Brexit and Marketing

Hello people welcome back to my blog. I will like to say Happy new years to all of you and wish all of you that 2021 brings you success and happiness. Today i will be talking about how Brexit is going to affect the Marketing mix. After years of speculation,meetings and decisions its certain that the uk will leave the EU. But all the details are still yet to be decided. Brexit will affect me and you in different ways it might not be directly but it will. When we look at it from a marketing aspective do business have to change the way they market? well of course they do.

Price

The pound is devaluing and because of this manufacturing firms that pay in foreign currencies such as dollars or euros for their raw materials report that their costs have risen anywhere from 10 to 20% since the BREXIT vote. Companies facing higher buying costs need to decide how to absorb price increases. The one way they could do this is by increasing the prices of there goods to consumers which sadly means we have to pay higher prices on items. We might not have those nice SALE deals we all like to see on food and retail. As you can see on (fig1) Apple also has increased its prices due to brexit.

Fig 1

Product

Some businesses have reduced the size of their goods instead of raising prices. Some food producers have decreased the size or quantity of their goods since the BREXIT referendum announcement. Tropicana, for example, now sells juice in bottles containing 1.6 liters instead of 1.75 liters, the number of fish fingers in Birds Eye has been reduced from 12 to 10 per box. A decrease in the size of a commodity is referred to as “Shrinkflation” because inflation has caused producers to decrease the size of their product.Toblerone should serve as an example to all marketers that by increasing the space between its triangular parts, the Mondelez-owned brand decreased the weight of some of its chocolate bars in the UK. Toblerone clarified that the move was due to the increasing cost of ingredients and that instead of putting up prices, it had decided to reduce the weight of the product. So any time you do your groceries shopping look out for these changes.

Fig 2

Place

Though its membership of the European Union the UK participates in a number of trade agreements which reduce the cost and bureaucracy involved in trading with parties around the world. however, some firms believe that international trading is likely to suffer from increases in costs and time; to avert this possibility some firms have proposed moving out of the United Kingdom. On the 23rd of February 2017 The ’Independent Newspaper “reports that a third of manufacturing firms want to move some of their operations out of the United Kingdom. In December 2016 The Independent also reported that 40% of US Firms with UK offices are thinking about relocating to the EU.  If the companies decide to relocate it will also increase the uk unemployment rate.

Promotion

Fig 3

fig 4

Directly referring to Brexit and tailoring creative/copy commercials around the contentious issue may have a constructive impact and in 2019 a range of brands have tested this with positive results. Some brands like Marmite with their ‘ “hard breakfast”, “soft breakfast” or “no breakfast” is a play on the possible outcomes of Brexit.fig 3) this slogan has gone down a comical course, a clever tactic at a time when the public is frustrated and confused. Others, like HSBC, have taken a more sensitive tone with their ‘we are not an island’ campaign,( fig 4) another wise tactic to create trust when individuals feel particularly disheartened.

I hope you have found this blog post useful and interesting. See you back soon until then take care.

Reference

Brands Brave Brexit In Bold Advertising Play. [online] Available at: <https://www.ft.com/content/f94d22fa-182e-11ea-9ee4-11f260415385&gt; [Accessed 8 January 2021].   

Kirk, I., 2021. Should Brexit Impact How You Conduct Your Marketing?. [online] Opportunitymarketing.co.uk. Available at: <https://opportunitymarketing.co.uk/blog/should-brexit-impact-how-you-conduct-your-marketing&gt; [Accessed 10 January 2021].   

Learnmarketing.net. 2021. BREXIT And The Marketing Mix. [online] Available at <https://www.learnmarketing.net/BREXIT_And_The_Marketing_Mix.html&gt; [Accessed 8 January 2021].

The Drum. 2021. Why Marketers Should Be Bold In The Face Of Brexit. [online] Available at: <https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2019/11/07/why-marketers-should-be-bold-the-face-brexit&gt; [Accessed 10 January 2021].