Playboy Marketing Communication Program

Home , Playboy bunny, Playboy Enterprises

Team 5

Agnese Kublinska

Dongqi Wang

Jiayi Lv

Ruibing Ji

Zhongyuan Lian

Contents

Introduction ...... 1

Situation and SWOT Analyses ...... 2

Situation Analysis ...... 2

SWOT Analysis ...... 5

Marketing Communications Strategy: The Fundamental Decisions ...... 6

Targeting ...... 6

Positioning ...... 7

Objective setting ...... 8

Brand awareness reinforcement ...... 8

Brand engagement and interaction ...... 8

Integrated business (online stores, memberships) ...... 8

Budgeting for one year...... 9

Marketing Communications Implementation ...... 10

Determining the mixture of marketing communications tools...... 10

Selecting media and vehicles ...... 10

Outdoor and Online Advertising ...... 10

Creating messages (creative brief, campaign slogan and visual) ...... 14

Marketing Communications Program Evaluation ...... 16

Appendix ...... 19

Introduction

Playboy is a brand with a history. This history has shaped its identity throughout decades.

Playboy has been a lifestyle/ entertainment magazine since 1953 when its first issue came out featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover. Playboy’s founder Hugh Hefner has been the editor in chief since then. The brand expanded in restaurants, reality TV, licensing- the rabbit logo appearing on clothing and other consumer goods. Over the years Playboy has been known for its sexual content. In our minds it is associated with the famous rabbit logo, entertainment and half naked women. The brand has gone through an interesting path and has experienced its own evolution. In 50s and 60s the journal had the aura of exclusivity and classiness. It was a magazine for a gentleman. But as the time went by and the brand grew Playboy got more commercialized and appealing to the mass market. Unfortunately this came with a sort of a cheapening of the brand.

These days Playboy probably for many has caused some negative associations with objectifying women and poor values.

The brand is facing some major changes these days and struggles to adapt to the new market conditions and changes in consumer behavior. In October 2015, Playboy announced that starting with their March 2016 issue, the magazine will no longer feature full frontal nudity. They kept their promise. This was the best possible move from Playboy simply because of the fact that their product was no longer relevant to customer needs and possibilities to choose the content and the source they get it from. In other words if Playboy once was attracting readers through its pictures, now consumers can simply go on internet and find whatever they want. As time has changed and one can easily access the type of content that Playboy has offered throughout the years- pictures of

1 exposed women, the brand has to come up with a new value to offer the young generation. The old

Playboy readers are no longer relevant as they are as old as the brand itself.

What should Playboy do? How to capture the hearts of male Millennials? The challenge is real. The brand has to reintroduce itself and capture a whole new consumer base. And it can only achieve that if it provides a value that the potential consumers can’t get elsewhere. There is a rapid move from paper magazines to digital content. The new Playboy doesn’t sell a magazine it sells a membership. It is easier to market to men showing them what they will get. Therefore our new marketing strategy is focused on providing value to young men from 18-30.

We have planned to leverage all the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram that

Playboy has recently created but haven’t taken a full advantage off. Our campaign features a spokesperson that embodies the “new Playboy gentleman’’. On top of that we are aiming to provide a whole new set of benefits which are included in the membership strategy and in the online store platform. We believe that combining the right set of benefits and communication strategy with potential consumers is possible to revive the brand and create a whole new Playboy concept. Playboy- the fun lifestyle coach to young men.

Situation and SWOT Analyses

Situation Analysis

Playboy is famous for its liberality, and the general level of their article content is pretty high.

In 1950s and 1960s the Playboy was known as a magazine for gentlemen and was known for certain classiness. But it changed throughout decades. These days most people will associate

Playboy with simple girls, bleached blondes, old Hefner- kind of cheapness. Because of its huge

2 influence, Playboy and its bunny trademark have become one of the symbols of American culture.

