TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction to the organization
3. Situation Analysis
4. Marketing Objectives
5. Introduction to initiative
6. Marketing objectives for initiative
7. Product plan
8. Pricing plan
9. Distribution plan
10. Promotions plan
11. Marketing expenses budget
12. Evaluation & monitoring mechanisms

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Ole Springs Bottlers identifying an immerging need of consumers is preparing

to launch a new herbal drink to the Sri Lankan carbonated soft drink market. This will be an
innovative product offered to practice undifferentiated targeting. At present Ole offers
products basically targeting the youth. Other than Ole plus- the newest addition to Ole
product range, Zingo and Arshik almost all the other products are targeted on youth. There
fore this new herbal drink is a good initiative to change the direction of Ole.

The idea was generated for this new product development identifying the high
preference of consumers towards nutritious foods and beverages. High demand for instant
and semi processed herbal beverages is evident in Sri Lanka at present. But both carbonated
(CSD) and non carbonated soft drink markets have failed to effectively cater this need of
consumers. Even though there are few manufacturers of herbal drinks in the market they have
been unable to fulfill consumer’s needs specially due to poor quality of their products. Ole
new herbal drink is designed to fill this gap in the market.

This new offering is marketed under the name Ole AAYURR. It is offered as a
less carbonated drink. It combines exclusive features that give a unique identity to the
product. Those will differentiate the product in the eyes of consumers over other competitive
products. This is targeted on the whole market from teenagers to middle aged. The main aim
of targeting the whole market is to garb consumers of all segments and eliminate the risk of
been only in the youth segment.

As mentioned above the primary objective of the new herbal drink is to

expand the target market of Ole and grab consumers in other market segments that company
has not catered yet. The product aims to contribute to a 3% increase in market share within
the first year with a targeted sales volume of 0.6 million cases (24 bottle cases). The product
aims on contributing for a 10% increase in company profit by 2011.

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 Market skimming will be practiced with this new product. Following the
pricing strategy of the company it is priced at an optimum level. Existing distributional
channels are used for distribution. More attention will be paid with respect to promotions for
the product. Since it is a new product to the Ole range more advertising will be needed to
successfully market the product.

This report consist the marketing plan for the new herbal drink Ole
AAYURR. All strategic and tactical plans are discussed with a sales forecast and a forecasted
budget in following sections.

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 INTRODUCTION TO THE ORGANIZATION

Ole Springs Bottlers is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Maharaja Group of

companies. It is the third largest player in the Sri Lankan carbonated soft drink(CSD) market
with a market share of 20%. The company was originally established in 1967 under the name
Berec Ceylon Limited to manufacture batteries. But it was subsequently inoperative for a
period of time. In 1992 the company was re-christened as Ole Springs Bottlers and
reactivated for the purpose of bottling Pepsi Cola. Presently it is the exclusive Sri Lankan
franchise for Pepsi range products. In November 1999 the company started the production of
Ole brand soft drinks to cater the Sri Lankan market.

As a subsidiary of the Maharaja Group of companies Ole operates under the

group’s guiding philosophy “The Courage to be Different”. It doesn’t have any specifically
defined corporate or financial objectives. Pepsi Cola Inc set targets for Pepsi range products
in terms of volume and profit. The company works on achieving these targets annually. The
company’s main aim is to give best products whether it is a Cola or another flavour to the
consumer and offer value for money.

At present Ole caters the Sri Lankan carbonated soft drink market with both
Pepsi and Ole range products. Ole’s current product range includes 10 of its brands and 5
Pepsi Cola brands. Ole brand include Ole Cream Soda, Ginger Beer, Zingo, Arshik, Ole
Apple, Ole Nelli, Ole Soda, Ole Plus and Ole instant Lemon and orange. Pepsi, Mirinda, 7-
Up, Duke Soda and Mountain Dew are the Pepsi brands offered by the company. Ole’s whole
production takes place within the factory premises at Ranala. This factory can provide on the
basic needs easily, what’s that, to get standard water, easy access to electricity and available
labors. Concrete for Pepsi brands are directly bought from India from the Pepsi India
Company. Pepsi brands are produced according to manuals and procedures give by this
Pepsi. Inc.
With these products Ole has been able to gain the third largest market share
against other competitors and achieve a stable position. Within its sixteen years of carrier in
the Sri Lankan market the company has performed very well. Ole products have won hearts
of Sri Lankan customers over its competitors who have been in the market for a long time
because of its high quality.

