Task 1&2
Case Study
What is marketing?
Marketing is a process
that focuses on the wants and needs of consumers, by doing this it enables
products to be delivered that satisfy them.
There are several
stages to the marketing strategy process. The first one being ‘Understand Customer’, to do this a
clear picture of the target audience needs to be developed. The next step is to ‘Analyze the Market’ which consists of basic market research to
find data such as total available market, market growth, market trends, etc. After this is ‘Analyze the Competition’, asking yourself what other choices the
target customers have to solve their pain point, as well as researching the
strengths and weaknesses. Step four is to ‘Research
Distribution Channels’ by thinking about the best way to deliver the
product or service to the target audience. The next one is ‘Defining Your Marketing Mix’, this is includes product, price,
place and promotion. Followed by ‘Analyzing
the Financials’, putting together a marketing budget and evaluate marketing
ROI, customer acquisition costs and so on. The last stage is to ‘Review and Revise’, evaluating the
effectiveness of the marketing strategy and extend as needed.
Monster munch is a
baked corn snack available in the UK produced by walkers. Monster munch was
launched in Britain in 1977 by Smiths, originally called ‘The Prime Monster’.
In 1978 the decision was made to rename the snack ‘Monster Munch’. It was
advertised as ‘the biggest snack pennies
can by’. The four original monsters were advertised were; a Pink monster – Roast beef flavour, Blue monster – Smokey bacon, Yellow monster – Pickled onion and an Orange monster – Prawn cocktail. Throughout
the years they’ve had limited editions available for a short period of time,
‘baked beans’ was made available in 2003 for comic relief, ‘vanilla ice cream’
was released in 2004 but received mainly a negative reaction, the type of
monster munch was non-savoury and contained sugar instead of salt. In 2008 Monster
Munch was re-launched, the crisps returned to their original larger size,
featuring three of the original four monsters. Since the launch of the new
retro packaging, roast beef monster munch outsells Walkers cheese and onion
wherever they are sold together. All three monster munch flavours reside in the
top 20 snacks within this sector. The
retro designed packs have contributed to a 35% growth on the big eat version of
this favourite snack, taking the brand to £47 million.
Target Audience
The main target
audience is students aged 18-24 for whom food is not a major priority; it has
to fit around a life style of college and working part time, sport, drinking,
clubbing, sleeping. Research showed it’s a number one snack for fun and hunger
filled men aged 18-24. Research also shows that there is a preference for the
old texture, flavour, crunchiness and the larger pieced corn snack. As well as
appealing to the core target consumer, it’s also now broadened the audience to
people who remember eating Monster Munch in the 70s, 80s and 90s. The brand manager says:
‘It's great that a product like this can evoke so many memories
for people and we think the re-launch will appeal to the big kid in us all!'
Advertisement
Monster munch had a
series of 80s TV commercials. The advertising campaign that accompanied the
launch of ‘Mega Monster Munch’ was linked to the original advertising series.
It was to bring back memories of the children at that time.
The website
http://www.megamonstermunch.com/main.html also promotes the
brand. The links include: monster blog, celebrity fans, meet the monsters, play
pap the monsters, bigger snacks like 1977 and posters, masks & more.
Monster munch also done
a promo for their retro t-shirts. All you had to do was buy 3 packets of Mega
Monster Munch in the UK and send the empty packets and a cheque for £5 to
redeem the t-shirt. The promo was interesting to engage to the customers.
Instead of having an on-pack gift, the customers had the choice whether they
wanted the t-shirt or not. By asking costumers to collect and send in a certain
number of empty packets also increase the sales.
The Nine Functions Of
Marketing
In order for the
marketing bridge to work correctly, providing customers with opportunities to
purchase the products and services they need, the marketing process must
accomplish nine important functions.
·
Product/service
management: assisting
in the design and development of products/services that will meet the needs of
the costumers.
·
Marketing Information
Management: managing
and using market information to improve decision-making.
·
Financing: Budgeting for marketing
activities, providing financial assistance to customers to assist them with
purchasing the organisations products.
·
Purchasing: Planning and procedures
necessary to obtain goods and services for the use in business or resale.
·
Pricing: Establishing the value
of products and services to customers.
·
Distribution: Determining the best
methods to be used, so the customers are able to locate, obtain and use the product.
·
Promotion: Communicating
information to prospective customers through advertising and other promotional
methods to encourage them to purchase the product.
·
Selling: Direct communication to
the customers in order to assess needs and satisfy those needs with appropriate
services.
·
Risk Management: Planning, controlling,
preventing business losses.
In 1977 Monster Munch
was retailed for a price of 5-10 pence, which weighed at 26g. Now you can
purchase a bag for around 50 pence for a smaller bag of 22g. Although the price
of monster munch is above normal food price inflation the price increases are
broadly in line with the price of maize.
This chart shows one
line that’s based on the price of a standard packet of monster munch, and one
that reflects both the price and the inflation hidden by the shrinkage of the
package. The hidden inflation results
from a 15% reduction in the packet size. This makes an additional large
different to monster munch inflation.
The four Utilities of
Marketing
The marketing process
must also add utility to the products consumers want. There are four types of
utility: form, place, possession and time.
Form Utility
A product must be
processed into a form that the customer wants or needs. Examples include: wheat
processed into bread, trees are processed into lumber, and potatoes are
processed into chips.
Place Utility
This is about
transportation. How are they transported to the location to where consumers can
buy them? Modern day transportation systems make this possible.
Possession Utility
This establishes legal
ownership of a product. When you buy something you receive a receipt, this is
proof of legal ownership and gives you the right to use the product. Computer
software is an example where you have to provide a user license; the license
gives you the right to use the product within certain guidelines.
Time Utility
This is described as
being in the right place at the right time when a customer is ready to purchase
a product. Creating and keeping the customers means having products available
for when they want them. This often involves a storage facility. Carrying on
from the first example, wheat is an example o a commodity that must be stored
after it is harvested. It is stored until its ready to convert into food
products such as bread or cereals.
Examples
of Good PR
·
Victoria Beckham has been
getting a lot of press (April 2012) after helping to design the limited edition
Range Rover Evoque.
·
The supermarket Lidl, whose
mayonnaise has been crowned top of the egg-based condiments in a taste test by consumer
watchdog, received good PR.
·
Burger King offers a variety of
healthy salads, they have launched a new advertising campaign with Salma Hayek
ordering salads under three different personalities.
·
JK Rowling announced that she
is working on a Harry Potter encyclopedia and will donate the royalties to
charity.
·
Adele has been announced
Britain’s richest musician under the age of 30, with a fortune of 20 million
pounds.
Examples
of Bad PR
·
Google’s android market has
come under fire for allowing an app called
‘HoboHunt’ to be available for download. The app was rejected three times
by Apple and cannot be found on the Iphone app store. It has been branded as
‘sick’ and ‘appalling’ on Twitter, but most people are using the app to take
pictures of friends and family members and using it more of a joke.
·
The TV show, ‘The Voice’ has
gained some bad press courtesy of rival show Britain’s Got Talent, who have
accused the shows producers of ‘dirty tricks’ in the ratings war.
·
Tesco has cut plans to open new
stores by more than a third; investors are concerned about Tesco’s profit
warning.
·
KFC, following a poorly judged
message that was sent out through its Facebook page. Following the tsunami
scare in Thailand, KFC posted the following message, ‘Lets hurry home and follow
the earthquake news. And don’t forget to order your favourite KFC menu.’
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