Our team is going to discuss Playboy magazine situation analysis by following three parts:

(1). Competitive Brands:

Magazine publishing companies face intense competition for readers, advertisers and retail shelf space. Magazines and Internet sites primarily aimed at men are Playboy magazine’s principal competitors. Playboy's major competitors in the adult magazine industry include Vivid

Entertainment Group, and Penthouse Media Group, Inc. These companies' products such as GQ,

Hustler, Penthouse, etc. are generally heavier on the "graphics" and lighter on the writing and other content that sets Playboy apart. http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Playboy_Enterprises_(PLA)

(2). Purchase Customers:

Customers who purchase Playboy magazine these days are mostly young men from 18 to 54 who live in the cities. As demographic statistic suggest Playboy magazine is popular amongst men from ages 18-54. So our goal after repositioning is to focus on the younger part of the demographic which is 18-30. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/business/havedemos.html

(3). Environmental Factors:

The main environmental change that affects sales of Playboy magazine is that consumers can get what they want including sexual content on the Internet easily and free. Also because the variety of that type of content is rich these days, people are desensitized to pictures with sexual content (and this is what Playboy used to attract its readers in the past.)

Because of the declining trend in paper magazine industry, more aggressive competitors, and irreversible environmental changes, the circulation of Playboy magazine has decreased to 800,000

3 in 2015 from its peak number 5,600,000 in 1975. With decreasing circulation, the revenue of

Playboy magazine is going down significantly as well, from $240 million in the 2009 to $135 million in the 2015(http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/11/playboy-magazine-by-the-numbers.html). Figure 1 indicates the declining circulation of Playboy magazine. Figure 2 shows the finance situation of

Playboy compared to that of Playboy’s top competitors.

Figure 1 Circulation of Playboy Magazine from 1975 to 2015

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/11/playboy-magazine-by-the-numbers.html

Figure 2 Income Statement of Playboy Compared to Playboy’s Top Competitors

http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Playboy_Enterprises_(PLA)/Data/Key_Metrics Based on these charts, we could learn that the environment for companies such as Playboy and its competitors is really hard. All companies started up by pornographic paper magazines are facing tough time. Especially for Playboy, the financial situation is much worse. The revenue, the net income and the net margin are negative and lower than competitors. What’s more, the revenue growth is negative. It means that Playboy is losing its market. We find that although the revenue growth of Playboy is -10.5%, this number is just average but not low. So it proves that the whole market for pornographic paper magazines is reducing. The good news is the operating margin for

Playboy is much higher than its top competitors. It means that Playboy is still having a strong profitability on its sales.

Even though environmental changes have made nude image outdated and reduced commercial value for pornographic paper magazines, there are still chances for Playboy remodeling glory it once owned. In the SWOT part, we will discuss opportunities and threats for Playboy magazines in details. Besides, recently Playboy has decided to remove all nude pictures in the newest Playboy magazine and prepare to enter Chinese market.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis Strength: Weakness: Long history(since 1953); Expensive; Highly recognized brand; Stereotype about the brand; Good market knowledge. Doesn’t have a unique value compared to other men’s magazines

Opportunity: SO Strategies: WO Strategies: Online market and products; With high brand recognition Utilize online resources; Social network; and good market knowledge, Shift focus from paper Playboy should make new magazines to online media products online and vehicles to engage customers; propaganda through social Keep paper magazines as a media (Facebook, Instagram). propaganda tool and move towards digital content and online offers.

Threat: ST Strategies: WT Strategies: Intense competition; Being a big player it is Remove nude pictures; Declining trend for paper possible for Playboy to Rethink what value should be magazine; leverage all its resources to given to target new customers Reduced commercial value for integrate business as a whole. and revitalize the brand; pornographic paper Invest much on its website in a Reposition Playboy magazines (especially nude short time. Target new customer segments and reinvent pictures). Playboy for them

Marketing Communications Strategy: The Fundamental Decisions

Targeting

Our target consumers are male millennials who age between 18-30, at least graduated from high school, living in cities. These individuals should be considered as young generation who want to enjoy fun life but also pay close attentions to current events, the global outlook as well as sophisticated world view. They actively use social media platforms to explore and engage with brands they like and/or consume.

