Marketing Strategies and Future Development Plans of Splenda
Marketing Strategies and Future Development Plans of Splenda
Splenda has experienced tremendous growth since it was first approved in 1998 and commercialised shortly afterwards in 1999, to become the outright leader of the artificial sweetener market and second in the global sugar/sweetener market (Splenda.com 2011). Unfortunately since attaining a peak of 70% in 2006-2007, the market share of Splenda has been fluctuating in the last years between 60-65% (Heller 2006). The major aim of the marketing team is to reverse the declining Splenda’s market growth, to ensure the peak share of 70% is once again attained and exceeded. The long-term goal is to ensure Splenda continues to dominate the $1.5billion market as a monopoly.
The fluctuation has come as a result of health concerns of sucralose highlighted publicly by the media, competition from other sweeteners in the market, both artificial and natura. A major concern arises, as more and more people now tend to select ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ products over artificial products. ‘Stevia’, new natural and zero calories sweetener available over the last 5 years have experienced a major boom in publicity (Watson 2011). Therefore strong strategic marketing plans will have to be employed to stop ‘Stevia’ in their tracks. ‘Susta’ is the newest sugar replacement option to compete with the well-known choices of Splenda. Very little is known about the side effects of its consumption and it is rarely available (Grotz and Munroe 2009). As a result Splenda is under threat as market leader. Further challenges are frankly poor advertising and marketing strategies in the past, which have been heavily criticised; in one case an advertising slogan was involved in a lawsuit (Jane 2007), and the inability to meet demand and inefficient distribution chain.
Table 1. The marketing analysis of Splenda
Splenda and its services
What means should take the following action to support/ emphasize/ hold.
Strength
– has been evaluated and approved for use by over 80 regulatory agencies around world including FDA, UK and EU authorities.
– Website contains a huge amount of useful information.
– Better taste than some other artificial sweeteners.
– No calories.
– Safe to use.
– Suitable for the whole family; can be used by anyone.
– Ideal for people who suffer from diabetes.
– Ideal for the people who want to lose weight.
– Heat stable while retains its sweet taste.
– Does not promote tooth decay.