In Step is a brand that is described as having characteristics that lie somewhere between

Payless Shoe source and Famous Footwear. It is a brand that is looking to increase sales and

penetration in a market where Payless holds 27% and Famous Footwear holds 7%. In Step is in

the middle with 15% penetration meaning they will need to spend more than Famous on

advertising. This still not a large budget; I will strategically choose media vehicles to create a

media mix that will increase sales and penetration.

Target

The target for In Step is women and more specifically women with children. This was

determined by considering what In Step offers and the needs of the customers of In Step. In Step

offers quality brand shoes at reasonable prices. We determined that women with children are the

markets that need this type of shoe store most. These women are not only buying for themselves

but for their children too. In Step can be a stop to buy shoes for the kids and pick up a pair for

her.

When looking at household sizes there is a trend as the number of people in the

household increases, so does the likelihood of the family shopping at Famous Footwear.

Households of two people have

an index score of 80;

households of 3-4 have an

index of 120, and an index of

126 for a household size of 5 or

more. So, households without

children or size of two are 20%

less likely to have shopped at

2

Index on Household Size

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

2 3 to 4 5 +

Household Size

Famous Footwear in the last 3 months, but households with children are 20% more likely to have

shopped at Famous Footwear. This is a huge jump, suggesting that larger households or families

with children are significantly more likely to shop at Famous Footwear making mothers with

children a crucial target audience characteristic.

Men were not an option for our target, simply because typically it is not the men that

shop for shoes. Women are much more interested in fashion and shopping. Also, in general it is

the women who take the children shopping for clothes and shoes. But, just targeting women was

considered as well. Collectively we concluded that women with children was better suited for In

Step, because as mothers women are looking for quality in their children’s shoes and are willing

to spend a little bit more for a well made shoe. Women shopping at Payless for instance, are most

likely shopping for themselves and looking for cheap shoes. These women buy shoes frequently

so they must buy cheap ones to afford it. Where, mothers are looking for shoes that will last

longer than one season.

Roughly 25% of women ages 50 to 54 have children and about 48% of women ages 18 to

24 have children. Women ages 50-54 are 40% less likely to have children at this age. Since

having children has a large impact on shopping habits to Famous Footwear then I am suggesting

for In Step that the target not include women 50-54 years of age or women ages 18 to 24 because

of the low percentage of women in these age groups with children. Below and above the range of

25-49 years old of women are far less likely to have children. In conclusion, the target audience I

am suggesting is women with children ages 25 to 49.

Developing a Budget

The budget was determined by comparing the budget to that of our competitors Payless

and Famous Footwear.

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Payless In Step Famous Footwear

Budget 67 MM 36MM 13MM

Penetration 21% 15% 7%

Payless is a shoe store that does not sell brand name shoes, thus they must achieve

national efficiency when advertising. They must spend a lot on advertising to reach consumers

and to keep Payless Shoe Source on consumer minds. Famous Footwear shoe stores sell brands,

and these brands advertise as well. This is why there is a large difference in advertising spending.

Famous Footwear can rely on a brand’s advertising to bring consumers to their stores. So, In

Step should spend somewhere between the two for advertising to compete.

The first option is to take Payless’ budget of 67 million and determine how much lower

the budget should be. When looking at percent penetrations, 15% of In Step is 71% of Payless’

penetration. So comparatively, In Step should spend 71% of what Payless does, which is 47

million dollars. Another option is to take what Famous Footwear spends and increase the price

relatively. In Step’s penetration is a little over 2 times that of Famous Footwear’s penetration.

This meaning that to achieve a 15% penetration of U.S. adults then In Step should spend two

times that of Famous Footwear. In this method the estimated budget is 27 million dollars.

Between the two methods there is a large gap of 20 million dollars. This illustrates the

difficulty in determining what is a suitable budget. Between estimating 47 million and 27 million

dollars to spend on advertising, the consensus was to choose a number in the middle. The final

budget was set at $36,000,000 or 36M illustrated below.

