Group project on Stressed out mamas

STRESSED OUT MAMAS RIIPEN PROJECT

Team – 6

Karthik Myneni (2010069)

Venkateswara Rao Potini (2016948)

Jaspreet Purba (2015707)

University Canada West

Dr. Vahideh Baradaran

19 August, 2021

Organizational Overview: Stressed Out Mamas

Mission statement

We are passionate about motherhood. We understand that motherhood is stressful and want to let mothers know that they are not alone in this journey. Therefore, we plan to supply locally crafted products that will bring peace and relaxation to mothers each month.

Vision statement

We want to be every mom’s choice whenever they want to reconnect with themselves and take care of their minds, bodies and souls while experiencing the beauty of our locally crafted items.

Organizational Values & Philosophy

This store has two elements that play a huge role in its existence and purpose. Stressed Out Moms intends to create a system where moms get a box of items that brings them joy and relaxation. The company was started by a mom who relates the struggle mothers go through and often lacks the necessary environment to relax and reconnect with their soul (Stressed Out Mamas, 2021). By getting these subscription boxes monthly, mothers will find fulfillment and a sense of relaxation. The philosophy of Stressed Out Moms store is that parenting does not have to be stressful, and all moms need a reason to relax and get a reason to be happy about it.

Geographical Location

Stressed Out Moms is a well-known online store in Canada, and that means that everyone can make orders from all parts of the country and their goods delivered to them. Currently, products are delivered monthly for their customers who have subscribed for their services. Clients can make orders from the comfort of their homes, especially during this pandemic; it is very effective.

Product mix

Initially, Stressed-Out Moms was only used to deliver the usual monthly subscription box. They are now providing “specialty boxes” quarterly and on special occasions such as Mother’s Day. As for recommendations, they should introduce a one-time subscription whereby customers can make special personal occasions such as couples’ anniversaries and birthdays.

SWOT analysis

Strengths · Convenience in shopping · More variety (since boxes contain different items every month) · Subscription boxes are sent easily · The demand is well known since the number of subscribers is known · There is no pressure since deliveries are made monthly · It deals with locally crafted items; hence no importation is involved. · No crowds involved · Online based so people can purchase from all over the country and beyond. · Easy to market the business through the internet and social media. · Affordable subscription prices · Quality and unique products · 24/7 availability

Weaknesses · Lack of a physical location · Lacks of product knowledge since the contents of the box are not known before purchasing. · Customers’ perception about online shopping (cases of fraud affects the legit stores) · High shipping cost · Lack of direct interaction with customers ·

Opportunities · Growing global market- Many people are opting for online shopping judging from other online marketplaces such as Amazon, Jumia and Alibaba · The increased role of Influencers- the company can take advantage of this and boost brand awareness. · Availability of social media advertising · SEO and AD advertising ·

Threat · Fraud- the use of digital payments involving credit and debit cards, or crypto currencies makes it a possible target by fraudsters. · Data concerns- Since this model include clients giving out their data such as payment details and address-many people are not comfortable doing that. · Baseless negative customer reviews · Unexpected changes in laws and regulations

Marketing research

Consumer analysis

1) Demographics

The world has witnessed many people opting for online shopping due to social distancing concerns. Canada has not been left behind. Statistics say that 51% of online buyers are women. This is a positive trend for Stressed Out Moms since women are their primary consumers. The world is changing fast, and people are trusting in online buying.

2) Psychographics

In Canada, almost 23% of recently delivered moms report constant anxiety and depression related to parenting. Moms of under-eighteen children have reported feeling like they are dealing with a lot of stress at home (Stechyson, 2020). Most of these mothers want something or someone to calm them down. As much as parenting is fulfilling, many moms want to feel better and jump out of the parenting cocoon. They are searching for things like what Stressed Out Mothers are offering.

3) Behaviors.

Eighty-eight per cent of women in Canada say that being a mom is “incredibly stressful” (Stechyson, 2020). Many of these moms also mention that they no longer feel like they “are themselves” anymore. This shows that many moms need something that can calm them down, give them peace, and allow them to reconnect with their deeper selves. This is precisely what Stressed Out Moms does.

4) Geographical Considerations.

The art sector in Canada is extensive and provides a lot of innovative handcrafted products. And since this company uses such products, then there will not be trouble producing them.

