MKT600 Marketing: Case Study on Marketing Environmental Analysis

This report provides a marketing environmental analysis for Donald’s company, a chocolate product market with two stores in Melbourne. It examines buyer behavior related to chocolate products and analyzes micro and macro environmental factors influencing the company's operations. The micro-environmental analysis covers customers, suppliers, the public, competitors (Nestle, Hershey’s, and Mars Incorporated), market intermediaries, and financiers. The macro-environmental analysis uses the PEST framework, considering political, economic, social, and technological factors. The report identifies strengths and weaknesses and aims to assist Donald in growing his business and capturing a high share of the chocolate manufacturing industry, concluding that while Donald B effectively operates locally, international expansion requires consideration of industry competition and the political environment.

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RESEARCH CASE STUDY REPORT
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Environmental Analysis.........................................................................................................3
A. Micro- environmental factors..................................................................................3
B. Strengths/weaknesses...............................................................................................8
C. Macro-environmental forces.........................................................................................8
Summary....................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The marketing environmental analysis of the macro environment and the micro
environment has always been considered to be the key of understanding the potential impact
of any of the external national, international or local factors on a small business (De Villa,
Rajwani & Lawton, 2015). All these factors tend to be outside the direct control of the
business owner. However, this paper is going to elaborate on developing a marketing
environmental analysis for Donald’s company. Donald B is a chocolate product market who
owns two stores in Melbourne. The paper shall discuss about the buyer behaviour in relation
to the chocolate products and would analyse the micro environment and the macro
environmental factors that could possibly influence the company in its operation. The main
objective of this report is to assist Donald in growing his business as well as capture high
chuck of the chocolate manufacturing industry.
Discussion
Environmental Analysis
A. Micro- environmental factors
Customers or Buyer Behaviour- The consumer behaviour, particularly with respect to the
purchase making of chocolates revolves around four basic questions and they are- where to
buy, which brand to buy, why to buy and how much to buy (Testa et al., 2016). There is
always a fluctuation in the buying preference of the customers in terms of trends, health and
money. However, the company has always tried to maintain the product quality all through
these years. The behaviour of the customers involves the following key parameters: Product,
Price, Place and Promotion.
Suppliers- Suppliers have the ability to drive up the product and service prices (Elbatran et
al., 2015). As Donald’s company is not dependent on any one particular supplier, therefore,

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the company could be influenced by number of different suppliers of the fundamental aspects
of good or service. It is to note that the more a company depends on the suppliers, the more
power those suppliers hold.
Public- This section includes the employees as well as the various different types of officers
of the very company. They have a significant power to influence the overall business of the
company because it is they who produce and sell the goods and services of a company.
Therefore, the organisation should always look towards satisfying the human resources that
are working in the organisation.
Competitors- The three major competitors for Donald’s company are Nestle, Hershey’s and
Mars Incorporated (Loutskina & Shapovalov, 2017). The Marketing Mix analysis of the
competitors are mentioned below:
C1 (Nestle) C2 (Hershey’s) C3(Mars Incorporated)
 Product  It has a
wide range
of products
ranging
from dairy
products,
chocolates,
beverages,
ready to
cook foods
etc. to suit
various
 The company
offers in its
product
quality,
variety, sizes,
brand name
and design
 It offers a wide
range of
product
including milk
chocolate,
 It is widely
known for its
chocolate
products but
beside this, it
also has
different
segments of
products
including
confectionaries,
Pet care, Food,

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different
target
markets.
cookies n
cream bar,
chocolate
syrup,
milkshake,
nuggets,
dessert
toppings,
cocoa, candy
and many
more.
Drinks,
Symbioscience
and Wrigley.
 There are 29
different brands
in total which
include
Snickers, Dove,
Galaxy, Twix
candy, Mars
etc.
 Price  They set the
price of the
products in
competition
with its
other rival
companies
(Muraro et
al., 2017).
 The pricing
strategy that
Hershey makes
use of is
maintaining the
level of price at
consistently
hiked price and
targeting
basically the
upper class
people and the
foreigners.
 It follows the
mid-premium
pricing
strategy.
 The target
market are the
people
belonging from
upper middle
class and upper
class.
 Place  The main  Strong  It has

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revenues
and sales
for it come
from the
European
countries,
which is
about 90%
of the net
sales.
 They
follow
FMCG
channel of
distribution
which
involves
“breaking
the bulb”.
 Customers
could also
buy the
products of
Nestle from
retailers.
distribution
channel
 Available
globally at
drug stores,
grocery stores,
wholesale
clubs, vending
machines,
hospitals,
malls, gas
stations and in
the
departmental
stores.
 It is also
present online
in Bigbasket,
eBay and
Amazon etc.
headquarters in
many
countries. It has
different
headquarters
for different
segment.
 The chocolate
segment of
Mars is
headquartered
in the New
Jersey of
United States.
 It has robust
distribution
channel as
because of the
fact that it has
numerous
manufacturing
units all around
the globe.
 Distributors are
the primary

