Natural Way Products: Marketing Strategy for NZ and Australia
This paper presents a comprehensive marketing strategy for Natural Way Products (NWP), a natural and handcrafted personal care company based in New Zealand's North Island. Using a SWOT analysis and Ansoff Matrix framework, the paper identifies NWP's competitive strengths, manufacturing limitations, and expansion opportunities in New Zealand's South Island and Australia. It then proposes targeted advertising recommendations—including social media, internet marketing, YouTube content, and print advertising—designed to raise brand awareness and grow market share from 10% to 15% over five years. Demographic data on organic consumer behavior in the U.S. and Australia supports the case for broader market diversification.
- Introduction and Company Overview: NWP background, goals, and expansion rationale
- SWOT Analysis: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and action plan
- Ansoff Matrix Analysis: Four growth quadrants evaluated for NWP expansion
- Demographic Data and Consumer Trends: Organic consumer statistics supporting market diversification
- Advertising and Marketing Recommendations: Social media, internet, video, and print ad strategies
- Conclusions: Summary of strategy and diversification potential
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What makes this paper effective
- Applies two established strategic frameworks—SWOT and Ansoff Matrix—in sequence, giving the analysis both internal and market-oriented perspectives before moving to recommendations.
- Grounds advertising recommendations in demographic data on organic consumer behavior, lending empirical support to what could otherwise be purely speculative marketing suggestions.
- Maintains consistent alignment between findings and recommendations, ensuring each proposed action traces back to an identified strength or opportunity.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the use of the Ansoff Matrix as a decision-support tool, systematically mapping the company's product and market combinations (market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification) to evaluate expansion risk and reward. This technique allows the writer to reject some growth paths (e.g., premature product development) on logical grounds while endorsing others with clear justification.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief company overview, proceeds through SWOT and Ansoff Matrix analyses, inserts consumer demographic data to validate the target market, and closes with a four-part advertising strategy (social media, internet, video, and print). Each section builds logically on the previous one, moving from diagnosis to evidence to prescription—a classic consulting-report structure suitable for undergraduate business coursework.
Introduction and Company Overview
Natural Way Products (NWP) is already a leader in the natural products market in New Zealand's North Island, owing to the quality and effectiveness of its hand-crafted products, which are made with the best ingredients in a manner that is respectful of nature and better for the consumer. The company aims to expand its market share to include all of New Zealand—growing from its current 10% share to 15% over the next five years—and to enter the Australian market. The recommended path to achieving these goals is through expanded and diversified advertising that raises brand awareness, opens new markets, and increases overall visibility (Demers, 2010).
SWOT Analysis
Breaking down Natural Way Products into four essential elements provides insight into the strength and stability of the company as well as its potential for expansion, by contrasting strengths and opportunities against weaknesses and threats.
Natural Way Products has clearly demonstrated that its products have an established audience. Capturing 10% of New Zealand's market share in this product category is significant and indicates that the products deliver genuine value and have earned customer loyalty—an asset that should be capitalized upon.
The company's products are appealing and evidently high quality. Their superior scent, tangible results (customers report they "feel great" and that the products "are very effective"), and careful manufacturing methods all work in their favor. Handmade products using all-natural and often locally grown ingredients appeal to the rising consumer trend toward a deconstruction of mass-market society and a heightened emphasis on environmental responsibility (Lipson, 2008).
The company's manufacturing methods, while also a strength, could potentially limit expansion. The skilled labor and craftsmanship required to produce these products is not inexpensive. Any expansion of manufacturing capabilities would need to account for labor laws and taxation without compromising the company's commitment to natural methods.
Small-batch production means limited manufacturing capacity. Manpower and ingredient costs could become significant upon expansion. Capital would need to be diverted from other areas to cover new facilities, hiring and training new personnel, and any necessary taxes and permits. Rising labor costs could in turn necessitate higher product prices.
Cottage industries and handmade products are extremely popular, and their appeal is only growing. NWP's already-loyal customer base could be a valuable asset in galvanizing marketing efforts in other parts of New Zealand and Australia.
Australia and New Zealand have free trade agreements that allow products sold in one country to be freely sold in the other, without import taxes or tariffs, significantly lowering the barrier to cross-Tasman expansion.
Expanding into the rest of New Zealand and Australia will bring increased costs related to transportation, storage, and advertising. These could result in a higher retail price point, placing NWP at a competitive disadvantage relative to similar companies that are more locally based or larger in scale and therefore able to offer comparable or lower prices.
Copycat or counterfeit products made with inferior ingredients at lower cost could pose a genuine threat. Piracy of brand names, labeling, and packaging has risen sharply in recent years, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, where manufacturers have flooded the market with such goods.
Based on this analysis, NWP should: increase its customer base through alternative advertising methods to keep costs down; explore options for streamlining the manufacturing process to prevent labor and production costs from rising significantly with increased output; investigate methods of reducing ingredient and materials costs, such as agreements with growers' cooperatives, local farms, or hydroponic suppliers; investigate incidences of copycat or counterfeit "natural" products in the region; and obtain quotes from transportation companies regarding shipment pricing.
Ansoff Matrix Analysis
The Ansoff Matrix allows NWP's product and market expansion to be charted by examining the risk and reward of potential growth through a comparison of current and future markets alongside current and new products and services (Teo-Education.com, 2011).
Natural Way Products currently holds a 10% market share in its niche, meaning that of every ten consumers in the relevant New Zealand market who choose a natural product of the type NWP offers, one chooses NWP. This is significant penetration for a company whose products are highly labor- and quality-intensive. Strong market penetration bodes well for future expansion, and management is right to plan proactively for growth.
If the current customer base enjoys NWP products, they are likely to welcome a broader product selection. However, expanding the product line at this stage would be counter-productive to management's stated goals, diverting time, energy, and funding that would be better directed toward customer base expansion. Product development is not recommended at this time.
Because NWP has a satisfied customer base, expanding that base through increased advertising and marketing would further develop the market for its products, generating more revenue and supporting further expansion (Demers, 2010). This is a recommended course of action.
Diversification is entirely possible given the broad appeal of Natural Way Products (Demers, 2010). Although NWP's customer base is currently relatively concentrated, increased marketing and advertising can raise awareness of the brand in new markets, growing market share through diversification.
Natural Way Products should concentrate its efforts on developing and implementing new advertising strategies to facilitate market expansion.
References
Demers, J. (2010). Online marketing strategies for natural product retailers. Retrieved March 24, 2011 from
Nmisolutions.com. (2008). National marketing institute: Consumer insight and market opportunity report. Retrieved March 24, 2011 from
Hartman Group (1). (2008). The many faces of organic. Organic Magazine, Summer Issue.
Hartman Group (2). (2006). Consumer attitudes and behavior: Five years later and into the future. Organic Magazine.
Lipson, E. (2008). Organic consumers share values not demographics. Retrieved March 24, 2011 from
OrganicExpo. (2010). Organics everyday choice for Australians. Retrieved March 24, 2011 from
Teo-Education.com. (2011). The Ansoff matrix. Retrieved March 24, 2011 from
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