Introduction
Competition in the market increases everyday and business enterprises that produce substitute products and services introduce them to the market all the time. This has increased the market competition as the enterprises try to outdo each other. To ensure they achieve the competitive advantage, every enterprise plans its strategy to use in order to gain the market (Aaker & McLaughlin 2010).
During the planning, the enterprises focus on consistent approaches that will offer their products or services competitive advantage in the market. They emphasize on issues that will help their products or services to outsell the competition. Similarly, the implementation of the market plan is as crucial as its planning (Aaker & McLaughlin 2010).
Many enterprises formulate their market plan in a very competitive manner but fail in the implementation. This makes them to have a good market plan but they do not penetrate to the market due to poor implementation methods (Aaker & McLaughlin 2010). This paper gives a report of all natural nutritional drink –green fit market plan.
The paper focuses on Australia as the target market and the generation born between 1965 and 1979 as the target customers. In addition, the paper addresses the current marketing situation in terms of market, product, competition, distribution and macro environment situation. Finally, the paper addresses the SWOT analysis of the company.
Current marketing situation
Market situation: Green Fit Nutritional Drink target for the year 2012 is the Australian market with the customer target being the people born between 1967 and 1979. In choosing the market, the company put various factors into consideration. The company did a market analysis that gave the overview of the market that guided the company in choosing the market and customer target (Klein 2007).
In the analysis, the company realized that competition of naturally healthy products in Australia was not stiff as in some countries. The company objective in this market is to establish itself and ensure it penetrates to all parts that require naturally healthy products. In the analysis, Green Fit managed to identify a competitor in the Australian market who is not well established.
The company has made the capture of the market their major concern before this competitor penetrates to the market. From the analysis, the company realized that majority of the people born between 1967 and 1979 need naturally healthy products that made the company to choose this people as the target customers. The company realized that Australian market did not have enough naturally healthy products and the demand for the products was increasing.
The company understood that the majority of the people who demanded the products were in this age bracket. The company on the other hand, has a passionate of serving people in this age bracket as they have experience in the other markets. Green Fit finds customers in this age bracket as reliable and easy to handle than any other age bracket. However, the company also considers other age brackets if they find them reliable and able to handle.
In addition, the company put into consideration the availability of the customers and the ease of reaching them (Mahoney 2005). The company realized that in the Australian market, majority of the people in this age bracket are employees who may not have enough time for their meals and they would therefore offer a good market for the company products.
Further, majority of these customers are literate and have exposure to various media sources that the company can use in promotion and advertisement of their products (Klein 2007). The company can also access these prospects through workshops and conferences as majority are used to these activities. The company can make use of these platforms to introduce and promote the products. The company further emphasize on other prospects once it succeeds in this market and customer target.
Product situation: The Australian market like other markets had exposure to naturally healthy products in the past years. However, the number of products that are in the market are few. The products in the market match our products in that they are supplement to meals. In terms of our products, we have only two products that are in the market.
This gives Green Fit a challenge, as they need more products with different tastes for the customers to have a wide variety to choose. Currently, the company only produces Green Fit Tropical Citrus that has a crisp, light and refreshing blend of exotic flavor and Green Fit pomegranate that has a perfect balance of sweet and tart flavor. The customers who do not have a passion for this taste will then shift to competitors products.
For a company to penetrate well in the market it needs to produce a wide variety of products so that the customers can have the choices depending on their taste, flavor, color and other characteristics (Westwood 2002). The company further has analyzed the competitors pricing of the products to have a clear understanding of the prices in the market. Green Fit products are normally customer friendly and reliable in all markets.
Competition situation: During the analysis, Green Fit Nutritional Drink Company realized there were few companies in the Australian market that were dealing with naturally healthy products. In the evaluation, Green Fit Company realized that these companies had the ability to produce a variety of naturally healthy products.
In addition, the company realized that the competitors’ prices were highly competitive as they were more customer friendly than their prices. They therefore came up with a plan to lower the prices, and increase the variety of their products in the market. On the other hand, the company agreed on having intensive promotion for their products. In addition, the company agreed to offer services such as after- sale service and free samples to their customers in order to attract more prospects.
Distribution situation: In the analysis, the company realized as in other countries that it has market, Australian market means of product distribution is through dealers. The company highlighted prominent dealers in the Australian market that can distribute their products. In their tendering, the Green Fit ensured that these dealers met the requirements and are able to distribute the products to the market.
Macro environment situation: The macro environment refers to those external factors that affect a business. They include political and legal factors, cultural and social factors, technological factors and economic factors (Westwood 2002). In the analysis, Green Fit realized that Australian economy has been stable for several years a factor that has influenced business growth in the market.
The legal and political factors have less influence and they emphasize on a political and legal environment that boosts business growth. In terms of technology, Australia is developed but the market does not like exposure to artificially healthy products. In social and cultural factors, the company realized that majority of the Australian market has an influence on naturally healthy products.
SWOT analysis
Opportunities and threats (external) analysis: The external factors refer to the issues that affect the business from the outside (Grant 2005). The opportunities refer to those ventures that a business can invest in or technology that it can utilize to have a competitive advantage (Grant 2005).
Green Fit has several opportunities to venture in to capture Australian market. They can improve their technology, increase the variety of products in the market, they can outsource labor from the Australian labor market in order to acquire highly skilled and competent labor force and production in bulk so that they enjoy advantage of economies of scale. On the threats, the Green Fit has exposure to competition, economic inflation, change in political atmosphere and business laws (Grant 2005).
Strengths and weaknesses (internal) analysis: This analysis involves evaluation of factors that affect a business from within (Mahoney 2005). In the strengths, the company evaluates what it has been able to achieve. Green Fit has managed to meet its mission statement through creation of healthiest healthy drinks that do not contain artificial preservatives.
The company has also managed to offer friendly prices to their customers as well as good penetration to the market. The company is also able to identify the target market that has enhanced its growth. In weaknesses, the Green Fit evaluated what it needs to improve (Mahoney 2005). The company realized it production was too thin and they need to introduce more products to the market.
Issues Analysis: Depending on the analysis done on the marketing situation and the SWOT analysis various things need the attention of the company. The company must work towards achieving its objectives in the market. To ensure this the company needs to have the ability to handle competition in the market, handle the threats, improve its weakness and maintain/improve its strengths.
The methodologies Green Fit will apply in meeting these issues will highly influence the outcomes (Klein 2007). A good methodology will yield good results while the converse is true. Therefore, Green Fit should choose a method that will ensure they attain their objectives in the Australian market.
References
Aaker, D & McLaughlin, D 2010, Strategic market management: Global perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, United Kingdom.
Grant, R 2005, Contemporary strategy analysis fifth eds, Blackwell Publishing, Malden.
Klein, G 2007, Strategic marketing, Grin Verlag, Nordetstedt.
Mahoney, J 2005, Economic foundations of strategy, Sage Publication, Inc, London.
Westwood, J 2002, The marketing plan: a step by step guide (third edition), Kogan Page Limited, London.