Distributing the Product
Some products are marketed most effectively by direct sale from manufacturer to consumer. The distribution of the chocolate should be through newsagents, supermarkets, coffee bars like Starbucks and school tuck shops but not wholesalers. Wholesalers distribute goods in large quantities, usually to retailers, for resale. Some retail businesses have grown so large, however, that they have found it more profitable to bypass the wholesaler and deal directly with the manufacturers or their. I feel this is the way the company will expand quicker and distribute the most of its bars if they cut the middleman out (wholesalers).
Promoting the Product
Advertising, personal (face-to-face) selling and sales promotion are the methods for inducing people to buy.
The primary objective of advertising is to presale the product, that is, to convince consumers to purchase an item before they actually see and inspect it. Most companies consider this function so important that they have allotted extensive budgets and engaged special advertising agencies to develop their program of advertising. By repeatedly exposing the consumer to ‘sweetdreams’, or to the appearance or package, I hope to incline consumers towards buying the particular product. I suggest Advertising on television, radio, and billboards; in newspapers, magazines, and catalogs. Maximum exposure at the beginning of promoting the product will maximize its chances of doing well in the market. When promoting and advertising the product I want to establish ‘sweetdreams’ as an exciting, modern chocolate. The first step to achieving this image, free samples of the chocolate can be given out in shopping centers, coffee shops and at school and alongside other products. Cadburys ‘timeout’ chocolate was also promoted alongside Lyons tea. As sweet dreams has two different bars the kids one can be promoted alongside a drink like Kazoo, which is a kids milkshake and the bar with alcohol alongside a drink containing alcohol like Baileys to inforce the idea its not just a kids chocolate but also for adults. Most new chocolates today advertised now have a slogan or a catch phrase associating it to the chocolate. Example, ‘kit Kat’ has a brake have a kit Kat. So when advertising sweet dreams given it a slogan and with heavy TV, radio and posters etc will keep the chocolate in peoples minds for longer which I feel will improve sales. As ‘sweet dreams’ has two different bars I suggest that both adverts should be similar but still different. The chocolate aimed at kids could have a cartoon theme and the other bar a more adult like advert e.g. have a good looking women eating the chocolate in a sexy way and acting like it’s the best thing that ever happened to her. I suggested this, as it’s a fact sex sells and this could be used to Chocoliciouses advantage.
Keeping ahead of competition
The reason why businesses like Cadburys are still around is because the know how to keep ahead of competition by staying competitive. Chocolicious PLC could use ideas from Cadburys like consumer research. Marketing research involves the use of surveys, tests, and statistical studies to analyze consumer trends to forecast the quantity,
and locale of a market favorable to the profitable sale of products or services. I will design a questionnaire for Chocolicious to use to ask people in focus groups and people on the streets to gather this info. The social sciences are increasingly utilized in customer research. Psychology and sociology, for example, by providing clues to people's activities, circumstances, wants, desires, and general motivation, are keys to understanding the various behavioral patterns of consumers.
Coupled with applications from the social sciences has been the introduction of modern measuring methods when surveys are made to determine the extent of markets for a particular product. These methods include the use of statistics and the utilization of computers to determine trends in consumers' desires for various products. Cadburys have also become a brand name. This means people are more likely to buy it because of the name that will communicate certain values to other people. Chocolicious could also achieve this over a period of time. Consumer loyalty is also important because in all markets a small number of consumers account for a large proportion of sales. Loyal customers are the most important as these are the customers who will buy the product over and over again.
Forces Affecting Modern Marketing
An important influence in marketing theory is the continuous and rapid change in consumer interests and desires. Consumers today are more sophisticated than those of past generations. They attend school for much longer; they are exposed to newspapers, magazines, movies, radio, television, and travel; and they have much greater interaction with other people. Their demands are more exacting, and their taste changes more volatile. Markets tend to be segmented as each group calls for products suited to its particular tastes. “Positioning” the product—that is, determining the exact segment of the population that is likely to buy a product, and then developing a marketing campaign to enhance the product's image to fit that particular segment—requires great care and planning.
Marketing developments
The use of credit has had a great impact on marketing. Customers with credit cards can make purchases without the normal immediate presentation of cash, and sales are thus stimulated. Stores often further stimulate sales by the use of premium promotions whereby customers making purchases receive free goods or the opportunity to buy special merchandise at very low prices. Chocolicious could may be make a deal with banks where buy people paying by card for the chocolate could get some discount.
Communicate effectively with customers
To achieve promotional objectives there must be a promotional strategy. An efficient system of communication is essential for any sort of promotional venture. This will allow an organization to communicate with customers and satisfy their expectations. This falls within what is known as the promotional mix. The promotional mix can be broken down in to two main areas, controllable and non-controllable.
Controllable communication involves marketing messages directed to achieve businesses promotional aims. This may include: adverts, direct mail, public relations, product presentation, sales promotion, sponsorship and direct selling.
Advertising collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific commodities or services. Advertising is a form of mass selling employed when the use of direct, person-to-person selling is impractical, impossible, or simply inefficient. It is to be distinguished from other activities intended to persuade the public, such as propaganda, publicity, and public relations. This involves TV, posters, leaflets, newspapers etc, which are to inform and influence the people who view them. Advertising is important for Chocolicious as the product is new and people have never heard of it. I suggest heavy advertising is key element to the successes of the company.
Direct mail is personally addressed advertising sent through the post. I feel there is no need for Chocolicious to use this as most junk mail sent ends up in the bin and could be a waste of money.
