Marketing Audit Assignment: Comprehensive Analysis For Peak Chocolate

Question

Task:
You are required to prepare a comprehensive marketing audit for the company. The aim of this marketing audit assignment is to conduct a systematic, comprehensive and objective analysis of the marketing activities undertaken by the chosen company. In addition, you are also required to provide at least three (3) recommendations for the company.

Answer

Executive Summary
The Project report on marketing audit assignment deals with the Marketing audit of the company, Peak Chocolate. Peak chocolate is specially designed to boost energy and endurance. The company manufactures dark chocolates combined with good sports supplements which help in living a healthy life. The aim of the report is to conduct a complete analysis of marketing activities undertaken by the company. It studies about how the company has been dealing with manufacturing healthy chocolates which have become very popular. The report initiates with the introduction followed by the PESTLE and SWOT analysis which defines the external factors that influences the business. Thereafter TOWS analysis has been done to understand the SWOT and reduce the threat wherein the main threat of the business is the good number of rivals. At the end, recommendations have been made on how the company can make plans and ensure effective implementation so that the company can grow better. Considering different strategy it came to the forefront that the company produces a range of dark chocolates which are rich in energy supplements and also are available at a competitive price and thereby the quality will help the business to flourish. Coming to the marketing strategy the company needs to establish as a health supplement brand, retain the position in the market, provides discounted rate of products and use social media for promotion. After the entire study, it is recommended that the company should use advertisement and promotion to enhance the reach, bring confectionary items and enhance the accessibility for better product reach.

Introduction
A marketing audit leads to proper benchmarking for monitoring marketing activity of the future and provides recommendation to enhance the efficiency and performance of the marketing activity of the company. It is best used as an evaluation of the company’s business strategy. The aim of the report is to conduct marketing audit of Peak Chocolate that will enable a systematic, comprehensive and objective evaluation of the marketing activities undertaken by the peak chocolate. The chocolate industry is one of the fastest growing industries of the world. The love for chocolates among the people of all age group has brought great success to the chocolate manufacturers. However, many people avoid eating chocolate because of its calories content or due to suffering from various health ailments. Peak chocolate has become one of the leading chocolate company is producing supplement rich chocolates which is filled with nutrients. The major discussion of the report will cover the situation analysis where PESTLE, SWOT and TOW analysis will be discussed and dealt. It is followed by the discussion of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning and lastly the marketing mix audit. The report is concluded by the decision that the organization should utilize the resources at hand that will help the company to enhance their business to a major extent.

Situation Analysis
Company Analysis
Peak Chocolate is one of the leading chocolate companies of the world offering a healthy delight to the chocolate lovers. It is an Australian company co-founded by Raph Freedman and Rory Boyden. The dark chocolate manufactured by the company is rich in anti-oxidants and a quick energy booster (Kolay et al. 2019). The company manufactures chocolates high in good fats and low in sugar content.

PESTLE Analysis

• Political- The Peak Chocolate Company is an Australian chocolate company. It is growing successfully as a healthy chocolate manufacturer. It has helped the country to generate employment. It has been able to expand helping the country to grow influentially in the chocolate business. The company exports its chocolate to many other countries.
• Economic- The Company has been able to earn good revenue. The sales of the company have been increasing. Due to being a healthy substitute to normal chocolates, the company has been able to grow faster.
• Social- the Company has been producing nutrient rich dark chocolates which provides the consumers a good energy source. It has been able to attract the health conscious chocolate lovers.
• Technology- the Company uses the latest technological machineries in the manufacturing process. New methods are used by the company to implement innovative ideas (Crognale, O'Dell, and Donovan, 2019). Also, the company offers the chocolates at discount prices on its website and digital stores.
• Legal- the Company has always tried to follow all the legal standards in manufacturing and selling its products. Also, the company abides itself to the taxation laws of the country.
• Environment- the Company has been able to maintain all the environmental standard so far. It uses the good quality ingredients in its chocolates and tries to utilize the resources to the best.

Competitive Analysis
The Peak Chocolate Company has been moving upwards in making a name in the Chocolate industry (Hoffmann, Fuller, and Ramirez, 2020). The company needs to bring further improvement in its chocolates and make it more attractive so that kit can grow its customer base and can stand at par with other leading chocolate manufacturing competitors.

Customer Analysis
This chocolate company has been able to acquire a good customer base within a short time of kits formation. The customers prefer the chocolate due to its nigh nutrient contents such as anti-oxidants and good fats. The company should introduce more varieties keeping in mind the distinct demands of the customers so that the company can become more popular among the people.

