Global Marketing Strategies Luxury Goods

Question: Discuss about the Global Marketing Strategies for Luxury Goods. Answer: Introduction: The report is about preparing the marketing plan for Haighs chocolate that is based in Adelaide, South Australia. Organization intends to expand the awareness of the brand interstate and around the world. It is required to develop new marketing opportunities for the product and accordingly designing the marketing plan. SWOT analysis of the brand has been performed and thereafter-marketing mix would be designed for launching the new product or packaging the existing product range with different innovation. The potential problems that might arise with launching of the product would also be analyzed. The marketing strategy to be developed would be creative, fun marketing and practical. Haighs Chocolate is the oldest family owned chocolate maker in Australia. Organization is committed to art of making premium chocolate making from the cocoa bean. It mainly targets young couples and people who are purchasing chocolates for gifting and consumption purpose. It has strong brand legacy as it is successfully operating since 1912 (haighschocolate.com.au 2017). Haighs chocolate sells wide variety of chocolates in attractive packages such as dark chocolates, milk chocolates and liquor chocolates. Consumers personally received assistance from the organization in selecting gifts for different occasions (Aichner 2014). Chocolate is manufactured using artisans skills that are combined with specialized techniques that helps in creating award-winning chocolates. It produces wide variety of chocolates and super brand chocolates, candies, confectionary products, cocoa powder. Some of the direct competitor of the Haighs chocolate are Harrods, Godiva chocolatier, Charbonel et Walker a nd La Maison Du Chocolat. Indirect competitors include Jelly Belly, Selamique and hattie. Haighs chocolate is intending to create awareness about the brand so that it is recognized worldwide. This is done by packaging its current range of products in different packages for different occasions such as Valentines Day and on World Food day. The objective of the marketing plan is to create and build awareness of wide range of products of Haighs Chocolate interstate and worldwide. Marketing plan would place such strategy that would help the brand in increasing its recognition. Developed marketing plan will help the confectionary company is achieving its vision. The innovation platform of the company would be seasonality, functionality and health. Haighs chocolate can enhance its seasonal sales by taking advantage of cultural nuances (Babin and Zikmund 2015). Organization has three differentiating factors and they are as follows It has shifted from cottage industry to sophisticated manufacturing retailer. Haighs longevity as growing family owned and successful business. Company has created itself as luxury brand with high quality products commanding premium price (Stringer 2015). SWOT analysis Strength- Strong brand is associated with the strength of the company.as it has been in operation for more than hundred years. Haighs produces wide range of products and chocolates of high quality that are available in luxurious packages (Bilgic et al. 2015). It enjoys a good brand positioning and quality and emphasis is given on sales promotion. There is a wide range of products such as dark chocolate, milk chocolates and liquor. Manufacturing of the chocolates is open to visit by public at their factory. Weakness- Haighs chocolates is not able to expand their business in various other attempts that would lead to lower market share. It is responsible for inability to build the certification from the fair trade foundation (Corley 2014). Products are not of export quality and packaging of the products is not attractive and follows a single flavor. Compare to other brands in Australia, Haighs chocolate does not have products mix and lacks varieties other than milk drinks and wafers. During festival occasion, brand is incapable of producing designer and innovative chocolates. Opportunity- It can increase the product ranges such as jellies, toffees, gums, lollipop, and unsweetened baked chocolates. In terms of gift offers, there is a high level of opportunity with respect to development and growth. There is an opportunity for the brand to excel via e commerce that is providing customers with online selling and delivering options (Chernev 2015). Opportunity is available in its home country as well as global upfront. Threat- Highs chocolates faces strong level of competition with various competitors and chocolate companies in Australia. One of the major threat is to manage and maintain higher quality of perishable goods. Image and reputation of brand is being damaged due to chocolate whitening and lack of storage. Some of the strong competitions arises from chocolate companies such as May Field Chocolates and Cadbury Nestle. From the discussion of the SWOT analysis of Haighs chocolate, it can de deduced that the brand suffers from weakness in areas mainly related with packaging of the products and lack of producing innovative and designs chocolates (Saunders 2015). Therefore, the marketing plan will have strategies that would innovate the products packaging. Developing product strategy using marketing theories The action plan while developing marketing strategy would also incorporate packaging guideline