Strategic Marketing Analysis Report: Mars Australia Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive strategic marketing analysis of Mars Australia, a major player in the chocolate and confectionery industry. It begins with an executive summary outlining the company's mission, market reach, and target audience, which primarily includes upper-middle and middle-class consumers. A thorough situational analysis explores both the external and internal environments, including political, economic, and social factors influencing the company's operations within Australia. The analysis delves into the competitive landscape, identifying key competitors like Nestle and Hershey's, while also highlighting Mars Australia's strengths, such as its brand image and employee base, and weaknesses, including market competition and health consciousness among consumers. The report identifies opportunities for growth, such as expansion in the confectionery industry, the merging of Mars and Wrigley businesses, and increasing online presence. Simultaneously, it addresses challenges such as competition, evolving consumer health preferences, and risk management. Finally, the report offers strategic recommendations, including a differentiation strategy, the establishment of a strong public relations team, and the implementation of a robust social media strategy to enhance market position and customer engagement.

Running head: STRATEGIC MARKETING
Strategic Marketing
Student’s name:
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Executive Summary
Mars Australia is the in the chocolate and confectionery industry and it sells mainly gum,
chocolate, confectionery products and mint. Mars Australia does the responsible marketing and it
has brand awareness in the market. Mars Incorporated is the parent organisation of Mars
Australia. The goal of Mars Australia is reaching large numbers of the customers. In this study,
situational analysis has been done exploring the mainly external environment and internal
environment of the organisation. Apart from this, competition in the market and current market
in Australia of Mars Australia has been analysed. Mars Australia mainly targets the customers
who are from upper middle class and middle class who can afford the products like chocolates,
gums and confectionery. The political condition of Australia is stable and the government
provides static rule of food safety that can impact on the organisation. The economic condition of
Australia is getting towards enrichment. Per Capita GDP and disposable income of the people
have been increased over time. Social factors of changing preferences of the people in Australia
can impact on the organisation. Health and wellbeing preferences are getting changed with time.
The competitors of Mars Australia are Nestle, Kraft and Hershey's. The strengths of the
organisation lie in the brand image and employees. The opportunities of the organisation are
growth in the confectionery industry, combining Mars and Wrigley businesses and online
presence. In addition problems of the organisation are competition in the market, health
consciousness of the people and risk management function of the management. Therefore, the
Mars Australia can take differentiation strategy, they can make strong PR team and they will take
social media strategy as well.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Situation analysis.............................................................................................................................4
External environment:.................................................................................................................4
Internal environment:...................................................................................................................6
Problems and Opportunities............................................................................................................6
Opportunities:..............................................................................................................................6
Problems:.....................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
Reference List................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Mars Australia won the Bronze awards in The Australian Effie Awards in 2017 for their
‘Hungerithm’ campaign and the concept of the campaign is that the angrier the internet, the
cheaper the snickers. Mars Australia is in Food Processing industry and the parent organisation
of Mars Australia is the Mars Incorporated. Mars Australia Pty Ltd. is the distributor and
manufacturer of the consumer products. This organisation was founded in the year 1954 and it
was established in the area Wodonga, Australia with manufacturing sites in New Zealand and
Australia (Mars.com 2018). Mars Australia has 1600 employees and headquarters of this
organisation lies in Wodonga, Petcare Palace. It offers mainly gum, chocolate, mint,
confectionery products. It exports its products to the customers worldwide. Mars Australia
reached $1,092 and net income of Mars Australia reached $116.26 (Ibisworld.com.au 2018).
Mars Australia’s mission statement is to create a mutually benefits organisation for all of
the stakeholders through the operation. This organisation strives to do this by putting the
principles into the action every day to make the difference to people and planet through the
performance (Mars.com 2018).
Marketing aim of Mars Australia is to create the brand awareness with making a large
reach and influence on the customers. Mars Australia believes that it is the duty of the
organisation to market inappropriate and responsible way. Mars Australia believes in responsible
marketing and it respects the customers. Mars Australia is also the part of the International Food
and Beverage Alliance (IFBA) that commits the member organisation to uphold the shared
marketing standards (Mars.com 2018). The goal of the marketing is to reach the large customer
segment and they never do marketing for the children.

