1.Executive Summary

Portlebay Popcorn is a small growing consumer focused handmade popcorn brand which operates in United Kingdom.
Currently has become a leading popcorn brand in UK which produces unique range of popcorn flavors. In Italy the tradition has been used to consume coffee as a part of their meal which implies that the Cappuccino flavored popcorn will have a good demand in Italy. It was evident that the consumer tendency to consume such snacks like popcorn is also high in European countries like Italy.

When issuing a new product to a new country for the first time, it is needed to follow a marketing plan which includes financial objectives, marketing objectives, and smart objectives. Alongside those marketing plan objectives should meet the criteria like relevant, specific and measurable, time defined, realistic and consistent. Therefore the applicability of such objectives with Italy and Cappuccino flavor should be considered.

The target market of the new product captures a broader pool of individuals since Cappuccino flavor is almost popular among each and every age groups in Italy. Additionally Portlebay can adopt undifferentiated targeting strategy since the product can be applied to every individual in common.

Finally it should be noted that reaching a foreign market is not too easy as it involves high risks and firm needs to manage with totally different country variables. Therefore Portlebay should have a thorough understanding about the external and internal factors identical to Cappuccino market in Italy and marketing mix.

2.Internal audit

Internal audit of a company focuses on identifying the risks associated with a company’s internal processes and functions and providing proactive recommendations to improve its current operations and reduce risks [The Institute of Internal Auditors]. It involves an analysis of a company and product with regards to the factors like market share, sales, competitive advantage, profits etc. internal analysis is needed to determine the future possible strategic options by appraising the firm’s internal resources and capabilities.

Portlebay being a small growing firm to important conduct analysis of internal keys .

Portlebay Popcorn is still booming firm, i increasing revenues. firm operates at the growth stage of its product life cycle. Additionally there can be strong growth in profits of Portlebay. Bagged Snacks Digital Feature [2015], noted that as a relatively new entrant to the market portlebay is growing in excess of 200% per year, according to founder Jonty White, should be noted that since there are well established popcorn manufacturing firms in Portleybay’s home country; UK like Butterkist , Metcalfe’s Skinny Popcorn, Peter Popples, Propercorn, compared to those established Popcorn manufactures Potleybay earns low profits.

E.g.:- Butterkist, the UK’s best-selling popcorn maker, sold 24pc more popcorn in 2014,boosting revenues by 20pc to £35.1m, according to The Grocer [ Lauren Davidson, 2015]

compared to the international popcorn firms like Angie’s Kettle Corn, American Pop Corn Company , Fiddle Faddle, Fiddle Faddle, Cracker JackPortable Popcorn earns low revenue levels internationally has acquired a small market share.

Portlebay popcorn has a greater potential to expand its sales as a healthy food manufacturer by producing healthy popcorn over other snack manufactures like Lays and Calbee which are deemed to be unhealthy.

The main feature of Portlybay compared to its competitors like Metcalfe’s Skinny, Tyrrells and Propercorn is that Portleybay produces more healthy popcorn focusing on premiumisation and flavour innovation with maple syrup and bacon, lemon sherbet and orchard wood smoked cheddar among its offerings.

analyzing the internal factors of Portleybays, a resource audit also should be undertaken to evaluate the firm’s resources and competencies that are identical . According Johnson et al., [2 008] it can be presented as follow,

Threshold resources – The resources needed to meet the customers’ minimum requirements.

e.g.: – grains, chili, salt, natural seasonings

Threshold competencies – the activities and processors needed to meet minimum requirements of customers

e.g.; popping the grain, cooking grain by hand, natural seasonings

Unique resources – the resources that confirms competitive advantage and are difficult for competitors to imitate.

e.g.:- unique flavors that cannot be imitated like thai sriracha, cappuccino, maple syrup.

Competencies – activities that confirm competitive advantage and are difficult for competitors to imitate.

e.g.:- Identical packaging and labeling processors.

3.International country selection

3.1 Rationale for selecting the country

Selected country is Italy. Italy is the 7th biggest economy in the reality. Done 2010, the Italian GDP might have been $1. 77 trillion.

most recent decades a few changes in ways of life happened driving, in addition to other things, to a new ”nourishment culture” among European families. These elements brought about the dissemination about pre-cooked also primed meals.

