Description
Assignment 2: Marketing Plan
Due Week 6 and worth 100 points
This assignment consists of two (2) sections: a marketing plan and sales strategy, and a marketing budget. Note: You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment.
For the first six (6) months your company is in business—to give you time to perfect your product and to learn from actual customers—you will start marketing and selling in your own community, a radius of twenty-five (25) miles from where you live.
For most non-alcoholic beverages, marketing (as opposed to the actual product itself) is key to success. Cola drinks, for example, are fairly undifferentiated, as are many energy drinks, juices, bottled water, and the like. Companies producing these types of beverages differentiate themselves and attract market share through marketing and brand awareness—both of which are critical to success.
Section 1: Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy (MS Word or equivalent)
Write the three to five (3-5) page Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy section of your business plan, in which you:
- Define your company’s target market.
- Analyze the types of consumers who will be drinking your beverage in demographic terms (i.e., age, education level, income, gender, ethnic group, etc.). Support your analysis with actual data on the size of the demographic groups in your local community (nearby zip codes).
- Outline the demographic information for your company specified on the worksheet in the course text (p. 107 | Demographic Description). Click here for help accessing a specific page number in your eBook.
- Hints: At American FactFinder (http://census.gov), you will find demographic information on potential consumers in your area. If you are selling through other businesses (such as grocery stores), indicate the number of those businesses in your local area. You will find information about such businesses in your local area at County Business Patterns (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html). Check Chapter 2 of Successful Business Plan for more research sources.
- Hints: At American FactFinder (http://census.gov), you will find demographic information on potential consumers in your area. If you are selling through other businesses (such as grocery stores), indicate the number of those businesses in your local area. You will find information about such businesses in your local area at County Business Patterns (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html). Check Chapter 2 of Successful Business Plan for more research sources.
- Assess your company’s market competition.
- Use the factors listed in the course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess the Competition) to assess your company’s market competition.
- Defend your strategy to successfully compete against market leaders in your segment.
- Hints: For example, in the soft drink market, it is intimidating to try to compete against Coke and Pepsi. Newcomers in mature markets typically must pursue niche markets or even create new market categories, as Red Bull did with energy drinks.
- Defend your plan to differentiate yourself from the competition using the information detailed on the worksheet in the text (p. 131 | Market Share Distribution).
- Hints: Every business faces competition and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an especially crowded market.
- Hints: Every business faces competition and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an especially crowded market.
- Clarify your company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the text (p. 160 | The Five F’s).
- Hints: Before you choose your marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through those vehicles.
- Hints: Before you choose your marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through those vehicles.
- Identify the marketing vehicles you plan to use to build your company’s brand. Justify the key reasons why they will be effective. Provide examples of other non-alcoholic beverage companies that use these tactics effectively.
- Hints: If you plan to use online marketing tactics, refer to the worksheet in the text (p.171 | Online Marketing Tactics) to aid your response. Remember that even if you’re selling through grocery stores you need to build your brand and social media is a major part of that in regard to beverages. Some of the marketing tactics that beverage companies use include: sampling in grocery stores, building a following on social media, sponsoring events, exhibiting at trade shows attended by retailers, and so on. You will use a combination of these tactics. For example, if you decide to give out samples in grocery stores, promote your sampling on your social media networks and those of the grocery store.
- Hints: If you are planning to distribute through resellers, describe how you plan to reach them, for example, through industry trade shows or by establishing your own sales force. For information on trade shows, visit the Trade Show News Network (http://www.tsnn.com). You can exhibit or network at these shows.
- Hints: If you are planning to distribute through resellers, describe how you plan to reach them, for example, through industry trade shows or by establishing your own sales force. For information on trade shows, visit the Trade Show News Network (http://www.tsnn.com). You can exhibit or network at these shows.
- Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:
- Cite the resources you have used to complete the exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the number of resources used in the exercise.
- Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
- Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.
Section 2: Marketing Budget (MS Excel worksheets template)
Section 2 uses the “Business Plan Financials” MS Excel template (see: Course Required Files in Week 1). Use the “Business Plan Financials Guide” (see: Course Required Files in Week 1) to support your development of the Marketing Budget.
- Complete the Marketing Budget worksheet for your company.
- Hints: The goal of the marketing budget is to help you determine how much it will cost you to reach your market and achieve your sales goals.
- Hints: When filling out the “Marketing Budget” worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet:
- Begin in the current year and complete a marketing budget for the first year of your business. The information you enter in the marketing budget spreadsheet will flow through to your “Income Statement” in the Business Plan Financials.
