Repositioning A Health Food/Beverage/Cider For The Australian Market

Marketing Objectives

Marketing Objectives

• To expand the reach of communication among the target market by 80 percent
• To improve the brand awareness in the Australian market

Selection of Target Market

As Carlsberg is the parent organization of Somersby cider the target market of the brand will be on the similar lines as the parent company. The target market of the product is people who are looking for a low rate alcoholic beverage so that they can enjoy the flavour as well as have a have a good time with the people they are being accompanied with. Cider is an alcoholic beverage that is fermented from apple juice which is unfiltered. The alcohol content of cider varies from 1.2% – 8.5% (Armstrong et al., 2015).

Segmentation of the product for this plan is as follows:

Demographic: The age group that has been targeted by the company is in between 18-30 these are a people mostly in the millennial cohort and some are in the early segment is in the Generation Z cohort. This is important as the generation Z is targeted by the more sweet flavours whereas the millennial are targeted by the more bitter flavours. The people are dependent as well as independent but the income group is in the medium range as the product is not priced very high where it can be deemed as a luxury. On the other hand, it is also not targeted towards people from the lower income group. The company also targets people from the urban background or leads an urban standard of living.

Geographic: This marketing plan is targeted towards expanding the brand in Australia therefore the focus of the company is in Australia. The company has already expanded distribution in more than 22 countries in a very short period of time.

Behavioural: The product is targeted towards people who usually go out to spend some quality time with friends, these people tend to enjoy premium flavors and light alcoholic beverages. These are the people who enjoy experimenting with their food and beverage.

Physiographic: People looking for a refreshing change in the alcoholic beverage (Hill  et al., 2014).

The positioning strategy is the way the brand wants to establish the image among the customers. The direct competition to the company is the Strongbow Apple Cider and The Hills Cider Company. The Somersby cider has the upper hand in its unique combination of premium flavor which is the drawback of both the direct competition. The premium quality, high in flavor as well as the variety and uniqueness of the flavors is the positioning strategy of the company. Therefore, it can be said that the company is undertaking the process of differentiation in the positioning strategy. Right now there are six flavors, among which there is the classic Apple Cider, Red Rhubarb, Blackberry Cider, Blueberry Cider, Pear cider, Elderflower Lime Cider. The rich taste and the unique blend of fruity flavor that the company is offering the target market caters to the wide demographic of the age group 18-30. Therefore the positioning strategy of the company is to establish oneself as a low alcoholic beverage product with a variety of flavors to choose from the suit the mood or the preference of the consumer. The flavors range from being sweet to bitter.

The POS of Strongbow Apple Cider is based on the promotional feature that focuses on handpicked whole apple cider. On the other hand The Hills Cider Company focuses the promotional strategy on supporting Australian growth and farmers (Eden & Ackermann, 2013).

Positioning attributes
Premium flavour	There are six flavours that have been launched by the brand and all the six flavours are launched in Australia as well. The unique blend of fruity flavour with low alcohol content will be highlighted in the brand image and will be used in the promotions as well. This differentiation aspect of the company is regarded to be the base of the positioning strategy
Reputed parent organization	The brand is a product line extension of the Carlsberg company. This aspect of the brand is what is non replicable by any other competitors.

Marketing Mix Strategies

Product

Cider is fermented fruit juice that has been unfiltered, the taste and the flavor of the fruit is intact and has a very light alcoholic content. The company manufactures six varieties of ciders. Ciders are a beverage that has been historically consumed by many cultures around the world. Somersby is a 4.5% alcohol cider, which is made from fermented apple in addition to 15% of juice and natural flavours in order to acquire the premium taste and quality of the drink (Papadopoulos & Heslop, 2014).  This is the core product of the company. The company claims that the products are made using natural flavoring and are free from any kind of artificial flavouring or taste enhancers.  The logo that is used to represent the brand is that if an apple tree.  The packaging of the product is like any other alcoholic beverage like beer.  The product has the name and the flavour at the front with a bold font in order to be identified immediately along with the colour of the product the labels are also differently coloured in order to help differentiate among the various flavours. Apple and Pear are the two original flavours whereas the blackberry, blueberry, rhubarb and the Elderflower Lime Cider are the “fruitily” flavour category. The label of the brand reads, refreshing, crisp natural taste, which defines the flavour of the brand and connects the product with the positioning strategy of offering a premium quality product than the competitors.  Apart from these collections there is another collection orchard collection as well which has two other variations of Secco and Sparkling Rose. Following is the list of products available (Baker, 2014).

