Marketing Report: Promotional Plan for Burton's Biscuit Maryland Brand

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the marketing practices of Burton's Biscuit Company, with a specific focus on the introduction of their Maryland biscuit brand. The report begins with an overview of the company, its objectives, and a market analysis of the biscuit industry, highlighting market trends and segmentation strategies. It then details the segmentation strategy, including geographical, psychographic, and demographic segmentation, and outlines the target market for the Maryland brand. A key component is the promotional mix, which encompasses personal selling, direct marketing, public relations, sales promotion, and advertising strategies. The report also includes an advertisement message for the Maryland biscuits. Overall, the report provides a detailed promotional plan to attract customers for the new Maryland biscuit brand, and the report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for the company.

Running head: PRACTICE OF MARKETING
Burton’s Food
Practice of Marketing
1/11/2019

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Overview of Burton’s Biscuit................................................................................................2
The objective of Burton's Biscuit to introduce Maryland biscuit brand................................3
Market Analysis of Biscuit Industry......................................................................................3
Segmentation Strategy...........................................................................................................4
Geographical Segmentation...............................................................................................4
Psychographic Segmentation.............................................................................................4
Demographic Segmentation...............................................................................................5
Target Strategy.......................................................................................................................5
Advertisement Message for Maryland biscuits......................................................................5
Promotional Mix................................................................................................................6
Personal Selling..................................................................................................................6
Direct Marketing................................................................................................................7
Public Relations.................................................................................................................7
Sales Promotion.................................................................................................................8
Advertisement....................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 2
Introduction
The business activities and its success majorly based on many interrelated external and
internal forces that are being regularly evaluated by experts and academicians. However, the
subject’s complex nature requires separating the concern into particular aspects of the study
(Galizzi and Venturini, 2012). The marketing function performs a key part in maintaining
contacts of the company with the market. However, the marketing activities scope is
somewhat wide, and part of numerous sorts of marketing activities severely based on the
company’s strategy and its characteristics. On the other side, their role and importance is a
type of function of managerial insights about marketing (Fejza and Asllani, 2013). This study
is focused on analyzing the significance of marketing from the viewpoint of medium and top
level executives of businesses. The aim of this study is to present a promotional plan for the
newly introduced product of Burton’s Biscuit Company i.e. Maryland biscuit brand.
Overview of Burton’s Biscuit
Burton's Biscuit is a manufacturing company of biscuit. Due to the merger between Horizon
Biscuit Company and Burton's Gold Medal Biscuits in 2000, the company was established
and renamed to Burton's Biscuit Company from Burton's Foods in 2011. It hires around 2,200
people in the United Kingdom region, with three key facilities of manufacturing, in
Blackpool, Edinburgh, and Llantarnam, a chocolate plant in Moreton, and a vital delivery
center in Liverpool (Burton’s Biscuit, 2019b). The head office of the company is in St
Albans. In the United Kingdom’s market, Burton's is placed at number 2 in terms of best
quality biscuit and numerous of its products are blended across the globe. George Burton is
the one who baked the very first biscuit. Grandson of George that is Joseph Burton
established Burton's Biscuits, in 1935. The company had a plant in Slough, Berkshire, which
is focused on producing snacks and potato crisps, comprising Fish 'n' Chips and Potato Puffs.

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 3
Because of increasing demand in 2014, Burton's again launched its Fish 'n' Chips (Burton’s
Biscuit, 2019c).
The objective of Burton's Biscuit to introduce Maryland biscuit brand
The objective of Maryland biscuit brand is to offer high-quality cookies in the market at a
premium price for the high-class segment. It is focused on exciting and delighting its
customers, consumers, and shoppers. The company always want to make every day special
for its customers and endure to carry a culture that is not provided by any of the competitors
in the market (Burton’s Biscuit, 2019a).
Market Analysis of Biscuit Industry
The worldwide market of biscuits is anticipated to touch USD 135 billion by 2023, at a
CAGR of 5%. The biscuit market of the world is promising. This market is successful due to
effective strategic planning and decision making related to product selling, type of packaging,
pricing strategy, etc. The demand for biscuits is increasing in the market because of
innovative packaging, technologies, new flavors, and shapes. The key driver of the market
growth is the increasing preference for accessibility and snacking. The explosion of
hypermarkets and supermarkets has resulted in enhanced visibility of the products accessible
in the industry (Digital Journal, 2019). The increasing cost of raw material and tax burden in
the industry will confine the growth of the biscuit market in the coming future. The
increasing interest in the finest products will offer numerous opportunities of the future
growth.
The market of the biscuit is segmented geographically into South America, Asia-Pacific,
North America, Africa, and Europe. This market is presently conquered by Europe, trailed by
North America. The development in these areas evidently lags behind the predictable growth
of the market in the emerging nations. Asia-Pacific signifies the fastest developing market for

