Organizational Background
In the 21st century, the marketing and promotion has developed drastically and it is a major component of the business organization. Looking at the important of marketing processes, modern companies are preparing an effective marketing plan. This marketing plan generates various business opportunities by developing different marketing strategies (Chernev, 2018). This report is emphasized on preparing a marketing plan for Donald B organization that is engaged in producing chocolate and confectionary products. Currently, the company is operating its business in Australia by owning 2 stores in Melbourne. Now, the company is planning to expand its business operations in other countries. This report includes the discussion regarding the targeted customers by using market segmentation approaches. Moreover, it discusses about the positioning for Donald B by using different positioning approaches. At the end, the report includes marketing mix strategies which will assist this organization to attract more customers and gain competitive advantage.
Donald B is a chocolate and confectionary products producer that owns its two chocolate stores in Melbourne. Donald B owns his chocolate brand with the name of D. Bilo Chocolates. Now, the producer of the company is planning to spread its brand in both domestic and international markets. It wants to develop its business to a large extent so that it can compete with larger competitors manufacturing cocoa products, drinking chocolate, confectionary products, glazed fruit, candied nut, marshmallow etc. This brand is offering its products through Woolworths, Coles and Aldi and it is making efforts to establish specialty stores in other countries.
There are three major components which form the overall marketing strategy of a company. These components are named as STP i.e. segmentation, targeting and positioning. When Donald B will plan to expand his business in new market, first he should identify the targeted market and way to position the products in that market (Stead & Hastings, 2018). STP approach for this chocolate brand is discussed below:
Market segmentation is the process of categorizing a broad the customers or business market. It consists of both potential and existing customers which are divided into sub-groups of customers on the basis of similar characteristics. Under this expansion, Donald B will divide its overall market into different segments on the basis of different characteristics like geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics. Market segmentation and target market for Donald B are discussed below:
Under geographic segmentation, this chocolate brand should emphasize on providing the chocolates and confectionary products in Australia and neighboring nations such as Australian cities and New Zealand (Khan, 2014). Furthermore, the brand will offer its products considering the weather of the region like hot and cold. It should distribute its cocoa products in rural and urban areas of the Australian and other nations.
Marketing Strategy
Demographic segmentation approach divides overall market considering different variables such as age, income, gender etc. In international market, this brand will provide all the confectionary and cocoa products. Thus, it will emphasize on the people of 18 to 38 years. It will make the chocolates by using attractive packaging as youth loves to gift chocolates to their friends and relatives. It should implement a reasonable pricing policy so that it can target the middle income people.
Under psychographic segmentation, Donald B should emphasize on consumers by looking at their psychological features like lifestyle, attitudes, social class, personality etc. The company should provide its products to lower and middle class population and the people who like to have chocolate of different tastes and higher quality (Kazemi & Esmaeili, 2010).
Target market is a specific group of the customers in a serviceable market of business which the company has decided to focus its marketing initiatives towards (Foxall, 2014). It includes the customers who showcase same type of characteristics like age, income, lifestyle etc. By using differentiated segmentation strategy, Donald B will focus on its targeted customers as it would be offering its products and services to more than two markets. From the above analysis, it can be stated that this organization should focus on the young and adults from middle income level group. Considering them, it should offer the chocolate and other products on comparatively lower prices. The chocolate producer will emphasize on the people from the age group of 18 to 38 years (Tronvoll, Barile & Caputo, 2018). In addition to this, the company should target the students and young working professional as they like to eat chocolates. In international market, the brand should target health conscious people also by offering sugar free chocolates. The company needs to understand the needs and demands of the customers in new market. It should make efforts to provide expected benefits to potential customers.
Positioning strategy refers to the appearance of how new products of company could be placed in the market and among the customers. Through developing an effective positioning statement, a company expresses how their products can meet the expectations and needs of customers that other market players cannot do. According to the positioning theory, product positioning refers to position that a company conquers in the minds of customers. For successful placement of its products in new market, Donald B is focusing on the ingredients of products, promotion, brand image and strategies of competing brands. The company needs to differentiate its chocolates and other products from others (Raisanen & Stenberg, 2011). The positioning map for this company is given below
Market Segmentation Strategy
The company will implement different approaches to place its products in new market that can assist the organization to gain the attention of more and more people. These approaches are discussed below:
This is one of the most significant approaches which Donald B can use to position its new products in foreign marketplace. This approach includes various price-quality categories of its goods (Babin & Zikmund, 2015). By using this method, Donald B will establish diversified prices for different products. As mentioned above, it would be targeting differentiated market so it should set the prices higher to lower index.
In order to place its products among international customers, Donald B can adopt competitors approach. Before positioning, this brand needs to use competitive intelligence technique and know about the competitors’ business model and strategies. It should make efforts to develop good relationships with competing brands. In this way, it will be able to gain higher competitive advantage against other companies.
Moreover, physical characteristic approach is also an important approach that can make the customer perception positive (Tirado & Gálvez, 2008). Generally, customers prefer to consider the objective criteria of this approach. Considering this, Donald B should provide the chocolates and other confectionary products in attractive color and packaging. In addition to this, they should offer the products in different flavors.
In this way, this chocolate brand should adopt diversified approaches which will assist it to expand its business activities in international market.
