Marketing Plan for Donald B Company

This report discusses the marketing plan for Donald B Company, a small chocolate producer planning to expand its business in international markets. It includes growth strategies, market segmentation, targeting, positioning, and marketing mix strategies.

Running Head: MARKETING 1
Marketing

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Executive Summary
In the 21st century, marketing has extremely emerged and it has become a vital component of
business operations. Considering this importance, today’s companies are focused on preparing
marketing plans for their new products and services. Designing of marketing plans is essential to
organizations. The major objective of this report is to discuss about the marketing plan of Donald
B Company. Donald B is a small chocolate producer that has two outlets in Melbourne,
Australia. Now, the company is planning to expand its business in international markets. In this
report, here is the discussion about targeting, market segmentation and positioning approaches
which Donald B can adopt to deal with the competition in foreign market. The report consists of
marketing mix strategies which can support the firm to attain its marketing objectives and attract
more customers.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Company Description..................................................................................................................................4
Recommended Growth Strategy.................................................................................................................4
Market Penetration.................................................................................................................................5
Market Development..............................................................................................................................5
Diversification..........................................................................................................................................5
Market Segmentation Strategies.................................................................................................................6
Target Market..............................................................................................................................................6
Positioning Strategy.....................................................................................................................................7
Physical Characteristics Approach...........................................................................................................7
Price Quality Approach............................................................................................................................8
The Competitors Approach......................................................................................................................8
Elements of Marketing Mix.........................................................................................................................8
Product....................................................................................................................................................8
Price.........................................................................................................................................................9
Distribution............................................................................................................................................10
Promotion..............................................................................................................................................10
Extended Marketing Mix...........................................................................................................................11
People....................................................................................................................................................11
Process..................................................................................................................................................11
Physical Evidence...................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................12
Appendix:..................................................................................................................................................13
Summary of Analysis.............................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Marketing is the process of developing and implementing different activities and processes for
promoting new products and services in the marketplace. Today, each and every business aims to
expand and develop business activities in foreign market (Chernev, 2018). This report is focused
on developing a marketing plan for Donald B Company that is producing and offering chocolates
all over the world. The organization aims to expand its business in Australia and spread the
operations in global world. On the basis of first assessment, this report includes growth strategy
for the company in new market. In the first section of the report, there is the discussion about the
target market and strategies to attract that potential market. The organization will be making
effective strategies to entice its customers. Moreover, positioning strategy and approach of
Donald B is discussed. At the end, the report includes all the components of marketing mix. This
part describes that how this company uses marketing mix framework to deal with the competing
brand in new market.
Company Description
Donald B is well-known chocolate producer that owns two stores in Melbourne, Australia.
Primarily, the company offers chocolate and confectionary products. The main business
objective of this company is to emerge and improve its brand presence in global industry. By
developing its products and services, the company aims to deal with the competitive threat from
producers of cocoa products, candied nuts, glazed fruit etc. In Australian market, Donald B is
planning to seek the support from supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles so that it can
increase its sales in perspective market (Weinstein & Pohlman, 2015). In today’s competitive
business environment, this firm needs to emphasize on external market factors in order to gain
more competitive advantage. From the previous assessment, it is identified that Donald B should
develop effective strategies to overcome the impacts of environmental factors and maximize the
positive outcomes.
Recommended Growth Strategy
Growth strategy of any company can be identified by using Ansoff Matrix framework. It assists
the organization in developing its marketing strategies.

