Reflect on your most recent visualisation project and try to sketch or write out the approach you took. What stages of activity did you undertake and in what sequence? Did it feel efficient or chaotic
Running head: MARKETING PLAN 0
Marketing Plan A
Introduction
A marketing plan is a roadmap that guides the company in introducing the product or service to potential buyers in the market. In the highly competitive world of business, marketing plan is crucial in helping a company to understand its target market and competition in that sector (McDonald, 2017). The company will be able to developing various marketing strategies that will enable its products to compete in the market. A marketing plan provides the company with a direction that is crucial making appropriate marketing decisions. Therefore, this marketing plan is aimed at helping Splash Flavor Inc. to introduce their new sports drink in the market.
Company Description
Splash Flavor Inc. is an American company that specializes in production, packaging, and distribution of sport drinks to potential customers across United States. Our company is located in Harrison, New York, United States. Our company is dedicated at producing sports drinks that are healthy to our consumers. Our company was established in 2010 by Harrison Lay. Since its inception, SpalshFlavor Inc. has tremendously expanded to become one of the largest food and Beverage Company in the American market.
Our company produces a wide range of sport drinks among them Moonlight, Sun Dew, Tropicana Mix, SFI Energy, Mountain Fruit Juice, and Mist Dew. Additionally, the company is planning to launch a new sports drink –Splash Flavor –which is caffeine free and is packaged in a special can that keeps it cool for up to six hours. Our products are distributed across seven states in U.S. These states include: New York, California, Oregon, Washington, Washington DC, Illinois, and Virginia. In 2018, the company generated annual revenue of $10 billion –becoming the 7th largest sports drink company in U.S.
Splash Flavor Inc. aims at building a brand that will compete not only in U.S. but also abroad. We strive to drive both financial and shareholder value while taking into consideration human and environmental sustainability. Moreover, we aspire to become the world’s premier producers of caffeine free sport drinks which are healthy compared to other energy drinks in the market. In order to achieve this goal, our company depends on ethics, understanding an innovation with an aim improving the lives of consumers, employees, and business partners. Our energy and efforts are directed towards quality and health characterized by natural ingredients which results to customer satisfaction.
Mission Statement
To become a leading, reputable producer and distributor of health sport drinks both locally and internationally. Our mission statement is guided by our core values of responsibility, accountability, and value for our shareholders including employees, customers, and business partners. To our consumers, we are focused on producing healthy products that are caffeine free. To our employees, we strive to take their welfare seriously in order to ensure massive productivity and performance. For the business partners, we observe integrity, honesty, and fairness by entering into clean businesses deals with them. For investors, our company strives to add value to their capital invested in developing the organization. Our main aim is to generate shareholder value and very sustainable environment for our stakeholders. We strive to attain superior financial performance while addressing environmental and social issues in order to deliver our agenda.
Our Goals
The company’s goals are divided into two categories: short term and long term goals. Short term goals are set to be achieved in the next one year while long term goals are those which should be achieved in the next five years.
Table of Short Term Goals
| Metric | Target/Goal | Measurement of goal |
| Profit Margin | The company should make at least $800 million annual revenue this year. | This goal would be measured on quarterly phases of the trading period. The company intends to record quarterly sales revenue of at least $200 million dollars for this target to be measurable. |
| Customer engagement | The company should engage consumers especially using direct selling in the market | The company intends to incorporate integrated customer relation management software to aid in the measuring points of engagement between the customer and the business; corrective actions can be implemented to eliminate interactions that shun away customers. |
| Retention | The company should retain its highly skilled employees and attract potential ones. Customers should be attracted and retained to guarantee profitability. | Measured by low turnover rates among members of staff not exceeding 5% annually Increase in sales of company products. This is an indicator that the company is attracting and retaining customers. |
| Website Visitors | Improve the website to ensure that it is easier to navigate hence attracting more customers | Measured by embedding cookies within our website to harness data of the visitors and conduct statistical analysis on the numbers. |
| Customer value | Our prices should reflect benefits that a consumer derives from a product | Analyzing the cost of other products in the market and setting our prices to reflect the best price compared to other alternatives. |
Table of Long Term Goals
| Metric | Target/Goal | Measurement of goal |
| New Product | The company should strive and add a new product to our line every year for the next five years | N/A |
| Growth Rate | Our company should be among top four sports and energy drinks companies in United States | This would be measured by market capitalization of the company in comparison with rivals in the market |
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External Environmental Analysis
Competition
Our primary competitors in this business are established brands in the sports energy drinks like Coca cola and Pepsi. In spite of their huge investments in the sporting arena through sponsorship deals that almost guarantee a complete monopoly, we would rely on continuous innovations to penetrate this tough market. The market is ready for a credible alternate.
