Marketing Plan for Atlantic Quench - Case Study Example

18th April 2016

Marketing Plan for Atlantic Quench Year 2017

• Introduction

Atlantic Quench marketing plan is aimed at facilitating the achievement of the organization goals, but also help meet year 2017 targets. The plan aims to enhance Atlantic Quench expand its markets, diversify its products, improve its relations with stakeholders, increase it sales, and expand its distribution capacity. Atlantic Quench Cranberries Inc began it operations for at least the last 80 years, majoring on cranberries products. The company has also been acknowledged for its award winning brands on canned and bottled juices. For the last couple of years, Atlantic Quench had most of its operations in North America. Today, Atlantic Quench is already established in the UK market. Although much has been achieved by the cooperative, there are numerous opportunities that are yet to be fully exploited. Globalization has provided opportunities for many firms to buy and sell products in the international markets with limited restrictions. By capitalizing on this, the firm hopes to expand its global markets to other regions such as Africa and Asia. In this study, a projection of Atlantic Quench marketing plan for the year 2017 is discussed.

1.2 Market Segmentation, Target Market and Positioning

In the year 2017, Atlantic Quench hopes to expand its markets by reaching out to new market segment. This will be achieved through identification of new segments that meets the cooperatives strategic plans and policies. Apparently, Atlantic Quench has managed to attract a niche market with people who value their health. Most of the cooperative products both juices and non juices have attracted a significant group of customers that is sensitive to their health. The firms by products are applauded for their nutritious values found in cranberries. Although changing trends among the consumers has remained a challenge for the firm, Atlantic Quench hopes to develop variety of products that meets their needs and wants.

Due to demand for juices with more antioxidants and nutrients, the firm hopes to improve on it brands to such needs. The firm plans to blend more cranberries with other fruits that have antioxidants. Attempts to improve their brands have been visible as the firm now provides cranberry blends that have Acerola and pomegranates. The firm also plans to capitalize on the customers that value a healthy lifestyle. UK provides such opportunities, through the new policies on packed food for schools going kids, the firm hope to provide variety of cranberries juices that fit such demands. With the new Diet Orange and Diet Cranberry Quench, the firm plans to do more advertising in order to create more awareness to the new target market of dieters.

1.3 Market Share

Atlantic Quench is an already established cooperative in the North America and currently the firm its new production plants in the UK. For the last few years, the firm has successfully attained a bigger market share in North America as the firm has the advantage of being the only one producing cranberry related products. By forming partnership with coca cola, the firm has established a significant group of customers, both in UK and in North America. In the year 2017, the firm target to expand its market share by targeting other potential regions such as Asia, other parts of Europe and Africa. This will go an extra mile in the realization of the firm goals and objectives.

1.4 Competition (SWOT Analysis)

In the current market, Atlantic quench has faced increased competition on juice products. Due increased changing consumer demands, more firms have continued to flood the market with super fruit juices. To counter these trends, the firm hopes to add more value to its brands. Atlantic Quench also plans to increase its brands to meet rising demand for a healthy lifestyle. Other plans are that the firm hopes to capitalize of customer loyalty for their brands in order to remain competitive in the current market. Additionally, the firm will also use different techniques in order remain relevant in the competitive market. These may include, making price changes, through packaging, and having a lot of advertising for the firms brands (Vorhies and Morgan, 2003). Through positioning, the firm hopes to outdo the competitors in UK and in North America; this will go a long way in expanding the firm’s market share.

The following SWOT analysis provides an insight of the challenges and opportunities that a likely to present in the year 2017. Through the analysis, the firm hopes to improve on both the internal and external challenges plus capitalize on available opportunities in the year.

