Reference no: EM133761146
Marketing Fundamentals
Assignment Brief
Choose only one (1) social or environmental cause alignment from the following:
Learning Outcome 1: Identify the principles and practices of marketing management in a complex and dynamic environment.
Learning Outcome 2: Develop, justify and apply marketing solutions to real-world [authentic] problems.
Learning Outcome 3: Source, synthesise, and cite relevant marketing, theoretical and empirical literature.
Description
Purpose
This task provides you with opportunities to learn marketing knowledge (GLO1 & ULO1, ULO2); relevant skills (GLO4 & ULO2; GLO3 & ULO3) and understand the complexity faced by organisations operating in dynamic environments and industries (GLO8 & ULO1, ULO2). Marketing knowledge and specific skills are required in the study and practice of marketing in organisations. By completing this task, you will develop your skills in researching, understanding, applying, evaluating, and presenting information required to meet the requirements of this assessment task.
Case Scenario
The Management of Lone Crow Coffee wish to enlist your expertise as a marketing consultant with the task of crafting a comprehensive marketing plan to expand their marketplace presence and increase brand awareness of the Lone Crow Coffee brand amongst your target market (developed in assignment 1). It is crucial for the management of Lone Crow Coffee to not only achieve its company objectives but also its societal objectives by promoting and increasing the profile of their collaboration with environmental and social causes through their Profit for Purpose program. These purposeful collaborations are aimed at inspiring a positive change within the coffee industry. For the purpose of this assignment, you must choose one (1) of the causes (See p. 4) to be the focal environment/social cause for assignment 2. The assignment objectives are outlined on page 6.
The Lone Crow Coffee brand is sold exclusively through their online website, as per the images below.
The Lone Crow Coffee brand is also sold exclusively through Woolworths supermarkets, as per the images below:
To assist you in the completion of Assignment 2, the Lone Crow Coffee company has provided us with the following information:
Lone Crow Coffee (LCC) was founded in 2023 (Instagram, 2024) by Reimis Smith who is a proud Bundjalung and Wiradjuri indigenous man, whose tribal totem is the crow - hence the name of the brand, Lone Crow Coffee. The company logo was designed by one of Reimis' four brothers, and the Indigenous artwork was designed and painted by his cousin, Letitia Smith. More information on the meaning of their logo and artwork can be found on Lone Crow's Instagram account.
Currently LCC's highest quality specialty grade green coffee beans are sourced internationally and roasted in Sydney. LCC also works with a coffee plantation and roaster in the Byron Hinterland in the state of New South Wales, located on what was traditionally Bundjalung land. LCC also source beans from their own plantation and other plantations around Australia and Papua New Guinea. In the short to medium-term, the goal is for LCC to be the first Indigenous, Australian-owned and operated, organic, single origin, coffee plantation and roastery in Australia.
According to LCC management, the company occasionally runs promotions and giveaways via their socials e.g., Facebook and Instagram (Meta platforms). They have a small mobile coffee cart for use at select collaboration events such as sporting events, clothing brand activations, gym activations, corporate events for Reconciliation and NAIDOC weeks. The coffee cart also offers employment to the graduates of LCC's ‘Indigenous Futures' program, where they offer free barista training and certification for Indigenous youths.
Lone Crow Coffee leverage the sporting profile of LCC's founder, Reimis Smith and his contacts the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. Reimis is a professional rugby league player formerly with the Melbourne Storm in the NRL competition. Using the Reimisis' high profile does create content, but the longer-term strategy is to expand beyond the NRL to other sporting codes through engaging Indigenous and non-Indigenous athletes, and beyond just sports and athletes
by engaging other Indigenous and non-Indigenous key opinion leaders.
The management of Lone Crow Coffee has asked you to develop a marketing plan to be implemented from June 2025. Your role is to develop the following marketing mix strategies, with justification (e.g., using primary - survey completed by MMK101 students; and secondary research - journal articles, industry reports, statistics etc.) to address the following company and societal objectives:
Develop a product strategy aimed at increasing brand recognition and building the brand image of Lone Crow Coffee brand and one (1) of their social/environmental partners.
Recommend a pricing strategy to encourage trial and repeat purchase of the Lone Crow Coffee brand, aiming to increase the sales volume.
