This morning I continously re-drafted the Peppa Pig section of my report. I took out any bits of information which I felt were not 100% relevant to the review title, and paired up pieces of information which I felt had more power together etc.
The current word count is 1800. I sent this over to my course leader so that we could assess which bits could be eliminated etc. I also sent the new and improved version over to the Wiser advisor. I asked her to read the review from a stance where she could assess whether certain bits of information should not be included.
I will await the above replies whilst I continue drafting my The Simpsons section.
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Primary Research
Today I decided to get out and about again for the first time since the very early stages of my research. I stayed in Preston and visited the Friargate, St. Georges and Deepdale retail areas. Within these I looked out for Peppa Pig merchandise and paid particular attention to the packaging.
One area of the review should be dedicated to packaging, I therefore analysed the style of packaging, what is was made of, the deemed cost of this e.g. was The Simspons packaging more expensive than Bratz / did The Simpsons use plastic bags, whereas Ben 10 avoided the use of this due to fear of choking.
I recorded my findings both in written form and photgraphically enabling me to come back to analyse these at a later date.
From now I must continue writing out the main structure of my report.
One area of the review should be dedicated to packaging, I therefore analysed the style of packaging, what is was made of, the deemed cost of this e.g. was The Simspons packaging more expensive than Bratz / did The Simpsons use plastic bags, whereas Ben 10 avoided the use of this due to fear of choking.
I recorded my findings both in written form and photgraphically enabling me to come back to analyse these at a later date.
From now I must continue writing out the main structure of my report.
Making Ammendments
Today I went back to my draft of Peppa Pig, I read through this numerous times, and started to whittle down the information. First of all I looked at comments made by the Wiser adviser, and then I looked at it from the perspective of what is wholly relevant to the research title.
I managed to get the word count down from 3300 to 2800. This is still atleast four times too many words. I have nine topics to discuss in a 5000(max) word count. I must be very strict with myself about the information I am to include.
After looking at examples of the review, I discovered that those which were the most successful were the ones which used photographs to illustrate a point of view - this saves words, therefore allowing for ellaboration elsewhere.
One the review is down to 600 words, I will send it over to a course leader to seek approval with regards to the project task. I will then continue writing The Simpsons review content. Together these should account for under 1000 words of the total word count.
Throughout I will continuously be considering interesting ways to present my ideas.
I managed to get the word count down from 3300 to 2800. This is still atleast four times too many words. I have nine topics to discuss in a 5000(max) word count. I must be very strict with myself about the information I am to include.
After looking at examples of the review, I discovered that those which were the most successful were the ones which used photographs to illustrate a point of view - this saves words, therefore allowing for ellaboration elsewhere.
One the review is down to 600 words, I will send it over to a course leader to seek approval with regards to the project task. I will then continue writing The Simpsons review content. Together these should account for under 1000 words of the total word count.
Throughout I will continuously be considering interesting ways to present my ideas.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Wiser Tutorial
Today I collected my first draft of the Peppa Pig section of the report which I had handed to one of the Wiser tutors. I was aware that this was only a very early draft, yet I thought that if there was a problem with my writing style with regards to the 'review' format, then I would like to be made aware of this from the outset.
Key points to consider which the Wiser tutor highlighted were:
To be careful that I didn't abbreviate without first including a full version of the word, e.g. Jr, instead of junior. I considered that an abbreviation list would help me overcome this.
It was very important to me that all of the information which I included was relevant, and thus that I was fulfilling the given task. I therefore was told to consider how I would write this essay when I started to discuss eight more topics - would I give each of these a separate section, or would I discuss these comparatively? This is my next area for consideration.
I must also avoid contractions when writing - for example I should write 'do not' instead of 'don't'. I also made slight errors in my grammar, for example confusing the use of apostrophes.
I must now look at how I can group the information accordingly. In order to be successful in this I will look at previous successful reports today.
Key points to consider which the Wiser tutor highlighted were:
To be careful that I didn't abbreviate without first including a full version of the word, e.g. Jr, instead of junior. I considered that an abbreviation list would help me overcome this.
It was very important to me that all of the information which I included was relevant, and thus that I was fulfilling the given task. I therefore was told to consider how I would write this essay when I started to discuss eight more topics - would I give each of these a separate section, or would I discuss these comparatively? This is my next area for consideration.
I must also avoid contractions when writing - for example I should write 'do not' instead of 'don't'. I also made slight errors in my grammar, for example confusing the use of apostrophes.
I must now look at how I can group the information accordingly. In order to be successful in this I will look at previous successful reports today.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Primary Research
I sent out emails to people from E1 Entertainment.
Below were the questions which I included within the email.
I ensured that the people whom I contacted were able to answer my questions, for example the press officer, head of promotions, marketing assistant etc.
1. How important to the brand is the Pegga Pig website? What do you do to ensure that the website is fresh and exciting?
2. Peppa Pig is primarily aimed at young children (pre school). What obstacles did you have to overcome to ensure that the website was friendly for both children and their parent/guardian? … The online shop suggests that parents will be nearby children, as it is the parents who will make the purchase decisions.
