Example Of Strategic Marketing Plan For Introducing Fortified Cheese In Ireland Business Plan

Abstract

When considering introducing a new product in the market, consumer trend and market forecasting research need to be done. Market forecast research will help to determine the profitability of the introduction of a new product. It will indicate whether it would be economically wise to retain the existing ones and increase in advertising and brand management. Market analysis and forecast will help us to determine how much of the product to introduce and whether we can cut cost by assuming bulk production (Brennan, 2008). A fortified cheese product was to be introduced in the Ireland country.
Prior to the introduction, many aspects of the marketing and entry strategies needed to be made. This paper seeks to outline the marketing strategies observed in introducing the new product. The paper will review the nature of the product and its viability in the market. Estimated sales of the product in the market will be evaluated. The paper will analyze the target market, the nature of our competitors and the product features that will give us an upper hand in the face of the competition. The manuscript will describe our core strategy that we will adopt into achieving our goals. The paper will explain or marketing mix concerning our communication and promotional strategies, our pricing channels of distribution and customer relationship management.

Introduction

In launching a new product into the market, it is critical to evaluate key areas that affect the entrance of the product in the market. One of the main aspects to determine is the target market. Identifying the target market is critical in sales and production forecasting. The target market will determine the amount of the product to produce, the manner of the packaging, sales and promotional strategies and pricing.
The nature of the market about the geographical distribution of the target market will enable the designing of the distribution channels of the product. The nature of similar or competitive goods available in the market will be considered. The consideration of these products will enable in pricing strategies and the promotion methods to compete favorably in the market.
The nature of the product, the benefits and its features are critical for attracting new clients for the product and ensuring sales are made to satisfy the investors in terms of returns. Government policies related to the product, ethical issues regarding consumer rights and other stakeholders is essential for a successful launch of the product. The brand manager should be able to have a sales projection for the product that would ensure the product is a success.
The product manager must consider all these factors before launching a new product in the market. This manuscript will be discussing the application of these factors in the launch of fortified cheese in Ireland. By analyzing all these factors, the product manager will come up with the best entry marketing strategy.

Fortified cheese

Objective/Mission Statement
Target Market
Competition
Fortified cheese features
Core strategy
Communications and promotions
Price
Distribution channels
Customer relationship management
Product: Fortified cheese
Cheese is a commodity that can be consumed by almost everyone in the community. Being a product of milk that is believed and has been proved scientifically to be essential in the wellbeing of the people across all ages and genders, it is highly appreciated by all the customers. Cheese can be consumed at any time of the day and at any time of the year. Its consumption is independent of the seasons and the time of the day.
Cheese can be served in any occasions including birthdays, weddings and festivals. Cheese can be packed in many different methods to enable different pricing to suit the needs of the customers considering their purchasing power. Our product is unique because all the producers of cheese offer ordinary cheese manufactured from fermented milk. By adding medical and nutritional value to cheese, the resulting product is unique and has an upper hand towards the competitors.
The raw materials for the production of the cheese are locally available. The producers of the raw materials will form a solid customer base since they will have a sense of ownership of the brand. Owing to the different packaging sizes and models, the pricing of the cheese will be able to accommodate all the people in the community regardless of their age, their economic status and their races.
The product will be able to entice all the cheese consumers towards the better product that is not availed by the other producers in the market. I decided to pursue the concept of fortified cheese after considering all the above perspectives of the cheese consumption and the availability in the market.

Objectives/Mission statement

The mission statement of the organization is to become the leading fortified cheese manufacturing company in a given nation. The set of objectives for the organization are as follows:

Prior research had established that cheese industry in the nation of Ireland controlled $12,500,000 in a year.