- Leave the number at zero (0) for any marketing vehicles you do not intend to use.
- Remember that all marketing activities involve costs. If social media represents a significant portion of your marketing, assume you will have cost of advertising and that should be reflected on your budget. Even if a social media site charges nothing to use it, you will need to use company resources to manage the site, pay someone to execute your social media marketing campaigns, and will most likely pay for ads on that site.
- Do NOT leave the “Marketing Budget” blank, assuming you will not have any marketing costs.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
- Recommend effective business strategies based on an analysis of domestic and global operating environments, market dynamics, and internal capabilities.
- Analyze competitive positions including foreign market entry and the resulting impact on business strategy.
- Use technology and information resources to research issues in strategic management.
- Write clearly and concisely about strategic management using proper writing mechanics.
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Running Head: MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
Marketing Plan and Strategies
Student’s name
Institutional Affiliation
1
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
2
Demographic analysis
BUSINESS
CONSUMER
Age Range: 12-34
Industries: NAB
Income range: 350-450k
Sector: produce supermarket chain store
Gender:
Years in business: 16 years
both gender
Occupation: All occupations
Company Revenue: Not publicized
Marital Status: Not Applicable
Number of employees: Over 1000
Family size: Not Applicable
Number of branches: 51
Ethnic Group: All
Square footage 90000
Level of Education: college
Company Ownership Private ownership
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
Home ownership
3
Other
Other
The target demographic area for our product shall be Brooklyn. The organization intends
to focus on Brooklyn before any attempts of expanding to other cities. According to the National
Center for Complementary and Integrative Health young adults and American teens consume
high amounts of energy drinks making energy drinks the most consumed dietary supplement
after multivitamins (NCCIH, 2018) The research shows that teens from 12 to 17 years consume
energy drinks regularly while ages 18-34 consume them in large amounts. Statistic indicates that
the demographic median age in Brookline is 34 (Brooklyn MA, 2016). From the statistics, it is
evident that a majority of the population in Brooklyn consists of young people. This makes a
potential market for the drinks because it is estimated that young adults are the largest consumers
of non-alcoholic beverage drinks. Being a fruit flavored type of brand, we believe that Sparkle
products shall also be used by diabetic individuals. Since most individuals affected by diabetes
range from age 45-64 Sparkle products shall also target this population although they are not the
major targets. For those working, the average salary in Brookline is around $48000 but since
sparkle products are fairly priced, they shall be consumed by almost all individuals. Brookline
has a mixed population comprising of Whites, blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups
therefore the products shall be available to all.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
4
Five Factor Market Competition Assessment.
1. Who - Our major competitors will be Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo.
2. What - The main competition base is market share. Coca-Cola and Pepsi Companies have
a combined market share of 70% ("Soft drink market share in the U.S. 2017 | Statista",
2019). The rest is share among other NAB business.
3. How - As an entry level company, we shall face a rather stiff competition in the already
two-company-dominated market. Our challenge will be to penetrate the market and
increase our market share.
4. Future - An analysis of the NAB market research reveal shows that in the future, CocaCola and Pepsi will remain to be our main competitors. These two companies are already
well established and with a global reach and have been in the market for a long time
("Soft drink market share in the U.S. 2017 | Statista", 2019).
5. Barriers - The main barrier to entry by new companies is the established brand of the two
main competitor by customers across the world. It will be a challenge convincing these
customers to adopt a new brand. Apart from that, the already established companies are
able to enjoy economies of scale due to their huge size. Consequently, they are able to
produce products at a cheaper cost that entry level competitors.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
5
Market Share Distribution and Competition
Competitor
% of Total
% of Total
Trends of Market
Revenues
Units sold
Share (Increasing
or decreasing)
1. CocaCola
45.6
43.6
Decreasing
2. PepsiCo
19
19
Increasing
3. Nestle
13
12
Increasing
4. Suntory
10.7
11.7
Increasing
5. Keurig Dr
8
6
Increasing
Pepper
Which company has been the market leader? Coca-Cola has been the market leader for a
long time. Right from it inception in 1886, Coca-Cola has strived to maintain a very strong brand
and connection with its customers.
Which competitors have increased market share substantially in the last 3 years? The best
performing competitor in the last three years in terms of market share has remained to be CocaCola. As of 2018, its market share had risen to over 42.5% globally ("Soft drink market share in
the U.S. 2017 | Statista", 2019).
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
6
Is overall competition increasing, stable, or decreasing? Overall, we could say the
competition has largely remained stable. In as much as many new brands keep coming up, new
markets or niches keep getting discovered which has largely stagnated the market completion.