Original Cider	Apple Cider	The flavour of the apple juice is not added artificially there are also no artificial sweeteners or colours used in the product. This represents the traditional taste of cider.
Pear Cider	Much like the previous variant the pear cider also has a rich taste and has a refreshing aspect to it (Somersbycider.com, 2018).
Fruitily	Blueberry	This apple cider is balanced with a delicate sweetness of ripe blueberries.
Blackberry	There is a natural mild taste of blackberry associated with this cider (Somersbycider.com, 2018).
Rhubarb	The flavour is sweet and fruity flavour cider is unlike anything in the market. The cider is mixed with a delicious combination of the crisp juicy flavour of red rhubarb.
Elderflower Lime	This is a fragrant flavour that adds a punch of twist in the flavour and adds freshness to the cider.
Orchard Selection	Secco	This is an apple cider which is semi-dry and is packed with tingling and lively bubbles, with a delicious aroma of green apples and exotic fruits (Somersbycider.com, 2018).
Sparkling Rose	This rose flavoured apple cider refined semi-sweet that balances the flavour of juicy red berries with a refreshing floral fragrance (Baker, 2014).

The products are available in one standard size that offers.

New Product Attributes	Resulting Consumer Benefit
Premium quality	· Provides the consumers their value for · Offer them with more choice in beverage · To provide a light alcohol content of  for people to enjoy and experiment
Variety of flavours	· Allows the target market  to choose form three categories of drinks · The products are differentiated by colour and  manufactured using natural flavours and sweeteners · Provides the consumers with  a wide range of products than the competitors

Depending upon the taste and the flavor of the products the bottle of 330ml case of 24 are priced from $57.00 AUD to $86.00 AUD the price is lower of the can variant which is also available in the Australian market. The pricing strategy that has been developed by the company is market penetration as the parent organization of the company is Carlsberg which is a renowned organisation in the sector of alcoholic beverages and also there is already an established marketplace for alcoholic beverages (Somersbycider.com, 2018).

Promotion is the process by which a company incorporates the ways and means to send message to the customers. Somersby is an organisation has the resource and capabilities to establish the brand and the brand image in the Australian market. As the company has recognized the target market in Australia, the promotional mix used by the company is Advertising, Public relation and OOH  in order to reach out to the target market of the company (Luxton, Reid & Mavondo, 2015). Both traditional and contemporary methods will be used to promote the product as the demographic range of age of the target market is wide and ranges in between 18-30.

Positioning Strategy

The message that the company will send is “comes in three categories and eight variants” keeping up with the positioning strategy that has been stated above.

Advertising: This is the process of paid promotion; it is method of mass communication. There are a number of medium by which a company can advertise the product and communicate with the target market. Print, audiovisual, audio, outdoor etc are some of the ways (Belch et al., 2014).  The company will use editorial advertorial in popular newspaper in order to promote the product. The company will choose print advertising as it can explain with the content the product variants better. The advertorial will contain the benefits of cider over beer or wine and will also talk about the premium quality and taste; it will try to establish the range of flavors that are offered in the advertorial (Andreti et al., 2013). 

The newspaper that will be selected should be the one catering to the readership of the target market.  Apart from this there will also be ads in the newspaper which will appear below the fold in the same newspaper in an interval of 20 days for two months.  

The company will use the digital platform to mostly promote or advertise their product as the target market of the product are mostly people who spend most of their time in social media (Barker, 2013). Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are the social media platforms that will be used by the company to promote the product, special advertisement (audiovisual) of 20 sec will be prepared and will be placed in the non-skipable slot for the first month in YouTube and Facebook. The company will also buy space for banner ads in these platforms to ensure maximum reach (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014).

Public relation: the company will reach out to the popular food bloggers of Australia and send them samples of the product to review, the company will ask the bloggers to review their honest opinion of the product on their website as they quality of the product is premium there will surely be a flavor among the eight which will suite the taste of everyone. The bloggers will be requested to post regarding the benefit of cider over wine or beer as well. 10 popular bloggers will be chosen to send the PR packages amongst them there will be bloggers as well as vloggers.

OOH- Somersby will set up standees and promotional features in the bars or liquor shops in order to reach out to the people directly in the place of sale. The image and the content will convey the message that has been stated above and will also help in establishing the brand (Posner, Williams & Posner, 2015).

The company will use the push strategy in order to ensure that the customers get the product throughout Australia. In order to do that the company will follow the distribution policy of Carlsberg and make the product available in places where every the Carlsberg products are.  Apart from physical retail stores and restaurants as well as bars the company will also make the products available online in stores which list liquors this is the best way to ensure even distribution in the market. This is also a good strategy as the target markets are people who are used to buying perishable goods online. As Carlsberg has a wide distribution strategy Somersby will also use the same channel to distribute the product.

