A Marketing for Successful Market Entry of Vanilla Coke - Business Plan Example

MARKETING PLAN By Executive Summary Competition in global business has become stiff owing to productionof similar goods in the same industry. Hence the need to lay down strategies to achieve competitive advantage and grab a larger market is absolutely indispensable. This is only possible through use of a plausible business plan. This report entirely focuses on marketing plan, assessing findings of the marketing strategy, responsiveness to market, organization changes, and role of marketing strategy, competitive advantage, market share and growth. It also recommends the limitations encountered and their evaluations. Finally it rolls out and sound operation strategies for Coca Cola Company with an effort to increase the sale of Vanilla coke as a natural flavoured soft drink. Introduction This report reflects on assessment of findings of marketing strategy and marketing plan. It also focuses on responsiveness to market and organization changes that underpin changes that go with an organization role of marketing strategy, competitive advantage, market share and growth based on study to generate critique. The report will conduct an evaluation of strategic options available for marketing a Coca Cola product named Vanilla coke. It is one of the main and popular brands of beverage offered by Coca Cola Company (Clancy, Krieg, & Wolf, 2006, p. 31). In this case, this particular product is not widely distributed in the US. This report will therefore focus on market entry, growth, competition, changes, strategies and marketing analysis of Vanilla coke into the potential US market. Vanilla coke is one of the major beverages associated with flavored drinks. This product has strong presence internationally. On the contrary, it is not available in most parts of US because it had been discontinued since the year 2003.However, it was relaunched in the year 2007 and since then it has not penetrated the most parts of US hence the need to provide it (Ramaswamy, 2009, p. 58). Marketing Objectives Vanilla coke intends to penetrate the market to fulfill the following objectives: to increase channels of distribution by 17% in U.S. by end of 2015 .Secondly, to raise awareness of a differentiated Vanilla coke brand positioning by end of the year 2014.Thirdly, to grow market share by 12% in the US by end of 2014.Finally, to increase sales revenue to 23% in US by first quarter of 2014. Marketing Plan The key objective of an organization’s marketing efforts is to develop relationships that is satisfying with customers so as to benefit both the customers and the organization. These efforts help marketing to serve as an important role in most organizations and within society in which we live. At the organizational level, marketing is an important business function that is crucial in nearly all industries whether big or small require this as way of facilitating in profit making. The comparison is that for the for-profit making organization, marketing is responsible for most efforts that bring revenue and, also, profits to an organization. On the other hand the not-for-profit making organizations, marketing is responsible for attracting customers needed to support the not-for-profit’s mission, such as raising donations. This implies that strong marketing effort is a requirement for organization survival (Baines, Fill, & Page, 2013, p. 349). The procedure of assessing market audit involves assemblage of an overview of the company where company location, sales history, date of establishment, acquisition and company events. Secondly it involves description of objectives and marketing goals. These goals can be long term or short term goals based on the expected period of achieving them. Also it gives a description of the current customers which includes their geographical location and other demographics (Hart, 2003, p. 219). Then it gives a description of the intended customers whereby the size of the target group of customers is clearly determined. The other important step is description of product or service based on what the company is going to offer. This is important in the determination of strengths and weaknesses compared to competition the company is going to face. Still there is the issue of description of past business encounters which includes reflection on what would have made the business to grow or stall. The last two steps include identifying the competitors and beginning to outline an effective communication plan. Marketing Strategy On the other hand marketing strategy is a long-term plan to achieve certain objectives within an organization. In fact, marketing strategy is therefore a marketing plan designed to achieve marketing objectives. For instance, objectives of marketing may relate to becoming the market leader by delighting customers. Therefore the strategic plan is the comprehensive planning involving marketing research, and then developing a marketing mix to delight customers. Clear marketing objectives must be borne by every organization, and the major path to achieving organizational goal depends on strategies laid down at that moment. Therefore, it is imperative to be clear about the distinctions between strategy and tactics (Greene, 2008, pp. 20-32).This will be effected through the following three major factors; Business Objectives Clarification So much is taking place in the marketing today, and each and every organization is