Dr pepper snapple mission statement

Assignment 2: Marketing Plan

Assignment 2: Marketing Plan Due Week 6 and worth 100 points This assignment consists of two (2) sections: a marketing plan and sales strategy, and a marketing budget. Note: You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment. For the first six (6) months your company is in business—to give you time to perfect your product and to learn from actual customers—you will start marketing and selling in your own community, a radius of twenty-five (25) miles from where you live. For most non-alcoholic beverages, marketing (as opposed to the actual product itself) is key to success. Cola drinks, for example, are fairly undifferentiated, as are many energy drinks, juices, bottled water, and the like. Companies producing these types of beverages differentiate themselves and attract market share through marketing and brand awareness—both of which are critical to success. Section 1: Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy (MS Word or equivalent) Write the three to five (3-5) 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 codes). ◦Outline the demographic information for your company specified on the worksheet in the course text (p. 107 | Demographic Description). Click here for help accessing a specific page number in your eBook. ◦Hints: 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 (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html). Check Chapter 2 of Successful Business Plan for more research sources. 2.Assess your company’s market competition. ◦Use the factors listed in the course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess the Competition) to assess your company’s market competition. ◦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 using the information detailed on the worksheet in the text (p. 131 | Market Share Distribution). ◦Hints: Every business faces competition and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an especially crowded market. 3.Clarify your company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the text (p. 160 | The Five F’s). ◦Hints: 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. ◦Hints: If you plan to use online marketing tactics, refer to the worksheet in the text (p.171 | Online Marketing Tactics) to aid your response. 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.Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements: a.Cite the resources you have used to complete the exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the number of resources used in the exercise. b.Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. c.Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length. Section 2: Marketing Budget (MS Excel worksheets template) Section 2 uses the “Business Plan Financials” MS Excel template (see: Course Required Files in Week 1). Use the “Business Plan Financials Guide” (see: Course Required Files in Week 1) to support your development of the Marketing Budget. 6.Complete the Marketing Budget worksheet for your company. ◦Hints: The goal of the marketing budget is to help you determine how much it will cost you to reach your market and achieve your sales goals. ◦Hints: When filling out the “Marketing Budget” worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet: ◾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. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: •Recommend effective business strategies based on an analysis of domestic and global operating environments, market dynamics, and internal capabilities. •Analyze competitive positions including foreign market entry and the resulting impact on business strategy. •Use technology and information resources to research issues in strategic management. •Write clearly and concisely about strategic management using proper writing mechanics.

Refreshy Company

Ardeshia Hutchinson

Dr. Daniel Goldsmith, DBA

BUS 599

10/20/17

Refreshy Company

In the current world, people have become sensitive of what they eat and drink. People have become conscious of their health, and are striving to live healthy lives by eating and drinking health drinks. As this trend continues companies are also becoming health conscious by producing products that are of high quality and considerate of the overall health of the consumers. Food producing companies are forced to move with this trend in order to remain competitive and survive in the industry. This trend is common in the beverage industry, where beverage companies are compelled to produce beverages that are considerate of the good health of consumers. An example of a health considerate beverage is a non-alcoholic beverage.

The NAB Company

My NAB company name is Refreshy Company. The reason for choosing the “Refreshy” name is that the name is related to the word ‘refresh.’ Refresh simply means to give new energy or strength or re-energize. The name of the company acts as an advertisement tool, as anyone would want to get refreshed by just taking a beverage. The company will be producing a soda type of beverage with limited sugar and calories contents. The reasoning behind the beverage’s content is related to the fact that a lot of sugar and calorie intake is associated with a number of illnesses including diabetes and chronic diseases such as heart diseases (Corliss, 2016). Therefore, producing a beverage with low content of sugar and calorie is likely to attract customers that are sugar and calorie sensitive.

The company’s mission will be “To inspire healthier people by allowing them experience a healthier and tasty drink.” The mission statement is aligned with personal values, in that I personally value healthy foods and living a healthy lifestyle. Allowing people to experience a healthier and tasty drink is what distinguishes the mission statement from many other mission statements. This phrase gives the consumer a sense of belonging, where they feel part of the company by being included to experience the brand’s taste.

Trends in the NAB Industry

Currently, the beverage industry is crowded due to the many established companies, as well as, emerging companies. The revenue amounted to 1,079.2 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2014 and down slightly to 906.1 billion in revenue in 2017 (Duncan, 2017). In order to remain competitive, as well as, control the industry jam, well-established companies tend to acquire emerging companies. This makes it easy for them to dominate the industry and strengthen their brand. Another trend in this industry is the production of sweet products, majority of the available non-alcoholic products are sweet. An industry analysis of the American soft drinks market carried out by Beverage Digest identified The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo or Dr Pepper Snapple as dominating players.An industry analysis of the American soft drinks market carried out by Beverage Digest identified The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo or Dr Pepper Snapple as dominating players.An industry analysis of the American soft drinks market carried out by Beverage Digest identified The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo or Dr Pepper Snapple as dominating players.Beverage Digest identified Coca-Cola, Pepsico, Dr Pepper and Snapple as the leading competitors in the nonalcoholic beverage field (Duncan, 2017).

