Marketing plan of Saffron Ice Cream

Marketing plan of Saffron Ice Cream:

Marketing is the set of activities that has an institution that processes, creates, communicates and delivers different offerings among its consumers, clients, partners, and society at large. Marketing also involves the activities by which an organization communicates and maintains a relationship with it is present and potential customers (Kotler, 2009). As I am working in The Saffron Ice Cream Company as a Junior Executive in the marketing department, I have to maintain good relations with its other functional units such as HR, Finance, Research, and Development, etc.

The main differences between B2B and B2C market is that B2B deals with business to business marketing abd B2C deals with Business to Consumer marketing. In Business to business marketing, it is selling business products and services directly to other business for business use. On the other hand, in business to consumer, marketing, it is selling consumer goods and services to consumer for personal use.

Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of an organization.

Concept of Marketing

Marketing is the set of activities that processes, creates, communicates and delivers different offerings among its consumers, clients, partners, and society at large. Marketing also involves the activities by which an organization communicates and maintains a relationship with it is present and potential customers (Kotler, 2009).

Example: Product pricing, product promotion, product selling and distribution, product branding all these things are the example of marketing.

Current Trends in Marketing

The current trends of marketing involves in the process of marketing regarding the Societal marketing concept, Mass Communication marketing concept and Digital Marketing as well as Social Media Marketing concept.

• Societal marketing

In the current trends of marketing, societal marketing is beneficiary because it deals according customer needs and wants. The concept of corporate social responsibility is strictly followed in this trends as it is designed for consumer welfare.

• Mass Communication

In marketing, mass communication is also beneficiary because it targets mass people to increase sales. In the current trends of marketing, mass communication target every potential customer on the basis of different segmentation.

• Digital Marketing as well as Social Media Marketing

This is the latest and modern trends in marketing for product promotion and targeting the people those who are passing there time in internet. Facebook is the great platform for implementing social media marketing. Similarly, e-commerce websites are also the great platform for executing digital marketing.

Future Trends in Marketing

Virtual reality is going to be the future trends in marketing as because people are getting used to buy or sell product or services by using virtual media. Here, the payment is also being done virtually like mobile payment system, internet payment system where the platform of e-commerce websites are playing a great role for developing this virtual reality.

Overview of Marketing Process

There several stages in processing a marketing plan as follows:

1. Situational Analysis

In processing marketing plan or marketing research, situation analysis covers the following factors (Cann and George, 2004):

·         Internal Analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses

·         External Analysis of Opportunities and Threats

·         SWOT Profile to Create Goals and Strategies

·         Multiple Perspectives to Investigate Influences

b.      Objectives

After doing the situational analysis, it is important to set the objectives of the marketing on the basis of SWOT analysis. The objectives of the marketing plan helps in product designing, product labeling, product pricing, product promotion, product branding, product targeting and of course increasing sales (Cann and George, 2004).

c.       Strategy

The strategy involves in marketing plan is applied to increase sales base on the product promotion. The strategy of increasing sales would be making STP analyzing as the product could be distributed by the aspect of product differentiation (Cann and George, 2004).

d.      Implementation

The implementation of marketing plan comes forward when the strategy is fully effective to catch the mass people in the market (Cann and George, 2004).

e.       Control

The aspect of controlling comes forward when it is the matter of monitoring the marketing activities and marketing performance and if necessary to take corrective actions (Cann and George, 2004).

Roles and Responsibilities of a Marketing Manager in Saffron

As a Junior Executive in the marketing department of Saffron Ice Cream, I think that the role and responsibilities of marketing manager to Saffron will be as follows:

1.      Product Development

Marketing manager of Saffron will play a role to build product development of various tastes and flavor ice cream from the market survey and market research because marketing activities delivers so many customized data and customer feedback regarding the product.

