Company G Marketing Plan

Company G

3-Year Marketing Plan

Assessment Code:  MKT1

Student Name: Michael Clark Welborn

Student ID: 000286335

Date:  May 17, 2013

Mentor Name: Kasey Kelley

Introduction

Company G is an industry leader and reputed innovator in the electronics market.  “We provide innovative products that improve consumer’s lives and are a front runner at providing functional, elegant and extensively reliable products for consumers. Our newest product is the Flavor Saver Food Dehydrator. Our new concept on food dehydrators allow potential customers, who are wanting a healthier alternative, to quickly prepare snacks that are a healthier and more nutritious as compared to traditional snacks like chips, cookies, snack cakes, etc…

Mission Statement

“We enable consumers to improve the quality and convenience of their lives by providing innovative electronics solutions.”

The Product

Our newest entry into the small appliance arena is, the Flavor Saver Food Dehydrator.  This product is a technologically advanced version of the common food dehydrator.  Food dehydrators are fairly simple machines that utilize simple electronics consisting of heated air, circulated through a multilevel tray system, which is enclosed in a plastic, ceramic or metal housing unit.  As a whole, most dehydrators are very similar with the exception of  “nicer finishes”.  The average dehydrator will take between 6 hours and 48 hours to dehydrate the foods, which are being prepared in the dehydrator.  The four features that the Flavor Saver Food Dehydrator offers above the competition is: First, the ability to add potential flavors to foods being dehydrated.  Second, the ability to decrease dehydration times by 60% due to the increased temperature our product safely generates.  Third, the ability to prepare more dehydrated food due to our patented internal multilevel tray system, which allows more food to be dehydrated.  Finally, the ability to keep the air circulating inside, in an enclosed housing unit, versus the air escaping randomly as with other dehydrators.  The consumer can load several kinds of foods to be dehydrated and many of them (excluding meats) will be ready before school is out or before the consumer gets home from work.  Our newest entry into the small appliance market enables families can come home to healthy, all natural snacks.  Company G accomplishes this by providing cutting edge technological advances to an age-old product, the food dehydrator.  The Flavor Saver Food Dehydrator is revolutionary due to the electronics that allow for 60% faster dehydrating times.  This time saving feature allows families to produce healthier snacks while away at their workplace or out on their busy schedules.  The convenience is, once they come home the healthy snacks are ready, by definition creating an improvement of their lives and a convenience by producing healthy snacks for their families without having to “hover” over a stove or sped hours of preparation time in the kitchen.

Consumer Product Classification

The Flavor Saver Food Dehydrator falls is classified in the shopping products category. This small appliance would be an infrequent purchase for consumers.  The target market will take time researching options such as, brands, quality, features, price and where the product can be purchased. The infrequent purchase of this type of product will cause consumers to weigh heavily the price comparisons, quality and features.  The Flavor Saver Food Dehydrator will be sold through retailers, department stores, specialty stores and online for those who do not have access to a store that carries this product.

The Flavor Saver Food Dehydrator will be priced at a market entry, average price of $35.99.  Very affordable for a small appliance.  The additional features it has to offer will easily bring attention to the product at this price.  Our reputation for talking other ideas or existing products and making them better, more reliable with higher quality will almost immediately put our name at the top of the list when consumers are considering brand name.  We do not want nor are we competing with those infomercials that so many consumers see as a “flash in the pan” marketing of a product.   The distribution channel will be very short. This allows for us to get the product to the outlet venues and into the customers hands quickly once marketing rolls out.  We will promote this product through multiple venues including in store demonstrations, food tasting, online marketing/video clips of our product in operation.

Target Market

Company G realizes families are busier than ever, often with both parents in a household working.  Our market research has shown that our target market is people married or single from the ages of 25 – 55.  Additionally, the market increases if we also include these age demographics with children in the home. Our target income range is from  $40K - $100K.  These people work outside the home typically, where the requirement of their time is not at home. This demographic are largely responsible for the healthy eating trends we are experiencing.  They embrace a healthier lifestyle and eating habits, and are concerned with providing healthier snacks for their families. The younger demographic of this range will typically purchase the “newest, coolest” technology.

Competitive Situation Analysis

Porter’s 5 Forces Model on Competition Analysis

The Flavor Saver Food Dehydrator is truly a one of a kind food dehydrator. Though many other food dehydrators exist in the marketplace our four additional features and our price entry point should place us in a favorable position. Due to our unique product within the marketplace and amongst our competitors, expected competition and rivals are expected to be minimal during the initial product launch and campaign. Once our competition understands the technology, and the advantages at the price point where we expect to enter, then over time there will be increases in market competition.

New Entrant Threats: Since we are the first to introduce this technology and this type of appliance with the four features that come with it, we expect very little New Entrant Threats.  We believe New Entrant competition cost to enter this type of market would be too substantial to justify. Our current competitors will be required to re-evaluate their food dehydrators and increase their technology and function due to our entry into the food dehydrator market. The roadblock for new entrants is their limitation to technological advances.  We are not an appliance company that offer technological “gadgets” we are a technology company that offers a significantly better appliance. It is not expected that the Internet will have much of an impact on new entrants.