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Table of Contents
-PART I-
Client Intro.................................................................................................................. pg. 3
Situation Analysis......................................................................................................... pg. 4
Market Analysis............................................................................................................ pg. 5
Competitors Analysis.................................................................................................... pg. 6
Problem Statement...................................................................................................... pg. 8
SWOT Analysis.......................................................................................................... pg. 10
Media Objectives........................................................................................................ pg. 12
Creative Tagline......................................................................................................... pg. 11
-PART II-
Media Objective......................................................................................................... pg. 12
Media Strategy........................................................................................................... pg. 12
Reach/ Frequency and DMA Analysis...................................................................... pg. 13
Media Flow Charts + Other Media............................................................................ pg. 15
Resources…………….…………………………………………………………….……… pg. 25
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Client Intro
Sonic Corporation began in the early 1950’s and is currently operating and franchising as
the largest drive-in restaurants in the United States. Sonic’s principal executive offices are
located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Sonic’s restaurants are primarily located in the southern
regions of the United States and the Northeastern regions of the United States and wants to move
restaurants into the Northwestern regions of the United States.
Sonic drive-in restaurants provide a unique dining experience for customers by providing
individual drive up stations so customers can order directly from the comfort of their vehicles. A
bellhop, usually in skates, delivers the customers food directly to the customers car. Most Sonic
restaurants offer a drive-thru service and a dining patio as well.
Sonic’s product line includes specialty drinks such as the cherry limeades and slushies.
They also include a line of frozen desserts, made to order sandwiches and burgers, chili cheese
“coneys”, hand-battered onion rings, tater tots, salads and wraps. Sonic offers a breakfast menu
that is served all day and includes Sonic specialty breakfast sandwiches made of sausage or
bacon, cheese, eggs, and are called Breakfastoaster ® and CroiSonic ® breakfast sandwiches.
Sonic relies on customer loyalty for business prosperity. Sonic’s menu prices range, on average,
starting from $0.20 for added drink flavors; up to $4.75 for their chicken strip dinner.
According to the FCB Grid Sonic’s fast food products are considered a quadrant 4 product
because Sonic is considered a less expensive, emotional decision product.
Sonic offers franchising options that consists of a franchise agreement for an initial
franchise fee of $45,000 per drive-in. The franchise agreement also states the franchiser must pay
a royalty fee of up to 5% of total gross sales on a graduated percentage basis, advertising fees of
up to 5.9% of gross sales, and must agree to a 20 year term. Sales for Sonic tend to be lower
4. 4
during the months of December, January and February because of the cold climate, Sonic drive-
in and outdoor seating is not ideal for customers during those cold winter months.
Situation Analysis
Sonic currently competes within the fast-food industry, an extremely competitive market
in terms of price, location, service, and food quality. The fast food market is easily affected by
changes with consumer trends, concerns about nutrition, demographics and economical changes.
Sonic’s competitive strengths include its unique menu items, carhop service, and made-to-order
food options. Customer service tends to be Sonic’s strongest competitive advantage because they
offer skating carhops that deliver food to the customers while they enjoy the comfort of their
own vehicles.
Although, Sonic is a corporation in the fast-food industry they also compete with other
food industries including pizza delivery services.
As a corporation, Sonic is concerned with positive awareness and goodwill for their company.
Therefore, Sonic should run advertising campaigns that increase brand awareness in order to
develop a positive brand image among its target audience.
Sonic consumers mainly consist of white women between the ages of 18-34, who have graduated
from college or have had some form of college education. These working women are employed
and usually work full-time jobs. They tend to earn annual incomes of $30,000-$39,999 and even
$50,000-$100,000. The average Sonic consumer is either married or a parent with children
between the ages of 2-17 year old. Sonic’s specific target audiences lives in the Southwest,
Southeast, regions of the United States.
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M
Market Analysis
While Sonic Corp. is primarily a ‘burger and dog’ restaurant, the market in which it
competes in is classified as the “Quick Serve Restaurant Industry”, which involves everything
from local hot dog stands to gourmet restaurants. There is also competition from pizza
businesses, but the main competitors are mostly burger joints. The one exception is Doctor’s
Associate Inc., which owns Subway, a deli sandwich restaurant that owns 39,683 stores globally.
