Situation Analysis and Target Market Identification - Essay Example

SITUATION ANALYSIS MARKETING ESSAY SUBMITTED TO- SUBMITTED BY 0 SITUATION ANALYSIS(CURRENT MARKETING MIX 1 CURRENT PRODUCT Cadbury has been at the forefront for creation of quality products like the chocolates and other confectionaries. All the products at Cadbury have been seen to have a high degree of quality that complements that taste. Cadbury has a number of offerings in Australia that ranges in a number of categories like chocolate bars, boxed chocolates, the gluten products, preteen range and the other such products. Some of the product that is famous in this range is the Crunchie bar, Turkish delight and box bar and Bubbly bar (Cadbury Australia 2012). These are some of the products that have been enjoying a widespread presence in the Australian market. The current product that is being analyzed here is the Cadbury Jelly popins candy beanies for the Australian market. It comes under the Pascall lollies family and has been one of the best performing products. It is great in taste and appearance. The product enjoys a lot of popularity among the kids and pre-teens and has been an instant success. The buying decision is habitual buying behaviour. However, the quality of the product ensures that it enjoys widespread loyalty among the different groups (especially, the kids and pre-teens). There is a considerable threat from the competitors like Nestle, Mars, Ferrero and Lindt in terms of offering for the consumers. However, the product enjoys a lot of popularity due to the taste and the consumers have a buying habit for it. This is one of the factors driving the sales of this product. The other factor that drives the sales of this product is the lower amount of calorie count in this product (Cadbury Australia 2012). Due, to this, it has been able to make headway even in the adult market to some extent. The product is packaged in an attractive manner with a youthful combination of blue, red and brown colours. Although the product has a number of competitors in the local Australian consumer market, it still enjoys a distinct advantage in the category due to the packaging and overall features. 1.2 CURRENT PRICING The market in Australia for chocolates and confectionaries has been growing at a steady rate. There are a number of players in the market but no clear winner. So, the market can be said to have the characteristics of monopolistic competition (Mc Carthy 1996, 145). This situation can be seen when the products being offered by the competitors tend to be alike in features. So, the overall distinguishing features between the products are very low. So, the market can be said to be under monopolistic competition. The demand can be said to be elastic in nature (Levitt 1972, 156). A small change in the price would lead to a larger demand for the product. The other important point is the nature of the product. The buying decision is not complex and is very close to impulse buying. So, a small change in the price of the product would have a tremendous impact on the sales of the product. The cost of business for the market is an important part in the element for doing business. However, the product is present in a market that has a large number of players. Taking that point into consideration, the pricing of the product may affect the sales in a significant manner. There is a lot of competition from the big players in the market like Nestle, Cocolo, Mars and Nestle. There is large competition in the market from the existent players. If we analyze the market, it can be seen that the product has been priced at around four dollars. So, the pricing cannot be exactly pointed out to be value based pricing (Chandy et al 2001, 146). It can be said to an example of going rate pricing. The price point is similar to the existing products in the market. The price may be a point in the market, but Cadbury is an established brand. There is another factor that acts in favour of the brand. The other brands like Mars do not have a competitor in the same category of chocolates, making it a very clear winner. 1.3 CURRENT DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY Cadbury has a distribution strategy that seeks to maximize the number of avenues for sales of all the products. There is an effort that is placed on the penetration of the market. This is done by a number of ways. One of the ways of ensuring the development of this kind of distribution is the usage of direct and indirect sales channels (Clarke 1976, 139). In terms of the distribution channel, it can be called as a mix of the two and the three degree channels. Most of the sales are generated by the retailers who consist of the supermarket chains. They ensure the visibility of the product to the consumers. The other part of the distribution channel is the standalone stores that generate the profits. Cadbury also generates the sales for this product by the help of tying with a number of online stores that generate sales through a number of promotional offers. However, it is much behind the other established players like Nestle in this regard. These are some of the distribution strategies of this chocolate. 1.4 CURRENT PROMOTION The company follows a mix of promotional strategies for all the products in its portfolio. This product is basically promoted by a mix of promotional materials. It follows a number of ways for promoting the depth of the products. There is a program called as the CBD (Cadbury Chocolate Sampling program), that carried the product to maximum number of consumers. It has helped the products in reaching out to a large number of consumers. The product being taken as a part of the analysis is the Jelly Poppins Candy beans for the Australian market. The promotions are done regularly on the radio stations. This ensures that the awareness of the product reaches a large proportion of the market. This also makes the necessary product placement in the minds of the target consumer. Other than this, there are advertisements being put on televisions that are helpful in the generation of sales and increasing the awareness of the products. Cadbury also goes for a number of celebrity endorsements who re-enforce the image of the brand in the public perception. Cadbury has appointed Australian TV presenter Carrie Bickmore as the Easter ambassador. Other than this, Cadbury runs a variety of promotions aimed at the product knowledge among the target market. 