Marketing Plan and Sales Strategy
Vigorous is the company that has recently entered the environment of the food and beverage industry, yet has developed a strong competitive advantage that will help it improve its current position and take the niche that will allow it to attract new customers successfully. Although the present-day NAB industry can be defined as highly competitive, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo being its leaders, there are chances to design the competitive advantage that will help Vigorous become a household name (Nakamura, Pechey, Suhrcke, Jebb, & Marteau, 2014).
Target Market
Vigorous targets at audiences of all ages, education levels, income, genders, ethnic groups, etc. It should be borne in mind, though, that the company will exclude people with diabetes and other diseases that do not allow for the consumption of sugar from its target audience. Outside of the limitation mentioned above, the target audience of the company embraces all types of the population.
While a large number of population types could be viewed as a benefit for the organization as it creates premises for increasing sales, it also poses an impressive challenge to the firm’s marketing team. Indeed, since the product will have to appeal to a wide range of populations, it will be necessary to design the marketing tool that will make the product universally attractive. Differently put, Vigorous will have to cater to the needs of an array of customers with different backgrounds.
Despite the willingness to embrace as many members of the target population as possible, Vigorous will have to focus on young adults as the primary source of its future income. Therefore, people aged 21-30, of American, African American, Latin American, and Native American descents, both male and female, can be considered the primary target audience of the company. The reasons for choosing the identified population as the key customers are rather basic.
Advertising soda to a younger audience, including children, is likely to cause some controversy if health issues emerge among the identified audience. Therefore, the organization will have to target older members of the population. Adults, however, are typically more concerned with healthy diets and, therefore, may grow suspicious of the product. Hence, the people aged 21-30 will make the core of the TA.
Competition
Major Competitors
When considering the factors that affect the competitiveness of Vigorous in the target market, one should consider Porter’s Five Forces Analysis. Particularly, the Five Forces in question, i.e., the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, the threat of new entrants, and the threat of new substitutes, should be viewed as the tool for the company’s competitive advantage assessment.
As Table 1 below shows, the competitiveness rates of Vigorous can be described as rather high, yet it may need a more elaborate branding approach that will help propel it to the top of the target market. Needless to say, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo can be viewed as the primary competitors that the organization will have to deal with when entering the identified environment (Pandian & Varthani, 2013).
Table 1. Vigorous: Five Forces.
Competitive Strategy
As stressed above, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo pose a tangible threat to the development of entrepreneurship in the context of the global economy. Seeing that Vigorous cannot be viewed as a company with an impressive history or vast experience in the food and beverage industry, it would be reasonable to consider a local niche that will allow the organization to evolve and gain strength for the further rivalry with the corporate giants that PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are.
Specifically, the area of healthy soda products needs to be considered. Although it could be argued that sugarless products such as Cola Light and Pepsi Light already represent the subject matter, creating the product that is actually aimed at improving one’s health status and at the same time providing the experience of drinking soda would be quite an innovative concept (Sharma, 2015).
Product Differentiation
As far as the product differentiation for the identified NAB is concerned, it is recommended that the company should design the brand that will stand out of the rest of soda drinks on the basis of its healthiness. While maintaining its tastiness and resembling a traditional soda drink, the product must incorporate the elements that will set it apart from the rest of the products and make it clear that the company cares about the health of its customers. Particularly, it is suggested that the drink should be sugarless and include a range of vitamins.
Marketing Message
The main message of the company is to offer its clients a soda drink that will be tasty and, at the same time, delicious. By incorporating the natural elements, including the essence of a pineapple, a feijoa, and a coconut, the drink represents a refreshing mixture of tropical fruit.
The organization uses the strategy that implies a sustainable use of the available resources; as a result, the firm will be able to deliver the product of the finest quality even in the circumstances that leave much to be desired. More importantly, the identified approach toward the management of resources allows the entrepreneurship to maintain its flexibility levels high. As a result, the organization is capable of changing and adapting to the new environment rapidly without suffering much damage.
Company Promotion
In order to promote the company successfully, one will have to consider the use of social media as the platform for promoting the product. For instance, advertisements in social networks, as well as building the sites that will provide news, updates, and a platform for interactions between users and the organization, should be viewed as an option. Along with the use of the social networks, the organization should arrange the events that will drive people’s attention to the firm and its products (Yadav, de Valck, Hennig-Thurau, Hoffman, & Spann, 2015).
References
Nakamura, R., Pechey, R., Suhrcke, M., Jebb, S. A., & Marteau, T. M. (2014). Sales impact of displaying alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in end-of-aisle locations: An observational study. Social Science & Medicine, 108(1). 68–73.
Pandian, K., & Varthani, N. (2013). An empirical study on retailer’s perception towards Pepsi in Tiruchirappalli district. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing & Management Review, 2(3), 13-22.
Sharma, R. (2015). IMC: A tool for building competitive advantage. International Journal of Core Engineering & Management (IJCEM), 2(2), 75-88.
Yadav, M. S., de Valck, K., Hennig-Thurau, T., Hoffman, D. L., & Spann, M, (2015). Social commerce: A contingency framework for assessing marketing potential. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), 311–323.