Marketing Strategy: Canberra Black Forest Chocolate Cafe - Case Study Example

Marketing Strategy: Canberra Black Forest Chocolate Café Name Institution Course Date Marketing Strategy: Canberra Black Forest Chocolate Café Product Product is a critical marketing mix element that Canberra Black Forest café will have to factor in to ensure the success in the market. First, for Canberra Black Forest café to succeed in the Australian competitive chocolate market, the café will have to ensure that it provides the customers with quality chocolates. Gelder and Woodcock (2003) observed that quality is a key factor that customers look for in a product when making buying decisions. Therefore, the café must ensure that customers get value for money by providing them with quality chocolates. Second, Ataman, Van Heerde and Mela (2010) suggest that every business can compete effectively for customers by ensuring constant satisfaction of customer needs. However, the best company usually goes beyond the customer’s expectations by providing additional benefits, which they never imagine. Because of this, Canberra Black Forest café should consider going beyond the expectations of the customers by providing them with a variety of products, including different chocolates, desserts and beverages. Providing a variety of chocolates, desserts and beverages will give customers choice, thus helping draw many customers to the café. Additionally, to compete effectively in the Australian chocolate market, Canberra Black Forest café will have to ensure that the products are served in a serene, clean and comfortable environment. This is important because customer normally look at the cleanliness and the environment in which the products are served notes Ataman, Van Heerde and Mela (2010). Additionally, the café will also have to consider introducing entertainment products, such as free internet services and television to supplement the main products as this would help attract customers that look not just for food, but also entertainment, such as sports. Moreover, Canberra Black Forest café will have to ensure that customers are provided with excellent services by the service staff to help build loyalty and repeated purchase. Price Price is an important marketing mix element that any firm that hopes to succeed in a competitive business environment must take into account (Jensen, 2013). Because of the high competition in the Australian chocolate industry, Canberra Black Forest chocolate will have to consider charging affordable prices for its chocolates to ensure competitiveness and success. Smith (2011) observed that most chocolate consumers are price sensitive and look for chocolates that are affordable in terms of prices. Therefore, to succeed in the Australian chocolate market, Canberra Black Forest café will have to differentiate itself from rivals, such as Cadbury by charging prices that are relatively lower than what the competitors charge. However, the café will have to ensure that the chocolates are not priced too low because this would make customers associate the low prices with low quality. Additionally, the café will have to consider providing discounts on its chocolate bars to attract customers to the brand. In particular, it would be important for the café to provide discounts during festive seasons such as Christmas, Easter and Valentine Day. At the same time, the café should consider providing discounts for customers that buy the chocolates in large quantity as this would help promote repeat purchasing, thus resulting in high revenue and profits. Distribution/Place Place denotes how a product is made available to targeted customers. Gelder and Woodcock (2003) suggest that, to attract many customers to a brand, the products or services must be made easily accessible to customers. This implies that customers should not have to travel long distance or incur a lot of cost to get the products as this would make them consider switching to direct or closer substitutes that are easily obtainable and low cost and within a short time. For this reason, Canberra Black Forest will ensure that its chocolates and desserts are made easily accessible to customers to attract high sales. In this respect, the first thing that the café will have to consider doing is to establish cafes along popular business streets in Canberra, such as along Commonwealth Avenue, Limestone Avenue, Clunies Ross Street and Macarthur Avenue among others. Establishing chocolate café along these strategic and busy streets and avenue will enable Canberra city residents and visitors have easy access to the café, which is important for the success of the business. Canberra Bnack Forest should also consider using supermarkets as its distribution points. Most Australians, especially those residing in the cities, such as Canberra like shopping in supermarkets. Therefore, using supermarkets as a distribution point will be critical for the café as it would enable the business customers have easy access to the chocolates offered by the company (Moghaddam and Foroughi, 2002). Some of the supermarkets that Canberra Black Forest should consider using as its distribution points include Woolworths, Pal Asian Supermarket, and Cole and Safeway supermarket among others. Third, because consumers are increasingly becoming technology savvy and preferring online shopping to the traditional physical store shopping, Canberra Black Forest should adapt to this consumer trend by introducing online shopping experience for its customers. As a matter of fact, Roy Morgan 2013 study found that at least 50 percent of Aussies shop online with the numbers growing every year (Bainbridge, 2013). This implies that sticking to the use of physical stores will lock out this large number of shoppers. Therefore, the right strategic move for the business will be to introduce e-commerce tool that would allow customers to buy their chocolates online at the comfort of their homes and have their distributed by the café to their doorsteps. Besides, Canberra Black Forest will benefit from online shopping as it would enable the business to reach out to customers beyond Canberra easily and in the most cost-effective manner. Promotion Promotion is an important marketing activity that any company that operates in a competitive business environment must engage in to ensure success. Promotion describes activities that a company engages in to create brand awareness and pursued customers to identify with the brand (Shimp, 2008). Schultz and Schultz (2003) argue that merely developing quality products and charging affordable prices is not enough for a business to succeed. Instead, the authors advise that a company must ensure that targeted customers are made aware of the existence of the products. For this reason, to reach as many targeted customers as possible, Canberra Black Forest will have to consider employing integrated marketing communication (IMC) tools, such as media advertising, product giveaways, billboards, sales promotion and sponsorships to create its brand awareness. Media Advertising Television