Selected flavor by cappuccino.in Italy, second largest importer of coffee by volume., pay most of their coffee. Italians usually drink cappuccino . The names of cappuccino comes from the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the capuchin order. Cappuccino is often called cappuccino especially in southern Italy.

3.2 External audit

3.2.1 Macro environment: PESTEL

all the external factors that we cannot control and influence internal decision making. There having major factors political, economic, social and cultural,technology, environment and legal that has call PESTEL (businessdictonery.com, 2016).

3.2.2 PESTEL analysis relevant to Italy and Cappuccino flavor

Political Factors

Italy is a member of the WTO and NATO and a part of the EU, so the infamous BREXIT 2016 has sparked uncertain and potential change in trade policies among the UK and Italy. (Browne. P, 2016)

Since the UK was still part of the EU while initially manufacturing the product, it has obviouslymet the important CE marking and EU standards leading to the elimination of certain possible barriers like health and safety concerns. In addition, the Technical Barrier to Trade agreement has to be followed through. (Europa.eu, 2016).

There is an advantage of the existence of the double tax convention which will not affected by Brexit, though certain other policies that used to exist (Browne. P, 2016)

Economic Factors

Common economic factors (FocusEconomics. 2016) as at 2016:

  • Imports – 5.8%
  • Annual GDP growth rate as at 2015 – 0.6%
  • Unemployment Rate – 11.9 %
  • Inflation Rate – 0.1 %
  • Exchange Rate (vs USD) – 1.09 %

Italy, the world’s 9th largest economy is not abundant in national resources and the manufacturing sectors mostly depend on imports. (FocusEconomics. 2016)

According to FocusEconomics, 2016 Though it has been facing economic stagnation in the past few years analysts state that the economic growth of Italy has been slow and steady in 2016 at 0.8% and predicted to remain the same in 2017.The slow growth in the EU as a whole has been noted as well.

Socio Cultural factors

.

Figure 1: The population growth rate by gender and image in Italy. (CIA, 2016)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/graphics/population/IT_popgraph%202016.bmp

Male

Female

Italians are very traditional, sociable, less formal and reluctant to change in comparison to the English. the culture is not offended in any of the advertising or marketing campaigns and understand the difference in language. (Zimmermann. K.A 2016). Italians are passionate about coffee in general, known for the specially roasted coffee beans and the consumption of coffee there is almost regarded to be cultural .

Technological factors

Italy is the 18th biggest Internet user in the world with 65.6% of the population i.e.40.559 million people using it. (CIA, 2016)

Television remains to be the most used medium followed by a high growth rate in the use of smartphones and ultimately increase in the use of social media as shown below. (Reuters Institute, 2016)

Figure 2 Top Social Net Work In Italy

Environmental factors

The standard regulations related to environmental conservation under the European Union have to be maintained to keep up sustainability. (Europa.ae, 2016). The European Union elaborates on food safety, health safety, packaging, disease control, enhancement and Corporate Social Responsibility that have to be followed or in this case maintained.

The country that has been known to have relatively low pollution control measures in the past has been doing everything in power to develop pollution control, waste management systems, and intense resource conservation(Dimireva. I 2016)

Legal factors

It’s important to carry out the trade and marketing under rules laid out by the WTO, EU standards, government, and European Parliament. (Europa.ae). Mainly, The CE is important to ensure the product has met all of EU standards.

According to Dimireva. I, 2016Italy is increasing its encouragement in the use of environmental protection standards andunder that the Environmental declaration single form has to be signed and the following standards need to be considered:

  • Applying Corporate Social Responsibility – The SA8000
  • Quality management standards – The ISO 9000
  • Environmental management standards
  • Occupational safety management standards – The OHSAS 18000

3.2.3The market: Market definition, market size, market/sales trends, current trends, consumer characteristics, etc.

Market definition

According to marketlin.com ( 2016 ) Popcorn falls under savory snack market , so In Italy savory snack market define as retail sale of processed snacks, potato chips, nuts & seeds, popcorn and other savory snacks . Popcorn can be categorized as ,

  • microwaveable popcorn
  • ready-to-eat popcorn unpopped popcorn

Market size, market/sales trends, current trends, consumer characteristics, etc.