Briefly describe the most important characteristics of the market leaders?
1. Coca-Cola – Coca-Cola is characterized by strong brand with a long history which has
enable it to maintain customers over generations.
2. PepsiCo – PepsiCo has for a long time been described as the main competitor for the
market leader, Coca-Cola. It also has been keen to establish a brand that will have strong
global reach ("Culture | PepsiCo.com.au", 2019).
3. Nestle – Nestle, on the other hand can be described to have developed a long list of
brands and carved a niche in the tea, coffee, and bottled water category. Aside fromt that,
Nestle produces food products which further widens its market potential.
Pie charts.
Total Revenues
CoCa-Cola
Total Units Sold
CoCa-Cola
PepsiCo
6%
6%
12%
45.6%
12%
Nestle
Suntory
19%
Keurig Dr
Pepper
Others
Fickling, David. (2018)
8%
6%
12%
PepsiCo
43.6
Nestle
12%
19%
Suntory
Keurig Dr
Pepper
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
7
The Company’s Message Using the Five Fs.
Keeping the Fs in mind, describe the message you want to convey to customers about your
product or service.
1. Functions: Sparkle intends to convey the message of intention to provide healthy, high
quality, and refreshing products in a timely manner.
2. Finances: Sparkle wants to convey the message of affordability of its products
3. Freedom: We want to have our customers have freedom of choice of our wide range of
products
4. Feelings; Sparkle wants to convey a refreshing, thirst-quenching feeling with it products.
Aside from that, we intend to have our customers have the feeling that we care about
them by providing high quality and healthy products.
5. Future: About the future, Sparkle intends to convey the message of longevity and growth
in the NAB industry.
How will you express this message to your customers in the areas listed below?
Business Name: With our name, Sparkle Fresh Drinks and Beverages, we intend to convey the
message or eye-catchy and refreshing drinks.
Slogan: In our slogan, we shall reinforce the idea of a refreshing beverage that is health and of
high quality.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
8
Key words in the Marketing Material: The key words in or our marketing materials will be,
refreshing, quality, healthy. With these sort of key words, we shall further reinforce the idea of a
refreshing product that is healthy and of high quality.
Product design: Our product will be designed in such a manner that a sparkling, eye catchy drink
will be the message. Our bottles design will be designed for easy handling. Our label will have
colorful graphics that will be attention grabbing.
Logo - Our logo will be a blend of our name and graphics that will reinforce our brand’s name
and the refreshing quality drinks we shall be offering.
Website design – Our website will be glossy and eye catchy; yet easy to maneuver around to
attract potential customers and full express to them what products we are offering.
Blog language and design – Our blog language will be informal and easy to comprehend, It will
be designed beautifully by incorporating glossy colors that reflect out products’ sparling colors.
Choice of Social media sites - As one of our major customer base target is young people, we
shall target social media sites that are frequented by youth. These will include Facebook and
Instagram.
Other graphic images/design - All our designs will be centered on the same message; eye-catchy
and sparkling products. Hence, we shall design colors that present this central theme.
Packaging – Our packaging will also bear colorful and sparkling designed. Our bottles will be
designed to be eye-catchy and easy to handle.
Décor - Our décor will also be centered on the same message of eye-catchy and sparkling colors.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
9
Style of clothing worn by employees - Our employees’ clothes will be stylistic and appealing to
the young generation in a bid to identify with them.
Merchandising/displays/presentation material – these areas will also feature colorful and
sparkling themes to reflect our products.
Our Online Marketing Tactics.
Website; How will your website promote your product or services or add credibility to your
business? What are the primary objectives? By having a website, we shall reinforce the idea of
being a legitimate company. Our website will also act as a key channel for reaching out to our
customer base.
SEO/SEO: Will you drive traffic to your website using unpaid or paid search engine marketing.
How? We shall use a combination of paid and unpaid search engine optimization. For example,
we shall use key words on our website, blog, and social media to drive traffic to us. We shall also
pay SEO firms to help scale up our presence in search engine search results.
Email/Newsletter- We shall also include email newsletter in our customers that will be used to
convey messages of the products we offer and where our products can be found. We shall send
the newsletters monthly. Our mailing list will be built by collecting emails our customers and
keeping them in a database.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
10
Blogs: We shall also write blogs with the intention of reaching out to a large audience. We shall
engage in topics that are appealing the youth – out main target customers. These topics will
include gossip, music, and sports.
Social Media: We shall use social media like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest,
to increase our presence and engage directly with our customers.