of Australia that is based on number of principles. This is regard to packaging of the product. Another strong driver for the growth of the company is making innovation in the existing products. While deciding on the product strategy, one of the marketing theories that the organization can rely upon is Product market expansion grid. This Grid was generally specified by Ansoff matrix. The expansion grid is used for product planning by company when they are looking for expanding the products range by entering in the new markets. Haigh can develop various strategies by comparing with the product market. Expansion grid consist of four strategies. They are strategy for market penetration and product development, diversification and market development strategy (Rundh and Rundh 2016). In this case, Haigh should rely on product diversification and strategy of product development. Product development is used for introducing new product in the existing market. Haigh can also make use of diversification strategy when introducing new products in new market of Australia as well as in the global upfront. The new product will come with some of the innovation such as introducing chocolates with dry fruits flavor and will be made of finest ingredients (Valentino and Caroli 2014). It will be available free of coloring and without any added preservatives. New developed chocolates targeting newer global front will have sumptuous fillings such as caramel, wafers, biscuits and praline. Such chocolates will have balance between milk and dry fruits pieces and would have a desirable blend of milk chocolate with hint of ground peanut pieces, peanut cream cater and softest caramel (Ried 2013). Marketing of products can be done on World Food Day and players are positioning this type of premium chocolates as gifting options. Another innovation is to be made in the current packaging of the products, as it is not attractive. Packaging of the products can be changed during the season of Valentines Day. It can be said that deliciousness of chocolates can be exuded through packaging. Packaging designs of chocolates should be inspiring enough for Valentine day. This will lure customers to buy chocolates for gifting to their partners and loved ones. Haighs provides its customer with chocolates in regular packages, which is not attractive as it should be to young generation. Offering the products of chocolates in different flavors and colors will attract the customers and helps in increasing sales. The packaging strategy would involve colorful packaging, as it will be creative to appeal to the target audience. Haigh can joint with some companies incorporating the season into product packaging. Packaging of the products can be done in optimized way that is done in terms with the fabrics (Ramli 2016). Seasonal pac kaging would have the variations with the change. It ca follow sustainable packaging guidelines. Packaging of chocolates should be creative enough and each chocolate should present special features of different places in Australia from where the ingredients has been derived. Haighs chocolate can also go for biodegradable packaging as it helps them in tackling with the waste problems. It would also represents an eco-movement by the company Such type of packaging would be planted after use by giving package new life after use and leaving no waste. Company can also wrap the chocolate bars in paper that is made from husk of Cocoa husk waste. Chocolates packaging for valentine day should go beyond the heart shaped box. Chocolates should themselves incorporate personalized and card like elements (Ried 2013). Future expansion of Haighs chocolate is done by keeping a close eyes on chocolate market of USA and Europe. The local development of the product is driven by overseas trends. Culture of Haighs chocolate is continuously innovate and experiments with different flavors (Westwood 2016). Marketing mix Product- The new developed product will be product by adding different flavors, which would appeal to the target audience. Since the chocolates manufactured by company has only single flavor, producing the product by adding different flavor would be the best strategy. Chocolate manufacturer would also design promotion and store successfully. This will help in producing the basis for international chocolate brand for the various chocolates of Haighs brand. Another feature that will be added to the new developed product will be chocolates with lower fat content. This will be done by adding the application of an electric field charge in the direction of flow of liquid chocolate. This would help in lowering the viscosity of liquid and would enable the manufacturers to reduce the minimum amount of fat that is required in maintaining flow in pipeline. Company would be meticulous about quality standards of nuts, fruits and cocoa beans that is used in manufacturing of chocolates (Pride and F errell 2016). The new product will have new ingredients such as dry fruits and would have sumptuous fillings. Product will also have the balance of blended milk and dry fruits. Introducing new product with low chocolate will be an attracting factor. This is so because people are increasingly becoming health conscious. They are getting more inclined to buying the chocolates that provide health benefits. Global chocolate market has been facing the challenge of increasing incidence of obesity among consumers. 