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The recommended growth strategies for Donald B are discussed below:
Market Penetration
Under this growth strategy, this company should make efforts to grow its business by using its
existing chocolates in existing market i.e. Australia. By using this, the company can focus on
increasing its market share in the current marketplace (Saltini & Akkerman, 2012). This firm
should make changes in its pricing strategies so that it can target new customers in existing
market. For example, it needs to decrease the prices of products considering the targeted
audiences.
Market Development
Market development is also an effective strategy that can be used by Donald B in its operations.
By using this growth strategy, the organization should try to expand into new and emerging
markets with its existing chocolate and confectionary products. It can offer its existing
chocolates in new market. In overseas market, this company can have the benefits due to strong
economies (Gutiérrez, 2017).
Diversification
In addition to above strategies, Donald B Organization should implement diversification as its
growth strategy. The company should try to increase its market share by launching new products

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in new markets. In the future, the company should plan to diversify its products by entering into
new industry like retail food industry (Hackley & Hackley, 2017).
Market Segmentation Strategies
When any organization plans to expand its business operations in new market, it needs to focus
on a specific segment of the country’s population. Market Segmentation is an important process
for each and every organization. In the new market, Donald B can target its customers by using
different approaches of market segmentations which are discussed below:
Demographic Segmentation
Under demographic segmentation, the company should divide the mass market on the basis of
different characteristics like gender, age, occupation and income. As the company is offering
chocolate and confectionary products to its customers so it should focus on the age group of 15
to 35 years. The major emphasis of the company should be on the young girls and boys as they
prefer to gift chocolates to their loved ones on any special occasion. The company should use the
affordable pricing strategy and target middle income level people. Under occupation, it can
target students, sports person and business professionals (Clarence-Smith, 2016).
Geographic Segmentation
Under this, Donald B should focus on offering the chocolates in the nearby countries like New
Zealand. Moreover, the market for chocolate products depends on the weather like cold, hot
weather (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). The company should distribute its chocolates to the people
in both urban and rural regions.
Psychographic Segmentation
This company should focus on its customers by considering different characteristics like
personality, social class, attitudes, lifestyle etc. It should offer its chocolates to middle class
people and the people who love to try different tastes of chocolates (Gallo, Antolin-Lopez &
Montiel, 2018).

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Target Market
Target market has an important role in every company to generate more profits and revenues in
foreign market. It can assist the company to deal with the competing brands. In international
market, Donald B needs to offer chocolates and other products considering the needs and
demands of customers (Weinstein & Pohlman, 2015). Considering the above segmentation
characteristics, Donald B would focus on young business professionals who come under the age
group of 15 to 35 years. Currently, this company is operating its business as small business
enterprise and now it is planning to expand the business in overseas market. If this firms wishes
to establish its brand in foreign market then it should emphasize on the needs and demands of
customers. By recognizing most appropriate targeted market, Donald B will be able to enhance
its brand image in the foreign market. Donald B should emphasize to provide benefits to the
customers for which they are seeking for. The above chosen customer segment is looking for
chocolates and confectionary products with tasty and quality ingredients (Ramli, 2017). These
customers are looking for the benefits like quality of service, delivery speed, customer support,
friendly staff etc. In new country, Donald B would be targeting the people by analyzing the
benefits and needs which they are seeking for.
Positioning Strategy
Positioning refers to an expression of how a product or service can be positioned in the market
place. It expresses that how company’s product offerings can fulfill the needs and wants of
customers in a manner that its competing brands don’t do. As per positioning theory, positioning
is a process to identify the most appropriate customer segment for a particular product or service.
It is also a significant strategy which can be used by Donald B so that it can make positive
perception among its potential customers (Passmore, Howell & Holder, 2017). In order to
position its products, Donald B emphasizes on its brand image, product ingredients, distribution
channels and competitors’ strategies. Positioning theory states that market positioning is the term
that refers to the place which a company occupies in the customers’ minds and how it is
differentiated from the competitors’ products. To place new products in the market, the
organization may focus on differentiating its product features.

