University of Sydney: MKTG6016 Brand Management Report - Bega Cheese

This report provides a detailed analysis of Bega Cheese's brand management strategies within the Australian dairy industry. It begins with an introduction and company overview, followed by market research and a SWOT analysis to assess the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report then delves into issues related to the Bega brand, such as farmer supply challenges and market competition, before exploring brand-related initiatives at both strategic and tactical levels. Key aspects covered include brand positioning, market segmentation, differentiation attributes, brand designing, packaging, and communication strategies. Furthermore, it examines approaches to increase client engagement and offers recommendations for future actions, concluding with a summary of key findings and insights into maintaining brand equity and managing value creation in a competitive market. The report also incorporates the analysis of Bega's brand extension, market segmentation, and differentiation attributes.

Running head: BRAND MANAGEMENT
Brand management
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Company overview....................................................................................................................3
Market research..........................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis...........................................................................................................................3
Issues related to brand................................................................................................................4
Brand related initiatives at strategic level..................................................................................4
Brand positioning and extension............................................................................................5
Differentiation attributes............................................................................................................5
Brand management initiatives at tactical level...........................................................................6
Brand designing......................................................................................................................6
Packaging...............................................................................................................................6
Communications.....................................................................................................................6
Development of products...........................................................................................................7
Approaches to increase engagement of clients..........................................................................7
Recommendations for BEGA Cheese to plan actions................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report is prepared to demonstrate about the management of a brand considering
the business organisation named Bega Cheese in Australia. The management of a brand is an
essential aspect of marketing that has been aimed at enhancing the value perceived by the
brand, furthermore, develop an effective strategic plan required to maintain brand equity as
well as manage value creation. It can be done by assessing the market conditions, targeting
the right market segments and by working towards a common goal and shared vision for
meeting the needs and preferences of the customers with much ease and effectiveness
(Rosenbaum-Elliott, Percy & Pervan, 2015). The brand extension will also allow for
introducing a new product in the market, furthermore manage differentiation, proper
packaging and position too.
Company overview
Bega Cheese is a dairy based company in Australia that has managed the delivery of
good quality dairy products for catering the needs and requirements of people. The
headquarters of the company is present in Bega, Australia. Considering the topic of the
assignment revolving around the brand related aspects. The fast growing dairy company has
aimed at gathering enough financial amounts, i.e., nearly $250 million for managing
expansion of brand to become one of the largest dairy processing companies in Australia
(Begacheese.com.au, 2019). The company’s focus on raising the capital can allow for brand
extension as well as facilitate the management of strategic plans required to enhance the

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brand effectiveness, furthermore, ensure proper brand differentiation, positioning and other
brand management initiatives at both strategic and tactical levels.
Market research
The market research evaluates the condition of dairy market in Australia. The country
has produced a wide range of dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt and others
with Victoria, being the major area where milk has been produced. Australia, being one of the
largest dairy exporter with over 50 percent milk products being exported, has experienced
some major issues with the presence of international competitors (Heding, Knudtzen &
Bjerre, 2015). The dairy industry in Australia possess a good amount of market share and has
contributed to the growth in economy of the nation too. Due to the presence of competitors,
Bega Cheese, Australia aims to manage brand extension for making a mark within the
industry, furthermore ensure introducing new product lines for attracting new customers and
generate higher revenue (Begacheese.com.au, 2019).
SWOT analysis
Strengths
 Consistency in the development of
new products, especially the new
Bega Extra Tasty flavoured cheese
item made available in the market,
Weaknesses
 The profitability ratio is much lesser
than the average ration and
percentage within the industry.
 Lack of choices and options for the

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which ensures consistent innovation
all throughout
 The expenditures on raising capital
has helped in generating good rate of
return on the investments
 The networks for distribution of
products and services is strong,
which has improved the ability to
market as well
 Bega Cheese possesses a strong
brand portfolio
 The automation of business
activities has streamlined the
business operations and developed
an effective supply chain for smooth
flow of goods, materials and
resources required to facilitate the
process of production (Santos-
Vijande et al., 2013).
customers
 Poor marketing techniques have
resulted in lack of brand positioning
and poor value proposition
 The demand forecasting is not much
effective
 Lack of investments done for the
research and development, which
has hindered innovation
(Begacheese.com.au, 2019).