Other online Advertising – We shall also pay other online advertising websites such as YouTube,
Google, and Facebook to feature our products in their advertisement spaces.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
References
Brookline, MA. (2016). Retrieved from https://datausa.io/profile/geo/brookline-ma/#intro
Burki, T. K. (2016). Marketing obesity. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 4(2), 104.
Gornall, J. (2015). Sugar: spinning a web of influence. Bmj, 350, h231.
Kansagra, S. M., Kennelly, M. O., Nonas, C. A., Curtis, C. J., Van Wye, G., Goodman, A., &
Farley, T. A. (2015). Reducing sugary drink consumption: New York City’s approach.
American journal of public health, 105(4), e61-e64.
NCCIH (2018). Energy Drinks. Retrieved from https://nccih.nih.gov/health/energy-drinks
Culture | PepsiCo.com.au. (2019). Retrieved from
http://www.pepsico.com.au/careers/why/culture.php
Soft drink market share in the U.S. 2017 | Statista. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/225464/market-share-of-leading-soft-drinkcompanies-in-the-us-since-2004/
Ficklin, David. (2018). Time for a Diet at Suntory. Bloomberg.Retrieved from
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-02-15/suntory-should-take-note-ofyakult-and-slim-down
11
Running Head: MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
Marketing Plan and Strategies
Student’s name
Institutional Affiliation
1
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
2
Demographic analysis
BUSINESS
CONSUMER
Age Range: 12-34
Industries: NAB
Income range: 350-450k
Sector: produce supermarket chain store
Gender:
Years in business: 16 years
both gender
Occupation: All occupations
Company Revenue: Not publicized
Marital Status: Not Applicable
Number of employees: Over 1000
Family size: Not Applicable
Number of branches: 51
Ethnic Group: All
Square footage 90000
Level of Education: college
Company Ownership Private ownership
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
Home ownership
3
Other
Other
The target demographic area for our product shall be Brooklyn. The organization intends
to focus on Brooklyn before any attempts of expanding to other cities. According to the National
Center for Complementary and Integrative Health young adults and American teens consume
high amounts of energy drinks making energy drinks the most consumed dietary supplement
after multivitamins (NCCIH, 2018) The research shows that teens from 12 to 17 years consume
energy drinks regularly while ages 18-34 consume them in large amounts. Statistic indicates that
the demographic median age in Brookline is 34 (Brooklyn MA, 2016). From the statistics, it is
evident that a majority of the population in Brooklyn consists of young people. This makes a
potential market for the drinks because it is estimated that young adults are the largest consumers
of non-alcoholic beverage drinks. Being a fruit flavored type of brand, we believe that Sparkle
products shall also be used by diabetic individuals. Since most individuals affected by diabetes
range from age 45-64 Sparkle products shall also target this population although they are not the
major targets. For those working, the average salary in Brookline is around $48000 but since
sparkle products are fairly priced, they shall be consumed by almost all individuals. Brookline
has a mixed population comprising of Whites, blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups
therefore the products shall be available to all.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
4
Five Factor Market Competition Assessment.
1. Who - Our major competitors will be Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo.
2. What - The main competition base is market share. Coca-Cola and Pepsi Companies have
a combined market share of 70% ("Soft drink market share in the U.S. 2017 | Statista",
2019). The rest is share among other NAB business.
3. How - As an entry level company, we shall face a rather stiff competition in the already
two-company-dominated market. Our challenge will be to penetrate the market and
increase our market share.
4. Future - An analysis of the NAB market research reveal shows that in the future, CocaCola and Pepsi will remain to be our main competitors. These two companies are already
well established and with a global reach and have been in the market for a long time
("Soft drink market share in the U.S. 2017 | Statista", 2019).
5. Barriers - The main barrier to entry by new companies is the established brand of the two
main competitor by customers across the world. It will be a challenge convincing these
customers to adopt a new brand. Apart from that, the already established companies are
able to enjoy economies of scale due to their huge size. Consequently, they are able to
produce products at a cheaper cost that entry level competitors.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
5
Market Share Distribution and Competition
Competitor
% of Total
% of Total
Trends of Market
Revenues
Units sold
Share (Increasing
or decreasing)
1. CocaCola
45.6
43.6
Decreasing
2. PepsiCo
19
19
Increasing
3. Nestle
13
12
Increasing
4. Suntory
10.7
11.7
Increasing
5. Keurig Dr
8
6
Increasing
Pepper
Which company has been the market leader? Coca-Cola has been the market leader for a
long time. Right from it inception in 1886, Coca-Cola has strived to maintain a very strong brand
and connection with its customers.
