Part 2: Business Plan – Draft

SALES PLAN AND MARKETING STRATEGIES

Sales Plan and Marketing Strategies

Regina Crews

Strayer University

BUS 599

Prof. Andrea Banto and Prof. Adrian Allen

February 16, 2019

Q1. Define your company’s target market.

Kismet Smoothie company primary target market it will focus on will be younger drinkers, such as college students and a bit older, who are more interested in quality and refinement than they are in price. We will also be targeting customers within the age of 10 to 45 years of age. The other age range like 10 years and below and 45 years and above will also be targeted in later products but not much as the target market stated above. The target is also well suited for busy residents of the major cities in North Carolina. The highest percentage of my local population ranges from 16 years to 45 years, therefore the company target is excellent. In the targeted population, 45% of them are employed with an average income of $3000 per month. The rests are high school and college individuals. The gender ratio of the targeted population is almost equal, that is 1:1 for male and female, for instance, the male population between 20-24 years is 3,014,176 and that of the female within the same age is 3,571,823 which give an approximation ratio stated above. 30% of the targeted population is married majority having one to two kids. We are looking at people who care about nutrition and live a reality active lifestyle. Also, it's good to appreciate that our product is not race-sensitive hence all the ethnic groups within our geographical coverage will be targeted (Armstrong et .al 2015).

Our company was established in North Carolina and opened in January 2019 under Nonalcoholic Beverage Manufacturing Industry. The official registered company name is “KISMET SMOOTHIE COMPANY” with 54 employees currently. The projected sales revenue of our company in 2019 is $2.4 million with a total of 24 vendors carrying our products in two states. The KISMET SMOOTHIE COMPANY is a privately owned and registered company in the North Carolina and South California States (Berman, 2016).

Q2. Assess your company’s market competition.

In the competitive market, Naked Juice, Davidson Beverage Company, and Carolina Beverage Group LLC are our major competitors. Our company and the mentioned major competitors mostly compete on the basis of product quality and price. Fortunately, our company has adopted the cost leading strategy whereby our customers get our products at a lower price compared to our competitors. Also, our products are unique as they are purely natural without preservatives as compared to our competitors who add preservatives in their products. Our cost leading strategy and the uniqueness of our products distinguish us from our competitors. Despite our market leading strategy, there is a potential competitor for our company. The Davidson Beverage Company recently introduced an all-natural smoothie drink but according to research, the drink is not preservative free but just product branding. But the company is considered to be a potential competitor since it may opt to introduce a pure natural drink in future. Many companies have tried to venture into the NAB market but lack of innovation, unfavorable State policies, lack of starting capital and poor marketing strategies have hindered them from accessing the beverage industry market in North Carolina (McDONALD, 2016).

The fact that our company has earned customer trust through the cost leadership strategy has given our company the strength of competing successfully in the local market. For instance, when comparing our company to the close competitor Naked Juice in terms of market command, our company is the leading. The Kismet Smoothie Company has 41% of the total market revenue controlling 44% of the total units sold in the market followed with Davidson Beverage Company with 27% of the total market revenue controlling 30% of the total units sold. Over the past 6 months years, the market shares for Kismet Smoothie Company have been increasing at an average rate of 4.2% annually while that of Davidson Beverage Company increased for the first two years but over the last three years, it has been decreasing at an average rate of 1.05% annually (David, David, & David, 2017). The pie chart below shows the market share by volume in the four companies and the market share by revenue respectively.

· Kismet Smoothie Company 41%

· Davidson Beverage Company 27%

· Naked Juice 20%

· Carolina Beverage Group LLC 12%

The general market competition is actually increasing as a result of adopting the new strategies which aim at curbing competition in the market. One of the features of our strong competitors is that they sell their products before production, which means that before production, they familiarize with the market demand first. Also, they market their products even though they don't have the strategic ways of doing so. And finally, they are usually using their historical success to measure their productivity forgetting that there are changes in preferences in the market (McDonald, & Wilson, 2016).

Q3. Clarify your company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the text (p. 160 | The Five F’s).

Our company is committed to carrying out its functions in the drinks industry in accordance with the stipulated laws while putting the customer health as our first priority in our factions. The company will provide its services to the customers at low costs and that the financial reports will be given quarterly on the company performance. Every customer has a freedom of speech as far as our products and service delivery is concern besides the company products would be convenient by sold in almost all local retailers. There is a special unit in our company that listens and solves the customers’ complaints and demands anytime. Kismet Smoothie Company will always make their customers feel great about themselves by giving them quality products besides helping them meet leisure diet by offering purely natural drinks that are good for their health. The company management team has a good plan for the customers in the next year that includes increasing vendor locations which will reduce the distance covered by our customer to access the products from the company existing vendors. From the above company messages to the customers, the first message of quality products with customers’ health being the first priority in the company production besides low prices to our products must find the customers joy and trust to their support to the company (Bowie, Buttle, Brookes, & Mariussen, 2016).

Q4. 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.

Because of the market competition, our company aims at identifying strategic marketing vehicles to be used in building the product brand besides customer awareness. Based on the range of the age of targeted customers, the web-based marketing strategies and social media, in general, will play a key role in promoting the company name and products. Mostly our targeted customers use facebook, twitter, and Watsup platforms. By connecting with the branding of the company products online with the customers, it will build the customer brand awareness hence raising their purchasing power. Most of the Pepsi sales are credited to its intensive and well-integrated use of social media in promoting their products. The other social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest greatly attracts customer attention (Olsen, Wagner, & Thack, 2016). We will create a mobile phone app that will help customers order our products. Location based tracking will allow customers to look for local retailers that sell our product in their area or if we have a pop sale at a store the app will notify them of where we are.

Using trade shows and exhibitions will also attract customer attention to the company product. Using road shows increases the chances of almost all the local customers getting attracted to the company products which will aid in boosting the purchasing power from the customers. Another vehicle that can be used is a grocery store and convenience store marketing. Through this, a sales force have to be established to target chains of resellers for the purpose of ensuring that the product is broadly available to the customers (Kotler et .al 2015).

References

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Buchwitz, L. A., Trifts, V., & Gaudet, D. (2015). Marketing: an introduction.

Berman, B. (2016). Referral marketing: Harnessing the power of your customers. Business Horizons, 59(1), 19-28.

Bowie, D., Buttle, F., Brookes, M., & Mariussen, A. (2016). Hospitality marketing. Routledge.

David, M. E., David, F. R., & David, F. R. (2017). The quantitative strategic planning matrix: a new marketing tool. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 25(4), 342-352.

Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L., & Armstrong, G. (2015). Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.

McDONALD, M. A. L. C. O. L. M. (2016). Strategic marketing planning: theory and practice. The marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.

McDonald, M., & Wilson, H. (2016). Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from them. John Wiley & Sons.

Olsen, J., Wagner, P., & Thack, L. (2016). Wine marketing & sales: Success strategies for a saturated market. Board and Bench Publishing.

Market Share by Revenue Super Cola Company Davidson Beverages Company Independent Beverage Company Carolina Beverage Group LLC 0.41000000000000014 0.27 0.2 0.12000000000000002