In terms of market share, McDonald’s leads the industry followed by Yum! Brands Inc. (KFC,
Taco Bell, Pizza Hut), Doctor’s Associates Inc., Wendy’s International Inc. and so forth. The
current market situation is characterized by stagnant growth due to a combination of diminished
consumer spending since the recession and a market that is thoroughly saturated. This fact may
explain the trend in overseas expansion into markets deemed more promising such as China and
India. While the economy is expected to slowly recover, there will be increased price-based
competition and pressure to introduce new products that Sonic Corp. will be forced to reckon
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with. In addition to consumers eating out less, there is growing consumer interest in healthier
alternatives to traditional menu offerings.
For Sonic, the current market situation combined with consumer purchasing habits
present a serious threat, especially in an age where its main competitors are receiving most of
their sales growths from overseas operations.
Competitors Analysis
Last year, Sonic’s competitors spent over a billion dollars in advertising altogether, with
a great portion of it covered by TV, whether by cable, Spot, or a Network. At the top spot,
McDonald’s advertising budget reached $882,232,300. The second most spending came from
Subway at $446,089,600. Lastly, Wendy’s budget called for a whopping $287, 656,700. These
numbers illustrate the level of competition and money that the media plan must contend with.
Another important feature to consider about Sonic’s competitors are the strategies they
undertook in response to the recession with the economy. As a result of diminishing domestic
profit, a lot of the companies in the Quick Serve industry have started to invest or have moved
over to a foreign market, where prospects appear positive. In the U.S. things have changed too.
Many Quick Serve chains have expanded their menus to now offer nontraditional, high margin
menu items which McDonald’s has done with its’ coffee drinks. Another maneuver that has had
even more implications on the industry is the trend in mergers. The acquiring of market share has
become more difficult as profit growth continues stagnant and its future as well. Rather than gain
market share by way of profit, some of the largest Quick Serve companies have resorted to
mergers and acquisitions, which have resulted in powerful corporations.
Current federal and state regulations cover the basic consumer interests in regards to food safety
and nutrition. In light of the soda ban legislation in New York City, numerous public health
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organizations have sought to appeal the government for higher standards in food quality. These
efforts have resulted in a law that obligates fast food restaurants to have available for consumers
the nutritional information for every product offered on their menu. The ban on cigarette use
indoors in virtually every restaurant is another significant outcome of the public health lobby.
Consumers today are highly sensitive to their health and thus, to a fast food company such as
Sonic, this poses an issue. The prime challenge of the Quick Service industry is to grapple with
the polar concerns of the consumer- a product that both affordable and nutritious.
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opening stores in the northern states only five years ago, and they are slowly increasing their
presence in these areas.The advertising pyramid shows a low percentage at the awareness stage,
and a drop off at the familiarity stage. Because so few consumers in the Northwestern area are
aware or familiar with Sonic, only a very small percentage of consumers get to the “buy” stage
of the advertising pyramid. We suggest running a regional campaign in the markets where stores
have opened recently and where new stores will be opened in the near future, specifically in the
northwest United States. This regional campaign will boost the amount of consumers who are
aware and familiar with the Sonic brand. We suggest a budget of $176 million to run this
campaign.
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Strategy Statement
The client strives to increase awareness by 50% in the upcoming fiscal year. We will
engage national media to reach relatively new markets in the northwest region of the country,
especially during the warmer months. We will convince our audience through repeated and
memorable messages that Sonic is a unique, fun and delicious fast-food restaurant. Our reach
target will be achieved by keeping the frequency at a 5+ level during the summer months and 3+
level during the winter months.
Creative Tagline
A Fun and Unique American Classic
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Media Objective
Sonic aims to increase awareness and familiarity in the northwest region of the United
States by 50% by utilizing specific print mediums and the internet. We suggest running a
national campaign and focusing Sonic’s finances and efforts in the northwest region of the
country where Sonic is less popular. This region offers a great opportunity for growth, and a
national campaign in that runs heavier in these areas would best capitalize on the opportunity for
increasing brand awareness. We suggest running a seasonal flighting campaign, with heavier
GRPs in the summer months when the weather is warmer. Sonic is a successful and well-known
company outside the northwest region of the country and because there are only a few Sonic
restaurants in the northwest that are relatively new, Sonic’s SOM and revenues would not
decrease substantially if there was a lack of media support. Sonic is known for the brand loyalty
of its customers in the Southeast. Sonic is seeking media support in order to create that brand
loyalty in its’ newer markets, while increasing awareness and familiarity among consumers in
new markets.