The main reason why we choose millennials as our target customer is because they exhibit very high level of expenditure on entertainment. According to the report of “Millennials &

Entertainmenthttps://www.verizondigitalmedia.com/content/verizonstudy_digital_millennial.pdf”,

Millennials are the largest population demographic in the U.S. and commanding $1.3 trillion in consumer spending. This group is willing to spend more to pursue a fun lifestyle, despite their relatively limited recourses. As they will enter the next stage of life with increasing purchase potentials, the millennial’s expenditure on entertainment will also continue to grow.

Psychographic features are also important for our segmentation because millennials are naturally interested in some topics and willing to participate in some special activities. For example, most young male customers are interested in sports, cars and games, so the subscribers of sports channels are our target audiences.

Another difference lies between Millennials and non-Millennials is that most Millennials are active audience, which means that they are loyal to the brands which are aligned with their own values and the impact of their choices are amplified by their use of multiple screens and social media. One study shows that at least 65% of Millennials use two devices at the same time when

6 they are at home. Obviously, Playboy should focus social medias and invest most of their resources on them.

Positioning

In playboy, different points of view are welcome, discourse is welcome, and change is welcome. But so are conviction, integrity, and honesty. Playboy is originally designed for mature males’ world. The rite of passage is teaching an individual reader how to be a sophisticated man.

In a world of single purpose magazines, it is the only magazine that tries to balance all the important affairs of the mind and heart of a man. Now Playboy magazine should no longer be regarded as a paper magazine to our audience. In order to target young generation, Playboy diverts its direction slightly away from its previous positioning statement “Nothing comes closer to the hearts and minds of men”. Playboy’s new position is “the Life & Style Coach for Young Men’’.

One of the key elements of Playboy brand in past and also now is sexual images of women. The key difference in this aspect of Playboy in the new position is that we will be showing sexual attractive but not vulgar (overexposed) images. We want to keep this as an attractive element of

Playboy brand, but also show that this is only an ingredient of more contents that the new Playboy provides. We will guide audience enjoy a fun life and trigger them to think deeply about various meaningful topics. There is a common trend these days to move from paper to digital content.

Following that we are not selling a paper magazine, we are selling a membership to a life with a style and attitude that revealed by paper magazine, E-magazine, social media, Playboy apps, online store, offline party, etc. The position map is in appendix 4.

Objective setting

Brand awareness reinforcement

We intend to make our target market aware that we are different. Since Playboy is changing its positioning and is adapting to new trends on the market, the older customers are almost no longer relevant. Therefore the key to our new advertising campaign is to gain new customers- younger men, who previously might have not been that engaged with the Playboy brand before. By conducting a 4-week advertising campaigns, the expected number of reach is 30% and the frequency is at least 3 times.

Brand engagement and interaction

Since our target audience- Millennials are more active on social media, we aim to largely increase our follower base and encourage them interact with the brand. We have different objectives on different social media (see figure 3).

Integrated business (online stores, memberships)

We intend to provide our customers a one-stop and a whole lifestyle solution by combining online and offline business. For example, we will add a link when we post a model’s picture in our app; audience can view model’s shoes and purchase them directly by clicking the picture. More importantly, Playboy’s online store will become a platform to sell special or limited editions by cooperating with other brands. In the future, customers can buy a CK’s underwear in our store after he sees model’s picture. These collaborations with other brands now will be the main source of revenue for the brand. Also everyone who visits Playboy’s web page will be able to easily access

8 the online store- a platform/ marketplace that offers anything a young man (or girl) would be interested in.

Another important issue we are aiming to solve is the licensing agreements between Playboy and some cheap clothing manufacturers. Since the online store will most likely generate enough profits we don’t want the brand to be harmed by having our logo on low quality clothing.

