Jones Soda Company Marketing Strategic Plan: Canada Expansion

This document presents a strategic marketing plan for Jones Soda Company, focusing on expanding into the Canadian market with healthy soft drink alternatives. It includes an organizational overview, situation analysis (SWOTT), marketing research covering industry, consumer, and competitive landscapes, and differentiation and positioning strategies. The plan identifies target customers, outlines the marketing mix (product, place, price, promotion), key success factors, goals and objectives, and a detailed budget. Monitoring and evaluation methods are also discussed to ensure the plan's effectiveness and alignment with the company's objectives of gaining visibility and market share in Canada. Desklib provides access to this document and many other resources for students.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGIC PLAN
Marketing Strategic Plan
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

1MARKETING STRATEGIC PLAN
Table of Contents
Organizational overview..................................................................................................................2
The opportunity...............................................................................................................................2
Situation Analysis (SWOTT)..........................................................................................................3
SWOTT Analysis.........................................................................................................................3
Marketing Research.........................................................................................................................3
Differentiating and Positioning........................................................................................................4
Target customers and marketing mix..............................................................................................5
Key success factors..........................................................................................................................6
Goals and objectives........................................................................................................................6
Budget..............................................................................................................................................7
Monitoring.......................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

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Organizational overview
The company that has been chosen for the particular assignment is the Jones Soda
Company. The company is based in Seattle, Washington and has been supplying the US market
soft drinks from the year 1996 (Adachi, 2017). The Company have also established a presence in
the Canadian market. The company have identified the existence of the big names in the soft
drinks industry and thus have employed a different way to present their products to the
customers. They did not employ any marketing strategy to sell their products in the past and
relied on sales that came from skateboard shops, tattoo parlors and RVs. The company’s mission
statement has been identified in their modes of operations and their market offerings. The
company’s mission statement is to provide the consumers with products through which they can
celebrate their uniqueness and individuality. The mission statement of the company has been
realized in their operations. In the past the company had devised a plan through which they
planned to engage their customers. The Company offered their consumers to customize the labels
of their soft drink bottles and delivered according to individual demands.
The opportunity
Use of excessive amount of sweeteners in soft drinks have alarmed the consumer
community (Trapp et al., 2014). It has been found that increase in consumptions of sweetened
soft drinks has a direct link with obesity (Swithers, 2015). Additionally the existing consumer of
the company mainly belong to sports backgrounds. It has been assumed that the consumers of the
soft drink company are aware of the negative effects of the same and are looking for an
alternative (Albert et al., 2013). Thus the company has identified to capitalize on the same and
have devised the following strategic marketing campaign. By developing and manufacturing

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healthy soft drink substitutes the company aims to cater to the changing preference of the
customers (Kibbeling, Bij & Weele, 2013). Additionally the company aims to utilize this
opportunity to gain increased visibility in the Canadian market.
Situation Analysis (SWOTT)
SWOTT Analysis
Strengths:
 The taste and preferences of
the consumers are aligned
favorably to initiative.
 The company can gain
additional market share.
 They can company can
position themselves beside
big names.
Weakness:
 Companies such as Coca Cola and Pepsi
are market leaders and have established
themselves in the said division.
 The need for the market campaign will
result in additional requirement of
capital.
 Risk of acceptance.
Opportunities:
 The Canadian market has been
identified as a market that is educated
about the negative effects of soft
drinks and the plan has possibility to
turn out to be successful.
 Outsourced manufacturing will
considerably reduce the expenses.
Threats:
 Use of plastic for bottling has raised
environmental concerns.
 Loss of market share as a result of
changing concerns of the consumers.
Trends:
 Boycott of sweetened soft drinks.
 Growing demand for healthy soft drink substitutes.
 Market dominated by Coca Cola and Pepsi.
Marketing Research
a. Industry analysis: Soft drink were first introduced in the Canadian market back in the
early 1800s (Brisbois et al., 2014). The current annual demand for the soft drinks in
Canada amounts to approximately 7 billion liters and the figures round off to about 59.27
l per individual for the year 2017 (Chepulis et al., 2018). It witnessed a considerable drop

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of about 23 l per individual of individual soft drink consumption from the year 2016
(Chepulis et al., 2018).
b. Consumer analysis: Majority of the Canadian population fall between the ages of 35-45,
followed by the age group of 25-34 (Wilder, 2013). It has been seen that people
belonging to these age groups are gaining awareness about the negative effects of soft
drinks and are opting to choose alternatives that offer health benefits.
c. Competitive analysis: Coca cola and Pepsi are the market leaders in the Canadian
market (Howard, 2014). The existence of brands such as Canada dry, Big eight and
Clearly Canadian are companies that occupy a decent amount of market share in the soft
drinks industry in Canada.
d. Opportunity analysis: The decline in consumption of soft drinks in the Canadian market
along with the change of taste and preference of the consumers has provided an
opportunity for the company to establish themselves in the market with the introduction
of healthy soft drink supplements. However the big names such as Coca Cola and Pepsi
along with the existing soft drink brands can make existence difficult for the company
(Vanderlee et al., 2014).
Differentiating and Positioning
The initiative of the Jones Soda Company revolves around the idea of supplying the
market of Canada with healthy and less harmful soft drinks. However existent companies in the
domain have already established themselves in the market with healthy supplements of the soft
drinks. The Jones Soda company also intends to do the same. However loyal customers would
need a reason to shift from the brands they trust to a new one. It has been found the healthy
supplement of the actual soft drinks are characterized by a change of taste. It has been found that

