Marketing Plan

Student’s Name

Tutor’s Name

Course Title

Date

Marketing Plan

Business Name

The business’ name will be Sweet Bakers to give the impression of the nature of product the company will produce, and to give a hint on the nature of the product. The company shall produce bread, as well as other baked products such as cakes, biscuits, and donuts, as well as certain soft drinks to complement the baked products.

Mission Statement

The company’s mission is to become the best bakery across the United States that produce goods of high quality with the motive of meeting the consumers’ demands.

Current Situation – SWOT

Presently, several factors impact on the function of the business in several ways. A suitable way to understand the factors impacting on the company is through the application of the SWOT analysis, which Gurel and Tat (995) term to be effective because it informs of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats thereby creating the chance to make considerable adjustment in the areas that require some improvement. The company strengths include its effective leadership structure, which seeks to empower and transform workers, and the good customer relationship the company hopes to develop with its consumers. The main weaknesses at the company are that it is yet to embrace advanced technology, and it is a startup and yet to gain the experience. An opportunity the company can utilize is the increased level of technology, which presents the chance to produce more goods in the most effective ways. The threat that could affect the company’s operations is the escalated competition on the sector because of the increased desire to dominate the market. Sweet Bakers should perform a SWOT analysis after every specific period to always make necessary adjustments. In addition, the government regulations are becoming stiffer, which could restrain the company’s operations in certain ways, including the requirement to pay taxes, the need to observe quality and environmental laws, and the obligation to observe employees’ rights and freedoms.

Strengths Proper leadership Effective customer relations	Weakness Ineffective technology
Opportunity Growth in technology	Threats Increased competition

Marketing Objectives

Company hopes to reach put to consumers across the U.S. before contemplating expanding to international markets. The firm roughly hopes to reach out to about 2 million consumers. The company projects that it would reach out to about 1 million buyers within the first year before increasing its number.

Marketing Strategies

Choosing the Target – Segmentation

The company while segmenting its buyers will consider several factors, including the psychographic, demographic, behavioral, and geographic features. The firm shall use psychographic features to categorize consumers based on their values, interests, lifestyles, and priorities, and categorize demographically by considering their income, education, age, and family situation. The company will use behavioral and geographic features to categorize consumers while considering several factors such as their purchasing behaviors, spending patterns, and user status, and country, city, climate, and ZIP code respectively.

Targeting

Business and marketing professionals utilize various marketing approaches and designs to appropriately deliver a message and to promote the product. The targeting strategies are formulated to create attention and allow for detailed approach for the marketing plan (Nadube and Didia 36). The company in this case shall specifically utilize the differentiated marketing strategy where the firm appeals to at least two target groups or segments (Nadube and Didia 38). The targeting approach will allow the company to attract more consumers, thereby creating the chance to generate more revenue.

Differentiation

Businesses embrace the concept of differentiation to make their products distinct from the rest with the objective of attracting more consumers. Differentiation, Chege (22) and Sharp and Dawes (742) explain, entails differentiating the product from those of the competitors and from the company’s own products. Sweet Bakers will apply differentiation by developing various products to attract different buyers, and will distinguish itself from competitors by using unique ingredients and producing breads and cakes of different shapes. The approach the company hopes to use to differentiate its operations will fill in the gap where bakers tend to use similar ingredients thereby denying the chance to get a new taste.

Positioning

The business will put adequate focus on positioning its operations to create a positive consumers’ perception about the brand and its products. The company will position itself as one that produces products of high quality to send the message that the firm focuses on producing items that promote their health. Positioning the company as a producer of high quality items will appeal to more consumers.

Marketing Mix

The company will consider with adequate focus the factors it may combine to influence purchasers to buy its products. A marketing mix is important because it enlightens the business on the areas it needs to improve or adjust to attract more consumers. Nonetheless, the firm must be careful to develop a marketing mix that will benefit the company.

Products Features and Benefits

The company will focus on producing products of high quality to meet the consumers’ needs and to attract more purchasers. The products Sweet Bakers produce will be tasty, fresh, and of considerable quantity, thereby benefiting the buyers.

Pricing

The bakery in this scenario will set prices that many consumers can afford because buyers are likely to be scare away if the prices are too high. The firm shall embrace the price skimming approach, which entails setting a starting price and considering how purchasers respond to the set rates before making any adjustment. Price skimming seems to be a suitable technique because it creates room for making necessary changes, especially if the initial rate does not fit in well with the buyers.

Place (Distribution) Issues

Sweet Bakers will distribute its products to various strategic places where consumers can access them without any difficulty. Buyers, for instance, will be able to purchase the company’s products at the supermarkets, local shops, and retailers who sell snacks. The company will use the intensive distribution strategy to get the products to as many places as possible. The intensive distribution strategy will make it possible to avail the products to both retailers and other businesses.

Promotion

The company will promote the product using different approaches to increase the customers’ possibilities of purchasing them. The company, for example, will use a combination of digital media, print media, and direct marketing to reach out to as many buyers as possible. The firm shall consider the cost of marketing and compare with its budget to avoid making unnecessary plans.