There were no major obstacles in terms of content – we just need to make sure
3. The Peppa Pig gallery upload option is one way of indicating how many people access that area of the site, and more importantly how many of them are avid Peppa Pig lovers. Do you have any more measures in hand to monitor the success of your website?
4. Do you have figures available for me to show this success? E.g number of visitors.
5. There is the option to register on this site, for example to watch the video clips. How does this benefit you?
6. The option to read online is in keeping with the modern times. Yet, how do you manage to sell print copies of the ladybird books if they are online too. Are these older versions/specially created for online?
7. I can imagine the games option is very popular – how is this a beneficial marketing tactic – e.g playing games keeps them on the site for longer / repetition for emphasis of the brand name etc.
8. I understand that Peppa Pig supports tommy’s baby charity. How does this partnership work? How was it decided that Peppa and tommy’s were an appropriate partnership?
9. I could not find an official Facebook group for Peppa Pig. Is there one up and running? Do you believe this is an effective medium to market Peppa Pig, or that less tech-orientated options should be followed due to the target market?
10. How often is the Peppa Pig magazine distributed? Is this marketed as a magazine which children can buy with their pocket money, or something which parents buy for children?
11. Peppa Pig does many special events. Peppa and George actually visited Twinlakes family theme park where I work during non-term time. It was the busiest day the theme park has ever recorded. Does promotion for such events come solely down to the theme park / event? Or do you post this out in newsletters/online?
12. How important are these events for you in creating a bond between children and character – and what special measures/training are put in place to ensure that there is a likeness in personality /actions between the genuine TV character, and the suited version?
13. Have you ever had to decline any requests for special events because you feel that the venue/occasion didn’t suit your corporate identity?
14. After visiting twitter I can see that the Peppa Pig Live tweets are available. How successful do you feel this form of marketing is? as the majority of people using twitter are much older than your intended audience.
15. As a Peppa and George fan myself (owning some of the merchandise) do you feel that there is a secondary audience for this product? If so – was this intentional?
16. I read that Peppa Pig joined forced with Muller Little Stars, how did you ensure that this was a correct partnership? Healthy eating amongst children is something that is really pushed in this day, were there concerns about joining forces with a food-related product?.
17. Paultons family theme park has announced plans for a Peppa Pig world. Do you consider this as a major form of promotion? Please explain.
18. What do you believe is your strongest form of promotion? Please explain
19. What nursery school promotions do you devise? (if any).
20. What do you believe is your weakest form of promotion? Please explain.
21. Have you considered any Guerrilla marketing tactics?
I awaited eagerly for a response. This should consolidate any research findings to date.
Below were the questions which I included within the email.
I ensured that the people whom I contacted were able to answer my questions, for example the press officer, head of promotions, marketing assistant etc.
1. How important to the brand is the Pegga Pig website? What do you do to ensure that the website is fresh and exciting?
2. Peppa Pig is primarily aimed at young children (pre school). What obstacles did you have to overcome to ensure that the website was friendly for both children and their parent/guardian? … The online shop suggests that parents will be nearby children, as it is the parents who will make the purchase decisions.
There were no major obstacles in terms of content – we just need to make sure
3. The Peppa Pig gallery upload option is one way of indicating how many people access that area of the site, and more importantly how many of them are avid Peppa Pig lovers. Do you have any more measures in hand to monitor the success of your website?
4. Do you have figures available for me to show this success? E.g number of visitors.
5. There is the option to register on this site, for example to watch the video clips. How does this benefit you?
6. The option to read online is in keeping with the modern times. Yet, how do you manage to sell print copies of the ladybird books if they are online too. Are these older versions/specially created for online?
7. I can imagine the games option is very popular – how is this a beneficial marketing tactic – e.g playing games keeps them on the site for longer / repetition for emphasis of the brand name etc.
8. I understand that Peppa Pig supports tommy’s baby charity. How does this partnership work? How was it decided that Peppa and tommy’s were an appropriate partnership?
9. I could not find an official Facebook group for Peppa Pig. Is there one up and running? Do you believe this is an effective medium to market Peppa Pig, or that less tech-orientated options should be followed due to the target market?
10. How often is the Peppa Pig magazine distributed? Is this marketed as a magazine which children can buy with their pocket money, or something which parents buy for children?
11. Peppa Pig does many special events. Peppa and George actually visited Twinlakes family theme park where I work during non-term time. It was the busiest day the theme park has ever recorded. Does promotion for such events come solely down to the theme park / event? Or do you post this out in newsletters/online?
12. How important are these events for you in creating a bond between children and character – and what special measures/training are put in place to ensure that there is a likeness in personality /actions between the genuine TV character, and the suited version?
13. Have you ever had to decline any requests for special events because you feel that the venue/occasion didn’t suit your corporate identity?
