Develop Marketing Plan

Posted: October 17th, 2013

Develop Marketing Plan

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Develop Marketing Plan

Introduction

            Adopting a great business that focuses on the needs of customers is the aim of every business. This objective increases the chances of a business reaching great profitability. Therefore, the marketing plan process is the core of all the companies that specialize in marketing. This is because it puts great focus on the customers and in the decision making process of the company. The marketing plan is a detailed document that is used to promote a product in the market, determining the target customers, competitors and the substitute products strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the Starbucks Company will benefit greatly from the marketing plan. It will grow to be the most successful and admired company. They intend to develop a marketing strategy that is helpful to the small businesses (Fisher, Pride, & Miller, 2006).

Part A

Organizational objectives

            This new product for children is the cocoa drink. This is because it is not advisable for children to take coffee. The company’s objectives are to be the top producer and marketer of this new line of product for the children. The Company intends to put the consumer’s need first and to market products of high quality. It intends to make the parents and families comfortable and appreciative of the new line of products for the children. Therefore, in the coming years, the company focuses on achieving the following objectives: Launch the new cocoa drink for the children and practicing ethics in the provision of their products. Practice global competition and marketing of their products .Create accessible internet sites in order to maintain relationships with clients and to enhance marketing of products. Obtain finance to aid in the manufacturing, distribution and introduction of the new product line. Raise profits by half every year. The Starbucks younger customers play a great part in uniting the community. The Starbucks youth Action Grant nurtures and helps the youth to create solutions to some of the society problems.

Risks of the objectives evaluation and a SWOT analysis

            The company may experience risks in the course of practicing these objectives. It may experience great competition in its attempt to go global. It may also lack adequate finance and prevent it from expanding or even distributing and launching their products. It is not guaranteed that the company will succeed in increasing their profits by half every year. At times, it may suffer losses since that is what entails a business. However, the company has some great opportunities. It also has some challenges that it can overcome. Therefore, there exists a SWOT analysis of the company that portrays the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company. The company intends to build some strength within a few years of business. It also looks forward to new opportunities in the business (Westwood, 2006).

Starbucks Café SWOT analysis

(Nykiel, 2003).

Marketing opportunity options

            The company can practice certain marketing opportunities such as joint ventures in order to prevent itself from losing market. Starbuck provides superior products and services. The company intends to produce a new cocoa drink for the children. This will give the company a new segment to market its products. In the case where a bigger company launches a similar product, it can form a joint venture with other parties for a small duration. They can contribute equity in ratios and practice control of their business. In the case of the price of the new product, the company intends to sell its products in the market at low cost. The cocoa drink will cost $0.95c. This will increase the consumption of the new products. In addition, the price of the product will be low as compared to that of its competitors increasing their market. They can then share the profits, losses and the assets in the ratio of their contribution.

This business opportunity ensures the success of smaller business and it as a great way of ensuring profits in a company. It enables a business to gain competitive advantage enabling it to provide quality products to the customers and a great image to the public (McLeish, 2010). It also creates unity among the targeted consumers who will all want to purchase from the company. Finally, it creates a great perception to the retailers who will be viewed as reliable manufacturers. In the case of distribution, the company intends to distribute its product through its retail stores. It also intends to market its products through its websites. The products are available through out the year. However, currently the products are only available in the stores in one state. The company finds it best to promote its new products through internal advertisements in the retail stores. It intends to advertise through the newspapers, television, billboards and its websites. This helps to promote its products.

Marketing strategies

             A marketing strategy can be achieved by first analyzing the market in terms of its target market, size, structure, growth trends and the sales potential. The company therefore intends to project its market share in order to price its products competitively. It also intends to expand its industry in order to increase the number of potential customers. It focuses on practicing appropriate pricing in order to maintain profits. It centers on choosing a great distribution network during the entire process of production to the distribution and developing a promotion plan. Once research and analysis has been conducted on the market, a conclusion has to be made in order to determine the business potential (Ferrell & Hartline, 2010).

Resources and capabilities required to deliver these strategies

            The industry growth requires growth models. Most of them require a minimum of two growth models. Appropriate pricing requires a great pricing and computation method. However, the company should ensure that all the prices cover the cost. The company may also decide on the pricing strategy that suits them. These can be, cost-plus pricing, demand pricing, competitive pricing and markup pricing. A great distribution strategy can be achieved by first determining the channel the company’s competitors use and then decide on using the same or an alternative channel. In order to develop a great promotion plan, the company should develop a promotion strategy that includes all the marketing tools utilized. These are advertising, packaging, sales promotion and personal sales (Pride, Hughes, & Kapoor, 2011). However, for all this to be achieved, the company should have adequate capital in order to ensure the implementation of all these activities.

Marketing mix

            The company intends to develop marketing mix that will guarantee the fulfillment of the organization’s objectives. Currently, the company does not sell its products nationwide. The new products that the company intends to introduce for children is the cocoa drink that will cost $0.95c. The company intends to expand its distribution to the retail shops available nationwide. However, currently it distributes its products through the retail shops. It also intends to expand its sale by offering their new product line by ordering through the internet and carrying out advertisements on the newspapers, billboards and the television. This will create a distinction between the internet sales and the other sales it offers. It intends to create a promotional strategy in which it creates awareness about its products in many ways. It intends to promote its product via the internet, in their shops and by direct mailing. It also aims to differentiate its products from those of the competitors. It also intends to price its products competitively. They intend to achieve this by selling them at low costs. They aim to practice value pricing to enable customer to be comfortable with the products (Luther, 2006).

