Creative Brief: Max A. Sass and Sons Date:
November 6, 2017
Project Contacts: Monica, Derek, Michelle
Project Name/Description: Max A. Sass & Sons: Pre-Arrangements – Death doesn’t have to be scary. This campaign aims to bring a more comedic light to funeral planning, as well as encourage a younger audience to use pre-arrangement services from Max A. Sass. This allows people to choose their own arrangements, making their funeral just how they want it. This means the client will know their life will be honored to their exact wishes and needs. Product / Client Description and Overview Max A. Sass and Sons prides itself in their dedication to client needs and wishes for their funeral service. They create the best experience they can for individuals and their loved ones, through their immaculate facilities and services. This campaign will bring Max A. Sass to middle-aged audiences, to promote their pre-arrangement services. This will be done by lightening up the idea of funeral planning with a witty and comedic campaign. Primary Target Audience Demographic: Age 35-50, parents, men and women, household income $75,000-$140,000, college education Psychographic: These people have corporate-type jobs or are high up in their field, go to the doctor often, health-conscious, take care of themselves, college funds in place for their children, financially responsible, family oriented, enjoy taking family vacations and the holiday season, occasionally engage in philanthropic causes by donating time or funds Features / Benefits Feature: Choose own arrangements Benefit: Plans will go by their wishes Feature: Pre-paying and planning Benefit: Family does not have to worry about finances The Key Message/Unique Selling Proposition: Max A. Sass and Sons pre-planning services ensure that your family does not have to worry before or after your death, both financially and emotionally. Tone: Light, comedic, witty Understanding: Death doesn’t have to be a burden on your family, sad or scary. Pre-planning gives comfort to yourself and your family and alleviates any future stress before it happens. Motivation: The reminders that death can be unexpected will motivate consumers to look into and possibly participate in Max A. Sass’ pre-arrangement services. The unique gravestones will shock the consumer, and make them curious to find out more. From there, they will now think about if their life will be honored how they expect and want – and if not, turn to Max A. Sass to gain that confidence.
SWOT Analysis Strengths - Unique service (pre-arranging) not offered that much around Milwaukee - Employees are experts, not just ordinary directors - Periodic promotions and sales, seminar dinner events to promote and inform about company - Variety of choices catered to customer needs and budgets - Part of prestigious “Veterans & Family Memorial Care Network” o Highest level of business ethics and integrity, earned trust and respect of community - Nearly 100 percent of customers confirm quality services for a moderate price - Full service company instead of one specific part of a funeral - One of only companies that heavily promotes pre-arrangement/planning - Website is a lot more informative about actual services than competition, lists prices Weaknesses - Not many people know or think of pre-arranging their funerals - Not much brand awareness - Social media presence could be a lot stronger and utilized better o Facebook: re-posts graphics, old photo, etc. Could be used to promote events, offers, etc. and use boosting to reach audiences - No other social media profiles – could benefit from Twitter - Does not rank on relevant Google searches - Starting rates may be too expensive for people - Not a lot of marketing efforts done - Name does not tell what it is without the sub-headline (“Max A Sass & Sons” sounds like it could be a construction, cleaning, etc. company - Logo and brand image could be improved and made more cohesive (website looks messy) Opportunities - Complete re-brand: new logo, website, re-do Facebook page - Start digital marketing campaigns and/or commercials and advertisements - Promote more of the actual company and its services on social media - Increase brand awareness through more marketing efforts - Partner with Veterans & Family Memorial Care Network to increase brand awareness - Volunteer/be a vendor at relevant events or create more of their own Threats - Tons of other funeral services in Milwaukee, most offer some degree of pre-planning as well - Website has lots of good information but isn’t executed well - Other companies have a better social media presence - Name doesn’t tell what kind of service it is - Other companies’ packages start at lower prices
Media Plan Budget: $100,000 Location: Milwaukee Area Guerilla Art Installation – 15 gravestones around high-traffic spots in Milwaukee - Cost per gravestone: $250 x 15 = $3,750 - Hourly rate for artist: $150 x 120 hours (8 hours each) = $12,000 - Installation, permits, etc costs: $10,000 - Total cost: $25,750 Print Advertisements - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Total: $29,100) o Triple power (12x in 4 weeks), level D at $9,700: $9,700 x 3 = $29,100 - Milwaukee Business Journal (Total: $31,030) o List strip in “book of lists” magazine: $650 o Full page ad, 3 issues: $7,000 x 3 = $21,000 o Afternoon email, bottom ad, monthly sponsorship: $2,000 x 3 = $6,000 o Bottom website ad, 30 days: $3,380 (only run in December) - M Magazine (Total: $6,180) o Full page ad, 3 issues: $3,654 o ¼ page ad, 3 issues: $1,026 o Monthly website banner ad: $500 x 3 = $1,500 - Total spent on print/online advertisements: $66,310 Social Media - Facebook boosted posts o $500 per post, 6 posts: $3,000 - Twitter promoted tweets o Budget for 3 months: $2,000 - Google AdWords (sponsored) o $100 per day for 30 days: $3,000 - Total spent on social media: $8,000
Rationale on next page Rationale
