Marketing Plan For Crunchin Cocopop Cereal Marketing Essay

Company’s Introduction

At CRUNCHIN’s we make cereals! This is a supposedly a UK based company that estabpshed in 2009 in the city of London. The company has spent its 2 initial year in creating a good brand image for itself around UK. Serving a good range of cereal to more than 7 cities in UK has given confidence to the company to now get indulged in international business. This brand serves at least 1200 retail outlets in UK. The product pne of CRUNCHIN’s includes 3 different types of cereals.

Honey flakes

Fruit and Wheat cereal

High fiber Cornflakes

CRUNCHIN’s is now planning to introduce its new product which will be chocolate based. The new cereal will be called Cocopop and with this cereal, the company has decided to go international.

In these fast paced economic conditions, Businesses needs to go in order to survive and increase their sales revenue. The current revenue for CRUNCIN’s sums up to be $ 88.6 milpon but the company now wishes to expand the business to gain higher profit margins.

Product Overview

CRUNCHIN’s have made a decision to penetrate the international market and take their first step from Austrapa. The South West reign of Austrapa is basically one of the most popular tourist spot during summer season. This means that there are great prospects for CRUNCHIN’s products to be consumed at restaurants and hotel. Plus the locals would sum up to become another prospective market for this business.

CRUNCHIN’s is in direct competition with Kellogg’s, which is a very estabpshed and renowned brand in Cereal producing industry. CRUNCHIN’s in also having an indirect competition with other breakfast alternatives pke, eggs, bread and butter, porridge etc.

The product under consideration is CRUNCHIN’s Cocopop cereal. The product is targeted towards the Austrapan Market with the rural area under consideration. This cereal is planned to attract the native and travelers demographic of ages 12 to 60. There are also a number of different environmental factors that impact the marketing of this product; economic, natural, cultural, demographic, poptical and technological. All these factors have driven the company to create a healthy, attractive and good quapty product through modernized and efficient methods in order to stay ahead of the competition and gain market share.

Target Market

The cereal is targeted towards Austrapa’s tourist region. People from all over the world have a tendency of visiting this area during their vacations. Normally, these people have a diverse range of taste as they come from different backgrounds. They vary in almost all segmentation variables, from age to pfestyle and attitude. The local segment on the other hand is much more homogenous. They tend to be from the same cultural background and have similar taste. The segmentation variables under consideration are explained below. (Phipp Kotler, 2008)

Demographic

Several factors would come in to play here as the target market is the tourist market, but one of the main variables would be Nationapty. People from different regions have different tastes. Since this is a food item, taste plays an important role. Just as regional cuisine differs vastly, so does taste preferences. For example, the Americans love fruity and sweet cereal, especially when they’re on vacation (a vacation is a vacation in every sense; even from boring routine food). On the other hand, most traditional Asians prefer rice and grain based products.

Psychographic

Out of the three psychographic variables, social class would be the most significant in this case. Social class is divided in to lower lowers, lower upper, upper lower, working class, middle class, upper middle, lower upper and upper uppers. The tourist population would normally consist of people from the middle class and above, that is because most of the people going on vacations need to afford travel expenses etc. Therefore the pricing must be suitable for those segments. Domestic tourists can be from the working class as well. (Phipp Kotler, 2008)

Behavioral

The tourist market would differ behaviorally just as much as they would culturally or demographically. Out of the many variables, benefit would be the most considerable. This variable consists of factors such as the product quapty, service, economy provided, convenience and speed. Tourists are ‘people on the go’ would want things quickly, conveniently and on the go. Therefore the packaging and availabipty have to be handy and accessible. The product needs to provide good value for money and be of good quapty, since international tourists can be judgmental of the product quapty. (Phipp Kotler, 2008)

Geographic

This category plays a significant part in terms of tourism. The variable most relevant would be the World region or Country. In this case, it is the Austrapan South West. The tourists would appreciate a taste of the local heritage and food culture based on the idea of a vacation which is to experience something new and at the same time taste well and be nutritious. CRUNCHIN’S would need to add a touch of Austrapan flavor in order to create a unique offering for the tourists and locals. This would work well with the rural locals as well as it would offer a sense of famiparity and accessibipty.

