MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Assignment 1: Company Introduction, Market Segmentation, and Product Positioning
Company Background
The name of the company is Fresh Juice Enterprises. The company is involved in the business of preparing and serving fresh juice to a wide range of customers. The idea to start this company emanated from the excessive use of carbon as a preserving in most of the soft drinks. The carbonated drinks have been an issue of concern as far as health issues are concerned (Carbonates Info, 2013). They may bring certain body malfunctions and diseases. For this reasons, it is necessary to invest in fresh juice so as to fill the gap on the demand for non-carbonated drinks. The company is located in Florida, and it has shown great performance since its inception. There has been great resistance from the public to adopt this brand since most of them were associated with big soft drinks company like Pepsi Inc., and Coca-Cola. The short-term plans for growth of the company are to improve the number of hourly bottles of juice produced.
An education and work history gives sufficient experience to ensure the continuity of the company. As employee, Pepsi that is part of the soft drink industry give sufficient skills that are needed for this industry to grow. The areas of weakness in this business are dealing with the administrative staff. At Pepsi working at the processing plans, therefore, is not possible to come into contact with other department staff in most occasions. It would compensate for this by identifying a competent human resource manager who may help management of the organization employees.
Company strategic mission statement
The mission of the company is to refresh the public in general irrespective of their disability or health. The company intends to restore optimism and faith on the soft drinks as a source of refreshment. There is a great divergence of people from consuming the carbonated soft drinks. The company would like to provide an alternative of the carbonated drinks, to ensure they still get refreshment with assurance that there health concern is taken into consideration. This is the strategic mission statement of the company. The mission is viable since it serves the interest of all stakeholders of the company. It looks at the customers' requirements and needs by providing them with a health drink at a time where the world is full of fizzy drinks that have proved to be unsafe, especially for the growing kids (Mills, 2004). The company offers fresh juice that does not need preservative that often led to hiked prices, which are unaffordable. The community around will get more employment opportunities from the company, thus reducing the level of unemployment.
Foreign market for the product and services
With increased competition locally, there is need to identify foreign markets for the products. There is also increased awareness across Europe and America on the effects of carbonated drinks. The foreign market taken for a decision to invest in is Canada, and Britain. These are countries that are in close proximity to my company and U.S.A in general. The closeness may ease the management of the company branches in the foreign countries. Taking the nature of the product into consideration, exportation of this product may be possible for markets located far away from America. In addition, to proximity the two foreign markets speak the same language as U.S.A; therefore, there will be effective communication among different agents. The freight and shipping cost may also be at a lower level when dealing with Canada and Britain.
Marketing Plan
Potential Audiences
The potential audiences for the company's marketing plan are: financial institutions (Iacobucci, 2012), future employees, potential investors, regulatory authorities, and company's suppliers. On the fore, the financial institutions are the most significant audiences. The company needs funding for it to have stable growth, and continuity. There is need to seek some leverage to support the company expansion (Mills, 2004). The marketing plan is important for the banks, and other financial institutions to assess the credit worthiness of the company. In this case, taking the viability of the plan as rationale that may prove if the company will be able to pay back the loans given by the banks may assess the company's credit worthiness. Future employees are also potential audience. They will work for the company, thus there is need for them to understand the mission statement and philosophy of the company. This will help them to adapt to the new environment easily.
Potential investors need the marketing plan so as to assess if the business is a profitable entity, and whether the going concern of the company is assured. This will be vital for their investment decisions. On the other hand, the regulatory authorities will need this plan so as to check if the company products meet the health standards, and also if the operation of the business is in compliance with the law. The suppliers may be given assurance of the ability of the company paying up its debts through the marketing plan.
Marketing segment.
The marketing segments for the product are benefiting sought segment and a demographic segment. This benefit sought segment looks at consumer attitudes and preferences towards a product, while the demographic segment arises from population
characteristics such as age, gender, income, and the social class. The company's mission as highlighted above looks at health issues that arose from carbonated drinks. The issues changed the customers' attitudes and preferences towards the soft drinks. This led to decreased demand for the product, which left a gap in the market.
Therefore, the segmentation of the product may be asserted to be benefits sought segmentation since it looks at the preferences and attitude of the customers. The company has come up with a distinct product that may check the attitude towards soft drinks. On the other hand, the demographic segmentation has been looked at. The aged group may prefer this product due to the health concerns (Carbonates Info, 2013). The parents may also be advised to use fresh juice for their children as compared to other carbonated soft drinks. The fresh juice price is also affordable, thus evidence that the marketing segment of the product is demographic.
Target market.
The company has a specific target market despite the different market segments of the product. The target markets for the company are the young children, and people with obesity and other chronic diseases. These are the people who need fresh juice the most due to their health status. The young children are still growing and need health products for their continued growth. The other target market is also vital since the concerned people are not allowed to take the carbonated drinks, which may complicate their health problems. The company may be profitable through its process of choosing the marketing segment and target market. The company chose these target markets after assessing the profitability of the target market as well as the needs and requirements of the target market. Despite these, there is continuous monitoring, evaluation, and control of the soft drink market in order to identify emerging trends that may affect the company's target market and segmentation.
SWOT analysis of the company.
There are various strengths of Fresh Juice Enterprises. On the fore, there have been increases in the demand for non-carbonated soft drinks. Therefore, the company has an established market that may consume the company's products. In addition, the company's cost of production is low. This is strength since the final price offered to the consumer will be affordable attracting a huge amount of sales, consequently improved productivity.
The weakness of the company is that its infrastructure is undeveloped. The company has a small plant that is not able to meet the demand for non-carbonated soft drinks making it to lose a large market share.
There are various opportunities for the company. There is increased globalization that has eliminated trade barriers among countries. The company can now access the foreign market, for instance, Canada and Britain as discussed above.
The major threats to the company are the big competitors such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. These are the biggest soft drinks companies, and have the ability to produce both carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks (Mills, 2004). They have adequate infrastructure to diversify their production; hence they may pose stiff competition in the future.
Market position for the product and service.
The company's product is well positioned. This is evident since unsatisfied market need has been met. There was need for non-carbonated drink, and the company has responded by bringing fresh juice in the market (Carbonates Info, 2013). The company has emphasized on the benefits offered by the product as far as health issues is concerns, ultimately reinforcing this position. Compared to the competitors, the product is superior since most competitors offer carbonated drinks.
When these factors are taken into consideration, it can be asserted that the company is a market leader as far as non-carbonated soft drinks are concerned. The product creates value to not only the company, but also the general public in general. Therefore, the role and position of the product in the market is recognized and appreciated.