Unit 3 Managing Communication Assignment HND

TASK 1

1.1 Decision taken by top management to device market development plan

The key to growth and success of every organisation is decision making. In order to device effective market development plan, there are number of decisions that is taken by top management of Costa Coffee. In this, various aspects are considered by manager such as market conditions, needs & preferences of customers, availability of competitors etc. so that an effective new product development plan can be formulated. Strategic decisions have high impact on business & are taken for major actions that needs to be followed by firm. These decisions are generally deviations from previously planned course of action. Defining process problems, managing work flows, maintaining data etc. are the tactical decisions that should be taken by management. Various decisions related to day to day operations of company are also consider by operational manager of company (Keller, Parameswaran and Jacob, 2011) . Strategies related to product and its delivery in market are determined by top management. Administrators are required to analyse current practices of Costa Coffee as well as gained returns from them. Advanced technological and business tools can be used by firm so that efficiency in work stream can be increased. Daily responsibilities and activities are identified by management to attain objectives in measurable time. Operations and resource flow are also considered. The operational decisions of firm includes processes and communication to handle customers as well as business with consistent behaviours.

1.2 Knowledge and information considered in making effective and strategic decisions

For making effective decisions, it is essential to acquire information from all those factors that may affect strategies. For Costa Coffee, below mentioned information needs to be analysed:

Competitors: As coffee market is tightly coupled with rivals so, form needs to analyse products and strategies of competitors in order to sustain in market. Costa Coffee is leads the market with their own tactics and coffee but, knowledge about competitors is necessary to give strength to decisions (Harvey and Allard, 2015).

Market: Services and trends in market should be analysed in order to deliver good quality coffee to customers and gain their attention.

Strategy:

Pricing, develop a new product: It is important strategy for the business success and development. With the help of this strategy company introduced their new products and services in marketplace. Further, it assist to maximise sales and revenues of company in limited time duration.

Pricing strategy Cost needs information from other competitors: It is one of the best tool for the organisation in order to maximise customer base in the organisation. In this business should provide quality products and services to the clients which help them to improve their goodwill and image in marketplace.

Tactical: Promotional decision: It is also important for the organisation to attract large number of customers while introducing their new products. In this they use different promotional mix such as advertisement, publicity and so on.

Loyalty scheme: In order to maintain long term loyalty with customers in the enterprise support them to accomplish their long term targets and goals easily.

Costa need to collect information from customers: Costa Coffee's separate department of customer relationship assists to gain such knowledge that helps in decision making process.

Operational: Business operations of the company is attractive which assist them to gain competitive edge at marketplace. This operations includes business structure and many other process which is needed by the manager to increase their revenues and sales. Raw material availability for business processing and economical moves related information is assistive to strengthen decision.

1.3 Assessment of available internal and external sources of information

Internal sources: There are several sources which are available within firm to take suitable decisions in business. Internal data related to overall sales in particular period, top profit making goods and services, consumer feedbacks, behaviour & details of employees and balance sheet etc. can be utilized in order to obtain the needed understanding and information for decision making. Summery sheets and weekly reports of company can also be utilized to know the profit and loss of business in various activities. On the basis of that, decisions can be taken by management of Costa Coffee UK.

External sources: Social media and websites specific to United Kingdom can be utilized to listen from customers and market (Gailloux and et. al., 2012). Costa Coffee can also review the research papers & journals in order to gain dimensions of expansion and market conditions. Government websites can render the information about rules and policies of initiating new business which helps in making decisions whereas social media provides information about market trends and customers.

Advantages and disadvantage of internal and external factor

1.4 Recommendations to increase current & potential customers

Costa Coffee is already deliver high quality coffee to consumers and perform its operations in market of UK. As there are various stores of firm, their name & fame spreading rapidly. But still, as there are many competitors exist in market, firm needs to take essential steps in order to increase their customers. They needs to increase the supply of decaffeinated coffee so that consumers attract more towards brand and consume more coffee. Firm also needs to improve knowledge of management in order to maximise performance and operations effectively (Coombs, 2014). Competitors analysis is also important to sustain in market for long term and offering better coffee to customers from their rivals. Firm needs to analyse market so as to keep updated with taste and preferences of consumers. It can provide competitive advantage to Costa Coffee over its rivals. The company should provide good environment to customers and reduce waiting time in order to encourage them to consume more coffee.