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 SITUATION ANALYSIS

This section presents an organizational analysis with respect to the internal and external
environment combined with a SWOT analysis. This clearly provides an idea about the
present situation of the company and suitability of its operations to existing market
conditions.

 Strengths

 Good brand image –

It’s very difficult to establish a good brand image amidst such intense
competition. But Ole has been successful on that. It has won the consumer’s trust via
good quality. Even though Ole has been catering the market only for ten years with
respect to other giant competitors who have been in the market nearly 100 years it has
gained a stable position with 20% share of the market.

 Well established distribution channels –

Ole has 65000 distribution outlets island wide which are efficiently
supplied by 59 distributors. And also different kinds of outlets such as super markets,
A, B and C class outlets and contract outlets are supplied at the same time. As the
company considers distributors as a part of the business and look after them well to
make them happy they have been able to build a strong distribution network within
the country.

 Innovative products-

Ole has been releasing innovative products from time to time to the market.
Understanding the real preferences of customers through continuous market research
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 practices Ole launched new products to satisfy such consumer needs. Ole was the first to
launch an Apple flavoured carbonated soft drink in Sri Lanka as well as in the region.
Also it was for the first time in Sri Lanka a soft drink such as Ole Arshik was launched
aimed on Muslim community.

 Creative and efficient advertising staff –

The advertising campaigns conducted by this staff have been very successful
so far compared to other beverage companies. Especially TV commercials have been
very popular among public due to their creative and enthusiastic nature. So much
focused advertising activities will be a great help to market our herbal drink.

 Pioneer of PET bottles

Ole is the pioneer of PET bottles in the carbonated soft drink market. At
present consumers prefer PET bottles than glass due to convenience. Therefore this
has created some kind of an advantage over the company.

 Weaknesses

 Market skimming most of the time –

Ole always has attempted to set somewhat high prices for their products to
communicate quality and cover up costs. Due to this Ole has lost the segment of
customers who always seek the maximum benefit for the lowest price.

 Target markets–

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 Ole has always launched their marketing activities targeting the youth.
Most of Ole products are targeted on the youth with almost one or two products on
other market segments such as teenagers, sportsmen. This is one of the major
weaknesses of the company. This has restricted the expansion of the consumer base
to some extent.

 Less advertising efforts-

Even though the company conducts effective advertising campaigns still

they are not using mass media for the maximum level. They should have paid more
attention on advertising more on television. Less advertising through mass media has
had some negative effect on the sales of OLE PLUS because most of the people are
still unaware of this product.

 Opportunities

 Less herbal drinks in the market –

Most of the companies have focused on marketing flavored carbonated

drinks. And also those who sell herbal drinks also haven’t tried to create an herbal
drinks market. Most of the excising herbal drinks are low quality products marketed
under less popular brand names. Even though consumers prefer to have herbal drinks
they hesitate to buy such products due to their low quality. There fore there exists a
high demand for a high quality herbal drink.

 Perception and trend of consumers –

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 People now know about the demerits of flavored drinks and how the
chemical ingredients of them badly affect human health. So there is an emerging
preference of consumers for less carbonated nutritious local tastes.

 Suppliers of herbal items –

There are a lot of farmers who are willing to supply the firm with herbal
items for low prices. The manufacture of herbals is emerging as an important small –
medium scale industry in Sri Lanka. In recent past different programs have been
initiated within the country focusing on strengthening the cultivation and conservation
of herbal plants. Benefits of such programs can be gained in the near future.