Public relations use non-personal communicating using the media. This allows the organization to develop favoritism with the public. This can be through something like giving back to the community. Chocolicious can achieve this by building a nursery or giving to local charity. This will bring awareness to the product and make people more agreeable to the product.
Sales promotions are ways in which to increase sales by such as by two get one free or 20% extra free. This is usually used to keep competition off. I feel this strategy should only be used when other companies are using this strategy or when there is a new product. If this should occur I suggest special offers like 20% extra free should be used. The reason I suggest this is the company still wants to make profit and by over doing it by doing deals like buy one get one free will be costly.
Sales promotion, element of the marketing process that can close the sale of goods or services to a potential customer by providing the incentive to make a positive purchase decision. Sales promotion, advertising, and salesmanship are the major techniques used in merchandising products to the public. Salesmanship often takes the form of a face-to-face encounter between the buyer and seller; the presentation is set up to convince customers that the product on sale is essential to their satisfaction. I suggest that Chocolicious could make a deal with a supermarket like Tesco where they could have a little stall to sell ‘sweet dreams’.
Sponsorship is funding an event, person or team e.g., and flora with the charity marathons. This is used to gain consumer awareness or media coverage. Chocolicious can do something similar like sponsoring a football team like man-united. This will mean TV coverage and public awareness of the product.
Product presentation is improving the way a product looks through packaging, labels and merchandising. Packaging, industrial and marketing technique for containing, protecting, identifying, and facilitating the sale and distribution of agricultural, industrial, and consumer products. Virtually all manufactured and processed goods require packaging during some phase of their production and distribution. The package must maintain the purity and freshness of its contents and protect them from the outside environment; if the contents are harmful, corrosive, or poisonous, the package must also protect the outside environment. The packaging itself must present no chemical hazard, as well. The package must identify the contents and their quantity, and it must facilitate distribution. The package may contribute to the convenient use of its contents by special dispensing or closure features. Most chocolates today all have similar packaging, I suggest that may be a new design could work to there advantage.
Direct selling is selling a product and showing how important salesmanship is. As I suggested before may be setting up a little stall or shop somewhere like a supermarket and sell the chocolate.
A non-controllable way of getting none about is through word of mouth and recommendation. This has advantages, as it doesn’t cost an organization anything.
When sending out these messages the organization must do it carefully so they don’t send out the message. They must be shore of what the outcome should be and who it is aimed at. In ‘sweetdreams’ case they are aimed at both young and older people. The message I want for ‘sweet dreams’ is it’s a new and modern chocolate for young and older people.
To achieve its promotional objectives, an organization has to set its promotional strategy. A short way used to describe a promotional strategy designed to persuade a customer to make a purchase is known as ‘AIDA’
‘A’ is capturing a customer’s attention and making them aware of the product.
‘I’ is the impact of the promotion stimulating interest in the product.
‘D’ when a customer is convinced they are being deprived not having the product, which stimulates desire for it.
‘A’ is the action taken when purchasing the product.
Chocolicious can achieve this through a good marketing mix
Achieving marketing aims
Business strategy is to do with decisions organizations make. This has involvement in the whole organization and influences a business on the approaching time to come. Example, A strategic decisions that chocolicious will make a new packaging for ‘sweet dreams’. The purpose of having a strategy is all about planning ahead, and identifying and meeting the needs of customers successfully so that the organization can meet a range of objectives.
Marketing is a strategic discipline, which focuses attention on the customer. This is the way by which the organization will attempt to find out what their customers want. This will also make customers more agreeable to Chocolicious. Marketing strategies use detailed research to Enquirer information about;
Customer requirements
The right products to develop to meet customers needs
How to position the product in relation to other products
The right marketing mix
Three main reasons for planning are to, assess how well an organization (chocolicious) is doing. To be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Establish goals and objectives, so that all resources can be used appropriately.
Assael defines a marketing plan as
A document developed by marketing managers that;
1-idenytifies marketing opportunities
2-defines the target market that represents that opportunity
3-develpos a mix of strategies directed at this target
4-guides the evaluation of the market effort
Market aims are essential to a plan as they provide direction for activities to follow. When meeting the aims they should:
Achievable
Understandable
Challenging
Reasonable
The aims, which I have set for chocolicious, are;
To gain public awareness
Find out customer needs
The right marketing mix
Meet customer requirements
Constraints on marketing activities
There are constraints that face organizations with market activity, which involve. Internal constraints which refer to the resources capabilities of an organization. External constraints which includes a number of factors which limits the organizations activities. Example, consumers, competitors, economy, laws. Competition also has sharply intensified, as the number of firms engaged in producing similar products has increased. Each firm tries to differentiate its products from those of its competitors. Profit margins, meaning the profit percentages made by a business per dollar of sales, are constantly being lessened. While costs continue to rise, competition tends to keep prices down. The result is a narrowing spread between costs and selling prices, and an increase in a business' sales volume is necessary to maintain or increase profit.
An organized market company will research these constraints and try to find a solution. In Chocoliciouses case, the internal constraints for them are their customers. Because any market work was done before they weren’t able to identify their needs. Now that they are aiming at two age groups and understand their needs, their will be less factors for them to face as they have a better idea of what they need to do. The external constraints, which limits Chocolicious are;
Consumers, competitors, economy, the law. Now knowing the constraints ahead of Chocolicious, they can get around this by more research on other companies and how they tackled there problems and gather more info to establish a better market strategy.
Conclusion
Looking at the success of companies such as Cadbury’s and research that I gathered I believe that Chocolicious will be more beneficial than ever before as they are now better organized and have a market strategy. From the information gathered they will be able to improve a number of things and sales are shore to go up. If they follow the strategy I have set I’m shore that the company will be more successful then ever before.
