Marketing on Vegemite

Firstly the campaign allowed people to think about and reappraise their past and present consumption. It was a public relation campaign and was the most successful campaign in history of the Kraft ANZ. Major retailers were running out of vegemite and Kraft has to ship over 1000 tons per month. Sales also increased by 5% than previous year. The associated foods sales of cheese and avocado also rose sharply. Use of Social media help paid them handsomely and people also sent 300,000 submissions, suggesting new combination for vegemite. The campaign main goal was to know what was other food associated with vegemite so that they can produce a perfect combination.

Promotion is about how the customers are informed about a particular product or service and plays a vital role. So promotion basically carries the 3 Ps of the marketing mix by presenting that all important information to the right target market.

The last marketing mix is the promotion, which is about advertisement, sales promotion, public relation.

According to an article from ‘Supply & Demand Chain Executive’ written by (DelMonte, 2007) states what is the marketing mix: “is putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.’ The marketing mix is an implement which is needed and it is much utilized in today’s working industries for managers to evaluate business targets such as sales and company’s profits, and also to assist in order to meet consumer needs effectively. It purposes is to satisfy the customer as well as the seller by using the marketing mix tool. The marketing is known as the ‘4Ps’, and it is made up of: place, product, promotion and price.

Moreover, the price level will always compete one to another. As a result, there is a strong barrier for other companies to enter the same market. Which ultimately it will only encourage those three companies to continue their dominance of the market share of spreads.

Brito (2008) mentions that this has seen the rise of new rival and substitute products such as “jam[s], honey [and] peanut butter” that are threatening to seize Vegemite’s shares. These products, Marmite ($1.72/100g) and Ozemite ($2.46/100g), despite their inferior cost-leadership structure to Vegemite (1.43/100g), claimed to offer consumers a stimulating spread to satisfy their savory spread

As per Ian Ruskin Brown and Greg Clark “ Marketing mix is the term used explaining the different elements comprising the offer that the different companies makes to their customers”. (Brown and Clarke, 2000:44). E.Jerome McCarthy in early 1960s came up with the four Ps in the marketing mix. According to him these 4ps are “ Product, price, place and promotion”.( McCarthy and Shapiro 1975: 35). Refer Appendix I for the pictorial representation. But the view of Richard Sandhusen is that the four marketing mixes should be ‘price, product, promotion and distribution’ (Sadhusen, 2000:319). According to Steven Stralser ‘in order to create a marketing strategy and plan that touch all the areas of marketing to position a product, maximise revenue etc a few more components have to be considered which are, Marketing segmentation, Marketing Strategy, Marketing research , Pricing, placement and value chain.’(Stralser,

Brand building, consumer health and wellness, and advertising and promotions were all critical to success in the industry. Kraft’s ability to compete with lower priced snacks showed its ability to differentiate itself from other lower priced competitors.

Woolworths has capitalized on the idea of becoming ‘the fresh food people’. They have implemented various different ways to approach the customers by informing them of healthy food choices, as well as fresh food facts. They have created a website that informs them of how and where their produces are made. They create commercials of ‘Fresh Market Update’, which summarizes which fruits and vegetables are in season. Their magazines, the Fresh magazine and Australian Good Taste, are a monthly magazine that shows healthy recipes to recreate. This marketing push on their slogan reassures the customers that their choice in retailer to buy from is the healthiest choice.

Today Unilever is one of the world’s largest consumer products companies. Becel Margarine was launched in 1978 as a premium priced product, positioned as the heart healthy margarine of choice. Previously, the Becel brand had been positioned as the heart healthy margarine of choice in Europe for twenty years prior to Canadian introduction. Despite unique positioning Becel struggled for many years gaining only 8.1 percent market share by 1991. Unilever considered several options for growing the Becel brand, such as, price decreases, repositioning the product, and dramatic increases in advertising support. In 1991 Lipton devised the strategy “living a life that is young at heart”. This strategy was very successful with its current target market, 65 and above. In the butter and margarine category, butter holds fifty percent of the market. The Dairy Bureau of Canada positions butter as tasty and natural, which is conveying that margarine is processed and does not taste as good. However, that is not true, margarine is better for you than butter and does suit consumers’ tastes. In addition, the health focus of the butter and margarine market is growing. More and more competitors are positioning their product as healthy for the consumer. For example, Parmalat is a brand of butter that has just entered the margarine market to compete with Becel with the brand Lactantia.

The case focuses on Kellogg’s Special K brand and considers how the marketing of this has changed over time. Marketing is not static – it must be developed as market conditions and customer expectations change.

The marketing mix is a combination of 4 P’s (product, price, place and promotion) that should be used in conjunction with each other to ensure a competitive edge over other companies. ‘The marketing mix is designed to produce mutually satisfying exchanges with a target market’.

The four P’s of a marketing mix are as follows, product, price, place, and promotion. Each of these offers a marketing parameter for the management and company team to control. With each marketing tool there are decisions that should be met as far as the business is concerned. Therefore, there is a list for each one that should be analyzed to meet the business standards.

Marketing mix is also called 4P’s of marketing .It can also be used to find existing market strategy. 4P of marketing represents:

Marketing mix refers to the enterprise for their target market needs, control various marketing factors (product, price, place and promotion) to optimize the combination and comprehensive utilization, in order to accomplish better economic and social benefits (Chai, 2009, p.4). Place and product will be attached more importance in this section.