Essay: Implications Of New Zealand Natural On Marketing Strategies.

Possible Implications on Marketing Strategies

Discuss About The Evaluation Researching New Zealand Natural?

New Zealand Natural is an Auckland, New Zealand based company of premium ice creams with its presence in the global market through their franchise network. The company has products of ice cream, smoothie, and frozen yoghurt, and has franchises in Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, and others. In 1984, the company started its business as a small creamery at Christchurch New Zealand and became famous as they are using no artificial flavors and colors. Rael Polivnick, the founder of the company, saw the potential of this business and bought the rights to open the very first New Zealand Natural Store at the famous Bondi Beach in Sydney ("History - New Zealand Natural", 2017). According to the given scenario, it has been observed that temperature of person, place, and the products affect the buying behavior of the customers and companies need to change their marketing strategies accordingly. This essay has been attempted to identify the possible implications on marketing strategies of New Zealand Natural by some strategic tools based on research. The role of metrics indicators in managing the marketing strategies of the company has been studied to figure out some of the suitable metrics for New Zealand Natural. Furthermore, the essay also reflects the complexities of developing the marketing strategies and their differentiation on the basis of the organization size. The essay also identifies the professional standards of the practices that are followed within the organization.

There can be many implications of marketing strategies of Naturals. Example, the value chain network that utilizes the marketing strategies can affect the overall sales department

The advertisements campaign, that are used for the company can extend on the emotions that are attached on buying an ice cream. This perceptiveness of the customer must match the core idea of the campaign, thus, it can be successful in communicating the real ideas to the customers (Ogunlana, 2010). The advertising campaigns of this organization should be done in consideration of global customers. The global customers that form most of the revenue percentage gained the customers. It is of utmost importance, that the customer must be taught of the value they are going to perceive in their purchased product (Hallbäck & Gabrielsson, 2013). The social media campaign used for the products are also needs to be customized in every possible way. Customization needs less control over standardization, which needs to be considered.  The behavioral aspect of the customer is also affected by the message they receive from the front-end function of the outlets (Beatham, 2013). It cannot be denied that Ice cream is one of the most emotional objects of customers life related to warm satisfaction that they receive after having it. If the satisfaction is everlasting the repurchase and recognition rate of the product increases. Thus portraying this in the media campaigns is very important.

Ansoff’s Product-Market Growth Matrix

The Ansoff matrix was introduced by Igor Ansoff. It is a vital tool in strategic planning as it helps organizations in identifying their growth through the strategy of diversification and intensification that help in achieving growth by specific amendments in the existing business strategy of the company (Mhurchu et al., 2016). According to Ansoff model, there are four different possible strategies: Market Penetration, Product Development, Market Development, and Diversification.

Market Penetration Strategy: In this strategy, existing products are used to achieve growth in existing market. New Zealand Natural’s market penetration strategy is to achieve growth of customer base in the market by setting up more number of stores in the market as well as places such as airports, hospitals, schools, highways etc. with entire range of products, through intensive distribution in order to reach every potential and existing customers.

Market Development Strategy: In this strategy, business is created by developing fresh markets while continuing in existing products. New Zealand Natural is trying to capture unexplored and new sectors without developing new products (Mhurchu et al., 2016). New Zealand Natural has started to shift its focus to new and potential markets such as rural areas and small towns, the market of sugar-free products for health conscious and diabetic people.

Product Development Strategy: In this strategy, new products are developed for the customer base already existing. New Zealand Natural has made vast use of this strategy in capitalization by consistently introducing new products.

Diversification Strategy: Diversification strategies are vital for future growth opportunities of a company. Diversification is successful for the launching of a new product in the new market and helps in providing growth opportunities for the future. Since diversification involves the stepping of the company into a market with unknown parameters, it is observed as a high-risk strategy. New Zealand Natural has felt the need of increasing its presence in various markets and have introduced many new strategies to cover the entire market.

BCG Matrix application on a brand helps in identifying the products which act as organization’s revenue source (Cakir & Balagtas, 2014). Further, it also helps in figuring out those products which have negligible chances of growth in future to stand in constantly changing trends of the industry. The BCG Matrix for New Zealand Natural is given below:

Cash Cows: The products that have high market share and sold in a fully developed industry where future growth is not expected are known as Cash Cows. Cash Cows are used by the companies make revenues while being benefited by the products’ profitability as the low investment are needed for these products.

BCG Matrix

Stars: The products with high market share and growth potential in the future are termed as Stars in BCG Matrix. The dynamics of the industry support growth when the industry itself is in development phase (Cakir & Balagtas, 2014). Companies observe these products as potential Cash Cows considering the prospects of growth.