SWOT Analysis

• Strength- the Company focuses on manufacturing healthy dark chocolates for the people. The importance on the health improvement of the customers being the basic idea behind this chocolate manufacturing company has made the consumers fall for this company. The company should take new varieties of health supplements which will help the company to gain more customers.
• Weakness- The political instability in the company affects the company too. Also, the company imports ingredients from various countries which increases the cost of production (Zaman, 2019). The company has to follow the trade practices of various countries while sourcing its ingredients which are quite difficult for the company.
• Opportunities- the Company has started to grab attention among the people. So, it should try to make more confectionary products after from dark chocolates which will tend to bring new customers to the company.
• Threat- the Company has a good number of competitors. There are many old companies who have covered up a large area in the market. The company has to make quality products which can attract the customers to buy their chocolates.

TOWS Analysis
The main purpose of the TOWS analysis is to study the SWOT analysis and to reduce the threats and help the company to take advantage from the opportunities.

Strength to Opportunities- It helps the company to exploit its strengths and remove the weaknesses of the company. The strengths of the Peak Chocolate Company can help the company to explore all the potential opportunities for the company to grow itself in the market. With the help of its strength the company can easily take advantage of all the opportunities it has in future.

Strength to Threat- The strength of the company such as its production of healthy chocolate and people’s preference over it can help the company to protect itself from the future threat to the business.

Weaknesses to Opportunities- The weaknesses of the company can be removed if the management of the Peak Chocolate self evaluates its weakness and convert them into opportunities.

Weakness to Threats- the Company has to work upon its weaknesses or else today’s weakness can convert into tomorrow’s threat which the company has to face.

Discussion of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) -
Segmentation Technique
The company targets on the health conscious middle class and upper middle class people who want to have quality products to maintain their health. On the basis of Geographic segmentation, the company tries to target the urban customers as well tries to expand its hold on the suburb and rural populations. In the demographic segmentation, the company targets the people who are young and wants to maintain a healthy physic and life. In the Psychographic segmentation, the company focuses on targeting the middle class people who can afford to buy the products at the offered rate (Zhang et al. 2020). In the Behavioral segmentation, the company tries to attract the athletes, gym and sports person who consumes health supplements and healthy diet. The Company strategically focuses on the needs of the people then tries to offer healthy chocolate to other high-caloric chocolates.

Target Market strategy
The company produces and offers the chocolates at a good range and targets the people who can afford it. Also, the company targets mainly the urban population who often buy heath supplements and diets. It targets the young generation people who prefer to have healthy diets to maintain good health. The company analyses the needs of the people and then targets the different groups of people having different demands on health supplements. Also, it targets on people who are looking for healthy substitutes of snacks and sweets. Keeping in view the need of the people, the company produces a range of dark chocolates which are rich in energy supplements and also are available at a competitive price.

Positioning Strategy
Peak Chocolate has been able to produce a good impression on the mind of the health conscious chocolate lovers. The quality products offered by the Company have helped it to register a growing position in the market. It has also helped it to give a tough competition to its rival companies. The chocolates are rich in anti oxidants and good fats and other nutrients which help to boost energy in the customers. The quality heath product offered by the company at a reasonable rate has helped the company to attain unique position in the chocolate industry. The quality and competitive pricing has helped the company to boost its customer base.

Marketing Mix Audit-
Product Strategy- Peak chocolate company has brought into the market the chocolates which are good for health. Normally, health conscious people avoid chocolate due to their sweetness and high caloric content. But, Peak Chocolate has brought a change in the chocolate industry by introducing dark chocolates which are healthy and boosts the energy level. The chocolate having good nutritional value helpful for the maintenance of a healthy diet has attracted a good number of consumers to the product. The company has tried to establish it as a healthy supplement brand in the chocolate industry.

Price Strategy- the Company offers the quality chocolates at a very competitive prices. The company mainly aims at the health conscious people who can afford healthy supplements for their diet. The company also offers their chocolates at a discounted price on its websites which also attracts the customers (Fonseca, 2018). The company should keep analyzing the consumer demands and must accordingly keep changing its price strategy to keep retaining its position in the market.

Distribution (Place) Strategy- the Company has a large number of distributors who are engaged in the selling of the products of the company. The distributors of the company are spread across the country. The company is the wholesaler and sells its products to different supermarkets and retail stores. The company offers their product at a discounted rate on its official website.

Promotion Strategy- the Company continuously promotes kits product through various advertisement strategies. It is continuously engaged is promoting its product through online platforms (Schweizer, 2020). The use of social media for advertising has helped the company to reduce its cost on promotion strategy.