Budgeting for one year

Figure 4 Budgets for the Marketing Communication Campaign Category Detail Budget

We need to hire about 10 more people, including social media specialists, senior Labor cost $1,000,000 editors, website designers, project manager for online store, etc.

YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime $80,000 Instant Video Online Advertising ABC, NBC, CBS $450,000

Outdoor Advertising Poster, Bulletin, Billboard $500,000

Sales Promotion Booth with products display $10,000

Co-branding Bar, Blackheart Premium Alcohol $82,000 Sponsorship

Public Relation Event Jimmy Kimmel Live Show $150,000

Social Media Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat $100,000 Engagement

Spokesman Justin Timberlake $1,500,000 Total $3,872,000

Marketing Communications Implementation

Determining the mixture of marketing communications tools

As we reposition the Playboy as “the Life & Style Coach for Young Men. We aim to target the millennial group aged from 18 to 30 and primarily men users since they are more accord with the nature of the magazine. This demographic are technology savvy consumers who live in fast paced lives and usually look for new trends of what is happening around online. Therefore, we decide to adopt traditional and new digital media strategies to deploy the campaign. Our campaigns are planned to reinforce the brand by engaging the consumers online and offline and then introduce the membership to our customers for having one-stop lifestyle solution. We intend to make a mixture of five marketing communication tools as below:

- Outdoor and Online Advertising

- Sales Promotion

- Co-branding Sponsorship

- Public Relation Events

- Social Media Engagement

Selecting media and vehicles

Outdoor and Online Advertising

15s video ads put on mainstream video websites and TV. We select YouTube, Netflix,

Hulu and Amazon Prime Instant Video as online vehicles and we select ABC, NBC, and CBS as TV vehicles. According to eMarket estimates shown in Figure 5, in 2016, there will be 78 million millennial digital video viewers, representing more than 92% of all US millennial internet

10 users. Video viewing is already near ubiquitous for Millennial. And Millennials not only watch a lot of digital video, they watch lots of TV as well. According to Nielsen, US adults ages 18 to 24 watched more than 18.5 hours of traditional TV per week. Those in the 25-to-34 age group watched nearly 25 hours per week. (What Types of Video Content Do Millennials Watch?)

Based on Figure 6and Figure 7 (The Explosive Growth of Online Video, in 5 Charts), we can see that the general trend for people’s time in watching TV is decreasing and watching digital videos is increasing. Especially mostly Millennial are now enjoying more digitally packaged or streaming services than cable TVs. According to Figure 8 (34% of Millennials Watch More Online Video

Than TV), Millennial prefer immediate access, a customized experience and the ability to share with others. However traditional TV still has powers, people are interviewed to say the screen size is better, it's more comfortable and it's better to watch with a group. The time spent in TV is positively related with the age. Since we are targeting Millennial, we will put more emphasize on digital video platform. Based on Figure 9 (Massive share of US millennials stream video on

Netflix and YouTube), we pick the top four online websites as vehicles and pick ABC, NBC, CBS as TV vehicles. (MBPT Spotlight: The 18 Shows You Should be Advertising In To Reach

Millennials)

Outdoor Advertising

We select the mix of traditional posters, bulletins and billboards as the vehicles. And we plan to put outdoor advertising in metropolitan areas. These places could also be famous tourism spots along the east and west coast such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas,

Miami, Houston and Dallas. Playboy will use highway billboards and posters concentrated during the travel and sports season. Since we expect to see large audiences during this time, the frequencies or opportunities to see would be largely increased. Besides, according to Clear

Channel Outdoor, the world’s largest outdoor advertising company (National Advertising Rates), it is effective to use bulletins in New York city and Las Vegas to have sustained image, assured dominance and continued advertising messages. To be more cost effective, Playboy will use more posters to increase panels and the 4-week eyes-on Gross Rating Point (GRP) level in terms of a measure of impact and number of impression on adults. Since Playboy has strong brand awareness, we focus the message on Playboy’s revitalization and renovation.