Economic
The low inflation rates and declining employment rates in the United States would have a significant effect on our business brand. Low inflation rates would facilitate price stability of our products leading to customer confidence (Jonathan & Michael, 2016). Low unemployment rates indicate an increase in the purchasing power of consumers leading to increased sales of our products.
Political
The relaxations on the rules that govern business operations by the current administration are beneficial to our business model due to less compliance costs. The diplomatic relations between Trump administration and other countries threatens the international markets for our products. As the U.S. government continues to impose trade sanctions on other countries, there is a lot of retaliation from the sanctioned countries limiting our products in the international market.
Legal
There are legal restrictions that govern the sports drinks industry in U.S. For instance, the products should not contain any harmful ingredients. Also, there are laws that govern competition in the market, that is, companies should engage in healthy competition in the market.
Technological
The growth in technology is impacting greatly to our company due the development of systems that allow customers to shop online without the need to visit retail outlets and stores. Hence, our company should develop an ecommerce system that allows customers to order products online. The advent of social media is transforming the manner in which advertising is done (Jonathan & Michael, 2016). We intend to create dedicated social media pages to our product to enhance marketability.
Sociocultural forces
U.S. is a multicultural country characterized by people with different values and beliefs that affect their purchasing behavior. Hence, the company should consider these values when developing their products and marketing programs so as to remain relevant in the market.
Internal Environment
SWOT Analysis
INTERNAL EXTERNAL
| STRENGTHS
| OPPORTUNITIES
|
| WEAKNESSES
| THREATS
|
Strengths
The newly launched Splash Flavor drink is caffeine free, healthier and attractive to consumers.
Our new product is packaged in a special container that makes it cool to up to six hours for maximum satisfaction.
Our drinks are cheaper compared to others in the market giving us a pricing advantage over others.
Weaknesses
Our company is still young compared to other key players in the industry
We do not a have strong ecommerce system to allow customers to purchase products online
Lack of strong and appropriate marketing strategies
Opportunities
The sporting industry is growing hence more demand for sports drinks which means an opportunity for our company.
The country’s economy is also growing hence giving our companies and others in this industry an opportunity to grow.
Threats
The company is facing a lot of competition from companies like PepsiCo Inc.
Lack of strong financial muscles to sustain market research and other operational activities.
Market Research
Market research refers to the “process of evaluating the feasibility of a new product or service, through research conducted directly with potential consumers” (Burns, Bush & Sinha, 2014). It helps the company to discover and assess their target market to help them collect and document information used to make informed marketing decisions.
There are two types of market research that can be used by our company including:
Primary research –This will be done using both qualitative and quantitative research to help the Splash Flavor to interact with consumers and collect all relevant information and opinions about a product (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2015). The tools used here include:
Interviews –This will be done by the marketers to help the company improve the products
Survey –This will involve focus groups in order to get the data that can be used to make marketing decisions and product improvement.
Secondary Research –This involves collection of data and information from external sources like media, government agencies, and chambers of commerce in order to understand market demands that help the SplashFlavor to make decisions like product improvement, recalling of products among other decisions (Heding, Knudtzen & Bjerre, 2015).
Market research will involve certain steps including:
Defining the problem –Deciding on what you want to know and thus designing questions that will be used to interview customers
Define sample –This involves a selecting a group of people who will be interviewed.
Data collection –The company will collect actual data based on research questions
Data analysis –Analyzing using data analysis tools
Preparing the report –Documenting the research findings
Making decisions –This allows the company to make decisions based on the findings of the research. Such findings include aspects of the product that need improvement, making decisions on pricing, among others.
Marketing research is important in helping Splash Flavor beat competition in the market, understand their customer needs, identifying new opportunities, as well as forecasting market trends (Visram et al, 2016).
References
Burns, A. C., Bush, R. F., & Sinha, N. (2014). Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow: Pearson.
Heding, T., Knudtzen, C. F., & Bjerre, M. (2015). Brand management: Research, theory and practice. Routledge.
Jonathan, S. N. & Michael, K. (2016). An examination of the environmental analysis metrics for a business entity. International Journal for Business Management.
McDonald, M. H. (2017). The significance of a marketing plan on business entities. European Journal of Marketing, 16(2), 3-32.
Visram, S., Cheetham, M., Riby, D. M., Crossley, S. J., & Lake, A. A. (2016). Consumption of energy drinks by children and young people: a rapid review examining evidence of physical effects and consumer attitudes. BMJ open, 6(10), e010380.
