Kik Cola category from 10% to 20% Increase brand awareness and unprompted recall score by 10% among the export countries. Extend the brand in to new age beverages which include sports drinks, fruit juices, isotonic drinks.
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By implementing SAP system Elephant House can improve brand awareness and able to make sure availability of the product on every shelf. The Company expect to retain her position in the merit award in large scale category - Manufacturing sector at the Sri Lanka National Energy Efficiency Award in this year as well which conducted by Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority in recognition of their contribution to reduce energy through energy management effort. Elephant House Cream Soda, our flagship brand has been successful in winning the Peoples Most Popular Beverage Brand, at the Peoples Awards organized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing and The Neilsen Company for four consecutive years. This year too Elephant House should retain the same position.

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5.0 Market Segmentation

The purpose for segmenting a market is to allow Elephant House marketing/sales program to focus on the subset of prospects that are "most likely" to purchase her offering. Since Elephant House selling their offering to individual consumers there are definite differences in what Elephant House should consider when defining market segments. Under offering to individual consumers Elephant House should consider Social Esteem or Pleasure as one part; Elephant House offering satisfies a purely emotional need in the consumer. As a second part consider the consumers Functional requirement of the consumer such as a satisfying hunger and thirst, saving money, saving time. Market segmenting is dividing the market into groups of individual markets with similar wants or needs that a company divides into distinct groups which have distinct needs, wants, behavior or which might want different products & services. Broadly, markets can be divided according to a number of general criteria, such as by industry or public versus private. Although Industrial market segmentation from consumer market segmentation, both have similar objectives. All of these methods of segmentation are merely proxies for true segments, which don't always fit into convenient demographic boundaries. 5.1 Fashionable Brand Mostly the younger generation are been focused in this criteria. Elephant house Cream Soda was the most popular product among the younger generation where as elephant house was continuously driven and awarded the Most Popular Brand In sri lanka with Lankans To The Last Drop 5.2 Average Consumers Elephant house is been mostly popular in this category since all the consumers strictly stick with this innovative brand which provides unique flavors for different occasions by satisfying their thirst quenching where they do not have any other substitute brand in their mind. 5.3 Peer Pressured Consumers Elephant house brand is a prestige product to lankans since it service is more than 100 years with the Sri Lankan heritage along with trust whereas not only a carbonated drink which is blended with natural ingredients none other than other brands.

6.0 Consumer Segmentation

Consumer segmentation is the process of classifying people into groups that have some set of similar characteristics, resulting in the ability to be studied and targeted. The most basic method is to segment by simple demographics such as age, income, or marital status. The goal is to identify relatively homogeneous groups with similar behavior that will assist in customizing the message and/or offer for each segment. The theory goes, once settled in, people naturally emulate their neighbors, adopt similar social values, tastes and expectations

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and, most important to marketers, share similar patterns of consumer behavior toward products, services, media and promotions. 6.1 Behavioral Segmentation Purchase/Transaction Elephant house have captured 47% of the market share in Sri Lanka as the most popular brand and have gradually increased transaction and supply levels amoing aff in the market. Consumption/Usage The branded elephant house soft drink has a high level of consumption level comparing to other brands it differentiated with a availability of unique flavors with different packages whenever wherever needed. Technology Usage Elephant house secret relies on their research and development which provides different flavors under one roof to full fill customer needs through maximizing the technology with highly qualified engineering staff.

Media Usage Mid Level of Media is being utilized focusing the younger generation and family segments as the brand is a wellknown product which provides satisfaction to all consumer categories. Traditionally trusted brand among end user for many years where as everyone well aware what it is.
6.2 Psychological Segmentation Life Style Consumer categories divided in to Kids, Younger, Professional, Housewifes and elderly people being focused only by elephant house brand to satisfy the customers for what they require. Perceptions Traditionally trusted, safe to drink,sri Lankan heritage and contains unique flavors with natural ingredients.. Motives Elephant house creates a dynamic value towards consumers with the Sri Lankan heritage and produces the best quality product for over 100 years of excellent service.

Personality Specialized in providing innovative carbonated drinks to the market with the sense of calm, trustworthy, community oriented the only brand. Attitudes The only brand in Sri Lanka full fills emotional and rational feelings towards customer provide a value all the time. Benefit Sought Affordable, Value for money, different packages, island wide distribution, Health and safety and Unique flavors.

