Executive Summary
Kingsford business plays an important economic role as part of the Clorox portfolio in its yearly and periodic revenue total revenue generation. The failure of one entity within a company reflects an overall decline in total earnings. The underpinning problem for the charcoal category of business is the consecutive decline in the percentage of revenue earnings analyzed to emanate from non-strategic economic policies in the charcoal market. Marketing strategies employed by the management of Kingsford were far much ineffective about the market and how brands are developed and promoted to consumers to create more information hence raise sales. Kingsford business revenues tremendous decline for three years related to the way the marketing department and the entire management failure to prioritized key areas that needed to be addressed to enable the product to gain a market segment for guaranteed incremental revenue generations (Cravens 23).
To ensure the productivity of any business that wishes to command a bigger share in the market in the form of revenue, product promotion, advertising, proper pricing, and branding or improving the existing product is imperative. Kingsford Company could employ these strategies to avert the economic crisis within the company which needed just the development of a plan of action on the product and implemented to reflect increased growth. Diversifying the products from charcoal that suits the consumers in the market is an imperative undertaking that cannot be ignored by the brand manager. The choice for fixing the declining performance of the company is important in developing a proper marketing strategy that involves brand advertising and product promotion.
Product pricing where adjustments are made according to the competitive market helps in regulating products sales remarkably increasing the revenues of the Kingsford Company as witnessed within other companies within the Clorox portfolio. Robust advertising coupled with the promotion of the Kingsford brand would steer the company ahead and be at par with other entities within Clorox to enhance the productivity of the products for increased revenue. This would effectively raise the competitive nature of the company to maximize the customer base, hence its growth. Companies that address the inner circles’ influences in the business that directly relate to the brand and the external market challenges and opportunities though effective strategies maximize on revenues (Proctor 20).
Problem statement and statement of Alternatives
Kingsford’s poor marketing strategies based on brand development and advertising consistently reduced earnings for the company. The failure of the brand managers to develop a clear marketing policy with defined objectives in terms of customer needs to be resulted in Kingsford’s reduced earnings traced from ineffective or no advertising. The softening of the charcoal category in the Clorox portfolio was based on unsuccessful marketing information. Setting low prices in the market without reviewing them about other related companies contributed greatly to reduced revenue trends. The difference in the price as the analysis revealed could mean that the brand quality for Kingsford had reduced hence decreased sales. This decrease in charcoal grills trending downward with gas grilling increasing could have made the Kingsford brand managers develop a strategy to address and improve the charcoal brand (Klein 12).
A moderate increase in prices approximately at 4 percent for the club stores and a relatively small 2.5 percent in blue bag price across all channels would consequently have a great impact on the volume of sales hence raising the short term profits to the company and a steady growth in productivity of the charcoal brand. Pricing has to be carried out in a detailed account of the market structure and customer feedback based on the quality of the product. Promoting the company’s image through advertising and its brands would play a pivotal role in sales volume increment. This strategy is important because the company tries to convince the consumers on the quality of the product and justify the moderate increase in prices. Advertising creates a clear picture of the commodity hence boosting sales reflecting a rise in revenue generation. The analysis carried out by Marketing Management Analytics showed that advertising on TV had a bigger incremental growth margin on sales volume (Klein 14).
The product promotional strategy decided to be employed by the Kingsford sales group was to optimize four sales levers at each distribution outlet namely; Merchandising, Assortment, Pricing, and Shelving. This would help regain the lost ground on consumer networks for Kingsford products. Such key measures in promoting the company’s products would call for funds allocation to the sales and advertising departments to ensure that they effectively employ all the proposed marketing mix strategies to boost revenue for Kingsford business. Developing a regular supply capacity for the company’s products would mean ensuring that consumers access the products with ease and adequacy. Maintaining approximately 80 percent of the production capacity would prove monumental in sales volume increase and a positive shift in revenue generation. This however would call for more funding where building additional capacity would be difficult and expensive (Klein 14).
Analysis of Alternatives
Kingsford management consideration of the strategies to employ in addressing the sales revenues decline needed a clear and deeper assessment to determine their practicability for implementation. This involved developing a marketing mix where an analysis of the strategies employed therein was done to critically determine the net profitability of each of them as reflected in the revenue index of the company. Pricing has to be done in line with other considerations relating to sales development. Because the competitors in the same market had increased prices within one year, the retailers would not certainly be surprised with a price increase though has to be a proper one. In the case of consumers, Charcoal was considered as a “happy product” with family and fun adjusting prices upwards would not affect retail consumption. Total pricing of a 5 percent increase would result in an estimated 1,720 million US Dollars in profit. Advertising proved to be vital for Kingsford rather than channeling a lot of money on sales promotions only.
This model of advertising proposed and designed by Marketing Management Analytics in their analysis showed positive trends in sales volumes of about 20,000 (Msc). Such advertising would be based on making the consumers aware of the importance of using charcoal grills in their day to day activities by relating the difference in food flavor prepared using charcoal and gas. This would specifically raise the consumer’s need to purchase Kingsford commodities hence increase revenue. Promotion strategy involved featuring Kingsford products in circulars that were mailed to consumers and displaying Kingsford on end-caps. Reflecting on stock units would maximize sales volume and help the marketing team develop quantitative models for various markets.
Plan Development
Implementing a successful plan of action would involve combining all aspects related to the market and factors that affect sales volumes of Kingsford charcoal business. Gathering the required market information regarding what the consumers say about Kingsford charcoal products would prove important. Employing a sound marketing plan through a marketing mix would help elevate the business on a greater scale but only when the proper and effective application is applied by striking a balance between them. Adjusting prices would call for close consideration of related products in the entire market, paving way for proper pricing losing the consumer base. This has to be done in line with marketing objectives and predetermined forecasts in revenue. Proper marketing objectives are critical because they help in guiding the marketing team since they act as measures of their success or failure in the marketing process.
The marketing mix proposed by Boyle and Warren to employ advertising, pricing, promotion and capacity would help improve the sales and overall profits for the company reflecting increased revenue generation within the Clorox portfolio as a whole. This marketing strategy would raise the market standards of the Kingsford brand to a higher and a new level in growth and productivity. This would also entail developing its capacity by acquiring a new plant which if proved to be costly, other alternatives such as approaching competitors to enhance their capacity to produce charcoal. In terms of promotions, Kingsford would work on a plan to expand the grilling season beyond peak summertime to march by enhancing NASCAR promotions to increase charcoal consumption among the people in the potential and prospective market economy.
Works Cited
Cravens, David. Strategic Marketing 8E. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill Education, 2010. Print.
Klein, Guenther. Strategic Marketing. Berlin: GRIN Verlag, 2007. Print.
Proctor, Tony. Strategic Marketing: An Introduction. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2013. Print.