Developing a Marketing Plan: A Case Study of Kebab Thyme in Australia

This report provides a detailed analysis of Kebab Thyme's marketing plan, a Central Asian fast-food restaurant in Australia. It examines the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the competitive fast-food market, dominated by international players. The analysis incorporates tools like the BCG matrix, which categorizes Kebab Thyme's products as both 'stars' and potential 'question marks,' and the Ansoff matrix, which identifies product development and market penetration as key strategies. The report suggests that Kebab Thyme should leverage its brand for market development and diversification, particularly through international expansion. The proposed marketing plan aims to enhance the company's competitiveness, profitability, and customer loyalty by focusing on strategic branding and marketing mix strategies, ultimately measuring success through financial and market performance metrics.

Running head: MARKETING PLAN OF KEBEB THEYME
Marketing Plan of Kebab Thyme
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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MARKETING PLAN OF KEBEB THEYME
Executive Summary:
The marketing plans of the firms operating in the fast changing markets have become
strategically very challenges. The assignment studies the marketing plans of Kebab Thyme, a
Central Asian fast food restaurant in Australia. The firm operates in the highly competitive
fast food market in Australia, which has strong presence of international players like KFC.
The firms require to base their marketing plan on several tools like BCG matrix and Ansoff
tool which helps them to study the market and judge their products, their strengths and
weaknesses. The BCG matrix shows that Kebab Thyme operates in the competitive market
and has two types of products each corresponding to a quarter on the matrix. The new
products correspond to the star quadrant while the products in maturity stage corresponding
to the star category. The firm, according to Ansoff matrix practices product development and
market penetration. However, it should use its brand position to gain market development and
diversification. The firm has no presence beyond the shores of Australia. Its marketing
strategy should aim towards foreign expansion and position its brand internationally. Its
marketing plan will help it to gain more competitive and profitability in the market.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary:..................................................................................................................1
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................4
Overview:...............................................................................................................................4
Report aim:.............................................................................................................................4
Structure:................................................................................................................................4
Scope:.....................................................................................................................................5
Correlated situation analysis:.....................................................................................................5
Strengths:....................................................................................................................................5
Weaknesses:...........................................................................................................................6
Opportunities:.........................................................................................................................6
Threats:...................................................................................................................................7
Product lifecycle(PLC) analysis:................................................................................................7
Introduction stage:..................................................................................................................7
Growth Stage:.........................................................................................................................8
Maturity:.................................................................................................................................8
Decline stage:.........................................................................................................................8
BCG matrix:...............................................................................................................................9
Cash Cows:.............................................................................................................................9
Dogs:....................................................................................................................................10
Question marks:...................................................................................................................10

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Stars:.....................................................................................................................................10
Ansoff analysis:........................................................................................................................11
Three main marketing objectives based on BCG, Ansoff and PLC:.......................................11
Increase in competitiveness:................................................................................................11
Increase in profitability:.......................................................................................................12
Customer loyalty and growth:..............................................................................................12
Branding positioning strategy according to the marketing mix:..............................................12
Framework of marketing matrix:.............................................................................................13
Kebab Thyme can measure its success on the basis of the matrix. For example, it can
compare the revenues it generates during and after offer a discount. The difference in profits
would show the result achieved by floating the promotional offer. Thus, this analysis shows
that marketing matrix can be used by Kebab Thyme to measure its financial and market
performance..............................................................................................................................14
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................14
References:...............................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
The aim of the report is to study the marketing plan of an organisation.
Marketing plan of an organisation has encompasses several aspects like its branding strategy,
its market position, the position of its products on the BCG matrix and its product lifecycle
analysis(PLC). Hence, in order to develop a more holistic approach into marketing plan, the
assignment will take into account all these factors against the background of a restaurant in
Australia serving mainly delicacies from Asian countries like Iran called Kebab Thyme.
Overview:
Marketing plans or strategies of commercial organisations are formed based on the
marketing objectives. The top management have to take into account several factors related to
the market environment like the product lifecycle of the product being studied, its brand
positioning strategy and target customers. In fact it can be pointed that all these factors are
interrelated and companies consider all these factors while making marketing plans. The
paper looks into preparing marketing plans for a commercial organisation. The chosen
organisation is Kebab Thyme, a restaurant in Australia presenting tasty Central Asian dishes
with western touch. The report closely delves into these concepts like branding positioning
and BCG matrix in the light of Kebab Thyme(Thyme 2017).
Report aim:
The aim of the report is to prepare marketing plan for a commercial organisation. The
aim is also to delve into important aspects of marketing plans like segmentation, targeting
and position of products in the market.