Positioning Attributes

The process of monitoring is essential in order to understand the success or failure of a plan. Depending upon the objective that has been set the evaluation plan has to be laid down at the same time in order to proceed in the direction of success.

Objective	Process	Method of Measure	Time Period	People responsible	Plausible  outcome
To expand the reach of communication among the target market by 80 percent	Market Survey	Online survey. The company can use random sampling method to reach out to the target market with the help of digital platform and understand the reach of the product and the brand awareness.	11th month form the time the marketing process will initiate	The Marketing team along with the manager The Information technology support	One of the outcome of the process will be positives the company will be able to achieve the 80 percent brand awareness target. The other will be negative where less than 40 percent of the target market will be aware of the brand by the end of the 11th month.
Click through rates. This process is a part of the market research as the company will focus on digital media as the prime platform for promotion this is one of the latest means of evaluating the effectiveness.	The rate of click will be reviewed at least once in three months in order to keep up with the dynamics of the digital platform and change the strategy whenever necessary	Marketing team Marketing manager Information technology team	Positive number of views and clicks will ensure that the plan is working and the negative figures will showcase that the plan has failed.
		Online feedback record There are several ways of obtaining online feedback with the help of likes, views, comments and emojies. This is a very easy and interactive way that digital media has provided the company easier way of getting feedback.	On a regular basis	Marketing team	Measuring in terms of positive feedback and negative feedback
To improve the brand awareness in the Australian market	Return on investment	The sales of the products from the online and the offline retail  (Alkhafaji & Nelson, 2013)	At the end of 12th month	Sales team Marketing team Finance team	Revenue from the product line will ensure that the outcome of the strategy is positive where as the loss will show vice versa (Alkhafaji & Nelson, 2013).

Write approximately 200 words

Hint:Why did you choose those metrics to measure your chosen objective? You could discuss this as a point of justification. 

It is a 12 months program that has been adapted the company will focus on the product range to establish competitive advantage and the message of communication and the positioning strategy of the company will be communicated to the public with the help of a 12 month program which can be divided in four segments. The company will launch the product in the first month which will be followed by a rigorous promotional and brand awareness campaign for the brand. The strategies that have been discussed above will be implemented mind of the second and the beginning of the third month which will give the company around 10 and half months to achieve the objectives of the marketing plan. The Monitoring process of the process will ensure the success or failure the schedule for the same has also been provided in the gantt chart (Wheelen et al., 2017).

Hint: Although the marketing plan is for a one-day event and in particular the integration of your product, there is a lot of planning that must occur prior and during the event. This needs to be discussed and embedded in the Gantt chart.

Divisions	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Months	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Product Launch
Communication
Advertising
PR
Digital Media
Monitoring
Click rate
Online survey
ROI

Conclusions and Recommendations

It can be concluded form the above discussion that Somersby is a brand that has potential in the Australian market. There are target market population and growth opportunities as the competitive advantage of the company lies in the quality of the product as well as in the range of the unique blend of natural flavours that the company offers. The pricing strategies that the company has undertaken is taken from the competitors are kept at par with the existing market in order to reach out to the target market which is the medium income group. The promotion strategy of the company is placed according to the preference reach of the target market and will be focus on digital media, PR and advertising. With the resources and capabilities of the parent organisation Somersby Cider has the ability to achieve the objectives of marketing that has been stated. 

References

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Baker, M. J. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.

Barker, R. (2013). Strategic integrated communication: An alternative perspective of integrated marketing communication?. Communicatio, 39(1), 102-121.

Belch, G. E., Belch, M. A., Kerr, G. F., & Powell, I. (2014). Advertising: An integrated marketing communication perspective. McGraw-Hill Education.

Eden, C., & Ackermann, F. (2013). Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. Sage.

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Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Huang, R., & Sarigöllü, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-132). Springer, New York, NY.

Kotabe, M., & Helsen, K. (2014). Global marketing management.

Luxton, S., Reid, M., & Mavondo, F. (2015). Integrated marketing communication capability and brand performance. Journal of Advertising, 44(1), 37-46.

Papadopoulos, N., & Heslop, L. A. (2014). Product-country images: Impact and role in international marketing. Routledge.

Posner, H., Williams, S., & Posner, H. (2015). Marketing fashion: strategy, branding and promotion. Laurence King Publishing.

Somersbycider.com. (2018). Ciders. Retrieved from https://www.somersbycider.com/gl/en/ciders/

Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2017). Strategic management and business policy. pearson.