26% of the total world population in the year 2014 were overweight (Peck et al. 2013). Product has been designed taking health aspect into consideration. This would provide the customers with added advantage and would appeal the target audience. Price- Pricing of the products is decided based on its nomenclature. Another factor is the mechanism of demand and supply that determines the pricing of the products. Apart from it, since the chocolates are of premium quality. There is premium pricing of the product and when the products will be exported at global level. Price of products, which are exported, would include taxation charge as well (Park et al. 2015). Place- Operation of products of Haigh is done under the vertical integrated model of supply chain. There are some of places in Australia where the people are not aware of the product as no advertising is performed. Stores are mainly dominant in South Australia. Places where the company does not have stores, and such areas are fit for promotion of new products. Promotion should be done in a manner that helps in maximizing the capacity of products in all areas (Mosca 2016). Promotion- There would be an ongoing and continuous communications with the customers regarding products. Target audience are mainly communicated about sustainability and packaging with the help of various means of promotion. It makes use of various social media such as social media, advertisements and magazines. Haighs chocolates would connect its customers with innovation and ideas of the new products with the help of print media. Initiatives are successfully promoted by way of designs of packaging. Distribution process of chocolates or any products will be in possible mode if promotion of products is done through whole sell offering and retail stores (Palmatier et al. 2016). Display of stores needs to be strategically designed that will appeal to customers arriving at stores and thereby increasing sales. Identification of potential problems in launching products- When launching new products, it is certainly possible for the company to encounter with several problems and they are listed down below: Some of the issue would be regarding the ingredient used in manufacturing of the chocolates. Sugar content of chocolates has been subject to negative headlines in the mainstream of media and it is labelled as new tobacco. Higher content of sugar is supposed to have harmful effect on the body. Therefore, Haighs chocolate needs to reformulate their products is such way that it helps in improving their nutritional credentials. Recipes of manufacturing chocolates should be done in a way to limit calorie content and reduction of saturated fats. Therefore, the main challenge would be optimum use of nutrients and problems would they face in maintaining lower sugar levels in chocolates. Reduction is sugar is considered quite challenging as it has an impact upon the taste and texture of chocolate (Johansson et al. 2016). The larger modification of recipes of chocolates would lead to backlash of consumers. Food processing sector is the main driver of expansion of the products in new international markets. It is quite possible that such markets will not have processing sector suitable to the manufacturing units of organization. There can be other problems related to distribution, price, marketing efforts resistance by market staffs in product expansion in newer geographical markets (Khler and Logemann 2016). Recommendation: The company has huge market that is untapped for the products and such market needs to be targeted through support of online media based sales and operational levels. Products of company are appreciated through for a variety of sales and tastes throughout the years, as the brand is synonymous with taste and quality of handmade chocolate. It is necessary for company to focus on increasing its market share by widening its network of distribution and look for new market in and outside Australia. Haigh should introduce range of chocolate and the pricing of the product like the packages for gift will help in beating the competition of giants like Cadbury. Diversification of portfolio of products of company should be done by specializing in other relevant raw materials like coffee. Company will expand into geographies where the customers demand high quality of chocolates. There is a need to improve the infrastructure mainly in relation to storage of perishable products. Haigh would be able to make its customers pay premium price for buying its quality products by showing environmental concerns and by taking steps towards business sustainability. Conclusion: It can be concluded from above discussion that the business of confectionary is getting highly competitive with the entry of large number of firms in the market. There are huge manufacturers that have been dominating markets of chocolate in Australia such as Mayfield Chocolates, Cadbury nestle, Godiva Chocolatier and Haighs chocolate. It is necessary for company like Haighs chocolate to make investment in applying promotional techniques and of sales promotion, this will help them in increasing the market share of chocolate industry. Making use of online social media will help them in providing delivery in global markets. Due to less barrier in the industry and focusing on just single market would lead to significant reduction in the market share of such industry. 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