Tony Nyumba Apindi

 Digital Marketing Plan: Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad Executive Summary Digital marketing is an important aspect of Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad that has the potential of assisting the company to reach its target sales and improve its market share within the country. The company has been in existence in the country for many years and got incorporated in 1969 and only has one competitor within the Malaysian market which is Heineken Malaysia Berhad. Using the SOSTAC method of analysis, provides a complete overview of the market, the competitors and areas to concentrate on to make the company's operations successful in regards to their marketing strategy. To further understand this method, the SMART objectives, the 7Ps and the RACE framework get used to analysing the outcomes. To make sure that the outcomes desired by the company are received, the company should incorporate the digital marketing strategies it has in place with the offline or ‘traditional methods’ like television advertisements, newspapers, magazines and billboards get used. This method maximizes the overall reach and provides a suitable link for the clients. Contents Digital Marketing Plan: Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad3 Company Overview4 SOSTAC Plan4 Situation Analysis5 PEST Analysis5 SWOT Analysis5 Convenient Social Media Marketing6 Collaboration with Technology Corporations8 Utilizing Unique Artistry9 Competitors9 Objectives11 Strategy12 Ansoff Matrix12 Segmentation, Targeting and Position13 Tactics and Actions14 The 7Ps of Marketing14 Budgeting and Implementation17 Controls18 Measuring KPIs18 Metrics18 Milestones19 Recommendation: Link to Offline Marketing Strategies19 References21 Digital Marketing Plan: Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad To gain more customers, businesses engage in marketing activities that will give them more leverage within their markets. During the process, the companies conduct market research to understand their customer base better so that they know what, why, where and how clients like the product to get delivered to them. Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad is one such company that strives to understand its clients and uses the gathered information to make informed decisions about its business strategy. To better understand the company, this paper will utilize the SOSTAC plan in its analysis. Company Overview Carlsberg is a Danish multinational brewer created in Denmark with its headquarters in Copenhagen. The company was started in 1847 by J.C. Jacobsen and is now owned and controlled by the Carlsberg Group (Carlsberg, 2018). Over time, the company opened up many branches worldwide, increasing its global presence. In 1969, the Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad was incorporated, further consolidating its strong position in Asia (Carlsberg Malaysia, 2022). The company is dynamic in its operations and has increased its market operations to Sri Lanka and Singapore. Malaysia has a sizeable Muslim population; the company mainly targets non-Muslim individuals who are above 21 years old (Carlsberg Malaysia, 2022). The company has a vast market share within Malaysia as it occupies about 38 per cent of the beer market in the country. The company made 70.1 per cent of its revenue in Malaysia and 27.5 per cent from Singapore in 2019, showing that Malaysia is its biggest revenue earner (Chee Hoi, 2021). The main products made by the company include beers, stout, cider, shandy and dealcoholized or non-alcoholic drinks. The company was able to make RM 1.8 billion (428,112,000 U.S. Dollars) in revenue in 2021 (Carlsberg Malaysia, 2022). SOSTAC Plan This method got developed by P.R. Smith in 1990. SOSTAC is an acronym used to represent a general marketing strategy that different companies utilize to understand and find the best way to further their marketing strategies within their market (Singh, 2021). The letters represent situations, objectives, strategy, tactics, actions and controls. Within the current world and the trends occurring, digital marketing is the best way to advertise since there have been tremendous technological advancements and newer social media platforms created that support its use as a marketing device. Therefore, many major companies have been able to utilize the methods since it is easier to reach more people at a single time than other marketing methods. Some of the famous social media platforms currently in Malaysia include Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Additionally, the company can also increase its marketing strategies to include website and email advertising easily accessible through internet accessible phones and computers (Muller, 2021). Situation Analysis PEST Analysis Political Economical Social Technological Regulatory practices in Malaysia change how beverage (alcoholic) companies operate Stakeholders such as NGOs and protestor groups should collaborate with the company Political stability allowing operations Malaysia’s economic performance being stable. Proper infrastructure for the company. Government interventions in consumer/non-cyclical