Marketing strategy is an integral part of a business as it helps the business organizations to promote and sell the products of their business. The success of a business organization vastly depends on the successful development and implementation of the marketing strategies and plans. Hence, it is the utmost responsibility of the marketing managers of a business to prepare an effective marketing plan. In order to do this, the marketing managers need to consider the effect of internal as well as external environmental factors on the business of the company (Baker, 2014).
In the process of marketing audit, the influence of both internal and external environmental factors on the organization needs to be assessed. The internal and external factors of Capital Chocolate Company are assessed below:
The six major external forces are political, legal, economic, environmental, social and technological as per the PESTLE analysis (Ho, 2014). During the advent of any new projects, the political forces come into action, which include the government policies and other related powers. It is the right decision of the management of Capital Chocolate Company to consider various economic factors in order to increase the sales; like the disposal income of the customers, the economic condition of the business area, interest rates and others. In addition, the company can be socially popular by introducing unique products like organic chocolates. At the same time, Capital Chocolate Company needs to take initiatives to protect the environment from pollution. Another important external factor is the competitors of the company. The legal prospective considers the compliance of the required country or state laws and legislation attached to the industry. As per the case study, there are many major competitors of Capital Chocolate Company. On the other hand, the risk of new entrants is high in this market. Hence, the company needs to deliver unique and high quality products in order to gain the highest market share. In this process, Capital Chocolate Company will be able to meet the ever-growing demand of the customers. For doing this, Capital Chocolate Company needs to understand the buying behavior and attitude of the customers (Solomon, 2014). The company needs to hire effective suppliers who will deliver high quality products. In addition, Capital Chocolate Company needs to establish more distribution channels to reach to maximum consumers of the area (Gummesson, Kuusela & Närvänen, 2014).
From the internal analysis, it has been seen that Capital Chocolate Company has some major strengths and weaknesses. Some of their major strengths are long established business with loyal customers, high quality products with natural ingredients, efficient and loyal staffs and many others. The major weaknesses of the company are poor profit margin with low market share. Capital Chocolate Company needs to use its strengths to overcome its weaknesses. In this process, Capital Chocolate Company will be able to take full advantage of the opportunities of the company by avoiding the threats.
Bill realized that, a good market plan is responsible for an effective business strategy implementation. He had taken a number of surveys and realized that there are four major marketing objectives of Capital Chocolate Company. The objectives are to increase the production of the company, to open new shops, to increase the product range of the company and to introduce new products range for the customers. Corporate objectives are the realistic business goals of the company that influence the strategic decision making of the organizations. It can be observed that all the four marketing objectives of Capital Chocolate Company are the part of the strategic plan of the company as the main aim is to gain the highest market share in chocolate business. Bill had the proper knowledge attained from the college business course pursued with him and the same helped him in knowing the objectives and learning that the same has a major stake in the corporate objectives (Hansen, 2017).
SMART is a specific criteria to set up the objectives of any business organization. SMART objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed. As per the above discussion, the main aim of the Company is specific in nature i.e. to increase the sales by the increase in the level of production, opening of the new shops with increase in both new and wide range of products. Secondly, the objectives are measurable as the production level and increase in the products are easily quantifiable and determinable. Thirdly, the objectives realized are attainable as a proper strategy implementation can lead to higher production and sales. The objectives can prove to be relevant for the Company if the required strategy fulfils the attainment of such objectives. The objectives should be attained within a specific time frame as the company need to recover the outflow of its funds and investments in terms of profit, hence the same is time bound. Thus, from the above analysis, it can be said that all the four major objectives of Capital Chocolate Company are the SMART objectives. The main reason is that all the objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed (Armstrong et al., 2014).
It can be observed that Capital Chocolate Company has a strong loyal customer base. As per the market research, it has been seen that almost all the customers of the company are the regular customers. In this situation, it is easy for Capital Chocolate Company to set the target marker of the business. The target market of the firm is the family customers of United Kingdom. The company should emphasize on all kinds of people of the society. In addition, it is needed to focus on the business people as a large part of the company’s products is consumed by them. The Company must focus on the seasonal customers and mostly women customers, as they are the major customers of the chocolate market. Women find chocolates as a best gift for conveying their best wishes or love at occasions. After that, the retailers cannot be ignored, as they are one of the most important parts of the customer base. Apart from these groups of customers, Capital Chocolate Company needs to make children one of their target groups, as they are the regular buyer of the chocolates (Amos, 2016).
