Marketing Strategy for Edible Arrangments

Edible Arrangements is a company based in the United States with its headquarters in Wallington, Connecticut.  The company specializes in fruit salad, fresh fruit smoothies, bouquets, molded fresh fruits and chocolate dipped fruits. As a new strategic marketing manager, I will improve on existing fruit products which is not as expensive as introducing a new product. New products consumes time and resources. I will take into consideration the feedback from clients in finding ways of improving the products to meet the best customer’s satisfaction. This will be done by introducing new innovations to products and customers for the whole product value chain (Matsumoto, 2016).

Technology has played a vital role in service delivery in Edible Arrangement Company by easing digital marketing of products, promotion and advertising, creating a global avenue for clients and enhancing a digital customer services (Percy, Eliot, 2016).

Edible arrangements has been perceived to offer seasonal gifts for birthdays, valentine days, fathers days and mothers days; after these high pick sales seasons, sales reduce immensely. As a new strategic sales manager, I will strive to change this notion by convincing customers to stop by the stores and buy products all year round. I will create a unique way of improving sales through introducing more product varieties in fruit salads, chocolates, covered strawberries and smoothies (Pechman, Catlin, 2016).

I will introduce techniques which will ensure service characteristics to aide in reducing losses, create more client satisfaction, and cut operation costs. This will be done by having collective sales points, consolidated product brands in stores, best customer care services, competent service providers and ensuring unique products (Percy, Eliot, 2016).

Measuring quality of services will be done through observing aspects on visual appearance, color, size, shape and absence of defects. Visual appearance of the fruits is delicate in the initial purchase. Color dictates the perception of the buyers whether fruits are real, ripe, tasty and of good quality hence determining the mentality to purchase. Size and shape defines fruits look and originality. Absence from defects is likewise important because clients will not purchase fruits with any defects, damages or rotten. The company has quality control departments in every store to ensure that products meet the required quality standards. Fruits are perishable products hence if their quality are not properly observed, they will spoil in a short period of time leading into company losses. The company has mega freezers to help reduce spoilage (Pechman, Catlin, 2016).

The company has gone global. Globalization comes with challenges. Perishability of fruit products, long distances, infrastructural issues, political instability, workforce issues and technology are among key challenges. Fruit products are highly perishable hence the need to have a ready market (Percy, Eliot, 2016). This is sometimes not the case because of large distances covered, poor infrastructure hampering transportation, instabilities in some countries like middle-east, need for a large readily available workforce that ensures a quick flow of operations and poor technology that affects digital marketing of the products. Furthermore, there is a need to have specialized transportation means like the air transport to fasten transportation of fruits to the markets. This can tend to be very expensive.

 For Instance the company experienced immense challenges when delivering products in its subsidiaries in the middle-east because of the infighting between Israel and Palestine. This was in the year 2014 when transport was paralyzed. The company encountered heavy losses of $ 1million US (Pechman, Catlin, 2016).

The marketing strategy implemented by the former manager was based on developing an advertising campaign before implementing a robust marketing strategy. The advertising move could potentially affect the company adversely due to increase in expenses. Implementation of advertisement before the marketing strategy clearly confirms that the company is uncertain based on the customer base. Besides, the target audience as well as their needs is not well defined thus need for awareness (Percy, Eliot, 2016).

Marketing Strategy

The following are the basic marketing and management strategies for Edible arrangements under the new management:

To have Monthly increment in sales.

To achieve Operational profitability.

To Increase the market base.

To satisfy the consumer needs.

To gradually lower the cost of production.

The main target of the Company is direct consumer approach in the entire market within which it operates. Besides, selling to retailers and nearby consumers is part of the strategic plan. With a unique strategy, Edible Arrangements is set to succeed as the company offers a variety of fruit products that are on demand by the residents. Another aspect that presents a great difference from the products offered by competitors is that Edible Company products are offered in different brands and of high quality. The company products are free from chemicals, hence meeting most of the health requirements of individuals especially those who are keen on dietary observation (Pechman, Catlin, 2016).

Marketing Mix for the Consumer Market

Edible company products are in accordance with the consumer needs since they serve as an accompaniment to almost every meal consumed by the population. The products come in various varieties which includes fruit salads, chocolate, smoothies and bouquets. The products are moderately priced since most of the people are of the middle class (Percy, Eliot, 2016).

Seemingly, all outlets are sufficiently supplied and replenished with products to avoid under supply. Stalls near homesteads serve as direct outlets for they are readily accessible by the consumers thus saving them time and energy required to access distant outlets. Therefore, posters at Small scale outlets and advertisements will serve to echo the presence of the Company in the local market (Pechman, Catlin, 2016).

The products have depicted a gradual increase in purchase as well as orders across the world market due to medical recommendations and value attached.

Therefore, advertising and promotion through price manipulation will be necessary to increase the consumption and sales. For instance, the middle class can be cheaply offered the products at reduced prices while maintaining the profit margins in order to encourage consumption of the organic vegetables and thus increased revenue generation by the company. Similarly, Retailers can acquire the vegetables at relatively low prices as compared to alternative outlets as a way of boosting daily sales. Encouraging profitability of resellers also builds on daily sales. Additionally, after sales services through packaging and providing handling procedures also serve to increase the purchase. Minimal costs increase profitability of retailers and thus increase in purchase and customer loyalty (Matsumoto, 2016).

Figure 1 above is a decorated Snack from Edible Arrangement Company. A new innovation of value addition that has increased sales.

References

Matsumoto M., Masui K., Fukushige S., and Kondoh S. (2016). Sustainability through Innovation in Product Life Cycle Design.

Pechmann, C., and Catlin, J. (2016). The effects of advertising and other marketing communications on health-related consumer behaviors. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, 44-49.

Percy, L., and Elliott, R. (2016). Strategic advertising management. Oxford University Press, 76.