Strategic marketing plan of Nexba Beverage Australia

Question

Task Description
Assessment 2 requires students to work individually on their selected new product or service (from assessment 1) to create a comprehensive strategic marketing plan. This is an individual assessment with a maximum word limit of 2500. Your assessment should be an application of relevant marketing concepts learnt in the unit. There is no need to go into details about explaining marketing concepts, rather it should be an applied discussion. Please upload the assessment through the appropriate Moodle link by week 10 (18th May; 11:55PM AEST). Each assessment must be uploaded as a .doc or .docx file (word file).

Answer

Executive Summary
This report is the marketing plan of a beverage company named Nexba Beverage operating in Australia. The company is providing healthy and sugar free drinks to the customers. The marketing strategy of the company would be based on ability of the product to fulfill the needs of the customers, and making the information available for the right target customers. This marketing plan includes marketing activities of Nexba Beverage. It basically includes the details of the company and its products. The report also identifies the potential customer segments for the products. Along with this, report also provides a positioning statement for the company. Further, the report identifies marketing and financial goals for Nexba Beverage that is to be achieved by the company. Report provides a detailed analysis of marketing mix for sugar free drinks and implementation process of the marketing mix by the company. Budget for the promotion and advertisement by different media is also decided in this report.

Introduction
Marketing plan are the documents which include analysis of the current marketing situation, threats and opportunities of the company, marketing objective and strategy, plan of actions and projected budget. A marketing plan is helpful in analyzing the progress of the company activities by providing effective references (Hiebing, Cooper & Wehrenberg, 2012). This report is a marketing plan of a beverage company operating in market of Australia. For the discussion, famous beverage company Nexba Beverage is selected. The company started its operations in 2011 and this is now the market leader in terms of beverages products. Company has introduced the range of natural and sugar free drinks in order to attract large customer base and this product won Product of the Year Award. Products are Sugar Free Cola, Sugar Free Lemon, Sugar Free Raspberry, Mint Flavored Sparkling Water, Coconut and Mango Flavored Sparkling Water, Lemon & Lime Flavored Sparkling Water, and Sugar Free Sparkling Ice Tea etc (Nexba Beverages, 2018). Being the major player in the fight against the sugar, mission of the company is to be the fastest growing at the international level sugar free brand. Further, the vision is to transform the lives of people by being the natural brand by delivering product innovation. In the marketing plan, this report includes segmentation, targeting and positioning factors, objectives and marketing mix strategy.

Situational Analysis: Based on the situational analysis, it is clear that the business of Nexba Beverage would be profitable. From the consumer analysis, it is observed that consumers are very conscious about health issues like diabetes so they want the drinks having no sugar. Thus, Nexba Beverage drinks with no sugar would attract the consumers in market. Further, in terms of competitors, companies such as Pepsico and Coke are trying to sell sugar free drinks. Prices of the products from Nexba beverages are most likely going to stay stable and that would be profitable for the company.

Segmentation, targeting and positioning
Problem statement: In the market, customers are concerned for their health now. They want to stay healthy and fit. So, they always seek for the product that is natural and beneficial for their health. Along with this, disease like diabetes is growing in the society so people want to enjoy the drinks without artificial sugar. The problem is that there are few companies that are providing such type of products that can keep them away from the artificial sugar. So there is the need of sugar free drinks that are health and refreshed for the consumers.

Segmentation: Marketing segmentation refers to dividing the market into smaller groups based on characteristics or behavior of the customers who might need different products and market mixes. The objective of Nexba Beverages is to provide sugar free drinks and beverages to keep the customers healthy and fit. So, Nexba Beverage has divided the market based on the segmentation and those are as follows:

