Past Paper Example.docx

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles [Writer] [Institute] [Date]

1

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

2

Table of Contents Question 1: Marketing Objectives and Strategies to Achieve Growth .............................................. 3 The ANSOFF Growth Matrix ....................................................................................................... 4 Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies ....................................................................................... 5 Segmentation Targeting Positioning (STP) ................................................................................... 6 Question 2: ANSOFF as Suitable Strategy to Ensure Expansion ..................................................... 6 ANSOFF Growth Matrix Strategy as a Suitable Strategy............................................................. 6 Application of ANSOFF Growth Matrix Strategy ........................................................................ 6 SWOT Analysis............................................................................................................................. 8 Question 3: Marketing Mix for Bear................................................................................................. 9 Marketing Mix .............................................................................................................................. 9 Question 4: Recommendation on Organisational Structure ............................................................ 12 Functional Structure .................................................................................................................... 12 Geographical Structure ............................................................................................................... 13 Product-Based Structure ............................................................................................................. 13 Market-Based Structure .............................................................................................................. 14 Question 5: The Management and Leadership and the Role of the Marketing Manager within Bear ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 Question 6: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Bear ......................................................... 16 Corporate Social Responsibility and Competitive Advantage .................................................... 16 References ....................................................................................................................................... 19

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

3

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

Question 1: Marketing Objectives and Strategies to Achieve Growth

Bear Nibbles has been established in 2009 and now is a major cereal food maker in the UK’s health food market.

In the UK, the dried fruit snacking category in has been steadily grown over the last few years, and the reason behind is people’s quite positive perceptions about health and a significant increase in supermarket own-label offerings (Bear, 2017). Thus, the major challenging issue for Bear Nibbles is how to develop and sustain consumer engagement in this commoditised category with a strong brand offering clear emotional and functional advantages (Bear, 2017). Due this strategy, the company has become the best evolving brand in healthy snacking.

Now, Bear wants to increase profits by 20% by the end of 2020. So, the marketing objectives must be consistent with the overall business goals and targets, and pave the way and guide the direction of marketing strategy. It is also necessary that any objective should be SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound). Thus, the purpose of setting SMART objectives for an organisation is to make clear where a company wants to be, which provides a measurable objective. Such an objective can be monitored by Bear and they can also develop plans to assist in achieving the business goals.

So, Bear’s marketing objectives are:

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles



To make effective marketing communications activities to increase the number of enquiries by 15% by the end of this year; and



To increase sales and thus profits by 20% by the end of 2020.

To meet these SMART objectives, Bear needs to formulate a comprehensive marketing and communications strategies.

The ANSOFF Growth Matrix At first, the ANSOFF Growth matrix (fig 1) is a tool for marketing planning that assists a business in ascertaining its product as well as its overall market growth strategy (Hussain et al., 2013).

Fig 1: ANSOFF Growth Matrix (Hussain et al., 2013)

It is suggested by the Ansoff’s product/market growth matrix that the efforts of a business to grow and expand rely upon whether new or existing products are marketed by it in new or existing markets. The end result by applying this strategy is

4

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

5

four suggested strategies for growth (fig 1), through which the direction for the business strategy is set. (Hussain et al., 2013)

Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies are approaches to compete in a market, which can also be adopted by Bear. The competitive advantage has two basic types which are combined with the activities and their scope for which a company makes efforts to meet them, result in three generic strategies, cost leadership, differentiation, and focus (cost focus and differentiation focus) (fig 2), to meet higher performance in a market (Tanwar, 2013).

Fig 2: Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies (Tanwar, 2013)

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

6

Segmentation Targeting Positioning (STP) STP strategy can also be followed by Bear, which is a widely accepted strategic approach of the modern-day marketers and one of the most commonly used marketing tools (Natter et al., 2008).

Fig 3: Segmentation Targeting Positioning (STP) (Natter et al., 2008)

Question 2: ANSOFF as Suitable Strategy to Ensure Expansion

ANSOFF Growth Matrix Strategy as a Suitable Strategy As Bear wants to grow and expand the business operations during the next 5 years, a suitable and effective strategy for the company would be the ANSOFF Growth matrix as a strong tool for marketing planning and to make sure the business expansion.

