Marketing Plan: Analysis of Online Food Delivery Business

This report presents a comprehensive marketing plan for an online food delivery business, focusing on vegan and healthy food options. It begins with an introduction outlining the business concept, driven by the increased demand for healthy and contactless food delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report then evaluates the external environment, considering political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. A SWOT analysis identifies the business's strengths (unique vegan food, contactless delivery), weaknesses (potential for low profit margins, increasing competition), opportunities (growing health consciousness, increased online users), and threats (impact of technology, COVID-19). The marketing mix, including product (vegan food), price (reasonable), place (online website), and promotion (online channels), is detailed. The report analyzes the competitive landscape using Porter's Five Forces model and identifies cost leadership as a key competitive advantage. Finally, the report proposes a target market, focusing on middle-income groups interested in vegan and natural food, and concludes with a summary of the key findings and strategic recommendations.

Marketing Plan

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Evaluation of External Environment...........................................................................................3
Swot Analysis..............................................................................................................................5
Marketing Mix.............................................................................................................................6
Competition and competitive advantage.....................................................................................6
Proposed Target Market..............................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing plan can be defined as report that outlines marketing strategy based on a
particular business idea. Proposed business idea for this marketing plan is Online Food Delivery.
This idea is based on my cooking expertise which is most important for this business and this is
why this idea will be a success. Because of the situation of Covid-19 trend of eating out has
reduced and in such situation offering tasty as well as healthy food with contactless delivery is
needed. This business will be started at a neat and clean place where food can be prepared and
because this is food delivery business, restaurant like setup is not required. This report will
involve external and SWOT analysis of the business, along with marketing mix and competitive
advantage. Later target market will also be proposed for this business.
Evaluation of External Environment
Evaluation of external environment is concerned identifying impact of external or macro
environment factors on the business. It is important that before starting the business its external
environment is analysed because online food delivery is subject to several external factors and
analysis of these will help in identifying their impact on the business and will enable to develop
right strategies to utilise opportunities and reduce the threats and their impact on the success of
the business.
Political- This involves factors like political stability, government policies and certain other
elements (Shtal and et.al., 2018). Online food deliver business gets influenced by the factors like
tax policy of the government for small business, labour law, and environmental law for small
business. Government also allows different advantages and favours for small business work as an
opportunity for online food delivery business.
Economical- This involves factors that can affect and influence profitability and cost of online
food delivery business. Factors in this are economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates,
inflation rates. Inflation and interest rates has direct impact on the cost of the business. Other
than this, online food delivery business is also based on internet and ability of people to use this
and success of business gets influenced by infrastructure, however UK has highly developed
infrastructure and this has positive impact on the success of the business. Recession and

economic impact due to Covid-19 is an important element that can affect success of business,
because due to Covid-19 income of people has reduced and this also reduced their disposable
income. This can impact online food delivery business.
Social- This environment involves customers and target market in terms of both demographic as
well as behavioural elements (Bismark and et.al., 2018). Concerned with online food delivery
business, increasing number of people active online has an opportunity for the business, along
with this increasing demand for vegan and natural healthy food is also an opportunity for the
business. However, increasing concern for safety and fear of spreading disease because of
Covid-19 might influence business.
Technological- This factor involve technology to be utilised for the business and because
business is online food delivery business, it is mainly based on technology. In this factors that
influence involve development of technology for e-commerce and technology being utilised by
competitors of business.
Legal- This factor involves different laws and regulations that businesses need to follow. Laws
and regulations that affect online food delivery business involve consumer law, health and safety
law, regulations for food safety and standards. Online food delivery business also become
subject to different regulations for acquiring license for the operation of business. In online food
delivery business it is also important to consider data protection laws in which it is important that
data of consumers related to their finance details and identity details is safe.
Environment- This is concerned with sourcing material from sustainable sources. This also
involves ensuring that online food delivery business operates in environment friendly ways.
Waste management is an important element in this environment of online food delivery business
(Bush, 2016). Increasing environmental consciousness has increased pressure on businesses that
they are environment friendly and their environment friendly operations can also create an
opportunity for them to succeed in their business.
Analysis of external environment helps in identifying favourable and non-favourable impact of
macro environment factors. In order to understand internal environment and its impact and this
also help in understanding potential opportunity and threats for the organisation. SWOT analysis

