Introduction
Costa Coffee is a coffee shop chain in the UK that is one of the most developing in the country. It was declared the best coffee shop in the country in 2010. Coffee was first manufactured in Australia in the 1880s (Peasley & Johns, 1990). Coffee is becoming an increasingly important aspect of everyday life, and this article examines and develops the promotional strategy for Costa Coffee, one of the best coffee brands in the United Kingdom. The paper analyzes the general marketing plan and also addresses the objectives, strategies, target audience and positioning, and market mix of Costa Coffee.
Objective
Costa Coffee's goal is to deliver the finest coffee in real Italian style. To do this, the corporation places a premium on quality management at any point of the coffee-making process, from bean to cup (Kotler & Wong, 2007). This is supplemented by the corporation's roaster, which guarantees a consistent and special mix. Costa Coffee aspires to be the largest hospitality business in the world, with a family of hotel, restaurants, and recreation club brands that are recognized as industry executives by its employees, clients, and investors. Therefore, in relation to a three-year marketing plan, Costa's objective is to expand product offerings. Costa coffee is a member of the Wesfarmers and other families of brands that specialize in offering catering services in a unified package. The business conducts the world's dominant brand in the United Kingdom, serving more than ten million happy clients each month.
Another objective of Costa is to plant more stores in the Middle East region, India and China and also continue to dominate the UK coffee market. Costa Coffee is regarded as one of the globe's pioneering coffee companies, and its brand is well-known and favored. Costa Coffee's target demographic aims to cater to people of all ages, but both young and old consumers are likely to be satisfied with the company's product and service offerings. The company's menu is planned to appeal to a wide range of consumer tastes (Makridakis, Wheelwright & Hyndman, 1998). It also ensures that the coffee meets the most exacting consumer requirements. As a result, the coffee is sure to please consumers all over the world. The fact that Costa aims to save the world from mediocre coffee increasing public awareness and offering better reward programs are also some of the objectives of Costa.
Strategy
Costa's marketing strategy will focus on the product, price, place, and promotion. Costa Coffee serves coffee as the primary product in its promotional mix, with a wide variety of varieties and variations. Costa coffee also markets its merchandise to companies and florists. For instance, under the Premium coffee brand, the organization sells convenience stores to corporate offices and schools. Costa Coffee's merchandise is the key catalyst in the company's marketing model, as it employs a pull technique to attract more buyers and gain their approval (Costa, 2017). For its core product, coffee, the brand aims to provide consumers with "wow" experiences. Costa Coffee's promotional blend includes a wide range of price points, but it is affected by rivalry and is marginally more expensive. Costa Coffee's brands are priced in the premium category due to their brand equity and excellent quality. Costa Coffee still insists that the consumer's needs come first, and it emphasizes providing high-quality goods.
In addition, the price is equal to the amount delivered. Costa Express is the brand name for the coffee vending machines sold by Costa Coffee. The cost of coffee depends depending on the additions made to it, such as extra chocolate. In relation to the place and distribution strategy, it is imperative to note that Costs coffee operates in nearly three thousand outlets which are spread in over thirty-one countries. Costa coffee shops cater mostly to the upper-middle-class and affluent. Its stores are mostly located in high-traffic areas such as shopping centers and airports. Costa Coffee also tailors its selection to the nation in which it resides to expand its market share. Costa Coffee is a niche brand that does not depend heavily on television, print media, or other forms of advertising (Costa, 2017). The corporation's most effective marketing tactic is to rely on word-of-mouth advertising from its clients, as Costa Coffee not only offers coffee but also an encounter. In addition, as part of a current product marketing approach, the organization offers complimentary demos to consumers to obtain feedback on the product and improve purchasing intent. Costa Coffee uses new platforms to support its campaigns and keep in touch with its clients.
Costa has a good history sponsorship from its parental firm the Whitbread Empire, which has not only earned the group's Marriott hotel brands such as distribution platform but also prominent retailers to form partnerships with different industries Whitbread. (2016). In the UK, Costa stores are clustered in the best locations, mostly in large shopping malls, airports, and busy places such as universities. The following table provides the strengths and weaknesses associated with the strategies used at Costa.
Strengths
Costa has the highest turnover something that makes it the largest coffee chain in the UK.
With brand popularity, Costa has a certain customer base
With its membership sales strategy, it enjoys large profit margins.
Weaknesses
it has a single product line
their coverage in terms of group concentration is small
store layout concentration
Opportunities
Coffee has become a mainstream trend, gradually replacing other products like tea
Market gap in international students
Few outside services in the transportation hub
Threats
Carbonated drinks are popular among young people for their price
The new cake shop also sells coffee.
