table of contentExecutive summary 3 Agency Brand Strategy 3 Situation Analysis 4 Historical Context 4 Environmental Analysis 4 Competitor Analysis 5 SWOT Analysis 5Objectives 6 Marketing 6 Advertising 6 Time Frame 6 Budget Summary 6 Research 7 Objectives 7 Primary Research 7 Brand Value Proposition 8 Secondary Research 8 Target Market 9Campaign Strategy 10 Creative 10-17 The Big Idea 10 Creative Testing Results 17 Media 18 Media Objectives 18 Media Strategies 18 Media Choices 18-21 Media Scheduling and Budgeting 22-23Brand Activation 24-27Evaluation 28-29Appendix Creative Brief 30 Team Biographies 31

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executive summary

agency brand strategy

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Executive Summary:

Sugar in the Raw is all-natural Turbinado sugar grown in the tropics of Hawaii. Its distinctive color and taste comes from the sugarcane molasses flavor that naturally occurs in the sugar crystals. The healthy, golden crystals are never bleached, so they keep the rich flavor and color of their natural molasses. Sugar in the Raw can be used to sweeten your coffee or tea, to sprinkle on your breakfast cereals, or to replace any white sugar while cooking or baking. Sugar in the Raw is intended to make a sweet treat enjoyable and guilt-free.

Overview:

For this campaign, we want to express that using Sugar in the Raw is a healthy alterna-tive to using white sugar that will leave you feeling satisfied, yet guilt-free when using it; therefore Sugar in the Raw is “So raw, it’s right.” The target market is women ages 25-54, whose primary concerns include fitness and beauty, as well as providing for their families. Our campaign includes magazine, television commercials , Internet, and shopping cart ads. With this approach, we hope to increase total sales by 12% within a year of this campaign.

E- Execute 3DG will guarantees to fully execute our clients needs.D- Dynamic 3DG will create an interesting and dynamic campaign strategy.G- Grandiose 3DG will go above and beyond to not only create a memorable campaign... but one that is ambitious, eye catching and grandiose.

situation analysisHistorical Context

Sugar In the Raw’s founder first started off as a sugar-packing business in Brooklyn, New York in 1956. Brownie’s, a local restaurant asked Marvin Eisenstadt, who would soon be the founder of In The Raw, to find a sugar that could suit their health-conscious customers.

This included being: 1. Natural 2. Less-processed

Eisenstadt went to the tropics and voilà sugar in the raw was born!

It took until the late 90’s for the all-natural, wholesome alternative to become the next big thing. Soon after this, Sugar In The Raw had the little brown packets making their appearance in coffee houses all across America.

In 2007, this Maui grown sugar was enjoyed more than a billion times by loyal customers who used it to enhance their coffee drinks, hot tea, ice tea, cereals and the list goes on and on!

Environmental Analysis

Competitive Forces: Although sugar in the raw is a completely all-natural, less-processed sugar, health-conscious consumers are often mistaken when compared to zero calorie sweet-eners. Although theses sweeteners have no calories, they are usually sweetened with aspar-tame or sucralose, which can lead to major health problems.

Economic Forces: Economic times are tough, but people tend to spend more money on natural products because they are much healthier for them. Worldwide, there are few grow-ing and manufacturing facilities devoted to producing high quality Turbinado sugar, so the supply is much more limited than white sugar. As a result, Sugar In The Raw costs more than regular sugar.

Sociocultural Forces: In our society, the organic and natural food market has become a booming success. America’s health craze and obsession to look good has created a high de-mand for these products. There is also a certain feel-good emotion that comes with buying a product that is good for you. Our target audience is primarily using sugar products for their coffee and tea; Sugar in the Raw is one of the only sugar products that will leave them feeling guilt free while drinking their morning coffee.

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Competitor Analysis Domino Strengths – Inexpensive. First major brand in sugar and has achieved brand recognition. Controls the largest share in sugar sales. Owned by American Sugar Refining Inc. the largest cane sugar refining company in the world, giving it near inexhaustible resources. Weaknesses – Over-manufactured. Unnatural, dyed, and unhealthy. Bag easily spills.

