I had a final check over the overall review this morning and I am pleased with it. I kept it roughly within the 50MB guideline but the inclusion of videos made me go slightly over.  Overall I am happy with the outcome, I feel my design represents the brands well within siding with one brand over the other.

Last thing to do now is to add it to Dropbox and share with Paz.

All references cited and put in the reference list for both websites and pictures. I have put my appendix in of my survey results and re-read over the whole project. The last step to do now is to check that all the buttons work when I test the overall project in the browser.

I will then have one last look over to see if there are any design changes I need to carry out.

I have now got the design pretty much the way I want it to be. The videos now work how I want them too only the cursor has to stay on the video to be able to view it all. I have included all the navigational buttons needed to get around my report.

The next step now is to sort out my references.

Design Continued

It took me a while to find a design I liked and that I wanted to stick with. I have so far completed the cover page and buttons with the cider bottles to direct to the promotion section. I have put in all the text just need to input the pictures to go alongside it.

I am having some difficulty trying to get the videos to work on the animation option.

The next step is to get the videos to work the way I want and get the design fixed for each brands promotional information.

button design

On the main page of my review I will have an interactive menu with all the buttons of the different brands. I wanted to keep it simple yet clear what brand is for what market level. I have decided to keep all the brands black and white as I think it looks better against the colour co-ordinated backgrounds. 

Green-Low

Red- Mid

Yellow-High

My next step will be to actually make the buttons work

Hand in idea?

From starting my design I thought a good way to hand in my project with the time log would be to customise a beermat to fit with the design of my review as it would be relevant. I could hand my project in on a USB and attach it to the beermat.

Beermat design idea

design idea

I re-read my content a few times taking out parts that weren't important and I got the wordcount down to just under 5,500 not including references. 

The next stage is thinking about design..

An idea I had for the design of my report is to keep it very traditional with a lot of links to the making process e.g. using apples for the colour scheme, incorporation of barrels etc. I think this would be a good way to keep it connected with my overall review without siding with a certain brand for a design idea.

Content complete

I have now finished putting in all the content needed including the background info tables and the comparison table. I am 600 words over the word limit so I need to go back over it all and see what bits I need to take out. Since its only 600 words I won't have to take too much out as I am allowed to be 10% over.

The next stage after that will be to think of design ideas.

Word Count

I have now included my introduction, information on all the brands promotion and the table including background history, percentage etc. and I have already reached the 5000 word limit. I know I can go over by 500 but I think at this stage I am going to re-read and take out the parts I feel aren't important as I want to have enough words to full answer my initial question in the comparison chart.

The content

In terms of writing the report I have just went over the half way point (2,500 words). I think to save myself words I am going to do the background of each brand in a table as the content for each campaign is quite a lot and I don't want to only skim on the details.

Also if I keep it in a table it is easier to compare each brand on the basic info like percentage, price etc.

The brands I have covered so far are:
Strongbow
Frosty Jack
Magners
Brothers

Once I have included all the brands I will check over them to see I have included similar information for them all and pick which are the main brands I am going to compare. 

Word count so far: 2,736

Survey Results

26 out of the 30 people I asked took the time to fill in my survey about the cider brands. The results are interesting and will really benefit my review findings.

Here are the results..

4. Do you have a favourite brand? Why is this?

Rekorderlig. Purely to do with the taste!

12/11/2012 17:39View Responses

Brothers - Because Its quite popular in bars and pubs. It also has a really nice flavour range.

12/11/2012 16:04View Responses

Rekorderlig or Kopperberg. purely for them being feminine, and I much prefer my Cider's to be slightly fruity and they have a good selection.

12/11/2012 16:00View Responses

Kopparberg as it as sexual and classy

12/11/2012 15:53View Responses

Magners - the new berry one

12/11/2012 15:48View Responses

Magners - personal favourite is pear, its cheap enough and does the trick

3/11/2012 20:08View Responses

As I do not regularly drink Cider, I would usually go for Magners- Strong brand loyalty. Also, Kopparberg for it's choice of fruity flavours and new varieties, especially for summer months.

