Communicate effectively with its customers to satisfy customer expectations
The business will have to think of new innovative ways in which they could have a stronger communication between customers, suppliers and contractors.
And other ways in which a business can communicate with its customers are by the use of telephone, fax and email.
Co-ordinate its functions to achieve marketing aims
Businesses will have to expand on how they will meet the aims and objectives they have set for themselves to achieve. The company may well have to change the way they deal with the level of production in order to achieve a more and more of an efficient production level. This will include the diversification of the company work force and the diversification with the part of the resources available for the company.
Be aware of constraints on marketing activities
Be more aware of the operations including high risk problems, which are linked to the marketing activities and once analysed by the company the company should make sure they can change their marketing activities on a lower risk basis but on higher profit margins.
Primary Analysis
In this question I asked the people who took part in the questionnaire what age they were, 15% of the people were aged between. And 50% of the people who took part in the questionnaire were aged between 20 and 29. And 35% of the people who took part in the questionnaire and no one in the age of 40 to 49 or 50+ took part in the age. This could be because mostly the younger generation wanted to take part in the survey and when I was asking people to take the survey it was about lunch time so younger people were free and able to do the questionnaire. As predicted the target audience for the chocolate will be mostly younger people aged between 10 to 30.
In this question I asked the people whether they liked to eat chocolate, most the people at 95% liked chocolate but the other 5% which was only one person didn’t like chocolate. The person may have not liked chocolate because of them having an allergy to chocolate or the chocolate contained traces of nuts. The majority of the people who took the survey liked chocolate so it for me as a company launching Chocolate crisps it is a good result.
In this question I asked the people what type of chocolate they liked, from dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate; I asked this question so I could get a better idea of what type of chocolate would most people enjoy and if I wanted to create a second range of chocolate crisps I would choose the second option of type of chocolate like white chocolate crisps. 75% of the people said they wanted the chocolate crisps to be milk chocolate. 10% of the people who took part in the questionnaire said they would rather prefer to have dark chocolate, chocolate crisps rather then the standard milk chocolate crisps. The final 15% said they would rather choose white chocolate than milk or dark chocolate crisps. I can use these results for the future if I wanted to make dark or white chocolate crisps because I already know some people will buy the new products.
In this question I asked the people whether they wanted rigged cut crisps or smooth cut. The result was that most people wanted at 75% wanted the crisps to be rigged probably because they wanted to try something different because chocolate crisps is a new idea and they probably wanted it to be more interesting with the rigged cut crisps. The other 25% said they would rather want the crisps to be traditionally smooth cut.
In this question I asked the person if they were willing to buy the product if they saw it advertised. 75% of the people who answered this question said they would buy the product if they saw it advertised, the other 25% said they wouldn’t be willing to buy the product if they saw it advertised. Most the people said they would buy the product if they saw it advertised which is a good result but to win over the other 25% I’ll have to rely on word of mouth people giving chocolate crisps a good reputation.
In this question I asked the people who took part in the questionnaire what they will want top pay for a 50g packet of chocolate crisps. Most the people at 50% said they would pay at least 41-50p for the crisps. The other 40% said they would want top pay 31 to 40p for the crisps, and the last 10% said they would want to pay 20-30p for the crisps. The results I got were very good and what I expected which was that most the people would pay more for a new idea than an idea that’s already available. The remaining 10% said they were only willing to buy the product if it was priced between 20-30p which is not what I tend to price it at.
In this question I asked the people where they would want to purchase the product from, I gave a choice of four places which were the internet, local shop, petrol station and Supermarket. Most the people at 50% said they would buy the product from their local supermarkets which is good for me as a business, the other 40% said they would buy the crisps from a local shop which is also good for me as a business because this gives me a better idea of where most people would want to buy the product. 10% of the people said they would buy the product from a petrol station while no one else said they would buy it from the internet which was the result I already expected.
On this question I asked the people where they want the product to be advertised. 60% of the people said they would rather want the product to be advertised on the TV so they wouldn’t have to rather go out and find the product in a magazine they would have to buy, and the product would be broadcasted to them on their television screens. 20% of the people said they want the product to be advertised on the magazines and the other 20% said they would want the products to be advertised on billboards so they can see the product when they are driving past.
In this question I asked the people whether they wanted to Gary Lineker to advertise the new walkers Cadburys chocolate crisps, and 100% of the people who took part in this questionnaire said they wanted to have Gary Lineker advertising the new product which is also good for advertising.
