Marketing Plan For Arnott’s Biscuits: SWOT And PESTLE Analysis

SWOT Analysis of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd

The particular assignment would emphasise on marketing plan of Arnott’s biscuits for gaining supremacy in the competitive market. It is one of the largest company in Australia and New Zealand. The staff members of the company prioritises on product and service excellence. The market planning is executed for enhancing the brand awareness and recognition, thus enhancing the smooth functioning of its business operations.  

Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd is a subsidiary of Campbell Soup Company. It started its business in 1865 with a small bakery in Newcastle. However, it is now one of the leading food brands in Australia. The employee strength of the company is 2400 across Australia. It also has a presence in New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The company owns the largest manufacturing unit d in its Virginia Bakery (Arnott’s Australia, 2018).

The company will take into consideration the application of internal and external environment of the company for attaining success in the competitive market. The internal environment will give an overview of the internal operations of the company, whereas the external environment would emphasise on identifying the external factors that influence the business operation of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd.

SWOT analysis of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd:

A company utilises a SWOT analysis to identify its own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats so that the company can assess its position in the market (Bul et al. 2016). The SWOT analysis of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd will help the company to assess its internal factors.

Strengths	· The company was established more than one and a half century ago, and thus, it is leading the market with years of experience in the industry · Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd is a subsidiary of another huge company the Campbell Soup Company · It has the largest automated packing line in the world · It offers an array of biscuits and snacks to choose from · The company has some prominent brands such as Cruskits, TimTam, Mint Slice etc. (Hossain and Hossain, 2015).
Weaknesses	· Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd is dependent only on the Australian farmers for its raw material · Although the company has taken a global approach, it has not succeeded in gaining a competitive advantage in the international market · Some of the products are on the quite higher range
Opportunities	· Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd can explore the cookies market more · It can offer more products in its cereal segment · The company can improve its international business as well
Threats	· Rising number of competitors such as The Griffin’s Food, Kraft Foods, Goodman Fielder etc. poses a threat to the company (Bunyan, 2015) · Affordable products may replace the products of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd · New entries in the industry along with the previous competitors can harm the business

The SWOT analysis also shows that the strengths of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltdhelp the business to come up with business development strategies and sustain in the competitive market. The brand value of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd makes it trustworthy to the customers. Its existing range of products targets a huge number of consumers. The company can still explore the breakfast segment along with enhancing its cookies market as well. Although most of its weaknesses are overshadowed by the strengths of the company, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd must look into the affordability of the products. In order to secure and enhance its competitive advantage, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd must beware of its competitors. The business can really get harmed if the company cannot handle the growing competition (Bull et al. 2016).

PESTLE analysis of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd:

The strategic tool PESTLE helps to understand the political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental factors that have the direct influence on the company (Rastogi and Trivedi, 2016). The analysis is based on the industry that Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd is based in.

Political factor: The food standard in Australia is changing rapidly and thus, the marketing activities also need to be changed. As the company has a global presence, it must abide by the law and regulations of the countries that it operates in. The political forces of different countries can have an impact on the business of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd.

Economic factor: The number of high-income customers has increased over the last few years, which has a positive effect on the company. However, the price of the raw materials has increased due to the continuous inflation and the economic changes. Therefore, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd may not be able to increase its revenue generation significantly.

PESTLE Analysis of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd

Sociological factor: Being a multinational company, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd has to adapt to the diverse cultural practices including religious beliefs, languages etc. Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd has a good market base because biscuits are always a part of family time be it having tea or coffee with friends or snacking with children. However, more people are now becoming health conscious (Aithal, 2017). Therefore, the sweet biscuits are losing market dominance.

Technological factor: The technological advancements have changed the promotional strategy of the company. Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd has to use the social media platforms and digital marketing strategies to attract more customers. On the other hand, the company uses technological advancements in its manufacturing process as well (Brockgreitens and Abbas, 2016).

Legal factor: The foreign direct investment strategies of different countries have gone through some modifications over the last few years. Therefore, it is now even more essential for Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd to maintain the rules and regulations of the foreign countries.

Environmental factor: The Company is focused on CSR activities and devoted employees to manage the corporate social responsibility sector. It is also concerned about the implementation of eco-friendly packaging system so that the packing can be recycled.

Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd has some objectives that the company will address through the marketing plan.

• The company wants to increase awareness among the customers about Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd.
• It also wants to focus more on the brand recognition.
• The company wants to increase its productivity significantly within the next five years.
• Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd also wants to strengthen its marketing communication channel to achieve the other objectives.

Application of Porter’s generic Strategies would assist in identifying whether the profit margin of the brand is well above industry standard or not. The company would comply with the differentiation strategy for maintaining its uniqueness in the competitive market. The company will consider those attributes, which are preferred by the consumers (Bertozzi et al. 2017). The company can bring their products in several flavours for ensuring product varieties. Focus on healthy products and attractive packaging can improve the brand recognition for the company. Assured gifts and holiday trips for lucky consumers in the biscuit packets can also lure the consumers in a successful manner.

In order to get the hold of the market, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd has been targeting the high-income buyers with its niche products. Later, the company has introduced more products in its product line including cream biscuits, crackers, chocolate biscuits, oatmeal and coconut biscuits etc. The company targets a huge range of customers. The company wants to incorporate some changes to create more awareness about the brand (Alonso, 2017). Therefore, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd must understand its market segment and target audience. The aspects of customer segmentation are:

Geographic segment:

Although the Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd products are available throughout Australia, the company pays more focus on the urban areas. Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd also emphasises to make the products available in physical stores in the densely populated areasandinonline retailing stores as well. Thus, the company can attend a greater number of customers with a large number of products (Aschonitis et al. 2018).

Psychographic segment:

Over the last few years, the psychograph of Australian people has changed significantly. Due to the increase in the wage cap, more and more people are now in the high-income segment. Therefore, they can indulge in more inexpensive food products. On the other hand, people have started to go for healthier choices. The number of diabetes patients has also increased. All of these have an effect on the Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd products.

Objectives

Demographic segment:

As the psychograph of people has changed over the years, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd must adopt new strategies to maintain the market presence. The company has not diverged from its current product positioning strategy (Asioli et al. 2017). However, given the fact that more and more people are now becoming health conscious, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd wants to offer some healthier choices that will attract even those customers. Suppose the company wants to target people who have diabetes. It will come up with a low-sugar product. The company has already introduced digestive biscuits for people who want to lose weight or want just to stay healthy. Almost individuals of all ages prefer Arnott’s biscuits; the company will prioritise the older consumers as well.

Behavioural segment:

Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd has been able to understand the behavioural pattern of its customers. From the most liked products to the spending pattern of the customers to the occasions that encourage spending, the company has noted everything. It will help the company to utilise its marketing strategies.

Targeting

The company aims to expand their existing products in the competitive market. Furthermore, the company can produce low on cost sugar products for prioritising the old consumers. The company would emphasise on competitive pricing strategy for targeting the consumers. The age group targeted by the company will be preferably between 6 to 45 years of age. Launching low-cost sugar products can be preferable for individuals ageing over 45 years. The company will ideally target individuals belonging to upper incoming households.

Positioning

Elaborative logistical designs will allow the company to move the products at a lowered cost, thus applying an extensive system for recognising the need for specific supply quantities. Furthermore, the company will prioritise individual consumer needs while positioning the products. The company will also stress on excellent consumer service for placing its products successfully. The company will make effective utilisation of technological innovation for posting the products. Product variation in a wide range of new flavours will enhance the brand recognition of the company successfully.

A marketing mix is a tool that consists of 4P’s. The 4p’s are Product, Place, Price and Promotion. It helps a company to the assess the correct products that the company can offer at a right price. It also focuses on the place of providing the product and with the promotional methods as well.  

Product: The essential P of the marketing mix is the product. There are different levels that the company needs to keep in mind while identifying the correct product (Fan et al. 2015). Primarily the product that Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd will come up with is a biscuit. Next step of the company is to focus on the quality of the product. Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd must divide its customers based on the social, functional, psychological and monetary values. It is essential for the company to understand which value will drive the customers. If the company chooses the incorrect factor, it will not only cause the marketing strategy to fail, but the brand image can also be harmed. The social value focuses on connecting with the customers in such a way that the product becomes a part of the society. The functional value is when the product serves the needs of the consumers. Psychological value is how the customers feel while consuming the product. In the case of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd, it is about the feel-good factor of the consumers. The monetary value is the worthiness of the product by the economy.

