Cocoa Delight's Marketing Plan: Analysis, Strategies & Tactics

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Cocoa Delight's marketing plan, evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities within the Australian gourmet chocolate market. It examines the company's current marketing mix, segmentation strategy, and competitive positioning against major players like Lindt and Green & Black's. The report identifies areas for improvement, including expanding the company's online presence through e-commerce, diversifying its supply chain to mitigate risks, and adopting a more competitive pricing strategy to reach a broader customer base. Furthermore, it assesses the feasibility and ethical considerations of proposed marketing tactics, highlighting the importance of aligning marketing strategies with organizational objectives and implementing a robust performance review strategy to ensure continuous improvement. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and study resources for students seeking to enhance their understanding of marketing principles and practices.

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

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Assessment 1:
Assessment 1A. Marketing Plan for Coca Delight:
Part 1. An evaluation of the marketing options:
It can be evaluated from an analysis of the case study that Cocoa Delight has several
marketing opportunities under its control to strengthen its position in Australia. The current
marketing mix which Cocoa Delight uses to market its products can be divided into the four
parts as follows:
Product:
First of all, the main unique selling proposition of the company is that its authentic Australian
origin. The main ingredients like milk, fruits and nuts which are used in the manufacture of the
chocolate confectionary are sourced from Australia. The second attribute of Cocoa Delight
products which help the company market the products is that products come in different variants
to suit the lifestyle of the customer segments. For example, the Cocoa Delight dark chocolate
confectionary items are available in variants like fat free and dairy free. This means that the
company has already adopted niche marketing to offer more customer specific cocoa
confectionary products. The third aspect of the products of Cocoa Delight is that its products are
of superior quality and European style dark chocolate made. Thus, this shows that customer
preferences occupy an important position in the marketing mix of Cocoa Delight.
Price:
The pricing strategy of Cocoa Delight forms an important part of its marketing mix. The
company provides European dark chocolate to its target customers. The company’s target

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customer base consisted of upper class customers residing in the two and cities. These two
factors allowed to the company to follow premium pricing strategy to price its products.
Place:
The place strategy of Cocoa Delight consisted of its own outlets and retail chains. This
allowed the customers to purchase the products of the company easily.
Promotion:
The company in order to acquire a larger share of Australian gourmet market adopted an
omni-channel approach of promotion. Section 3.7 of the case study mentions that the company
promoted its products on audio-visual media like television and on the digital platform. The
company also promoted its products on radio and on magazines. This enables the company to
market its products among a large consumer base.
Part 2. Marketing strategies:
An analysis of the present marketing strategy in the third section of the case study shows
that Cocoa Delight utilised its present strengths and weaknesses. For example, the case study in
the ‘SWOT analysis’ mentions that the company prices its goods using competitive pricing and
maintains high quality parameters for its products. These two facts can be verified by the
marketing strategy of the company. The segmentation section of marketing strategy of the
company takes into account three main segments of customers namely, rich individual
customers, professionals who consume gourmet chocolate while working and catering orders of
events, all of which are capable of generating huge revenue for the company. Thus, it is evident
that the marketing strategy of the company are aligned to its strengths and weaknesses.

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It can however be pointed out that in order to achieve these marketing strategies, the
company would be required to acquire more resources and talents. The company in order to
cocoa from foreign markets at lower costs, should acquire overseas cocoa supplying firms.
Similarly, the company needs to acquire teams of cocoa researchers which would conduct open
innovation. This would enable the company to introduce innovative ranges of chocolate products
to its customers to boost customer satisfaction and generate higher revenue.
Part 3. Marketing tactics that are legal, ethical, achievable and can be achieved:
The marketing tactics of Cocoa Delight are comply with the laws of Australia and ethical
but not achievable. This fact can be established considering two factors into account. First, the
two main competitors of Cocoa Delight as mentioned in the case study, namely Green & Black’s
and Lindt are owned by Mondelez International and Chocoladefebriken Lindt & Sprungli AG
respectively both of which are public limited companies with immense global presence
(Greenandblacks.co.uk. 2019). Secondly, the marketing mix section (section 3.7) of the case
study mentions that company uses retail chains to sell its products to end customers. Thus, it can
be pointed out that the company does not use ecommerce to sell which obviously limits its
revenue generation. Ryan and Daly (2019) mention that generation of higher revenue enables the
business organisations to allocate higher amounts of financial resources towards important
operational areas like marketing of goods. Thus it can be pointed out in this respect that Cocoa
Delight owing to its lack of ecommerce sell of goods generates lower revenue. The case study
that the management has allocated AUD 3 million towards advertising expenses. However,
considering the low revenue generation it can be pointed out that the sales target which the
marketing tactics of the company aim to achievable under the present revenue generation which
is not sufficient to cover the rising business needs of the company.