Which competitors have increased market share substantially in the last 3 years? The best
performing competitor in the last three years in terms of market share has remained to be CocaCola. As of 2018, its market share had risen to over 42.5% globally ("Soft drink market share in
the U.S. 2017 | Statista", 2019).
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
6
Is overall competition increasing, stable, or decreasing? Overall, we could say the
competition has largely remained stable. In as much as many new brands keep coming up, new
markets or niches keep getting discovered which has largely stagnated the market completion.
Briefly describe the most important characteristics of the market leaders?
1. Coca-Cola – Coca-Cola is characterized by strong brand with a long history which has
enable it to maintain customers over generations.
2. PepsiCo – PepsiCo has for a long time been described as the main competitor for the
market leader, Coca-Cola. It also has been keen to establish a brand that will have strong
global reach ("Culture | PepsiCo.com.au", 2019).
3. Nestle – Nestle, on the other hand can be described to have developed a long list of
brands and carved a niche in the tea, coffee, and bottled water category. Aside fromt that,
Nestle produces food products which further widens its market potential.
Pie charts.
Total Revenues
CoCa-Cola
Total Units Sold
CoCa-Cola
PepsiCo
6%
6%
12%
45.6%
12%
Nestle
Suntory
19%
Keurig Dr
Pepper
Others
Fickling, David. (2018)
8%
6%
12%
PepsiCo
43.6
Nestle
12%
19%
Suntory
Keurig Dr
Pepper
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
7
The Company’s Message Using the Five Fs.
Keeping the Fs in mind, describe the message you want to convey to customers about your
product or service.
1. Functions: Sparkle intends to convey the message of intention to provide healthy, high
quality, and refreshing products in a timely manner.
2. Finances: Sparkle wants to convey the message of affordability of its products
3. Freedom: We want to have our customers have freedom of choice of our wide range of
products
4. Feelings; Sparkle wants to convey a refreshing, thirst-quenching feeling with it products.
Aside from that, we intend to have our customers have the feeling that we care about
them by providing high quality and healthy products.
5. Future: About the future, Sparkle intends to convey the message of longevity and growth
in the NAB industry.
How will you express this message to your customers in the areas listed below?
Business Name: With our name, Sparkle Fresh Drinks and Beverages, we intend to convey the
message or eye-catchy and refreshing drinks.
Slogan: In our slogan, we shall reinforce the idea of a refreshing beverage that is health and of
high quality.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
8
Key words in the Marketing Material: The key words in or our marketing materials will be,
refreshing, quality, healthy. With these sort of key words, we shall further reinforce the idea of a
refreshing product that is healthy and of high quality.
Product design: Our product will be designed in such a manner that a sparkling, eye catchy drink
will be the message. Our bottles design will be designed for easy handling. Our label will have
colorful graphics that will be attention grabbing.
Logo - Our logo will be a blend of our name and graphics that will reinforce our brand’s name
and the refreshing quality drinks we shall be offering.
Website design – Our website will be glossy and eye catchy; yet easy to maneuver around to
attract potential customers and full express to them what products we are offering.
Blog language and design – Our blog language will be informal and easy to comprehend, It will
be designed beautifully by incorporating glossy colors that reflect out products’ sparling colors.
Choice of Social media sites - As one of our major customer base target is young people, we
shall target social media sites that are frequented by youth. These will include Facebook and
Instagram.
Other graphic images/design - All our designs will be centered on the same message; eye-catchy
and sparkling products. Hence, we shall design colors that present this central theme.
Packaging – Our packaging will also bear colorful and sparkling designed. Our bottles will be
designed to be eye-catchy and easy to handle.
Décor - Our décor will also be centered on the same message of eye-catchy and sparkling colors.
MARKETING PLAN AND STRATEGIES
9
Style of clothing worn by employees - Our employees’ clothes will be stylistic and appealing to
the young generation in a bid to identify with them.
Merchandising/displays/presentation material – these areas will also feature colorful and
sparkling themes to reflect our products.
Our Online Marketing Tactics.
Website; How will your website promote your product or services or add credibility to
your business? What are the primary objectives? By having a website, we shall reinforce the
idea of being a legitimate company. Our website will also act as a key channel for reaching out
to our customer base.
SEO/SEO: Will you drive traffic to your website using unpaid or paid search engine
marketing? How? We shall use a combination of paid and unpaid search engine optimization.
For example, we shall use key words on our website, blog, and social medi...