Target Audience
Costa Coffee aims to cater to people of all ages. Young and old, both customers would be delighted by the variety of options available. The menu is tailored to various tastes, and the consistency of their coffee would satisfy even the most discerning palates. Costa Coffee's customers continue to be satisfied all over the world. Costa coffee product differentiation may be described as focusing on financial profiles, ethnic communities, different ages, occupational classification, marital status, and cultural or racial affiliation (Ushchapovska, 2017). The middle class, upper class, and privileged class are the economic segments of the economy, while the youth, younger people, and grownups or elderly are the age segments that are targeted by Costa. Students, emerging adults, mature practitioners, and the retired make up the technical industry section.
Positioning
Costa Coffee's market positioning policy in China is to maintain its global positioning as the International coffee overlords. This is because, as opposed to its rivals, the organization provides the cheapest and most special coffee of the highest consistency. Costa coffee is known for its superior flavor, uniqueness, and hygienic manufacturing practices. Furthermore, the corporation's fundamental roles in both its international and emerging markets in China and India include the highest level of comfort, the best value, and credibility supremacy (Ushchapovska, 2017). The Italian coffee masters, the company's tagline, performs an important role in expressing the corporation's foremost status as a people's enterprise. This positioning is critical for attracting new consumers to the brand. The company's consumer insight division aims to achieve access to Chinese and Indian markets by redesigning stores and developing new brands.
Market Mix
Costa will use a loyalty scheme to promote itself, with the more money customers have in their member cards, the more promotions they would get. Seasonal and festival-based promotions are also possible, such as Christmas bundles during the holiday season. People's brand recognition is much greater than their price aversion, so fierce competition over market share is unnecessary, according to the preceding report. In addition, according to consumer psychology, low-cost products are often low-quality (Albarracin et al. 2004). Costa should pay closer attention to the international student market, according to the last section. As a consequence, a new menu must be created, and more diverse items must be shipped. The organization should research to determine the preferences of the target consumers and produce a variety of drinks to meet their needs.
Costa is advised to work out more strategic alliances and form long-term relationships with other businesses such as petrol stations along highways, bookstores, hotels, and clinics. Costa's strategic partnership is mostly made up of diverse sectors (Reinecke et al. 2012), emphasizing industry interdependence and cooperation in its international operations and growth. It's worth noting that, while Costa is particular about its in-store operation, if it wishes to extend its traffic hub market, it might as well pursue the outside business. Customers at transit hubs often wait for flights or trains to arrive, leaving them with little time to enjoy the coffee shop atmosphere.
Conclusion
Costa coffee has done well in the United Kingdom and is well-liked. As can be seen from the above review, there is still a lot of room for growth in the UK sector. Costa should consider the commodity more selling, create more flavor and quality of coffee, and manufacture well-made with coffee as the motif of similar goods to satisfy the needs of more customers. To increase market share, although the British market is the largest, the market share of foreign students is very limited, this segment of the group should develop a tailored marketing strategy. Simultaneously, reinforce the brand's added value strategy, as well as maintain and expand one's benefit.
References
Albarracin, D. & Cheema, A. & Chiu, C.Y. & Cialdini, R. & Hafner, M. (2004) Consumer Behavior in Multi
-Channel Coffee Franchising Systems: A Comparative Study in Two Countries, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14 (3): 197-197.
Costa. (2017) Great taste without the waste [online] available from<https://www.costa.co.uk/responsibil ty/environment/> [27 Dec. 2017]
Kotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J., & Armstrong, G. (2007). Moderní marketing. Grada publishing as.
Peasley, D. & Johns, G. (1990)Coffee-an an old crop with a new coat. Agricultural Science,3 (5): 28-31.
Reinecke, J. & Manning, S. & Von Hagen, O. (2012) The Emergence of a Standards Market: Multiplicity of Sustainability Standards in the Global Coffee Industry, Social Science Electronic Publishing, 33 (56): 791-814.
Ushchapovska, I. V. (2017). Sociolinguistic aspects of coffee brands (Doctoral dissertation, «Baltija Publishing»).
Wheelwright, S., Makridakis, S., & Hyndman, R. J. (1998). Forecasting: methods and applications. John Wiley & Sons.
Whitbread. (2016) Whitbread PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2015/16 [online] available from<https://www.whitbread.co.uk/content/dam/whitbread/pdfs/investors/reports-and-presentations/annual reports/2015-16/AnnualReportandAccounts2015_16.pdf> [27 Dec. 2017].