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National Local

Market Budget (000) Allocation (000) Allocation (000)

Market A 7,560 2,000 5,280

Market B-E 18,720 8,000 10,720

Market F-J 9,720 10,000 0

Totals 36,000 20,000 16,000

The budget has been allocated between three market segments depending on percentage

of sales for each segment and then further divided between national and local media. Market A

consists of 21% of sales, market B-E has 52% of sales, and market F-J has 27% of sales. The

amount being spent on advertising is directly related to the performance of sales. I want to spend

the most money in the markets that show the highest sales, because if a market shows high sales

then it must be a profitable market and I want to increase traffic and awareness especially in

these markets.

Next I have differentiated between national and local advertising dollars for each market

segment. Since national advertising is much more efficient I have decided to put 20 million

towards national media and the remaining 16 million dollars towards local advertising. The first

step was to allocate the budget for national media depending on the percentage of the market.

For example, market A is 10 % of the total market so 10% of 20 million is 2 million. Then the

rest of the budget was set towards local advertising. The rationale for this is that in a given

market only a representative portion depending on percent of the total market should be spent on

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national media. This is to ensure that for example in markets F-J half of the total market that half

of the national media is spent in these markets. This is beneficial; because market F-J has low

sales it is far more efficient to advertise nationally in this market.

Since I am allocating 10 million dollars to advertise nationally in market F-J and I am

going over budget for this market, I had to sacrifice in other areas to stay in budget. I decided to

sacrifice 280,000 dollars from the budget for local advertising in market A. The rationale are as

following:

1. Market A is highly developed with high sales and needs less local advertising compared to Market B-E

2. Market A is only 10% of the population, where Market B-E is 40% hence it is beneficial to allocate more money to Market B-E

3. Market B-E has high percentage sales and portion of the total market, and I would not want to take money away from this market

Timing

When to purchase has been determined through looking at the ad spending of Famous

Footwear over a year. The pattern shows three seasonal periods:

Back to school late July-August

Spring March-April

Holiday November- Mid December

Back to school shopping is the season that children will need new shoes. Women with children

will be searching for shoe stores and In Step needs to make consumers aware. Advertising

around this time will be relevant to the needs of the target. Since most schools start by September

the months July and August are the months that women are back to school shopping. During the

spring is a time when the weather changes and women get excited to buy new cloths for the new

season and kids often need summer flip-flops. Holiday season is November through mid-

December and during these months mothers are often dressing their children for the holidays or

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buying gifts. Women are buying shoes during these seasonal periods and this is when In Step

needs to remind consumers about their brand.

The chart shows the percentage of the total ad

spending Famous Footwear did in 2007 depending on the

months. The highest month is August, then there the

Holiday season with November and December, and then

the spring season in March and April.

Geography

I have chosen to split the total market into three grouped markets. How I have decided to

distinguish between markets is by looking at the percentage of sales and indices. There were

originally ten market tiers with each one holding 10% of the total U.S. Households. I wanted

differentiate the markets depending on the percentage of sales in these markets, since the sales

directly correlate with the number of stores in the area. For example, market J holds 10% of the

U.S. households but only shows 1% of the total sales. In this market there may only be a few In

Step stores and it is just the case that people do not have the accessibility of other markets such

as Market A. In markets such as market J, it is far more efficient to use national advertising

opposed to local advertising. National Advertising in general is more efficient, but it does not

make sense to spend money on local advertising if there are not stores locally to shop at. So, with

this strategy in mind I have divided the markets into the following groups.

Market Tiers

Jan-07 0Feb-07 0.6%Mar-07 14.3%Apr-07 10.6%

May-07 4.4%Jun-07 1.6%Jul-07 7.7%

Aug-07 26.6%Sep-07 6.7%Oct-07 0.12%

Nov-07 11.3%Dec-07 16%

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Market A represents 10% of the total market with 21% of the sales. This is the highest

performing market with and index of 210; the sales are two times that of the market size. No

other market tier is comparable to these numbers, and that is why I have left this market alone

and have not grouped it

with any others. Market A is

differentiated as the market

with many accessible stores

with high volume sales. In

this market the goal will be

to keep advertising local

and to increase traffic in the

already popular stores. Apparently, the existing stores in this market are successful and in highly

populated areas it would be advantageous to create a higher awareness of the local In Step stores.

