BIG Ps Marketing Plan (Essay Sample)

Marketing Plan for the Big P’s Catering Company Name of Student Tutor’s Name Course Title Date Table of Contents  TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc358020269"
Marketing Plan for the Big P’s Catering Company  PAGEREF _Toc358020269 \h
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Executive Summary  PAGEREF _Toc358020270 \h
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Situation Analysis  PAGEREF _Toc358020271 \h
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Mission Statement  PAGEREF _Toc358020273 \h
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SWOT Analysis  PAGEREF _Toc358020274 \h
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Competitor Analysis  PAGEREF _Toc358020275 \h
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An Idea for a New Product or Service for the Company  PAGEREF _Toc358020276 \h
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The Marketing Strategy  PAGEREF _Toc358020277 \h
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Marketing Objectives:  PAGEREF _Toc358020282 \h
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Financial Objectives  PAGEREF _Toc358020283 \h
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Target Marketing  PAGEREF _Toc358020284 \h
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Market Positioning  PAGEREF _Toc358020285 \h
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The Marketing Mix  PAGEREF _Toc358020286 \h
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Price  PAGEREF _Toc358020287 \h
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Place  PAGEREF _Toc358020288 \h
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Promotion  PAGEREF _Toc358020289 \h
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Product  PAGEREF _Toc358020290 \h
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The Marketing Research  PAGEREF _Toc358020291 \h
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1st Year Forecast and Budgets  PAGEREF _Toc358020292 \h
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Sales Forecast  PAGEREF _Toc358020293 \h
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Sales Forecast for the First 6 months  PAGEREF _Toc358020294 \h
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Expense Forecast  PAGEREF _Toc358020295 \h
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Marketing Expense budget (annual figures)  PAGEREF _Toc358020296 \h
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Break-even Analysis  PAGEREF _Toc358020297 \h
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Appendices  PAGEREF _Toc358020298 \h
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Reference List  PAGEREF _Toc358020299 \h
14  Marketing Plan for the Big P’s Catering Company Executive Summary Big P’s Catering is a London-based catering company incorporated in 2012 and specializes in wedding catering, corporate catering, as well as catering for special events, like children parties. Because of increased competition in this industry and the recent slump in the economic activities across the globe, there has been a need to reengineer the product offerings to continue being competitive. To achieve this, the company will be introducing new products and appeal to existing customers to purchase more of its existing products. To achieve its objective, the company will introduce personalized wedding cakes, and cupcakes, custom designed and bespoke handmade cakes, in the coming season, which will present a paradigm shift compared to the existing products, both within the company and from the competition. As a result, the company’s resolve is to bring into the market a new approach by leveraging existing culinary skills in order to provide innovative catering options in this market segment. Indeed, with the current level of expertise and the large market in the London area, it is expected the company will break-even in less than five months. Situation Analysis The Company has been in operation for less than a year. The management understands that the company’s marketing approach is critical to its survival in the turbulent market arena (). To remain competitive, the company will have to cover more wedding and corporate events with its new personalized products as well as the existing ones. The demand for new products is driven by high-quality product offerings and the company expects to meet the demand by providing innovative range of personalized cakes. Indeed this is essential to beat competition and survive in the competitive market arena. Mission Statement The Big P’s Company strives to provide friendly and affordable custom catering to the customers within the London area. The company exists to provide services that exceed customer expectations (). SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is an analytical tool for gauging a company’s strengths weakness, opportunities, as well as threats in the market. The following analysis captures the company’s strengths and weakness in the London market. Strengths Highly skilled workers Superior products Customer loyaltyWeaknesses Struggle to build brand equity Limited budget Limited culinary skills Opportunities There is a high market potential Steep learning curve Ability to have a long-term customers Threats Stiff competition High cost of production The threats of the global financial crisis Competitor Analysis Competition in the catering industry is stiff since there are other companies within London that provide the same service as Big P’s. Competitors in this market, to some degree, use price wars as a strategy in their marketing effort (Cant, Strydom, & Jooste, 2009). However, quality is the main facet of competition among the caterers. Big P’s faces stiff competition from well-established companies like Charlie’s Executive Catering and Equipment Hire, C&C Catering, and Delightful Dining, among others. However, despite the competition, Big P’s is expected to get a good rating because of its high-quality service and reasonable pricing. In addition, there are competitors from other metropolitan areas, who are called to provide catering services in London. The Big P’s will have to take cognizance of this fact and keep competitors at bay by having services and products that resonate well with the customers. An Idea for a New Product or Service for the Company New product development is not an easy task for any company (Karol & Nelson, 2011). However, Big P’s has decided to provide a new product offering for its clients within London. Today’s customers are choosy and demand products that make them happy. Personalized cupcakes will make events more memorable, and especially to the young generation who have become accustomed to personalized items like avatars and ring tones among others. Customers can come up with their own version for the inscription into the cake or buy custom-made cupcakes from the company. This venture will not be costly to the company since it has an established kitchen for baking cupcakes. In the end, the key to success will be in creating repeat business for the company by providing high-quality products and services to the existing and new customers. The Marketing Strategy The marketing strategy is a critical tool for any company since it helps an organization concentrate it resources on the optimal opportunities with the aim of boosting sales. In addition, the marketing strategy helps a company a competitive edge in the market (Cant, Strydom, & Jooste, 2009). Without a good strategy, it would be impossible for Big P’s to realize its goals and objectives within the London area (Fitfiled, 2012). The company’s marketing strategy will revolve on devising visibility with the event planners within the targeted market area. This will be done in two ways. The first method will be using advertising as a tool of informing customers about the company’s new products. Advertisements will be targeted to the event planners, mainly churches, company events, and families planning birthdays for their loved ones within London. In addition, advertising will also target selected Synagogue’s and Mosques with specific newsletters. In essence, advertising will be geared at reaching as many people as possible. Therefore, it is expected that the advertisements will provide an avenue through which the company will receive more enquiries concerning its services. Apart from the formal method of advertising, the company will also engage in informal ways of attracting clients to its products. One way is to use networking as a way of reaching more event planners. Some of the company employees are active members of the Churches, Mosques, and Synagogues within London and will be expected to undertake personal marketing. Therefore, the employees can provide an advantage within the community and raise awareness about the company’s presence and its products. The advantages of networking is that it is less costly compared to advertising. Although networking might not have a large effect as advertising, it nonetheless will help the company cut costs significantly. Marketing Objectives: The following are the objective that the Creative Company wishes to achieve are as follows; To realize a positive and continuous growth every month To continuously attract and convert customers into long term clients To realize a decrease in operational expenses as sales continue to increase over the years. Financial Objectives To achieve a double-digit growth in the succeeding years To reduce the variable operating costs significantly in the year To maximize the profit margin in every event Target Marketing The Big P’s will target two classes of customers. However, to reach the two groups will not necessarily require different marketing strategies (Schenck, 2011). Differentiation between the two classes will require offering the same products, but with a discriminatory pricing approach (Ferrel & Hartline, 2010). The middle class clients have less disposable income. Although they believe it is prudent to have a nice wedding or birthday party, they prefer to minimize the cost of such events. This group will enjoy some discounts. On the other hand, the upper class is the opposite of ...