The figure will constitute of 80% of the first buyers who will remain loyal to the brand. The consumers will remain loyal for the period of the five years. An increment of 5% is estimated yearly so that the sales attained by the fifth year amounts to $5,000,000 that translates to 40% market share. However, an advantage of 0.25% was taken into consideration that would be brought about by changes in the tastes and preferences of the consumers, emergence of new competitor products in the market and political changes in the region.
Target Market

Cultural Analysis

Ireland was the third largest island in the European continent with a population of more that 6.4 million. Ireland was the home of many different ethnic groups who had migrated from all over the world. The population in Ireland was distributed evenly in terms of sexual ratio that almost stood at a one is to one female to male ratio across the entire ages in the population.
The productive population formed a greater portion of the population with a 67.0% figure of the total population. Christian families and mode of life was highly manifested in this population, and the Roman Catholic denomination of the Christian faith was the most dominant with a population 84.16%. Majority of Ireland’s population lived in urban areas (62.0%) with the rest of the population living rural areas. English was the most used language with a population of 94% calling it their mother tongue (Brennan & Babin, 2004).

Economic Analysis

Ireland was seen to have a high percentage of people at risk of poverty that stood at 21%. It was open to foreign trade and traded with many countries with the major participants being the United States of America and Chine (Callahan, 2004). The European Union corridor opened the country to the international trade.
Most of the country’s economy was pasture driven with cattle and cattle products forming majority of its exports. Sporting activities were also common across the island. Games like hockey. Golf, cricket and Olympic target shooting were most common. The staple food in Ireland was potatoes, grains that were mainly oats and barley and cattle products. In Ireland, there were three types of housing.
Majority of the rural dwellers lived in their owned homes while majority of the urban dwellers lived in rented apartments. A minority of the population lived in social housing that was granted by the government to those that were economically challenged to own a home or rent one.
The unemployment in this country was 11.1%. Our target market would be everybody since cheese is a product for everybody with a particular emphasis to the rural population, mostly children. The product will target the whole of the population across their economical status. In achieving this, different packages will be introduced that will enable different pricing methods to accommodate majority of the population regardless of how much they earn in a year. The packaging will also be designed to fit different occasions like birthdays and the festive seasons.
Competition
The product to introduce to the market would be cheese. The most advantage of this is Ireland is a great producer of cattle and cattle products. The raw material for the production of cheese (milk) will come from the locally available sources. That way, our company will be empowering the farmers and they in turn would feel associated with the product of their farming.
The Ireland population has cattle products as their traditional staple food which would make the cheese fit well in their normal lives. Market branding as a method of marketing will be very important in introducing the product such that the consumers will want to be associated with the product.
The first trials will be run in the urban areas. Mass production and low pricing will be employed as a means to attain a higher competitive end from the competitors. Anybody across all ages could consume cheese. The product will be made in different sizes and flavors to cater for the different populations with a special target to teenagers and small children. Mostly, urban centers will be targeted as the larger population lived here, and, majority of them had the financial ability to spend.
Moreover, this class of people has a taste and a sense of class hence the need to make a brand that they will like to be associated with. The rural population will not be left behind, and many branches and subsidiaries could be opened in the rural town centers. Vans that will be used for the collection of milk from the farmers will be used for distributing the cheese to reach the rural populations (Balasubramanian, Karrh, & Patwardhan, 2006). Cheese is a commodity that is consumed at any time of the month and any time of the day making it more advantaged in the market. Retail outlets will be set, and consumer oriented promotional methods will be employed to penetrate and retain the market.

Product Features

The product is unique in that it contains fortifiers that are essential in dietary requirement and comes in different flavors to suit the varying tastes and preferences of the consumers. This will place our product at a more competitive end than our competitors will. Our product is composed of varying sizes and packages that come with different pricing.
The different packages have taken into account on the desires and prevalence of the consumers in terms of their purchasing power, the amount of their consumption, their favorite colors and occasions. In so doing, our product will stand out against our competitors and will be the desired product by all the consumers of cheese. The consumers stand to benefit more from the product and will have an increased value for their money.

Core Strategies

Our core strategy is to produce a unique product that will add value to our consumer`s expenditure. Through brand marketing and promotions, we will attain loyalty of the product from our clients. Our packaging and pricing will accommodate all the members of the population and will cater for all the occasions and situations. In so doing, our brand will be able to compete and attain 40% of the market share in 5 years.

