In this assignment I have to produce a marketing strategy for a new, modified or existing product in a new or existing market.
Introduction
In this assignment I have to produce a marketing strategy for a new, modified or existing product in a new or existing market.
Marketing is when a business, that sells goods or services, is advertising, promoting and packaging their product or service. But this is not only what marketing can be defined as. Marketing also means identifying, anticipating and satisfying their customer's needs and requirements. Marketing is important if a business wants to attract new customers as well as keep their old customers.
The company I am working for is Walls, otherwise known as Birds Eye Walls, as Birds Eye and Walls are part of the same company. Birds Eye Wall's is the best-known and the largest manufacturer of frozen foods and ice cream products in the UK. Birds Eye Wall's was established in 1938. For 75 years Wall's has been the top UK ice cream maker and seller. Out of the top 20 best selling ice creams, 16 are produced by Wall's. Every year more than a billion of Wall's ice creams are eaten in the UK. The Wall's ice cream factory is in Gloucester, it is actually the largest ice cream factory in the whole of Europe and it also supplies to Europe as well. Wall's ice creams can be enjoyed anywhere, whether your travelling, sitting at home, with friends and even when your completely alone. Some of the most popular of the Wall's ice creams are listed below:
* Magnum
* Cornetto
* Solero
* Carte d'Or
* Twister
* Callipo
* Mini Milk
The product I am going to produce my marketing strategy on is going to be a new flavour ice cream in the Carte d'Or range. The new flavour ice cream is going to be called 'Banana Split'. This will be an ice cream with banana flavouring, with a mix of chocolate and strawberry ice cream, and a raspberry sauce at the top with small bits of nuts sprinkled over the top.
Marketing Mix
Marketing Plan
To make sure that my ice cream product is successful when it is introduced into the market with its marketing strategy I have to have market segments. These are customer segments that I have targeted to be the consumers of my ice cream product. Although my ice cream product can be aimed at anyone and everyone, my market research analysis showed me that mostly people aged between 5 and 20 would consume ice cream. The marketing segments for my ice cream product would be:
* Families with children - as ice cream can always be consumed as an after dinner dessert, it is perfect as an after dinner treat for children.
* Families without children - it is perfect as a dessert for families that do not have any children in them, ice cream always brings out the kids in adults.
* Teenagers - these would be in the age group 7 to 20.
To advertise my ice cream product successfully and at an affordable cost, I will need to have a budget. My aim will be to follow this budget whilst producing my marketing strategy. This will be the only way in which my product could be launched successfully into the market. My budget for my new Carte d'Or ice cream product is going to be £15,000,000
Marketing Mix
There are five key elements that form Wall's marketing policy. These are combined to achieve Wall's objectives. These five elements, sometimes called the 'Five P's', are:
* Price
* Product
* Place
* Period
* Promotion
Below I have described each of the 'Five P's' in relation to my ice cream product produced by Wall's.
* Price
It is important that I set a reasonable price for my ice cream product. The price my ice cream product is sold at should make the consumer feel that they have purchased a product at a great value for their money, and that the product is of good taste and high quality. My ice cream product may be priced differently in different supermarkets and shops, but as part of the Wall's company I would price my ice cream product at £2.75 for a 500ml tub of ice cream. I have chosen this price because Wall's carry out competitive pricing as part of their pricing policy. This is because Wall's have many competitors in the ice cream market such as Nestle, Cadbury, Haagan Dazs, etc. But to begin with I will use skimming pricing. As my product is a new flavour of Carte d'Or people may have the desire to try out the flavour when it is launched, this would mean that consumers would be willing to pay the price stated for the ice cream product.
My market research analysis told me that the people sample I had asked to fill in my questionnaires spent, on average, £1 to £4 on ice cream at one time. This therefore tells me that the price of my ice cream product comes into this range and therefore it is at a reasonable price
* Place
My Carte d'Or ice cream product will be widely available in all good supermarkets, and restaurants or fast food chains. It will also be sold in some of the European countries and to the USA. From Wall's ice cream factory in Gloucester, the finished ice cream product will be distributed around England and the rest of Britain. This will be done by Wall's lorries taking the ice cream products to the supermarkets, etc. by the motorway. This can easily be done if the ice cream is being distributed in England, Scotland and Wales, whereas the lorries may have to go on a ferry to Ireland. However if my product is going to be sold abroad, which it is, it will have to be imported, this will cost as import and export taxes may have to be paid. My ice cream product could also be sold over the Internet directly from Wall's to the consumer or through the supermarket chains to the consumer. This way the ice cream will come to the consumer's door straight out of the freezer. This way Wall's will have a small delivery service that delivers straight to the customer, and a large delivery service that delivered to wholesalers and retailers. But I may also follow Wall's channel of distribution, as their channel of distribution does seem to be successful.