• Company strength

Atlantic Quench has been in existence for the last almost 80 years since the day of inception. The firm has successfully managed to acquire a significant growth in the current market share. By forming alliance with coca cola, this provides an opportunity for the firm to strong distribution channels in both North America and in the UK. Moreover, Atlantic Quench has already established brands that have enjoyed increased sales annually of up to $1.7 billion by 2007, recording an increase of 7% annually; this will be relied on as a major strength. Through firm massive production plants, the firm hopes to produce more barrels of cranberry juices especially for Crantanas brands. This will help meet the rising demand for the firm’s brands, especially in UK.

• Company weakness

Although Atlantic Quench has enjoyed monotony for cranberry juices in areas such as North America. The firm has been faced with some challenges that are like to be present in the year 2017. Most of the challenges were found to be internal rather than external. For the firm to attain the set goals, stakeholders such as the suppliers play a significant role in the production process. Recently, the suppliers of raw materials, especially farmers have been hardly hit by the changes in climate. Due global warming, it has become difficult to predict farmers harvest yields. This has immensely affected the production of the firm, limiting its capacity to produce more to its rising market. In this case, the firm hopes to increase its productions capacities by encouraging more farmers to plant cranberries with North America and UK.

• Company opportunities

The increasing Global population provides a significant opportunity for Atlantic Quench to expand the markets in the year 2017. Having established an alliance with Coca Cola Company, the co-op hopes to utilize this as an opportunity as parts of the firms marketing efforts are likely to be carried out by Coca Cola Company. This will go a long way in minimizing expenditures in areas of production and advertising. On the other hand changes in technology provide an immense opportunity for Atlantic Quench. In 2017, the firm hopes to capitalize on Social Medias and social networking. In recent years, Social Medias have become a trend among the young people globally. In this case, the co-operative hopes to concentrates on such Medias to improve and increase the current market share by the next year. The firm also plans to introduce new technologies in the production processes. With this, the firm hopes to increase its production capacity but also improve on the quality of the existing products.

• Company Threats

The first challenges have been on the rising competition by firms manufacturing other soft drinks and juices. Due to these increased competition, introduction of new products has become expensive to penetrate and position new products in the current and future markets. In this case, the firm hopes to increase relationship with customers and reduce cost of production in order to make cranberry products affordable for the rising markets. This will play a significant role in countering the increasing competition in UK and North America.

1.5 Promotional Mix (advertising & promotion)

In the year 2017-2018, Atlantic Quench plans to increase in advertising and promotion strategies. This is expected to go a long way in reaching new potential markets. Through more advertising campaigns, the firm hopes to campaign for its new products such as the Diet Atlantic Quench juice drinks. Advertising will also help in creating more awareness on health benefits of taking cranberry juices. Although this is considered as the most expensive means of communication with the target markets, Atlantic Quench plans to spend more in their new market, United Kingdom. Due to the existence of the firm in the North America for several years, the firm plan to minimize its advertising expenditures, but increase the advertising budgets for the UK.

In order to attract more consumers and niche markets, new advertising techniques will be used in the advertising campaigns. The firm hopes to capitalize on creativity in copy writing. This is expected to create more attention on campaigns adverts. Different Medias will also be used to influence and persuade potential consumers to buy the available products and new products that are likely to be introduced in the coming year. In order to receive a massive audience, Atlantic Quench plans to use mass Medias such as Billboards, Television, Newspapers, and Aerial Medias and Digital Medias. Additionally, the firm hopes to use other Medias such as magazines, and other sales literatures. To improve efficiency in advertising, the cooperative hopes to improve on the market segmentation processes. In the segmentation process, the company will seek to identify segments that are profitable, reliable and accessible. This will go a long way in promoting increased sales and a manageable market share for the cooperative.

The firm also hopes to continue using health approach for their brands in the marketing campaigns. This will assist in meeting the increasing demands for products with minimal calories and sugars. The firm also plans to be conducting regular evaluations for advertising campaigns in next year in order to check on its effectiveness in the market. On the other hand, Atlantic Quench also plans to use direct marketing in its efforts towards establishing good relations with its customers. Trough direct marketing, the cooperative hopes to enhance direct response communication, where clients can be called or either sent an email to act on particular information. Techniques that will be used in direct marketing include; telemarketing, events and exhibitions, direct mail and personal selling (Perreault et al., 2008).