sectors have a great effect on the returns of the company. Enough media outlets and social media platforms improving market penetration. Liberalization of attitudes towards health and safety are getting lax hence the company needs to avoid these attitudes. R&D investment in both the micro and macro economies. Both government and private players are spending on resources Empowering supply chain partners since technology shortens the product life cycle. . SWOT Analysis Strength Weaknesses First mover advantage increasing its market share One of the market leaders allows it to scale new products easily. Track record for innovation: has a good record for consumer driven innovation. Declining market share due to the competition from Heineken. Declining per unit revenue: competitiveness is reducing profitability. Opportunities Threats Opportunities on online spaces due to increased adoption of online services in the country like social media. Acceleration in technological advancements improving productivity Increase in consumer consumption Shifting demographic since baby boomers are retiring and new generations cannot replace them. Commoditization To increase its market size and sales, the company needs to increase its marketing activities online due to the opportunity for growth within the online sector. Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Berhad can take advantage of the technological advancement worldwide and use it to expand its market share and marketing activities. The company should also increase its e-commerce activities. Convenient Social Media Marketing The marketing by Carlsberg Malaysia should get focused mainly on their social media platforms like Facebook. As opposed to the 'traditional' thirty-second advertising on television, the company will be able to diversify its advertised content by being more specific and direct on what it wants to air at particular times of the day. Therefore, they could make their advertisements more specific to their most popular brands at a specific time. For instance, just like Guinness came up with the after-work drinking advertising, "17:59 is Guinness Time", that goes in line with their year of creation, which was 1759 by Arthur Guinness (Sweney, 2008). Having such a particular advertisement on the platform at specific times will give the company more market exposure and distinctness from the other brands, which will add to its fame. As of January 2021, Malaysia had about 86 per cent of its population as active social media users, which was a 24 per cent increase compared to 2016, with Facebook as the leading social media platform (Muller, 2021a). Additionally, the advertising on social media gets used to create a positive brand association with the company and the clients. It increases website traffic, thus providing more advertising opportunities for the company (Meta, 2022). Facebook advertisements by Carlsberg Malaysia for their Somersby Passion Fruit & Orange Cider Active social media users as a percentage of the total population in Malaysia from 2016 to 2021 Since the launch of Facebook in 2004, it has had the most significant number of social media users in Malaysia. Its penetration rate in Malaysia is expected to reach 70 to 71 per cent in the country. By 2023, Facebook is expected to increase its users and thus have approximately 24 million users in 2023 due to the continued growth of interest in the country (Muller, 2021b). These statistics make using Facebook for digital marketing a good platform for online marketing. Collaboration with Technology Corporations Technology is an essential aspect of growth and development for industrial processes and marketing in the current world. The company should partner with reputable Information Technology (I.T.) companies such as FPT Corporation (Nguyen, 2018). FPT Corporation is a company that assists with digital transformation planning using artificial intelligence and Connected Bar. The Connected Bar initiative assists Carlsberg in having smart sensors that help in assuring high quality of the products and monitoring the consumption rate, making the supply management systems more effective. Artificial Intelligence assists the company to understand consumer behaviour, predicting demand and planning for the production of their different drinks (Nguyen, 2018). Utilizing Unique Artistry Carlsberg Malaysia makes most of its sales during sports events and special holidays like the Chinese New Year (Chee Hoi, 2021). Therefore, it should make distinctive promotional advertising for its people within Malaysia that will attract more people on their social media platforms and website and include them on their packaging, which aligns with the holidays' theme (Jakobsen, 2022). Creative advertisement campaigns by Carlsberg Malaysia during Chinese New Year Celebrations Competitors The main competitor for Carlsberg Malaysia is Heineken Malaysia Berhad since they are the only licensed beer manufacturer in the country. Heineken originates from the Netherlands, and they sell alcoholic drinks, primarily beer. The two companies share approximately 98 per cent of the country's market, with Heineken occupying roughly 60 per cent of the