marketing management and control assessment 1.doc

1. details the areas which a comprehensive marketing plan for snapple should cover as the launch of the product is extended to the rest of uk.in the highly competitive drinking market, coca cola and pepsi occupied a monopoly position for a long time. however, a non-coke drink, snapple has changed this situation recently. snapple is a brand of fruit juice created by three young men in 1972 in america, which represent the style of fashion and alternative. rely on its unique style and a variety of flavors, snapple has become the famous drinking brand in north america and it appealed a large number of consumers. now, snapple has been launched in the london although coca cola appointed fruitopia to combat it. snapple seemed not worried its competitor and plan to extend its products to the rest of uk.in order to extend the products to the rest of uk, in the competitive environment, it is necessary for snapple to recognize its own strengths and weaknesses from internal environment. besides, the opportunities and threats from external environment are important too. i will use swot analysis to evaluate the environmental factors and the internal situation snapple must face to, which is an effective strategic planning tool used to evaluate a project or a business venture. it includes strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.strengths1. snapple has the unusual branding. the marketing target of snapple is a unique brand, which are natural, non-mainstream, fashion and alternative. therefore it suit for the needs of society and loved by young people.2. snapple selects deliberate non-cola positioning. coca cola and pepsi are the most famous brands of cola in the drinking market. so combat with them directly is not an intelligent selection. snapples method created a new area different from them. 3. snapple creates a variety of flavor. through this measure it provides many kinds of selection to consumers and keeps the motivation of its drink for a long time.weaknesses1. snapple lack the strong competitiveness. although it has become one of the countrys fastest growing brands, it still has a big gap with coca cola and pepsi, such as the awareness, sales etc.2. snapple promotes its products in a small amount of countries and areas, which must restrict its development, especially in the era of globalization.opportunities1. natural and healthy drink is increasing in demand. in recent years, people pay more attention to their heath. therefore many people choose fruit drink to replace cola, which is good news to snapple. 2. the acceleration of globalization process provides the good chance. it is benefits for snapple to extend its products to any other countries and areas.threats1. competitor coca cola launch of fruitopia to compete with snapple. fruitopia is a famous drink brand belongs to coca cola and it has achieved good sales in uk. it must have a great impact to the sales of snapple in uk.2. rising raw materials and costs may have negative effects to snapple. it must decline the profits or sales of products. the marketing objectives of snapple are success to extend the product to the rest of uk and have a good profit. in order to realize these ideas, it is necessary to formulate a practical marketing strategy.how to build a cohesive strategy? marketing mix is an effective tool which integrates a variety of resources together to form cohesive whole facets of marketing. i will use the marketing theory of 4ps from marketing mix to analyses the practical marketing strategy that snapple should build. the marketing theory of 4ps includes four aspects, which are product, price, place and promotion. its aims are suit for the marketing needs and search for high profits through rational combination of elements.product strategysnapple has its unique features, such as the unusual branding, deliberate non-cola positioning, a variety of flavor etc. therefore snapple should make these features more prominent in the future. however, snapple is facing some problems. although they have about 50 different flavors, most of them sales are not satisfied compared with several ones. so snapple should give up produce of non-popular ones and transfer the money to the mainly products and create new ones. price strategysnapple sell their products to customers mainly through the distributors. they have the compulsory distributor systems and it is convenient to transfer products to consumers. however, through my research, although the prices of snapple products have a little expensive, the gross profit of snapple is very few. in order to solve this problem, snapple can take some actions to lower distribution costs such as introduction of competition mechanism distributors, integration of existing distribution network, other distribution network combined etc.place strategysnapple divide their sales channels into two parts, one is cooling channel, and the other one is hot channel. the cooling channel is made up of several small street shops and it accounted for most of the market share. the hot channel is made up of supermarkets. both channels represent active and unique styles of snapple products. in the future, snapple must take good use of the two channels and play the distinctive features through them.promotion strategycompared with other companies, the promotion strategy of snapple must reflect its own features. therefore, the selection of advertising spokesperson and the creating of advertising design are very important. snapple should choose the advertising spokesperson who suit for snapple product image, which are natural, non-mainstream, fashion and alternative. besides, the creating of advertising design must reflect these features too. 2. explains the relationship between the marketing plan and the corporate planmarketing plan is a part of business plan for a product or service, which describes all activities in a particular marketing objective. it is always comprehensive and complex. usually it will include things like marketing objectives, target markets, marketing mix, expense budgets etc. without a comprehensive marketing plan, corporate cannot suit for the marketing needs and hard to achieve good profits.corporate plan is a significant overall program which relies on external marketing environment and conditions of internal resources, including production plan, marketing plan, financial plan and human resource management. so it is a long term vision of organization and always defined by the manager. from the analysis above, we can conclude that marketing plan is an important part of corporate plan. marketing plan is more refinement while corporate plan is more general. i will use snapple as an example to introduce the relationship between marketing plan and corporate plan.1. setting brand vision and objectives are very significant“if this business were to be split up, i would be glad to take the brands, trademarks and goodwill and you could have all the bricks and mortarand i would fare better than you.” (john stuart, former chairman of quaker oats ltd). through this comments, we can conclude that it is very important for a corporate to establish its own brand strategy. when snapple newly established, the manager formulated the special and unusual brand strategy, which are natural, non-mainstream, fashion and alternative. this brand strategy created a new drinking market different from coca cola and pepsi and laid a solid foundation for their success. brand strategy is an essential part of marketing plan because the establishing of marketing objective and strategy