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Structure:
The assignment opens a study of correlated situation analysis followed by a PLC
analysis. The next section is a BCG matrix based on the products of Kebab Thyme followed
by an Ansoff analysis. A set of three marketing objectives based on Ansoff, BCG and PLC
follows this section. This is followed by a brand positioning strategy based on marketing
objectives of the Kebab Thyme. The last section, the marketing metrics section delves into
how Kebab Thyme measures success and its outcomes of its business objectives.
Scope:
The scope of the study is marketing plan which is a vast area of study spanning
related topics like brand equity and positioning. The paper also includes matrices and figures
to present the study in a more lucid way before the reader.
Correlated situation analysis:
Kebab Thyme sells Central Asia food items like kebabs presented in Mexican and
Ottaman style to appeal to the local population. The following is the situation analysis of the
restaurant:
Strengths:
1. The main strength of Kebab Thyme is its high quality food products, which are available at
very affordable prices. The customer review shows that the customers enjoy food offered by
Kebab Thyme. They also enjoy the ambience offered by the restaurant and the services of its
trained staffs. This shows that the restaurant enjoys a very big base of loyal customers and
very high market position in Australian fast food market(zomato.com. 2017).
2. The restaurant allows online ordering of food items using its official website portal. The
customers can also order food using food ordering and delivery portals like Zomato. This

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shows that the restaurant is financially very strong which enables it to invest in technology
and ecommerce marketing(Ryan 2016).
3. The strong financial and technological strength of Kebab Thyme allow bring about
innovation in its product line and bring about more innovative products like The Mexican
Kebab which combines Central Asian and Mexican tastes. This helps the restaurant to serve a
large base of customers having diverse tastes.
Weaknesses:
1. The biggest weakness of Kebab Thyme is the challenge it faces due to rise in health
consciousness among the Australian people. The Australian people are increasing becoming
aware of the harmful impacts of fast food on their bodies like obesity. The government of the
Australia also impose certain restrictions on the fast food businesses like increase in tax.
These taxes raise the expenditure of the restaurant(Poti et al. 2014).
2. The fast food industry is less well developed compared to other industries like automobile
and construction. Hence, Kebab Thyme finds it difficult to attract highly qualified and
experienced human resources. This weakness of the fast food industry as a whole increases
the operating costs of Kebab Thyme.
Opportunities:
1. Kebab Thyme must expand its product line to incorporate Australian dishes like pea and
ham soup. This will give it the opportunity to appear more Australian and attract more
customers(Woodgate 2017).
2. Kebab Thyme must incorporate health food product variant of like kebabs having less oil
and salt. This would help the company attract the health conscious customers as well which
will increase its revenue generation. This offering food with less oil and spices would help

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the restaurant to counteract the controversies it faces due to impact of its food product on the
consumers’ health.
Threats:
1. The restaurant has a limited presence within Australia and receives threats from all local
fast food sellers. Kebab Thyme receives bigger threats from international fast food giants like
KFC and McDonalds as well. These fast chains serve pastas and pizzas, which are apparently
healthier than kebabs and wraps. Thus, they succeed in attracting more customers than Kebab
Thyme.
2. The restaurant as pointed out faces serious threats from the society owing to the hamrmful
impacts of its fast food products on the consumers. Kebab Thyme faces criticisms from
media, government bodies and the society at large. It is also threatened by the legal actions
and probes initiated by the government bodies.
Product lifecycle(PLC) analysis:
Product lifecycle of PLC of food products of Kebab Thyme consist of four stages
namely, introduction, growth stage, maturity and decline stage. The following are the analysis
of the product lifecycle stages of food items introduced by Kebab Thyme:
Introduction stage:
Kebab Thyme introduces new food items on its menu cards to serve diverse and
continuously changing needs of the customers. The restaurant introduces new food products
and advertises them in various ways to raise customer awareness and demand for them. The
products in the introductory stage do not attract high demand from the customers and hence
does not generate much revenue. The restaurant has to inject huge amount of money into the
promotion of new products to generate maximum demand and to ensure that they start

