As part of our final Digital Marketing Project, Kellogg Company tasked us with creating a 3 year digital first marketing strategy to relaunch their subsidiary brand, Pop-Tarts, in the UKI market.
Over 10 weeks, my team and I conducted market research and gathered insights to formulate a compelling business strategy that aims to double Pop-Tarts sales growth over the next 3 years. At the end of this process, we pitched our strategy to our mentors - Conor Ryan and Mairead McElvaney.
Given that there were 22 other groups who gave incredible presentations, my team and I were thrilled to be one of the 4 teams to be selected to present our ideas to Ruth Hughes and Paul Humphries from Kellogg's. It was a wonderful learning experience that I will take with me throughout my career.
Overall, it was a fantastic ending to my year in the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and it's great to end on a high with my amazing teammates!
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Executive Summary
This report details a digital-first marketing strategy devised to re-launch the Pop-Tarts brand into the UK and Irish market and drive growth from $11.5m to $20m by 2024. To formulate this strategy, insights were gathered from both secondary and primary research - interviews with Pop-Tart eaters and non-eaters in the target market ‘sweet spot’.
This research illustrated that the dominant Pop-Tart ‘sweet spot’ consumer is a health-conscious ‘undaunted striver’ who enjoys indulgence in moderation. Alongside this, four key areas which Pop-Tarts must improve upon to achieve growth were identified. These are awareness, positioning, placement, and product packaging. These elements were the core concepts that guided the creation of the marketing strategy.
This strategy will seek to cement Pop-Tarts position in the ‘Sweet Biscuit’ aisle in all grocery stores, which will ensure the brand is in the position to compete with key competitors like BelVita and Fibre One. Packaging will be altered to include larger Kellogg's branding, a resealable flap, and images that communicate the flavour more effectively.
In January 2022, the ‘King of Pop-Tarts’ campaign will formally re-launch the brand in the UK and Ireland by raising awareness and positioning the brand in line with the ‘sweet spot’ interests. Dua Lipa will be utilised as spokesperson and pre-roll, native and display ads will run online. To further appeal to the desires of the ‘sweet spot’, Pop-Tarts will release a collaboration with Nutella in June 2022. This campaign will be centred around a TV ad (to be run during Love Island) that will also run as pre-roll and native ads online.
To adhere to the ‘snackification’ currently occurring in the food industry, the Pop-Tarts ‘Pop-Bar’ will be launched in June 2023, with multi-packs exclusively launching in discount retailers that are rapidly gaining popularity, such as Aldi and Lidl.
To effectively achieve long-lasting brand awareness, this strategy will require a front-loaded marketing investment. Hence, the marketing budget will gradually decrease from €2.3M in year one, to €979k in year two and €600k in year three.