3/11/2012 19:23View Responses

Magners in the bottle as off tap it seems to taste off. Also like trying foreign brands

3/11/2012 19:10View Responses

Magners It's at a competitive price with most other brands of cider. It's the nicest tasting and it isn't 'looked down upon' by certain members of the public in the same way that a cheap cider is.

3/11/2012 18:42View Responses

Magners - tasty Kopperberg- tasty Armagh cider - tasty

3/11/2012 18:37View Responses

Rekorderleig. Taste, nice selection of flavours and not as sweet as Kopparberg.

3/11/2012 17:41View Responses

Kopparberg. It tastes awesome.

3/11/2012 17:30View Responses

Bulmers.

3/11/2012 17:11View Responses

Yes. I like Bulmers the best usually. I like the different flavours, e.g. The red berry one is gorgeous in the summer. I also like strongbow from the tap. The price is appealing as the bottles of Bulmers/Magners is usually expensive!

3/11/2012 16:53View Responses

Magners

3/11/2012 16:48View Responses

brothers

3/11/2012 16:47View Responses

Kopparberg, because i like the fruity flavours

3/11/2012 16:38View Responses

koppaberg - it's sweeter than other ciders i've tried

3/11/2012 16:36View Responses

kopparberg because of flavour

3/11/2012 16:35View Responses

bulmers - price is quite cheap

3/11/2012 16:35View Responses

People choosing Magners for strong brand loyalty is quite a good point to make, also need to focus on the brands people associate with being reasonably priced.

The majority of main campaigns I am looking at for each brand are primarily reaching their customers through tv so this backs up this fact.

8. Why do you think the 'Method in the Magner's' campaign is so successful?

Magners has had all sorts of "different" ad campaign's - "Time Dedicated To You" and such. It's an attempt at market differentiation, which to me kinda half works. Ad-wise, I'd pick Magners over everything else, for much the same reason I'd pick Guinness - the ads are recognisable and easily identifiable.

I think because it has a comical element to them, depicting Irish people as silly and dedicated with drinking! It makes you think, if they put that much effort into making it, it must be a good drink!

Strong Campaign as it delivered the message clearly and connected with the target prospects emotionally If I was not a cider consumer it may motivate me, as it created hype 'trend' through word of mouth and conversation. Magners is also a strong brand, which continues brand loyalty.

It still seems like they corner the market for pub drinking cider. It is also a simple and catchy slogan that sticks in the mind

It's a humorous advert that makes fun of the those advertisements that go over the top to try and make people believe how hard they work to make their product.

The quotes i received from this question will really back up the popularity of Magners, some of the answers are very good.

9. What do you think of the new Kopparberg 'Un-established since 1882' promotional campaign?

The majority of responses hadn't even heard of the new promotion, which doesn't work well for Kopparberg as this is the highest budget they have ever put into a campaign. The responses I did like and will probably use are:

I didn't even know it was Kopparberg's new slogan! It's a bit try-hard I think, following the lead of Magner's and Strongbow by being "edgy" and "atypical". I don't drink Kopparberg and I don't really intend to start, so no, it's not my cup of tea.

I like it, though i think the use of the word "un-established" makes me think the company is a bit dodgy - makes it sound a bit home-made and not very professional ?

Primary Research

To back up my findings on how successful the promotions were I have done a survey including questions on various of the promotions I am including in the review to see peoples views on them.

I have also included the slogans of each the cider brands, this will prove how successful the brand has got their message across in terms of promoting themselves. 

I have posted the survey on Facebook and Twitter to target the typical age range of a cider drinker, I have also emailed people who fit into the suitable age range.

PowerPoint over, Layout ideas

The PowerPoint went well, only thing I have to add in is the price to make sure its clear  across the different levels and make sure when I actually am writing the review that I refer back to my introduction to make sure I answered all the questions I intended to.

