Introduction of Haigh’s Chocolates

In 1915, Alfred E. Haigh in Australian market introduced Haigh’s Chocolates. The company deals in homemade chocolates the core concept of Haigh’s Chocolate is ‘beans-to-bar’. In present, the company has three stores in Melbourne and 6 stores in South Australia. In today’s era, Haighs fourth generation members Alister and Simon they are running business since 1970 run the company (Haigh’s Chocolates, 2018).  To cope with the current market, the company want to introduce or launch a new product ‘Sweet chocolate syrup’ in the Australian market. The motive behind the introduction of new product is the company want to increase their turnover and want to increase brand recognition. The company want to spread awareness about its brand name in Australian market so maximum customers will get attracted toward their product. This report contains a complete Public relation plan, with the help of which the company is going to attain their objectives.

To launch the new product in Australian Market Company has conducted a market research, according to research in 2016 the market of sweet syrups was estimated to be $ 45.32 billions. The research predicted that the market of sweet syrup would increase by 5% by 2022. The market trend clearly shows that the demand of sweet syrups will increase among customers. The one factor, which will play an important role in increasing demand of sweet chocolate, is increasing preference of customers toward ready to eat products and convenience food (Bohari, Hin, & Fuad, 2017).  There is one challenge in front of Haigh’s Chocolates is the demand of fruit syrups is more than chocolate syrups.

Company want to use the launch of new product to expand its market range and to spread awareness among resident of Australia. For spreading brand awareness, the company has decided to launch their product on large scale and decided to make investment in various types of advertisements and promotional activities. The company has also decides that to spread awareness of the new product they will introduce the product on consumers special occasion like birthdays, wedding, anniversary, or Valentine’s Day (Kolbina, 2015).  The company also has decides to distribute the free small samples to people at some specific places.  

SWOT analysis is selected for situational analysis

Strengths Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper The company has maintained a strong brand legacy since 1912 Since day one the company is producing quality products The company provide various offers to its customers The product of company is available in various attractive packaging  The use Chocolate syrup is increased at cafes, restaurants, and at bakeries. They use syrup can be use by them as a topping or as flavouring agent in a ice creams, pastries and pancakes Like their home chocolates, the company will produce homemade chocolate syrup.   According to research the customers are really found of chocolate syrup The chocolate syrup can be use as a flavouring agent in beverages like coffee, shakes, milk

Weaknesses The new product launch involve huge investment as it include public relation plan in it The production cost will increase Company has to appoint new employees and it is not necessary that all employees are skilled and properly trained The has not obtained a fair trade foundation certificate

Opportunities To facilitate its customers company has provide facility of online purchase and delivery of products The introduction of new product will increase the profits of the company The new product line will increase the employment opportunities For brand recognition new product launch is best idea (Witell, et.al 2011)

Threats The sweet syrups and sauces consider as a factors which are responsible for obesity and diabetes (Berard, et.al. 2013) The products which are perishable by nature for company it become difficult to manage them The chocolate syrup will be new in market and there is already the brand available who are selling syrups, there is a chances that product might not get success (Palatnik, 2017).  The project involve huge cost and chances of profit are uncertain The completion for chocolate syrup is high in Australian market

The chief objective of company behind the introduction or launch of new product ‘chocolate syrup in the Australian market is, firstly company want increase its turnover and second is the company want to spread awareness among the residents of Australia about the existence of company in simple words the company want to create brand recognition (Haigh’s Chocolates, 2018). For fulfilment of desired objectives, the company need to develop a best public relation campaign, with the help of which the company can attain the desired goals and objectives.

Introduction of Sweet Chocolate Syrup

While developing a public relation plan to launch a new product in the market it is important to select its target audience or customers to whom the company want to sell their product. The target audience for the product of Haigh’s Chocolates are those people or customers who are admires of homemade items (Sopandi, 2017).  Every person whether he/she is old or young like chocolates that is why age while targeting customers are not an issue but still company need to focus on children of age group 5-15. In comparison to adults children buy more chocolate related products. The gender will not put much effect in demand of chocolate syrup. Moreover the company can target, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, event managers, wholesalers and retailer to increase the sell and in addition to spread awareness among people of Australia.

