Marketing Strategy 4th P – Promotion

Marketing Strategy 4^th P – Promotion

1. Evidence

2. Justification

Uber Eats used the public relations marketing strategy to roll out the “Tonight I’ll be Eating” campaign back in 2017 (Bennett 2019). By featuring Australian and global personalities, the campaign was aimed at normalizing home delivery by encouraging customers to place their orders at home and leave Uber Eats with the hustle of delivering the order. The advertising and sales promotion strategies were effective at helping restaurant owners to advertise their food offerings to customers in the app. As more restaurants use the company’s services, Uber Eats records an increase in revenue. The personal selling advert was effective at promoting the food delivery services offered by the company, as the individual is depicted enjoying her food at the place of work. Finally, the Dish Society social media strategy was effective at boosting sales, as it required customers to use the code to order food for free. The $10 off deal was aimed at encouraging bulk purchases as customers would rush to take advantage of the offer by placing many orders. Uber Eats also uses the advert to emphasize its ability to deliver a wide variety of food offerings to customers as and when they want the delivery to be made.

3. 1 Advantage and 1 Limitation

While the advertisement educates restaurant owners about the existence of in-app advertising that could boost sales, the notion that using the tool would help the restaurant to stand out from the competition is somewhat misleading. This is particularly evident when other players in the market also use the tool. The sales promotion strategy, just like the advertising strategy, informs restaurants about the benefits of using in-app marketing to increase the demand for their food offerings. However, this benefit is not guaranteed, especially when customers have a wide variety of restaurants to choose from, or when competing restaurants also use the same strategy. From the digital marketing strategy, it is evident that Uber Eats managed to attract a large pool of potential customers using minimal cost. However, not every potential customer that views the campaign would be happy or approve the claim made by the company. Some viewers could have contrary opinions and even post them on the Facebook page, thus reducing the effectiveness of the campaign. Even though the personal selling and public relations campaigns were effective at communicating the need for using Uber Eats services, broadcasting the campaign on traditional media platforms such as the television is expensive.

4. Assessment of the IMC Strategy

From Uber Eats’ rising dominance in the Australian market, it is evident that the company’s integrated marketing communications have been effective in communicating its existence to customers and encouraging them to use its services. The success of the company in the market is a testament to its effectiveness in planning, executing, evaluating, and controlling the five promotional mix elements to achieve its marketing objective.

5. Advertising Objective

Uber Eats advertising objective is to connect customers with a wide variety of local restaurants and food offerings, thus allowing them to order their favourite meals from their preferred restaurants as and when they need. Even though Uber Eats Australia has already reached the level of brand recognition enjoyed by traditional brands such as McDonald’s and Woolworths (Bennett 2019), the company should still target the expansion of its customer network in the advertising objective.

6. When to employ a Push or Pull System Strategy

Contrary to the push systems strategy where the company pushes materials and products into the market and awaits orders, the company receives the requests first before pushing the product in the market under the pull strategy (Sarbjit 2017). The differences in customer requirements, food specifications, and individual orders imply that Uber Eats should always use the pull strategy to deliver food offerings to customers.

Reference List

Bennett, T. (2019). UberEats GM: Australian Open campaign blurred the line between broadcast and advertising – Which-50. [online] Which-50. Available at: https://which-50.com/ubereats-gm-australian-open-campaign-blurred-the-line-between-broadcast-and-advertising/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2020].

Sarbjit, S. (2017). Study on Push/ Pull Strategy Decision Taken by Organizations for Their Products and Services. Universal Journal of Management, [online] 5(10), pp.492–495. Available at: http://www.hrpub.org/download/20171130/UJM4-12110535.pdf [Accessed 11 Jul. 2019].