14. After visiting twitter I can see that the Peppa Pig Live tweets are available. How successful do you feel this form of marketing is? as the majority of people using twitter are much older than your intended audience.
15. As a Peppa and George fan myself (owning some of the merchandise) do you feel that there is a secondary audience for this product? If so – was this intentional?
16. I read that Peppa Pig joined forced with Muller Little Stars, how did you ensure that this was a correct partnership? Healthy eating amongst children is something that is really pushed in this day, were there concerns about joining forces with a food-related product?.
17. Paultons family theme park has announced plans for a Peppa Pig world. Do you consider this as a major form of promotion? Please explain.
18. What do you believe is your strongest form of promotion? Please explain
19. What nursery school promotions do you devise? (if any).
20. What do you believe is your weakest form of promotion? Please explain.
21. Have you considered any Guerrilla marketing tactics?
I awaited eagerly for a response. This should consolidate any research findings to date.
The new condensed area for investigation
Below is the new (condensed) area for investigation surrounding the chosen characters and how I plan to approach this task:
1. Search engine optimisation, e.g. when using Google it was difficult to locate the official web pages for The Simpsons and Flintstones due to consumer-made sites.
2. Website – this will be completely deconstructed.
3. Television. What time is the show broadcast? E.g. early mornings before school. Brief analysis of what adverts appear between the programmes. Who sponsors the show? Number of viewers?
4. How does the brand make use of Youtube? Uploading different series of the show. Unintentional promotion by fans – e.g. video responses, e.g. ‘daddy pig eats George’ video which has over 69,000 views. Bratz dolls used as imagery alongside songs e.g. Natasha Bedingfield.
5. Billboards – none found so far. Discuss why this may be.
6. Magazine/comics. Free giveaways? The price of the magazine – e.g. is it affordable with the pocket money for the child. The offer of subscription. Quality of magazine – use of colour/paper. Circulation figures.
7. Special events – Official mascot visits attractions e.g. Gulliver’s, Twinlakes, Great Central Railway, Grand Opera House. I must obtain figures as to the number of people at the events to monitor the success.
8. Blog – look at the frequency of blog entries.
9. Twitter – aimed at parent? Are the tweets promotion-focussed or used to express the character’s personality – e.g. Bart Simpson, Family Guy.
10. The use of celebrities. E.g. characters, sponsors, voiceovers.
11. Music/song lyrics. Has the jingle been used as a form of promotion e.g. Flintstones, Peppa Pig.
12. Charity – e.g. Peppa Pig has teamed up with Asda in support of Tommy’s children’s charity. Viable choice as Adsa uses mums as brand ambassadors.
13. 13. Sponsors/partnership/cross-marketing. E.g. The Simpsons have worked with Burger King, Dominoes Pizza and Nestle Butterfinger. Muller Little Stars ran an on-pack promotional tie-in with Peppa Pig contract to Dino Pebbles in cereal promotion in 1990.
14. Apps – how relevant are these for the target customer. Ben10 makes good use of these.
I must now consider exactly how I will discuss these topics - will I discuss them alternately, or will I make continous comparisions throughout?
I will now look at other successful reviews in order to decide how to achieve the best presentation of my work.
1. Search engine optimisation, e.g. when using Google it was difficult to locate the official web pages for The Simpsons and Flintstones due to consumer-made sites.
2. Website – this will be completely deconstructed.
3. Television. What time is the show broadcast? E.g. early mornings before school. Brief analysis of what adverts appear between the programmes. Who sponsors the show? Number of viewers?
4. How does the brand make use of Youtube? Uploading different series of the show. Unintentional promotion by fans – e.g. video responses, e.g. ‘daddy pig eats George’ video which has over 69,000 views. Bratz dolls used as imagery alongside songs e.g. Natasha Bedingfield.
5. Billboards – none found so far. Discuss why this may be.
6. Magazine/comics. Free giveaways? The price of the magazine – e.g. is it affordable with the pocket money for the child. The offer of subscription. Quality of magazine – use of colour/paper. Circulation figures.
7. Special events – Official mascot visits attractions e.g. Gulliver’s, Twinlakes, Great Central Railway, Grand Opera House. I must obtain figures as to the number of people at the events to monitor the success.
8. Blog – look at the frequency of blog entries.
9. Twitter – aimed at parent? Are the tweets promotion-focussed or used to express the character’s personality – e.g. Bart Simpson, Family Guy.
10. The use of celebrities. E.g. characters, sponsors, voiceovers.
11. Music/song lyrics. Has the jingle been used as a form of promotion e.g. Flintstones, Peppa Pig.
12. Charity – e.g. Peppa Pig has teamed up with Asda in support of Tommy’s children’s charity. Viable choice as Adsa uses mums as brand ambassadors.
13. 13. Sponsors/partnership/cross-marketing. E.g. The Simpsons have worked with Burger King, Dominoes Pizza and Nestle Butterfinger. Muller Little Stars ran an on-pack promotional tie-in with Peppa Pig contract to Dino Pebbles in cereal promotion in 1990.