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 Nestle
 Hershey’s
 Donald B
 Cherry Ripe
In order to position its chocolates in new market, Donald B needs to adopt effective approaches
of positioning. It will assist the organization grab the attention and interest of people. Positioning
approaches which can be used by Donald B are discussed below:
Physical Characteristics Approach
It is one of the most objective criteria which the customers consider. In the case of Donald B, the
customers prefer to purchase the chocolates and other confectionary products considering their
flavors, packaging, color etc. Thus, the company will do segmentation by focusing on the
features and customer benefits of products.
Price Quality Approach
Moreover, Donald B Company will practice price quality approach to position its products
among new market’s customers. This type of approach justifies many price-quality groups of its
High Price
Low Quality High
Quality
Low Price
Middle
income people
Taste and
quality of
chocolates

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products. Under this, the chocolate producer will set different prices for its different products. As
the company is targeting all groups of society so it should offer prices on higher to lower prices.
It will assist this firm to make an effective brand image in customers’ minds (Afoakwa, 2010).
The Competitors Approach
This is the most important approach of positioning which Donald B can use to place its new
products among its targeted audiences. Before placement, the company will conduct market
research and analyze the strategies of competing brands. It needs to maintain strong
communication with them (Davcik & Sharma, 2016). It will assist Donald B to achieve
competitive edge over other players.
Thus, it can be stated that Donald B should use different positioning approaches so that it can
successfully implement its business operations in global business market.
Elements of Marketing Mix
Marketing mix framework is one of the significant models for Donald B that this firm can
implement and process its business processes in other nation. These strategies assist the company
to grab the attention of customers and gain competitive advantage over competing brands like
Nestle, Mars etc. It will help it in finding out the strategic position of competitors across the
world. The different components of Donald’s marketing mix are discussed below:
Product
This is the first marketing strategy under this framework that uses current or new products to
influence the customers’ perception positively. Product strategy assists the company to introduce
new and innovative products in foreign marketplace. As mentioned in case study, Donald B is a
leading player in chocolate manufacturing sector and company is attaining significant growth in
Australian market. In new market, the organization will develop products with higher quality
ingredients and sell them with the attractive packaging. It will plan the production process
considering the competition in the market. The major competing brands of Donald B are like
Snikers, Freddo, Cherry Ripe and Crunchie. In addition to this, the company analyzes the needs
and wants of customers by conducting market research and then produces the products
accordingly (Khan, 2014). In Australia, the company can expand its business in other industries
like retail, food industry, organic food etc. This product strategy will assist the company to

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establish a good brand image in international market. It should implement effective product
strategy while entering into new market.
There are different levels of products which are stated below:
Core Product
Core products are the most valuable offering of a company that provides the major benefits to
customers. The core products of Donald B are the chocolate and confectionary products. Now,
the company is planning to expand its products in international markets. Under core values,
company can offer excellent quality and taste to its potential customers (Konstantas, Jeswani,
Stamford & Azapagic, 2018).
Actual Product
Under product level strategy, this is the second level of product. It includes the physical and
tangible benefits/features of a product. Under this level, Donald B Company will focus on
offering the chocolates in different colors, attractive packaging, flavors etc. Generally, people
buy the actual product when they demand chocolate for any special purpose.
Augmented Product
It is also one of the most significant levels of the product. It includes the ad-on services, after
sale service etc. Under this level, the company can make an attractive website and it can offer its
chocolates and other products online. It can take the feedback of customers after selling the
products.
Price
Under marketing mix framework, pricing plays an important role in order to attract the
customers from all income segments. From the analysis, it is identified that Donald B is using
different types of price strategies so that it can offer its products by targeting different segments.
This company implements affordable pricing strategies and ensures that more customers
purchase its chocolates (Kazemi & Esmaeili, 2010). Thus, the company can use psychological
pricing technique. In international market, first it should sell the chocolate and other
confectionary products on lower prices. After capturing a significant market share, it should set

