The Company and the Product
Parle Agro is an Indian-based private limited company. It has multiple products that it deals with in its line of business. Among them is Parle G, a brand of biscuits. The company also manufactures and distributes beverages such as Appy-Fizz, Frooti, N-joi and Bailley. It is the market leader in India.
Since the company has been in business for a relatively long time, it is easily recognized due to its outstanding brand name. The company enjoys a market share of approximately 42% in the Indian market. This explains the fact that the company offers the market high quality products leading to consumer loyalty. In any organization, strategies must be put in place so as to ensure that the organization remains competitive in the market. The marketing department must come up with marketing strategies aimed at reaching the consumers of the products being provided by the organization.
The marketing manager must be in a position to study, understand and analyze the market (Dale 1969, pp82). The marketing managers at Parle India have managed to attain competitive advantage as portrayed by their performance in the market. Therefore, marketing its products in the UK market will not be a difficult task. This is because they already have credibility as portrayed in the Indian market. This will play an extremely crucial role in reassuring the target consumers.
The company was founded in 1929. It was owned by a Mumbai family, Vile Parle. Its success is significantly attributed to the successful launch of its two products, Parle G biscuits and Thumbs Up soft drink. Later, the company was split into three factions that were all owned by the Parle family. The three factions are: Parle Products Parle Agro Parle Bisleri However, all the three companies continued to use the trademark name, Parle, till to date.
Of the three, Parle Agro became the most competitive one in the market. In 1984, Parle Agro commenced operations. It launched Frooti in 1985, and it became the largest mango drink seller in India. It also ventured into bottled water in 1993 and packaging in 1996. In 2007, the company ventured into the snacks business whereby it offers snacks such as Monaco Smart Chips and Parle’s Wafers.
The company also manufactures sweets such as Melody, Mango Bite, Chox and Poppins among others. The company also offers confectionaries such as buttercup candies, buttercup softease, and softease mithai and mintrox mints. Though the company was faced with challenges due to the trademark name, it has still managed to penetrate through the market. The problem arose due to a law suit regarding the trademark name with the other factions of the company. However, the company earned the rights to go ahead and use the trademark name Parle, provided that they made it clear that the products ere from different companies. In order to come up with a competitive marketing strategy, the marketing manager must ensure that the goals of the firm are upheld through the implementation of the marketing strategy.
The main goal of any marketing manager should be to ensure that the organization’s products meet the needs of the consumer. This is because consumers are the key determinants of the market. Attainment of this crucial goal is contributed to by carrying out surveys on the consumer perceptions of the products and services offered by an organization (Pride and Ferrell 2008, pp29). The 4 P’s of marketing comprise of the marketing mix. Any marketing manager must take this into consideration when coming up with strategies for the enterprise.
Using the 4P’s, the marketing manager implements the stipulations of the 4p’s so as to ensure that the company has a large pool of customers. a) Product This involves the presenttion of the products that the company offers to the market. It is vital to note that consumers will only be interested in the products if the company can meet their needs. This implies that marketing without following the stipulations or expectations of consumers in the products presented to them will not be fruitful. This is because it is the core marketer. This is given the fact that utility is highly dependant on the consumer.
b) Pricing Pricing is the most crucial element of the marketing mix. This is because it is the price that determines the final turnover of the organizations, and hence profitability or losses may be realized. The other three are just adding up to the cost of business operations. It is, therefore, pertinent to note that for a company to be successful, price has to support all the elements of the mix. Prices should also be determined by prices in the market. Charging extremely high prices will not benefit the company.
This is because there is likely to be a decrease in the volumes of customers who purchase the company’s products. However, this does not imply that the company should charge extremely low prices. This is because the determination of prices should be dependant on the elasticity of the prices in the market. c) Place and distribution This requires that the products are constantly available to consumers. The company should also seek to expand further by opening branches in other regions. This could lead to diversity as they try to please and meet the needs of the different cultures.
This could spice up business as profit margins increase because the different cultures could lead to the establishment of new products that suit these markets. This could interest the open-minded customers who may be willing to try out something new. Also, diversity makes certain that the company meets a range of the consumer needs. Diversity in the different kinds of consumers also increases the pool of ideas from people from different regions. It creates the need for the marketing manager to compile all these needs into quality and diverse products and services.
Eventually, the company will benefit enormously in the achievement of its goals and objectives.d) Promotion Promotion of the company and its products is a key part of the marketing process. This is because it will ensure that the people who have not had the chance to use their products get to know about them. Moreover, once they hear about it and try its products, they are likely to increase the market share because of the quality service provision that is highly maintained. This will also increase revenues and profit margins.
Since the company’s products comprises of sweets, snacks, beverages and biscuits, it means that the company caters for all age brackets in the market. Children For the children, the snacks such as Parle’s Wafers would meet their needs. Also, young children are fond of biscuits, the beverages such as Frooti. Also, the packaged water, Bailley, applies to children. Young Adults For the young adults, sweets, snacks, the beverages and the water all meet their needs.
Middle aged people For the middle aged people, the beverages and bottled water would be especially relevant since they need them in the course of their day-to-day activities. The aged For the ageing generation, the bottled water would be essential. Also, the beverages would be of considerable interest to them. p; Given the fact that Central London would be a new market, the first step would be to introduce the product to the market. In order to promote faster recognition, I would start with distributing of portfolios and carrying out of promotions outside the stores like the supermarkets. This would increase the possibility of winning the consumers over.
The promotions would also comprise of free samples to test and taste the products. I would also run advertisements in the media. All these would be aimed at getting the consumers to know about the product. For the purposes of this new market, the 4Ps would be helpful. a) Product Parle Agro could present the various portfolios of the products it manufactures. This will help in ensuring that potential consumers have the necessary information about the products.
The company must research on the tastes and preferences of the target market. This then forms the basis of the food and beverages that they are going to serve. b) Pricing A careful study of the market should be done to determine its elasticity. This implies that if the market is inelastic, a small decrease in price will cause a minimal change in the volumes of customers purchasing the products. On the other hand, if the market is elastic, a small change in price will cause a relatively high change in the volumes of sales.Therefore, if the market is elastic, lowering prices would lead to increased revenue.
This will be a marketing strategy because consumers are likely to purchase the products due to the sole purpose of low prices. This coupled with quality products will be a stepping stone for the restaurant to scale to high heights of successes. If the market is inelastic, an increase in prices would be hardly noticeable. This implies that this could be used in order to increase revenue. c) Place and distribution The company’s products need to be evenly distributed so as to reach the target consumers. This implies that the products should be constantly on the shelves of stores and supermarkets.
As a result, the consumers will have constant accessibility to the products. Failure to do so would result in the consumer’s consideration of purchasing the substitutes products. This would not be profitable to the company. On the contrary, this would reduce the sales. It would also reduce consumer loyalty since it would imply that the consumers cannot wholly rely on the accessibility of the company’s products. d) Promotion The inclusion of advertisements and leaflets handed in to customers after their purchases is a superb marketing strategy.
This will ensure that they are well aware of all the products and services available from the company. They will be in a position to tell their friends and families of the same. Advertisements could also be placed on televisions and radios. These could be placed during broadcasting so as to get the attention of the consumers. It would also be strategic to include posters and display all contact information.
A website displaying all the available products and services available could also be made available. This could capture the international consumers. Having analyzed all the responsibilities that are in the hands of any manager, including a marketing manager, a strategy that ensures that both parties’ needs are catered for must be developed. There needs to be a solution on who is to be held responsible in the event that a decision is made and as result things do not go as planned. This will ensure that the company is successful in the new market.
