Brand Management in the Australian Honey Industry

This report analyzes the brand positioning strategies of three key players in the Australian honey industry and provides recommendations for improvement.

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Brand Management
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Branding Report
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Industry analysis..............................................................................................................................2
Competitor analysis.........................................................................................................................3
Recommendations............................................................................................................................5
Application of theory.......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Branding Report
Introduction
The primary purpose of the paper is to examine the present and future trends of the honey
industry in Australia and how it puts an impact on its business operations. It will evaluate
existing brand positioning strategies of three key players within the honey industry in Australia.
In other words, the paper will compare and analyze the brand positioning strategies of three
different brands in Australia by considering their Points-of-Parities (POP) and Points-of-
Differences (POD). Based on the branding strategies it will also provide recommendations to
improve the strategies to gain popularity within the market. Therefore, the paper will discuss the
strategies by applying theoretical concepts.
Industry analysis
Australia is determined to be the fourth largest exporter of honey across the world after Mexico,
Argentina, and China. The honey production industry in Australia greatly contributes to the
economy of different rural Victorian districts. Currently, the Australian honey industry produces
varieties of honey products with unique flavors and high quality. The Australian varieties include
red box, stringy-bark, river red gum, grey box, and yellow box1. The Australian honey industry is
considered to be a beneficiary which currently owns $100 million and exports 4,500 tons of
honey every year. The honey brands of Australia possess an international reputation as it
provides developed and quality assurance standards which help gain the trust of the consumers.
The popularity of Australian premium honey enhances the export trade. In 2016, Australia
exported honey worth $767 million to Asian countries. In the future, the honey industry aims to
increase its demand that will help 2,000 commercial beekeepers to find high and new value
markets across the world2. In the future, the honey industry in Australia is expecting to employ a
1 Wai Jin Lee, Aron O’Cass, and Phyra Sok. "Unpacking brand management superiority: Examining the
interplay of brand management capability, brand orientation and formalisation." European Journal of
Marketing 51, no. 1 (2017): 177-199.
2 Kevin Lane Keller, and Tim Oliver Brexendorf. "Strategic Brand Management Process." Handbuch
Markenführung(2016): 1-22.

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Branding Report
wide range of talented people in Victoria3. As a result, this will help in implementing innovative
strategies to increase honey production.
Competitor analysis
The honey industry in Australia is following different and unique brand positioning strategy that
helps them to enhance their productivity and gain profitability in Australia and across the world4.
The brand positioning strategy of honey Australia, Capilano and ALDI are as follows:
Honey Australia
Honey Australia is determined to be a honey company that possesses its genesis in Mudgee,
NSW Australia in the year 1990s. It produces its honey brand namely Honey Australia and
distributes Australian bee products and Australian made honey5. The company manufacturers
more than 300 metric tons of honey per year internationally and nationally. It aims to
manufacture and distribute the best Australian bee products and honey to the consumers. Honey
Australia possess a unique brand positioning strategy that helps them to strengthen its business
and enhance product distribution, manufacturing, and development6. The company gives less
priority to its Point-of-Parities (POP), whereas, it emphasizes Point-of-Difference (POD) to
differentiate themselves from its competitors and provide extraordinary products as compared to
the rivals.
3 Ravi Pappu, and George Christodoulides. "Defining, measuring and managing brand equity." The
Journal of Product and Brand Management 26, no. 5 (2017): 433-434.
4 Gordon Liu, Chris Chapleo, Wai Wai Ko, and Isaac K. Ngugi. "The role of internal branding in nonprofit
brand management: An empirical investigation." Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 44, no. 2
(2015): 319-339.
5 Rico Piehler, Michael Schade, and Christoph Burmann. "Employees as a second audience: the effect of
external communication on internal brand management outcomes." Journal of Brand
Management (2018): 1-16.
6 Cleopatra Veloutsou, and Francisco Guzman. "The evolution of brand management thinking over the
last 25 years as recorded in the Journal of Product and Brand Management." Journal of Product & Brand
Management 26, no. 1 (2017): 2-12.

