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Marketing Communication Issues Facing Cera’s Cerenity Sanitizer

Background of Cera’s Cerenity Sanitizer

Marketing communication is considered to be a complex, yet fundamental part of the marketing efforts of a company. This is evident in the case of Cera which is an Indian brand specialized in production and sale of sanitization ware (Jaiswal, Singh & Manu, 2014). Additionally, the company is involved in the trade of bathroom accessories. It is a high growth firm and thus, targets creating unique and differentiated products for its target customer segments composed of both high end and middle class consumers seeking premium products. Given the nature of the target consumers, it is important that Cera not only adopts a suitable communication strategy, but also positions itself strategically to capitalize on the communication message being shared. In order to identify the marketing communication issues exhibited in the case study, a number of advertising theories were used. Considering these theories, Someşfălean, (2014) clarifies that an appropriate marketing communication has to be composed of a range of elements which include; advertising, personal selling, promotions and discounts, public relations, direct marketing and events sponsorship.

The evaluation of the issues in marketing communication for the Cerenity sanitizer consider whether these elements were used and whether, key hypothesis made in the theories were met. In line with this statement, Eagle et al, (2014); Vakratsas & Ambler, 2009 note that theorizing a message during advertisement has to consider three categories of theories; practice based advertising theory and linear theories of communication. Out of these classification, the most pronounced and widely used theory for marketing communication is the linear group of theories of communication. The theories are grounded on the notion that customers and consumer collect information and make purchase decisions in either linear, serial or rational manner. This is evident with the attention interest desire action (AIDA) theory of persuasion. The theory is attributed to Edward Strong and Harry Kitson (Hackley & Hackley, 2017). This theory will be the first, to be used to guide the identification of marketing communication issues facing the research process and subsequent launch of Cerenity sanitizer in the Indian market. Presiding this theory is the hierarchy of effects theories, which are also classified under linear theories of communication. They are known for evaluating and highlighting causality effects of marketing communication. It works by compounding probabilities and showing the indifference of consumers, and how gradual accumulation of message could help influence the consumers to make a purchase.

The Theory of Hierarchy of Effects

This theory is composed of six key stages. It begins with awareness, then knowledge, liking, preferences, conviction and purchase. This theory encourages advertisers to follow through the six stages as shown in table 1. According to this table, the consumer behavior associated with the first and second hierarchies of effects model are cognitive in nature (Sinh, 2013). The marketing communication at this stage has to focus on making the consumers to think, understand and remember the product. On the other end, Barry, (2007) emphasizes the need for the marketer to make sure to achieve objectives of creating awareness among the customers and informing them on the product. The second two hierarchies of liking and preference are classified under affective consumer behavior where the marketer has to ensure that the customers are made to feel and experience the product. This leads to the last group of consumer behavior which is composed of the elements of conviction and purchase or prescribe (Rehman et al, 2015). This consumer behavior is known as conative and it involves the process of making and action which is the actual purchase of the product.

Table 1: The theory of hierarchy of effects (Ray et al, 2013)

The theory of hierarchies of effects is made of six stages which are discussed by Lavidge and Streiner as follows. These stages describe behavior of consumers at different stages of the marketing communication process.

The first stage is awareness

It is the most crucial stage on the hierarchies of effects model. It emphasizes the need for brands to ensure that consumers are informed and are aware of the product or brand (Mabry, 2010). In the case study, the researchers and the marketing team failed to create awareness on the product. In fact, they assumed that if the respondents were approached without prior knowledge of the product, they would give more accurate opinions on the product. As a result, they missed the stage on creating awareness for the Cerenity sanitizer (Jaiswal et al, 2014). As a result, the consumers, both users and non-usrs were not aware of the Cerenity sanitizer brand. By missing this important stage, the whole process of marketing communication became flawed.

The second stage is sharing knowledge.

This stage involves sharing information on the product. In the case of the Cerenity brand, it would have been prudent if the marketers and the researchers would have made the knowledge on the product available so that potential customers could be interested in finding and reading it. Such information could have been communicated through Cera’s website or through digital media such as Facebook and Instagram (Jaiswal et al, 2014; Brennan et al, 2014). These platforms are cost effective and less costly in sharing information and creating hype on a new product. This could help create viral message which could have helped increase the knowledge base thus make the product more admirable to potential customers. Failing to provide this information meant that the product could not influence the cognition of the clients. At the same time, having knowledge could have helped consumers to make comparisons, thus presenting accurate data during the interviews and focus group meetings to discuss on the product (Hui-Fei, Yeo & Yen-Shen, 2013). With this information, the feedback given on the packaging, usage, pricing, and location of the product could have been more accurate thus useful to the management in planning how to position and subsequently communicate to the consumers on the Cerenity product launch.

The third stage of the hierarchies of effect model is liking

Sinh, (2013) notes that this stage is associated with the affective part of consumer behavior. It is an important step since it helps in building the emotional connection between the consumer and the product. After the consumer is contented with the product quality and its ability to satisfy their needs, then they can willingly commit to use the product for a long time to come until when they find better or new solutions. The liking stage also increases chances that they will share the information with friends through word of mouth. Cera’s research and marketing team failed to take the customers through the liking stage (Jaiswal et al, 2014). This means that they failed to make the customer commit to using the products. As a result, they failed to increase the lifetime sales of the product to these target consumer segments. They also lost possible sales to lack of positive word of mouth about the product.

