Assessment 1 Guidelines – Marketing strategy pitch
Students are toapproach this task as though they are an individual consultancy which has been asked to examine the current marketing environment and develop an informed marketing strategy to pitch to the business. This task requires you to conduct a thorough situational analysis, using these results to inform a comprehensive marketing strategy solution.
This task is developed in conjunction with our industry partner. This semester, our industry partner is Fields Brewery.
Students are to conduct a situational analysis, using systematic and theoretical frameworks to ensure a comprehensive assessment. This analysis is then used by the student to inform a SWOT and toidentify the major marketing challenge/opportunity for consideration in the marketing strategy. A comprehensive marketing strategy is then detailed, again with theoretical support. Students will identify and leverage the current brand position (this is not a repositioning task) and create a new marketing strategy for implementation, with justification.
Students are given a list of potential marketing strategies, following, to choose from and must select and justify a strategy before developing a plan to execute. These strategies are discussed in Hooley, Piercy, Nicoulaud, & Rudd (2017). Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning. Chapter 10 and linked to Week 4 lecture.
Please ensure you consult the marking criteria for full explanation of grading and detail of expectations. Notably, students will not just describe but will consider and evaluate the factors in relation to marketing success.
The presentation should address the following areas, although exact structure is not required but please ensure all required topics are addressed.APA 6th/7threferencing is desirable, with a reference list included as the last slide. A minimum of 10 scholarly theoretical academic sources are expected at a pass level. Students could have more, and will have additional industry and company sources also.
Content guidelines
Other important guidelines
FIELDS BREWERY BRIEF OVERVIEW
Owner: Luke and his business partner’s name is Ryan.
“Great beer should be a balance of quality and simplicity”.
“We are doing this for a simple reason. It’s hard to ignore something you believe in, and want to see succeed”.
THE HISTORY
Ryan is an incredibly smart guy, and he runs an existing brewery called Brand owl brewery. That is what we do that called gypsy brewing. Ryan has a business set up where he sells it directly to the public. He sells it from the taproom. We have created fields to more target the pubs and clubs.
We are trying to aim for really applicable, great tasting beer that has a strong brand that you can drink it anywhere rather than being associated with a particular craft brewery. Gypsy brewing, so what this is is the part of its field doesn’t actually have a cost. Gypsy brewing is where you go to any brewers, use their expertise, and now actually brew the beer before you say it. To set up a craft brewery costs about a million bucks to set up with all the equipment and everything. Ryan had this establishment costs. We paid brand owl a fee for brewing our beer. The recipes are different. So it’s not just whacking on a stick onto a new can. The recipes are different, and the beer is different. But it’s very common in a smart way to do it for craft breweries. Who is starting out, who have an idea, any particular beer they wanted to taste, to try it. And brought through gypsy brewing without the significant overheads. We are trying to target pubs and clubs in building that brand. You make absolutely no money out of packaged goods. So when we say packaged, it’s the can, and hopefully, you can see that. It’s still an absolute place and necessity of the industry to have it because it provides brand recognition. But you make really low margins. The branding of our beer is that we want people to know that when they walk in a bottle shop, when they know we walk into a pub and see, I called it the Barley stem. This is what we are trying to build it around. A lot of craft brewers are very cartoonish in their approach. It’s cool, fun, exciting. And we think that their effort is to go more on the can as opposed to the beer. So we’re trying to do more focus on the quality of the beer.
DESIGN
We have some professional photos taken just the other day because one of the winds in our three months is through word of mouth and the networks we had. We have been out of stock out beer in BWS in 20 stores in Brisbane, and we are also going on five Dan Murphy’s. That’s a huge thing for someone of our age in the industry. So we are really excited about that one. And it’s a new market that we get to penetrate new customers.
Our design of the can is trying to focus just with subtle changes to the type of beer and the barley stem’s cooler. But it is still very recognisable. Versus, as you can see on the other one that the approach of the existing craft beers as some examples of what’s going on. If you are looking for a specific beer, you can get lost in the noise of that. And I think there is an application of doing the same thing. When you walk into a BWS and look for a beer, how could you find the one you are looking for amongst all that colour noise? This is the idea of what we’re trying to set ourselves out from the rest.
Aircraft beer is trying to make it just more about the beer and less cartoonish and extreme of what the craft beer industry has come about last sort of 5 or 10 years.
