164 CHAPTER 5 OBJECTIVESindications such as ‘more or less like that woman over there’ or ‘about a handful’. The consequence is that 90% of
women who receive a lingerie set as a present (mostly in December or on Valentine’s Day) take it back to the shop
because it does not fit. A female student of the ‘Piet Zwart Institute for Retail and Interior Design’ in Rotterdam
developed a new retail concept that aims at facilitating the buying process for men. In the middle of the shop a ‘breast
wall’ is installed. On this wall, breasts of different sizes and shapes are modelled in gel, and men can ‘experience’
which size is closest to the one they need. Furthermore, most men do not feel comfortable in lingerie shops and find
it difficult to make their way around. Therefore, the shop is more or less conceived as a do-it-yourself store. There
are separate aisles per cup size, and the size is clearly illustrated by means of pictures in each aisle. ‘Men know
everything about HP’s of cars, but have a selective memory about the anatomy of their wives and girlfriends’, the
designer says. ‘We should assist them as much as we can.’ In the meantime, the new concept has raised the interest
of lingerie retailers and manufacturers all over the world.^14Purchase
Sales are, of course, the main marketing objective. However, in most circumstances it is diffi cult
to use sales goals as a primary communications objective. Nevertheless, there are situations
in which, due to the action-oriented context of communications tools, sales could be a good
objective. For instance, the main objective of most sales promotions like couponing, price
cuts and premiums is the short-term eff ect on sales. Some direct marketing tools such as
direct response advertising may be evaluated by generated sales. Indeed, in these situations
direct sales are the main goal.In early 2007, Vicks had little presence in the big, growing respiratory category (cough, cold and flu) and a dwindling
presence in decongestants. The brand was suffering from terminally declining relevance and sales while employing
different communications ideas for each product initiative. Resurrecting this brand would require the simultaneous
launch of new products to fill gaps in the Vicks portfolio where it would face strong market leaders. And this in a
challenging health-care environment where people exhibit high loyalty (three times the fast-moving consumer
goods average) and have a low buying frequency of the category of 1.2 times a year. The new products had to achieve
immediate payback on the investment but also be united under a single idea to create a brand that stretched across
the range. By early 2008, Vicks was a coherent brand with products in both respiratory and decongestant sectors
and sales growth in the UK/Ireland of 31% (versus an objective of 25%), value share improvement by 7% in Austria
and 19% in the Netherlands. Vicks’ use of media was highly efficient. In each of the countries, gross rating points
fell – by 3% in the UK/Ireland, 20% in Austria and 13% in the Netherlands – while value share growth was still
achieved. This efficient and effective scenario was achieved with a new communications model that was targeted
towards 21% of the population who have a high desire to soldier on when they have a cold. Most are women aged
25–45 with young children and an active lifestyle. The following media were deemed the most crucial for success of
the campaign: TV to promote the new brand point of view and to introduce hero products; the Web to add visibility,
information and reassurance; and in-store to encourage cross-range sales. The single brand idea, ‘At Vicks we focus
on solutions not problems; we are for people not symptoms’, was employed for all advertised products. This idea
drove sales of advertised products and also drove sales of the entire Vicks range.^15BUSINESS INSIGHT
Reviving the sales of VicksM05_PELS3221_05_SE_C05.indd 164M05_PELS3221_05_SE_C05.indd 164 6/5/13 3:01 PM6/5/13 3:01 PM