Implementation Evaluation Control

“To succeed in today’s competitive marketplace, companies need to be customer centered. They must win customers from competitors, then keep and grow them by delivering greater value.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

The implementation steps of my product would involve running ads especially on websites on the Internet. Being a web designer, I see the benefits of advertising your product online especially as ads on say Facebook or other high social media sites.  I believe another step would be to create a website not only for the product but for the company as well. With everything being digital and information being directly available online and with media, I think this is a wise decision and idea to implement. However, I would focus on the interactive aspects of my site and wanting my customers and viewers to be entertained and drawn to the site. I would design an interactive layout with animated buttons that would hopefully make the user smile and aiming to keep them on the site longer from being entertained. Perhaps email and newsletters could be sent out to people who are interested in the product but not necessarily want to be involved with being a member on the site.

Using the website would be an exceptionally good way of viewing the traffic of users and viewers that come on the site and get an idea of what could be changed considering what parts of the website they look at often. There could be minor surveys or games that would gauge which product the user loves most so we can be a better qualitative study of which product has a greater impact on its consumers.

“Dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have different needs, characteristics, or behaviors, and who might require separate products or marketing programs.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

Price

“Price is also one of the most flexible marketing mix elements.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

For the price of the olive chips product is one that I have contemplated over many times. I see many prices on chips varying from high prices at $5.00 to low prices at $1.50. I wanted a good middle price to entice customers to choose this product over something entirely expensive and something cheap. Doing a bit of research, I have learned that products that are good for you are incredibly expensive but a bit out of the range of most customers. While prices at a low $1.50 may not be good for the customer but are affordable for just about everybody. In the settings of a bar I wanted to not only grab the customer with a design or colors that would stand out from other snacks but a price that would not make them think twice about buying the product. From reading the book I see that price can be flexible and I know whatever price I set my product at will fluctuate over time and sales. A nice

Little niche or price I feel is right for this product would be about $3.50.  There are chips that come in large backs that range around that price but I’m not thinking of making a large bag and filling the it with the product. This product has a gluten free side to it and although it is a snack, it should not be priced so low for the healthy aspects of the chips.

“Customer perceptions of the product’s value set the ceiling for prices. If customers perceive that the price is greater than the product’s value, they will not buy the product.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

Distribution

 “outbound distribution(moving products from the factory to resellers and ultimately to customers).” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

"Logistics effectiveness has a major impact on both customer satisfaction and company costs."(Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

Ultimately, we want to move our product from the factory to our customers especially to ones outside our country.  Planning and controlling the amount of goods and services that go out is part of our distribution and we do it to meet the customer requirement and needs. We keep the price at an effective yet low cost so we can get them to our customers overseas. A powerful competitive edge, especially against companies who share similar products, is always the end goal of most companies and with ours it is no different. We have logistic managers who coordinates the activities of our suppliers and customers. Everything that involves improving distribution and customer experience is a goal that our company focuses on as well. 

Promotion

“ Sales promotion say “buy now.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

 “Sales promotions are usually used together with advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, or other promotion mix tools.”( Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

Our company focuses on selling not with discounts but with advertising and the marketing of our product. We want to show that our product is hip and tastes so good that you will want to get off your couch and go to the store and buy some. We wish to portray how delicious and cost efficient it is that even at a bar you will perhaps buy a few in between drinks. Small intriguing stories are placed on each package of these chips that aim to create conversations between customers at say a bar for example. 

Product

So our product are a certain kind of unique chips. They are similar to tortilla chips yet made in the country of Greece to give it a more delightful taste and circular shape. The circular shape is certainly handy and useful for various purposes. The chips is also sturdy and crunchy and not as greasy as potato chips by lays for example. The crowning achievement of our product is the use of olives within our chips. We added pieces and flavors of various olives within our chips to give it a tangy and delicious taste that will sure to get customers wanting to come back for more.

“We define a product as anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

We believe this unique step in our product will satisfy customers’ wants in wanting to try a new product with a taste that is not stale and similar to other kind of chips.  We also want the best customer experience with not only our product but also with our company. Customer value and relationship, again, is our most important factor and we want to provide that as much with our chips product.

“Today, as products and services become more commoditized, many companies are moving to a new level in creating value for their customers. To differentiate their offers, beyond simply makingproducts and delivering services, they are creating and managing customer experiences with their brands or company.”( Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

Target Market Strategy

 “Top marketers all share a common goal: putting the consumer at the heart of marketing.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

 This is all about creating customer value and relationship which is any companies main focus. We want to focus on the needs and wants of our customers. We also find our target market or demographic that we want to focus on and serve best. Although we focus more on worldwide sales we still want to focus on a set target group that we can grow and keep our relationship with.

 “In the tenth edition of Marketing: An Introduction, you’ll see how customer value—creating it and capturing it—drives every good marketing strategy.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

From reading some chapters in the book, I understand clearly how important it is to have a good customer base and one that you want to keep through a good relationship. That includes giving the customer not only a good product but also a good quality experience and aiding the customer in any way that would make them feel comfortable and yet coming back for more. 

Situation or SWOT Analysis

 “The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the company’s overall strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T).” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

The company’s overall strengths lies in the overall taste of our product as well as our ability to sell the product. The advantage we have is that we have a creative team that with an impressive list of skills to help boost sales in our product. We are quite knowledgeable on the business aspect of our product. We also have various financial resources necessary to help produce and distribute our product.

Our weaknesses, for starters, lies in our companies geographic location is far removed from our overall target customer location. Our product isn’t well known around the world. It is our objective but we are starting from the ground up. Our creative team have impressive skills but we are limited at the very moment to the few that we have.

Our opportunities include getting into the system so we can mass produce our product for customers all over the world. Also we have the opportunity to boost our image and sales with the various interesting ideas our creative team has developed.

Threats can stem from overall competition from other companies, especially from those that mimic our product. Selling our product overseas involve shipping costs and if we cannot hit the projected amount of sales from that then we could lose worldwide sales. There could be issues with economic conditions in certain countries that could limit or hinder us. 

Objectives

“The company needs to turn its mission into detailed supporting objectives for each level of management.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

The first part of the marketing objective is to bring in a large customer based on the taste of our product. We aim to bring quality taste that is sure to attract customers to wanting to buy more. We want to boost production capacity with current successful sales and expand our marketing sales. Expanding past Greece into Asia and North America is one our goals. The taste of the product is our key important factor as with more sales we want the product to be better tasting than the last. With successful sales we would want to have different variety of flavors for our olive chips and perhaps add different spices and flavors to the mix.

“Marketing strategies and programs must be developed to support these marketing objectives.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

Business Mission Statement

“Mission statement – A statement of the organization’s purpose – what it wants to accomplish in larger environments.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

For the mission state of my product or company I decided to go either go with “We bring the very best in taste and experience to our consumers” or “Our mission is to bring the very best in taste to our product”. As stated in the book, “Mission Statement should be meaningful and specific yet motivating.” (Armstrong, Gary, Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 01/2010. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.)

I believe that the mission statement should be a phrase or sentence that should have the consumer feeling satisfied with what he or she is getting. It should also advertise how much we care about our product and our consumer.