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Situation analysis
Current markets of Mars Australia belong to all age groups of upper middle and middle-
class families in Australia. Mars Australia targets the segment mainly that looking for good
products and chocolates or animal food mainly. Positioning statement of Mars states that it
provides high-quality products and it is the trusted confectionary and animal food brand that is
popular across the globe. The current market in Australia for Mars Australia touched almost
$1,512,078,000 and it includes sales and revenue (Ibisworld.com.au 2018). It is in the food
products and confectionary industry. In Australia, it sells mainly Snickers, Bounty, Mars and
Orbit Chewing gum. Mars Australia ranks 289 out of the top 1000 companies in Australia
(Tomczak et al. 2018). In Australia, chocolate and confectionery manufacturing industry have
been facing the factor of changing consumer preferences over the past five years. Industry
revenue can be expected to grow almost 1% in the next two years and it has already touched the
benchmark of $5.9 billion (Ibisworld.com.au 2018). Apart from Mars Australia, in Australia;
there are more than 320 other businesses that are associated with chocolate and confectionery
manufacturing. In addition, competitors of Mars Australia are the Nestle Ltd, Kraft Foods,
Perfetti Van Melle and Hershey’s.
External environment:
It is important to the government that there is low unemployment rate and the people
must be able to pay the tax. Mars Australia employs over 1600 employees in the factories and
Mars Australia is coming under the scrutiny from the government as statistics say that 8% of the
school children in Australia are obese. It is the cause of the concern for the government and it
can pose a negative impact on the organisation as the government may ban the advertisement of
Mars. In addition, GDP rank of Australia was 13th in 2017 and GDP growth in Australia was

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0.6% in 2017 (Manalo et al. 2017). Per capita GDP in Australia is $55,707 and the disposable
income of Australia is high. Therefore, the people have the buying capability. Average gross
salary of the people weekly in Australia touched AU$ 1,180 for the employees (Golev and
Corder 2016). This will be beneficial for Mars Australia as it means that Australian people have
more money to spend on a thing like chocolate, pet food, chewing gum and snickers. In addition,
social-cultural factors can impact on the business of Mars Australia as Australia's demographic is
currently changing as it is mainly experiencing ageing population (Proctor 2017). This
development may bring negative impact on the business of Mars Australia as their main targets
are the young and teens. Health and fitness is the important factor in Australia and Australian
people are getting conscious of the health and wellbeing. Lastly, technological factor plays
important role in the manufacturing of the products and Mars Australia uses global and improved
technologies in the manufacturing of the products. Facebook and Twitter both have been used by
Mars Australia in order to attract the customers. Mars Australia has launched YouTube and
Facebook campaign where they have been promoting cat food ‘Kitten Kollege' (Rees et al.
2016). In Australia, food products have to follow Food Safety Act 1991; there are some food
standards which the products have to meet.
Bargaining power of customers is low in confectionery and chocolate products in
Australia as price sensitivity of the chocolate products for the customers is low. Mars Australia
keeps the price of the products relatively low and customers do not have a role to set the price.
The threat of new entrants in chocolate and confectionery market is high as the new organisation
does not need to invest a large amount of money (Kim et al. 2016). If the competitors want to
start the business from the scratch, it would be difficult. In addition, the threat of substitute in the
market is medium as the customers can switch to other brands easily. The customers have

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options in the market to purchase the products apart from Mars Australia. Competitive rivalry in
the market is medium as the competitors make the industry oligopoly type and price can be
weakened due to the competitive rivalry (Cherney 2018).
Internal environment:
Strengths of Mars Australia lay in the globally recognized brand as the Australian
customers purchase the products of Mars Australia since they hear the name of the brand in
global perspective. Therefore, Mars Australia has the brand awareness in the market. Mars
Australia has strong supply chain network and the employee strength of Mars Australia is 1600.
Mars Australia has customer loyalty and it has strong financial power along with human
resource. Five principles Mars Australia are responsibility, mutuality, quality, freedom and
efficiency (Mars.com 2018). Moreover, weaknesses of Mars Australia are the competition in the
market and the limited market share growth. Mars Australia has been facing the issues of the
vegetarian people due to the use of animal rennet. Threats of Mars Australia are competition in
the market and global economic slowdown and inflation (Webster et al. 2016). In Australia, it
can face the challenges as the people are getting more health conscious.
Problems and Opportunities
Opportunities:
a. Growth in confectionery
 In Australia, revenue in confectionery segment amounts to almost $5,400 million
Australia.
 From the international perspective, this industry is going to generate a strong growth of
4% (Ibisworld.com.au 2018).

