Cocoa Delights: Expansion Plan, Marketing Objectives and Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Cocoa Delights, a Melbourne-based gourmet chocolate company, and its strategic plan for national expansion. The report begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction outlining Cocoa Delights' current market position and future goals. A detailed discussion section presents the company's mission, vision, values, strategic directions, and targets. The report includes a PEST analysis, examining political, economic, social, and technological factors impacting the business. A SWOT analysis assesses the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It also evaluates the effectiveness of previous marketing activities, identifies critical success factors, and suggests areas for improvement. The report outlines the company's marketing objectives, including a joint venture with Haigh's Chocolates, and emphasizes the importance of increased funding for marketing activities. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and recommendations for Cocoa Delights' long-term growth, emphasizing the importance of digital marketing and PR.

Running head: REPORT
Business Expansion for Cocoa Delights: Marketing Objectives
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1REPORT
Executive summary
Cocoa Delights is one of the famous handmade gourmet chocolate company in Melbourne. It has
15 stores that sell specialized handmade dark chocolate products. Since establishment, it has
been able to gain success and a sustainable market position in the chocolate market of
Melbourne. The company aims to expand its business to 100 stores by 2024 and have a
significance presence in the market of every capital city of Australia. PEST analysis has shown
that the company has stable scenario for growth and there is increase in demand for dark
chocolate products despite falling disposable income. The SWOT analysis shows that it has
skilled staff, and brand awareness among the consumers, however, there is limited funding that is
affecting the marketing activities. Thus, in the new phase of development, it should opt for
greater capital accumulation for digital marketing and PR, and complying with environmental
laws for contributing in sustainability.

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1.0 Introduction
Cocoa Delights is a chain chocolate store with 15 outlets of gourmet dark chocolate in
Melbourne. The company sells handmade dark chocolate products. Cocoa Delights has reached
to its goals set previously and would leap one-step ahead for further development. This report
will present an evaluation of the previous marketing strategies of Cocoa Delights and will
provide a strategic marketing plan for achieving the next phase of development.
2.0 Discussion
2.1 Written statement
Mission: To achieve a brand value and image by providing high quality, gourmet, unique and
handmade dark chocolate products and gain a substantial share in the Australian market. The
company also aims to adopt more measures to contribute in sustainability.
Vision: To become a national retail brand of a wide range of unique, high quality dark chocolate
in the next 5 years, and to provide exceptional customer service from the highly skilled and
dedicated employees.
Purpose: Cocoa Delights wants to expand their business from 22 stores in Melbourne to 100
stores across the country and provide best value to the customers while adopting sustainability
measures.
Values: Cocoa Delights prefers to be unconventional and daring in their creation of gourmet
chocolate. They emphasize on innovation and creativity. Stewardship and adherence to moral

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and professional standards of conduct for the stakeholders, highest level of safety and leadership
for the employees, and commitment to sustainability are the values of the company.
2.2 Strategic directions and targets
Cocoa Delights currently operates with 15 gourmet dark chocolate stores in Melbourne.
In the next 5 years, that is, by 2023, the company wants to expand nationwide with almost 100
stores offering the creative and handmade dark chocolate products. The company also targets to
utilize their strength of sourcing the highest quality cocoa beans for delivering best quality
products and also earn required financial return and margins.
2.3 PEST analysis
PEST analysis is conducted to analyze the external environment of a firm that affects the
business performance and profits. PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social and
Technological factors. PEST analysis for Cocoa Delights is provided in the table below.
Political  Political condition in Australia is stable
 Strict environmental laws have been passed by the government,
promoting energy conservation and efficient waste management
 The government is aiming to take measures such as mentioning the
name of manufacturer country on the imported chocolate products to
gauge market competition
Economic  Interest rate in Australia is rising
 Disposable income of people is falling affecting the spending
capacity
 Unemployment rate increased to 5.8% in 2018 ()

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Social  Demand for chocolates and many cocoa products has been growing
more than expected
 Number of loyal customers increased to around 34,500 in 2018
Technological  Cost of IT
 Delayed rollout of broadband services affecting digital marketing of
the company
2.4 Legal and ethical requirements
The Australian government is allowing the chocolate industry to self-regulate rather than
creating and imposing laws. The new legal requirement is that the imported chocolate products
must have the name of the manufacturer countries. This is a business growth opportunity for
Cocoa Delights as it sells Australia made products. Many companies sell imported chocolates
coming from countries with poor reputation earned for employment and quality ethics. Thus,
strict regulation for maintaining ethical standards for business operations and employment is
followed by Cocoa Delights. The revenues, expenses, profits and investments are fully disclosed
by the company to meet the ethical requirements set by the government.
Another legal and ethical requirement is the adoption of sustainable measures. The issues
of energy conservation and waste management are matter of concerns. The company stores are
designed to have warm and comfortable look and feel, which consume much energy. Thus, with
new laws, the store design must be changed to make more energy efficient and install more
effective waste management system.

