Mention Youcan and chances are, everyone in China would have already tasted their products. Being one of the big boys there, their products are readily available at supermarkets and convenience stores.
However in Singapore , they are still relatively new. It has only been nine months since their arrival in the Singapore market and awareness as well as distribution of their ice cream is relatively low.
Currently, Youcan ice creams can be found in half of all NTUC Supermarkets in Singapore . It is also available in Cold Storage, Giant, CarreFour, and Mustafa Centre. Ice cream pushcarts or kiosks can also be seen at certain heartland shopping centres during weekends.
What Youcan is planning for the future is to increase the overall awareness of the brand along with establishing sound distribution strategies to get the products to the consumers. Youcan is looking at in - store promotions in major supermarkets as well as making their products available in the smaller grocery shops.
Key Challenges
One of the biggest challenges Youcan faced , besides low awareness levels , was the stigma that most China products, especially food products, are of inferior quality. In addition to that, they also face d distribution challenges such as having their products not readily available or visible in major supermarkets.
Try visiting the ice cream department in NTUC Fairprice and you would most probably see Walls and Magnolia before locating the Youcan brand. One of the main reasons for this is that there was no time alignment between the exposure of the Youcan ads with the distribution of their products to retailers.
Insight
Having an assorted range of unique, exotic ice cream flavours, Youcan ice creams are more popular amongst the HDB heartlanders within the 35 – 50 year old age group. However, those who are sick of the usual chocolate and vanilla flavoured ice creams are found to be mor e willing to sample the alternative flavours Youcan has to offer.
With an ‘Everything Must Try Once' kind of attitude inbred in all Singaporeans, the creative approach was to bring Youcan ice creams to the consumers directly using a guerilla sales promotional - based campaign that is fun, engaging and rewarding.
The Hiring Process
Behind every successful business execution lies a committed and hardworking team driving the engine . This is exactly the reason behind the success of the Youcan Happy Hours Campaign.
20 motivated and driven individuals were called on for an interview before going through an intellectually stimulating hiring process which JM Asia used to size up potential business partners to conduct the actual on-the-ground sales activities.
10 individuals , or business partners as we call them, eventually made the cut whereby they underwent intense training on brand and product knowledge, working processes and timelines, logistical workflow, and most importantly sales tech niques and overcoming objections.
Sourcing for Sponsorship Opportunities
With an objective of providing both the client and consumers with the most value, JM Asia also actively sourced for keen businesses that wanted to leverage on the campaign reach.
JM Asia secured a co-branding opportunity involving the Singapore Brain Development Centre whereby they included a DVD gift set to be given away FREE with any one of the YOUCAN bundle sales.
The Campaign Proper
Irregardless of one's culture or tradition, the mere sight of an ice cream van approaching with bells breaking the monotony of the HDB heartlands would instantaneously fuel one's craving for that little sweet escape, at any time of the day.
With that in mind, what we did was to dress three of our ice - cream vans up in attractive vibrant colours, shouting out about the latest Youcan ice-cream promotions. These vans then plied between all major HDB heartlands in the mornings and evenings.
Parked within the vicinity of the carparks, huge Youcan umbrella s would be erected above the ice - cream freezers with our friendly ‘ice - cream men' ready to whet the appetite of the heartlanders with Youcan's exotic ice cream flavours.
Banners and specially - designed POP (Point of Purchase) displays w e re placed strategically along walkways and pathways to direct the high human traffic toward our sales point s . We also de legated personnel to giv e out informative flyers about the latest promotions and reinforce passerbys' decision - making proces s.
Once the ice - creams have been sold out for that time belt, we leave to replenish the stock and repeat the whole fun and engaging process in another HDB heartland area.