Implementing an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan - Carl's Junior

Assume that Carl's Junior does not provide comprehensive brand advertising and promotion support to your franchise operation. Suggest ways in which you can implement an integrated marketing communication plan to build brand equity for your franchise. In your recommendations, you should also consider how much effort you would like to devote to push and pull strategy.

As Carl´s Jr.® is a contractual vertical marketing system (fast food franchise), push strategy (generating more sales) would be mostly implemented by the franchisor whose intermediaries are the franchisees (e.g. discounts when purchasing from suppliers, incentives when more sales are achieved etc...). Thus, effort should be concentrated on pull strategy to attract new customers and retain old customers.

Carl´s Jr.® appeals to consumers who have (growing) affluence, want a different burger experience, and are willing to spend a premium for that different experience. Although the brand equity (popularity) of Carl´s Jr.® has been increasing over the past 4 years, more can be done to reach out to a wider target audience who are yet unaware of Carl´s Jr.® brand of food; increasing brand equity (awareness) and sales (growth).

(Marketing) Public relations with a pull strategy would be the most appropriate method to promote of Carl´s Jr.® image and generate interest in its products. Thus, in order to generate interest and increase brand awareness (e.g. credibility) the following marketing communication tools would be used (Kotleretal. 2006):

1. Advertising

a. (Persuasive) TV Ads (one of the most powerful mediums)

i. Builds brand knowledge (awareness) by positioning Carl´s Jr.® points-of-parity (e.g. big servings of tasty charbroiled burgers)

ii. One example would be occasional product placement in movies and/or television, which would further expose the brand (through cameo appearances). Thus, integrating the Carl´s Jr.® brand into everyday life of consumers in an unconventional (innovative) way, as opposed to traditional TV advertisements.

b. (Informative and Persuasive) Internet Ads

This method will reach out to a portion of the potential target audience that is most unlikely to read newspapers, or be affected by TV ads...Read more>>