Marketing Plan (Essay Sample)

Marketing Plan
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Institution affiliation
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Executive Summary
Doni Restaurant is a privately owned restaurant that sells healthy foods and beverages. It is located in the heart of the town’s central business unit and is surrounded by office complexes and a couple of financial and learning institutions. Doni restaurant was founded in response to the need for healthy food and the growing concern over the negative effects of fast food. Most of the working population has a hard time finding healthy food or snacks for lunch and the restaurant seeks to make it possible for them to maintain healthy eating habits even when they are away from home. The restaurant therefore serves various salads and healthy drinks as well as well cooked meals.
The marketing plan capitalizes on the company’s unique products and the need to fill a market gap. The company currently reports a 25 per cent profit margin. The plan is to grow this margin to 40 per cent over the next five years. The restaurant’s main competition would be the healthy snack stalls and food trucks that are mobile and have been around for so long, they have managed to maintain a loyal clientele.
Branding, Pricing and Distribution Strategy
Branding in today’s world is a difficult endeavour. The streets and our media is so full of advertising for so many different brands, one wonders how the customers keep up (McDonald, 2007). In light of this, the company intends to go about its branding very carefully. One of the main ways we intend to ensure that our brand stands out and catches the attention of our consumers is by making it relatable. A forward thinking yet straight forward brand works bests. Brands have been found to have great influence on people’s lifestyles and the public’s state of mind. The company’s brand will be Dino Restaurant and the brand’s slogan reads, “Your health solution”
Another one of our branding strategies would be the timing (Holt, 2004). The country is currently on an awareness streak of our bad eating and lifestyle habits. Most people find themselves stuck in bad eating habits especially when they have to often eat out. This mostly applies to the working class that have little time, if any to make a healthy meal. They depend on the easily available junk food to get by and as a result suffer negative consequences to their health. The company seeks to time their branding in line with the general concern shown over the need for easily available healthy food options.
The pricing will be made as friendly as possible, and even though healthier options are generally expected to be pricier than junk food, the company will seek to package their products in ways that reduce cost, and to bring the price as close as possible to that of fast food.
In the spirit of making it easier for the end consumer to access these healthy foods, the company seeks to incorporate delivery services for its products. Customers can have the food delivered to their offices and to their homes. The company will also seek to stock their products in food stalls and mainstream restaurants and supermarkets.
Competition
Our competitors are Interbrand. So far, out main competition would be the popular coffee shops and restaurants that have healthy products alongside their menu of fast foods. There is no restaurant within our vicinity that sells healthy foods only. We are banking on making this our greatest competitive streak, because focussing on offering one specific experience gives us better chances of being the best at it. Their major weakness therefore is the fact that they major on the production of fast foods and only have the basic healthy choices, maybe a certain fruit or vegetable salad and say fresh fruit juice. Our company on the other hand will have a huge variety of healthy foods ranging from salads, to beverages and cooked meals.
Their main strength would be the fact that they have managed to maintain a huge market share and have a larger distribution channel. Our differentiation strategy will be a variety of healthy yet tasty food options because healthy is often associated with bland taste. We also intend to make it as easily accessible as possible by delivering on order and within the least time possible.
The company’s intention is to be a leader. We seek to enlarge our market share actively by improving the customer’s experience with other restaurants while offering them a healthy meals option. The company intends to make the customer’s experience as great as possible. There will be family packages for families that need to eat out, toddler meals made on odder and creative exotic varieties in the menu. The company has a bigger percentage of its clientele in the high and middle class and therefore the pricing, while important, may not be as important as offering quality and unique products.
Marketing Research Tools
The company used a couple of market research tools before coming up with a marketing plan. Our most informative tools were social media/blogs and focus groups. These showed that people really are concerned about the bad eating and lifestyle habits and were ready to embrace healthier lifestyles. One of the major concerns however among the working class was the little time or lack of time they had during the week to whip up healthy snacks or cook. The little variety of healthy food in restaurants was also a pain point. We also conducted a survey on a small sample on whether or not people would switch to healthier options if they were as readily available and as cheap as fast foods and more than three quarters of the sample population said they would.
Implementation Plan

Phase Activity Time 1st Phase Proposal drafting and budgeting1 month2nd PhasePresentation to the board and funding acquisition2 months3rd phase Acquire business premises and renovate3 – 4 months 4th PhaseDevelop an operations and organizational structure for the successful marketing and running of the company. 2 Months 5th Phase Hire a manager and bring the necessary human resource on board2 Months 6th Phase Official Business launch 2 Months7th Phase Marketing and Advertising6 months 8th Phase Evaluate operations and market response and adjust accordingly 6 – 12 months 
The implementation plan will be overseen by a committee whose main responsibility will be to ensure it is carried out to the letter and in a timely manner. The committee’s key performance indicator will be the seamless implementation of the plan outlined above and the constant update and efficient communication to all the stakeholders. The timing against each phase has been estimated on the higher side. Therefore that implementation plan could actually take less time that has been estimated but is not expected to take more than the time outlined above.
Every activity has a team leader who is expected to oversee the operation successfully. The team leaders report to the implementation committee and their performance is based on their ability to cut costs while maintaining high quality standards for their specific tasks. They will also be measured on their ability to complete their tasks on time.
Expansion Plan
Over the next five years, the plan is to grow the current market share to about 40 per cent. In the first year, the company hopes to have at least four outlets within the town. The plan is to increase our presence as demand grows. Location is key to our expansion plan and therefore, new outlets wil...