Marketing Plan for Clif Bar, Inc.
Marketing Management– MM522
DeVry University, Keller Graduate School of Management
Professor Gary Myers
By: Chameer Moses

Table of Contents
Executive Summary 3
Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………………....3
Situation Analysis 3
Market Summary4
SWOT Analysis4
Prioritized SWOT Analysis5
Competition6
Product Offering………………………………………………………………………………....6
Keys to Success…………………………………………………………………………………...6
Critical Issues…………………………………………………………………………………6&7
Marketing Strategy………………………………………………………………………………7
Mission……………………………………………………………………………………….. 7&8
Marketing Objective…………………………………………………………………………….8
Financial Objective…………………………………………………………………………. 8&9
Target Markets…………………………………………………………………………. ..9,10,11
Positioning…………………………………………………………………………………...11,12
Strategies………………………………………………………………………………………12
Marketing Mix………………………………………………………………………………12,13
Marketing Research…………………………………………………………………………….13
Controls………………………………………………………………………………………….14
Implementation process…………………………………………………………………….14,15
Marketing Organization……………………………………………………………………….15
Contingency Plan……………………………………………………………………………….15
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...15,16
References……………………………………………………………………………………….17

Executive Summary Clif Bar, Inc. was found in 1992 by Gary Erickson. The nature of Clif Bar is the planet, food and community. They are working to reduce their ecological footprint in everything that they do, from the field to their final products. They are the “leading maker in all-natural and organic energy and nutrition food and drinks for men, woman, and children.” (Clif Bar, Inc.) This brings me to a new product that I would like to recommend for Clif Bar, Inc. to market which are baked sweet potato chips. According to Natural News.com sweet potatoes have six facts that everyone should know. Sweet potatoes are high nutritional value, low glycemic index, accessing their nutritional benefit is easy, good for your skin, sweet potatoes are like yoga, and they are easy to grow in your garden. (naturalnews.com) Baked sweet potato chips would help Clif Bar, Inc. to market a different product that their competitors don’t have.
Situation Analysis
The environment in which Clif Bar, Inc. operates is the ecosystem. Clif Bar is committed to making products and helping the environment. The company has positioned itself as having a niche product to show consumers and competitors why they are a different kind of company. Unlike the other top brands in the market, “Clif Bar has minded the all-natural niche with the natural energy bar.” (Clif Bar, Inc.) Clif Bar is to sustain natural resources and nourish communities. The critical issues that Clif Bar, Inc. faces are that they don’t advertise enough for their products new and old. The forces that Clif Bar, Inc. will need to consider would be technological factors. If Clif Bar, Inc. can’t keep up with the increasingly rapid rate of technology this may affect their demand for their products and services. Their capabilities are that they can grow food in a way that sustains the natural resources everyone depends on soil, water, air and trees.
Market Summary
Clif Bar, Inc. knows their market very well which are their all natural nutritional energy bars. Sweet potato chips would help them continue with keeping their mission going with their products being all natural and nutritional. The market for energy bars is a big market and is constantly growing because you have so many other companies making energy bars. Clif Bar’s market trend would be to market their new product being their baked sweet potato chips.
SWOT Analysis SWOT Analysis is important to identify the good and bad of Clif Bar itself, as well as any external factors, which may have positive or negative consequences on the success of the company. By creating a SWOT diagram, I have been able to narrow down the strengths and weaknesses within the company which Clif Bar & Co. has achieved and can work on, as well as any external opportunities and threats that Clif Bar & Co. can benefit from and can prepare for. Strengths 1. Product variety 2. Variety of distribution channels 3. Positive brand image through green goals and 5 aspirations 4. Partnering with other companies/events to increase brand awareness 5. Recycling program introduced | Weaknesses 1. More expensive than competition 2. Less brand awareness than other brands 3. Lasting negative perceptions of organic products 4. Demanding recycling program 5. Little advertising | Opportunities 1. Increased interest in environmental awareness 2. Wide variety of potential customers | Threats 1. New entries in the product market 2. Established competitive brands 3. Difficult to find consistently high-quality organic ingredients |
Prioritized SWOT Analysis prioritizing the above advantages, disadvantages, favorable, and unfavorable conditions has allowed me to gauge where Clif Bar’s attention needs to be focused in order to better the company. The following chart displays the impact each of the above points has on the company and their practices.
Competition
Some of the competitors of Clif Bar are Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., General Mills, Inc. and PowerBar, Inc. etc. These are all companies that specialize in healthy foods for consumers. The industries in which they compete are snack foods, beverages, nonalcoholic beverages, energy, sports, health and nutritional drinks and food.
