Levels of Product and Service
Discuss about the Impact Of Marketing Mix Elements Toward Brand Equity.
BreadTalk Group Limited is an International Food and Beverage industry based in Singapore, founded in 2000. The Industry owns several brands such as BreadTalk, Food Republic, Din Tai Fung, The Icing Room, Bread Society, Thye Moh Chan, Song Fa* and Una-Yu. The Industry aims to immerse the customers in a unique experience that comes from goodness of natural products and good bread that is made available from its chain of brands, and prepared by the International Master Chefs. The blueprint of their business is based on constant innovation and reinvention. The ingredients (such as Japanese milled flour, and butter from New Zealand) are selectively handpicked, to be used for the raw paste thereby ensuring the best quality. The process also involved expert craftsmanship, creating a perfect balance between the texture and flavor with the ingredients. Breadtalk has also being awarded the Brand of the Year award for the years 2014, 2016 and 2017 by the annual World Branding Awards in London, England. Discussed below is the case study on BreadTalk analyzing the 5P of its marketing plan, like, Product, Price, Place, People and Promotion (breadtalk.com.sg).
The products offered by BreadTalk are in two main categories Bread and Cakes.
The Core benefits that are being offered in all these products are a superior taste, quality, texture and flavor of the finished products due to the usage of high grade, handpicked ingredients from around the world, and prepared by the international master chefs for premium craftsmanship and a superior product (Moslehpour et al).
The basic products offered by the company include toasts, such as sweet potato toast, yam toast and pumpkin toast and donuts .
The expected products of BreadTalk ensures various aspects and standards in the quality of its braked products such as superior taste, perfect craftsmanship, perfect blending of the ingredients to provide superior texture, and involving the culinary mastery of the international master chefs. The products include handpicked ingredients, sourced from across the world, for the perfect product being made (Moslehpour et al).
The products quality and variety is augmented through the addition of varieties of breads and cakes, apart from the generic bread being produced by the company. The variety in bread includes products like: sweet potato volcano, snow white yam, mala chicken, red bean queen, Himalayan Pink Salt roll, yam roll, cheese sausage bread, sausage standard bread, cheese boat, smack alert, marble chocolate toast, bak kawa delight and earthquake (breadtalk.com.sg).
Price-Pricing Strategy that they are adopting
The potential products that are to be launched by the company includes: cookies (such as oatmeal raisin cookies, Chocó chip cookies, chocolate cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, ginger cookies, cinnamon roll sugar cookies, Brown butter Bourbon spice cookies), cinnamon rolls, muffins (banana muffin, apple cinnamon muffin, chocolate chip muffin), cheesecakes (plain and blueberry), Danish and pies (apple pie, shepherd’s pie, kidney pie and chicken pot pie) (breadtalk.com.sg)..
Figure 3: BreadTalk Autumn Festival (source: breadtalk.com.sg)
The pricing strategy adopted by Breadtalk is aimed to attract consumers from all over the world, as well as providing the company a financial benefit. Individual products of every company are offered at specific charges and the process of fixing product price is the second most significant aspect of the marketing process of the product. The price of the product is based upon 5 factors, such as:
- a)Market demand for the product:This takes into account the demand in the market for the qualities and features provided by the products. This helps to identify whether the product is in demand in the market, and thus to determine if investing in the product can be beneficial. Products with high market demand are more likely to be sold than ones with less demand (Lee et al).
- b)Price of the product: The price of the product is an important aspect, as it determines whether the product is affordable by the target customers. Price that is too high can prevent it being bought by more people, while too fewer prices can lead to loss of the company and also set up a wrong price standard for the product leading to unsustainable demand (Nenonen et al).
- c)Ability to cover the expense for the production of the product: The price of the product should be sufficient to cover the costs of production and marketing of the product, and allowing additional room for making a profit.
- d)Price offered by competitive companies for the same product:Competitive prices are also another important factor to be decided before setting up the price of the product, since it can ensure a competitive advantage of the company by offering competitive prices for the products. It can also help to increase the customer base, attracting more customers (Chandra).
- e)Economic and Legal restrictions: Policies and restrictions by governments and authorities also need to be kept in mind while fixing the product price, to ensure that they are in compliance to the national standards, and fair trade laws (Chandra).
Figure 4: BreadTalk Happy Hours (source: breadtalk.com.sg)
This is an important aspect to be considered in the marketing plan. The selection of a proper place for the distribution and warehousing of the products can ease the logistics and efficient supply of the products to the market. Considering that the products are manufactured by the company to suit the needs of the customer, availability of the products is hence one of the most important factor deciding its success. To ensure this the company keeps the units for production in the South East Asia, which can support the products being supplied to many countries in the region. The industry also has several franchises and third part retailers in nearby southeastern regions. These outlets help in the effective distribution of the products across various countries in Asia, and also help in better procurement of raw materials and ingredients from those countries. Distribution of the products is also supported through direct online order placements (breadtalk.com.sg).