In class we were shown previous reviews and how they laid them out, I think this will be the think that takes up the most time as I don't just want it to be a boring review, I want to include interactive elements to it. Especially since I am doing cider I can bring across the fun side in my layout designs.

IDEAS..

My first idea was to display my home page like a bar fridge and have all 9 brands visible in it which would be workable buttons to take you to that section of the report. I thought I could split up the different market levels by shelves so it is easy to navigate through the different markets.

I found this image on google and thought it was good as it is straight on so it would be easy to input the bottles over the top. I would blur out the bottles already in the fridge so you can still see they are bottles but not the branding on the labels so it won't cause confusing. 

I also thought to develop this idea I could develop this idea by creating an illustrated bar along the top of the measures etc. to tie it all together. I am going to try out this idea and see if it is worth continuing with.

PowerPoint completed

The Completed PowerPoint

Since I had previously made the summary table for all my 9 brands creating the power point slides was quite easy as I basically just had to elaborate a bit more on the information I already had. For a lot of the brands, Magners primarily, there are a lot of information. I tried to keep the amount of information the same for each brand.

I have kept the design of the powerpoint very simple as its mainly the information that is the important part.

In terms of layout, above shows my ideas. I will need to book a tutorial to top up my InDesign skills so I can achieve the outcome I want. I really want my review to be very interactive. 

Powerpoint

Now that my introduction has been approved the next step is gathering together all the information I have already collected and compiling it into a power point to show I have the right information to actually carry out the investigation I have stated in my introduction.

The PowerPoint wasn't meant to be until the 8th November but I decided to do mine earlier so I can get on with writing the actually review, and I feel I have done enough to be at that stage.

The power point will allow me to see exactly what information I have for each and what extra bits I need to find for certain brands where the information is not as easy accessible as the others.

The power point will be split into sections:

• Title Page
• Intro- my investigation
• 2 slides for the 2 low market brands
• 3 slides for the 3 mid market brands
• 4 slides for the 4 high market brands
• The main promotional campaigns I will investigate for each brand
• Conclusion page stating how I will compare the brands and answer my initial question
• Layout, how I want my actual review to look

Introduction

Writing my introduction will help me finalise what I want to find out in my report and what aspect of each brand am I going to compare. Starting my introduction with the Mintel statement sets my review up nicely as it highlights the fact that cider has become more popular recently which is down to promotion.

‘Cider has been the success story of the UK alcohol market over the past five years mainly due to its constant innovation which has ensured that it now attracts a high proportion of the key 18-24year old drinkers that eschewed it as old-fashioned just a decade ago. This has been to the detriment of lager in particular.’ Mintel, February 2012, Cider Report

Following this I will give a brief intro into the cider market in general before describing what I want to gain from my report. I think it is important to introduce the content in general before delving in as it gives the reader a taster of what follows.

Promotion is going to make up a high percentage of my review as it is massive in the cider/alcohol industry. I have decided to focus mainly on one main campaign for each as I want to have enough words to go into detail on each. 

My investigation:

'This report will look closely at nine popular cider brands, looking at the brands as a whole and also investigating the promotional techniques of each brand. The cider brands will range from low market to premium brands to see the difference in how they reach their target customer; do big budgets result in a more successful campaign? Or do simple; well planned campaigns have more of an impact? It will be interesting to see if there is a difference in the promotional methods used by low market brands compared to the mid/high market. Which brand ranks top for most innovative means of promotion and which brand is losing too its competitors. Another aspect of this review will be the brands use of social networking, with the ever changing digital world have the brands embraces this new way of promotion or have they yet to modernise their promotional techniques.'

Summary Tables

To set my research out in a more clear way so I can see what information I have I design three separate tables for each market level including the following information for each brand:

• When and where it was founded
• The Unique Selling Point of the brand (USP)
• The different varieties of the brand
• The alcohol Percentage
• The slogan (current)
• The producer of the brand

All the brands had the information for each of these points apart from Jacques who don't have a well known slogan for the brand.

