Introduction
Today’s business environment presents numerous challenges for new and existing organizations. As such, business entities have had to come up with effective and efficient operational strategies in order to remain relevant and profitable in an increasingly competitive arena.
To achieve this aim, marketing tools and strategies have been used extensively to ensure that a business meets the needs of the customers, has a competitive edge over its rivals and remains profitable in aggressive market situations.
Kotler et al (2005) define marketing as the process through which a business plans and executes its concepts regarding products, prices, promotion and distribution of goods and services in order to facilitate exchanges that optimally satisfy the consumer’s and organizational needs, goals and objectives.
Marketing Mix: 4 P’s of Marketing
The marketing mix is arguably the mot important aspect in marketing. This is attributed to the fact that it covers the basic concepts (4 P’s) of successful marketing. These concepts are price, place, product and promotion.
Is used wisely, the marketing mix leads to successful marketing strategies, which in turn guarantees profitability, consumer loyalty, competitive advantage and increased market share for an organization.
This paper shall set out to analyze the market mix of Canada based Nestlé company. The strategies used to determine the product, price place and promotion of goods and services offered by this company shall be discussed and an analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats affecting the company’s market provided. The effects of using social media in Nestlé’s marketing plan shall also be evaluated.
Nestlé Canada: Company overview
Nestlé Company was founded in 1867 after the founder saw an untapped opportunity in the production of milk-based baby formula. The product quickly gained prominence due its nutritional value and acceptability by the target population. Since then, the company has been actively involved in the production of nutritional food and beverages.
Nestlé Company is the largest Food and Beverage Company in the world with an employee base of over 280, 000 employees working in the company’s factories in almost every country in the world (Nestlé Canada, 2012). As a result of this global reach, high reputation and quality products, Nestlé Canada Inc. records over $1 billion in sales.
Nestlé Canada marketing mix Assessment
Products
Kotler et al (2005), state that the product aspect of the marketing mix refers to the total concept being offered to the consumer. As such, product consist s of the intangible aspects of the product (brand name, product line and customer services) and the tangible aspects such as raw materials used, features and accessories.
Nestlé Canada offers a variety of products that cater for different needs of the target consumers. The variety of products offered to consumers enables the company to reach a larger market base since they have different products for everyone.
The table below shows the product line and products offered to cater for different needs of the consumers in the Canadian market (Nestlé Canada, 2012).
Table showing products and services offered by Nestlé Canada
From this table, it is evident that Nestlé Canada offers a variety of products brands that cater for different needs of various clients. Having such a wide variety of products has played a pivotal role in ensuring that the company stays ahead of competition and has a wider market share.
Consumers have a wide range of products to choose from. As such, the need to get substitutes from other companies is minimized.
Price
Arguably, one of the selling points of Nestlé Canada has been its ability to consistently provide quality products to its clients at competitive and affordable prices. Price is mainly determined by the cost of production, quality of the product and availability of substitutes.
However, Nestlé Canada has had a competitive advantage in this regard due to its reliance on the vast resources and skills acquired by the parent company over the century.
This enables Nestlé Canada to produce quality products at low costs, thereby enabling the company to avail its products to clients at an affordable price. While some of the substitutes offered by competing firms are cheaper, the quality of Nestlé Canada’s product still remain unmatched.
Place
Nestlé Canada has forged strategic alliances with various retail and wholesale vendors and distributors. As such, the products of the company can easily be found in all locations through various outlets such as convenience stores, drug stores, grocery outlets, vending machines, discount stores and supermarkets among others.
This distribution strategy enables Nestlé Canada to reach its clients far and wide. In addition, it fosters consumer loyalty since the products are easily accessible and constantly available to clients everywhere.
Promotion
Nestlé Canada uses various advertising and promotion strategies such as TV and radio advertisements, print media and online advertising in various websites. In addition, the company uses discounts and special offers to attract more consumers.
To promote various brands, Nestlé Canada uses witty slogans on their products packaging and advertisements that seek to raise the image and lifestyle positioning represented by the product.
