Brand Names And Global Positioning - Case Study Example

LIPTON COMPANY By [Name of Student] [Name of Instructor] [University] [Name of Course] [Date] Contents 2 1.0 INTRODUCTION 3 1.1 Purpose 3 1.2 Scope 3 1.3 Method 4 2.0 Review of literature 4 2.1 Marketing Efficiency 4 2.2 The relationship of learning organization and Knowledge 4 2.3 Lipton Company’s marketability 5 2.4 Sustainability in marketing 6 3.0 Brand Architecture 6 3.1 Behavioral segmentation 7 3.3 Benefits sought 7 3.4 Loyalty 8 3.5 Usage rate 8 3.6 Product branding and Advertising 8 4.0 Analysis 8 4.1 PESTEL Analysis 10 4.1.1 Social 10 4.1.2 Technology 10 4.1.3 Political 11 4.1.4 Economical 11 5.0 Discussion 11 6.0 Conclusions and Recommendation 12 Bibliography 13 1.0 INTRODUCTION Lipton is an investment company that was established in 1893. It is head offices are based in United Kingdom and currently the firm cuts across different states of the world. Primarily, it is the leading the leading producer of tea bags globally although currently it operates under Unilever company that came to own it at a latter stage. From the survey that was conducted on mega investment companies, it was evident that Lipton was among the leading company in the production of tea bags in the nineteenth century. It is incumbent to state that it invests in array of products such as English Breakfast Tea, Green Tea Mandarin Orange, Earl Grey Tea, Peach Mango and Camomile Tea. However, it is important to indicate that in as much as it was the leading organization in production of tea products, it does undergo some challenges due to its vastness[HuC11]. It is due to this and numerous reason that this report would critically delve on theoretical framework related to the management of Lipton Company, providing analysis of its performance and giving out a clear distinction on its activities in the market[Lip15]. Similarly, this work will provide literature review in the view of making some comparison of what other authors have written about Lipton company in order to evaluate and asses its performance effectively in the very competitive market. 1.1 Purpose This study primarily investigates and assess the marketing management of Lipton Company amid the multiple challenges that is subjected to in the competitive market. 1.2 Scope The study will examine the performance of Lipton Company in different parts of the world including the effectiveness of its distributing shops. 1.3 Method Different approaches were used to collect relevant information about Lipton Company. These multifaceted of approaches include sourcing for information from publications such as journals, books and Lipton sites currently Unilever sites[Lin15]. Moreover, financial records of data also aided in providing pertinent information about its progress and activities and whether it has achieved its ultimate objective by beating the target of the previous financial or fiscal years. 2.0 Review of literature 2.1 Marketing Efficiency Entry strategy is a key factor towards making a firm grow. This is achieved when the firm has identified some of its setbacks and strengths in order to obliterate or expunge the weakness and work towards building their strengths in order to move the firm a notch higher than before. The practice of strategizing aids both the growing firm and well established as everyday there are new changes in the market[Lip15]. Therefore, it is important for the firm to identify their challenges and initiate some good measures that would enable it to increase on its production. Lipton being a multinational company it operates its business basing their operation on Equity theory. This theory attempts to look at all possible ways that would make the firm be at equilibrium state taking into consideration the needs of employees. Equity theory is geared towards making the firm maximize on its profits and cutting down all the miscellaneous expenses that affects the firm production and activities. 2.2 The relationship of learning organization and Knowledge The knowledge management and dimensions of learning organization is very important for a company. This is because it makes the company to enjoy some competitive advantage due to the framework and strategy they have laid down. Different statistics that were carried out to determine the impact of knowledge on management and learning organization indicate that those firm that have ever performed well and awarded business excellence have shown some incredible performance in its subsequent operations. Lipton has fully adopted the social identity theory as it fully identifies itself with its brand. It is incumbent to state that Lipton has a unique brand that makes its brand universally known[Ash11]. It is from this point of view that it has fully embraced this theoretical framework to enable them increase on their sales and production as most of the people can identify with its brand. It is due to this uniqueness that makes most of the people identify with its product. Therefore, the information on learning objectives is very important as guides the company to assess its relevance in the market. It also aids the firm to know whether its vision and mission are in alignment with the dynamism that are taking place in the market. The assumptions that was made from this finding is that knowledge management has direct impact to the Learning Organization and it is very important for the firm to put this into consideration for its mobility and progress. There is a lot of stiff competition in the market. This is the reason as to why investors need to be flexible in their operation. Rigidity in the market cost the firm a great deal. The study on Lipton Company attempts to examine the market flexibility and how it impacts to the business performance[HuC11]. Using the secondary data provided, it is evident that rigid or rather non flexible marketing hindering the productivity of Lipton Company. 