From making this table it has made my research far more organised and allows me to easily find a certain bit of information easier.

This will be very beneficial when it comes to making my power-point presentation. 

I have also listed what promotional campaign I am going to focus on when it comes to that point of the review, as I have discovered through research that the promotion is very big for each company it would be best to just focus on one main one for each brand as I want to get all the relevant information included in the 5000 word limit. 

The promotions for each are as follows:

Frosty Jack's- Strong links with comedy- Sponsorship deals with ITV2 promoting their comedy season. Teamed up with 'Loaded' mag to produce a sequence of Celebrity Comedy Podcasts

Strongbow- 'Earn It' campaign

Magners- 'Theres Method in the Magners' campaign

Bulmers- 'Experimenters Wanted' campaign

Brothers- 'Join the Family' campaign

Stella Artois Cidre- 'C'est Cidre not Cider' campaign

Jacques- Jacques Townhouse event

Kopparberg- 'Unestablished since 1882' campaign

Rekorderlig- 'Swedish School' campaign

 I have already a lot of information on each of the campaigns but will collect more after I have completed my introduction and got it approved.

The next stage is writing my introduction..

Research

Now that my proposal has been approved by Paz I started my research into the 9 Brands.
My starting point was to focus more on the Mintel report I found on Cider as it was compiled in 2012 so the information will be up to date.

I read through the whole report highlighting the 3 different market levels in different colours to make it easier when it comes to writing my actual review. This Mintel report has a good bit of information on the brands customer and also the background information on each brand as a lot come from a large manufacturer that makes several alcoholic drinks eg Frosty Jacks comes from the Aston Manor Brewery.

The next stage I am going to look at is the background information behind each brand. The information I want to collect is:

• Background History
• Product Range
• Target Customer
• Price Range

I will look on the brands official website/Mintel to get this information. I will look at promotional campaigns after this as it will be the main focus of my report and there will be a lot of information for each brand. 

Slight change..

From my last post I have had a slight change in direction. My previous idea was to focus on 9 spirit brands as the research would be good for my final campaign idea, although with further research it was proving to be quite difficult to find a spirit (vodka, gin etc.) with 9 well known brands to look at. This made me think about changing it to cider brands as there are loads to choose from. 

I went on Mintel and came across a report published in Feb 2012 about the cider industry, it was very useful in the selection process of my 9 brands. My 9 brands are:

• High End- Reckorderlig, Kopparberg, Stella Artois Cidre, Jacques
• Middle-Magners, Bulmers, Brothers
• Low- Strongbow, Frosty Jack's

This statement..

‘Cider has been the success story of the UK alcohol market over the past five years mainly due to its constant innovation which has ensured that it now attracts a high proportion of the key 18-24-year-old drinkers that eschewed it as old-fashioned just a decade ago. This has been to the detriment of lager in particular.’ Mintel, February 2012, Cider Report

Got me thinking my report would be very interesting if I focused on the promotion used by the cider brands over the 5 years which it has become more popular. 

The proposal is due in on 4th so the next step is finishing it and getting it approved, also to start researching more into each brand, brand history, product range etc.

Briefing

This is my reflective log for FM3124-Digital Review. I am going to post a blog entry every Sunday so show my progress with the project throughout the week.

We received the brief for this project on the 20th Sept and in class we were told to say would our initial idea was, I said Drink brands as in Smirnoff, Guinness etc. as I could link it to my final campaign idea. Paz said that if I chose to do this I need to make it more specific eg only spirits, beers and so on. This will be my first plan of action. 

When researching what area I am going to I need to make sure I have brands that have a variety of different price ranges (minimum of two in each level).

From my first research it looks like spirits are the best to do which cover the levels needed for this project. 

The next step will be what 9 brands I am going to choose..