14. Apps – how relevant are these for the target customer. Ben10 makes good use of these.
I must now consider exactly how I will discuss these topics - will I discuss them alternately, or will I make continous comparisions throughout?
I will now look at other successful reviews in order to decide how to achieve the best presentation of my work.
Ammendments selection of brands
Please see below the ammendments to the selection of brands:
The age categories defined are as follows:
Pre school: Ben10, Peppa Pig, Postman Pat,
Tween (8-12 years): Spongebob SquarePants, Bratz, Scooby Do
Teenage: South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy
Due to the fact that I have taken on an extra module, I must now write about 9 characters rather than 6.
Reflection has confirmed for me that these are the brands which I must now focus on throughout the writing on my report.
The age categories defined are as follows:
Pre school: Ben10, Peppa Pig, Postman Pat,
Tween (8-12 years): Spongebob SquarePants, Bratz, Scooby Do
Teenage: South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy
Due to the fact that I have taken on an extra module, I must now write about 9 characters rather than 6.
Reflection has confirmed for me that these are the brands which I must now focus on throughout the writing on my report.
Research resources
I wanted research from many different resources - both primary and secondary.
Secondary research was the easiest to locate - below are just a few links to useful resources found during the initial stages of research...
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/branding-brand-development/4677779-1.html
http://www.betternetworker.com/blogs/view-1950
http://springboardmarketing.net/Blog/?tag=spongebob-squarepants
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/525779-spongebob-looks-to-the-gulf
Themepark / hotel.
Movie http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=68152&tab=credits
Album:
http://us.dada.net/music/spongebob_sandy_mrkrabs_planktonpatrick/barnacles!_709846m.html
http://www.marketlikeachick.com/burger-kings-sponge-bob-squarebutt-how-not-to-market-to-women/
Play station http://www.answers.com/topic/spongebob-squarepants-happy-squared-double-pack
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/content/2603.html
http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1015720/nickelodeon-uk-brings-spongebob-app/
http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2005/01/dont-spar-with-the-sponge/
http://web.frpa.org/pdfs/profdev/Howdy%20Doody%20to%20SpongeBob.pdf
I used these sites to pinpoint key areas of discussion. Whilst I sifted through this information, in order to determine what was relevant, I began emailing people - the Licencee's of the likes of Peppa Pig, Spongebob etc.
The next post will present changes to the proposal.
Secondary research was the easiest to locate - below are just a few links to useful resources found during the initial stages of research...
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/branding-brand-development/4677779-1.html
http://www.betternetworker.com/blogs/view-1950
http://springboardmarketing.net/Blog/?tag=spongebob-squarepants
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/525779-spongebob-looks-to-the-gulf
Themepark / hotel.
Movie http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=68152&tab=credits
Album:
http://us.dada.net/music/spongebob_sandy_mrkrabs_planktonpatrick/barnacles!_709846m.html
http://www.marketlikeachick.com/burger-kings-sponge-bob-squarebutt-how-not-to-market-to-women/
Play station http://www.answers.com/topic/spongebob-squarepants-happy-squared-double-pack
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/content/2603.html
http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1015720/nickelodeon-uk-brings-spongebob-app/
http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/2005/01/dont-spar-with-the-sponge/
http://web.frpa.org/pdfs/profdev/Howdy%20Doody%20to%20SpongeBob.pdf
I used these sites to pinpoint key areas of discussion. Whilst I sifted through this information, in order to determine what was relevant, I began emailing people - the Licencee's of the likes of Peppa Pig, Spongebob etc.
The next post will present changes to the proposal.
Considering the introduction
Whilst I was awaiting approval of my previous proposal, I decided to take it upon my self to begin drafting the review, please see this below.
Executive Summary
The purpose of this review is to discuss the marketing concepts and sales-promotion techniques used for licensed children’s characters. Specific focus has been placed on ...
It is concluded that ...
Introduction:
This review will discuss licensed characters across six brands in order to examine how different companies within a selected market level/market levels address promotional issues. The review will include examination and analysis of the product itself, pricing, place, the packaging of products and the use of persuasion. Licensed characters are “characters from fiction, television, movies, etc. which are used, under licence from their creators, in the marketing of consumer goods” (Mike, 2005:119). These Characters, usually cartoons, are licensed by their creators for use by mass marketers.
The children’s licences which will be discussed are: Ben 10 Peppa Pig, SpongeBob SquarePants, Bratz, The Simpsons and South Park.
These brands have been chosen as they will enable a discussion across a range of ages, rather than being confined to a preschool age – enabling a broader spectrum of promotional techniques to be critiqued. This will benefit the researcher when drawing conclusions at the end of the review, as to the overall success of the marketing strategies employed by each brand. In order to comprehensively present research findings within a confined word count the promotional techniques used for each character will be discussed individually – with comparative/contrastive links made where necessary.
I decided that this was an effective opening to a review - the introduction, however, is something which can be continuously ammended, and so I decided to leave this now until much later on in the project.
