Marketing Plan for Cadbury Chocolate - Case Study Example

A Marketing Plan for the Cadbury Chocolate Company The chocolate factory is situated in Bourneville in Birmingham. Cadbury produces chocolates for more than 200 countries, through which it makes profits. This production gives the company a wide range of consumers globally. The company's products are consumed in a number of countries without upsetting the religion and culture of the people. For this company to achieve recognition of its products world wide, through which its marketing opportunities will have chances to increase, then the company should be able to have their target consumers. 1 This is normally achieved by, depending on the following factors; the consumers' desires and preferences for the products. under this, the management ensures that, before the product is promoted into the market, the characteristics of the products should be well defined to meet the needs of the consumers, the packaging of the products should be attractive to entice the customers to buy the product, the quality of the product should be perfect, that is it should have the quality that matches with the prescription of the product in the market so that it can maintain our consumers. Under this, we see that Cadbury uses its business intelligence to change the market position of its products by shifting product sizes, package designs keeping in mind the changes of its customer's tastes for this reason most of the Cadburys products, are made from real chocolate in which the ingredients include; cocoa butter and a glass and a half of cream dairy milk in every 200 grams of Cadbury dairy milk chocolate. This is used to show the good quality of Cadburys products which makes it a good factor in influencing the consumers to buy the products. Marketing is also known to be a core leader into a successful business therefore; one should have more than a good idea of producing a nice product. So before launching a product in the market, one should be able to identify his markets and carry out research, to find out if consumers share the same desire to invest in the production. Here, Cadbury uses wholesalers and retailers to collect information about its consumers behaviors that is possible to affect its manufacturing and distribution goals, the company gets information from the warehouse, through which they make decisions to deliver the precise quantity of brand new products to retailers when in need. Cadbury uses data warehouse to calculate the impact of its trade expenditure activities. Therefore, the research methods should depend on the size and scope of the business. This may be done by examining ones own behavior, with that of the other companies, spend time in stores that promote cooking products and do some reading on magazines, books and literature focusing on various chocolate products manufacturing. One should be encouraged to talk and listen to the potential consumers, thus enabling one to know the issues that will be faced and the encounters he will face while carrying out the business. One is also advised to hire researchers who will help him define and understand the market, if the product he intends to start is larger. The other factor that one should look into before making a decision on a particular market segmentation or what is referred to as the environments, these factors include; geographical factors, location, gender and also age of the consumers of the products, this is basically used to give the products a marketing opportunity. 2 The competitors will not be able to have the same opinions like the company's, since marketing opportunities increase when customer groups with varying needs and wants are recognized. Markets can be segmented or targeted on a variety of factors including age, gender, location, geographic factors, demographic characteristics, and family life cycle, desire for relaxation or time pressures. Segments or target markets should be accessible to the business and large enough to provide a solid customer base. Therefore, a business must analyze the needs and wants of different market segments, before determining its niche. This segmentation should match differences in the buying behavior of the customers, under which the company should consider the product competition in the market, by stating plans on how the company is going to overcome the competitors' strength by analyzing the number of competitors, their size, location and their strengths and weaknesses in the market. Therefore, one should be able to state what the customers seek in the products, whether it is the quality, price or convenience, through the company will be able to identify the needs and the benefits that the consumers will gain from the products. Pricing- Cadbury Company takes price to be an important element of the marketing mix whereby they say that the price charged for a chocolate bar determines whether the consumer will buy it, it also determines the level sales achieved therefore it is used to show whether it will make a profit. Cadbury claim that it pricing is affected by various factors, including the state of the economy, what competitors are charging, the stage at which the products life cycle has reached and the most important is the price the market bears. The company should decide on the following pricing methods to enable its products reach the marketing standards. Premium pricing is where the uniqueness of the company product is defined. 