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.
a.
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).
b.
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 (http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/).
Check Chapter 2 of Successful
Business Plan for more research sources.
2.
Assess your company’s market
competition.
a.
Use the factors listed in the
course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess
the Competition) to assess your company’s market competition.
b.
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.
c.
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).
o
§ 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.
o
§ 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.
o
§ 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.
