“An Analysis of the Marketing Activities of Akij Food and Beverage Ltd. (AFBL)”

Abstract

The report is an exploration of the marketing activities of one of the leading companies within the Bangladeshi FMCG market, which is Akij Food and Beverage Ltd. (AFBL). The report shows main marketing activities, analyzes the marketing mix, investigates the practice of segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) of the company and considers the role of the Cooler Management Department. This report also predicts issues and gives strategic suggestions on how to achieve further growth in the business and brand development by drawing upon valuable experience as a Junior Executive. The report is based on the experience obtained in the course of my internship at AFBL, where I was recruited as a Junior Executive and was mainly involved in assisting the data operations and customer service activities of the Cooler Management Department. This experience provided me with a firsthand opportunity in understanding how sales operations take place alongside the logistics capabilities of e.g. branded coolers which have a major leverage in shaping the purchasing behavior and high availability and views of the products at the retail points. Besides profiling the 4Ps model, i.e., price, product, place, and promotion, the report also addresses brand communication campaigns, trade promotion, online marketing, activations in stores, which are employed by AFBL to retain the market share and reach a broad scope of consumers. The particular focus is paid to the way that the company uses local culture, seasons, and youth-oriented marketing campaigns in order to create emotional connection with customers. Besides, the report states several problems in operations and strategy, such as the inefficiencies in services of coolers services in the remote locations, deficiencies in the use of real-time data, and discrepancies in the implementation of the retail promotions. Such reasoning is backed by secondary research and internal observations. These gaps have been filled by giving a number of workable recommendations. These are the inclusion of digital tools to automate the customer service, better communication viii ©Daffodil International University protocol among the departments, better analytics to project sales, and rural activation campaigns to increase its market penetration. On the whole, the purpose of this report is to be a source of information on how a successful FMCG company such as the AFBL integrates strategic marketing with end-to-end excellence in its operations in order to enable growth. It also considers the professional learning outcomes of internship, which makes a bridge between academic learning and the practical business practice.