Television is one of the media communication tools that are commonly used by companies to promote a product or service. Notwithstanding the high cost associated with television advertising, Ryan (2014) observed that TV still acts as an important communication tool today. Canberra Black Forest café should therefore consider advertising its chocolate on television to help create brand awareness and to attract Canberra and Australians at large to the café. The business will benefit from the television advertising because it will enable the company reach out to many audiences considering that millions of Aussies depend on TV as information source (Ryan, 2014). ACMA (2014) study found that at least 18.7 million television sets actively used in Australian households which translates to about 2.2 television set per Australian household. Accordingly, this shows that most Australians are glued to their television sets every day; thus providing Canberra Black Forest café with a good platform where to advertise its products. Some of the major Australian television channels that the company should consider using include 7News, ABC, and Sky News Australia and international channels, such as CNN and Aljazeera. Social Media Canberra Black Forest should consider using social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and LinkedIn among other social media platforms to promote its products. According to Roy Morgan recent study, about 65 percent of Australians use social media with at least 45 percent using social media daily (Cowling, 2016). Additionally, more than 13 million Aussies have Facebook, 13 Million YouTube and 3 million Twitter (Cowling, 2016). This implies that using social media will be appropriate for use in advertising the company products as it would give the company a cost-effective way of reaching wide audience. Newspapers and Magazines Canberra Black Forest should also consider advertising its products on Australian popular newspapers, such as the Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph to promote its products. These newspapers are read by millions of Australians daily, thus providing a good platform for promoting the chocolates. At the same time, the company should also consider using Australia lifestyle magazines, such as ABC Gardening, Inside Out, and Vogue Australia that attracts many readers. Website Canberra Black Forest should also create a good and user-friendly website where to promote its chocolate and other products. Having a website will enable the company reach out to many customers considering the growing use of the internet as an information source (Ryan, 2014) with more than 60 percent of Aussies using the internet daily. Product Giveaways Canberra Black Forest should consider using product giveaways as a strategy for promoting its products. In this respect, the business will have to consider giving customers chocolates that it intends to offer as samples for them to try as this will entice them to purchase the product once introduced in the market, thus ensuing good sales and profits (Gelder and Woodcock, 2003). Sponsorships Although sponsorships is an expensive promotional strategy, Canberra Black Forest should consider using this strategy as it will help the company promote its products to the population. In this respect, Canberra Black Forest should consider sponsoring sports and cultural events that attracts a large number of fans and viewers, such as cricket, tennis, football and Basketball among other events. Implementation Budget To ensure successful implementation of the above marketing plan, a budget estimate catering for the requirements has been made. Estimates indicate that Canberra Black Forest will incur an estimated AU$200,000 to successfully implement its marketing plan as highlighted in the table hereunder. Items Cost (AU$) Building for cafe 70,000 Equipment, fixtures & Fittings 40,000 Promotion 30,000 Raw Materials 50,000 Insurance 5,000 License 3,000 Contingency 2,000 Total AU$200,000 Promotional Schedule Tactic Jan. Feb. Mar Aar May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Television Social Media Website Product Giveaways Sponsorships Evaluation In measuring whether or not the marketing strategies proposed are achieving their goals, Canberra Black Forest will have to periodically evaluate the strategies. This will enable the company understand how the targeted customers are receiving the products and the adjustments that are necessary to ensure long-term success. The strategies that will be used in evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies include surveys and seeking customer feedback, as well as measuring company performance against competitors. Conclusion The growing consumption of chocolate in Australia has made the industry attractive for investment. It is for this reason that Canberra Black Forest intends to make a grand entry into the chocolate market by establishing a café in Canberra. Nevertheless, for the business to succeed, Canberra Black Forest will have to ensure that it adopts effective marketing strategies that includes quality chocolate bars that comes in variety, adopting effective pricing, distribution, as well as promotional tactics as highlighted in the marketing plan above. References ACMA. (2014). TV sets In Australian households. Retrieved from http://acma.gov.au/theACMA/Library/researchacma/Snapshots-and-presentations/tv-sets-in-australian-households-research-library-landing-page Ataman, M. B., Van Heerde, H. J., & Mela, C. F. (2010). The long-term effect of marketing strategy on brand sales. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(5), 866-882. Bainbridge, A. (2013). More than 50 per cent of Australians shopping online: Roy Morgan Research. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-04/more-than-50-per-cent-of-australians-shopping-online/4731590 Cowling, D. (2016). Social media statistics Australia – May 2016. Web. 25 August 2016 http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-may-2016/ Gelder, D., & Woodcock, P. (2003). Marketing and promotional strategy. London: Nelson Thornes. Jensen, M. (2013). Setting profitable prices: A step-by-step guide to pricing strategy--without hiring a consultant. Upper Saddle River, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Moghaddam, F. M., & Foroughi, A. (2002). The influence of marketing strategy elements on market share of firms. International Journal of Fundamental Psychology & Social Sciences, 2(1), 19-24. Ryan, D. (2014). Understanding digital marketing: Marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Oxford: Kogan Page. Schultz, D., & Schultz, H. (2003). IMC, the next generation: five steps for delivering value and measuring returns using marketing communication. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Professional. Shimp, T. A. (2008). Advertising promotion and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Smith, T. (2011). Pricing strategy: Setting price levels, managing price discounts and establishing price structures. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Read More