Evian Water Marketing Communication Report

Introduction

Evian water is a French company and is one of the four brands of water that are owned by the DANONE family. Their brands, Mizone, DANONE Aqua, Bonafont, and Evian target various unique segments and markets. Evian water comes from the French Alps that is100 million years old. It started in 1789 with Count Jean-Charles de Laizer’s who discovered a water he considered “light, pleasant and easily drinkable” in Cachat’s garden (Evian, 2017). Today, Evian Water has become a favorite for celebrities that swear it is the best water worldwide. Evian’s Mission is supporting local communities by Reducing poverty, restoring wetlands and improving living standards. Their vision is to be a carbon free brand globally by 2020 and to become a circular brand by 2025 (DANONE, 2019). This report will analyse the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach used by Evian Water.

Marketing communication is a strategic process of a business that is employed in planning, developing, executing and evaluating measurable, persuasive and coordinated programs of brand communication over consumers, time consumers, internal audiences, external audiences, prospects as well as other targets (Scultz, 1998). Marketing communication entails a marketing communication and planning concept which recognizes a comprehensive program’s added value, a plan which evaluates strategic roles of various communication disciplines such as direct responses, general advertisement, public relations, and sales promotion. The plan also combines such disciplines to offer consistency, maximize the impact of communication and provide clarity (Caywood et al., 1991). The marketing communication and planning concept evaluates and combines the strategic roles of various disciplines of communication to get more significant impact, consistency, and clarity about a product being offered in the market (Schultz, 1993).

SOSTAC is a planning approach developed initially in the 90s to aid in marketing (Zook and Smith, 2016). SOSTAC is an abbreviation for situation, objective, strategy, tactics, actions, and control (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998). Concerning Evian Water SITUATION ANALYSIS, particularly where they are now, they are in the top ten best bottled water worldwide. In fact, it has been ranked at the top of the list regarding water with natural minerals from spring water. The company’s SET OBJECTIVES are very clear concerning where they want to go as demonstrated by their mission and vision statements. Their mission says that they intend to support local communities by reducing poverty, restoring wetlands and improving living standards. Their vision on the other hand is to be a carbon free brand globally by 2020 and to become circular brand by 2025 (Danone, 2019).

Evian Water’s STRATEGY on how to reach their target has been through market Segmentation where they have often targeted young people with advertisements such as the LIVEYOUNG strategy. Through differentiation, they have developed unique bottles shapes and sizes that target different consumers in the market such as the working class and celebrities. Their TACTICAL PLAN which has helped them to implement their strategy is by adopting and using modern Communication tools such as through Facebook and Twitter, online entertainment through videos and conducting TV shows as well as outdoor marketing strategies (Evian, 2017).

With regard to their ACTION PLAN WHEN, WHO, WHAT? They have focused more capital in digital marketing, about 80% of their marketing budget. This is so because they believe their customers are the contemporary young people who spends most of their time online. Their main performance indicator has been the market share of bottled water. In terms of CONTROL, they have often kept track of their progress by measuring their performance against competitors. Their performance is of course in line with their objectives. For instance, the results of the economics on the company’s campaign were on the rise concerning market share and sales as follows: The UK showed 13% market share increased while France had 7% increased sales. Canada on the other hand demonstrated a 7% market share increased (Water 4 Life, 2019)

Evian water uses the above the line marketing of ATL by employing a mass marketing approach that is untargeted but concentrates on building their brand. An example is their use of TV shows to advertise their products. Through ATL, they have been able to reach international, national and local audiences. The company has also been seen to conduct outdoor advertising as a strategy in their below-the-line advertising which is very specific, direct and memorable that targets specific consumers.

Their approach in through-the-marketing has often involved both below-the-line advertising and ALT. For instance, they have often conducted a 360-degree campaign through digital marketing such as on Facebook and Twitter (Arora, 2018).

First the company conducts an analysis of the marketing approach used by its competitors such as FIJI. They then identifies the best primary channels for person, organization or brand messaging they can employ. Further, Evian water identifies their main adaptive messaging and strategy statement. The company then develops cross-channel strategies and measurable objectives including advertising, online and traditional media. They then conduct social media and content marketing using brand specific strategies (Ahmad and Salleh, 2019).4

Besides the use of SOSTAC, the company has borrowed some of their best marketing communication techniques from models like the DRIP model for marketing communication. They have thus been able to differentiate themselves from others by developing unique attractive bottles of different shapes and sizes.

They have also targeted the youth using their live young strategy. Thanks to such a model, they have reinforced their brand message by using attractive images of youthfulness and babies that customers can remember easily. Furthermore, they keep their customers informed about their brand through social conversations on blogs and tweeter. Evian also started to persuade their customers through online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook where they launched a campaign to demonstrate to their customers about their products (Pavenkov and Rubtcova, 2019)

The company developed digital marketing where an entertainment program was online and clients could watch viral movies. They also came up with a Making Of, a Premiere and YouTube interviews with the babies on Evian LiveYoung website and on blogs (Water 4 Life, 2019). The company also enhanced public relations to stimulate the general interest on the brand and to activate the global media about the brand. Evian water marketing team also came up with events to engage all consumers locally such as US Masters and Berlin Fashion Week. Moreover, the water company established TV and Cinema shows, Print too complete the campaign message and The Live Young Training online platform to engage customers with their brand (DANONE, 2019)

According to Chen (2017), the company spends about 80% of its budget on digital marketing. They do so as they believe that through digital marketing they will be able to reach as many customers as possible. As part of their marketing strategy, the company also plans to join the war against the generation of plastic waste. In fact, they plan to fully join the circular economy by 2025, where they will only be using renewable, certified bottles for their products (Chen, 2017).

References

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