7004MFH Marketing Plan Assignment Sample
Module code and Title: 7004MFH Marketing Plan Assignment Sample
Introduction
Marketing plays an important role in the organisation as it helps in the effective promotion of sales and leads to an increase in the overall growth of the organisation. A marketing plan refers to the effective identification of the requirements of the customers and the promotion of the product or service in a manner that leads to an effective increase in the sales of the product or service (Bala and Verma, 2018).
Different tactics and strategies are being adopted by SME companies in order to promote the product or to increase the competitive position of the organisation. it has been identified that marketing tools help companies to ensure the effective implementation of promotional strategies in the market. Such as the use of social media marketing has increased the effective growth of many companies.
This report is based on Davison Canners which is a food manufacturing company in the United Kingdom engaged in the production of food products such as Jams and flavoured fruit-based food products. This report will identify the impact of the external and internal environment of the organisation along with the capabilities of resources and competencies.
Furthermore, the report will also shed light on the marketing strategy of the organisation with the help of the SOSTAC model and Smart objectives. The report will also provide effective recommendations in order to improve the promotion of the organisation in the United Kingdom.
Evaluation of External Environment
It has been identified that the external environment impacts the organisation in different ways as the changes in the external factors of the organisation create positive as well as negative impacts on the performance of the company. The external environment of Davison Canners can be evaluated with the help of PESTLE analysis.
PESTEL ANAYSIS
Political Factors
It refers to the changes in government regulations and decisions which impact the performance of the organisation. The political stability of the United Kingdom lead to an effective increase in the growth of the organisation and reduce the political barriers to the effective production and marketing of Davison Canners. Furthermore, it has been identified that the Davison Canners has been influenced by the political stability and created effective growth in the market of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, it also helped in the effective promotion of food products in the country.
Economical Factors
The economy of the United Kingdom was highly impacted in the year 2020 which leads to an increase in the challenges for the Davison Canners. The unstable cash flow and decreased demand for the products lead to a major disadvantage for the company. However, the recovery in the economic condition led to an effective increase in the growth of the organisation. However, the increased cost of raw materials leads to an increase in the challenges for the selected organisation.
Figure 1: GDP of the United Kingdom (Source: BBC, 2021)
It has been identified that the economic factors influenced the organization and lead to the effective increase in the opportunities for the Davison Canners to make better and more effective promotional strategies in order to increase the overall growth of the company.
Social Factors
It has been identified that the social factor refers to the change in lifestyle, taste preference and influence of social changes. Davison Canners has been influenced by social factors as after the impact of COvid-19, people are more willing to purchase fresh and quality foods product which leads to an increase in the effective opportunity for the organisation to improve its competitive position of the organisation (Biginas et. al. 2022). It has been identified that the use of fresh fruits in food products leads to an effective increase in the growth of the Davison Canners.
Technological Factors
Changes in technology create a major impact on the performance of the organisation as it has been identified that digital technology leads to an increase in effective opportunities for companies as it provides a platform to promote and sale goods and services (Pulka et. al. 2021). Davison Canners used the e-commerce platform in order to increase the sales of the product and create an effective promotion of the product with the help of different strategies such as social media marketing. Furthermore, it has been identified that the adoption of the new technology in production also leads to reduce in the overall cost of the product which became a major strength for the Davison Canners.
Legal Factors
It has been identified that the legal factor refers to the changes in the laws which impact the performance of the organisation. The United Kingdom has increased the minimum pay wage from £8.91 to £9.50 which increased the cost of production and created a major challenge for the organisation (acas, 2022). Furthermore, other changes in the law related to food production also impacted the organisation as the United Kingdom has limited the consumption of Sugar in the food product in order to reduce obesity which provided an opportunity for the organisation to make sustainable changes.
Environmental Factors
It has been identified that the Davison Canners is taking measures to create a positive impact on the environment. Sustainable approaches are being implemented which increased an effective opportunity for the organisation to promote the food product in a better way. Furthermore, it has been identified that the Food Resources planted by the organisation reduce carbon emissions and ti also decrease transportation which leads to an increase in the positive influence on the environment of the United Kingdom.
SWOT analysis
Strength
The major strength of the Davison Canners is the quality of the food product. It has been identified that the company focuses on improving the quality of food products and ensuring freshness to make the effective quality and keep the better taste of the Flavoured Jams. Furthermore, sustainability is also one of the effective strengths of the organisation as it creates a positive influence on the environment (Fanzo et. al. 2020). Furthermore, it has been identified that the organisational structure and effective leadership is also major strength of the organisation which enhance the creativity and quality of the food products.