Energy bars of the past were often described as being foul tasting fuel sources for jocks. Unfortunately, this stigma sometimes holds true. However, the product category has made a large switch to “going the way of granola” and breaking off into other categories such as snack foods and meal replacements for kids, seniors, the health conscience, and athletes. Even with this switch and the fact that Clif Bar products fit in nicely with their “all-natural” niche, there are two main competitors: PowerBar Inc. and Balance Bar Co. (Clif Bar, Inc.)

Known as being the first company to market an “energy bar…concentrated high-carbohydrate snack designed to provide a quick between-meal calorie boost…fortified with vitamins and other substance.” Although the bars were originally “aimed at runners and other athletes,” they are now “distributed through mainstream supermarkets, with ad campaigns targeting people in all walks of life.” Despite this claim, however, the PowerBar website continues to emphasize that athletes are its main target. “PowerBar products…are developed to meet the sports nutrition and energy needs of every type of athlete.” (PowerBar)

Balance Bar products could be considered the “diet bar” considering its roots in dieting plans, despite its successes in the athletic world. Not only was it created to resemble the Zone Diet, popular in the mid-1990s, but it also announced an alliance with Jenny Craig in October 1999. However due to intense competition, Balance Bar Company saw its stock price plummet in late 1999 and has yet to make a strong recovery. (BalanceBar)
Product (Service) Offering
Baked sweet potato chips would fulfill the need for Clif Bar, Inc. to offer a different type of product to their consumers. The product is offering excellent nutritional benefits for consumers. Sweet potatoes are high nutritional value, low glycemic index, accessing their nutritional benefit is easy, good for your skin, sweet potatoes are like yoga, and they are easy to grow in your garden. (naturalnews.com) Baked sweet potato chips would help Clif Bar, Inc. to market a different product that their competitors don’t have.
Keys to Success
The most important factors in making this plan successful would be to design and market the sweet potato chips that meet market demand. Clif Bar, Inc. has to make sure that their customers are satisfied. If this is achieved then Clif Bar, Inc. would become the first energy bar company to enter into a whole different product market, and it will become profitable.
Critical Issues
Since Clif Bar, Inc. is an established company their critical issue would be to market how good the sweet potato chips are, and the nutritional benefits that a person could get from eating these chips. They would really have to advertise via the television, internet, bill boards and word of mouth. They could issue a coupon offering their customers a free bag of sweet potato chips with the purchase of an energy bar.
Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy for Clif Bar would be to let their consumers know how the sweet potato chips are such a healthy, less filling snack these chips are and not to mention how great they taste. It is greatly important to consider marketing communications spending as an investment for sweet potato chips, rather than their cost, because of the return on investment. Because both percent-of-sales and share-of-voice budgeting do not “take into consideration the quality of the creative messages” of the new campaign, I feel it would be more beneficial to use a combination of both objective-and-task and return-on-investment budgeting to market the baked sweet potato chips.
By implementing objective-and-task budgeting, Cliff Bar will be able to estimate the cost of each specific marketing communications task they are considering implementing. They can then use this information to work with the company’s ROI budgeting and we will be able to closely estimate “to what extent [Clif Bar] will profit from the dollars allocated” by selling the sweet potato chips. This way Clif bar will know roughly how much things will cost and also how much return they will receive and better their chances of arriving at the most cost-effective level of MC spending.
Mission
Their mission is to support nonprofits grassroots organizations in particular working to promote environmental restoration and conservation, sustainable food and agriculture, people's health, and a wide range of social concerns.
The value orientation of Clif Bar are to sustain our planet by keeping their impact on the environment small, even as they grow, sustaining communities by being good neighbors and giving back to the community, sustaining people by creating a work place where people can live life to its fullest, even from 9 to 5. Sustaining business by growing slower, growing better and sticking around longer, and sustaining their brands by making what people actually need and never compromising quality.
Marketing Objectives
Some marketing objectives and strategies that Clif Bar could consider would be to increase sales to white-collar adults, ages 18-34, by 30% within the next eight months. Develop a series of about 25-30 television ads referencing the hectic and battle like environment this demographic works within. Develop a series of radio ads also referencing this work environment. Develop a series of full page colored magazine ads referencing the baked sweet potato chips along with their other products.
