Term Paper on Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan: –
Marketing plan is the central instrument for directing and coordinating themarketing efforts. The marketing plan operates at two levels:

Strategic marketing plan: –
This plan lays out the target markets and the values propositions the firm will offer, based on an analysis of the best market opportunities.

Tactical marketing plan: –
This specifies the marketing tactics, including product features, promotion, merchandising, pricing, sales channels and service.

MARKET ANALYSIS
Biscuit making is a conventional activity in many parts of the country. Despite theadvent of modern, large capacity and automatic biscuit making plants, large sectionof people especially in semi-urban and rural areas still prefer fresh biscuits fromlocal bakery as they are cheap and offer many varieties. These manufacturers areable to cater to some typical local palate as well. Thus, they are able to withstandcompetition from organized sector units.Biscuits are eaten by all sections of people across the board round the year. They are, thus, mass consumption items with number of varieties and shapes. Themarket is scattered. There are some dominant national and regional brands.Biscuits can be manufactured at a location which is close to the market.

MARKET POTENTIAL

Demand and Supply
Market for biscuits is scattered all over the country. There are three distinct market segments viz. urban, semi-urban and rural. Urban and semi-urban markets aredominated by many national and regional brands but even then many localmanufacturers have also carved a special niche as their products are fresh, they offer many varieties and they are cheaper.

Marketing objectives
Our long term objectives are to be successfully present in the Asian market andestablish a base in south Asia. The first goals specifically aimed at the India arestated below.

Objectives/Goals
Market share: Our aims are set at achieving a 10% market share in the first 2 years.Brand awareness: We want to get and increase brand awareness in the first 18months.

Strategy statement
Market share: We want to contract major supermarkets and promote the productsin the supermarket. This forces the market to make a decision on different brandson the spot.We want to offset our products to whole sale as bigger parties require bigger amounts and the market wants to buy in big amounts.

Brand awareness:
We want to advertise in supermarkets’ in-house magazines and magazines aimedat students. We want to start with a low introduction price to make sure peopleconsider buying our products and therefore know about our existence. We want tobring our products to the customer in supermarkets. This allows the customers totry our product before buying it and feel positive about our product.

Current and Prospective Target Market

The current target market for the original BITEis children. The original BITEbiscuitshave previously focused on and promoted the new colors for the crème filling,which would generate new interest amongst children, who would in turn convincetheir parents to buy the new biscuit. We have created an entirely new target market for our Fat Free BITE. Our marketing communications will be primarily directed toward women ages 18-45 that are health conscious, yet still enjoy consuming sweets. The target market lives in the urban part of the city and residesin the middle to upper middle income range. Our target audience enjoysrecreational activities for exercise, such as swimming, biking, jogging, or power walking. The psychographics of our target audience are the desire to be healthy and fit, yet have a difficult time eliminating those sweet indulgences they crave anddesire. They probably have a pattern for low self control and/or self discipline inregards to what foods they consume. The target market will purchase our new product for themselves and possibly their spouses. As a result of the increasing problem of obesity amongst children, we have made our children our secondary target market.

We will be focusing our efforts towards the primary target market. Their behavioral patterns include white-knuckling through their diet, which eventually results in a binge of high fat foods and then a feeling of guilt for losing self control.This product requires low involvement decision making, because it is not a large purchase. However, it may give our target consumers a food they can indulge inwithout the feeling of guilt afterwards. More than likely, our target market will eat only one serving, which is three cookies, at a time. This is just enough to give themtheir “fix” and satisfy their cravings.

Key competitors are Mariegold and Marielite. MarieLite is not a high rankedbrand in the market, but they are currently the only other company with a fat freebiscuit on the market. We want to ensure that our current consumers continue toremain loyal to us, without switching over to our largest competitor, Marigold. Inaddition, we also hope that our perspective target audience for the new product remains loyal to us alone, especially when most consumers do not associate us withhealthy snacks yet. Although we have earned a reputation for great tasting ,but fattening cookies. It is difficult to separate ourselves from the current image wehave, but significant promotion may help our target audience to notice us andchoose our product amongst the competition.

