Measuring and Interpreting Snickers Brand Performance - Case Study Example

Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Executive Summary The research found out that much needs to be done in order to have the Snickers chocolate competing on the same scale or even higher than the other brands, especially Mars Bars and Kit Kat, which are its major competitors. The market share for snickers ought to be worked on because it is demanding. It is clear from the research that the brand salience of Snickers chocolate needs to be worked on in order to have it towering above the other brands. Mars Bar has cut itself a niche clientele and that is why it has a bigger market share than the Snickers chocolate. One can deduce that the marketing strategy for the Mars Bar is working because it has a considerable number of loyal consumers unlike Snickers marketers who have to come up with strategies of making this brand salient so that it can be as competitive as Mars Bar and Kit Kat. The snickers chocolate has a higher category buying rate which can be capitalised on in order to come up with a salient brand that customers want to identify with. As seen from the brand performance metrics, snickers lay in the third place among the competitive brands which means that the its marketers need to find out what the other two top brands are doing right in order to cement their positions at the top. A consumer survey should be carried out to find out the different preferences amongst gender groupings and relationship categories. More needs to be found out how family earnings affect the marketability of snickers chocolate. Brand Performance Differences and patterns between competing brands According to table 1, the different competing brands perform differently in the brand performance measures available. The pattern of performance differs from one brand to the other. From the table, it can be articulated that snickers perform averagely in the market share as compared to the other brands. Twix and Nestle Gold have a lesser market share as compared to snickers because they are below the average. Mars Bar and Kit-Kat control a greater market share as compared to Snickers. The rate of penetration for Snickers is slightly below the average as compared to Kit-Kat which is slightly above average. Mars Bars has a greater penetration rate as compared to the other brands. Nestle gold has the least penetration rate as compared to the other brands. In terms of average purchase frequency, Snickers is slightly above average. Kit Kat enjoys a higher average purchase frequency with Mars Bars coming in second. Nestle Gold and Twix come in second last and last respectively with their rating below average. Under category buying rate, Snickers performs quite well because it comes in second behind Nestle Gold. Snickers, Twix and Nestle Gold are above average while Mars Bars and Kit Kat trail below the average. Under share of category requirements, Snickers is slightly below the average followed by Twix and Nestle Gold respectively. Under sole loyalty, Snickers is below the expected average. Apart from Mars Bar which enjoys a greater sole loyalty, all the other brands are below average. A Repertoire Market and a Subscription Market According to Sharp, Wright & Goodhardt (2002), a repertoire market has few solely loyal consumers while subscription market has several solely loyal consumers. The difference between the two is that in a repertoire market, the majority of the consumers distribute their category requirements across a number of brands which are placed in a steady trend while in a subscription market, the loyal consumers major their category requirements wholly on a single brand. According to Byron Sharp (2007), in a repertoire market, brand consumers are neither absolutely loyal nor disloyal to the brand but rather hold individual preferences of preferred brands. In a subscription market, the consumers have complete reliability on a brand and the category requirements are usually soaring. The consumer loyalty is one hundred percent as compared to repertoire markets. Moreover, in repertoire market, the category requirements are below average, in most cases below fifty percent. As per the brand performance matrix, Snickers exist in a repertoire market because there are a number of brands that customers can readily choose from. Snickers customers are neither loyal nor disloyal to the brands that the company manufactures but they hold diverse preferences in regard to the brands. Moreover, the consumer loyalty to Snickers brand is not one hundred percent because the category requirement share for this product is below average. Building a loyalty program for Snicker Chocolates Developing a loyalty program reinforces the economical position that a certain product, Snickers, holds within a company. The plan that the Marketing Director wants initiated has its merits and demerits but it is workable. Since the company can keep track of the consumers that it wishes to reward, it is easier to maintain the already existing relationship. Giving customers who have been buying Snicker chocolates gifts and discounts persuades them to buy more thus increasing the market share. Such ventures will also diversify the customer base thus increasing the penetration of snicker chocolates. The loyalty program that the Marketing Director wants initiated will make the consumers feel appreciated and wanted thus maintaining their continued allegiance to their product. Rewarding customers aids in maintaining their loyalty and at the same time encourages other new customers who want to enjoy the price promotion. Consumers of other brands will be diverted by the appealing offers being made for whoever buys Snicker chocolates. Sharp & Sharp (2000) are of the idea that a cost promotion or discounts usually tender a temporal market increase because it usually entices new and existing consumers. It is temporal because after sometime, the consumers often return to their individual preferences because of inadequate knowledge that the consumers have regarding the other existing brands. Sharp & sharp further assert that focussing on the already existing customers, or allowing discounts to loyal customers only maintains the existing customers and in the process fails to acquire new ones. Distracting consumers who have got used to purchasing particular products is usually taxing because each customer has particular reasons for consuming particular brands thus gifts and discounts may not be reason enough for them to stop purchasing what they prefer. According to Reilly (2008), customers who are usually affiliated to certain brands often find it hard to shift to new products just because of gifts and discounts. Convincing the conservative customers of a particular brand to change to another often requires time and a major mindset. Ha (2009) notes that customer contentment is usually vital in maintaining a customer as compared to other measures for instance price promotion and discounts. Awareness and Salience Romaniuk & Sharp (2004) define brand salience as the ability of a brand to be exceptional and outstanding in its’ surrounding thus making the