For Your Food Business

YOUR FUTURE IN FOODWriting a Marketing Planfor Your Food BusinessMarketing your product and business can feeloverwhelming, but it does not have to be. Thinkabout creating a comprehensive marketing planthat helps you identify and formalize your marketingideas and concepts.Writing down your plans will help you stay focusedand ensure that your marketing objectives alignwith your overall business goals and strategy. Itwill help you establish tasks and timelines, andensure you are using your resources efficientlyand effectively. It will also give bankers andlenders a good idea as to how you plan to sustainand grow your business.Section 1: Executive Summary Your executive summary should always bewritten last. It should clearly summarize andhighlight the key points in each section ofyour marketing plan.Your executive summary should be conciseand no longer than one page.Section 2: Market Research Consider using the following eight sections as aguide to writing a comprehensive marketing planfor your food product and business.Research the potential market for your foodproduct. Consider using a combination of:–– primary research, such as field research,interviews, surveys, focus groups,experiments and trialssecondary research, such as existingresearch, published articles, industryblogs and online dataCollect valuable qualitative and quantitativeinformation that will help you determine if amarket exists for your food product.Section 3: Branding To build a strong brand, you need to defineyour company’s core philosophies,including your:––mission statement – define yourcompany’s core purpose and focusvision statement – define yourcompany’s high-level goals for the future

–– unique selling proposition (USP) – identifywhy customers should buy your product, bystating what value your company provides tothem that no other competitor doespositioning statement – identify your targetmarket and how you want your brand to beperceived in the marketplaceThese philosophies will clearly identify thevalue your company brings to the market andhow you will attract customers.Section 4: Target Market Using your market research, clearly identify thetarget market where your product will provide themost value.It is very unlikely that everybody will be apotential customer for your product. Do not try tosell to everyone. Analyze your statistics to showthat there is demand for your food product inyour target market. Here are a few ways to defineyour customer:––– Demographic profiling can divide or segmentyour market by age group, gender, educationlevel, occupation, income range, martialstatus, family size and cultural background.Section 5:Competitor and Business Analysis Psychographic profiling can divide or segmentyour market by personality, values, interests,behavior, opinions and lifestyle. Two typicalmethods for obtaining psychographic data areby interviewing your customer or reviewingwebsite analytics.You can further define your customer byidentifying how they like to do business. Forexample identify what types of food productsthey like and where they like to buy them? Howmuch they are willing to spend? By identifyingsimilarities among the people in your targetmarket, you will better understand yourcustomers and their needs, and how to marketto them most effectively.Estimate the total number of customers in yourtarget market that meet the demographic andpsychographic profile and behavior of your targetcustomer.Use the market research you have gathered toidentify and analyze your competitors.Create a comparison chart to capturecompetitors information in terms of:–where they are located–how long they have been in business–their target market–– what percentage of market share they currentlyholdtheir product – size, pricing, packaging andvariety–their strengths and weaknesses–their long term plans, if made publicIdentify your company’s strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats in comparison to yourcompetitors.Identify the competitive advantage your companyhas over its competition.Identify what level of sales growth is expected inyour food category in the next one to three years.Determine if your competitors have theproduction capacity and resources to meetcurrent and future market demand for your foodcategory in your target market. If they do,consider changing your target market.Determine your USP, which will differentiateyour product from your competitors.