involves analysis of strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis of online
food delivery business is as follows-
Swot Analysis
Strength
Idea of the business- This is one of the most important strength of this business as it is online
and provide vegan food. Along with this in relations with food delivery considering Covid-19
measures have been developed for contactless delivery.
Reasonable price- This means that price of the products is reasonable.
Quality of the products- This is strength of the online food delivery business in which quality of
the ingredients and food being prepared is of high quality, this is important for customer
satisfaction (Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills, 2019).
Weaknesses
Low profits- This means that using high quality material and provide them in reasonable has
possibility of low profit margin.
Competition- This means that competition in food business is increasing and sellers for vegan
and natural food are also increasing.
Opportunities
Increasing health consciousness- In situation of Covid-19 people are getting more health
consciousness and online food delivery business involves providing healthy food options for
customers.
Increasing online users- Increasing number of online users is another opportunity for online
food delivery business (Sarsby, 2016).
Preference for vegan food- Online food delivery business provides vegan food and increasing
demand for vegan food has an opportunity for online food delivery business.
Threats

Impact of technology effectiveness- This means that online food delivery business might get
influenced by non-effective performance of technology. Though food and its quality is important
element for the business but technology can affect customers negatively.
Covid-19- This means that because of impacts of Covid-19 food delivery business might
experience more difficulty in getting established as well as getting successful.
Marketing Mix
Product- Product of the online food delivery business or its offering for customers is vegan,
natural and healthy food. Business is committed to offer vegan and healthy food of high quality
(Wu and Li, 2018). Food offerings involve fast food, complete meals, and variety of cuisines
along with natural beverages.
Price- This is concerned with price or money that customers will have to pay in exchange of the
products. Pricing strategy for this business is reasonable price or cost plus pricing strategy. This
pricing strategy involves calculating cost and adding reasonable profit margin on that. The
reason behind this price strategy is to ensure that more customers can afford qualitative and
healthy food.
Place- This is concerned with the point where offering of the seller and buyer of the product
meet. In other words, this is concerned with distribution channels. This is online food delivery
business and this is why its place is online website of the business.
Promotion- This is concerned with communicating to customers regarding business and its
offerings along with what value they provide. Aim of this is to encourage customers to buy
products of the company (Abril and Rodriguez-Cánovas, 2016). Online food delivery business
because is being operated on internet so the promotions will also be done on online channels and
internet. This involves promoting on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Competition and competitive advantage
Competition in food market is increasing rapidly and this is why it is important that
before entering into the market competition and its strength is analysed. In order to identify and
understand competition and its force Porter’s Five Forces model can be used-
Porter’s Five Forces

Threat of New Entry- Threat of new entry is concerned with how easy it is to enter into food
industry and this gets affected by entry barriers like required investment and resources. On the
basis of these barriers it is easy to enter into food industry. This creates feasibility for online food
delivery business to enter into the industry and this force is in favour of business.
Threat of substitutes- This is another force in which substitute refers to products that can fulfil
needs of same level (Mhlanga, 2018). There are several substitute products that customers can
buy. Force in this gets affected by number of sellers and number of substitutes and cost of
switching. Customers can switch to another substitute at low cost and this is why this force is not
in favour.
Bargaining power of suppliers- This is concerned with the power that is held and exercised by
suppliers of the business. This force gets affected by number of suppliers and cost of switching
suppliers along with resources being supplied by them. There are several suppliers who can
supply resources and required material for online food delivery.
Bargaining power of Buyers- This is concerned with bargaining power of buyer or customers.
Their power gets influenced by number of sellers and substitute products. There are several
sellers in food industry and there are several number of substitute products. This force is not
favourable for online food delivery business.
Competitive Rivalry- Because of high number of firms and organisations operating in food
industry there is strong competitive rivalry and this is why online food delivery business needs to
employ effective strategies.
Competitive advantage refers to elements that make one business superior to its
competitors and give advantage over competition (Chesula and Kiriiny, 2018). This can be
analysed with Porter’s Generic Strategies.
Porter’s Generic Strategies

