This essay will examine the importance of a marketing audit and will examine the role of the marketing mix for the established company, Hotel Chocolat. Hotel Chocolat are a luxury chocolate company, established by Angus Thirwell. Since opening their store in 2004 (Our Story n.d.) it has continued to grow into a premium brand, selling a range of chocolate and drinks, and recently opening a St Lucian hotel and London restaurant. “By carrying out the marketing audit provides the opportunity to review and appraise your whole marketing activity, enabling you to assess past and present performance as well as to provide the basis for evaluating possible future courses of action” (CIM 2014).
Within a marketing audit there are three main components …show more content…
Currently, Hotel Chocolat process range from £3.50 to £160 (Bournemouth University n.d.). By looking at the marketing audit, the high price does come from the costs of the quality of the cocoa plantation. However, consumers are willing to pay the cost as there is a huge political and ethical stance behind the fair treatment of workers. Hotel Chocolat could both expand on this and continue to create high quality, high priced products at the penetration pricing level (Brassington and Pettit 2006 from Pricing Lecture Bournemouth University) or could look at alternative strategies to their pricing. For example, Hotel Chocolat could look at their marketing audit and see that the UK and USA have recently come out of recession, this may have damaged consumer confidence and therefore people are still spending less. Following Waitrose strategy of introducing an essentials range to target these consumers, Hotel Chocolat could look at introducing a ‘value’ range where it may be able to compete with competitors such as Green and Blacks, where their prices are generally lower than Hotel Chocolat’s. This strategy is often referred to as existing product pricing – good value pricing, also part of the sales promotion that could be looked at in the …show more content…
(Business Dictionary n.d.) Hotel Chocolat has a global presence in areas such as the UK, USA, Netherlands and St Lucia. (Bournemouth University n.d.) They have adopted a selective channel strategy for their products, with outlets in various locations but also working with wholesale partners such as John Lewis to help maximise channel outputs (Bournemouth University n.d.) In line with the marketing audit, Hotel Chocolat also have increased their online presence, with 40% of their total sales being online (Bournemouth University n.d.). There has been evidence of revamping the website in April 2013 (Bournemouth University n.d.) where all 6 of the large brands; the hotel, chocolate range, beauty products were all found in one place. This allowed the products to become more accessible to the consumer and in turn may lead to more sales as the products are in a place that is easy to find and purchase. In line with their aims to expand into key markets such as North America (Bournemouth University n.d.) through the use of franchising, Hotel Chocolat could localise their products to suit the demands for the consumer in that market. In addition to this, Hotel Chocolat could increase their distribution outlets and start to sell in other premium retailers such as Marks and Spencer’s. This way the premium pricing and product will not alter, and the brand identity will remain. In
Within a marketing audit there are three main components …show more content…
Currently, Hotel Chocolat process range from £3.50 to £160 (Bournemouth University n.d.). By looking at the marketing audit, the high price does come from the costs of the quality of the cocoa plantation. However, consumers are willing to pay the cost as there is a huge political and ethical stance behind the fair treatment of workers. Hotel Chocolat could both expand on this and continue to create high quality, high priced products at the penetration pricing level (Brassington and Pettit 2006 from Pricing Lecture Bournemouth University) or could look at alternative strategies to their pricing. For example, Hotel Chocolat could look at their marketing audit and see that the UK and USA have recently come out of recession, this may have damaged consumer confidence and therefore people are still spending less. Following Waitrose strategy of introducing an essentials range to target these consumers, Hotel Chocolat could look at introducing a ‘value’ range where it may be able to compete with competitors such as Green and Blacks, where their prices are generally lower than Hotel Chocolat’s. This strategy is often referred to as existing product pricing – good value pricing, also part of the sales promotion that could be looked at in the …show more content…
(Business Dictionary n.d.) Hotel Chocolat has a global presence in areas such as the UK, USA, Netherlands and St Lucia. (Bournemouth University n.d.) They have adopted a selective channel strategy for their products, with outlets in various locations but also working with wholesale partners such as John Lewis to help maximise channel outputs (Bournemouth University n.d.) In line with the marketing audit, Hotel Chocolat also have increased their online presence, with 40% of their total sales being online (Bournemouth University n.d.). There has been evidence of revamping the website in April 2013 (Bournemouth University n.d.) where all 6 of the large brands; the hotel, chocolate range, beauty products were all found in one place. This allowed the products to become more accessible to the consumer and in turn may lead to more sales as the products are in a place that is easy to find and purchase. In line with their aims to expand into key markets such as North America (Bournemouth University n.d.) through the use of franchising, Hotel Chocolat could localise their products to suit the demands for the consumer in that market. In addition to this, Hotel Chocolat could increase their distribution outlets and start to sell in other premium retailers such as Marks and Spencer’s. This way the premium pricing and product will not alter, and the brand identity will remain. In