Strategic Marketing Plan for Healthy Snacks: Targeting Working Adults and the Younger Generation

Question

Task: How can a new business effectively market and promote healthy snacks targeting working adults (aged 28 - 40 years old) and the younger generation in Malaysia? What are the key objectives, pricing strategies, promotional methods, and budget allocation required to establish a strong brand presence and attract a loyal customer base?

Answer

2.0 Objectives

The primary mission statement of the business is to sell healthy snacks targeting working adults (aged 28 - 40 years old) and younger generation. In order to achieve this goal, this marketing plan is being developed that will help promote the company’s products and services. Newly established food agency distributorsnamely Eat Real and Signature Market will supply healthy snacks made of natural ingredients in the market in Malaysia. Additionally, products of will be sold online via own website and Shopee / Lazada. The company has its own warehouse and shipping will be done directly from supplier to customers (a middleman, appointed agent in Malaysia, an agency distributor).

The main objectives of the marketing plan that has been developed here are listed as follows.

? To develop specific plans for marketing that will help to reach strategic goals of the company

? To determine a budget that will be invested for marketing purposes

? To analyse the current market in order to determine an appropriate marketing strategy in terms of product, pricing and promotions

5.0 Marketing Mix Plan

5.1 Product

There are multiple products that will be sold through the online store that will include snacks, nuts, dried fruits, granola bars and others in addition to other regular grocery items. The unique selling point (USP) of the store will be healthy snacks made of high quality natural ingredients that will be very much beneficial for the customers. There are too many snacks and other items in the market that contain huge quantities of ingredients harmful to the health of the consumers. Moreover, they have high pricing slabs as a result of which, the consumers are having to pay high amount of money for products that are unhealthy. However, with increasing awareness, more and more customers are slowly shifting towards healthy items, healthy snacks made of natural ingredients are generating more and more demand(Ferrell, Hartlineand Hochstein2021). This business will utilise the growing demand and promote sales of more and more healthy snacks made of natural ingredients. In addition to promote the sales, the company will also make sure the suppliers are really providing what they promise by testing sample products from time to time.

For any product business, it is not enough to just provide sell a few products – it is equally important to increase volumes as well as variety so that different customers can find their products based on their likings and preferences(Percy 2023). This will be kept in consideration for this business as well and the company will keep updating the online catalogue to increase varieties and types of products available for sale. The company will also collaborate with the suppliers to manufacture more varieties of products that will enhance customer experience while shopping in the online store.

5.2 Pricing Strategies

For any business, pricing strategy is extremely important. Pricing strategy depends on a wide range of factors – market competition, customer demands, market segment, production costs, supply chain and many others. Keeping in consideration of these factors, the following pricing strategies will be followed in this company.

Competitive Pricing – The first pricing strategy will be competitive pricing. This strategy will be based on the pricing of similar products by other sellers as well as keeping in mind the demands of the customers from the target market segment. It will be kept in mind that the products are not too high priced that will scare away the customers but also not too less such that the profit margin gets reduced significantly. Another major aspect of the pricing is the pricing strategies of the main competitors in the market(Chaffeyand Smith2022). This is a new company and hence, in order to compete toe to toe with established players and establish strong market presence, the pricing of the products have to be very much competitive compared to them. This will attract more customers who will be interested in purchasing products from the company.

Bulk Pricing – Another major pricing strategy that will be utilised is bulk pricing. This means the customers will get increasingly more discounts the more bulk quantities they are purchasing(Morganet al. 2019). For instance, for the same product, if a customer buys one quantity at the selling price, he can get 10% discount on total if he buys 3 total, 15% discount if he buys 5 or 20% discount if he buys 10 total. This will incentivize the customers to purchase bulk quantities on the go and it will also significantly increase the sales volumes. Additionally, this will also promote brand loyalty as more and more customers will come back to purchase products in bulk amounts.

Subscription Pricing – The final pricing strategy that has been considered is subscription. This is targeted towards customers who place orders on regular basis(Vieiraet al. 2019). Getting the monthly or yearly subscription will get them significant amounts of discounts as well as complete wavering of delivery charges and getting cashbacksunder specific conditions. The subscription model will also help gaining brand loyalty from customers and a continuous source of revenue.

6. Promotion

It is important to continue promoting the company until a strong brand image and value are established. Some of the main promotion strategies that will be utilised for the company are as follows.

Social Media Marketing – Marketing will be done through social media advertisements in various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others to gain visibility and recognition. Targeted ads towards social media users who regularly use online grocery stores for purchasing products can be a very effective method to gain attention from target customers.

Influencer Marketing – Various social media influencers will be paid to perform marketing for the company(Quesenberry2020). Influencers generally have high numbers of followers and viewership and hence their promotions can significantly help the company to gain attention from potential customers.

Email Marketing – Email marketing will be done after the company gains some customers. Customers’ email IDs will be collected from the profiles they create in the online store and the company will send regular emails and newsletters regarding promotions, new products, limited time discounts and others.

Google Ads Marketing – Google ads will be used to run targeted ads towards potential customers who are searching for healthy snack and other similar products in the internet. This can be further upgraded using search engine optimization (SEO) at a later team.

Event Sponsorship Marketing – The company will also spend some amount of the marketing budget in sponsoring events especially the ones covering healthy practices and healthy food promotions(Morganet al. 2019). These events can very much beneficial for the company to gain attention and brand recognition from potential customers.

7.0 Budget

The overall budget that will be spend for marketing purposes will be 1000 RM per month. This budget will be distributed among different marketing strategies every month. The detailed breakdown is shown as follows (this is directly derived from items 5.3 and 6.0 above).

For the first 6 months, this is the primarily determined budget and since this is a start up business, it will not be possible to go over this budget for marketing alone. Hence, the marketing team will have to make sure these budget allocations are closely followed and the monthly limit of 1000 RM is not exceeded at any cost. Once the company grows, more budget might be allocated to the marketing team.

References

Chaffey, D. and Smith, P.R., 2022. Digital marketing excellence: planning, optimizing and integrating online marketing. Taylor & Francis.

Ferrell, O.C., Hartline, M. and Hochstein, B.W., 2021. Marketing strategy.Cengage Learning.

Morgan, N.A., Whitler, K.A., Feng, H. and Chari, S., 2019.Research in marketing strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47, pp.4-29.

Percy, L., 2023. Strategic integrated marketing communications. Taylor & Francis.

Quesenberry, K.A., 2020. Social media strategy: Marketing, advertising, and public relations in the consumer revolution. Rowman& Littlefield Publishers.

Vieira, V.A., de Almeida, M.I.S., Agnihotri, R., da Silva, N.S.D.A.C. and Arunachalam, S., 2019. In pursuit of an effective B2B digital marketing strategy in an emerging market. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47, pp.1085-1108.