2.      Product Promotion

Marketing manager will help Saffron to promote its different tastes ice cream for different people. It will help to fix the promotional media by which Saffron can reach customer easily and increase sales. Marketing manager of Saffron will focus on the new marketing improvement with the change of qualities in business sector, with the change in financial powers, changes of market structure, changes in political issues with the issues of legitimacy (Gök and Hacioglu, 2010).

3.      Product Branding

Marketing manager will help Saffron for product branding and crating brand value globally by arranging events, or participating in the fair to target new customers. Marketing manager helps to develop product branding as the sales of the product increased by introducing the product at large scale (Lavidge, 2017).

4.      Increasing Sales

Marketing manager will help Saffron to increase sales because of STP segmentation whereas a marketing manager emphasizes on the segmentation of the market according to same factors like geographic, demographic or behavioral. After that, marketing manager target those segmented customer based on their product choice and then positioned the core customer by the means of product promotion.

5. Developing Market strategies

Marketing manager of Saffron will help to develop market strategies to as the product pricing, product promotion and sales distribution would be increased (Ayuketang Nso, 2018).

6. Marketing research

Marketing manager of Saffron play the role of market research to identify the core and potential customer from the market because it is required to differentiate the product according customer choice, and it must have different offers that can be availed from the market research  which offers will be applied for which product (Gök and Hacioglu, 2010).

Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider organizational context

Finance Department

Marketing department must have to go for advertising for promoting Saffron Ice Cream. In that case, it requires money to prepare advertising or require financial support for arranging, researching and assessment of promotional methodologies. Financial support is given by the finance & account department of the organization. Advertising and promotional work cannot be successful without appropriate correspondence and arranging with monetary assistance in the organization. Essentially, in the business association, the marketing department are firmly connected together with different divisions of the organization (Sarangi and Srivatsan, 2009).

HR Department

The activity of marketing and promoting of ice cream of Saffron should be conveyed and supported by HR department because it must need people to do the marketing of the product. It requires sales representative to distribute the product in different areas. It needs marketing manager also to manage all marketing team combined with his team where distribution, advertising, promotional activities is core tasks. So, these people are hired and recruited by HR department (Sarangi and Srivatsan, 2009).

Research and Development

The activity of marketing task must be interrelated with research and development. Research and development department will work for Saffron ice cream product development by doing market research by this department will provide back support to marketing department by providing innovative ideas for product development, product promotion an product branding (Sarangi and Srivatsan, 2009).

Integrated Marketing

Finally, the definition of integrated marketing is that it is a unified marketing method for doing mass marketing, direct marketing and one to one marketing. So, integrated marketing is a marketing strategy that stresses the importance of a consistent, seamless, multi-dimensional brand experience for the consumer (Sheehan, 2018)

Compare ways in which organizations use elements of marketing mix (7Ps) to achieve overall business objectives.

Extended marketing mix is the combination of 7P marketing those are analyzed to achieve the marketing goals. In this 7P, it is analyzed about Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical. In marketing mix, service organization are evaluated by analyzing those 7P because 7P is correlated with each and every marketing activities a for a service organization (Chattopadhyay, Shivani and Krishnan, 2010).

Service organization like telecom operator business are providing services to mass people in a country for maintaining successful communication with good communication system whereas the motive of the business is to generate profit or earning profit from providing this telecom services (Chattopadhyay, Shivani and Krishnan, 2010).

On the other hand, charity organization is like service provider but they are non profitable whereas they work for social welfare of the people.

In analyzing the marketing mix  of a profit organisation like Saffron Ice cream comparatively with a charity firm to state the main similarities and differences as follows (Chattopadhyay, Shivani and Krishnan, 2010):

