Essay: Discuss Marketing Communication To Increase Brand Equity.

Discuss about the Marketing Communication To Increase Brand Equity.

Lion is a food and beverage company located in Australia. The items of Lion is available through Australia and New Zealand. The tread mark products of this company are wine, beer and other kind of sprits.  This company also provides yogurts and flavored milk and juice and other products. The company was initiated in 2009. The name of the company was “Lion Nathan National Food”.  Currently, the company has 7000 employees in the organization. The main objective of the paper is to conduct the internal and external analysis of the business of Lion Nathan National Food. This analysis will help to get the insight situation of the business of the Lion Nathan National Food (Sainsbury et al. 2018). The internal analysis is bounded to the firm’s resources and analysis of competency of the organization. On the other hand external analysis explores the current market situation and the position of this company with respect to the market situation. Certain recommendations are made on the basis of the internal and external analysis for the further improvement of the business of the organization.  The discussion will help to identify the possible threats for the organization along with the opportunities. The paper also highlights the possible plans for the mitigation of those threats. The conclusion is drawn on the basis of the information gathered from the different sources.

Lion Nathan national Food is a food and beverage chain which produces beer, wine and different other flavored milks and beverages. The company has its business over Australia and New Zealand. There are various bottling plants of the company situated all over Australia and New Zealand.  There are various other companies who can be considered as the shareholder of this company. The business of Lion Nathan is going well and it has established its name as the famous local company for food and beverage. It has become one of the famous names in the food and beverage sector of Australia.
In order to understand the current business situation of the company internal and external analysis of Lion Nathan has been conducted in this paper. The internal analysis is concerned about the internal resource management of the company, while the external analysis is concerned about the business progress and the position of the respective company compared to the other companies in the same sector. The external analysis will include the analysis of the general environmental system along with the analysis of five forces for this organization.

External Analysis

In order to evaluate the general environmental factors PESTAL analysis can be done.

Political (P): Political factors plays an important role for the beverage companies. However, there are certain political constraints for Lion Nathan. The government of Australia has imposed excise duty on the alcoholic beverages. The consumption of the alcohol has gone high among the young people, imposition of the tax is the reason to reduce the alcohol   consumption. The tax can increase the price of the alcoholic beverages of Lion Nathan. However, this organization also produces soft drinks and flavored drinks. The price of these products will not be affected. In New Zealand, the business situation is same. The price of the beer in this country goes up as the excise duty on the products is revised. Lion Nathan has to raise the price up to 4% for the beer in New Zealand. The price hike can be a problem for the promotion of the product.

Economic (E): The Australian Drug Foundation has put the restriction on the alcohol manufacturing companies for the promotion of the alcoholic beverages through different educational and sports events. This will hamper the marketing of the alcoholic beverages of Lion Nathan. However, they can make promotion of the other soft drinks. On the other hand the Australia and New Zealand has high economic growth (Popkin and Hawkes 2016). It can be said for the both countries that the people will buy drinks with reasonable price and good quality. Apart from that the goodwill of this organization and the products will make the buyers from other countries to buy the products from this organization. This will improve the economic situation of the country.

Social(S):  The popular believe in Australia is that the low carb beer is useful in the weight management. This makes the popularity of the beer made by the Lion Nathan. Apart from that other beverages made by this organization is popular among the people of Australia and New Zealand. It has been seen that the consumption of the beer and wine along with the other alcoholic drinks have gone down in recent years (Ferguson et al. 2016).However, it may not be a problem for the Lion Nathan as they have other popular soft drinks as their products. This trend may inspire the organization to make or produce other kind of beverages.

Technological (T):  Lion Nathan is always inclined to use the technology in the innovation and the promotion of the business (Annison 2017). The unique idea behind the usage of OR code for selection of the wines suitable for different occasions has become popular among the consumers (Kristina and Wijaya 2017). Apart from that the organization is also using advanced machines and technologies for the production of all its products. Moreover, the company is promoting their brand value through different video sessions and the lives from the production house where the users can see the processing of the products through the live sessions. This helps the organization to maintain the clarity in the whole process along with the goodwill.

Background of the Business

Environmental factors (E):  The demand for the beer decreases for the climatic conditions. It has been seen that the summer enhances the consumption of the beer. However, the demand for the wine and other non alcoholic beverages is static throughout all the seasons.

Legal Factors (L):  The positive factors about the Lion Nathan is that the company has never faced any legal issues related to the business. The company always follow the treading law. The organization also follow the rules and regulations regarding the beverage quality and processing of the beverages.

In order to analysis the situation of the beverage industry and the position of Lion Nathan on the basis of that situation the Porter’s Five Forces can be used.

Bargaining power of the supplier:  The bargaining power of the supplier is high in this case. Lion Nathan is a regional company which has some suppliers those are responsible for the distribution of the products throughout the Australia and New Zealand (Richards et al.2015). In this case, the switching cost of the Lion Nathan is high while the number of suppliers are low. In this case, the suppliers can choose other companies for the distribution of their products.  However, Lion Nathan has few options regarding the suppliers for the distribution of the products.

Bargaining power of the buyers: The bargaining power of the customers are high. There are other beverages companies in the market (Backholer and Martin 2017).   Moreover, Lion Nathan has to face the competition with some of the big names for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (Kelly, Bauman and Baur 2014). Apart from the Lion Nathan there are several other regional beverage companies. In this case, the consumers or the buyers have many options to choose from. In this case, the bargaining power of the consumers is high.

Threats from new entrants: The threat from the new entrants is medium. The beverage industry has many scopes. Many small companies are investing capital in making the products in the beverage industry. However, taking up the significant position in the beverage industry is not easy (Alkaya and Demirer 2015). The Lion Nathan is already in a good position in the market. In this case, it can be said that the threats from the new entrants is medium.