By using this form of communication in marketing, the firm also hopes get immediate response in the communication. Through such the firm will definitely be in a position to act with speed where concerns are raised by the consumers. This will also increase confidence and trust for the firm’s products, but also improve relations with their suppliers including farmers.

1.6 Corporate image

Atlantic Quench will be determined to maintain good relations with it publics by applying numerous strategies. Although the firm has managed to maintain a positive corporate image since its inception, the firm hopes that next year will provide more opportunities to improve its image. Atlantic Quench marketers plan to utilize public relations as part of the promotional mix. Through public relations, the firm plans to create and establish a mutual understanding with the publics. Public relations will also enhance the firm to develop a strong foundation for their markets (McElhaney, 2009). .

In order to meet PR objectives, the firm hopes to do massive internal marketing. Through this, the firm hopes to use the employees as brand ambassadors. Other PR activities will include use of different Medias of PR. Atlantic Quench hopes to capitalize on medias such as the press, newspapers, magazines but also participate in social corporate responsibility activities. Through Corporate social responsibility activities, the cooperative plan to visits different street families, elderly homes, children’s homes and donate money to persons affecting by natural calamities. These activities are expected to boost the relations between the firm and its public, there improving Atlantic Quench image. The firm will also be participating sponsorship programs such as sports. These will help the firm establish a bigger viewership nationally and internationally.

The suppliers such as farmers will be expected to play a significant role on the firm’s corporate image. Atlantic Quench hopes to involve all it farmers in various activities but also ensure they are satisfied and motivated to produce. The cooperative plans to involve farmers on various workshop and seminars where they will be taught how to yield more produce from their farms, they will also be trained on financial management skills in order to utilize their money effectively through investments. Good relation with the farmers is expected to boost cranberry produce from the farmers with also some standard of quality. Regularly, Atlantic Quench will also be organizing exhibitions and events, where the firm expects to interact with customer on a face to face basis. This will encourage customers to bond with the cooperative but also understand more on the available products as well as ask questions about the progress of the firm and what might be part of the new products.

1.7 Pricing Strategy

Pricing is an element that is highly valued by Atlantic Quench for different reasons. Through pricing, the firm is able to exchange value for money. The cooperative also generates its revenue through pricing. The management of Atlantic Quench understands the value of pricing effectively as by applying poor pricing policies this would cost the firm its fortune. The marketers and the management will be involved in the decision making process, on the best pricing approach. Just like any other firm, there numerous factors that will be monitored constantly as they may have immense influence on how pricing is to be done. These factors may include; inflation, increased cost of raw materials, increased taxes, currency exchange, recession and competitors price. In this case, the cooperative plans to regularly conduct a marketing research that will accelerate the realization of such changes.

Excessive supply of cranberry juices may also pose a threat to the firms pricing strategies as there may be variations on of the competitor prices. In order to prevent major changes on the product pricing, Atlantic Quench hopes to establish good relations with the competitors. Additionally, the firm hopes to produce unique features in the firm’s product that would definitely encourage customer loyalty. The firm will also capitalize on opportunities provided by identified market segments. In some case, where opportunities are likely to emerge, the firm hope to raise prices on some products, but only where need arises. In case of increased demand for cranberry juices in UK, the cooperative plans to capitalize on the opportunity by increasing prices for some products. Atlantic Quench marketers also hope to observe various changes and new trends among the consumers as these changes may have significant effect on the pricing decisions.

