Strategic Marketing Plan For Blue Cherry Company

Company Profile of Blue Cherry Company

This report discusses and analyses the strategic marketing plan of Blue Cherry Company by analysing the situational marketing analysis (internal analysis, market analysis, competitor analysis, and environmental analysis), marketing objectives, marketing strategies, action plan, and monitoring techniques or control metrics for measuring the performance of the marketing plan of Blue Cherry Company(Cravens, 2010).

Company Profile of Blue Cherry Company

The Australian cherry industry is one of the future growth industries in the world that is growing at rapid pace due to the emergence of the large number of the cherry suppliers/horticulture farmers. The cherry industry of Australia accounts for 9500 tons on annual basis. Tasmania is the leading state in Australia for the cherry production that focuses more on exports.

Blue Cherry is a family-based business in South Australia that produces and exports cherries on large scales to the South Australian markets including Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne. It produces big, delicious, and sweet cherries that are demanded on the high scales because of their looking, freshness, firmness, and health-nutritious that are purchased for daily consumption in fruit intake, salads, snacks and breakfasts. Blue Cherry has seven hectares of Cherry production for producing cherries through plantation about 9000 trees. It is aimed at developing ten hectare of orchard producing the quality cherry in the period of December 2017-January 2018.

Blue Cherry has own orchard trees situated in the cool climate region of Adelaide Hills that produce cherries of large size, sweet taste, colors, and delicious (Blue Berry, 2016). Blue Cherry Company produces wide varieties of cherries to sell and export across the Australian markets that are named as Merchant, Santina, Lapins, Stella, Simone, and Sweet Georgia. Currently, the company sells and exportsthe cherries through its ‘shed door sales’ on the basis of prior appointment by the customers and buy cherries directly from the company in the packs of 2 kg and 5 kg.

Situational Analysis

SWOT analysis (Internal analysis)

The SWOT analysis is following as for Blue Cherry Company:-

Strengths ü One of the leading cherry exporters in South Australia ü Significant market presence in South Australia ü Good and delicious berries that are sweet in taste ü Wide varieties of cherries ü Good production capacity through its own farms for the cherry production ü Family-based cherry export business	Weaknesses o Highly dependent on climate and suitable conditions for cherry production o Seasonal demands for cherries o Highly dependenton cherry fruits for its businesses o Lack of global brand presence o The lack of presence in high-growth potential states of Australia, such as Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia(Wilson and Gilligan, 2012).
Opportunities § Expand the product varieties § Growing demand for cherry fruits form the Australians § Expand through entering into other parts of Australia, such as Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales § Strategic partnership or export to other countries except Australia	Threats  Facing competition from other cherry producing brands  Import of cherries from the U.S. and other nations  Growing technological advancement of Cherry production methods  Unfavourable climate conditions  High product costs  Fluctuating economic conditions  Socio-cultural trends and seasonal demands

External Environmental analysis- Pestle analysis

Pestle analysis a strategic analytical tool that will analyze the external environmental analysis or macro environmental impact on the business operations and positioning of Blue Cherry Company. Pestle analysis will analyze the influence of the external environmental forces, such as political, legal, socio-cultural, economic, environmental, and technological factors on the sustainable operational and marketing planning of Blue Cherry Company.

Political Factor:

The political factors, such as Australian country stability status, political system, government support, climate conditions, and industry trends are such political constraints that may affect the sustainability of the operations of Blue Cherry Company. For example, the heavy tax duties on exports, tariff policies,political and liberal changes, and the acts of legislations are such as factors that may affect the business performance of the companyin the Australian markets (Xu, 2012). The favorable environmental conditions, government support through deregulation and low intervention, high demand for the cherries fruits, and changes to liberal government of the Australian country will support the business operations of Blue Cherry Company.

Situational Analysis

Economic Factor:

The economic factors, such as changes in fiscal policies (interest rates, exchange rates or currency value, unemployment rates), and monetary policies, such as taxation structure or pattern (e.g. sales tax, service tax, VAT, and excise duties) are such economic fluctuations that will significantly influence the market share, sales volumes, and gross revenuesand profits of the company. The economic factors affect the prices of supply of cherry fruits, costs of production technologies and R&D, leverage and labor costs, and purchasing power of the customers that will influence the demand pattern and buying behaviors of the customers (Wilson, 2012). Blue Cherry can take benefits of the suitable economic conditions of the Australian country to produce cherries in greater quantities as well as supplying or exporting cherries to most of the customers segments of the Australian markets.  

