Company Background

Pokka Corporation (S) Pte Ltd was established in 1977 by Pokka Corporation, headquartered in Japan. Based on the recent research by Euromonitor, Pokka was ranked 3rd in terms of market share in the soft drink industry, with Coca Cola Singapore and F&N clinching the first and second spot respectively. The soft drink market is segmented into different categories namely Ready to drink (RTD) tea, RTD coffee, isotonic drink, juices, soft drinks, bottled water, sports and energy drinks.

Pokka’s portfolio includes RTD tea and coffee, isotonic drinks, juices and soft drinks. Currently, Pokka is the market leader in the RTD tea and coffee market, placed third in the juice and soft drink market while lagging behind in the other markets.

Social Media Presence

Facebook is Pokka’s dominant social media platform, with over 58 000 likes on their official page. Ongoing campaigns are promoted through this Facebook wall and the general public can share or like these posts accordingly. Majority posts are regarding their RTD teas and coffee, neglecting the other lines of drinks offered. This might be a possible reason resulting in its high market share in these two markets.

Instagram has also been adopted by Pokka, however the account is observed to be inactive with only 4 posts and its last post dated 99 weeks ago. From those posts, it can be inferred that Pokka is trying to promote its RTD tea line & also attempting to engage its consumers with images from our everyday lives. Given the increasing popularity of this social media platform, an inactive account is equivalent to a wasted promotional opportunity.

With the increasing use of other social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, Pokka is encouraged to fully utilize such medium to further extend its awareness among its target consumers, beyond its current reach through facebook alone. Moreover, there is ease of conveying messages among various applications with the integration of the social sharing function on Facebook.

Why Pokka?

We have identified a gap between Pokka’s current social media strategies and the social media consumption behaviour of its target markets – teens and young adults aged between 18-35 years old.

According to a report by Fortune magazine, 63% of the users view Facebook and Twitter as news sources. Therefore there is a need for Pokka to venture into new social media sites that are high in engagement, such as Snapchat, and also revive its Instagram account to establish a greater connection with its customers. Building a strong relationship with customers is increasingly important in the saturated Food & Beverage industry as customers have low switching costs between Pokka and its competitors.

Currently, Pokka’s promotional activities are mainly focused on their line of RTD teas and coffees. Euromonitor has reported that one of the upcoming trends in the soft drinks industry is the increase in health concerns regarding packaged drinks. We believe that Pokka can leverage on this trend and promote its other product lines, to further boost its sales.

Project Goal

Our analysis of relevant key trends led us to establish that customers are becoming more health conscious and there is also an increasing emphasis on leading an active lifestyle. We aim to promote Pokka’s drinks as an alternative healthy option, through the use of social media platforms, and also to increase awareness for the other product lines. Focusing on other products will allow Pokka to expand their customer base, while still retaining their current market position in the RTD tea and coffee market.

In order to achieve our goals, the main crux will be to find out the reasons behind the low sales for other product lines, such as juices and isotonic drinks. We will be conducting primary research on the target customers’ buying decisions, as well as an analysis of Pokka’s market presence and its customers’ perception on the brand and its products.

As such, our research question would be:

How can Pokka utilise social media to increase awareness of its other lines of drinks and build a “healthier choice” brand image?

Methodology

Our approach will be to concentrate on matching the demographics of Pokka’s customer base to the corresponding demographics of the social media platform’s user base. By focusing on the demographics, our social media strategy can be more focused and effective in reaching our intended audience. As each social media platform has a different user base, it is important to determine which platform is most heavily used by our target group so that we can select a relevant platform accordingly.

In addition to the demographics of the social media platforms, we will also be looking specifically at the ranking of these platforms in Singapore to ensure effectiveness with the local consumers. Another factor to consider is the purpose of each platform. For example, Instagram is mainly devoted to image sharing while Snapchat focuses on live updates of events. Taking these factors into account will enable our strategy to be relevant, targeted and effective.

In order to accurately measure the effectiveness of potential media channels, we will be integrating quantitative and qualitative measures to form a balanced analysis. For instance, we can use data analysis tools, such as synthesio, to determine the quantity of responses or scale of engagement with the target audience. A qualitative measure would be sentiment analysis, where we consider the positive or negative emotions involved with the responses. Sometimes a campaign can generate a lot of responses but if all of these are negative in nature, then it cannot be deemed a success.

Thank you.

Done by: Elaine Lim, Shauna Gan, Teo Wei Qing