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Opportunities
 The new policies and laws regarding
taxation can open up new scopes for
gaining profit
 The new flavoured cheese item
introduced in the market can
facilitate creation of new
opportunities and draw in new
clients
 The reduced transportation cost and
decrease in shipping price can also
lower down the cost of products,
furthermore influence consumers’
buying behaviours (Kelly,
Jugenheimer & Sheehan, 2015).
 The green initiatives by Government
has created new scopes and
opportunities for Bega Cheese to
promote sustainability and
management differentiated pricing
Threats
 The competitors pose serious threats
to Bega Cheese
 The demands for high profitable
dairy items are often seasonal, which
may affect the business
 Lack of consistency in introducing
products that are innovative
 The rising price of raw materials and
resources can affect the pricing of
products
 The lack of skilled and
knowledgeable workers can also
cause major threats, leading to poor
work performance and poor revenue
generation (Du Preez & Bendixen,
2015)

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strategy considering the
implementation of new strategies
Issues related to brand
It is known that branding allows for generating perceived differences between the
products, creates loyalty among the customers and ensures value creation for revenue
generation.
One of the major issues faced by the brand is that a large number of farmers in the
NSW, Australia have exited the dairy industry and are not interested in supplying dairy items
for the production of cheese items. The suppliers of Bega Cheese are disappointed as the
prices of milk have gone down to a large extent and thus they are being provided with very
lesser amount of money by the companies where they provide their supplies. The major
factors that have contributed to the issue include the increase in cost of inputs, stress among
the farmers and droughts, which has made it difficult for the farmers to supply desired
amount of milk to the company (Begacheese.com.au, 2019). The milk price dipped largely
and it was much below the expectations, which made them acquire lesser money, thus created
negative mind sets among them and they started existing the dairy industry.

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The cheese category within the Australian dairy industry continued to change and thus
the pressure had been immense at the value end, because of which, most of the brands in New
Zealand and Tasmania made sure to maintain a premium status with the consideration of its
origin. A new opportunity has been created for Bega Cheese to reposition the brand and keep
up pace with the changing demands of customers, which had been another major brand
related issue. The tagline of Bega Cheese was “Real town, real cheese”, which made the
brand deliver its promises by communicating with the farmers and providing them with
necessary help and support along with good amount of financial benefits for the supplies they
provided, required to enhance the production (Da Silveira, Lages & Simões, 2013). Due to
this, the company has gained good reputation and the opportunities keep on emerging to
maintain authenticity in terms of business operations and furthermore attain the profitability,
as expected.
According to Zhang (2015), in spite of the benefits, there are other brand related
issues and challenges as well such as the lack of innovation as promised by the brand, poor
understanding of the brand’s consumers and failing to understand their needs and
inappropriate messages and information sharing to the customers due to the poor marketing
techniques (Zhang, 2015). The poor marketing techniques and inability to cope up with the
changing needs and preferences of the customers, which further contributed to the negative
impact on brand equity and affected the trust and loyalty among the customers too regarding
the brand.

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Brand related initiatives at strategic level
To present a strong brand, Bega Cheese must manage customer based brand equity
and position itself as well for creating a sustainable position within the dairy industry of
Australia, furthermore ensure making the customers knowledgeable about the brand and its
newly introduced items (Dessart, Veloutsou & Morgan-Thomas, 2015). The added values and
benefits of such brand equity include creating brand awareness, managing brand image,
delivering better brand experience and enhancing the level of trust and loyalty among the
customers. The brand equity acts as a great aspect, which allows acqusitions of existing
knowledge about the brand and forecast the future needs, furthermore provide better guidance
and support to create some differential effects (Baumgarth, Merrilees & Urde, 2013).
Brand positioning and extension
The positioning of brand should allow Bega Cheese in Australia to create a positive
image about the brand among the customers, furthermore, make them acknowledged with the
information and related attributes of the brand. This could enable identification of
differentiable features of the products from the competitors, furthermore ensure development
of marketing mix for every market segments that should be targeted (Maarit Jalkala &
Keränen, 2014). With the brand positioning, the company would be able to address new
flavours of the cheese items, furthermore create boost in marketing to utilise the opportunities
responsibly.
Segmentation

