Creative Brief Sonic Tag Line:
Communication Objectives
- To successfully penetrate the Northwestern and Mid-Northern States, specifically the states of Washington, Idaho, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, and Northern Idaho, which had been the focus of Sonic over the last five years.
- To stimulate the growth of thirty (30) new to-be-opened stores in the above-mentioned areas.
- To establish Sonic Drive-Ins as the preferred provider of hamburger and other Quick Serve Restaurant products in these markets.
Creative Strategy
For the purpose of achieving the goals and objectives of Sonic, the following creative strategy mixes will be employed as part of the communication and advertising focus of the company.
The overall message that must be communicated to the target audience is that Sonic is the best Drive-In Quick Serve restaurant in the Northwestern and Mid-Northern States, and across the United States; Sonic serves variety of unique meal product mixes and offerings. It is necessary to communicate this message through the extensive menu selection of Sonic in its stores. Properly listed and communicated product mixes can easily attract customers, either new or returning ones. The main technique that will be used to deliver this message will include humor and controversial issues to create awareness of Sonic's presence in the area. Television and radio advertisements will be used as vehicles for this message to be delivered to the target audience. Aside from these tools, new advanced tools of the Internet infrastructure will also be employed for this purpose.
The overall message that must be communicated to the target audience is that Sonic is the best Drive-In Quick Serve restaurant in the Northwestern and Mid-Northern States, and across the United States; Sonic serves variety of unique meal product mixes and offerings. It is necessary to communicate this message through the extensive menu selection of Sonic in its stores. Properly listed and communicated product mixes can easily attract customers, either new or returning ones. The main technique that will be used to deliver this message will include humor and controversial issues to create awareness of Sonic's presence in the area. Television and radio advertisements will be used as vehicles for this message to be delivered to the target audience. Aside from these tools, new advanced tools of the Internet infrastructure will also be employed for this purpose.
- Television and Radio Advertisements. Sonic's target audience is a very broad one; it transcends gender, age, nationality, economic status, and other demographics. Americans eat burger, in general terms. This is a common food of the Americans – and Sonic sells this product. As much as the target audience is the general public, it is necessary for Sonic to advertise through wider and broader media such as television and radio. In choosing networks to be advertised with, it should be that the television or radio network maintains vast subscription or following and it should target general public, rather than a specific demographic such as car enthusiasts or pilots.
To reach out to this target audience, which is described above, being friendly, upbeat and persuasive would do the purpose. This should reflect Sonic as a family restaurant; by keeping the advertisements friendly and wholesome, Sonic will be presented as the suitable drive-in restaurant to families. Nonetheless, as Sonic must fight directly with the competition in the market, being persuasive and upbeat is vital to the success of the advertising responses of the company.
- Social Media. With the advent of new communication pathways motivated by the Internet infrastructure, Sonic has to harvest the advantages of these advanced tools and pathways of communication.
More and more people are using these social media networks to communicate with each other. With this development, it is also necessary for Sonic to mark a presence in these networks. By creating social media network accounts, Sonic easily reaches out at its potential customers easier and quicker. This is an inevitable direction that Sonic has to take to avoid being left out by the fast-paced world of social media marketing.
- Event Marketing. To introduce Sonic to these new markets, the organization must be pro-active. If there are events such as conferences, seminars, fun run, or simple mall activities, Sonic can place booths that will offer the Sonic products at a discounted price or for free. This will introduce the Sonic product to new customers to gain returns from them. This should be done without hurting the company's financial.
Events generate people and Sonic targets this audience in a narrower way. This is an important part of Sonic's marketing mix because these events funnel or filter the specific local market audience of Sonic. As such, if Sonic can reach out to them, it is easier for the company or store to stand out among Quick Serve restaurants in the area.
Execution
Primarily, it is necessary for Sonic to choose a specific advertising agency that will carry out the organization's plans. This is part of the outsourcing activities of the organization to ensure that Sonic will get the best. The primary medium chosen to translate the communication objectives of the company is TV and radio, then social media. TV advertisements will be scattered across conventional TV networks such as CTV, Global and CBC. Advertisements will be placed in primetime slots where many people watch. On the other hand, with the aid of profile matching strategy, radio broadcasts are chosen. These broadcasts will reach to the target audience as described above. In the same manner, Sonic will also place insert ads in the broadsheet papers.
The creative communication mix of the company follows that the TV campaign will be pushed through first, then the radio broadcasts. At same time, Internet networks will also be established. This will be followed by the magazine and broadsheet insert ads, and the launch of billboards.
