Asian White Coffee
Below is a sample from an integrated marketing plan I created with a team for a start-up company looking to sell bulk coffee online, and donate the proceeds to clean water initiatives in Africa and India.
Executive Summary
Asian White Coffee (AWC) currently has a mission of helping people help themselves. They do this by donating 50% of their profits to World Vision and India Partners. The goal of this plan is to better equip AWC with the tools necessary to make their company more profitable, so that the company can grow and better fulfill their mission of helping others.
Since AWC’s main place of business is their website and they want the website to be their main distribution channel, a large amount of this plan focuses on an online presence that drives consumers in AWC’s target market to the website. This includes a number of campaigns that take place online, including advertising using Facebook and Google Adwords. Other actions recommended by this plan, while not online, also focus on driving people to the website and eventually converting them to customers.
American consumers generally have a negative perception of instant coffee. Part of this plan involves how AWC can overcome these negative perceptions of instant coffee that are not true of AWC’s product. In order to do this a large amount of sampling must be done so that people can know for themselves that the AWC product tastes good and is something that they could regularly drink. A number of events such as “Coffee Fest” in Seattle, WA are available to promote AWC, and give potential consumers a chance to sample AWC.
There are several key objectives for AWC’s product offerings. First, AWC must overcome certain prejudices that are linked to instant coffee as well as Asian products in general. This will be accomplished through product sampling and information posts on social media sites. Second, an expansion of AWC’s product line must be undertaken. Some products to include are complementary products like travel mugs and coffee mugs, and a diversified line of their coffee including actual coffee beans and bulk instant powder. Third, increased brand awareness and loyalty must be accomplished through the products themselves. These objectives can all be accomplished by positioning product offerings as “unique” since they are exotic and foreign, yet, of excellent quality and taste. The other product positioning focus should be on the charitable aspects of AWC.
The promotions of AWC are crucial for the success of their business. The first issue tackled is search engine optimization (SEO). Through evaluation of the current analytics of the company’s website, AWC can better understand how to implement different tools outlined in the plan, and increase their business’ success. Social media is also detailed in the plan. What kind of posts to make on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and vlogs are outlined, and a brief schedule of when to post them is given. A system of writing and releasing press releases is shown, and the best outlet for the press releases is given. Lastly, sampling is looked at in-depth and ideas for where to sample are introduced.
The distribution of AWC’s products is also a potential area of improvement. Currently AWC is only sold and distributed online. This plan gives several recommendations for how to diversify the locations AWC is sold, and some different ways to give people an opportunity to try it. Examples include selling the product through local Asian markets and grocery stores, providing coffee to churches for a reduced fee and getting AWC into breakrooms. There is also a redesign of the shipping system for AWC focusing on different modes of shipping depending on how much product is purchase.
The pricing of AWC’s products is also addressed. A price increase is recommended to $9.95, and the justification for this recommendation is given. The main point of raising prices is to increase the image consumers have of the coffee. In order to combat the image of cheap coffee consumers will have from the product being both instant and Asian, a price increase will give AWC a premium feel, and people will hopefully be more inclined to buy.
If the following plan is properly executed, AWC should be able to reach the goals of $150,000 in revenue in the year 2012, traffic to the website will greatly increase, and a memorable brand will be left on the top of consumers’ minds.
Executive Summary
Asian White Coffee (AWC) currently has a mission of helping people help themselves. They do this by donating 50% of their profits to World Vision and India Partners. The goal of this plan is to better equip AWC with the tools necessary to make their company more profitable, so that the company can grow and better fulfill their mission of helping others.
Since AWC’s main place of business is their website and they want the website to be their main distribution channel, a large amount of this plan focuses on an online presence that drives consumers in AWC’s target market to the website. This includes a number of campaigns that take place online, including advertising using Facebook and Google Adwords. Other actions recommended by this plan, while not online, also focus on driving people to the website and eventually converting them to customers.
American consumers generally have a negative perception of instant coffee. Part of this plan involves how AWC can overcome these negative perceptions of instant coffee that are not true of AWC’s product. In order to do this a large amount of sampling must be done so that people can know for themselves that the AWC product tastes good and is something that they could regularly drink. A number of events such as “Coffee Fest” in Seattle, WA are available to promote AWC, and give potential consumers a chance to sample AWC.
There are several key objectives for AWC’s product offerings. First, AWC must overcome certain prejudices that are linked to instant coffee as well as Asian products in general. This will be accomplished through product sampling and information posts on social media sites. Second, an expansion of AWC’s product line must be undertaken. Some products to include are complementary products like travel mugs and coffee mugs, and a diversified line of their coffee including actual coffee beans and bulk instant powder. Third, increased brand awareness and loyalty must be accomplished through the products themselves. These objectives can all be accomplished by positioning product offerings as “unique” since they are exotic and foreign, yet, of excellent quality and taste. The other product positioning focus should be on the charitable aspects of AWC.
The promotions of AWC are crucial for the success of their business. The first issue tackled is search engine optimization (SEO). Through evaluation of the current analytics of the company’s website, AWC can better understand how to implement different tools outlined in the plan, and increase their business’ success. Social media is also detailed in the plan. What kind of posts to make on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and vlogs are outlined, and a brief schedule of when to post them is given. A system of writing and releasing press releases is shown, and the best outlet for the press releases is given. Lastly, sampling is looked at in-depth and ideas for where to sample are introduced.
The distribution of AWC’s products is also a potential area of improvement. Currently AWC is only sold and distributed online. This plan gives several recommendations for how to diversify the locations AWC is sold, and some different ways to give people an opportunity to try it. Examples include selling the product through local Asian markets and grocery stores, providing coffee to churches for a reduced fee and getting AWC into breakrooms. There is also a redesign of the shipping system for AWC focusing on different modes of shipping depending on how much product is purchase.
The pricing of AWC’s products is also addressed. A price increase is recommended to $9.95, and the justification for this recommendation is given. The main point of raising prices is to increase the image consumers have of the coffee. In order to combat the image of cheap coffee consumers will have from the product being both instant and Asian, a price increase will give AWC a premium feel, and people will hopefully be more inclined to buy.
If the following plan is properly executed, AWC should be able to reach the goals of $150,000 in revenue in the year 2012, traffic to the website will greatly increase, and a memorable brand will be left on the top of consumers’ minds.
| comprehensive_marketing_plan_asian_white_coffee.pdf |