Develop a multichannel distribution network to increase the Lone Crow Coffee brand's visibility and target market accessibility by expanding distribution channels to include both retailers and e-commerce platforms, thus optimising the Lone Crow Coffee brand's instore and online presence.
Further develop the integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaign with a focus on engaging the target market (developed in Assignment 1) and increase brand awareness, brand image and the profile of both the Lone Crow Coffee brand AND one (1) of its social/environmental partnerships.
Specific Requirements
Assignment 2 is a 1,500-word business report using the assignment template provided.
In Assignment 2, you are to develop marketing mix strategies (4Ps) which address the company and societal objectives outlined in the previous section.
How to develop Marketing Mix Strategies
Guidelines for developing marketing mix strategies are as follows:
state the strategy (e.g., social media)
clearly state how the strategy(s) will be implemented i.e., tactics e.g., which social media platforms - Facebook and Instagram;
provide the rationale/justification (reasoning) for your choice using supporting evidence e.g., primary research (based on the MMK101 survey results); and secondary research including journal articles, industry reports, statistics, and relevant marketing theories and concepts;
recommend suitable marketing metrics that will measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategies for each of the 4Ps (product, price, placement and promotion) in Section 5.5; and
at least two of the marketing mix strategies must be aligned to a UN sustainable development goal. You must justify why the specific SDGs were chosen.
Structure of the Report
Background (Assignment 1) Summary (not included in word count)
In the boxes provided in the Assignment 2 template, summarise (key points only) your target market/consumer profile, differentiation strategy(s) and positioning statement developed in Assignment 1. If you do not include this information in the boxes, as required, the content will form part of your assessment word count. It is important to provide this overview as it provides the marker of your assignment with a context. You can change the target market, differentiation strategy(s) and positioning statement based on the Assignment 1 feedback.
The number sequence of the Assignment 2 report continues from assignment 1.
Product Strategy ( approximately 225 words)
Develop a product strategy that meets the needs and expectations of your proposed target market and aligns with your differentiation strategy. The aim is to increase brand recognition and build the brand image of Lone Crow Coffee and one (1) of its environmental/societal partnerships. You must provide supporting evidence throughout the discussion.
Pricing Strategy (approximately 200 words)
Recommend a pricing strategy to encourage trial and repeat purchase of the Lone Crow Coffee brand, aiming to increase the sales volume. You must provide justification for your choice of pricing strategy and its implementation (tactic).
Distribution and Logistics (placement) Strategy ( approximately 225 words)
Develop a multichannel distribution network to increase the Lone Crow Coffee brand's visibility and target market accessibility by expanding distribution channels further to include both retailers and e-commerce platforms, thus optimising the Lone Crow Coffee brand's instore and online presence. You must provide a diagram to reflect the multi-channel distribution network you have developed. Note. do not copy and paste the textbook diagram as this does not reflect an integrated multichannel distribution strategy.
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Strategy (550 words)
Recommend at least three (3) promotion tools from the marketing communication mix that aligns with your target market's media habits and meets the company and societal objectives. The campaign must engage the target market and effectively communicate Lone Crow Coffee's brand values and sense of community beyond the strategies the company already implements. The aim is to increase brand awareness, brand image and the profile of Lone Crow Coffee and one (1) of its social/environmental partnerships by fostering greater knowledge and community engagement with both brands amongst your target market (developed in Assignment 1).
Marketing Metrics (approximately 100 words)
Recommend marketing metric(s) (marketing analytics) that measures the effectiveness of ALL your marketing mix strategies. This can be presented in a table format which clearly states the metric(s) and what it measures. This table is included in the word count.
6. Conclusion and Implications (approximately 200 words)
Summarise the key findings from both assignments 1 and 2. Do you believe your recommendations to Lone Crow Coffee's management will be effective in increasing brand recognition and building the brand image of Lone Crow Coffee and one (1) of its social/environmental partnerships through a strong product strategy, an engaging IMC program, wider distribution channels leading to an increase in sales volume? Why or Why Not? It is completely acceptable to recommend the difficulties this marketing mix program may encounter but you must demonstrate that even the best marketing plan would be unsuccessful and provide evidence.
Business report format using the template and completing the artificial intelligence usage table Concise, clear and professional business language
Appropriate use of digital resources - skills that you will have developed from completion of the compulsory Essential Digital Literacy module
Use of credible and relevant sources (minimum of ten (10) different/unique sources, with at least two of these being peer reviewed journal articles)