Swot Analysis

Florida CrystalsStrengths – Natural, grown in U.S.A. USDA certified organ-ic cane sugar. Certified carbon-free production. Weaknesses – Expensive. Not well-known.

Store Brand SugarStrengths – Inexpensive Weaknesses – Can only be sold in their own stores. Pro-cessed and unnatural.

STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

- Healthier and more nutritious than other regular sugar- Distinctive taste and texture, appealing natural molasses color and golden hue- Suitable for multiple uses- Different package sizes

- People are more health-conscious nowa-days - Expansion of product lines and package sizes- Increase in brand recognition

- Competitive market - Bad economy makes Sugar in the Raw unaffordable

- Low brand recognition - Low media presence on the Internet- Expensive- Marketed under the “In the Raw” family brand so there’s less distinguished brand equity for Sugar in the Raw

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Objectives

budget summary Our budget for the advertising plan is $10 million.

Marketing and Advertising Objectives

This campaign will improve awareness of the product by emphasizing that this sugar is healthy, natural and can be consumed guilt-free. The campaign will encourage its target audience to try Sugar in the Raw as an alternative to their current sugar. We aim to increase sales for Sugar in the Raw by 12% by the end of this campaign. We want to reach a comprehension goal of 65% and a conviction goal of 55%, with an effective reach of 65% of our targeted audience.

Timeframe

The campaign will run for one year starting in January of 2013.

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researchObjectives

• Find out consumers’ current awareness about Sugar in the Raw and their usage of sugar products in general through quantitative methods• Establish what steps it would take to motivate consumers to buy Sugar in the Raw• Understand the target audience profile (personal interests, concerns, hobbies)• Utilize MRI for Insight into the Sugar in the Raw’s target market and their media channel preferences

Primary Research

Process: To gather information about our target market, 3DG group conducted an on-line survey, made with Survey Monkey, and send out to women in our target market ages 25-54. The survey first collected basic demographic information from the participants. It continued to inquire about the sugar usages and preferences of our participants. We also asked specifically what sugar brand our participants purchase in order to compare how Sugar in the Raw ranks in our participants minds among competitors.The survey reached stay-at-home moms and working women. We had a total of 57 women take our survey.

Results:91.7% primarily use sugar to bake36.1% primarily use sugar to mix into their drinks25% use sugar everyday58.8% prefer to use all natural sugar58% main priority is their health16.7% use Sugar in the Raw

These results show that our target market uses sugar heavily for baking, which indicates that we should advertise the product more heavily on baking-related medium when choosing our media channels. More than half of the participants stated that they are very concerned with their health and prefer natural products, which are Sugar in the Raw’s strengths, therefore we also want to advertise more frequently on health-related medium. Only 16.7% use Sugar in the Raw so we can see that the product has a pretty low brand equity. The focus of our campaign will be to enhance brand equity, create a personality to the brand that speaks to the target market and generate more interaction with consumers in order to increase the number of buyers.

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Brand Value Proposition

Functional Benefit:Sugar in the Raw provides our target market with an all natural sweetener that has a distinct taste and color. The product contains micronutrients that are beneficial to the body.

Emotional Benefits:When customers envision Sugar in the Raw, the think of an all natural sweetener. This allows them to feel good after consuming it.

Self-expressive Functions:Consumers buy Sugar in the Raw because they believe it is a better sweetener for their bodies. By purchasing an all natural sweetener, that is kosher and gluten free, they will have better self esteem due to their current dietary choices. They express that physi-cal and mental health is of importance and that Sugar in the Raw will help achieve this satisfaction.

Secondary Research

Through MRI +, we were able to determine our target market of women ages 25-54. Our research helped show which magazines, television channels, and social media sites were most popular with women in our target market.

3DG advertising researched women’s blogs between the ages of 25-54, to get a better understanding of their interests. This research showed many blogs with the topics of beauty (which covers hair, makeup, and fashion ideas for people who are trying to save money), arts and crafts (which included for their kids or for hosting themed parties), and exercise (where there were articles encouraging and motivating each other as well as workout advice).

