Communication
1. Celebrity endorsement
The communication strategy will be a major part of our marketing plan. If clearly structured, it will enable our product to be successful. The communication will allow us to get in touch with our client and make him a regular tequila drinker.
Our goal will be to change the kind of awareness tequila has in the customer’s mind. Today, most customers have aided awareness, if you talk to them about tequila and give a few examples of brands or bottles, they will recognize them and sometimes be able to name them. If our communication strategy is well established, the segment we aim to target should be able to achieve spontaneous awareness. Once we reach the phase of brand recall, it is extremely important to maintain this kind of awareness.
Tequila has a major upside regarding future consumption but in order to launch a sustainable product, we will have to completely change the perception consumers have of tequila. Indeed, the interviewed barmen confirmed that almost 100% of tequila orders were made to drink it as a shot, with salt and lime.
A major aspect in our communication campaign will be including the consumer in our decision making. Since we are targeting experimenters, who love to change consumption habits and renew their products, it will be important to clearly understand their needs and wants. The best way to do that is to directly ask them and let them indirectly participate in our brainstorming.
In order to make the buzz when launching our product, we concluded a deal with a celebrity. Lost Frequencies is a Belgian DJ and music producer, who burst onto the international DJing scene in 2015. His songs are world-famous and he has more than 500.000 fans on his social media pages. This move will help raise the brand awareness of Quieta as he will post videos from time to time on his social media pages. The exposure will raise our chances of success as people will associate our brand with a celebrity. Moreover, the audience the celebrity will reach will firstly be Belgian and thus enlarge our potential customer base and secondly, the artist is internationally recognised so it will help us in the future when we will attack other countries and their markets.
2. Online presence
As a start-up, launching large marketing campaigns is a farfetched idea. To gain brand awareness, using social media optimally is a very important as it is feasible at a low cost. For example, TV advertising is out of reach for our company. It is also essential to be present on many different social medias (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, …) because our targeted customers mostly have smartphones. Moreover, thanks to the deal reached with the celebrity, his fans will directly be able to click on our different websites.
When analysing other successful spirits brands, we found out that they had a very active behaviour on social networks. This strategy seems appealing to us because we want to look like a dynamic brand, that renews itself by listening to its customers.
Quieta has its very own website (http://www.quietatequila.be), in French, Dutch and English. Our recipe book will also be available in a special section, containing all our exclusive cocktails and a “how to” manual, explaining how real Mexicans drink this alcohol.
Website
Classic Networks
This section regroups networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Our consumers will be able to directly interact with the brand, by sending messages to our service for questions or suggestions, reacting to our posts (liking pictures, answering surveys, commenting their thoughts, etc.).
Besides the large networks approaching independent bloggers and offering them free samples is another way to promote our product. The blogging trend has been going on for a few years and it is a perfect was to make more customers loyal. Blog readers trust the authors and if our product pleases them, it is a great way to increase brand awareness.
Youtube
A video channel with videos explaining on how to easily create delicious and crazy cocktails will be updated weekly. Consumers will be able to give ideas in the comments section and the best ones will be kept in mind for future videos.
When conducting interviews in the different bars, we discovered that they were open to the idea of putting a certain product forward if its image corresponded with the bar. We realized this way a great way to sell the product as the bar’s customers are regulars. Therefore, they trust the barman and will listen to him if he advises them a specific drink.
After further contact, two bars agreed to promote our product as our tequila corresponds with the image they are trying to send out. We will sell the bottle at a reduced price at the beginning to make sure the product is bankable and clients are interested. The two bars that were interested were “Chez Franz” and “Bar 76”. An important advantage is that these barmen clearly explained that they believed that tequila was the “next big thing” on the premium spirits market. We can thus conclude that it is also in their best interest to start promoting the budding spirit.
3. Bar partnerships
4. Pop-up store
Taste room 1
Taste room 2
Bar
The idea would be to open a pop-up store like Hendricks did with the « Pharmacie Anglaise » in Brussels but with lower costs. The concept would be to offer different rooms to customers in order to educate them on how to drink tequila. Experimenters by definition love to try new products, but they like to do it correctly. If we offer tequila, they must know how to consume the delicious alcohol and the perfect way to do this is by teaching them the authentic way of doing things. In addition, one of the major difficulties with this segment is turning them into loyal consumers. The pop-up store is the perfect way of doing this: besides learning, they will want to come back to learn more about tequila in the other rooms of the store.
Our first pop-up store would include three rooms: a main bar and two closed “teaching” rooms with one common lesson (a quick history of tequila) and two individual lessons.
The first would be a room where the customer can enjoy pure tequila accompanied by natural and spiced juices. They would learn about the unique savours that different spices, fruits and vegetables can bring to tequila. The second room allows them to enjoy our tequila in different, more elaborated cocktails. Consumers receive a small booklet with the taught recipes.
The goal of the pop-up store would be to spend 30 minutes in each room before opening the main bar, where consumers can have another drink if they desire. The bar, that opens after the two courses, is open to the public. The experience we want to transmit to the consumer is a journey towards a new process of tequila consumption.
4. World Tequila Awards
We signed up for a worldwide tequila competition that will help raise our brand awareness in future years. This project is not for 2017 as we will we only sign up that year, however Quieta will be present on their website. In addition, the fact that we will be nominated for the competition will make our brand stand out next to others.
The competition is divided into two parts: the taste and the design. The taste awards are based on the spirits balance, character, complexity, quality and functionality. The design awards are assed on the breakthrough in category, confidence, craft skills, insight and inspiration.