consumers to always think about it while making purchases. This enables consumers to always think about a certain brand when they have a variety to select from. On the other hand, brand attitude unlike brand salience enables a consumer buy or fail to buy a certain brand because of the experience that they had with the product earlier on. If the brand was good when they last used it, then their attitude towards the brand enables them make the decision of whether they want the product again or not. Thus, a brand attitude often calls on the consumer to make a decision after assessing the product based on memory. Romaniuk & Sharp claim it is important to consider brand salience as compared to attitude because it is salience that brings about the disparity in the market share between diverse brands. Since brand salience enables certain brands stand out as compared to others thus raising the ability of that brand being thought of, it increases the market share and the share of category requirements. Salience is usually important because as Romaniuk & Sharp put it, it enables a consumer perceive a product and then buys it. Moreover, salience makes a brand seem familiar and in the process it is positively assessed and thus bought. Salience has a strong bearing on future mannerisms because it enables the recognisability of a product among other brands as compared to attitude which has a weak bearing on future mannerisms. In general, brand salience influences the purchasing behaviour of consumers because it manipulates the brand selection. Awareness and salience metrics As compared to the other brands, Snickers is average in top of mind awareness. Kit Kat is slightly above average while Mars Bars is way above average. Both Twix and Nestle Gold are below average with Nestle Gold trailing way below the average. Of the five brands, Mars Bars is the most salient while Nestle Gold is the least salient. From this conclusion, it is clear that Mars Bar is easily recognisable by the consumers and that is why it is salient. Under overall brand awareness, Snickers chocolate is above average while Mars Bars leads the list. Kit Kat comes in second while Snickers is third. Mars Bars is still the most salient while Nestle Gold is still the least salient. It is clear that Mars Bar is the most familiar amongst most consumers while Nestle Gold is the least familiar. Under salience (whole sample), Mars Bar is still the most salient. Snickers chocolate is slightly below the average. Nestle Gold is still the least salient, followed by Twix while Kit Kat comes in second after Mars Bars. Both Snickers and Twix tie below the expected average. Under salience (users only), Nestle Gold is the most salient followed by Mars Bars while Kit Kat comes in third slightly below Mars bars. Snickers chocolate does not perform as expected throughout the sample because it is yet to be the most salient of the five brands. Snickers chocolate still comes in a distance third thus much more needs to be done in order to make it more outstanding so that more consumers can recognise it. More is yet to be done so that Snickers chocolate can acquire a huge customer base. Redesigning Snickers Chocolate According to Macdonald & Sharp (2000), when more than one brand is presented and a consumer is presented with an option of picking one, the brand salience usually play a vital role. In such cases, the brand with a positive salience will be chosen because it strikes the user first. Changing the design of Snickers chocolate and then modernising it by changing the font and colour is a good marketing strategy that will draw customers to it because it will be the most salient of the five chocolate brands available. Changing the colour and font will make this chocolate outstanding and thus easily recognisable by the customer. As Keller and Davey (2001) note, making this brand visible will create an atmosphere whereby Snickers will be the most thought about by customers when making purchases thus making it more salient. Demographics and Segmentation The customer profile of snickers is not different from that of the competition because this product is still trailing the other brands. Under relationship status, snickers chocolate is below average and it is only the divorced or separated that fancy it. On the same, the couple deviation is smaller as compared to that of divorced or separated and average maid whose deviations are bigger. In terms of family earnings, it is only those who earn more than seventy thousand dollars who seem to prefer Snickers as compared to the other categories that seem to be below average. When rated according to gender, the females prefer Snickers to the males because the female’s is slightly above the average while the male’s is slightly below. For the maids, the preference for snickers is way below the average. Conclusion The snickers marketing strategy is not working because the market share and the rate of penetration are still lower. Much still needs to be done in order to make snickers chocolate salient and thus a preference of many and thus the market share and the rate of penetration will increase. Moreover, the marketing department has to come up with strategies that will go a long way in ensuring that the Snickers chocolate becomes a preference of many. References Ha, et al. (2009), Role of Satisfaction in an integrative model of brand loyalty. International Marketing Review. Duffe Library: Dalian. Retrieved on 10th October, 2012, Retrieved at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?contentType=Article&Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/0360260204.html Keller, K.L. and Davey, K.K. (2001) ‘Building Customer-Based Brand Equity’, Paper Presented at Advertising Research Foundation workshop, New York. Macdonald, E. and Sharp, B. (2000) ‘Brand Awareness Effects on Consumer Decision Making for a Common, Repeat Purchase Product: A Replication’, Journal of Business Research 48(1): 5–10. Reilly, T. (2008). Dealing with price sensitivity: Industrial Distribution. Retrieved on 10th October, 2012. Retrieved at: http://www.inddist.com/article/170985-Dealing_with_price_sensitivity.php Romaniuk, J. & Sharp, B. (2004), Marketing Theory: Conceptualising and Measuring Brand Salience, Australia: Sage. Retrieved on 10th October, 2012, Retrieved at, http://www.sagepub.com/clow/study/articles/PDFs/05_Romanuik.pdf Sharp, B., Wright, M. & Goodhardt, G. (2002), Purchase Loyalty is Polarised into either Repertoire or Subscription Patterns, Australasian Marketing Journal 10 (3), 7 Retrieved on 10th October, 2012, Retrieved at http://marketingscience.info/assets/documents/64/7539.pdf Sharp, B. (2007), Loyalty Limit for Repertoire Markets, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute: University of South Australia. Retrieved on 10th October, 2012, Retrieved at http://members.byronsharp.com/empgens/ByronEmpgens%20Dec07.pdf Sharp, B. & Sharp, A. (2000), Loyalty Programs and their Impact on Repeat-Purchase Loyalty Patterns: a replication and extension, Marketing Science Centre: University of South Australia. Retrieved on 10th October, 2012, Retrieved at http://byronsharp.com/resources/6076.PDF Read More