“Brands are more than just names and symbols. They
are a key element in the company’s relationships with consumers. Brands
represent consumers’ perceptions and feelings about a product and its performance—everything
that the product or service means to consumers. In the final analysis, brands exist
in the heads of consumers. As one well-respected marketer once said, “Products
are created in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.” (Marketing an
Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 228) For this business the implementation will
go in stages of advertising and promotion in various ways. Initially a mail
campaign with postcards with frequent locations and an email campaign and a
website will be set up. Shortly into the start of the business I believe the
best venture might be to advertise through a local news source and through
social media after an initial customer base is set. The social media
constraints will be coupon offers and try us campaigns for buy one get one
free, or get chips and a drink with the fajita free just for trying us and
liking our facebook, or retweeting the tweet. “A company’s channel decisions
directly affect every other marketing decision. Pricing depends on whether the
company works with national discount chains, uses high-quality specialty
stores, or sells directly to consumers via the Web. The firm’s sales force and
communications decisions depend on how much persuasion, training, motivation,
and support its channel partners need. Whether a company develops or acquires
certain new products may depend on how well those products fit the capabilities
of its channel members.” (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 312) The
evaluation step of this part in the plan will mainly involve customer returns
and just purely profitability in projected short and long-term time measures.
Lastly, the controls established will be a goal to increase profits by at least
10% in a 6 month introductory business period.
“Many marketing decisions boil down to numbers. An important question is
this: What is the market sales potential in a given segment? If the sales
potential in a market is not large enough to warrant pursing that market, then
companies will not offer products and services to that market, even though a
need may exist.” (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 97) As I said
before I want the business to be profitable but I personally don’t want to make
a huge booming business that grows and expands nationwide. I am the type of
person that would be okay with a successful family owned business with one to
five locations owned and run locally with a few employees at most. In this
mindset I also want to save the customers as much money as possible for their
business because outside of being able to afford expenses the money isn’t the
important part to me and I am not the only one to have a change in mindset. “Recent
economic events have caused a fundamental shift in consumer attitudes toward
price and quality. In response, many companies have changed their pricing
approaches to bring them into line with changing economic conditions and
consumer price perceptions. More and more, marketers have adopted good-value
pricing strategies—offering just the right combination of quality and good
service at a fair price.” (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 277).
Initial specific pricing for the company is attached in the creative content that
I made a sample menu to go on the side of the ordering window of the food truck
itself.
“Clearly, there are many ways to segment a market, but not all
segmentations are effective. For example, buyers of table salt could be divided
into blond and brunette customers. But hair color obviously does not affect the
purchase of salt. Furthermore, if all salt buyers bought the same amount of
salt each month, believed that all salt is the same, and wanted to pay the same
price, the company would not benefit from segmenting this market.” (Marketing
an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 185) This statement is also true in
promotion in various markets, not every form of promotion will work for the
same type of consumer. I am looking to bring in as much business as possible at
a price that keeps the business at a decent cushion of profit, but not
extremely profitable itself. “Portland-based
Vanilla Bicycles sells hand-built bikes with price tags ranging from $4,000 to
$12,000. Now, after only nine years in business, owner Sacha White has stopped
taking orders—not because business had dried up but because he has a five-year
waiting list. White and his crew of three make only 40 to 50 bikes a year.
Frames are made from exotic metals, are welded with silver alloy, and weigh as
little as 30 ounces. No two Vanilla bikes are the same. Each is custom fitted
to the client and features intricate metal carvings and an artisan paint job.
Amazingly, almost all of these high-end velocipedes are sold to middle-class
customers. Still, orders have not ebbed with the economic downturn. In fact,
Vanilla could ramp up production significantly and still sell everything it
makes. However, White claims that would compromise the special nature of what
customers consider to be works of art. Vanilla bikes are so special that when
Portland bike couriers describe something as cool, they routinely say, “That’s
soooo Vanilla.” (Marketing an Introduction, Armstrong/Kolter, 205) Even though
I do not want to be as select as the company mentioned above I do want to form
a unique sense of community surrounding the business and give the customers
something to talk about when they leave, but to do that getting them in the
door is the most important. I plan on doing the promotion through social media
campaigns, a website with an email marketing campaign, a local advertisement in
the free Summerlin newspaper provided at most homes doorsteps once a month, and
more. I will go into further detail in the implementation evaluation control
post.