Marketing Mix: Communications and Promotion

Special discounts will be offered on particular days or events, special packages made for couples, families birthdays and so on. The wrappers and the shapes of the cheese would also be different to appeal to the target groups like the shape of a heart to the couples. A to B testing would be performed, and customer oriented marketing techniques applied. Direct selling to the end consumer will be applied to ensure that the product representative interacts directly with the consumer (Sparrow, 2012).
Brand marketing will be utilized to ensure the consumers identify with the product. Personalized adverts will be made through personalized emails, open platforms where the clients can interact directly with the product and give their feedback. Mass promotion strategies will not be encouraged because we aim to target the market through personalized and brand marketing. Promotions will be based on coupons and seasons. Personalized promotions will be done in regard to the consumer trends.

Marketing Mix: Pricing

Mass production would be employed. This would lower the costs of production per unit and in turn our prices will be low than that of our competitors and still we will manage to make a profit. Brand marketing, customary mark-ups extended directly to our consumers in bulk sales and through our retail outlets.
Trade discounts and cash discounts will be extended to our customers through special offers in particular days and special occasions. Our product will be very different from our competitors in terms of branding, packaging and quality of production (Lewis, 2008). Modifications will be done to our product to be more appealing to our specific customers like children who like colored packages; couples will be targeted by assuming a product with the shape of a heart. Products targeted for birthdays will have inscriptions of “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” so that they will be more appealing to our customers.

Marketing Mix: Channels of Distribution

The main methods of distribution will be by railway to the far towns, ferries for the short distances where they pried and vans within the urban centers. Marking and labeling will be done as per the regulations of our patent and our registered trademark. To lower the company’s production cost, the product will be produced locally, through transferring our production right to another company.
This will eliminate the over-seas transport, warehousing and import taxes. All other documentation and costs associated with imports will be eliminated. The raw material for cheese production is available in Ireland. We will have whole sale and retail outlets to reach all our customers.

Marketing Mix: Customer Relationship Management

We will continuously strive to embed innovative ideas and processes into our manufacturing process that will create value for our customers, reduce cost and improve on efficiency and brand quality. We will continually monitor the changing consumer needs and desires. The changing consumer trends will guide us on the type of technologies to adopt in our production process. We will implement the SAP Netweaver technology platform to ensure effective information and business transformation strategy within all the business units (Klarsfeld, 2009).
We will target on ensuring that our service is the point of distinction between us and other competitors in Ireland. The excellent service will be given to every customer on every customer-shopping trip. We will set up an excellent testing program and develop more quality products to fit our consumer`s needs.
We will give two-year direct contracts to beef and lamb farmers. We estimate that the farmers that we will award this contract will remain loyal to our product and will influence the localities within which they live to be loyal to the product through the financial empowerment of the locality.

Conclusion

Fortified cheese is a unique product that will give it an upper hand against the competitors in the market. Cheese is a universal product that can be consumed by the largest population regardless of age, religion and is season and time of the day independent. By choosing fortified cheese as the product to introduce in Ireland, we stand to have many advantages. The raw materials for the production of cheese are locally available. Secondly, the largest of the population utilize livestock products as their daily meals. Thirdly, cheese can be consumed by anyone and at any time.
Our packaging and pricing methods will serve to accommodate the needs and the preferences of our clients in regard to age, gender, economic status and the occasions. Our promotion and advertising strategy that will be primarily brand marketing will enhance loyalty to the brand by our buyers. Through our excellent customer relationship management that will entail varying product flavors, direct interaction of the clients and the product ambassadors will ensure the customer’s changes in demands and preferences are met. In so doing, the launch of our product will be successful and by the end of five years, we will be controlling 40% of the cheese market share in Ireland.

References

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Callahan, S. (2004). Marketers Explore Product Placement. Business to Business, 89(13), 1-3.
Klarsfeld, A. (2009). The diffusion of diversity management: the case of France. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25(4), 363-373.
Lewis, J.P. (2008). Mastering Project Management: Applying Advanced Concepts to Systems Thinking, Control & Evaluation, and Resource Allocation. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sparrow, P.R. (2012). Globalizing the international mobility function: the role of emerging markets, flexibility and strategic delivery models. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23 (12), 2404-2427.