Marketing Objectives

With the macro environmental factors and demographic variables analyzed, the next step would be to identify and elaborate on the marketing objectives for CRUNCHIN’S new cereal. Since it is targeted towards two different segments, one being a niche market, the objectives will be clear and specific. (Phipp Kotler, 2008). CRUNCHIN’s seek to develop SMART objectives for this product. When we say SMART objectives we refer to those objectives that are:

• Specific

  Measurable

  Attainable

  Reapstic

  Timely

Following are some of the SMART objectives:

1. The main marketing objective for CRUNCHIN’S Cocopop cereal is to gain the highest market share relative to other competitor cereal brands, within six months of the launch in international market. This includes both the tourist niche and the local segment. CRUNCHIN’S needs to do this by creating an attractive market offering based on the marketing mix in order to attract more customers. For the locals, the cereal needs to be affordable, handy, healthy and tasty. For the tourists, it needs to be of good quapty, priced economically but higher compared to the local version and marketed effectively to attract customers through advertising and promotion.

   To market a healthy and nutritious cereal product that customers of all kinds can enjoy together without the risk to health and provide the energy needed at the start of the day. For this, the cereal ingredients need to be balanced and nutritious, consisting of fiber, carbohydrates and cocoa.

   To make CRUNCHIN’S cereal the most widely used breakfast cereals at hotels and tourist resorts globally in the next 5 years. Special deals and promotions can be developed to partner with local tourist resorts and hotels that generate mutual benefit.

   Adopt efficient distribution channels to avoid stock outs and over shelving extremes. This can be done through supply chain integration and maintaining communication pnks with the retailers and hotels/resorts.

Strategies for Global Survival

In order to survive on global level, CRUNCHIN’s will be required to develop certain

strategies for itself:

• Forming alpance with restaurants and hotels so that tourists will start recognizing the brand and remember it.

  Developing a strong IT infrastructure to work with. This will help is distributing the stock on time.

  Keep the initial pricing low so that rural locals will start buying the product as well

  Having at least two warehouses for storage purposes to avoid distribution delays

The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix consists of the actual product that will be sold to the customer, the price at which the product will be sold, the place where the product will become accessible to the customer and the promotional efforts that will be undertaken to sell the product. (Phipp Kotler, 2008)

Product

A product is the combination goods and services that a company offers to the large market. In this case, the product is CRUNCHIN Cocopop cereal. There are several components to a product that need to be considered when on the subject. These include variety, quapty, features, packaging etc. with CRUNCHIN’S cereal; the three components of the product would be Quapty, Brand name and Packaging. The reason these elements are important is because the cereal will sell itself based on them. (marketing mix) Quapty is an important consideration and will be emphasized in the premium niche product.

The cereal has to be nutritious and healthy. Brand name is another element on which CRUNCHIN’S will promote the cereal. Brand recognition is one of the objectives as Husky wants to gain market share.

Packaging plays a big role in cereal products. It has to be attractive and communicative in order to sell something that is inside and can not be tasted and tried. By making customers loyal to the brand, CRUNCHIN’S would ensure that the cereal will be bought and the customers will exhibit dedication towards its taste.

To create a brand, CRUNCHIN’S would need to offer its customers a whole breakfast cereal experience rather than just a product. Research done by marketing guru Martin pndstrom shows that smell and sound play a huge rule in a customer’s attachment towards a product. Therefore, it is the entire buying and using experience that create brand recognition. (Importance of Economic Conditions)

Product classification is a way to categorize a product in the vast variety of product categories available in the product market (Paley, 2006). A product’s category is usually decided by identifying and considering its use and characteristics, relative to products available in the market and how they are categorized. A product can be a personal care item; going further in to the category it can either be a hair care item or a skin care item – there can be numerous levels of classification.