Socio-cultural Factor:

Socio-cultural factors, such as changing demographics, cultural trends, population analysis, seasonal demands, disposable income of the customers, living standards, distinct buying behaviors and growing health consciousness of the population are such socio-cultural forces that may affect the product development, technologies investments, manufacturing operations, and expansion of the company into the Australian markets.

Technological Factor:

The growing technological advancement and innovation trends may affect the production processes, manufacturing operations, and customer service operations of Blue Cherry Company in Australia (Ranchod and Marandi, 2012). The company can take advantage of the latest technological trends, such as huge investment into the market research, market automation and innovation in the production technologies, technology, hybrid plantation technologies, and cross-crops methods for producing the wide varieties of cherries in large quantities for meeting the growing demands from the Australian customers.

Legal Factor:

The legal factors, such as the trade laws and regulations, taxation policies,labor employment laws and welfare acts, customer protection laws, safety standards,and fair competition act of the Australian are such legal constraints that may affect the sustainable business performance ofBlue Cherry Company. Blue Cherry is committed to follow the Australian laws and regulation policies for running the sustainable business operations.

Environmental Factor:

The growing environmental implications and awareness issues, such as climate change, industrial pollution, weather conditions, green-house effect or harmful effect of gas-emissions, and geographic locations environmental offsets are such factors that may affect the production of Cherries as well as environmental protection of Blue Cherry Company(Shankar, Carpenter, Farley, and Hamilton, 2012).For ex- Blue Cherryis an environmental sustainability company that focuses on environmental friendly campaigns, such as environmental awareness programs, community protection initiatives, and eco-friendly programs and CSR activities into its operations for ensuring the smooth running of the sustainable business operations.

Ansoff Matrix (Growth Opportunity Analysis)

Ansoffmatrix is a growth matrix that could be used to determine the future growth of Blue Cherry Company by focusing on the specific cherry fruits products and the Australian markets. This strategic model will provide the key directions for the further growth of Blue Cherry Company by focusing on the existing/new products within existing/new markets. The strategic options of Ansoff’smatrix are following as:-

Market Penetration

This is a strategic growth option that might be effective to provide the growth opportunities for Blue Cherry Company to grow the businesses through selling the existing products, cherry fruits into the existing markets of South Australian markets, such as Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney.

SWOT analysis (Internal analysis)

This strategy could be effective to increase or maintain the market share by representing the cherry fruits in the South Australian markets more effectively through the combination of pricing, sales promotion, advertising, and distribution strategy. This strategic option will determine the growth of Blue Cherry Company in the Australian industry by creating the high brand awareness and customer loyalty among the Australian people after introducing the cherry fruits that are familiar to the existing customers.

New Product Development

This is another form of growth strategy that could be used by the firm to introduce new varieties of Cherry fruits into the existing markets. This strategy will drive the development of new varieties of the cherries before strongly appealing to the existing markets. This strategic option will allowthe firm to develop new cherry fruits varietiesby using new production technologies, harvest and hybridization methods, R&D efforts, and excessive plant and production capacity (Shankar, Carpenter, Farley, and Hamilton, 2012).

New Market Development

This strategic option will be effective for Blue Cherry Company by introducing the wide varieties of cherry fruits into new marketsthat may be outside of the South Australian markets where it currently has not its business operations. By using this strategic option, the firm will be able to access the large customer segments across the Australian markets. The firm can use new entry modes strategic partnership or exporting, product dimensions, new distribution channels, and different pricing policies to access new market segments.

Diversification

This strategic option will be effective to develop new cherry fruits varieties in new markets segments of Australiathat may be risky but profitable to enhance its market share, sales volumes, and revenues growth. This strategic option may be useful for Blue Cherry Company to expand the businesses by entering into new markets with new cherry fruits varieties to the cherry fruit lovers (Tesar and Kuada, 2013).

