Group assignment

Marketing Plan Project

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3

Competitive information............................................................................................................3

Environmental scanning.............................................................................................................4

Demand forecasted.....................................................................................................................5

Specific market segmentation, targeting, and positioning statements.......................................5

Product or service’s brand positioning.......................................................................................6

Market leaders............................................................................................................................6

Consumer-adoption process.......................................................................................................7

Decision of pricing policies.......................................................................................................7

Retailing, wholesaling, and logistical marketing plans..............................................................8

Integrated marketing communications mix................................................................................8

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9

References................................................................................................................................10
Introduction

Marketing management refers to the process of planning, implementing controlling of

programs, strategies, and policies related to the marketing of new or existing products and
services by a business organisation to satisfy the needs and demands of the targeted
customers. This group report will focus on the new services that Coles Group is going to
launch in the market. Coles is planning to open a new restaurant that will provide hospitality
services to its customers. The name of the vegan restaurant the Coles is going to open is
Veganeats. The restaurant will provide various options for food and beverages, which will
help customers to choose from. The restaurant will also provide a food delivery system to
reach out to more targeted customers. Coles will also open a cloud kitchen, which will help in
making the delivery system more efficient. The new service that Coles is going to launch will
be a profitable deal in the hospitality industry.

Competitive information

The direct competitors of Coles are Woolworth, Aldi and Costco as their business strategies
are very similar to each other. The direct competitor mainly Woolworth focuses on providing
low price products to the customers to retain the huge customer base. On the other hand, Aldi
focuses on providing a good discount to create a good relationship with local customers.
Costco is known for carrying high quality national and regional brands, at prices constantly
under traditional wholesale. Coles is also facing high competition from internal marketers
such as Amazon and Walmart in the online platforms.

The indirect competitors are the 7-eleven and Night owl conveniences as they have more than
615 and 70 stores respectively. Night Owl Convenience offers value and choice to the
customers through their fresh groceries and food (Grimmer 2018).

Coles has competitive advantages as its products are gaining more acknowledgment in the
Australian markets. Coles mainly focuses on lowering the expenses of the customers and
ensure that their customers shop with, quality, trust and value which helped in gaining
competitive advantage . It can be seen the increase in brand recognition of the Coles group
has helped them in capturing 80% of the markets in Australia. The brand value changes of
Coles in higher in comparison to Woolworth in the retail market of Australia. Coles has its
brand value change at 30.9% while worth wool is at 23.1%. Coles Group considers Aldi as
one of their main competitors as they are gaining more success due to the innovative business
strategies. (Van Kampen and Kirkham, 2020). The hospitality services that Coles is aiming
to open will provide a good competition to its competitors and help in strengthening its
position in the market using the new service.

Environmental scanning

The SWOT analysis of the Coles group is done here for scanning its environment.

Strengths

Distribution and reach: Coles outlets can be seen in every state of Australia along with a
stronger network system to reach out to a large section of people.

Cost structure: the cost structure that is f0ollowed by Coles is a low-cost structure, which
helps in making the product affordable by producing products and services at a lower cost
and sell it at a lower cost.

Entering new markets: Coles is always up for exploring new markets and products due to its
efficient and innovative teams.

Weaknesses

High day sales inventory: Coles take higher time in the process of purchasing and selling
which leads to unnecessary costs as the inventories keep on adding to the business (Kaur and
France, 2018).

Quality Control: Coles has a lower budget for its quality control department, leading to a
deficiency of reliability and the probability of destruction to quality across its various outlets.

Opportunities

Online service: Coles can start serving its customers online by opening online stores as
customers are more comfortable with online shopping mechanism.

Technological developments: developments in the use of technology can help Coles in the
reduction of operation costs, collecting data of customers and improving the marketing
techniques.

Growth: Coles has the opportunity to expand its liquor services all over Australia and capture
the national liquor market (Kaur and France, 2018).

Threats
High competition: Coles faces intense competition from its competitors such as Woolworths,
Aldi that is leading to a fall in the prices of food to a dangerously lower margin.

Lack of communication: due to lack of communication with the customers, it is seen the
customers are confused between the various generic brands present in the market.

Change in taste of customers: the ever-changing tastes of customers put pressure on the
company to constantly change their products to meet the needs of these customers.

Some strategies that Coles need to follow to deal with threats and weaknesses and negative
impacts of external environments are :

1. Coles should invest in technological development which will help in reducing time in
the process of purchasing and selling which leads to unnecessary costs as the
inventories keep on adding to the business.
2. Coles should improve its communication pattern with its customers, which will help
in building a strong relationship with them. It will also help in understanding the
change in the needs and preferences of their customers.

