Essay: Analysis Of CSL Ltd: Marketing Mix And Sustainability Aspects.

Question:

Discuss about the Strategic Approach Toward A Sustainable Marketing.

Sustainability is the mantra in any business environment today. It is the moral duty of all the organizations, to make sure that it incorporates sustainability in its activities so that it can serve the society better. The given report throws light on the bio thermal company based in Australia named CSL Ltd. (Hollensen 2015). The various marketing mix of the companies have been discussed along with their sustainability aspects. The following section discusses the various marketing mix activities of different organizations in the same industry.

The CSL Limited is a biotechnology company who is a global leader. The company researches upon, develops and markets products, which intend to treat and prevent serious human medical conditions. The products of the company include blood plasma derivatives, vaccines, anti-venom applications, cell culture reagents that are utilized in various genetic and manufacturing research and applications (Csl 2018).

The bio-thermal industry in Australia is dominated by various companies like CSL Limited and Hot Rocky energy. Globally CSL has a market share of 33%. There are several other bio thermal companies present in Australia like the Petratherm, AGEA, Bio-thermal Australia Limited and others. (Baker 2014). The company engages in various activities for its marketing which range from social media marketing to website marketing.

Figure 1: The market share of CSL Ltd. (Source: Roy Morgan Research 2017)

The particular industry in Australia is one of the most competitive industries prevailing in the country. Petratherm Energy present in Australia is one of the growing companies in the present industry. With the growth of population, these industries are becoming increasingly popular.

Sustainability refers to utilizing the scarce resources, which are available in such a manner that the future generation can also derive benefits out of the given resources and are not faced by any scarcity (Perreault Jr, Cannon and McCarthy 2013). 

Sustainable Business Practices are considered good ethical practices because they help in conservation of various resources. Sustainable business can do well by creating and attracting new firms towards them and also play their role in the conservation of the environment and thereby raise their goodwill. When a business becomes sustainable, it can gain advantage in the following manner:

• It can become eco-efficient and therefore spend less money on transport and energy
• It helps the organization to become more productive.
• Increases goodwill and loyalty from stakeholders and customers (Sheth and Sisodia 2015).
• Will help the company in generating new markets and help the company to gain comparative advantage in the market.

The future of the bio-thermal industry, in order to make its future needs to maintain sustainability in its business in order to make sure that the balance between economic growth and the social needs of the natural environment is maintained. The industry makes use of finite resources, and their operations of their business tend to leave a lasting footprint. Various sustainability issues tend to have an impact on the various operations of the company and therefore they need to consider the sustainability of every action before they indulge in any related activity.

CSL Ltd. keeps refreshing its position in the eyes of the customers to gain popularity and attract their attention. Presently it has positioned itself as a extremely resourceful company, which aims to cure the variety of diseases and perform its duty towards the environment (Armstrong et al. 2015). The main aim of the company is to see to it that people get high quality services and can be cured easily alongside not providing any harm to the natural environment.

Market Overview

The primary target market of the biotechnological brand is the customers who are suffering from a variety of life-taking diseases.  The company has various resources and availability of technology, which will enable the company to be a market leader in the given segment. The company wants to remove the trace of life-taking diseases and provide a better environment from the people.

The CSL. Ltd has an active supplier and management . The selection of the suppliers is driven by quality, regulations and reliability. Supplier selection is also influenced by the economics through which the business tries to improve its operational efficiency. This in turn helps the business to optimize their supply chain, which then results to saving therapies to the different patients and meeting the requirements of the shareholders.  The company has a policy to encourage competition in its business. Various procedures like ongoing dialogue, formal performance reviews and various quality audits are taken in order to identify key and critical suppliers for its business. The new suppliers are required to demonstrate their ability in front of the similar code of conducts.

McCarthy had first come out with the concept of the marketing mix. Marketing Mix can be referred to as the combination of various components of the business, which may help the company establish itself in the market (Bresler and Lubbe 2014). These given components of the marketing mix are the;

• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

As discussed earlier, that there should be sustainability activities in an organization. As marketers the firms need to realize that there exists considerable influence of sustainability on the organization as a whole so that sustainability can reflect in their core thinking and help the organization to establish their wisdom and offering in the field.