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target market

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Meet Emma

Emma is a 26-year-old graduate student. As an anthropologist she loves spending time working outdoors. She is highly conscious of the fact that what she buys has a larger impact on the environment. Therefore she feels it is right to buy products that are socially and environmentally responsible. When grabbing a coffee for those early morning excavations she prefers to sweeten it with the natural and unadulterated turbinado cane sugar of Sugar in the Raw.

Meet Julianne

Julianne is a 40-year old career woman and mother of two. Balancing work and home life can be very difficult and Julianne takes pride in doing a good job and raising healthy children. When she is baking a cake for her daughter’s birthday she uses Sugar in the Raw because it’s all natural production puts her at ease that she isn’t feeding her child any unhealthy chemicals. Her kid won’t know the difference be-cause it’s still sugar.

Meet Alyssa

Alyssa is a 53-year-old pastry-maker. After getting a degree in busi-ness she opened up her own bakery, where she specializes in cup-cakes. She especially loves designing creative cupcakes to give to all her friends. She knows that a way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. When she bakes she prefers to use all natural ingredients because her cupcakes taste better. She keeps plenty of Sugar in the Raw in stock because she never knows when her friends will be in need of a sweet treat.

campaign strategy

creative

We found that only 16.7% of the target audience uses Sugar in the Raw, which proves a low brand equity. We need to build “Sugar in the Raw” a good brand image that speaks to our target market, who are women age 25-54. Through our primary research, we have found that the majority of our target market primarily uses sugar for baking and prefer to use all natural sugar because they are health conscious. We are positioning Sugar in the Raw as an all-natural sweetener with a distinct flavor and a natural color. It is the sugar that makes your cake or drink taste better, and you can enjoy it without feeling guilty.

The Big Idea:

So raw, it’s rightSugar in the Raw is the ultimate sugar you use to make a sweet treat enjoyable and guilt-free.

Creative Strategy

Our target market is women age 25-54 who are in their adulthood so we decided to use the exotic, guilty pleasure scenario in our creative strategy to appeal to them. It’s also taken from the product’s name - “in the raw” which not only indicates the sugar is 100% natural, but also intrigues consumers’ minds about a “raw”, almost sensual images. Most of the time, women in general cannot enjoy a sugary treat without worrying about the harm it will cause to their health and body. Our strategy focuses on expressing the secret “raw” emotions inside women when feeling extremely pleasant, and delivering the message that every women can enjoy a sugary treat without feeling guilty by using Sugar in the Raw.

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Copywriting

For this campaign, we came up with the tagline “So Raw, It’s Right” to convey the mes-sage that Sugar in the Raw is the ultimate sugar you use in your food/drink for a guilt-free pleasure. Our copy explains the product, its origin and benefits, which is a guilt-free loving time with your food/drink that is also portrayed well through the images. For each print ad we state the exact food/drink to match the image. At the bottom of each ad, we promote our brand activation and a call to action, which is to visit our media sites for more information. Our copy is very short and precise, its purpose is to simply provide information, because we want to let the images speak for themselves.

Art Direction

Our art is conveying the message that a woman really enjoys their food or drink which contains Sugar in the Raw in it. We decided to use the red lipsticks to express the “raw” element which goes along with the product’s name.

For the print ads, we chose to portray the image of a cake, a coffee cup, and a bowl of cereal which are the mainly food and drink that consumers use sugar for. We put the red lipsticks on the napkin, the cup, and the bowl to indicate how the woman really enjoys the sugary treat in an almost sensual way. The image will be centered and big enough to capture people’s attention. The background color is coffee brown to resemble the prod-uct package and has a light gradient from the center out, but not as dark as the actual brown color of the product in order for the image to pop out.

For the TV commercial, we portray a woman with red lipstick on looking extremely pleasant, almost in a misleading way, however, we just focus on her lips. After that, it is zoom out to see that she is actually eating a cake or drink a cup of coffee.

