Bickford’s Australia – EnCola: A Healthy Energy Drink For Health Conscious People

Product Offerings of Bickford’s Australia

Discuss about the Marketing Communication Of Bickford’s Australia.

Bickford’s Australia is an Australian soft drink manufacturing company. Company was owned by Kotses family in 1999 and has established its brand image in the Australian market as Bickford’s Australia. Company has limited product offering and with the help of these products, it has penetrated the Australia market. Mainly it produces traditional cordials, iced coffee mix and varieties of soft drinks. These products are manufactured by A. M. Bickford & Sons and founded by Anne Margaret Bickford in 1864. In 2006, Bickford’s lime juice cordial become the National Trust of South Australia as a Heritage Icon.

Company is now expanding its product offerings to target health conscious people because people are switching towards healthy drinks and fruit juices. In relevance with targeting health conscious people, organization has planned to launch a new product. This drink will be manufactured without any preservatives, artificial flavours and without adding chemicals. The drink will be an energy drink in various fruity flavours and that too in zero calories. In the first phase of product launching, Australian market will be targeted demand for healthy drinks are high.  To attract the audience, name of the product will be ‘EnCola’.

The idea of EnCola is originated from the demand of healthy and fruit drinks amongst the target audience. Demand for carbonated drinks is declining day by day and major reason behind this is that consumers have replaced soft drinks with fruit juices and low calorie drinks. Thus, with the objective to maintain and defend its acquired leading position in the soft drink industry, Bickford’s Australia has decided to launch a new product in the Australian market. EnCola will be the most suitable drink for all age group segments along with health conscious people (Eling, Langerak & Griffin, 2015).

From last some years, it has been recognised that fresh fruit juices and energy drinks are taking over the market of cola and other carbonated soft drinks. Bickford’s Australia has identified the reason for their declined revenues and profits. This has ultimately affected organizational goodwill in the target market, thus, organization has decided to launch an energy booster for regaining its lost position in the market along with boosting up its revenues and profitability to attain sustainable growth and development objectives (Kazmi, Naarananoja & Wartsila, 2016). As people are becoming aware regarding the consumption of healthy drinks and fruit juices because there are lot of consequences which a consumer needs to face after consuming cola drinks such as weight gain, intake of high amount of sugar at one time, etc. Thus, the idea of EnCola will help Bickford’s Australia to establish its effective image amongst health conscious people especially. Though, rationale for the idea of manufacturing a healthy drink is dynamic consumer behaviour and in relation with EnCola, organization has set up its mission as “an energy booster without any artificial flavours” (Tukker & Tischner, 2017).

EnCola – The New Product

Situational analysis is the tool through which managers could identify strengths and weaknesses of the organization in relevance with the threats and opportunities of the internal as well as external business environment. Mainly this includes competitors, their strategies and the marketing conditions of the business environment.

Strengths ·         Brand recognition in Australian market ·         Customer loyalty due to their products ·         Bickford’s Australia is known for producing traditional drinks (Zhu, et. al., 2018). ·         Varieties of product offering ·         Bickford’s lime juice is known as the Heritage Icon.	Weaknesses ·         Growing health conscious consumers ·         High number of substitutes availability ·         Low product offering
Opportunities ·         Expansion in the new markets ·         Approaching health conscious people with healthy drinks ·         Organization could collaborate with small or big players of the industry to set up its effective position in the new and existing markets (Renz & Vogel, 2016).	Threats ·         PepsiCo and Coca-Cola will be the direct competitor with same product offerings ·         Strong competition in all geographic regions ·         Low switching cost for consumers

 

In relevance with the new product i.e. EnCola, organizational major marketing and marketing communication are:

• Targeting health conscious people;
• Developing effective brand image as healthier drink manufacturer’
• Spreading awareness amongst the target audience;
• Enhancing sales, revenues and profitability;
• Gaining the leading position in the industry; and
• Providing relished experience to consumers with EnCola (Armstrong, et. al., 2015).