 Opportunity to expand to the Northern & Eastern provinces

The company has an opportunity to expand its market in north and eastern
parts of our country because the civil war inside the country will be finished in the near
future.

 International market –

Ole has not still entered the international market. There are many opportunities
for Ole to enter the international market with its products. Ole can increase revenue
with incoming foreign exchange by entering such a new market.

 Threats

 Competitors –

Elephant house and Coca Cola are the two major competitors in the market
ahead of Ole. These two players have been in the market for a long time and therefore
they have a stable customer. They too have similar products like that of Ole and
therefore a huge competition exists in the market. Other than these two there are some

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 minor players too in the market. All these create a competition for Ole. There are one or
two herbal drink producers too in the market. With the increasing customer demand for
herbal and nutritious drinks there is a potential for these companies to increase their
operations in the future. If so they will capture some market share and create a threat for
the company.

 Innovative products of competitors

Competitors introduce innovative products from time to time with the aim of
expanding their market share. Some significant products were introduced by major
competitors during previous time. These affect sales of the company

 World economical situation

The slump in the world economy could have a negative effect on peoples
spending. Since soft drinks are not essential products they will hesitate to by them in
such a situation. If so the company will not be able to enjoy expected profits from the
product.

MARKETING OBJECTIVES

Ole Springs Bottlers follows the guiding philosophy of Maharaja Group of

companies “THE COURAGE TO BE DIFFERENT”. It doesn’t have a separate mission or
objectives for the organization or neither for separate departments at present. This has created
some kind of a disadvantage for the company. To endure in this highly competitive market,
it’s really important to have specific objectives specially a marketing objective.

The main marketing objective of Ole for next three years will be to IMPROVE
the competitive position in the market with expanded target market and to MAINTAIN the

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obtained position in long term. Future operations will be targeted on improving the market
share by 15% within next 3 years and gaining a more stable position in the market. By
achieving this target Ole can easily be the market leader for carbonated soft drinks. This will
be done through expanding the current target market and introducing some new products to
the existing market segment. Currently Ole has heavily targeted the youth segment of the
market and most of the products are offered for this segment. Much attention will be paid in
the future to expand this target market up to teenagers and middle aged people and practice
more undifferentiated targeting with some new products.

Ole hopes to increase allocation for promotional and advertising costs by 10%
within next three years. It will be really helpful for Ole to survive in this highly competitive
market as advertising plays a major role in winning consumers hearts. At present Ole is not
paying much concentration on advertising. This has created some negative effects for sales of
our newest product OLE plus. So in future the company will move on more to advertising
campaigns. With all these efforts Ole wishes to improve the company profit by 30% by 2011.

INTRODUCTION TO INITIATIVE

As an initial step of achieving above mentioned marketing objectives

successfully Ole has decided upon catering the Sri Lankan herbal drink market with a new
herbal drink. This drink will be a New Product introduced to cater a segment of the soft drink
market in which Ole has been operating over previous years. There fore it is a new product
development to the existing market.

As identified by the above stated SWOT analysis Herbal drink industry is

emerging as a successful commercial venture in Sri Lanka as well as in the world. With an

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emerging trend of people in moving towards natural and nutritious food and beverages there
is a tremendous preference of consumers for nutritious beverages. As preparation of herbal
beverages at home is time consuming people demand for instant and semi processed herbal
beverages. Therefore a high demand for instant herbal beverages is evident in the market. But
producers in the market have been unable to cater this huge need. There are very few herbal
drinks in the market at present and even those have failed to create a stable consumer base for
herbal drinks due to poor quality and some other reasons. Lak peyawa and Morawaka medito
are the two most preferred brands among them. Due to this imbalance between demand and
supply there exists a good opportunity for another player to enter the herbal beverage market
with a quality product. Ole will be entering the market to fill this gap.