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print advertisements

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print advertisements

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print advertisements

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TV Commercial storyboard

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internet advertisements

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The internet ad, which is a square pop-up, would run on websites geared towards our target market, starts with a red lipstick appear on the background doing some kissing, then the letters come out to make the word “So Raw”. From there the animation would begin with the next frame of the cup of coffee zoomed in and the word “It’s Right” ap-pear, then it will keep moving until the last frame promoting “Hawaii in the Raw” and a call to action “Click Here to find out more!”

shopping cart advertisements

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Creative Testing Results

To test our creative ideas, we showed our advertisements to women in our target mar-ket throughout our community. After showing them our creative concept, we received positive and valuable feedback. The women intrigued mostly by the commercial story-boards which they thought were eye-catching and clever. They appreciated the adult themed humor and sensuality of the commercials. The print ads also received positive feedback. The women enjoyed the multiple kiss stains on the product and the slogan “So Raw, It’s Right”. The women responded that the ad exuded a feeling of a “guilty pleasure”. This reveals that our overall message created a memorable experience among our target market.

MediaMedia Objectives

Our target market for Sugar in the Raw is women between the ages 25-54, who value eating healthy and providing for their families. In order to reach our desired audiences, we are producing national commercials, magazines ads, creating advertisements for shopping carts and utilizing the vast opportunities on the internet.

Shopping carts in the Top 25 markets across U.S.

The majority of grocery store consumers are women. They buy for themselves, their spouses, and their children. Shopping cart advertising gives Sugar in the Raw that last minute opportunity to directly speak with our target audience and remind them before they choose that our product is a natural and delicious choice. We plan to place Sugar in the Raw ad in the shopping carts at stores such as Wegmans, Walmart, and Tops nationwide throughout the whole year, and also promote the Hawaii trip that takes place in December.

Media Strategies

Effective Reach: 65%Effective Frequency: 3

Continuity: Our ads will run throughout the year but will most heavily run during the holiday season because that is when our product will be used the most for baking purposes. Our ads will also run heavier in the summertime because that is when our product will be used to sweeten summer drinks like iced tea and lemonade. Length/Size of all advertisements: Television: 30 second ad Magazine: Full Page Internet: Square Pop-up Shopping cart: 19-1/2” x 33” x15” x38”

media choices

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Magazines

People ( 3,563,035 circulation)People is an entertainment magazine focusing on the most intriguing people in our culture. People magazine will effectively reach our target audience of women between the ages 25-54. The magazine attracts the most affluent of readers as well as 1 in 4 moms. The magazine contains material relatable to women of different races, age, and occupations.

Cosmopolitan (3,017,834 circulation)Cosmopolitan magazine is an entertainment, fashion, sex, beauty and self improvement magazine for women between the ages 18-39. The magazine would be cohesive with the sensual nature of our Sugar in the Raw campaign.

Shape (1,635,933 Circulation)Shape is the #1 magazine for woman with active lifestyles. Shape targets wom-en between the ages 18-54. Because Shape prides itself on promoting physical and mental fitness it offers the perfect medium for our all-natural sweetener.

Natural Health (308,718 circulation)Natural Health is one of the leading natural lifestyle magazines. Natural Health targets men and women between the age 25-54. Natural Health is edited to appeal to men and women who pride themselves in living an all- natural life-style.

O, The Oprah Magazine (2,444,934 circulation)O is a personal growth magazine targeting women between the ages of 25-54. Because O offers advice on changing lifestyles and Oprah is one of the top role models for middle aged woman, our product is perfect for the magazine.

Woman’s Day (3,449,692 circulation)Woman’s Day is a magazine that focuses on issues common to all women. The target market of the magazine are women between the ages 18-54. Since the information provided in Woman’s Day magazine coincides with our Sugar in the Raw target market, it is the wonderful fit for our campaign.

Food Network Magazine (1,597,796 circulation)Food Network Magazine that features advice from celebrity chefs and includes every essential a food lover will need. The magazine’s target audience are women between the ages 25-54. Because the Food Network Magazine is the essential handbook for a food lover, the audience is more likely to purchase Sugar in the Raw if it is featured.

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Television

The Ellen Degeneres Show (NBC)

Ellen is a daytime talk/entertainment show that airs every af-ternoon. Ellen’s personality makes for light-hearted entertain-ment, while her guests are usually some of the most popular celebrities of the time. The show targets women 25-54.