Weakness
It has been identified that the major weakness of the organisation is employee engagement as the decreased motivation among the employees leads to a decrease in effective productivity and lead an increase in the waste of resources. Furthermore, increased inventory cost of the materials in food production is also a major weakness and leads to an increase in the price of the product.
It has been identified that the Davison Canners also face challenges in the effective communication in the operational activities and the promotion of the food products as the decreased motivation f the employees due to low pay has increased different internal challenges and weaknesses for the organisation in the effective marketing and production of the food products.
Opportunities
It has been evaluated that there are several opportunities that be achieved by the Davison Canners as the government of the United Kingdom has taken the initiative to make zero carbon emissions till 2050 (Cooper and Hammond, 2018). The effective sustainable development of the organisation can be increased and lead to an increase in effective opportunities.
Furthermore, the advancement of technology has also increased the opportunities for the Davison Canners as effective utilisation of the technology leads to an effective marketing campaign and creates a better platform for the sales of fresh food products. It has been identified that the increasing population has also increased the opportunity for the organisation to expand the business as it will lead to an increase in the profit and competitive position of the organisation.
Threat
The threat has also increased for the organisation as the taste of the people is rapidly changing along with fashion and other influences which has increased the threat for the organisation to compete in the market. Furthermore, it has been identified that the competition in the food and beverage industry is increasing which has increased the threat to the organisation to sustain itself in the market and create an effective market base in the United Kingdom.
Evaluating the firm’s capabilities
The effective utilization of the capabilities in the organisation leads to an effective increase in the overall growth of the organisation. Furthermore, the core strengths and capabilities of the organisation also help in the effective marketing of the product and organisation. it has been identified that resources are one of the major capabilities of the Davison Canners as the organisation has its own field of fruits and required food products which are utilised in the production. It leads to the effective availability of resources and makes the organisation capable to allocate the raw material in the organisation.
Furthermore, the core competency of Davison Canner is the quality of the food product as it has been identified that the major aim of the company is to provide fresh and quality food products to the customers. Moreover, sustainability is an effective competency which helps the company in the long term (Aboelmaged and Hashem, 2019). However, the organisation also requires some effective changes in order to meet short-term requirements such as effective marketing as the use of marketing planning will help in better identification of the customer requirement and lead to the increase in the effective achievement of the organisation’s goal.
The immediate requirement of the Davison Canners is to make effective changes in the leadership styles as it will increase the capabilities of the organisation in a short time period and increase the strength which will lead to the better performance of the company in future.
The organisation also needs to develop effective strategies to make the better utilisation of the resources in the operational activities as the adoption of the approaches such as the VRIO framework or resource-based theory leads to the better identification of the required resources and competencies in the organisation to achieve the short-, medium- and long-term goals.
It has been identified that the firm capabilities is required for analysis in order to get an effective understanding of the current situation of the organisation in terms of recourses and competencies and it also helps in the effective identification of the required capabilities to achieve the objectives of the organisation.
It has been identified that the organisation also requires another resource in the production such as advance technology as the use of technology in the production and marketing of the company leads to better and more effective growth of the company (Dzhengiz and Niesten, 2020). Davison Canners use technology in the talent management and training and development of the employees which helps in the long-term improvement of the operational activities.
Marketing strategy
For the marketing plan, the SOSTAC model can be used. It is a model that is used for authoritative planning and strategy in businesses regardless of their size or geographical boundaries. the framework allows organisations to analyse the right answers for certain questions which are considered crucial for planning, executing and strategizing any project (Pranata and Amaranti, 2021). Davison canners is a small company situated in the United Kingdom.
It deals in jam ad fruit filing within the United Kingdom. the SOSTAC model can be applied in the case of Davison Canners to analyse its plans so that results can be boosted. through the model, the company can create business plans, marketing plans, advertising plans, HR plans and digital transformation plans. The application of the SOSTAC model in the case of Davison canner is as follows:
Figure 2: SOSTAC model (Source: SOSTAC Model – Development of E-Marketing Plan. 2021)
► Situational Analysis of the business
It helps in understanding where the company stands now. this is usually done by the application of various analytical tools such as competitor analysis, company analysis, external analysis or customer analysis. The analysis of micro and macro environmental factors on the Davison Canners will be conducted by the use of analytical analysis so that their influence on strategic decision-making can be understood. The analytical analysis of Davison Canners is as follows:
The company is located in the United Kingdom and the country has political stability which acts as an opportunity for the company. Low wages have resulted in high employee turnover. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy was struggling to stable and impacted the disposable incomes of consumers (Gunawan and Toni, 2022). This has created implications for the chosen company as well.