Competitor Analysis

Blue cherry is a South Australian cherry exporter that sells and exports its cherry fruits to cities, like Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne. It has moderate customer power because of low market share as compared to companies in Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales.The supplier power is low for Blue berry because of other high-growth cherry producing states with a range cherry supplier horticulture firms. Tasmania is the fastest growing markets for Cherry production that exports 75% of the total production(Cherry Growers Australia Inc., 2017).

According to Australian Cherry Industry surveys, 2017, it is analyzed that Tasmania account for 50% cherry production, NSW 24%, Victoria 24% and SA 2% of total cherry production in Australia. The Australian industry exports 7500 metric tons including 3000 MT by Tasmania, 2100 by Victoria, 2100 by NSW, and 300 MT by SA. The threat of substitutes is low because it is not easy to take place of the cherries of Blue Cherry firm because its cherry fruits are demanded in greater quantities in the South Australian markets due to the big-sized, sweet, and delicious cherries produced by Blue Cherry Company (Blue Cherry, 2016).

The industry rivalry and threat of new entrants are high for Blue Cherry Company because the large numbers of horticulture growers or farm owners are entering with the production of cherry fruits that create competition to Blue Cherry Company.  Tasmania, Riverland, Victoria, and New South Wales are the leading Australian states for Cherry Production that account for more than 90% of the total Australian Industry.  

External Environmental analysis- Pestle analysis

The Australian industry produces 9500 tons annually. The most of the Australian cherries are exported to the foreign markets upto 80% because of less domestic consumption of 1500 tons cherries that is 20% of the total Australian cherry production. The high-quality cherries, consistent in quality to meet customer demands, strong leadership, hybridization and crops breeding methods, wide cherry fruits varieties, and improving export market potential are such aspects that will tend to the growth of Blue Cherry Company.   

Marketing Objectives

For this assessment, the Australian markets including NSW, TAS, VIC, SA, and QLD are selected because these are high-growth potential markets of Australia for the cherry exports that will provide an opportunity for Blue Cherry to grow its businesses across the Australian markets. Along with this, there is high demand for the export of the cherry products in these Australian regions.

Mission Statement- the mission statement of Blue Cherry is to become the most admired customer-centric cherry company to offer the fresh and delicious cherries through its orchards of Cherry plants

Vision- The vision of Blue Cherry Company is to become the most valuable customer-centric company in the Australia. The vision of Blue Cherry is to become one of the largest Cherry exporting industries in Australia through the high quality product offerings, effective marketing campaigns and promotional activities, customer acquisition, and market capitalization strategy by aligning these with the vision of the company(CTI Reviews, 2016)..

Marketing aim and objectives

The main marketing aim of Blue Cherry Company is to become one of the leading providers/exporters of the cherries in the Australian markets by enhancing the cherries production through the large-sized hectares cherries plants.

The marketing objectives for Blue Cherry are following as:-

• To enhance the market share, sales revenues, and gross profits of Blue Cherry Company by increasing the exports/supply of cherries across the Australian markets
• To build a centralized supply chain to ensure the availability of the freshest and high quality of cherry fruits in retail through the wide retailing stores
• To increase the average production and exports to 30% more by 2020
• To enhance the brand positioning and reputation of the company in the Australian markets
• To create the high brand awareness and loyalty in the Australian people by using effective promotional tactics for encouraging them for the purchase of cherries in the large quantities (Blue Cherry, 2017).
• To maximize the global corporate, environmental and social performance of Blue Cherry Cmanyby adopting the ethical standards, corporate social responsibility programs, environmental sustainability and community relationship programs
• To expand the businesses in the Australian markets by developing the partnerships with the farmers or cherry horticulture firms.

product- Blue Cherry is one of the leading South Australian cherry producing companies that produce cherries to meet the growing demands of cherry fruits from the Australian customers. It exports and sells the large-sized, original taste, delicious, and sweets cherries that are increasingly used by the most of the Australian people in their breakfasts, salads, fruit intake, snakes, and juices. The products of Blue Cherry are highly demanded because of the most lovable cherry fruit lovers in Australia.

