Marketing Communication for Bickford's Australia's new product EnCola

Bickford's Australia is launching a new healthy energy drink called EnCola. This article discusses the marketing communication strategies for the new product, including target market, positioning strategy, and social media tactics.

Running Head: Marketing Communication
Bickford’s Australia
Marketing Communication

Marketing Communication 1
Table of Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................2
Identification and Rationale for the idea.........................................................................................2
Situational Analysis.........................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis...........................................................................................................................3
Marketing and marketing communication objectives......................................................................3
Target market...............................................................................................................................4
Recommendation of marketing communication strategies..............................................................4
Positioning strategy......................................................................................................................5
Marketing communication tactics................................................................................................5
Action plan...................................................................................................................................6
Part B Marketing Communication piece.........................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Marketing Communication 2
Background
Bickford's Australia is an Australian soft drink manufacturing company. Company was owned
by Kotses family in 1999 and has established its brand image in the Australian market as
Bickford's Australia. Company has limited product offering and with the help of these products,
it has penetrated the Australia market. Mainly it produces traditional cordials, iced coffee mix
and varieties of soft drinks. These products are manufactured by A. M. Bickford & Sons and
founded by Anne Margaret Bickford in 1864. In 2006, Bickford’s lime juice cordial become the
National Trust of South Australia as a Heritage Icon.
Company is now expanding its product offerings to target health conscious people because
people are switching towards healthy drinks and fruit juices. In relevance with targeting health
conscious people, organization has planned to launch a new product. This drink will be
manufactured without any preservatives, artificial flavours and without adding chemicals. The
drink will be an energy drink in various fruity flavours and that too in zero calories. In the first
phase of product launching, Australian market will be targeted demand for healthy drinks are
high. To attract the audience, name of the product will be ‘EnCola’.
Identification and Rationale for the idea
The idea of EnCola is originated from the demand of healthy and fruit drinks amongst the target
audience. Demand for carbonated drinks is declining day by day and major reason behind this is
that consumers have replaced soft drinks with fruit juices and low calorie drinks. Thus, with the
objective to maintain and defend its acquired leading position in the soft drink industry,
Bickford’s Australia has decided to launch a new product in the Australian market. EnCola will
be the most suitable drink for all age group segments along with health conscious people (Eling,
Langerak & Griffin, 2015).
From last some years, it has been recognised that fresh fruit juices and energy drinks are taking
over the market of cola and other carbonated soft drinks. Bickford’s Australia has identified the
reason for their declined revenues and profits. This has ultimately affected organizational
goodwill in the target market, thus, organization has decided to launch an energy booster for
regaining its lost position in the market along with boosting up its revenues and profitability to

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attain sustainable growth and development objectives (Kazmi, Naarananoja & Wartsila, 2016).
As people are becoming aware regarding the consumption of healthy drinks and fruit juices
because there are lot of consequences which a consumer needs to face after consuming cola
drinks such as weight gain, intake of high amount of sugar at one time, etc. Thus, the idea of
EnCola will help Bickford’s Australia to establish its effective image amongst health conscious
people especially. Though, rationale for the idea of manufacturing a healthy drink is dynamic
consumer behaviour and in relation with EnCola, organization has set up its mission as “an
energy booster without any artificial flavours” (Tukker & Tischner, 2017).
Situational Analysis
Situational analysis is the tool through which managers could identify strengths and weaknesses
of the organization in relevance with the threats and opportunities of the internal as well as
external business environment. Mainly this includes competitors, their strategies and the
marketing conditions of the business environment.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Brand recognition in Australian market
 Customer loyalty due to their products
 Bickford’s Australia is known for
producing traditional drinks (Zhu,
et. al., 2018).
 Varieties of product offering
 Bickford’s lime juice is known as the
Heritage Icon.
Weaknesses
 Growing health conscious consumers
 High number of substitutes availability
 Low product offering
Opportunities
 Expansion in the new markets
 Approaching health conscious people
with healthy drinks
 Organization could collaborate with
small or big players of the industry to
Threats
 PepsiCo and Coca-Cola will be the
direct competitor with same product
offerings
 Strong competition in all geographic
regions