• Demographic Segmentation: Demographic factors include the segmentation based on the customers groups. The reason of this segmentation is that the wants, needs and usage rates of the customers are very closely related to the demographic factors. So, Nexba Beverage will segment its market demographically well. Nexba Beverage will try to segment each age group, region, families, different socio-economic and gender. Basically the company will focus on the income and age group of people.
• Age and life-cycle stage- Nexba Beverage will target teen age customers for the sugar free drinks. The reason is that young people are more aware and concerned about their health. Along with this, secondary target market for Nexba Beverage would be the customers more than the age of 30 as some of them are the patients of diabetes and these sugar free drinks would be beneficial for their health. Further, some of them want to stay fit in their growing age so, the sugar free drinks would be helpful in keeping them fit and healthy (Hatch, 2015).
• Income- Nexba will segment its market based on the income of people. As compared to the price of other drinks, Nexba is highly affordable for people with every class. The company would keep lower prices for the products as compared to other existing brands.
• Psychographic Segmentation: In this type of segmentation, people with all the class would be targeted as they would get economical benefit along with the quality products. Further, people believe that artificial sugar can be unhealthy for them so consumption of sugar free drinks would be beneficial for their health. So, potential customers would be those individuals who need active lifestyle. Along with this, Nexba would show brand personality to the potential customers. Some of the personality traits of Nexba would be positive, success, confident, dynamic, and achievement oriented (Lee, Kozlenkova & Palmatier, 2015).
• Behavioral segmentation: Nexba Beverage users can be classified as ‘people who want to be recharged’ and ‘those who want to start their day with positivity’ etc. Further, the market of the company can be divided into non-users, first-time users, potential users, and regular users of sugar free drinks. Nexba would try to capture high to medium users for the products. The company would also try to target the sport persons as they need energy all time (Funk & Levis, 2009).

Target market : Targeting the customers is the second part of the process of product promotion. Primary target market of Nexba Beverage is those people who are seeking for the replacement of drinks having artificial sugar. People who have diabetic problems and who want to stay away the artificial sugar would be targeted by the company. Nexba would provide the drinks that can be enjoyed everywhere at their convenience. Nexba would provide wide range of drinks in different flavors that would be helpful in targeting the customers in Australia. Based on the segmentation, key target customers for Nexba Beverage are students at every level from the school to universities, employees who are working entire day and household and passengers. In the season of summer, each and every person with no age limit needs various types of drinks but they want hygienic and quality drinks. So, company would especially target those types of people (Hundekar, 2010).

Positioning: Brand strategy of the company is very essential part of the marketing tactics. Nexba Beverage products are very beneficial for the people in terms of health and provide refreshment to them. As the company has launched sugar free drinks so there is the need to create long lasting and positive brand image among the customers that the company is concerned for the health of the customers (Kotler & Keller, 2012).

• Positioning statement: For each and every person who wants natural drinks, Nexba Beverages are offering packaged drinks that provides refreshment and energy with the best quality, affordable prices and value for the money of the customers.

Marketing and financial objective
Marketing objectives: The marketing objective of Nexba Beverage would be related to the market share, consumer awareness and marketing strategies. The marketing objective of Nexba Beverage would be as follows:

• To develop an effective brand image of sugar free drinks based on the quality and affordable prices,
• To become the market leader in sugar free drinks in the Australian market,
• To capture the maximum market share in the Australian market (Wood, 2009)

Financial objective: In order get the profit in the business, it is important for the company to have financial objectives. In the business, company has to use various funds for the activities so it is important for the company to achieve the financial returns in the effective way. The financial objective of the company is to make profit and achieve return on investment in the business.

Marketing mix strategy
The marketing mix strategies are the most important part in the marketing plan process. In this approach, the marketing strategies for every product are decided. The marketing mix for every product includes four components i.e. product, price, place and promotion that are the core of the marketing strategy of business. For the successful business, company needs to monitor and change the marketing mix on the continuous basis (Bowman, 2010). In the process of marketing plan, marketing mix should be designed to meet the requirements of the target market and to achieve the business goals and objectives. For Nexba Beverage, marketing mix is discussed below:

Product : The products of Nexba Beverage will target the customers all ages and backgrounds especially young generation and adults who are very conscious for their health. The products would be beneficial for the customers in providing them energy and good taste. Company has to take various decisions to develop the best products and communicate their characteristics and values to the customers (Guiltinan, 2010).

In case of Nexba Beverage, the products are Sugar Free Cola, Sugar Free Lemon, Sugar Free Raspberry, Mint Flavored Sparkling Water, Coconut and Mango Flavored Sparkling Water, Lemon & Lime Flavored Sparkling Water, and Sugar Free Sparkling Ice Tea etc. Main characteristics of these products is that these are free of artificial sugar so the products and health and harmless. Along with this, products have excellent source of minerals and vitamins (Theilen, 2011).