Malaysian market share. Additionally, the two companies produce almost similar products within each category of drinks they have. Different drinks categories by Carlsberg Malaysia and Heineken Malaysia Heineken Malaysia has also utilized digital marketing before successfully advertising its products on Facebook. During the covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, the company made many Facebook advertisements that led to over 200,000 website visits, 46,000 drinks sold, 28,800 vouchers sold and 91 per cent redemption rate for Tiger S.O.S. voucher sales by the end of the Raise Our Bars Campaign in Malaysia (Facebook, 2022). The campaign was used to buy vouchers from a microsite for beer and cider for the company’s portfolio. The advertisements included video advertisements on Facebook that provided more information for their clients. The advertisements were also played on Instagram and Audience Network (Facebook, 2022). Snapshot for the video advertisement for Heineken Malaysia Objectives The company should use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) objectives (Kilani, 2021). Specific: i) Increase market penetration by 10 per cent for the year-. ii) Improve the website traffic to 100,000 to 500,000 people monthly. Measurable: i) Study the number of new social media followers monthly. ii) Track the number of mentions on social media and note the number of redirected clients from other websites and games. Achievable: i) The company has a lot of resources and markets over the digital platforms that will enable it to achieve its targets. ii) It is achievable since the parent company has also done it before. Realistic: i) The brand of the company will increase when the social media brand increases. ii) An increase in social media penetration and the spread of technology will make it easy to reach the targets. Time-bound: i) The company can achieve its goal within a year. ii) If the market penetration occurs at 10 per cent in one year, the target can be achieved. Strategy The company has a considerable value proportion hence becoming a top-rated company. The central aspect for the company is that it can provide high-quality drinks across all its branches worldwide at a consistent level (Vojcak, 2018). The company utilizes segmentation concerning age and religion (Hansen, 2020). Therefore, the company sells its alcoholic drinks to people above 18 and only to the Christian population. Additionally, Carlsberg Malaysia does not target Muslims in their advertisements. Ansoff Matrix Market Penetration It can be achieved by increasing sales touch points, reaching customers directly, improving dealer networks, increasing the customer lifetime value and adding the basket share of customer total share Market Development Entering new domestic markets and liaising with complementary companies to increase sales. Product Development The company can add new features to existing products or introducing new products for existing markets. Diversification Increase marketing through social media and second party websites. Segmentation, Targeting and Position This model is important in marketing communication since the company will be able to prioritize propositions and then create and then deliver the needed messages to their customers. Segmentation The country has around 50% of its population in online shopping and 82.9% of all mobile users use their phones for shopping (Country Commercial Guide, 2020). The country also has high social media usage (86%) which enables the company to sell and advertise easily online. The company should focus on the high mobile users within the country. Targeting The company should concentrate on social media users, especially Facebook and sell to people who concentrate on e-commerce over the internet. The products sold by the company should be available throughout the year and be fast moving products. Positioning The company should focus on becoming the top advertiser and seller of beverages online. The company should also provide value for money and provide high value goods. Tactics and Actions The company should focus on the young working adults aged between 18-35 years old. This group is more willing to spend on leisure and entertainment activities like drinking. Additionally, this group has more needs and wants and is thus more prone to indulge actively and fulfil their wants (Lin et al., 2011). The company should also be keen on its target market since it should not advertise to people below 18 since it is illegal to sell alcoholic drinks under the age of 18 in Malaysia. It will also assist in avoiding legal action against them. The targeted group should also have similar characteristics. One of the main characteristics should be that the group should be able to spend a lot of time on social media and other websites online. The 7Ps of Marketing Products The core benefit of Carlsberg is that it provides the clients with the best drink providing happiness and satisfaction. The actual products are different and suit different preferences from people and their lifestyles. The augmented product provides the best sense of humour through different campaigns like "If Carlsberg did…" that take up