The main aim of the study is to establish a particular marketing plan for McCain potato chips, which is a popular product with a high opportunity for growth in Australian fast food market. In order to obtain an appropriate strategy of marketing, a summarised and outlined report of the product and industry analysis will be conducted in the study based on changing consumer behaviour. In this context, recommendations on the marketing strategy have been given in the study.
2. Industry analysis and the products
Potato chips production industry has encountered changing consumption of patterns and intense competition from several substitutes and private marked products over the period of past years. As stated by Kraak and Story (2015), the most notable fact is the increasing consciousness about health that has encouraged the consumer to take up healthy eating activities over the years. As a result of which consumers nowadays are increasingly opting for the healthy substitute for snacks and fried products. However, despite the change in trends towards healthy foods, sweet potato chips remained as the most favourite snack for the people.
According to Morgan (2018), research data from different companies shows that Australian prefers the sweet taste to savour. Sweet potato chips are the most popular snacks that are chosen by men and women for mostly the teen consumers. In an average period of the week, almost 41% of the consumer has seen to be preferring sweet potato chips as snacks, 37% prefer nuts and 32% offers biscuit and crackers (Ibisworld.com.au. 2018). However, salty snacks are nation’s undisputed preference, but sweet potato chips have currently outnumbered them in Australian.
3. Consumer behaviour and market
It is necessary to acknowledge the target market and changing the behaviour of the consumers in the process of purchasing the product in order to develop a marketing plan. Insights into customer behaviour of purchasing will help to focus on the limited resources of the organisation on most of the relevant factors,
3.1 Target market
It is the differentiating taste and texture of McCain sweet potato chips that have made them popular amongst the consumer and in the market. As stated by (), a recent announcement has shown that McCain sweet potato chips have won awarded for offering coveted product underlining the ongoing consumer loyalty. From the perspective of the target market, it has been found that women tend to prefer sweet snacks and chips to men. Almost 35% of the women prefer sweet potato chips whereas 19% of the men prefer chips (Ausfoodnews.com.au. 2018). Potato chips have remained to be popular snacks for a long period in Australian. In this context, Australian Food News reported that in the year 2013 potato chips have tended to defy the overall trend of downward in snack food.
|
Geographic |
Demographic |
Psychographic |
Behavioural |
|
· Australia · Emphasis on Australian urban areas near schools and colleges · Fluctuating climate and health concerns may influence the eating behaviour. |
· Women, children, and men · Aged in between 10-15 · Age group 15-30 · School students · Working people · Average income family |
· Chips are highly preferred by children and teenagers who like to eat spicy food while watching movies · Women and men who are aware of health and likes to go to the gym · People who like to try new taste · Digital platform and social media channels |
· Student programs · Teenaged parties · There are low snacks eating habit amongst men so they will be provided with mixed ingredients · Sensitive price · Affected by social relationships and suggestions from friends. |
In order to evaluate the target market segment criteria of segmentation, the details will be outlined through detailed illustration. They are:
Measurable: alongside the individual schools and college’s statistics, also the ABS statistics provide data on the market illustrating the market segmentation. According to the report by ABS, almost 10 Australian households have phase’s sweet potato chips in the previous years with a marked increase of 436,000 additional households (Nielsen.com 2018). Following the market trend, it has been estimated that the trend of sweet potato chips is expected to grow by AUD 175.85billion in the year 2021 with a CAGR of over 5%. However, almost, 41% of the women aged in between 15-30 prefers healthy foods so they can be convinced to opt for low-fat sweet potato chips (Foodservicegateway.com.au. 2018).
Sustainable: The teenager’s segment is the most growing market according to ABS data 2017. Therefore, this specific segment will not only provide profit to the store but this will also be helpful for the convincing the other health-concerned people to prefer the products of McCain for a long-term period (Businesswire.com. 2018).
Accessible: The school and college students can be easily reached in a collective way through school and college events and outside office gyms and clubbing areas. Due to their studying activities, the accessibility is possible not only through offline models but also online platforms through social media. The current Y and Z generation are more digitalised and are highly acquainted with social medium.
Differentiable: The segment of women is highly identifiable and differentiable from the other markets, due to the equal gender and places. Most of the female population and children can be targeted with a differentiable approach.
Actionable: According to Morgan (2018), it is the necessity for tasty eating snacks that are affordable and can be reached through integrated marketing mix strategy for the clearly defined age group and population in Australia.