struggling. Similarly, every marketing professional feels pressurized to and actively integrate emerging media into their marketing programme. A good marketing strategy is not based on how many gadgets are crammed into it, but how effectively it achieves worthy goals. Therefore, Vanilla coke will have a profound impact of success on the society. Identification and Evaluation New Opportunities Vanilla coke will have a dedicated team to identifying emerging opportunities. This will involve meeting with start-ups and running test-and-learn programs to evaluate its true potential. Most of these will fail, but the few winners will help in marketing the product. After an emerging opportunity performs successfully in a pilot program, it will later be scaled up and become integrated into the normal strategic process as a tactic to achieve an awareness, advocacy, sales or objective. Building Open Assets in the Marketplace The primary focus of Vanilla coke marketing promotion will be to create compelling advertising campaigns that would get the consumer’s attention and drive awareness.  Once potential customers are aware of the product, direct sales and retail promotions will then close the deal. Marketing Environment Coca Cola should ensure proper maintenance of standard in all it business processes to ensure environmental sustainability in US .This is done by proper maintenance of infrastructure to avoid any harm to the immediate environment. This calls for conformation to development laws (Ferrey, 2010, p. 45). On the same note the company must use an effective analytical marketing tool to help it determine the impact of industry in the world of competition. Buyer’s Power The recent financial financial crises and slowdown in the US economy almost stalled the purchasing power of most Americans (Clarke, 2002, p. 45). This has made many organizations to come up with implementation strategies aimed at achieving a potential competitive advantage to establish a strong customer base. Supplier’s Power In fact there is availability of large number of suppliers will help the company to get effective supplier’s in effective cost. Each of these suppliers will get a business deal hence threat of supplier’s bargaining power will be considerably low for Vanilla coke (Clarke, Buyer Power and Competition in European Food Retailing, 2002, p. 53). Substitute’s Threat Threat of substitute is quite high for Vanilla coke due to the fact that many other leading organizations are increasingly introducing new flavored drinks including strawberry, mango and pineapple. This implies that the company will ensure high levels of quality of Vanilla coke to cope effectively with competition (Perlmutter, 2013, p. 53). Threat of new Entrant This is ultimately low for the organization as it is difficult for the new organizations to grab the market share of the Coca Cola Company in US. It is relatively much difficult for new organizations to grab the market share of the leading organizations like the Coca Cola Company. In addition to this, political barriers and other several legal obligations can make it difficult for the new players to compete effectively with the leading organizations in the well known market. In fact, it is obvious that each and every leading organization is trying to implement unique business strategies in the business processes in order to achieve competitive advantages (Hill, Jones, & Schilling, 2014, p. 59). Degree of Rivalry US flavored drinks market is highly competitive because several leading organizations do compete with each other so as to maximize business profit and develope potential target client base. Ln fact many leading soft drink manufacturing companies are trying to introduce healthy fruit juices and healthy lemonade drinks from time to time. Looking into these above aspects, it can be stated that the degree of industry rivalry is very high for Vanilla coke (Lewis, Goodman, Fandt, & Michlitsch, 2006, pp. 59-63). In addition to the above mentioned factors, the organization will incorporate marketing mix as one of the most important tools of strategic marketing. Marketing mix will help the organization to come up with effective means of distribution, pricing and strategies of promotion for Vanilla coke (Strategies for Investing in Intellectual Property, 2008, p. 57). Product Vanilla coke will not appear new product to the people of America, but instead it will come back to the market with added vigour that lacked before its relaunch.The major target group of customers include those who like natural crop flavored soft drinks .These are health conscious customers who detest artificial flavors (Pride, Hughes, & Kapoor, 2011, p. 369). Price The organization will make use of a highly economical strategy for pricing which have been put to test to determine the best one possible. To gain much competitive advantage, the organization will focus much on quality above all other factors. This will help attract more customers who must have forgotten the product (Petretti, 2008, p. 23). Place This refers to distribution of the production. In this case, the organization will have only one manufacturing plant so as to reduce the cost of production which may minimize the profit margin. More so, the organization will incorporate forward and backward integration in the supply chain network to cut on the cost of supply chain operational cost (Rajagopal, 2009, p. 313). Promotion This is also an effective communication tool of marketing. Therefore the