Day Chocolate Essay Example for Free

mean solar day coffee bean EssayIntroduction This paper is tradeing with the twenty-four hours cocoa Company, which has been initial open in 1993 by a co-operative set of Ghanaian farmers. Thanks to liberalization of the cocoa mart in Ghana (1990s) the first step of export was made. Beca exercise of the event that farmers benefits were non thought of by the governmental cocoa agent, the need for a cocoa agent became obvious. This is why the Kuapa Koko was established in 1993 to appeal to the benefits for the farmers. With two farmer representatives the Ghanaian farmers hold to start The twenty-four hour period Chocolate Company in 1995.The farmers aim was to establish a farmer own organisation, where farmers were able to work together for their own benefit and trading their own cocoa (Divine 2007). On the adjacent pages the consumer segment, at which day Chocolate is aiming at, and the assessment ab come to the fore what makes it a whole dishonor is institutionali zen. Further more, the general market purports (opportunities and threats) are presented as well as the question of how Day Chocolate should cope with those opportunities and threats. Finally, it will be discussed where Day Chocolate should go when internationalizing to other parts of the world.Case analysis / Consumer segment The consumer segment that Day Chocolate is aiming at is the so-called concerned consumer. These types of consumers find it significant where their products come from. They want to buy just passel products like Day Chocolate because they find it important that with get that product, they really help those who fall in produced it. Fair trade products in genuine the integrity of these companies, and therefore the concerned consumer is in automatic to assume more for a certain product, knowing that the producers in third world countries benefit from this.Although the concept is worthy more and more popular, usually (not always) this type of consumer ha s a evenhandedlyly good income. This is usually the causal agency, not because people with a less(prenominal) good income are not kindle in Fair trade, but because Fair trade products are approximatelyly slightly more expensive than regular products, and people with a lower income need to confirm a tight budget.This is probably the reason that Day Chocolate is selling their products in the top UK supermarkets kinda of in a lower price range. According to Adams Raisborough (2008), there is a suggestion that guests who are inte stay oned in buying reasonably trade products are located in the so called middle-class.Besides, there seems to be a relation between higher(prenominal) education of buyer and delightful trade, by which it basin be proposed that middle-class segmented buyers make believe more m maveny to spend. What makes the Day Chocolate a strong brand In articulate to say what makes the Day Chocolate a strong brand virtuoso has to train a closer look at the com panys war-ridden advantage, their strengths and weaknesses, the customer equity and their marketing mix.Regarding the companys products, its structure and its billing it gets obvious that its competitive advantage is its sensible trade mark. In 1970, the fair trade market has been established by Oxfam, a charity organization, and several other European aid organizations. Consumers who are buying fair trade products are seen as being ethical consumers. Ethical customers are concerned with topics like for sheath fair labour conditions, environmental care and fair prices (Transfair USA, 2008).Thus, it advise be stated that Day Chocolates competitive advantage is its fair trade mark because it addresses a special type of customer who are willing to pay more money for products and are loyal to companies who are selling fair trade products. Moreover, one the one hand, the companys product excellence is one of their main strengths. They pay very much attention to the musical note of their products and their suppliers und this is why the customers are very satisfied and are willing to pay more. The customers potful be sure that they will buy great caliber und thus they are very loyal.However, as far as not loyal customers are concerned, with the fair trade mark comes -in their point of view- the weakness of Divine coffee bean. Because of the incident that the company is doing business in a fair way with African cocoa farmers, the price of their products is higher than that of close of their competitors. In addition to that the portfolio of products is not very high and there is little diversity. So the customer has to go to competitors when they wish to buy more diverse fair trade products. Moreover, the company does not shape planetaryly, which can be seen as another weakness of the Day Chocolate Company.It does not reach a wide range of markets, but is mainly operating in the United Kingdom, the United States, Norway, Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands . So one can deduce that they are operating on an international level and they are a likely spheric. In order to establish their company/ products more spheric they need to define their competences and find out how they can utilize this internationally As far as customer equity is concerned it can be stated that it consists of value equity, brand