Advertising

The company will pay considerable attention to advertising its goods because it is through proper advertisement strategies that it will attract more consumers. The growth of electronic and print media presents a suitable chance to reach out to more buyers, and is convenient because such platforms relay information very fast and in the most convenient manner. The bakery will perform its advertising as frequently as possible, and will ensure that it allocates the right amount of financial resources to ensure every process happens in the right manner.  

Public Relations

The firm shall pay particular attention to improving its public relations to develop customers who are attached to the company. Other than developing a program to guide the company in how it conducts its public relations, the bakery will engage all stakeholders in the process by always reminding them that the company is committed to meet their needs in the most effective manner. More fundamentally, the company will conduct continuously research on how to improve how it relates with buyers.

Sales Promotion

The company will use sales promotion as a way of advertising the company and attracting more purchasers. The bakery, for example, will allow buyers considerable discounts during certain times, and on particular products. The company will also reduce its prices during specific times, and allow loyal buyers discounts, especially when they purchase large quantities of the company’s products.  

Personal Selling

Sweet Bakers will employ the concept of personal selling by hiring some individuals who have adequate skills in marketing to take over the process. The personal sellers will explain to the buyers how they are likely to benefit from purchasing the products, and will also attend to some of the issues or questions that buyers raise.

Direct Marketing

The company will embrace the idea of direct marketing whereby the salespersons approach buyers in their homes, workplaces or any other place and convince them to purchase the items. The approach will be essential as will help to identify buyers who would otherwise not buy if it were not for the approach.

Online Marketing

The concept of online marketing is fast picking up across various organizations because of the efficiency that comes with the marketing approach. Online marketing is beneficial because it makes it possible to attract buyers from various parts, and allows for interaction among all stakeholders in the most effective manner (Schwarzl and Grabowska 189). The company in this case will utilize online marketing platforms such as the firm’s website, as well as social media avenues such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Action Programs

Action	budget
Identifying the business objectives and goals	$1000
identifying the products to be produced	$2000
Identifying target market	$2000
Establishing or renting a work premise	$100000
Hiring workers	$50000
Training employees	$50000
equipping the production plant	$80000

Executive Summary

Sweet Bakers will focus on the production of baked products as well as various soft drinks that complement its major products. The firm hopes to produce products that meet the consumers’ needs and will pay particular attention to delivering products of high quality. The company while performing its operations will consider how factors in the internal and external environments are likely to impact on its performance. The company will outline its marketing objectives as it tries to employ various marketing strategies such as market segmentation where it categorizes consumers depending on their demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic features, and targeting whereby the company will use the differentiated marketing approach that reaches out to more than a single group of consumers. Sweet Bakers will embrace the concept of differentiation by producing multiple products and using ingredients that are different from other competitors because of their rarity. The bakery that will serve customers across America will position itself as a company that produces products that do not have any adverse effects on consumers. The firms will use a marketing mix as part of its marketing strategy, and will ensure that it develops products that are fresh and meet the consumers’ demands in terms of quality and quantity. The group will set prices that many people can afford, as a way of sensitizing and attracting more buyers to the new range of products.  The marketing team will first employ the price skimming method to identify a suitable price rate that fits with the company and consumers’ needs and aspirations. The marketing team will ensure buyers get the products at the local shopping centers and wholesales, using a diversified promotional technique. The group will advertise the baked items and beverages through print and electronic media, and will ensure it conducts the process within a specific budget. The bakery will explore other forms of advertising and promoting the product such as enhancing public relations, offering sale promotions to loyal consumers and all buyers during certain periods, and using personal and direct selling where individual marketers approach consumers and inform them on the benefits of the brand’s products. The marketers will also exploit online marketing that is increasingly becoming applicable by interacting with buyers through the company’s website and social media avenues. The group hopes conduct its operations progressively as it transits from identifying the business aspirations to equipping the production plant, while taking into account the possible financial requirements.

Works Cited

Chege, James. “Effectiveness of Differentiation Strategy on Business Performance of Kenyan

            Betting Companies.” IOSR Journal of Business and Management, vol. 20, no. 7, 2018,

            pp. 22-27.

Gurel, Emet and Tat Merba. “SWOT Analysis: A Theoretical Review.” The Journal of

            International Social Research, vol. 10. No. 51, 2017, pp. 994-1006.

Nadube, Paul and Didia Jared. “Marketing Targeting and Strategic Positioning.” International

            Journal of Marketing Research and Management, vol. 8, no. 1, 2018, pp. 32-45.

Schwarzl, Susanne and Grabowska Monika. “Online Marketing Strategies: The Future is Here.”

            Journal of International Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2015, pp. 187-196.

Sharp, Byron and Dawes John. “What is Differentiation and How does it Work? Journal of

            Marketing Management, vol. 17, no. 7, 2001, pp. 739-759.