Pricing- Blue cherry is one of the leading producers and exporters in the South Australian cherry producing companies that will export the cherries at demand based pricing. The average costs for the cherries fruits supplied or exported to the target markets will be 15-20 AUD per kg in Australia, the cherries are not produced in the proportion of the quantities that demanded by the average customers in Australia. The normal range will be $15-20/kg but the prices of cherries will be determined based on the customer demand(Hill, Jones, and Schilling, 2014).

Placement/Distribution-Blue Cherry is the supplier and exporter of Cherry fruits to the South Australian regions. It offers the cherry fruits through its own farm houses or its own cherry plant farms. The marketing plan of Cherry will be distributing or exporting the cherry fruits to the Australian states, such as different cities or regions of New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia. It will also contract with the fruits supermarkets, such as Woolworths, Coles, and Aldi for supplying or distributing the cherry fruits in the packing of 1kg, 2 kg., and 5 kg as per customers’ demand for cherry fruits.

Promotion- Blue Cherry is a cherry producing and exporting companybased in South Australia that will use effective promotional or advertising campaigns, such as advertising through the website promotion, social media marketing, and direct marketing by accessing and communicating the customers directly (Motohashi, 2016). It will also use print media through publishing ads in the newspapers, magazines, pamphlet, brochures, and hoarding. It may also use the public brand awareness programs, promotional events, sponsorship plans, CSR program, and environmental sustainability campaigns.

STP Model- (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning)

Blue Cherry is a South Australia-based cherry producer and exporter that will use the positioning, targeting, and segmentation strategy to grow its businesses through targeting the high-growth potential markets of Australia including NSW, VIC, NSW, and SA. It will use the geographic and demographic market segmentation to segment the market into subsets or groups on the customers based on the demographic (age groups, income levels, living needs, family status, buying needs and preferences, customer size, and disposable income of the customers) and geographic segmentation (geographic distance customers, such as cities, states, regions, areas, and segments) for targeting the needs, interests, and preferences of the different category of the customers to represent them effective customer service through offering the cherry fruits(Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson, 2012).

It will use the positioning strategy to enhance the brand positioning of Blue Cherry to place itself among the top cherry producing brands in Australia. The brand positioning will enhance the brand reputation and sustainability of the firm by placing itself among the top firms. The targeting strategy will be aimed at targeting the rich-class or high income groups that demand for the cherry fruits on daily basis for their regular consumption in breakfasts, food stake, snakes or juices. The target markets for Blue Cherry will be customers from VIC, TAS, SA, and NSW states of Australia (Kotler and Keller, 2009).

Competitive marketing strategies

Blue Cherry is a leading cherry producer and exporter in the South Australia that will use Porter’s generic strategic model including the product differentiation, cost leadership, and focus strategy to attain the competitive advantage in the industry. The product differentiation strategy will be effective for the firm to produce the cherries with the exclusive qualities, original taste, large size, and delicious cherries (produced in its own farms) that are different from the Cherries produced by the competitive cherry brands or normal cherries produced in Australia(Wheelen, 2012). The cherries produced by Blue Cherry Company will be different varieties named as Merchant, Santina, Lapins, Simone, Stella, and Sweet Georgia.

The cost leadership strategy will be effective for attaining the competitive advantage by Blue Cherry by offering the big, sweets, and deliciouscherries at demand based pricing. It will have slightly higher prices for its cherry fruits because of the large-sized, original taste, and deliciousness. It will earn higher profits if the cherry fruits are demanded in the higher quantities by the customers. The focus or niche strategy will be effective to segment the needs of the targeted customers. It will target the rich class or high income group people as well as cherry lover people in the Australian country who demand for cherry fruits on daily basis for their regular consumption (Wheelen and Hunger, 2012). It will target the high potential markets, such as Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, and New South Wales having the great demand for the cherry fruits.

Marketing Tactics/Action Plan

The marketing tactics for the marketing plan will include the focus on the products, brand repositioning strategy, sales promotional tactics, social media advertising campaigns, print media advertising, customer relationship programs, website personalization and sponsorship programs, celebrity endorsement or brand ambassadors, and personal relationship programs(Drummond, Ensor, and Ashford, 2008). All these marketing tactics will be effective to promote the branded products and services of the company.