SMART Objectives:

• Specific: Organization will adopt effective marketing communication and promotional measures to spread awareness amongst the target audience along with approaching them.
• Measurable: Organizational objectives in relevance with the EnCola are increasing sales and profitability which is totally measurable to the particular extent. For example, if company has set objectives in relation to enhance sales by 15% with the launching of new product which is measurable and if company will set objectives to enhance sales by 50% will be unrealistic.
• Achievable: Goals and objectives set up by the organizational attainable as the USP of the product are effective enough to attract audience towards the organization (Lee, Kozlenkova & Palmatier, 2015).
• Realistic: With the help of social media strategies, organization will be able to approach to its target audience.
• Time: The marketing and communication plan is for a particular time period i.e. 12 months, thus, all the objectives set should also be attained within this period.

Target market for the new product launched by Bickford’s Australia will be people aged 18-37. Bickford’s Australia will mainly focus on its origin market along with those regions where demand for healthy drinks are high as well as those regions fitness centres, gym, etc. are situated.

• Demographic: Both male & female and urban population. Age group 18-37 will be major target market segment for organization for their new product.
• Geographic: Major cities of Australia along with those places where demand for heathy and energy drinks is high (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).
• Behaviour: Heath conscious people, old age group people, fitness freaks, etc. are concerned to take healthier drinks and fruit juices, thus, they will be the major target market segment for the organization.

Marketing strategies are crucial part for every marketing plan as it helps the organization to spread awareness amongst the target audience. Apart from this, it boosts up the chances for the organization in relevance with attaining the desired goals and objectives. Marketing and promotional strategies are the main component for every organization in terms of enhancing sales, spreading awareness amongst the target audience in relevance with the launching of new product as well as for attaining competitive advantage. With the help of EnCola, organization will be able to enhance its brand image in the target market, thus, it will be treated as the brand extension strategy for the Bickford’s Australia. Contemporary as well as traditional methods of marketing and communication strategies will be used in order to approach to the target audience as well as to spread awareness amongst them.

In relevance with the organizational marketing and promotional strategies, organization should consider the preferences of Australian consumers. Australian market is an emerging market in terms of consumption of healthier drinks and people over there have sufficient purchasing power. But, still organization will focus over fair pricing strategy as it will help the organization to develop its effective image amongst the target market. Along with this, organization should focus over the quality of the product in order to retain the target and potential customers (Ryan, 2016). Following are marketing communication strategies which could be used by Bickford’s Australia to introduce EnCola in the target market:

• Advertising and promotion: With the help of social media platforms and other trending digital media strategies, organization would be able to spread awareness amongst the target audience. This will be the most appropriate and effective marketing tool for Bickford’s Australia to introduce its newly launched product in the target market. Social media platform will be the most suitable strategy for organization in terms of spreading awareness amongst them. Along with the social media strategies, organization could also focus over other mediums of promotional and advertising strategies such as television, radio, newspaper, etc. (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016).
• Public relations: It is necessary for the organization to develop and maintain appropriate customer relations so that brand loyalty and brand image could be developed amongst the target audience. In order to develop public relations, it is necessary to deliver qualitative products for long run. Along with this, it is necessary for the organization to maintain the quality of the product so that effective public relations could be developed (Fransen, et. al., 2015).
• Direct marketing: It is one of oldest form of marketing and this is done by telecommunication methods, email, personal visits, etc. When an organizational representative directly interacts with the consumers is known as direct marketing. This measure could be used by Bickford’s Australia by distributing samples in relevance with their new product amongst the target audience.

An effective positioning strategy includes strengths and weaknesses of the organization through which it could compete well in the competitive business environment. In Australian market, lot of companies already exists with healthy and fruit drinks and their target market segments are also as same as for the Bickford’s Australia. Thus, in relevance with setting up an effective position in the target market, it is required for the Bickford’s Australia to segregate EnCola with existing drinks in the market by adopting product differentiation, cost leadership, etc. strategies. Product differentiation strategy is useful for making the company’s products’ unique and distinct from others. This helps the organization to gain competitive advantage along with gaining positive response. Cost leadership strategy will help the organization to make its distinct position by providing their products at low prices as compared to the existing companies. This strategy will be more useful for the Bickford’s Australia in relevance with EnCola so that an effective brand positioning could be developed amongst the target market (Tuten & Solomon, 2017).