Application of ANSOFF Growth Matrix Strategy By adopting the ANSOFF Growth matrix strategy, Bear will be able to ascertain the well-organised strategy to enhance sales and hence profits, which can also done through venturing into new emerging markets (Haq, Wong and Jackson, 2008).

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

7

Immediately after launching, Bear established 467 stocking points throughout the UK. However, the brand is available currently in more than 10,000 outlets. With this rapid growth, the brand is making effort to expand business across Europe. In the product development area, increased consumer demand has led Bear to launch two new Yoyos flavours five years ago. However, more unique products are needed to launch to make sure continued growth, maximise profits and expand the business.

So, Market Penetration strategy of the ANSOFF Growth matrix would be effective for Bear. By adopting this strategy, the brand needs to simply sell the same products to its existing target market. For this, the brand will have to identify new approaches to develop and improve customer loyalty, while growing customer lifetime values (Haq, Wong and Jackson, 2008). The brand might also enhance the order process by making it simple and convenient for consumer, prolong the business hours or make modifications to enhance the long-term attraction of offering. Along with this, the Market Development strategy also needs to be adopted as another business growth strategy where Bear will sell its existing products into new markets (Shaw, 2012). This strategy has more risks compared to market penetration due to operating in a new market (Hussain et al., 2013). It needs to be applied but very carefully.

Besides these, the Product Development strategy of would also be best to expand business. Once entered and penetrated into a new market, by adopting and implementing this strategy, the brand needs to develop and introduce new products or variations of them to sell to the existing target market. Instead, the brand can also consider, find and pave the ways to improve the aesthetic appeal of its products or enhance them in other ways (Reid and De Brentani, 2004). The customer feedback is very important to consider because any new product development may be influenced by it (Hussain et al., 2013).

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

8

SWOT Analysis By adopting and implementing the above mentioned strategies, Bear’s strengths will be increased but threats will also be created for the brand. For this, the brand needs to overcome its weaknesses. Strengths 

Bear Nibbles is the only children’s breakfast cereal brand with no refined sugar and salt in the UK.



A forest-friendly brand and corporate partner of the Forestry Commission.



Achieved fast growth in sales from £0 to £6.4 million during the initial 3 years.



Increased distribution from 467 to more than 10,000 throughout the UK.



Created different projects and increased female employment.

Weaknesses 

The nutritional value of cereal foods could be the brand’s weakness if it is poor and if it has a less-than-ideal taste and flavour.

Opportunities 

Due to unique products, Bear has the opportunity to go global by expanding business in the international markets.



The brand has the opportunity to benefit more from people’s positive health perceptions.

Threats

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles



9

Monster-sized food companies as competitors, Kellogg’s and Nestle.

Question 3: Marketing Mix for Bear

Marketing Mix The marketing mix is all about placing the right product or a blend of products thereof in the place, at the right time, and at the right price (Jain, 2013).

Fig 5: 7p’s Marketing Mix (Jain, 2013)

Product

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

10

Bear needs to make sure to have the right tangible product as per the market demand (Jain, 2013). The brand, during the product development, needs to conduct in-depth research on the product’s life cycle including the growth, the maturity, and the sales decline stages. The brand also needs to reinvent the products developed to increase demand during declining phase of sales. Besides this, the brand also needs to develop the right product mix, by expanding the current product mix through diversifying and escalating the product line and its depth (Yasanallah and Bidram, 2012). In general, Bear will have to ask themselves the question “what can the company do to offer an improved and unique product to consumer compared to the competitors.

Price As a crucial element of a marketing plan, pricing helps in ascertaining profitability and survival of a brand. There is a major impact of adjusting the product’s price on the whole marketing strategy, hence, affects the product’s sales and demand. In this regard, price skimming strategy needs to be adopted by Bear because the brand can charge the highest initial price for a product that the target market will pay (Calantone and Di Benedetto, 2007). By satisfying the first customers’ demand, the company can lower the price with the aim of appealing another.

