CafePod Coffee Co: Comprehensive Business Analysis and Recommendations

This business report provides a comprehensive analysis of CafePod Coffee Co, a UK-based independent coffee business. The report begins with an introduction to the company, detailing its operations and market position. The main body of the report conducts a thorough SWOT analysis, examining the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It then delves into CafePod's corporate social responsibility initiatives, highlighting its efforts in sustainability and community engagement. Furthermore, the report explores the company's innovation and creativity, including product development and marketing strategies. The report concludes with recommendations for the company to improve its profitability and expand its market reach, including suggestions for product diversification and exploring new markets. The analysis incorporates academic references to support the findings and recommendations.

Marketing Plan

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
SWOT analysis for CafePod Coffee Co.....................................................................................1
Corporate Social Responsibility of CafePod...............................................................................3
Innovation and Creativity in CafePod..........................................................................................3
Recommendation ........................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
CafePod Coffee Co is the chosen company for this project. This company is an
independent coffee business which was established in 2011. This company sells crafted coffee in
retail shops which is imported from South America (Cafepod, 2018). CafePod Coffee Co has
wide range of exciting and strong blends of coffee for the customers to enjoy at home. This
project will use the SWOT analysis for identification of opportunities which CafePod Coffee Co
was able to take in order to make profit, it will also help in understanding the strengths and
weaknesses of the company. With the help of this report the social issue will be understood by
utilizing Corporate social responsibility. Innovation and creativity of CafePod will be understood
with the help of this project. This project concludes with the recommendation of strategies for
increasing the profit of the business.
MAIN BODY
SWOT analysis for CafePod Coffee Co.
CafePod is one of the most favourite coffee brand in UK which provides crafted coffee
and different varieties of Nespresso (Bednarczyk, 2019 ). For ensuring the quality f the coffee
the company conducts various trials before the finalizing of coffee beans. For identification of
strengths and weaknesses of this business SWOT analysis is used.
Strengths :
With the help of this core areas of the business can be understood, with the help of which
it beats the competition. Core competencies of a business are known as its strengths. Different
factors which shows this strength of the company are,
Strong Brand Name -
CafePod has build its brand name in the UK market with the help of its high quality of
crafted coffee. It specialities in Nespresso gives it the edge of other competitors (Bradley and
Botchway, 2018).
Great Aroma -
Coffee of CafePod is famous for its exquisite aroma which is one of the most favourite
aspect of customers for this coffee.
Advertising is Excellent -
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CafePod in-spite of being a small business in UK hasn't been behind in its advertisement
and promotional activities. It has promoted its business on social media and also by providing
free samples of its new products at supermarkets.
Distribution and Availability -
CafePod imports its raw materials of coffee from South America. This company crafts
coffee in the precessing plants which are situated in UK. The capacity of the company for
making the coffee is very high thus there is no scarcity of availability of coffee for the customers.
Weaknesses :
These are the areas in which this company has to struggle due to having limited resources
or skills. Some of these weaknesses for CafePod are,
Underdeveloped Industry -
In the recent years researchers have found coffee to be a little unhealthy product for the
daily consumption. Due to which people have been seen avoiding coffee and caffeine containing
drinks. This make the market of CafePod smaller and limited.
Limited Products -
Although there are different types and flavours of coffee but it is not enough to grow the
business immensely. There will always a limit to the products of this company (Ostime, 2021).
Dependence on Raw Materials -
CafePod's business is very dependent on the raw materials of coffee which it avails form
South America. If there is any dispute between the countries and that stops the trade in-between
them. That might result in the end of business for CafePod.
Opportunities :
This helps for understand how the business performs with the current skills and
resources. With the help of this business can expand and lead itself to diversification. CafePod
can increase its business by entering a new market with the help of easy step like franchising or
can just contact the supermarkets of foreign markets and start doing business with them, The
brand name of CafePod will help the company for increasing its foreign business. CafePod can
open its own coffee shops that can add a new dynamic to the company. It will be able to provide
coffee in cheaper rates with the best of qualities.
Threats :
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With the help of this analysis the company can understand the areas which can impact the
business in present or future. This can prepare the company for the possible upcoming danger.