Place or distribution : The process of distribution can be described as delivering the product to the right place, at the right time, and in right quantities. Nexba Beverage needs to adopt effective distribution strategy which would be helpful in managing inventory, identifying the importance of potential customers, controlling and minimizing the cost and managing the supply chain in business. The effective distribution strategy for Nexba Beverage is given below:

It is observed that e-commerce is growing now in Australia. So, online shopping would be the key channel of distribution. Along with the online shopping process, products would also be available in various leading retail stores i.e. Coles, Aldy and Woolworths etc. Nexba Beverage would be positioned at the middle of the shelves. Further, the drinks would also be available in the gym, cafes, beach side and other many places where people go daily for working out.

Price: For the success of the products, it is very important to be priced them. Price is basically a measure of the value for both buyers as well as sellers in the marketing process. Pricing objectives of the company includes buyers and sellers’ benefits, profits, SMART and ROI (Adcock, 2010). In case of Nexba Beverage, the pricing strategies should be adopted for the success in the market and those are as follows:

• Penetration pricing- As Nexba Beverage is proving sugar free drinks and market has already few similar products then the company needs to penetrate the market in which price would be lesser than the price of competitors’ products or substitute products. In order to get the market share, Nexba Beverage needs to keep lower prices at the initial level (Schindler, 2012).
• Competitive pricing- Once the market is capture properly then the price can be changed. The market for the drinks is highly competitive so the products are not differentiated in the greater extent so price will not vary from that of competitors (Bowman & Gatignon, 2010).

Promotion : A company needs to promote the products so that it can make the customers aware about those products. Promotion includes various activities adopted by the company in order to promote and advertise the products in the operating market (Lindgreen, 2012). Commonly used promotion techniques are given in the figure.

In case of Nexba Beverage, the drinks would be promoted in various games to attract the soprt lovers. This would provide a good exposure and identification to the sugar free drinks. Along with this, in order to enhance the brand of the products, celebrity endorsing would also be done by using Hollywood actors and sport personalities. Further, traditional media like television, ads, radio, hoardings, and billboards would be used to promote the drinks. Apart from this, online marketing and social media platforms like FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter will be used so that products can be promotes in the effective way (Meng & Chatwin, 2012).

Marketing strategy implementation: Implementation is basically the process of turning the plans into activities and includes all the activities that are important for the success of the marketing plan. Successful depends upon the organizational structure, and culture that support the marketing plan effectively. In case of Nexba Beverage, the company should implement some changes in the business. Production should be done on time and that should meet the demands of the customers. Company should also be effective in managing proper inventory. Further, the marketing team of the company should be motivated and knowledgeable about the products (Keegan, 2012). Along with this, the form of promotions such as advertisements should be attractive for the target customers in order to get greatest amount of opportunities for the products. This would ensure the growth and success of the product in the operating market. Further, distribution of the product should be effective. The marketing plan for sugar free drinks would be evaluated timely so that changes can be done if needed. The evaluation and judgment of the plan would be on the basis of the objectives of marketing plan. In order to analyze the results in appropriate manner, it is important to set the quantifiable measures so that the progress of the marketing plan can be measured effectively (Levy, 2012).

Budget allocation
In order get success in the operating market, it is important for Nexba Beverage to promote the products in the effective manner. For the promotion and advertisements, company needs to distribute the funds or amount for each and every media channel. In case of Nexba Beverage, the budget for the promotional activities is given below:

Conclusion
Based on the above analysis, it is observed that Nexba Beverage is the leading soft drink company in the Australian market. This report is the marketing plan of the company in order to make the customers aware about the sugar free drinks products. The products provided by Nexba Beverage are Sugar Free Cola, Sugar Free Lemon, Sugar Free Raspberry, Mint Flavored Sparkling Water, Coconut and Mango Flavored Sparkling Water, Lemon & Lime Flavored Sparkling Water, and Sugar Free Sparkling Ice Tea etc. Nexba Beverage will try to segment each age group, region, families, different socio-economic and gender.

In the segmentation, Nexba Beverage will segment its market demographically well including Age and life-cycle stage and income. Along with this, Nexba would show brand personality to the potential customers. Some of the personality traits of Nexba would be positive, success, confident, dynamic, and achievement oriented. In case of target market, key target customers for Nexba Beverage are students at every level from the school to universities, employees who are working entire day and household and passengers. Further, people who have diabetic problems and who want to stay away the artificial sugar would be targeted by the company. In the marketing mix, place factor would include Nexba Beverage needs to adopt effective distribution strategy which would be helpful in managing inventory, identifying the importance of potential customers, controlling and minimizing the cost and managing the supply chain in business. In case of price, company can use penetration pricing and competitive pricing strategies in order to target the customers.

References
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