The company opined an innovative kitchen a few years back which resulted in the attraction of various new customers and satisfied their demands with the reinvention of flavours and concepts. The company has invested significantly in its technologies. Its recent technologies helped it in controlled atmosphere storage for 2000 tons of fruit. Its Frost protection orchard installation was the first in the country which allowed it to save huge costs. The country has imposed certain protocols on the company such as practices of illegal dumping, on-site filling and disposal of landfills. the company have to follow these protocols which increases the costs.
The company works in the food industry which makes it necessary for the company to follow the strong policies and regulations which are imposed by the government. It also has to follow the food standards as well. The competition is increasing day by day which makes the company follow those the macro and micro environmental factors so that it can have competition and maintain its position in the future as well.
► Objectives of the business
Objectives are the fundamental purpose of a company for which they are existing in the first place. every company have certain objectives which they want to attain. The objectives of Davison canners can be analysed as follows:
Mission: The company’s mission is to sustain the competitive market by fulfilling the requirements and needs of the customers for changing food trends.
Vision: the vision of the company is to satisfy the changing needs of its customers.
Objectives: The objectives of the company can include the following:
- To provide high-quality products and services
- To expand in new product areas
- To improve customer service
- To create differentiation in the products
- To retain the customers and sustainability
- To adopt cost-cutting measures
- To adopt technologies
- To capture new customers.
The goals of the company can be analyzed with the help of a SMART approach. SMART refers to a framework through which the goals of the organisations are measured in factors such as specific, Measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (Polanco and Priandika, 2022). The goals of Davison Canners can be analysed with the help of the SMART approach so that they are able to develop strategic marketing plans.
Specific: All the goals created by the company are well-defined and clear as well.
Measurable: The company have implied certain criteria to measure the progress of attaining the set goals.
Achievable: The goals created by the company are attainable by the company as well as its employees.
Figure 3: SMART objectives (Source: How to Formulate and Apply SMART Goals and OBJECTIVES? 2019)
Realistic: The goals of the company are within the reach of the company and align with the purpose of the company as well.
Timely: the goals have been provided with a certain timeline under which they need to be attained.
► Strategy
The company wants to attain a position where it is satisfying the needs of its consumers and be a company that is positioned as well. There are various strategies that the company can adopt to attain its set goals. the company will adopt a differentiation strategy for attaining its objectives such as creating differentiation, providing different products and gaining more customers (Febriyani and Budiastuti, 2022).
This strategy will help the company to build a strategic position for the business as it will help the company to stand out from the crowd of competitors. The consumers will be able to recognise products based on their features as well. when the products have differentiated features, the consumers will be compelled to try those features and as a result, the company will be able to gain more customers and a unique position in the market as well. The strategy for creating the position of the company can be analysed with the help of a perceptual map to position it along with its competitors.
The perceptual map can help the company to compare its actual traits with its offerings. its attributes are explained as follows:
Attribute selection: Here the company will select attributes that matter the most to its target audience so that it can give the offered products, meaning.
Set dimensions: Here, the company will provide numeric values so that consumer perceptions can be reflected clearly. It will allow the company to create a better map to reveal accurate information.
Deciding products to map: The company will select the product that it will be mapping. for example, Davison canners will include new products which are different from the competitors.
Conduct survey: A survey by the company will be conducted to get the analysis and information required.
Mapping: here, the actual map will be created.
► Tactics
A strategic marketing plan defines how the products, and the company will be offering its products so that the customers are attracted to buy them. A strategic marketing plan can be analysed with the help of implementing a marketing mix. The marketing mix includes the elements of a marketing plan which can help the company to position its products. The marketing mix for Davison Canners is as follows:
Figure 4: Marketing mix (Source: Understanding The 7Ps of The Marketing Mix. 2021)
Product: It is the bundle of utilities that satisfy the needs of consumers. The company will offer its products such as Jam and fruit filling with different and new features. This means the company will offer additional benefits with the core product.
Price: The company will set the prices by using a competitive pricing tactic. It will allow the company to set prices according to the competitor’s price but with additional features (Rifai et. al. 2021).
Place: The company uses online and offline both channels and it will use both platforms as a tactic to attract as much as audience possible.
Promotion: The company use social media marketing tactic as customers today are big on social media networks. This tactic is justified as it will enable the company to attract a wide audience with fewer costs.
Process: the company will adopt sustainability in its processes so that processes can become more reliable and efficient and environmentally friendly as well.
Physical evidence: The company will use printed cards as evidence of the sale.
People: The company will offer improved customer services which will allow it to enhance its sales as well as increase customer referrals as well.
these tactics help the company to understand the actions that it needs to take in the next steps. The company needs to proforma market research before selecting such tactics as these tactics need to be aligned with the competitors so that better and improved offerings can be created and provided.
