Irit Mazor, vice-president of business development for Orangina, says this year''s promotion budget is 40% higher than in 2005.
"To strengthen the presence of the brand on the domestic market, the budget earmarked for this year is 40% bigger. We''ve earmarked 2.8 million dollars to set the brand apart from other soft drink brands," says Irit Mazor, who is responsible for Orangina''s business development in Romania.
Investments in brand promotion have so far totalled 1.7 million dollars in net value. Having entered the market in June 2005, Orangina has attained 84% awareness among consumers, according to the data released by Carlsrom Beverages, the holder of the bottling licence for the Romanian market of Orangina soft drinks.
"In marketing, earmarking a promotion budget for a brand is not enough, you need to carry on with investments, because otherwise consumers will forget you," Mazor adds.
After having worked for more than 16 years with Coca-Cola in Israel, Irit Mazor has come to Romania to help the development of Orangina brand. "One year before the launch, we carried out some research in order to understand the market, the culture and the needs of consumers. While two years ago consumers did not look at the label to seek out the ingredients of a product, now the situation has changed," she explains.
Irit Mazor says that a new segment of the soft drinks market has been opened because of Orangina, and one of the instruments the promotion campaign was based upon was sampling.
"Sampling is an important promotion tool marketing people are forgetting about. Besides, it is not very expensive compared with other campaigns and ensures a high degree of awareness among consumers," Mazor believes.
In her opinion, companies'' marketing departments are creating consumers'' needs on the markets they operate in. "After all, in order to create consumers'' needs, you need a highly elaborate marketing project," she argues. "We created a campaign in which we approached different segments of the market. I believe we had over 100,000 people trying our product at the end of this campaign. We went to the universities of Cluj, Bucharest, Iasi and Timisoara, where we had more than 35,000 ''customers''," says Mazor. She believes that one of the main objectives of a promotion campaign is to achieve awareness, and this goal can be attained through both simpler, yet effective methods, as well through major campaigns.
"Since we entered the market, communication activities have focused both on a direct, as well as indirect contact with consumers. We''ve embraced a strategy that should fit the profile of the Romanian consumer," adds Mazor. Carlsrom Beverages, which holds the Orangina bottling licence on the Romanian market, has sold over six million bottles less than a year since the time of launch.
Orangina Romania
* Orangina is an international brand of the Cadbury group, world''s third biggest producer of soft drinks
* Since the moment it entered the Romanian market, June 2005, investments in production facilities and distribution amount to $12m (9.2m euros)
* Has earmarked a 40% increase in spending budget for this year to strengthen the presence of the brand on the Romanian market
* Investments in promotion, worth $1.7m thus far
dana.ciriperu@zf.ro
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