Eukanuba’s marketing plan
1.0 Situation Analysis
Following his breakthrough in developing a high quality new dog nutrition formula, Paul Lam founded Eukanuba in 1969. Eukanuba has since then grown to become the leading innovator and manufacturer of high-quality dog food in Australia. Despite such growth, Eukanuba face stiff competition in the industry from players such as nestle and mars and it now critical time for the company to improve it market performance.
1.1 Macro-environmental factor affecting Eukanuba
Cultural forces- pets have traditionally been part of Australia families. The culture of pet ownership continues to thrive in Australia society up to date. As of 2016, there were more than 24 million pets which were owned by 5.7 millions house hold out of the total population of 9.2 million household. In other words, 62% of Australia household own pet in Australia making it one of the leading country with highest pet ownership rate in the world (Animal Medicines Australia, 2016 ). Economical forces – Australia households continue to experience an increase in discretionary income (Trading economics, 2017). This increase in discretionary income has cause a gradual shift from home-made pet food in favour of manufactured food. In addition, the rising discretionary income has seen households sought high –quality (premium) pet food as health, wellness and safety of their pet remain a priority (IBISworld, 2016). Social Forces- Most of Australians are time-poor. They struggle to balance between career and family. As a result, adult Australian now value convenience more than ever before. The value they place on convenience has been one of the driving forces which have seen consumers gradually shifting from home-made pet food to manufactured pet food (IBISworld, 2016). Technological Forces-technology has changed the way people shop. Today, most consumers look for products related information online before they make purchase decision. This trend has also affected consumption of pet food. As noted by Grand view research (2016) majority of people are now searching for pet food related information over the internet to inform their purchase decision. It can therefore be concluded that internet is playing a greater role in influencing consumer behaviour as far as purchase of pet food is concerned. There is no expected demographic and political influence that could significantly affect the pet food industry as well as the operation of Eukanuba in near future.
1.2 Marketing goals
Given the macro-environmental forces as discussed above which are having major influence on the pet food industry and given that the pet food market it at maturity stage (IBISworld, 2016), the overall marketing strategy of Eukanuba will be to penetrate the market further. The specific goals of the company will be; • To increase sales by at least 20 percent per year • To increase the market share by at least 10 percent per year
2.0 Marketing strategies
In order to achieve the marketing goals as highlighted in section above, Eukanuba will pursue the following marketing strategies;
2.1 Target market The pet food market has a numbers of market segments which are dog food, cat food, Fish Food and bird pet food. The dog pet food is the largest market segment in the pet food industry in Australia. Dogs are the popular pet among Australian household. As of 2016, 62 percent (around 3.6) of the total household that own pet owned a dog (Animal Medicines Australia, 2016 ). This higher number of dog ownership has seen the segment record the highest number of sale in term of volume and dollar as compared to other market segments (Grand View Research Inc, 2016). The cat pet food industry is the second largest market segment in the industry. In Australia, three in ten (i.e. 2.7 millions) household owns cat as pet (Australia veterinary asociation , 2017). This high number of pet ownership makes the cat food to be the second largest segment in the entire pet food industry in Australia (IBISworld, 2016). Fish food is the third largest market segment in the entire pet food industry/market. According to the data from Animal Medicine Australia (2016), as of 2016, there were 8.7 million fish pets. However, unlike the other market segments discussed above, segment experienced decline. The number of fish pets owned by Australia household in 2016 was 2.4 million less as compared to 2013. This is a 9 percent decline (Animal Medicines Australia, 2016 ). Birds’ food is the fourth largest market segment in Australia pet industry. As of 2016, there were 4.2 million birds pets own by Australia household. This Just like the fish food industry, this market segment continue to record declining performance. From 2013 to 2016 the bird ownership decline by 11 percent which has result to declining sales of birds’ food in term of volume and dollar (Animal Medicines Australia, 2016 ). Out of the four market segments in the pet food industry, Eukanuba target the dogs’ food market segment. As highlighted earlier, this is the largest market segment which continue to attract growth estimated to be more than 2.9 percent (Animal Medicines Australia, 2016 ). At the moment, the largest players within this segment include Mars, Nestle and VIP Topco. However, Eukanuba is committed to gain significant market share from the players through proper execution of this marketing plan.