Increase customer repeat purchasing by 20% within the next six months. Develop series of direct marketing and sales promotion tactics to entice first time purchasers into the stores or website. Clif Bar should push the sweet potato chips into the news arena as often and as much as possible. They should entice customers to become involved with the company through Clif Bar’s environmental practices.
Financial Objectives
Clif Bar’s profits are projected to break even the first year that the sweet potato chips are sold. This is due to all of the preparing and the money that had to go into marketing the product. By the second year their profit margin should increase by 1% and by the third it should double. Some consumers may argue that Clif Bar products are a little pricier than their competitors; it is because of what they have chosen to do for the earth and their customers. “People buy organic products because they’re potentially better for their health,” says Michael Martin, president of Music Matters, a green music industry that works with Clif Bar. “All things being equal, green brands believe that consumers will choose retailers and products that are doing good things for the planet.” Great taste is another reason for the higher prices. Gary Erickson knew that having a wider variety of flavors, such as Chocolate Almond Fudge and Lemon Poppy seed, would benefit the company and its appeal. With Clif Bar adding the sweet potato chips this would also help benefit the company and its appeal. According to Erickson, “Green marketing campaigns must deliver on primary product benefits—like…great taste. Once that’s achieved…communicating environmental benefits can help justify premium pricing or, at a minimum, sway purchasing decisions.” (Clif Bar, Inc.)
Target Markets
Clif Bar’s target market for sweet potato chips could be for people who are health conscience, and for parents and children that are struggling with obesity. Sweet potato chips are an ideal snack for anyone on a fitness program. People spend millions of dollars each year buying supplemental meals in nutritional stores such as GNC, these meals have become a very resourceful meal on the go. These individuals are typically your body builders, athletes, and health junkies. Profit and nonprofit organizations could use sweet potato chips along with other long shelf life products such as can goods, powdered milk and bottled water to ship to poverty stricken countries for a great source of vitamins and minerals that they may not get on a regular basis. Along with the six nutritional characters sweet potatoes poses they also are high in vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 helps reduce the chemical homocysteine in our bodies. Homocysteine has been linked with degenerative diseases, including the prevention of heart attacks. They are a good source of vitamin C. While most people know that vitamin C is important to help ward off cold and flu viruses, few people are aware that this crucial vitamin plays an important role in bone and tooth formation, digestion, and blood cell formation. It helps accelerate wound healing, produces collagen which helps maintain skin’s youthful elasticity, and is essential to helping us cope with stress. It even appears to help protect our body against toxins that may be linked to cancer. They contain Vitamin D which is critical for immune system and overall health at this time of year. Both a vitamin and a hormone, vitamin D is primarily made in our bodies as a result of getting adequate sunlight. You may have heard about seasonal affective disorder (or SAD, as it is also called), which is linked to inadequate sunlight and therefore a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D plays an important role in our energy levels, moods, and helps to build healthy bones, heart, nerves, skin, and teeth, and it supports the thyroid gland. Sweet potatoes contain iron. Most people are aware that we need the mineral iron to have adequate energy, but iron plays other important roles in our body, including red and white blood cell production, resistance to stress, proper immune functioning, and the metabolizing of protein, among other things. Sweet potatoes are a good source of magnesium, which is the relaxation and anti-stress mineral. Magnesium is necessary for healthy artery, blood, bone, heart, muscle, and nerve function, yet experts estimate that approximately 80 percent of the population in North America may be deficient in this important mineral. They are a source of potassium, one of the important electrolytes that help regulate heartbeat and nerve signals. Like the other electrolytes, potassium performs many essential functions, some of which include relaxing muscle contractions, reducing swelling, and protecting and controlling the activity of the kidneys. Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet-tasting but their natural sugars are slowly released into the bloodstream, helping to ensure a balanced and regular source of energy, without the blood sugar spikes linked to fatigue and weight gain. Their rich orange color indicates that they are high in carotenoids like beta carotene and other carotenoids, which is the precursor to vitamin A in your body. Carotenoids help strengthen our eyesight and boost our immunity to disease, they are powerful antioxidants that help ward off cancer and protect against the effects of aging. Studies at Harvard University of more than 124,000 people showed a 32 percent reduction in risk of lung cancer in people who consumed a variety of carotenoid-rich foods as part of their regular diet.2 Another study of women who had completed treatment for early stage breast cancer conducted by researchers at Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) found that women with the highest blood concentrations of carotenoids had the least likelihood of cancer recurrence. They are versatile you can try them roasted, puréed, steamed, baked, or grilled. You can add them to soups and stews, or grill and place on top of leafy greens for a delicious salad. I enjoy grilling them with onions and red peppers for amazing sandwich or wrap ingredients. Puree them and add to smoothies and baked goods. This would be an ideal product for Clif Bar to manufacture for everyone. (Care2Care.)