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Branding Report
To fulfill the growing need of the customers, it creates certified organic honey. As a result, to
provide the best honey products to its customers, the company has implemented unique supply
agreements with selected honey producers locally7. It also adopts the marketing penetration
strategy that helps the organization to invest for existing consumers to gain additional usage of
existing products. In the other, it also follows a market development strategy that helps in
involving with additional stores to sell the honey products to other locations.
Capilano
Capilano Honey Limited was founded in 1953 in Australia that possesses strong values to
support beekeepers of Australia. The company has a long-held commitment to consumption of
honey, driving consumer awareness, product innovation, and quality assurance. The company
comprised of brand development and positioning strategy where the company has invested a
huge amount of capital in becoming a low-cost manufacturer of Allowrie honey that builds
competitive position within the market. Whereas, based on the marketing sence it has also
implemented a repositioning strategy where it has repositioned its honey products to the sports
industry as a substitute of energy gel that helped in connecting with different demographic.
Based on this strategy the company is positioning itself at all running events and significant
cycling and offers customers with the samples of their honey products8. Recently, the Capilano
honey has made use of social media into their branding campaigns that help customers to share
beauty and honey recipes over Facebook sites9. The company focuses upon both the aspects of
POD and POP by understanding the needs of the consumers and provide them products that
differ from that of the rivals.
ALDI
7 Andrea Moretta Tartaglione, Ylenia Cavacece, Giuseppe Russo, and Giuseppe Granata. "A Systematic
Mapping Study on Customer Loyalty and Brand Management." Administrative Sciences 9, no. 1 (2019):
1-21.
8 Burçak Ertimur, and Gokcen Coskuner-Balli. "Navigating the institutional logics of markets: Implications
for strategic brand management." Journal of Marketing 79, no. 2 (2015): 40-61.
9 Adam J. Mills, Christine Pitt, and Sarah Lord Ferguson. "The Relationship between Fake News And
Advertising: Brand Management in the Era Of Programmatic Advertising and Prolific Falsehood." Journal
of Advertising Research 59, no. 1 (2019): 3-8.

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Branding Report
ALDI is a private listed company which is determined to be a supermarket chain that operates its
business over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. It aims to provide high-quality products to its
customers to fulfill their needs. ALDI possess a unique brand positioning strategy to differentiate
itself from the competitors. As a result, it has introduced a new brand proposition campaign
namely “Good Different” to make it's honey brand a unique one. The campaign will be shown on
television, online, out-of-home and across advertising. On the other hand, the company has also
initiated a competitive pricing strategy to offer superior quality honey products to its customers.
The company follows both aspects such as POP and POD to reach the satisfaction level by
providing high-quality products to its customers10. Based on this aspect it has implemented a
unique selling proposition that makes the product different from others. This proposition helps in
gaining the trust of the consumers.
Based on the analysis it has been observed that Honey Australia, Capilano, and ALDI possess a
different and unique brand positioning strategy to satisfy the needs of its customers. The brand
development strategy used by Honey Australia and Capilano has made the two brands different
from ALDI that helps them to gain profitability within the market. Moreover, it can be seen that
the market revenue of Honey Australia has been increased by 5% from that of ALDI and
Capilano. Honey Australia focuses upon the aspect of POD to differentiate its honey brand from
its competitors, whereas ALDI and Capilano focus upon both the aspects and provides high-
quality honey products to its customers11.
Recommendations
To create an appropriate brand positioning strategy, it is highly recommended that the companies
must create a loyal consumer base by building strong relationships with brand persona and
identity. Because a brand with a strong personality and imagery could differentiate itself from its
competitors. Based on brand development strategies the organizations such as Honey Australia,
10 Rose Du Preez, and Michael Thomas Bendixen. "The impact of internal brand management on
employee job satisfaction, brand commitment and intention to stay." International Journal of Bank
Marketing 33, no. 1 (2015): 78-91.
11 Laurence Dessart, Cleopatra Veloutsou, and Anna Morgan-Thomas. "Consumer engagement in online
brand communities: a social media perspective." Journal of Product & Brand Management 24, no. 1
(2015): 28-42.