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set up its effective position in the new
and existing markets (Renz & Vogel,
2016).
 Low switching cost for consumers
Marketing and marketing communication objectives
In relevance with the new product i.e. EnCola, organizational major marketing and marketing
communication are:
 Targeting health conscious people;
 Developing effective brand image as healthier drink manufacturer’
 Spreading awareness amongst the target audience;
 Enhancing sales, revenues and profitability;
 Gaining the leading position in the industry; and
 Providing relished experience to consumers with EnCola (Armstrong, et. al., 2015).
SMART Objectives:
 Specific: Organization will adopt effective marketing communication and promotional
measures to spread awareness amongst the target audience along with approaching them.
 Measurable: Organizational objectives in relevance with the EnCola are increasing sales
and profitability which is totally measurable to the particular extent. For example, if
company has set objectives in relation to enhance sales by 15% with the launching of
new product which is measurable and if company will set objectives to enhance sales by
50% will be unrealistic.
 Achievable: Goals and objectives set up by the organizational attainable as the USP of
the product are effective enough to attract audience towards the organization (Lee,
Kozlenkova & Palmatier, 2015).
 Realistic: With the help of social media strategies, organization will be able to approach
to its target audience.
 Time: The marketing and communication plan is for a particular time period i.e. 12
months, thus, all the objectives set should also be attained within this period.

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Target market
Target market for the new product launched by Bickford’s Australia will be people aged 18-37.
Bickford’s Australia will mainly focus on its origin market along with those regions where
demand for healthy drinks are high as well as those regions fitness centres, gym, etc. are situated.
 Demographic: Both male & female and urban population. Age group 18-37 will be
major target market segment for organization for their new product.
 Geographic: Major cities of Australia along with those places where demand for heathy
and energy drinks is high (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).
 Behaviour: Heath conscious people, old age group people, fitness freaks, etc. are
concerned to take healthier drinks and fruit juices, thus, they will be the major target
market segment for the organization.
Recommendation of marketing communication strategies
Marketing strategies are crucial part for every marketing plan as it helps the organization to
spread awareness amongst the target audience. Apart from this, it boosts up the chances for the
organization in relevance with attaining the desired goals and objectives. Marketing and
promotional strategies are the main component for every organization in terms of enhancing
sales, spreading awareness amongst the target audience in relevance with the launching of new
product as well as for attaining competitive advantage. With the help of EnCola, organization
will be able to enhance its brand image in the target market, thus, it will be treated as the brand
extension strategy for the Bickford’s Australia. Contemporary as well as traditional methods of
marketing and communication strategies will be used in order to approach to the target audience
as well as to spread awareness amongst them.
In relevance with the organizational marketing and promotional strategies, organization should
consider the preferences of Australian consumers. Australian market is an emerging market in
terms of consumption of healthier drinks and people over there have sufficient purchasing power.
But, still organization will focus over fair pricing strategy as it will help the organization to
develop its effective image amongst the target market. Along with this, organization should
focus over the quality of the product in order to retain the target and potential customers (Ryan,

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2016). Following are marketing communication strategies which could be used by Bickford’s
Australia to introduce EnCola in the target market:
 Advertising and promotion: With the help of social media platforms and other
trending digital media strategies, organization would be able to spread awareness
amongst the target audience. This will be the most appropriate and effective marketing
tool for Bickford’s Australia to introduce its newly launched product in the target
market. Social media platform will be the most suitable strategy for organization in
terms of spreading awareness amongst them. Along with the social media strategies,
organization could also focus over other mediums of promotional and advertising
strategies such as television, radio, newspaper, etc. (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016).
 Public relations: It is necessary for the organization to develop and maintain
appropriate customer relations so that brand loyalty and brand image could be
developed amongst the target audience. In order to develop public relations, it is
necessary to deliver qualitative products for long run. Along with this, it is necessary
for the organization to maintain the quality of the product so that effective public
relations could be developed (Fransen, et. al., 2015).
 Direct marketing: It is one of oldest form of marketing and this is done by
telecommunication methods, email, personal visits, etc. When an organizational
representative directly interacts with the consumers is known as direct marketing. This
measure could be used by Bickford’s Australia by distributing samples in relevance
with their new product amongst the target audience.
Positioning strategy
An effective positioning strategy includes strengths and weaknesses of the organization through
which it could compete well in the competitive business environment. In Australian market, lot
of companies already exists with healthy and fruit drinks and their target market segments are
also as same as for the Bickford’s Australia. Thus, in relevance with setting up an effective
position in the target market, it is required for the Bickford’s Australia to segregate EnCola with
existing drinks in the market by adopting product differentiation, cost leadership, etc. strategies.
Product differentiation strategy is useful for making the company’s products’ unique and distinct
from others. This helps the organization to gain competitive advantage along with gaining