None of other major competitors have yet paid their attention on developing
an herbal drink preferred by consumers. Even though Ceylon Cold Stores have Lak Peyawa
as an herbal drink it has not succeeded in meeting consumer need. CCS has not even made
any changes to the product to modify it according to customer preferences. So the threat that
can emerge because of competitors is really little for a new herbal drink. It will be a good
competitor for innovative products of other companies.

It has been found from some surveys done by some external parties that herbal
beverages are preferred by persons of all age groups and mostly by the middle aged group.
One of Ole’s marketing objectives for next five years is to practice undifferentiated
segmentation by expanding its target market more from youth to other divisions. So this will
be the most suitable product to practice that strategy. There fore this product will be targeted
on young to middle aged consumers. With the high demand for herbal drinks in the market
the company wishes that this will make a significant contribution to increase company
profits.

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 MARKETING OBJECTIVES FOR THE PRODUCT

When consider about existing product range Ole offers 15 different products
to the soft drink market. Most of these products are specially targeted on youth except few
products. Ole’s main youth targeted products are Pepsi, Mirinda, 7Up, Mountain Dew, Duke
Soda, Ginger Beer and Soda, Cream Soda, Nelli and Apple, orange and lemon (Carbonated
fruit drinks). OLE plus basically targets sportsmen while Zingo is offered to pre- teen and
teenage segments. There aren’t any products targeted on every segment in the present
product range. Therefore target for this new herbal drink will be all carbonated soft drink
consumers.

Following are the main objectives of Ole new herbal drink.

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 The primary objective of introducing this product is to expand Ole’s target
market. Since this is a product preferred by every segment of the market by expanding the
target market the company will be able to gain high profits in long term. As mentioned earlier
at present Ole mainly targets the younger generation. There fore the company has lost a
considerable amount of consumers. With this product Ole can easily grab those consumers
and gain a stable position in the market over competitors.

As the company wishes to increase budget allocation for advertising in coming

years more advertising efforts will be put on advertising the new herbal drink. This will be
another major objective of the product. The company is experiencing some kind of a
disadvantage due to less promotional efforts at present. There fore this new product will
highly concentrate on promotional efforts to eliminate this disadvantage.

One of the objectives of the company for next three years is to improve the
market share by 15%. Ole herbal drink aims to expand the target market and contribute for
10% expansion of the market share within next three years. Within the first year it is
targeted to get a 3% increase in the total market share with the new herbal drink. Targeted
sales volume for the first year is 0.6 million cases (24 bottle cases). The main financial
objective for the first year is to keep losses at a minimum level and cover the initial costs
incurred for the product with this sales volume. By the second year the company targets to
increase the sales volume up to 1.5 million cases. With all these efforts the product’s main
target is to increase the annual profit by 10% at the end of 2011. All tactical plans
implemented to achieve these objectives are discussed in relevant sections.

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 PRODUCT PLAN

Ole new herbal drink is the newest addition to the ole product line developed
to cater Sri Lankan herbal drink market. This is an innovative product developed identifying
the emerging demand of consumers. Basic levels of the product in terms of features attached
are as bellows.

 Core - A drink to Quench thirst

 Basic - Herbal drink with less carbonate composition
 Expected - High nutritious composition

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 The new herbal drink is offered under the name Ole AAYURR. It is branded under
Ole name as a manufacturer’s brand and is aligned with other products under umbrella
branding. Since Ole has a good brand image in the market among customers this strategy will
help the product to easily capture the market. Most of the herbal drinks in the market aren’t in
good quality and consumers have a dab image about them. If the new product is offered with
a totally different name they may sometimes reject the product due to this bad perception
about existing products. Using the Ole brand name the product can easily show it’s identity to
consumers and Consumers will prefer the product without any hesitation as they trust Ole
brand name and its good quality.

Ole AAYURR has many unique features against competitor’s products. As other herbal
drinks in the market do not have such features these Unique Selling Propositions (USP) will
add more value to the product and differentiate it amongst competitors.