► Action
This explains the details of the tactics adopted. It includes internal marketing such as motivation, training and communication of the team. actions Describe the details of things such as what, how and when the company will be doing. All the tools are actions that the company needs to manage appropriately. Reputation can influence the whole marketing plan as the success of a company and its campaign is dependent solely on its reputation among the audience (Arifianti, 2019). The company will maintain a high reputation among customers by adopting reputation management. It will undertake the following steps:
- It will monitor its reputation among the audience.
- After that, it will devise a responsive plan to restore its reputation.
- Then it will handle the negative comments delicately through the adoption of a number of tactics.
- It will build on positives and try to convince others to overlook negatives.
- At last, it will ensure that it follows through with the results obtained.
An action plan (resources):
| Goal | |||
| Target | Growing audience | differentiation | Customer loyalty |
| Resources needed | Marketing campaigns,
Investments Additional resources |
Competitor analysis,
Alternative analysis Consume demand analysis |
Additional benefits
Current resources |
| Completion date | 6 months | 6 months | 1 year |
| Evidence of improvement | Enhanced sales | Differentiated features form competitors | Customer re-purchase behaviours |
► Control
Control explains the key metrics that the company will be needing to measure the progress towards the attainment of its set goals. The matrices such as awareness surveys require high money and time and other metrics such as data analysis require specific skills. The company will create a clear budget plan before initiating the marketing campaign and plan. The chosen company can use formative or summative assessment to measure the progress of goal attainment and ensure long-term success and sustainability.
The company can both the assessment as well. the summative assessment will allow the company to measure how many changes have been made and how much the goals have been successful to reach the path for which they were created (Mahendra, 2021). The formative assessment on the other hand will allow the company to measure how employees are reaching towards its goals. There are chances that sometimes the strategies implemented by organisations fail.
The key reason behind this is the ways strategies have been implemented in the first place and no monitoring metrics or measures being implemented. If there are measuring matrices implemented, they can help the company in analysing the factors and steps at which the employees are failing. As a result, the company can change their plans at that stage and save it from failure. The cost of failure can take the organisation itself.
Recommendations
There are certain recommendations that Davison Canners can adopt in order to respond to identified problems and attain its set objectives. Some of these recommendations are explained as follows:
From the analysis, it was observed that the company faces intense competition in the market. this competition can influence the sales of the company as well as the consumer base of the products in the market. It is recommended that the company should adopt certain analytical skills such as data analysis, research and creativity to resolve the issue.
The company plans to create differentiation in its products so that it can stand out from the competitors. For this, it will need to conduct intensive market research and perform data analysis. After that, it needs to adopt creativity in its solutions so that the results created are different and unique from the offering which is provided by other competitors (Prasetya, 2018). As a result, the company will be able to build differentiation among competitors which will enable it to enhance its consumer base as well.
It was also analysed that the company has been facing certain employer issues such as decreased employee engagement and decreased motivation as well. These issues reduce the overall productivity and performance of the organisation as well. Therefore, the company is recommended to adopt tactics such as offering incentives, and non-monetary benefits like paid leaves and holidays and offering flexible working as well. These tactics will allow the company to offer motivation among employees which will improve their overall engagement at the company. As a result, overall productivity will also increase.
The company has been facing certain issues in communication as well (Fitriani, 2022). The company is suggested to adopt other forms or channels of communication such as open communication and open hierarchy structures where the employees are free to communicate. It will build confidence among employees and make the flow of communication smooth and easy as well.
Conclusion
From the discussion in the report, it has been concluded that the external environment of the organisation impacts the organisation in different ways and the internal environmental environment identifies the strength and weaknesses of the company. Davison Canners had a core competency related to the quality of the food product and sustainability of the organisation led to an increase in the opportunities for the company.
Furthermore, it has been determined that marketing played a major role in the effective growth of the organisation as it leads to a better analysis of the market trends and helps in making approaches to meet the objectives of the organisation.
The SOSTAC marketing approach was implemented in the organisation to make the effective identification of the objectives of the organisation to increase the efficiency in the marketing approach. Furthermore, the report also used the marketing mix 7Ps tactics in the marketing approach to identify the product quality and other advantages in order to promote the Davison Canners.
Moreover, the report also discussed the effective resources required in the marketing strategy and led to a better and more effective action plan for the marketing of the product or the organisation. The use of strategy helped in achieving the objectives and also identified the possible failures. The report also shed light on the recommendation in order to achieve the SMART objectives in a better and more effective manner.
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