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0

50

100

150

200

250

A B-E F-J

Market Teirs

Index

Another goal is to increase activation, which is convincing consumers to come to In Step

to look at the selection. I am

recommending doing this through

newspaper ads and coupons, radio, and

television. The chart shows how the

budget for market A has been spent.

The majority of the money is being

spent on Newspaper ads and Prime

time. Newspapers are excellent to get

bursts of activation because women go to the newspaper to look for coupons and good deals.

Since market A is a market with many local In Step stores and mothers looking for deals I want

to buy 15 weeks of ½ page space, and 14 weeks of ¼ page space during the other months. I think

it is important to keep In Step top of mind, so a small ad in the paper during off seasons will

remind women.

Radio is another form of media that is going to bring more awareness and activation. I

have choose to buy AM, MID, and PM radio to reach more people. There are three four-week

periods during the seasonal times of the year. There is a higher weight level on AM and Midday

radio because during these times of the day women are still making plans or running errands.

This gives In Step a higher opportunity to activate them to go to the store.

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1/2 Page 4/c1/4 page B/WAM DriveMid DayPM DriveEarly MorningDayEarly FringePrime

Prime time is important to create awareness of the brand. Prime time has a broader

audience and more viewers. Early morning is a good form because typically active people or

employed women watch television at this time. This is a way to expand reach to the working

mothers who do not have time to watch TV any other time. Women mainly view daytime

television and In Step should advertise there to increase awareness. Daytime and early fringe

times are highly

efficient ways to

gain awareness and

reach.

In Market A

the peak months are

highly overweighed

because these are

the times when

mothers are buying shoes and I want In Step to have a lot of advertisement. These periods are

crucial and because of this it was necessary to sacrifice purchasing media during to off months.

This chart demonstrates the local media target rating points for each month. August is high

because the back to school season is mainly during August. But the three seasons are easy to see

with totaling around 30% of the target

rating points for each seasonal period.

Market B

The next group of market tiers is

differentiated as markets with indices of

10

% TRP by Month

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Jan

March

May

July

September

November

% Budget

1/2 Page 4/c

Mid Day

Day TV

Early Fringe

Prime

100 or higher. If a market index is above 100, then this market is better suited for local

advertisements because it shows higher volume of sales compared to the percentage of the total

market. And like I discussed earlier, this is partly due to the number of stores in the market. So, I

have combined four market tiers of market B through market E composing 40% of the total

market. This market B will hold 52% of the total sales for In Step; meaning half of the budget

will be allocated to this market. These markets are where the main focus of advertising will be

because of their high percentage of sales and indices. These markets already show potential,

most likely due to the location and number of stores in these markets. The goal for this market

will be to advertise heavily, especially locally, to increase awareness and activation. With these

efforts, an increase in awareness will increase traffic and in turn increasing sales.

In Market B the purchased media is allocated to only the seasonal periods because

purchasing media all year long in this large of a market would be very expensive. It is more

efficient and effective to buy only during the peak months. These months are overweighed

compared to other non-seasonal months but none of the periods overweighs another.

Sales in this market are moderate meaning that there is an interest for In Step, so the goal

is to activate traffic through the store and to make them aware. But this market is 40% of the

total market making it very expensive to buy a variety of media forms. Newspapers are

extremely important to create a fast, instant announcement about pricing or an offer. Newspapers

are very effective in delivering bursts of information, but also expensive to buy a large market. I

have spent 23% of the budget on ½ page ads for 12 weeks.

Next important is Primetime television because this will reach a broad audience.

Reaching a broad audience will be important in this market because the sales are not as high as in

Market A and increasing reach is necessary to increase sales. Early Fringe and Daytime

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television are great programs to be on to reach women. Buying different media forms ads reach

as well. Another way to ad reach is by purchasing midday radio programming. Midday radio

listeners are mainly women including stay at home moms. I could only purchase midday radio

because there was not any budget left, but midday radio is the most important time of the day for

radio because it reaches stay at home mothers.