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 The
company
have also
set up new
sales
offices in
order to
maximise
the width
and the
penetration
in rural
areas as
well.
distribution
channel of
Mars.
 It is partnered
with Walmart
in US, Lidl and
Tesco in
Europe along
with
Hypermarket
and the
Bigbazar in
India.
 Promotion  Direct
marketing
at the malls
 Extensive
Advertising
 Joined
hands with
the Google
 Strong
product
portfolio
 Television
advertisements,
Magazine
advertisements,
billboards,
advertising
campaigns like
My Dad Ad.
 Also, the kids
could design
their own
 The chocolate
of this
company is
positioned as
“A Mars a day
helps you
work, rest and
play.”
 Uses many
taglines and
slogans for

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 Uses
Facebook
and
Instagram
for social
media
promotion
candy
 Uses
Instagram,
facebook and
twitter for
social network
promotions
positioning its
product
 Offline
(magazine,
television,
newspaper etc.)
and online
(website,
facebook,
Instagram)
campaigns
Market Intermediaries- This section include the retailers, commission agents and the whole
sellers (Han & Strange, 2015). It is the responsibility of Donald’s company to keep a check or
to keep a track of these bodies who are working for them.
Financiers or investors- They include the government bodies of the country or the local
Melbourne government. They help in funding for the company at the start-up or if it look
forward to grow. Without the funds for building and expanding, one cannot operate a
business. Hence, the company must take on the investors so as to share the risk of operating
and for gaining expertise and support.
B. Strengths/weaknesses
Strengths Weaknesses
 Quality products
 It matches the popular trends in the
 Growing competition in the local,
national and international level

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food industry
 Dairy free, gluten free and soy free
products
 Motivated and skilled employees
 Market is getting saturated
 Discouraging profit margins
 Lack in marketing skills
C. Macro-environmental forces
PEST Analysis
Political- The government have changed to the Liberal democrat from the Labour party in
Australia and this is bound to influence the operation of Donald’s company. The restriction
on the entry of the skilled employees or workers from the other parts of the world could
impact the employee hiring decision of the company in the near future. Also, there is an
imposition of the taxes which would determine who this company manages its payment and
investment to the shareholders. Like, the VAT (Value Added Tax) rose by 2.5 percent in the
year 2010 and this has increased the price of the products and hence, reduced the sales
(Frondel, Sommer & Vance, 2015).
Economic- The global economic downturn has affected the expansion plan of the company
but still the sales of it gas remained more or less steady. Recession too did play its role as this
company managed to hit the lower end of 4 to 6 percent revenue in the year 2010 (Hoffmann
& Lemieux, 2016).
Social- It is a fact that must be mentioned in this context that the company of Donald B has
been born as an outcome of the social factors. As the chocolates and the other related
products of the company are sold more or less internationally and is planning to expand even
more in the international level, the company has been on the verge of receiving a good range
of controversies (Cumming et al., 2017). With the same, it is also to note that there are some

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growing concerns among the people of west work who are owing the rising cases of the issue
of obesity, particularly among the children. Most of the nutritionists suggest to reduce the
consumption of candy and chocolates and this is likely to affect the sales of Donald’s
product.
Technological- Technology has changed the production of the products of this company as
well as the process of packing over the years. The very recent moves in this context comprise
of the use of pathogen testing systems and the filing patents for all the heat resistant
chocolates.
Summary
Marketing in the current era has been drastically evolved and is one of the critical
components of the business administration. The marketing plan design is fundamental to the
business organisation. The main aim of this paper was to provide the business of Donald to
apply effective marketing strategies in order to attain his goal of doing business globally.
From the above discussion it is clear that Donald B is effectively operating its business in the
recent years locally in Melbourne but in order to expand its business internationally, there are
certain barriers that it must take into consideration and the most of it depends of the growing
competition within the very industry and the political environment.

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References
Cumming, D., Filatotchev, I., Knill, A., Reeb, D. M., & Senbet, L. (2017). Law, finance, and
the international mobility of corporate governance.
De Villa, M. A., Rajwani, T., & Lawton, T. (2015). Market entry modes in a multipolar
world: Untangling the moderating effect of the political environment. International
Business Review, 24(3), 419-429.
Elbatran, A. H., Yaakob, O. B., Ahmed, Y. M., & Shabara, H. M. (2015). Operation,
performance and economic analysis of low head micro-hydropower turbines for rural
and remote areas: a review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 43, 40-50.
Frondel, M., Sommer, S., & Vance, C. (2015). The burden of Germany’s energy transition:
An empirical analysis of distributional effects. Economic Analysis and Policy, 45, 89-
99.

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Han, L., & Strange, W. C. (2015). The microstructure of housing markets: Search,
bargaining, and brokerage. In Handbook of regional and urban economics (Vol. 5, pp.
813-886). Elsevier.
Hoffmann, F., & Lemieux, T. (2016). Unemployment in the Great Recession: a comparison
of Germany, Canada, and the United States. Journal of Labor Economics, 34(S1),
S95-S139.
Loutskina, E., & Shapovalov, G. (2017). Mars, Incorporated. Darden Business Publishing
Cases, 1-22.
Muraro, A., Høst, A., Meyer, R., & Kuslys, M. (2017). Controversies on special products for
managing cow’s milk protein allergy in infants: Saftey and sutability. EMJ Allergy
Immunol, 2, 46-51.
Testa, F., Gusmerottia, N. M., Corsini, F., Passetti, E., & Iraldo, F. (2016). Factors affecting
environmental management by small and micro firms: The importance of
entrepreneurs’ attitudes and environmental investment. Corporate Social
Responsibility and Environmental Management, 23(6), 373-385.