These strategies have seen products such as KitKat and Nestlé’s Smarties record strong brand loyalty and market positioning over the past few years (Nestlé Canada, 2012). This is attributed to the implied message this promotional strategies send to target markets.
SWOT Analysis of Nestlé Canada
Strengths
Nestlé Canada provides its market with strong brands that offer consumers unique tastes unmatched by rival companies. The products are made from the finest raw materials and subjected to intensive research in order to guarantee safety and quality for consumers.
Due to its access to vast resources owner by Nestlé Company, Nestlé Canada has adequate resources for research and technology, which enables the company to continue being creative and innovative.
With such resources, Nestlé Canada is better placed to improve on their products, come up with new products and offer competitive prices to consumers. This minimizes competition and boosts profitability since Nestlé Canada rides on the good reputation developed over the years by the parent company.
The efficiency of the selected distribution channels ensures that Nestlé Canada’s products reach more consumers and are readily available. This guarantees consumer loyalty and market expansion.
Weaknesses
Most of the products produced by Nestlé Canada target consumers between the ages of 16 and 24 years old. This market segment consists of people that do not have a lot of disposable income, work part-time and are cautious about what they eat.
This means that the majority of the populations are not well represented. Competitors who offer more products for these market segments may therefore use this weakness to their advantage and displace Nestlé Canada’s market position. In addition, some of the brands produced by Nestlé Canada have little dominance in the Canadian market.
This is an indication that Nestlé Canada’s brands campaign is not as effective as it ought to be. Due to this weakness, competitors such as Cadbury and Hershey Canada have launched substitute products that are increasingly dominating the market.
Opportunities
As mentioned earlier, Nestlé Canada has access to vast resources attributed to the parent company’s pool of international branches. These resources can be directed towards training and retraining marketing personnel to facilitate marketing efficiency.
Market segmentation in the food and beverage market is not fully exploited in Canada. As such, Nestlé Canada can come up with more products that service the needs of potential consumers within the ignored product lines (baby nutrition, healthy nutrition and sport nutrition).
Threat
The main threat for Nestlé Canada emanates from the fact that the company is in its maturity stage in the production cycle. This means that not much can be done to improve the products since they have attained the best level of quality and consumer loyalty is high for these products.
With this in mind, competitors may come up with products that are similar to those produced by Nestlé Canada because they are certain that consumers prefer those products.
Solutions to the negative aspects of Nestlé Canada’s market mix
As has been mentioned herein, the main threat to Nestlé Canada marketing mix is competition from new and existing companies through product differentiation. This can be solved by developing and marketing new products that attract new market shares.
In so doing, the company will be able to maintain its reputation, all the while providing new and existing consumers with more products. In regard to poor brand campaign strategies, training may help the marketing department develop up to date strategies for effective marketing.
In addition, adopting sales maximization strategy rather than a profit maximization strategy while marketing the less dominant brands may influence more consumers into buy them. This can be done by reducing the prices and providing special offers for such brands.
Impact of social media to Nestlé Canada’s marketing mix
Social media have been instrumental to the marketing strategy of Nestlé Canada. This is attributed to the fact that social media outlets provide a cheap and convenient platform through which market, product and pricing research can be done.
Through various websites, marketers can get feedbacks on how a product is or how it can be improved. In addition, consumers can comment on what they want in new products. Also, companies can get valuable information about competitors through social media forums.
Conclusion
This paper set out to assess the marketing mix of Nestlé Canada. To that end, the product, price, promotion and place aspects of the company’s marketing strategy have been discussed and an analysis if the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the same offered.
Solutions on how the flaws in the company’s marketing strategy can be alleviated have also been provided. The impacts of social media as marketing channels have also been highlighted. If used wisely, the marketing mix can enable companies market their products and services efficiently and successfully.
References
Kotler, P. et al. (2005). Principles of Marketing, Sixth Canadian Edition. New York: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Nestlé Canada. About Us. Web.