2.2 Value Proposition
Consumers in Australia are known to be always after value when making purchase decision. In this regards, Eukanuba acknowledges that in order to drives it sale as well as achieve it targeted market share, it has to create a value proposition that majority of consumers will relate to. To so, Eukanuba will develop high-quality, healthy food formula for each breed of dog. Different packing and branding will be used for each type of breed foods to make it easier for consumers to choose the right food that will enhance health and wellness of their particular breed of pet. This value proposition will be captures in the company positioning statement as below ‘For dog owners who want the healthy and right food for their breed of dog, Eukanuba is the right product for you. Over the last decade, Eukanuba has been committed in developing new food Formula to meet the nutritional needs of each breed of dogs out there. We now have the right food formula for your specific breed of dog’
3.0 Marketing Tactics In order to achieve the marketing goals and strategies as contain in this marketing plan, Eukanuba will implement the following marketing tactics; Price As mentioned earlier, the company will continue positioning itself as the leading manufacturer of premium breed-specific dogs’ food in Australia. Pricing will play a significant role in helping the company position itself as explained above. As empirical evidence has shown, consumers usually associated high price with high quality (Vema, 2004). Therefore, to successfully position Eukanuba Product as premium one, high price has to be charged. In other words, the company will use premium pricing strategy to set price for all of it products. Product As research has indicated, consumers in Australia have given health, wellness and safety of their pet a priority when determining pet food to purchase (Euromonitor International, 2016). In response to this trend, Eukanuba will continue to give more attention to the ingredients, methods of production and packing to ensure its products possess the highest quality in term of being healthy and safe for dogs’ consumption. Also, each breed of dog has certain nutrition needs and as such Eukanuba will manufacture and package breed-specific products. All of the company products will be packages in several weight including 2kgs, 5kgs, 10kgs, 25kgs 50kgs and 100kgs packets in order to meet the needs of almost all consumers. Place Today, consumers in Australia put more value on convenience shopping that ever before due to the fact that they are time-poor. With this in mind, Eukanuba distribution strategy is designed to ensure it products are easily accessible everywhere across the country. To ensure this is possible, Eukanuba’s products will be distributed through supermarkets (especially those presence everywhere in Australia), pet stores and online retail platform such as petcircle.com.au, petshopdirect.com.au among others Promotion Eukanuba acknowledges that significant brand awareness, it will be impossible to achieve the marketing goals as highlighted in this marketing plan. Promotion will therefore be an important part in implementation of this plan. Eukanuba will create awareness and promote its product mainly through mass media advertisement and internet marketing. Mass media such as radio, television, newspaper and billboards will be used to create awareness about Eukanuba products across the country. Advertisements on this media will be strategically place to ensure they reach the intended audiences. Also, in order to increase the confidence consumers has on Eukanuba products, the company will strive to get veterinarian endorsement for all of it products. Such endorsement will be used to reinforce the advertisement message. Internet marketing will also form part of the company promotion strategy. As pointed out by Grand View Research Inc (2016), consumers are increasingly searching information related to the best products for their pet through the internet. Eukanuba will therefore launch internet promotion campaign. The major aim of such promotional campaign will be to increases the online visibility of Eukanuba Products as well as provide consumers with relevant content that will helps them chose the best Eukanuba products for their dogs.
References
Animal Medicines Australia. (2016 ). Pet ownership in Australia in 2016. Sydney : Animals Medicines Australia. Australia veterinary asociation . (2017). Pet ownership statistic . Retrieved 05 17, 2017, from http://www.ava.com.au/news/media-centre/hot-topics-4
Euromonitor International. (2016). Dog food in australia . Euromonitor international .
Grand View Research Inc. (2016). Pet Food Market Analysis By Product (Dry, Wet/Canned, Nutritious, Snacks/Treats, Others), By Application (Dog, Cat, Others) And Segment Forecasts To 2022. Grand View research Inc .
IBISworld. (2016). Pet Food Production in Australia: Market Research Report. IBISworld. T
rading economics. (2017). Australia Disposable Personal Income. Retrieved 05 18, 2017, from Trading Economics : http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/disposable-personal-income.
Vema, D. (2004). Does higher price signal better quality . Vikalpa , 67-71.