 Name-
The new herbal drink is offered with the name Ole AAYURR. The name is
spelled as AAYURR rather than AYUR to avoid mispronunciations. And also the repetition
of first and the last letter gives some kind of a different feeling to consumers. The name it self
will create an initial idea about the product in customers mind. It can easily grab the
consumer’s attention and gives the idea that it is something related to herbals. Specially in Sri
Lanka people highly value the Ayurvedic system of medicine. This name will attract such
customers easily.

 Ingredients-
The new drink will composite with three herbals; coriander, Iramusu and
welmee. This composition gives a unique taste to the product. None of the existing products
in the market has such a composition. Most of them are produced using only one herbal. The
carbonate proportion is less in this with respect to other Ole brands. Less carbonate
composition allow consumers to experience the real taste of herbals.

 Container(Bottle)-

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 The Bottle has a unique design. It is designed in a way that consumer can
easily hold the bottle with his hand. This shape will attract customer attention easily. Initially
Ole AAYURR is offered in 330 ml PET bottles only.

STRATEGIES FOR PLC STAGES

Development-

 Some test marketing will be done within this period. A huge poster
campaign is planned to be conducted to make consumer little bit aware about the
up coming product. This will be mainly done using billboards. This advertising
effort is focused on giving some kind of a hint for consumers about the product
and making them curious.

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  More effort is put on making distributors and sellers aware about the new
product. They will be given with details about the product so that they can make
consumers aware and collect consumer’s ideas.

 Some marketing researches will be conducted to see the direction of

consumer demand and to evaluate suitability of the product to meet the demand.
These researches are mainly aimed on gathering details about consumers taste
preferences.

Introduction-

 The product will be released with all above mentioned features. All the unique
Features will make it easy for the product to grab consumer’s attention and
attract them to purchase the product.

 Price skimming is practiced with this new herbal drink. The product is
priced at a premium level taking into account prices of other drinks in the
market. One of the main targets of this new product is to cover all initial costs
during the first year. There fore pricing at a premium level will help to easily
cover these initial costs. This is further discussed on pricing plan.

 The product will be offered to two selective areas Kandy and Colombo at
the initial stage. As the product has some new features it is really important to
identify customer preference to the product. There fore initially the product will
be offered to these two areas only. After analyzing the performance of the
product in these two areas the distribution channel will be expanded later to all
65,000 outlets and many more in the future.

 But consumers will be offered with free drinks in some selected temporary
outlets in few main cities. This campaign is mainly conducted in outstations

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 other than Colombo and Kandy. Then the company can see consumer’s
reactions towards the product in those areas and arrange distribution
accordingly.

 The main aim of promotion at this stage is to create consumers aware

about the product. More effort will be put on promoting the product to the
general public mainly through advertising.

Growth-

 Distribution channel will expand to other areas too. The product will
be introduced first to urban areas and then to suburbs and rural areas. Special
attention is paid to increase distribution to Northern and Eastern provinces in
this stage. By introducing the product to these areas at this stage the company
can expand the customer base. And also if these customers reject the product the
company can easily cover the loss.

 A brand Ambassadors will be used for promotions in this stage. Such a

promotion campaign will help to gain more brand loyalty from customers and
built a stable customer base. The company can easily afford such a campaign
with increasing profits.

 The company is not wiling to make any price changes. Since the
product is priced at a premium level an increase in price will loose customers.

Maturity-

 The company hopes to develop another one or two herbal drinks with
difference

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 tastes. These changes will be done according to consumer preferences. This will
help to maintain the position in the market meeting competition.

These are the main strategies aligned with PLC stages for the new herbal drinks. More
details about these strategies are provided below in respective plans.

PRICING PLAN

When introducing a new product to the current market, it is necessary to understand

and analyze what should be the most advantageous price. Actually price connects customer
and marketer at the point of exchange. In addition it is the only element which generates
revenue. It also sends signals to customers about product quality, exclusiveness, etc….
Therefore pricing has become one of key factor in whole marketing process.

