MSH Brand Marketing Plan: Strategy and Effectiveness

This report presents a marketing plan for MSH Brands, focusing on the introduction of TruDog, a new organic dry dog food product. The plan begins with a business context, highlighting the growth of the pet food industry and consumer demand for natural ingredients. A situation analysis examines the market size, competition, and MSH Brand's current product line. The marketing strategy employs the STP approach (segmentation, targeting, and positioning), focusing on middle-class dog owners aged 45-65. The marketing mix encompasses product development, competitor-based pricing, promotional strategies including packaging and advertising, and a multi-channel distribution strategy. The report also details how the marketing effectiveness will be measured, including revenue and customer base growth targets, sales analysis, and annual plan controls. The plan aims to capitalize on the growing trend of natural pet food and increase MSH Brand's market share.

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MSH Brand Marketing Plan
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MSH Brand Marketing Plan
Business Context
When it comes to family life, the pet food industry happens to one of the biggest and
fastest-rising industries in the overall market. This follows the consequent increase in the number
of people owning pets. As such, the retail sales of pet food in 2019 was nearly $29, an increase
by 6% from the previous year (Packaged Facts, 2019). According to research, approximately 235
million American households are said to be owning a pet (Naakka, 2021). MSH Brands serves as
a pet treat and food organization which embraces the significance of according our pets the best
and nutritious food out here. The organization’s motto indicates their aim and standard of
considering pets as significant parts of families thus treating them as such. This has raised
awareness to the consumers, to consider what they are feeding their dogs fostering a shift into the
use of natural, and synthetic products.
Different studies concerning pet food nutrients have ascertained that cats other than dogs
are exposed to higher risk to particular pet foods (Tobie, 2015). Following the same, the MSH
Brands have focused on introducing new dog products with the view of reducing the risk while
targeting the increasing population of pet owners. Besides, MSH Brands have embarked on
developing, TruDog a new product for dogs’ consumption. TruDog will introduce customers to
the option of dry food, while months later, the option of canned food will be introduced as well.
Although canned food is considered more digestible, and savory, the demand of dry food is
increasing rapidly, given its advantages in terms of storage, and clean feeding without leaving
any mess. Moreover, the dry food promotes effective oral care to the dogs thus reducing risks to
plaque and tartar buildup adding to offering a crunch, and the chewing needed to maintain the
animal’s overall health (Tobie, 2015).

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Additionally, TruDog product will be antibiotic, preservatives, poisonous pesticides,
simulated hormones, synthetic colors, and flavors free. This follows that its ingredients will be
organic, including lean meats, plants and natural minerals, and vitamins. Besides, it will be free
of byproducts and grains such as wheat and corn. The company views this as the perfect time of
introducing the product given the consequent shift in consumer behavior towards products
encompassing natural ingredients, fostering improved health. Further, all-natural ingredients
products are proving to become the new trend. Given the increased environmental awareness,
knowledge regarding wellness, and the customer’s need to understand the product’s ingredients
has developed a pleasant environment for the TruDog product to flourish.
Situation Analysis
In 2018, the market size of the pet food had its value at $83.02 billion dollars globally,
while it is predicted to grow at 4.5% annual growth rate by 2025. Besides, given the increased
awareness concerning the natural pet food products, the Northern United States have turned to
one of the leading markets in regard to the same. Product differentiation serves as a significant
factor in pet food, with the view of increasing sales. As such, when a brand accords their
customers more products, the overall revenue increases while reducing the overalls costs. The
reduction in costs is attributed to the fact that, retaining the current customers compared to
acquiring new ones is cheaper.
In the current market, MSH company boasts of a product line comprising pet treats and
supplements, as well as refrigerated, frosted, and wet pet food. The distribution of these products
is done through hypermarkets and supermarkets in America. The brand boasts of having a good
reputation with their existing customers fostering the achievement of stable profits from sales
over the years. As such, bringing in the TruDog product to the company’s product line will not