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6.3 Profile Segmentation Demographic Profile of Elephant House Consumption Categories Drink Elephant House Male Female GI Generation Silent Generation Baby Boomers Generation X Generation Y Millennial Total % 30% 17% N/A 02% 05% 06% 11% 23% Consumed Product Range Male Male N/A Orange Barley,Soda,Ginger Ale Orange Barley,Soda,Ginger Ale Ginger Beer,Orange Crush,Soda,Lemonade,Cream Soda Ginger Beer,Orange Crush,Cream Soda,Soda,Lemonade Ginger Beer,Orange Crush,Cream Soda,Wild Elephant,Necto,Lemonade,Apple Soda

6.4 Socio Economic Mainly Elephant house provides the best quality product to customers with a affordable price range as well as motivating the local employees for job opportunities & the company continues to work closely with farmers, providing assistance to them in various ways to ensure that they cultivate the required crops at the expected quality levels. 6.5 Geographic Product availability in locally have been maximized and exports is been limited to certain Asian countries looking forward to expand the business globally. The company expands its supply chain by opening two new outlets last year in matara and this year in moratuwa to cater consumers in a more personalized manner.

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7.0 Positioning Strategy

All the marketing strategy is built on STP- segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Positioning is the act of designing the companys offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target market. The gall is to locate the brand in the minds of consumers to maximize the potential benefit to the firm. A good brand positioning helps guide marketing strategy by clarifying the brands essence, what goals it helps the consumer achieve, and how it does so in a unique way. When selecting various positioning strategies Elephant House considers listed facts. 1. Identify the competitors (Figure 1.14) 2. Determine how the competitors are perceived and evaluated (Figure 1.14) 3. Determine the competitors positions (Figure 1.14) 4. Analyze the customer (Figure 1.1) Elephant House defines itself in the carbonated soft drink industry as an most trusted local brand beverage. In the minds of the public, Elephant House is certainly an alternative to major soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi and as far as new age goes Elephant House is seen as a highly unique drink that is for younger, modern, and pop culture oriented consumers. Consumers and the young target market do not see Elephant House as a competitor to big Cola competitors. They equate it with other alternative beverages like all-natural drinks and juices as well as energy drinks. To consumers its not something you find in the soft drink fountain, but rather something sold at specialty stores or popular hang outs. When asked, What kind of people drink Elephant House? it was very overwhelming to see how well CCS has positioned itself within its target market and how dead on its consumers were with the image it wanted to create. The target market responded with, Someone who hates mainstream, Trendsetters, alternatives, and A very unique person. Consumers within the target market have the perception that Elephant House is not something you buy very often like Coke or Sprite, but rather something for the adventurous and people with a reputation for knowing whats cool and being trendsetters. People want to be those trendsetters, so they drink Elephant House. Elephant House has tried to position itself with a certain psychographic of its target market which would be the all ages group from Kids to elders. People consider Elephant House to have a unique reputation and they drink it to be associated with its unique image. By being sold in places like Retail shops, supermarkets, small shops etc. People feel that Elephant House creates an individual flavor for them and that they can find a flavor for them that fits their personality as well as separates them from the crowd of big soft drink consumers. Once the market have fixed the competitive frame of reference for positioning by defining the customer target market and the nature of the competition, elephant house can define the appropriate points-of-difference and point-of-parity associations. With reference to figure 1.3,

