MKTG6002/MKT600 Marketing Plan Report Sample

MKTG6002/MKT600 Marketing Plan Report

Objectives:

• To enhance a clear understanding of the importance of marketing in modern business practices;

• To develop a succinct understanding about marketing theories and their application in devising marketing strategies;

• To critically analyse all relevant factors affecting the exchange process;

• To enable developing insightful marketing strategies for a business.

How the assessment fits into the subject/course:

Marketing in the 21st century has evolved profoundly where developing winning marketing strategies has been integral to businesses of all types to achieve its strategic objectives. This assessment provides students with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and insights developed in the marketing subject to develop effective marketing strategies for a business, a product, or a brand. Students are required to develop a complete marketing plan for the Business Case given on the Blackboard. The emphasis within this assessment should be placed on expanding various steps as recommended in the marketing plan template while the current marketing situation and threats and opportunities analysis to be briefly discussed by summarising the discussion from the assessment 1.

Instructions:

This assessment task builds on the Situation Analysis that you undertook in Assessment 1. This assessment task requires you to expand the remaining steps of the marketing plan to:

• Articulate your learning about marketing theories, concepts and principles covered in the course to demonstrate your level of understanding of them to develop marketing plan;

• Articulate the link between marketing theories and practices;

• Demonstrate an acceptable level of research skills to reveal the insights;

• Apply appropriate business report writing skills;

• Demonstrate a logical flow and cohesiveness in the analysis and discussion.

• Use the appropriate in text citation and a reference list in the end of your written work. You should provide at least 15 high quality marketing references to show quality of research. STRICTLY adhere to the APA style in referencing.

Tasks: 

This assessment builds on the previous assessment, Situation Analysis of your chosen organisation that you undertook in the assessment one. Therefore, you need to revisit your assessment 1 and the feedback from your facilitator. Address the concerns, if there is any, indicated for your attention while summarising the discussion from the assessment 1 for the current market situation and the opportunities and threats sections for your marketing plan (i.e., assessment 2). Then, develop a complete marketing plan for this assessment: 1. Develop a marketing plan – The aspects that you should include are: a. Identify objectives and issues as well as marketing logic to create customer value; b. Segmentation, targeting and positioning as well as marketing mix strategies (i.e.,4ps/7ps); c. Action programmes - how marketing strategies will be turned into specific actions that answer What will be done? When will be done? Who will do it? and How much will it cost (budget)? and controls.

Solution

Introduction

Red Bull is an organization that is represented as a brand for energy drinks that is sold by an Austrian company (Biggs, 2020). According to MBA Assignment Expert Since, its launch in the year of 1987 there have been more than eighty-two billion cans of the organization Red Bull that has been sold all over the world, in that including seven-point nine billion cans were sold in the year 2020 (Red Bull, 2021). Hence, the organization is still flourishing and expanding. 

Thus, the purpose of this report is to present a marketing plan for the organization Red Bull, which will emphasize on the current marketing situation, such as target market, company’s positioning, competition, distribution, and product performance. The plan will analyze potential threats and opportunities for the company product as well as anticipate positive/negative developments to impact on corporate strategies. Additionally, the marketing plan will also outline adopted marketing strategies, SMART corporate objectives, action programs, marketing budget, and control measures to monitor progress and implementation outcomes for Red Bull. 

Current Marketing Situation 

Market Description – Today, Red Bull owns the largest market share of any energy drinks globally. According to (Red Bull, 2021), the company sold over 7.5 billion cans in 2019 as well as over 7.9 billion cans in 2020. The brand implements aggressive marketing efforts, even more than its selling efforts, and so, there is a tremendous boost in sales every year.

Product Review – According to a recent survey, the product quality is average but tastes extraordinary. Consuming the product provides a short-term energy boost. 

Key Competitors – Key competitors of Red Bull in the market include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Monster Beverage, and Canard Street.
Marketing channels and logistics – Red Bull owns a large distribution network, including wholesaler, retailers, and other contemporary distribution channels, such as e-commerce platforms, and direct distribution through third-party agents (Wormald, 2019).