2.0 BRAND POSITIONING THEORY The positioning of the brand plays an important role in the development of the overall marketing strategy. It is useful in the development of necessary organizational rules for the better promotion of the products. The decisions of the organization are based on the relative positioning of the product in the market. The proper positioning of the brand is imperative for survival in the current period of competition. When the market is an open one, it is sacrosanct for the organization to understand the value of the product and position it accordingly to the target audience. The brand can either go for the strategy of re-positioning or de-positioning depending on the status of the product. Overall, these factors decide the movement of the product. The three generic strategies of Porter shall enable the initiation of the correct marketing strategy for the product. The three strategies that can be used under this methodology are the ones of cost leadership (low cost), the strategy of differentiation and the focussed strategy. By using any one of these strategies, that is most suited to the target market, the product shall aim to assume the market leader position. The function of the positioning is to ensure that the recall value of the product among the target consumers is very high. Whenever the consumer shall think of a product in one particular category, this product should be the first choice among the consumers. If the consumer can associate an experience of any product with the brand, it allows a better experience (Mindak 1981, 121). The market knowledge of the product shall play a essential part for success in the chosen market. This is imperative for ensuring the growth in the chosen field. The product known as Jelly Popping Candy Beanies by Cadbury has a very value of recall among the target segment. The target consumers tend to enjoy a lot of positive experience with the product, making it a much desired product in that particular segment. It has become essential in the market of today to use proper methods of brand positioning. The perception of the product in the minds of the consumer and overall placement is very important. The various methods of business research should be used for ensuring the dominance of the product in the target market. 2.2 PERCEPTUAL MAP OF THE PRODUCT Y-AXIS Mars Cadbury Nestle Ferrero Lindt x-AXIS INDEX- X AXIS- REPRESENTS THE PRICE Y AXIS- REPRESENTS THE QUALITY 3.0 TARGET MARKET IDENTIFICATION 3.1 GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Australia has been growing at a very fast rate over the past couple of years. It has a burgeoning population that is clocked at 22,687,634 as of the year 2012(ABS 2012). Much of the population is based out of the urban areas. The product Jelly Beanies by Cadbury is basically aimed at the kinds and pre-teen market. With a large number of urban families that are based out of the different cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and others; the product has a defined target audience. It also has the required number of kid population for the product. So, this shall serve as the target market for all the consumers. 3.2 DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION The population of Australia has been rising at a steady rate. Out of the population of 22,687,634; a large percentage is comprised of the kinds and preteens. This shall serve as the target market for the product. Also, the lower value of calories in the product ensures that t enjoys a lot of popularity among the slightly older segment of the population also. So, given the dynamics of the population; this product is placed for being a sure winner. The population of the target audience, the kids above 5 years of age up to the age of 14 shall propel the sales of the product Jelly Beanies. It shall also help in acquiring the required revenue. 3.3 PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION The market is divided among the lines of value, social status and class in this segment. This is the basal way of dividing the target market. The product being studied here is called as Jelly Beanies is targeted for the kids and pre-teens category. They form the audience that buys this product. The product is important for the quality that it posses. It is priced at the almost the same price point of the competitors; making it an extremely desired product. This shall be the primary points of the segmentation of the market. 3.4 BEHAVIOURAL SEGMENTATION This segmentation is based on the behaviour of the consumer. The product is not a very high value in terms of the pricing. The buying decision is not based on the intrinsic value or status of the product, but the quality and price points play the major role in enforcing the buying decision. As was discussed earlier, the customer buys the product based on the pricing considerations. There are a number of players in the market who have priced the market at the similar price points. So, the pricing should be managed in an appropriate manner for the success of the product ( Tellis 1994, 79). The buying decision is not complex in nature, but is based on the considerations of price. There is no association of value with the product. So, the sale of the product is based on the price point considerations. As the buying is impulse in nature; the consumer should place the adequate importance while promoting the product. REFERENCES Chandy, R., Tellis, G. J., MacInnis, D., & Thaivanich,P. (2001). What to say when: Advertising appeals in evolving markets. London: Cambridge Clarke, D. G. 1976. Econometric measurement of the duration of advertising effect on sales. London: Adler Publishing house. Cooper, L. G., & Nakanishi, M. 1988. Market share analysis. Norwell, MA: Kluwer. Guadagni, P., & Little, J. D. C. 1983. A logit model of brand choice calibrated on scanner data.London: Baker Book House. Levitt, T. 1972.Production line approach to service. Washington: Arcade Publishing. Lovelock, C.H. 1979.Theoretical contributions from services and non-business marketing.Chicago: Harper Collins. McCarthy, E.J. 1964. Basic Marketing.Homewood, IL: McGraw Hill. McCarthy, J. 1996. Basic marketing: A managerial approach. Homewood, IL. Irwin Mindak, W.A. 1981.A fifth ‘P’: public relations. Michigan: Michigan University Press. Tellis, G. J. 1994. Is reference price based on context or experience? An analysis of consumers’ brand choices. Washington:Emerald Group publishing. Sethuraman, R., & Tellis, G. J. 1991. An analysis of the trade off between advertising and pricing.UK: Carlton Books "Cadbury Australia." Accessed November 13, 2012. http://www.cadbury.com.au/. "Population clock." Australian Bureau of Statistics. Accessed November 12, 2012. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a900154b63?open document. Read More