must depend on it. it is also significant in the corporate plan, it directly affect how to formulate the corporate developing strategy like production, marketing, service, finance, human resource management etc. 2. the customer really is king.in every industry, the most important thing is customer satisfaction. it means corporate have won the consumers support, which is the biggest motivation to promote the performance of companies. as a rising star in the drinking market, snapple did this very well. they proposed that built by consumers, not by marketing. and they attached more importance to establish a good relationship between them and customers. therefore, they have a wide range of customer groups now. the purpose of marketing plan is how to appeal customers and improve their sales. how to let consumers feel satisfy is the aim of marketing objective and strategy. similar to marketing plan, consumer satisfactory is playing an increasing role in corporate plan, which reflect in per part of it, including production plan, marketing plan, financial plan, human resource management, service plan etc. for example, in the service plan, the customer satisfaction is the criteria to the staff. through the importance of customer satisfaction in marketing plan and corporate plan, we can conclude that customer is really king for grateful corporations. 3. segmentationa necessary concept in marketingmarket segmentation is divided into a number of the overall market with different characteristics of customers; each customer base requires a corresponding product or market portfolio. it is necessary for company to ensure target markets and make a marketing poisoning. snapple target consumer is the young person who pursues different lifestyle and advocates the concept of healthy living. and their products brands are natural, non-mainstream, fashion and alternative. based on this snapple rapidly select the right target market and avoid compete with coca cola and pepsi directly. the fact proved that the strategy is success. it suit for the society needs and create a new area of the drinking market. segmentation is a useful method which has several effectives. firstly, it can help corporation detect and identify the marketing opportunities. secondly, it can help company improve the marketing mix and the competitiveness of enterprises. it is also important to marketing plan, which help marketing manager conduct marketing plan and budget analysis. in the corporate plan, segmentation is a necessary strategy and it also exists in every detail plan. it is an effective measure which promotes the corporations long and short terms development. 3. explains what is meant by marketing opportunity and suggestions as to what opportunities might be open to coca cola and pepsi in the uk in light of the launch of snapple.marketing opportunity is the unrealized needs, desires and requirements in the market. specifically, it reflects the needs, desires and requirements which not given or not satisfied given to people in the market. there are four features exist in marketing opportunities, which are openness, timeliness, equality and diversity. i will give a brief explain to each of them. 1. opennessopportunity is an objective reality, different from patents, know-how etc.2. timelinessopportunity is not have fixity and it is fleeting. once lose, it will not come for a second time.3. equalityit refers to the equality in theory and inequality in practice. due to different corporation have the different circumstance and internal resource, the results of using the same opportunity is probably not same. 4. diversitythe diversity of needs contribute to the diversity of opportunities.through this case study, the launch of snapple has created a significant threat to the position of coca cola and pepsi in the uk. however, there are some opportunities for coca cola and pepsi to deal with the challenge. through my research and analyze, they can make good use of two different types of opportunities, which are the existing opportunities and new opportunities. i will give the detailed analysis of the different opportunities in the below. search the existing opportunities1. search marketing opportunities from the supply and demand gap.in fact, coca cola and pepsi have taken actions to compete with snapple in the uk. they have released a new product called fruitopia to compete market share with snapple, which position and brand are similar to snapple. how to occupy a favorable position in this competitive market? i consider that finding out the supply and demand gap is the basic thing which company must cares about. the coca cola and pepsi manager not only recognize its products circumstance but also make clear of the competitor situation. through this method they can make production and sales in a scientific way.2. search marketing opportunities from segmentation.segmentation is an effective and great way to search potential opportunities. from the case study, i recognized six fruitopia flavors have been launched in the uk. in order to suit for consumers needs, they must conduct market research and recognize complex needs of different consumers. customers are really the king, but different customers are different king. if fruitopia product fit for different customers need, they must become more popular in the market. furthermore, fruitopia can create the new market where snapple did not care about. for example, snapple pay less attention to the needs of children and old man than young people. so fruitopia can create new products specifically for children and old man.3. search marketing opportunities from the disadvantage of products.the disadvantage of products must have a negative influence to buyer behavior. therefore transferring the disadvantage to advantage is also a good channel to search opportunities. through my research, i find that the brand, position and style of fruitopia are not specific and unusual as snapple. according to this problem, fruitopia should formulate more explicit brand, position and style so that highlight their own unique and characteristics.4. search marketing opportunities from the competitors weakness.researching competitors weakness and transferring it to its own strength is a very useful way to beat competitor. although snapple is a successful corporate, it still has its weakness. through my interview to customers, i realized that the price of snapple product is a little expensive. so fruitopia can make lower price than snapple to take the upper hand in the market. furthermore, snapple have about 50 kinds of different flavors while most of them are not popular by people. the non-popular goods take a waste of their cost and time. so fruitopia may product less kinds of products but ensure most of them are welcomed by people. create the new opportunities1. create marketing opportunities from market trends.intelligent manager always find the new marketing opportunities from the changing and challenging market trends. in the current society, the elderly population is gradually increasing. therefore elderly populations are the promising consumer groups now. based on this, fruitopia should realized the chance and create more products which fits for old people taste in my opinion. through this way, fruitopia can win the new area in the competitive market.2. create marketing opportunities from social trend of times.in the compulsory world, people pay more attention to the healthy and fashion lifestyle. in the meantime, the selection to drink is tending to natural, healthy and green drink. in line with the trend, fruito