Threats and Opportunities Analysis – SWOT Analysis

Table 1: SWOT Analysis of Red Bull
Source: (Red Bull, 2021)

Marketing Plan 

Segmentation

Table 2: Market Segment Analysis for Red Bull
Source: (Author, 2022)

Target Market

According to current marketing situation of the company, Red Bull targets both male and females within the age group of 20 to 40 years old living in the urban region, and are significantly health conscious and active in their personal lives. The target group of the company generally engage in physical activities and are youth who prefer consuming energy health drinks. They are also engaged in various sports and otrher physically active recreational activities (Lyu, Ni & Yuan, 2021).

Positioning

The brand has been made aspirational through many different types of marketing events, sponsorships, and sports events they have organized. This has further allowed and will keep on allowing if such programs are continued to connect well with their target market hence this has further allowed them to have an effective positioning in the market (Ameyibor, Anabila & Saini, 2022)
Marketing Mix  

7P Marketing Mix

Product: Red bull as an organization sells its products under the 5 main broad categories further moving forward all these categories of products serve their purpose as separate product lines. The organization sells products of a variety of types such as peach edition, coconut edition, green edition, blue edition, pear edition, etc., which further allow customers to choose from different varieties that will suitable for them (Villani, 2019). They have a competitive advantage through a strong brand value that offers key differentiating factor as compared to other competitors. The products have much better quality than other competitors, which acts as a competitive advantage for the organization.  

Price: The current price strategy of the organization Red Bull is to further set the price level which is then followed by the competitive-based pricing strategy. The main reason why this can be followed by Red Bull is that the maximum data regarding the competitors are easily available as the maximum number of the data is easily available. The reason being most of these competitors are now further available in the same industry. The organization also further uses the concept or the strategy of product-bundle pricing (Marketing mix & competition, 2020). Here, in this, the products are properly bundled together and then are sold to the customers at a much lower price than that of the individual price of the products. 

Place: Two marketing channels as adopted by Red Bull include to advertise and sell the company's products. The first one is where the organization sells all the variety of products to their customers directly by the online website that it has and the second one is the organization sells it to the wholesalers moving forward they sell it to the retailers which are the located all over the country and for international stores as well (Marketing mix & competition, 2020). Then the customers further get the access to all the products. The products of the company are present in more than five hundred retailers throughout the country and further all over the world. The organization is known to follow an intensive market strategy (Red Bull, 2021). They try to enter as many markets as well as reach out to several retailers, to place their products and reach out to the target market. 

Promotions: The Red Bull organization uses several different channels to further make sure to promote its variety of products. The company is known for using the traditional form of media to promote its products. This includes both televisions as well as radio (Del Buono, 2018).  The company also employs new media, such as online and social media marketing and advertising, which is advantageous because it is both cheaper and more effective due to the increased use of the internet in recent years (Red Bull, 2021). 

People: The organization has its very own sales as well as the marketing team. They lots of vital roles to put forward in marketing. All of these employees have received extensive training in persuasion techniques, as well as additional training in how to demonstrate respect to all business clients while taking into account all of their preferences. Some employees are continuously performing in the customer service environment (Del Buono, 2018).    

Process: The organization is known for following several processes. To further ensure that all the products are properly distributed as well as available in the retail stores, Red Bull has a well-designed system through which all the retailers are informed or can notifies about the low inventory levels of the shops or the retail stores. These then provide them with more and more products further they can order its productions to then replenish all the stocks (Sainathuni et al., 2019).  This further makes sure that all the products are available for the customers without having to wait to get them. 

Physical Evidence: The packaging of the organization for the products is sold and packaged in a distinct colour. These are further identifiable when it comes to looking or finding them on the shelves of the retail stores or the superstores around the world. All of these products are placed as well as displayed on the special shelves which are then provided by the organization that has their distinct colour as well as the design of their own (Sainathuni et al., 2019).   They also offer a user-friendly internet website that allows clients to view all of the products in high-quality photographs taken from various perspectives. 

Objectives and Issues

While developing the market plan, Red Bull may consider some of the crucial marketing objectives, such as improving customer satisfaction, improving agent response as well as resolution time, and focus on developing effective supply chains. 

