E-Marketing Plan for Gold Coast Bakeries: Strategy & Budget

Introduction

In order to stay competitive, attract potential customers, and offer products in a more effective way, businesses must incorporate strong e-marketing strategies as part of their marketing and promotional efforts. Gold Coast Bakeries is a medium-scale business corporation based in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It offers a variety of baked items for every type of customer and all food requirements. Gold Coast Bakeries can be regarded as a growing business in the Gold Coast region, but it faces certain challenges and threats from different environmental forces and strong competitors in the industry. To survive in an uncertain business environment and compete with industry leaders, Gold Coast Bakeries must incorporate electronic marketing for the promotion of its products.

As part of its product strategies, the company can improve quality and taste while keeping prices at their minimum possible level. To promote its products in a more effective and cost-efficient manner, Gold Coast Bakeries can develop additional features on its website, add a customer services section, and institute a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in its operational units. Through improved customer services, Gold Coast Bakeries will be able to place greater emphasis on product quality and after-sale services. It can gather feedback from customers on how to improve its product range and reach potential segments. The e-marketing strategies will also entail distribution planning, where the company can invite more potential distributors and supply chain members to join its business network. Moreover, it can advertise its products on social media platforms, which represent the most cost-efficient means of promotion available today. The e-marketing budget will be distributed across three major objectives: increasing sales volume and market share, improving supply chain management, and building overall brand loyalty — all implemented on the basis of situational analysis findings.

Businesses use internet or electronic marketing to digitalize their marketing and promotional efforts and achieve strategic objectives. E-marketing enables business organizations to target potential customers in a more effective and precise way through carefully designed e-marketing plans, budgets, and strategies (Berger & Milkman 2012). This paper presents a complete e-marketing plan for Gold Coast Bakeries. It begins with a brief introduction to the company — its product offerings, area served, scale of operations, and target customers — and then discusses its internal and external environment and competitive intensity through situational and SWOT analyses. Later sections address e-marketing strategic planning, marketing objectives and budget, and the marketing mix, in order to set a roadmap for achieving overall strategic goals. The final section presents an evaluation plan designed to ensure the effectiveness of the e-marketing strategies.

Situational Analysis: Gold Coast Bakeries

Internal Environment

Introduction, History, and Product Offerings

Gold Coast Bakeries — established in 1956 — is a completely family-owned business in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The founders, Harvey and Dulcie Marrable, opened their first bakery without imagining they would transform it into a successful enterprise built on a tradition of providing the highest-quality food products. Gold Coast Bakeries currently offers a wide range of baked food items for all kinds of meals and refreshments. The three top brands of the company are Gold Coast Bread, King Henry, and Golden Hearth, which have successfully captured a strong customer following in the region. Gold Coast Bakeries has been serving its customers for more than 56 years, with continuous growth in operations and ongoing improvement in product quality (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

Current Target Markets

The retail stores of Gold Coast Bakeries remain operative seven days a week, offering a variety of fresh food products for all types of customers. The major target markets extend from South-East Queensland to Northern New South Wales. The company also distributes its food products to supermarkets and retail stores in Lismore and North Noosa. Over time, Gold Coast Bakeries has expanded its supply chain network and channels of distribution. At present, it works with approximately 50 vendor distributors from across Queensland who offer their services efficiently. Gold Coast Bakeries has also engaged a number of driver contractors and sales staff who play an important role in the sales and distribution of its food products while maintaining their freshness and taste (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

External Environment

The business environment in which Gold Coast Bakeries operates has changed greatly since the company was founded by Harvey and Dulcie Marrable. The external environment consists of all those forces typically present in any manufacturing concern; however, these forces have brought specific impacts on its operations over the last few decades. The major external environmental forces for Gold Coast Bakeries include political and legal forces, economic forces, social and demographic forces, technological forces, and competitive forces. Gold Coast Bakeries must carefully analyze its external environment in order to protect its operations and profitability from unwanted issues or complexities.

Political and Legal Forces

Gold Coast Bakeries is a medium-scale family-owned business with limited assets and financial resources. It must therefore keep its policies and practices aligned with the laws and regulations defined by the local government when formulating any new strategies — including introducing new products, implementing new marketing plans, hiring employees, or making contractual agreements with new distributors or supply chain members. As Gold Coast Bakeries operates in the food market, the most critical concern for its owners is maintaining product operations that meet the health and safety standards set by the Australian Government for food manufacturing concerns. The company must also meet international quality standards in order to keep pace with industry benchmarks.

Economic Forces

For a small or medium-scale business, economic forces are the most critical external pressures because they directly affect operational and financial performance. For Gold Coast Bakeries, economic forces encompass all factors that impact sales, income, and expenditures. The most significant of these is the price of raw materials. Gold Coast Bakeries purchases high-quality raw materials to produce baked food items that excel in taste, health, and nutrition. Due to inflationary pressures, these materials are becoming increasingly expensive. Rising operational costs also compress profit margins; utility services, manufacturing plants and machinery, packaging, and distribution expenses are the major cost categories affected by economic forces (Peter & Donnelly 2009).

Economic forces have also negatively affected the purchasing power of customers. When ready-made baked products become more expensive, customers seek alternative foods, particularly for breakfast and occasional meals. To retain its customers, Gold Coast Bakeries must hold its prices stable for extended periods, accepting lower profit margins rather than passing costs on to consumers. The company must also offer competitive commission packages to its suppliers, distributors, and business development agencies in order to retain them in its value chain.

