MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
WENDY’S
IT’S FAST. IT’S FRESH. IT’S YOU.
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MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
TARGET MARKET
To rebuild/rejuvenate Wendy’s requires greater attention toward the younger generation of
consumers for they are always on the go and in need of fast-food.
PRIMARY TARGET
Demographic
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Males and females 20-35
Post-secondary, graduates and young professionals
Low/starting income
Psychographic
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Busy, on-the-go lifestyle
Need food on the go, but don’t want to sacrifice quality
Active technology/social media users
Socially connected and interactive
Geographic
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Canadian consumers
Urban, city-centre
CUSTOMER SNAPSHOT
These Wendy’s customers are constantly juggling multiple things on their plate as they are
busy attending college and university or starting out working in the professional field. As these
customers must skip from one activity to the next during their day, they often don’t have much
time to cook their own meals and must purchase food on the go. These customers are on a
budget, yet don’t want to sacrifice quality when they order their food, and they want a meal that
suits their needs and gives them a break from their hectic day. Competitor restaurants typically
offer only a few burger selections, often made with frozen ingredients, that aren’t very
satisfying. This new Wendy’s campaign will offer these consumers “It’s fresh. It’s fast. It’s you.”
In other words, a customizable hamburger, made with the fresh, quality ingredients, that fits
the need of every customer. There is no longer a need to compromise quality for convenience.
SECONDARY TARGET
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Demographic
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Males and females 35+
Working individuals, parents
Average income
Psychographic
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Fast-paced lifestyle
Families, children, need quick alternative for meals
Value quality
Geographic
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Canadian consumers
Urban areas
POSITIONING STRATEGY STATEMENT
Wendy’s offers quality, fresh food that fits your fast-paced lifestyle.
ADVERTISING PLAN
ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES
1. To increase market share from 12% to 15%
2. To communicate the fresh, never frozen, quality ingredient image that Wendy’s offers
with its menu items
3. To increase awareness within a younger age demographic and create a personal
connection between them and the brand
4. To inspire this new target to have Wendy’s as their top choice
CREATIVE PLAN
CREATIVE OBJECTIVES
1. To communicate that Wendy’s offers a burger that suits you - customizable burger
made with fresh ingredients that appeals to everyone’s taste buds
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2. To promote Wendy’s as the restaurant of choice in which to receive the balance
between convenience and quality. Re-assures consumers that they do not have to
sacrifice one for the other.
CREATIVE STRATEGY
Wendy’s offers more than its main competitors which is quality and consideration in addition to
convenience. The message will focus on Wendy’s fresh, quality ingredients with emphasis on
hamburgers. We will promote a new customizable burger made with fresh ingredients so that
customers have a personal attachment to the food they’re purchasing and our goal is to have
them realize that quality is just as important to us as it is to them.
The overall campaign will be targeted at all customers in both the primary and secondary
target audiences, but there will be a greater emphasis on the primary target market for one
section of the campaign.
CENTRAL THEME
All messages will promote the Wendy’s customizable burger with a fresh selection of toppings
to choose from. The blend between quality and convenience will be promoted through the “It’s
fresh. It’s fast. It’s you.” theme.
APPEAL TECHNIQUE
The messages will incorporate negative and lifestyle appeal techniques. The situation will start
negative where the customer is on the fly and has to stop by a fast-food market for lunch. They
are sad that they have to sacrifice quality for convenience because they don’t have time to go
to a sit-down style restaurant. The situation is resolved when they realize that Wendy’s offers
them a solution with a fresh, customizable burger that will fit both their desire for convenience
and quality.
Lifestyle will also be incorporated through the contest where customers will be showcased
smiling and happy from the idea of creating their own burger. When you eat at Wendy’s you
don’t have to change your lifestyle and sacrifice quality for convenience. You get the best of
both worlds.
COMMERCIAL IDEA
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The situation will start out where there are two burger chains side-by-side, Wendy’s and the
competitor. The scene starts out negative as the customer looks at the competitor’s burger
menu and sees only one option for burger selection. Disappointed, the customer looks over at
Wendy’s and sees a sign for the fresh, new customizable burger. There is a series of cut
scenes where the customer walks behind the counter into the kitchen and starts making
themselves their own burger and walks out from Wendy’s happily eating their new burger
(takes off apron while walking).
TONE AND STYLE
Messages will be clear and consistently represent the same theme of “It’s fresh. It’s fast. It’s
you.” The television media will incorporate negative appeal technique to emphasize the
product saving the day. The print advertisements and social media advertisements will be
positive and include imagery of potential burger designs and happy customers and
contestants.
TAGLINE
“It’s fresh. It’s fast. It’s you.”
CREATIVE EXECUTION/IMC ACTIVITIES
SALES PROMOTION
Wendy’s will introduce and launch the new fresh, customizable burger in all Wendy’s
restaurants across Canada. During this time, Wendy’s will promote the new “It’s fresh. It’s fast.
It’s you.” image to promote to customers that their food is made with quality ingredients and
that Wendy’s cares about providing not only food, but food that fits anyone’s lifestyle. This will
be promoted for 3 months through 30-second television commercials and printed on-package
advertising. The on-package advertising will also promote a contest which will begin after the
initial 3 month launch period.
ONLINE COMMUNICATION
At this time, the contest will promote Wendy’s new fresh selection customizable burgers and
will provide Wendy’s fans and customers to participate in a burger creation challenge where
they will create their own customized burger from a list of many different ingredients.
Contestants will then upload a photo of their burger and the ingredients they chose to create
the recipe onto the contest webpage at www.wendys.ca/freshfastyou. The website will be
linked to Facebook where people can share and like each other’s entries them to gain the most
‘likes’ and popularity.