Executive Summary
The purpose of this review is to discuss the marketing concepts and sales-promotion techniques used for licensed children’s characters. Specific focus has been placed on ...
It is concluded that ...
Introduction:
This review will discuss licensed characters across six brands in order to examine how different companies within a selected market level/market levels address promotional issues. The review will include examination and analysis of the product itself, pricing, place, the packaging of products and the use of persuasion. Licensed characters are “characters from fiction, television, movies, etc. which are used, under licence from their creators, in the marketing of consumer goods” (Mike, 2005:119). These Characters, usually cartoons, are licensed by their creators for use by mass marketers.
The children’s licences which will be discussed are: Ben 10 Peppa Pig, SpongeBob SquarePants, Bratz, The Simpsons and South Park.
These brands have been chosen as they will enable a discussion across a range of ages, rather than being confined to a preschool age – enabling a broader spectrum of promotional techniques to be critiqued. This will benefit the researcher when drawing conclusions at the end of the review, as to the overall success of the marketing strategies employed by each brand. In order to comprehensively present research findings within a confined word count the promotional techniques used for each character will be discussed individually – with comparative/contrastive links made where necessary.
I decided that this was an effective opening to a review - the introduction, however, is something which can be continuously ammended, and so I decided to leave this now until much later on in the project.
Determining the specific area for investigation.
Below I have listed my specific area for investigation:
1. An initial introduction to the brand and target audience of each brand.
2. Search engine optimisation, e.g. when using Google it was difficult to locate the official web pages for Basil Brush and The Simpsons due to consumer-made sites. The Simpson’s official site was much further down the Google ranking.
3. Website – this will be completely deconstructed.
a. Is the website animated? E.g. Peppa Pig website has an animated village as the home page.
b. Is there option to shop online – increasing revenue for the brand?
c. Gallery to upload work – a sense of interacting with the user.
d. The option to watch previous shows online creating a reliable service for the user.
e. E-books. Reading online.
f. The games online – they entice the user to stay on the site for longer, helping to drill the brand into the mind of the visitor for a longer length of time.
g. News/ competitions – how are these promoted? Is a newsletter used?
h. General assessment of the success of the webpage – is it easy to navigate – use of colour and text and how this appeals to the target audience.
4. Television. Analysis of the television shows themselves –
a. What time is the show broadcasted? E.g. early morning before school/ after the watershed etc.
b. Brief analysis of what adverts appear between the programmes – are these relevant to the target customer.
c. Who sponsors the show? What does this tell me?
d. How many viewers.
5. How does the brand make use of YouTube?
a. Uploading different series of the show.
b. Unintentional promotion by fans – e.g. video responses or recreations, e.g. a recreation of the Green Giant advert using Peppa Pig toys, or the ‘daddy pig eats George’ video which has over 69,000 views.
6. Billboards – none found so far. Discuss why this may be.
7. Magazine/comics.
a. The type of free giveaways in these magazines.
b. The price of the magazine – e.g. is it affordable with pocket money for the child.
c. The offer of subscription (clearly targeted at the parent).
d. Competitions included within.
e. Promotional offers included within
f. Quality of magazine – user of colour/paper.
g. Circulation figures.
8. Merchandise – this is a massive field within itself, so give an overview of what products are available and whether they are suited to the specific target audience, or aimed at an older secondary audience, e.g. purses, key rings also brought by teenagers/ adults.
9. Special events.
a. The characters each have an official mascot which can be hired for special events.
b. The characters usually visit children-orientated attractions, for example: Gulliver’s, Twinlakes Family Theme Park, Great Central Railway, Grand Opera House, Spa Valley Railway, Woodlands, and Wheelgate Adventure Park.
c. It is up to the theme park/venue to promote these events.
d. I will obtain figures as to the number of people at such locations to monitor the success.
10. Blog – Basil Brush has his own blog which seems to be personally updated by Basil.
a. I will look at the frequency of the blog entries (e.g. only two blog entries so far this year) and the type of information contained within.
b. Basil also has a video blog.
11. Twitter.
a. Who exactly is this aimed at? Peppa Pig’s target audience are not frequenters on Twitter, therefore this is aimed at the parents.
b. The relationship built via Twitter will be discussed, e.g. the type of information contained within the tweets. Are the tweets promotion-focussed or used to express the personality of the character? E.g. Bart Simpson: “HEY! listen to this new DRAKE song he's awesome man!”
c. This form of promotion seems more relevant for The Simpsons. This is demonstrated as each Simpson’s character has an individual twitter account.
12. The use of celebrities.
a. E.g. Peppa Pig joining forces with Melinda Messenger to host a charity event.
b. The Simpson’s extensive list of stars used as characters and voiceovers: To Tom Jones, Ringo Starr, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Meryl Streep, Aerosmith, Katy Perry, Green Day.
c. Convergence occurs as Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder has appeared in an episode, lending his voice and animated face, this aids the promotion of his Facebook movie The Social Network. (May include this in a separate section about cross-marketing, or sign post reader to this section).
d. What does the use of the celebrity, and the context within which the celebrity is used in, tell us about the brand?