The Italian savory snacks market had total revenues of $1,186.6m in 2015 . Market consumption volume increased with a CAGR of 2.4% between 2011 and 2015 . The market’s volume is expected to rise to 135.4 million units by the end of 2020 ( marketlin.com , 2016) .

Trend is Italian savory snack market that expected going forward with little increscent and its has been growing modestly to a saturation and to a time period , towards increased personalization of snacks to provide individual and unique sensory experience ( marketlin.com , 2016).

Italy savory snacks market category segmentation: $ million and % share by value ,2015 .

Category2015%
Potato Chips365.930.8 %
Nuts and Seeds293.224.7 %
Processed snacks260.321.9 %
Meat snacks94.88.0 %
Ethnic/Traditional Snacks76.56.4 %
Popcorn49.14.1 %
Other46.83.9 %
Total1186.699.8 5%

Table 01 – I savory snacks market category segmentation

Source – Marketline.com , 2016

3.2.4 Competition: Who they are, market share and size of competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, etc.

Currently there are two main Popcorn brands exist in Italy market. They are; Fol popcorn company and Biofactor popcorn company .

‘Fol ‘ popcorn company is one of the leading competitors of portlebay company including cappuccino, chili pepper , rosemary ,caramel chocolate , classic and many more ( folpopcorn.com , 2014 ) .

folpopcorn.com ,[2014] and linkedin.com ,[ 2016], the strengths and weaknesses of ; Fol popcorn company are ,.

Strengths weakness

  • Brand image – lack of financial information
  • Flavor ranges – lack of advertising
  • Innovative ideas to make varieties – low content
  • Many promotions

According to biofactor.it ( n.d ) biofactor popcorn company another existing brand in Italy with thirty year experience. since 2012 they starting export to USA , which make link with their traditions make popcorn culture . They sell organic popcorn kernels in wholesale and retail markets (as big bags 10qli, paper bags 5-10-25kg) .

Strengths Weakness

  • Well established brand in Italy – lack of advertising and promotion
  • Cost affordable – lack of flavors

– Not having world wide

noted by popz.eu ( 2016 ) Since 2000 ‘ Popz ’ was operating as an England popcorn company and entered to Italy market as joint venture , now Popz is a leading manufacturer of Ready-To-Eat popcorn in Italy, by located sales office and distribution centre in Milan .

In Italy sell only flavor of Cheese, but possesses of many promotion campaigns, many distribution channels. Most of Cinema theaters , there having this brand in various way ( popz.it , n,d ) .

Strengths and weaknesses of ‘ Popz ’

Strengths Weakness

-Product localization – Lack of flavors

-Already well established in Italy – Lack of financial information

-Good promotional and distributions ways

4.SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Second largest coffee consuming country.

The biggest importer of coffee volume.

Italy people like real coffee flavor.

Weaknesses

A cappuccino will be seen concerning illustration something totally distinctive

Espresso punctuates those day

Generally negative on account about comfort nourishments and dependably sure on account from claiming conventional nourishments.

coffee consumption per capital is down ital and Spain to last five and six years ago. That is effect sovereign debt crisis.

Opportunities

“Portlebay” is a brand which take a pretty boring, low cost snack food at the time to the market

there is an increasing rate of young crowd of the country automatically be a good opportunity to the “Portlebay” popcorn.

“Portlebay” create a new and exciting popcorn flavors comes up with different flavors

“Portlebay” manufactures food with good ingredients, good manufacturing process and organic ingredients (Berry, 2016).

Because they do viral marketing there is a good opportunity of making higher amount of sales by doing advertising through internet (indexmundi.com, 2016).

Threats

Tsitsipati and Athnasios (2014) observe, the main threat that Portlebay has to face in the market is there are so many un-branded popcorn which can sell in the market without any competition.

Portlebay face for a huge competition with both branded and non-branded popcorn. (Tsitsipati and Athnasios, 2014).

5.Marketing plan objectives in target market

Marketing objectives

  • To grab people toward Portlebay popcorn and increase sales by 12% at the very first year of launching product in Italy.
  • Create brand awareness through advertising and introducing new flavors to the market

Financial objectives

  • Increase profit by 60% within next three years of time.
  • Increase sales by 85% during next 5 years.