Market C

The last group of markets is markets F through J or market C. These markets are

differentiated as different from the rest because the indices in these markets are below 100

showing a low likelihood of consumers shopping at In Step in these markets. This is most likely

due to the low accessibility to In Step Stores in these markets. But for this reason, it does not

make sense to spend money advertising to markets that do not have In Step stores in their area. I

would suggest increasing the number of stores in these areas or other tactics to increase

traffic/sales, but advertising will not do much for these markets. That is why these markets were

put into a category, and this category consists of 50% of the total market, which will be focused

on national advertising. National advertising is much more efficient than local advertising, and in

these markets with low density of stores local advertising would not be beneficial.

The budget for market C is going to spent all nationally and below is a chart showing the

break-up of it. The goal

for Market C is to gain

awareness so that when

they do see an In Step

being built in their area

they will know what it

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% Budget

CableDayPrimeFringe SyndicationPeopleParentsGoogle SearchAd NetworksPortalsCommunity Sites

is. With the television purchases, Cable is the biggest purchase because it is highly effective.

Cable has the lowest cost per rating point at 7,000 and the next lowest is daytime at 8,000.

Because cable is so cost effective, I purchased three 6-week periods at 25 TRPs per week. I also

bought prime time at three 6-week periods because the audience is broad giving a high

awareness.

Magazines are beneficial when advertising because they have a high involvement and

they tend to get passed around and reach a lot of different people. But because magazines cannot

delivery instant messages like radio or newspapers that reach the audience the day of the sale, I

think only spots in two magazines should be bought. People are an excellent choice because it

has a 30% coverage and it has a low CPP. People are a general magazine that a lot of women are

exposed to and this magazine can add reach to many consumers. I also think that Parents is a

great magazine for In Step, because it like People it has a high coverage rate and a low CPP.

More so, Parents’ editorial is relevant to women with children and this magazine will reach our

target audience. One thing to note is that because magazines come out a month in advance, I

have purchased Parents’ one month before the seasonal periods.

I am recommending spending 1150 thousand dollars on online advertising. The Internet

is growing and consumers are trusting the Internet more and more to make online purchases.

Many women have become very accustom to ordering their things online, and In Step does not

want to miss out on this opportunity. Roughly 500,000 dollars is allocated to google search

terms. Since consumers may try to look up In Step all year long I wanted to buy search terms all

year but there is double spending during the seasonal periods. All yearlong search terms such as

In Step, shoe store, or shoe retailer will be purchased for general inquire about the store. During

seasonal periods more specific and more terms will be bought. Such terms as cheap shoes, shoe

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coupons; discount shoes, family shoes, and others that relate to the store and the other

advertisements so consumers can discover In Step.

Portals, Ad networks, and Community sites are all purchased during the three seasonal

periods. This is to increase awareness and traffic into the stores. Portals such as Yahoo.com and

Google.com are two more family oriented portals that should be used than ones such as my space

for this target. Ad networks are resourceful to use because they can get an ad for In Step up on a

lot of unique sites offering a large reach opportunity. Community sites are sites where women

can share information such as parents.com, foodnetwork.com, or cafemom.com. These sites

collect traffic from mothers who hopefully see ads for In Step. For these three forms of online

media buying the over number of impressions made is around 91 million nation wide. Putting a

brand online has huge opportunity to reach a lot of people, which is great for a brand that is

trying to increase awareness.

Conclusion

Through choosing media vehicles that have a high reach or a mass audience, along with

media vehicles that delivery more specifically to the target markets a media mix can accomplish

awareness and activation. Spots on prime time television or magazines like People will reach a

broad range of people. This is a good tactic for creating awareness, and newspapers with

promotions will activate a consumer to enter the store. They are both beneficial to bringing more

traffic into In Step. After this yearlong campaign, In Step will see increased traffic through the

store especially during the high peak periods.

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