CSL Ltd tends to offer various products related to health and other factors.  It offers products like Immunoglobulin, Specialty Products, Breakthrough Medicines, Vaccines and IP, Hemophilia and other Transplant goods (Keller and Kotler 2016).  The unique point of the CSL Limited is that it puts in a lot of effort behind the product and each product has years of effort behind it. The main motive as stated earlier, is the welfare of the people. The given products are extremely popular even outside the country.

Apart from offerings made on their positioning which are life saving vaccines and equipments, the pharmacy and biotechnological company also provides the consumers with a wide variety of side products for diseases like Bleeding disorders, Immunology, Pulmonary and vaccines like MMR and Hepatitis B (Kotler et al. 2014).

The product quality being offered is of the highest level possible because CSL Ltd understands that if it maintains the optimum quality of its products, only then will it be able to attract a larger crowd.

The supply chain management adopted by the biotechnology company is very systematized. The company as stated earlier only chooses high-end suppliers who agree to the code of conducts as stated by the company.  This helps the company to maintain the quality throughout the flow of goods from source to the end.

Sustainability in the Biothermal Industry

Sustainable thinking will be able to bring about lot of value to the proposition present in the organization.

The following areas might be considered:

• Hygiene factors- The company needs to make sure that it does not indulge in any unethical practices. Very often, certain organizations tend not to maintain the hygiene factors and concentrate only on the quantity. However, this should not be the way. Hygiene factors must be maintained at all costs in order to maintain the sustainable policy.
• Differentiating factors- CSL Ltd uses sustainable vision in their core offering. This offering will help them to create a separate brand image for them, which can then be utilized as a unique selling point (Dekker et al. 2013).

CSL Ltd. tends to maintain extremely high pricing strategy. The company makes sure that it prices its product similar or slightly higher than its competitors do. This is because of its offering. As the brand offers premium products in health care and medicines, the prices are kept competitive in the market. Years of research and development are behind one vaccine or even one product and therefore the company sells its product at a price it discloses only to the buyer. (Jooste and Strydom 2014).

This particular factor is relative.  The company may make an offering, which is based on sound sustainability, or it may not. The following factors can be kept in mind.

• The segment- Some group of consumers is more inclined in their offering and tends to consider sustainability factors in their purchasing decisions. Other consumers do not consider this factor while differentiation and they consider cost factors.
• The proposition- It can be understood that certain sustainability issues tend to engage customers whereas some do not (Meffert 2013). For examples, parents will likely prefer organic food for their customers and may be willing to pay high prices for it.

CSL Ltd. Is headquartering in Melbourne, Australia. It has various branches and is involved in other business activities. Through one office, it has expanded its operations in many parts of the world and the company is extremely popular (Foxall 2014). The company has a wide distribution network, which has various opportunities, and the company is able to spread out its operations to various parts of the globe. The buyers tend to contact the firm on tender basis and this tends to improve the operations of the firm as it then produces the required quantity for the welfare of the firm.

In order to apply sustainability in their operations, CSL Ltd makes sure that its operations do not cause any harm to the society. Its logistics activities should be environmental friendly. It needs to target the deep green segments, which generally adhere to individuals with influence. The main aspect is that it has involved sustainability in its actions, which has brought about global appreciation for the company.

CSL Ltd. has always given utmost importance to quality and promotion. It promotes its products through tenders and various medical magazines. It has a website, which tends to give about huge information about the company offerings and how it intends to make sure that they indulge in the best practices (Lii, Wu and Ding 2013). The company has always been easily available and accessible which has enabled them to gain large number of loyal customers. They give away gift cards and carry out social media advertising as well. The company is extremely popular among the leading health care centers and this is reflected in its high share price. As stated previously, the company uses a combined effort of various newspapers, magazine and other Medias of advertising in order to complete its promotional activities.

