Company Description
Marketing is the process of developing and implementing different activities and processes for promoting new products and services in the marketplace. Today, each and every business aims to expand and develop business activities in foreign market (Chernev, 2018). This report is focused on developing a marketing plan for Donald B Company that is producing and offering chocolates all over the world. The organization aims to expand its business in Australia and spread the operations in global world. On the basis of first assessment, this report includes growth strategy for the company in new market. In the first section of the report, there is the discussion about the target market and strategies to attract that potential market. The organization will be making effective strategies to entice its customers. Moreover, positioning strategy and approach of Donald B is discussed. At the end, the report includes all the components of marketing mix. This part describes that how this company uses marketing mix framework to deal with the competing brand in new market.
Donald B is well-known chocolate producer that owns two stores in Melbourne, Australia. Primarily, the company offers chocolate and confectionary products. The main business objective of this company is to emerge and improve its brand presence in global industry. By developing its products and services, the company aims to deal with the competitive threat from producers of cocoa products, candied nuts, glazed fruit etc. In Australian market, Donald B is planning to seek the support from supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles so that it can increase its sales in perspective market (Weinstein & Pohlman, 2015). In today’s competitive business environment, this firm needs to emphasize on external market factors in order to gain more competitive advantage. From the previous assessment, it is identified that Donald B should develop effective strategies to overcome the impacts of environmental factors and maximize the positive outcomes.
Growth strategy of any company can be identified by using Ansoff Matrix framework. It assists the organization in developing its marketing strategies.
The recommended growth strategies for Donald B are discussed below:
Under this growth strategy, this company should make efforts to grow its business by using its existing chocolates in existing market i.e. Australia. By using this, the company can focus on increasing its market share in the current marketplace (Saltini & Akkerman, 2012). This firm should make changes in its pricing strategies so that it can target new customers in existing market. For example, it needs to decrease the prices of products considering the targeted audiences.
Market development is also an effective strategy that can be used by Donald B in its operations. By using this growth strategy, the organization should try to expand into new and emerging markets with its existing chocolate and confectionary products. It can offer its existing chocolates in new market. In overseas market, this company can have the benefits due to strong economies (Gutiérrez, 2017).
In addition to above strategies, Donald B Organization should implement diversification as its growth strategy. The company should try to increase its market share by launching new products in new markets. In the future, the company should plan to diversify its products by entering into new industry like retail food industry (Hackley & Hackley, 2017).
Recommended Growth Strategy
When any organization plans to expand its business operations in new market, it needs to focus on a specific segment of the country’s population. Market Segmentation is an important process for each and every organization. In the new market, Donald B can target its customers by using different approaches of market segmentations which are discussed below:
Under demographic segmentation, the company should divide the mass market on the basis of different characteristics like gender, age, occupation and income. As the company is offering chocolate and confectionary products to its customers so it should focus on the age group of 15 to 35 years. The major emphasis of the company should be on the young girls and boys as they prefer to gift chocolates to their loved ones on any special occasion. The company should use the affordable pricing strategy and target middle income level people. Under occupation, it can target students, sports person and business professionals (Clarence-Smith, 2016).
Geographic Segmentation
Under this, Donald B should focus on offering the chocolates in the nearby countries like New Zealand. Moreover, the market for chocolate products depends on the weather like cold, hot weather (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). The company should distribute its chocolates to the people in both urban and rural regions.
This company should focus on its customers by considering different characteristics like personality, social class, attitudes, lifestyle etc. It should offer its chocolates to middle class people and the people who love to try different tastes of chocolates (Gallo, Antolin-Lopez & Montiel, 2018).
