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Executive summary

The research conduct market analysis of Freedom Foods Group to determine several key marketing issues
including:
- Fierce competitors from rivals and substitute products: the food and beverage industry is the most
competitive market, and thus the threats from existing rivals and new entrants would be seen a huge
problem for Freedom Foods Group to conduct traditional and digital marketing campaigns.
Besides, most kinds of the business product is substitute by other competitors in the market.
- Low digital presence: even though the business has started to take advantage of digital platform,
marketing activities in digital platform have not been effective and used to promote traditional
marketing campaigns. It is necessary to conduct online marketing campaigns to take advantage of
digital tools.
Besides, the report also conduct marketing audit to research marketing environment in terms of traditional
and digital marketing approach based on SWOT analysis and RACE framework. The business has
advantages in current strong position in the market as well as have opportunities in expanding market in
South East Asia and China. Digital technology is considered weaknesses in business’s operation. Besides,
threats of fiercely competitive market, existing rivalries and new entrants could be seen huge issues for the
business.
Contents
Executive summary..................................................................................................................................... 1
Marketing analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Fierce competition from rivals and substitute products ......................................................................... 2
Low digital presence................................................................................................................................. 3
Appendix 1: Market audit .......................................................................................................................... 3
References .................................................................................................................................................... 4

Marketing analysis
Freedom Foods Group Limited is specializing in manufacturing, selling and distributing dairy and plant
based beverages, specialty cereal and snacks, nutritional products and canned specialty seafood. The
business is running in Australia, New Zealand, China, South East Asia and North America (Freedom Foods
Group Limited, 2019). Based on the information gathered in appendix, some key marketing issues that have
impacts on the business’ strategic position are discussed further as follows:
Fierce competition from rivals and substitute products
The fact remains that food and beverage is the most fiercely competitive market. Since this market would
provide necessity for citizen, many businesses put a concentration on this fruitful market (Afgc.org.au,
2019). Recently, the trend of “cleaner” lifestyle has been popular and people are likely to have tendency of
using plant based products such as nut milk to provide protein apart from dairy products. As a result, plant
based products are gradually becoming main products of many food and beverage companies. Freedom
Foods Group would, without doubt, have to face fierce competition from direct competitors nationally and
internationally as well as the fact of substitute products. A wide range of direct national competitors of the
companies could be named such as The a2 Milk company, Bellamy’s Australia, Bega Cheese, Inghams
Group, to name but a few and other strong worldwide brands (InvestSMART, 2019). Furthermore, it is
undeniable that all types of the business products are substitute by many competitors.
Since the market has become more competitive, various rival companies have conducted different kinds of
marketing campaign, sales promotional programs, advertisement, not to mention online shopping through
the business’s website and other commercial websites in the world. For example, in line with the fast
changing of digital world, people are easy to purchase products when accessing Bellamy’s Australia’s
website (Bellamy’s Organic, 2019). This direct online sales method has been applied for most businesses
and brought a huge amount of sales revenue. However, the method has not been applied for Freedom Foods
Group when accessing the business’s website. Currently, the business’s marketing campaign mainly
focuses on traditional approach compared to other competitors. As a result, the business would not be able
to launch any marketing campaign or sales promotion program in its own website to attract end consumers
to purchase the business’s products. The main distribution channels depends on third parties such as
supermarket and convenience stores. Therefore, it is necessary for Freedom Foods Group to enhance and
develop digital infrastructure to implement online tools to support sales and marketing activities in the long
term. Notwithstanding, the business is still able to promote marketing campaign in supermarket where
deliver its products on a regular basis according to traditional marketing approach, which would impact
directly on customers who prefer going to the supermarket rather than online shopping.
Low digital presence
As mentioned above, applying digital marketing is not an optional choice for any business but a compulsory
for any business to survival in the fast changing world (Ringbeck et al., 2019). Besides, the trend of online
shopping through the usage of smartphones or other technological advancement is increasingly growing.
To adapt with the changes, businesses have to take concentration on digital marketing to promote their
brands and products worldwide. Some digital platforms that many businesses take advantage for their
purpose of marketing such as facebook fanpage, youtube, twitter, linkedin, to name but a few (Talikoti,
2019). Freedom Foods Group also started to spend its resources on those platforms to promote its traditional
marketing campaigns. Notwithstanding, the business has not implemented much online activities or online
