Marketing Strategies For Cheese Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Strategies For Cheese. Answer: Introduction Marketinga product is the ultimate tool that is used by every organisation or industry uses to promote their products and make sure that the sales of the same is maximized. Marketing ensures that a product is given enough exposure in the market and that the customers know about it in depth so as to they can make the decision to opt for the product only after they can themselves compare the product with other similar ones that are already available in the market (Huang and Sarigll 2014). Without a proper marketing strategy and a clear idea about the goals of the organisation or how the product is going to benefit the customers, organisations cannot hope to achieve success. This is even more true for products that are being introduced in a market that already has a lot of similar products available for the customers. In these cases, innovation is given high priority and extensivemarketing strategies are adopted to help the customers understand how are they going to be benefitted from t he new product and what is the new product going to be offering them that they will not from the other products which are available in the market at the moment (Armstrong et al. 2015). This following report will be looking into the marketing strategies that are being adopted prior to launching the product into the market, a brief idea about the product and what are going to be the marketing mix of the product. About the product Cheese is one of the heaviest consumed dairy products in Australia. The demand for cheese does not only not fall but also experiences massive growth at a steady rate. Cheese retail sale has increased in the recent years. Cheese consumption has been observed to be around 13.5 kg per person in the country (Hutchinson 2016). Despite the high demand for better quality cheese, the less production of milk has caused the cheese production to falter as well. Despite high production in recent years, the amount is still lower than the 2000s (Bublitz and Peracchio 2015). Cheese is not only one of the highest consumed dairy products in Australia, but also across the world. The product is a high source of essential nutrients including calcium, zinc, protein, magnesium, vitamins A, B2 and B12. There are over three hundred different types of cheese available across the planet. However, recently growing health concerns among the citizens have been one of the causes for the slump in cheese production due to the fact that cheese is also a high source of calories and fat (Meurer, Palmer and Gras 2015). The product market and the receptiveness of the customers Cheese is a major ingredient in the dairy industry of Australia and has sales of approximately around 260,000 tonnes within the domestic market of the country. The overall market values about A$ 1.85 billion. Export sales are almost at par with the domestic production. Almost half of the cheese that is sold in the domestic market of the country is done so through supermarkets. Over the last five years, the cheese industry has suffered many challenges including export import regulation changes, prices in the markets where cheese is exported and mostly a domestic currency that has not been very stable in recent times. Given the fact Australia is one of most prominent competitors in the global dairy industry, the export market price fluctuations have affected the domestic production in an adverse way (Harris 2016). This has caused the country to import significant amounts of cheese from abroad in recent times than it did ten years ago. A large portion of the countrys cheese import comes from neighbouring New Zealand. A marked shift has been noticed as more and more Australians are shifting from traditional cheese to a more boutique oriented consumption. Local cheesemakers claim that the imports have been harming the countrys own cheese production and indulgent import regulations are making the competition to be unfair for the Australian cheesemakers. Cheese b outiques who target the high end and more expensive client market say that the demand for cheese from abroad are hampering their own sales and in turn affecting the overall production that again is resulting in the country ending up to import more cheese. This chain of events is not easily to be mitigated (Harris 2016). However, it is not every product of every manufacturer does well in the market. All the flavours and different cheese have appeal to certain segments of the customer population and people buy according to their preferences. This is exactly where the market has to be exploited: to make cheese locally that enhances the demand for the product (Moir and McCarthy 2014). Marketing strategies In order to retain the cheese market both in the domestic and international markets, the cheese makers of Australia have to adopt marketing strategies that would help the sector to be revitalized and keep the demands high. The upper scale cheese shops and makers all have to overhaul their strategies to ensure more customers come to buy their cheese. In order to achieve this, they must ensure better services and products as the locals can just buy their cheese from the local grocers and not go to the supermarkets at all (Hutchinson 2016). This has to be changed as soon as possible. Marketing mix: This is the most important tool that the cheese market can use to advance their purpose of getting the demand for cheese higher within the dairy industry of Australia. While in case of a product being sold and not a service, this tool set normally advocates the use of 4Ps, the cheese market has to employ all the seven aspects of the tool set because they believe what they would be selling are is not only going to be a mere product but also a service as they would be satisfying the core factor of any business: the people and their satisfaction level must be of paramount priority (Westwood 2016). Product: This aspect of the marketing mix provides the producer