Figure 1 Porter's Generic Strategies
Cost leadership- In this strategy competitive advantage is in form of least possible cost of the
product. This allows company to maintain effective profit margin and this also allows benefit to
customers in terms of less price.
Differentiation- this is concerned with unique attribute of the product or service that differentiate
product of an organization from its competitors.
Cost Focus- This is concerned with products offering to a narrow market with application of cost
leadership strategy.
Focus differentiation- This involve using differentiation strategy on a narrow market.
Among these competitive advantages, competitive advantage of online food delivery is
cost leadership (Omsa, Abdullah and Jamali, 2017). This is because online food delivery
business is aimed at creating vegan high quality food at low cost and this element provides it
competitive advantage.
Proposed Target Market
Food delivery business has its offerings for all types of businesses, but targeting certain
market for the marketing and business activities allows businesses to enhance their capability
according to requirements of that target market. Segmentation is undertaken by the organisations
to target certain market.

Segmentation- Segmentation is a practice in which heterogeneous markets are divided into
groups that are relatively. Segmentation is done on the basis of certain common characteristics
shared by customers. These characteristics are-
Demographic- This involves characteristics like age, gender, marital status, occupation, ethnicity
and education.
Psychographic- personality, values, beliefs, lifestyle, attitude, interest and opinions
Geographic- segmentation on the basis of country, region, and city
Behavioural- preference regarding product, their quality, and their customer loyalty
Targeting- This is concerned with selecting segments in which business wants to offer its
products and offerings (Ford, 2019). Online food delivery business has targeted multiple
segments and these can be consciously involved in middle income groups interested in vegan and
natural food products.
Targeting this will allow online food delivery business to get more number of customers.
While targeting this group it is important that marketing activities of the business has an
reach to more number of people. Because with extensive marketing business will be able to reach
to more number of people included in this target market.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it can be concluded that online food delivery business is
a right business choice based on the environment and current circumstances. This business has
several opportunities based on its external environment and also it has several strengths
identified through its internal environment analysis. This marketing plan also outlined
competition and competitive advantage for the business and on the basis of analysis it can be
concluded that online food delivery business has extensive competition. Concerned with
competitive advantage of the business its competitive advantage is cost leadership.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Bush, T., 2016. PESTLE Analysis: Everything You Need To Know. Dostopno na:
https://pestleanalysis. com/pestle-analysis-everything-you-need-know/[10. 3. 2020].
Chesula, O.W. and Kiriiny, S.N., 2018. Competitiveness In The Telecommunication Sector In
Kenya Using Porters Five Forces Model. International Journal of Research in
Finance and Marketing (IJRFM). 8(7). pp.1-10.
Ford, J.B., 2019. What Do We Know About Segmentation and Targeting?.
Mhlanga, O., 2018. An analysis of the impact of the micro environment on airline performances
in South Africa using Porters' five forces model. International Journal of Tourism
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Omsa, S., Abdullah, I.H. and Jamali, H., 2017. Five competitive forces model and the
implementation of Porter’s generic strategies to gain firm performances.
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
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Sarsby, A., 2016. SWOT analysis. Lulu. com.
Shtal, T and et.al., 2018. Methods of analysis of the external environment of business activities.
Wu, Y.L. and Li, E.Y., 2018. Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social
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