The company has hired a team of PR consultant is to achieve the goals and objectives of decided by them:

The company is planning organise a big launching event for the product: to grab the attention of people and to enhance its market appearance the company is planning to organise a big launch event. In that particular event, the company will launch their product in Australian market. The Directors of company will launch the product and address the people by telling them the uses and benefits of the product. Launching event is a big opportunity with the help of which the company will gain public awareness.

The company is planning to launch the new product in the market to enhance the brand image of the company. For event company has need to hire an event management company as the management has decided to launch the product on huge scale. The total number of guests how will attend the launching event is 500 excluding staff members and management of company. At event, the company will offer dinner and snacks to the members who were attending the event (Pike & Page, 2014). At event, the director of company will address the people by telling them the innovative uses of product and benefits of products. The company is also planning offer free samples to the people who were at launching event.   

The main aim of company is to increase the sell and to spread brand awareness among people of Australia. Digital marketing is a best tool with the help of which the company can attain their goal by investing less amount. For digital marketing company has decided to use Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn and E-mail marketing as a tool for digital marketing.

Market Research Analysis

The company is planning to create pages on various social media sites. The page contains the name of company with their history, product details, achievements etc. For updating the page frequently the company has decide to appoint two employees who are going to upload details related to product, events, offers, new launches (Jones, Moura, & Domingos, 2014).

Advertisement is the most common platform use by various companies to place new product in the market and to spread awareness reading the product among customers. The company has decided to use, newspaper, online advertisement, for reach the people of Australia and to enhance their brand name.

The Advertisement is the tool, which will help the company in attaining the goals of the company. For advertisement, the company is going to select the most famous newspaper and magazine of Australia. The newspaper or magazine which is been purchase by the maximum number of Australian is prefer by the company and in those newspaper and magazine the company will place a full one page advertisement  (Dong & Srivastava, 2013) The newspaper advertisement will contain the details and date of product launch and all activities are going to happen there. The magazine will contain the full advertisement to new product and existing range of products after launch.

Haigh’s Chocolates launching a new product ‘Chocolate syrup ‘ 

Haigh’s Chocolates is a well-known name in the Australian market and main reason behind their success is their homemade chocolate, high quality goods with attractive packaging. Today they have announced that they will be expanding their market to whole Australia by launching a new product. The company is expending their business by opening new stores at various part of Australia  previously the company is having 3 stores in Melbourne and 6 stores in South Australia.

Today the company has launched their new product at Australian Technology Park the lunching event was full of energy and various cultural programs was conducted at event. Director of Haigh’s Chocolates Mr Simon has addressed the crowd he said that ‘We are delighted to lunch our new product and we are looking forward to introduce the product in Australian market’. In his speech, he stated the uses and advantage of chocolate syrup (Huang & Sarigollu, 2014).  At the conclusion of event, the company has distributed free gift hamper to the people.     

Action plan

Action	August	September	October	Responsible person
Install plant for manufacturing chocolate syrup	1st Aug	–	–	Directors
Hire skill employees	Up till 5th  Aug	–	–	Human resource manager
Increase tie up with suppliers	Up till 5th Aug	–	–	Product manager
Conduct R&D	It is continuous process till launch	–	–	Product manager
Hire PR consultant	–	15th Sept	–	Directors
Select date for launch	–	15th Sept	–	Directors
Hire place for conducting event	–	–	2nd Oct	PR consultants/ directors
Hire event management company	–	–	2nd Oct	PR consultants/ directors
Prepare newspaper advertisement	–	–	15th Oct	PR consultant
Web special release	–	–	15th Oct	Manager
Invite writers and publishers	–	–	20th Oct	General manager
Grand opening of Chocolate syrup	–	–	25th Oct	PR consultant/event management company
After launch : Advertisement in newspaper, magazines	–	–	26th Oct	PR consultant
Updating social media pages	–	–	26th Oct onwards	Staff members

The above stated action plan include the various stage of product launch of Chocolate syrup in Australian market. The launch of product will take three months. The company has decided to launch their product on 25^th October 2018.  