SMART objectives development

Specific:Aim to increase the number of distributors that will handle the marketing and distribution of Portlebay popcorn in specific regions of Italy

The popcorn can be exported direct to Italy considering plus factors such as potential market for the product, size of the market, market environment, regulations, taxes, infrastructure facilities etc. The way of export, its destinations, buyers, way of transport, way of marketing promotion etc. has to be specific (Gregory, 2016).

Measurable – The market size and the amount of popcorn can be sending etc. has to be measurable E.g.:- Monthly how many tons of popcorn can be sending to the market? What will be the monthly sale and the expect profit. These components should to be measurable.

Achievable. – These expect specific and measurable goals should be achievable. If goals are set to sell 100,000 tons for a month but these goals are impossible to achieve, the goal may not be a smart one (Esposito,2015).

Realistic – Goals have to be It should not be so big at the beginning and the goals should be achieved in a step by set manner. If goals are so big and complex you lose motivation when it is impossible to achieve. But not so big or complex that you will lose the motivation to achieve it. So the amount of popcorn has to be market should be a realistic amount.

Time-Bound: E.G:- in the first quarter of the year 2017 how many tons of popcorn are expected to sell and in the second quarter of the year how many tons expected to sell. In a five years’ time how much tons will be exported etc. (Gregory,2016).

6.Segmentation and targeting

Targeting

yourarticlelibrary.com (2016 ) in targeting means selection of specific group of people which a company and how many market segments the company will compete in .There are four targeting strategies ,

Undifferentiated marketing:

Company will decide to develop a single marketing mix for the whole market because of different characteristics of customers .

Differentiated marketing

the differences between marketing segments by designing a specific marketing mix for each segment.

concentrated targeting:

The strategy is suited for a company may target just one segment with a single marketing mix, limited liabilities and limited resources.

Customized marketing:

Relationship between with customer and seller In some markets, possesses unique of individual customers , separate marketing mix for each customer. E.g.:- advertising based on a customer, face to face discussions.

The most suitable suitable target marketing strategy for portelybay is differentiated target marketing strategy . Because by designing a specific marketing mix for each segment. Portlebay company target market includes individuals of every age, but mostly it captures young generation. Therefore Portlebay can use their techniques to promote the product mainly to young generation. According to marketline.com, the savory snack market in Italy mostly consists of teenagers. So it is very easy to export to same target market in Italy from United Kingdom Additionally Portlebay should specifically consider the attitudes, dining patterns, values of young generation in Italy since it differs from UK.

Positioning

Brand positioning “is the about from claiming outlining the company’s putting forth What’s more picture should possess a unique put in the psyche of the target showcase.”(Fuchs and Diamantopoulos, 2010)

As noted in westernmorningnews.co.uk ( 2015 ) Portlebay has colorful branding strips and Varity of flavors . They have specified logo with sea gull and it is helps Portlebay to stand out from the crowd. From all this features they position this brand among their valuable customers .

Georgina D (2015 ), Portlebay continuously focuses promotional activates among their target customers to keep up that brand into minds

positioning their brand in Uk , export the products in to Italy positioning should done successfully , establish the market in Italy.

the product should be launched in Italy via advertising and continuously promotional activities should conducted to keep the brand name and flavor of cappuccino in to minds of their target market.

7.Entry mode strategy

Popcorn are much popular among younger and elderly population in Italy , has a high demand globally, local supply is limited ( answers.yahoo.com n ,d ) .There is a potential of exporting popcorn to the Italy market.

Italy is an European country which a member of European Union. it has lack of duty free access to many products. Italy does not produce popcorns significantly due to the lack of natural resources of energy and minerals ( tradecommissioner.gc.ca , 2016 ) .

According to marketline.com most of Italians are expected to eat healthy foods. Italy sales sweet and savory snacks. Market consumption volume increased with a CAGR of 2.4% in 2011 and 2015.popcorn has a potential market in Italy and a large number of target customers which concededly appropriate to evaluate entry modes and select the best mode to enter into the Italy market.

