Marketing plan for refrigerators

My section is highlighted in red please refer to other document for guidelines and needed information also attached is a powerpoint that could be helpful.

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………...

a. Synopsis…………………………………………………………………………………….

b. Major aspects of the marketing plan……………………………………………………….

2. Situation Analysis……………………………………………………………………………….

a. Analysis of internal environment…………………………………………………………..

b. Analysis of the customer environment……………………………………………………..

c. Analysis of the external environment……………………………………………………....

3. SWOT……………………………………………………………………………………………

a. Strength…………………………………………………………………………………......

b. Weakness……………………………………………………………………………………

c. Opportunity………………………………………………………………………………....

d. Threat……………………………………………………………………………………….

e. Developing competitive advantages………………………………………………………..

f. Developing a strategic focus……………………………………………………………….

4. Marketing goals and objectives………………………………………………………………….

a. Marketing goals…………………………………………………………………………….

b. Marketing objectives……………………………………………………………………….

5. Marketing strategy……………………………………………………………………………….

a. Primary and secondary target market………………………………………………………

b. Overall branding strategy…………………………………………………………………...

c. Product strategy…………………………………………………………………………….

d. Pricing strategy……………………………………………………………………………..

e. Distribution /supply chain strategy……………………………………………………….

f. Integrated marketing communication promotion strategy………………………………….

6. Marketing Implementation……………………………………………………………………….

a. Structural issues…………………………………………………………………………….

b. Tactical marketing activities………………………………………………………………..

7. Evaluation and control…………………………………………………………………………...

a. Formal controls……………………………………………………………………………..

b. Informal controls…………………………………………………………………………...

c. Implementation schedule and timeline …………………………………………………….

d. Marketing results…………………………………………………………………………...

8. Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………....

Executive Summary

Synopsis

Major aspects of the marketing plan

Situation Analysis

Analysis of internal environment

Analysis of the customer environment

Analysis of the external environment

SWOT Analysis

Strength The Smart Fridge is the first smart fridge introduced to society which is why our product is very original and unique. Our product provides a variety of recipes, gives the customer an estimated cooking time, and speaks as they cook. The customer does not have to read the instructions because the fridge speaks and tells them step-by-step what needs to be completed. Consumers have never heard or seen a product quite this amazing. Also, our company provides training to our employees that allows them to learn about the features and benefits of the Smart Fridge. This allows them to train customers when the fridge is delivered which will further customer knowledge about our product. We want our customers to enjoy every feature that we’ve put into this fridge because we know they will truly benefit from it. Our product also helps to eliminate the amount of food wasted each year. Instead of throwing away waste food, our customers are going to be shown how they can use it to cook great tasting meals. Customers will stop wasting so much food when they realize they can use it to cook. Food waste has become a major concern in American and our product can get rid of this issue. The Smart Fridge is manufactured in the United States which allows managers to monitor the quality of the product. This helps our company ensure that we are producing the best high quality product for our customers.

Weakness

Although the Smart Fridge is a unique and high quality product just like every other product we face a few weaknesses. Our company is brand new and the Smart Fridge is our first product that has been created and introduced for the public to purchase. Therefore, we have no brand reputation. This can cause consumers to become hesitant to purchase such an expensive product from a brand they have never heard of before. We believe the Smart Fridge will be very successful in the United States and will help us build the brand reputation we are aiming for. Not only do we have no brand reputation, but the Smart Fridge is very expensive. The Smart Fridge costs $40,500 and some consumers are not going to be willing or able to purchase such an expensive item. We understand our product is expensive, however, we believe our customers will love it and it will become life changing for them. The Smart Fridge is a very advanced fridge that has many features. Although we do offer training to our customers, some customers may not be willing to learn all of the available features. They may not want to take the time or they may not be in the market for a fridge this complex.