Cupcake Wars (Food Network)

Cupcake Wars is a reality based competition show. It is based around competitors creating unique and professional-style cupcakes. The show also challenges its contestants to create cupcakes with unusual ingredients. It’s audience represents our target market.

Chopped (Food Network)

Chopped is another reality based cooking competition show. Competitors are judged on their creativity, presentation, and taste with minimal time to plan and execute. This reality com-petition is a premiere show on the Food Network and caters directly to our prefered audience.

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Internet

Ellentv.com

This is Ellen Degeneres’s official website. Since Ellen’s show is so popular to women of our target market, we believe placing an ad on this site is a wise choice. Not only does this site feature video clips from the show, it also features many light-hearted, humorous blog posts from Ellen and it is definitely a frequently visited site of Ellen’s fan base, which is composed of people who mostly are from our target market.

Joyofbaking.com

Since the majority of our target market uses sugar for baking, we believe putting our ad on a popular baking site such as joyofbaking.com will cap-ture their attention about an alternative natural, healthy sweetener for their baking pleasure. This site has 322,229 unique visitors.

Babble.com

According to our secondary research, the women in our target market are also interested in beauty, arts & crafts, DIY projects, and prioritize their family. Babble.com is a website that caters exactly to their interests and attracts a huge number of visitors everyday (1,262,881 unique visitors). We believe putting our ad on this website will effectively reach our target market.

Hulu.com

Many women of our target market spend time on hulu.com to catch up with their favorite tv shows or watch music videos. By having our TV commercial pre-rolled before different videos, we believe we will com-municate with our target market about Sugar in the Raw.

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med

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ULI

NG

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media budget

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Television

* 3 rating points

MagazinesFull page color ad

InternetEstimates for Square Pop-Up Ads at $15 CPM*Pre-roll video at $30 CPM

Shopping carts

brand activationBrand Integration: “Hawaii in the Raw”

Objective: To strengthen the link between where Sugar in the Raw is produced and where it is sold around the country by rewarding five lucky consumers of Sugar in the Raw with an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii for them and a guest. Beside that, we want to reward our consumers with different prizes they could find when they use the product.

Strategy: Sugar in the Raw will produce 5 Golden Packets, to represent our golden sugar crystals and the golden sand beaches of Hawaii, to be placed randomly in our packet box products at different stores within the United States (excluding Hawaii). The packet will be labeled “Hawaii in the Raw” and on the back will be a code for the winning consumers to redeem their prize. In doing so, Sugar in the Raw can show appreciation to their loyal con-sumers, while also reminding the public that Sugar in the Raw is an all natural turbinado sugar made right here in Hawaii U.S.A.

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Beside that, we will put on the back of regular packets different words such as “cereal”, “cof-fee”, “tea”, “cake”, etc. to indicate that Sugar in the Raw can be used for multiple purposes and the consumers can have a little fun when picking the “correct” packets for their use. We will also put a 5% and 10% coupons on random packets with a redeem code for their next purchase of Sugar in the Raw.

We will also put the four word components of “Sugar in the Raw” on random packets, and if the consumers can find the 4 packets to complete the word “Sugar in the Raw”, they can send them to Sugar in the Raw company in exchange for a $50 gift card at Victoria Secret. This tactic is to create little fun for the consumers while using the product, and to motivate them to purchase more Sugar in the Raw product in order to win the prizes.

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brand activationStrategic Partnership: Cupcake Wars

Objective: Promote our brand through partnership with the well-established baking competition Cupcake Wars on the Food Network.

Strategy: Every competitor will use Sugar in the Raw in their baked goods through all three phases of the competition, illustrating its versatility within the kitchen.

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram #soRaw

Objective: Engage consumers of Sugar in the Raw to share their personal stories, imagi-nation, and unique creations with using Sugar in the Raw and In the Raw family products

Strategy: Sugar in the Raw will promote the trending topic #soRaw to its followers, ask-ing them to share their unique creations by using Sugar in the Raw (baking, mixing with drinks, face masks, etc.), their guilty pleasure (food related or not) by posting pictures in combination with the hashtag #soRaw to Instagram, Facebook and tweeting with the hashtag on Twitter.

