EOC WK 10: Benefits vs The Features

"In the often-quoted words of David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, “Marketing is too important to be left only to the marketing department.” Marketing entails processes that focus on delivering value and benefits to customers, not just selling goods, services, and/or ideas." MKTG Page 2. 

The product I am selling not only benefits, well humans, but it also benefits your pets. People worry about their pets so much when it comes to chocolate because the first thing they think is DEATH, or your pet getting very, very sick. Sweet Treats gives you that comfort in knowing your pet won't get sick.

"A market-oriented organization recognizes that different customer groups want different features or benefits." MKTG Page 10.

Week 9 EOC: Creative Content

My plan, as a photography student, is to set up something in my home. Make it casual. You don't want to see Chocolate for you and your pets at a bar location, or restaurant location. You would want to see it in a casual setting. Maybe have it in a glass candy bowl sitting on the side table by your couch, or sitting in the middle of your coffee table. All i need to do is get said glass candy bowl, chocolate, and then set up the scene how i want and shoot the photos. I will edit the photos, adding the name somewhere, like an add. But it will be casual, easy going, maybe I'll Photoshop a cat hanging out or something. Just to give it all a homey feel.

Implementation Evaluation Control

"Implementation is the process that turns a marketing plan into action assignments and ensures that these assignments are executed in a way that accomplishes the plan's objectives. Implementation activities may involve detailed job assignments, activity descriptions, time lines, budgets, and lots of communication. Implementation requires delegating authority and responsibility, determining a time frame for completing tasks, and allocating resources." MKTG Pages 28 & 29 We would control our marketing campaign by listening to customer feedback and doing a survey every 2 to 3 months to see what we can do to better our product. I asked around, and friends and family have told me that it's a great idea! Managers, which would be most likely be me or my partner, would have control over the budget, examining expenses and spending's, therefore controlling profitability.
"Although implementation is essentially “doing what you said you were going to do,” many organizations repeatedly experience failures in strategy implementation. Brilliant marketing plans are doomed to fail if they are not properly implemented." MKTG Page 29

Price

"Price is a component of value (a $4,000 handbag is perceived as being more luxurious and of higher quality than one selling for $100), but low price is not the same as good value. Instead, customers value goods and services that are of the quality they expect and that are sold at prices they are willing to pay." MKTG Page 7
The price for this product is expensive but not 20$ expensive. It's hard to make because we have to take out theobromine (which is the thing that causes the animals to get sick when they eat the chocolate) and replace it with a pet friendly supplement to make it ok for them to eat. I would say our prices would vary from five to seven dollars. Not crazy expensive, but enough to make a value off of it. And of course people are getting what they want for their buck.
"The basic strategy for a cash cow is to maintain market dominance by being the price leader and making technological improvements in the product." MKTG Page 18

Promotion

As previously stated, social media would be one of our big promotion/advertising tools. It's a great way to get word out these days and I feel like you would get your money's worth.

"Promotion is the means by which organizations communicate with present and prospective customers about the merits and characteristics of their organization and products. Effective promotion is an essential part of effective marketing." MKTG Page 12We would also have a system somehow to send out coupons and things to customers who have a subscription to our website, where they will receive an email with updates, and coupons. Just like many other businesses we would have holiday sales, discounts on birthdays (DOB provided of course), and also have sort of a black friday like other stores after the holiday. Giving out free samples is a plus as well, to give people that trial run to see if they will thoroughly enjoy our product.  
"Promotion includes advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling." MKTG Page 28

Distribution

"Marketing entails processes that focus on delivering value and benefits to customers, not just selling goods, services, and/or ideas. It uses communication, distribution, and pricing strategies to provide customers and other stakeholders with the goods, services, ideas, values, and benefits they desire when and where they want them." MKTG Page 2

We would have our deliveries go all over. We would have a little store that sold our candies, but we would also have our candies delivered to local small town stores, or little gift shops. If people order from home, locally, we would deliver to the homes as well. communicate with our buyers to keep them not only coming back for more, but to keep them happy.
"Solving promotional and product problems does not guarantee global marketing success. The product must still get adequate distribution." MKTG Page 86

Product

" In some situations, as when competition is weak or demand exceeds supply, a production-oriented firm can survive and even prosper. More often, however, firms that succeed in competitive markets have a clear understanding that they must first determine what customers want and then produce it, rather than focus on what company management thinks should be produced and hope that the product is something customers want." MKTG Page 4
Our product is a simple circular piece of chocolate, and it's plain, no fun colors, or flavors yet. We package it in clear bags, and tie it up with a tie with our label hanging from it. Very simple, and easy. But we want it to be eye catching so we add like a little paw print, to let them know that it is pet friendly, but also on the back of the tag it will say "Pet friendly."
"The two orientations can be compared in terms of five characteristics: the organization's focus, the firm's business, those to whom the product is directed, the firm's primary goal, and the tools used to achieve the organization's goals." MKTG Page 6

Target Market Strategy

''The target market strategy identifies the market segment or segments on which to focus. This process begins with a market opportunity analysis (MOA)—the description and estimation of the size and sales potential of market segments that are of interest to the firm and the assessment of key competitors in these market segments.'' MKTG Page 26

Our product focuses more on young adults to adults. Children wouldn't be the ones to see the chocolate and think of sharing it with their pets, because the mindset of "It's my candy and nobody else's." I would focus mainly local, maybe keep it in our small town, but if it grows to where more people want it, then we will spread maybe across the United States, and maybe globally later on.
"If the target market is international, it is especially important to describe differences in culture, economic and technological development, and political structure that may affect the marketing plan." MKTG Page 27

Situation // Analysis

"Performing a SWOT analysis allows firms to identify their competitive advantage. A competitive advantage is a set of unique features of a company and its products that are perceived by the target market as significant and superior to those of the competition." MKTG Page 23 Our strengths are that we communicate and deliver to our customers on a regular basis. One of the main weaknesses I would say our company has is we aren't well known so getting our name out there and getting returning customers would be the hard part. The opportunities we have are endless with having a website, or setting up various social media accounts to help get our name out there. Our main threats would be other chocolate companies trying to make a similar product, or even pet treats companies as well.
"When examining internal strengths and weaknesses, the marketing manager should focus on organizational resources such as production costs, marketing skills, financial resources, company or brand image, employee capabilities, and available technology." MKTG Page 22

Objectives

Sweet Treats Objectives:

"Societal marketing orientation is the idea that an organization exists not only to satisfy customer wants and needs and to meet organizational objectives but also to preserve or enhance individuals' and society's long-term best interests." MKTG Page 6
1. Profitability: It's going to be a difficult start with maintaining our profitability, but i believe we can make it, and do our best to stay ahead and move forward with our business.
2. Customer Service: Our obvious goal here is to make sure the customer is happy, human and pets! And if their is a problem, we will do our best to resolve it and make sure you are happy in the end.
3. Productivity: The training of our employees, the purchases to make the chocolate, and purchases to make the environment pet friendly, all go into the business' productivity.
4. Growth: based on our future outcomes, and data, and how well we are doing.
5. Marketing: more than creating advertising and getting customer input on product changes. It is understanding trends when it comes to buying, and being able develop partnerships.
"objectives form a basis for control: the effectiveness of a plan can be gauged in light of the stated objectives." MKTG Page 26