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only add variety of products to the current product base but also foster a diversified customer
base while giving the existing customers new options. The main target customers of the new
natural product will be the population of people belonging to the middle class, ranging between
45-65 years. This follows that this population makes up 43.5% of the overall pet revenue. The
United States pet food market has been projected in figure 1, by products (Naakka, 2021).
The company faces stiff competition from some other players such as Blue Buffalo Pet
products, Diamond Pet Foods, The J.M Smucker Co., Mars Inc., and Nestle Purina. Other rivals
include, WellPet LLC, Lupus Alimentos and Hartz Mountain Corporation (Naakka, 2021). In the
current market, Nestle Purina is the best brand when it comes to dry dog food given its
approximate $3.8 billion sales in the United States. Currently, the organization boasts of having
more than 30 brands and is regarded as the largest manufacturer of pet food across the globe.
This follows that, its products are distributed across the world through mass merchandisers,
supermarkets, online retailers, and pet supply stores. As such, by bringing in TruDog product,
MSH company will challenge the competition in the market, boosting the reputation of the
company. Consequently, this will foster an increase in sales of the brand while enabling the
company to reach out to new customers, and in return registering an increase in revenue.
Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy regards the long-term plan and approach embraced by a company
towards achieving a competitive advantage over their rivals by coming into terms with the
customer’s needs, and preferences (Morgan, 2019). In this case, we will look into the
segmentation, targeting and positioning approach (STP). This approach is made up of three steps
assisting the companies in analyzing their products as well as how the company will create
awareness to specific groups concerning the value and benefits of the products (Morgan, 2019).

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Besides, it helps in identifying the brand’s valuable customers and thus come up with marketing
messages and products targeting and satisfying them. In this case, MSH’s marketing strategy will
be drawn from the situation analysis section.
Segmentation refers to the process through which customers that can be lured into
purchasing the products and services of a company are determined (Morgan, 2019). In MSH’s
case, segmentation will comprise of various sub-segments depending on the type of pet such as
bird or dog, type of food such as frosted or dry and category of food such as organic or meat
based. In targeting sub-segment, the MSH brands seeks to enter the new product line market
under the frosted, and wet pet food, with the TruDog product targeting middle-class dog owners
between the age of 45 to 60 years given that they form the largest customer base for dog food. In
positioning, the product will be brought to the industry as organic, and natural dry pet food. As
such, the main targets will be the owners of canines and are committed to subjecting them to a
healthy diet not marked by any flavor or additives. As it stands, most of the organic and natural
pet food tend to be frosted making it difficult and expensive to store (Tobie, 2015). As such, the
new product will be convenient to the customers given its easy storage thus saving some costs.
The brand’s marketing strategy will be geared towards ensuring easier availability and
accessibility of the product information by the target customers. This is through the utilization of
broadcast, digital, print and social media with the ads in newspapers, catalogues and magazines
showcasing the product. Besides, they will be placed in streaming sites like Amazon Prime given
the number of people streaming products from there. The ads will be showcasing pet owners
alongside their dogs, while including the ingredients of the pet food and its health benefits. The
products positioning statement will be “nutrition without compromise - The love taste.” This

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will attract the owners of dogs who view them as their family members thus embarking on
feeding them TruDog products which are full of top tier ingredients to grant them nutrients.
Marketing Mix
This comprises of the consequent strategies geared towards supporting the achievement
of corporate objectives which are increased sales and revenue. As such, an effective marketing
mix, defines a company’s marketing elements to ensure effective positioning of its products
(Groucutt, 2015). This aims at maximizing the sales of the product while maintaining a
competitive advantage over its rivals. The MSH Brand’s marketing mix will be based on its
product’s promotion, pricing, distribution, and the product.
The brand will adopt a competitor-based pricing strategy for the TruDog product. It will
be aimed at examining the rival’s pricing structure which will serve as the main benchmark in
anchoring its pricing to match with the trends in the existing market. This will foster the
company in aligning with its customer’s pricing expectations (Groucutt, 2015). Initially, it will
kick off by utilizing a matched price approach whereby its product’s pricing will match that of
their rivals. Upon having a strong base in the market, the brand will start positioning itself for
growth by considering the things its rivals could not be considering like willingness to pay.
Further, company will embrace a promotion strategy through which they will aim at
creating a good first impression to the customers. This will be through the packaging where the
product will be colorful, have a desirable shape, apply innovative words and have an imagery
stirring an emotional response (Lee, 2011). As such, TruGod product will assume an eye-
catching packaging, with a design that utilizes various healthy dogs’ pictures, drawing the
attention of the customers. In regard to distributional strategies, MSH brands seeks to introduce