In this question I asked the people what kind of promotion they wanted and I gave them a choice of these promotions BOGOF, Free Chocolate, free crisps and a competition. Most the people at 50% said they would rather want to have a BOGOF offer on the chocolate crisps, and 20% of the people said they would prefer to have a free chocolate, another 20% said they would want to have free crisps and the remaining 10% said they would want to have a competition. This is a good result because now I know what type of promotion most people would want.
Marketing Objectives
I have analysed my results that I got from my questionnaires, and I take into account what the people who took part in my questionnaire replied to the questions. Once I advertise my product I will surely try to use Gary Lineker on my advertisement as I said before people love to see a celebrity in the advertisements also a celebrity who is naturally funny. The advertisement that Gary Lineker previously done was funny and it motivated the people to go out and buy the product, other stars like Charlotte Church, Tara and Paul Gascoigne starred in the adverts.
Secondary Research
In this table it is showing you the value of the percentage change every year from 2000 and year 2004. At the start of the table in year 2000 the value was £2,200M. And a year later in 2001 it increased to £2,240M, the percentage change was 1.8%. A year later in 2002 again the value increased to 2,284 and the percentage increase was 2.0%. In 2003 the value was £2.314M, the percentage change was 1.3%, and in 2004 the value was £2,345M, same as before the percentage change was 1.3%. From the beginning of the year the value of the prices increased. During the 4 years the value increased from £2,200M to £2,345 with an increase of £145M. As you can see above the sales are on a increase every year.
In a day, over 1.5 million bags of Walkers crisps Cheese and onion flavour are being sold. Promotional offers like the B.O.G.O.F promotion and the mulitbuy packets have limited the sector growth for the Walkers Crisps Company. The reason for this is that most supermarkets often stock large quantities of mulitbuy packs rather then the single bag of crisps, this is because supermarkets want to have a better value for their money and customers who shop in their store. The crisps value at the start at year 2000 was £1,050M. Then it the value increased to £1,080M the following year; the value increased by £30M. 2002 The value increased to £1,110M, and the next year it again increased to £1,130M in 2003. And in the final year the value was last recorded at £1,150M, it increased by £20M. During the duration of the four years, you can see that the value of the UK snack food market continued to climb, but until 2003 the percentage change dropped from 1.7% to 1.2% but the following year in began to increase.
In this table you can see the market leaders in the crisps sector, you can see that Walkers are the market leaders in the crisps sector because Walkers have the highest value of sales between 2002 and 2003 at £617.8M, and in the year between 2003 and 2004 Walkers sold £619.5M and they still stood to be the market leaders in these years.
In this table you can see that Walkers crisp came third on getting the most of money from their products. Walkers were able to get £2,554 from their products in the year ending on June 2004.
Walkers Crisps.
In 2001 Walkers spent £3,869 on advertising. Walkers remained to be the company, who spent the most on their advertising campaigns, and they accounted for 56.7% of the salty snacks media advertising campaigns. In 2002 Walkers spent £3,160 on their advertising and the reason for the decline of the advertising budget could be because the first advert would have been well known to the customers so they were able to limit the amount of adverts taking place in 2002 then in 2001 as more products would have been being sold because of their adverts being played in the first year and being recognisable. The budget on advertising in 2003 again decreased to £2,688 and again in the same year the budget decreased to £2,598, Walkers remained keeping their current product so their crisps were well known to the customer. In the final year of 2004 the advertising costs were raised for the first time in the four years this could be because Walkers had released a new range of crisps for the customers so they want to tell the customers of the new range and persuade them to buy them.
In this table you can see that Walkers products are being sold the most at the Tesco branch, the percentage rate which was sold was 23.7% in 2003 to 2003. The following year the percentage was decreased by 0.2% the end value was 23.5%. As Tesco are one of the leading supermarket retailers they are able to sell more Walkers crisps products to the customers, and most customers might want to buy their products from Tesco for their own reasons.
The male and the female customers of Walkers crisps both eat a lot of Walkers crisps products. I am able to say this because the percentages of the male and female customers are really high; and both percentage rates were in the 80% region. For the female customers of Walkers crisps the percentage was 89.9% and for the male customers of Walkers crisps were 87.7%. As you can see that more female customers eat the Walkers products, but in the heavy users margin the male customer have a higher rate at 16.4% than the female rate which is 10.4%. Most the heavy users are in the age range of 15 to 19; this could be because that most of the younger generation eat more crisps because they are probably at school or college and tend to have a snack which is Walkers crisps.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Penetration of Walkers is quite high. The second survey that the food standards agency done found out that up to 70% of the lunchboxes had at least a single packet of crisps in it and crisps were also popular with the adults. The crisps market has a lot of different brands; crisps are a widely available but never the subject of impulse buying. The strengths of the crisps are that they are affordable and that anyone is able to buy the product, and most people see them as a treat rather then a snack. Snacking in between meals is also strength for crisps as more people will try to avoid the wait to eat. And school children spend most of their pocket money on snacks like crisps, so this is also seen as strength of crisps.