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the prices appropriately with the objective of maximizing profits and sales. Furthermore, it can
provide some offers and discounts in festive seasons. The company is adopting the pricing
strategies by targeting the people from lower and middle classes. Additionally, Donald B will
start to use promotional pricing strategy in Australian and other overseas markets.
Distribution
Currently, Donald B is operating its business operations in Australian market. Now, the company
is planning chocolate products by in other nations. For this, the company needs to develop an
extensive distribution network to supply its products to final consumers. The company should
develop effective distribution strategies. In Australia, Donald B is planning to offer its chocolates
through supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles. It can supply its chocolates and other
confectionary products to retailers. In addition to this, Donald B will establish its outlets in the
most crowded shopping malls of the city (Hultman, Katsikeas & Robson, 2011). It will assist the
company to grab the attention of ore customers. After Australia, the company can establish its
owned stores in other emerging nations like New Zealand, United Kingdom and China. This
distribution strategy will enable the organization to increase its profits and revenues over other
competing brands.
Promotion
In marketing mix, promotion plays a critical role which assists the organization to approach a
larger customer base. While expanding business in new markets, the company needs to make
investment in advertising and promotion activities (Dahlén, Lange & Smith, 2016). Donald B
will develop an integrated marketing communication plan that will include different promotion
strategies like advertising, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing. Under
advertisement, Donald B should use both online and offline modes. Under online modes, this
company will give ads in newspapers, magazines, social networking sites, billboards etc. Direct
marketing will allow this organization to connect with the potential customers personally
(Andrews & Shimp, 2017). It will assist the organization to get their feedback towards its
chocolates. It should provide offers on its products like discounts and combo packs. Thus, the
organization will be able to entice a large customer base in international market.

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Extended Marketing Mix
People
At Donald B, the employees are managed to support its growth strategy in new and existing
market. The company has developed its leadership abilities and competencies in such as way so
that they can support to the attainment of its overall objectives. The organization should conduct
training and development program for its employees before entering into new market. They
should be well-trained and have customer friendly behavior (Goworek, McGoldrick &
McGoldrick, 2015).
Process
Donald B needs to understand that customer service is one of the key determinants of building
trust among them. Thus, this company should focus on enhancing the skills of employees so that
they can provide the services smoothly. It should develop and manage its production processes
effectively.
Physical Evidence
Physical evidence is a critical component of marketing mix that can support Donald B to attract
more customers. At this company, physical evidence can be used in the form of packaging and
promotional tools (Afoakwa, 2016). It should establish its physical stores at the place where most
of the population can approach easily. In the stores, it will focus on the service speed, cleanliness
and hygiene and service quality.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that it is a good decision of Donald B to
expand its business operations in new and emerging market. In this business expansion, the
company should focus on the most appropriate targeted market and strategies. The above report
analyzes that Donald B should use the above marketing mix strategies so that it can attract more
people and retain them. By using these strategies, the company will be able to attain its business
objectives and mission in international business market by managing sustainability in business
environment.

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References
Afoakwa, E. O. (2016). Chocolate science and technology. John Wiley & Sons.
Afoakwa, E.O. (2010) Industrial chocolate manufacture–processes and factors influencing
quality. Chocolate Science and Technology, pp.35-57.
Andrews, J. C., & Shimp, T. A. (2017). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated
marketing communications. Nelson Education.
Chernev, A. (2018). Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.
Clarence-Smith, W. (2016). Chocolate consumption from the sixteenth century to the great
chocolate boom. M. Squicciarini, y J. Swinnen (Edits.), The Economics of Chocolate, 43-
70.
Dahlén, M., Lange, F., & Smith, T. (2010). Marketing communications: A brand narrative
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Davcik, N. S., & Sharma, P. (2016). Marketing resources, performance, and competitive
advantage: A review and future research directions. Journal of Business
Research, 69(12), 5547-5552.
Gallo, P. J., Antolin-Lopez, R., & Montiel, I. (2018). Associative Sustainable Business Models:
Cases in the bean-to-bar chocolate industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 174, 905-
916.
Goworek, H., McGoldrick, P. J., & McGoldrick, P. J. (2015). Retail marketing management:
Principles and practice. Harlow, UK: Pearson.
Gutiérrez, T.J. (2017). State‐of‐the‐Art Chocolate Manufacture: A Review, Wiley Online
Library, 16 (6) 1313-1344.
Hackley, C., & Hackley, R. A. (2017). Advertising and promotion. Sage.

