Marketing Report: An Analysis of Bega Cheese Ltd's Marketing Strategy

This marketing report, commissioned for a marketing principles unit, provides a comprehensive analysis of Bega Cheese Ltd's marketing strategies for its Vegemite and Kraft brands. The report begins with an introduction to Bega Cheese Ltd, an Australian-owned company, and its product offerings. It then delves into company, brand, and competitor analyses, evaluating Bega Cheese Ltd's position in the market. The report further conducts an environmental analysis, including macro, micro, and SWOT analyses. The core of the report examines the existing marketing strategies for the products, covering product, positioning, pricing, promotional, and place strategies. The report also includes a discussion on product variations and provides an overview of the key competitors in the cheese manufacturing industry such as Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Company Holdings Limited and Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited. The report concludes by highlighting the challenges and opportunities within the industry, providing a detailed understanding of Bega Cheese Ltd's marketing approach.

Running head: MARKETING REPORT
Marketing Report
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1MARKETING REPORT
Introduction:
The report was commissioned by the marketing principles teacher as a part of the unit.
The aim of the report is to provide an insight into the marketing report that gives an overview of
existing marketing strategy for the present product and the brand available in the consumer
market. The company chosen here is Bega Cheese Ltd and the brands under discussion are
Vegemite and Kraft brands (begacheese.com 2018). The company is completely Australia
owned and distributed and produced higher quality cheese products to the consumers across
Australia and across fifty countries across the world.
The report commenced with a company, brand and competitor analysis. It also undertakes
an environmental analysis for the chosen brand by conducting a macro, micro and SWOT
analysis. The report also discusses about the marketing strategy of the existing product and
product variation. For conducting the marketing strategy of the existing product as well as
product variation the report provided an overview of the product strategy, positioning strategy,
pricing, promotional and place strategy.
Part A: Company, Brand and Competitor Analysis
Company Analysis
Bega Cheese Ltd has its location in the Bega Valley of New South Wales and was
established in the year 1899 (begacheese.com 2018). Initially it was known as the Bega Co-
operative Creamery Company. The company involved in distributing and producing higher
quality cheese products. In fact the company engaged itself in the process of receiving,
processing, manufacturing and distribution of the associated and the diary products. Tatura milk
and Bega Cheese represented the segments of the company.

2MARKETING REPORT
The segment representing the Bega Cheese manufactures processed cheese, natural
cheese, powders, packaged and butter cheese products (begacheese.com 2018). The segment
representing the Tantura Milk packages and manufactures butter, power and cream cheese. The
company also have a bionutrients division involved in the supply and the development of the bio
nutrient ingredients for the nutrition and the health market. This division is a specialized contract
packer of the processed and the natural cheddar products of cheese. The portfolio of the products
in the natural category includes the tasty sticks, strong and bitey sticks, bega mild, bega tasty and
extra tasty cheese. In addition, it also includes, bar-b- cubes and the grated cheese. Besides, the
processed category has super slim and super slices while the snacking category of the kids
includes real cheese for the kids, cheese stringers and original stringers. Further, the Bega
Cheese Limited brought two brands Vegemite and Kraft Brands for a deal of $ 460 million.
Market Capital (Mil.): $1,272.39
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 213.13
Dividend: 0.05
Yield (%): 1.84
Figure 1: Overall Earnings of Bega Cheese Ltd.
Source: (reuters.com 2018)
Brand Analysis:
Brand represents overall experience of the customers that distinguish the organization or
the product from the rivals in front of the customers (Anselmsson, Vestman and Johansson
2014). The concept of brands is used marketing, business and advertising. The benefits of brands
helps in enhancing customer recognition, having a competitive edge in the market, easier

3MARKETING REPORT
introduction of the newer products, enhancing the customer loyalty and the shared values and
enhancement of credibility and the ease of purchase of the products.
Brand perception refers to the ability of the consumers in identification of brand under
the varied conditions and reflected via brand recognition or recall performance (Zenker and
Beckmann 2013). On the other hand, brand equity represented brand liabilities and assets linked
to the brand and thereby detract or add service or the product based on the perspectives of the
customers. The value is reflected in the thought, feel and act of the customers in terms of the
brand.
Bega Cheese Ltd broadened its reach in food industry by acquiring the Kraft and
Vegemite brand thereby gaining control over the range of the household names that spanned
from mayonnaise, peanut butter and processed cheese. The Vegemite brand has rich Vitamin B
(B1, B2, B3 and folate) content and is one of the well known yeast spread of Australia. In other
words, Vegemite contains yeast extracts deliciously concentrated having natural and salted
vegetable seasonings. However, the products under the Kraft brand that Bega Cheese Ltd
acquired the licence for includes, cheese spread, cheese slices, Kraft easy cheese and Mac and
parmesan cheese. These brands acted as a strong building block in enabling the Bega Cheese in
becoming successful in the consumer goods sector and thereby determine futuristic growth
opportunities. However, in order undertake transitional arrangements the ownership of Kraft
brand gets transferred to the controlled group of the United States by the end of the year.
Key Competitors:
Two of the key competitors of Bega Cheese Limited have been Warrnambool Cheese and
Butter Factory Company Holdings Limited and Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited.

4MARKETING REPORT
The Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Company Holdings Limited produce
different range of the diary products for the domestic and the export markets (wcbf.com 2018).
This comprises of cheese, fresh milk, butter and cheese blends and dairy and cream ingredients.
Some of the brands of the company include Cracker Barrel, Coon, Sungol, Cracker Barrel,
Heritage Cheddars and Great Ocean Road. The company collects its milk from the local farms
with the help of the refrigerated tankers which is then processed and allocated to the various
products like butter, cheese and cream.
Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited in association with the subsidiaries manufactures
collects and sells milk and milk products(fonterra.com 2018). The company however offers
specialty and bulk dairy products that include the milk powders, cheese, dairy fats and proteins
from the distributors and the producers across 140 countries. The firm also has operation across
rural retail stores and engages in the farming of the fresh milk. The branded consumer products
of the company include yogurts, powders, butter, cheese and milk.
It has been found that the cheese manufacturing industry have endured various challenges
in the last five years. The varied prices of cheese in the export market, fluctuating Australian
dollar, variance in the local production of milk and shift of the consumer preferences has played
a key role in the performance of the industry. Besides, the increase in the prominence of the
private level cheese along with the constrained domestic prices intensified the competition. Thus,
the industry revenue as a whole is expected to reach $2.8 billion by 2017-18 in a matter of five
years with an annual growth rate of 1.2 percent. This involves an expected growth of 1.3 percent
in the year 2017 -18 due to the recovery of the dairy prices globally.

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References:
Anselmsson, J., Vestman Bondesson, N. and Johansson, U., 2014. Brand image and customers'
willingness to pay a price premium for food brands. Journal of Product & Brand
Management, 23(2), pp.90-102.
begacheese.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.begacheese.com.au/ [Accessed 28 Dec.
2018].
begacheese.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.begacheese.com.au/products/spreads/
[Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].
begacheese.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.begacheese.com.au/export/bega/
[Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].
fonterra.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.fonterra.com/nz/en.html [Accessed 28
Dec. 2018].
reuters.com (2018). [online] Available at:
https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview/BGAta.AX [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].
wcbf.com 2018. [online] Available at: http://www.wcbf.com.au/en/our-products [Accessed 28
Dec. 2018].
Zenker, S. and Beckmann, S.C., 2013. My place is not your place–different place brand
knowledge by different target groups. Journal of Place Management and Development, 6(1),
pp.6-17.