In order to incorporate economic and environmental balance into the system, the company aims to indulge in activities, which will, upheld the environmental balance and help the company to perform well in the domain of business.

The activities of the organization must not harm the ecosystem. In order to maintain the balance, the firm must make sure that it does not harm any sentiments if any group of people (Shamma and Hassan 2013).  It must not portray any such activity in the marketing plan, which may show that the organization does not harm the ecosystem.

Marketing Mix Strategy of CSL Ltd

The competitors of the supermarket company are Baxter and Grifols.

Marketing mix of Baxter

The products offered by Baxter are same as CSL Ltd and include various vaccines; Immunoglobulin has and transplant requirements (Baxter.com. 2018). They have a unique advantage in the sense that their offering is extremely similar to that of the CSL Ltd and thus faces a huge amount of competition from the given company.

Baxter prices its good similar to the CSL and often engages in price wars with CSL Ltd. Its prices are not disclosed openly in the market and just like CSL Ltd. It is only shown to the consumers. The company spends a large amount of money on research and development and hence, these kinds of products are generally priced quite high among the various health markets (Bajdor and Brzezi?ski 2013). According to the annual report, the health care centers can save a huge amount of money if they are in business relationship with Baxter.  

Headquarter in the United States; Baxter has its reach throughout the globe. It has also been stated as one of the Fortune 500 American Health care company. They have always adopted new technology and made sure that its operations reach out to the poor countries as well (Zeriti et al. 2014). The technologically advanced equipments have been successful at removing various diseases and making people healthy.

It has an online website and provides a monthly advertisement in various business as well as healthy magazines. They conduct various interactive campaigns.

The second competitor of the company is Grifols.

It has a market share of 25%; the Grifols company is a leading company in the field of bioscience and technology. An in-house of young talent, the company has been able to provide good quality products and equipments round the globe (Grifols.com. 2018). It has more than 75 years of experience in the field. It has a optimum supply chain system, which is the reason for its successful operation. It is involved in similar products just like its competitors and is the leading plasma donation centers. It provides advanced patient care with top diagnostic services (Brindley and Oxborrow 2014). The supermarket stocks fresh fruits, vegetables, health and beauty products, stationery, clothes as well as household and soft goods. It keeps the same time of food products but the company keeps on changing its non-food items.

The price of these products is not easy to estimate as these products tend to be priced specially and generally priced high due to its hardware, which is put behind the research and development of the firm.

The group is widely spread throughout the globe. It is headquarter in Barcelona in Spain and has various research centers in the United States as well. However, various companies involved in health care tend to contact it. The group maintains a regional appearance and has an online presence.

The healthcare firm advertises in a similar manner as its competitors through journals, magazines and website advertising.

4P/ Bio-tech firms	CSL Ltd	Baxter	Grifols
Product	Immunoglobulin’s, plasmas transplants and others	Similar products	Similar products
Place	Headquartered in Melbourne Australia	Headquartered in United States	Headquartered in Spain
Price	Industry standards	High pricing	Industry standards
Promotion	Newsletters and promotional magazines	Newsletters and online marketing	magazines and advertising through website

Table 1: Comparison between the three-biotech firms

The following suggestions have been recommended:

• In order to combine sustainability with their marketing activities, CSL Ltd. should see to it that the company indulges in the distribution and manufacturing of those products which are good for the environment and do not contain any harmful substances which may cause harm to the society as a whole.
• In order to maintain sustainability in promotional activities, the company needs to see that it does not reflect any harmful ideas and does not mean any harm to any being in the society.
• The company should also use and promote organic products which are good for the health of the people so that the health of the people can be maintained.
• As the various products used in healthcare are made from resources that are scarce, the concern for future generation should be maintained.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the discussion it can be stated that the company is a member of the society. The healthcare industry is one of the key industries in the society. They sell all relevant life saving products for the health benefit of the society.  However, since it is a part of the society, it has certain duties towards it; it has to combine sustainable practices in its operations. By doing so, it will be in a better position to serve the society and people alike.

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