Demand forecasted

The demand for the products and services of the Coles Group is increasing with its good
brand position in the market, which leads to an increase in loyal customers of the brand.
Coles Group uses the ‘Down Down’ price strategy, which helps in increasing the sale of
selected goods as they have a low price in the market. This strategy has helped in increasing
the production and sale of the company by using the concept of minimum output. The vegan
products that are sold in the supermarket of Coles are very high in demand over the period of
time. In the year 2018 and 2019, the vegan products recorded the highest sale in the
Australian market around by 47.5% (Hallak et al., 2019). The price of the vegan products
sold in the Coles supermarket is kept at a lower range, which will help customers in
purchasing it without hesitation. The use of the above-mentioned strategy has helped Coles
group in earning higher profit and captures a large share of the Australian market. It is
forecasted that the vegan restaurant the Coles is going to open will also be benefitted as they
are aiming to apply the same strategy to compete in the market.

Specific market segmentation, targeting, and positioning statements

The market segmentation for the Vegan restaurant will ensure that the segmentation of the
market based on the needs of the customers. The two basic criteria are taken into
consideration for the segmentation of the market and services provided by the restaurant.

Product forms: the restaurant will divide the services that they are offering to the customers.
The food menu will consist of various types of vegan products according to its prices, which
can be afforded by customers of every income group. All the vegan products and the
ingredients used for preparing the dishes will be tested so that the customers are not affected.

Usage situation: The Coles restaurant has divided the services or the food menu according to
the use or demand of the customers such as daily use and for the luxurious needs. The daily
use of products has different prices according to the pricing strategy implemented by the
restaurant.

The main target of the restaurant will be a vegan person and into fitness. There will be no age
limit for the customers as it will be open for all.

Coles for successful positioning of its new restaurant services in the market is aiming at using
and implementing the same business strategy. It will help in developing a good position in
the market in comparison to its competitors and customers who are purchasing the services.
The good brand image of the Cole supermarket in the retail market will help in strengthening
its position (Baskovtceva 2020).

Product or service’s brand positioning

The restaurant by Coles is focusing on its brand positioning to separate its brands from
competitors in the market. The restaurant is aiming at unique pricing strategies and creative
ways of marketing its new services in the market. The branding positioning is done so the
people get aware of the benefits that they can derive from vegan foods and help in sustaining
the environment. Through the concept of the brand, the positioning will also help Cole to
keep transparency in the restaurant services that they are going to open.

Market leaders

The market leader of the vegan restaurant that Coles will be opening in the markets of
Australia is Bodhi Restaurant, which is located at the heart of Sydney. Bodhi Restaurant was
started 30 years ago focusing on the vegan people of Australia. As the restaurant by Coles is
targeting to open near College Street in Sydney, the same place where Bodhi Restaurant is
located. The high level of competition between the two restaurants can be seen, as Bodhi
Restaurant is already the market leader in this domain (Watkins 2020).

Veganeats, the vegan restaurant by Coles to segment a part of the larger market uses the
niche market concept. The restaurant is aiming at selling different types of food items and
beverages to attract children, young adults and old couples who are into every much aware
and concern of saving the environment. The restaurant is also planning for customizable
menus for dining purposes or takeaway or delivery purposes. They will be following niche
marketing for the services that they are going to offer to the customers. The services that
Coles’ restaurant is going to start will not make them leaders as there are already exist
services available all over Australia. It will make them followers in the short run to capture
the attention of the customers but with a good brand image of Coles Supermarket, it will help
them in becoming the market leader in long run.

Consumer-adoption process

The process of customer adaptation that is taken into consideration for the vegan restaurant
consist of five important stages. The stages involve product awareness, product interest,
evaluation of services, service trail and adaptation of the services. The restaurant is aiming at
making the potential customers aware of using advertising techniques both online and offline.
The online customers are the younger generation who are into fitness and concern about the
environment and the offline customers are the old people who are not much acquainted with
the online platforms. The advertisement on the various social media platforms will help in
making the customer aware of the services that they are going to provide. The restaurant can
use the social media pages of Coles supermarket for advertising the launching of the new
services. This process will help the potential and loyal customers of Coles to take interest in
the services. Coles being a well-established brand of Australia will help in targeting the
heavy users as the brand is trustworthy and the customers are likely to try out the restaurant
services. In this stage of evaluation of the services, the customers will take time in trying the
services as they are skeptical in the first instance. The process of adoption of the services will
take a longer time as the customers will take time in deciding the benefits of the new
restaurant services. The estimated time of adaptation will be more than six months for
gaining attention among the customers (Müller-Stewens et al., 2017).

Decision of pricing policies

The cost-plus pricing policies are undertaken by the restaurant as it helps in earning good
profit from the services. In the cost-plus pricing strategy the cost of the ingredients used, the
fixed cost such as rent, utility bills and wages of the employees are taken into consideration.
The restaurant will distribute it among the various menus offering to the customers and then
add their profit margin to the cost of the food items. The percentage of profits of the
restaurant needs to be added to the cost of any item on the menu which will help in increasing
the revenue from its sale and maintaining a healthy profit margin for further investment. As
the restaurant has many competitors it needs to keep the price of its products at a lower rate to
attract new customers. It makes the customer switch to vegan food items. the pricing of the
services that the restaurant is going to provide should be clear to the customers without any
hidden additional cost to create a transparent relation (Deshpande 2018).

