marketing project query

j4vier

hi
i m working on a college project at the moment and it involves finding information on the advertising strategy of a cereal brand.

my question is , considering that im not very familiar with the procedure on how to do this, how would i go about contacting the company( kellogs for example since i'm thinking of focusin on one of their products)? how reserved would they be about giving me this information ?

i was thinking of sending an enquiry using the contact form on their website , i'd prefer email communication to be honest as it is easier to handle a written answer, but how likely is it goin to be to get a reply like that?

if anyone has some experience on the matter please let me know

thanks!

Mosey101

Phone is the best because you'll never get a good reponse from the online contact form (not from large companies anyway in my experienice). Call them up and ask to speak to a brand manager for one of the cereals or failing that the marketing department and someone who looks after the research.

Alternatively you could call up a couple of hte advertising agencies. I think AFA O Meara/McCconnells have a couple of Cereal accounts. Check out IAPI.ie for a list of ad agencies in Ireland and see which ones have any cereal accounts. If you're calling them up, you'd be looking to speak to the Account Planner or the Account Manager/Director as these are the guys who look after the strategy for the advertising.

You're not the first person to do this so all they can say is Yae or Nae (Yes or No). If you're not put through them, see if you can get their email address and send them an email directly.

The important things are following up and being polite.

nuttlys

yep, phone call followed by email (if necessary) is the best way to go if your cold calling.

Always plan your call. Get to the point, say where your calling from, why your calling them and what you are looking for.

j4vier

thanks for the replies guys
wasnt lucky so far as in one company told me they couldnt help me
i ll keep trying!

AdMMM

Can you not deduce their advertising strategy from their adverts? YouTube has a lot of the more recent ones but a quick Google will unveil a lot more sites.

You'll also most likely have access to ATHENS, make use of this to find journal articles related to the subject which will help you gain an insight into the industry while also building up a catalogue of useful references for you to include at the end.

j4vier

i can do that alright but that would probably fit into the secondary research part
we were told to carry out primary research direct with a company or an agency so it would be best if i could do it

j4vier

hey
I decided to focus on agencies as companies don't seem too keen in talking to me.
I was wondering is there any way to find out what brands a particular agency deals with ?
there's really a lot of agencies around so if there is a way to rule out those that don't deal with cereals , it would be a great start
thanks a mill for your help

nuttlys

j4vier wrote: »

hey
I decided to focus on agencies as companies don't seem too keen in talking to me.
I was wondering is there any way to find out what brands a particular agency deals with ?
there's really a lot of agencies around so if there is a way to rule out those that don't deal with cereals , it would be a great start
thanks a mill for your help

you really are making work for yourself.

other than picking up the phone and asking agencies or their clients, no.

Does it really need to be a cereal brand?

j4vier

hey
ye unfortunately has to be only on cereals
i've been told that its confidential information from companies themselves so it doesnt look good at all

Eliza Lynch

Hi ,
I just finished my marketing degree and I found that Lecturers are quite aware of the fact big companies will not give out information - it happened to me when writing my FYP and was very frustrating!
The marketing/advertising strategy they are asking about prob includes;
product placement,
retail placement -end of aisle stands etc
colours of/design choices of packaging
themes of advertisment
where and when the advertisment is being shown
sponsorship
gift/games/promotion on boxes etc.

The lecturer will prob want you to critique what Kelloggs have done to promote their cereal. So think of their campaigns, eg the coco pop monkey and rate its effectiveness in personalising the brand to make it more accessable to kids. Kellogs basically want kids to demand the cereal so that their parent buy it for them.

This might be a little off point but if you have any more questions do ask!