Coconut Bliss Strategic Marketing Plan

This assignment requires creating a strategic marketing plan for Coconut Bliss, focusing on product quality improvement, direct market placement, skilled workforce employment, competitive pricing strategy, expanded product scope, and implementation of marketing mix approaches to enhance brand image.

MARKETING ESSENTIAL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1 .................................................................................................................................................1
a) (P1) Relation of key role & responsibilities of the marketing function on organisation........1
b) (P2) Role & responsibility of the Marketing related to company and its performance.........3
c) (M1) Role of marketing in marketing environment:...............................................................5
D) (M2) Importance of interrelationship between marketing & other functional units of
organisation.................................................................................................................................5
E) (D1) Relation between marketing function & other departments of the company................6
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
1) (P3) Application of marketing mix at Coconut bliss:.............................................................6
2) (M3) Tactics applied by organisation to acheive business objectives:...................................8
3) (P4) Basic market plan for Coconut bliss:..............................................................................9
(M4) Detailed coherent marketing plan for Coconut bliss:......................................................10
(D2) Strategic marketing plan to fulfil overall marketing demands of Coconut Bliss:............11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process to build a relationship between a company or product & the
customer. It is based on the analysis of customers demand & market trends & modify the process
or the product to cope up with the demands (Pike, 2015).
The Company here chosen for the study is Coconut bliss. It is a Eugene based company, co
founded by Barry Kaplowitz, working in food industry.
The fields covered in this report will be the analysis of the strategies & business plans,
that the company will follow to meet the market demands. Various marketing mix techniques
will be discussed & based on that, a business plan will be suggested to meet up the market
demands(Brassington and Pettitt, 2013).
LO1
a) (P1) Relation of key role & responsibilities of the marketing function on organisation
Marketing department plays an important role in achieving the market growth & brand
image for a company. For Coconut bliss, its marketing team will workout to target as much
consumers it can to gain its market base in food sector industry.
As the company is on the starting phase, & low count on the number of employees
working, the marketing team of Coconut Bliss has to develop a core marketing strategy that can
help the company in raising the bar of its market share & brand image in the consumers
(Badrinath, 2016). Thus, the marketing team can apply following steps or methods to improve
the market presence of the company:
 Getting idea of the customers needs: The marketing team of coconut bliss has to gain the
idea of the current market trends as well as the taste of the customers. They can do it by:
 Creating surveys or getting the information by the sales team & customer care, which
interact directly with the customers. Based on the data received through the market
research conducted & feedback received , the marketing team can decide a core plan for
the future(Dibb and Simkin, 2013).
 Also Coconut bliss can perform a campaign like events over social media platform to
increase customers awareness about the brand.
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 Keeping a track record of market trends: the Coconut bliss has to keep an regular check
on the past & ongoing market trends & customers mood to make the strategy for the
future. It is necessary because the taste of customers changes from time to time.
 Working for a brand image: Coconut Bliss has to look after the fact that brand image &
brand value is the key factor which plays a crucial role in the sell of products of a
company. The marketing department of coconut bliss has to try all possible methods to
ensure the company gets a brand value & emerge as a popular food brand. Apart from
this, the marketing department has to look that company maintains this brand
image(Babin and Zikmund, 2015).
 Coordination with other partners: The marketing team of Coconut bliss has to see through
its coordination with other partners or helpers in marketing like publishers, designers,
reporters, business & sales executives & social media service providers so that the task of
managing a market presence for the Coconut bliss is maintained. Regular advertisements
on various print or digital media & social media platform will catalyse the growth of the
product in the market.
 To come up with something new & different: Innovation is a tool which can take a
company to places it has targeted. The marketing team of the Coconut bliss has to work
for some sort of innovative & storming idea either in product line, manufacturing or in
marketing strategy to transform its sales structure (Ebert and et.al.,, 2014). Company has
to understand that small changes can make big differences. Coconut bliss can work on
introducing new flavours in the market.