The number of outlets for BreadTalk is approximately 609 including franchises and third party retailers that can shelf the Breadtalk products, aside from about 200 company owned shops. The company also owns 30 restaurants and 47 food atria across 15 nations, including China, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The outlets are also located strategically on areas that has high amount of human trafficking. The company’s website claims that all their outlets are built near important places, such as bus stands, railway stations and other public places, which helps to ensure a high footfall in all the outlets, thereby increasing the accessibility of the products by the customers (breadtalk.com.sg).
Place- Distribution, no of outlets, toast box/bread talk
The large number of outlets as well as their effective locations ensures that the products are easily accessible to the consumers.
People are the main target of the company’s products. The customers or consumers demands and needs form the basis of the product design and manufacture as well as the price decisions related to the product. Also, other important resources of the organization include the employees as well whose effort ensures success of the organization. The organization has a total capacity of 10,000 employees working across the various outlets (Gunawan and Jeremy Christopher).
The service level agreement that the company uses incorporates attributes such as: assurance of the fresh and hygienic products, assurance that the product is free of contamination, assurance towards the quality, texture and flavor of the product. Such factors help to improve the reliability of the products.
The suppliers are contractual, and are contracted from various countries in order to procure specific products or ingredients from each country. The suppliers are responsible for delivering the ingredients directly to the processing units. The suppliers are also categories for effective procurement and each are contracted independently, to ensure the best competitive price advantage.
The company also offers employee benefits in accordance to the best industries to ensure that its valued employees and master chefs are retained in the organization as they keep on preparing the best breads and cakes for the customers, upholding the reputation of the company. Facilities such as canteens, rest rooms checks are there to ensure the employees can get breaks during the production hours, and also supports the workers with housing, education, child welfare, leave travel facilities, and cooperative stores. Employee benefits such as social insurance, social assistance, medical benefits and health insurances are also given to all employees. These benefits ensure that the employee’s wellbeing and health are protected, and they remain productive at work.
The organization promotes its products through various strategies such as reward cards, sales promotions, store structures and advertisements.
Reward Cards are used by the organization to provide customers store credits on the purchase of every product. Reward cards are also earned by the customers by participating in the various events help by the company in the various outlets, where hundreds of store cards are given off to the customers. Reward cards are also earned by the customers by purchasing products of other brands owned by the company, thereby facilitating the awareness of this brand to the loyal customer base of the company. Also tie ups can be made oath other companies, producing complementary products, such as beverages, and customers be given reward cards on the purchase of certain beverage products.
People- employees, service level, supplier, welfare structure
Special time sales are also used by the company to attract more customers. Such as having discounted price on products on certain days of the week, or during certain hours (happy hours), thereby promoting an increase in footfall during those days or hours. Special discounts and sales can also help to introduce newer crowds to the products.
The stores are also structured and decorated in an aesthetic way, and uses a clean and urban look, and allows the customers to relax and enjoy their food, which also helps to attract customers who appreciate aesthetic appeal and refers a certain ambience to enjoy their food. The company also has see through kitchen, which allows the customers to see the artistry of the chefs in the preparation of their food, which fosters their appreciation of the effort put by the chefs, and also increases the brand loyalty and trust.
Advertisements are also made on the television, social media banners and posters. The company also introduced coupons to be given to the customers with discounts on the prices to attract more customers (Ryu et al.).
Conclusion:
The 5 P analysis shows that BreadTalk ensures that it provides the best quality products and helps to understand the strengths of the company that allows it to succeed more than its competition. The analysis shows that the company produces quality products are competitive prices and also ensures that its employees are taken care of, as much as the needs of the customers, ensuring brand loyalty. The strategic positioning of the stores and efficient promotion also is an important factor of its success.
References:
“Breadtalk | Singapore”. 2018. Breadtalk.Com.Sg. https://www.breadtalk.com.sg/#.
breadtalk.com.sg. 2018. “Breadtalk | Singapore”. Breadtalk.Com.Sg. https://www.breadtalk.com.sg/.
Chandra, Ivena Renata. “The Impact of Marketing Mix Elements toward Brand Equity through Brand Awareness and Brand Image as Mediators in Bakery Industry in Indonesia.” iBuss Management 3, no. 2 (2015).
Gunawan, Jeremy Christopher. “Pengaruh persepsi konsumen atas product attribute dan store atmosphere terhadap brand preference: suatu studi komparasi antara Breadtalk dan Tous Les Jours pada generasi milenial di Kota Bandung.” (2018).
LEE, Marcus, Caroline LIM, Sarita MATHUR, and Philip ZERRILLO. “BreadTalk: Continuous Innovation to Keep the Brand Fresh.” (2016): 1-9.
Moslehpour, Massoud, Carrine K. Aulia, and Chinny EL Masarie. “Bakery product perception and purchase intention of Indonesian consumers in Taiwan.” International Journal of Business and Information 10, no. 1 (2015): 63.
Nenonen, Suvi, and Kaj Storbacka. “Smash: using market shaping to design new strategies for innovation, value creation, and growth.” (2018).
Ryu, Sungmin, Woojung Jang, and HyeJeong Cho. “China Market Entry Strategy Of Paris Baguette.” Journal of Business Case Studies (Online) 10, no. 2 (2014): 155.
Stevenson, William J., and Mehran Hojati. Operations management. Vol. 8. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2007.
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