According to my market research most of my people sample that I used for the questionnaires did their regular household shopping at Tesco. This therefore tells me that it would be a good move for my ice cream product to be sold in Tesco stores, as Tesco is the UK's largest supermarket chain and therefore more people shop in Tesco than in any other store.
* Promotion
For my ice cream product to be recognised and successful in the market I will have to carry out and pursue with some heavy advertising and promotion. This ...
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According to my market research most of my people sample that I used for the questionnaires did their regular household shopping at Tesco. This therefore tells me that it would be a good move for my ice cream product to be sold in Tesco stores, as Tesco is the UK's largest supermarket chain and therefore more people shop in Tesco than in any other store.
* Promotion
For my ice cream product to be recognised and successful in the market I will have to carry out and pursue with some heavy advertising and promotion. This is so that when my product is launched it will go straight into the market and it will be making sales.
Branding - Wall's is already a brand name in the ice cream market, therefore it is recognised for its excellence in ice cream as Wall's is the leading ice cream brand. Wall's being a brand name is very useful for my ice cream product, as my product is produced by Wall's; this gives my product a head start when it is launched into the market. This is because consumers will recognise the brand name Wall's and they may well purchase my ice cream product due to the fact that it has been produced by Wall's. Also my ice cream product is part of the Carte d'Or range, this proves as an advantage because consumers who already enjoy eating Carte d'Or ice creams will want to try the new flavours that are introduced. So my ice cream product's brand names prove to be beneficial for my product.
As I had found that in my market research analysis, a very large majority of the people I had questioned preferred Wall's ice cream to any other brand.
I have decided to use a mix of media to advertise my product. The media mix I am using is stated below in more detail.
Television Advertising - Wall's already advertise their ice cream products on TV, and also the Carte d'Or range has its own advert too. Therefore I have decided that, because of the limited budget Wall's have to introduce this product, it would be reasonable to add a bit on about the new flavour to the already existing Carte d'Or advert. This would be good instead of creating a new advert for the new flavour, as a large amount of money would go into this. The advert would have a time slot of in between children's' programmes in the afternoon and any movies or soap operas in the evenings and night.
Also according to my market research analysis, the sample of people I had asked to complete my questionnaires had stated that they saw the ice cream they buy advertised on the TV therefore encouraging them to purchase the product.
Magazines - my ice cream product will also be advertised in the weekly/monthly food magazines, as this is perfect if there are food lovers reading the magazine. As an extra bonus, to attract more readers into buying the ice cream, I could place a few recipes of desserts that could be made using my ice cream product. This might just encourage the readers to go out and buy the ice cream if they want to make the dessert.
Posters - I could also produce posters to advertise my ice cream product. These posters would aim at persuading the consumers to buy my product through the use of tempting pictures of ice cream, and a few basic simple words to compliment the picture. At times these can prove to be quite effective
Cinemas - the cinema would be a perfect place to advertise ice cream, as people love to and enjoy eating ice cream whilst watching a movie. Also if the advert comes on the screen at the beginning of the movie the public watching the adverts would be encouraged to buy the ice cream for the next time they come to a movie.
Radio - this would be a good place for me to advertise my ice cream product as it is proven that a large majority of 15-24 year olds listen to commercial radio. This is good for my ice cream product because that large majority fit into my market segment. So by advertising on Capital Radio I would be targeting my ice cream product at my market segment.
Billboards - advertising my ice cream product on a billboard would be a perfect way to get people's attention, my ice cream product would be advertised on a billboard in busy shopping centres. I would do this because there are many people in shopping centres therefore more people would notice the billboard advertising my product.
Test market - to make people aware of my product, and to get them interested in my product, I will test my product in a busy shopping centre. I will do this in a busy shopping centre because there is a wide range of people in shopping centres. Therefore when I test my product I will receive a variety of opinions on my product. This will also give me a second measure to allocate my target market segments. I will also carry out a test of my product in the large supermarkets chains, preferably Tesco. As my market research analysis shows that most of the people researched did their shopping at Tesco, therefore this would be a suitable place to carry out the test on my product, also quite a large majority of the people I questioned mentioned that they see the ice cream that they purchase in the supermarket where they do their regular household shopping.
Sponsorship - I have also decided that I could have a daily, popular soap opera that my ice cream product sponsors. For example I could have the soap opera 'Hollyoaks' being sponsored by my ice cream product as this has an average audience of 2 million people. This would be suitable for my ice cream product, as this would raise the awareness of my product.