Sales Promotion

We choose booth as vehicle. Playboy brand is extremely recognizable but its services and products are vague to customers. The disconnection of brand and product with consumers can lead to sales lose in online business and other forms of male entertainment. Therefore, Playboy intends to take actions to bridge this gap to get consumers especially Millennial be familiar with the products and offerings. (Playboy Products)

1. We will create interaction opportunities for customers on a lifestyle marketing level. We

intend to set up booth at venues such as car racing events, sporting events and places near to

college campus. We invite playmates here to run the booth and give consumers incentives to

make purchases. The booth will be featured with Playboy’s products like magazines, clothes,

and electronic access and interaction games like video slots which Playboy partnered with

Scientific Games to enhance experience. Thus we will create buzz and convince our target

customers that our products can satisfy their needs.

2. As we want to promote our one-stop lifestyle solution for our customers, we will introduce our

membership service for the consumers. Since Playboy maintains its own database, we will

randomly select 10,000 customers who are active subscribers in our database and give them

1-month free trial membership. They can access to all the services included in the membership

(on-line stores, magazine subscription, free-shipping, pre-booking services in specific bars or

clubs). Playboy aims to connect with its customers and dig their potentials for continually

using our integrated services.

Co-branding Sponsorship

We select bar, Blackheart Premium alcohol as vehicles. Playboy can sponsorship the events at bars focused geographically near colleges in areas with large population of 18-30 males.

In the fall 2015, Blackheart Premium Spiced Rum (Blackheart Premium Spiced Rum) has teamed up with Playboy Enterprises Inc. to offer a special, limited-edition bottling that features unique packaging showcasing the sultry Blackheart character reimagined as a Playboy Playmate in Bunny costume. We print QR code on the Blackheart bottles. The codes are only accessible through mobile advices. Customers will download Playboy App and are encouraged to register on the website with the incentive of $15 vouchers to shop in the Playboy store and 100 of these registered customers will be randomly selected to be given Playboy’s first special edition of 2016 March.

Playboy want to engage the target customers and introduce the streaming services to them.

Public Relation Events

We choose Jimmy Kimmel Live Show as vehicle. Since Justin Timberlake will be put as the primary face in this Playboy campaign. We will invite Justin Timberlake in the Jimmy Kimmel

Show to mainly discuss what he thinks of Playboy. Jimmy Kimmel Show has a large audience base especially Millennial (Who is the digital king of late-night TV?) and so does Justin

Timberlake. Justin Timberlake is obviously multi-talented. He sings, dances, entertains, designs and does it all without missing a beat. And he is sexy who always wears suit in a style go along with Playboy’s sexy gentleman image. According to Nielsen 2015 report, Justin Timberlake ranked the NO.1 artist liked the best among Millennial from 18-24. (Data Proves Everyone Likes

Justin Timberlake Best) Besides, Jimmy Kimmel Live created the most shareable TV promo for a

Millennial audience which is called YouTube Challenge – I Told My Kids I Ate All Their

Halloween Candy 2014, with a Millennial ShareRank score of 7.6. We believe that we can leverage their popularity to create a buzz and shareable content going viral among the young people.

Social Media Engagement

We select Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter as vehicles. Playboy will leverage social media networks to create buzz and word-of-mouth effect. It is a part of Millennial’s way and natural behavior in finding outlets for creative and unique expression that resonate with them.

They like sharing the favorite things through the social networks. Thus we want to create buzz and topics for them to share with others. We will create contents that entertain the audience and to engage them going viral.

Creating messages (creative brief, campaign slogan and visual)

Playboy’s new message in all is that the brand is in a transition to become a fun lifestyle coach for young men.

