stratmngmt61

Company produces vegetable and fruit based juices. All organic; raw material is from local produce. Sells through retail. Based in Atlanta, GA.

Write the five (5) page Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy section of your business plan, in which you:

1. Define your company’s target market.
   • Analyze the types of consumers who will be drinking your beverage in demographic terms (i.e., age, education level, income, gender, ethnic group, etc.). Support your analysis with actual data on the size of the demographic groups in your local community (nearby zip 
   • Outline the demographic information for your company. At American FactFinder (http://census.gov), you will find demographic information on potential consumers in your area. If you are selling through other businesses (such as grocery stores), indicate the number of those businesses in your local area. You will find information about such businesses in your local area at County Business Patterns (http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/). 
2. Assess your company’s market competition.
3. Defend your strategy to successfully compete against market leaders in your segment.
   • Hints: For example, in the soft drink market, it is intimidating to try to compete against Coke and Pepsi. Newcomers in mature markets typically must pursue niche markets or even create new market categories, as Red Bull did with energy drinks.
   • Defend your plan to differentiate yourself from the competition

3. Clarify your company’s message.  Before you choose your marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through those vehicles.

4. 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.

• • Remember that even if you’re selling through grocery stores you need to build your brand and social media is a major part of that in regard to beverages. Some of the marketing tactics that beverage companies use include: sampling in grocery stores, building a following on social media, sponsoring events, exhibiting at trade shows attended by retailers, and so on. You will use a combination of these tactics. For example, if you decide to give out samples in grocery stores, promote your sampling on your social media networks and those of the grocery store.
• • Hints: If you are planning to distribute through resellers, describe how you plan to reach them, for example, through industry trade shows or by establishing your own sales force. For information on trade shows, visit the Trade Show News Network (http://www.tsnn.com). You can exhibit or network at these shows.

5. Complete the Marketing Budget worksheet for your company (sheet attached)

• Begin in the current year and complete a marketing budget for the first year of your business. The information you enter in the marketing budget spreadsheet will flow through to your “Income Statement” in the Business Plan Financials.
• Leave the number at zero (0) for any marketing vehicles you do not intend to use.
• Remember that all marketing activities involve costs. If social media represents a significant portion of your marketing, assume you will have cost of advertising and that should be reflected on your budget. Even if a social media site charges nothing to use it, you will need to use company resources to manage the site, pay someone to execute your social media marketing campaigns, and will most likely pay for ads on that site.
• Do NOT leave the “Marketing Budget” blank, assuming you will not have any marketing costs.