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2.5 Impact on current marketing activities
Cocoa Delights wants to expand in the national market and thus, their supply network
should be expanded too across the nation. That would help them to reach out to larger target
customers across all geographic regions. The current marketing activities are targeted for the
local markets of Melbourne, which should be expanded too for entering the national market.
According to the CEO of Cocoa Delights, stores and sales growth were achieved from the
current marketing activities, while the current gross profit margin is 46%, which is lower than
the predicted average gross profit of 63%. As the company is aiming for national level of
expansion, the advertisements in the magazines should target for national magazines, and PR
firms that operate across the nation and not only regionally. Hence, expenditure in these
marketing activities will increase substantially and the content will be created according to the
demands of the national level market.
2.6 SWOT analysis
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and this analysis is
performed to analyze the internal environment of the company. The SWOT analysis is presented
in the table below.
Strengths  Excellently skilled employees
 Great retail space that are bright and give a comfortable feel to
the shoppers
 Wide range of handmade and innovative products, made in
Australia
Weaknesses  Limited budget for marketing

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 Lack of fund raising
Opportunities  Increasing market in high growth areas, such as, capital cities of
Australia.
 Growing opportunities for sales outside Melbourne.
Threats  Economic slump
 Fall in disposable income of people
 High competition from the local competitors
2.7 Evaluation of the effectiveness of previous marketing activities
The previous marketing activities have brought about success for the company. Cocoa
Delights had spent $280,000 on direct marketing, magazines and PR and $60,000 alone on the
radio advertisements. The radio advertisements were successful in increasing the sales; however,
the expenditure amount was unexpected and unplanned. PR was also effective in getting write-
ups on their unique offers. The activities were effective as those increased their customer loyalty
list to 34,500 and brand awareness has increased substantially. 58% of the target customers have
perfect brand recognition and awareness about Cocoa Delights.
2.8 Critical success factors
As the company will expand nationwide, the critical success factors would be increase in
manufacturing and supply to a massive scale. Cocoa Delights specializes in handmade
chocolates, however, that would be a challenge for expanding and achieve sales target. Hence,
target for machine made chocolate has been increased to 30% from 15%. Imports of cocoa beans
and other raw materials should be increased to get better discounts and provide better value to
the customers. Another critical success factor is the digital marketing. In the era dominated by

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advanced technology, digital marketing is very crucial to reach to a wider target market and
create brand awareness. Cocoa Delights must emphasize on effective digital marketing in the
next phase of business expansion.
2.9 Areas for improvement and lessons learned
More funds are required to utilize the PR as that has been proved to be highly effective in
the first phase of expansion in Melbourne. Funds should also be allocated for electronic
advertisements to have a stronger impact on a large target market.
2.10 Objectives
Cocoa Delights will go for a joint venture with Haigh’s Chocolates for an effective
expansion across the nation along with their own brand expansion. The marketing objectives for
Cocoa Delights are:
1. Increase the supply of Cocoa Delights gourmet dark chocolate across all the capital cities
of Australia, achieve more than 18% market share through almost 100 stores by the end
of 2024 and earn break-even target profit of $3 billion.
2. Increase funding for marketing activities to create more brand awareness across the
nation and increase the loyal customer base from 34,500.
Following are the features of the marketing objectives:
 Compatibility: Both the marketing objectives are compatible with the company’s goals
and objectives of expanding the business across the nation.
 Consistency: The Board’s statement is, by 2024, Cocoa Delights will have a significant
presence in the retail chocolate market in every capital city of Australia.

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 Equipped: Resources will be acquired through the joint venture with Haigh’s Chocolates.
This venture will increase number of staff, capital funding, market size, and help in
utilizing the branding.
 Legal: It will comply with the competition rules set by ACCC so that they get adequate
funding for business and brand expansion.
 KPIs: It currently holds 18% of gourmet chocolate market of Melbourne. By 2024, it
aims to hold more than 18% of the chocolate market in every capital city of Australia.
 Risk management: The legal agreement with Haigh’s will need to be made in an ethical
and legislative compliant way. Furthermore, the company needs at least $3 million for
achieving the break-even target for the new stores in the long term to have a sustainable
business.
3.0 Conclusion
The above discussion provides a synopsis of the current and future marketing objectives
of Cocoa Delights to achieve their business plan for becoming a renowned handmade gourmet
chocolate company across Australia. It is a prominent name in the Melbourne’s chocolate market
by selling only Australia-made chocolates. To meet the objectives, it will go for a joint venture
with Haigh’s Chocolates and more funding will be allocated to reach out to the larger target
market in every capital city of Australia. The marketing objectives for the long term includes an
emphasis on their digital marketing strategy and more efficient utilization of PR so that brand
awareness across the nation increases positively for Cocoa Delights.