THE INDUSTRY
It’s almost stripping it back. There are many craft brewers out there who are using giraffes tongue and pixie dust in their beer because it’s crazy ingredients. What we are trying to be as honest, the next bolt off, the next four weeks, we are going to aim high, and if we fail, it is what it is, but we want to really become mainstream that the truth of the roots.
The competitive market in beer has grown tremendously. If you walk into a Dan Murphy’s, you could buy a different brand for the rest of your life. You never drink the same beer twice. It’s very competitive. But to really make money out of it, you got to be doing some tremendous amount of volume, and you really be getting taps in pubs and clubs. Because the bigger guys are doing such huge volumes, they can sell a carton be a lot cheaper than the craft guys can because they are rating costs coming down. Everyone pays the same excise tax, alcohol tax on beer, ingredients, packaging on the top of areas that you can change and get your costs down when you are doing volume. But that’s obviously a little bit of little all fields versus the castle main brewery next to Suncorp Stadium, which is a vast facility.
The BWS deal to be really transparent with you guys because a can of our beer costs you anywhere between $60 and $75, that’s our selling to you for retail prices. To be transparent, to let you understand with the BWS deal, we make $3 a carton, so we sell it to them for $45. And we make $3 out of that after all of our costs associated. You might ask why we are doing it, where we are. It’s an opportunity for us to getting into different markets. That’s why we are doing it in a big name. Distribute on and we’re packing a beer that people will enjoy it and lock it, and we will promote it on social media. But it’s just right in deciding to. The beer is expensive— the carton for a beer, which is $50 if you like. But again, it goes down to those profit margins and volume. When you drink it at a pub, there is a huge amount of upside.
TARGET MARKET
Ryan, through brand owl and fields, we do about 100 thousand lead of beers at the moment. We still very small for all. But that’s ultimately what we would like to get to rather than selling and chasing the little margins on selling to the individual customer. Our ultimate goal unashamedly with fields is to be bought out. In my opinion, why these guys are being bought out is the strong brand presence and story by honey bees. And that’s what we are trying to create. A lot of people drink Balter purely because they are going to be the world’s best surfer. Because Mick Fanning (Balter Brewing) did it. This is all about the brand, and for those guys, that’s been the biggest success. Green Beacon did some really cool deals as well. They managed to supply quantised for a period of time. So again, they brought in their market and awareness. So they got a really good deal. If we in the next ten years got bought out in that period, that’s ultimately our goal to be transparent with you all.
I had a meeting funnily enough at Springfield, and I just like the sand of fields and fields. The application is supposed to be up to the interpretation of that brand. We like the idea of barley fields being organic. But we liked the idea of fields are dreams and sporting fields. It has several areas of application, and that’s what we also like. Our target markets are pubs and clubs, so build that brand, build that awareness through the packaging and slightly make our ways to the pubs and clubs on the taps to take advantage of those large amounts.
CHALLENGES
COVID has been a challenge for everyone as we all know. But the biggest challenge is that it’s just caused a lot of pubs and clubs we engaged with who will give us a go. Just to completely understandably, shut up shops a bit and just be a bit more cautious, not expanded into new brands or not open, or there have been other challenges with respect to that. COVID obviously impacted on that. Strangely enough, funny, since those all the sales in bottle shops are up about 20 or 30% because if people staying at home not been out to go to pubs and clubs. So in a really strange way, the fact that we were getting on BWS and work in our existing bottle shops. We run about five bottle shops now and we have been delivering direct to customers. Again, to get our brand out there, I mean this environment has been good and a lot more people are going into the bottle shops. And hopefully that continues when we went to BWS.
As I said, the market share is very competitive. Gone to any of these craft beers and you will see there are literally hundreds of brands and there are thousands of different types of the beer itself. It is just a very competitive market. And strangely, whether our points are different, whether it will throwback in our face but we are trying to be a craft beer and a mainstream beer. Because we are probably going to only have about eight beers in total and we will do one or two special ones each year, but we are just trying to brew consistent quality beer. If you look at the other craft breweries, they will release 20 to 30 new beers every year because people like something new and different. But I aim for longevity from this, and we want just quality beers rather than having to rain you stove and come up with some other crazy concoction for beer. That’s their market. Chasing the brand new shiny thing where we are looking for consistency, longevity players, suppose.