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 4
biscuits, majorly controlled by India and China. In terms of production, India is considered
the third biggest producer of biscuits after China and the United States (PR News Wire,
2018).
Segmentation Strategy
Segmentation is the strategy adopted by the business to divide the market into different
segments that are definable, reachable, profitable, and actionable, and possess the potential of
growth. Similarly, for a business, it is impossible to target the whole market due to cost, time,
and effort. It requires having a determined segment or a mass of people that could be
recognized and targeted with rational time, cost, and effort (Weinstein, 2013). There are
different types of strategies to target the market some of them are explained below adopted
by Maryland Biscuit:
Geographical Segmentation
This kind of segmentation divides the market depending on geography (Dolnicar, Grün and
Leisch, 2018). Maryland Biscuits will be majorly introduced in the United Kingdom market
at its initial stage in order to offer high quality cookies. However, after successful
establishment company will grow its market and will expand its operations in different
markets.
Psychographic Segmentation
This type of segmentation highlights the lifestyle of people, their interest, activities, and
opinions to determine a market segment. Besides this, psychological segmentation also takes
into account the psychological elements of buying behavior of the customers. These elements
could be social standing, and lifestyle of the customers.
The Maryland biscuit will target high-class customers who can afford to pay a premium price
for the cookies.

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 5
Demographic Segmentation
This type of segmentation is the simplest form with the broad target market. Demographic
segmentation normally divides the population depending on different variables. Therefore,
demographic segmentation to its kind of variables like family, occupation, race, nationality,
income, gender, etc. (Weinstein and Cahill, 2014). Maryland Biscuit from Burton's Biscuit
Company will segment its market based on income. The customers with good disposable
income will be aimed to target its advertisement.
Target Strategy
The assortment of prospective customers, who are aimed by the business to vend its services,
is known as targeting. This strategy comprises segmenting the market, selecting which
sections of the market are suitable, and defining the products that will be provided in every
segment. A company providing numerous products in the market can define if the numerous
sections must get one general product, or if each segment must get modified products,
depending on the competition, maturity, and diversity of the market and the expected sales
volume (Baiden, 2012). The Maryland Biscuits are designed to offer high quality and taste to
the customers in the United Kingdom market. They are considered as the premium product
that will be sold at premium rates. Moreover, it will advertise its products to attract children,
youngsters, and adult generation. Customers with good income will be targeted through the
promotional activities of the business such that the company can earn good revenue.
Advertisement Message for Maryland biscuits
Everything in just a bite

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 6
Source [By Author, 2019)]
Promotional Mix
The promotional mix is one of the 4Ps of market mix and comprised of public relations, sales
promotion, advertising, and personal selling. It is considered as all the sorts of
communication that is used by the organization in order to establish meaning for service, as
along with a way to affect the customers buying behavior. A promotional mix must be
intended in a manner that notifies the target market about the benefits, products, and values
offered (Cummins and Mullin, 2010). This educational feature supports the company in
attaining an advantage in contradiction of the competition, which eventually supports in
increasing sales.
Personal Selling
It is generally the costly strategy but is the operative strategy in the promotional mix. It is
effective as it creates a long-term relationship between the employee and the client. This
strategy offers a greater benefit for the business as it involves a large amount of investment.
In order to promote Maryland Biscuits company will make use of different sales

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 7
representatives who will have direct contact with the customers to encourage them to
purchase these biscuits.
Direct Marketing
In direct marketing businesses, make use of technology in order to target customers
individually, for example, applications, catalogs, telephone calls, and e-mails. Direct
marketing strategy is very effective because it is focused on targeting individuals that invest a
small amount at a different time because they cannot spend huge amount frequently. Many
businesses make use of e-mail to contact customers and attract them to purchase the products
(Housden and Thomas, 2012). In order to target customers and enforce them to purchase
Maryland Biscuits, Burton's Biscuits Company can use direct marketing strategy such as
sending e-mails, promoting through the company's website, application, etc.
Public Relations
All the businesses need to adopt a public relation strategy but many times, they avoid it
because they classically link it with dealing with adverse circumstances that can influence the
image of a company. On the positive side, press release, grand opening, newsletters, social
media, and major events execute a campaign of Public Relations. Social media is mainly a
valuable tool to execute public relations as the multitudes in large amount use it and love it.
On the adverse side, experiencing adverse circumstances is somewhat that a director of public
relations must in a point to handle efficiently (Bernays, 2013). A good manager of Public
Relations must be vibrant to manage negative as well as positive circumstances.
Burton’s Biscuits will use public relation strategy to attract customers using famous
celebrities in the advertising campaigns. Moreover, social media is another tool that could be
used to target individual customers to purchase Maryland Biscuits. According to research,