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Huang, R., & Sarigöllü, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand
equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-
132). Springer, New York, NY.
Hultman, M., Katsikeas, C. S., & Robson, M. J. (2011). Export promotion strategy and
performance: the role of international experience. Journal of International Marketing,
19, 17–39.
Kazemi, F., & Esmaeili, M. (2010). The role of media on consumer brand choice a case study of
chocolate industry. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(9), 147.
Khan, M. T. (2014). The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual review
paper). International journal of information, business and management, 6(2), 95.
Konstantas, A., Jeswani, H.K., Stamford, L. & Azapagic, A. (2018). Environmental impacts of
chocolate production and consumption in the UK. Food Research International, 106,
pp.1012-1025.
Passmore, H. A., Howell, A. J., & Holder, M. D. (2017). Positioning implicit theories of well-
being within a positivity framework. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1-19.
Ramli, N.S. (2017). A review of marketing strategies from the European chocolate
industry. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 7(1), p.10.
Saltini, R. & Akkerman, R. (2012). Testing improvements in the chocolate traceability system:
Impact on product recalls and production efficiency. Food Control, 23(1), pp.221-226.
Weinstein, A., & Pohlman, R. A. (2015). Customer value: a new paradigm for marketing
management. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference (pp. 132-133). Springer, Cham.

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Appendix:
Summary of Analysis
Opportunities and Threats
Opportunities:
 Coverage: This means that the organization needs to increase the coverage area of the
brand. This means creating more and more consumers for the brand and maintaining the
relations with the regular customers (Thaichon, et. al. 2018).
 Increased Quality: This means the producers need to increase the quality of the product
means including more and more natural products in the process of manufacturing of the
product and this should be offer at the best possible price to the consumers so that there
should be a level of profit to both consumers and producers.
 Increase in Production: The production can be increase by improving the technology in
the process of making the chocolates. This will increase the production and supply of the
product, which will result in increasing the profit of the company.
 Health Cautious: The consumer preferences are changing due to the change people are
becoming more health cautious and the demand for the products are made by the natural
ingredients is increasing and the consumers are ready to pay a higher price for the
product made for natural ingredients (Singh et al., 2018).
Apart from this they also should focus on the product differentiation as it is the base of modern
day marketing. This is also essential for attracting larger number of consumers towards their
products. They must focus on the path of research and development work so as to bring flavours
as per the demands of the consumers.
Threats
 Competition: The competition is a threat for every organization. The competitor’s price,
technology, and marketing strategy play a big role in the sales of the organization. If we
take the example of technology, if the competitor has the good technology then he can
sell the same product with the same quality at the lowest price.

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 Local Development: The development of local economy serves as the biggest threat for
the organization. This means that only at the peak season time the people will purchase
the branded product but on other day’s they will purchase the competitors' product. This
will lead to ignorance of local manufacturers.
 Workforce: This is one of the major problems faced by many global organizations. This
means that every organization needs good employees for them and it is not possible that
people with the same level of education and experience are available in all the countries.
This is the reason that makes workforce a threat for the company.
 Huge Investments: The investment is a very big criterion for any of the business to get
profit. This means that all the creativity is converting into innovation only when the funds
are available with them.
Recommendations for Marketing Strategy
Recommendations are as follows:
 Target Business Segment: This means that the business should divide the market into
various segments. In this case, the organization can divide the market based on types of
uses of the particular product. The chocolates used in many places and on various
occasions, so the business should need to put some of the innovation in diversifying their
target business segment.
 Target Geographic Markets: In this case, the organization is a global organization and
the business can divide the market based on countries. By doing this, the organization can
have different marketing policies for different countries and can attract many consumers
(University of South Australia. 2018). So, they need to expand their business to the
different states of Australia such as Queensland.
 Target Consumer Market: This means dividing the market based on the consumers
available in the market, it will observe on the basis of age like middle age group, income
structure and population density in the market of a particular country. In terms of age,
producers should market the product differently for kids, middle age group and
differently for young adults.

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