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 When going to decide and implement a pricing strategy with respect to the marketing
plan for newly produced carbonated herbal drink product by “ole”, there are several
advantageous points to be seemed as below.
 Because of the good image and the reputation of brand name “ole”, people
are willing to consider and buy “ole” products without considering much more
about price factor.

 Ole’s main pricing objective is to get a product quality leadership. But

at the same time they consider on maintaining their profit margins to ensure
the company does not make losses.

 When analyzing the current market context in Sri Lanka, recent trend
is appreciating nutritious beverage products than artificial drink products.
Therefore the new product herbal drink will be appreciated because it will give
strange experience to consumer.

 As above mentioned, because of a newly developed product no

competitors at the beginning and no me too products. Therefore people can not
compare its prices with other me too products.

According to above points, it seems to be advantageous selecting pricing method

based on demand/market. The company usually uses a market driven pricing policy. So
product will be priced looking at market forces and lone term scenario.

When pricing the new product under the demand based method we can choose
between market skimming and market penetration. However market skimming prices method
is more suitable than market penetration pricing for this product due to following reasons.

 There are few competitors in carbonated herbal drink market

 Product is an innovatory one with unique features

 There is no substantial potential scale economies

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There are advantages of selecting market skimming pricing policy

 It will create an opportunity for quick recovery on investment in the new

product such as R&D costs, promotional cost, etc…

 It may award a quality prestigious image to customers. Because many people

tend to believe if there is a product with higher prices than others it may be a
quality product.

When implementing this pricing method, there is a disadvantage of encouraging

competitors to enter the market more quickly and may have me too products in the future due
to higher price of the product.
Because of that we can not forget our competitors easily. Although the product is
going to be a new to the market, it has to be survived in current carbonated drink market.
Therefore it is also needed to be considered about current carbonated drink competitors and
their prices.

According to carbonated drink market in PET model there are two types of capacities
in lower for small size bottles 330ml and 500ml. Coca Cola and Elephant House only
produce 500ml bottles and there prices range between Rs65 to 70. Ole and shaa produce
330ml and 500ml capacities. Shaa products prices are much cheaper than ole and other
competitors. Ole maintains their 330ml price level in Rs 50 range and Shaa maintains around
Rs 40.

Ole’s newest product, ole plus has been priced Rs100 of 330ml. But according to the
market researches that product has not been successful as expected level. The high price too
has affected to this failure. Therefore we can not exceed our limitations beyond Rs 80 for
330ml bottle. Therefore we have to choose our maximum price margin at Rs 70 for 330ml
bottle. Considering psychological pricing factor we select the price at Rs 68.

A combination of above mentioned pricing strategies will be practiced for Ole

AAYURR. It will be offered to the market at an optimal price of Rs.68.00.

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 DISTRIBUTION PLAN

Distributional objective

In today’s market place availability is the most important element that adds extra
values to products. Consumers easily get dissatisfied in the absence of this element. So it is
really important to make the product available at the right time to the right place with other
conditions. Specially for a herbal drink it is vary much needed. Consumers have an impulse

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 buying behavior towards herbal drinks. So poor availability of the product in the market
place can dissatisfy customers and make them shift to a substitute. There fore the main
distributional objective is to get the competitive advantage by managing the supply chain of
the product effectively with 7 R’s.

 The product will be launched in highly urban areas first because people in those areas haven’t
got the chance of consuming herbal drinks always as rural people yet. And also the taste will
also be totally new for them. Kandy & Colombo are the ideal places for first launch. Because
they are urban areas where all the communities of people live together. They have different
tastes and perceptions. So although the product is neglected by one community there’s a
chance of acceptance by another community.

 Then the product is slightly moved to other urban areas. As the second stage the product will
be introduce to 35,000 urban outlets. After launching the product in urban areas consumer
responses will be analyzed. If positive the product will then be supplied to semi urban and
rural areas.