Guerilla Art Installation: This installation will catch passerby’s eyes because of its unusual nature. Then, the writing on the stone will lead them to get the idea of early arrangement planning into their head. Also because of its unusual-ness, the viewer will then research the company behind the installations. This will raise awareness for Max A. Sass and Sons and increase website traffic, and people booking consultations. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: This is Milwaukee’s most popular newspaper. With daily issues and a substantially sized Sunday issue, every business should be advertising in it in some way. By Max A. Sass and Sons creating an eye-catching ad to be printed on a periodic basis for 4 weeks, it will create brand recognition and increase website traffic. The sentinel is also a good decision because it reaches a broader and larger audience than niche publications (which have their own advantages). Milwaukee Business Journal: This is a very professional, niche publication with the perfect target audience for Max A. Sass and Sons. Their readers are 70% male, have an average income of $258,000, 65% own or are in a top managerial position in a business, and the average age is 57. This is the ideal age for pre-arranging services. Since Max A. Sass has an upscale, high quality history, the other statistics for this publication align perfectly with the campaign. By advertising both in print, their website and their newsletters, Max A. Sass will become a familiar name among readers and they will either immediately look into our services, or keep our business in mind. By placing ads in a highly-regarded journal, it concurrently raises Max A. Sass’ brand image. M Magazine: M Magazine allows Max A. Sass to reach a little younger and more modern audience, but still keeps other demographics in mind. Readers of M Magazine have an average income of $171,000, 85.4% own a home, and 71.8% graduated college. This causes us to reach higher educated, well-off professionals. The average reader age is 50 years old, so this lets us hit a younger audience. This will instill the idea of funeral arrangements in their mind and get them thinking about our services, sooner rather than later. Social Media: For this campaign, the primary medium is Facebook due to its older audience and ability to precisely target audiences. We have selected people in the Milwaukee area, aged 35-50, who attended college and like pages such as: Forbes, Milwaukee Business Journal, etc. Spending $500 per post allows us to increase reach by over 60%. Twitter promoted tweets give us another way to reach a little younger of an audience. With a captivating ad in less than 140 characters, the reader will become curious of our services and click the button leading to our website. With a $2,000 budget, we can spread out the money throughout the 3 months of the campaign and put more money towards certain times of the year, such as the beginning of the new year, when people are thinking about what changes they can make in their lives. Google AdWords will place us at the top of the search page for ‘funeral services in Milwaukee’ for 30 days, right when the new year begins.
ROI REPORT Guerilla Art Installation: Create curiosity and raise brand awareness - By placing gravestones in popular areas around Milwaukee, this creates an unusual sight for passerby’s. They will come closer to see what it’s all about, and that will instill the idea of funeral pre-arranging in their minds. Such a unique installation will also make Max A. Sass a memorable name for them. By partnering with local artist, Ray Chi, we also rope in their already-earned audience to be interested in what he’s working on currently. This also shows the public that Max A. Sass values local businesses and entrepreneurs. Print/Online Advertisements -
The selected publications (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee Business Journal and M Magazine) allows Max A. Sass to reach a large variety of readers. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel averages a 160,251 circulation, Milwaukee Business Journal reaches 11,334 and M Magazine 37,998.
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Although Milwaukee Business Journal’s circulation is the smallest, it is the most targeted audience of all. 70 percent of readers are male, the average income is 258k and the average age is 57. This lets Max A. Sass reach the ideal audience for promoting pre-arrangement services. 61% of their newsletter subscribers share with others, increasing brand awareness significantly. By advertising in the newsletter for three months, readers will be aware and recognize Max A. Sass out of home.
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M Magazine reaches 37,998 readers per month and issues also land in more than 1,000 medical waiting rooms, professional lobbies, health clubs and spas. This allows Max A. Sass to reach an upper-class audience with specific interests that align with the creative brief. The audience is also a little younger at 50 years old, so that hits the younger end of the spectrum.
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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is the broadest of our advertisement selections – but for a reason. This publication reaches the most people in Milwaukee on a daily basis and has one of the most popular Sunday issues. Their average circulation is 160,251 readers, which is nearly a quarter of Milwaukee’s total population. By advertising 12 times a month for 3 months, Max A. Sass can hit a variety of readers and form brand recognition.
Social Media - Investing into boosted Facebook posts that drive traffic to Max A. Sass’ website is one of the wisest uses of our budget. Facebook’s average user is 41 years old and 65 percent are 35 and older. Combining that with the ability to target specific audiences by what pages they like, occupation and more, will significantly increase page and website traffic as well as raise brand awareness. By purchasing a sponsored spot on Google search pages ($100/day), Max A. Sass instantly gets more brand awareness – since they previously used to not rank on the first page at all. Twitter promotions reach the younger spectrum as well as draw users in due to curiosity and interest in the advertisement. A $2,000 investment into Twitter promotions will have a significant impact on page and website traffic.