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Part 4. The costs, scheduling, responsibilities and accountabilities for the identified tactics:
An analysis of the costs, scheduling, responsibilities and accountability for the identified
tactics shows that the same suffers from several disparities. Firstly, according to the sales
forecast of Cocoa Delight, the target sales would increase by 10 percent in the first year and 15
percent in the third year. However, in sales forecast calculated below shows that the sales
increased by 10 percent in both the years instead of 15 percent in the second year. Secondly, the
company did not set any target to reduce the expenditures. The expenditures increased by 10
percent in both the years and did not show any cost cutting strategy. These anomalies between
the scheduling of the forecast and the actual accounting as shown below pointed out to the lack
of responsibility on the side of the apex management in managing cost centres of the company.
Forecast calculations
Particulars 2016 2017 2018
Total sales
1400000
0
1540000
0
1694000
0
Less: Prime costs 8500000 9075000 9476500
Gross profit 5500000 6325000 7463500
Direct expenses 70000 77000 84700
Magazine advertisement 150000 165000 181500
Radio promotions 60000 66000 72600
Total expenses 280000 308000 338800
Net profits 5220000 6017000 7124700
Part 5. Strategic use of marketing approaches and marketing mix:
An analysis of the case study of Cocoa Delight shows that the company applied
marketing strategies and marketing mixes strategically to achieve its marketing objectives. This
is evident from the marketing mix of the company and STP (segmentation, targeting and
positioning) strategy of the company.

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Part 6. Rationale for the objectives and chosen strategies and tactics:
It is evident from the discussion that the rationale of Cocoa Delight towards the chosen
strategies and tactics was to achieve competitive advantage in the Australian gourmet chocolate
market. This is because the two largest competitors of Cocoa Delights namely, Lindt and Green
& Black’s were already more strongly established in the Australian gourmet chocolate market
(Chocolate.lindt.com. 2019). Page 19 of the case study clearly mentions that the company
required to form an aggressive marketing strategy to counteract the marketing strategies of these
two companies.
Assessment 1B. Adjusted Marketing Plan for Coca Delight:
Devising marketing strategies:
Evaluating marketing opportunity options that address, organizational objectives and
evaluate their risks and return in the selection process:
The evaluation of the case study and the marketing plan of Cocoa Delight above with
emphasis on the marketing opportunities in the light of the organisational objectives, it can be
pointed out that the company requires to amend its strategies to ensure better risk management as
well as higher returns from investment. For example, the company has to compete with Black &
Green’s and Lindt both of which market their products on the ecommerce platform. Cocoa
Delight has no ecommerce presence which would reduce its revenue generation in comparison to
these two powerful competitors. This fall in revenue would attract revenue risks as well as
competitive risks for the company. Similar, the supply chain of Cocoa Delight in most of its
important raw materials namely, fruits, nuts and dairy products are limited within Australia. This
means that in the events of future shortages of these raw materials within Australia, the

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manufacturing of Cocoa Delight would be hampered, thus creating productivity risks and
revenue risks. Thus, it can be established on the grounds of the discussion that the present
marketing strategies of Cocoa Delight are insufficient to cover the market risks which the
company would face while operating in the Australian gourmet chocolate market.
Development marketing strategies that address strengths and opportunities within the
organisation projected capabilities and resources:
Cocoa Delight should bring about third changes in the marketing strategies to ensure
stronger management of market risks. The first change is that, the place strategy of the
marketing mix should be expanded to incorporate ecommerce marketing of products. The
second change is that the company should expand its supply chains overseas as well. This would
enable the company to manage supply chain risks which Cocoa Delight may face in the future in
the event of shortage of supply of raw materials like fruits and nuts in the Australian market. The
company in order to gain a large base of consumers in Australia and generate higher revenue,
should also use economic pricing strategy which would be the third change. This would enable
the company to market products to the lower class customers and generate higher revenue, thus
boosting its financial strength against competitors like Lindt. The management of the company
should obtain feedback from stakeholders like employees, customers, shareholders and suppliers
Development strategies which increase resources or organisational expertise where gaps
exist between current capability and marketing objectives:
Cocoa Delight in order to implement the three changes specified above should increase
its resources. These lack of ecommerce marketing, premium pricing as the only pricing strategy
and a supply chain restricted within Australia can be viewed as the gap between the current
capability and the marketing objectives. The company would be required to develop three

