Marketing Planning - Coursework Example

?Marketing Planning Vision/Mission ment for Innocent The mission ment for Innocent is to “make natural, delicious food and drink that helpspeople live well and die old” (Innocent 2011, p1). In other words, the mission is to create an environment in which the individuals can do to themselves some good, and at the same time make the food, and drink taste nice. The vision of the company is to become “the earth’s favourite little food company” (Innocent 2011, p1). Innocent wants to become the company that generates delicious, natural, ethical, and healthy food and make it available to the world (Innocent 2011, p1). Innocent SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Innocent is the leading smoothie brand in the United Kingdom. The company currently owns 77.5 percent of the smoothie market. Innocent’s premium retails prices are relatively high and this indicates there will be a market segment reluctant to buy their products in favor Innocent’s competitor. Increase in the market share. Innocent operates in a market characterized by continuous growth. The consumers are developing a trend in which they are cautious of the consequences of processed goods. This is a big opportunity for Innocent to take control of the market. The consumer tastes are changing. This is because most of the product variety/range is becoming repetitive. Innocent produces quality products. Each smoothie is prepared from natural fruits supplied by regulated suppliers. This makes sure that the products produced are of premium quality. The company has a low customer base. The consumer base is relatively small and largely confined in the United Kingdom (HomeInsights 2010, p1). The global market is expanding due to the growth of the emerging markets. Innocent’s success has been largely attributed to language. Cultural differences may create an obstacle to success when the company seeks to expand to other continents. Innocent has been consistently growing since its inception in 1999. Increase in the range of products such as dairy, whole grain, and vegetable products. Brand vulnerability – as Innocent grows, its brand value will be subject to scrutiny based its actions, for instance, its attempts to collaborate with Coca-Cola and McDonalds (HomeInsights 2010, p1). The scale of its sales is high. Each week, the company sells approximately two million smoothies (Tryhorn and Sweney 2009, p1). It also operates in several European nations. It can engage in eco-friendly promotions with organizations such as National Trust (HomeInsights 2010, p1). The distribution channel is huge; over ten thousand retail outlets and supermarket chains stock Innocent. Ethics - The company uses bottles (100 percent recycled) and paper (25 percent recycled) for the labels (Turner 2008, p1). It is also creating better working conditions and increasing resource efficiency in countries it sources the fruits. The premium prices for Innocent’s product make it favourable to the retailers because they are more profitable. Health benefits are actively sponsored by the government and other organizations (HomeInsights 2010, p1). Innocent Competitors and Competitive Advantage The current competitors in the market include Tropicana (PepsiCo), Happy Monkey, Lucozade Sport, Red Bull, Seven Seas (Multibionta), Kellogg’s Cornflakes, Young’s Pink Salmon (HomeInsights 2010, p1), Ella’s Kitchen, Naked, and Odwalla (Cummings 2011, p2). Innocent’s main competitor is Tropicana; Pepsi Company owns Tropicana and it holds 29.3 percent of the market share in the United Kingdom. Tropicana has vast experience in venturing into new markets, a strong brand image and it is dedicated to offering exemplary fruit selection and excellent blends (Cummings 2011, p2). Tropicana has used marketing strategies such as focusing on the health benefits of the products, attractive artwork on the packaging and strong ethical values just like that of Innocent. Tropicana’s focus in the market segment is the kid’s smoothie market. Happy Monkey’s brand is new to the market and its performance in the market is exceptional. It focus is also on the kid’s smoothie market; Innocent concentration is also on this market segment. Happy Monkey has rapidly created a strong brand loyalty through promotions (HomeInsights 2010, p1). The main target for Ella’s Kitchen is the younger children and it has attempted to attract parents of the younger children through creative advertisements that emphasize on the health benefits of providing younger children fruit drinks (Cummings 2011, p2). Innocent’s emphasis on the product quality has enabled it to gain competitive advantage against its competitor. This is because there is more consumer awareness concerning the added ingredients in drinks and food (HomeInsights 2010, p1). Marketing Objectives Using Ansoff’s Growth Matrix Innocent marketing objectives will be based on the Ansoff’s growth matrix. Ansoff’s growth matrix is based on four strategies: 1. Market penetration – one way of penetrating the existing market is through gaining the competitor’s consumers. Attracting the non-users of the product can be done through advertisement and other promotions. 2. Market development – it entails finding a new market for the existing products (Bachmeier 2009, p5). 3. Product development – it involves a business attempting to create a new product in the existing market. 4. Diversification – in this context, both the market and the products are new and thus the company enters a new market (Kumar 2010, p176). From the above facts, the following are Innocent’s marketing objectives: 1. To increase its share of the smoothie market by 5 percent, 2. To increase the sale of smoothie per week from two million to 2.5 million, and 3. To create new smoothie for both the existing and new markets Innocent Marketing Strategy Innocent can penetrate the smoothie market further and increase its share of the market by 5 percent. The marketing strategy is depended on the resources, SWOT analysis findings, market conditions, external factors, and the marketing objectives (Gillespie 2001, p28). In order to achieve this strategy, Innocent will use advertisement and other forms of promotions such as product placement and direct marketing (Kurtz 2010, p500). The target market for Innocent has been the young and urban professionals (Design Council 2010, p1). Innocent’s strategy will be to target the younger children market segment through their parents. This segment is gaining considerable attention from Innocent’s competitor. The parents are young usually between the ages of 24 years and 40 years. These parents are concerned about the health of their children and their preference is mainly non-processed products. Thus, Innocent’s strategy can be to provide 100 percent non-processed fruit drinks to this segment of the market. References Bachmeier, K. (2009) Analysis of marketing strategies used by PepsiCo based on Ansoff’s theory, Germany: GRIN Verlag. Cummings, K. (2011) Sales, purchasing & marketing: Marketing strategy for a new consumer drinks product [online]. Available from: [accessed 11 Jan. 2012]. Design Council. (2010) Innocent drinks: Creative culture and strong brand [online], Design Council. Available from: [accessed 11 Jan. 2012]. Gillespie, A. (2001) Advanced business studies through diagrams, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. HomeInsights. (2010) All about Innocent smoothies [online], HubPages. Available from: [accessed 11 Jan. 2012]. Innocent. (2011) Innocent & business: Purpose, vision and values [online], Innocent. Available from: [accessed 11 Jan. 2012]. Kumar, D. (2010) Enterprise growth strategy: Vision, planning and execution, Hants, England: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Kurtz, D. (2010) Contemporary marketing 2011, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Tryhorn, C. & Sweney, M. (2009) Smoothie operators Innocent tread familiar path to lucrative deal [online], theguardian. Available from: [accessed 11 Jan. 2012]. Turner, C. (2008) The marketing secrets behind Innocent drinks [online], utalkmarketing.com. Available from: [accessed 11 Jan. 2012]. Read More