For our outdoor and online advertising, campaign slogan will be: New Playboy - New Kind of

“Sexy”. For online and cable commercials, we are going to hire a male celebrity - Justin

Timberlake to be the new face for Playboy. In both outdoor and online advertisements, our message will be to introduce the NEW playboy. In the TV commercial scene, while a guy sitting on a couch slowly opening the new edition of Playboy, he sees Justin Timberlake in the magazine, and suddenly it all becomes real. He sees himself and Justin wearing black suits with white shirt and black bow tie that matches the bunny logo of Playboy. They are driving luxury sports cars,

14 attending all kinds of high class cocktail events and surrounded by groups and groups of beautiful women. In the end Justin turned around and said to him: “Welcome to the new playboy world.” As he slowly closes the magazine, here comes our slogan: New Playboy - New Kind of “Sexy”.

For Sales Promotion, one of our products will be our membership service. Our message for this membership service will be that it is a way to lead you to an exclusive world of Playboy. And our slogan will be “YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT”. As we said before, we will introduce our membership service for the consumers. Since Playboy maintains its own database, we will randomly select 10,000 customers who are active subscribers in our database and give them

1-month free trial membership. Each member will get a gold membership card with their name and a unique membership ID number on it. There are several features to enjoy if one becomes our member:

● Easy online store purchase with your membership ID

● Free three day shipping with all the online store purchases

● Magazine subscription with discounts

● Pre-booking services in specific bars or clubs

● Early access to Playboy events

For Co-branding Sponsorship, we want to expand our brand awareness and our slogan will be

“Party Like A Real Playboy”. We will partner up with many others, for example Nightclubs,

Liquor brands and Cigar brands. Our message will be to introduce the fun, young, classy vibe of the new Playboy. There will be cooperation between trendy restaurants/nightclubs where our members will have early access to, and our subscribers of the magazine will be able to register to attend. They will be provided with liquor and cigars that have partnerships with Playboy. There will also be a photo booth to take black and white photos with the Playboy logo and props. There

15 will be sexy playmates to be the servers for the night and ruffle events for guests to get Playboy products such as t-shirts, socks and underwear.

For public relations events, we will have Justin Timberlake on talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel

Live and our message will be to introduce the new identity for our magazine, which is the life and style coach for young men. We will be using Justin Timberlake’s personal lifestyle as an example for our readers. On the talk shows, he will talk about what he thinks the new playboy gentlemen are and explain our message that our readers will be classier, younger gentlemen compare to before.

For Social Media Engagement, we want to use Snapchat as a social platform. 45% of

Snapchat users are from 18-24, 71% of Snapchat users are under 34 years old (Smith, 2016). We will launch a social media campaign called “Get your Snapchat photo with the Playboy bunny.”

Snapchat users can take selfies with the bunny logo, add bunny ears and black bow tie on their faces and send them to their friends or to the public. Our message will be to connect with the young generation and millennial to expand our brand awareness and create a social buzz.

Marketing Communications Program Evaluation

Our team would like to construct a weighting model to evaluate the effectiveness for the

Playboy Marketing Communications Program.

As we mentioned, this Marketing Communications Program has five objectives. And after carefully considering, we decided to add budget as another evaluation criteria. Then we assigned weights on each criterion. Figure 10 shows weights and criteria for six objectives.

Figure 10 Criteria for Marketing Communication Campaign Evaluation Objective Evaluation Criteria Weight

Instagram Followers: 10M =10 M, 100%; >10 M, each 1M get extra 10%; 20%

<10 M, each 1M lose 10%

Facebook Followers: 50M =50M, 100%; >50M, each 1 M get extra 2%; 20% <50M, each 1 M lose 2%

Twitter Followers: 20M =20M, 100%; >20M, each 1M get extra 5%; 20% <20M, each 1M lose 5%

Online store Attain total revenue =0.5 billion, 100%; of at least 0.5 billion > 0.5 billion, each 10M get extra 2%; 15% by 2017 < 0.5 billion, each 10M lose 2%

Official Website Monthly unique =40M, 100%; visitors will increase >40M, each 1M get extra 2.5%; 20%

to 40 millions <40M, each 1M lose 2.5%

Budget Total: $3,872,000 <=$3,872,000, 100%; >$3,872,000, each 500,000 lose 5% 12.5%

For this Marketing Communication campaign, we would like to weigh more on social media and official website achievements and less on financial achievements. We believe that Playboy first needs to appeal target customers to follow Playboy, then convert these target customers to subscribers. However, there are several steps between awareness and purchase. Time is needed.