equity and relationship equity.Customers who are truly concerned with the provide of fair trade are very likely to stick with Day Chocolate if they are the just now fair trade brand in the region or if they offer the best price/quality ratio. Taking a closer look at Day Chocolates marketing mix, following four Ps can be taken into consideration The product, price, place and promotion. The first product was a classic take out chocolate bar, which is called Divine and was first launched in 1998.Made with 28% cocoa and real cocoa butter it melts in the mouth irresistibly and has been developed to appeal to the British publics palate pref erence for creamy chocolate (Bized 2010). Following in the footsteps of Divine The Day Chocolate Company has launched the following products Darkly Divine (launched in 2001 as a response to the growth in the dark chocolate market and gourmet-cooking sector), Divine mini Eggs (launched in 2002 as a seasonal product) and Dubble (launched in 2000 as a result of a partnership between the Day Chocolate Company and Comic Relief).The Divine range is continually prospering. Christmas products, such as chocolate coins and Christmas tree baubles, were first sold for Christmas 2002 and Divine white chocolate and Divine milk chocolate with hazlenut was on the shelves in time for Fair trade Fortnight during March 2003 (Bized 2010). Regarding the product prices it can be said that the products are not cheap but at the same time they are affordable. The customers are aware of the fact that they pay more for the product having in mind that they support fair trade. PromotionThe Day Chocolate Comp any is a unique North-South partnership leading the way in producing good quality fairly traded chocolate to the British market. The company is working with organisations and individuals in the private, public and voluntary sectors in order to raise awareness of fair trade (Bized 2010). All in all it can be concluded that it is mainly their fair trade brand image that makes the brand a strong one. Further conclusions commercialize trends, threats and opportunities The chocolate industry is becoming more focused on very unique(predicate) target markets.For instance the premium chocolate is very popular. This means that there are more giving flavours such as chocolate with spices, exotic tastes like mangos etc. Other trends include single kickoff (chocolate made with cacao exclusively from one region), organic, Fair Trade and sustainable (The Gourmet Retailer, 2008). Another trend in the chocolate industry of recent geezerhood is healthy chocolate. Chocolate is healthy when produ cers add serviceable healthy ingredients to their product. In this way they promote the benefits of cocoa because cocoa contains antioxidants1.This is why dark chocolate has been promoted the most as it contains the most cocoa. Besides, by adding fruits to the chocolate, the product contains more antioxidants (Confectionery News, 2007). Furthermore, a recent trend is that fair-trade products are called ethically sourced. This is the reason why sales of this type of chocolate have increased in the last years due to the fact that buyers and the industry are more concerned about where the ingredients come from. They do not favour the idea of having child labour connected with their chocolate.Regarding the market trends in the chocolate industry, one sizeable hazard for Day Chocolate could be to make their chocolate not only a fair trade product, but excessively a premium product. They could expand their market by developing many another(prenominal) different original tastes. If th ere is more choice, it is likely that they will attract more consumers. Another opportunity lies in printing the cacao content on their products for consumers that pay attention on this. Finally, they could start a new, completely organic, product line.Seeing that it is fair trade and organic this would probably be attractive to their on-going consumer segment, namely the concerned consumer. In addition, another opportunity for the company is the fact that the fair-trade market is growing, which will give Day Chocolate the opportunity to expand not only their portfolio of products, but also to expand geographically. Nevertheless, the growth of the fair trade market also brings threats. More companies learn that some of their consumers are willing to pay more in order to buy fair trade chocolate and this whitethorn lead to more competition.Companies that are afraid of losing their customers to fair trade brands develop their own fair trade products. Another important threat is the r ecent financial crisis. The crisis may affect the sales of fair trade chocolate/ products, because buyers may tend to buy cheaper chocolate instead of expensive fair trade chocolate. Problems and possible future actions Regarding to the cover version process of international market segmentation, firms competing internationally should segment markets on the nates of customers and not on basis of countries.Otherise it would ignore the differences between customers within countries. In the priliminary screening process, the following criteria are important to analyse * Market size growth * Buying power of customers * Culturally similar markets When those critieria are applied to the day chocolat case it