Understanding the Marketing Mix: Coca-Cola Amatil Limited - Essay Example

?Marketing wk 2 Without getting the right marketing mix no company can be successful in its marketing initiative. For marketing a product it is very crucial to take note of the 4Ps of marketing, namely product, price, place, and promotion. These four elements of marketing mix serve the general aim of running a marketing campaign. Product: The product is the basis of a marketing campaign for which a company strives to find a ready market that caters to that particular product demand. A market niche for that specific product or service can be created through brand building. These days, the concept of product has got added dimension with the inclusion of services, particularly online marketing of products and services as well as the meaning of a web-based software application, whether it is a product or a service (Jones, 2007). Price: Price plays equally a crucial part in product marketability. Pricing of products depend on their availability. If a product and its types are easily available in the marketplace, its pricing would be elastic, which means the unit sales would rise or fall with the change in its price. In comparison such products that are scare in availability but have robust demand would exhibit inelastic pricing behavior, which means product sale won’t be impacted with any fall or rise in its price (Jones, 2007). Place: A product can be made available through different distribution mediums such as retail outlets, via mail, through download from the internet, on a ship or any easily deliverable platform. The speed of making products available and choices for ordering a product offered to customers can affect the sales volume as per the facilities offered by the seller (Jones, 2007). Promotion: Promotion is related to any medium used for finding market for your products. Advertising, public relations, point-of-sale displays, and word-of-mouth promotion are all different promotional tools. Promotion brings the prospective buyers and sellers closer to clinch the deal. Budget decides a promotional strategy for the kind of product being sold and availability of that promotional medium (Jones, 2007). Understanding the marketing mix is as relevant today as it was in the past. It is the marketing parameter to test the working of all the bases in a marketing initiative (Jones, 2007). Company Introduction Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (CCA) is a big soft drink company in the FMCG industry sector that produces many types of soft drinks in Australia. Its products are Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Powerade Sportswater, Disney Cordial, Fruita, Fruitopia 100% Fruit Juice etc., including bottled water “Mount Franklin” that has been available since 1991. Mount Franklin is pure spring water without adding any flavour into the water, taken from beneath the ground, travelling through rock layers of three natural sources in Australia; 1. Mount Franklin (Victoria) 2. The central Cost (NSW) 3. Perth region (Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd [CCA], 2003). CCA has been using the marketing mix tactics for all products, particularly Mount Franklin. Marketing Mix Tactics of CCA 1.1 Product Tactics 1.1.1 Product Quality The most important tactic, which CCA uses to satisfy their customer, is the product’s quality. As tap water can be used for drinking, and there is a rival such as H2go, CCA has become more alert on their product quality. The benefit of Mount Franklin, which CCA provides to customers, is the quality of still water. It means that customer can be sure on health grounds when they get fresh clean water, which is Mount Franklin (Griffin, 2004). As being fresh, clean and healthy is the significant image of the product, CCA has to ensure the water quality of the source of still water. CCA has appointed a professional hydrologist expert scientist to study the aquifer, the layer of rock or sediment which carries the water and looking at the quality and quantity of water available (Griffin, 2004). Moreover, CCA is not depending solely on the nature to guarantee the purity of the water. Therefore, Mount Franklin water is passed through four-filtering processes to ensure that the water has purity before it is made available to customers. 1.1.2 Packaging Mount Franklin water is contained in a sealed recycle plastic bottle. Moreover, every bottle has a label, which concisely displays nutrition information, and also an expiry date. Mount Franklin is made available in many sizes from 400 ml. up to a 2 liter bottle. CCA uses packaging style as a tactic to influences the customers. As packaging can present the quality of the product, the clear and sealed bottle can create the image of fresh, pure, and clean. Providing many sizes can provide many choices for customers. The size of bottle water is important to satisfying customers. Customers can choose a bottle of water with any size to suite with the occasion (Griffin, 2004). 