Opportunity

Our company faces a variety of external opportunities that will benefit our company and help us build the brand reputation we need as a new company coming into such a competitive market. Our external opportunities include: expanding into international markets, building reputation, and lastly strengthening our marketing strategy. Our product is very expensive which can potentially be a major downfall for our company. However, if we expand into international markets this could potentially decrease the price because we would be using cheaper materials. Outsourcing will allow us to increase efficiency and help us focus on our core business responsibilities. In the future, we can also expand our product into international markets to increase sales and profits. Although outsourcing takes some responsibility away from our company, it is still important that we maintain focus on the quality of our product to ensure that it will remain the high quality product we want it to be. Also, since our company is brand new and the Smart Fridge is our first product we need to work on building our reputation. In order to do this we can provide promotions, increase advertising, build customer relationships by providing excellent customer service. Providing promotions will draw new customers to us, increasing advertising will make consumers more aware of what our company offers, and creating strong customer relationships will ensure positive reviews of our company. However, if we ever have an upset customer we must handle it the best of our ability by being efficient and providing solutions to the problem. If we do all these things I believe our brand will become very successful and we will increase our customer base quickly. Our current marketing strategy has helped us begin as a company and launch our very first product. However, marketing strategies can always be improved because we always want to make sure we are doing everything possible to be successful. Constantly improving our strategy is only going to make us better and help increase our number of satisfied customers.

Threat

Although our company faces many opportunities, unfortunately we also face some threats. One of our major threats is our competition. The Smart Fridge is the first smart fridge available and we believe our competitors will soon be making similar products in order to compete. Our major competitors are LG, Samsung, and Whirlpool. It is important that we focus on the following factors in order to stay ahead of the competition. These are: knowing our customers, expanding or changing our target market, and update our products as our company grows. These will help us stay successful in our current market. We also fear the threat of new entrants entering our market. New competitors entering into the same marketing we are targeting can be a huge threat for us. Consumers are going to have a variety of options to choose from instead of just our brand. This means we must stay ahead and focused on making the Smart Fridge the best manufactured fridge available. The last threat we face is the constant changes in technology. Technology is always changing and there is always new products being created. It is important that we are able to keep up with these constant changes and focus on updating our technology system. If we do not allow updates on our system I do not think our company will be successful in the long run.

Developing a Competitive Advantage

Our company’s competitive advantage is that provide a high quality product that is manufactured in the United States and we also we provide excellent customer service. The Smart Fridge is a very prestigious product that makes life easier for our customers. We help customers discover new recipes and make cooking easier and more efficient. We manufacture our product in the United States which allows us to focus a lot on the quality. We also ensure excellent customer service by teaching our customers about their new product upon arrival and provide a customer service line with any issues they may face. When our employees deliver the product to the customer's house we offer to show the customer all the features of their new fridge. We want them to fully understand their new product and be able to take advantage of all the amazing features. Our company believes it is very important to build strong customer relationships and ensure customer satisfaction which is why it is one of our main competitive advantages.

Developing a Strategic Focus In order to ensure our company’s competitive advantages we must develop a strategic focus. Our vision is to target consumers who want a high quality refrigerator that will tend to their current needs and make cooking fun, simple, and more convenient. Our passion is to make our customers lives easier by providing them with a product that will do so. Our current target market is wealthy homeowners who enjoy cooking, want to learn new recipes, or are lazy when it comes to cooking. In the long run our company plans to expand our product line beyond the Smart Fridge. Expanding into international markets is also a possibility so we can lower the cost of our product that will allow us to expand into new target markets. This will also allow us to focus more on our business responsibly and less on the actual manufacturing of the product. We also want to build our brand reputation to eventually become one of the most popular brands in the world.

Marketing goals and objectives

Marketing goals:

The Smart Fridge is distinctively designed for the lazy ones that used to cook everything in the microwave. Our goal is to aim for easy functionality, while maintaining prestige. Being the first to introduce such a high tech refrigerator into the consumer's hands, we want to keep a strong brand image from the ground up. Building brand reputation will be key to be able to expand innovatively internationally and launch new products in the long run.