Question Marks: The products that are expected to see future growth in market share are termed as Question Marks. These are named as the Question Mark because these products can either successfully become a Star, or may become the constant source of loss. If the issues are managed properly, the products get enough room for growth in the market resulting in growth potential for the company. However, incorrect management of the issues can have negative effects on the product’s market share growth.

Dogs: The products with low market share and limited chances of growth in business for the organization are termed as Dogs. The lower chance of success act as an indicator of careful decision-making by the management for investing in the product since much benefit is not offered by thos

SWOT’s S&W helps in analysing strengths and weaknesses of the company in the existing business environment in order to make suitable strategies such that strengths can be utilized for making profits while weaknesses can be worked out to prevent from losses.

Strengths: These are the business areas in which the company excels and can potentially bring in profits. New Zealand Natural Ice Cream has the competitive advantage of great brand value in the market because of its quality products (Ryan, 2016). The products have been proven best in the industry by winning several awards every year. The products are accompanied by an image of being premium and for health conscious people. Products have been franchised to different countries using different approaches while maintaining the same standard of the brand. Attractive product packaging is also considered as one of their major strengths.

Weaknesses: These are the business areas which adds to the negative growth of the organization. New Zealand Natural Ice Cream also has certain weak business areas which should be improved in order to enjoy continuous growth in the market. These business areas include lacking distribution system for the retailers, inconsistent manufacturing and etc.

SWOT’s O&T helps in analysing the opportunities and threats for the companies in the existing business environment which may affect the business in the future in order to amend the future business goals as per the analysis so that future growth is ensured.

Opportunities: These are those potential aspects of the business which seems to be helping the company in the future. New Zealand Natural Ice Cream has the opportunity of launching the products in any price range as they are already perceived as the premium quality provider of products (Solomon, 2014).

Threats: These are those potential aspects of the business which seems to be impacting the business negatively in the future. Threats to New Zealand Natural Ice Cream in sustaining the business include strong competition in the market and inefficient distribution system which are disturbing the reach of the products to the potential customer.

Now, on the basis of the four strategic tools and the given scenario, three major implications have been observed as outcomes that can affect the marketing strategy of the business which are given below:

• Increasing online presence – the social media tool must be sued to its highest efficiency. The company’s website has appeared to be attractive but relevance is low in this site. From a point of view of information shared, they come short on that.
• Integration of online media tool and data repository – the metrics that are used in the company will be more effective if they are backed by the data repository system. The key performance indicators are needed to measure but the data storage of the customers increases the efficiency of the sales department (Ogunlana, 2012). Treating the wide range of product and managing the different distribution channels will be easy if the data efficiency and effectiveness is maximised. Moreover, the conversion rate is also increased by social media marketing.
• Building value based relationship with distribution channel - the distributor that are associated with them needs to perceive the great value that the company has in the global market. This will help the company in strategise the partnering implication and integrating backwardly in the future.
• Structuring strong network global business – the company reputation and brand image depends on the efficiency of the network channel they uses. Distribution channels that have good records of past in their local or regional areas must be explored and then decisions must be taken based on that.
• Diversification - the diversification strategy in the desserts business units can give them an advantage of increasing their presence as bakery specialists and enhancing the value chain networks that they operate on.

Marketing performance metrics or KPIs (key performance indicators) are not only useful for marketing professionals, but also for the executives from different non-marketing fields. All the upper-level employees such as the vice president of sales or chief executive officer of the senior management of the company require marketing KPIs to implement the marketing activities and investments to observe the impact on the company's bottom line. This is mainly important for making the companies’ marketing budgets during negative situations such as economic downturns, mergers, and downsizing. In addition, performance metrics help in meeting customers’ needs, setting up specific business goals, being proactive in the market, and completely fusing advertising into the business purpose.

The metrics those are useful for marketing are in the departments of channel distribution of different business units and media handling. The whole point of using this metrics is to move toward the annual goal of the company, it also help in gain a logical progress report and gaining the insights on sales evaluation. This metrics are helpful in building the brand equity and increasing the market share, market return, and customer profitability. After all, the complex process of tracking the customer segment is needed for building a better relationship and customer acquisition. The metrics indicators that are used in the marketing are solely for the usage of measuring performance. The huge database that is gathered from customers’ personal information to their taste and preference is for the purpose of the help of using it in the further purchase of the Company’s products by prospective customers. There are certain parameters that are usually used in measuring these marketing strategies, which are discussed below.