Improve Customer Satisfaction: The organization needs to make sure that the customers have customer satisfaction and then move forward towards the goal of providing customer delight. All of these can be done by providing the surveys, taking in customer feedback as well as making sure that there is constant research done on the market trends as well as the market is taken into consideration (Red bull gmbh swot analysis, n.d.).

Improve Agent Response and Resolution Time: The customer service of the organization must be well. It is important to measure all the issues and the problems of the customers are maintained. Customers will not like to wait for a long time for resolution, which is going to make them not trust the organization anymore. Hence, it is important to make sure to manage all of these (Mahajan, 2020).   

Developing effective supply chains: Red Bull will identify the loopholes in the existing supply chain and counter them by adopting effective strategies and approach under efficient leadership.

Additionally, there are certain issues that need to be attended to by the management of the company. These issues include cost aspect and traffic in customer management. 

These are the issues that come along with the creation of customer value in an organization, 

Cost: Customer value creation has a lot of different components which require different people, resources, labour, and much more. Hence, a lot of resources are being spent. However, with the starting of the social media platforms and getting direct feedback from customers has become much easier, and then working on it can be done in a short term period rather than in a long time (Red bull gmbh swot analysis, n.d.). 

Traffic: Maintaining customer service is important. However, there can be traffic when there are different customers further coming with their queries, questions as well as issues. Hence, a varied group or department with employee strength is needed, to maintain such issues and make sure the resolution of the customers is sorted in a little time rather than taking long (Mahajan, 2020). 

Marketing Strategy for Creating Customer Value 

In marketing, the end-objective of a marketing strategy is to create value for both company as well as customers. Value for customers can be created through relationship development and management, which in turn, allows a company to grow, create a loyal customer base, and have a profitable income (Filiatrault & Chebat, 2019). In context to Red Bull, the company aims to create high value for its customers, stakeholders, and the community at large where it operates. The company’s marketing strategy refers to a combination of high advertising content marketed through all major digital platforms and channels, and rigorous sponsorships in sports that drive brand awareness as well as word-of-mouth. Additionally Red Bull adopts the concept of Guerrilla Marketing, which refers to a humoristic style of advertising and marked by a powerful as well as consistent branding (Mahajan, 2020).   

Thus, the marketing plan curates all the important aspects required by the organization to make sure it is reaching the maximum target audience. It also allows the organization to move further and expand in different markets, regions, and areas, as well as gain all the needed customer reach as well (Hassan, 2017). 

Value Proposition of Red Bull 

The benefits and values that the company promises to give to its target market or clients are then presented. Red Bull's value proposition as an organisation or as an energy drink is to combat both mental and physical tiredness by boosting energy level through caffeine, vitamins and taurine supply to the body (Sainathuni et al., 2019). They have used a form of innovative marketing as well as a well-planned value proposition which has further allowed the organization is now able to have covered a total of 70% of the energy drinks industry market share. 

Critical Evaluation 

The strengths of the organization are that it is a strong brand as well as has a youth-filled image along with effective production of the network. The weaknesses are that the diversification or the various levels of the products have declined this has been noticeable (Camilleri, 2017). Also, the products have been considered hazardous and the product prices are considered extremely high and not worth too many people (Smith & VanderWerf, 2018). Lastly, there are certain weaknesses such as people are becoming aware of the harmful side effects of caffeine as well as levels of competition that have been increasing in the industry. 

Marketing Strategy

These are the following market strategies that can be used by the organization Red Bull:

Promoting the products as well as services over social media using influencer marketing. This has been a rage and influencers have caused the marketing to grow much more with time (Arslan, nd).

Online campaigns continuously send the message for the products as well as services that the organization will provide, to its customers (Red Bull, 2021). 

Product 

Here, the focus is kept on one product that is on the rise, the Red Bull Sugar-Free. One of the best features of the product is it is that it has zero sugar content. Many people want energy drinks, however, do not like when there are a lot of calories in the same (Biggs, 2020). Hence, adding less sugar or making it sugar-free makes it advantageous and the customers tend to choose it. 