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TruDog product through different channels to its customers. As such, the product will be offered
to two biggest pet store chains, Petco and PetSmart, which recorded sales amounting to $12.48
billion. After some months, the product will be rolled out to supermarkets and hypermarkets like
Shoprite and Walmart. The product will also be offered in web-based platforms veterinary
offices as well as web-based platforms like Amazon given that in 2017, pet products on Amazon
reported a staggering $1.4 billion sales.
In regard to the product strategy, research indicates that in America, approximately 60%
of dogs are obese, 80% have a dental disorder, while half of the number of dogs aged ten and
above are projected to have cancer in future. As such, the need for dog owners to look after their
pets which start withs monitoring their diet. TruDog product has thus been developed by MSH
Brands, using organic ingredients to ensure the dogs remain healthy by providing them with
minerals and vitamins. Besides, the dry dog food will be free of additives, flavors or
preservatives making it all natural. Thus, the product will be of high quality and nutritious.
Marketing Effectiveness
To measure the effectiveness of the marketing plan entails assessing how the brand’s
marketing strategies have played a significant role in decreasing the overall costs while
increasing it revenue (Groucutt, 2015). Measuring of the TruDog product’s marketing
effectiveness will be through long-term and short-term increase in the brand’s customer cost gain
and overall revenue. Data will be gathered from Google, and different social media platforms,
coming up with customized reports for the leadership. Among the goals to be measured is a
revenue increase of $20 million before the third quarter starts following the release of TruDog
product. The other goal is an increase of the customer base by 15% before the second quarter
starts, following the release of TruDog.

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Further, the annual plan controls will be applied in assessing effectiveness and the
activities towards goal meeting. As such, different activities will have their annual plans
prepared. According to Groicutt (2019), the controls have a relation with sales measured
periodically, and compared to goals to ascertain things which have been achieved, and the ones
which have not. Some of the measures embodied in this marketing plan and how they will be
used by MSH brand are:
a. Different sales analysis: the various TruDog types sale’s targets will be set
i.e total sales, product-wise, and customer-wise sales. They will then be compared with
actual sales to ascertain the company goals achieved.
b. Financial Analysis: This will entail studying the net sales, profits,
expenses, and assets to ascertain the totals assets return and net worth returns as well.
This will help in evaluating the profit margin.
c. Stakeholders and Customer’s Attitudes Analysis: This will be measured
based on the feedback received, enabling the management to act accordingly. As a matter
of fact, this will bring out how TruDog product has been received in the market, and
assess its position in future.

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References
Groucutt, J., & Hopkins, C. (2015). Marketing. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Lee, N. R., & Kotler, P. (2011). Social marketing: Influencing behaviors for good. SAGE
publications.
Morgan, N. A., Whitler, K. A., Feng, H., & Chari, S. (2019). Research in marketing
strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), 4-29.
Naakka, N. (2021). Co-creating Value in the Age of Digitalised Businesses-Case Study: The Dog
Food and Treats Industry.
Packaged Facts (2019). U.S. Food Market Outlook 2019 https://www.packagedfacts.com/prod-
toc/Food-Outlook-12079368/
Tobie, C., Péron, F., & Larose, C. (2015). Assessing food preferences in dogs and cats: a review
of the current methods. Animals, 5(1), 126-137.

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Appendix
Figure1. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pet-food-industry
Figure 2. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pet-food-industry