Reason for Launching EnCola

In order to attract target audience, it is required for the organization to adopt appropriate and effective marketing tactics such as social media and other trending digital strategies, appointing a well-known face as brand endorsement as it is quite famous and effective strategy in Australian market. Apart from this, organization could also focus over sponsoring events and it is known as event marketing. This type of marketing is bit expensive but it has huge benefits such as it covers huge market area.

Activities	Commencement Date	Deadline	Authority	Department	Budget ($60,000)
Identification and rationale of idea	1/1/2019	31/01/2019	Managerial staff	Top level management	$7,000
Situational analysis	1/2/2019	31/03/2019	Marketing Head	Marketing	$10,000
Marketing objectives	1/04/2019	31/05/2019	Marketing Head	Marketing	$10,000
Target market	1/06/2019	31/07/2019	Marketing	Marketing	$5,000
Recommendation of marketing communication strategies	1/08/2019	1/12/2019	Marketing	Marketing	$28,000

Marketing communication is a systematic and effective approach to communicate target audience with marketing messages. Contemporary business environment is full of competition, thus, simply broadcasting message is not the assurance for higher sales to the organization. In order to attain objectives in relevance with launching of new product in the target market, following communication plan needs to be adopted by Bickford’s Australia:

Social media: With the help of social media platforms, Bickford’s Australia would be able to market its messages in relevance with EnCola amongst the target audience at personal level. Apart from this, social media strategies is a type of two way communication system in which target audience could also share their views and feedback regarding their new product. This helps to develop personal relations with the customers along with developing a brand image amongst the target audience (Ashley & Tuten, 2015).

Customer experience: The new product launched by Bickford’s Australia is directly linked to customer satisfaction, thus, it is necessary for the organization to focus over the quality of products because good customer communication plan can turn the curious customers as loyal clients for the organization. Concept of EnCola is healthy and refreshing. Thus, while conveying this message amongst the target audience, Bickford’s Australia Company should ensure that the product should also provide the same level of satisfaction as showed in the communication plan.

Follow up call to action: In the end, it is necessary to monitor the implemented strategies so that the effectiveness of the adopted strategies could be analysed. If any mistake or error is found, organization could take appropriate measures in relevance with making it more effective and appropriate.

Conclusion

From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that marketing communication plan is a necessary element to introduce and promote new product, service, as well as existing product in the target market. This report includes marketing communication plan in relevance with the new product which will be launched in the Australian market by Bickford’s Australia. Concept of the new drink is healthy and refreshing. Primary objective of launching this product in the Australian market is establishing an effective image in the target market in terms of healthier drinks industry along with satisfying customer’s wants and desires.

References

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), pp.15-27.

Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2016. Digital marketing. Prentice Hall.

Eling, K., Langerak, F. and Griffin, A., 2015. The Performance effects of combining rationality and intuition in making early new product idea evaluation decisions. Creativity and Innovation Management, 24(3), pp.464-477.

Fill, C. and Turnbull, S.L., 2016. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and participation. Pearson.

Fransen, M.L., Verlegh, P.W., Kirmani, A. and Smit, E.G., 2015. A typology of consumer strategies for resisting advertising, and a review of mechanisms for countering them. International Journal of Advertising, 34(1), pp.6-16.

Kazmi, S.A.Z., Naarananoja, M. and Wartsila, J.K., 2016. Identifying dissimilarities among global teams while pursuing new product idea generation practices. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 229, pp.376-386.

Lee, J.Y., Kozlenkova, I.V. and Palmatier, R.W., 2015. Structural marketing: Using organizational structure to achieve marketing objectives. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), pp.73-99.

Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Kogan Page Publishers.

Tukker, A. and Tischner, U. eds., 2017. New business for old Europe: product-service development, competitiveness and sustainability. Routledge.

Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.

Zhu, G., Luju, L., Yingying, D., Haoqin, L. and Suocheng, W., 2018. Coca cola and pepsi cola impact burns repair and serum levels of endothelial growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor in rabbits. Biomedical Research, 29(6).