The Marketing Mix Elements	Similarities	Differences
Product definition	·         Most popular brands in the category of dairy products. ·         Product has lot of product variants in terms of different louvered ice cream, cup ice cream, Stick ice cream etc. ·         Flavor is differentiated with mango, strawberry, Pasta, Choco or Litchi. ·         Product has different size of ice cream like 100 ml, 150 ml or 250 ml.	·         The differences for Charity firm is that the product or service is designed for specific target people. ·         The product or service is not available for mass people when it is a charity firm.
Price definition	·         It has market oriented pricing policy ·         Product price is kept under the ability of the buyer purchase. ·         It has penetration pricing policy. ·         It offers discount pricing to attract customer. ·         It offers incentive pricing to attract customer.	The differences for Charity firm is that the price is set beyond to competitive pricing.
Place Definition	·         Product is available in most of the cities ·         Product has well distributed network ·         It has exclusive retail outlets and ice cream is sole in different hotels, restaurants discount stores, canteen, cafeteria etc.	The differences for Charity firm is that the place has easiest access for its customer to avail the product or services.
Promotion definition	·         Advertising in different media is the core promotional tools for Saffron. ·         Television Media, Newspaper Media is widely used for product promotion. ·         In recent times, Facebook advertising and website advertising has become the great part for product promotion. ·         Billboard campaign is also a strong media for product promotion.	The differences for Charity firm is that the key communication tools are used to deliver the product or service information to its customer.
People definition	·         Saffron has good marketing team to deliver the product in customer hand. ·         Sales representative played a great role to deliver good services. ·         Marketing people are always involved to meet the customer demand according to their choice.	The differences for Charity firm is that it is fully based on the volunteer work who basically contribute more for consumers.
Process definition	·         Sales funnel of Saffron worked effective to deliver quality product to consumer. ·         It has electronic payment by which customer can pay from mobile, or using bank cards. ·         It has strong distribution system by which the product could be reached to customer hand very easily.	The differences for Charity firm is that the product delivery or service delivery is done in transparent way, and the person will be accountable for processing the service.
Physical evidence definition	·         Well-trained staff of Saffron are connected very strongly with customer. ·         Saffron has a great website access for its customer where all the information regarding product details, product pricing is given in details.	The differences for Charity firm is that it is the matter of giving the accurate information to the donors as the physical evidence regarding money transaction is fair.

Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan

Basic Marketing plan for The Saffron Ice Cream Company:

1.     PESTEL Analysis

Political Analysis

For maintaining health and safety standards, Saffron Ice-cream has a monitoring team as it is strictly mentioned from Government to ensure product health and safety standards. As there have frequent regulatory changes, still Saffron is developing its ice-cream branding with customer loyalty. Here the factor of health and safety standards is favorable for Saffron (Adnan, 2017).

Economic.

It has always demand for standard and premium ice-cream thats why the individuals purchase parity has improved. Therefore, the purchase parity factor is also favorable for Saffron (Adnan, 2017).

Socio-cultural Segment.

The matter of health awareness among consumers for ice-cream is a vast factor and it is a great opportunity for Saffron delivering a low-calorie ice-cream to target social patterns. Therefore Saffron is able to replace sugar with healthy plant Stevie and it is also favorable (Adnan, 2017).

Technology.

The option of better packaging became easy due to modern technology and the seal system has been improved due to technology. The production process control has become hassle free due to technology and this factor is also favorable (Adnan, 2017).

Environmental.

Saffron is committed to practice environmentally sound business and they are practicing pollution free production. So the environmental factors are favorable (Adnan, 2017).

Legal.

The regulatory factors in business operations for Saffron is almost for maintaining health and safety laws and they have to comply with the changes in corporate tax and economic policies. Saffron is in favorable position to comply with legal issues strongly (Adnan, 2017).

2.     SWOT Analysis

Strengths

• Being a little organization, The Saffron Ice Cream Company has the strength point on extensive market research to gather customer information for designing better product.
• It has strong communications tools and good supply chain to meet customer demand over the years (Kárpáti, 2001).
• Loyal customers are its good strong point (Kárpáti, 2001).
• Using compelling channels for advertising action, for example, The Saffron Ice Cream Company serves natural frozen yogurts and its intended interest group is urban individuals. In this way, the organization have food utilization of advanced media channels to advance its showcasing plan (Cann and George, 2004).
• Evaluating the promoting plan and screen the outcomes to check the effectivity of an advertising plan.