In the new plan, numerous pricing techniques will be used in setting prices. Based on various factors that may influence pricing decisions, an agreement will be made on how much each products might cost. These factors will include market factors such as; competition, existing environment as at that time and the geographical location of the segment. Other factors expected to play a role in the pricing decisions will include organizational factors such as organizational set goals, quality of goods and services, the products life cycle and the firm’s segmentation and positioning. Alternatively, the cooperative will also consider customers factors in its decision making process. This will include factors such as the demand, customer’s benefits and the perceived value for the firm’s products (Andreyeva et al., 2010). By evaluating all these factors, the firm hopes have an added advantage over its competitors. Overall, Atlantic Quench plans to adopt pricing techniques such as penetration pricing, differential pricing and competitive pricing based on new target markets.

1.8 Sales Tactics

For the last couple of years, Atlantic Quench has recorded increased sales volume annually and hopes improve on the same next year. Previously, the firm managed to carry out most of its functions effectively due to the existing workforce. In the recruitment process, the firm has secured policies that stipulates on any appointments within the firm. Through these policies the firm has maintained a culture of appointing highly qualified salesforce making it easy for the firm to sell its products. By having well-trained sales personnel, the firm have managed to achieve a progressive success in sales annually. Additionally, Atlantic Quench has planned to introduce new sales promotional techniques such as giving discounts, organizing for exhibitions and events and giving out premiums.

The firm also hopes to work closing with other traders who will be playing a significant role of distributing the firm’s products. Through the distributors, the firm plans to improve relations with the traders. This will be achieved through use of sale promotion techniques as the where the firm will be expected to facilitate the traders in selling. By facilitating the trader with sales promotion materials, the firm hopes that these traders will be able pass them to the end user, therefore promoting the firms products to the end users. Another sales strategy is like to be implemented in the year 2017 will be merchandising. The firm will also identify a group of professionals who will be better with job. It will also be necessary for marketers to identify sales outlets, especially the retailing outlets such as supermarkets where the cooperative will have an opportunity to get enough space for merchandising.

Through merchandising, Atlantic Quench hopes to display all products on offer in a unique way within these sales outlets. This will create more awareness for the firm’s products but also increase sales volume for the firm. Direct marketing is a promotional method that the firm plans to use. Through direct marketing the firm hopes to communicate directly and get immediate feedback from the end user. Subsequently, Atlantic Quench, have used different sales strategies that have played a roles in increasing sales volume in the firm. These strategies may not have achieved all the set goals for the firm. In order to maximize on the available market opportunities, the firm hopes to capitalize on consumer purchasing power. The firm will therefore take time to analyze the consumer buying behaviors in order to evaluate the best-selling approach in the new markets.

1.9 Distribution strategy

Atlantic Quench has developed a well-established distribution system that has been functional since its inception. The management of the cooperative has created policies that have facilitated the sales process for the firm’s products. Although this has been the case, the firm hopes to improve the distributions channels to increase efficiency in service delivery. The firm hopes to improve the following channel in the year 2017. This will be achieved through establishment of numerous factors that are likely to influence the distribution system.

Distributions channel plan

In order to increase efficiency in the system, the firm plans to consider the following factors while choosing the best channel of distribution. Atlantic Quench marketer’s plans to consider the market characteristics such the target market location, purchasing preferences and patterns and type of the market segment. Other factors that will be considered include product characteristics such as perishability and seasonality. This would minimize cases of products getting spoilt while with the distributers (Cravens and Nigel, 2006). The firm also plans to capitalize on intermediaries’ characteristics and competitors characteristics.

11.1 Conclusion

Atlantic Quench has grown for the last few decades to a major producer of cranberries in North America and currently in UK. Although the firm has faced numerous challenges in the production sector, the firm has proved to be a powerhouse for cranberry juices and non-drink cranberries. By forming an alliance with Coca Cola, these give the cooperative an opportunity to expand its production and distribution capacity. The firm hopes that in the next coming new strategies will stimulate growth for the firm, but also help the firm achieve it set goals and objectives. Additionally through the marketing plan for the year 2017, Atlantic Quench plans to set budgets that will facilitate the implementation process for the plan. The firm is expected to increase the market share to other regions after the implementation of the plan.