Report Issue Instructions Continuing with the scenario from your product overview, report your findings and recommendations to the stakeholders of your company.  Your job is to help the company launch

MARKETING

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SNHU Pet Supply Company is introducing a new food product for cats and dogs. The company has a good reputation due to the health food products that they produce. The new food product is a good substitute for other animal food products that are in the market, (Adams, 2015). The main objective of this paper is to determine whether the product will meet the needs or wants of the target consumers and establish a marketing strategy.

To effectively market the new product, it is essential to do SWOT analysis. It is importan to identify the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the food products.

Animal food products have many strengths that include ingredients are from quality meet, it is a healthy alternative, and it has a unique brand name. Some of the weaknesses include the products are expensive; the company lacks social media platforms. Therefore, the products cannot be fully marketed, and the quality of the ingredients is high, which means that the production cost is high too. Some of the opportunities that exist include the trending of a healthy lifestyle, competitors are slow in coming up with healthy pet food, and new brands may be appropriate especially for customers who are looking for a change, (Armstrong & Kotler, 2015). Some of the threats that the company will face include cheaper alternatives from the competitors and competition with companies that are present on social media. The company should utilize its opportunities to gain more customers. Moreover, the company should look for ways to improve on its weaknesses by having a social media platform where they can market their products.

The organization will concentration its marketing efforts on customers that live in the Colorado area. The median income of people who live in this area is $72,000. The median age of people that live in this area is 39 years old. Majority of people living in this area are married and well educated with a flexible career, (Graham, 2018). The target population are not committed to a healthy lifestyle. However, they spend money on high-quality products and luxurious products. The number of people that live in this area is 80206.

For human being and pets to survive, they have to eat. The new pet food products fulfil the needs and want of the target market by offering health, and sustainable food that replicates their lifestyle habit. The target population is willing to spend some extra cash on high-quality products. The product satisfies more than just the need of the target market by ensuring that the desires of having an active and energetic pet are met.

First and foremost, I would recommend that the company utilizes an online marketing strategy. The company should come up with a website where customers can access the price and product information. The second strategy that I would recommend is to promote the products that are in store. It is important for the company to utilize in-store marketing through retailers to consumer sales. The organization can promote the item in-store by displaying the product to appeal to new consumers, using coupons and offering samples for free to people who own pet, (Miller, 2017). The strategies that I recommended use the place and price feature to offer convenient and easy access to the products. Offering a discount to encourage the customer to buy the product.

I would recommend that the company should avoid direct mail strategy. When using direct mail to promote a product the attractive aspect of the product may be lost on the client who may disregard the promotion. One of the ways that direct mail strategy could work is when customers are invited to try out the product based on the discount. Moreover, this could only work if the in-store retailers are aware of the discount offer. However, based on the 4P’s that is a place, price, product and promotion, this strategy will be more expensive and may have less effect as compared to the strategies that I recommended.

In conclusion, SNHU Pet Supply Company is introducing a new food product. Therefore, it is important for determining the marketing strategy. The marketing strategy will enable the firm to appeal to the needs and wants of the consumer. When coming up with the marketing strategy, it is essential to determine the strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threats of the product.

References

Adams, J. (2015). Analyze your company using SWOTs. Supply House Times, 48(7), 26-28.

Armstrong, G., & Kotler, P. (2015). Marketing: An introduction (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Graham, H. (2018). Marketing strategy and competitive positioning. Pearson Education India.

Miller, S. H. (2017). Competitive Intelligence–an overview. Competitive Intelligence Magazine, 1(11), 1-14.