Weakness

The marketing plan is the basic state as arriving at the clients with the correct methodology is significant. But the weakness may identified as follows:

1. Limitation in Analysis of data:

Analysis is the initial step that should be basically done by the marketer. This includes examination of the business condition regarding advertising just as the current circumstance of the business in the business where they have limitations is data analysis (Mamula, 2012).

1. Planning is not in details:

The marketer needs to make a diagram that goes about as the manual for actualizing every one of the activities and procedures in the precise premise. It includes choices like instruments of advertising, valuing systems, time of promoting, strategies for showcasing, spending plan and so forth but these planning have no details explanation to take decision (Cateora, 2002).

• Delay in implementing the plan:

It is the phase that manages to bring the arrangement without hesitation. At this stage, all the promoting apparatuses start preparing or performing likewise with the arrangement drafted. Execution of the arrangement requires a ceaseless progression of exercises individually but due to lack of decision making implementation is delayed (Cateora, 2002).

Opportunities:

The marketing mix is a gathering of interrelated factors which includes 7P’s to fulfill the objective buyers over the counterparts of business association. The reasonable promoting plan of The Saffron Ice Cream Company utilizing 7P’s of advertising blend is as per the following:

1. Product development:

The Saffron Ice Cream Company has the great opportunity to continuous product development with attractive product design (Rao and Singhapakdi, 2007).

1. Promotional development:

The Saffron Ice Cream Company has the great opportunity to continuous promotional development regarding its individual selling, direct advertising and publicizing is called advancement (Rao and Singhapakdi, 2007).

Price stability:

The Saffron Ice Cream Company has the great opportunity to continuous for evaluating strategy regarding its price stability as they can set the price which is stable by offering some incentive added component to the customer (Rao and Singhapakdi, 2007).

Threats

• Threats of rivalry

The competition in this market is the prime threat. New organization are entering in this market with new concept and ideas.

• Lack of Planning Strategy

After the accumulation of all the data and information from the exploration, it is prepared to pass judgment on all the potential qualities and shortcomings among the business activities. This lack of Planning Strategy may slowdown the  prepared information enables us to make a thought for techniques that can be used in the association (Lewis and Erickson, 2009)

3. Segmentation, Targeting and positioning Analysis:

Segmentation: 

Based on demographic factors like gender, age, religion, occupations, race and so on Saffron is identifying market probabilities with its product differentiation strategies (Freeling, 2004). By developing its ice cream products, it will be easier for them to capture the major portion of the market.

Targeting: By selecting the specified segments Saffron would be able to target its potential customer like youth generation, school or university going student because it may help to make huge sales (Freeling, 2004).

Positioning: For introducing new products, Saffron should follow as well as apply useful techniques for positioning its potential customer regarding product segmentation and product targeting. Here, the application of promotional tools will be playing a great role to create new customers (Freeling, 2004).

Recommendation

• The global market is competitive, so this threat should be considered seriously. So, it will be wise for the company to product quality product at best competitive price, and also the promotional statgey should be accompanied with pricing strategy.
• There must have details sources of information before researching and planning procedure.
• The problem of data analysis could be reovered by doing monthly market review through survey or using social platform for getting customer feedback.
• Implementation could not be delayed and it should be started implementation and alos execution after getting confirmation.

Conclusion:
The importance of close relationship between marketing and other department is interrelated whereas marketing department have to keep relationship with other department for increasing marketing scopes and marketing activities as they can reach so many customer. In that case, marketing needs money for product distribution and product promotion, marketing needs manpower for product distribution and selling product, and finally marketing needs research and development for innovative product idea. This task effectively portrays the job of marketing and the interrelationship of other hierarchical dimensions. The general marketing mix 7P’s are contrasted in the business associations with accomplishing business goals. Likewise, the advancement and assessment of the marketing plan is clarified quickly (Sheehan, 2018).

References

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