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generating revenue from the customers. It advertises its new food products at the important
crossings and in important places like shopping malls and airports. The firm also advertises
its food products on the digital platform like Zomato and on its own official website(Morais
2016). This enables the new products in the introduction of their lifecycle attracts a large
customer base(Ros 2016).
Growth Stage:
As per Wellner(2015) the food products in the growth stage experience strong growth
in demand and sale. This growth in demand and sale for the products happen due to extensive
promotional activities carried out by Kebab Thyme to make its new products famous among
its customers. These food products in their growth stage start attracting large consumer base
and generating revenue.
Maturity:
Fawole and Opara(2013) state that products in the maturity stage generate huge
revenue and requires very little investment from the firm to promote them. This is because
the food products in the maturity stage already have their individual loyal base of customers
who consume them regularly. The kebab items like The Mexican receive huge orders from
the buyers both in the restaurant and over the online food ordering portals like Zomato. These
food products in the maturity stage earn huge revenue for the firm. The firm can redirect the
revenue it earns from sale of products in maturity towards promotion of products in
introductory and growth stages(Cooper 2014).
Decline stage:
The food products in this stage generate very demand because they fail to meet the
new demands of the consumers. The lack of demand of such products lead to fall in their
profit generation. Kebab Thyme deals with the food items in this stage in two ways. First, it

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withdraws the products in decline stage and introduces new products. Second, it introduces
new variants of the product in decline stage for example, if the product in decline stage is a
ham category, the firm introduces new product, which is of chicken or pork category. The
firm in both the cases introduces the new products by treating them like products in the
introductory stage(Fuller 2016).
BCG matrix:
The Boston Consultancy Group Matrix can be divided into four components namely,
cash cows, dogs, question marks and stars. The explanation of these four basis and the
analysis of the food products of Kebab thyme are as follows:
Cash Cows:
The cash cows are applicable for products which enjoy high market share in a slow
growing market. The companies generate huge revenue by selling them and have to spend
very little on boosting their market demand because they already share strong market share.
The graph points out to the steady increase in fast food outlets in Australia, which shows that
fast food market in Australia is growing very fast. This analysis shows that the fast food does
not belong to the category of cash cows because they deal in slow growing markets(Cantwell
2015).

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Figure 1. Graph showing increase in the numbers if fast outlets in Australia
(Source: Baker 2017)
Dogs:
The dogs refer to products, which experience low demand in slow growing industries.
It can be pointed from the graph above that fast food is a fast growing industry and hence,
Kebab Thyme, being a part of the industry does not fall into the category of dogs.
Question marks:
The question marks represent the products which have low market share in high
growth market. An analysis of the statement shows that it is related to newly introduced
products in the market. Thus, the newly introduced products by Kebab Thyme come under
this category(Fenwick, Kaal and Vermeulen 2017).
Stars:
The stars represent products, which enjoy high market value in a fast moving market.
As per Markey and Watson(2017) the expenditure on fast food in Australia is expected to

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grow more than $37 billion in 2017. This shows that the fast food market in Australia is
growth very fast and the positive reviews Kebab Thyme receives shows that it enjoys a high
market share. Thus, the established food items of the restaurant belong to this category. In
short, the new food products of Kebab Thyme belong to the question mark category while the
established food items belong to star category, which is shown in the figure below.
Stars ?(New products of Kebab Thyme)
Cash cows Dogs(Established products of Kebab Thyme)
Figure 2. BCG matrix showing positions of Kebab Thyme's products
(Source: Authors)
Ansoff analysis:
The strategic planning tool of Ansoff matrix stands on four pillars namely, market
penetration, market development, product development and diversification. The firms use
market penetration to enter deeper into the existing markets in order to gain higher market
capturing. The firms enter new markets with their existing products, which are known as
market development. The companies enter existing markets using new products, which are
known as product development(Fung 2014). The entering of new markets with new products
is known as diversification. Kebab Thyme takes to market penetration by promoting its
products to generate demand from new areas in Australia. It can also be pointed out that the
firm applies product development by introducing new food products. However the firm has
no presence beyond Australia which limits its capability of using diversification strategy of
introducing new products in new markets to earn high competitive advantage.
Market penetration Market development
Product development Diversification
Figure 3. Figure showing Ansoff matrix