Altoids Media Plan Report

Mind-Meld Agency

Erin Remington, Tad White, Nekabari Ereba

Camden Dukes, Alex King, and Isabel Maggio

ADPR 3120 - Spring 2020

PLAN SUMMARY

Bad breath has been used as one of the greatest marketing tools throughout modern U.S. history. These types of advertisements target the consumer’s need to fit in and be liked by others because no one wants to be caught with bad breath. Altoids breath mints offer a solution to this problem. Though the Altoids brand may be familiar amongst the majority of the U.S. population due to its long history, there is no denying that there has been a recent decrease in revenue. Ad spending has significantly decreased within Altoids, meanwhile competing breath brands continue to promote their products year round. Our plan aims to address this issue and proposes a creative solution to the Altoids lack of effective advertising.

The question we asked ourselves when creating the campaign was how to form meaningful associations between the Altoids brand and the consumer. We wanted to create an idea that would resonate with young to middle aged adults. Ultimately, we decided to play off of the Altoids tagline, “curiously strong mints.” Our campaign demonstrates the strength of the

Altoids mints through the metaphor of human strength, and it encourages the consumer to consider all of the ways in which they are strong. This ad will be incorporated across numerous different platforms, both as a static solution and a dynamic solution. We fully anticipate that, after the 12 month duration of the campaign, Altoids sales will increase by 20 percent.

PROBLEM

The main issue that Altoids is faced with is that it is an aging brand. Most people do not know that the brand has been around for over 100 years. This is mainly because of the type of category the product falls under. Breath mints are a low-risk and low-involvement product,

2 therefore, most people do not give a second thought about the brand they choose to invest in.

Thus, if Altoids are not at the consumer’s top of mind in regards to memory and association, it is unlikely that they will purchase that brand of mints.

The second issue that poses a threat is the crowding of the breath mint market. There are well over twenty different brands of breath mints/candies. Furthermore, this numerical figure does not account for competing chewing gum brands, which only increase the competition for

Altoids. Though Altoids’ failure to evolve and promote exciting, new campaign ideas may hinder the cognitive impact they have on consumers, the long history of the brand does offer some advantage in this case. Their brand awareness is above average in an already overly saturated market. However, this silver lining is not helpful in reaching younger demographics.

Other competing breath mint brands, such as Ice Breakers, actively pursue the younger segment of the market (Yoon, 2019). Meanwhile, Atloids still struggles in this department. As a result, the sales figures for Altoids have recently been on a sharp decline.

Altoids ad spend has been inconsistent over the past few years which makes them vulnerable to falling behind their competition even more. Simply put, Altoids needs to increase ad spending and utilize a campaign to give new meaning and life to the brand. In order to reach their goal of increasing sales by 20 percent, they must implement a niche marketing strategy that is positioned for adults ages 25-44. The power to revamp the breath mint brand lies in the hands and wallets of the youth.

SITUATION ANALYSIS

A. Target Research

3 Understanding Altoids’ target audience is a crucial step before making decisions on media mix and the overall media plan. For the Altoids campaign, the target audience is adults ages 25 to 44. This group is then divided into two separate categories as adults ages 25 to 34 and adults ages 35 to 44. Many unique subgroups