Marketing Online Tutoring Solution

Executive Summary

Organization’s success and failure depends on the strategies it applies in different areas of the business including marketing. To apply effective strategies the organization should effectively analyze the internal and external environment and identify the various opportunities and threats and apply the strategies accordingly.  Marketing strategies need the organization to identify the right target segment and using the marketing mix can ensure that the product or service offering is effectively communicated to the target audience. Coca-Cola Amatil is a well-established brand in non-alcoholic beverage market. But it is facing issues due to the increasing competition and hence aims to launch an energy drink to retain its market share. An effective marketing strategy would enable the organization to attract the target audience for the new product Powerade Mountain Blast (600ml). The following report provides marketing strategies and evaluation and control of the marketing activities. It also provides the implementation and schedule plan for the marketing strategies.

Marketing Strategies

Marketing is one of the most important function of the business process. It enables the organization to communicate about the products and services. Based on the marketing strategies the product or service can succeed or fail. One of the strategic business tool used in marketing by most of the marketers and is crucial while determining the product, service or brand’s offer is Marketing mix (Chernev, 2011). Marketing mix is associated with four Ps, which include product, price, promotion and place (Chernev, 2011).

Product

Product is an element of the marketing mix tool, which refers to manufacturing of the right product, which can effectively influence the target audience (Wong, 2011). There are various features, which the organization emphasizes on with respect to the product or service, which include design of the product, quality, customer service etc. while manufacturing the product or service, which the marketers can later base their strategies on (Bowman & Gatignon, 2010). Coca-Cola Amatil’s Powerade Mountain Blast (600ml) is being manufactured to target the larger market segment of people aged 16-30 and are always open to new products and look for refreshing and energy drinks. Powerade Mountain Blast would be made of natural ingredients and would avoid caffeine, which is the highlight of the product. Since the target audience is quite health conscious this feature of the product would create interest in them and would influence them to try the product at least once. Today, there is an increasing demand for healthy drinks, which provide enough energy to the people and reduce their stress.

Price

Price is an element, which refers to the amount, which the customers pay while buying a product (Wong, 2011). The price of the product is decided by the organization after taking various factors in to account, which include operational costs, credit and cash purchases, discounting etc. (Wong, 2011). Coca-Cola Amatil aims to target the young generation and the office goers who are willing to pay a good price for experiencing or possessing a product or service. The price of the drink would be high to create more interest among the target segment since the chosen target segment is always willing to pay high price if the product gives them value for money. Coca-Amatil would initially price the product in a high range and would reduce the price at a later stage depending on the response and would offer discounts.

Promotion

Promotion is the main element of the marketing mix and refers to the organizational approach to implement strategies, which highlight the value and benefits of the product or service to the target customers (Farris et al., 2010). Organizations can implement different promotional strategies, which include advertising on different marketing channels, direct marketing, personal selling and sales promotion (Hooley et al., 2008). Consumer’s today have an access to information about different products and services from different sources. Coca-Amatil would promote the new product through different channels including the social media. The organization would first release advertisement in the television and also on the social media. The organization would use social media to interact with the target audience through social sites. It would also release an advertisement in the YouTube and would collect the feedback and interact with the target audience and based on their responses release new advertisement video on YouTube.

The organization would also put up billboard in the entertainment areas such as shopping mall and also in the airport. To promote the product the organization would invite few of the loyal customers to taste the drink and involve them in promotional activities such as writing a review on social sites and using their feedbacks change their promotional strategies. Coca-Amatil would also conduct promotional events wherein it will offer free samples of the drink within a shopping mall. The organization would also give print advertisement of the product. Thus, using multiple channels Coca-Amatil would be able to reach all its target audiences.

 

Place

Place refers to distribution, location where the product would be available to end users (Farris et al., 2010). The place of distribution is equally important since people in today’s competitive environment look for an easy access to the product. Coca-Amatil will make the drink available at many places, which includes super markets, restaurants and in the vending machines of the colleges and organizations. This will help increasing the visibility of the product and people might try the product once at least.

 

Evaluation and Control

Evaluation and control enables organizations to analyze and control the implementation of the marketing plan and can ensure maximum returns on the investment. The evaluation of the marketing strategies will be done by identifying the number of people watched or responded to the social media advertisement. The organization will evaluate the response to each of the promotional strategy and continue it only if it can attract target customers.  The organization would assess the number of people accessing the information on the drink or watching the advertisement and the interactions it has on the social media sites. The organization will control the promotional activities by releasing a fixed budget for the activities and encourage the marketing staff to carry out the tasks within it and would be recognized for their creative approaches. The marketing plan would be controlled by observing response of the customers to every strategy of the organization including marketing.

 

Implementation and Schedule

Coca-Cola Amatil would release the advertisement on the television and display the advertisement on the billboards for the first one week. The organization then plans to release the advertisement on YouTube and on the social sites, which will enable them to reach out to many more customers. The organization would put up new advertisements on YouTube and invite the loyal customers to send their comments or suggestions for the advertisements, which can include slogans. Coca-Cola Amatil would continue with this strategy for 6 months. It will simultaneously conduct promotional events for the first the month after the launch.

 

Conclusions and Recommendations

Coca-Cola Amatil with its new product would ensure that the product influences the target segment effectively and create an interest in them to taste the drink once at least. Through its promotional strategies of reaching out to target segment using multiple channels will help them to reach out to more number of people and will enable it to create an effective awareness and image of the product. It is recommended that Coca-Cola Amatil should highlight the natural ingredients it use sin the drink, which would catch the attention of the target customers immediately.

 

References

Bowman, D & Gatignon, H (2010), Market Response and Marketing Mix Models, Now Publishers Inc

Chernev, A (2011), The Marketing Plan Handbook, Cerebellum Press; 3 edition

Farris, P, Bendle, N, Pfeifer, P & Reibstein, D (2010), Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance, Pearson FT Press; 2 edition

Hooley, G, Saunders, J, Piercy, N & Nicoulaud, B (2008), Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning, Prentice Hall; 4 edition

Wong, H (2011), Building a Marketing Plan, Business Expert Press