Customer inclination: Needs and preferences of customers should be determined by Costa Coffee in order to effectively serve the market and acquire large number of customers. The firm needs to be known about purchasing power of consumers along with quality expectation. In order to develop new products and services like low calorie, business entity use different promotional mix which support to easily attract million number of the clients towards business services and products. Main competitors of the Cost Coffee is Starbucks which is also produce similar kind of goods and services to the customers. In order to compete this, company provide quality products and services to the customer.

TASK 2

2.1 Identification of important stakeholders for Costa Coffee

Decision making process of Costa Coffee involves many stakeholders so that, proper understanding and information can be attain to ensure its sustainability in market and to improve business process.

Customers: New product market should be analysed target customers because they are the main stakeholders of business and it is required to offer them better services.

Government: Decision making of manager of Costa Coffee for employee relation and business processes is influenced by laws and regulations made by government of United Kingdom. (Coombs and Holladay, 2011).

Shareholders: Mismatching of principles and ideas of business share holders influence the decisions of manager of Costa Coffee.

Employees: Goals and objectives of an organisation are accomplished by its employees. They are essential part of firm.

Competitors: This approach can be very useful in order conquer market with particular product or strategy. (Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2015). So, it is important to analyse competitors in order to gain advantage in market.

2.2 Appropriate communication channels to invite identified stakeholders

In order to invite or contact with important stakeholders of business, Costa Coffee can use following cost effective tools which are faster and reliable than traditional approaches. These are defined below:

Mails: Instead of posting mails, email is more cost effective method in order to invite important stakeholders personally. It assists to reach the particular stakeholder with less cost and time so that information regarding new product such as features, pricing, store etc. can be delivered in an effective as well as impressive manner. It is a good choice that can be made by Costa Coffee to gain attention of shareholders towards firm.

Website: Various social media platforms along with official website of firm can be utilized in order to reach stakeholders of firm (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Customers and employees can be encouraged by public advertisement of programme to attend. Official website of Costa Coffee is the good source to interact or made personal communication with stakeholders and provide them complete description of product that is being launched. Websites are effective source of communication to deal with stakeholder and enhance customer relationship.

Customers: They assist to recognize the effectiveness of goods and services with buying perception. For example: Formal meeting.

Government: Local policies for particular product and market in addition to monitoring and control influence the decision making power of workplace. For example: Government: formal meeting.

Shareholders: Contribution of shareholders in new ventures and investments is needed to meet their demands and expectations with new product of firm. For example: Shareholders informal meeting.

Employees: So, management of Costa Coffee requires to invite important workforce in launching of Easter so that they feel motivated and encouraged to work effectively and meet personal as well as organisational goals. For example: employee: formal and informal meeting

Competitors: Appropriate information and analysis related to market planning of competitors is necessary for taking right decisions on time. For example: Competitors face to face communication.

2.3 Stake holder's interest and feedback

By using online tools, engagement of several stakeholders can be attained. Mailing, messaging, video conferencing, social web communication etc. can be utilized by Costa Coffee in order to reach various stakeholders like employees, business partners and customers. In order to gain feedbacks and interest of stakeholders, online applications and websites are used by firm. Social media is one of the effective way to identify opinions of others related to new product launching event (Caballero, 2015). Management of Costa Coffee can use news and websites to know feedbacks and suggestions from customers.

The internal resources such as shareholders and employees can be involved in event with business invitations and personal communication. Events and meetings can be organised within firm to know interest and feedback of employees. They are the essential part of firm and should be encouraged them to present their views in front of management and ensure their engagement in business processing. This will help the management in improving their plans and strategies to draw impression on market and customer (Beebe and Masterson, 2014).

2.4 Formulation of inclusive strategy for launching new product to be unforgettable

An event is organised by Costa Coffee to launch a new product, i.e., Premier Coffee and various channels are used such as e mails, messages to invite people in it. They also invite celebrates as brand ambassador for promotion of that product in an effective manner. By this event company communicate value and benefits of their products to customers as well as other stakeholders effectively and efficiently.

1. Create an event: The chief intention behind launching a event is to advertise name of organization and outspread its message to every nook & corner market in UK.
2. Information and knowledge to develop the new product: Event organisers will rope in celebrities from sporting arena and film like Hugh Grant and David Beckham and can also include musical performance by legendary singer like Phil Collins.
3. Then they need to set a price: they need to collect information for pricing: By this, event would draw attention of media & boost up the brand image of Costa Coffee in market of United Kingdom.
4. And the end they need to promote the new product: The consumers would convinced by effective service providers team of company and they would consider to consume coffee in future.
5. Email to your loyal customers: This will give a start to the organization as it initiates its penetration into UK market through initially win the confidence of British client groups which have been purchasing coffee.