Recommendation
The company has gained much fame within a few years of its formation. The revolution in chocolate industry with the introduction of health friendly chocolates by the company has made it a popular brand among the people. The company has since its inception tries to bring positive change in the lifestyle of the people by making them more energetic and enthusiastic. The company needs to focus on a few more things so that it can be able to gain more hold on the chocolate industry and become a preferable brand in comparison of its competitors. The recommendations are-

• Advertisement and Promotion- the Company must put more stress on the advertisement of the company. The company has not been able to acquire a good hold on the social media. Use of Digital platforms and social media sites can help the company to become a known brand among the people. Advertisement on the television, newspaper and other electronic platform should be stressed more (Palmatier and Sridhar, 2017). The company must tie up with popular brands and icons to come to the notice of the public. The company must advertise the health benefits of their chocolates which will tend to attract the health- conscious people towards it.
• Production of other confectionary items- The Company should try to analyze the needs and demands of the consumers. It should see that what other kind of products are in demand among the people. Other food items which are healthy in nature and the production of which is beneficial for the sales of the company should be manufactured. Coffee, Shakes and other items should be included in the production list of the company so that it can meet the greater demands of the consumers. The company should see that just as the chocolate are healthy and rich in nutrients, in the same way, other items should be manufactured with are healthy and can satisfy the health needs of the customers.
• Increase in Accessibility- the Company must make sure that their variety of chocolates reach the consumers. Any good will be able to gain popularity when people try and taste it. The company must make sure that its product reaches the customers. Easy access to healthy alternatives which are tasty too can easily attract the customers to the company. Therefore, the company should see that the distributors are doing their work well and their chocolates are easily available to the people (Yousaf and Xiucheng, 2018). The company must also sell their products through the online shopping stores and through its website. Offers and discounts will help the company to boost its customer base.
• Attractive Design- Attractive designs and covers catch the eyes of the customers. The company should try to design the chocolates in a creative way. It should use attractive colorful covers and rappers to make it look elegant and beautiful. This will help in increasing the sale of the chocolate and make it more popular among the people. People will also see the products as best gifting items to health concerned people and will be a healthy gift for them.
• Competitive Prices- the Company must produce different varieties of chocolates with various price ranges so that people from different sections can buy these chocolates. The company must analyze its customers and expand its target group to include the health conscious people from the middle class section so that the company can gain popularity among the people and a gold hold on the market.
• Quality- The chocolates from Peak Chocolate are good in nutritional value and so the people prefer these chocolates. So, the company should keep in mind that the quality of their products be good and have good nutritional value so that the company can keep the customers stick to the company (Hudson and Hudson, 2017). There are several other players in this industry and if the company fails to maintain the quality of their products, they may lose their customers as they may shift to other better options.

Conclusion
Peak Chocolate has successfully gained much popularity among the people for manufacturing health friendly chocolates. Their chocolates are of premium quality and have a great nutritional value. It has preferred by the people who are health conscious and at the same time have great love for chocolates. The company is working in a very competitive sector as there are many more chocolate companies having great popularity among the people. The Company must work to make it stand different from other chocolate companies. The company must try to improve the qualities of its chocolate and introduce different flavors in the chocolates. Also, the company must produce other items seeing the demands of its customers. The company must also put greater stress on advertising which will make the company more popular. The company must analyze its position in the market and all the aspects must be evaluated by the company to explore the opportunities which can help the company in expanding itself. The company must strategically make plans to utilize all resources at hand so that the company can boost their business significantly.

Reference
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Fonseca, T.A.D. (2018). Arcádia: the bittersweet taste of growing a traditional chocolate manufacturer (Doctoral dissertation).

Hoffmann, F., Fuller, L.K. and Ramirez, B.B. (2020). Chocolate Fads, Folklore & Fantasies: 1,000+ Chunks of Chocolate Information. Routledge.

Hudson, S. and Hudson, L (2017) Marketing for tourism, hospitality & events: a global & digital approach. Sage.

Kolay, H., Güler, M.B., Akyol, S. and Toy, A.O. (2019). Production Planning at a Chocolate Company: A Two-Phase Approach by Aggregation. In Proceedings of the International Symposium for Production Research 2019 (p. 169). Springer Nature.

Palmatier, R.W. and Sridhar, S. (2017). Marketing strategy: Based on first principles and data analytics. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Schweizer, H.J. (2020). Marketing in Integrated Design Engineering—Fundamentals and Effects on Development. In Integrated Design Engineering (pp. 647-678). Springer, Cham.

Yousaf, S. and Xiucheng, F. (2018). Halal culinary and tourism marketing strategies on government websites: A preliminary analysis. Tourism Management, 68, pp.423-443.

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