Entry mode strategies

As noted by quickmba.com ( 2010 ) exporting is a very traditional and long lasting method of penetrating in to foreign markets which simply define as selling domestic goods to a foreign country.

The advantages ,

  • Manufacture is home based therefore less risk than manufacturing in Italy.
  • Reduce operational risks.

Disadvantages ,

  • Exporter is solely depend on the agent
  • the success is depend on the capability of the agent in Italy.

marketingteacher.com (n,d ) Export divided in to indirect and direct export

Indirect export, that the manufacturer use an agent, distributor or an overseas subsidiary or operate via a Government agency.

Direct straightforward , the organization makes a commitment to market overseas on its own behalf .

Licensing which pay loyalty by a company into another country to use the company manufacturing process, which similar to the system of “franchise”( marketingteacher.com n, d )

According to marketingteacher.com ( n, d ) Joint venture is that more than one investor share ownership and control the manufacturing process.

consideration of the above mode of entries , it is suitable that mode of export has more strengths than weakness . It has to be more opportunities than threats with compare to other modes of entries .

“direct export model” is applicablefor portlebay popcorn company , because then can improve the speed of entering though it appear as an outsider. Company can easily maintain direct contact with the first intermediary in the Italian target market as the cappuccino flavor is a highly demanded flavor in Italy.

Customer will provide faster and direct feedback about cappuccino popcorn, and its performance in the market place.

8.Marketing mix

8.1 Product

According to Kotler, p (1989) product is “what can be offered in the market to be maintained, owned, used or consumed in order to satisfy the desires or needs which includes physical objects, services, people, places and ideas of the organization.” A product may include the considerations like features, quality, product line, branding, packaging, labeling and guarantees etc. (Constantinides. E, 2010).

Portlebay popcorn was first established in 2012. Since the start the company has experienced a rapid boom in their operations by providing new and exciting popcorn flavors.

Portlebay Popcorn grossly manufactures 30,000kgs per day and its service levels to date achieve 100% in time and in full ( portlebaypopcorn.com, n.d.) . They manufacture all of their popcorn by themselves as handmade popcorn. First “they take a natural grain from Devon farmers, pop it by hand and arrange in small batches. Portlebay now produces about 10 different flavors whereas at the beginning they had only limited number of flavors” (portlebaypopcorn.com, n.d). Furthermore Portlebay is highly concerned about their labeling and packaging. Hence according to Derric Lin (2016) they was the winner of several new brands awards during 2013/2014.

Product line

categorized its products in two main categories ,

  • Kraccklecorn
  • Sweet popcorn

Under the categorization of Kracklecorn they introduced six flavors; sweet thaisiracha, crispy bacon and maple syrup, chili and lime, lightly sea salted, the classic, wasabi and sweet ginger. Portlebay specifically add raw cane sugar, sea salt and natural seasonings.

The Sweet Popcorn has four flavours. lemon sherbet, cinnamon swirl, very berry and cappuccino. Portlebay complement natural ingredients to make the popcorn as, cinnamon essence and lemon essence (portleybay.com, n.d.) .

considering the product Cappuccino, it is one of the tastiest flavors of Portlebay. It is rich with high quality frothy coffee and sugar which make their target audience attractive towards the product. Cappuccino flavored can highly be successful in Italy, since the Italians are fond of Coffee flavors and they traditionally consume coffee with their meals.

According to mordorIntelligence.com (2016) in 2015, Italy alone consumed around 5.9 million bags (each 60 kg) of green coffee of 354 thousand metric tons volume, amounting to about 14% of the consumption by the European Union.

the packaging part of the product, is attractive, quality and safe. Portlebay have included all the relevant information which should be in a pack. it is made out of a material which can recycle. They use their packing , labeling for their marketing purposes and advertising as it can make a good impact .

8.2 Price

Price is one of the key elements in marketing mix .it’s the only one that indicate revenue. Pricing decisions applicable to a popcorn company like Portlebay which operates internationally are very complex. The firm should possesses a perfect understanding about the internal and external factors they have to know internal and external factors that effect to allocate total producing , management and marketing cost ( Hollensen , 2017 )

Pricing strategy

it should be noted that a new product is released to the Italian market. the pricing strategies suitable at the point of new market entry, should be applied. According to Hollensen (2017) there are two pricing strategies that can be applied for a products that enters into a new market. Those are;

Market penetration pricing strategy – This involves attracting larger pool of individuals to the new product by offering it at a low price at the introduction phase of the product. This will lead for the business to incur with losses at beginning. But, over time in the long run, the firm can increase the price as a loyal customer base is created.