Section 6:Marketing Strategy and Action PlanBefore creating a marketing strategy and action plan,review the target market profile you have created.Identify the best ways to make your potential customeraware of and interested in your business and makethem want to purchase your food product.ProductDescribe your product based on your customer’sneeds and wants. Identify what value your foodproduct brings to the customer in terms of productfeatures, benefits and uniqueness.Pricing Identify potential objectives when setting yourprice, including:– maximizing profit– product positioning (correlation between priceand quality) to:– encourage customer trials– avoid product return or spoilage– drive traffic– gain attention– be competitive– who you plan to sell to (e.g., grocery, foodservice and gift market)priced competitively under changingcircumstances. For example, identify ifthere is adequate room to offer discounts orto cover additional costs, such as freight orselling through a broker, distributor orretailer.Distribution ChannelsIdentify fast, easy and convenient processes andmethods for your customer to find and purchase yourfood product. Make customers feel good about your process andreward repeat purchases to encourageloyalty. Identify what type of distribution channel youplan to use to get your food product into thehands of your customer. For example, will yousell your food product directly to your customeror through a broker, distributor, wholesaler and/orretailer.– Identify all partners in the distribution channel. ––Determine the cost of goods sold of your foodproduct. Include direct materials (e.g.,ingredients, packaging and labelling), and directlabor associated with manufacturing your foodproduct.––Determine if there is sufficient gross marginbetween your wholesale cost and thecustomer's acceptable price range for yourbusiness to be sustainable long-term. Your foodproduct price should factor in all potential futurecosts to ensure your product will remain––Identify the costs associated with each of thepartners you will be working with in the distributionchannel.Determine how you will package products forshipping.Determine the minimum order size you are willingto ship or deliver.Determine the turnaround time you need to fillorders and get them to your customers.It is expected that you will typically extendcredit to your wholesale customers. Determinehow many days you are willing to wait to bepaid.Determine how late deliveries, back orders orlarge shipments that need to be broken downwill be handled.Promotion Identify how you will communicate the value of yourfood product to your customers through yourpromotional strategy. Your strategy should helpyou gain new customers, retain customers,encourage repeat purchases and build customerloyalty. Consider using a combination ofnetworking, direct marketing, advertising, newsreleases, publicity, trade shows and websites toform your promotional strategy. Identify how muchyou will spend on each type of promotion peryear.

Advertising Identify what marketing strategies you plan to use toadvertise your food product. Advertising media couldinclude business cards, co-operative advertisingwith distributors and retailers, online, newspapers,magazines, billboards, radio and public relations. Determine your advertising media budget, the typesof media you will use and how often you plan to useeach of the type of media.Determine who will design and provide content foreach type of media you choose. Make sure yourcommunication approach is consistent among alltypes of media.Identify what type of sales promotion(s) you plan touse. Some examples of promotions includein-store sampling, point-of-purchase displays andsales aids, coupons, consumer or wholesale tradeshows, direct mail, giveaways, contests, tie-ins,testimonials, referrals and endorsements.Regardless of the sales promotion method youchoose, ensure that a consistent message iscommunicated to the customer. Identify and participate in activities that will gainpublic awareness for your food product andcompany. Publicity can be obtained throughfeatured news articles, interviews, reviews, newsreleases, testimonials or referrals. This is a greatway to promote your food product and companyon a small promotional budget.Research the benefits associated with dealing withdifferent partners in the distribution channel.Decide how you plan to sell to the customer (e.g.,selling directly, or selling through a broker,distributor, wholesaler or retailer).Identify any tools and resources you or the personselling your product will need to secure orders(e.g., using sell sheets, factsheets, brochures,offering volume discounts, and budgeting topurchase shelf space).Identify what your sales training program will looklike.Identify how you will track and measure sales. Identify what incentive programs you will offer.Section 7: Marketing Objectives Determine your promotional budget and how muchyou will spend on each method of sales promotion.Identify a customer service policy that will helpretain and acquire customers. This could meancreating good press about your level of customerservice and promoting it as a benefit of doingbusiness with your company. It could also meanusing customer reviews and testimonials inpromotions online and in print.Create a list of potential customers and contactinformation. Determine the cost associated with each method ofsales promotion.Publicity and Public Relations Determine the cost associated with each type ofmedia.Sales Promotion Selling Establish achievable, measurable and timelymarketing objectives. Examples of marketingobjectives could include increasing sales,building brand awareness, launching a newproduct and targeting new customers or markets.Determine the key performance indicators you’lluse to measure your marketing objectives. Forexample, if your marketing objective is toincrease brand awareness, you may decide totrack website traffic, social media chatter andreferrals.Measure and document before, during and aftereach marketing initiative to ensure that you’rereceiving positive results. If not, this gives you anopportunity to make improvements to yourmarketing initiatives and help with futureplanning.Section 8: Financial Projections Include the following up-to-date financialinformation to show financial viability during aspecific time period (typically 12-month timeperiod):–Market potential – estimate the totalpopulation that would be interested in yourcompany’s food product.