Marketing objectives:

First, differentiating our product from other competitors would be the easier step due to it providing a special service. Next, would be promoting our solution for convenience, prestige, luxury, and time efficiency, basically a product consumers would need in their busy lives.

Then, distinguishing specific target markets that would be able to afford the luxury of having prestige would be the first step to many more. Aiming our product at consumers that are able to afford this product would establish easy sales and profits. Another segment would be the consumers that value the food in their refrigerator and enjoy cooking quick meals at home. Furthermore this would lead to consumers with families with 2 or more members that also enjoy entertaining guests. In addition increasing brand awareness would be a continuous objective because, in the long run this would be a similar intent when expanding in the future.

Marketing Strategy Primary Target Market

The primary target marketing for our product is people focused on the full utilization of resources they have and that want to limit the amount of food they waste each year. This could include things like daycares or households. These individuals will also have to be funded or wealthy and think it will be a good investment. The Smart Fridge will allow them to use all the foods they have in their refrigerator and never waste foods due to the fact that they didn’t know what they could use it for when cooking. This will allow them to reduce their impact on their environment and be a more efficient household. More than $4 million dollars in food is thrown away in the US every year and this could help to reduce that number. We will focus on the individuals who would like to make that a reality.

Secondary Target Market The secondary target marketing for our product is wealthy 30-40 year old homeowners living in urban areas that have a hard time choosing what to eat for dinner each night. The Smart Fridge allows them to shop for the foods they like and never have to change their shopping habits to have meals that can be made each day. These individuals will most likely have children and be cooking for more than 2 people when they cook food. Due to the expected price of upwards of $40,000 they will need to have a lot of disposable income. Our Secondary market will be people who enjoy the prestige of owning things that not many people are able to afford.

Overall Branding Strategy Our branding strategy will be focused on the 3 main benefits of owning this product. The first is the uniqueness of a product that will allow you to see exactly what can be made within the contents of your refrigerator. This will be the first product of its kind and we hope that will generate a lot of buzz. The second aspect is the positive impact that it could have on the environment. The Average household wastes $640 a year in thrown away food. Our product could save countless amounts of resources in getting this food to households that end up throwing it away anyway. Our target market isn’t going to be too concerned about pinching pennies but they will have the opportunity to limit the amount of food waste each year while also saving some money. The final aspect is the prestige of owning a product that not many people will be able to own. When an individual has one of our Smart Fridges, people will want to come over to see it in action and that is something that makes people want our product.

Product Strategy The product we are selling is going to viewed as a prestigious luxury item that does a lot of good for the environment, while also being a one of a kind useful commodity. It will set us apart from any other competitor selling refrigerators because they will simply be unable to do what our fridge is able to do. We will be viewed as a company that takes pride in helping reduce individual's impact on the environment and that will help our products image. We will provide superior quality, excellent customer service and will make sure that our customers feel they can call us with any issues or concerns that they may have. We will only sell in high quality stores and will be viewed as the centerpiece of any appliance section. By doing this our product will have a very highly regarded image that many people will want in their kitchen.

Pricing Strategy

The Smart Fridge is going to be a high price, high quality item that makes owning one make an individual feel prestigious. The estimated cost to make one of these smart fridges will be $25,000 with all the advanced technology that will be incorporated in it but as technological advancements continue to grow, the price will slowly fall. The price to an individual trying to purchase one of these Smart Fridges is $40,500. Which seems like a lot of money but when you are a well off individual that sees the benefit it could have for the environment and the amount of money you could save annually, it doesn’t seem as bad. When an individual purchases a smart fridge, they purchase the prestige of owning a product that many people can’t afford. Like purchasing the Ferrari of refrigerators. That along with the environmental benefits and excellent support offered through our company, our customers will see where their money is going.