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marketing recommendation

Partnership

During the beginning phase of the campaign, Sugar in the Raw can partner up with a cereal company (Cheerios) or coffee (Green Mountain) or tea (Lipton) to have a small box of either cereal, coffee or tea packed with Sugar in the Raw box as a free giveaway, indicating that Sugar in the Raw is a perfect combination with them. This tactic is aimed to boost up sales during this period. Sugar in the Raw can extend the partnership to a cake mix product brand such as Betty Crocker before holiday season.

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evaluationOur two objectives were to increase awareness by 65% and increase sales by 12%. We have created our advertising campaign to give more emphasis during the last half of the year, pushing our advertising more steadily during the holiday seasons. This accounts for the correlation between our increase in awareness and sales.

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creative briefSugar In the Raw’s founder first started off as a sugar-packing business in Brooklyn, New York in 1956. Brownie’s, a local restaurant asked Marvin Eisenstadt, who would soon be the founder of In The Raw, to find a sugar that could suit their health-conscious customers.

Goals:Our main goal during this campaign is to increase sales by 12% as well as reach awareness of 65% for our targeted audience.

Target Market:Our primary market is women between the ages of 25-54.

Advertising Problem:Sugar in the Raw is marketed under the “In the Raw” family brand. Consumers are not able to distinguish Sugar in the Raw’s benefits because of the low brand equity. The sugar suf-fers from low brand recognition, with an extremely low presence on the Internet.

Advertising Objectives:Our objective for this campaign is to position Sugar in the Raw as a healthy, natural, and tasty sugar that can be used in more ways than just one. We want our audience to know the many uses of the natural-colored sugar.

Target Consumer:Our target consumer will be women between the ages of 25-54. This age group shares many common interests and values, which we will be able to target through our marketing strategies.

Emotion Needed:Women between the ages of 25-54 have health as one of their main priorities. This is why Sugar in the Raw needs to ensure the consumers do not feel regret or remorse after buying and consuming our product. They will buy our brand if they are confident that the sugar is healthy and natural.

Competition:Domino SugarFlorida CrystalsStore Brand Sugar (Wegman’s Brand, Walmart’s Great Value Brand)

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meet our team!Derek Crossman is currently a senior studying Politics with a minor in Integrated Marketing Communications. Derek is a political corre-spondent on ICTV’s Experts Say, a current events debate show. This past spring Derek worked on local campaigns for the Labour Party as well as the mayoral campaign for Labour candidate Ken Livingstone in London, United Kingdom. Derek enjoys football, writing, reading, acting, and watching Showtime’s Homeland. Upon graduation, he plans on working somewhere in NY state government and hopes to eventually return to the United Kingdom.

Alyssa DeAlesandro is a senior at IC, studying Theatre Arts Management. She is currently the House Manager for the mainstage productions at IC Theatre Arts and is the marketing intern at the State Theatre of Ithaca. She has also worked at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ as the mar-keting intern, and at the Donmar Warehouse in London’s West End as the development intern.

Allie Griff is a sophomore at Ithaca College’s Park School of Commu-nications, is majoring in Integrated Marketing Communications with a Psychology minor. Allie is from Maryland where she first discovered her love for communications with an internship with Clear Channel Communications. She is a DJ with two radio shows on VIC Radio and involved in IC’s Women in Communications, where she was just chosen to be event co-chair on the e-board.

Gregory Carter is a junior studying Theatre Arts Management. He is currently the Production Liaison for the student organization iSing and is involved in numerous committees on campus. He has worked for companies such as: Berkshire Theatre Group, the Ticket Center Ithaca and The Human Race Theatre Company. Gregory enjoys listening to music, hiking, theatre, movies and watching AMC’s Breaking Bad. This summer, he plans on interning for The Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts located in Washington, DC.

Chau Nguyen is a junior studying Integrated Marketing Commu-nications and she is an international student from Vietnam. She is currently the Marketing intern and Peer Career Advisor for Career Services. She is also the Vice President of the International Club and International Business Association. Chau loves travelling, exploring cultures and considers herself a big foodie.

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