Marketing mix is an important part of the marketing strategy of Capital Chocolate Company. The four major aspects of marketing mix are Product, Promotion, Price and Place. All these aspects are assessed below:
It is a fact the customers of Capital Chocolate Company are loyal and they are happy customers of the company as they are satisfied with the products of the company. hence, it is the utmost priority of the company retain the existing products along with the quality. After that, the decision to sell ice creams in ‘summer sales valley is an effective decision as it will boost the sales of the company. The ‘gifts for men’ is also an attractive scheme to increase the profit margin of the company (Goi, 2015).
Promotional strategy is an essential strategy as it helps the company to reach to maximum number of people. The adopted strategy of Capital Chocolate Company is the effective one. The advertisement of the new shops by using popular celebrities is an effective idea, as it will make the company popular among the consumers. In addition, the idea of ‘tasting’ days is a good idea, as it will make the people aware about the new shops and products of Capital Chocolate Company. Hence, it can be said that the promotional strategy is an effective one.
It has been mentioned earlier that the Capital Chocolate Company has a customer base and they are loyal to the company. One of the major reason contributing to this is the price of the products of Capital Chocolate Company. It can be observed that the prices of different kinds of chocolates of Capital Chocolate Company are very much reasonable as no customer ever made any complaints about the price of the chocolates. Hence, it will be better for Capital Chocolate Company to make the price at current level (Khan, 2014).
The production facility of Capital Chocolate Company is excellent in condition and all the machines and equipments are excellent in condition. They will play an integral part in maximizing the revenue of the company. However, in order to increase the sales of Capital Chocolate Company, it is needed to establish more retail outlets as it will be more convenient to sale the company’s own products in their own stores. In addition, setting up of the new retail outlets will reduce the dependability on the retailers. Capital Chocolate Company will have more control over the sales process due to have their own retail outlets. Hence, it can be said that the initiative of Capital Chocolate Company of setting up new retail outlets is an important one for the expansion of the business.
In order to judge the marketing strategy of Capital Chocolate Company, it is needed to have a monitoring and controlling plan. The progress of this marketing plan can effectively be judged with the financial figures of the company. The decision of monitoring the monthly sales figures is an effective decision as the continuous review helps in greater efficiency and profitability of the company. These sales figures will be judged from each shop of the company. In addition, the decision of deriving the quarterly profit is also an effective decision, as this process will provide necessary direction to the achievement of the objectives of the company. Due to the quarterly monitoring process, Capital Chocolate Company will get time to overcome the loopholes in the marketing strategy (West, Ford & Ibrahim, 2015).
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be said that the proposed marketing strategy or marketing plan of Capital Chocolate Company is an effective. These strategies will be helpful to achieve the SMART objectives of the company. The main reason is that the marketing plan has covered almost all areas of the business that needs to be corrected. First, the analysis of macro and microenvironment will aware the company about the positive and negative impact of these environmental factors on the business. Second, with the help of the major strengths, Capital Chocolate Company will be able to overcome the weaknesses and threats. The marketing mix strategy will provide Capital Chocolate Company the necessary direction to achieve the four major objectives. On the other hand, due to the effective control and monitoring strategy, Capital Chocolate Company will be able to monitor the progress of the marketing strategy of Capital Chocolate Company.
Some recommendations are provided below:
References
Amos, D. (2016). How to Define Your Target Market.
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia.
Baker, M. J. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Goi, C. L. (2015). Marketing Mix: A review of’P’. The Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 2005.
Gummesson, E., Kuusela, H., & Närvänen, E. (2014). Reinventing marketing strategy by recasting supplier/customer roles. Journal of Service Management, 25(2), 228-240.
Hansen, D. D. J. (2017). MARKETING CONCEPTS.
Ho, J. K. K. (2014). Formulation of a systemic PEST analysis for strategic analysis. European academic research, 2(5), 6478-6492.
Khan, M. T. (2014). The concept of’marketing mix’and its elements (a conceptual review paper). International journal of information, business and management, 6(2), 95.
Solomon, M. R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
West, D., Ford, J., & Ibrahim, E. (2015). Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage. Oxford University Press.
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