Competitor and Industry Analysis

Stressed Out Mom’s situation is not the usual online store. Therefore, they offer services and not the products that they sell. The boxes are supposed to make women feel better and chill. They serve a purpose, and that is making stressed-out mothers feel better.

This brings a different aspect of the kind of competition they would face. For example, stressed-out mothers may want to take a day off and relax in spas, hotels, beaches, parks or even go on a short vacation. Judging from that, the company has a lot of competition. However, they offer the same services but in a unique way, not elsewhere in the country. This means that they might lack competitors in their service delivery. Therefore, this company will face competition from the above-mentioned possible destination of any stressed-out mother.

Segmentation

Stressed Out Moms has targeted all mothers, although ideally, mothers with grown-up children may not be stressed out. Therefore, they target any mother who wants to feel better and relax irrespective of their age. Regarding moms’ perception about their services, this company considers affordability of subscriptions, high quality, and customization. Also, time and delivery efficiency may be another factor that moms may seek. Therefore, Stressed-Out Moms ensures that subscription boxes are delivered within the first week of every month.

Differentiation and positioning

Stressed Out Moms has positioned itself in a strategic place in the market. The company is offering services in terms of goods. The boxes sent to people are supposed to make them feel better, relax, and reconnect with their inner souls. The company does that in a unique way that no other competitor has done. From another strategic place, the company’s customers subscribe to monthly deliveries of commodities that they do not even know; they trust that the items will make them feel better. This is different from typical online shopping.

Marketing mix

Product Strategy

Type:

Stressed-out Moms mainly provides boxes that contain items that make moms feel good and get motivated to soldier on in parenting. Their main intention is to make mothers know that there are not alone in whatever they are feeling, and by that, they feel better and comforted.

Features:

Every aspect of their business differentiates them from their competitors. For example, their competitors need stressed moms to visit their premises to feel better but Stressed Out Moms take that service to the customer’s residence.

Identification:

Although it may not have a famous influencer endorsing the company, Stressed-Out Moms have a good brand name. And since the company has a unique business model, it can push its name out there by either using influencers or SEO optimization of its website.

Production method/delivery of service:

The company delivers according to its client’s expectations. However, they do not specify whether they deliver themselves or through a third party.

Suggestions:

I would recommend the company offer different subscriptions so that people who may want a one-time delivery could also have it. Also, they can be flexible enough to introduce more packages that are not monthly such as an existing stock where people can order and receive their boxes regardless of the time of the month.

Pricing strategy:

The company’s prices are reasonable although not broken down. There are only two sets of subscriptions. However, these prices are way lower than relaxing in spas and hotels.

Suggestions

The company should introduce more packages that include cheaper and even higher-priced packages. By doing that, they would capture customers who might have felt like the current prices as a bit expensive for them. They will also attract customers who love the high-end staff and are attracted to expensive and classy items.

Place

The company is an online retail store and aims at reaching more people in Canada since they do not have a walk-in store. They deliver their products to their clients on monthly and quarterly basis

Suggestion

Since the company lacks a physical presence, it should make its online presence felt. They should run active accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linked In. These accounts will act as actuals shops where they can have interactions with their customers.

Promotion

The store has various discounts and adds samples in subscription boxes they supply; this is geared towards making the customers enjoy more.

Suggestion

If the company offered more subscription packages, it would have been easier to promote their items. It would be challenging to offer promotional offers when you are selling only a single standard product. And $120 for a bunch of things you don’t know deserves discounts during every sale.

Also, I suggest that the company invests in SEO optimization of their content such that the website will receive a lot of traffic which may turn into actual customers. The company can also promote their posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They can also advertise through women magazines, and this can be a game-changer for them.

The website is less interactive and does not have much information about the company; they should upgrade it to have a customer review section where potential clients can vet its credibility.

Budget

Being a small enterprise, the company needs always check its budget. Since the company is aware of customers’ monthly or quarterly subscriptions, they should always produce what fits their demand. By that, they will not incur a lot of money for goods not paid for. Other companies produce products and wait for customers but Stressed out moms get monthly subscriptions from their clients to send the package. This means that the company will not at any point produce more than they can sell. The company should invest heavily in social media and employ a female influencer who is a mom.