Suitable Metrics for New Zealand Natural Marketing Strategies

There are 9 metrics traditionally used in measuring the key performance indicators, which is used to develop strategies. Natural’s is an organization, which is based on Newzealand and operates all over the world’s major cities and metropolitans by using franchise models. Some metrics is essential for the company’s growth and efficient marketing strategies

• Cost to generate traffic - as it is operating wholly based on supply-channel operations, there must be some investment used to generate the multichannel traffic. This can be done by using different resources. Outsourcing the distribution agencies, which uses the frachise cooperation, is of utmost importance. The technical support also comes under the cost of investments to generate the traffic of the customers. Multi channel user needs to track the cost used in different marketing tools.

• Marketing spending metrics – The cost per acquisition of new customers are measured in the metrics. New customer acquisition is said to be five times more expensive than retaining an old customers (Cramer, 2016). New-Zealand Natural’s ice cream comes under the luxury item that the customers spends from their income. So it is not easy to retain a customer if the necessary value of money spend in the luxury item is not similarly perceived in the customers eye. Again, the incremental spending if not recovered by the Return on Investment simultaneously, it can affect on the whole budget.

• Visitor’s acquisition KPI is – having a retail chain has its own advantage and disadvantages. The sales funnel is calculated based on conversion rate of visitors (Parmenter, 2015). The online visitor’s measurement is easy to calculate but having a parameter for physical stores are important. There are some observations that needs to be looked upon, like visitors numbers, sources of the visitors coming, unique visitor classification. Tracking the sources and using the reporting tools are easy.

• Buyer metrics - frequency of buying or retaining customers is calculated in this metrics system. This values are Average Order Value (Beatham, 2013). This helps in understanding the different customer levels. It also makes them easy to compare the different segment of customers. The market share and equity is derived after that which helps in calculating Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). This metrics includes all the top and bottom line parameters of sales. Naturals being dependent on the supply chain management and logistics capability of the companies that are associated with them through different channels, needs to integrate a reliable data management system.

 While developing the marketing strategies for the businesses, the management faces a lot of complexities which differ according to the size of the company. Following are some of the complexities in the development of marketing strategies:

(a) Demand Determination: Large businesses such as New Zealand Natural face a lot of difficulty in determining the demand for the product in the market. Since the products in large businesses are generally divided into three categories, first category of products are for those who get satisfies with the basics and do not have any preferences, second category of products are priced at medium range that is easily affordable for the high-income groups and quite premium for low-income groups and the last category of products are for high-income groups only that is unaffordable for even middle-income groups (Venugopal & Vishwanathan, 2017). While making the marketing strategies, the company has to identify varying demands of the product according to the area.

(b) Varying Localities: The marketing strategies formed can easily be implemented and communicated to the people in the urban areas through various modes such as advertising campaigns, radio channels, newspaper advertisements, etc. However, in rural areas, it is harder for the companies to use these techniques for reaching them. Thus requiring them to be more careful while strategizing and planning. Small businesses, on the other hand, can easily market their products effectively in the surrounding market because of the smaller market size of these businesses.

(c) Focusing the Essentials: Essentials of a product will differ for the people on the basis of their income, community, locality and other different factors. The low-income group will buy the ice cream with a purpose of eating something frozen and sweet, the middle income group will add the preference of flavor to the purpose of buying it, while the higher income group will also consider the freshness, richness, and other such preferences (Mone et al., 2013). The larger the business, the larger market they will cover which is directly proportional to the variety of people expecting to fulfil different types of essentials from the product, Whereas small business will focus on fulfilling the expectations of smaller markets with the lesser variety of people.

The standard of practices followed in the New Zealand Natural is very professional as they have made commitments which take care of all of their retail customers, their franchisees, their café and restaurant operators, and their staff. The commitment to the retail customers involves practices which make them feel good via pleasurable and fun experiences by offering them exceptional quality products that are tasteful ("Know Us - New Zealand Natural", 2017). Commitments to the franchisees include the practices that can provide a retail system which is comprehensive with professional services and supports so as to get benefited from an international chain that is well branded to help the individuals to become successful retailers. For restaurant & café operators their commitment includes practices that involve the distribution of products with quality through impressive support and service that can add value to the businesses. For their staff, commitment includes practices which can offer an environment that increases personal growth, team spirit, and job satisfaction.

Conclusion

On the basis of above discussion, it can be concluded that New Zealand Natural had successfully implemented its marketing strategies in order to foster positive growth by using the brand image, rich taste, and premium quality. However, there are certain weaknesses and threats related to distribution strategies that have been observed through the findings of the study. Overall, New Zealand Natural is all about premium products, brand image and market reputation, and assurance of quality products by committing to all the customers, restaurant and café operators, franchisees, and staff. Hence, the marketing strategies developed by considering the role of temperatures of people, place, and products affect the buying behavior of the customer.

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