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strategies to lower this gap. They are launching ecommerce marketing of its products, spreading
its supply chain overseas and incorporating economic pricing strategy in its marketing mixes.
Developing feasible marketing strategies and communicate reason that justifies their
selection:
Cocoa Delight should develop the three strategies described above. The management of
the company should communicate their justification of their selection to the stakeholders. For
example, launching its own ecommerce portal would enable the company sell its products to a
larger customer base. The justification for the same which the management would give to the
stakeholders would be that ecommerce marketing of goods would enable the company earn
higher revenue, thus manage revenue risks,
Ensuring strategies align with organisation’s strategic direction:
The implementation of the three changes in the marketing strategies of Cocoa Delight
would be aligned with the business requirements and marketing objectives of the company. They
would facilitate generation of high revenue and achievement of higher market position of Cocoa
Delight.
Developing a marketing performance review strategy, incorporating appropriate
marketing metrics to review to review the organisation’s strategic direction:
The new strategy to review marketing performance would be incorporating the
appropriate parameters to measure the performance of the strategies. The first metric to measure
the performance would be profit comprising of both gross profit and net profit. Enhanced gross
profit would show enhanced revenue generation while the increase in net profit would be
increased control over expenditures. The second parameter would be comparing the brand value

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of Cocoa Delight post implementation of the strategies. Increase in the brand value would mean
that company has strengthened its position in the Australian market.
Planning marketing tactics:
The management of Cocoa Delight should plan the marketing tactics by involving all the
employees. The company should also hire marketing consultant firms to form the marketing
tactics.
Detailing tactics to implement each marketing strategy in terms of scheduling, costing,
accountabilities and persons responsible:
The apex management should ensure that the strategies are aligned with the business
requirements of Cocoa Delight. The management should schedule. cost, account and allocate
responsibilities to rectify the accounting anomalies pointed out above.
Identifying coordination and monitoring mechanisms for scheduled, costing,
accountabilities and persons responsible:
The management of Cocoa Delight should identify managers who would be responsible
for scheduling, cost and accounting. This would enhance the efficiency of implementation of the
strategies pointed in the previous section.
Identifying coordination and monitoring mechanisms for scheduled activities:
The management of Cocoa Delight should coordinate the monitor the entire mechanism
of forming the marketing strategy. The apex managers should hold meetings with the
departmental heads to monitor the progress of the marketing strategy making on regular basis.
The monitoring mechanism should include discussion of marketing reports, budgets and time
lines. This apex managers should also recommend corrective actions in specific areas.

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Ensuring tactics are achievable within organisation’s projected capabilities and budget:
The apex management should ensure that the strategies are achievable within the
projected capabilities and budget. The accounts department must coordinate with the marketing
department to ensure that sufficient funding is available towards implementation of the
marketing strategies.
Ensure tactics meet legal and ethical requirements:
The apex management must ensure that the strategies comply with the legal and ethical
requirements. This would enable the avoiding the risks which the company might face due to
infringement of laws and using unethical means to achieve the marketing strategies.
Ensuring tactics provide for ongoing review of performance against objectives and budget
and allow marketing targets to be adjusted if necessary:
The apex management of Cocoa Delight should ensure that the ongoing implementation
of the strategies against the objectives and the budget. The apex management should also allow
changes to be made if the situations demand.
Preparing and presenting a marketing plan:
Attached
Ensuring marketing plan meets organisational, as well as marketing, objectives and
incorporates marketing approaches and a strategic marketing mix:
Attached

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Ensuring marketing plan contains a rationale for objectives and information that supports
the choice of strategies and tactics:
Attached
Presenting marketing plan for approval in the required format and timeframe:
Attached
Adjusting marketing plan in response to feedback from key stakeholders and disseminate
for implementation within the required timeframe:
Attached
Assessment Task 2:
Answer 1.
The term organisational structure can be defined as the methods in which organisations
functions and decisions are taken. Pedersen, Gwozdz and Hvass (2018) defines the term
organisational structure as the alignment of the apex management with the departments which
facilitates making and implementation of strategic decisions like marketing, innovation as well
as sustainability decisions.
The term product can be defined as anything which is offered to the consumers to satisfy
their needs in exchange of money. Baltes (2015) defines that term product as goods and services
which are offered in the market for sale to customers to create value to the latter. The value over
here refers to the benefits which the consumption of products result to consumers. Intangible
products are called services. For example, the chocolate confectionary items which Cocoa
Delights offered to final consumers are products.

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The main aim of overall strategic and marketing objectives is to ensure higher revenue of
companies. The marketing objectives of companies also consist of acquisition of new consumer
base, expansion of markets and promotion of the brand value of the company.
Answer 2.
The common marketing opportunity options are as follows:
1. Building of strategic alliances and partnerships with stakeholders like suppliers to strengthen
the business model.
2. Introducing new goods and/or services (products) to specific markets to boost revenue
generation
3. Achievement of deeper rates of market penetration with exitsing products and acquisition of
new consumers.
4. Acquisition of new businesses to strengthen asset value.
5. Explore more business options like entering new host countries.
6. Generation of higher revenue.
7. Boosting competitive advantage in the market.
8. Increase sales volume and reduce costs.