Dandies’ Marshmallows

Client: Dandies Marshmallows

Objective:

The objective of the advertisement is to increase awareness by 10% for Dandies’ Marshmallows. To increase awareness of Dandies to the Muslim and Jewish target market by 15% by informing that the product is halal and kosher friendly.

Benefits of the product/organization :

Unlike the generic and major brand marshmallows, Dandies marshmallows are vegan and therefore do not contain beef based gelatin as an ingredient. Dandies provides a organic and dietary compatible product. This brand prides itself on only containing natural ingredients..

Target Audience

The target audience is Muslim and Jewish women ages 30-55 living in the areas of Long Island, New York, New Jersey, Houston, Dallas, Illinois, and California. This target market is mostly married and may have children. These women are middle to upper class and highly educated with college experience. Jewish and Muslim consumers are affluent and have high buying power. This consumer market is known to purchase high-end or premium products. This consumer group tends to place high value on travel.

Muslim and Jewish women are quite conservative because of their religious views therefore the advertising message needs to correlate with their values. Because of religious beliefs, dietary issues are important to these consumers. Food purchases for this target market are high-involvement purchases.These consumers look for product-based information when making a purchasing decisions.

Competitor Analysis

Generic – Marsh, Meijer Brand

Large supermarkets have their own generic marshmallow brands. With a loyal consumer base and cheap prices, these generic brand marshmallows have made its way into the minds and hearts of consumers. After a taste test, most consumers could not tell the difference between generic and major brand marshmallows in terms of taste and texture. A weakness of the generic brand is that it may have a perception of being a lower quality product.

Jet Puff

Jet-Puffed is a marshmallow brand from food giant Kraft. This marshmallow brand has a high level of top-of-mind awareness. With a powerhouse of a parent company, this brand has ease with marketing and distributing to consumers. The weakness of the major brand marshmallow is that it is perceived to be unhealthy with its animal products.

Sweet and Sara

Sweet and Sara is a vegan marshmallow and snack company located in Long Island, New York. This company shares the same unique selling point as Dandies and that is a delicious and healthy vegan snack. Sweet and Sara is smaller than competitors but with a distributor such as Whole Foods selling their product  it is just a matter of time before they capture a large market share. One weakness of Sweet and Sara would be a lacking national attention and awareness for their products.

Brand Personality:

The brand personality of Dandies is hip, modern and natural. This vegan marshmallow brand is health conscious and environmentally friendly.

Brand Positioning

Dandies marshmallows positions itself as a premium and health conscious food brand.

Brand Perception:

The brand has several mixed online reviews ranging from consumers loving and placing their loyalty within the brand to customers who are displeased with the the flavor and texture. With the high cost and vegan attitude some consumers feel as though as Dandies and similar products are a little snobbish.

Tone :

The tone needs to be fun and upbeat to go along with the brand image. It also needs to be somewhat straightforward and serious in terms of informing the audience. The ad will have a goofy comparative tone.

Message:

The essential message of the ad is to inform the audience that vegan is halal and kosher friendly and to inform audience members about the availability of Dandies Marshmallows. The message is going to showcase the difference between generic and vegan marshmallows by highlighting the fact that generic has animal-product based gelatin ingredients. The purpose is to create a disgusting image for the generic brand and to make Dandies seem like the only real choice for one’s marshmallow needs.