SWOT Analyses

Strength :-

Focusing on fast growing sectors such as snacks, beverages, and convenient meals.
Addressing consumer needs for health and wellness.

Expanding their presence in faster growing distribution channels.
Targeting fast growing demographics and economic segments
Weakness:- product will be made with more expensive ingredients as all healthy foodsare, therefore, we will not be lowering the cost of our product  decline in sales is that we do not make products that serve the healthconscious society
Opportunities

Category leadership provides us with major strategic advantages. It bringsthe benefits of scale, consumer loyalty, and in-store emphasis by retailers. the packaging for the Fat Free BITE will have a seal, labeling the product “Weight Watchers”,which will generate more interest and reassurancethroughout the target market. Threats

A threat that we face is the competition of other brands, such as Mariegold.  Just as we want to generate a new group of consumers, we want to keep our current consumers as well. MarieLite is the only other brand that has a fat free biscuit in the market.

Although they are a relatively new company, their sales are quickly increasing along with their recognition. Therefore, we will be competing witha company that has already developed recognition and has had its new product similar to ours on the market Mission Statement

We want our consumers to regard us as their primary snack food. We want our customers to know that we have their wants and needs in mind along with workingto create products that will cater to their health conscious lifestyles.

Objectives
Negisco has been very successful with its products. Now is the time to becomemore competitive in other areas by becoming more attractive to potentialcustomers. Negisco now plans to focus on better-for-you-products with lessmarketing to children. Since the weight loss trend is targeting more awareness of fat intake, instead of low fat products, we are choosing to shift some of our weight towards the fat free market. The Fat Free BITE will help broaden our marketability in the biscuit industry.

Projected Goals

Gaining new customers who are watching and trying to lose weight by lowering their fat intake.
Introduce the Fat Free BITE in January of 2009.

Establish BITE as one of the leading fat free snacks on the market.
Expand to other fat free products like BITE ice cream cones, and snack size packages of Fat Free BITE for vending or individual purchases in 2009. Financial Objectives

Increase sales by selling 5 million bags of the Fat Free BITE.
Increase sales by marketing the Fat Free BITE product to women ages 18-45.
Sales goals- increasing BITE sales by 15 percent
Marketing Objectives

Targeting people who are on strict diets like Weight Watchers and SouthBeach.
Promoting the Fat Free BITE packaging by using new colors to help it standout against other products.
Promoting a healthier product to health conscious consumers.

Marketing Strategy/Tactics
To reach our target audience, which consists of health conscious women ages 18-45, our campaign will focus on reach rather than frequency. With and unlimitedbudget, we believe that running advertisements in magazines and TV will effectively reach our target audience. We will supplement the campaign
withconsumer promotions.

Promotional Strategies : –

Magazines
We will run advertisements in five major magazines throughout the country. Thesemagazines include Femina ,Grihshoba , Cosmopolitan, etc. These magazines werechosen because of the diverse group of women they can reach.

Television
Television spots for broadcast and cable networks will appear throughout thecountry on various stations to reach our target. These networks include Zee , Star, Aaj-Tak, NDTV, DD network, and MTV.

Consumer Promotions
We will run promotions at major food retailers throughout the country. Promotingat major food retailers will allow us to get feedback from the consumer. Couponswill be offered on our website and at sampling stations inside food retailers.Coupons will be distributed in exchange for filling out a customer survey

Positioning
Negisco is going to position itself as one of the first to create a fat free line tocomplement its original line of products.wewants to broaden our target market by reaching to an entirely new audiencethey have not been able to accommodate in the past. We hope to maintain our current reputation with our current consumers while creating a new favorablereputation with our new target audience. Negisco’s position on the Fat Free BITE is that it allowwomen to abide to their low fat diet without depriving themselves of sweet snacks. Essentially, our products allowslow fat dieters to “cheat” on their diets without feeling guilty afterwards.

Packaging
While the packaging for the original BITE is blue, the packaging for the Fat FreeBITE will be red and blue to promote a fresher image to our already successfulbrand of BITE. We chose the color red because it triggers the thought of a healthy lifestyle. We also plan to include a zip lock seal on the package to lock in thefreshness for a longer period of time.