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Elephant house has favorable PODs than other carbonated soft drink competitors, mainly consumers purchase mostly on impulse. 7.1 Using product characteristics or Customer benefits With referring to figure 1.20 imported soft drinks illustrate variety of product characteristics that can be employed and their power in image creation. Elephant House have emphasized Sri Lankan Brand, natural goodness, more volume for same price, suitable for any moods from kids to elders and have become the leader in the number of bottled sold. It has stressed safety and healthy, trustworthy, joyful, playful, showing commercials of School Band, Playful youth, remind old memories etc. Elephant House attempt to position itself along two or more product characteristics simultaneously. Orange Crush and Orange barely are the examples for this. Ginger Beer is consist not only carbonated drink along, it comes with natural Ginger spirit as combine of two characteristics. This positioning were create natural goodness for its consumers. Elephant House position Ginger Ale, soda as an added product with alcoholics drinks. 7.2 Positioning by price and quality With referring to figure 1.20 the price and quality product characteristic is so useful and pervasive that it is appropriate to consider it separately. In many soft drink brands deliberately attempt to offer more in terms of volume, flavors, taste etc. manufactures of such brands charge more, partly to cover higher costs and partly to help communicate the fact that they are of higher quality. Conversely, in the same product class like Coca Cola, Pepsi, My Cola, there are usually that appeals on the basis of price. Although, they might also try to be perceived as having comparable or at least adequate quality. Elephant house will provide high quality different unique flavors for the affordable price with more volume than all other competitors. All the soft drink flavors come with different pack sizes, which are good positioning against the price competition. 7.3 Positioning by use or Application Another way to communicate an image is to associate the product with a use, or application. EGB for many years positioned itself as a lunch-time product and used noontime radio extensively. Elephant house associated natural goodness with any kind of moods of the day with kids to elders in its touch the hart of consumer campaign. Ginger Beer, which is produced using essences extracted from natural ginger, is specially manufactured at the companys essence factory, and is marketed and sold as EGB. Soda is touted as the King Of The Chase, Peyawa as a traditional home remedy,

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Necto as a childrens drink, Lemonade as a sports drink and Cream Soda as the musthave for teens. 7.4 Positioning by Product Class Some products need to make critical positioning decisions that involve product-class associations. Lemonade is position as a sport dinks with swimmers, athletics. KIK Cola is introducing for cola product class. Wild Elephant introduce for energy drink product class. 7.5 Positioning by Competitors In most positioning strategies, an explicit or implicit frame of reference is one or more competitors. As per the figure 1.14 Elephant House is currently having the best positioning over the competitors. But they also can move in to gaps areas for the maximizing the total revenue. As an example they can play considerable volume with introducing a low price soft drink.

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8.0 Branding Strategy

There are a number of branding strategies: Generic brand strategy, individual brand Strategy, family brand strategy, manufactures brand strategy, private brand strategy and hybrid brand strategy. Elephant House utilizes the individual brand strategy as Elephant House major products are given their own brand names for example: Orange Crush, Orange Barely, Lemonade, Ginger Beer, Wild Elephant, Ginger Ale, and Soda etc. furthermore company adopted a number of innovative branding strategies for gaining penetration in the Sri Lankan market. Individual brands are restricted to essentially one product category, although multiple product types may differ on the basis of model, package sixe, flavor, and so forth. By practicing this strategy Elephant House gain advantage of creating individual brands is that she can customize the brand and all its supporting marketing activity to meet the needs of a specific customer groups as well as special moods of different circumstances. In Figure 1.18 clearly illustrate how Elephant House focus different products for different age groups. Thus the name, label, and other brand elements like taste, color, bottle shape, volume as well as product design, marketing communication process, pricing and distribution strategies, can also focus on the certain target market. Thats why this selected branding strategy is more success. Moreover, if the brand runs into difficulty or fails, the risk to other category and the company itself is minimal. But when considering disadvantages of creating an individual brand , however, are the difficulty, complexity, and expense of developing separate marketing programs to build sufficient levels of brand equity. With referring to Figure 1.2 Elephant House brand position her product with different flavors with unique taste, different shapes of the bottle as a touch, and as a sight they use different colors and attractive labeling. Since most of competitors does not having such variation that would be defiantly good branding strategy for Elephant House. When considering the brand positioning the entire brand have boundaries. Elephant House had multiple products under soft drink category in order to pursue these multiple segments. Some reasons for introducing and multiple product is under Elephant House soft drinks are; 1. Increase shelf presence and retailer dependence in the store 2. Attracting consumers seeking variety who may otherwise have switched to another brand 3. Increasing internal competition within the firm 4. Yielding economies of scale in advertising, sales, merchandising, and physical distribution.

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FLANKERS

Under this, Elephant House positioned products with respect to competitors brands so that more important and more profitable flagship brands can retain their desired positioning.

