All,
I wanted to give you a heads up that students from a journalism class will be asking for help from reference staff regarding an assignment on butter. Because this is an evening class, they may come in during evenings or weekends.
Course: JOUR4263: Strategic Communications Campaigns
Instructor: Gordon Leighton.
Assignment due: June 29th.
I've created a page with some instructions that hopefully will help them get started; however, they may not know about the page: http://courses.lib.umn.edu/page.phtml?page_id=2143.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions and please feel free to refer them to me.
Thanks. (Assignment listed below...)
Johan
Course: JOUR4263
Instructor: Gordon Leighton
Due: 6/29
Part 1, Project #3 -- Secondary Research
1. According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, the Bureau of Labor Consumer Expenditure Survey, MRI and other industry-related articles you have researched, perhaps from Business Source or Lexis/Nexis:
a. What are the trends in the usage of butter and margarine in the U.S.?
b. What region consumes the most of the product category that includes butter and margarine?
c. What age differences exist among consumers of these products?
d. What do you think the demographic profile of the target audience for butter should be and why?
e. Which marketing region would you most want to target with a margarine brand? Why? What states does the region include and how do the demographics compare to the region that consumes the most butter?
2. Outline three factors influencing changes in consumption of margarine (cite source).
3. Using the 2004 SRDS Lifestyle Market Analyst, and assuming the ideal target is female, single and 18-34 years old:
a. What 10 lifestyle activities do they participate in far more than the general population?
b. What is their median household income?
c. What other distinguishing activities or trends can you identify?
4. Using MRI/Mediamark (2002) figures about women:
a. Which age group purchased the most butter in the past 12 months?
b. What percentage of this age group purchased margarine?
c. What would you recommend as the demographic profile for your “butter target” if you used this source of information?
d. What would be your top three magazine recommendations for butter ads? Why?
5. If you were to assume that the ideal target is married and 18-34 years old, what five DMAs would you be most interested in and why?
6. Your agency just landed a dairy products account, including its butter brand, and you want to get up to speed on the category. Using the Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources, perhaps the Encyclopedia of Associations (print version), Associations Unlimited (online version) or SRDS:
a. What trade associations might particularly interest you to contact for information on the industry?
b. What industry magazines or newsletters might you consider using to advertise?
7. Using the Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands discuss how advertising contributed to the marketing and branding effort of one of the following brands: Parkay, Fleischmann’s, and Land O’Lakes. What other brands are readily available in the market? What do you know about them from other sources -- for example, what is their market share?