This report explains a marketing plan which will form the basis for the introduction of a new and innovative marketing plan by our company. It includes the analysis that outlines strategies to be followed in order to achieve the company’s goals. Coca cola being a beverage company, we will introduce “novida”, a unique functional fruit juice drink into the market and strive to maintain our status as the leader and innovator of successful product launches. The use of these marketing strategies will guide and enable the company reach its targeted customer base of 10,000,000 customers in the next 5 years. This will also help to reinforce the forecasted 10% sales growth in the next five years and try to surpass our targeted profit of £210,341,000 profits by the end of the 5 years. We want to achieve the above targets but still serve the needs of the unserved market in the soft drinks industry. Success of the market launch will be reflected by the captured market in terms of shares that will be gained and if we will still continue to remain at the top spot as the disputed market leader in the soft drinks industry.
Introduction
Coca cola Company’s core is to undertake and refresh everyone in the UK. Founded in 1886, we have cut the market share and we are controlling 44% of the soft beverage company in the UK. Our main competitors are PepsiCo and Cadbury. In this paper we are going to discuss the launch of our new product “novida” a fruit juice into the market. We will discuss the soft drinking industry in the UK and our competitors. We will also look at the product and technology analysis, how to exploit opportunities and handling of weaknesses. We will also discuss SWOT analysis for the company and the methodology used to collect the data.
Background information
Our vision is to ensure that everyone in the UK is refreshed. We do this by providing them with a wide range of soft drinks but due to the growth of the market demand and the ned for new and different kind of flavor, we came up with this alvaro drink which will come in three different flavors i.e. passion, pineapple and orange.
Industry analysis
From available data in British Soft Drinks Association’s 2010 UK soft drinks Report, we established that the UK soft drink market had an average growth of 1.7% in 2009 meaning that the market for soft drinks is growing and has a huge potential to continue this growth. The total soft drink consumption was at a high of 14, 1400 million litres which translate to about 229 litres per person with a whooping retail value of £13.3 billion.
Euro monitor International report on soft drinks in the UK offered a guide to our market and industry analysis. It has the latest retail sales data which allowed us to identify the sectors that drive growth. Throughout the 1990s, the consumption of soft drinks has been on the rise. Companies like and Pepsi and Cadbury have responded to this demand by either acquisition of established companies or increasing their manufacturing presence in those areas with demand. Since 2005, the UK soft drinks consumption has been growing by about 1% and despite a continued fall in carbonated soft drink sales, the long-term path will remain steady. Another place of concern is health and wellbeing concern that shapes the UK market. The desire for healthier products has seen an increasing trend towards healthier options. The carbonated drinks have continued to suffer due to adverse mention in the media and government pressure to tackle obesity and in our drink we believe we have a growing market from this quarter. Driven by this kind of statistics and healthier trends, we also have the faith that the UK market will support our vision for growth as it expects the sector to grow by around 2% to reach more than 15 billion litres.
Competition
Although we are a giving customers’ a different kind of soft drink, fruit juice drink, our main competition is from PepsiCo, Cadbury Schweppes which have a total shareholding of 90% of the total soft drink market in the UK. Although there is still competition from other small players, we are trying to cut on the monopoly of the above companies with our brand of ‘stay healthy by eating healthy’. Unlike other drinks which will need to be diluted, novida will enter the market as a ready to drink fruit juice thus giving customers the convenience of consuming it anywhere wherever they are. We are also banking on our strong distribution system to deliver the product to all to target market.
Target market
Our target market is the people who are conscious about their health. With the current trends of a tragic shift from junk foods and carbonated drinks, we are suer that a growing ointerest for healthy foods will be emphasized. With our ‘eat healthy stay healthy’ driving motto for novida, we are sure of converting a number of customers to consuming novida. The product will further cater for those with nutritional, hydrating value and for social needs because it is simply a fun drink. Another group of a large customer base targeted is those who are travelling, with the disposable plastics in 200ml, 500ml and 1 litre packages.
SWOT analysis will involve the strengths, weaknesses and threats which will be discussed separately.
Strengths
Our strength lies in the already established brand strength. Our company is an already large manufacturer, distributor and marketer of non-alcoholic beverages in the UK. Coca cola is among the most recognized brands in the UK where it sells its drinks. This strong brand name will be a basis for our competitive advantage over the other companies in our core markets.
The strength in our company that will make the exercise a success is the ability to generate significant revenues to sustain our expansion and innovation strategies. In the last financial year, the company was able to generate a 5% increase from the previous year signaling a growing market for our products and increased revenue. This will be enhanced by therecent acquisitions of the North American operations of Coca-Cola Enterprises in the US where we plan to have our first export of novida in the next 6 months.
Weaknesses
The main problem with the Coca –Coal UK Inc. has been relying on brand extensions increase sales in some specific lines. This is true especially for its long-time carbonated soft drinks products. But this poses a strong risk of cannibalizing existing sales in the long-term resulting to novida deterring the sale of the other carbonated products. Thus the company will need to shift from this kind of practice and selling all its products on an equality level.
Already Coca-Cola has many brands and creating other new brands and in this case novida will dilute the brand recognition, this will have the effect of diminishing the value and strength of each of these other brands that are already being manufactured. There are also many fruit juice companies in the UK, creating another new brand will result to saturating the already saturated market where manufacturers are already preaching the use of healthy foods which we have already adopted and are using. The company can again evaluate its brands with those that are selling and those that are not and take the necessary precautions like doing away with a product that stalls in the market.
Threats
There is already strong competition in the UK markets from several but few in number of local based and also international brands. In these crowded complex markets, it is difficult to fight for market share. The current trends in which several groups of consumers’ awareness towards beneficial goods may lead to overconsumption of novida at the expense of other brands those are already in the market. Also several companies are coming up with the idea of health eating and if they are licensed to operate, they may eat into our customer base.