Target	Particulars	Amount
Tie ups with suppliers to increase the supply	Product
	Total investment involve in new product	$ 10,00,000
	Total	$ 10,00,000
Establishing new outlets in Australia	Place
	Self-maintain outlets	$ 500,000
	Outlets on lease	$ 250,000
	Total	$ 750,000
Cost incurred at launching event	PR consultants	$ 5,000
	Event management company	$ 3,000
	Rent	$ 2,000
	Expenses on activities and food	$ 50,000
	Free distribution of samples	$ 5,000
	Total	$ 65,000
Advertisement	Press release	$ 5,00
	New paper advertisement before launch	$ 2,000
	Online advertisement	$ 1,500
	Digital marketing	$ 1,000
	Total	$ 5,000
	Grand total	$ 1820000

Public Relations Plan

Evaluation of project is a very essential task for the company, in evaluation the project manager of company will evaluate the progress of the project. The factors, which the manger is going to consider while conducting the evaluation, are project scope time and budget. The project manager will ensure that the project will evaluate the current performance of the project with the actual planned products (Luca & Suggs, 2010).  Evaluation is the continuous process at this process exists at every level of project development. The project manager will evaluate each aspect of the project and if they find any mismanagement in the project, they will immediately inform about the issue to the top management. The top management will take the corrective measures to remove the fault. 

Conclusion

To conclude, the Haigh’s Chocolates has decided to introduce a new product in the market. The main motive behind the introduction of product in market is firstly they want to increase their profits and in addition, they want to create their brand value in Australia. To fulfil the objective, the company has decided to launch the new product by conducting a launching event. Events are the main tool of public relation strategy. With the help of launching event, the company can attain both objectives at the same time.

References

Berard, L.D., Blumer, I., Houlden, R., Miller, D. and Woo, V. (2013) Monitoring glycemic control. Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 37, pp.S35-S39.

Bohari, A. M., Hin, C. W., & Fuad, N. (2017). The competitiveness of halal food industry in Malaysia: A SWOT-ICT analysis. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 9(1).

Dong, X. L., & Srivastava, D. (2013). Big data integration. In Data Engineering (ICDE), 2013 IEEE 29th International Conference on pp. 1245-1248.

Haigh’s Chocolates. (2018). About us. Retrieved from: https://www.haighschocolates.com.au/about-us 

Haigh’s Chocolates. (2018). History. Retrieved from: https://www.haighschocolates.com.au/about-us 

Huang, R., & Sarigollu, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviours pp. 113-132. Springer, New York, NY.

Jones, H., Moura, F., & Domingos, T. (2014). Transport infrastructure project evaluation using cost-benefit analysis. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 111, 400-409.

Kolbina, O. (2015). SWOT analysis as a strategic planning tool for companies in the food industry. Problems of Economic Transition, 57(9), 74-83.

Luca, N.R. and Suggs, L.S. (2010) Strategies for the social marketing mix: A systematic review. Social Marketing Quarterly, 16(4), pp.122-149.

Pike, S., & Page, S. J. (2014). Destination Marketing Organizations and destination marketing: A narrative analysis of the literature. Tourism management, 41, 202-227.

Sopandi, E. (2017). Analisis Keunikan Sumberdaya Dan Strategi Keunggulan Bersaing Produk Kreatif Bambu (Studi pada Saung Angklung Udjo Bandung Jawa Barat). Journal of Management and Business Review, 14(2), 176-205.

Witell, L., Kristensson, P., Gustafsson, A. and Löfgren, M. (2011) Idea generation: customer co-creation versus traditional market research techniques. Journal of Service Management, 22(2), pp.140-159