The Business Strategy Of Natural Food Products: Potential Market (Research Paper Sample)

Assignment ID 32130 Marketing Plan Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Executive summary PAGEREF _Toc524715651 \h 3Introduction PAGEREF _Toc524715652 \h 3Situational analysis PAGEREF _Toc524715653 \h 3Market segmentation, Targeting and Positioning PAGEREF _Toc524715654 \h 4Marketing and financial objective PAGEREF _Toc524715655 \h 6Marketing mix of natural food PAGEREF _Toc524715656 \h 7Budget allocation for promotion mix PAGEREF _Toc524715657 \h 8Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc524715658 \h 9References PAGEREF _Toc524715659 \h 9 Executive summary The report is designed to provide a better understanding of natural food product and its marketing plan to The Reader. The report will discuss various aspects of the business strategy of natural food products which include market segmentation, targeting and Positioning along with identifying the potential market for the natural food. The study will also determine the marketing and financial objectives of the product and develop a thorough marketing plan for the natural food products which would include the marketing mix along with other marketing strategies which need to be implemented. In the end, an appropriate budget will also be developed for the promotion and marketing plan of natural food products. Introduction Natural food products are referred to as food products which are not processed and does not contain any kind of food additive such as antibiotics, food colour, sweeteners, flavouring and hormones. It is considered as close to nature as possible. They are often expensive in price as compared to other processed foods, and also have a wide range of products. The natural foods are designed proper healthier lifestyle. One of the companies that produce natural foods is the natural evolution foods which was founded in 2007 in Australia where waste bananas are used and turned into healthy food sources with the help of world class Technology. The natural foods developed by the company contains potassium, magnesium, high on prebiotic fibre and multi fibre supplement. The natural food developed by the company is certified by the food drug administration (FDA) regulation labour right. Situational analysis Natural foods are becoming more and more popular among the people due to the curiosity about the health issues. Natural foods are of high quality standard and any company developing organic and natural foods have strong brand reputation with a motivated workforce. However, it also needs to be considered that natural foods are comparatively expensive with a limited network of suppliers (Sharma, 2011). There is immense competition from low cost foods, but the major advantages of natural foods is the kind of health benefits it provides to the customer, and this is why, it will continue to be sold even with the higher price. There is also the possibility of market expansion as health-conscious people are everywhere (Sharma, 2011). The only issues with the natural food products are that there is a low level of market awareness and in case of a new competitor, it can be very difficult for any organization that develops natural food to increase their revenue and profit. There are also barriers which restrict entering the market of food supplement. Although, natural food development is considered a very financially stable and innovative business with better technology and skilled workers available (Hughner et al, 2007). Market segmentation, Targeting and Positioning It is important to understand that any marketing plan for any product or services required identifying the potential customers for the product and services and then segmenting the market according to it (Sharma, 2011). In this case, as well, natural food products need to be targeted and position in a segmented market so that potential customers can easily purchase the natural food which food increase the revenue and profit of the manufacturing organization. In this section, we are going to discuss the potential market segment along with the target market and positioning of natural food products (Hughner et al, 2007). Market segmentation The natural food products is one of the biggest markets in Australia as there are a large number of the population who are health conscious (Sharma, 2011). There is usually four type of market segmentation such as demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, geographic segmentation and behavioural segmentation. All these segmentations can be applied in identifying the potential customers for the natural foods in Australia (Foster, 1997). If we talk about demographics, then there are a certain age of people both men and women who do not like unhygienic food and prefer natural and organic food. And as we have discussed before, the natural food is relatively high in price, people with low income would not be a potential customer for the product (Hughner et al, 2007). Similarly, people who are less educated and are not aware of the benefits of healthy food and only prefer fast food or processed food will not be the targeted audience for the natural food. If we talk about behavioral segmentation, then young people would have a mindset of being healthy and fit due to which they can prefer natural food over processed food. Therefore they can be the potential customers for the natural food (Foster, 1997). The psychographic segmentation can help in identifying the people who are lifestyle conscious and their activities and interest and define the market segment. It is quite similar to the behavioural segmentation where customer buying behaviour are taken into account. People who wish to lose weight and be healthy come under psychographic segmentation who would prefer organic food as they want to lead a Healthy lifestyle. The Geographic segmentation, as the name suggests, refers to determining the potential buyers through their geographical location (Foster, 1997). Targeting and Positioning The target customers of the natural food products are individuals and families with above average income who wish to lead a Healthy lifestyle and are highly conscious of the environment. A large number of customers will be highly educated and lives in metropolitan cities (Foster, 1997). Natural foods can also be targeted by well the customers who do not require any discounts or coupons in order to shop for expensive items such as organic food. Apart from that, the major target audience for the natural and organic foods are young people who are highly health conscious about their fitness and do not want to get fat. People who are looking to lose their weight and lead a Healthy lifestyle are also the target of natural and organic foods. College-going graduates are also the target audience who do not want to become sick from eating processed food (Hamm, 2004). Companies who are producing natural and organic foods need to positions themselves as the best source of natural and healthiest organic foods. The natural foods need to be presented in such a manner that it would attract the customers who are health conscious and result in increased sales (Hamm, 2004). There should be fitness positioning on the products that describe various words like nutrition and pure which would attract fitness oriented customers. The weight management is another positioning that would attract people who want to get a lean body (Zanoli & Naspetti, 2002). Apart from that, the natural food should also be placed in such a manner so that patient having different kinds of diseases such as heart disease get attracted to the natural food. Certainly, patients do not have the luxury to eat processed food due to their health issues, and thus, better positioning of the natural and organic foods would catch the attention of the patients that would increase the sales. Furthermore, the packaging of the natural and organic foods should provide a sense of relief to the customer who buys them by adding pseudonyms such as Natural and healthy or real (Hamm, 2004). Marketing and financial objective Marketing objectives refer to the goals which are set by the business industry in promoting their products and services to the potential customers which need to be achieved in a particular time frame. It can also be considered as the marketing strategies second order in order to accomplish the organizational goals. Some of the measures of marketing objectives for the natural food products are as below: 1. Increasing the sales of the natural food product (Zanoli & Naspetti, 2002) 2. Developing awareness of the brand and the benefits of natural foods among the potential customers 3. Maintaining a steady growth of sales of natural food product every month 4. Increasing market penetration every month 5. Targeting new customers in different geographical areas 6. Allowing the customers to lead a Healthy lifestyle 7. Increasing the customer relationships and satisfaction by providing high quality natural food products SMART approach can also be used for identifying the marketing objectives of the natural food products where S refers to specific which states that the goals and objectives are specific and precise of what the companies hoping to achieve (Zanoli & Naspetti, 2002). M refers to measurable which means to identify exactly what it is that the company needs to see and feel when reaching the objectives. A refers to attainable which means to identify if the marketing goal is achieved ball or not. R refers to relevant which means to find out if the goal is relevant or not T refers to timely which means to identify on what time the marketing objectives will be completed (Constantinides, 2006). Financial objectives refer to the goals set by the company to measure the monetary terms such as the amount of profit, are the entries in profit percentage over a specific period of time. The financial objectives of the natural food products and its manufacturing companies is to increase the profit by incrementing the nu...