Orange Barely, Orange Crush, Soda, Ginger Ale

CASH COWS

Some products under Elephant House soft drinks may be kept around despite dwindling sales because they still Cream Soda, manage to hold on to enough customers and maintain Lemonade, EGB their profitability virtually no marketing support. The role of relatively low-price brand in the portfolio often may be to attract customers to the brand franchise. The role of a relatively high-priced brand often is to add prestige and credibility to the entire portfolio. KIK Cola, Apple Soda, Peyava

LOW-END ENTRY LEVEL HIGH-END PRESTIGE

Wild Elephant

Elephant House use her prestige traditionally trusted history as a strong branding strategy. Since 100 years old local company, Elephant House advertise important till Last Drop & Truly Sri Lankan. This will effect directly consumers emotional buying decision. And it is marketing her product with natural goodness. That also addresses safety and health of the consumer. Considering all factors which illustrate on figure 1.6 & 1.4, Elephant House set all branding strategies according to the consumers feeling about the soft drink brand. Advertisements also touch the hart of consumers with fixing day to day different moods of the consumer.

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9.0 Communication Plan

9.1 Communication Goal The Elephant House brand has already become the biggest brand in the soft drink market. However, as for the noticed the brand of the Elephant House still has some weakness and threats. In order to overcome these weakness and threats, a communication plan has to be implemented. First, in order to prevent the existing market share losing, Elephant House needs to enhance the image of the brand through communication within existing market segments. Second, Market expansion should focus on new market segments, such as women market.

Strength
Good brand elements 100 years trusted brand name Larger bottling System Innovative competitive advantage Containing natural ingredients Quick Recovery Global Success Emotional attachment Marketing Strategy

Weaknesses
Execution Failure Reliance on traditional strategy Weak Succession Planning Operational setbacks Lack of customer survey

Threats
Economic Slowdown: Pricing to CPI consumer buying Expansion into third world countries. Western attitude against capitalism New cheaper brands of soft drinks Series of legal obligations So many discounts may not cut the sales but always cuts profit

Opportunities

International expansion through Brand recognition More target customers New innovative brands Product and line extensions

9.2 Communication Message There are several communication messages we proposed to express during the entire communication campaign. First, Elephant House can restore mental awareness and fix with human moods like joyfull, playful, busy, independent, kids, romance, memories etc. It is about the basic function of the Elephant House beverage, related to the core service supplied by Elephant House. Second message is that Elephant House is an effective, good tasting substitute for other caffeinated beverages, and it contains all natural ingredients. Comparing to other caffeinated beverage, the message can express the comparative advantages which can be categorized as enhancing service. Third message is the Elephant House is not only a Thirst quenching drink, it is pure Sri Lankan brand comes with heritage, culture and our tradition.

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9.3 Communication objectives Communication objectives will be; To increase the awareness of the people facing the product by 5% in the next 6 months. This increase is in general, grouping all the target audiences. As Elephant House is already a well-known brand in Sri Lanka it is not possible to increase the awareness by an important percentage. To emphasis the differences of the product compared to its competitors and create a differentiation awareness increased by 20% in the next 12 months. Elephant House has a specific taste that can differentiate it from other brands. The image of Sri Lankan heritage links with it can also be a way to differentiate it. To emphasis the brand values awareness by 20% in the next 12 months. To reposition the brand as younger and fun. Elephant House is a brand with a long past. It can have lose its position as a brand for young people, fashionable and fun. Elephant House needs to reposition itself to appeal again for teenagers. To maintain the brand preference among the consumers. If Coca-Cola is the leader in Sri Lanka, it does not mean that it will stay at the position in the future. So, the brand has to reinforce its penetration in leading audiences.

9.4 The communication strategy 9.4.1 Advertising Elephant House, has limited advertising in various mediums. The company utilizes television and radio in a minimal level for brand awareness. Their consumers spend more of their time on the Television and Internet maintains a unique and very interactive advertising plans. This a place where most consumers brand loyalty first began. Starting off as a consumers ability to personalize their own requirement with Varity of available product. The company took this concept and brought it to a more commercial level. Elephant House cooperatively advertises with some of their independent distributors who also help fund a portion of their marketing budget. Currently, slogan of Lankans To The Last Drop or real catch phrase that will allow good brand awareness. 9.4.1 Public Relations In select cities, Elephant House participates at a grassroots level to help create brand awareness and loyalty. For example, the image of Elephant House is a brand provides unique flavors not an alternative soft drink. The company reflects this image in their public relations efforts by attending specialized alternative sports events, Motor Racing in all round Sri Lanka. However, the company does not just attend these

