MKT205_Project KBarrick

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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205

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Marketing

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Feb 20, 2024

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1 MKT 205 Project Kimberly Barrick Southern New Hampshire University MKT 205: Applied Marketing Strategies John Schroeder December 7, 2023

2 PRODUCT semisweet chocolate baking chips PERSONA Megan Mason, 34 DEMOGRAPHICS Location: My persona lives in a rented 3-bedroom home in rural Nebraska. Marital Status: My persona is a married mother of 2 children ages 3 and 7. Occupation and Income: My persona is a Nurse for the local doctor’s office and makes around $75,000 a year. Education Level: My persona has completed 4 years of nursing school. PSYCHOGRAPHICS Hobbies and Interests: My persona is interested in baking blogs/social media groups and participating in school activities with her children during and has interests in improving her homemaking skills. Wants and Preferences: My persona is interested in finding quality ingredients for from scratch baking at a good price. Personal and Professional Goals: My persona is working towards becoming a more adept baker to save money. Shopping Habits and Preferences: My persona likes to shop at supercenters for convenience and makes a trip once a week on the weekends to stock up for her family. Lifestyle: My persona is very family oriented, participating in school and sports activities for her children and occasionally she likes to relax with homemade edibles with her husband when the kids are away. PROMOTION FIRST MARKETING CHANNEL

3 Description of first marketing channel: The first marketing communication channel that I want to utilize is social media. Social media is a internet platform that allows people from all over to socialize and make new connections. There are groups that consist of people with the same interests to share ideas and tips on the shared interest the group focuses on. Social media also has advertising opportunities in the form of paid adds and the ability to connect with influencers. There are many different forms of social media that are used by many different groups of people. Why this channel is appropriate for this persona: social media is an appropriate marketing communication channel for this product based on the persona I created. Megan frequents baking groups on social media so choosing to market though this channel will make it easier to reach her and people like her. Through the use of videos, post, and possible influencer interaction, social media is an easy way to communicate with potential customers like Megan. With most people using multiple social media platforms, there is a better chance to get engaged. (Newberry, 2023) SECOND MARKETING CHANNEL Description of second marketing channel: The second communication channel that I would choose for my product is blogs. Blogs can hold many opportunities for marketing products. There are blogs dedicated to specific brands and paid ads on other companies/peoples blogs. blogs are available to anyone with internet and are often visited for many reasons, some including things not related to anything the close to the product but the ability to advertise on them gives more views to the products. Why this channel is appropriate for this persona: Blogs are an appropriate communication channel for my persona. Megan frequents baking blogs, so using them as a marketing channel to reach her and people like her would be smart. There are recipe blogs (some of which are sponsored by products) that could help promote my product. Blogs also include a good amount of paid advertising, which creates good marketing opportunities. PRICE PRICING FACTOR: COMPETITOR PRICING Competitor pricing: Competitor pricing is when a company decides whether or not to charge more or less for a product than other competitor companies. This pricing factor considers what other companies are charging for their products and services, which shows what the target audience for your product is willing to pay. Finding the right price points helps customers see

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4 that your product is not too pricey and also not cheap either, either of which might make them reconsider buying the product. How pricing factor is used to determine pricing: I think my chosen pricing factor will help set our product at the right price for the customers. With there being so many other companies that produce the same/similar products, knowing what they are charging helps us come up with a reasonable price. We will be able to see what types of chocolate chips people are buying and what they are willing to pay for them by using the market research others have already done and see what works for them and tweak the price to draw consumers in our direction. PRICING STRATEGY: PENETRATION General advantages and drawbacks of penetration pricing strategy: I think the general advantage of the penetration pricing strategy comes from being able to draw our target market to the product by introducing it at a lower price. Starting at a lower price point enables more people to be able/want to try the new offering and create repeat customers once the initial pricing is over with. There are also some general disadvantages as well. One of these could be that the customer may stop buying the chocolates chips after the price is raised. Some customers could also assume that because the chocolate chips are so low priced that some customers may not want to try it because they associate low cost with bad quality. Specific advantages and drawbacks of penetration pricing strategy: I think that for my persona the advantages of penetration pricing will come from the fact that she is on the lookout for new products to try in with her home baking and the lower introductory price will draw her in because she enjoys baking for school functions, which requires a large amount of ingredients. She also may share the product in the baking groups she is a part of, which can cause a sales increase due to the number of people that frequent the groups. A disadvantage of this strategy for my persona would be that if the price jump after the initial price is too high, she may move on to another company to try them if their price is lower, she could also be dissuaded by the low price and think that it is a low quality product. PLACE CHANGES IN THE MARKETPLACE Change in the marketplace: People are still hesitant to get back into the world due to the pandemic, so I would like to explore how Covid changed the way that people shop and get products.