Place By implementing this strategy, Bear needs to position and distribute its product range in a place (distribution) that must be accessible to both existing and potential audience. In doing so, intensive distribution strategy needs to be approaches because this strategy intends to provide the market’s saturation coverage by employing every single available outlet (Slater and Olson, 2001). For this, the brand needs to comprehensively know its target market. By understanding the customers inside out,

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

11

the brand will be able to find the most efficient places that speak well and directly with the target audience.

Promotion Promotion will help the brand in improving brand recognition as well as sales. Promotion has a variety of elements including sales organisation, public relations (PR), sales promotion, and advertising. Typically, communication methods are covered by paid advertising, whether it is print or electronic media advertising. However, Bear can use the online media, such as social media platforms, because the modern-day organisations are shifting their focus from offline to the online platforms, which is fast approach. Bear will have to adopt a Push, Pull and Profile strategy. Push strategy will help in promoting a cereal brand to retailers/distributors so as to force the product down into the distribution channel (Richardson and Gosnay, 2010). A Pull strategy is based on communicating with the customers to appeal them to the retailer/distributor (Richardson and Gosnay, 2010). This can be done well through social media. Profile strategy is an overall strategy of communication through which Bear will satisfy the stakeholders’ needs and expectation (Richardson and Gosnay, 2010).

People Bear will also have to conduct an in-depth research to identify whether there are sufficient amount of people in the target market and who have the demand for specific product types. Similarly, the brand’s human resources (employees) are also crucial in marketing because the services will be delivered by them. So, the brand needs to recruit and train the talented people.

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

12

Process An organisation’s processes and systems have the potential to affect the service implementation. Thus, Bear will have to ensure that they have a well-customised process that can reduce costs associated with the sales funnel, system of distribution and other systematic methods. (Jain, 2013)

Physical Evidence Physical evidence necessary that indicates the product has been delivered. It relates also to how a company’s or brand’s products are perceived by the consumer. For example, when people think of junk food, they immediately think of McDonalds. (Jain, 2013)

Question 4: Recommendation on Organisational Structure

Functional Structure To expand in the future, Bear can adopt the functional structure that will help the company in departmentalising on the basis of common job functions. In this regard, the brand needs to develop a department for all marketing personnel, and similarly separate departments for the salespeople and customer service people. This structure will let Bear for a high specialisation level for its staff members, and is easily scalable should the business grow. However, this structure may also lead to some obstacles created between various functional activities, and it can be incompetent if there is a vast range of products or target markets of an organisation. (Neelankavil and Rai, 2014)

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

13

The separate departments will be most noticeable at the company’s higher levels of organisational structure. This feature pertains with hierarchy in the structure. As an instance, policies are formulated and enacted by the corporate HR department which are for all the outlets. This structure also serves monitoring and control processes from top to down, with the CEO at the top. (Neelankavil and Rai, 2014)

Geographical Structure By adopting this structure, Bear will have to establish some main divisions on the basis of geographical locations, which can include districts, regions or territories. This organisational structure would be suitable to Bear because they need to be near the supply sources and customers. However, this structure can be simple for decisionmaking to become decentralised, because divisions based on geographical locations frequently have too much autonomy. It means that all the geographic-based divisions will have a manager with much power. This feature of this structure will support Bear in getting closer managerial assistance for geographic needs. Bear will also have to give a high degree of flexibility to every single division manager or head, in order to make them ale to adjust or modify strategies and policies in the best interest of certain market environments and situations. (Neelankavil and Rai, 2014)

Product-Based Structure The product-based divisional structure would also be effective for Bear, which consists of numerous smaller functional structures. By adopting this structure, the brand’s each organisational division is devoted to a certain product line. This structure type will be helpful to the brand with a variety of cereal products and can assist in cutting product development cycles. However, scaling the organisation in this structure can be difficult, which leads to duplicate resources as a variety of divisions struggle for autonomy. (Neelankavil and Rai, 2014)

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

14

Market-Based Structure However, Beer is recommended to follow and implement the market-based organisational structure, which is another divisional structure. In this structure, all the divisions at Bear will focus on certain markets and target audience. This structure will be best for the company because the cereal food products are very unique to certain market segments (children) and very effective if the company has more advanced knowledge about the target audience. However, excessive autonomy given by this structure may result in divisions developing systems that are not consistent with each other. Further, the divisions may also lead to repeating activities without knowledge or intention that have been handling already by other divisions. (Neelankavil and Rai, 2014)