13. Computer games
a. Is there an age rating?
b. Is the game available for purchase or download?
c. How does the game appeal to its target customer. E.g. Ben10 game allows ‘any
kid to be an alien superhero’.
14. Screen saver/ Interactive poster – this is a form of promotion on a very small scale, seen by the downloader and his/her friends. It is successful in the respect that you are continuously looking at it, this repetition acts to reinforce.
15. Movie/Cinema/ DVD
a. What age rating is the film (this may help to define the target audience).
b. What adverts are used during the film – e.g. it is unlikely that scary films would be
promoted during a Peppa Pig screening, this is with good reason.
c. Are any extras/exclusives provided?
d. Are special effects used, for example Postman Pat is available in 3D at the cinema (due
in 2011) – what does this suggest about this brand’s budget.
16. Music / song lyrics.
a. Each show has a theme song/jingle.
b. Has this been used as a form of promotion, for example is the theme song available for download, has it been used as a ringtone e.g. Basil Brush’s laugh, has a band done a remake – e.g. Canvas has covered the Postman Pat theme tune.
17. Charity – I have found charities associated with all licenses except The Simpsons.
a. E.g. Peppa Pig has teamed up with Asda to sell badges for £1 in support of Tommy’s children’s charity (Tommy’s is the exclusive charity partner). This is a viable choice as Asda uses mums as brand ambassadors.
b. Ben 10 was recruited to support Mencap to teach children to spell as part of the charity’s annual spelling competition (Spellathon).
c. Basil Brush supports the Police Federation Charity.
18. Sponsors/ Partnership/ Cross-marketing.
a. 20th Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising has joined forces with Burger King for a
global Kid's Meal promotion featuring The Simpsons. How heavily can this be criticised with regards to promotion of poor nutrition – negative impact on the brand?
b. The Simpsons have also worked with Dominoes Pizza and promoted Nestlé Butterfinger.
c. Müller Little Stars ran an on-pack promotional tie-in with Peppa Pig, allowing parents to collect codes from packs to redeem online against a series of Peppa Pig books.
19. Theme park – different to special events, this section will discuss children’s attractions which have incorporated the licensed characters into their parks.
a. For example Ben10 has joined forces with Lego Land.
b. Paulton’s Park is due to open Peppa Pig World in 2011.
c. The Simpson’s have a ride at Universal Studios which “gives Universal Studios patrons a taste of Springfield”.
d. SpongeBob at Nickland in Germany, showing the universal appeal of such characters.
20. The use of app’s.
a. Ben 10 has a MouthOff iphone game which is sound reactive. It has an emphasis on fun which means it is used by children, teenagers and adults alike. The user must set up a camera and place the app in front of their face and make expressions along with the animations. This acts as a viral campaign as the end footage can be sent to friends.
b. Peppa Pig - Happy Mrs Chicken. This topped the UK Paid Kids Games chart within 24 hours of its release.
c. The Spongebob SquarePants Tickler app prides itself on being a portable friend. You can shake him, poke him, stretch him, play games with him and make him dance.
Conclusion will use the completed comparison chart and assess how successfully the forms of promotion used address the target audience.
Following communication with my course leader, I decided that the area of investigation needed to be more specific than that listed above.
I therefore made ammendments to this - see next post.
1. An initial introduction to the brand and target audience of each brand.
2. Search engine optimisation, e.g. when using Google it was difficult to locate the official web pages for Basil Brush and The Simpsons due to consumer-made sites. The Simpson’s official site was much further down the Google ranking.
3. Website – this will be completely deconstructed.
a. Is the website animated? E.g. Peppa Pig website has an animated village as the home page.
b. Is there option to shop online – increasing revenue for the brand?
c. Gallery to upload work – a sense of interacting with the user.
d. The option to watch previous shows online creating a reliable service for the user.
e. E-books. Reading online.
f. The games online – they entice the user to stay on the site for longer, helping to drill the brand into the mind of the visitor for a longer length of time.
g. News/ competitions – how are these promoted? Is a newsletter used?
h. General assessment of the success of the webpage – is it easy to navigate – use of colour and text and how this appeals to the target audience.
4. Television. Analysis of the television shows themselves –
a. What time is the show broadcasted? E.g. early morning before school/ after the watershed etc.
b. Brief analysis of what adverts appear between the programmes – are these relevant to the target customer.
c. Who sponsors the show? What does this tell me?
d. How many viewers.
5. How does the brand make use of YouTube?
a. Uploading different series of the show.
b. Unintentional promotion by fans – e.g. video responses or recreations, e.g. a recreation of the Green Giant advert using Peppa Pig toys, or the ‘daddy pig eats George’ video which has over 69,000 views.