TASK 3

3.1 Current communication structure and system of Costa Coffee

1. Formal and informal communication: The firm is structured in vertical way of decision and control power & has formal communication between all organisational levels. Manpower of firm have facility of telephone and mail to interact with others.
2. Formal and informal meeting: Web based portal are also used to ask difficulties related to business operations to experts as well as other members of firm. There have been effective flow of data or information and formal communication inside the firm which assists in attaining business objectives.
3. Email: There has been effective communication takes place among employees and management of Costa Coffee which helps in attaining predetermined goals and targets of enterprise (Barak, 2016).
4. For instance: An informal meeting is conducted by firm by using smart phone mobile application for discussing about various issues that takes place within firm.

3.2 Methods to improve overall communication system at Costa Coffee

Various communication channels are used by company in order to communicate with their customers in an effective way in case they have any problem with offered products and services of Costa Coffee.

• Using app for customer instead of loyalty card: They send electronic newsletters related with new goods that are being introduced by company in market.
• Create some events for employee: Advanced communication channels or system is used by company to resolve issues of customers. It assists in developing good relations with consumers and offer them services in effective manner so that they get satisfied with their coffee.
• Can provide offers in social media: Firm retains email address and mobile phone numbers of their loyal customers so that they can contact with them from time to time and take their feedbacks regarding their coffee and services they get by firm.

3.3 Personal plan to enhance own communication skills

SWOT Analysis

4.1 Report on current method of formatting, data collection, storage and dissemination

Costa Coffee has effective systems and techniques to store & retrieve data on time. They use Micros, a Microsoft Dynamics NAV agent by the help of which, they came in touch with SQL perform. By this, their efficiency of various departments is increased. For collecting data, customer reports and enquiries on goods and services are used by firm. Structured and unstructured methods are utilized to gather information regarding customer relation and product. A uniform formatting is used to store and make data acceptable in several database applications. Data is formatted with review of workforce, developers & top management to make it accessible in firm's decisions. Information is collected in secured separate servers so that no one can get information without permissions. Cloud computing is also utilized to share data with customers and manpower. In existing approach, firm utilize network structure to distribute data to particular employee or customer. Manpower are grouped as per their function to access information. Mails, ERP system and social post are also separately used to get information & store it in adequate format (Paterson-Jones and et. al., 2012).

4.2 Suitable changes to enhance on above identified method

Business knowledge and information is managed in Costa Coffee with effective procedures and tools. But, some of practices and activities are marked for enhancements. For gathering information, firm may use advance techniques or tools which can convert the information automatically into usable structure so that, efforts of workforce can be decreased on information collection. The formatting of data can be improved with adequate software which can ascertain the integrity and consistency during formatting in databases. Storage is quicker and useful but proper security and permission can be enforced to store information. It can be categorized according to sources and use so that time of retrieval can be decreased. For knowledge sharing among employees & customers, firms needs to prioritise request on cloud server, so as the users will access information anywhere. The information distribution must be directed so that it can be govern and controlled for use in company. Proper encryption and security on storage and use of information is needed to keep safe from unlicensed users and disclose (Whetten and Cameron, 2014).

4.3 Implementation of users friendly strategy that can enhance access & usage of system

Knowledge and information in Costa Coffee UK must require to be categorized first as per the source of information to utilize so that target customers can be determined. Later, this knowledge and information can be sub divided for decent storage & access process as it can be separated according to preference of various groups of workforce. For example, research & development department is granted to utilize every kind of information. Individuals who are from technical operations are restricted to use particular set of information. Authentication system and forums also can be developed to avoid direct alteration & access to information or data. User friendly application and forms can assist customers as well as employees to save their information or data online. Software based concept will cut down the effort with management and access (Wirtz and et. al., 2013). Trustworthy and well tested erp system will use to manage information in integrated structure for later use.

CONCLUSION

As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that in today's competitive market, there is high necessity of managing communication, knowledge and information for organisation. Firm require to identify sources from which information can get for effective decision making. Communication process must be enhanced in firm so that information can pass clearly. Various strategies have been used by management in order to engage participants in activities of business.

You may also like to read: ACF528 Digital Marketing And Communication Assignment Level 3

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