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Bega Cheese has managed the market segmentation to divide the market segments
into geographic and demographic segments and even understand the psychographic aspects
including the lifestyle behaviours, consumers’ preferences, etc. The main dairy items
including cheese items, milk products and powdered milk constitute the most important
market segment for Bega Cheese while the target market consists of businesses, wholesale
retailers and household consumers. The company considered the business consumers as the
primary target market, because of its size and nature, which creates opportunities for growth
potential and higher revenue generation. According to Keller et al. (2015), the consumers
choose products that have certain attributes responsible for providing value and benefits to
satisfy them and thus Bega Cheese should introduce new products and also innovate the
existing dairy items for better brand positioning and influencing the consumers’ buying
behaviours too (Singh, Kalafatis & Ledden, 2014).
Differentiation attributes
To position the brand, Bega Cheese must prioritise on making the brand different with
the addition of some distinctive features and attributes to the brand and its products. This
could make customers differentiate between the alternatives, furthermore attain competitive
edge over its competitors (Jewell & Saenger, 2014). This could enable brand revitalisation as
well as facilitate entering new markets, exploit the market segments, enhance the usage and
finally increase the quantity of products.

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The company and aims to present a positive brand image that has been desired and it
can be achieved, because Bega Cheese has communicated with the farmers and provided
them with necessary support for the management of supplies needed for the production
process. The authenticity has been managed as good quality milk is used for the production of
healthy cheese items, which could improve the brand image and identity. The technological
innovations include use of advanced technologies to enhancing the production level though
without increasing the operational costs while maintaining manufacturing consistency Da
Silveira et al., 2013). The innovation in technology also made the company focus on the
marketing efforts with the engagement of social media platforms for attracting a huge
customer base and with the help of online website, deliver the right messages and information
about the products to its customers.
To bring some differentiation attributes, the company made expenses on big cheese of
peanut butter to manage diversification of operations and at the same time, facilitating the
marketing strategies’ implementation. More expenditures were made in terms of marketing
the big cheese of peanut butter, which further helped in responding to the changing needs of
customers and allowed the people in Australia to make healthy choices regarding the
consumption of milk and cheese items. The merger and acquisition of Vegemite and Kraft
peanut butter increased the product line and enabled production of peanut butter cheese while
at the same time, helped in the diversification of marketing strategies and business processes
(Camilleri, 2018). To manage differentiation, the recipes for the products were also

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provided in the company managed website, which also helped in making the customers
understand about the sustainable production of dairy items and influenced their buying
behaviours too.
The differentiation has been possible for Bega Cheese by introducing flavoured
cheese items and children friendly cheese items that are both focused on quality and
traceability, according to the HACCP standards for the farmers (Jewell & Saenger, 2014).
The food safety standard has been termed as pharmaceutical grade, because of the increased
awareness of the brand among the customers regarding sustainable production of dairy items.
The advanced technologies also facilitated the differentiation by managing robotics, which
reduced efforts for the farmers while the automation processes resulted in reduced costs of
operations. The laser-guided forklifts further helped in moving things from one place to
another and keep the stocks filled for catering to the needs of production (Camilleri, 2018).
Brand management initiatives at tactical level
The various brand management aspects at the tactical level are responsible for gaining
higher level of acceptance, furthermore reduce the cost of marketing techniques and even
facilitate the distribution networks’ efficiency.
Brand designing
The brand architecture and designing should allow for organising the brand portfolio
structure that could represent the brand roles and nature of relationships that exist between