Marketing Plan: Integrated Marketing Communications

Discuss about the Marketing Plan for Integrated Marketing Communications.

 

Background

Samex meat Pty is an Australian red meat exporter, the company was established in the year 1978 soon after establishment they became one of the leading meat export trading companies. The red meat products offered by the company are sheep, lamb, goat, beef and poultry. They also provide offals. They have offices in China and Middle East. Their supply chain is very big as they export meat products throughout the world. They are the trusted suppliers of meat products as their customers are, wholesalers, distributors, big super market chains ship Chandlers and government agencies. They key to success of their business is the fact that they understand the requirements of their customers carefully (Samex.com.au 2017).

Consumer decision making process

The buyers of the food industry go through the same process that the buyers of other products come across, the buyers go through the same process and finally take the decision whether they should buy the product or not. First, the buyers search for options that are available to them for buying the beef. The search the various sources or shops from where they can buy the beef products. Based on the reviews, past experiences or word of mouth they decide to buy that particular product. The customers who are price sensitive look for cheaper option. Quality is another important criteria for food product market. The most attractive customers are the Restaurant and supermarkets because they usually buy the beef products in bulk. A number of factors are related to the decision making of consumers; they look for taste and quality of food that they will be buying. People mostly prefer packaged food and which is fresh. The decision is not much affected by price, because it is their basic requirement they will certainly buy it. The target customer of Samex is Restaurants and Supermarkets. The decision making of these customers are dependent on the preference of the consumers, they will look for fresh meat products because it is more demanded by the consumers.

The beef products sold by Samex are available at the supermarkets are cheaper hence it is often used by many customers. Restaurants focus on many criteria before selecting the beef products because they buy in bulk so they look for suppliers who can provide the good quality meat products in bulk that too in reasonable price.

Marketing Mix

Product

The beef products including the offal, which are trimmed as per the requirement of the customers across the globe. They are the largest exports of offal products in Asia and one of the major suppliers to Middle East, Africa, Russia and the other markets of the world. The main source of the meat products is Australia and New Zealand. Other sources for meat products include Europe, North America and the main South American suppliers include Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The beef of the brand Samex is of high standard quality, and the same standard is maintained for all the customers throughout the world. The company is a licensed company by the Australian Government and Aus-Meat, the company creates value among its international customers by providing products as per the requirements of the customers. Their developed supply chain helps in providing them access to the finest quality of grass for feeding the cattle. They have both grain-fed and grass-fed livestocks, so that they can cater to the requirements of its different market segment with the finest beef throughout the year. The company has decided to develop its existing products so that it can get increase their customer base. They are making strategies so that they can include more packaged beef products. The will be including following new products

Microwave roasts

Tri-tip roasts and Sirloin Cap roasts will be included in the product segment. There will be different seasoning profiles and fat trim levels, so that the cooking time for this product is less than 20 minutes. The packaging of the microwaveable beef is so that it allows the air to enter while it is being cooked in microwave. Presently the company has decided this product will not be internationally sold, it would only be sold in Australia.

Microwaveable ground beef

The next product would be microwaveable ground beef, it is just like the microwaveable roasts. Ground beefs are easy to cook as they do not require much time.  The packaging of this product is also similar to that of the microwaveable beef.

Beef Skillet meals

A trio of three in one kits is available; it includes Flat Iron steaks, Sirloin Cap roasts and Denver steaks.

Delicatessen beef

Delis is are rapidly growing among the customers and it is most popular section for the shoppers of the market, the reason it so popular is that the customers want to purchase prepared food so that it can be consumed at home. This particular product will be available in the local supermarket of Australia; they have planned for in-store preparation of deli by some skilled chef, that will be sent by Samex or the existing employees of the Supermarkets would be trained.

Slow-cooker pot roasts

Another product that will be introduced will be slow-cooker pot roasts. The experts of the product development team of Samex as developed a packaged, pre-seasoned slow cooker chuck roasts. (Finch 2016).

