Meal Pill Product - Research Paper Example

I. Overview A. The Product: Meal Pill The product intended to be marketed in this paper is a “complete meal pill” which will be introduced in the market under a product name “Meal Pill” for easy recognition and memory retention. It is an all-in-one food solution of providing complete nourishment to our body for one whole day by merely popping a pill. The product will be sold in a form of a capsule. All the vitamins and minerals are already included in Meal Pill including the proteins and calories that provide the body mass and energy to fully function. The pill, through a revolutionary technology, was able to incorporate the proteins and calories needed by the body which was absent in other food supplements due to the previous technological limitation of compressing proteins and calories in one small capsule. Our product was able to overcome this technological challenge and able to incorporate and miniaturized not only all nutrients needed by the body but also the necessary fibers to make the body functional. There is no comparable product in the market yet. The closest type of product that resemble to Meal Pill are food supplements but these cannot provide complete nourishment as what our Meal Pill does. Such, our Meal Pill will be the pioneer in this product category and has the advantage of ingenuity, functionality, convenience and lower cost compared to the regular meal. It does not also have the other undesirable elements present in our regular foods such as cholesterol and fats. B. Product Differentiation The product is differentiated from other similar product types by the “completeness” of its nutrient components. Food supplements that are available in the market can only provide the necessary vitamins and minerals but are unable to incorporate calories, proteins and fibers due to technological limitation. The issues encountered by other food supplement companies are its inability to compress calories, proteins and fiber in pill form that is enough to sustain a body for a day. While attempts were made, they are still unable to perfect the technology as the end product tends to become bulky. The equivalent of our product in the market would be a combination of several food supplements and food drinks. The closest to our product is Ensure (Ensure, 2011), a nutrition milk, but it lacks the necessary fiber for the body to function. It has to be complemented with Metamucil (Metamucil, 2011) to supply the body of its fiber needs. For added energy, customers also need to take Clif Bar (Clifbar, 2011). This combination however no longer qualifies the competition to be a complete meal. Our product, Meal Pill, can do what all these three products can do, making it a complete meal. In addition, there is an inconvenience with the products offered by the competition. Ensure needs to be prepared by mixing it with water not to mention that it has an unpalatable taste while our product needs no preparation and has a neutral taste just like all pills. All the prospective customer has to do is to pop it, and they have already taken the meal for the whole day. II. Target Market The target market of our Meal Pill are virtually all adults. Since food is the most basic of all needs, it makes almost everybody a prospective customer because everybody has to eat inorder to function and live. Meal Pill however is designed for adults because its nutritional need is predictable compared to children who has varying nutritional needs because are still growing. To be specific, the target market of our product would be the busy professionals who are health conscious but does not have time to prepare healthy meals. They are the particular segment of the market that would be more receptive with our product line because of their need for a convenient type of nourishment and their heightened awareness about health. We will also target those individuals who are scaling down on the quantity of their meals by offering a product that will guarantee them the avoidance of over-eating. This market is either the weight watchers or those who are trying to lose weight. Meal Pill will be particularly attractive to this segment of the market since the product can guarantee them nourishment without the volume of food which makes them obese and unfit. Those who have illness that requires them to regulate their meal are also a perfect market for our product. This market will have an alternative source of food that will eliminate the risk of consuming “unprescribed” foods that could aggravate their illness. III. The Marketing Mix A. Product To optimize product availability and market penetration, we will provide depth and range to our prospective customers to cater to their varying needs of a complete meal. Human beings have different body types and as such our product has to be responsive to the peculiarities of these body types. In addition, individuals have different purpose in eating. While in general people consume food to nourish themselves to make their body functional, there is a growing number of population who are trying to lose weight due to several factors such as age, indulgence or illness. Our product will provide range to cater to these varying needs. Our product will have four different type of “meal pills” to cater to our customer’s varying needs of a complete meal. They are; 1. The All Complete Meal Pill - this is the standard “complete meal pill” where the all the vitamins, minerals, calories, protein and fiber needed by the body to function is encapsulated in a pill. This type of “meal pill” will cater to the general type of customers who has a regular requirement of nutrition. 2. The High-Fiber Low Calorie Pill Meal– this particular product range is aimed to those individuals who are trying to lose weight. This is also ideal for endomorphs, or those individuals who are more predisposed to gaining weight due to their slower metabolism. This product type is also ideal to those who are trying to lose weight or weight watchers. This product will regulate the nutritional intake of those individuals who are trying to lose weight by avoiding excess when eating. By supplying the nutritional need of the body through a pill, food excesses can be avoided. This product also contains a higher concentration of fiber to lower cholesterol with enough fiber capture body fat. It has also a lower caloric content designed for individuals whose body type tends to burn calorie slower. 