Social and Demographic Forces

The major social and demographic forces affecting the sales volume and market acceptance of Gold Coast Bakeries products are price, quality, and availability. The company has gained a strong reputation in the local market by offering fresh, high-quality bakery items. Its top products — Gold Coast Bread, King Henry, and Golden Hearth — have developed a large following of brand-loyal customers in South-East Queensland and New South Wales, a result of their taste and prime quality (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

Gold Coast Bakeries has designed its product operations and strategies to reinforce brand loyalty. Fair product pricing, easy availability, maintenance of freshness and health standards, and attractive packaging are among the tools used to compete with social and demographic forces in its external environment. The company has set a fair price for its products so that it can serve a larger customer market in Gold Coast and adjacent regions.

Technological Forces

Gold Coast Bakeries must keep its production units and machinery in optimal mechanical condition to ensure effective and efficient business operations. Continuous upgrading of all manufacturing plants and equipment is essential for producing the best-quality products for customers. If the company fails to respond to technological changes in its environment, it will lose its competitive standing in the industry. Continuous upgrading of plants and machinery represents a significant annual expenditure, requiring the company to set aside a substantial portion of its profits for this purpose.

Competitive Forces

There are numerous competitors in Gold Coast and adjacent regions that compete directly with Gold Coast Bakeries. Major competitors include Petro's Bakery, Goldstein's Bakery, Marquis De Pastry, Brumby's Bakeries, Oriental Bakeries, BC's Bakery, Celtic Organic Bakery, Maurita Authentic Italian Bakery, Miami Village Bakery, Montary Keys Bakery, and Beaudesert Fair Bakery. In addition to these established competitors, medium and large-scale private retail stores and supermarkets selling branded bakery products provide equally stiff competition.

All of these competitors attempt to capture new customers as well as the existing customers of rival companies by promoting high-quality products through attractive campaigns and competitive strategies. The biggest competitive advantage for market leaders is their extended distribution channels across Australia. Smaller and medium-scale competitors, by contrast, can only target limited consumer markets through their smaller distribution networks (Hanafizadeh & Behboudi 2012).

Gold Coast Bakeries distributes its products to major supermarkets and private retail outlets in Gold Coast and parts of Queensland. However, many larger competitors secure prime shelf placement in supermarkets and retail stores, which significantly reduces the proportion of customers who choose Gold Coast Bakeries products on a daily basis. It is therefore essential for Gold Coast Bakeries to strengthen brand loyalty in its target markets so that regular customers do not switch to competitors. Some new competitors also offer products at lower prices; these competitors generally fail to capture meaningful market share due to inferior quality or limited customer acceptance (Mullins, Walker, & Boyd 2008).

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis helps a company understand its internal and external environment by examining major strengths and weaknesses, potential market opportunities, and possible threats in the business environment (Brassington & Pettitt 2006). The SWOT analysis for Gold Coast Bakeries is presented below.

Strengths

The biggest strength of Gold Coast Bakeries is its brand loyalty among general consumers in Queensland, Northern New South Wales, Lismore, and North Noosa. For more than 56 years, the company has served customers with delicious, healthy, and nutritional food products at very competitive prices. A second major strength is its responsiveness to changing customer tastes and preferences; Gold Coast Bakeries offers a variety of baked food items to suit different kinds of customers. A large customer base, a highly efficient supply chain and distribution network, and a motivated sales force are additional key strengths (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

Weaknesses

A significant weakness of Gold Coast Bakeries is its limited scale of operations. Although it has been operative for more than five decades, its customer base and distribution network have not expanded to a large number of locations across the country — meaning Gold Coast Bakeries continues to serve a limited target market already crowded with competitors. A second weakness is insufficient investment in internet marketing and promotional efforts. The company's website does not offer online ordering, shopping cart functionality, customer facilitation, suggestion submission, complaint resolution services, or other internet services for customers and stakeholders. A third weakness is the limited focus on broader marketing strategies; there are no public relations tools currently in practice, and the media and news sections of the company's online presence lack information that could attract potential investors or customers (Gold Coast Bakeries 2012).

Opportunities

Despite its limited operational scale, Gold Coast Bakeries has significant opportunities to grow within Australia's baked food industry. Australian consumers are food-conscious and select meals according to their own taste and quality standards. Gold Coast Bakeries can expand to target a larger customer market in other states and cities. Initially, it can increase production capacity to manufacture its existing product lines in greater quantities. It can then expand its distribution network, with distribution agencies and firms responsible for delivering products to new markets and destinations. Increasing the sales force to work at retail outlets and strengthen customer relations will also be necessary. Although these expansions will increase business costs, they will ultimately lead to a larger scale of operations, greater market share, and a stronger customer base (Blyth 2011).

Threats

The biggest threat facing Gold Coast Bakeries is the competitive landscape. The company contends not only with strong local brands but also with internationally recognized competitors that directly affect its product sales. Some top-tier competitors are investing heavily in e-commerce and e-marketing strategies, making them significantly more competitive. Rising costs of raw materials, utility services, and commission packages for distributors and business development agencies represent a second major threat. Economic fluctuations, technological advancements, political and governmental changes, rapidly shifting customer preferences, and environmental forces pose additional threats. Evolving health and safety standards in the region also present ongoing challenges if the company's operations do not keep pace with regulatory requirements (Spilker-Attig & Brettel 2010).