Introduction
Marketing plan is a foundation for business growth. As a pivotal element of any growth and development strategy, not only it helps to identify where a company will sell its products or what strategies it will employ, but how to spend the resources in a most effective way. The business community has a firm community that even the most brilliant idea is doomed to failure, if its marketing plan has been composed in a haphazard or amateurish way.
This paper is a continuation of Gebeta Enjoyment business analysis. Its purpose is to analyze its target markets and segmentation strategy, to speculate about competition in its core market and to discuss its perspectives relating to the development of brand awareness strategy.
Target market and segmentation of the company
Contemporary business commentators unanimously agree on the idea that targeting market segmentation are one of the most important traits of a successful marketing strategy (Abrams, 2014; Armstrong & Greence, 2007). As far as Gebeta enjoyment is concerned, the following target groups have been identified as the potential basic consumer groups of the products manufactured by the firm. It is also important to emphasize that the research showed that some other consumer segments may express interest in products of Gebeta Enjoyment, however it is important to remember that these groups are 'collateral', meaning that the company management should not have been the primary sources of revenue for the company.
The research demonstrates that the most active consumers of non-alcohol beverages are the following groups:
Young males (18-25 years of age) with median income, varying between USD 20,000 -50,000 per year. For these people, the products offered by the company are viewed as refreshments, used mainly to satisfy thirst. At the same time, it is worth underscoring that the consumer choices of this group often depends on effective branding. In other words, a typical customer will choose a can of drink, which he or she saw on the media, or which was mentioned by the social media. The research shows that these ‘brand-based’ choices are made on a subliminal level (Knapp, 2008).
The second group are children aged 5-17 influenced by the media advertising of the company, and whose parents receive median United States income. The practice shows that children is the group, which is the most affected by various commercials. In other words, the kids like everything that is fashionable. This consumer group is especially important for the company due to the ‘contagious’ marketing strategy. The research shows that this consumer group, being not especially concerned with health-related issues, is the largest consumer of the similar products in the USA.
In general, these two groups should be viewed as the main categories of the targeted segments of Gebeta Enjoyment. As discussed above, other customer categories may express interest in buying the products of the company, but during the first stages of advertising the company should focus on targeting these groups only.
Competition
The market of non-alcoholic drinks is extremely competitive in the United States of America (Levinson et al, 2007), as well as internationally (Farris, 2010). Entry barriers are very high because of the intricate and licensing requirements (Knapp, 2008; Farris, 2010), as well as strong bargaining power of the customers and the suppliers (Kiechel, 2014). In the meantime, it is worthwhile noting that that the market was considerably shattered by the rising popularity of healthy lifestyle.
Yet, the following groups of competitors remain on the market horizon, and should be taken into consideration by Gebeta enjoyment:
Large international producers of non-alcoholic beverages. The most notable examples in this regard include the Coca Cola Company, PepsiCo and some others. Competing with these producers is extremely difficult, if not impossible altogether.
Domestic producers, which specialize in working on the state or multi-state markets of the United States of America. Competition with this group appears to be a difficult, yet feasible objective.
International producers operating in the United States market. Nowadays, the target markets of these companies rarely overlap with the ones of Gebeta Enjoyment. However, because the company intends to grow in the future, effective solutions of competing with these companies should be developed.
In general, it appears to be relatively clear that among these competition groups, in the next six months the managers of Gebeta Enjoyment should concentrate on working with the second group of competitors. It is also noteworthy that because of the highly unpredictable market nature, new consumer groups may appear in the upcoming future.
Building a Successful Brand Awareness Strategy
The majority of today’s business commentators argue the idea that building a successful business brand, or even a portfolio of brands is one of the key solutions to sales growth (Armstrong & Greence, 2007). Although the methods of building a brand are various, the objective in all business segments is the same – to become recognizable among the targeted consumers.
As far as the case of Gebeta Enjoyment is concerned, the managers should take the following aspects of building an effective brand recognition and awareness strategy into consideration:
Firstly, it is important to hire the team o professional designers and creative marketers. A popular opinion in the todays marketing community is that only the professionals can create an effective brand, and to make it recognizable among the potential consumers.
Secondly, once the brand for a specific product has been created, the company should ensure that several channels are used to make it popular (Miller & Muir, 2004). The practice shows that the most effective approach in this regard is the combination of traditional and web-based methods of raising brand awareness. Thus, the company should launch TV-based commercials, distribute printed advertisement materials, and ramp up its social media presence. Creating and developing strong Facebook, Instagram and Twitter communities is an essential and indispensable step in this regard.
Overall, these steps should be sufficient to establish a strong market awareness among the targeted consumer groups for the first sales cycle (6 months) of the company. However, it is important to highlight the fact that the firm should not only create such presence, but it should maintain it on the due level, regularly updating brand relevance, and adjusting it to the realities of the market (Thompson, Stroickland & Gamble, 2010).
Conclusion
Firstly, the company has a broad market segment, and several categories of potential customers. These categories have comparatively high purchasing power, and their percentage in the United States population is sufficient to keep the sales on or beyond the breakeven point. In the meantime, it is important emphasizing that each category of prospective customers requires its own approach to marketing and advertising.
Secondly, the competition in this segment is relatively high, however all serious competitors offer substitute products. Therefore, choosing effective methods of communicating its USP to the potential clients will ensure stable and progressively growing sales.
Lastly, raising brand awareness is one of the focal points of Gebeta Enjoyment marketing strategy growth. Modern telecommunication and web-based technologies present unique opportunities for establishing strong media presence, and make effective competition with the dominant market players possible.
References
Abrams, R. (2014). Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies (6th ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Planning Shop.
Armstrong, S. & Greene, K.C. (2007). "Competitor-oriented Objectives: The Myth of Market Share". International Journal of Business 12 (1): 116–134
Farris, P. (2010). Marketing metrics : the definitive guide to measuring marketing performance. Upper Saddle River, N.J: FT Press.
Kiechel, W. (2014). The lords of strategy : the secret intellectual history of the new corporate world. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Press.
Knapp, D. (2008). The Brandpromise how Costco, Ketel One, Make-a-wish, Tourism Vancouver, and other leading brands make and keep the promise that guarantees success. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Levinson, J., Levinson, J. & Levinson, A. (2007). Guerrilla marketing : easy and inexpensive strategies for making big profits from your small business. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Miller, J. & Muir, D. (2004). The business of brands. Chichester, England Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Thompson, A., Strickland, A. & Gamble, J. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy : the quest for competitive advantage : concepts and cases. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