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events, they also sponsor many of the athletes and talented individuals that compete in them, and have an easy process to apply for Elephant House sponsorships. Elephant House uses recreational vehicles all round Sri Lanka painted with the Elephant House product labels and colors to create consumer awareness and help build stronger B-to-B communication. They use these vehicles as promotional tools by randomly showing up to high school and college events, and alternative or extreme sporting events also. In addition to these efforts, Elephant House also supports local farmers to cultivate the crops in high quality level to utilize for natural ingredients for production of soft drinks. The unusual flavors included within the Pack (Ginger Beer, Orange Barley, Ginger Ale etc.) blended with natural ingredients generated much attention from both the press and consumers alike. 9.4.3 Trade Promotions Elephant House implemented a cooperative merchandising agreement with Target, with whom they exclusively distribute Elephant House Products primarily uses pointof sale materials such as posters, stickers, table cards, shelf danglers and post cards. The company also entered into a similar agreement with the Sri Lankan Super Market Chain giving the corporation exclusive rights to sell Elephant House Frozen Popsicles, Ice Creams and also throughout its various grocery chains. Partnering with super market chains and grocerys Target helps to build brand awareness by making the products more accessible to a greater number of consumers, and it encourages repeat purchases and customer loyalty to the brand both within those stores and at other locations. 9.4.4 Consumer Promotions Elephant House primarily uses point-of sale materials such as posters, stickers, table cards, shelf danglers and post cards. As mentioned before, Elephant House launched an ad-campaign for Elephant House brand users focusing the younger generation launching of cream soda and their own photos for the front label of the bottles. This form of a contest allowed consumers to become an active part of the production process and members of the Elephant House family. Sponsoring soft drinks for youth events the contest encouraged repeat purchases and increased brand awareness. 9.4.5 Personal Selling Elephant House sales team is organized into four regional groups. Senior sales personnel are responsible for large retail grocery accounts in their regions, while junior sales personnel work closely with the independent distributors and their sales representatives to help them start retail accounts and train them in national Accounts. Elephant House expanded their sales program by recently hiring a Sales Trainer. This shows that Elephant House is committed to making sales a function of management.

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9.4.6 Targeting the youths: use of celebrities, art sponsorship To appeal the younger group, it is important to apply a pull strategy. Art sponsorship will be a means for enhancing corporate status and a means for clarifying its name, it will change part of the corporate image (i.e. to make look the brand younger). Following this idea, they can sponsor a new singer, who is a soft-rock singer who is starting to be recognized in the show-biz world. She is young and can appeal both girls and boys. Girls want to identify themselves with her while boys like her because she is pretty. Elephant House can sponsor her concerts in Sri Lanka, and be the only drink which can be found in her concert. Hence, the image of Elephant House for teenagers will be a brand which supports the new rock scene and which is more fashionable than previously. 9.4.7 Targeting the males: sports events Elephant House is reputed for its sport sponsorships. The idea with this kind of sponsorship is to reach an extremely large audience. Indeed, sports events are followed by teams, leagues and individual supporters. In Sri Lanka, the most attractive sports are Cricket, Football, Rugby and Tennis. Before important competitions Elephant House will intensify its advertising campaign, i.e. develop a burst strategy during the events. Banners are then more useful if they can be placed around the stadium and/or inside the stadium, where people have time to really focus on the banners. Furthermore, if they are waiting to enter in the stadium, banners can increase the impulse buy. 9.4.8 Targeting young adults: attract in pubs and night clubs To appeal the young adults, a push strategy is more adapted. Young adults prefer drink alcohol when they are in a pub or a club with friends. By developing a joint venture with a whisky brand (as Clan Campbell or J&B) and by developing promotions in association with the barmen, who are seen as references in terms of drinks, in the most fashion places in big cities around Sri Lanka, Elephant House will put the whisky-Elephant House as the fashion drink while clubbing. 9.4.9 Targeting large audience: advertising on TV and cinema Young audience is more receptive to a campaign on TV and so, a programme sponsorship will be used. The advantage is to avoid the clutter associated with spot advertising, furthermore it is a cost-effective medium and it gives the opportunity for the target audience to make associations between the sponsor and the programme. A strategic repartition of the diffusion will be to develop intense burst diffusion at the start of the campaign and then, light it in order to simply maintain the awareness of the product. Big cinema complexes will be used to diffuse the new campaign. Cinema is a place where the audience can be easily targeted, according to the kind of film selected.