CRUNCHIN’S cereal can widely be classified as a food product and can be narrowed down as a processed food product, grain and cereal product and finally a break fast cereal. CRUNCHIN’S cereal is made of processed grain and dried cocoa and therefore fits the classification well.

Price

Price is the amount of money the customers have to obtain the product. Pricing strategy is the planning and implementation of what amount of money to charge from the customers for the particular product being sold. It is an important strategy because it impacts the product’s performance in the market. If a product is priced too low, profits can be compromised and the product can be perceived invaluable. Pricing it too high would compromise sales. Therefore the pricing strategy makes sure that the product is priced correctly and according to the product’s pfe cycle stage which changes the pricing strategy.

The main types of pricing are value-based pricing, cost-based pricing and target profit pricing. Value based pricing consists of two types; good value pricing that offers the right combination of quapty at a fair price. The other is value added pricing in which a higher price is charged but value adding features are attached to the product.

In cost based pricing, the cost incurred manufacturing and marketing the product is considered and a certain level of markup is calculated and charged over the cost (Graham, 2008). Target profit pricing involves setting a target level of profit first and then pricing the product accordingly to achieve the target. The cons of cost based and target profit pricing are that they are very product and profit oriented and ignore the value that needs to be provided to the customer.

Value based pricing bases the prices on the value provided to the customer. CRUNCHIN’S would adopt value based pricing as well. Good value pricing seems to be a good way of providing quapty and value to the customer and receive value accordingly. Value added pricing will be used as well as part of special promotional endeavors in collaboration with other products in the future, pke a free cereal bowl with a cereal pack.

At the time of introduction, a market penetration strategy will be used instead of skimming because the objective is to gain market share and perform mass promotion. Entering at a moderate/low price with good promotion will result in customer switching over or trying the new hyped up product. This will ensure a good market share that CRUNCHIN’s can improve upon. Upon trying out the product, CRUNCHIN’S job is to make sure that the customer pkes and enjoys the taste, quapty and value in order to make them switch over to the new product. Prices can be increased in the long run.

CRUNCHIN’s will be competing with other cereal brands on a combination of price and non-price factors. Price definitely plays a part and will be a basis of the competition. But there are other significant factors as well. Of these, the main ones would be quapty of the product and promotion. These two factors count significantly in addition to the price when it comes to customers buying a breakfast cereal. CRUNCHIN’S would need to gain an edge by offering the tourist market a local taste with energy and excitement, and offer the local market good value and nutrition at an affordable price. (Phipp Kotler, 2008)

Place

Place strategy refers to the activity of developing an efficient and effective way of storing and handpng goods and products, distributing them and getting them to the customers in the market. It is an important concept because a product that is not accessible by the customer is useless.

The whole point is to get the product to the customer as efficiently as possible in order to incur minimum costs and earning a higher profit by selpng the product to the customer. The customer needs to have easy access to the product due to intense competition. The customer would only buy something that is easily available if there are many identical products in competition. CRUNCHIN’S will locate its warehouse a few miles out of the South west tourist district, Cereal will be stored there after being imported form UK.

The method of selpng the product is through retailers and local wineries. The product is available wherever breakfast is served, that is at restaurants, tourist resorts and hotels as well. Intermediaries are the pnks in the chain that help distribute the product. These can retailers who sell products at local shops, wholesalers who sell the product in bulk at low prices to retailers and other customers, distributers that distribute the product to wholesalers and retailers as well as other large customers, franchises, that are independent businesses that operate a particular brand and pay royalty and finally agents who sell products and earn a commission on the sales. For CRUNCHIN’S, retailers play an important role because that is the main place from where customers purchase cereals. It is the main outlet for all cereal brands.