Target market has an important role in every company to generate more profits and revenues in foreign market. It can assist the company to deal with the competing brands. In international market, Donald B needs to offer chocolates and other products considering the needs and demands of customers (Weinstein & Pohlman, 2015). Considering the above segmentation characteristics, Donald B would focus on young business professionals who come under the age group of 15 to 35 years. Currently, this company is operating its business as small business enterprise and now it is planning to expand the business in overseas market. If this firms wishes to establish its brand in foreign market then it should emphasize on the needs and demands of customers. By recognizing most appropriate targeted market, Donald B will be able to enhance its brand image in the foreign market. Donald B should emphasize to provide benefits to the customers for which they are seeking for. The above chosen customer segment is looking for chocolates and confectionary products with tasty and quality ingredients (Ramli, 2017). These customers are looking for the benefits like quality of service, delivery speed, customer support, friendly staff etc. In new country, Donald B would be targeting the people by analyzing the benefits and needs which they are seeking for.
Positioning refers to an expression of how a product or service can be positioned in the market place. It expresses that how company’s product offerings can fulfill the needs and wants of customers in a manner that its competing brands don’t do. As per positioning theory, positioning is a process to identify the most appropriate customer segment for a particular product or service. It is also a significant strategy which can be used by Donald B so that it can make positive perception among its potential customers (Passmore, Howell & Holder, 2017). In order to position its products, Donald B emphasizes on its brand image, product ingredients, distribution channels and competitors’ strategies. Positioning theory states that market positioning is the term that refers to the place which a company occupies in the customers’ minds and how it is differentiated from the competitors’ products. To place new products in the market, the organization may focus on differentiating its product features.
- Nestle
Market Segmentation Strategies
- Hershey’s
- Donald B
In order to position its chocolates in new market, Donald B needs to adopt effective approaches of positioning. It will assist the organization grab the attention and interest of people. Positioning approaches which can be used by Donald B are discussed below:
It is one of the most objective criteria which the customers consider. In the case of Donald B, the customers prefer to purchase the chocolates and other confectionary products considering their flavors, packaging, color etc. Thus, the company will do segmentation by focusing on the features and customer benefits of products.
Moreover, Donald B Company will practice price quality approach to position its products among new market’s customers. This type of approach justifies many price-quality groups of its products. Under this, the chocolate producer will set different prices for its different products. As the company is targeting all groups of society so it should offer prices on higher to lower prices. It will assist this firm to make an effective brand image in customers’ minds (Afoakwa, 2010).
This is the most important approach of positioning which Donald B can use to place its new products among its targeted audiences. Before placement, the company will conduct market research and analyze the strategies of competing brands. It needs to maintain strong communication with them (Davcik & Sharma, 2016). It will assist Donald B to achieve competitive edge over other players.
Thus, it can be stated that Donald B should use different positioning approaches so that it can successfully implement its business operations in global business market.
Marketing mix framework is one of the significant models for Donald B that this firm can implement and process its business processes in other nation. These strategies assist the company to grab the attention of customers and gain competitive advantage over competing brands like Nestle, Mars etc. It will help it in finding out the strategic position of competitors across the world. The different components of Donald’s marketing mix are discussed below:
This is the first marketing strategy under this framework that uses current or new products to influence the customers’ perception positively. Product strategy assists the company to introduce new and innovative products in foreign marketplace. As mentioned in case study, Donald B is a leading player in chocolate manufacturing sector and company is attaining significant growth in Australian market. In new market, the organization will develop products with higher quality ingredients and sell them with the attractive packaging. It will plan the production process considering the competition in the market. The major competing brands of Donald B are like Snikers, Freddo, Cherry Ripe and Crunchie. In addition to this, the company analyzes the needs and wants of customers by conducting market research and then produces the products accordingly (Khan, 2014). In Australia, the company can expand its business in other industries like retail, food industry, organic food etc. This product strategy will assist the company to establish a good brand image in international market. It should implement effective product strategy while entering into new market.
Target Market
There are different levels of products which are stated below:
Core products are the most valuable offering of a company that provides the major benefits to customers. The core products of Donald B are the chocolate and confectionary products. Now, the company is planning to expand its products in international markets. Under core values, company can offer excellent quality and taste to its potential customers (Konstantas, Jeswani, Stamford & Azapagic, 2018).