Communication Strategy
Consumers are extremely health conscious today and we want them to know it is possible to abide by their diets without depriving themselves of the sweet delicaciesthey crave. This is the message we will convey to our target market. In order toreach our audience, we market our new product through print, electronic, andoutdoor advertisements.

Press Release
The first step in communicating with the public would be to send out a pressrelease explaining our new product and when distribution will begin. Press releasesand media kits would be sent to food retailers, editors of Food & Science, as well asthe editors for magazines we plan to advertise in. Finally, there would be a contact name and number for more information

Public Relations
For our Public Relations efforts, we will sponsor a fundraiser for BreastCancer Foundation . We chose this foundation since 99 percent of people diagnosed withbreast cancer are women. Since women are our target audience, we wanted tochoose a foundation they felt strongly about and could relate with.

Print Media
One form of media we would use would be through magazine advertisements. Theadvertisements would be placed in magazines that are directed towards the samedemographics of our target audience. Magazines have longer shelf life and are,therefore, a consistent reminder of our product and its benefits each time themagazine is read through

Electronic Media
Another form of media we would use would be through television and our website. Although it is the most expensive form, it is also most effective. Televisioncommercials are the fastest and easiest way to reach our target audience. Advertisements will run during programs that are watched by those with the samedemographics as our target. Our website will feature information about all of our products, particularly the Fat Free BITE.

Outdoor Advertisement
We will display advertisements on billboards along high traffic roads and highways,which will increase our likelihood of reaching a large percentage of our audience.Reaching people while they are in their vehicles will increase the possibility of immediate purchase .logistics & Supply Chain Management:

Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Creating Value-Adding Networks

Developing and exploiting logistics strategies”Logistics and Supply Chain Management” looks at the tools, core processes andinitiatives to ensure businesses gain and maintain their competitive advantage.”Logistics and Supply Chain Management” include: – the idea of a service-drivenlogistics system based upon identified service priorities and a customer basesegmented according to service requirements. The many ways in which logisticscan impact on overall return on investment and finally has an impact onshareholders.In today’s competitive environment, you have to cut the cost from where ever it canbe reduced. So logistics and supply chain should be designed so that warehousecharges could be the minimum. If storage charges are reduced, then automatically our profits are increased. If storage charges are low then may be do not have toclear the stock rapidly we can wait for update in technology.

Supply Chain
Supply chain or network will be according to the location of our target market,retailers and customers. We can look for various cheaper networks like railways.The main store can be centralized from where the supply to the retailers can beeasily provided. Supply chain will be according to the fact that the it does not affect the cost too much. The time lag should not been too much means the supply shouldbe immediate.

Control and Evaluation

In order to evaluate and monitor the public’s opinion on the Fat Free BITE, we willbe distributing Consumer Surveys. These will help provide us with the necessary feedback in determining the strengths and weaknesses of our product, along withany modifications that are necessary. Sampling stations will be set up throughout food retailers, allowing consumers to taste our new product. The demonstrator willdistribute the surveys to the samplers, explaining that they will receive a coupon for a dollar off if they complete and turn in the survey. We hope this incentive willencourage consumers to take a few minutes and fill out the survey . In addition,surveys can be located on the website, inside packages of our new product. Allcompleted surveys will be rewarded with and incentive of Rs 2 coupon for the next package of Fat Free BITE purchased.

Financial Information

It will cost Negisco Foods 10 million dollars to develop the formula for the Fat FreeBITE. There is an increase cost of production of around 20 Rs perpackage . Themajority of this difference is due to more expensive ingredients.

Sales Forecast
Negisco Foods Inc. is projecting first year sales to be around 5 million packages withmost of those being sold in the second half of the year. The reason that NegiscoFoods Inc. is expecting greater sales in the second half of the year is that once the product hits the shelves, it will take time for all the consumers to hear about thenew product. They are expecting sales to increase in the second year by 2 million packages for a total of 7 million packages. The reason for the increase in sales isthat by 2009, all stores should be carrying the Fat Free BITE and through our aggressive marketing campaign most people would have heard about the Fat FreeBITEand they will desire to buy the product. By the end of the first quarter of 2009,Negisco Foods Inc. forecasts that the Fat Free BITE would have sold enough packages to earn a profit.