Distribution Strategy 

Red Bull is known for following an intensive distribution strategy to distribute all the different varieties of the products that they have. They continue to enter new markets and reach out to as many retailers as possible. This makes sure that the products are available to the maximum level of their target market and reach them properly (Arslan, nd).   

Action Programmes 

Social Media Marketing 

To further create a base on the social media platforms it is important to reach out to the influencers and create a promotion plan with them. Then they will promote them using stories, posts, videos, and many other different contents which will promote the brand to all their brands (Moriuchi, 2019). Another good opportunity is that these influencers mostly have a younger fan base hence, it reaches the maximum levels of the target market (Farris, 2018). 

Next, the online campaign is going to follow the process of continuously posting and communicating on social media platforms and online advertisements. The products and services and the features will be continuously announced and promoted, reminding the target customers about the same (Moriuchi, 2019).

The marketing budget for Red Bull Company has been defined to ensure all marketing activities are well-covered to be executed along with the allotted sum of investment. The marketing budget puts forth the expenditure details for Red Bull Company during the last quarter, along with the earned profits/loss of company. This below table provides all expenses under various categories along with the incurred costs and earned incomes to calculate the profit or loss of Red Bull.

Table 3: Marketing Budget of Red Bull
Source: (Red Bull, 2021)

Therefore, the company had earned a net profit of $35,000 in the last quarter.

Control 

These action programs can be controlled easily by measuring the reach and the sales of the products after posting and sharing the content for advertising on the web. These can be done by also taking random surveys or reaching out to get feedback from their customers directly who will help understand the products reach as well as understand whether the customers are happy with the promotions which are recently taking place continuously throughout the time (Farris, 2018). 

Conclusion

To conclude. Red Bull has a well-defined marketing strategy to expand in the international market. With the key strengths of the company such as marketing approaches, positioning, and distribution network, Red Bull has successfully reached out to the target market with quality product and services. However, there are areas of improvement in terms of the choice of marketing channels that the company should further adopt to ensure tapping into the untapped market.

References

Ameyibor, L. E. K., Anabila, P., & Saini, Y. K. (2022). Brand positioning and business performance of alcoholic beverage firms in an emerging market context: the mediation effect of brand equity. International Journal of Wine Business Research, 34(1), 133–154. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWBR-11-2020-0056

Biggs, A. (2020). Redbull - A Study in Market Differentiation. 

Camilleri, M. A., 2017. Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. 

Del Buono, A. (2018). It's all in the mix. Beverage Industry, 109(3), 18–18. https://lesa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/7668115908
Farris, P. (2018). Red Bull. Management Educator: Courses, Cases & Teaching eJournal.

Filiatrault, P. & Chebat, J.-C., 2019. Marketing Budgeting Practices: An Empirical Study. pp. 278-282.

Hassan, A. (2017). The Value Proposition Concept in Marketing: How Customers Perceive the Value Delivered by Firms – A Study of Customer Perspectives on Supermarkets in Southampton in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Marketing Studies.

Mahajan, G. (2020). Total customer value management: transforming business thinking. SAGE Publications. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=6675498.

Marketing mix & competition. (2020). Business World, (May 13, 2020). https://lesa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/8592548715
Moriuchi, E. (2019). Social media marketing, second edition: strategies in utilizing consumer-generated content (2nd ed.). Business Expert Press. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=5746738.

Red bull gmbh swot analysis. (n.d.). Business Source Premier. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://resolver.ebscohost.com/Redirect/PRL?EPPackageLocationID=166.161085.775949&epcustomerid=s3011414.
Red Bull. (2021). Annual Report . 

Sainathuni, B., Guthrie, B., Parikh, P. J., & Kong, N. (2019). Distribution planning for products with varying life cycles. Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, 31(1), 41–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10696-018-9314-1

Smith, D. J., & VanderWerf, B. A. (2018). Marketing research for small business : an efficient and effective functional approach (Ser. Marketing and operations management research). Nova Science Publishers. Retrieved April 17, 2022 https://lesa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1049577589

Villani, I. (2019). Transform customer experience: how to achieve customer success and create exceptional cx. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Retrieved April 17, 2022.

Wormald, P. (2019). The role of value proposition in new product innovation - a development for design education.