Threat of substitutes:  The threat from substitutes is low (Boehm 2014). In the beverage market there is a little chance for producing the substitutes of the current products. Almost all the companies are producing the same kind of products. The selling of the products of the company is dependent on the marketing and brand value of the company.

PESTAL Analysis

Competitive Rivalry between the existing companies: The competitiveness between the existing organizations are high in the beverage industry. There are many companies providing almost same products to the consumers (Jones, Comfort and Hillier 2016). In that case, every company wants to enhance the selling of the products.  Lion Nathan can face the competitive in this case. The rivalry among the other companies and Lion Nathan is regarding launching of the nonalcoholic drinks and beverages (Alcee 2017). Some of the big names in the beverage industries are also included in the list. The strategies that other companies follow is to do better marketing and producing varieties of different products.  Recently, Lion Nathan is also following the same trend.

In order to explore the threats and the opportunities of the business of lion Nathan Company, SWOT analysis can be done. This analysis will help to identify the present threats and the opportunities along with the weakness and the strength of the company.

Strength: The main strength of Lion Nathan is the diversity of the products. The company produces range of beverage products both alcoholic and non alcoholic. This broadens the range of the consumers as well as the market range. Apart from that the good quality of the products adds the goodwill of the company.

Weakness: The main weakness of the company is that the Lion Nathan is a regional company. Currently the company is operated in two countries- Australia and New Zealand.  The company has limited access and the consumer base is limited within the region (Kelly et al. 2014) .Another weakness of the company is the lack of diversity of the products. Apart from that the company does not have any tread mark product.

Opportunities: There are lots of opportunities for Lion Nathan. The organization is currently holding a better position in the market (Ramsay and Sandonato  2017). From this position the improvisation of the marketing and bringing the variety in the products can lift the place of the organization (Gluck and Soltan 2017). Apart from that the company can think about the expansion of the business to the other parts of the world.  In order to understand the demand of the consumers the company can conduct a survey.

Threats: Though the business environment for Lion Nathan is favorable, there is the competition in the market that makes the situation challenging for the Lion Nathan. The competitions are growing and the demands of the customers are changing (Billich et al. 2018). It has been seen that the organization is not experimental about their products. So, there is a lack of diversity in the products of Lion Nathan. Other companies are experimenting with the products. Apart from that the company is not updating the business and is not changing dynamically with the changes in the business situation and the market.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

The internal analysis of the company will indicate the internal infrastructure as well as the resources available in the company.

The assets of the company can be defined in two terms- tangible assets and intangible assets. The tangible assets are the assets those can give the company an opportunity to earn something in economic way (Annison 2017). In case of Lion Nathan case, the tangible assets are the good will of the company and good quality of the products produced by the company. These assets are helping the company to become more popular and providing competitive advantage over other regional companies.

The intangible assets are those assets which   help the company to gain the benefits in future. The opportunities for the Lion Nathan company can be considered as intangible benefits. The organization can explore the opportunities regarding the expansion of the business and the improvisation of the quality of the products. This can be beneficial for the company in future to hold the desired position in the market.

Identification of the capabilities:

The identification of the capabilities of the company indicates the opportunities those can be achieved by the company. Lion Nathan is the regional company which is doing well in the beverage industry. However, the company still is in growing phase. It has the capability to face the competition with other local companies. However, the organization is not in the position to compete with big names in the industry (Mongkol 2014). Some of the parameters indicates the capabilities of the Lion Nathan.

Core competency of the company:

Core competency of the company determines the ability of the company to make the strategic planning in order to compete in the market.  The evaluation of the core competency is dependent on the four questions or criteria of the company. These four criteria are-

• If the strategy provides the significant value in the growth of the company.
• If the strategy helps to increase the market share for the company.
• If it is easy for the other companies to follow the organization.
• If the strategy provides any competitive advantage for the organization.

On the basis of these four questions it can be said that the core competency of Lion Nathan is in good position. The strategy taken by the company has certain significance for the improvement of the position of the company in the market.

Information system for the company:

The company has certain internal and external needs to be fulfilled. Recently, the company is having problem in managing the employee database. In this case the implementation of the cloud can be done in managing the database and the storage of the information. The organization can adapt the application of hybrid cloud where the partial information can be stored in public cloud.

Evaluation of the proposed system:

It can be said that the implementation of the cloud computing can be beneficial for the Lion Nathan. The new cloud system will help the company to reduce the overhead cost. The organization will have no need to maintain the physical infrastructure used for the storage of the data (Watson et al. 2016). Instead of that the negotiation with the cloud providing vendor will be helpful. Apart from that Lion Nathan will get more security for maintaining the security and confidentiality of the data in the cloud architecture.

Recommendations:

It can be recommended that proper implementation of the strategy and planning can make the improvement of the market situation for Lion Nathan (Rimmer,  Smith and Wende 2014) . The company is in regional level and doing well in the market. In this situation there are lots of opportunities for the company for the enhancement of the business. However, the competitors of the Lion Nathan are tough so the organization has to work on different to improve the internal strengths along with the production and the marketing of the products.

Conclusion

The discussion is regarding the Lion Nathan company which is a known name in the beverage industry of Australia and New Zealand. The internal and external analysis has been done on the basis of the different parameters. It has been seen that the market position of Lion Nathan is in good position. However, there are chances of improvements for the organization. While implantation of the plans for the improvements, the organization is needed to be considered different challenges and threats from the other companies and the dynamic business situations. Proper planning and good decision making ability can help the Lion Nathan to enhance the quality of service and expansion of the business.

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