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Branding Report
Capilano and ALDI must create a brand identity by gaining the trust of the consumers. The
branding campaign introduced by Capilano should be made considering the expectations, values,
and beliefs of the customers as well as the honey industry. These aspects a vital role in
developing and maintaining a unique brand identity.
It is strongly recommended that the organizations must consider competitors positioning that
puts a direct impact on the sales revenue of the company. The company must always be focused
on expanding their brand positioning strategy because a focused brand is always determined to
be a powerful brand. The organizations must choose a position for the brand that must be
believable and relatable. This will help the customers to get relevant information about the honey
brand and make purchasing decisions.
Application of theory
To implement appropriate brand positioning strategies, it is important to follow corporate
branding theory that is considered to be the practice of promoting the brand name. The thinking
and activities related to corporate branding differ from services or products. The theory helps the
organizations such, Honey Australia, Capilano and ALDI to interact with each other and create
products different and unique as compared to the competitors. On the other hand, the theory
provides an understanding of the brand communication, brand loyalty, brand strategy and brand
equity. The use of the theory puts an impact on different stakeholders of the company based on
various aspects such as brand extensions, employment applications, corporate culture and
identity, and sponsorship. With the help of this particular theory, branding could incorporate
different touchpoints12. The touchpoints involve quality of services or products, advertising
stationery, packaging, treatment and training of employees, customer service and logo. As a
result, the theory is determined to be a process that creates and maintains a positive perception of
the organizations as a brand in the minds of the customers. Therefore, this particular process
helps the organizations to set unique identity through marketing campaigns.
12 Rico Piehler, Debra Grace, and Christoph Burmann. "Internal brand management: introduction to the
special issue and directions for future research." (2018): 197-201.

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Branding Report
Figure: Corporate branding theory
Conclusion
The paper provided an analysis of the honey industry in Australia and its impact on
organizational activities. It has been observed that the Australian honey industry provides
superior quality honey products to its huge range of customers in Australia and across the world.
It also provided a competitor analysis of Honey Australia, Capilano, and ALDI where all the
three brands implement a unique branding strategy to fulfill the needs of the customers and
differentiate themselves from the competitors. By applying theory, it discussed the efficiency of
the branding strategies. Based on the strategies it provided recommendations to focus upon the
brand identity and persona to become successful.

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Branding Report
References
Dessart, Laurence, Cleopatra Veloutsou, and Anna Morgan-Thomas. "Consumer engagement in
online brand communities: a social media perspective." Journal of Product & Brand
Management 24, no. 1 (2015): 28-42.
Du Preez, Rose, and Michael Thomas Bendixen. "The impact of internal brand management on
employee job satisfaction, brand commitment and intention to stay." International
Journal of Bank Marketing 33, no. 1 (2015): 78-91.
Ertimur, Burçak, and Gokcen Coskuner-Balli. "Navigating the institutional logics of markets:
Implications for strategic brand management." Journal of Marketing 79, no. 2 (2015): 40-
61.
Keller, Kevin Lane, and Tim Oliver Brexendorf. "Strategic Brand Management
Process." Handbuch Markenführung(2016): 1-22.
Lee, Wai Jin, Aron O’Cass, and Phyra Sok. "Unpacking brand management superiority:
Examining the interplay of brand management capability, brand orientation and
formalisation." European Journal of Marketing 51, no. 1 (2017): 177-199.
Liu, Gordon, Chris Chapleo, Wai Wai Ko, and Isaac K. Ngugi. "The role of internal branding in
nonprofit brand management: An empirical investigation." Nonprofit and Voluntary
Sector Quarterly 44, no. 2 (2015): 319-339.
Mills, Adam J., Christine Pitt, and Sarah Lord Ferguson. "The Relationship between Fake News
And Advertising: Brand Management in the Era Of Programmatic Advertising and
Prolific Falsehood." Journal of Advertising Research 59, no. 1 (2019): 3-8.
Pappu, Ravi, and George Christodoulides. "Defining, measuring and managing brand
equity." The Journal of Product and Brand Management 26, no. 5 (2017): 433-434.
Piehler, Rico, Debra Grace, and Christoph Burmann. "Internal brand management: introduction
to the special issue and directions for future research." (2018): 197-201.

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Branding Report
Piehler, Rico, Michael Schade, and Christoph Burmann. "Employees as a second audience: the
effect of external communication on internal brand management outcomes." Journal of
Brand Management (2018): 1-16.
Tartaglione, Andrea Moretta, Ylenia Cavacece, Giuseppe Russo, and Giuseppe Granata. "A
Systematic Mapping Study on Customer Loyalty and Brand
Management." Administrative Sciences 9, no. 1 (2019): 1-21.
Veloutsou, Cleopatra, and Francisco Guzman. "The evolution of brand management thinking
over the last 25 years as recorded in the Journal of Product and Brand
Management." Journal of Product & Brand Management 26, no. 1 (2017): 2-12.