3. The High Protein Meal – this the product range who are directed to those customers who are trying to build body mass. In addition to the vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and fiber, this product range has higher protein content to enable individual to grow body mass. 4. The High Energy Meal – this product is intended to those who have an active lifestyle. This “meal pill” will have a higher concentration of carbohydrates for the active customers who has higher requirement of energy and expends more calories. This product is aimed towards athletes, ectomorphs and busy people. B. Price From a customers perspective, price is often viewed as an indicator of value of the product vis-à-vis its perceived benefits (Kerin et al, 2006). Our product, whose equivalent in value is three full meals with added supplement, will be perceived to have higher value in terms of nutritional benefits when reinforced by promotional efforts and as such, can be priced at a premium. But to capture market share and develop customer loyalty, it is advisable to price our products low during its introductory stage. This is to gain goodwill from the customers and develop market base quickly. The regular expenditure for food of a regular American can be used as a reference. Since the average American spends between $7 to $15 a day (expatforum, 2009) for their meals, we can price our Meal Pill for just a fraction of that or just a couple of dollars to make it more affordable and entice more customers. Through this, we will remove the barrier of price of inducing the prospective customers to try our product. C. Place The market of our product Meal Pill is virtually all adults since all adults has to eat. Considering the size of the market, the place of distribution should be intensive to make the product readily available to all adults who would like to try the product. The mode of distribution should be Intensive to cover the huge market. This method of placing the product is also appropriate because our product is vulnerable from substitution and disregard. In addition, this methodology of distribution is aligned with our promotional drive. Since we will employ mainstream media in promoting our product, it is only fitting that our products to be readily available when the demand arises. This is also favorable to us because this will enable us to gain market share quickly. D. Promotion To successfully penetrate the market, an effective promotional scheme must be employed. The usage of promotional tools is critical not only because the product is still in its nascent stage but mainly because the market is virtually unfamiliar with the product. To familiarize the market about Meal Pill, an extensive promotional drive must be launched. This promotional drive must also be perpetual not only to instill awareness of the product to the customers but also to cultivate patronage to our product and develop customer base. Since the market of our products are virtually all adults, it is advisable to utilize the mainstream media for optimum reach. While this may be costly, the initial outlay for promotion can be easily recoup by the potential income from the product considering the size of the market. To effectively instill awareness and develop customer base among the consumers, the following marketing tools are to be used for market introduction and develop customer base: 1. TV advertisements – this medium is appropriate because our potential customers are virtually all adults. The reach of the TV advertisement will serve our purpose of introducing our product to the most number of adults possible. We should particularly place our advertisement in sports program because the viewers of those programs are more predisposed to trying a new method of nourishment. 2. Sports magazine – this medium should be used to capture the “health conscious” market. This market has a higher probability of trying our product since this market has a higher consciousness about health and supplement. In addition, the science behind the product can be thoroughly explained in this medium because the readers of sports magazine are the interested party of the product. Also, this particular segment of the market understands the language of nutrition making communication easy. 3. Flashy Billboards – this medium will reinforce our other promotional efforts by maintaining a permanent promotional presence through billboards. Billboards will perpetually remind our customers that our products exist. These billboards should be strategically located along major thoroughfares, malls, train stations and other places where the upscale market converge and frequents. 4. Events – will highlight the application of our product in a real world which can be used as leverage for marketing our “meal pill”. In this promotional drive, we will organize sports events where participants will only use our products while engaging in sport. This is to illustrate that customers can engage in strenuous activity with a pill to sustain them. This event will reinforce our claim that indeed our product works in a real world environment. 5. Sampling – to encourage patronage of our products and to prove that our product really work, we will let customers sample our Meal Pill. Through product sampling, customers will experience firsthand that the product really works and will be encouraged to purchase our Meal Pill. This will also hasten the process of developing customer loyalty among prospective customers. References: Castro, Jose Marc (2009). Cost of living in the United States. [online]. Retrieved at viewed on 08 August 2011. Kerin, Roger A., Hartley, Steven W., Berkowitz Eric N (2006). Marketing 8th edition. The McGraw-Hill Companies Retrieved online at . Viewed on 08 August 2011 Retrieved online at . Viewed on 08 August 2011 Retrieved online at . Viewed on 08 August 2011 Read More