Strategic Marketing Plan: Crest Product - Objectives and Strategies

This report addresses the challenges faced by Crest, including limited product diversity and international market presence. It outlines two business objectives: enhancing product diversity and expanding market presence. A new positioning statement, "dental care at your hand," is proposed to align product benefits with customer needs. The report details a marketing mix strategy encompassing product diversification (introducing new dental products and flavors), market penetration pricing, dual pricing for premium customers, expanded online distribution, and an omnichannel promotional approach combining traditional and social media marketing. Effective implementation of these strategies aims to increase market penetration, customer engagement, and overall revenue growth for Crest.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Introduction to marketing
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the issues being identified in the assignment one. In
accordance to these challenges, this report discussed two business objectives to overcome them
along with stating an ideal positioning statement. This report also discussed the major four
elements of marketing mix strategies to achieve the objectives identified. It is concluded that
effective implementation of these marketing mix elements will help Crest to have more favorable
business opportunities in the long term.

2INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Table of Contents
Positioning statement.......................................................................................................................3
Marketing objectives.......................................................................................................................4
Marketing mix strategy....................................................................................................................4
Product.........................................................................................................................................4
Price.............................................................................................................................................5
Place.............................................................................................................................................6
Promotion....................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

3INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Introduction
It is identified in the first assignment that the major problem for Crest is lack of product
diversity and limited presence in the international market. In the current business scenario, this is
one of the major challenges being faced by them due to the reason that limited product diversity
and market presence is further restricting the market potentiality for Crest (Bykadorov, Kokovin
& Zhelobod’ko, 2014). Thus, it is important for them to change their current product and market
strategy to enhance the future opportunities. It is identified that the major objectives of Crest will
be to increase their existing market opportunities by enhancing the product diversity and
expanding the market presence.
This report will discuss about the new positioning statement of Crest, which will be
applicable with the current business situation. In addition, the marketing objectives will also be
discussed in this report to overcome the identified issues. In accordance to these objectives, this
report will recommend an ideal marketing mix strategy.
Positioning statement
The new positioning statement for Crest will be “dental care at your hand”. This is due to
the reason that according to the formula for creating positioning statement, it is important to
align the distinctiveness and benefits of the product with that of the audience. Thus, as per the
stated positioning statement, stating dental care will convey the fact that customers will be able
to have holistic dental benefit from using Crest (Chik, 2015). This is distinctive from other
competitors due to the reason that majority of the brands are focusing on a particular benefit to
reach out to the customers. In addition, the target audience of Crest is the customers already
being affected by dental problem or they are aware about the dental care. Thus, providing the

4INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
autonomy to them by stating that dental care at their hand will be effective in reaching out to
them. Thus, this new positioning statement will help Crest to have a favorable brand image in the
market. It is expected that customers should recall Crest not only as mere toothpaste but as
component of dental care. This is due to the reason that using Crest will help the users to avoid
dental problems including the gum and teeth problem. Thus, positioning it as a dental care
product will help to cater to larger customer sections.
Marketing objectives
Initiating marketing objectives will help to overcome the identified issues from the last
assignment. The following section will discuss about the effective marketing objectives for
Crest.
 To be a prominent name in the dental care industry in the global scenario. It is targeted
that minimum of 20 percent of the annual revenue of Crest will be gained from the
foreign markets within the next 2 years.
 To have more market penetration across different customer segments. It is targeted that
more variants will be launched in the market to cater to different taste and preference
pattern of the customers. This will further help to have more market penetration in the
existing market. It is targeted that sales revenue will be increased by 10 percent in next
one year with the help of the new variants.
Marketing mix strategy
Product

5INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Currently, Crest is only being available in the form white toothpaste, while their
competitors such as Colgate is available in different variants and products. Thus, it is
recommended that product diversity should be increased by Crest in terms of different varieties
and items (Park & Han, 2013). Crest branding should be used in introducing other dental
products such as toothbrush and mouthwash. This will help in further expansion of the brand
along with covering more customer segments. It is also recommended that Crest toothpaste
should be made available in different flavors, which will also help in reaching out to the
customers having different taste and preference pattern. In the recent time, it is identified that
toothpastes are being introduced on the basis of market focus strategy. Thus, it is recommended
that Crest should come up with products specific for the children in terms of design and flavors
(Lewis & Winkler, 2015). This will help in effectively targeting the specific customer segment.
It can be concluded that diverse product portfolio will help Crest in having larger customer
segments for targeting along with having more sales revenue. International market is having
more diverse customer segments and having diverse product portfolio will help Crest to meet
these differences.
Price
It is recommended that Crest should follow the market penetration pricing strategy due to
the reason that toothpaste is a necessity product and it is being used by almost all the customer
segments. With the help of the market penetration pricing strategy, Crest will be able to have the
cost leadership advantage over their competitors and can attract larger customer sections. It is
identified that Crest is not having any differences with their competitors in terms of product
composition and thus initiation of the market penetration strategy will help in gaining
competitive advantages over other players in the market (Ingenbleek, Frambach & Verhallen,

6INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
2013). On the other hand, it should also be noted that dual pricing strategy should also be
effective for Crest due to the reason that premium customers will prefer more niche products.
Even though the market share for the premium dental products is low compared to the
mainstream products, but the profitability level is more with them. Thus, it is recommended that
Crest should have their sub brand for catering to the premium customers. This brand will be
positioned as a higher end compared to the existing products. It will help in catering to both mass
market as well as premium customer segments (Spann, Fischer & Tellis, 2014). However, the
pricing approach of Crest should be competition based in order to have the parity with the price
of the competing products. This will help in catering to larger segments and increase the sales
from different foreign locations.
Place
Currently, Crest is available in different offline mediums ranging from hypermarket to
convenience stores. Thus, the offline market is well distributed for them. However, it is
recommended that Crest should also increase the visibility of their products in the online
mediums also. This is due to the reason that there are number of online grocery marketplaces is
gaining popularity in the market and it will be beneficial for Crest to have more target segments
through the online mediums also (Lu & Liu, 2013). In addition, it should also be noted that in the
international market, there are number of regions where the offline retailing is not efficient and
proper. Thus, online presence for Crest will help in more market penetration. In addition,
distribution strategy for Crest should be extensive as they have currently due to the nature of
their products. It should also be noted that traditional channel of distribution involving the
distributors and wholesalers will be beneficial for Crest (Khader et al., 2014). This is due to the

7INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
reason that toothpaste should be made available in remote areas also, which will be made
possible only with the help of the deep market penetration of the wholesalers and distributors.
Promotion
Promotion is one of important elements for Crest as they are operating in the of fast
moving consumer goods category. It is recommended that Crest should initiate both the
traditional and online mode of promotion. This is due to the reason that initiation of the Omni
Channel promotional medium will help in catering to more number of customers (Verhoef,
Kannan & Inman, 2015). It should also be noted that online promotion including the social
media marketing will further help them to determine the feedback of the customers and offer the
products accordingly. Communication is one of the important factors to be considered in the
contemporary approach of promotion (Ailawadi & Farris, 2017). With the help of the social
media marketing and promotional activities, Crest will be able to meet the customer expectations
effectively and ideally. The traditional mode of promotion should include both the television and
print media to reach out to maximum number of customers.
Conclusion
This report concludes that new market development and increasing the product diversity
are the most important objective for Crest. In accordance to these objectives, positioning
statement is being discussed in this report. In addition, the major four elements of marketing mix
strategy are also being discussed in this report. These four elements will help Crest to have the
effective fulfillment of objectives being identified. This will further help them to enhance their
future business opportunities in the long term.

8INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Reference
Ailawadi, K. L., & Farris, P. W. (2017). Managing multi-and omni-channel distribution: metrics
and research directions. Journal of retailing, 93(1), 120-135.
Bykadorov, I. A., Kokovin, S. G., & Zhelobod’ko, E. V. (2014). Product diversity in a vertical
distribution channel under monopolistic competition. Automation and Remote
Control, 75(8), 1503-1524.
Chik, A. (2015). Recreational language learning and digital practices: Positioning and
repositioning. In Discourse and Digital Practices (pp. 124-141). Routledge.
Ingenbleek, P. T., Frambach, R. T., & Verhallen, T. M. (2013). Best practices for new product
pricing: impact on market performance and price level under different
conditions. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 30(3), 560-573.
Khader, S., Rekik, Y., Botta-Genoulaz, V., & Campagne, J. P. (2014). Inventory management
subject to multiplicative inaccuracies. International Journal of Production
Research, 52(17), 5055-5069.
Lewis, V., & Winkler, R. (2015). Product diversity, demand structures, and optimal
taxation. Economic Inquiry, 53(2), 979-1003.
Lu, Q., & Liu, N. (2013). Pricing games of mixed conventional and e-commerce distribution
channels. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 64(1), 122-132.
Park, S. H., & Han, S. P. (2013). From accuracy to diversity in product recommendations:
Relationship between diversity and customer retention. International Journal of
Electronic Commerce, 18(2), 51-72.

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Spann, M., Fischer, M., & Tellis, G. J. (2014). Skimming or penetration? Strategic dynamic
pricing for new products. Marketing Science, 34(2), 235-249.
Verhoef, P. C., Kannan, P. K., & Inman, J. J. (2015). From multi-channel retailing to omni-
channel retailing: introduction to the special issue on multi-channel retailing. Journal of
retailing, 91(2), 174-181.