6. Billboards – none found so far. Discuss why this may be.
7. Magazine/comics.
a. The type of free giveaways in these magazines.
b. The price of the magazine – e.g. is it affordable with pocket money for the child.
c. The offer of subscription (clearly targeted at the parent).
d. Competitions included within.
e. Promotional offers included within
f. Quality of magazine – user of colour/paper.
g. Circulation figures.
8. Merchandise – this is a massive field within itself, so give an overview of what products are available and whether they are suited to the specific target audience, or aimed at an older secondary audience, e.g. purses, key rings also brought by teenagers/ adults.
9. Special events.
a. The characters each have an official mascot which can be hired for special events.
b. The characters usually visit children-orientated attractions, for example: Gulliver’s, Twinlakes Family Theme Park, Great Central Railway, Grand Opera House, Spa Valley Railway, Woodlands, and Wheelgate Adventure Park.
c. It is up to the theme park/venue to promote these events.
d. I will obtain figures as to the number of people at such locations to monitor the success.
10. Blog – Basil Brush has his own blog which seems to be personally updated by Basil.
a. I will look at the frequency of the blog entries (e.g. only two blog entries so far this year) and the type of information contained within.
b. Basil also has a video blog.
11. Twitter.
a. Who exactly is this aimed at? Peppa Pig’s target audience are not frequenters on Twitter, therefore this is aimed at the parents.
b. The relationship built via Twitter will be discussed, e.g. the type of information contained within the tweets. Are the tweets promotion-focussed or used to express the personality of the character? E.g. Bart Simpson: “HEY! listen to this new DRAKE song he's awesome man!”
c. This form of promotion seems more relevant for The Simpsons. This is demonstrated as each Simpson’s character has an individual twitter account.
12. The use of celebrities.
a. E.g. Peppa Pig joining forces with Melinda Messenger to host a charity event.
b. The Simpson’s extensive list of stars used as characters and voiceovers: To Tom Jones, Ringo Starr, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Meryl Streep, Aerosmith, Katy Perry, Green Day.
c. Convergence occurs as Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder has appeared in an episode, lending his voice and animated face, this aids the promotion of his Facebook movie The Social Network. (May include this in a separate section about cross-marketing, or sign post reader to this section).
d. What does the use of the celebrity, and the context within which the celebrity is used in, tell us about the brand?
13. Computer games
a. Is there an age rating?
b. Is the game available for purchase or download?
c. How does the game appeal to its target customer. E.g. Ben10 game allows ‘any
kid to be an alien superhero’.
14. Screen saver/ Interactive poster – this is a form of promotion on a very small scale, seen by the downloader and his/her friends. It is successful in the respect that you are continuously looking at it, this repetition acts to reinforce.
15. Movie/Cinema/ DVD
a. What age rating is the film (this may help to define the target audience).
b. What adverts are used during the film – e.g. it is unlikely that scary films would be
promoted during a Peppa Pig screening, this is with good reason.
c. Are any extras/exclusives provided?
d. Are special effects used, for example Postman Pat is available in 3D at the cinema (due
in 2011) – what does this suggest about this brand’s budget.
16. Music / song lyrics.
a. Each show has a theme song/jingle.
b. Has this been used as a form of promotion, for example is the theme song available for download, has it been used as a ringtone e.g. Basil Brush’s laugh, has a band done a remake – e.g. Canvas has covered the Postman Pat theme tune.
17. Charity – I have found charities associated with all licenses except The Simpsons.
a. E.g. Peppa Pig has teamed up with Asda to sell badges for £1 in support of Tommy’s children’s charity (Tommy’s is the exclusive charity partner). This is a viable choice as Asda uses mums as brand ambassadors.
b. Ben 10 was recruited to support Mencap to teach children to spell as part of the charity’s annual spelling competition (Spellathon).
c. Basil Brush supports the Police Federation Charity.
18. Sponsors/ Partnership/ Cross-marketing.
a. 20th Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising has joined forces with Burger King for a
global Kid's Meal promotion featuring The Simpsons. How heavily can this be criticised with regards to promotion of poor nutrition – negative impact on the brand?
b. The Simpsons have also worked with Dominoes Pizza and promoted Nestlé Butterfinger.
c. Müller Little Stars ran an on-pack promotional tie-in with Peppa Pig, allowing parents to collect codes from packs to redeem online against a series of Peppa Pig books.
19. Theme park – different to special events, this section will discuss children’s attractions which have incorporated the licensed characters into their parks.
a. For example Ben10 has joined forces with Lego Land.
b. Paulton’s Park is due to open Peppa Pig World in 2011.
c. The Simpson’s have a ride at Universal Studios which “gives Universal Studios patrons a taste of Springfield”.
d. SpongeBob at Nickland in Germany, showing the universal appeal of such characters.
20. The use of app’s.
a. Ben 10 has a MouthOff iphone game which is sound reactive. It has an emphasis on fun which means it is used by children, teenagers and adults alike. The user must set up a camera and place the app in front of their face and make expressions along with the animations. This acts as a viral campaign as the end footage can be sent to friends.
b. Peppa Pig - Happy Mrs Chicken. This topped the UK Paid Kids Games chart within 24 hours of its release.
c. The Spongebob SquarePants Tickler app prides itself on being a portable friend. You can shake him, poke him, stretch him, play games with him and make him dance.