Marketing mix is the framework that Donald B can use to formulate and implement its marketing strategies in new market (Khan, 2014). This model includes different strategies related to products and their different aspects like price, distribution, promotion etc. Different elements of Donald B’s brand are stated below:
Product is the major strategy that has a large impact on the perception of customers towards company. Currently, Donald B is a small business in the chocolate industry and making efforts to expand in Australian market. In international market, the company will introduce its products by using quality ingredients and smart packaging. Primary competitors of this firm are Snikers, Cherry Ripe, Crunchie and Freddo (Tirado & Gálvez, 2008). In international market, Donald B can introduce new products in new industry like beverages, dairy products, ready to cook food etc.
Different levels of products are discussed below:
Core Product
Core product is the primary product that is offered by a company. It provides major advantage of customer’s buying. At D. Bilo, core products are its cocoa and confectionary products. In the future, this brand is expanding business in other markets by diversifying its product categories. This product levels will offer core values to potential customers like taste, quality etc.
Geographic Segmentation
Actual Product
Actual products of a company include tangible and physical benefits of buying a product. At this level, this brand should focus on enhancing the packaging of chocolates. The young generation purchase customized chocolates to gift their friends and relatives (Beckett, Fowler & Ziegler, 2017).
Augmented Product
Augmented product of Donald B’s brand includes additional services offered by the company. In new market, the organization should sell its products through its online website. Taking after-sales feedback from customer will be one of the effective ways to retain customers (Stead & Hastings, 2018).
Pricing strategy has a significant role in marketing mix tool that can assist Donald B in attracting people in international market. By using effective pricing policies the brand can focus on the customers from different income level groups. The company should adopt an affordable price strategy and make sure that more people buy its chocolates and confectionery products. In new market, Donald B should launch its products on comparatively lower prices so that lower and middle class people can purchase them (Hanssens, Pauwels, Srinivasan, Vanhuele & Yildirim, 2014). After gaining considerable market coverage, it should increase the prices. It will help the brand to increase its sales and profits. Moreover, it should provide some profitable discounts and benefits in the festival time.
From the given information, it can be analyzed that D. Bilo is running its business in Australia only. It has two stores in Melbourne which offer chocolates and confectionary products to Australian customers (Hebden, King, Kelly, Chapman, Innes?hughes & Gunatillaka, 2010). In future, it is looking to expand business in foreign countries. In order to do this, it should establish a wide distribution network so that it can deliver the products to customers. Donald B prefers to sell the chocolates via retail stores of Coles and Woolworths. In other nations, it can partner with well-established retailers. It can provide its products through e-commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart etc. It should open its physical stores in nearby nations such as New Zealand. By adopting effective distribution strategy, Donald B will be able to enhance its brand presence and increase the revenues in food industry (Gutiérrez, 2017).
Under marketing mix framework, promotion is the most significant component which can help the businesses to approach their targeted segment. For Donald B, it is very important to make investment in the advertisement and promotional activities in new market (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016 By developing a communication plan, it will determine some advertising and marketing strategies through which it can reach to the customers. The major strategies may be sales promotion, advertisement, direct marketing and public relations. It should promote the products online by using social media networking sites like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram etc. Under offline mode, it should give advertisement in different magazines, newspapers and billboards. Direct marketing is also an effective way to connect with possible customers. By doing this, the firm can take customers’ feedback and make the changes in products accordingly. In this way, the company will be able to attract customers across the world (Kannan, 2017).
Demographic Segmentation
Previously, there were only 4 Ps of marketing, now these are extended to 7Ps by including people, processes and physical evidence. These three marketing components are also important for providing a higher level of customer satisfaction (Dolnicar, Grün & Leisch, 2018). The extended components for Donald B are discussed below:
Process is also an important component of company’s marketing process. This brand s should know that fact that customer service is most significant determinant of developing trust and loyalty among targeted customers. In this way, Donald B should emphasize on improving the skills of employees so they can produce the chocolates smoothly and provide desired products. It is critical to produce the products in an appropriate way (Gutiérrez, 2017).
In an organization, people refer to the human resources who are working for the benefits of organization. Considering this fact, Donald B should conduct training and development program for its employees so they can develop their production and management skills. Additionally, the top managers should develop their leadership competencies in order to achieve its goals. This brand should ensure that each and every employee is customer friendly and well-trained.
In today’s modern environment, people get attracted towards physical existence of a business. It can assist the business to attract people. Donald B can use this component by improving its packaging of chocolates. It should place its stores in strategic locations where more people can approach. The environment of stores should be hygienic, clean and relaxed. It will support Donald B to attain and retain the customer base in international markets (Miles, Gilmore, Harrigan, Lewis & Sethna, 2015).
In this way, the above marketing mix strategies can help Donald B in establishing its business in new and emerging nations. It can grow its operations by developing some growth strategies also.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that marketing management is an important process for the growth and success of any business in today’s competitive environment. It is essential for firms to adopt effective and upgraded strategies so that they can compete with other players and attain their overall objectives. The above report is about Donald B who is planning to expand his brand D. Bilo in foreign markets. First, the organization should arrange market research and analyze the needs and demands of customers. After that, it should introduce the business in international market. The report showcases the target market and positioning of company that it can use to place its products among targeted customers. Furthermore, it is recommended that Donald B should implement effective marketing strategies to entice the customers.
References
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