There is absolute loyalty to existing brands, and there is always some scape. It’s largely the older demographic as well. Conclusion this isn’t about new beer coming to the market, but it’s trying to convert our customer base to grow that customer base and get that beer in many people to keep pushing its awareness. Talk about the craft beer costs and association and impact with ingredients and volumes. And the other challenge so far is our marketing budget; it’s literally zero. So we have paid $500 for some professional photos, and then it’s literally zero. And at the moment, we have got one of our friends who is running an Instagram page. My brother-in-law built our website for us, and I paid him a beer in that respect. So it’s really, there is no marketing budget. I would appreciate a new startup.
ACHIEVES TO DATE
We have only been going for three months. We have been out to get on to 5 local bottle shops, the website they list as stockists. There are many high margins at the BWS once in there, and they’re doing well for us. They are probably moving through about ten cartons every two weeks for us individually, so again, it’s been really good to have them as a distribution channel. The BWS and Dan Murphy’s are a huge brand. And if you look in the context of the Breakfast Creek, a meeting these people is the fact that I’m able to talk about that we’ve signed a deal with BWS. It gets their attention immediately. You don’t have to go there and tell them how great your beers like the rest of the thousand other than the fact that we got on the BWS in three months. It’s a huge point of difference, and some of that we leverage in those conversations. It helped us. So the Breakfast Creek will put us on immediately; it’s just in cans at this stage. But then they are talking about how they will put us on a tap in the new year, which would be awesome. But again, if we can promote the fact that we are in Brisbane’s most famous and well-established hotel. It makes us bigger than we are. It opens up an enormous amount of new opportunities, and we’re really excited by that. Emporium itself, Brunswick hotel… those guys are giving us a go as well, and again we will promote that. All of those contacts have come through the context in the property industry that has either work at ALH now. So the owners of those hotels or Woolworths who was able to help us out navigate to get right BWS contacts, etc.… so that’s been a huge win for us and something that we want to keep and mention with.
The reviews and feedbacks being excellent. We’ve given some beers to some locals. If you look at peer reviewers, there are several guys with 3-4 thousand followers, and they review the beer. It’s been genuine. We receive positive feedback, and no one is going negative on us yet. I’m sure it will come. But those guys do going negative on other beers, but it’s been well received. No doubt we’ve got some sales through the bottle shop as a result of these guys were reviewing it and giving that feedback.
We’ve got 400 Instagram followers. Apparently, that’s a good number for a business in three months. If we benchmark ourselves against the altars of the world, they’ve got 70 thousand. So a huge part out of this is how do we grow through that channel and keep those Instagram followers and messaging out to the market. We think it’s a great start, but we want to continue to build on that. Barbershops and florists can sell beer; I guess to a max of 4 cans per person, but they are able under the liquor licensing, and they can sell beer. My local barber, he stocking it for me, gives it away for free if someone’s getting a skin fade or a larger hair cut in 60 minutes, just a bit of a reward back to the customers because that’s probably about a $60 hair cut. So that’s the way he’s approaching it. He has supported us, and I’d love to be out of stock more beer in more. Barbershops are again another distribution channel. I really think that the florist market as well. You give someone has a baby, and you genuinely send flowers to the mother who has just given birth, and then there’s sort of nothing for the dad. There is an opportunity for a couple of flowers and a four-pack of beer in those top of the events in the scenario. I will look a little further into that.
As I said, we’ve successfully launched four beer flavors at the market at the moment, and we’ve got another four to go. The next one will be a ginger beer and a Sita, and then we’ll finish the year with those. They called session owls, more that some are easy to drink in the Haight type beer. So that’ll be what we round out the year with. The great thing about BWS is that they are stocking it for a minimum of six months, so it’s excellent that we will be out of trade through summer, which is positive. And again, I keep popping on about the BWS deal, but it’s just significant for us. But the minimum hurdle rates that or sales rates the BWS is chasing is a minimum of 1.5 four packs per week. And if you want to expand with them, they want you to demonstrate that you can sell consistently 2.5 four packs a week. I am encouraged by that. 1.5 four-packs are six beers. Someone comes in hypothetically and buys a carton for the weekend where you’d done for two weeks. So it’s not like they are asking us to sell 1.5 cartons or 2.5 cartons a week. I think it’s achievable, and I want to leverage that so we can expand with them and just keep going through that distribution.