Media Strategy
To achieve our objective, we must keep the Sonic brand fresh in our target audience’s
minds. We want to ensure that that our target audience is aware of and familiar with the Sonic
brand and associates it with a unique and fun fast-food experience. We will pursue this strategy
by employing the following tactics:
● Seasonal flighting campaign
● Ad placement print, the Internet, television programming and radio
● Honing in on designated marketing areas (DMAs) where there are Sonic stores are recently
opening or will open in the near future
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Reach and Frequency
The reach and frequency of our campaign will vary based on the seasons. The frequency
will be at a 5+ level in most of AMJ and JFM, and it will decrease to a 2+ level in OND and JFM.
Our reach will be moderate throughout the entire year. Our GRPs will be relatively low in JFM
and will heavy-up in AMJ. Our GRPs will peak at in July. We will have a heavier message weight
in AMJ and JAS because the weather is warmer during this time. Our target audience is more
likely to visit outdoor-only restaurants in the warmer months. Despite our target audience’s
opposition to outdoor-only restaurants in cooler months, we will run ads during this time in order
to keep the Sonic brand in their minds and create a correlation between summer’s fun atmosphere
and Sonic.
Budget
Our overall budget for this media campaign is $176 million. Last year Sonic spent a total of $167
million on media. After subtracting the contingency budget of $26,400,000, we are left with a
budget of $149,600,000. This year’s budget is lower than previous budgets for two reasons. First,
Sonic is running this campaign in newer markets where sales are low and more is at risk. Second,
the economic climate is prohibitive to spending large amounts of money on advertising.
Designated Marketing Areas
We’ve chosen the following DMAs to implement our Media Plan: Detroit, MI; Flint-Saginaw,
MI; Traverse City, MI; Lansing, MI; Marquette, MI; Alpena, MI; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN;
Milwaukee, WI; Green Bay-Appleton, WI; Madison, WI; Duluth-Superior, MN-WI; Minot, ND;
La Cross-Eau Claire, WI; Wausau-Rhinelander, WI; Fargo-Valley City, ND; Sioux Falls, SD;
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Mankato, MN; Rapid City, SD; Eugene, OR: Yakima, WA; Medford, OR; Seattle-Tacoma, WA;
Portland, OR; Bend, OR and Spokane, WA.
We chose these DMAs because they are the locations where Sonic is opening new stores or
where stores have very recently been opened. All of these DMAs have very low BDI and CDI,
and this is due to the lack of awareness and lack of sales in these areas. Some of the DMAs even
have a BDI of zero because there are currently no Sonic stores in these areas. Because these
areas have such low BDI and CDI, there is great potential for growth in these areas.
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Designated Marketing Area
(DMA)
Category Development Index
(CDI)
Brand Development Index (BDI)
Detroit, MI 1.12 9.90
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 9.57 10.93
Portland, OR 10.17 9.76
Seattle-Tacoma, WA 9.23 10.04
Lansing, MI 2.30 9.84
Milwaukee, WI 12.25 10.08
Medford et al, OR 9.86 9.95
Flint-Saginaw et al, MI 9.97 11.32
Green Bay-Appleton, WI 9.10 10.67
Eugene, OR 10.13 10.22
Yakima, WA 9.71 10.24
Bend, OR 8.23 9.82
Spokane, WA 9.59 10.07
Sioux Falls et al, SD 9.65 10.18
Madison, WI 8.93 10.54
Wausau-Rhinelander, WI 9.29 9.27
Rapid City, SD 10.44 10.19
Traverse City, MI 11.45 12.9
Alpena, MI 9.76 0
Duluth-Superior, MN-WI 9.84 0
Minot, ND 8.98 0
La Cross-Eau Claire, WI 10.74 0
Fargo-Valley City, ND 9.73 0
Mankato, MN 5.45 0
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The percentages presented in the media mix pie chart above demonstrates each mediums
effectiveness relative to Sonic’s customer media usage.
2012 MRI numbers demonstrate that Sonic Drive-in customers are 11% more likely to
read women specific magazines and 7% more likely to read men’s specific magazines. This
further supports our decision to target women consumers.
With a higher percentage of women specific magazine readership to men’s specific
magazine readership, we have concluded that Sonic should use magazines as their primary
medium for advertising. Magazines such as, Teen Vogue and Seventeen show strong readership
percentages among Sonic customers. Teen Vogue and Seventeen magazines appeal to younger
females, thus proving to be an effective medium for reaching Sonic’s target market of women
between the ages of 18-34. We also discovered that Soap Opera Digest had a strong following
with Sonic customers and we believe this specific magazine would be beneficial for reaching the
older women in our target demographic.
