Academia Australia - BSBMGT517: Managing Operational Plan Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the operational plan within the marketing department of the Coca-Cola Company. It identifies key areas for review, including product pricing, customer service response times, and promotional activities. The report highlights shortfalls in these areas, such as higher product prices compared to competitors, slow customer service responses, and abandoned promotional efforts. Strategies for overcoming these issues are proposed, including lowering prices, improving customer service training, and increasing investment in promotional activities. The report also provides an overview of the cost factors involved in implementing these strategies, emphasizing the need for sufficient financial and human resources. Ultimately, the report concludes that by implementing these strategies, the marketing department can improve its operational effectiveness and achieve better business outcomes.

Managing operational plan 1
Managing operational plan
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Table of content
Introduction…..........................................................................pg 3
Area of review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 4
Details of procedure observed and shortfall . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 5-6
Strategies to overcome shortfall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 7
Cost factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 8
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 9
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 10

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Managing operational plan
Introduction
The thesis of the report provided entails various review on the current organizational
operation procedure within the organization for the betterment of the services and goods offered
to the customers. Reviewing operational progress in an organization that is profit-making
organization is essential for the success and continuity of that particular firm since through
operational review, the management could easily improve their services and goods offered to the
market which will contribute to the profitability of the business.
Coca-Cola Company is a profit-making organization which is concerned with the production
of the beverage substances to the market. As an employee of the organization working in the
marketing department, my marketing department is concerned with complains and suggestion
from our customers based on the quality of the products we offer to them and respond to
complaints and suggestions. Our department also comprises of the customer care desk which
deals with the customer's issues.

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Areas of review
In marketing department of the Coca-Cola beverage company, the areas which needed a
review so as to improve the types of products and services offered to the market which in return
increase the sales volumes of the manufactured products has been identified as pricing of the
products, respond to customers’ complains and suggestions and promotional activities carried out
by the department in order to lure many consumers to our products that is soft drinks. The need
for the review of the above-mentioned procedures within the department and the organization as
a whole is to improve the quality of products and services offered to the market. This is
necessary for the continuity and profitability of the organization. Through improvement of the
above mentioned operational procedures, the sales volume of the company’s products will
increase since the whole procedure aims at luring and attracting many customers as possible in
the market to their products. (Georgilakis and Hatziargyriou, 2015, pg. 90).

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Details of the procedure observed and reasons for the shortfalls
One of the identified procedure to be reviewed was the pricing of the company’s products.
The pricing of the products has been relatively higher compared to the competitors price which
has resulted to loss of our customers as they lured by low prices charged by the competitor,
therefore, the need for price review is very essential in my marketing department thus following
complaints from the management body on the sales volume of the manufactured products which
has been decreasing at alarming rate. The reason for the underperformance of the procedure is
associated with the pricing of the competing organizations offering the same products to the
market which has set lower prices than ours thus diverting many buyers to their products.
(Esmaeilikia, et al, 2016, pg. 420).
Response to the customers’ complains and suggestion by the customer care desk has been a
major operational issue since the concerned individuals are not responding to such suggestion,
queries and complains on time hence most of the customers are changing to other products as
they feel ignored. Customer care department plays a bigger role in marketing of the products and
that’s why the management body of the organization decided to incorporate it with the marketing
department for easy retrieval of market information so as to adapt accordingly to the market
changes in order to maximize the sales of the company’s products by attracting many users in the
market. Poor and untimely response to the customers has been monitored in the department by
observing the queued messages from the customers on the customer care’s desk.

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Promotion activities organized by the marketing department in an attempt to improve the
sales volumes by luring most of the consumers to prefer the company’s products have been
abandoned by the department which has contributed to the low sales volumes as compared to the
previous sales data. Promotion activities entail organizing roadshows and providing some
incentives to the consumers and offering sales discount to in their products to attract buyers in
the market. The reason behind shortfall for the promotional activities has been identified as lack
of corporation between the department and the management body of the organization since as
they viewed such activities to be unnecessary due to a large number of customer’s turnout.

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Strategies for overcoming the shortfalls
One of the strategies in overcoming pricing shortfall by the marketing department of the
Coca-Cola Company is identified as lowering the prices of their products to enable fair
competition in the market. Through this strategy, the sales volume of the company’s products
will rise due to the high number of customer turn out. (Gamarra and Guerrero, 2015, pg. 420).
The department has the responsibility to train and educate most of its members in customer
care desk on the importance of timely response to the customer’s complains and suggestion
based on the products they offer to the market. This will enable the company to shift its
production mechanism according to the customers’ taste and preferences. (Foot, 2017, pg. 221).
The company management body has to finance the promotional activities of the firm due to
stiff competition in the market. Activities like product discounts, roadshows and involvement in
social activities will better the image and brand name of the company. This will make most of
the customers to prefer their products.

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Overview of the cost factors
An overview of the cost factors is how efficient the company that is Coca-Cola Company
has enough resources to enable the marketing department to implement some of its set strategies
in overcoming the shortfalls in operations. This includes staff composition, financial resources to
finance promotional activities to attract customers to their products. Human resources required
for the customer care desk are the qualified staff with experience on how to handle customer’s
suggestions and queries.

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Conclusion
To summarize, the management body of The Coca-Cola Company has to provide marketing
department with sufficient resources like finance and well trained and experienced staff in
customer care desk who will be able to respond timely to customers so as to know their interest
and taste on the products.
With the implementation of the above-mentioned strategies, the department will be able to
overcome such shortfalls thus ensuring the smooth operation of the marketing activities within
the organization.

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References
Esmaeilikia, M., Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J., Govindan, K., Kumar, A. and Mo, J., 2016. Tactical
supply chain planning models with inherent flexibility: definition and review. Annals of
Operations Research, 244(2), pp.407-427.
Foot, D., 2017. Operational urban models: an introduction. Routledge.
Gamarra, C. and Guerrero, J.M., 2015. Computational optimization techniques applied to
microgrids planning: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 48, pp.413-424.
Georgilakis, P.S. and Hatziargyriou, N.D., 2015. A review of power distribution planning in the
modern power systems era: Models, methods and future research. Electric Power Systems
Research, 121, pp.89-100.