Also my market research showed that a large majority of the people see their ice cream product advertised on TV encouraging them to purchase it.
Packaging - this is an important part of my product's promotion section, because the whole image of my ice cream products plays a key role in my product's success in the business.
* Period
Because my product is an ice cream product, it is more popular in the summer, when it is hot. Whereas it would not sell as well in the winter. Therefore I would launch my ice cream product in the summer where there will be a high demand for ice cream. This high demand for ice cream would give my product a firm place in the market.
According to my market research analysis ice cream is sold mostly in the summer, therefore my launch period is suitable for my ice cream product.
* Product
The product I am doing my marketing strategy on is an ice cream. The producer of my product is Wall's, as Wall's is the leading brand in ice cream. My ice cream product is part of the Wall's Cart d'Or range, where they have a range of different flavours. My product is going to be a new flavour in the Carte d'Or range. This flavour will be called 'Carte d'Or Banana Split'. This will basically be a mixture of strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ice cream with a banana ripple running through the ice cream.
The packaging of my Carte d'Or ice cream product will be very similar to the existing Carte d'Or products. The only change will be in the colour of the Packaging. The tub the ice cream is going to be in will be see through where the ice cream and the ripples will be visible through the tub. The lid of the tub will have a picture of the ice cream as how it will look when the tub is opened. The lid will have the gold rim around it as the existing Carte d'Or ice cream product has.
The unique selling point (USP) of my ice cream product will be the fact that it is produced by Wall's and that it is part of the Carte d'Or range. This is because Carte d'Or is advertised to be a high quality ice cream product, as it also has an expensive image whereas the price is not at all that high. Below is a picture of an existing Carte d'Or ice cream product; my ice cream product will look exactly the same but just in a different colour and name of flavour. I have modified the picture so that it looks like how my ice cream product will look.
External Influences
I am now going to examine and analyse any external influences on my business.
For me to successfully launch my new ice cream product into the market I will have to research into my external environment thoroughly.
PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL is actually an acronym for:
* P olitical
* E conomical
* S ocial
* T echnological
* E nvironmental
* L egal
All the above factors can influence my business in some way or the other.
* Political factors
The minimum wage can affect my new ice cream product; this is because my product is made in a factory where there will be a number of workers. Therefore the employees will have to be paid the minimum wage or above.
The exchange rates could also affect my product because my product could be cheaper in another country therefore in that country my ice cream product will be making a lot of sales but because of the price there may not be as much profit made. Whereas my ice cream product could be more expensive in other countries, like the USA.
* Economical factors
At the moment there is a crisis going on with Iraq and Britain, if this crisis continues then consumers may be encouraged to spend less than they usually do. This would mean that consumers might not by all the luxury products that they would normally buy; instead they would just stick to purchasing only necessities. Due to this the launch and introduction of my ice cream product, and the project as a whole might be put on hold.
* Social factors
Consumers may change their buying habits regularly. This could mean that they do not shop as frequently as they used to or they shop even more regularly than usual. If they purchase ice cream products on every occasion they do their shopping than this would either increase the sales of ice cream products if they shop even more regularly, or it could decrease the sales of ice cream products if they shop less frequently. But this is not a very bad point for ice cream as it has a longer 'shelf life', as it can stay in the freezers for a long amount of time without losing its freshness. But this could be negative too, because the less sales that are made of the ice cream will decrease the supply of the ice cream product. This may save money but there may be a loss of profit there as well.
There are some religious aspects to people not wanting to purchase and eat ice cream. Some followers of religions like Hinduism and Sikhism do not eat or drink anything that as dairy products in them. Whereas some people may be lactose intolerant, therefore if they eat anything containing a dairy product they would have an allergic reaction, which could become serious depending on the concentration of the dairy product.
Population may also have an affect on the sales of my ice cream product. For example, in one area there could be many families, who have children, and children are always attracted to ice cream, therefore there may be more sales of ice cream in that area. So I could advertise my ice cream product on TV in between the children's programmes to attract children to the ice cream. I could also advertise it in between movies and other programmes to attract adults to my ice cream, as it would be perfect for nights in, and parties, etc.
Another major factor that affects my ice cream product is the change of season. Ice cream seems to be very popular in the summer only. Whereas take home ice cream is purchased all year round, but this also is more popular in the summer. So more sales are made in the summer. I could make my ice cream product so that it is more appealing to people throughout the whole year.