CURRENT MARKETING STRATEGY
Our current marketing strategy has been ultimately limited in terms of budgets, but where we have leverages, as I said, Arthur (the dog), using him as the head brewer and then ambassador and again appointed difference vats and professional photos are done and lifestyle shot. We got probably a hundred up our sleeve that we roll something out, but we are trying to get more lifestyle shots and scenario shots, I suppose.
The social media platforms we are on our Facebook and Instagram, and someone manages that for us. I would like Linkedin but we just haven’t done it yet for no particular reason. But I think there is an avenue and professional avenue and a different customer base to tap into Linkedin to look into that. All the connections through the hotels, pubs and clubs, bottle shops that we’ve been out to get on they just for context and relationships and asking anyone that I speak to, “do you have anyone who owns a pub or a club that we could speak to any conversations”. So it’s really word-of-mouth, and I’m just asking that silly question and whether we can have a conversation.
If you walk to a pub today and ask “can I go on the taps?” and they will say no. So I should touch on the top element. If you go to your local pub, walk in and say “hey, I’ve got a craft beer. Would you mind giving us a go by behind the bar?”. What he will tell you is that count and United, Castel, Miane, or Asahi, you just bought out column. You know that they’ve paid for all of those taps. And they pay for that infrastructure so that all the tap lines and everything for that pub to run that beer for them. They own that. And they will pay publicans to put the infrastructure in to set up 567 tap heads in a bar. It’s probably about $15,000 to $20,000. So Asahi said they would pay for that cost, but you need to stock all of our beers. So then a craft beer person coming along and saying can I use that tap? Number one, the pub doesn’t own it. And number two, you won’t get any support. Many pubs are setting, so we can put one or two taps on it independently to switch them over. That’s what we are targeting and wanting that support, but 90% of the time you walk into your local pub, even bowls clubs, they are all in the contract agreement. So it’s really tough that market. But if you can build a brand of a beer that the market is taking up and respecting and liking, that’s when more taps are open up for you, and that’s where you get the attention of big guys. He may be willing to let you have some taps base prioritised to you over the other craft beer. We have a pretty much on a zero-cost today.
WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACHIEVE FROM THIS PROJECT
Selfishly we want to boost the brand and profile of our beers. We want to increase sales; we want to get more people using social media platforms. And ultimately, that will lead to more sales and more people being aware of our beers, buying our beers, tasting our beers, and hopefully talking about it and expanding it.
WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU ABOUT THE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OUR MARKETING STRATEGIES, SHORT, MEDIUM, AND LONGTERM GOALS. WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING DIFFERENTLY? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IF YOU ARE AN ANALYST? WHAT DO CUSTOMERS WANT? WHAT ARE CUSTOMER INSIGHTS? WHAT IS THE MARKET WANTING AND WHAT DO THEY VALUE THE MOST?
We think we know what customers want, but you can give us some insights. That’s all about the hip pocket. Customers only want the cheapest but then who that customer is? Will they buy enough beer to prioritised them? That’s all the questions of who are the customers out there, and what is the insight? We open to different markets. Are we missing in different markets that could prove lucrative? What won’t work? Just to help you out. Because we’ve looked at it, you know, setting up a trial, hiring out. The trial is with kegs and taken to teammates party for 21st, and you sell the beer. There is not enough volume that gets drunk in those scenarios to make it worthwhile chasing that. But let us know if you see other avenues in which to sell our beer. The last one is also with the brand ambassador. As I said, the Mick Fanning things, if you speak to customers, you will associate with Mick Fanning when you ask them what you associated Balter with. Their brand ambassador out there that realistically we think we can approach. You might have an interest in the brewery. I can assure you that Mick Fanning isn’t mixing the hops or making any beers, but he’s undoubtedly saying is a part of it. Is someone out there that you think we should be targeting who we can partner with.
CONSIDERATIONS
We’re not opposed to spending money on marketing. We have got the fund, but we want to make sure as you can appreciate every dollar that we spend, we get a return and it’s substantial. So if you do propose for us to do billboards to sponsor a sports team, do a TV ad, do a radio ad, you got to show us they are worthy.
NOTES:
Website for more information: https://fieldsbrewing.co