Control/monitor

Stressed Out mamas can use mentions and likes of #StressedOutMamas on all their social media networks to measure the effectiveness of social media marketing. The store can use google analytics to find the number of customers directed on the company’s website. The company can also use kiss-metrics to evaluate its web traffic. That will cost them $30-$1000 monthly, depending on the traffic that took place. The above measure will help the company understand how the various marketing channels perform and attract more customers (Anastasia, 2015). The company can also send discounted unique codes to selected potential clients, which will help track the effectiveness of email marketing. Stressed Out mamas should entice its customers by consistently offering discounts and coupons for the customers. This will help in market penetration. Overall, the company seems to have good reviews, and women are very supportive. This indicates that the company can capitalize on that, invest in brand awareness measures, and put up a professional team to manage promotions and customer feedback.

Marketing Gaps:

A difference in connectivity of marketing strategy and the implementation of marketing to achieve the goals and objectives are known as Marketing Gaps. These gaps take place due to the lack of connectivity within the marketing channels with diverse objectives.

Marketing gaps are broadly classified into 3 types in case of Stressed Out Mamas company, which are:

1. Market Presence Gap

2. Knowledge Gap

3. Awareness Gap

Market Presence Gap:

The Gap that is created due to lack of marketing technique and the way to reach their target audience. Stressed Out Mamas lack a lot in Social Media Presence and Digital World when compared to similar companies or its competitors. People basically search Google these days for the things these days and Stressed Out Mamas are not the first choice or even the second when searched over any search engine. As majority of people these days consider the list toppers are best and trustable ones when compared with the ones that are typical to find. Stressed Out Mamas need to consider this as a important option and needs to optimize their company name and searches for all browsers with a set of Digital Market Team by using the best search engine optimization technique.

Figure: Search results on Google

Knowledge Gap:

The Gap that is created due to the lack of knowledge what this company is and what role they play is known as Knowledge gap. As there exist is a unique idea and job for the company "Stressed Out Mamas" most of the people in the society might not be aware what this company do and what this mystery boxes are and how these effects the Normal life of a person. So, there is a lot of scope for Stressed Out Mamas to work on people's awareness about the company and fill this knowledge gap. The best way to fill up this gap is the influencer marketing or the campaigns by interacting with public in the public places like Shopping malls, Supermarkets, Childcare centers, and Hospitals as this can be the best target locations for the target audience.

Awareness Gap:

The gap that is created due to lack of awareness over the product or the service that a company provides. As the word mystery box says the things that going to be in the box are going to be a mystery, people who are willing to use the Stressed Out Mamas are in a state of confusion whether the money they keep in their subscription or products are price worthy or not. So, the best way to provide awareness to public are sample distribution to the targeted audience and then having a look of the subscriptions and collecting the feedback from the people who didn't subscribe. As the subscriptions is a benefit to the Stressed Out Mamas Business directly and the feedback provided by the unsubscribed people helps indirectly on self-analyzing the business and this eventually leads to improvement of the business.

Pricing and Timeline of Marketing Plan:

Revenue that is spent on marketing is a long-term investment rather than just being an expense, like investment in development and services of a product. The better marketing builds the brand awareness which acquires the customers of the future. Generally, the SME’s invest 10% to 17% of their revenue in marketing (BDC Article). As Stressed Out Mamas is an online business and need to spend 17% of the revenue as marketing budget. The marketing budget can be further divided as 20-25% of the marketing budget goes in campaign planning, 20-30% goes in paid advertising, 35% of marketing budget goes in digital marketing, 10-20% goes in distribution marketing.

All this marketing steps can’t be started at the same point it needs to be implemented in the coming 5 months initially going with campaigns and paid advertising, then digital marketing and distribution marketing.

References

Anastasia. (2015). How to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Retrieved from

https://www.cleverism.com/how-to-measure-effectiveness-of-marketing-campaigns/

Stechyson. (2020, January 21). Yes, being a parent really is harder than ever: Study. HuffPost Canada. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/parent-burnout-study_ca_5e2708dbc5b632117619de6a

Stressed Out Mamas. (2021). Stressed Out Mamas | Stressed Out Mamas. https://stressedoutmamas.ca/

“What is the average marketing budget for a small business?” (BDC article). Available at: https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/marketing-sales-export/marketing/what-average-marketing-budget-for-small-business