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9.4.10 Targeting elderly people: advertising on press Two kinds of audiences will be targeted by press: young and old audiences, more female than male (as women are more readers than men). Teenagers read magazines for fashion like Hi, LMD! Or similar; older people read magazines for health, Business. 9.4.11 Sales Promotions In terms of sales promotions, two methods will be used: manufacturer to resellers promotions and manufacturers to consumers promotions. For the first one, the manufacturer, Elephant House, will encourage resellers to buy and display increased amounts of products and establish a greater usage. Elephant House will try to establish a brand loyalty. More precisely, a buying allowance will be used in order to increase the average size of orders. For the second method, Elephant House needs to encourage competitors' users to change for its own product. Coupons can be provided to attract new users who are more price-sensitive. At the same time, this is a method that does not hurt regular consumers. Coupons will be provided by free standing inserts. This method is cost-effective for achieving short-term increases in sales. Also, a campaign will be run with special offers on the bottles, with immediate reduction. Furthermore, a competition can be organized with a trip in US for the winner, and other prices like CDs, T-shirts and caps for the following winners. 9.4.12 On Line Promotions The competition will also be accessible from the web-site. In order to stimulate the awareness of the brand, some games, downloads, screen-savers will be available from the web-site. This promotion will not be based on the product itself, but in the image that is transmitted by the brand. By developing some funny games and nice screensavers, young people will develop word of mouth about the web-site. The following Grantt chart shows the planning of the different tasks

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9.4.13 other communication mix recommendations A. Banners The use of banners will be intensive during March and April. It will be the start of the new campaign and furthermore, The banners will be based on the same theme as TV campaign, but it will not be so detailed. So, the bear on the beach, with his sun-glasses and his bottle of Elephant House could appeal enough audiences. It will bring a piece of Summer during this still raining period of the year ! Banners will be displayed on buses, which are seen by a huge number of people, particularly students who take the bus to go to school/university; but also by drivers who are behind to the bus. Other banners will be displayed around stadiums, And finally, general banners will be displayed in most bigger cities in Sri lanka, as Colombo, Kurunegala, Matara etc. B. Sports Sports sponsorships will be developed during the whole scholar year. The sponsorship will be composed in banners inside the stadium during special events. Both the National Rugby and Football teams will be sponsored during the year. C. Cause-Related Marketing Further supports will be given to specific associations in order to increase the awareness of the corporate company (profile strategy). The cause-related marketing has an important place in public relations. By this mean, the company can be perceived as more credible, responsible and ethically sound. It is a form of differentiation which is really important in this kind of market. Then, by being invested in important aspect of today's life, as the environment or the health, Elephant House will increase the idea of a company which cares of today's problems. Then, Elephant House can participate actively during special environmental days by giving some help for cleaning the country. The help will be for example by covering specific needs, as bin bags. They will also be invested in youth health problem, trying to develop a new model of the ideal body, more realistic. Also, Elephant House will continue its sponsorship of sport associations for youth development. Its help will consist on equipment for training and help to find adequate place to train. With these three sponsorships, Elephant House will target a large panel of people which feel touch by the help providing by the company.

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Bibliography
Kotler, P. and Keller, K.L. (2008) Marketing Management. 13th Edition, USA, Prentice-Hall Keller, K.L.(2008) Strategic Brand Management. 3rd Edition, USA, Prentice-Hall Sharma, J (2008) Brand Management 1st Edition, New Delhi, Maxford Books Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R.E. and Hitt, M.A. (2008) Strategic Management. 1st Edition, USA, Cengage Learning Richard, M.S. and Wilson and Gilligan, C. (2005) Stratergic marketing Management. 3rd Edition, UK, Elsevier Roll, M. (2006) Asian Brand Strategy. 1st Edition, USA, Palgrave macmillan

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