Thus, we decide to focus more on number of followers in the short term, and focus on financial statements in the long term.

So the evaluation formula should be:

Total Score = Instagram Followers/10M*100%*20% + Facebook Followers/1M*100%*20% +

Twitter Followers/50M*100%*20% + Online Store Revenue/1 Billion*100%*15% + Official

Website Visitors/40M*100%*20% + 100%*5%(if budget <=$2,408,200) or [100%-(Budget

-$2,408,200)/500,000*20% ]*5%(if budget>$2,408,200)

If Total Score >= 100%, we could say that this Marketing Communication Campaign achieves its goal and even is more than expected;

If 90% <= Total Score < 100%, we could say that this Marketing Communication Campaign almost achieves the goal;

If 80% <= Total Score <90%, we could say that this Marketing Communication Campaign has some achievements;

If 60% <= Total Score < 80%, we could say that this Marketing Communication Campaign is not bad but needs to be modified.

If Total Score < 60%, we could say that this Marketing Communication Campaign does not achieves the and perhaps should be stopped and redesigned or objectives or this campaign were set too high.

Appendix

Appendix 1

Appendix 2 Market Share Data for Industry Leaders (Pie chart)

We did not find pornographic paper magazines market share data for industry leaders.

Appendix 3 SWOT Analysis

Appendix 4 Product Positioning Map

Appendix 5 Cost Planning

Communication Tool Selected Vehicle Cost Allocation

Online Advertising YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and $80,000 Amazon Prime Instant Video

ABC, NBC, CBS $450,000

Outdoor Advertising Poster, Bulletin, Billboard $500,000

Sales Promotion Booth with products display $ 0

Co-branding Sponsorship Bar, Blackheart Premium $82,000 Alcohol

Public Relation Events Jimmy Kimmel Live Show $1,650,000

Social Media Engagement Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, $100,000 Snapchat

Sources:

1. http://nypost.com/2014/10/05/has-the-time-come-for-netflix-to-start-running-ads/ 2. http://www.pennapowers.com/how-much-do-ads-on-youtube-cost/ 3. http://www.bluelinemedia.com/transit-advertising http://adage.com/article/media/ad-pricing-chart-sunday-night-football-empire-broadcasts-most-e xpensive-ad-buys/300516/

Appendix 6 Media messages and/or other promotional materials

Sales Promotion Membership card example

There are several features to enjoy if one becomes our member:

● Easy online store purchase with your membership ID

● Free three day shipping with all the online store purchases

● Magazine subscription with discounts

● Pre-booking services in specific bars or clubs

● Early access to Playboy events

Co-branding Sponsorship events example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4KxUIycpAA

Public Relations Event

Social Media example

SNAPCHAT X PLAYBOY

Appendix 7 Program Evaluation Summary

Objective Evaluation Criteria Weight

Instagram Followers: 10M =10 M, 100%; >10 M, each 1M get extra 10%; 20% <10 M, each 1M lose 10%

Facebook Followers: 50M =50M, 100%; >50M, each 1 M get extra 2%; 20% <50M, each 1 M lose 2%

Twitter Followers: 20M =20M, 100%; >20M, each 1M get extra 5%; 20% <20M, each 1M lose 5%

Online store Attain total revenue =0.5 billion, 100%; of at least 0.5 billion > 0.5 billion, each 10M get extra 2%; 15% by 2017 < 0.5 billion, each 10M lose 2%