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positive response. Cost leadership strategy will help the organization to make its distinct position
by providing their products at low prices as compared to the existing companies. This strategy
will be more useful for the Bickford’s Australia in relevance with EnCola so that an effective
brand positioning could be developed amongst the target market (Tuten & Solomon, 2017).
Marketing communication tactics
In order to attract target audience, it is required for the organization to adopt appropriate and
effective marketing tactics such as social media and other trending digital strategies, appointing a
well-known face as brand endorsement as it is quite famous and effective strategy in Australian
market. Apart from this, organization could also focus over sponsoring events and it is known as
event marketing. This type of marketing is bit expensive but it has huge benefits such as it covers
huge market area.

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Action plan
Activities Commencement
Date
Deadline Authority Department Budget
($60,000)
Identification
and rationale of
idea
1/1/2019 31/01/2019 Managerial
staff
Top level
management
$7,000
Situational
analysis
1/2/2019 31/03/2019 Marketing
Head
Marketing $10,000
Marketing
objectives
1/04/2019 31/05/2019 Marketing
Head
Marketing $10,000
Target market 1/06/2019 31/07/2019 Marketing Marketing $5,000
Recommendatio
n of marketing
communication
strategies
1/08/2019 1/12/2019 Marketing Marketing $28,000
Part B Marketing Communication piece
Marketing communication is a systematic and effective approach to communicate target
audience with marketing messages. Contemporary business environment is full of competition,
thus, simply broadcasting message is not the assurance for higher sales to the organization. In
order to attain objectives in relevance with launching of new product in the target market,
following communication plan needs to be adopted by Bickford’s Australia:
Social media: With the help of social media platforms, Bickford’s Australia would be able to
market its messages in relevance with EnCola amongst the target audience at personal level.
Apart from this, social media strategies is a type of two way communication system in which
target audience could also share their views and feedback regarding their new product. This
helps to develop personal relations with the customers along with developing a brand image
amongst the target audience (Ashley & Tuten, 2015).

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Customer experience: The new product launched by Bickford’s Australia is directly linked to
customer satisfaction, thus, it is necessary for the organization to focus over the quality of
products because good customer communication plan can turn the curious customers as loyal
clients for the organization. Concept of EnCola is healthy and refreshing. Thus, while conveying
this message amongst the target audience, Bickford’s Australia Company should ensure that the
product should also provide the same level of satisfaction as showed in the communication plan.
Follow up call to action: In the end, it is necessary to monitor the implemented strategies so that
the effectiveness of the adopted strategies could be analysed. If any mistake or error is found,
organization could take appropriate measures in relevance with making it more effective and
appropriate.
Conclusion
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that marketing communication plan is a
necessary element to introduce and promote new product, service, as well as existing product in
the target market. This report includes marketing communication plan in relevance with the new
product which will be launched in the Australian market by Bickford’s Australia. Concept of the
new drink is healthy and refreshing. Primary objective of launching this product in the Australian
market is establishing an effective image in the target market in terms of healthier drinks
industry along with satisfying customer’s wants and desires.

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References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1),
pp.15-27.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2016. Digital marketing. Prentice Hall.
Eling, K., Langerak, F. and Griffin, A., 2015. The Performance effects of combining rationality
and intuition in making early new product idea evaluation decisions. Creativity and Innovation
Management, 24(3), pp.464-477.
Fill, C. and Turnbull, S.L., 2016. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and
participation. Pearson.
Fransen, M.L., Verlegh, P.W., Kirmani, A. and Smit, E.G., 2015. A typology of consumer
strategies for resisting advertising, and a review of mechanisms for countering
them. International Journal of Advertising, 34(1), pp.6-16.
Kazmi, S.A.Z., Naarananoja, M. and Wartsila, J.K., 2016. Identifying dissimilarities among
global teams while pursuing new product idea generation practices. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 229, pp.376-386.
Lee, J.Y., Kozlenkova, I.V. and Palmatier, R.W., 2015. Structural marketing: Using
organizational structure to achieve marketing objectives. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 43(1), pp.73-99.
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital
generation. Kogan Page Publishers.

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Tukker, A. and Tischner, U. eds., 2017. New business for old Europe: product-service
development, competitiveness and sustainability. Routledge.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.
Zhu, G., Luju, L., Yingying, D., Haoqin, L. and Suocheng, W., 2018. Coca cola and pepsi cola
impact burns repair and serum levels of endothelial growth factor and vascular endothelial
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