1. Targeted Market and expected positioning
Oreo, one of the world's best-selling cookie brand in over 100 countries across the globe
succeeded to reach a specific and defined group of consumers through massive communication
on social networks and television in a more creative, originality, and reactivity manner. The
reason behind its success is the ability for each country to match the consumer taste and
preference. That is why the product dominated North & South America, Asia, Europe, Africa,
Middle East, and Australia. However, numerous substantive research studies have clarified that
half of adults aged between 18 and 24 love to buy cookies that they like the best rather than
going for the healthiest and recommended choices. This makes an ideal targeted market for Oreo
cookies since consumers, in most cases, do not count healthfulness as a factor to consider when
buying cookies they like the best. Further research shows that even among older consumers, only
a few attributes such as low cholesterol and how sweet the cookie is carries some weight. In this
sense, although Oreo does not target adult directly, the company focuses on kindergarten kids,
high school students, and young families.
However, although Oreo had chosen to focus on demographics, behavioral segmentation, and
psychographics lifestyle since age, gender beliefs, lifestyle, spending habits, and brand
recognition played a pivotal role in shaping the targeted market for Oreo cookies, successful
promotion as well as increased awareness, could easily change the belief, lifestyle, and spending
habits of consumers. Also, since Oreo contains numerous flavors i.e, cinnamon bun, peanut
butter, head or tails double stuff, and so much more, consumer’s perception of the product is of
high value when compared to other competing products. Kraft Foods came up with a multi-
pronged approach needed to reconstruct the product and balance the flavor to meet customers
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taste, re-evaluate the product, balance the pricing, strategize on packaging, and employ effective
communication and distribution strategy for an existing Oreo brand across the international
market. This multi-pronged approach is expected to position Oreo at the top of the market across
U.S, China, India, and so forth.
2. Marketing objectives
Oreo employed digital marketing strategy to reach a wider range of consumers across the
globe. The objective was to make Oreo products relevant, not to just kindergarten children, high
school-gores, and young families, but also to young adults and social media savvy (Lorraine,
2016). Oreo had to look beyond its brand and products to reach the destination where its
customers lived. That is how Oreo as a brand distributed itself on a worldwide basis through a
variety of sales and marketing channels. Further, Oreo brand is one of the recognizable brands
that operate in over 100 countries across the globe. The brand is mostly dominant in North and
South America, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Australia. The reason behind its success
is the ability for each country to match the consumer taste and preference with different Oreo
products that are readily available in the existing market. As of 2006-2020, Kraft-Oreo managed
to gain massive profit of over U.S $6.844B which shows how the penetration of the product in
the market is massively accepted (Macrotrends, 2021).
3. SWOT Analysis
3.1. Opportunities
Launching a variety of new Oreo flavor will not only boost sales percentage but it will
also bring in a positive impact on the popularity of the Oreo brand since consumers will have a
chance to try the new products. The company can strategize on how to gain the advantage of new
commercials. For instance, it can design an ad revealing a mother taking care of her child while
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feeding the child with Oreo snacks. Developing such a new commercial will undeniably raise
awareness of parents. Furthermore since children act as purchase guiders over their caregivers,
there will be a need to attract their attentions by creating or designing tricky commercials and
promotions for kids. Collaborating with other popular brands will also be a fragile marketing
step that will, in turn, have a positive impact on the popularity of Oreo as a brand, revenue
stream of the company, sales growth, and overall progress of the firm (Zuhdi et al., 2020).
3.2. Threats
Oreo ingredients are unhealthy to consumers. Oreo cookies for instance contain fats,
sugar, corn syrup, fructose, and other unhealthy ingredients that are hazardous to individuals
diagnosed with diabetes. Such a threat limits potential consumers from accessing their
purchasing opportunities. Powerful competitors across the globe are also a threat to the business.
The company is facing a stiff competition from companies like Mars, Britannia, Nestle, Lays,
Bingo, Sunfeast, and so forth since they all operate under the cookies industry. Such companies
often prove their annual sales; reveal their huge turnovers, lower prices of different products, and
prominence from the world scale which makes them real competitors for Oreo (Zuhdi et al.,
2020). Oreo is also lacking recognition in certain areas around the globe since many countries
that have remained do not know of Oreo brand or the products offered. Such a threat limits the
firm from gaining full recognition across 195 countries.
3.3. Strength
Oreo is considers the world’s best-selling brand in the cookie market. According to
Perrey et al., (2015) Oreo produces more than 40 billion cookies annually with a turnover of 3.28
billion US dollars which is, however, the biggest income made by any company across the
cookies industry. Oreo possesses a variety of packaging types, size, color, flavor, and so much
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more. This shows why the company is about to meet its customers’ varying preferences across
the globe. It also has a balance in quality and low cost since the sales, average price, and revenue
streams created a balanced ratio between the price and quality of the products. Also, the
company possesses enormous audiences across social media platforms of which it has managed
to develop huge customer relationships stream. The company adopted a widespread distribution
means whereby consumers can find Oreo products in over 100 countries across the globe. This
has allowed the company to gain the biggest market suppliers like US, China, UK, Canada,
India, Mexico, Germany, and so forth.
3.4. Weakness
Not all type of Oreo product is accessible and affordable. For instance, Oreo cakesters, Uh-
Oh Oreos, and so forth recorded the lowest amount of sale of which the company opted to
discontinue their production (Zuhdi et al., 2020). In terms of healthy options, Oreo cookies are
not viewed as of the healthiest option. Two pieces of Oreo biscuits adds up to 140 Calories.
However, since the cookies are addictive, customers may consume more than the recommended
calorie in a single day of which it exceed the required amount of fats and optimal sugar. Also,
some of the Oreo products are seasonal. It is disappointing that consumers may need to wait for
their favorite Oreo products to be produced once again. This action lowers consumers taste and
spending habits on the products.
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References
Lorraine. (2016, August 4). Oreo digital marketing strategy | Do more than dunk in the
dark.Web Design | Small Business | Marketing |
Roundpeg. https://roundpeg.biz/2016/08/oreo-digital-marketing-strategy/
Perrey, J., Freundt, T., & Spillecke, D. (2015). Power brands: measuring, making, and managing
brand success. John Wiley & Sons.
Macrotrends. (2021, January 1). Mondelez revenue 2006-2020 | MDLZ. Macrotrends | The Long
Term Perspective on
Markets. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MDLZ/mondelez/revenue
Zuhdi, S., Rainanto, B. H., & Apriyani, D. (2020, May). Analysis of Co-Branding Strategy to
Improve Company’s Competitive Power (Case Study on Walls Selection Oreo). In 2 nd
International Seminar on Business, Economics, Social Science and Technology (ISBEST
2019) (pp. 146-149). Atlantis Press.