To attract a vast number of customers, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd must include all the four values when planning for its product. The biscuits of Arnott’s should be assorted to serve the functional significance of its customers. The company should also focus on creating social value by delivering a good quality product that is tasty as well. The satisfaction of the customers will aid in the subjective value, and the monetary value will be the worth of the merchandise as per its price (Mayer et al. 2014).

Place: It is the next significant P of the marketing mix. Due to the brand value of Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd, the company can place its products in densely populated areas. However, the target of the placement strategy is to expand the existing market and penetrate even a more significant market (Khan, 2014). Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd can opt for either simple or complex placement method depending on its stakeholders such as retailers, sales agents, wholesalers etc. As Australian customers shop at retailers like Woolworths, Coles etc., the company should build and maintain a healthy relationship with these retailers. These retailers are the marketing partners of the company. Apart from that, the company can make its product available through the online retailers as well.

Price: The pricing strategy of a company depends on the perceptual positioning of the company, the perceived value of the customers and the vision of the company (Huang and Sarigollu, 2014). Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd can choose multiple pricing strategies for the product that will launch. The different pricing strategies are value-based pricing, cost-based pricing and competitive pricing. In the first case, the company estimates the price that the consumers are ready to pay for the product and determine the pricing based on that. Cost-based pricing is setting the cost of the product to earn a significant profit margin. Competitive pricing is setting the price of the product based on the amount that the competitors offer for similar products.

As Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd is the largest biscuit and snacks company in Australia, 60% of the market share is owned by the company. However, in regards to expanding its business and entering the market with anew product, the company should follow a competitive pricing strategy (Ahmed and Rahman, 2015). Therefore, the company must study the pricing strategy of its competitors such as Karft Foods and set the price in accordance with that. Thus, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd cannot only penetrate the market easily, but it will also give a stiff competition to the competitors.  

Promotion: The most important P of the marketing mix is the promotional strategy of the company. Before the company chooses any promotional strategy, it should always make sure to find out the stages of development of its products. Thus, the company will be able to locate the fall of its product line. There are five stages of product development which include the development of the product, the launch of the product, the growth stage, the maturity stage and the declination stage (Datta et al. 2017). During developing the product, the company focuses on the strategies that include testing, modification, prototyping etc. At the time of launching the product in the market, the company applies different promotional strategies. The company’s market position decides the strategies that it applies during the growth and maturity of the product. Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd should research the market and develop a product to suit the current needs of the customers. Next, the company should create brand awareness through promotional strategies. It must choose conventional marketing approaches such as advertising in television channels, billboards, magazines and news papers. It can also utilise the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. for the promotion of the product. During the period of growth and maturity of the product, the company must plan the promotional strategy depending on the performance of the product in the market (Bahadir et al. 2015). Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd can cut the cost of the advert in rich media yet maintain promoting the product by some means. If the product started to decline, Arnott’s Biscuits Ltd should try to improve the sales through some effective promotional strategies. The company can introduce videos, jingles to promote the sale of the product.

	2018	2019	2020
Cost	2 million AUD	3 Million	4 Million
Revenue	6 Million AUD	8 Million	10 Million
Return on Investment	4 Million AUD	5 Million	6 Million

Activities involved	Week 1-3	Week 3- 6	Week 6-9	Week 9-12	Week 12-15	Week 15-18	Week 18-21	Week 21-25
Situational Analysis
Identification of marketing objectives
Applying Porter’s Generic Strategies
Application of STP model
Applying marketing mix
Financial Projections
Formulating Action
Implementing Marketing Plan

Conclusion

On the contrary, it could be stated that Arnott’s Biscuits, can enhance their brand presence and awareness if they conduct the market planning in a proactive manner. The company needs to prioritise in order to influence the purchase behaviour of consumers successfully. The market objectives identified are aligned with the strategies and STP analysis of the company. The situational analysis emphasised the identifying the internal and external forces influencing the business operation of Arnott’s biscuits. Application of marketing mix will allow the company to acquire a sustainable advantage. Lastly, financial projection and action plans are taken into consideration in conducting the market planning in a systematic manner.

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