Retailing, wholesaling, and logistical marketing plans

Business organisation who are planning to introduce new service or product in the market
needs to ensure that the retailing, whole selling and logistic services are well maintained. The
retail services that the restaurant will be offering are self-service and self-selection, where the
customers will directly be able to buy from the restaurants. The restaurant will not have any
wholesaling marketing plan, as the services will be provided to the end customers. It will
facilities the restaurant to connect with the customers directly. The logistic marketing plan
will help in designing the best channel and network for reaching out to the targeted vegan
customers. The restaurant is planning to open in the college street in Sydney, which is
consider at the prime location to reach out to the targeted customers. The main reason for
choosing such a location is to reach out to both the college-goers and the adults as it is a
marketplace. It is seen the new generation is more aware and concern about saving the
environment, which is turning them into vegan. The hour of operation of the restaurant will
be from 3 pm until 10 pm. It will help in getting orders for dining service and delivery
services. The raw ingredients that are needed for preparing the dishes will be used from
Cole’s supermarket, which will help in the reduction of the cost of production of the various
items on the menu. They are employing adequate numbers of staff for both dining and
delivery services to meet the demands of the food delivery orders (Perreault 2018).

Integrated marketing communications mix.

Integrated marketing communication mix refers to the process of aligning all the business-
related activities along with the different mediums of communication. It is a type of
promotional activity that business organisation undertake for launching new products or
services in the market. The various type of integrated marketing communication mix
undertaken by the new restaurant is advertising, public relation, direct marketing, personal
selling and sales promotion. The advertising helps in presenting and providing a vivid
description of the services that the restaurant is going to provide. The restaurant will use
public relations to create a good image among the customers by using both unpaid for earned
promotional activities. The restaurant can undertake personal selling so to reach out to the
targeted customers directly. It will help to provide importance on face-to-face interaction and
to understand the needs of the customers directly. The techniques of the sales promotion will
help the new restaurant by Coles to attract more customers if they offer attractive deals and
discounts to the new customers or on the first orders. The restaurant can provide some
discount of 20% or more for the customers who are ordering for the first time from the
restaurant (Camilleri 2018.).

The restaurant is aiming at using various communication media for promoting and selling
their services. In the world digital world, the use of digital marketing techniques can be an
added advantage for the restaurant to reach out to their customers. Coles having a strong
brand image all over Australia can use the social media platform for promoting their new
services. The restaurant can create a new page on Facebook to provide detail about the
services that they are going to offers and regular updates of the discounts. They can also
provide photos and videos of the vegan food items served to their customers and video of the
reviews from the customers. They can use their Instagram or Twitter accounts to do the same
process to reach out to younger customers (Chaffey 2019). To reach out to elderly people
they can use television advertising for promoting their services and tell about exciting
discounts and deals. Radio marketing can also help in reaching out to the office goers who
spend more time in traffics. These above-mentioned communications or promoting process
can help the restaurant to capture the vegan market of Sydney successfully.

Conclusion

This report mainly analysing the operating environments from a marketing perspective for the
restaurant services that Coles Group is going to open. The report has analyzed the
competitive information, environmental scanning, demand forecasted, market segmentation
and product branding of the hospitality services by Coles. The product strategy and the
integrated marketing channels and distribution system are discussed here in this report
References

Baskovtceva, A., 2020. New ways to attract customers to restaurant Bord during lunch.

Camilleri, M.A., 2018. Integrated marketing communications. In Travel marketing, tourism

economics and the airline product (pp. 85-103). Springer, Cham.

Chaffey, D., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.

Deshpande, S.S., 2018. Various pricing strategies: A review. IOSR Journal of Business and
Management, 20(2), pp.75-79.

Grimmer, L., 2018. The diminished stakeholder: Examining the relationship between
suppliers and supermarkets in the Australian grocery industry. Journal of Consumer
Behaviour, 17(1), pp.e13-e20.

Hallak, R., Lee, C. and Onur, I., 2019. Examining healthy beverages in the hospitality
industry: evidence from Australia and New Zealand. British Food Journal.

Kaur, L. and France, A., 2018. Strategic positioning of a supermarket.

Müller-Stewens, J., Schlager, T., Häubl, G. and Herrmann, A., 2017. Gamified information
presentation and consumer adoption of product innovations. Journal of Marketing, 81(2),
pp.8-24.

Perreault, W.D., 2018. Essentials of marketing. New York: Mc Graw Hill.

Van Kampen, T. and Kirkham, R., 2020. Assessment of the Supermarkets and Grocery Stores
Sector in Australia: A Case Study of Woolworths and Coles using DEA and
VAIC™. Journal of New Business Ideas & Trends, 18(1).

Watkins, J., 2020. Starting A Restaurant Business In Northwest Sydney?.