Under product level strategy, this is the second level of product. It includes the physical and tangible benefits/features of a product. Under this level, Donald B Company will focus on offering the chocolates in different colors, attractive packaging, flavors etc. Generally, people buy the actual product when they demand chocolate for any special purpose.
It is also one of the most significant levels of the product. It includes the ad-on services, after sale service etc. Under this level, the company can make an attractive website and it can offer its chocolates and other products online. It can take the feedback of customers after selling the products.
Under marketing mix framework, pricing plays an important role in order to attract the customers from all income segments. From the analysis, it is identified that Donald B is using different types of price strategies so that it can offer its products by targeting different segments. This company implements affordable pricing strategies and ensures that more customers purchase its chocolates (Kazemi & Esmaeili, 2010). Thus, the company can use psychological pricing technique. In international market, first it should sell the chocolate and other confectionary products on lower prices. After capturing a significant market share, it should set the prices appropriately with the objective of maximizing profits and sales. Furthermore, it can provide some offers and discounts in festive seasons. The company is adopting the pricing strategies by targeting the people from lower and middle classes. Additionally, Donald B will start to use promotional pricing strategy in Australian and other overseas markets.
Currently, Donald B is operating its business operations in Australian market. Now, the company is planning chocolate products by in other nations. For this, the company needs to develop an extensive distribution network to supply its products to final consumers. The company should develop effective distribution strategies. In Australia, Donald B is planning to offer its chocolates through supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles. It can supply its chocolates and other confectionary products to retailers. In addition to this, Donald B will establish its outlets in the most crowded shopping malls of the city (Hultman, Katsikeas & Robson, 2011). It will assist the company to grab the attention of ore customers. After Australia, the company can establish its owned stores in other emerging nations like New Zealand, United Kingdom and China. This distribution strategy will enable the organization to increase its profits and revenues over other competing brands.
In marketing mix, promotion plays a critical role which assists the organization to approach a larger customer base. While expanding business in new markets, the company needs to make investment in advertising and promotion activities (Dahlén, Lange & Smith, 2016). Donald B will develop an integrated marketing communication plan that will include different promotion strategies like advertising, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing. Under advertisement, Donald B should use both online and offline modes. Under online modes, this company will give ads in newspapers, magazines, social networking sites, billboards etc. Direct marketing will allow this organization to connect with the potential customers personally (Andrews & Shimp, 2017). It will assist the organization to get their feedback towards its chocolates. It should provide offers on its products like discounts and combo packs. Thus, the organization will be able to entice a large customer base in international market.
Positioning Strategy
People
At Donald B, the employees are managed to support its growth strategy in new and existing market. The company has developed its leadership abilities and competencies in such as way so that they can support to the attainment of its overall objectives. The organization should conduct training and development program for its employees before entering into new market. They should be well-trained and have customer friendly behavior (Goworek, McGoldrick & McGoldrick, 2015).
Donald B needs to understand that customer service is one of the key determinants of building trust among them. Thus, this company should focus on enhancing the skills of employees so that they can provide the services smoothly. It should develop and manage its production processes effectively.
Physical evidence is a critical component of marketing mix that can support Donald B to attract more customers. At this company, physical evidence can be used in the form of packaging and promotional tools (Afoakwa, 2016). It should establish its physical stores at the place where most of the population can approach easily. In the stores, it will focus on the service speed, cleanliness and hygiene and service quality.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that it is a good decision of Donald B to expand its business operations in new and emerging market. In this business expansion, the company should focus on the most appropriate targeted market and strategies. The above report analyzes that Donald B should use the above marketing mix strategies so that it can attract more people and retain them. By using these strategies, the company will be able to attain its business objectives and mission in international business market by managing sustainability in business environment.
References
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