with the necessary ideas about how to enhance the quality of their product and how may the image of the product be solidified in the market. It also gives insights about how can extra features be added to the product so that it stands out in the market and not be confused with any other product (Huang and Sarigll 2014). This helps the customers to understand what are the extra things that the product will offer them which will not be found in any other product that are available in the market at the moment. Information about the product, its customer services and how it aims to act upon receiving grievances from the customers is a vital way of ensuring maximum customer curiosity about a product that would make them at least try the product once after it is launched into the market before discarding it completely. The industry must also be able to innovate on their products and how to sale them if it wishes to thrive in t he market with so many competitors both within Australia and in the international levels. Promotion: Promoting a product is very important since without the knowledge about the availability or existence if a product in the market, customers would also be deprived of buying and enjoying the product (Mintz and Currim 2013). A good way to promote the locally made cheese would be if the cheese makers can team up with cooking schools, restaurants and wineries. Many of these institutions can avail locally made cheese to experiment with and promote their own wines or food using the cheese as in ingredient or as a complementary component to their own product. This would ensure more people being exposed to the cheese and some of the customers are bound to find some of the cheese flavours and taste to be interesting. This would make them want to try out more cheese and that would mean more people would be going to buy the products and the cheese sales would be benefited (Perreault, Cannon and McCarthy 2013). Price: This is a very tricky thing that has to be decided upon in a very clever way. People may reject a product as too costly and deeming it unaffordable, while also turn their faces from a relatively cheap product as they look at it as being untrustworthy (Baker 2014). However, the cheese market of the country is highly competitive and hence cannot afford to price the product too highly as it would only make customers grow averse and this would ultimately result in more cheese imports, which would not change the current scenario at all. Place: Picking the right place for promoting and marketing the product has to be done carefully so that many people can come to know of the product easily. Using traditional promotional options like the television or radio still promises to reach a lot of people. Many people still prefer to read newspapers overs watching news on the TV (Bhardwaj and Maharshi 2014). A great place to promote the cheese would be supermarkets and open market places, where people can be given samples of the new cheese as well as other popular ones. This is a clever marketing strategy to attract more people. If some people like the taste or the flavour, cheese sales are almost guaranteed to increase. Another good place to promote the cheese would be the cooking schools where the ingredients may be advertised and promoted so that the students know what products are being used for their culinary courses and this would make them buy the products for themselves (Hutchinson 2016). Also, social media can be a ve ry useful tool when trying to reach the younger generation (Soni and Vohra 2014). Social media can help the cheese makers to promote their products online and one of the biggest advantages of this would be the exposure to the younger generation of the country. Spreading knowledge about the cheese traditions of the country is sure to make people aware of the products that are available in the local market that is produced by the local dairy farms. This knowledge would enable young customers to opt for the cheese that is made locally as that tends to be cheaper than imported cheese. People: People are the central for any organisation or industry. The prime target of the cheese industry are the customers and they have to be made to understand about the product that are available in the local market, how are they produced and what are the benefits. One of the most important knowledge that has to be given to the customers is the information regarding the specialty of the cheese that is produced in the country domestically and how are they different from the imported products. A sense of tradition has to be spread to make them understand that the local product cannot be let to perish. Physical evidence: Being able to give the customers a physical evidence of their product in a good way is another great way to ensure more customer attention. The best way to do this is by making the packaging of the products to be more attractive. This would make more people attracted to the product and sales would also be benefited. Better and impressive packaging helps (Moir and McCarthy 2014). Conclusion From the above discussion, a conceivable and tangible marketing strategy for the cheese market is sure to help the sector regain its lost ground and make sure the sales better than in the recent times. The current strategies of the market seem to be best suited for the purposes of the industry and would be sufficient to establish the company as one of the biggest players in the market. The cheese market of Australia still has a long way to go and many obstacles, both domestic and international, has to be overcome in order to maintain the prominent presence of the country in the global dairy industry. The domestic producers also have to be helped by the law makers of the country to ensure their safety against the foreign imports and they have to be given some benefits over the international cheesemakers, if they are expected to sustain in the industry that has such a high and intense level of competition. 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