* Technological factors
The fact that a large amount of advertising is now done on the Internet will allow me to advertise my ice cream product on the Internet. This could either be on the Wall's website or on the websites of the supermarkets my ice cream product is going to be sold in. Because many people now use the Internet, advertising and selling the ice cream over the Internet as e-commerce seems to be a more successful way of attracting customers.
The introduction of new computerised machines has lead to the speed up of production processes. This means that we can now produce ice cream products twice as fast than we could about twenty years ago. This speeds up the amount of supply that is produced. But this has also lead to some unemployment as the machines are beginning to replace workers.
* Environmental factors
In the production process of my ice cream product a lot of energy is used, as the machinery take up a lot of energy and power to work efficiently. Therefore the process of conserving energy needs to be considered and actually taken into action.
The waste pollution that will be produced when my ice cream product is made will be kept to a minimum, so that not so much waste is produced. This way I can try to keep it so that the least amount of waste pollution possible is produced.
Also the packaging of my ice cream product will be made out of plastic that is recyclable, this way my product's packaging will be friendly to the environment. Because consumers of my product will be able to recycle the packaging so that the plastic can be used again.
There may be some pressure groups that may have a problem with my ice cream product. These pressure groups could be environmentalists who are campaigning against genetically modified foods, and they may encourage people to believe that my ice cream product contains genetically modified ingredients. This could decrease the sales of my ice cream product.
* Legal factors
There are a number of legal factors that my ice cream product will need to encounter. I will have to follow the Trade Description Act. This means that I will not be allowed to make false and misleading claims about my ice cream product, if I do then I will be committing a criminal offence. I will also have to follow the Sale and Supply of Goods Act, meaning that the description of my ice cream product will have to be true and accurate, once again no false information should be given. Because I am making an ice cream product that has to be eaten, I will also have to abide by the Food and Hygiene regulations. So I will have to make sure that the factories that my ice cream is made in is hygienically clean, and also anywhere that my ice cream is sold will also have to be clean and hygienic e.g. the ice cream will have to be kept in a freezer to stop it from going off and melting. I have to make sure that, when I am advertising my ice cream product on T.V., radio, billboards, etc, I am abiding by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). This means that when I am advertising my product I have to be fair, so I cannot be distasteful or say anything that goes against other brands of ice cream. This could also apply to the ethical constraints on introducing my ice cream product into the market. If I do not do this then I will be restricted from advertising my product in any way. Finally I will also have to follow the Weights and Measures Act. This means that I will have to make sure that my ice cream is measured accurately in suitable units, the weight then has to be stated on every tub of ice cream.
Also I will have to abide by the equal opportunities legislation. This should be no problem as my ice cream product is not aimed at a certain gender, race or disability. So where my product is concerned there will be no discrimination at all to anyone, whether it is my employees or my consumers/customers.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT is an acronym for:
* S trengths
* W eaknesses
* O pportunities
* T hreats
The SWOT analysis is a measure that I can use to match my business's internal strengths and weaknesses with the opportunities and threats that are discovered in the external environment.
* Strengths
Brand Image- Wall's is a brand name in ice cream products. It is the leading ice cream producer nationally and internationally.
Good Quality- Carte d'Or is known to be of a good high quality ice cream product.
* Weaknesses
Unpredictable Demand- the demand for the ice cream product may be unpredictable, especially during the autumn and the winter, where consuming ice cream is not very popular.
New Modified Product- because my product is fairly new, as it has just been modified by the introduction of a new flavour, it has not been tested. So opinions on the ice cream product are not known because the product has not been tested. To overcome this I could test my product on a sample of people, and collect their views and opinions in the products. Also whether any improvements or modifications need to be made. This is explained in more detail in the 'Marketing Mix' section.
Low Market Share- Wall's has a low market share; this could affect the success of my new ice cream product, resulting possibly in a withdrawal out of the market.
* Opportunities
Higher Market Share- for my product to be successful in the market Wall's will need a higher market share.
Good Marketing- I could also make sure that my ice cream product is launched into the market with very good advertising and marketing so that consumers are aware of my product's launch into the market. There are many ways that I can do this, like over the Internet, billboards, television, radio, etc.
* Threats
Competitors- Wall's ice creams has a number of competitors including Cadbury's, Nestle, Mars and Haagan Dazs. These competitors are also continuously introducing new ice cream products into the market. So I have to be aware of my competition at all times, and I have to be prepared to change the prices, advertising and product to compete with my competitors.
Price Wars- in the ice cream market many of the ice cream producers launch very similar products to one another, this encourages the companies to go on price wars. So the companies begin to compete on the basis of price, as they realise that when consumers see a similar product they often buy the cheaper one, not really considering the quality.
Nazia Janar