 Maintaining a strong interpersonal communication: For Coconut Bliss, the marketing
team has to laid a communication structure outside as well as within the company. Time
to time communication process can be held with the various departments of the company.
This will ensure the team to find any sort of loophole or obstruction, that can have a
negative effect on the brand image as well as better functioning of the company(Philip,
2014).
 Improvement in sale processes & customer satisfaction level: As discussed earlier, once
the communication process is been held in the company & the issues are been identified,
the marketing team can work with the respective departments to remove the problem &
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improve the quality of sales services & product. Also, it will hep in having a direct
contact with the customers.
 Managing the budget & ROI: Apart from this, it is the job of the marketing team to work
for the budget management in the company along with the finance department of the
Coconut bliss (Mishra, 2016). Also, marketing team has to ensure that the company is
getting positive Returns of Investments made by the company for its marketing & sales of
the product.
b) (P2) Role & responsibility of the Marketing related to company and its performance
The marketing policies effect a lot on the functioning of the company as it is the medium
by which the company communicates with its consumers. A good marketing strategy will help in
gaining the company with more revenues & profits while if the marketing strategy went wrong, it
will adversely affect the brand image of the company (Malhotra, Birks and Wills, 2013). Also, it
is the marketing team who will gather the customer's feedback over a service & will make the
estimate on how to make a strong strategy to connect with its customers. In case of Coconut
bliss, the marketing will play an important role in growth of the company. As company has to
improve its market presence by implementing the ongoing technological methods of using mass
media, mass broadcasting & social media platforms. So such marketing has to be executed with
efficiency as it includes a larger audience & can lead to have a positive or negative impact on the
company's sale & market share(Berkowitz, 2016.).
Marketing is the task to promote a service or a product by the company through the
marketing channels which builds consumers loyalty. Coconut bliss has to check out its marketing
strategy to achieve the desired success in the market. An efficient marketing strategy will decide
the success or failure of its products in the market (). It is the marketing which helps is increasing
the growth of the company as well as, will give the company an idea about the ongoing market
trends. Therefore, marketing has some roles & responsibilities in an organisation such as:
1. The marketing will act as an intermediary between the customer & the company to get
the company an idea about the consumers thinking for the product. Coconut bliss, as
being in its initial phase, has to work a lot more on its efficient marketing of its
products. The marketing executed by the marketing team will bring the response in
form of increase or decrease in the sales of products of Coconut bliss.
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2. It will also provide the company with the ongoing marketing trends & the efforts made
by its competitors. Response received to a good marketing tells about the market
conditions & the scope of improvements to be made in services or product.
3. Also, the marketing presented by the Coconut bliss will tell its customers about the
work culture, ideology & vision of the company. It will help the company to build an
brand image & gain a brand value. So we can say that it is the marketing which directly
effect the brand value. Positive marketing will lead to building of a better brand image
& will attract its customers while negative marketing will make its customer get
repulsed from the brand.
4. Marketing is a result of good & timely coordination or the different departments of the
Coconut bliss. Hence, it will not only build a good working culture within the Coconut
bliss but will also lead to better connection with the customers
5. Marketing, can be defined as the process which is result of the innovation & will result
in the innovation. The innovative approaches which are been implemented by the
company will result in the customer getting interested about the product or the brand in
whole will increase the company's market growth.
6. Also, the feedback received by the Coconut bliss to its marketing strategy will allow
the company to make an interpersonal communication with its employees &
departments will build better relations & work environment in the company & will help
in resolution of any sort of issue arises in functioning of the company.
7. Also, the marketing will help the Coconut Bliss to improve its sales processes &
gaining a loyal customer base. The feedback received to the marketing plan of the
company will decide the response to the company's product in form of increase or
decrease in sales 7 customers satisfaction.