Internet is the secondary medium Sonic must utilize to advertise because it has a strong
potential for reaching younger consumers. We discovered that Sonic customers are 31% more
likely to use their phones to access the internet and are less likely to use any other form of
technology to access the internet. Sonic customers are more likely to use the internet for visiting
blogs, posting an online blog, and commenting on blogs. Another activity that most Sonic
customers use the internet for is to listen to radio stations and visit social media websites.
We should assume since Sonic customers are 33-46% more likely to use the internet for blogging
purposes, then Sonic will have a greater chance of reaching their target market by using blogs as
a source for advertising their message effectively to their target demographic. Blogs are a unique
way to communicate to your target audience and tends to feel less aggressive than traditional
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television and radio advertisements. Blogging will allow Sonic to increase awareness for their
company through a modern medium that targets women, 18-34.
Internet radio stations are currently trending among young adults and teens. Sonic
customers are 35% more likely to listen to internet radio than perform any other activity while
using the internet. Internet radio is another media outlet that will prove effective for reaching
Sonic’s target audience because of the popularity it has received with younger generations.
Internet radio, blogs, and social media websites generally have a following of younger
generation consumers and are effective mediums for reaching Sonic’s target audience in order
to increase awareness for Sonic’s SOM.
Evaluation
Our media plan is focused on raising awareness and familiarity with the Sonic brand.
We’ve chosen to focus our efforts on this because our target market is located in areas where
Sonic stores have not yet opened or have recently opened. Sonic has a great product and has been
successful in establishing brand loyalty in other regions of the country, and we are positive that
Sonic can have the same success in the Northwest region where newer stores are located.
However, if you refer to the advertising pyramid in Part 1, you will find that consumers in these
areas must be aware and familiar with Sonic before they can purchase it and build that brand
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loyalty. Our media plan will successfully increase the awareness and familiarity of Sonic among
our target market in the northwest region of the United States.
The DMAs that we chose to focus on in our media plan are all DMAs where new stores
will be opening or where stores are recently opening. All of the DMAs that we have chosen have
very low CDIs and BDIs, which means that there is a great opportunity for growth in these areas.
Twenty-five seems like a large number of DMAs to focus on with a smaller budget. However,
these DMAs have relatively small populations and advertising space in these areas are very
inexpensive. These two factors provide for a media plan that can be executed under our budget
of $149,500,000.
Our target audience is between the ages of 18 and 32. This demographic spends a large
amount of time on the Internet, more than any other demographic in fact. Furthermore, this
demographic is very likely to read magazines, particularly using e-readers. These lifestyle and
spending habits justify our choices of magazines and Internet for our primary and secondary
mediums.
We do not expect to face many, if any, challenges in the planning and buying processes.
Our media plan is under budget as is, and we have a $26,400,000 contingency budget that we can
use if problems arise. The only problem that we may face is larger brands purchasing our desired
advertising spots, because we are advertising more heavily in the summer.
We will measure the results of our media plan with surveys that will reveal whether
awareness and familiarity with the Sonic brand has risen among our target market. A more
indirect way of measuring the effectiveness of our media plan is to monitor sales in our targeted
DMAs for increases in sales.
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Though we do believe that our media plan will be effective and accomplish our media
objective, it does have limitations. One limitation of our plan is that we are focusing on a single
region of the country. While this region is one that needs a lot of investment in media, it is quite
risky to spend such a large sum of money there. However, we fully believe that our media plan
will provide a substantial return on investment and justify the expense.
We are confident that our media plan will work. We used information from reputable
sources like MRI, Neilson and SRDS to support our decisions for the media plan. We have
ensured that Sonic’s advertising will reach the right audience at the right time with the right
frequency. Our media plan will increase awareness among our target audience by 50% and cost
less than our budget. Because of our precise budgeting and choices in our media mix, we have
ensured that Sonic’s advertising dollars will be spent with the upmost efficiency.
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Resources
Media Flight Plan. "Sonic Media Planning Case Study." Media Flight Plan. N.p., 2012. Web. 9
Aug. 2013.
"Media Flight Plan Home." Media Flight Plan Home. Media Flight Plan, n.d. Web. 09 Aug.
2013.
Asim, Mian. Excel NielsenPopData20120413.xls. 15 July 2013. Raw data. Gainesville.
Asim, Mian. QuickServeAndPizzaCompetitive20120413.xls. N.d. Raw data. N.p.
Asim, Mian. SRDSLifestyleAnalyst_SonicCase20120413.xls. N.d. Raw data. N.p.
Asim, Mian. SonicMaps_20120413.ppt. N.d. Raw data. N.p.