3.2 Consumer decision making
From the consumer perspective of the decision, making it has been found that the international potato chips market has been witnessing a dramatic growth over the period of past years. As stated by Steen (2018), it is the increasing per capita consumptions of food in different regions like America and Australia; there is a major growth for the product segment. In addition to this, it is the demand for changing taste amongst the consumer that has increased the sales in sweet potato chips that has as well increased the demand for innovative taste with a variety of favour in the market.
The consumer now prefers sweet potato snacks in different shapes and sizes as well as different colours that act as the major differentiating element for the customers (potatochipsmachinery.com. 2018). It is the increasing disposable income, specifically amongst the middle-class customers, that may increase the growth of the market during the period of forecast. Other significant drivers of consumer decision making include the burgeoning activities and increased focus on the innovative products.
Consumer nowadays prefers extruded chips, snacks with no additional chemical zero trans-fat, and with low content of sodium, that is rapidly gaining popularity (Ridoutt et al. 2016). The stores and organisation can attract motivate the consumer decision making by adopting new technologies like twin screw extension that have advanced into the market for enhancing the functional efficiency of the suppliers.
4. Positioning
Mac Cain sweet potato chips have several opportunities to establish their strong presence within the chips market in Australia. The organisation has a variety of products offered in the market. Therefore, they can distribute throughout the international boundaries to expand their market popularity in major cities. According to Ariyawardana et al. (2018), the company can as well utilise domestic ingredients in their production of healthy and more nutritious as well as tasty chips for attracting new and old customers.
Mission
The mission of the brand is to produce the best quality of Mac Cain sweet potato chips in the Australian market
Objectives
5. Marketing mix
In order to accomplish the objectives of marketing for the Australian market and to target particular segments of a teenager and student population, an integrated marketing mix strategy is necessary Luo et al. (2016). In this context, this chapter consisted of the detailed illustration of the product, price, and promotion. Packaging and point if sales of the product that are linked with the marketing mix.
5.1 Product
In spite of the fact that there are several wholesale organisation such as Lays potato chips and other variety of chips that already distributes through several channels in Australia. Therefore, a differentiating strategy of marketing of sweet potato chips will increase the effectiveness of marketing (Kraak and Story 2015). As McCain sweet potato chips are delicious snacks, which already has significant opportunities for growth, the product has to be targeted mostly for the teenager’s women segment (Sarmugam and Worsley 2015). In addition to this, a modernised packaging would allow them to attract the potential female consumers in a proper way. However, there may be a potential failure that may take place due to the high diversification in the developing new market; therefore, the establishment of product needs to be considered as a long-term priority.
5.2 Price
Since the potato chips market has been seen to have reached the state of maturity, there may be a certain pressure on the pricing strategy used by them. Moreover, increased advertisement and discounts offer may also create pressure on the price unit. However, Yi et al. (2015) stated that in the target market segments, the value of the perceived product is more essential them the pricing strategy of the product. On the contrary, stated that de-Magistris et al. (2016) teenagers and female segments are prices sensitive due to their low and null income.
Moreover, besides the quality of the chips, there are alternative for them to avail other chips in the local stores for which the consumer may be willing to pay less. However, food quality with low fat and low sodium content may be highly preferable for the health concerned women segments and they agree to pay slightly more for a quality and tasty sweet chips. Moreover, apart from the segment pricing strategy, a discount for the students would be helpful for the teenagers and the brand as well. This strategy may help in the increase of sell with less expensive products for the teenagers and the students. This will be an attractive strategy of selling as well as an effective opportunity for promoting.
5.3 Promotion’
In the case of promotion, the brand can utilise the largest fleet of vehicles to distribute sweet potato chips in every store in Australia. By doing so, they are required to convince the suppliers who currently do not stock sweet potato chips. However, Darmon and Drewnowski (2015) asserted that without promotional and advertising, the brand could not make the customers aware of their products. Therefore, the company is required to broadcast their advertisement in areas who children’s and teenagers visit often. For instance, school events, college events, playing part, shopping complex.
Facebook: There are over 50,000 active users and fan of McCain potato fries on a Facebook page. Therefore, they can utilise the social media platform to promote their products by highlighting attractive pictures of sweet potato chips (Ausfoodnews.com.au. 2018). Through the social media channels, they can also interact with the customers in order to understand the consumer trends and demands; this is the easiest and the cheapest method to keep an update on the fans with the details of the product.