8. And in whole, the marketing will decide the budget of the company to be spent further
by the company to gain positive ratios of ROI. If the company is not achieving the
positive results from the marketing, it will force the company to cut off the budget
spent on marketing which may lead to have negative effect on the brand image &
productivity(Malhotra, Birks, and Wills, 2013).
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c) (M1) Role of marketing in marketing environment:
The marketing environment also plays a crucial & important role when it comes to
implementation of marketing practices by a company. Before launching any sort of marketing
campaign, the company has to analyse & evaluate the current ongoing practices in order to avoid
any sort of conflicts or clashes with the competitor companies. It is been looked after by the
marketing team of the company.
Also, the marketing environment decides the using of the marketing strategies &
sanctioning of budget by the Coconut bliss. The marketing team will look after the practices
followed by the other companies & will plan its strategy accordingly. If the competitor company
is using the traditional marketing practices for the promotion of its products or services, then
Coconut bliss have to go for the usage of social media platform. Similarly, if the company in
competition is introducing some new flavours or products, Coconut bliss has to think of some
innovation to meet out the new demand of the customer & market.
D) (M2) Importance of interrelationship between marketing & other functional units of
organisation
For the better functioning of the company & achievement of targeted goals, it is
necessary to have the co-ordination among the various departments or functional units of an
organisation. So the marketing team of Coconut bliss will have to lead coordination with the
different departments to work better. For example, the sales department will work together with
marketing to tell them the amount of sales done & based on that the marketing team will further
decide future plans.
Likewise, the marketing department can ask the HRM department of Coconut bliss to
recruit more work force or production department to increase gross production to meet the
growing demands of the market. Also, based on the response received, the marketing team can
ask the production & manufacturing unit to bring changes or improvements in their practices.
Apart from this, looking at the growth in demand or competition in market, marketing
department can ask finance department to provide with the budget to apply new marketing plans.
This coordination among the various departments at Coconut bliss will not only improve the
functionality & productivity of the company but will also enable the company to meet growing
market challenges(Ebert, And et.al.,, 2014).
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E) (D1) Relation between marketing function & other departments of the company
The marketing practices followed by a company is deeply interrelated within. It ensures
better running of the company & good management of its employees in various departments.
Thus, the relation of various marketing function with other functional units of the company can
be explained as:
Learning of Customers needs
The coordination & communication between the sales & the marketing team of Coconut
bliss will help the company to plan & develop new market strategies. Besides its will also help
the company to track down the ongoing market trends & the policies adopted by the competitors.
Improvement in work ideology & process
The marketing team of Coconut bliss will work with the production department of the
company to meet the quality & quantity standards of the company which will lead to growth in
the brand image & market share of the company.
Coordination with other departments & partners of the company
The Marketing department of Coconut bliss will ensure that it is having a timely &
efficient communication with the other departments like finance for budget decision, with HRM
department to meet demands of workforce & other partners like publishers, designers,
consultants to get correct idea about its policies(Malhotra, 2015).
LO2
1) (P3) Application of marketing mix at Coconut bliss:
Marketing mix plays an important role in determining the success of a company. The
planning & approaches made using marketing mix techniques, decides the success of the service
or product of a company. Coconut bliss can also apply the marketing mix approach where they
can implement various factors to make a core market strategy to grow its market share in food
industry.
The marketing mix approach includes:
Product:
Coconut bliss has to look out for its product as the first step for market growth. The
product, a food item, has to be of good taste, hygienic & utmost quality on a reasonable cost.
Coconut bliss can conduct various surveys or feedback programs to get the knowledge about
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customers expectations about its product & based on the feedback received, can work on taste,
packaging, quantity & quality of the product, if required.
Price:
Price plays a crucial role when comes to the sales of a product or a service. For this,
Coconut bliss has to decide its target audience. If the potential customers of the company are
going to be upper class society & luxury conscience people, company can keep a price
accordingly. But if the target audience is from the middle class or the working class, Coconut
bliss has to keep a price tag keeping in mind, the purchase capacity of the segment. Company
can keep a price, which after cutting the production, marketing & delivery cost, gives the
company a profitable margin. Likewise, price also plays an important role in making brand
image in eyes of customers (Pike, 2015). The consumer will expect a good quality product on the
given rate. If organisation fails to provide so, it will have an adverse effect on the image of the
company.
