The nature of marketing — practice question

PD is a mass-market fizzy drinks producer in country Z. The fizzy drinks market in country Z is controlled by a small number of familiar brands. Total market value stands at $5.3bn and the PD brand holds 17% of that market. Pablo was appointed as PD’s Marketing Director in 2022. He introduced a fresh promotional campaign built around trending music on social media. He chose to use social media influencers to target this market. The campaign attracted poor online feedback. Many of PD’s customers did not wish to be linked with trending music. National news reported the negative reactions and PD’s sales volume fell by 20% in a week and kept dropping. As a result, PD’s warehouses held too much stock. The adverse publicity also pushed down PD’s share price and hurt cash flow. Fig. 2.1 presents responses from a recent questionnaire in which former PD customers were asked for their views of the promotional campaign. Pablo has arranged an emergency meeting with PD’s marketing managers to fix the harm caused to the PD brand by this latest promotional campaign.