Question 5: The Management and Leadership and the Role of the Marketing Manager within Bear

Mintzberg considers management as a practice. In this regard, he introduced the artcraft-science triangle to find some key styles of management, including ‘Art’, ‘Craft’ and ‘Science’ (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2013). The first one is an insightful approach to management based on intuition; paying attention to visions, goals and ideas. The second one is an engaging approach rounded in experience. The last one refers to a cerebral style, deliberated and investigative. The thought-provoking question is raised by Mintzberg about whether nature or nurture influences the personal styles of a manager, as well as his/her intrinsic attributes or experience (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2013). By reviewing his study it has been found that 29 managers from different fields, he found that there was substantially little

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

15

influence/impact of personal style on what the managers did. The reason behind this is, according to Mintzberg, context matters (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2013).

Mintzberg also covered the ways management personnel take their job role in the context of such people or followers they are managing. How management personnel consider their job position has a solid bearing on the style or approach of management they are more expected to follow (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2013). It is indicated by Mintzberg that more than a few management styles and their combinations are there, and he also criticises other researchers for seeking to pigeonhole management professionals into certain classifications when, in actual fact, one size does not always fit all (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2013).

On the other hand, action-centred leadership is a situational approach to leadership presented by John Adair (2011). May be, this leadership approach is more of an approach compared to a style. However, this leadership style is widely adopted by leaders across the world, especially in the UK. According to Adair (2011), it is necessary for leaders to be attentive and focused to different needs associated with individual, task and group. The effectiveness of a leader is that he or she has the expertise to balance all these areas well, such as individual needs can be met by making motivational policies and team building. Nevertheless, the leader, depending on the situation, needs to vary the stress level placed on all these areas in response to the situation at any stage (Adair, 2011).

So, in the context of Bear, the role of marketing manager is very important. For the brand to make sure business growth, its products must be recognised to potential target market. Unless Bear and its products are known in the new market or local community and have communication with them readily available, the company needs

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

16

to adopt and implement marketing strategies with the aim of developing awareness about the products. In this regard, a talented and competent marketing manager has a crucial role to be played. Without a marketing manager and best marketing strategies, the potential target market may never be familiar with the company’s products. So, the marketing manager needs to apply marketing strategies, as mentioned above, to successfully promote the brand.

Question 6: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Bear

Corporate Social Responsibility and Competitive Advantage Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an integral part of organisations that makes them ethical. A well-managed CSR program has the strong potential to create considerable benefits for Bear by improving brand image and the workforce motivation and loyalty. Besides, an effective CSR can also help Bear by contributing toward making valuable partnerships stronger (McWilliams and Siegel, 2011). According to McWilliams, Siegel and Wright (2006), effective CSR strategies have the strong potential to create competitive advantages. It indicates a positive relationship between strategic actions related to CSR and competitive advantage.

Three generations of organisations have been presented with respect to their responsible competitiveness, according to Zadek (cited in Porter, Kramer and Zadek, 2007). First-generation organisations have problem-solving strategy for short-term period. Second-generation organisations formulate strategic planning and policies related to risk management. Third-generation integrates the social responsibility notion into their strategy. Contrary to this model, there are many researchers who take image and reputation into consideration as an internal resource of a company that

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

17

needs to be managed properly, because it is a crucial differentiating facet and possible inventor of competitive advantage (Greening and Turban, 2000).

According to Sousa Filho et al. (2010), CSR is at present a vital competitive advantage source that the modern-day organisations, such as Bear, need to benefit from to gain and sustain competitive advantage and better brand image. Moreover, the development of competitive advantage is due to the enforcement of strategies through which value is added and benefits are generated for one firm when another organisation fails in this area (McWilliams and Siegel, 2011). Bear can gain and sustain competitive advantage by using their available internal resources. Nevertheless, to get this benefit, the available resources need to highly valuable, helping in discovering the opportunities and counteracting threats to the company’s environment; inimitable or different in some particular way, so that the market rivals cannot copy them; and non-substitutable, suggesting they lack strategic equivalents (McWilliams and Siegel, 2011).

