Question

Case Study
Cold Stone Creamery is a relatively new ice cream company that faces stiff competition in the marketplace from such established brands as Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs. The first store was established in Saffron Walden, Essex in 2001. Since then the company has expanded to more than 20 stores (franchises) nationwide. Its market niche is that customers can personalise their serving by choosing a base flavour and then mixing it with a number of toppings. Employees do the mixing by hand on a frozen granite stone (hence the company name).
The challenge of course is to generate more store revenue and to increase market share. Research shows that the typical Cold Stone Creamery customer is a woman between the ages of 25 and 35, but that she also brings her friends and other family members with her.
The company has decided to do an integrated communications programme for the next year that would involve Public Relations, advertising and in-store marketing promotions for new products.
Question 1
What activities would you suggest in drawing up a creative PR campaign? Suggest a timetable and schedule for these activities whilst also including a programme for measuring the effectiveness of the campaign.

Answer 1

Cold Stone Creamery

After going through the given scinerio,I have determined that in order to generate more store revenue and to increase market share Cold Stone Creamery need to engage in effective PR campaign.

The activities that I would suggest in order to draw up a creative PR campaign based on objective and target audience will involve following:

• TV and print media advertorials: By featuring girls between target age group of consumer i.e. 25 and 35, choosing their flavors and getting blend the flavours of their choice and licking it in attracting manner.
• Social media (facebook,& twitter specifically): by uploading the attractive video’s of ice cream prepration and blending on a frozen granite stone in mouth watering manner.
• Building community relations: In order to build consumer loyalty, events like drop-in days.
• Offers: They can offer some complementaory ice-cream for a family member, if someone offers more than 3 ice creams.

Timetable and schedule for these activities:

Date	Activity	Owner	Comment
1-May-2018	Planning of several activities (advertorials, social media, community relations, offers)
5-May-2018	Preparing materials
15-May-2018	Getting the message to the correct channels
16-May to 30 May-2018	Repeating the message as necessary
1 June- 15 June 2018	Monitoring
16 June -20-June-2018	Evaluation

In order to measure the effectiveness of the campaign following metrics can be used:

• Media Impression,
• Sales stats,
• Social media reach,
• Lead generations