Group project for a class in which we worked with JWT Advertising-Team Detroit to develop a marketing strategy for Warrior Lacrosse, a division of New Balance.
-We feel that Warrior’s products are unique for the fact that they really stand out. They have all these cool graphics, designs, and color. And our research showed that lacrosse people are definitely some of the most colorful people. We want to better align these similarities in our marketing campaign. -We’re going to run it for one year and see if it meets your objectives. We think that this is an allowable time to see whether the campaign will be successful. -Through our several focus groups and our one-on-one interviews, we found that lacrosse players are starting to see Warrior as mainstream. We want to have high sales without seeming maintstream. -We feel like we can do this by proving to our consumers that Warrior understands you. Warrior understand you because Warrior understands lacrosse. And you are all about lacrosse.
-Because 44% of all players are under the age of 14, we really want to focus on this age segment (13 year olds). If we can hook the young guys into the Warrior brand we are hoping that it will build brand loyalty in the sense that they would only ever purchase sticks and pads from Warrior…never another brand. While we understand that players definitely do not wear all of one brand because that would seem tacky, we want to make certain that Warrior is the dominant brand.
-This may seem like common sense, after all it is true for everyone in a sense. But lax players I feel have so many different interests and they are all entirely different from one another. Football tends to attract a certain type of guy, track tends to attract a certain type of guy, but with lacrosse it is truly everyone. From our research we saw the surfer types, the class clowns, the punks, the preps, the future valedictorian, the womanizer, every single type of guy you can think of. They were all completely different people but were all bound by lacrosse. -Our research also demonstrated that many of the players played many sports, in particular soccer, other than lacrosse. But due to the nature of the game, lacrosse is their number one priority and their favorite sport, which means that they will be willing to spend the most money in this product category. -I graduated high school in 2006 and it’s only 2009, and the entire style of language has completely changed over the course of the three years. Terms for people they don’t like are “slaughter house one” and or “she’s a trumpet.” we want to incorporate the newer lingo into the ads to really relate to the players. -This is great for us because this means that if we can get the younger kids to know that Warrior is the chill brand they will be hooked.
Don’t want to be perceived as: pretentious, exclusive, mainstream From our research (focus groups and surveys) we discovered Warrior is now seen as the sort of “mainstream” brand of lacrosse gear in the players’ minds …they’ve lost that fresh, [cool, hip, bad ass] image that was associated with them when they came out in the late 90’s Players are concerned about quality above all else right now (especially the seasoned players), but they still want to be able to express who they are when seen with their gear We want to kind of reposition Warrior as the “[hip, now/current, chill , tight]” brand We want the Warrior brand to represent this community of quirky lacrosse players….(the guys that aren’t necessarily the most popular, but not nerds by any means) –they’re the guys that don’t care if they’re known as popular but still have a certain likeability about them
Our perceptual map is based on the value attribute of price and the taste attribute of flashy versus classic. For price, every brand offers a variety of expensive to affordable gear(high end to low end), to cater to the consumers’ preferences/skill level- in other words, beginning lax players might not want to pay $170 for a pair of new Mac Daddy II’s but instead have the option of paying just $40 for a pair of Hypnos’ that have been out for a couple yrs. Overall though, Warrior and STX tend to have the highest range of prices for the majority of their product categories- The addition of Nike to the STX line would potentially increase the price of the offered product assuming Nike plans to go after the seasoned lacrosse player seeking “professional grade” gear. For style, Warrior has always been seen as the “flashy’” brand not only for the way their products look, but also the names associated with them (Snatch, Brass Monkey, Shocker). As for the perceptual map, we definitely want to keep Warrior where it is. It’s cool, it’s flashy, it’s high quality. Now we’re going to relate that more to the consumer to accomplish our marketing objectives.
Emphasize frequency over reach, increase brand knowledge by 20%, increase brand attitude by 40%, increasing the positive attitude towards Warrior is good for keeping out brands that are not as specialized current lacrosse brands -Change brand attitude and shift perception. Changing attitude by showing that Warrior can enhance your unique personality both on and off the field. Shifting brand perception by realigning Warrior’s marketing campaign and reinvigorating previous enthusiasm for the brand. -We want to increase WN membership by 20%
-Our target consumer is 13 year old Ricky Varnes from Canton, OH. -He’s got your typical shaggy hair laid back surfer persona and he’s a real jokester in class. -He’s never actually played lacrosse on a team because his school doesn’t offer the sport until you reach the 8 th grade level -However, he has developed a real passion for the game, and that’s because he hears about how no other sport can match the flow of the game from his older brother Marcus, who’s captain of the varsity lacrosse team. -Ricky doesn’t like to rock a particular name brand, but you can find him checking out the gear at PacSun, Dicks, and Journeys. -In his free time Ricky enjoys texting it up with his friends on his cell, watching YouTube videos of his favorite lax players and comedians, and of course training for lacrosse with Marcus in his backyard.
The consumers that Warrior targets live for lacrosse. However, lacrosse is not the only aspect that defines these individuals. This was a major insight that we took from our focus groups. It was very clear that the boys all shared the passion of lacrosse throughout, but each player had other roles on the team and unique personalities. We feel this is where Warrior can emphasize their unique appeal as a brand to these unique individuals. Another important aspect in communicating to these young boys is using their lingo because to speak to them you have to speak teenage boy. We wanted to capture in our positioning statement that lacrosse is not the only aspect that defines these individuals. It was very clear that the boys all shared the passion of lacrosse throughout, but each player had other roles on the team and unique personalities. We feel this is where Warrior can emphasize their unique appeal as a brand to these unique individuals. Another important aspect to these young boys is using their lingo because to truly speak to them Warrior must be able to speak like a teenage boy.