The action plan will show the sequence of the marketing activities carried-out within the determined time period. The action plan will be performed with the help of the Gantt chart that will represent the marketing activities or actions implemented within the determined time and goals. The total time period for the marketing plan will be 6 months that will be scheduled to perform the marketing activities or actions of the marketing plan from July 2017 to December 2017 (Egan and Thomas, 2012). This will show the situational analysis tools, marketing mix strategies, segmentation, positioning, and targeting strategies, competitive strategies, and implementation and follow-up of the marketing plan that will be identified.

Monitoring/Control Metrics

The evaluation and control is the final step in the marketing planning process that will determine whether the marketing plan is completed against the performance metrics. The marketing control has four steps including establishment of standards, measurement of performances, comparison of the performances, and corrective actions.

All these steps of the monitoring or control process will be used/ performed to monitor or control the progress of the marketing plan by comparing the actual performance results against the set performance metrics (Gilligan and Wilson, 2013). The performance standards/metrics for this marketing plan will be customers’ service level, product quality, sales figures, market share, profit ratio, customer acquisition and retention rates, and return on investment achieved that will be analysed from the sales reports and customer feedbacks.

The performance of the marketing plan will be evaluated on the basis of these control measures by comparing the actual performance results of the marketing activities and projected results and the performance gaps or deviation will be identified and appropriate action will be taken to eliminate the performance control or deviation.Sales analysis is the metrics to analyze whether the actual sales performance was achieved against the projected sales goals of the company. The control process will determine the sales performance gap or deviation of the company.

The goals-setting will analyze whether the marketing plan is implemented against the set goals or deviation occurred. The market share analysis is a metric or measure to analyze whether the firm is able to achieve the high market share in the Australian industry against the competitors (Glowick and Smyczek, 2011). The profitability analysis is the measure or criteria to determine whether the firm is able to achieve the profits against the projected profits. Balance Score Card and Benchmarking method will be used as control measurement techniques for controlling the progress of marketing plan.

The benchmarking is a method to control the marketing plan process by settings benchmarks or performance metrics, such as goals, sales targets, annual profits, market share, customer service quality, and customer retention. On the basis of these benchmarks or metrics, the progress of the marketing planning process of Blue Cherry Company will be examined.

Balanced score card is another technique or method that will determine the performance progress of the marketing plan against the set goals and measures. The balanced score card method brings several aspects or performance criteria together including internal perspective, customer perspective, financial perspective, and innovation and learning perspective that are identified the following image-

The customer perspective will assess whether the marketing plan meetthe needs and requirements of the customers. Financial perspective will evaluate the financial growth, market share, sales revenues, and profitability of the company. The internal perspective will determine the internal organizational perspective, such employee motivation and performance, coordination, and effective of the organizational functioning(Grant, Butler, Hung, and Orr, 2012). Finally, the learning and growth perspectivewill assessthe technological advancements and innovation and learning trends in the company. So, the balance score card will be used as control management tool to bring different perspectives, performance measures and goals together for improving the performance of the marketing plan.

Conclusion

From the above studies, it can be concluded that Blue Berry is one of the leading cherry producing and exporting firms in the South Australian regions that could develop an effective marketing planning in order to attain the sustainable competitive advantage. The situational analysis of Blue Berry was examined with the help of the strategic tools, such as the SWOT analysis, Ansoff’ matrix, Pestle analysis, and Porte’s five forces analysis.

The marketing mix strategies, product, pricing, placement, and promotion strategies were described as a part of marketing plan. Along with this, the market segmentation, positioning, and targeting strategies were analysed to target its markets. The competitive strategies including the product development, cost leadership, and focus strategies could be used as an important part of the marketing plan to attain the competitive advantage in the relevant Australian industry. The Gantt chart was prepared to show the action plan template for representing the sequence of the marketing activities to be completed within the scheduled time period.   

References

Blue Cherry (2016).Blue Cherry Company Profile.[Online]. Available at: https://www.thebluecherry.com.au/. (Accessed: 30 May 2017).

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Cherry Growers Australia Inc. (2017). Australian Cherry Export Roadmap 2012-2017. [Online]. Available at: https://www.cherrygrowers.org.au/assets/australian_cherry_export_roadmap_2012_2017.pdf. (Accessed: 30 May 2017).

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