different aspects of daily life. The advertisements increase the product value by giving the clients the advertisements to enjoy. The current lifecycle of the company is that the product is at the maturity stage and people are already aware of its presence in the market. Price Carlsberg views its products as premium and thus the pricing policy is open and reasonable according to the market. Therefore, the pricing is usually very reasonable thus retaining customers. Promotion The company can combine different marketing mixes to include advertising strategies, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling and direct marketing. The advertising strategies will include social media and websites together with offline marketing tools like newspapers, billboards and televisions. Sales promotion will provide consumers with incentives to purchase online like free delivery. The publicity for the company can be done by using roadshows and making booths that promote awareness of the company. Personal selling will utilise 'beer girls' to attract new clients and provide them with discounts to maintain the current clients. Finally, direct marketing will include going to highly populated areas and conducting surveys for which the data received can get used to providing emails and SMSs for the product. Place The company will have the right marketing channels. The company can adopt a two-level marketing channel that gives consumers convenience. The distributor will include supermarkets, vending machines and kiosks. Packaging The packaging should be interesting and per the current designs. The rebranding should be appealing to the customers by incorporating the latest designs and trends in the bottles. The canned drinks can utilise the snap pack that glues the cans together and eliminates the use of plastic wrappings. Positioning The log for the company will contain the staff motif, the hop leaf and 'Copenhagen 1847' placing the brand as an authentic, high-quality natural product. The Nouveau style used in the art for the Carlsberg lettering will get retained increasing brand confidence. People Name Job Title Department Responsibilities Mr X Social media strategist Marketing Leading the content creation Mr Y Digital marketing manager Marketing In charge of all digital channels by the company Mr Z Chief Marketing Officer Marketing In charge of the department and all marketing activities Budgeting and Implementation The company can spend 15% of its total revenue on marketing activities. The company will therefore spend 64,216,800 U.S. Dollars for the marketing activities. Implementation Annual Budget Expected Returns ROI Improve social media traffic by 500,000 people monthly Google ads =$250,000 Assuming profit for the social media platform is $10500,000 =$5,000,000 $(5,000,000-250,000) =$4,750,000 Improve the product mix for clients digital manager salary (annually): $200,000 Assuming profit to be $ 10. =$1,000,000 $(1,000,000-200,000) =$800,000 Controls The users' experience through their websites and social media will be utilized to conduct digital channel conversion models, construct the template for information planning, send messages to clients, and level of interaction arising from merchandising. Carlsberg Malaysia should then place controls responsible for the prosperity of the company. Statistical modelling can get used to understand the clients' behaviour and use data mining and text analysis. Additionally, the company can follow the 'footprints' of the clients from the different platforms like social media platforms, websites and the games that the company offers (Chaffey & Bosomworth, 2015). The company will understand the clients' needs by understanding their needs and thus serve them better. The company should put aside a fifth of their total marketing expenditure for digital marketing. An additional ten per cent of the complete advertising money should be placed aside for any irregularities and unforeseen occurrences. Measuring KPIs The Key Performance Indicators give the targets for the teams, gauging the progress and assisting in providing insights that will make the organization make better decisions. Monthly meetings should be held to discuss the progress of digital marketing. Metrics The results for the digital strategy can be measured through quantitative results like an increase in revenue and improved satisfaction by the clients through their feedback. With the help of their digital partner FPT Corporation, the company can track some of the quantitative indicators like traffic on the websites and social media platforms, conversions by those clients who contact the company for information and services, users are the number and frequency of followers on social media platforms and websites and the leads are when the clients click on the advertisements on different partner websites and online games. Milestones Activity Personnel In-charge Execution Date Setting up the social media accounts I.T. Department August 2023 Set ‘traditional advertising’ methods Marketing department September 2023 Submission and airing of advertising materials Marketing department November 2023 Commence second party website advertising Marketing