Kingsford Charcoal

* Objectives

Our objectives are to build the charcoal market and increase Kingsford’s share of the charcoal market.

Recommended Action Plan

Kingsford Charcoal should go on a two-pronged offensive during the following year. The offensive is two-pronged because Kingsford faces two different types of competition: they face overall market competition from gas grills, and they face competition in the charcoal market from Royal Oak. It is important to recognize the differences in these two types of competition and address each accordingly. First, Kingsford should embark on an advertising offensive against gas grilling as a whole. This will be detailed in the Advertising section of the Action Plan. Second, Kingsford should use trade and consumer promotions to attack Royal Oak in the charcoal market. This will be detailed in the Promotion section of the Action Plan. By executing this offensive, Kingsford Charcoal can both build the charcoal market and claim a larger share of the market by next year.

Positioning

Kingsford Charcoal is currently positioned as the premium charcoal name brand. We enjoy a significant brand premium, with 60% of surveyed consumers indicating that Kingsford is “a high quality brand” relative to 13% of private label.[if !supportFootnotes][1][endif] Our positioning is advantageous to us because it solidifies us as the market leader in charcoal and because we charge a 25-30% price premium over private label brands. Therefore, I do not believe that there is any compelling reason to change our positioning at this time.

As for positioning Kingsford Charcoal separately from Kingsford Match Light, I also do not feel that this is necessary for this Action Plan. The goal of this action plan is to promote charcoal as a whole and specifically Kingsford charcoal. It is a general awareness plan and therefore it is not necessary to differentiate between regular Kingsford Charcoal and Kingsford Match Light.

Pricing

In the past year, Royal Oak and private...