 A special effort will be maid to design an effective distribution channel within Nothern and
Eastern provinces. Presently Ole doesn’t provide products for these areas. But the company
hopes to expand distribution of the new product to these areas too with the current security
condition of the country. As this will be a new geographical market where consumers don’t
much about Ole products intensive distribution must be done to easily capture them.

 The existing distribution channels of the company can be used for this purpose with some
modifications. First the company will transport the bottles to distributors rather than waiting
for them to come. Then the distributors will be given the right to select the outlets where they
can predict sales will take place. Area managers will look after distributors to supply with
high sales margin outlets with more capacity and less sales margin outlets with less capacity.

 Extra storage units (small warehouses) will be built to aid the supply for high sales margin
outlets while marketing activities should take place in other low margin outlets.

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 Area managers will be responsible to manage the information flow between
outlets↔distributors and distributors↔company.

 Whole supply chain will be linked via internet. Then tasks like order processing and financial
data transferring can be done very quickly. With all these the company ensures that the
product is offered to customers with satisfying 7 R’s.

 Right place- Product positioned where there’s demand in the supply chain.

 Right price-Price same in a close by outlet or a far away outlet.

 Right condition- Minimized damages of bottles.

 Right time – Products at the correct time when needed well before expiring.

 Right information – Correct information for about the product and the supplier for
consumer

 Right quantity- Enough quantity provided to cover the demand.

PROMOTIONAL PLAN

This new product Ole AAYURR is introduced in a period which the customers don’t
have an ability to taste a good quality herbal drink. So this product will be able to grab a good
market share of carbonated soft drink market. Actually this will be able to create a good
revolution in the CSD industry. The promotional plan will create an additional support to
success this product in the industry.

Usually Ole uses both Above the Line (ATL) and Bellow the Line (BTL) methods for
promotional activities. Under ATL TV, radio, press advertising methods are used and under

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BTL special sales promotions such as huge seasonal promotions are conducted. It is
convenience and effective to use ATL methods for the herbal drink at the beginning since it is
a new product.

Promotional Objectives

When consider about Ole products, different market segments are targeted by
different products.
o Ole Arshik for muslim people

o Ole Zingo & Apple for children

o Ole Plus for sports-person

But the Ole doesn’t have any products to satisfy every segment in the market. We
have a good confidence to introduce this new product “Ole AAYURR” to the Ole Company
for a wide range of segments, because this is an herbal drink which can be tasted by anyone.
So it is very important to develop a good promotional plan, which we can address all the
segments in the market.
When consider about consumers’ attitudes on bottled drinks, they are looking for an
easier method to satisfy their needs. And they like to spend more on the quality. And they all
like to taste different thing, which is healthier to the human body. So this Ole AAYURR is the
best thing that can satisfy customer needs. In the bottled drinks industry, there are a large
number of regular customers who like to have bottled drink in their day today life. They
always go for new products for just to taste. But this new taste will easily catch such
consumer’s make them loyal to the product with its unique features.

Herbal drink is not a new product to the market. Even though there are no high quality
products still there are some herbal drinks in the market. Consumers know about herbal
drinks even they hesitate to consume existing products in the market. So it is more suitable
and convenience to use the AIDA model for promotions of Ole AAYURR.

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 Applying the AIDA model for promotions of Ole AAYURR

Action

Desire

Interest

Attention

 In present context of the Sri Lankan herbal drink market, people don’t have a
good picture on the herbal drinks. According to the AIDA model, first the attention
will be paid on getting consumers attention to the product. For that a poster campaign
is conducted before launching the product. The campaign will be mainly done with
the use of billboards. Asterix cartoon characters are used in this campaign. These
characters are famous among almost all people in the society. Specially teenagers are
interested about them. So by using these characters it will be easy to drag customer’s
attention to the product and give a hint to them about the new product.

 Once the product is introduced the company will have some consumer promotions
to make consumers aware about benefits of the product. Under this consumers will be
offered with free drinks in some selected temporary outlets. With this customers get a
chance to taste the product freely. This campaign will be mainly conducted in main
cities other than Colombo and Kandy. As the product will be initially introduced to

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 these two areas this campaign will be used to make people in other areas know about
the product.