Implementation plan

            During the implementation, the market researchers will be responsible for ensuring the industry growth. They will be responsible for collecting the demographic data and keeping historical data. They may do this for a period of three years in order to be able to know the company’s progress. The management can set prices ways that do not cause the company losses. In this case, they can use the competitive pricing that is normally used by the firms entering the market. This however will only last until the firm grows. When this happens, the firm can them employ other pricing methods. The distributors can choose a distribution channel that saves on cost. The distribution channel will depend on the industry size. Therefore, this will only last until the company grows since in this case this is a small company.

Part B

Marketing performance review strategy and monitoring mechanism

            Reviewing the marketing plan is an essential task. Without regular review, the plan usually proves to be futile. Therefore, the company’s has a marketing performance review strategy that summarizes how it intends to evaluate its marketing performance (Parsons & Maclaran, 2012).

Review strategy template

Legal, ethical requirements and challenges

The strategies meet the legal and ethical requirements since the company intends to satisfy the stakeholders’ needs. It is ethical for the management to satisfy the employees need since it will be unethical for them to overwork them without providing a comfortable working environment. The stakeholders also focus on ensuring the success of the company by applying their skills to the work producing work of great quality. This is due to the motivation they possess due to the good working environment. The strategies also face certain challenges such as the company facing great competition in their attempt to become global. Other bigger firms with the same product line as theirs pose great competition to the company making them lose their sales. In the stakeholders’ survey, some of the stakeholders may not be honest about their perception of the company (Cant, Strydom, Jooste, & du Plessis, 2009).

Stakeholder identification, role and objective feedback

 The identified stakeholders are the people who will be affected by the project. The identified stakeholders in this case are the boss, shareholders, suppliers and the senior executives of the company. The stakeholders give their views on what they expect from the new line of children’s products. The interviewer should ensure to be clear on the scope of the project. The chosen stakeholder, in this case the shareholders provided their information on the functionality requirements.

They felt the product should be children friendly. They also provided their information on the operational requirements suggesting the product to have preservatives in order for it to last long. They also provided information on the technical requirements. They suggested the technical issues such as the processing of the quality product to be done with skilled producers. On their transitional requirements, they suggested great step should be implemented to enable the product to run smoothly in the market. The stakeholders’ feedback was then interpreted and finally, the agreement of the stakeholders is signed off (Hiebing, & Cooper, 2004).

As a stakeholder, I feel that if these needs are not met, I will be affected since my shares will fall. This is because the consumers will not be attracted to the products and therefore making the product demand to fall in the market. Due to this, the company will suffer loses and as a result, being a shareholder, I will be affected. The company should then ensure to satisfy the functionality requirements, operation requirements, technical and the transitional requirements. They should ensure successes in every step in order to produce quality products and prevent occurrence of possible losses.

Adjustments on the strategies

            In order to ensure the success of the marketing plan, the marketer should respond to the stakeholders’ feedback. Therefore, as a marketer, I will respond to the functionality requirements by ensuring that a lot of caffeine is not put in the children’s products in order for the product to be child friendly. I will also satisfy the operation requirements by preserving the product. I can ensure preservation of the coffee by putting it in airtight containers. The technical requirements will also be looked in to by ensuring the products produced in every stage are of high quality. The transitional requirements will be satisfied to ensure the product success in the market. The feedback will not affect my ability to implement these strategies. It will only take less than a month to put these actions in to practice (Fisher, Pride, & Miller, 2006).

Conclusion

            Developing a marketing plan without carrying out a review process makes the marketing plan useless. Therefore, from this we realize the importance of reviewing the marketing plan at least once or twice every year. The review process ensures the business maintains its profitability and produces high quality products that are customer friendly. Therefore, all companies should focus on developing a marketing plan. This enables the company to put the customers’ needs first and ensure its success since the customers will be interested in the products.

References

Cant, M. C., Strydom, J. W., Jooste, C. J., & du Plessis, P. J. (2009). Marketing Management. New York, NY: Juta and Company Ltd. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=6uU-Dz-sCIQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. (2010). Marketing Strategy. Washington, D. C: Cengage Learning. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=Lt12ggizMhIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Fisher, P. H., Pride, M. M., & Miller, E. G. (2006). Blueprint for your library marketing plan: A guide to help you survive and thrive. Chicago: American Library Association  http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=ukpX3vypSmYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Hiebing, R. G., & Cooper, S. W. (2004). The one-day marketing plan: Organizing and completing a plan that works. New York: McGraw-Hill http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=9iMXPA47bAIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Luther, W. M. (2006). The marketing plan: How to prepare and implement it. New York: AMACOM. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=mX9sCsIqMf8C&printsec=frontcover&dq

McLeish, B. J. (2010). Successful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations: Winning in the Age of the Elusive Donor. Upper Saddle River, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=bLXd2TQbS9IC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Nykiel, R. A. (2003). Marketing your business: A guide to developing a strategic marketing plan. New York: Best Business Books. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=51nvFBY4TckC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J., & Kapoor, J. R. (2011). Business. New York, NY: Cengage Learning

Parsons, E., & Maclaran, P. (2012). Contemporary Issues in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour. Chicago, IL: Routledge. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=r5NjSxBiw7kC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Westwood, J. (2006). How to write a marketing plan. London: Kogan Page. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=fiYzPbzAHvoC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false