The overall emphasis in CSR should be on internal resources (Greening and Turban, 2000). Bear can commence from developing the assumption that CSR is an internal resource. So, the company needs to make their CSR actions valuable, inimitable and non-substitutable, so that the competitive advantage could be created and gained. It suggests that CSR has a set of different resources, because diverse dimensions are integrated into it that can be perceived as valuable internal resources, like business ethics, the rapport with customers and other stakeholders, corporate and brand image, etc. (Greening and Turban, 2000).

Besides these, a set of intangible resources, consisting of effective corporate governance, successful implementation of innovative social programmes, and ethical

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

18

management, can play a pivotal role in differentiating Bear, which is considered as a source of competitive advantage (Porter, Kramer and Zadek, 2007). To make CSR actions a competitive advantage source, these need to be created real to produce consistent outcomes for the community and society.

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

19

References Adair, J., 2011. The John Adair lexicon of leadership: The definitive guide to leadership skills and knowledge. Kogan Page Publishers. Calantone, R.J. and Di Benedetto, C.A., 2007. Clustering product launches by price and launch strategy. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 22(1), pp.4-19. Greening, D.W. and Turban, D.B., 2000. Corporate social performance as a competitive advantage in attracting a quality workforce. Business & Society, 39(3), pp.254-280. Haq, F., Wong, H.Y. and Jackson, J., 2008, March. Applying Ansoff’s growth strategy matrix to consumer segments and typologies in spiritual tourism. In refereed paper presented at 8th International Business Research Conference. Hussain, S., Khattak, J., Rizwan, A. and Latif, M.A., 2013. ANSOFF matrix, environment, and growth-an interactive triangle. Management and Administrative Sciences Review, 2(2), pp.196-206. Jain, M.K., 2013. An analysis of marketing mix: 7Ps or more. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(4). McWilliams, A. and Siegel, D.S., 2011. Creating and capturing value: Strategic corporate social responsibility, resource-based theory, and sustainable competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 37(5), pp.1480-1495. McWilliams, A. and Siegel, D.S., 2011. Creating and capturing value: Strategic corporate social responsibility, resource-based theory, and sustainable competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 37(5), pp.1480-1495. McWilliams, A., Siegel, D.S. and Wright, P.M., 2006. Corporate social responsibility: Strategic implications. Journal of management studies, 43(1), pp.1-18.

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

20

Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B. and Lampel, J.B., 2013. Management? It's not what you think!. Pearson UK. Natter, M., Mild, A., Wagner, U. and Taudes, A., 2008. Practice Prize Report— Planning New Tariffs at tele. ring: The Application and Impact of an Integrated Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning Tool. Marketing Science, 27(4), pp.600-609. Neelankavil, J.P. and Rai, A., 2014. Basics of international business. Routledge. Porter, M.E., Kramer, M.R. and Zadek, S., 2007. Redefining corporate social responsibility. Harvard business review, 1, p.2007. Reid, S.E. and De Brentani, U., 2004. The fuzzy front end of new product development for discontinuous innovations: A theoretical model. Journal of product innovation management, 21(3), pp.170-184. Richardson, N. and Gosnay, R.M., 2010. Develop your marketing skills (Vol. 12). Kogan Page Publishers. Shaw, E.H., 2012. Marketing strategy: From the origin of the concept to the development of a conceptual framework. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 4(1), pp.30-55. Slater, S.F. and Olson, E.M., 2001. Marketing's contribution to the implementation of business strategy: An empirical analysis. Strategic Management Journal, 22(11), pp.1055-1067. Sousa Filho, J.M.D., Wanderley, L.S.O., Gómez, C.P. and Farache, F., 2010. Strategic corporate social responsibility management for competitive advantage. BARBrazilian Administration Review, 7(3), pp.294-309. Tanwar, R., 2013. Porter’s generic competitive strategies. Journal of Business and Management, 15(1), pp.11-17.

Marketing and Management Recommendations for Bear Nibbles

21

Yasanallah, P. and Bidram, V., 2012. Studying the status of marketing mix (7Ps) in consumer cooperatives at Ilam province from members’ perspectives. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 2(04), p.194.