The Importance of Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a business-related document that gives precise details of the marketing tactics and strategy. In most cases, the marketing plan is meant to last for a specific time and also covers various marketing-related aspects such as goals, costs, and action steps. Unlike the business plan, the plan of streamlining the marketing strategy is not a static document. As the business grows, the marketing plan also changes and thus the business owner finds it necessary to change the marketing strategy that suits the new marketing trends. A marketing plan acts as the roadmap that assists the investors and business owners to keep track of the direction that would enable them to achieve their business objectives. Sometimes, marketing plans are incorporated into the business plan, but if an individual wants to have a robust and detailed marketing plan, they can make the document stand out on its own as a separate entity (Cohen, 2005).

Body

The Current Situation

            The company intends to expand the sale of non-alcoholic beverages such as cola drinks to the immediate neighborhood covering an area that has a radius of 25 miles. The current location of the business is in San Francisco in the United States. The current sales margins of the cola drinks are low. There is a need to raise the number of sales made in a day if the business has to stay competitive in the market. The business is also set to benefit and take advantage of the recently passed tax reforms by the U.S legislature that will lower the corporate and small businesses tax from 35% to 21% (McKay, 2017). Therefore, a robust marketing plan will expand the outreach of customers and improve the cola drinks visibility.

Target Market

            Broad knowledge of the market such as market segmentation helps the business owner to formulate specific messages and place them in strategic places where the target customers will quickly see them for greater effectiveness. The target market for this case varies according to age, educational level, ethnic group, gender, income among many more categories. As a cola supplying company, it’s necessary always to strive to satisfy the needs of the different groups of people residing and working where the business is situated in San Francisco. The business has a considerable number of customers who are classifiable according to age as young children. Therefore, with the high demand for Disney hundred Acre Woods among the children, the company has moved with speed and started consideration of supplying and selling this fruit juice that is meant for children within the age group of 3 to 10. Furthermore, the business has diversified the sale of the fruit juice to the children by offering various flavors such as banana, apple, cherry and many more.

            Another target group that is projected to form a more significant percentage of the target market are the teens and young adults whose number is steadily rising in San Francisco on a daily basis. The company intends to sell Minute Maid because of the convenience of carrying it and how its packaged. School going teenagers and young adults are fond of carrying beverage drinks while going to school and sports events. Since the Minute maid drink comes in different flavors such as apple, lemonade, orange and cranberry, the drink will offer varied tastes that will not make it become monotonous and lose appeal from the customers. Furthermore, the minute maid is specifically meant for the young people because a majority of them would be looking for a great taste as well as a healthy beverage. Another added advantage that will endear the teenagers from all the neighboring schools to the Minute maid drink is the fact that it received a health check from the heart and stroke foundation declaring it fit for consumption.

            Furthermore, the beverage selling outlet targets another significant demographic segment of the society who are in the age group of 30-35 years. Majority of the people within this age bracket start being conscious of their health and the drinks they consume. Therefore, Coca-cola zero targets this group of adults who do not want to consume drinks that have a high concentration of calories like other beverages (De Wulf, Odekerken-Schröder, Goedertier, & Van Ossel, 2005). Thus, this beverage company is targeting such significant portion of the population with the intended sale of coca cola zero and coca cola diet that are sugarless and do not have calories.

            Young and sports people are also a critical component of the target market for this non-alcoholic and beverage selling company. Such vital drink for sports people includes the Aquarius and energy drink. An overview of the business location shows that the area has many youths engaged in various sports such as basketball and rugby. The drinks also have added the advantage of being a healthy drink and are known to give the athletes the energy needed to prepare well for the competition without running the risk of being doping agents ((De Wulf et al., 2005). With the seven top professional sports teams in San Francisco, the number of people plying their trade in these teams is estimated to be 2000 players and the coaching staff. The groups also have a massive following with each sports team having a stadium of 25000 people on average. During sports events, the stadia get full. My cola business also targets this significant population of people who go to watch sports on the weekends. Many supporters find cola drinks such as minute maid convenient and thirst quenching when they go to cheer their teams in the sports arena. Some of the sports teams that my business heavily relies on to become their trusted suppliers include Oakland Raiders, Oakland A’s, Golden State Warriors, San Jose Sharks and San Jose Earthquakes.

Goals of the marketing plan

            The business intends to increase the customer’s list by 20 new groups of customers within one year. Attaining that number will enable the business measure its effectiveness and tell whether there is considerable progress or not.

Marketing Tactics

            Since the target market for this business significantly consists of teens, youths and young adults who are engaged in sports or are still in schools and colleges, most of the marketing strategies will be designed to target the areas where most of them frequently hang out. The target market of this business hangs out in the sports arena and partly in school. Furthermore, being a young population, virtually all of them spend a significant amount of time on the internet and social sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Thus, the marketing strategy will factor in a robust online marketing team that will create a Facebook page, create ads to reach out to this target market with the aim of enticing them to check out the business. Investing in Facebook advertising and writing brief articles such as magazines and newsletters will be an efficient way of reaching to the students who are a significant portion of the target market (Lichtenthal & Eliaz, 2003).

            Close Range Marketing (CRM). The business will also harness technology and use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to send promotional messages of the cola products to the customer’s tablets and smartphones that are within proximity. Again, with the target market being the youth who are much more informed on matters to do with smartphones and tablets, reaching out to them using proximity marketing will yield good returns because of the many customers who will see the promotional messages on their phones.

            Transactional Marketing. Meeting the high sales target of the company will demand that more marketing strategies are used to boost the sales. The business will have to organize for sales events in highly populated or crowded place to promote the cola products they have to the customers. One such location would be near the stadiums during sports events because of a large number of people that attend such events.

References

Cohen, W. A. (2005). The marketing plan. John Wiley & Sons.

De Wulf, K., Odekerken-Schröder, G., Goedertier, F., & Van Ossel, G. (2005). Consumer             perceptions of store brands versus national brands. Journal of Consumer marketing, 22(4),        223-232.

Lichtenthal, J. D., & Eliaz, S. (2003). Internet integration in business marketing tactics. Industrial         Marketing Management, 32(1), 3-13.

McKay, D. (2017). American politics and society. John Wiley & Sons.