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 The average per capita consumption stands at 21 kg in the year 2018.
b. Combining Mars and Wrigley business
 In the year 2016, Mars announced its merging with Wrigley (Duckett and Willcox 2017).
 This business operation will shine to increase the penetration in maximum parts of
Australia.
 This will create more opportunity to work better for supply chain
c. Increase in online presence
 Opportunities of Mars Australia are to increase online presence and to invest in research
and development.
 It can have the opportunity in the market to increase its product lines and tap the different
market.
 Online market will give more customers and it is expected to grow rapidly in Australia
Problems:
Health consciousness
 Australia people get more health conscious and they reduce the consumption of
chocolates and sugar
 It may reduce the sales of Mars Australia
 For the health conscious, Mars Australia has to pass the food safety laws. Mars Australia
had to recall some of the products (Watson et al. 2016)
Competition
 Competition in the market is large as Nestle and Hershey's are doing good in the market

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 Competition can decrease the product selling and this instance, especially in consumer
product category, can affect the brand image
 It has been facing the competition in the pet care products from PetSmart. This
competition limits the market share along with it can induce the price war (West et al.
2016) ).
Risk management function
 Mars Australia has been facing the issue of effective management and it is the crucial
tenet of the overall management function (Banerjee 2017).
 Mars Australia believes in technological innovation and infrastructure
 Technological disruption can cause treasury team a considerable headache
Recommendations
Differentiation strategy:
There are many competitors in Australia in chocolates and confectionery industry. Mars
Australia needs to take differentiation strategy from the competitors. The company can take the
strategy of stylish packing or different taste from the competitors. They can launch something
unique or different so that the customers purchase the new products. In order to ensure the
position in the market cemented, Mars Australia can rebrand the look periodically.
Strong PR team:
Mars Australia can make a strong Public Relations team which can make good contact
with the customers. The investors will be benefited and new customers will come. Increased
business can provide both economic boom and customers' retention. Mars Australia does PR

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campaign and they just need to increase the credibility and high-end talent. PR team will help to
believe the customers that the products of Mars Australia are not harmful to health.
Social media strategy:
The marketing strategy of Mars Australia should have a social media presence. Australia
people do use social media regularly and 78% of the population of Australians use the internet.
Therefore, it will help the organisation to reach the people. Mars Australian can use intranet
software to track the work process growth of the employees. Using the social media, Mars
Australia will learn about target audiences and they can gain feedback of the customers utilising
the opportunities of the organisation. Social media marketing will provide leads to the
organisation.

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Reference List
Tomczak, T., Reinecke, S. and Kuss, A., 2018. Introduction. In Strategic Marketing (pp. 1-18).
Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage.
Oxford University Press, USA.
Banerjee, S.B., 2017. Corporate environmentalism and the greening of strategic marketing:
Implications for marketing theory and practice. In Greener Marketing (pp. 16-40). Routledge.
Chernev, A., 2018. Strategic marketing management. Cerebellum Press.
Proctor, T., 2014. Strategic marketing: an introduction. Abingdon: Routledge.
Kim, N., Shin, S. and Min, S., 2016. Strategic marketing capability: Mobilizing technological
resources for new product advantage. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), pp.5644-5652.
Rees, D.M., Smith, P. and Hall, J., 2016. A Multi‐sector Model of the Australian
Economy. Economic Record, 92(298), pp.374-408.
Manalo, J., Perera, D. and Rees, D.M., 2015. Exchange rate movements and the Australian
economy. Economic Modelling, 47, pp.53-62.
Golev, A. and Corder, G., 2016. Modelling metal flows in the Australian economy. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 112, pp.4296-4303.

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Webster, J., Trieu, K., Dunford, E. and Hawkes, C., 2014. Target salt 2025: a global overview of
national programs to encourage the food industry to reduce salt in foods. Nutrients, 6(8),
pp.3274-3287.
Duckett, S. and Willcox, S., 2015. The Australian healthcare system (No. Ed. 5). Oxford
University Press.
Watson, W.L., Kury, A., Wellard, L., Hughes, C., Dunford, E. and Chapman, K., 2016.
Variations in serving sizes of Australian snack foods and confectionery. Appetite, 96, pp.32-37.
Davies, T. and Kitchen, B., 2015. Confectionery: Growing and processing cocoa in
Australia. Food Australia, 67(5), p.28.
Mars.com. 2018. Mars® Australia and New Zealand - Petcare, Confections and Food Products..
Available at: http://www.mars.com/australia/en/index.aspx [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].