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 8
around 62% of the population make use of social media in search of news (Gaitho, 2018).
The percent of every age group use different platforms to get news are:
65+ 50-64 30-49 18-29
Radio 23 30 26 15
Television 86% 71% 44% 28%
Print
Newspaper
49 22 9 6
Online 19 30 48 51
Source [(Gaitho, 2018)]
Around a quarter of the population of the world is presently using Facebook. Direct
Marketing will have a major influence on the target market of Maryland Biscuit.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion offers a chance to enforce consumers to purchase a specific product or
service.
Attraction factor
Sales promotion strategy is specifically very useful in the industry as numerous numbers of
people are not ready to pay complete price for a holiday package. However, when they
receive a 20% off as a promotion they are attracted to the product instantly (Kaniz, 2014).
Being a premium sector product Maryland Biscuit will not majorly give focus towards sales
promotions or discounts to the customers on its product. Because according to the customers,
product with discounts and low price is not considered a good product.

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 9
Advertisement
Advertisement performs a major part in the promotion of the business. Social Media,
Newspaper, TV, and radio advertisement play a key part in defining the ways of targeting
consumers and the ways consumers will react to it.
Burton's Biscuit will invest a huge amount of money in the television advertisement to attract
customers to buy Maryland Biscuits. Television advertisement has a key influence on the
customers as they provide complete information regarding products and its benefits to the
customers.
Conclusion
The above report has provided a detailed presentation of the promotional mix for the Burton’s
Biscuits Company to introduce their one of the premium brand in the market that is Maryland
Biscuits. The report is comprised of numerous aspects of the business such as objective to
introduce Maryland biscuit in the market, target market and segmentation strategy of the
business, and its promotional message that can support in attracting major part of the target
market. It has also provided details of the all the parts of promotional mix strategy and the
way they will be used by the company to promote their offering in the United Kingdom
market. From the analysis, it has been recognized that Maryland Biscuits is introduced in the
market as a premium brand that will be served to high-income class customers with the high
living standard. Therefore, in order to attract those customers company will make use of sales
promotion, public relations, direct marketing as the promotional tools.

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 10
References
Burton’s Biscuit (2019a) Making everyday more of a treat [online]. Available from
http://www.burtonsbiscuits.com/what-makes-us-special/corporate-social-responsibility/
[accessed 10 January 2019]
Baiden, J.E. (2012) Inflation Targeting: Why the Value of Money Matters to You 1st ed. US:
Xlibris Corporation.
Bernays, E.L. (2013) Public Relations 1st ed. U.S: University of Oklahoma Press.
Burton’s Biscuit (2019b) Our History [online]. Available from
http://www.burtonsbiscuits.com/what-makes-us-special/our-history/ [accessed 10 January
2019]
Burton’s Biscuit (2019c) We have a Pride [online]. Available from
http://www.burtonsbiscuits.com/ [accessed 10 January 2019]
Cummins, J., and Mullin, R. (2010) Sales Promotion: How to Create, Implement and
Integrate Campaigns that Really Work 5th ed. U.S: Kogan Page Publishers.
Digital Journal (2019) Biscuits Industry Analysis, Future Growth, Business Prospects and
Worldwide Foresight to 2022 [online]. Available from
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Dolnicar, S., Grün, B., and Leisch, F. (2018) Market Segmentation Analysis: Understanding
It, Doing It, and Making It Useful 1st ed. Germany: Springer.

PRACTICE OF MARKETING 11
Fejza, E., and Asllani, A. (2013) The Importance Of Marketing In Helping Companies With
Their Growth Strategies: The Case Of Food Industry In Kosovo. European Scientific Journal,
9(16), 326-335.
Gaitho, M. (2018) What Is the Real Impact of Social Media? [online]. Available from
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Galizzi, G., and Venturini, L. (2012) Economics of Innovation: The Case of Food Industry 2nd
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PR News Wire (2018) Opportunities in the Global Biscuit Market to 2023: Increasing
Demand for Convenience Food is Driving Growth [online]. Available from
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/opportunities-in-the-global-biscuit-market-to-
2023-increasing-demand-for-convenience-food-is-driving-growth-300699345.html [accessed
10 January 2019]
Weinstein, A. (2013) Handbook of Market Segmentation: Strategic Targeting for Business
and Technology Firms 3rd ed. US: Routledge.
Weinstein, A., and Cahill, D.J. (2014) Lifestyle Market Segmentation 1st ed. U.S: Routledge.