The company can divides its marketing policies by segmenting the price in three phases, market
penetration price which includes the approach of keeping a low or reasonable price of the
product, to promote its initial sales. Then company can apply price skimming, where coconut
bliss can price its products high or low, based on the feedback received by the company through
its initial sales. If this approach didn't work well, they can apply the concept of Neutral rating of
its product.
Place:
Place also affect the sales of a company's product. If the place where the company is
going to launch its new product is highly susceptible to the emerging of similar products by other
competitors, it will affect the sales of the product. For instance, if Coconut bliss launch packaged
coconut water in an area close to beach & coconut plantation, it can have a negative effect on the
sales of the product (Pike, 2015). Apart from this, the place where the product is made available
should be easily accessible by the people & should not be on a remote location. Company has to
look after the effective positioning of the sales centre, delivery centre or franchise to assure the
better reach to its consumers.
Promotion:
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Effective promotion of the product or the service is also important. Coconut bliss has to
ensure that the marketing of the product launched should be carried out effectively to maintain
the market presence of the company & keep the interest of consumers in the product.
People:
People are the blood & soul of the organisation. They can be either the consumers, the
workforce or staff or the additional associates like marketing officials, transporters etc. Other
than customers, all other groups of people working in & with Coconut bliss have a direct effect
on the production & functioning of the company. So it has to be highly skilled & efficient.
Process:
The process includes the following of a fixed set of instructions to ensure smooth
functioning of the organisation (Dibb and Simkin, 2013). An efficient work process followed
will not only enable the company to make timely production of the product, but will also see to
the better functioning of the delivery process of Coconut bliss.
Physical evidence:
As far the physical evidence ids concerned, it includes the factors such as taste or
appearance of the product. Coconut bliss has to look after the attractive packaging & impressive
taste of its products. Timely analysis of customers feedback is important to get better idea of
physical evidences(Badrinath, 2016).
2) (M3) Tactics applied by organisation to achieve business objectives:
To achieve the targeted goal of improvement in market share & profitability, companies
apply various tactics to meet out the growing demands as well as the competition. The Coconut
bliss will apply the following strategies to meet its defined business objectives:
1. With the technical advancement, Coconut bliss can use the means of online & social
media marketing for the promotion of tits products & services. This will allow the
company to connect with a large numbers of potential customers. Besides, the social
media platform will allow the customers to give the direct feedback to the companies
about their product, making it a time & effort saving approach (Dibb and Simkin, 2013).
2. Coconut bliss can open its vending stores or franchise on a well populated & well
connected place. This will ensure the easy access to the people & provide the Coconut
bliss with the identification of its potential competitors in the market.
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3. Coconut bliss can also launch a wide variety of products on a diversified price rate to
increase its consumer base in the market. Apart from this, it can provide with some free
kids products or toys on purchase of its products for the young ones. It will not only make
a good impression on the customer & build a goodwill but also improve the customers
interest in the services of the company.
4. Apart from this, Coconut bliss can work on its delivery process of the products to its
customers. It will attract more & more customers towards the services of the company &
will build a good brand image which will further leads to increase in market share &
productivity of the company(Mishra,2016).
3) (P4) Basic market plan for Coconut bliss:
To achieve its targeted goal of getting marketing share & profitability, Coconut Bliss has to
come up with a business plan which will help the organisation. It has to follow various
procedures & techniques to get the task done effectively. Some approaches of marketing plan
include:
1. Deciding a vision & setting up the goal:
Coconut bliss has to first of all decide a core vision regarding market position. Once the goal is
been discussed & finalised, the company can decide further strategies to achieve it effectively &
as soon as possible. The objectives decided can be of various scope such as marketing objective
to grow to a set level in the market or financial objective to get a particular amount of revenue in
a quarter.