Market skimming pricing strategy – This involves charging very high prices as a new product is introduced to a new market. In here firm will be able to earn high profits and revenues on the new products. Then in long run, company will gradually decrease the price of the product as the competitors enter in to the market.

The selling Cappuccino flavored popcorn to Italy, recommended to adopt market penetration pricing strategy, Portlebay will able to attract a larger pool of customers to its product and it is confident that Italians will not hesitated to purchase Cappuccino flavor since the taste is too popular among them. Therefore when Portlybay charges low prices at the beginning any level of income earners will afford to purchase the new product.

The customer group get touched and familiar to the product a loyal pool of customers will retained with the product even in long run.

According to portlebaypopcorn.com (n, d) the prices of cappuccino flavor in current market is as follow.

8_x_25g_Cappuccino_large.jpg 8_x_75g_Cappuccino_-_2_large.jpg 18_x_25g_Cappuccino_-_2_large.jpg

Portlebay Popcorn’s Cappuccino Popcorn, 18 x 25g

£17.00

Portlebay Popcorn’s Cappuccino Popcorn, 8 x 25g

£9.30

Portlebay Popcorn’s Cappuccino Popcorn, 8 x 75g

£16.00

Costs

The price and cost of above 25g impulse bag and 75g sharing bag can be assumed as follow.

Current selling price

Manufacturing cost after adjusting 40% profit margin

New price under market penetration strategy

Portlebay Popcorn’s Cappuccino Popcorn, 18 x 25g

17.00 pounds

10.2 pounds

13.60 pounds

Portlebay Popcorn’s Cappuccino Popcorn, 8 x 25g

9.30 pounds

5.58 pounds

7.44 pounds

Portlebay Popcorn’s Cappuccino Popcorn, 8 x 75g

16.00 pounds

9.60 pounds

12.80 pounds

Table 2- prices & sizes of portlebay pop corn’s cappuaccino

In global market, the total cost will increase due to the extra costs like shipping costs from United Kingdom to Italy, tariffs, taxes, insurance etc. ( keegen and Grenn , 2015 ). Hence the price also can get increased. Additionally this price alsocan vary in market in Italy due to exchange rate fluctuations.

8.3 Place

As Hollensen (2017) Place also one of key element and challenge when export a product . There are different distribution channels to consumer product and to industrial products . consider about distribution channels to consumer product of Italy . there are many retailers and wholesalers play as intermediaries . it is important to know how to choose distribution way in Italy .

Iconsideingr about B 2C marketing, there are many ways to sell this product directly. E.g.:- Manufacture have to owned a store , combination of manufacturer and wholesaler ( keegen and Grenn , 2015 )

In Italy Wholesalers are the main customers for fish and seafood products. They purchase and distribute products to consumers through supermarkets, hypermarkets, local fish shops, restaurants ( gain.fas.usda.gov , 2013 ) .

Due that reason wholesalers can not be taken as our distribute channels , and consider about retailers

Italy consumer acceptance is still relatively low and discovering the convenience of large supermarket and hypermarket outlets. majority of Italians live in small cities and towns and is trend to favor to smaller stores . There discount stores, most of Italians are not by from there ( gain.fas.usda.gov ,2013 ) .

According to gain.fas.usda.gov ( 2013 ) Italian and foreign operators are starting to expand their network of stores in the south of the country. Italian food retail and distribution sector continues to resist consolidation. Small, traditional grocery stores (so-called Mom and Pop stores) continue to represent the largest segment of the food retail sector, followed by open-air markets.