6. Marketing activities point of sales
Point of sales in necessary factors that are used in the promotion of the product. Specifically, this is important in case of an interruption in the routine purchasing behaviour and marketing activities at the point of sales.
6.1 Packaging
Packaging has various functions such as protecting the product, promote and informational activities related to the producer. Alongside the branding of the product, packaging also gives an appealing appurtenance to the product that is a necessary factor in increasing the awareness of the product (Nielsen.com 2018). However, in case of packaging of chips the company is required to utilise a differentiated, methods of packaging to make it look attractive for the women and children consumers. They can use a variety of coolers for the different flavour of the sweet potato chips. Ridoutt et al. (2016) state that purchasers are highly impacted by the vibrant colours and symbols used on the packaging of the products.
6.2 Price promotions
As the teenagers and students are prices sensitive in comparison to the other segments in the market, price promotions are necessary for increasing the point of sales. Ariyawardana et al. (2018) stated that purchaser usually seeks for barging price. This is because the price is the most critical part of the marketing. Based on these criteria, the brand has to set effective process and carefully applied discounts on the products for the students and teenagers.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the marketing strategy of McCain sweet potato chips, it is evident that there is a significant opportunity for the brand in Australia that can be obtained through the integration of the marketing mix strategies. However, owing to the fact, the sweet potato chips are not very well known in the Austrian market. Therefore, it is necessary for the brand to offer the increased product as well as awareness about the brand with a high intention to increase and expand the share in the market. Moreover, through a clearly defines segment in the market, the brand of sweet potato chips will be able to target the teenagers and female segments in the Australian market.
Reference list
Ariyawardana, A., Lim-Camacho, L., Crimp, S., Wellington, M. and Somogyi, S., 2018. Consumer Response to Climate Adaptation Strategies in the Food Sector: An Australian Scenario. Ecological Economics, 154, pp.383-393.
Potato chips remain Australia’s favourite snacks, Roy Morgan Research | Australian Food News.
Savoury Snacks Market – Technavio Publishes Global Industry Outlook, Market Size, and Forecast.
Darmon, N. and Drewnowski, A., 2015. The contribution of food prices and diet cost to socioeconomic disparities in diet quality and health: a systematic review and analysis. Nutrition Reviews, 73(10), pp.643-660.
de-Magistris, T., López-Galán, B. and Caputo, V., 2016. The Impact of Body Image on the WTP Values for Reduced-Fat and Low-Salt Content Potato Chips among Obese and Non-Obese Consumers. Nutrients, 8(12), pp.830-946.
Foodservice Gateway » Product of the Year award proves the popularity of McCain Sweet Potato Fries.
Potato Chip Production – Australia Industry Report | IBISWorld.
Kraak, V.I. and Story, M., 2015. Influence of food companies’ brand mascots and entertainment companies’ cartoon media characters on children’s diet and health: a systematic review and research needs. obesity reviews, 16(2), pp.107-126.
Luo, L., Li, B., Koprinska, I., Berkovsky, S. and Chen, F., 2016, October. Discovering temporal purchase patterns with different responses to promotions. In Proceedings of the 25th ACM international on a conference on information and knowledge management (pp. 2197-2202). ACM.
Morgan, R. 2018. Let it rip, Potato Chip! Australia’s favourite snacks.
A Sweeter Alternative: Sweet Potato Volume Sales Skyrocket in Australia.
Australia Potato Chips Industry Investment/ Potato Chips Plant.
Ridoutt, B., Sanguansri, P., Bonney, L., Crimp, S., Lewis, G. and Lim-Camacho, L., 2016. Climate change adaptation strategy in the food industry—insights from product carbon and water footprints. Climate, 4(2), pp.26-30.
Sarmugam, R. and Worsley, A., 2015. Dietary behaviours, impulsivity and food involvement: Identification of three consumer segments. Nutrients, 7(9), pp.8036-8057.
Steen, J. 2018. This Is Why Your Favourite Sweet Potato Chips Have Been MIA.
Yi, S., Kanetkar, V. and Brauer, P., 2015. Assessment of heterogeneity in types of vegetables served by main household food preparers and food decision influencers. Public health nutrition, 18(15), pp.2750-2758.
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