2. Deciding the target customers:
Once the goal is decided, Coconut bliss has to then decide its target customer base to make its
vision more clear & precise. The consumers can be from any aspect of life & of any age group or
gender. Once the target customers are fixed, company can plan accordingly to them keeping in
mind their demands & launch products (Brassington and Pettitt, 2013).
3. Looking for an approach of connection with customers:
Once the target customers are decided, company can look out or the various methods to connect
with its customers. They can either contact with distributors or vendors to provide them the
service to sell their products. Apart from this, Coconut bliss can also provide with a franchise so
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that the consumers can directly contact them for their products. Effective positioning of its
vending units can also help the company. Like placing its vending units on location where it can
get more access to its target customers. For example, if the target consumers are teenagers &
young ones, company can open its franchise near a school or college to attract more & more
customers.
4. Conducting regular market research:
Coconut bliss has to look for an approach where it can get an idea of the changing trends in
market so that it can change its policies & strategies according to it. It will not only allow the
company to have a timely interaction with its customers but also give the company a chance to
make improvements based on the feedbacks received (Brassington and Pettitt, 2013). Apart from
this it will also help the company to forecast the upcoming market trends & change in sales &
expenses to plan accordingly.
5. Deciding budget to meet the change occurring:
The feedback received by the customers to the service & products of the Coconut bliss will also
allow the company to make financial strategies to met any sort of change in market or the
economy. It will give the company a stability against the economic changes.
6. Adapting modern marketing techniques:
With the advancement in field of technology & introduction of social media approaches for the
promotion, Coconut bliss has to imbibe the changing trends to meet its technical requirements.
The company can use the social media platform to advertise its products, conduct online surveys
on its services & get the customer's feedback directly. This feedback received by the customer's
will help the company to improve its marketing strategies. Also, it will help the company to
maintain the brand awareness & interest among the customers.
7. Keeping a regular check on quality & manufacturing: Coconut bliss has to keep an eye
on the quality of its product as it will provide the company with a uniformity in quality
standards and also helps in maintaining the brand image & brand trust among the
consumers. Keeping up with the quality & coming up with some innovative product will
help the company on a long run(Mishra, 2016).
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(M4) Detailed coherent marketing plan for Coconut bliss:
Coconut bliss has taken timely steps to make a marketing plan which will help the
company to achieve its targeted goals of gaining a major place in market & increase its revenue.
 Looking at the rising needs of social media marketing, Coconut bliss has also
incorporated the social media promotion techniques to advertise its products. This
approach has allowed the company to make strategies to improve its product &
procedural quality. Apart from this, the social media approach has proved comparatively
economic & fast as compared to the traditional methods (Berkowitz, 2016).
 Placing its outlets on target customer centric locations have helped Coconut bliss to
easily connect with its customer's which further leads to raise in sales.
 Deciding the target customers have give the marketing strategy of the company more
precision & made its policies more customer oriented.
(D2) Strategic marketing plan to fulfil overall marketing demands of Coconut Bliss:
The company can make the strategic marketing plan to fulfil its demands by working on
the product & process quality to improve its productivity. Appropriate placing its product market
will help Coconut bliss to connect directly with the customers (Mishra, 2016).
Other than this, Coconut bliss can employee more skill work force to meet the growing demands
of the market. Apart from this, the company can decide its product price to meet with its
production costs & marketing competition. Also, manufacturing & customers scope of the
product can be worked out to attract more & more customers towards the company & improve its
brand image(Creusen, 2015).
CONCLUSION
Hence, Coconut bliss can implement a strategic marketing plan based on the marketing
mix approach to meet the customers demand & up growing competition of market share. Also,
the implementation of the marketing theories & marketing mix approaches will help the Coconut
bliss to improve in brand image among ins customers.
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