As noted in gain.fas.usda.gov ( 2013 ) Larger food retailers are starting to appeal to those consumers who are attracted the convenience that one-stop shopping offers .Currently there are main six companies. the Italian food retail and distribution sector and they all are members of buying group which named as : Co-op Italia, Conad, Interdis, Carrefour, Auchan and SPAR. Most of Italian importers are small to medium-sized companies

Italy has a number of important international airports and the national carrier, key element of Italian transport system is Seaports and major power of them in container shipping ( in the Mediterranean ) , Italian merchant fleet consists of over 2,000 ships, 1,331 of which are over 100 tons. Main ports are Trieste, Genoa, Naples, Tara and Livorno are economically important to their respective regions ( nationsencyclopedia.com , 2016 )

According to nationsencyclopedia.com ( 2016 ) Italy for commercial purposes, has 1,500 miles of waterways, this system is relatively undeveloped . most of goods transported by road, having highly improved and upgrading highways , laser roads, express way … etc . now a days there having increscent of traffic .

Because of above reasons the suitable port selection forPortlebay is Seaports or harbors.

8.4 Promotions

Portlebay do not invest in high levels of advertising wherever they expect the distributors or the retailers to be their sales teams. It’s primarily like purpose of sales promotion technique. Portlebay is advertisements, and promotion activities via on social media such as on their Facebook page and twitter pages ( Portlebay popcorn n, d ) .

According to facebook .com and twitter.com pages of Portlebay popcorn Company ,Facebook page – 6,405 Total Page Likes , 6,216 Total Page Follows , seasonal promotion and many positive commentstwitter pages – tweets 2224 , following 3218 , followers 7427 , likes 867 , seasonal offer advertising , ideas and comments of their valuable customers .

Usage of paper and television advertising related to Portlebay is low compared to usage of social media,comparing to other European nations Italy has limited broadband connection but trend of usingsocial networks.They have differences in behavior among Italian social media ( searchlaboratory.com , 2013 )

According to searchlaboratory.com ( 2013 ) Italy Google+ users remain connected for an average of four minutes per day , the last two years has taken users from Orkut and Hi5. Twitter about 19 minutes ; it is a very low usage ( teenagers preferred choice for status updates but now it is having increment of usage .) Facebook users reach a maximum of eight hours and currently Facebook has 23 million monthly users . Italians have a tendency to follow brands, celebrities, and radio and TV programmes in facebook , the most popular pages are dominated by media and brands too.

Portlebay Popcorn can spread Cappuccino flavor in Italy iffectively via social media

As noted in startupoverseas.com Special features of advertising and promotions in Italy ,

  • In Italy there having main international advertising agencies as well as local agencies ( large and small firms ) .
  • Italians are very much like to read newspapers and monthly magazines , why is that there having many details about new consumer products .
  • Italy TV advertising has more cost but effective .
  • In major cities widely available of billboards.
  • e commerce is not widely available
  • In every year held more than 400 fairs.

portrlebay company should focuses on promoting the product via newspaper and magazine advertisements .

9. Conclusion

Portlebay, which started in 2012 and now become a leading popcorn brand in UK, known as handmade popcorn product with most of the natural ingredients. The vary of flavors Portlebay offers to the market are sweet and salty, crispy bacon and maple syrup, chili and lime, wasabi and sweet ginger, lemon and sherbet, cappuccino, very beery and cinnamon swirl.

Portleybay has been executed in expanding their products and the market share through increasing number of overseas markets. Selection of Italy is verifying Portleybay enthusiasm on reaching European markets as well. According to Italians eating habits and cultural influence have made path to create a good demand in Cappuccino popcorn products. the statistics presented in the report, it confirms how Italy popcorn market currently doing and the internal and external audit details show how the relationship between popcorn and consumers tally with each other.

Further establish Portlebay brand in Italy can be done through better advertising methods. All the strategies are been discussed under separate chapters in the report .main Objectives of the product and the company has been elaborated in SMART objectives.

Reaching a foreign market would not be easy as usual. it needs to identify their environmental factors and product should be presented accordingly. Marketing mix talks about how product, popcorn price, marketing strategies including advertising methods and distribution methods implemented in Italy.

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biofactor.it ( n.d ) company Available at :http://www.biofactor.it/en/pop-corn.html” HYPERLINK “http://www.biofactor.it/en/pop-corn.html” HYPERLINK “http://www.biofactor.it/en/pop-corn.html”.html (Accessed : 01/12/2016 )

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