can be notified that their market size is an increasing market with the aim to a global market. Aditonally the buying of power of customers is medium/high. Customers who like the product excellence of the fairtrade products are willing to pay more for refined chocolate.The culturally similarity of the markets are medium/high. Although there are some small differences, the chocolat market is quite an similar in the US , UK, Netherlands and Scandinavia. Therefore, the day Chocolate company has potential to be successful in other markets as well. The Day Chocolate company has already a beverage assortment, which could be pass on extended to vendor machines, e. g. at airports or railway stations. The expansion of the market could be developed by the use of premium chocolate in different tastes. The market trends showed that fruit chocolates have increased popularity.It would be smart to focus on those kind of chocolates. Furthermore, their expansion could be improved by building relationships with sell companies. In addition to their contracts with Starbucks and co-op they should try to establish agreements with other retail channels. In this point of view, global retailers are probably the best alternative, because they would be able to reach more markets throu gh one channel. Aditionally, a new market possibility could be the supply of other fair trade products. Such as the supply of fair traid coffee.Therefore, they have the ability to build a strong brand in fair trade coffee. (Hollensen S. , 2008) One difficulty is the fact that The Day Chocolate Company still is in its embryonal phase to global expansion. At the moment the UK and the USA are their main markets, however, they have potential to expand to other countries worldwide. Moreover, a possible problem is that the number of competitors is increasing because companies are now realizing the growing indigence for fair trade chocolate and, as mentioned before, as consequence develop their own fair trade brands.Finally, the fact that due to the financial crisis the demand for the fair trade products is likely to decrease, may postpone the companys global expansion. Because of these occurring difficulties The Day Chocolate Company should try to expand globally. In order to expand the company makes use of an incremental, step-by-step entering strategy. Due to their products they should enter advanced/ developed countries with a high GNP per capita because in these countries the number of customers, who are willing to pay more for fair trade chocolate and can also afford it, is higher.The company should expand incrementally in combination with a resource concentration strategy. Firstly, day Chocolate will have to establish their company in similar markets as the United Kingdom and they have to be sure that those markets customers are keen on buying ethical products. To be able to deal with the increasing number of competitors the company should try to differentiate their products from competing ones. As far as their internationalization is concerned, Day Chocolate should expand to France and Germany because in these countries fair trade sales are very high compared to the rest of the world.While concentrating on these two countries the company should not pay much attention to Japan and the Mediterranean countries because these countries have very low fair trade sales (Datamonitor, 2008). However, the company should be aware of the fact that they probably need to adapt their products to the new markets. New market segments or new countries? Conclusion The Day Chocolate Company needs to create a global marketing plan in order to be able to internationalize. A strategy which combines the step-by-step manner and the resource concentration seems to be most aptly.Besides, they are able to attain the attention of a wider customer base by building relationships with global retailers. When expanding to other countries it would be a good choice to first establish channels in Germany and France as these countries are, according to a recent survey, interested in fair trade products (Datamonitor, 2008). When they keep on examining customer wishes and market information they are probably on a good way on becoming more global. More conclusions IdeasRefere nces* Bized, 2010, Visit The day Chocolate Company, http//www. bized. co. uk/compfact/daychocolate/chocindex. htm, retrieved on the 20th of February 2010. * Confectionery News, 2007, Chocolate Trends 2007, http//www. confectionerynews. com/The-Big-Picture/Chocolate-Trends-2007, retrieved on the 20th of February 2010. * Datamonitor, 2008, Global ethical revolution is driving growth in fair trade sales, http//www. datamonitor. com/ broth/news/? productid=284FC7F1-DE33-48B1-861A-63F2447B3DE6, retrieved on the 20th of February 2010.* Divine, 2007, http//www. divinechocolate. com/about/story. aspx, retrieved on the 20th of February 2010. * The Gourmet Retailer, 2008, 2008 Trend Report bounteousness Chocolate, http//www. gourmetretailer. com/gourmetretailer/content_display/trends/e3ic1abd1883d2156371dc907ea114507eb, retrieved on the 20th of February 2010. * Hollensen Svend, 2008 , essentials of global marketing, Prentice Hall, 4th edition Read more http//www. americanessays. com/study-ai ds/free-essays/business/the-day-chocolate-company. phpixzz2NWHbC7XY.