organization will have to develop an effective promotional strategy for Vanilla coke to penetrate the market with ease (OGuinn, Allen, & Semenik, 2011, p. 342). Online and social media promotional services will be used vigorously so as to help the organization create huge brand awareness among the people. On the other hand, sports magazines, newspapers, health magazines and other relevant forms of advertisements will highly be used to capture the target customers. Another important strategic marketing tool that is useful to this organization will be the SWOT analysis (Griffin, 2011, p. 79). This is an effective strategic tool that will help an organization in determination of its strengths and weaknesses. This is illustrated in the table below: Strength Weakness Uniqueness of flavour Lack of brand awareness after discontinuation Great quality Access to existing network of Coca cola supply chain Vigorous advertisement Strong Quality control department to ensure quality of products Opportunities Threats Increased demand for natural flavoured soft drinks Increased competition Reduced cost of production Political influence can bring changes on legal requirements Focus on both new and old customers Existing substitute products and environmental threats Extreme weather conditions may impact on demand Limitations of SWOT analysis in Marketing When Vanilla coke marketers will be conducting a SWOT analysis, they will have to consider that it is faced with limitations. When issues become complex, there will be the need to conduct more research and analysis to make wise decisions. In fact SWOT analysis only covers issues that can definitely be considered a strength, weakness, opportunity or threat. Because of this, its difficult to address two-sided factors or uncertainty. This means that such factors that could either be strength or a weakness or both. For instance, you might have an expensive lease, but a prominent location. Other limitations involved include production of a lot of information, but not all of it is necessary. More so it doesnt provide solutions or offer alternative decisions .Still it can generate too many ideas but not help you choose which one is best. Finally, doesnt prioritize issues of marketing. In addition the organization will make use of the 5Ms model (Media mix model).This model is characterized by five elements which are very essential for the success of the business at hand. This will help to critically evaluate the limitations encounted during marketing. Market In this case the target customers will be the health conscious natural flavoured drinks lovers. It is outright from this discussion that Americans are going natural by insisting on natural products .Hence the need for the organization to target these customers (Ferrell & Hartline, 2007, p. 49). Money On average more than 20% of the profit accruing will be used for promotional purpose this will enhance unique and effective promotion and marketing that is acutely required to capture customers (Mihaljevic, 2013, p. 49). Moment This revolves around proper timing for the product entry into the market. Due to the notable demand for flavoured drinks, the organization will take maximum advantage of the time and deliver message about the Vanilla coke to give consumers a feel of renewed impact (Earle, 2012, p. 58). Methodology The organization will highly concentrate on promotion and supply chain of the US market. This will entail provision of differentiated product lines. Great brand value will be created from high quality and adoption of different marketing strategies to ensure increased awareness to the consumers (Ahya, 2005, p. 60). Media Print, digital and online media will highly be used to market Vanilla coke through use of advertising media agencies. This will in fact help to create significant brand awareness and retain customers in the market (Scotton, 2010, p. 50). Conclusion and Recommendation From this discussion it is imperative for the Coca Cola Company to develop an effective marketing audit, plan, strategy and analysis for Vanilla coke in the US. It is true that the social environment is suitable for this type of brand hence the need to take advantage of the viable market. Therefore the above plan will enable the company to effectively gain competitive advantage over other organizations that offer similar goods. To overcome future threats the following recommendations should be put into consideration. These strategies should be reviewed from time to time Low business operation cost should be ensured for economic pricing strategies. Implement effective strategies of promotion Decentralisation of production and supply chain management procedures to ensure access to supply chain network. References Ahya, C. (2005). Intellectual Property Valuation. Clifornia: American Bar Association. Baines, P., Fill, C., & Page, K. (2013). Essentials of Marketing. Harvard: Oxford University Press. Clancy, K. J., Krieg, P. C., & Wolf, M. M. (2006). Market New Products Successfully. london: Lexington Books. Clarke, R. (2002). Buyer Power and Competition. Washington: Edward Elgar. Clarke, R. (2002). Buyer Power and Competition in European Food Retailing. London: Edward Elgar. Curtis, P. A. (2013). Guide to US Food Laws and Regulations. Alabama: John Wiley & Sons. Earle, T. C. (2012). Trust in Cooperative Risk Management. Chocago: Routledge. Edwards, W. P. (2007). The Science of Bakery Products. 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