The contest will run for 3 months and will be open to Canadian residents over the age of 18.
Any time within the 3 month period people can like and share their favourite entries. Once the
voting period has closed, the top 4 contestants will be determined by the most number of likes.
The contest will be cross-promoted with the Food Network. Throughout the contest period, well
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known Canadian chef Michael Smith will tweet about the entries and promote the
contest/event. As well, the Food Network will tweet about the contest/event.
EVENT MARKETING
The event will be televised live-on-location by the Food Network and will showcase the 4
finalists who will have their burgers judged by a panel of judges including Canadian chef
Michael Smith who is known for adding a personal twist to classic and simple dishes. The
event will be open to anyone who wishes to attend and there will be door prizes and free
samplings of the top 4 burgers.
The winner will then have their burger featured on Canadian Wendy’s menus for 3 months
following the finale. They will also appear in a special episode on Food Network to showcase
the winning burger and promote the Wendy’s, fresh, fast-food that fits theme.
Creating awareness that Wendy’s offers a ‘customizable burger made with quality ingredients
that suits you’ will be a heavily focused on throughout the campaign.
MEDIA PLAN
BUDGET
A budget of $6 million has been allocated to cover the campaign costs for one full year.
MEDIA OBJECTIVES
Who: The primary target will be young adults and young professionals aged 20-35 who lead
fast-paced lifestyles and live in urban city centres. The secondary target will be 35+ who have
families and jobs and who live in urban areas.
What: The message will communicate the balance between convenience and quality that
Wendy’s offers through the promotion of their new customizable burgers that suit your lifestyle.
When: The new Wendy’s customizable burger will be launched at the beginning along with the
television commercials for 3 months. The contest will begin after the 3 month period to
promote the new burger and the “It’s fresh. It’s fast. It’s you” campaign. During this time there
will be a significant amount of spending to get the word out and to set up the online campaign.
The contest will run online for 3 months in order to create buzz for the new burger. During this
time, spending will become moderate.
After the contest closes, the next month will be spent determining the 4 finalists and setting up
details for the live-on-location event in which a winner will be determined. At this time,
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spending will increase again to cover costs of the event and endorsing the celebrity chef and
Food Network to participate.
The winner will then have their burger featured on Canadian Wendy’s menus for 3 months
which will conclude the campaign. Spending will decline and plateau at this point in the
campaign until it is over.
Where: The campaign will be nation-wide in Canada and the event will be held in Toronto.
How: The campaign will start with focus on all target audience and shift to creating awareness
among the younger target audience as the contest is introduced. Focus will shift back to
everyone at the end of the campaign.
MEDIA STRATEGY
TARGET MARKET STRATEGY
In the beginning of the campaign, a shotgun approach will be taken with television
commercials to promote the new “It’s fresh. It’s fast. It’s you.” campaign theme. This will be
used to reach a broad audience which will pull both the primary and secondary target markets
into Wendy’s stores. As the campaign progresses and the contest is launched, a profile-match
strategy will be implemented with the incorporation of online and social media to effectively
reach the primary target market of 20-35.
MARKET COVERAGE
The campaign is national. The chosen media, television and social medias, are accessible to
everyone across the country and will effectively reach the entire target audience.
TIMING
Spending will start off heavy in the first 3 months to initially promote the “fresh, fast-food that
fits” theme. It will decrease until the launch of the contest and endorsements are made to the
Food Network and celebrity chef to tweet about the contest. The remainder of the campaign
will plateau at a medium spending rate.
REACH / FREQUENCY / CONTINUITY
The first quarter of the campaign is dedicated to reaching all of Wendy’s customers to promote
the “It’s fresh. It’s fast. It’s you” theme and the customizable burger to ensure that all
customers feel valued and we retain our already brand-loyal customers. As the contest opens,
focus will shift toward social media and reaching the primary, younger target of 20-35. This will
require higher reach and frequency to promote to this newer target and grab their attention.
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MEDIA SALES RATIONALE
Television, print, online.
TELEVISION
Television is an appropriate media choice to reach nation-wide to introduce the initial
campaign concept. Customers will see the message of fresh, fast-food that fits their lifestyle
promoted through the commercial. There is more creative flexibility with commercials that can
incorporate colour, sounds and visuals to further emphasize the campaign theme. Therefore,
television is the best choice to emphasize this message in the beginning of the campaign.
PRINT
On-package print will be offered on Wendy’s products such as drink cups and fry containers as
well as on paper take-out bags. These will include promotional details about the new “It’s fresh.
It’s fast. It’s you” campaign, the newly introduced customizable burgers and the upcoming
contest. As customers are already purchasing these items, they will notice the promotions as
they eat their food.
ONLINE
Online is the best fit to reach and connect with the primary target, 20-35, because they are upto-date with online and social media technology. This is also the best media in which to run the
contest because it is easy for the customers to interact on social media with the brand and with
each other which also provides extra, personal testimony and feedback. Customers will be
prompted by the television commercials and the packaging advertisements to visit the Wendy’s
online website and Facebook page where they can enter the contest and it will further drive
online visits with the potential to encourage repeat sales.
MEDIA EXECUTION
Television commercials will be shown on the Food Network and on CTV. These are channels
that fit well with the target audience and will reach these consumers effectively.
On-package print advertising will be distributed through all Canadian Wendy’s locations in
order to reach all customers at any time of the day.
Online will focus on the Wendy’s website, contest page and Facebook to run the contest and
promote the new campaign. This media will act as a bridge between Wendy’s and the younger
target audience as they spend a lot of time online.
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