 Along with the sales promotion some newspaper advertisements and TV

advertisements will be put on to make consumer know about the product. These will
create an interest among customers to purchase the product. This campaign will be
mainly conducted during the introduction stage of the product. Special attention is
paid on advertising because as the product is offered to the mass market it will be
more effective to use advertising. Advertising campaign will be handled by an
external party.

 Ole usually has some special consumer promotions at some special events.

• Kandy Perahara

• Katharagama Perahara

• Thalawila Festival

• Siripada season

Some promotional campaigns will be conducted for Ole AAYURR too at these
events. Product is offered for sales at some temporary outlets so that people can by
them easily. Ole AAYURR highly focuses on having such a campaign at Adam’s
Peak area during siripada season.

 Once the product reaches the Growth stage a brand ambassador will be used
for advertising. A famous person among consumers of all age groups will be
appointed as the ambassador. This effort can help to increase the interest of people for
the product.

 With all these promotional efforts Ole AAYURR will have some mega
consumer promotions from time to time in accordance with variations takes place in
sales. There is a plan to conduct a mobile marketing campaign for this new product.

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 There is an increased interest of people in the society toward the usage of mobiles. So
it will be an effective way to grab customer attention for the product.

With the increased allocation of money by the company for

promotional activities more attention will be paid on conducting some effective
promotional campaigns. At present Ole experiences some disadvantages due to fewer
efforts put on promotions. This was highly experienced with the newest product Ole
Plus. Ole Plus failed to achieve expected sales due to unawareness of consumers
about the product. There fore very much attention is paid to ensure that the fourth P -
“Promotions” is not left out from the new product.

MARKETING EXPENSES BUDGET

2009 2010 2011

Sales forecast (In million cases) 0.6 1.5 2.3

Marketing expenses (in Millions) 2009 2010

2011

Production expenses 75 60 70

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 Distribution & logistics expenses 20 27.5 25

Promotional expanses

Advertising 40 20 35

Printed materials 35 10 5

Consumer promotions 30 40 45

Total sales and marketing expenses 200 157.5 180

EVALUATION AND MONITORING MECHANISMS

Performance of the new product will be monitored in terms of following aspects. These
evaluations will help to asses the degree of the performance of the product towards achieving
above stated objectives.

Annual plan control:

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 A sales and market share analysis will be conducted annually to evaluate the
performance of the product in terms of sales. This will provide a guild line to identify the
direction of sales so that necessary steps can be taken accordingly to improve sales. As
mentioned above sales targets are defined for the product for next three years. The main
objective of introducing this product is to expand Ole’s target market and increase the overall
market share so that the company can easily beat its customers and be the market leader. Ole
AYYURR has planned annual sales targets to achieve this objective. By conducting a sales
analysis it can be measured whether these targets are met. It can be examined whether than
planned results are being achieved through an annual plan control.

Profitability control:
Profitability level of the new product will be assed to examine the ability of
the product to make cash flows. The contribution of the product to company profits will be
assessed annually. Then it can be clearly identified how the product generate cash flows. This
analysis can help to make decisions about the product. As all the products offered by Ole are
in the same market it is easy to conduct a profitability analysis and identify the performance
of each and every product.

Efficiency control:
Under efficiency control mainly advertising and distribution effceincy will be
examined. As more advertising efforts will be put forward for this new product it is really
important to asses the efficiency of those advertising efforts. If planned targets can’t be
achieved through advertising campaigns it will be a waste of money. So an assessment will
be done to examine the efficiency of advertising campaigns annually. As the company hopes
to allocate more money for advertising for this new product it is really essential to have an
advertising efficiency control.

The performance of distribution channels are examined annually. As the

distribution process is basically done by external parties without an involvement of the

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company it is really important to have such an assessment to examine whether distributors are
working well towards achieving our tasks. Area managers will have a major responsibility in
this task.

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