critical issue facing the Skittles brand

critical issue facing the Skittles brand

The critical issue that is facing the Skittles brand is publicity. This issue can be traced back to the shooting incident that led to the death of Trayvon Martin. Martin was carrying Skittles during the time of his death. Due to this, people started to see the Skittles as a symbol of Martin’s death, and therefore they decided to sell it as a way of creating awareness. This affected the company because of the divergent views of the society about that incident. Some believed Skittles being referred top as the symbol for that death was increasing the sales of the company. This increase in the sales was, therefore, benefiting the brand and its parent company, Mars. They felt that the brand was supposed to donate to the family of Martin. However, Brand managers agreed that the brand, Wrigley and Mars were in a very delicate position. This is because any action they would take in connection with this incident would include illicit different views among its audience.

In case Mars decided to speak out concerning the incident, this would look like they were capitalizing on it to increase their sales. Getting a donation to Martin’s company would make some say that it was not enough. This contradicting effect on the customers made the brand and company at large release a statement. They stated that they were respecting the privacy of the company, and thus they saw it best not to get involved or comment on the tragedy. Such an incident had both positive and negative impacts on the marketing communications of the brand.

Another issue that has affected Mars Inc. is communications. The company should be in a position to monitor the changes in communication. This monitoring will help in coming up with appropriate planning. The success of the company can be seen through its campaign dubbed “You’re not you.” The inception of this plan in 2010 marked the beginning of the journey that led to the company being the bestselling confection on earth. The candy sector is, however, facing the problem of finding new markets from time to time. This challenge is as a result of the limitation in the amount of cream one can eat.

Marketing communication is the strategy employed by a company like Skittles to reach their target audience. This strategy involves the sharing of the information, meaning and concepts about the product and service. The objectives of this communication can be long-term goals which consist of campaigns that are geared towards driving up the sales of the brand over time. The source of this information shared is the marketer who delivers it to the target audience. The audience receives and digests the message, and if they find the product or service favourable, they decide to buy it.

The objectives of market communications are to communicate, convince and to compete. The first objective is to pass ideas to the target audiences. The communication is done through personal selling, public relations and promotion of the sales. Most of the marketing done by companies is through communication. The message passed to the audience should, however, be accurate, useful and truthful. Communication must be persuasive, and thus it carries a particular responsibility of communicating with integrity. The communication helps in increasing the awareness about the products and service of the company. An already established brand like Skittles employs this technique to maintain its top-of-mind awareness in the market.

Another objective of new marketing communication is to enable effective competitiveness in the marketplace. The company may face a competitive company with the same products in the market at the same price. For it to appeal to the customers, it has to differentiate its product from that of the competitors properly. Through marketing communication, the company will be able to create a long-lasting level of brand loyalty. During the period the companies are doing the communication, in order to get to more customers, the brand has to exhibit a strong marketing communication plan.

Communication marketing also seeks to achieve brand switching. A company like Skittles can do this to ensure that the customers from other fruit-flavoured candy brands change to Skittles. This objective is easier to achieve because the customers are already using the products from the other company. Skittles has top employ a very convincing communication marketing strategy so that the customers switch from the other brands.

Another objective is to change attitudes. These are the misconceptions that are developed about the company, its products and services. Skittles can use this strategy to address such misconception directly. Such misconceptions can be a result of the involvement of the company in some unsettling activities or scandals in business. Through this change of attitude, gets new customers. The customers of the company can give referrals to others who had doubts about its services. The clarification can be done through the television adverts or sent directly to the customers in their emails, or through social media and the company’s website.