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the consumer community have not been completely appreciative of the fact that the health
supplements have a different taste than the original drink (Block et al., 2013). Thus the company
have decided to capitalize on this by providing the benefits offered by the formers with the
additional taste factor. Most of the potential competitors of the brand offer healthy and dietary
soft drink supplements that lack flavor. Thus the Jones Soda Company have identified the
opportunity and aim to position themselves as the only company that offer similar taste as the
actual product but with the benefits of a the healthy supplements.
Target customers and marketing mix
a. The initial stages of the campaign will be targeted towards the market of Ontario and
Chicago. These have been identified as location that experience the maximum demand of
soft drinks within the country and there lies the rationale behind the selection. The target
customers have been identified as fitness enthusiast and consumers of dietary soft drinks.
b. Product: The offering to the market will be dietary soft drink supplements. The soft
drinks this offered will have flavors such a lemonade, Cola and Orange.
c. Place: The products will be supplied to retailers and gymnasiums and will be sold from
there to students. The products will also be made available in supermarkets and
departmental store. The company also has aims to establish exclusive outlets.
d. Price: During the initial days of the company’s existence in the Canadian market, the
company deems to be sales oriented. The initial motive of the company is to establish and
gain an increase in the market share. The products are proposed to be similar to the
existing competitors. The soft drinks offered by the company are said to be around 2.5
Canadian Dollars. However. The quality will not be compromised by the price in which
the product is being offered.

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e. Promotion: Social media will play a crucial role in the promotional activities that will be
taken up by the company. Promotional activities will involve marketing through
advertising on social media, commercials on television, newspaper advertising and
billboards. Sales promotional tactics will also be applied by the company in the form of
discounts that would be offered by the company on bulk purchase. Furthermore the
company aims to maintain favourable public relations by organising campaigns regarding
their sustainability initiatives.
Key success factors
The success of the plan will be reflected by the capital markets research. However
evaluation of the success or failure of the campaign will not be limited to the portion of market
share it acquires or the amount of turnover it generates. It will also be measured by taking
feedback form the customers through surveys and interview during POP in retail outlets, gyms
and supermarkets. Consumer feedback should be valued by every company as their approval
determines the longevity of success that is enjoyed by the company (Hildebrand et al. 2013).
Thus feedback along with the word of mouth will help determine the success of the campaign
alongside the financial figures that will help determine the position of the company in
comparison to its competitors.
Goals and objectives
The current objective of the company is to gain visibility in the Canadian market. This
correlates with their second short term objective of maximizing sales and thus the company is
opined to be a sales oriented company.

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The long term objective of the company has been identified to be provide Better
experiences to the customers by supplying products that provide a sense of flavor.
The implementation of the plan will start to roll out after one month of the date of
approval of the proposal.
Budget
Components Amount ( Canadian Dollars)
Commercial on television 700,000
Advertisement on Newspaper 200,000
Commercials on social media 500,000
Billboard advertising 400,000
Sales promotion 600,000
Point of Purchase Promotion 200,000
TOTAL 2,600,000
Table 1 (Source: As created by the author)
Monitoring
The whole operation will be monitored by the personnel responsible for formulation of
the campaign. The main responsibility will be delegated to the marketing department of the
Jones Soda Company. Just as mentioned earlier, the success of the campaign will be measured

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by the realization of the company’s motive of achievement of market share. Word of mouth and
consumer feedback will also play a crucial role in determining the success of the campaign.

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REFERENCES
Adachi, T. (2017). On the Possibility of an Unsuccessful Merger: Implications from Stock
Market and Retail Scanner Data. Economic Research Center Discussion Paper, (17).
Albert, B. B., Cameron-Smith, D., Hofman, P. L., & Cutfield, W. S. (2013). Oxidation of marine
omega-3 supplements and human health. BioMed research international, 2013.
Block, J. P., Gillman, M. W., Linakis, S. K., & Goldman, R. E. (2013). “If it tastes good, I'm
drinking it”: qualitative study of beverage consumption among college students. Journal
of Adolescent Health, 52(6), 702-706.
Brisbois, T., Marsden, S., Anderson, G., & Sievenpiper, J. (2014). Estimated intakes and sources
of total and added sugars in the Canadian diet. Nutrients, 6(5), 1899-1912.
Chepulis, L., Mearns, G., Hill, S., Wu, J. H., Crino, M., Alderton, S., & Jenner, K. (2018). The
nutritional content of supermarket beverages: a cross-sectional analysis of New Zealand,
Australia, Canada and the UK. Public health nutrition, 21(13), 2507-2516.
Hildebrand, C., Häubl, G., Herrmann, A., & Landwehr, J. R. (2013). When social media can be
bad for you: Community feedback stifles consumer creativity and reduces satisfaction
with self-designed products. Information Systems Research, 24(1), 14-29.
Howard, P. H. (2014). Too big to ale? Globalization and consolidation in the beer industry.
In The Geography of Beer(pp. 155-165). Springer, Dordrecht.
Kibbeling, M., Van Der Bij, H., & Van Weele, A. (2013). Market orientation and innovativeness
in supply chains: Supplier's impact on customer satisfaction. Journal of Product
Innovation Management, 30(3), 500-515.

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Swithers, S. E. (2015). Artificial sweeteners are not the answer to childhood
obesity. Appetite, 93, 85-90.
Trapp, G. S., Allen, K., O'sullivan, T. A., Robinson, M., Jacoby, P., & Oddy, W. H. (2014).
Energy drink consumption is associated with anxiety in Australian young adult
males. Depression and anxiety, 31(5), 420-428.
Vanderlee, L., Manske, S., Murnaghan, D., Hanning, R., & Hammond, D. (2014). Sugar‐
sweetened beverage consumption among a subset of Canadian Youth. Journal of School
Health, 84(3), 168-176.
Wilder, S. (2013). The age demographics of academic librarians: A profession apart. Routledge.