Price

The help of the pricing can show the pricing structure for a pound of grass-fed ground beef

Selling price = Cost / (1.00-Margin percent)

Selling price= $4.00/ (1.00-.30)

Selling Price = 4.00/ 0.70

Selling Price = $5.71 per pound

Different methods have different prices. The more perishable the product would be, the higher would be the markup margin of the product (Hollensen 2015)

A variety of pricing strategies and methods are required to be considered, it is also determined by the pricing strategies used by the competitors in the market. The current pricing structure is based on the following factors

Uniqueness of the product sold- If the product differentiation is very high then the pricing of the product will also be high. The price of livestocks sold direct on farm is generally very high. The pricing for the local wholesalers, local grocers and institutions is medium. The prices set for the restaurants are slightly high (Armstrong et al. 2015).

The business image- The reputation of the brand determines the quality of the meat products makes the owners put a price higher than its competitors because quality comes at a cost.

Season of the year- The increase in the feed of the animals increase then the price of the meat also increases (Lovelock and Patterson 2015).

The pricing strategy that will be used by Samex for marketing of beef will be

Skimming Strategy- Samex will use this particular strategy for restaurants. The beef products sold under the skimming strategy would be the meat minced or the way the restaurants want their meat would be available to them delivered at their restaurants and hence this strategy would be used (Kotler et al. 2016).

Perceived value pricing- The perceived value pricing is applied to the beef products based on factors like quality, healthfulness and the reputation of the company. The grass fed cattle are better than grain fed therefore the pricing of the grass fed will be higher than the grain raised cattle (Eusebio 2017). 

Penetration strategy- Microwaveable beef, ground microwaveable beef, delis, sausages, beef skillet meals all these products will be sold under this pricing strategies. The most profitable pricing strategy is to determine the actual cost for the production for marketable beef. (Dudin et al. 2015). Methods of pricing can be

Selling the meat per pound

Selling the meat packaged at a particular weight at a particular pric

Selling the meat at price per weight per cut (Nykiel, 2016)

Place

The office of Samex meat are available all around the world to cater the needs of the customers.  They are one of the biggest meat exporters. The beef products are sold of Samex would be delivered in number of ways, the beef products will be available at the supermarkets of Australia and other supermarkets around the world. The beef products will also be home delivered, this option will be available for the restaurants and the customers who would be buying the more than 20 pound. The individual buyers can by the products of Samex from super markets like, Woolworths and Coles. Samex have online store from where customers can order meat of their desired choice (Armstrong et al. 2015).

Promotion

If the products are not promoted then it will be difficult for the customers to be aware about the product or buy it. Samex uses a number of promotional strategies for its customers. Since it is a big meat exporter, which operates around the world a lot of cost and effort is required for carrying out the promotional activities. The activities include

Advertising- Surrogate technique would be the best technique for the adverting of the beef products. The brand will be promoted using the various media channels. The company has engaged itself in making cheese, so that it can promote the cow cheese on the television and radios. This way the brand is promoted but not the beef products (Jooste and Strydom 2014).

Print media

 (Andrews and Shimp 2017).

Social Media

Facebook and Instagram would be used to raise campaigns, in facebook quizzes and contests would be held. The quizzes and contests would be related to food and nutrition. The winners will get prizes.

Word of Mouth- Word of Mouth advertising would be the most used advertising technique because of its effectiveness and since the product cannot be advertised openly this technique would be used in which the employees would use this technique for the existing customers of the brand (McKeever 2016).

Public events- Public events would be organized in the supermarkets, which would be organized by the brand. The events would include cookery contests, the winners of the cookery contests would get gift hampers from Samex.

Sales promotion- With the help of discounts sales promotion will be done (Stead et al. 2017).

Brand Strategy

Samex has decided that they will revise their branding techniques that would help them to present the brand as leading meat exporters in Australia and in the world. In Australia, they have planned to be brand of meat exporters that would mostly focus on the Restaurants, Supermarkets and retail stores from who would buy meat products in bulk unlike the individual customers (Van Heerde and Neslin 2017). They would focus on the individual customers but their main target would be the restaurants and supermarkets. Their USP would be that they can provide meat as per the choice of the customer, if the customers demand for lean products or grain fed or grass fed, all the deliveries of the products to the customers are based on the needs of the customers. The brand objectives will be made clear in all the press events of the brand. The objective of the brand would be to focus on the restaurants and supermarkets for which they would make a brand positioning statement. In which they would they will communicate their target market, USP and why customers should rely on them. The brand would convince the customers that they would be providing the best quality of meat products by providing the free samples in restaurant and supermarkets. 