CafePod has direct and indirect competition from many companies. Many supermarket
companies in which CafePod products are sold have started to manufacture coffee and sell it in
lower prices than CafePod as a result the sale of the product decreases. In recent years the
production of coffee raw material have been facing major issues that can be a huge threat for the
company.
Corporate Social Responsibility of CafePod
CafePod which is a seller of Crafted coffee in UK has been looking for simple ways to
reduce, recycle and reuse in its business practises. The company has planned of doing so by
making the process of production sustainable. Some changes made by the company for making
the world a better place are that it added thermal oxidizers in its plants which reduced the
emission and spread of odour in the environment (Giacalone,,and et.al.,, 2020). The company
also started using biodegradable packages for environmental benefits. Along with that company
has been planting trees around its facilities.
The company has shown its social responsibility by raising funds for charities from its
coffee sales. This company has proven its self very generous toward the society. This is one of
the reason why company was able to build strong brand name despite its small structure.
Understanding the Corporate Social Responsibility has benefited the company by giving an
upper hand in its competition. Customers show great intent while buying its products as a part of
it going to charity. Due to this the employees also feel motivated and encourages as they believe
they are working for not only a successful company but also in a company which focuses on the
society.
Innovation and Creativity in CafePod
CafePod company has shown innovations in its products by adding new flavours to it.
Recently the company has relaunched its products with new packaging. This new packaging
provides new extensions and a multi channel marketing campaign of the company. These ideas
of the company are for build its brand to a super-brand in crafting of coffee. CafePod has been
very smart in their decisions of marketing and creativity (Cafepod, 2018). Since, the start of the
business CafePod has brought up six new generations of its coffee. Every generation is an
evolved form of the previous versions.
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With the help of teams of researchers and scientists CafePod has successfully introduced
healthier version of its coffee. This encourages the customers who are health conscious but also
have the love for coffee to buy the products of CafePod. The biggest innovation the company has
done is the launch of its products in other countries. Due to the limited business capacity of the
company market expansion is very necessary for its growth. CafePod can introduce small stores
or shops of itself in different parts of UK can also be used as distribution centre for online
business.
Recommendation
With the help of the above discussion there are some recommendation for the CafePod
Company in order to improve its business. This company has good brand name but it does not
take a lot for ruining the name of any company. The biggest threat to its name can be said about
its products which is not considered too healthy for its customers. This is the reason why the
company should do more research in order to make its product healthier. The market for this
company is limited from both product and consumer point (Vlados and Chatzinikolaou, 2019)
Therefore, the company should introduce its own stores and bring up some other products. And
for expanding its business the company should enter new markets. The dependency of the
company on its raw materials is a very big risk for the business, it should look for other sources
of its raw materials in order have an alternative for its raw materials. CafePod relies heavily on
other retailer for selling its product, the company should open its own store in the market or can
use the online shopping websites for directly connecting with its customers.
CONCLUSION
This project can be concluded by saying that CafePod has good potential in its business if
it expands its business in foreign markets. The company should use its brand name in advantages
of increasing its customers in other markets. Issue faced by the companies like the dependency
on raw materials could be only dealt with exploration of other sources of coffee beans. CafePod
has been very influential when it comes to the social responsibilities. The company has organised
a team of researchers for preventing the affects of coffee to the humans. CafePod has also been
seen innovating its products with rebranding and adding new flavours to its production.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bednarczyk, A., 2019. A project introducing innovations in a coffee industry company (Doctoral
dissertation, Instytut Technik Wytwarzania).
Bradley, O.J. and Botchway, G.O., 2018. Communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR)
in the coffee industry: an examination of indicators disclosed. Sustainability
Accounting, Management and Policy Journal.
Giacalone, D.,and et.al.,, 2020. How reliable are ‘cupping’scores by coffee experts?.
InEurosense 2020: A sense of Innovation: 9th European Conference on Sensory and
Consumer Research.
Ostime, N., 2021. Small Projects Handbook. Routledge.
Vlados, C. and Chatzinikolaou, D., 2019. Towards a restructuration of the conventional SWOT
analysis. Business and Management Studies, 5(2), pp.76-84.
Online
Cafepod, 2018, Cafe Pod Coffee Company [Online]. Available through:
<https://grocerytrader.co.uk/cafepod-coffee-company-announces-bold-relaunch/>.
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