REPORT OF THORNTONS PLC

Report of Thornton's PLC



Report of Thornton's PLC

Introduction

Thornton is a UK based chocolate company, which was launched, by Joseph William Thornton in 1911. This company in the present times has a turnover of 180 million pounds and composes of 200 franchises all over the world and 400 shops which provide various services including commercial services, mail order and internet. Thornton is the largest independent chocolate company in UK after the takeover of Cadbury by US. This chocolate company consists of 370 sweets franchises throughout Ireland and UK. The store apart from the delivery of chocolate also consists of gift boxes, chocolates, seasonal candies and corporate gifts. It also makes products for diabetic patients. The company also sales its products through the website and catalogue as the website consists of all the necessary details. It is number 1 brand chocolate retailer in UK (Joshi, 2005, p.260).

Porter's Five Forces

We can make an analysis of the external environment of Thornton's PLC through the Porter's five forces model. From this model, we can see that competition in terms of suppliers is very high; therefore, the bargaining power of suppliers affect the environment of Thornton's PLC. As the competition is very high, and there are many other retail stores; therefore, customers bargaining power is very high as customers have the option to go for others (Avery, 2005, pp. 89). New retail stores are entering in the market bringing threats for the company. Because of new entries in the market, Thornton's is afraid of the arrival of substitute products in the market. There is a very high chance of arrival of substitute products in the market. Competition is increasing in the market day by day, and the competitive rivalry is increasing for Thornton's.

Strategies for Thornton's PLC

Improving long term performance

Following are the strategies for improving long-term performance:

Promotion Strategy

Promotional strategy is formed by the mix of advertising, sales promotion, direct selling, and public relations used to achieve advertising and marketing objectives by the company. Advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by a sponsor well defined (Nagle, Thomas, Holden, 2002, 84). Making decisions about advertising is a process which consists of five steps: targeting, budget decisions, post adoption, the decision making process about the means used, and evaluation.

Promotional Mix

The promotional mix is divided into six elements: Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Advertising, Public Relations, Direct Marketing, and Merchandising. The duty of the Sales Staff is to promote a product or service through direct and personal interaction between a seller and a consumer. This type of promotion of the product is known as personal selling. It is based on personal communication and range from one person (the seller) to another person (the potential client or buyer). The sales promotion used to promote a product or service by using incentives and activities for the purpose of inducing the consumers' purchasing decision. These incentives or activities may be comprised of specials, coupons, gifts, discounts, sweepstakes, contests, prizes, free samples, rebates, ...