Point of sales

At the point of sales, the grocery stores and the retail stores and the supermarkets Samex will be providing offers and discounts in the super markets so that they can promote the point of sales.

Direct marketing- Samex would focus on direct marketing, in this technique mails and messages would be send to the exiting customers. The website of Samex would be developed where new products would be updated from time to time (Lovelock and Patterson 2015).

Personal selling- With help of meeting with the clients, especially restaurants and supermarkets, beef products would be promoted in the market. This can be done either face-to-face or by making cold calls to the restaurants or supermarkets that offer beef products (Liberato, Bailie and Brimblecombe 2014).

Packaging-

Packaging is considered very important for the customers. Customers mostly prefer packaged food hence they the Samex will use vacuum packaging for beef products, this type of packaging removes oxygen from the packet and hence the beef product does not rot. This would definitely promote the point of sales.

Labeling-

The labeling of the beef products will help the customer recognize the product of Samex, apart from price of the product labels will consist little information about the technique used for processing and packaging. Apart from that, it would also have the detail of the type of beef.

Meeting would be conducted with the target customers, the supermarkets and the restaurant owners. These meeting would be intended to promote business relations with the target customers.

These four activities would do for the promotion of point of sales. Samex will also focus on customer services for building a good customer relationship so that they can retain their customers for longer time. The staff members of Samex will be present in the grocery stores; this would help increase the point of purchase because the company representatives would help the customers in handling the queries of customers. Ready to cook dishes of beef will be cooked by the skilled chef that Samex would hire for sales promotion.(Nykiel 2016).

Conclusion

Samex is one of the largest meat exporters, they are operational throughout the world catering the needs of the customers, including wholesalers, retailers, restaurants and individual consumers. The company has successfully created  a goodwill in the market by providing variety of beef products to its customers based on their requirements. The brand is planning to include more beef products, mostly ready to cook and microwavable beef products that would be offered in the supermarkets. It will also include some promotional activities for the promotion of its brand, they would mostly use surrogate-advertising technique for advertising and for promotional activities they would mainly focus on public events, sales promotion, direct marketing and personal selling. They will not use billboards and any other outdoor advertising technique that might grab the attention of non-vegetarians and critics. 

References

Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Nelson Education.

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Dudin, M.N., Kucuri, G.N., Fedorova, I.J.E., Dzusova, S.S. and Namitulina, A.Z., 2015. The innovative business model canvas in the system of effective budgeting.

Eusebio, R., 2017. Marketing II. Marketing, p.2018.

Finch, B., 2016. How to write a business plan. Kogan Page Publishers.

Hollensen, S., 2015. Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.

Jooste, C. and Strydom, J.W., 2014. Marketing management.                                                         

Kotler, P., Keller, K.L., Brady, M., Goodman, M. and Hansen, T., 2016. Marketing management. Pearson Education Ltd..

Liberato, S.C., Bailie, R. and Brimblecombe, J., 2014. Nutrition interventions at point-of-sale to encourage healthier food purchasing: a systematic review. BMC public health, 14(1), p.919.

Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., 2015. Services marketing. Pearson Australia.

McKeever, M., 2016. How to write a business plan. Nolo.

Nykiel, R.A., 2016. Marketing Your Business-A Guide to Developing a Strategic Marketing Plan.

Samex.com.au. (2017). SAMEX : Australian Meat Exporters. [online] Available at: https://www.samex.com.au/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2017].

Stead, M., MacKintosh, A.M., Findlay, A., Sparks, L., Anderson, A.S., Barton, K. and Eadie, D., 2017. Impact of a targeted direct marketing price promotion intervention (Buywell) on food?purchasing behaviour by low income consumers: a randomised controlled trial. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.

Van Heerde, H.J. and Neslin, S.A., 2017. Sales promotion models. In Handbook of marketing decision models (pp. 13-77). Springer, Cham.

Thorson, E. and Moore, J. eds., 2013. Integrated communication: Synergy of persuasive voices. Psychology Press.

Wood, M.B., 2014. The marketing plan handbook. Pearson.