promotion programs. After ascertaining social page of Freedom Foods Group and its competitor such as
Bellamy’s Australia, it is likely that the presence of the former is much lower than that of the latter,
including less frequent interaction between administrator with online consumers, latest news or events of
Bellamy’s Australia is updated on a regularly basis such as daily or weekly compared to the monthly update
of Freedom Foods Group. Even though the business has kept up to date with the fast trend of the world, it
is necessary to spend more resources on marketing team and IT infrastructure in order to take a huge
advantage of digital world to enhance and improve the business’s performance. Besides, implementation
of several sales promotion or marketing campaign in the social webpages would attract a huge number of
customers and obtain large sales revenue.
Appendix 1: Market audit
The business is running in the food and beverage industry which is considered a tough competitive market
and requires businesses in this field to conduct integrated marketing decisions adequately. The traditional
and digital marketing approach would be further examined in line with marketing environment and strategy
based on the following models.
In terms of traditional marketing approach, SWOT analysis would be used as follows:
Strengths: since the business was founded in 1984, it is undeniable that it has placed a strong foothold in
the food and beverage market in Australia. The business has maintained well-known brands such as So
Natural, Australia’s Own, Paramount, and Brunswick. The main distribution channel depends on third
parties such as supermarkets and convenience stores with existing loyal customers. Those existing factors
could be seen as strengths of the business (Foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au, 2019).
Weaknesses: recently, in line with the development of technological advancement, many businesses have
applied digital advantage in order to boost their sales and connections with end consumers apart from
traditional approach of marketing. Notwithstanding, the business has not made use of the technological
development to facilitate marketing campaigns or sales promotion programs on digital platform compared
to other competitors in the market.
Opportunities: the fact remains that markets in South East Asia and China have opened golden opportunities
for businesses in food and beverage industry to enter into to obtain market share. Those markets are
considered a new market with less competitors than markets in Europe or America. The demand for dairy
and plant based products is also increasingly growing. As a result, the business would, without doubt, have
to seize the chance to expand current market and boost sales revenue (Weeklytimesnow.com.au, 2019).
Threats: since the food and beverage market is larger than any market, the business is likely to cope with
new entrants entering into the market apart from existing competitors nationally and internationally.
Besides, existing rivalries and new entrants have launching new products with different flavors to maintain
their positions, and thus offering customers with an abundant number of choice. If the business takes lower
step in revising and enhancing its product, it is undeniable that it has to overcome challenges caused by its
competitors.
When it comes to digital marketing approach, RACE framework would be used to analyze as below:
Reach: it is undoubted that the business has started to reach customer’s visit through its own website and
other social networks such as facebook fanpage, twitter to connect, communicate and interact with end
consumers relating to benefits of healthy products or health newsletter.
Act: customers are easy to access the business’ blog post, half year reports, newsletter, events as well as
share and comment about useful posts relating to health issues.
Convert: According to the half year report for the last six month of the year 2018, the business witnessed
an increase of 31% to 209 million in net sales, 24.7% from 23.3% in gross margin compared to the same
period in 2017. Even though the activities in digital marketing has not been effective enough, the increase
in sales would be seen as an impressive move.
Engage: customer engagement could be seen through reviews and feedbacks of customers on facebook
fanpage to express their satisfaction with the quality of product.
References
Afgc.org.au. (2019). State of the Industry 2018 Report » Australian Food & Grocery Council. [online]
Available at: https://www.afgc.org.au/2018/11/state-of-the-industry-2018-report/.
Bellamy's Organic. (2019). Organic Baby Formula, Food & Snacks - Bellamy's Organic. [online] Available
at: https://www.bellamysorganic.com.au/.
Facebook.com. (2019). Freedom Foods. [online] Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/FreedomFoodsGroup/.
Ffgl.com.au. (2019). Half year 2018 financial results. [online] Available at: http://ffgl.com.au/wp-
content/uploads/2019/03/Half-Yearly-Results-2019.pdf.
Foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au. (2019). EXCLUSIVE: Australia's Top 100 Food & Drink Companies 2018
- Food & Drink Business. [online] Available at: http://www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au/top-
100/exclusive-australia-s-top-100-food-and-drink-companies-2018.
Freedom Foods Group Limited. (2019). Freedom Foods Group Limited. [online] Available at:
http://ffgl.com.au/.
InvestSMART. (2019). Freedom Foods Group Limited. [online] Available at:
https://www.investsmart.com.au/shares/asx-fnp/freedom-foods-group-limited.
Ringbeck, D., Seeberger, D. and Huchzermeier, A. (2019). Toward Personalized Online Shopping:
Predicting Personality Traits Based on Online Shopping Behavior. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Talikoti, S. (2019). Digital Marketing: The Vital Vitamin for The Future Marketing. SSRN Electronic
Journal.
Weeklytimesnow.com.au. (2019). Freedom Foods Group raises $65 million towards Shepparton
expansion. [online] Available at: https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/dairy/freedom-foods-
group-raises-65-million-towards-shepparton-expansion/news-
story/c1d78395a12fee79a888787204e6d411.

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