This USP was born from the idea that these boys live for lacrosse, and its all lacrosse or nothing for them. However, they demonstrated other unique aspects of their personalities, and like to be seen as individuals on and off the field. This is where we got the big idea for our campaign. Each player is ultimately a lacrosse player, or stick-head, but there are other components that make up their personality. These unique personalities show that not one type of person plays lacrosse, rather many types of people play lacrosse, and the aspect of lacrosse or bust unites these individuals.
We decided to focus mainly on print and interactive medias because this is the best way to meet our niche market. Print ads are a good way to meet many players because many teammates and friends share their lacrosse magazines. A print ad can be powerful for young males if it sends the right message. We will also be featuring the actual players and teams that participate on WN in the print ads. This will build a sense of enthusiasm because the guys see themselves or their friends featured in professional magazines. As far as interactive media, we would like to do heavy internet advertising and promotions because the target consumer lives in the virtual world of the internet. Also, we want to involve the consumer in the marketing process by having contests for players to send in new designs for the sticks or other equipment. These contests can be entered online or by text. The text message campaign will enable Warrior to have contact with its customers by sending out new equipment updates, special promotions, and contests. These activities will really increase interaction with the brand in a new, personal, and exciting way.
Our point is really to drive everyone to the website to check out the products and get interested in and actually purchase the products.
Drive drive drive to the website!
Of the four quadrant Product Category grid, our products (Lacrosse Equipment) fall in the High Involvement & Emotional Appeal corner. Sports equipment is something that is used for a long time and people are very involved in these expensive, long lasting purchases. Potential consumers should identify with our ads in a personal way. The ads must be genuine, fun, and informative all at the same time. We will use some humor, fun language, cool images and bright colors to call attention to our Warrior ads.
To kick off our Creative, we’ll start with our full-spread print ad. The equipment is showcased, the red and yellow colors are repeated, and the imagery and language are fun and trendy. The copy encourages readers to visit WarriorNation.com. It talks about our contests and new campaign. It plays into the personal relationship that users have with their gear. Tyler: Reading copy from the ads.
This is a similar ad to our spread, but covers only one page. WarriorNation.com is prominently suggested. Same red image for consistency. Equipment is the first read. Logo block is in the same place for easy recognition
This ad discusses our graphics and name contests that will be offered at WarriorNation.com.
Text messaging aspect of our IMC flow is suggested here.
This image is a visual representation of that text messaging feature that we’ve discussed.
This banner could be shown on Google sites where people have searched for “lacrosse” or related topics. It could also be shown on lacrosse related websites.
This is going to be a great way to get ideas for advertisements from the actual consumer. Adding this component to the website will actually give JWT an advertising campaign. The ideas will be fresh, always changing, and very real because they are coming right from YOUR target market.
The video is really meant to capture the essence of these stick-heads. This will be shown on the WN website and also before various lacrosse videos, like on YouTube.
Out of all our advertising mediums, the effectiveness of print advertising is the most difficult to measure. We will factor in the number of publications in circulation to determine the reach and frequency. Depending on how the we interprets these numbers makes a big difference in the measured results. We plan to use text messaging as one of our primary sources of customer interaction. Text messaging provides a powerful tool for us as tracking information about the user is logged with each message sent. Web banner ads have been around for some time now. Banner ads are relatively cheap per view, but the number of click-throughs to Warriornation.com will be most important to achieve our communication objectives. The stickhead profile on Warriornation.com will be a vital tool for us to track each consumer individually, record their interests, habits and opinions. This information will be crucial for us to continue to stay as fresh as possible and never lose that competitive edge. Online videos are an excellent way to hook the casual web surfer. Once interested the user will click through to Warriornation.com. Again, just like all internet media vehicles, there is a wealth of information to be discovered by tracking individual web-surfing habits.
-We are going to use our Lacrosse or Bust campaign to revitalize the Warrior brand and re-build enthusiasm. This will make the brand appear to be less mainstream and really emphasize the individualism factor. By significantly increasing the target consumers interaction with the brand will bring a new dimension to the Warrior brand. Instead of being a brand they purchase lacrosse equipment from, it will be a lifestyle. They’ll want to spend as much time as possible on the website, chatting with fellow lax-heads. -Because we’re integrating the individual components of the players into the website you can source campaign ideas right from the players themselves. Because the players will be posting their own videos, it will always keep the website interesting and it will not have to updated as often, proving to be less work for you. -We are taking the same ideas that you have been doing and slightly tweaking it and giving it a fresh new spin. This means it’s not going to be a whole lot of work for you.
-We are going to use our Lacrosse or Bust campaign to revitalize the Warrior brand and re-build enthusiasm. This will make the brand appear to be less mainstream and really emphasize the individualism factor. By significantly increasing the target consumers interaction with the brand will bring a new dimension to the Warrior brand. Instead of being a brand they purchase lacrosse equipment from, it will be a lifestyle. They’ll want to spend as much time as possible on the website, chatting with fellow lax-heads. -Because we’re integrating the individual components of the players into the website you can source campaign ideas right from the players themselves. Because the players will be posting their own videos, it will always keep the website interesting and it will not have to updated as often, proving to be less work for you. -We are taking the same ideas that you have been doing and slightly tweaking it and giving it a fresh new spin. This means it’s not going to be a whole lot of work for you.
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