Conclusion will use the completed comparison chart and assess how successfully the forms of promotion used address the target audience.
Following communication with my course leader, I decided that the area of investigation needed to be more specific than that listed above.
I therefore made ammendments to this - see next post.
Report Writing
I received the review brief on the 2th September, however I have recently made alterations to my course which means I am now required to update my report progress in the form of a blog. I will therefore give a brief backlog as to my achievement to date.
Please see below details of my initial project proposal
This review will discuss licensed characters across six brands in order to examine how different companies within a selected market level/market levels address promotional issues. Mike (2005: 119) defines licensed characters as: “characters from fiction, television, movies, etc. which are used, under licence from their creators, in the marketing of consumer goods” (Mike, 2005:119). These Characters, usually cartoons, are licensed by their creators for use by mass marketers.
Rather than have the categories ‘High end, middle market and low end, it is considered more useful to categorise licensed characters by the age of their target market.
The characters I initially chose to discuss were:
Basil Brush
The Simpsons
Spongebob SquarePants
Ben10
Peppa Pig
Postman Pat
Below is my explanation for doing so:
Peppa Pig originates in the form of a children’s television programme. It is a show that consists of various different five minute episodes. The brief length of these episodes is an immediate indicator of a young pre-school audience, with a short attention span. Also, the simple outline of the characters shape makes it easy for its core audience 2-5 year olds to recreate Peppa and co. Each shot is shown from the perspective of a child. e.g. drawing a house in isolation on a hill.
Area for exploration: Nutley (2006) Peppa Pig seems to be “uncertain about the age of its target audience”
Whilst Peppa Pig is predominantly aimed at girls (although being accessible for boys), Ben10 is aimed more specifically at 4-9 year old boys. Although these are the target audience for the shows, the merchandise (and therefore promotion) has a much more flexible target audience. This secondary audience can include adults.
On Twitter Basil boasts: “I am a posh and really quite obnoxious fox / dusty old puppet. Despite this, I have a very high opinion of myself.” The syntax and diction here are immediately indicative of an older target audience. The character features both on adult and children’s television shows. Although Basil is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet he has also been depicted in animated cartoon form.
Matt Groening states that The Simpsons is “focussed on all ages”. Due to its cartoon style one may initially assume this is a children’s show. However a lot of the comedy is directed towards an adult’s sense of humour.
Postman pat is aimed at pre-school children, aged 2-6. However older people are still fond of Pat and Jess, and the recent partnerships with Specsavers indicates a secondary audience.
I then produced a comparison chart. My next stage was to determine my area for investigation; please see this on the next post
Please see below details of my initial project proposal
This review will discuss licensed characters across six brands in order to examine how different companies within a selected market level/market levels address promotional issues. Mike (2005: 119) defines licensed characters as: “characters from fiction, television, movies, etc. which are used, under licence from their creators, in the marketing of consumer goods” (Mike, 2005:119). These Characters, usually cartoons, are licensed by their creators for use by mass marketers.
Rather than have the categories ‘High end, middle market and low end, it is considered more useful to categorise licensed characters by the age of their target market.
The characters I initially chose to discuss were:
Basil Brush
The Simpsons
Spongebob SquarePants
Ben10
Peppa Pig
Postman Pat
Below is my explanation for doing so:
Peppa Pig originates in the form of a children’s television programme. It is a show that consists of various different five minute episodes. The brief length of these episodes is an immediate indicator of a young pre-school audience, with a short attention span. Also, the simple outline of the characters shape makes it easy for its core audience 2-5 year olds to recreate Peppa and co. Each shot is shown from the perspective of a child. e.g. drawing a house in isolation on a hill.
Area for exploration: Nutley (2006) Peppa Pig seems to be “uncertain about the age of its target audience”
Whilst Peppa Pig is predominantly aimed at girls (although being accessible for boys), Ben10 is aimed more specifically at 4-9 year old boys. Although these are the target audience for the shows, the merchandise (and therefore promotion) has a much more flexible target audience. This secondary audience can include adults.
On Twitter Basil boasts: “I am a posh and really quite obnoxious fox / dusty old puppet. Despite this, I have a very high opinion of myself.” The syntax and diction here are immediately indicative of an older target audience. The character features both on adult and children’s television shows. Although Basil is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet he has also been depicted in animated cartoon form.
Matt Groening states that The Simpsons is “focussed on all ages”. Due to its cartoon style one may initially assume this is a children’s show. However a lot of the comedy is directed towards an adult’s sense of humour.
Postman pat is aimed at pre-school children, aged 2-6. However older people are still fond of Pat and Jess, and the recent partnerships with Specsavers indicates a secondary audience.
I then produced a comparison chart. My next stage was to determine my area for investigation; please see this on the next post
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)