In these regards, there are three main reasons that as to why I have chosen to produce the soda beverage with low sugar and calorie content. The first reason is that, people have become health conscious and have changed their eating habits. Currently, people tend to consumer what they believe will in a great way benefit them health wise and has little or no negative effect on their health. The second reason is that, majority of the non-alcoholic beverages available in the market contain high content of sugar and calories which leaves the gap that needs to be filled, Thirdly, given that people are turning to healthier eating habits, it is important to produce a product that is likely to survive in the market even in future.

Strategic Position

The best strategic position for my company is differentiation. The products produced by Refreshy Company will be different from what is already available in the market. The content of the product will be of high quality, as well as, contain unique ingredients that will benefit the consumer. Most of the available soda beverages in the market either have excessive sugar or contains no sugar at all. According to experts, sugar has a negative effect on the body when it is taken in excess. This means that people need sugar in their bodies for a healthy living, and that is the reason as to why I choose to include sugar in my product. This case is similar with calorie intake; it is dangerous when taken in excess (Harvard Business School, 2015). In order to live a healthy and long life, people are likely to continue consuming healthier foods such as the product produced by Refreshy Company.

Distribution Channels

There are two types of distribution channels direct and indirect channels (Ross, 2015). Direct channel is where product leaves the company and goes direct to the consumer. On the other hand, indirect channel of distribution is one where goods go through the wholesale, retailer, and then to the consumers (Ross, 2015). In order to distribute the Refreshy product, I plan to use both channels. This allows those that are near the company’s premise to buy directly from the company, and those people that are far can access the product from retailers. Initially, I plan to use the direct channel, with the intention of securing a distribution deal with a larger corporation, specifically Pepsico, because currently they are dominating the industry in nonalcoholic beverage sales (McGrath, 2017). It is my dream that distrubuting through Pepsico will allow my company to be received and consumed on a global level.

Three Types of Risks

The three types of risks likely to affect my business are environmental risks, suppliers’ unreliability, and technological failures (Bremmar, 2005). Environmental risks are those risks that are as a result of the environment, for example, storms and floods. Such disasters are likely to affect the smooth running of the business. Environmental risks are hard to escape but one way to combat them is to have a good insurance plan and also to know my area of environment and the natural disasters that plague that area. Another risk is related to unreliable suppliers. Raw materials suppliers may sometimes fail to supplier raw materials as agreed, this would negatively impact my business. The way that I plan to combat unreliable suppliers is to use only reputable suppliers who have a proven track record as well as references. The third risk is technological failures. Technology may fail unexpectedly, this is a risk that is inevitable and it leads to severe consequences to some extreme. Although investing in a server can prove to be a little costly for a small business, the long term cost prevention of losing valuable client and business information will prove to be money well spent (Admin, 2017).

SWOT

Strengths

· Acceptance – people prefer healthier food stuff

· Price – the price is relatively lower.

· Market gap – the product will satisfy a market need

· The product can be consumed by everybody.

Weaknesses

· New products are not readily accepted.

· Low sales before it are widely recognized.

· Financial instability due to low sales.

Opportunities

· People continue to consume healthy products such that produced by the company.

· There is a market need that needs to be filled.

· As people continue to embrace healthy eating habits, the population for healthy product is likely to rise.

Threats

· Technological failures.

· Competition by well-established companies.

· Stiff competition from emerging companies.

· Unreliable suppliers.

· Environmental factors, such as floods.

References

Admin. (2017, November 2). IntuitQuickbooks.com. Retrieved from Strtegies To Handle a Technology Failure: 2017

Bremmar, I. (2005, June 30). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2005/06/managing-risk-in-an-unstable-world

Corliss, J. (2016). Eating too much added sugar increases the risk of dying with heart disease. Harvard Medical School. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-sugar-increases-the-risk-of-dying-with-heart-disease-201402067021

Duncan, E. (2017, October 31). Statista. Retrieved from The Statistics Report: https://www.statista.com/topics/1662/non-alcoholic-beverages-and-soft-drinks-in-the-us/

Harvard Business School. (2015). Strategic Positioning. Retrieved from http://www.isc.hbs.edu/strategy/business-strategy/pages/strategic-positioning.aspx

McGrath, M. (2017, May 24). Forbes.com. Retrieved from Forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2017/05/24/worlds-largest-food-and-beverage-companies-2017-nestle-pepsi-and-coca-cola-dominate-the-landscape/#598309ac3a69

Ross, S. (2015, May 21). Investopedia. Retrieved from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052115/what-difference-between-direct-and-indirect-distribution-channel.asp

University of Minnesota. (2016). Marketing Channels and Channel Partners. Retrieved from https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmarketing/chapter/8-1-marketing-channels-and-channel-partners/