Marketing Mix for Brew-Dog Expansion

Marketing mix strategic planning is effective for the conglomerates to maximise their profitability through improving the sales volume of the organisation which can be posisbel through promoting the products of the organisation in the market. Marketing mix strategies provide a scope to the companies to promote their products and imporve brand image as well as enhance brand visibility in the market. This in turn helps the companies to strengthen their customers base in the market and deliver quality products at the right time to the right customers (Dost et al., 2018). The aim of the study is to analyse the role and importance of marketing mix in in promoting Brew-Dog so that the organisation can maximise their pre-specified aims and objectives of profit maximisation and brand expansion. Hereby, the role of the marketing mix planning is to develop effective strategy through which the company can promote the organisational products and increase visibility of the brand in the market where the customers can choose the right products of the company as per their needs and preferences. It is important for the company to imporve their corporate image and it also provides a scope for successful business expansion through which the organisations can enlarge their business activities across different countries (Bahl, and Chandra, 2018). Additionally, the marketing mix strategic planning is important for achieving the competitive advantage in the market and enhance customer’s satisfaction where the companies aim at delivering high quality products and services to the customers to meet the needs and preferences of the individuals. Brand loyalty and brand image can be enhanced through effective marketing mix strategic planning and apart from that, the organisations can optimise the resources as well as fulfil their corporate social responsibilities. The main objective of the companies in developing effective marketing mix strategic planning is to maximise their profitability and create stakeholder’s values strategically in long run so that it is easy to secure future sustainable development (Bahadir, Bharadwaj, and Srivastava, 2015).

Brew-Dog is a highly recognised local brand that is growing rapidly day by day. They are successful in improving reputation on producing top - quality craft beers and they make sure to have dog-friendly bars, but they also take an extra step in providing their employees with "Paw-Ternity" leave. this is effective for the organisation to utilise the market knowledge for producing the product Beer for Dogs. Learning more about the company allowed the group to establish the target audience that would be people aged between 25-45 (man or women) who owns a dog, has a comfortable job and is passionate about a good quality beer. The marketing mix is significantly important to any organisation as it provides a structure that can help underline and shape decisions. This is based on what they will provide their customers in order to satisfy their needs. The marketing mix consists of seven P’s: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Processes, Physical evidence. The contribution of all these elements can help the organisation to receive a positive and successful response to their new offering. Throughout this essay, the two elements most important within the marketing mix for the new product of Dog Beer will be highlighted as Product and Price (Jindal et al., 2018).

In the marketing mix, one of the most critical elements for the new offering the group was: The Product - Beer for Dogs. This is the tangible item that customers will be able to purchase from the organisation. A product as something that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. This statement influences the group to come up with the Dog Beer idea because since it is such a unique and niche product that will hopefully stand out in the consumer's minds. The Dog Beer idea came to mind from an article that stated that there would be a 25% increase on how much owners spend on pets therefore, emphasising to the group that there is a market for animal toys, etc. The group categorised Dog Beer as a Speciality Product for consumers as it will not be mass produced and it will be manufactured in old conventional ways using to get the best quality. The core of the product is about what benefits it brings, and for Dog- Beer, it would be simply for pure entertainment; with the customer enjoying a top-quality craft beer with his beloved pet. The benefit of this is that sharing a beer with their cherished pet will only reinforce the customer and pet's bond (Armstrong et al., 2014).

The actual product then consisted of how the group have branded, styled and coloured the product. The group decided that there would be three different flavour Dog Beers and they will be coloured differently indicating their flavour (Armstrong et al., 2015). The branding of the dog-beers would be kept the same with the same logo Brew-Dog use. The branding was kept the same as it is so established throughout Scotland meaning that people would be aware of the product. The unique aspect is that the bottle would be in the shape of a bone with a screw able cap in order to grab the attention of customers and to also stand out from the rest of the competition as it is an innovative feature.

Lastly, the three levels of a product focus on the augmented aspect; This is when there is something added to the product in order to create more value (Awan, Salam, and INAM, 2015). For the Dog Beer, the group decided that the unique selling point (USP) of the product would be that 50p of each beer would go towards a Dog Charity. The USP was decided due to the fact that this aspect may give the core product an added value which in turn could prompt and satisfy the customers. The charity aspect was based on the growing knowledge that ethical consumerism is starting to become prominent within the marketplace. From using this theory, it helped to deepen the connection between the product and our target audience. Brew-Dog is a vibrant and unique company which is targeting young to middle-aged people through their quality Craft Beer and the group identified that the target audience would enjoy a quality craft- beer. The new product is specifically for dog owners, which was identified in our target audience, making it a niche and specialised product that has the added benefits of bringing dogs and their owners even closer together.

Another vital element when it comes the new offering of Beer for Dogs is the Price. The price is what the new offering will be sold at and it is tough to get right; however, it is the only thing that can generate any income for the business, so it should be done carefully (Waehning, Karampela, and Pesonen, 2018). Price has been defined as price is the sum of all the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service. There are many different pricing strategies an organisation can decide on such as Price Skimming, Promotional Price, Introductory Price, Psychological Pricing etc. From researching a variety of different strategies, the group decided that, the most fitting pricing strategy would be Premium Pricing. Premium pricing is when businesses will charge a higher price for their product or service in order to maintain their brand. For the new offering, the price is premium compared to the other competitors within the market. This strategy works well with Brew-Dog as they are already distinguished for providing top quality craft beers, meaning the new product should fit right in. Even though the price may be high, it can be justified with the charitable aspect that the consumer will contribute too. Premium pricing can also help distinguish high quality in the market, but it can also be used to avoid direct comparisons between their competitors. The pricing strategy was also based on the knowledge of external factors.

Using PESTLE it helped the group to identify whether our pricing strategy should be high, low or competitive. Therefore, the economic factors stood out as the most important when deciding a pricing strategy. The office for national statistics has reported that disposable income has risen to its highest in 2018 at £357.787m and this is backed up by the fact people in work have seen a 3.2% rise in their pay packets. This, accordingly, links to our pricing strategy of charging premium prices as it is apparent that there is a growing amount of people with disposable income who would be more likely to spend a bit more on a quality product for their dog. However, these statistics only count towards the 29% of the UK citizens who owns a dog therefore making the market a lot more niche. Moreover, the price element justifies further our target audience as they must have a stable and secure job, in order to purchase the speciality product of Dog- Beer. Most importantly though there is a direct correlation between price and perceived quality of the product; therefore, reiterating that our target market who are passionate about a good quality beer will take their dog to Brew-Dog, not just for the Dog - Beer but for themselves too.

In conclusion, the two most important elements within the marketing mix - Product and Price, help to tailor the new offering of Dog Beer specifically for the target audience. Using the three levels of a product model, it can be stated that it is effective to shape the product and understand the importance of adding an extra feature to make it stand out from the competitors. The target audience will be passionate about high- quality craft beer that means they will need and expect the same standards for the Dog Beer as people are increasingly spending on their pets. The price element helps to promote Brew-Dog's quality due to the premium pricing strategy implemented. The premium price can be justified due to the fact that, disposable income is at its highest, meaning more people will be willing to spend their money on the Dog- Beer. This reinforces the target market as this product is directed towards the consumers who have a stable and secure job. Moreover, the use of these marketing mix elements was extremely useful for making the new offering tailored to the target audience who would want to buy such a niche product for their beloved dog at premium pricing.

Reference List

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