3 This pricing is normally high, and is totally used where there is a substantial competition of the product in the market. For the company to be able to gain the market share, it should therefore, apply the penetration pricing whereby, once the company achieves the market share, it increases the price of its product. In a situation where the company's need to promote the product in the market, then it is advised to use the promotional method of pricing in which a consumer is asked to buy a product and the purchase is accompanied by a free sample of the product. For the company to capture the consumers, the captive product pricing method should be used, which is used where the product contain complements and immediately the consumer is captured, then the premium price will be charged by the company. Under the psychological pricing method, the company will have an aim of wanting the consumer to respond to its product emotionally rather than rationally. The place or the channel of distribution, this is the activities that is to be used by a company to move its product from the production to consumption. Since these activities need a cautious planning we find that Cadbury sends its chocolate bars to many markets across Canada, this include, groceries, supermarkets, gas stations, and convenient stores. 4 Therefore the company has to come across various channels of distribution to enable its products reach the targeted market, this means that the company, should choose either to use the direct or the indirect channels of distribution, which is, it may be to the consumers directly or through wholesalers. For the company to decide on the type of the distribution channel it is to use; the management team should know the market segment that the distributor is familiar with, in which the distributor must be familiar with the company's target markets. The team should also know if the company policies, strategies and image match with that of the distributor, also they should check on the qualification of the distributor, by establishing his experiences and deciding on how much training and support to give the distributor. There are various types of channels that one can decide on which one to apply in the distribution of his products, this include: wholesalers, these are said to be buying goods in bulk from companies and selling them in smaller packages for resale by the retailers, they also provide storage facilities for the products, wholesalers normally offer companies a reduced physical contact cost between the producers and the consumers, for instance we that Cadbury's product delivery go to wholesalers, who sell directly to retailers throughout Canada. They may choose to use retailers, who are said to have a strong personal relationship with the consumers through whom, the products will be exposed to consumers, they also offer credits to the customers thus promoting and merchandising the products. The other alternative is, the team may decide to use the internet to promote his products, through which the company will have a geographically wider market, thus enabling the products to reach a wider audience, this channel has a low costs set up due to its low barrier in the entry to the products market. The other element is the marketing plan where by the major factor to be considered is, promotion, this is the marketing communication that should be used by the company to get its products in the market, pushing the consumers to the point of purchasing our products, the marketing team is advised to use the following methods in promoting their products: Personal selling, this is a way of maintaining personal customer relations in which the sales person will be acting on behalf of the company, these person should be trained and should be having the personal selling techniques, though hiring them is expensive they should be used when, there is a genuine return on investments. Public relations-this should be applied in the company which will lead to a sustained and a planned effort in establishing and bringing an understanding between the company and its consumers. Advertising may also be used in creating awareness of the products to the consumers so that the company may gain responses from its target markets, under this, there are many advertising mediums including, print (newspapers, journals and posters.) and electronic(television, internet and radio) mediums of communication which we may choose to create awareness of our products to our consumers under this, in this case we see that the Cadbury Company, uses mostly television and on the pages of the major national weekend newspapers, in creating awareness of the products in the market to its consumers. 5 The company should have an organization design that aligns the firm with its mission, whereby the firm is able to look at its complex relationship between tasks, workflow, responsibility and authority of its employees, which ensures that the objectives of the firm are supported by the mentioned factors. This design enables communications, productivity, and innovation in a firm, thus creating a conducive environment for the employees to work effectively as a result, Human resources issues are normally the basic factor in an organization design, this issues include the employing and recruiting of a firms employees, The manager should therefore be able to bring a balance between its human resource management programs globally and also locally. This can be achieved when the firm adheres to the local market regulations, culture and competition. Under this we see that Cadbury produces goods which are eaten in a particular country, without upsetting the religion and culture of the people this show that it considers the originality of its consumer countries. So, for the firm to be successful the manager should ensure that communication is used as an effective means that connects employees to the business through which there is an improvement in its employees working behaviors.6 Increased competition, pricing demands and changing markets can affect a company's market share and bottom line. When faced with these situations, companies often turn to repositioning as a way to create new appeal for existing customers and attract new growth opportunities. References: Baker, M. (2000): Marketing Management and Strategy, 3rd edn: London. Macmillan Business Blythe, J. (2001): Essentials of Marketing, 2nd edn: New York, Prentice Hall Read More