Official Website Monthly unique =40M, 100%; visitors will increase >40M, each 1M get extra 2.5%; 20%

to 40 millions <40M, each 1M lose 2.5%

Budget Total: $3,872,000 <=$3,872,000, 100%; >$3,872,000, each 500,000 lose 5% 12.5%

Figure 3 Objectives for social media platforms Current Situation Problem Action Objective in one yea 1. Stop posting 1. Many pictures are unrelated pictures, like not related to Playboy’s food, real estate, etc. brand and spirit 1. Followers: 10M. as it doesn’t serve the therefore confusing the purpose of creating a viewer strong brand identity

2. Some of the pictures 2. Posts: post the 2. Don’t post pictures are marijuana and other best picture every relate to crime and drugs which are day. other negative images inappropriate for young as we want to improve people and can harm the brand’s reputation Instagram Followers: 4.6M. Playboy’s brand

3. The frequency of 3. We only post one 3. Average likes for post is too high and picture for each day, each post: 30,000 – some of the pictures are and this picture will be 50,000. low quality cheapening relevant, well-chosen the brand and high quality

4. We aim to create more connections with 4. Basically didn’t use celebrities and tags or @other users encourage users to like and comment

1. Stop posting 1. Hundreds of 1. Many pictures are 1. The average likes unrelated pictures, as it likes and shares like randomly posted, and shares of each doesn’t serve the for each news therefore confusing the news feeds exceed purpose of creating a feed viewer. 5,000. strong brand identity.

2. Some of the pictures 2. Don’t post pictures are weapons and drugs 2. The average 2. Very few relate to crime and Facebook which are inappropriate comments of each comments for other negative images for young people and news feeds exceed each news feed as we want to improve can harm Playboy’s 1000. the brand’s reputation. brand.

3.228,783 users 3. We can refer to the are talking About rebranding playboy to 3. Followers: 50M Playboy on increase likes. Facebook.

Twitter 1.Tweets:41.8k 1. Many pictures and 1. All of the pictures 1.Tweets:100k

videos are low-quality and videos should be and unattractive. creative and attractive, because we intend to create a strong brand identity.

2. Don’t post pictures 2. Some of the content relate to crime and are inappropriate for 2.Followers:1.1M other negative images 2.Followers:20M young people and can as we want to improve harm Playboy’s brand. the brand’s reputation.

3. Almost never 3. Interact with other 3.Likes:1,526 interact with other 3.Likes:5M brands and celebrities. brands or celebrities.

1. Playboy should cover every aspect 1. There are many that our target 1. The category is too categories need to be audience interests, the 1. Playboy’s store narrow to meet expand. For clothing, updated categories has four millennials’ needs. For we need to add jeans, are clothing & categories: men, men, playboy only has suits & sport coats, grooming, women, home gift shirts, hats, sweatshirts underwear, shoes, electronics, and collections. + outerwear, jewelry, watches, entertainment (music, accessories contemporary & movies and games) designer, etc. and sports & outdoors.

2. Playboy’s online store will cooperate Online with other brands and Store become a platform. 2. For most categories, Special edition not a 2. Playboy only there are less 20 items. 2. Introduce more platform (for sells franchised The sales cannot be products on Playboy’s example: CK x products. increased if customer online store Playboy limited barely has choices. edition underwear that is selling on the online store of the official website)

3. We intend to achieve a monthly sales volume of 100,000 units, and attain total revenue of

at least 0.5 billion by 2017

Based on the data The design of the we found on website is old-school Playboy should Quartz, the and unattractive to redesign their website Monthly unique Official monthly unique young audience. For in order to meet visitors will increase Website visitors of example, many pictures millennials’ aesthetic to 40 millions Playboy’s official on the homepage are value and reading website are about low quality and lack habit 20 millions unified theme.

Figure 5 Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8 Figure 9