2.3 Lipton Company’s marketability The purpose of the study is to show the importance of promoting flexibility and enhancing the sales performance of the current market competition. The study of Lipton Company case, first explores the vital role in promoting and revitalizing sales fortunes of this processing firm. SAP-LAP method has been used for the analysis purpose thanks to its comprehensive and versatile nature[Mil15]. Similarly, primary data knowledge is employed for analysis resolutions. Self-interaction and cross-interaction matrices underneath SAP-LAP methodology are used in the study to understand and capture the essence of the assorted states and components concerned on Lipton case stud. Study finds out that inflexible promoting acted mutually as the first culprits behind the poor sales performance of Lipton Company. The company gave the impression to have comprehended this reality and addressed this flaw in its operation that signified high sales flexibility. It is important to note that the company sold its shares to Unilever Company which has fully taken its ownership. 2.4 Sustainability in marketing Sustainability is the key factor in the progress of the organization. It is due to this that most of the organization strives hard to maintain their reputation and bale to meet the high demands of the clients with the view of increasing their sales[Sha16]. A firm is considered sustainable if it able to survive the dynamisms that are periodically experienced in the market. This also implies that it does continue supplying its product to its clients and widen their, market by reaching to new customers. 3.0 Brand Architecture To fully understand the brand architecture of Lipton Company, it would be important to look at each of its brand namely English Breakfast Tea, Green Tea mandarin orange, Earl grey tea and peach mango. All this brand they are under the Lipton pyramid Tea. It too offers Lipton Linea around Western Europe and Lipton Yellow label brand which is sold in most parts of the world. Other notable brands are Lipton Leed Tea and Lipton Brisk which is an iced taste brand that is majorly distributed in North America under the merger of Lipton and PepsiCo[Pat151]. The addition of phosphoric acid to aforementioned brand makes it have an aromatic flavor. Lipton Company has a very wide coverage of market as it has dealers from several parts of the world making it to be an international business with remarkable reputation as it has maintained consistency for long. Its promotion is done on different platforms ranging from offline to online means so as to reach its diversified clients from different geographical areas of the world. 3.1 Behavioral segmentation This simply implies the behavior or rather the way the customer or population responds to a given product. For this case the segments would be divide into four major areas namely; buying on occasion, benefits sought, loyalty and usage rate. Buying on occasion It has been noted that customers do buy a lot of Lipton products on particular occasion. For instance, during the specific celebration and festivities, the firm realizes high sales as compared to other days when such occasion is not there[Mil15]. Noteworthy it has attempted to improve on its product from initial mere tea bags to Lipton ice Tea so as to be relevant in the market and avoid the seasonality that used to be experienced earlier. 3.3 Benefits sought The firm in the past few years has attempted to meet the needs of the clients by coming up with new products. This is also in line with the dynamisms in the market that is characterized with stiff competition from other processor producing the same products. It is common knowledge that clients are being moved by new entry to the market. It is for this reason that the firm has come up with Lipton Brisk, Lipton Iced Tea, Lipton Linea and Lipton Yellow label brand[Pat15]. Moreover, it does some empirical survey to determine the needs of the clients. As such, it is able to know the preferences and taste of its clients in order to come up with a product that best suites them. 3.4 Loyalty Lipton Company which currently is operating under Unilever uses all possible means to retain its customers and acquire new ones. It retains its customers by offering quality products and sensitizing them. Moreover, it has been noted that it does offer some discounts to its customers, a fact that attracts most of the customers. Lipton also sees to it that it expands its sales by reaching its clients using some good strategies that it has laid down[Bor08]. It is important to state that loyalty entails offering some promotions that make most of the potential clients take part in and in the event they expand the marketability to wider geographical area. 3.5 Usage rate This is the rate at which a given product is bought from a specific company. A firm may enhance its marketability and sales if ensures that it is in touch with its client and is ready to listen to their query[Bor08]. Lipton has managed this by employing specialized staff who does proper sales marketing and collecting relevant information from the market about the underlying factors in the market. 3.6 Product branding and Advertising Branding of a product and advertising is very significant in any business. Most of the enterprises see to it that their products reach diversified parts of the world. 4.0 Analysis Lipton has seen some tremendous improvement in the past. In the year 2009, it was awarded Corporate Green globe with Rainforest Alliance due to its exemplary performance in the market. It has further achieved in launching innumerable brands such as Lipton Linea which is around Western Europe and Lipton yellow label brand is sold on more than 150 countries globally[Lip15]. In 2010, under the slogan “Don’t knock till you’ve tried,” has greatly played a significant role in its bid to market the product and retain its name or reclaim its lost reputation in the industry. There are some controversies that emerged about the products of Lipton Tea. Some critics argue that it has not met the required threshold for safety of consumption. It is due to this allegation and controversies that the firm had to come out strongly to reclaim its reputation in the market. The firm managed to do so through proper marketing strategy and attempting to obliterate or expunge such negative notion and misconception most people had about its products. This made its products increase its sale in the subsequent year a fact that boosted its