Weaknesses
Crisps are seen as unhealthy, because they contain high quantities of fat and salt. Also added with artificial flavourings it offers poor nutritional content, and with a rise in obesity crisps will be seen as a threat. The movement of supplies, prices of potatoes and oil are very vulnerable and the company care not able to do anything if the prices or supplies rise or fall. Around the Christmas period crisps sales tend to fall and drop compared to the sales made in other periods of the year, and being a product of food many legalisations constrict the businesses actions. Some legalisations cover areas like packaging, ingredients, advertising and health and safety. With a wide variety of brands available in the crisps markets from top brands like Walkers and own brand crisps like Tesco, there is a less likely chance of a new product being released profitably. And once a product is released high budgets on advertising are needed to be taken on as a high profile is needed to be kept with the public.
Opportunities
An increase of the population gives a better chance of the product being successful, because a higher demand is needed to cater for the populations need. And also an increase in the number of people eating outside the house and not staying inside for a standard home cooked meal, this also gives an opportunity for me as a crisps business to have an increased number of profitable sales. With a high number of people taking up diets, Walkers can take up the opportunity of offering crisps that are low in fat, salt, and free from artificial preservatives, colourings, sugar and artificial flavours. And there is a rising market for crisps in Eastern Europe.
Threats
Crisps and snack food markets are being targeted for fuelling obesity. With new legislation laws being put out on the basis of nutrition, the entire food industry could be obliged to improve the nutritional content that goes into their product. Crisps also have the threat of being run out by better healthier snacks such as nuts and fruitbars. Also schools are restricting the availability of crisps to children by introducing healthier vending machines offering fruit and less fat and sugar items.
PEST Analysis
Politics
- The overriding political factor within the sweet and salty snacks market lies in the health issue. Snacks such as crisps are high in salt, fat and sugar content, with the Government and other bodies currently stepping up their consumer campaigns encouraging people to reduce intake of these products and take more exercise. Levels of obesity have risen from around 7% of the population in 1980 to 12% in 1990, 20% in 2000 and more than 22% in 2002 and still currently on the rise in 2006. An increasing proportion of these obese people are children, the main consumers of snacks.
- Manufacturers are taking some action, offering lower-fat salty snacks and placing greater emphasis on baked rather than fried products. The success of low-fat rice-based products that contain only 8% to 10% fat has also been a positive step towards a healthier snacks market. Additionally, manufacturers are considering reducing the size of sweet snack bars, especially king size, and have produced some lighter fillings for chocolate countlines.
Source Keynotes Sweet and Salty Snacks
Economic and Demographic Factors
- The greying population would be expected to have an adverse effect on the salty snacks market in particular, which is targeted largely at children and teenagers. The under-15s represented 21% of the population in 1981, but this proportion has been falling, to 19% in 2001 and a predicted 16% by 2021. However, the increasing size of the population will reduce the fall in absolute numbers.
- A general rise in pocket money and disposable income will continue to support snacks sales, coupled with the significant movement by an increasing number of manufacturers to offer ‘sophisticated and adult-targeted’ salty snacks — aimed at the increasing number of older persons. The sweet snacks market is not likely to be affected as much by the greying population issue, with chocolate countlines and biscuit bars being consumed by adults to an important extent, and cereal bars selling significantly on a health and convenience front to many consumers.
Source Keynotes Sweet and Salty Snacks
Social Factors
- The convenience and snack food markets have shown major growth over the past several years, owing to the increasing pace of lifestyles and the growing proportion of women in the workforce. In 1971, only 38% of the workforce was represented by full- or part-time women workers, but this had risen to 41% by 1981 and 43% by 1991. The level currently lies at more than 45%, resulting in a significant boost for convenience foods, and indeed for more ‘adult’-oriented snacks in terms of quality and flavour.
Source Keynotes Sweet and Salty Snacks
Technological Factors
- The level of technology involved in sweet and salty snacks manufacture continues to increase, particularly in manufacturing new types of salty snacks and in the development of frying-oil mixes and methods that result in lower saturated fat contents. The main technology changes within sweet snacks are likely to involve the manufacture of more complex fillings in countlines, and to result in lighter fillings and healthier cereal bars.
Source Keynotes Sweet and Salty Snacks