1.1.3 Design Quality alone might not be enough to attract customers, especially in a soft drink market, it is hard to identify the difference in quality of bottle water of each brand (SMH, 3 Jan 2004). In addition, when customers need to buy bottle water, they might choose the product, which belongs to a brand they are familiar with. Therefore, another way to attract new customers, or change attitude of some customers who always choose a familiar brand is design. Bottle design is one of vital tactics of CCA. CCA concentrates on the design because the design can present the image of brand. Therefore, slim PET package with ripples across the surface and slim waist line is designed to present fashionable image of Mount Franklin (Griffin, 2004). 1.2 Pricing Tactics 1.2.1 Value pricing CCA is the largest beverage company in Australia. It has a reputation in product’s quality. Therefore, when pricing its product, CCA can use value pricing strategy. It means customers still need to buy the products even though it is more expensive than other brand in a market because they believe in the quality. 1.2.2 Quantity discount CCA offers a price reduction to customers. It means that customer can get a discounted price when they buy in large volume such as 10*600ml fridge pack. By following this strategy, CCA can get a larger sales volume (Griffin, 2004). 1.3 Distribution Tactics The key distribution tactics are as followed: Direct channel The company tries to seek the place that it can put more vending machines in the public places where people can find some drinking water easily when they are thirsty or whenever they want. Indirect channel Mount Franklin has designed to use indirect channels by providing its product on the shelves in many stores such as supermarket, convenience stores and take away outlets. Mount Franklin is also putting the new product in more retail outlets to get more customers. For example, Mount Franklin released the new lightly sparkling water in exclusively restaurants, cafes and hotels. Providing its products in many ranges and supplying to several retailers to sell and suit for every type of costumers such as 400 ml. - the smallest pack suit for kids 600 ml. – the most popular size available in many stores 10* 600 ml. – the fridge pack 1 liter - for the whole family 1.5 & 2 liters – for picnic, family meals 1.4 Communication Tactics There are three integrated marketing communications strategies that Mount Franklin has used to communicate with customers which are “Mass communication, In-Store communications and Word-of-mouth-influence.” Mass communication. Mount Franklin has been advertising its spring water in mass media such as papers, magazines, TV, spot radio, bus shelters and taxis. The advertisements at the bus shelters and on the taxis target travelling people who are thirsty in the hot day. Mount Franklin should use published articles to advertise and inform the readers about the health benefits of drinking water. In-store presence and communication. The company has put the bottled water cases, posters in the supermarkets and outlets to show its product and gain the customers’ attention and induce them to buy. Word-of-mouth influence. This is a form of communication between customers and their friends and families. Mount Franklin gets customers retention from its customers’ families. If some families usually buy Mount Franklin water and store it in the fridge, the member of their family trust and buy the water from Mount Franklin. However, word-of mouth communication tactic of Mount Franklin is not powerful or strong point in gaining more customers and customer royalty because there are a lot of competitors within the bottled water market which are also well known and have good quality and reasonable prices. 2. Action Plan for Implementation Mount Franklin needs to exercise care in selecting the means to achieve its goals. The allocation of different job duties and responsibilities and the required budget should be allocated. Reviews should be conducted so that any necessary adjustments could be made to the action plan at the end of the allocated time frame. The company has fixed responsibilities and allotted budget in a stipulated time period to be used for product quality control, marketing including advertising, events, and sponsorship promotion by brand & advertisement manager, distribution including market segmentation, pricing analysis by marketing manager, customer loyalty and retention program by public relations manager, and competitor analysis by R & D manager. In order to implement its communication strategy, it is recommended that Mount Franklin utilizes advertisement through media such as television, radio, gazettes, magazines, web advertising, and sponsorships to introduce the healthy and sporty image, and objectives to the masses. Messages should emphasize on quality drinking water for healthier lifestyle. With the aim of monitoring the future market potential and customer preferences, it is recommended that Mount Franklin implements a marketing research strategy to measure the satisfaction rate of customers for the purpose of assessing consumer requirements, improving the quality of the product and maintaining the healthy brand image. References CCA. (2011). Company overview. Retrieved from http://ccamatil.com/AboutCCA/Pages/CompanyOverview.aspx Griffin, Michelle. (2004, January 3). Water, water everywhere. The Sunday Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/02/1072908900109.html Jones, Jed C. (2007). Definition of marketing mix - product, price, place & promotion. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Definition-of-Marketing-Mix---Product,-Price,-Place-and-Promotion&id=721799 Read More