The fourth stage is known as preference stage

It involves appealing to the affective part of consumer behavior thus making them focus on the product. At this stage, it was essential for Cera to convince its customers on the quality of its Cerenity sanitizers (Jaiswal et al, 2014). This stage was met because the team allowed the users to interact with the product in comparison to other brands. However, it was noted that the product was a pioneer in the market and thus, lacked competition. In this regard, the marketing team had the opportunity of convincing customers of the superior value proposition of the product, based on the unique qualities of the product.

The fifth stage is conviction

It is associated with the creation of desire in the consumers to purchase and use the product. It is connected to the conative consumer behavior (Yeshin, 2012; Wijaya, 2015). This stage is associated with the creation of a deep desire for the consumer to convert their desire for the preferred product into action. In order to make the consumers convicted, Cera was required to adopt certain marketing and positioning strategies (Jaiswal et al, 2014). This should have entailed giving put free samples, and personal selling as well as using celebrity endorsements to convince customers on the need to buy and use the Cerenity sensitizers.

The last stage under the hierarchies of effect is purchase

This stage follows conversion and it involves making the final decision to purchase and use a product (Batra & Keller, 2016). It is important that the team representing Cera’s cerenity sanitizers should have made sure that the purchasing cycle by user focus group does not come to an end, but rather to ensure that they are constantly attracted to purchasing the product (Jaiswal et al, 2014). One of the ways in which Cera could have sustained interest is through marketing and ensuring that customers have multiple options to make payments. This step missed out since they customers were not being asked to purchase the product, but rather given free samples to try and give feedback.

AIDA Model of Marketing Communication

The abbreviation AIDA represents attention, interest desire and action as summarized in the figure 1 below. The hierarchy has to be followed in the respective order since the four letters represent the four stages of marketing communication. Rawal, (2013) notes that the AIDA model of marketing communication works on the assumption that individuals have to be gradually persuaded into purchasing. This can be achieved by presenting a successive marketing communication and message. This will enable consumers to be moved along the four stages into making the final purchase as follows.

Figure 1: AIDA Model of Marketing Communication

According to this model, the marketing and research team at Cera were supposed to guide the respondents into the four stages of the AIDA model in order to understand the actual impact of the proposed positioning and communication to the target audiences. Using this model would have meant that the team takes customers through the three stages of cognition, affective and behavioral stages (Ace, 2012). This model has near similar stages as the hierarchy of effect model.

The first step is attention

This section of marketing communication involves preparing messages that grab the attention of potential and willing customers. This requires the use of various tactic that will make the product or services attractive in the eyes of the consumer (Rehman et al, 2014). Based on the feedback given by customers in regard to the product, the Cerenity sanitizer lacks the appeal that was anticipated by the management at Cera. This is seen in the comments given where clients noted that the product was too big and that the shape, and color, as well as the image, and model of the bottles looked like fragrances. The bottles also lacked the convenience and ease of carrying. This made them unusable for personal sanitization purposes since the intended customers found the bottles too big or rather uncomfortable to carry to the public toilets where they were supposed to be used (Jaiswal et al, 2014). Based on their observation, the current size would have been suitable for keeping in the toilets.

The second level of AIDA model is interest

After grabbing the attention of potential and willing consumers, it would have been important that the research team for Cera should have considered approaches to trigger and sustain the interest of consumers (Jaiswal et al, 2014). This would have been done by making them want to know more information and usage of the product. This step was achieved since the clients were able to know about the product. However on a general scale, the team failed to create adequate interest as much as the research was only a small study. Assuming that they had created interest, it is possible that the outcomes collected could have been different and mostly positive. Evoking interest among potential customers could have been done by use of bold communication message, headings and even taglines that are captivating (Patti et al, 2017). This way, the customers could have gained more interest in the product thus, helping the management to gauge the best marketing communication message and positioning to use to attract the most interest in the product. The research team failed to consider the need to attract and sustain interest and this is the reason the research failed to collect required results.

The third step of the AIDA model is desire

It is important that after going through the attention and interest step, the research team would have triggered the feeling of desire in the product (Ghirvu, 2013). In fact, conducting the research would have helped identify specific customers to target thus avoid them the trouble of including the customer segment of high end consumers in the working class category, instead the management would have created a spray product that would be sold in hospitals, malls, trains, restaurants, railway stations and airports (Jaiswal et al, 2014). These places have a high demand for the product because of the perceived poor sanitation. In line with these findings, it would have been important to target customers in these locations and heighten their desire to use the Cerenity sanitizer product.

The last step of the AIDA model is action

After creating desire, it is certain that interested consumers would be attracted, convinced and converted into customers. This stage involves convincing consumers that the products on offer will completely satisfy their needs (Hassan, Nadzim & Shiratuddin, 2015). This will convince them into buying a given product. In this case, positioning and communicating the right message to the consumers on the “Hygiene on the Go’ slogan of the product and its perceived benefits such as ensuring highest level of sanitation for women could help the product to not only penetrate the market but also convince more women and other female users prone to urinary tract infection (UTI) on the need to take action and purchase the product (Kumar, 2013). To this end, it is noted that this model focuses more attention on designing the right communication messages and highlighting key product feature that make the product attractive to new customers. At the same time, it guides the formulation of a powerful message that is able to sustain the interest of existing customers so that they can remain loyal to the brand.

To this end, this report acknowledges the two primary theories that could have guided the formulation of a proper marketing communication message and effective positioning of the product. This way, it would have been easier for the research and marketing team to collect important insight on consumer needs, the best way to package, promote and price the product. This means that the results collect could not adequately influence the transformation or creation of a powerful marketing mix that would maximize on conversion by creating attention, interest, desire and then leading the customers into taking action. 

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