Week 7

Marketing Plan and Sales Strategy

Monieke Woods

Strategic Management BUS 599

Dr. Wash

November 12, 2017

1. Company’s target market.

The consumers who will be drinking the beverage include people from all genders and different age groups. Considering that this is a non-alcoholic beverage, it is evident that its purchase should not be limited to a particular age group. The soft drinks industry is overwhelmingly popular, as compared to the alcoholic beverage industry. The beverage is open to all individuals despite their gender, age group, educational level or ethnic belonging in the extensive market.

The beverage will be sold to consumers from California, within twenty-five-mile radius from the city center (Podgorny, 2013). The income levels will not be a problem, as the beverage will be packaged in a way that consumers from low-income categories as well as the high-income earners can be able to satisfy their demand of the commodity. The product will be sold through displays in stores in the region, hence will be easily accessible to all individuals within the area, purchasing on a retail basis.

2. Company’s market competition.

Competition is inevitable in every industry and needs to be handled more proactively by the leaders in different organizations. An organization which does not pursue its profitability and success objectives in the right manner is also bound to give in to competitors in the market, lose market share and finally collapse (Podgorny, 2013). Assessment of competition for my organization will focus on identifying the following aspects.

a) who

Major competitors include other soft drink companies in the industry. Examples are the coca cola company, which possess a significant threat.

b) what

The organization competes by profitability and market share. The organization aims at achieving extremely high-profit margins in the soft drinks industry, and high profits in the industry as a whole.

c) how

The organization ranks the second compared to its main competitor in the market. This is because of the difference in infrastructure and establishment between the two organizations.

d) future

Future competitors include energy drink organizations such as red bull, which is trying to enter the beverage industry in different markets around the world.

e) barriers

There are no stringent barriers to entry especially for new competitors (Podgorny, 2013). The only aspect which may be a hindrance in countering global competition is the infrastructural establishment for the organization, as well as the inability to earn brand loyalty within a shorter period.

Competitive analysis: Customer Perception factors

Competitor	% of total revenues	% of total units sold	The trend of the market share (increasing or decreasing?)
1. Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc.	40%	58%	Decreasing
2. Mondelez International	25%	48%	Increasing
3. Coca-Cola company	65%	68%	Increasing

Which competitors have historically been the market leaders?

Coca-Cola has always been the market leader in the nonalcoholic beverage industry, followed by Pepsi, Mondelez international and the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc.

Which competitors have increased market share substantially in the last three years?

The last three years have proven to be entirely favorable for Coca-Cola Company. The organization continues to thrive because of increased sales and increased market share.

Is overall competition increasing, stable or decreasing?

Overall competition is increasing at a high rate. Consumers have become more demanding, and the rate of market entry is also high.

An essential characteristic of the market leaders

Competitor 1: Coca-Cola company-High market share

Competitor 2: Dr. Pepper and Snapple Inc.-high product quality (Goldman, 2013)

Competitor 3: Mondelez international- increased consumer and personal loyalty

3. Company’s Message: The Five F’s

A. Focus. The primary focus of the organization should be communicated, which in this case, is to ensure that consumer satisfaction prevails.

B. Follow through. Monitoring and evaluation should be done, to determine the effectiveness of the product.

C. Feedback. Feedback is essential, for the sake of decision making primarily for the management in the organization (Gronross, 2010).

D. Flexibility. The organization needs to assure its consumers of its flexibility and more so, ability to change according to their tastes and preferences.

E. Fun. Overall, the message should be fun, and consumers need to be convinced of the benefits they will reap while using the products.

4. Marketing vehicles

Online marketing tactics

A. website:

The organization website will be designed in the way that all products and services which are produced in the organization are well known to the consumers. This is bound to add credibility to the organization. Primary objectives of the website in marketing and selling product and services are to reach out to a diverse consumer platform, in different locations. The Coca-Cola Company is an example of a nonalcoholic beverage organization which uses websites efficiently.

B. SEO/SEM

I will drive traffic to the organization website using unpaid search engine marketing. The unpaid aspect makes it available for all consumers, without touching on issues of affordability. This will ensure that all consumer groups get to know about the organization and its product and service offerings.

C. Email newsletters.

Creating an email newsletter to connect with consumers and other prospects is an excellent strategy. This will be automatically done when a consumer registers to the website. He or she will receive updates on product modifications and developments which is relatively essential content. The content will be sent on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, based on the preference of the consumer. The mailing list will be generated from the registered consumers.

D. Blogs.

The organization will have some specific personnel to update the data and online records, including developing blogs for the organization (Gronross, 2010). To increase visibility, participating in other small-scale business blogs will be beneficial. This way, the organization will be able to tap more consumers from different markets, with diverse tastes and preferences.

E. Social media.

Social media has helped most of the organizations to grow. These include platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among others. Consumers are interconnected, hence using such platforms to spread organization message will help engage prospects as well.

References

Goldman, S. (2013). How Entrepreneurs can Change Society. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21d7sOyVGKg

Grönroos, C. (2010). Service management and marketing: Managing the moments of truth in service competition. Jossey-Bass.

Podolny, J. M. (2013). A status-based model of market competition. American journal of sociology, 98(4), 829-872.