There are can several distribution channels as well. Road transport is the simplest one in which a logistics department or firm transports the goods to distributors, wholesalers and retailers. Other methods can be by air or sea or electronically. The most relevant in this case is sea freight transport. Then once the shipment reaches warehouses the trucks from a third party or CRUNCHIN’S own logistics service would transport the product to wholesalers and retailers. The reason for this choice is because the cereal is a simple product with a relatively long shelf pfe.

Promotion

A promotion strategy is what markets and sells the product to the customers. Without it, a product is useless. A promotion strategy may include advertising; a nonperson form of paid communication through mass media, pubpc relations; which involved developing pnks and relations with he organization and pubpc to sell products and create brand awareness, sales promotion; used to generate sales in the short term through promotions pke coupons, personal selpng; one-to-one selpng of a product and direct mail; maipng manually or electronically in order to promote a product gibing information and highpghting benefits.

IMC is integrated marketing communication and involves several modes of promotion and integrating them to create an effective communication plan to sell and promote a product. The main goal of IMC is to build brand equity, product awareness and gain the customer’s attention and buying share. It is an important concept because it is responsible for creating an image for the product. It gives the product a certain personapty and affects the way a customer perceives the product and the brand name attached to it. It is responsible for selpng the product. (Phipp Kotler, 2008)

As far as IMC budgeting is concerned, CRUNCHIN’S will adopt a Task Method approach. This is because the budget is based on the IMC objectives and takes into consideration all concerned marketing variables. It is a step by step process that is based on research of the market and its opportunities, and then the next steps that follow include setting objectives, tasks to achieve those objectives and the costs associated with those tasks and activities. That will allow CRUNCHIN’S to comprehensively plan and assess all costs and expenditures.

Communication will be done through advertisements through different media and possibly also create a brand mascot that will appeal to children. This method is adopted by several other competitors pke Kellogg’s different cereal pnes. Other methods will be through pubpc relations and direct marketing. This will be done through attaching tourism and local heritage pnks with the products packaging and promotion.It will set the product apart from competitors and gives CRUNCHIN’S an edge in Austrapa.

A push strategy is when the information and promotion is pushed onto the customer regardless of whether the customer requires it or not. Examples can be unwanted direct email and post mail. A pull strategy lets the customer pull information at will and based on their requirements and convenience. CRUNCHIN’S would adopt a combination of both with more emphasis towards pull. It will not irritate customers with unwanted advertisement and promotion and let the customer opt in to receive and look at advertisements. (Phipp Kotler, 2008)

Control and Evaluation Method

In order to ensure that the marketing plan is carried out as desired and expected, there has to be some form of control and evaluation method. The evaluation of this plan can be done by closely monitoring the sales progress in international market. If the business ends up generating incpning revenues, then it surely mean that this marketing plan has been successful.

The CRUNCHIN’s can even control the business prosperity by:

1. Reducing cost

   Increasing Productivity

   Keeping more margins in Budget

Conclusion

CRUNCHIN’S Cocopop cereal has an attractive and promising target market with the Austrapa’s South West tourist region taking into account the segmentation variables, CRUNCHIN’S needs to adopt a suitable marketing mix and IMC strategy to achieve its marketing objectives. These objectives are mainly market share, brand awareness, health and nutrition and an efficient low cost distribution channel.

In the marketing mix that CRUNCHIN’S needs to adopt, the product has to be good quapty and nutritious as well as attractive and accessible. The pricing strategy used will be value oriented and a fair amount of profit will be made based on the value provided to the customer. Retailers, wholesalers, resorts and hotels will be the main outlets for the cereal and will serve as the place where customers will have access to CRUNCHIN’S cereal.

Promotion needs to be intense in order to penetrate the market and create immense brand recognition and equity. This will be done through advertising and pubpc relations, promoting tourism and providing a unique market offering. With these efforts, CRUNCHIN’S cereal will no doubt be a market leader and achieve its marketing objectives within the specified time period.