Supply Chain Strategy Our product will be made domestically to ensure we have complete control of the quality of our products and that it is done correctly. The risk of a load of Smart Fridges being made incorrectly will cost the company money when we have to recall them and it will tarnish our prestigious image. Once the product is made within our facility, we will use an in-house distribution system that uses our own trucks to deliver our products across the country. We will have large semi-trucks take truckloads of our product to terminals stationed across the country. Once the product is taken to these terminals they will be loaded in smaller box trucks that will take the product to stores across their delivery zones. Doing it this will reduce the miles that must be travelled in gas guzzling Semi trucks and make our supply chain more efficient. The plan will be to have our main warehouse in the middle of the country in Kansas. We will then have a terminal in Nevada that will take care of the West side of the country, one in South Carolina that will take care of the East side of the country and one in Kansas will take care of the middle of the country. Once it is at the stores, they will then use their trucks deliver to customers. This will reduce the amount of times the product must be loaded and unloaded, reducing the risk of damage and cutting cost.

Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy The most important part of our marketing strategy will be delivering a consistent, quality product and the same message no matter where you buy our product from. We will manage our company ethically and ensure we don’t have anything that could tarnish our company reputation. If anything negative happens, we will be proactive and ensure that we are doing everything we can to manage the situation and ensure it doesn’t happen again. Our sales team will deliver the same message no matter where they are attempting to sell our products which will solidify our company image. When a company shows inconsistent ideals and values it weakens the solidarity of a company image and we will ensure that does not happen. We will have excellent communication within our company. From the CEO to the truck drivers, everybody will have voice and everybody will be heard. By doing this our employees will feel important and want to deliver the best service they can possibly deliver. The message within the company will be to always work to better the business and that will show in our final product. Through advertising and delivering a consistent quality product and have excellent communication within our company, our marketing communication strategy will be strong and successful.

Marketing Implementation

Structural issues

The main issue with implementing The Smart Fridge is the fact that it would be a brand new development altogether. Getting it into the market with a positive reputation with the lack of solid consumer support will be an obstacle. Next, would be the high price for the high quality. Also, because it would be a new product with a possible lifespan of 15-20 years the warranty that would come with The Smart Fridge could cost the company money due to expensive parts within the fridge.

Tactical marketing activities

We will start with the development of the fridge’s design on Sunday 1/11/17, that should last for about 3 months. Next, finding the funding to create the product should last about one month from Friday 3/24/17 until 4/20/17. Then, locating facilities for manufacturing should take another month from 4/21/17 until 5/18/17. This would lead to having to order resources/parts to create the fridge which should take approximately 2 weeks from Friday 5/19/17 until 6/1/17. Eventually we would hire train manufacturing employees within a 2 month span from Friday 6/2/17 until 7/27/17. Third, we would test the product for a month from Friday 7/28/17 until 8/24/17. Fourth, conducting a meeting to evaluate and okay the continuation of manufacturing within 2 days from 8/25-8/28. Fifth step would include finding funding for the distribution, distribution facilities and trucks. This should take 2 months from Tuesday 8/29/17 until 10/23/17. Eventually, the need for hiring and training distribution employees would take 2 months from Tuesday 10/24-12/18/17. The last three activities would include creating a marketing strategy, developing an ad campaign and creating a company culture. These last three steps would take 5 months from Tuesday 12/19/17 until 5/7/18.

Evaluation and control

Formal controls

Informal controls

Implementation schedule and timeline

Marketing results…

Appendix

Figure 1: SWOT Table

Strengths

· Unique product

· Training available for customers

· Convenient

· Reduces food waste

· High quality

· Made in the U.S.

Weakness

· No brand reputation

· Expensive

· Too advanced for some customers

Opportunity

· Expanding into international markets

· Build reputation

· Strengthen strategy

Threat

· Competition

· Threat of new entry

· Changes in technology

Figure 2: Distribution Map

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