department December 2023 Commence promotional activities Marketing department December 2023 Make a video marketing campaign I.T. and Marketing departments January 2024 Update social media advertisements I.T. Department 2024 Update ‘traditional marketing’ methods Marketing department 2024 Finalise all marketing activities I.T. and Marketing departments August 2024 Recommendation: Link to Offline Marketing Strategies To make digital marketing successful, the company needs to link offline marketing and digital marketing. The advertising happening through digital methods should also spread through offline platforms like print media and television. Therefore, the company should make a clear link between the two aspects. The clients could get their rewards for participating in different activities stated online from the physical locations to which the drinks get supplied, like bars. The company will optimize their customer reach since it can use the different platforms interchangeable to promote the products and the platforms simultaneously (Andersson & Zwart, 2017). Carlsberg Malaysia can use offline marketing platforms to provide more information on their digital mediums. The company can use the SOSTAC programme to help in boosting their sales and improve their digital marketing. The company will increase market penetration and interact actively with its customers. Hence, it will be able to convert prospective customers to become their regulars and maintain the loyalty of their existing customers to the brand. Using different digital platforms will increase their reach within Malaysia, especially when it integrates offline and digital measures and the 7Ps. References Andersson, L., & Zwart, J.-J. (2017). Benefits of using offline & online methods in the internationalization process -A study of e-commerce companies in Sweden Björn Clarqvist. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:-/FULLTEXT01.pdf Carlsberg. (2018). Carlsberg Group. Carlsberg Group. https://www.carlsberggroup.com/ Carlsberg Malaysia. (2022). Carlsberg Malaysia. Carlsberg Malaysia. https://www.carlsbergmalaysia.com.my/ Carlsberg Malaysia. (2022). Newsroom» Carlsberg Malaysia’s FY21 net profit grew by 24% to RM201mil «Carlsberg Malaysia. Carlsberg Malaysia. https://www.carlsbergmalaysia.com.my/newsroom/carlsberg-malaysia-s-fy21-net-profit-grew-by-24-to-rm201mil/#:~:text=SHAH%20ALAM%2C%2017%20February%202022 Chaffey, D., & Bosomworth, D. (2015). DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY PLANNING TEMPLATE. https://images.template.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/-/Digital-Marketing-Strategy-Template.pdf Chee Hoi, S. (2021, March 19). Carlsberg Malaysia vs. Heineken Malaysia: Which is the better dividend stock? The Fifth Person. https://fifthperson.com/carlsberg-malaysia-vs-heineken-malaysia/ Country Commercial Guide. (2020). Malaysia - eCommerce. Www.trade.gov. https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/malaysia-ecommerce#:~:text=Malaysia%20has%20high%20rates%20of Facebook. (2022). HEINEKEN Malaysia. Meta for Business. https://www.facebook.com/business/success/heineken-malaysia Hansen, A. B. (2020). Carlsberg: New segmentation model. Www.ipsos.com. https://www.ipsos.com/en-dk/case-carlsberg-new-segmentation-model Jakobsen, N. (2022). Newsroom» Carlsberg celebrates Chinese New Year with unique limited-edition packaging «Carlsberg Group. Carlsberg Group. https://www.carlsberggroup.com/newsroom/carlsberg-celebrates-chinese-new-year-with-unique-limited-edition-packaging/ Kilani, Y. (2021). S.M.A.R.T. Business Role in Supporting Marketing Strategies among Telecommunication Organizations Jordan. Www.researchgate.net. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/-_SMART_Business_Role_in_Supporting_Marketing_Strategies_among_Telecommunication_Organizations_Injordan Lin, J. K. P., Tsun, M. T. W., & Chul, S. S. D. (2011). ADVERTISING PRINCIPLES 211 THE AD BOOK. http://strongerhead.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Ad211-Carlsberg-ad-analysis.pdf Meta. (2022). Carlsberg. Meta for Business. https://www.facebook.com/business/success/carlsberg-liverpool-fc Muller, J. (2021a). Malaysia: social media penetration 2020. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/883712/malaysia-social-media-penetration/#:~:text=The%20most%20popular%20social%20media Muller, J. (2021b). Malaysia: social media penetration 2021. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/883712/malaysia-social-media-penetration/#:~:text=Facebook Nguyen, P. (2018, September 14). FPT Becomes Carlsberg’s Technology Partner on a Global Scale. Www.businesswire.com. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/-/en/FPT-Becomes-Carlsberg%E2%80%99s-Technology-Partner-on-a-Global-Scale Singh, P. (2021). SOSTAC Model of Marketing | PDF. Scribd. https://www.scribd.com/doc/-/SOSTAC-Model-of-Marketing Sweney, M. (2008, September 16). Guinness ad refreshes after-work drinking. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/sep/16/advertising Vojcak, D. (2018). Carlsberg Group Business Model Review Report. Www.academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/-/Carlsberg_Group_Business_Model_Review_Report