growth and realization of good profits. The other notable success that the firm has made is its bid to diversify its product in order to capture the attention of the customer by producing what is relevant to the market. In 2003, Pepsi Lipton Company was opened as second merger venture[Lin15]. This enabled the firm to widen its sales and market to different geographical parts through the merger or joint venture. The firm owns some plantation in East Africa around Kenya and Tanzania. The marketing strategy of Lipton has been seen as its basic step to realizing great profits and widen its market. It is also important top state that it is now fully owned by Unilever. The previously mentioned company is a multinational corporation, this makes this product from Lipton reach diversified parts of the world and therefore taking a global face rather than regional one. Conversely, in 2012 Greenpeace raised multiple questions on safety of Lipton products. It was established that the products selected from one of the shopping Centre in Beijing greatly failed safety tests. This implies that the result did not meet the required threshold set by the Quality Assurance and Food Safety board[Qas15]. This made most of the people developed negative attitudes towards its products. That very year after the information had gone viral, Lipton registered a very great loss and most of its customers ceased buying its product a fact that affected its market and sales. This firm has experienced great surges in the market in some recent years. This is the fact that has propelled the firm and gave it impetus to sale part of its shares to Unilever. The situation degenerated to a point whereby the firm was fully acquired by Unilever Company. 4.1 PESTEL Analysis PESTEL assesses the feasible dynamism and volatility in the environment. This may be attributed by factors such as, political, social, economic, and technology. 4.1.1 Social Nonetheless, for our case, the dominant challenge was on the social; scaling since this being a new company it had to take a very drastic approach in order to make its product marketable. Moreover, it started facing challenges from the growing companies which came up with new approaches; most of them seemed to be venturing in this field of using some notable form of generation of power in order to cut down on its cost of production to allow better price of its product[Sha16]. This is a great threat to the said company and they ought to take a paradigm shift to capture their position and maintain their status. 4.1.2 Technology Lipton managed to initiate some technological move, a fact that has really boosted its sale. It achieved this by coming up with new product such as Lipton Linea Lipton Brisk which is an iced tea brand. However, it is important to state that it is meeting a great challenge from the firm that are now coming up strongly and embracing technology fully. It is hard to continue being on top when new problems are arising like rise in gas cost and air pollution. Lipton acknowledges this and dedicates several resources and time into evaluating and developing new ideas so as to beat the stiff competitions from their rivals and the trending dynamical of economies[Mil15]. In order for this processing industry to stay in this competitive market, they need to amend, adapt and evolve. That is why Lipton is specifically doing ascension, intensive analysis and development research so as to continue to lead. 4.1.3 Political The politics of a place determines whether a given firm would be established. Lipton enjoys a great advantage since it did not meet a lot of opposition politically from different nation. It was granted permission by the government to initiate its project[HuC11]. This is the reason for its swift move it made globally. 4.1.4 Economical At first the company enjoyed monopolistic position. This is because by then not many companies and firms had ventured in the processing of tea[Bor08]. However, Lipton had to prepare to face their upcoming competitors using the same strategies as theirs. 5.0 Discussion Lipton is able to market its product using different strategies. It does this by integrating both the online and off line means to widen its market to greater geographical areas. It is incumbent to state that looking at the current trend of the firm, it has fully embraced the use of online means. This is commonly feasible through the use of social media platforms. The management of Lipton has discovered that most of its potential client are online and to reach them they have signed into some accounts and post photos and pictures of their brand to be relevant in the market through this platform. However, it was seen that the company do face multiple challenges from the upcoming and other existing companies[Pat151]. Nonetheless, it has developed some workable strategies to see to it that it maintains its reputation by appealing to its clients. It effectively manages this by processing and producing new brands of products every season. Although in recent time, the firm has undergone metamorphosis of challenges, it has made some strategies to reclaim its lost reputation. One of the major setbacks of the firm is that it sold its full shares to Unilever Company[Pat15]. It is Unilever Company that is managing the firm currently although using new brand name. Since Unilever took over the management, the firm has realized some incredible improvement globally. 6.0 Conclusions and Recommendation Lipton Company under new management should do empirical survey to determine its performance in respect to other firms processing same products as theirs. It is high time for the firm to diversify their brands in processing variety of products so as to capture the attention of clients from diversified backgrounds. The company should make its website simpler to be accessed by anyone and most importantly ready to offer assistance to its potential client who are using its sites. Bibliography HuC11: , (Hu, 2011), Lip15: , (Lipton, 2015), Lin15: , (Lindsay, 2015), Ash11: , (Ashok, 2011), Mil15: , (Mills, 2015), Sha16: , (Shaik, 2016), Pat151: , (Patton, 2015), Pat15: , (Patton, 2015), Bor08: , (Borgen, 2008), Qas15: , (Qasim, 2015), Read More