5 How the change addresses the distribution of products to my persona: During the pandemic, Megan was an online shopper, getting most of her groceries and household items online. Megan has begun going back to the store to do some of her shopping, but still orders most of her groceries online. This gives Megan the choice to either continue to get her products through instore retail distribution channels or online channels. This differs from just online ordering because companies need to put effort into both distribution channels to reach the target market, however, online distribution channels should be the main focus. DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL Potential distribution channel and why it is appropriate for my product and persona: Because of this shift in the way Megan is making everyday purchases i think the best distribution channels would be a combination of in person retail and online distribution. I believe the combination of the two is very important for my product, being able to reach people like Megan via in-store options at common retailers like Walmart and Kroger, as well as the opportunity to purchase the same items online. With as much time as Megan spend looking at baking blogs and social media groups online, it’s a huge bonus if the product is available at the touch of a finger, making it easy to obtain products directly from the company. It's also equally important to have retail distribution in order to make it convenient for Megan to also be able to order online or go into the store and grab the same product. PRODUCT How product should be marketed in relation to meeting the needs and wants of my persona: I believe my CB product should be marketed as a new and improved chocolate chip that is available for home baking projects. I would highlight a money back guarantee if the customer were not happy with the new product. I would also have a QR code included on the side of the bag for my target market to scan that provides recipes and baking tips and tricks. I would also release information and coupons for the chocolate ships on baking blogs and groups to help draw my persona and target market to the new product. How bringing this product to the marketplace helps support and build the Chocolate Bliss brand: I believe bringing CB's chocolate chips to market would be a great addition to the brand based on the scenario above. With CB marketing their products as a "secret family recipe" I feel like my chosen product fits the narrative because it is used in from scratch recipes and make the connection of a family-oriented product. With the major competitor being Nestle, a well- known and long lived brand, bringing a new variation to the table in the new launch in the Midwest will be an asset, as family values and activities are big in that area of the US. With CB being a financially healthy company, it will be easy to include discounts and coupons for the new product, which will help set it apart from the current offerings price wise. I also think that

6 with CB already having an online presence will also make it easier to market to the online market in the area as well as a spot on local store shelves will help the product and brand make a bigger impact. EVALUATION How to evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing plan: In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing plan I would perform a SWOT analysis first. Being able to lay out the details of each category will help the company see where we have room to grow, what we already do well, and who/what is a threat to the company's growth. I would also use data from competitors to be able to get an idea how people feel about them and where they are lacking, so those areas can be a focus for Chocolate Bliss to improve on and outshine the competitors. Two quantitative data collection tools I could use to evaluate the marketing plan: The first quantitative data collection tool that I would use is focus groups. Instead of spending time and money conducting many separate face to face interviews, which takes quite a bit of time and money, focus groups are larger groups of consumers (10-13) with certain things in common to make the data collection more focused. Chocolate Bliss has the financials to be able to afford a skilled moderator to conduct these groups in order to collect insights on the new product that can be utilized to change marketing strategies as needed for increased sales. For the second method of quantitative data collection that I would use is quantitative surveys. Although these closed surveys have the potential to limit the options for answers of the survey takers, they are still very useful to Chocolate Bliss. With such a large group of consumers that buy chocolate chips quantitative surveys give the company the ability to survey large groups of people and create simplified results to use. Two qualitative data collection tools I could use to evaluate the marketing plan: For the collection of qualitative data, i would use qualitative surveys for smaller groups of consumers. These types of surveys allow the takers to answer the proposed questions in their own words. This benefits Chocolate Bliss by being able to ask more detailed questions about the new chocolate chips and gain a great number of details. This allows customers to express their wants, needs, and concerns about the product that Chocolate Bliss can consider when adjusting the marketing plan to increase sales and satisfaction. The second qualitative data collection I would use is interviews, specifically the CAPI ones. These interviews are on the more expensive side and require an interviewer to be versed in how to use the systems. Even though they cost more, CAPI's make it possible to streamline the data collection that happens during the interview. The information collected will be entered

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7 directly into the database while the interview is taking place. With Chocolate Bliss in a good financial place, spending the money on this type of data collection isn't an issue, and will make the collection and review of the data faster, giving the marketing team the information needed to tweak the marketing plan more promptly.

8 REFERENCES Alsem, Karel Jan (2019). Applied Marketing Strategies, a step by step approach . New York: Routledge. Kamp, Kaitlin (2021). Baking and Mixes. Mintel Group Ltd. https://reports-mintel- com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/display/1044719/ Tanner, J., & Raymond, M. A. (2020). Applied marketing strategies . Soomo Learning. https://www.webtexts.com

MKT205_Project KBarrick

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