Positioning
At this present time there are no chips like the sweet potato chip. You do have veggie chips and Kellogg’s Special K chips but they don’t have the nutritional value like the sweet potato chip. Sweet potato chips can fill the gap of enjoying a great tasting chip that can give you a multitude of vitamins and minerals that you need. The uniqueness of the product is that this is the first time an energy bar company will be manufacturing a healthy organic chip. The quality of the sweet potato chip is the taste of it; this chip can be compared to Herr’s who is one of the leading chip manufactures of today. Sweet potato chips can be positioned based on use and product processing. Use meaning all of the nutritional and mineral value that the sweet potato offers and product processing meaning how it’s grown and produced.
Strategies
Clif Bar’s uniqueness is that they grow and manufacture all of their products and the sweet potato chip would be another product added. Their competitive advantage is that they will cater to people who love on the go nutritional snacks. Clif Bar should always be aware of what their competitors are doing and new technologies and innovations that change the market and increase or reduce the demand the sweet potato chip. The challenge that Clif Bar will have when it comes to trends and changes would be that their competitors would develop a product similar to the sweet potato chip.
Marketing Mix
Clif Bar Inc. will be featuring a new product called sweet potato chips. The features of their new product will be similar to the other products that they already produce. The chips will be organic and will be able to give the customer a lot of the vitamins and nutritional value. The quality of the chip is the nutritional value and what it has to offer the customer and not to mention that it has a great taste to it. Clif Bar is not really known as a company that advertises that well so for the sweet potato chips they are going to have to come out of their element and really market these chips. Clif Bar will have to use the pull strategy through advertising. They are going to have to go through the product life cycle once the consumers know that the chips exist. What they are going to have to do is advertise through sales promotions meaning consumer incentives, coupons, and free samples of the chips when a person purchases an energy bar. They are going to have to advertise on commercials, online, radio and word of mouth. They can also put ads in the newspaper advertising their new product. Clif Bar products have mainly been promoted to athletes however distribution outlets have been expanding in recent years. Stores that would attract environmentalists or outdoor enthusiasts such as REI, Performance, and Roadrunner Sports carry the products, consumers can shop for their favorite products via the Clif Bar website, and recently the company’s offerings have been placed on Amazon.com. Within Amazon’s first month of selling bundled non-perishable items, Clif Bar nutrition bars ranked among the site’s most popular items. With the way Clif Bar has delivered their energy bars they could do the same for the sweet potato chips. They could also distribute the chips in GNC, and local stores such and Wawa’s and 7Elevens all over the world. The price of the chips would depend on how big the bag is that a person is purchasing. Since they are chips they will cost the same amount as other bags of chips. If it is a small bag the cost would be $.35, medium bag $.99 and a big bag would be $3.79.
Marketing Research
The marketing methods that Clif Bar would need to have a salesperson go out and collect all the data that will be needed in order to proper sell the sweet potato chips. The salesperson has the responsibility for pinpointing customer needs that can be satisfied by the company. The sales person can go to potential stores and conduct surveys and ask the consumers as they enter the store if they would be interested in trying and purchasing the chips. Salespeople can provide management with the data required to make accurate sales forecasts, including competitive intelligence. (Quig and Wisner, pg. 3). Some limitations and challenges to letting the salesperson do the research is that information gathered can be distorted, returned later or not returned at all. The solution to this problem is not having the salesperson do all of the work, you may have to have your marketing team do research on their own as well.
Controls
A control that Clif Bar could put in place to manage the results and identify any problems that may need to be corrected would be to get customer feedback. This could be monitored through polls and surveys. They can reach customers indirectly by hosting online polls on the internet asking specific questions about the sweet potato chips. Once this information comes back then Clif Bar can make the necessary changes that may need to be changed.
Implementation process
Clif Bar’s implementation plan for marketing the baked sweet potato chips are described in the table below: Activity | Date/Frequency | Obtain Board approval | By mid-February 2012 | Contact an advertising agency to formulate an advertising plan | By March 1, 2012 | Select the sales team | By March 1, 2012 | Train the sales team | By mid-April, 2012 | Develop an incentive program for the sales team | By mid-April, 2012 | Provide the members of the sales team with a formal written program of the project | By May 1, 2012 | Provide each member of the sales team with a job description | By May 1, 2012 | Hold an official launching | By mid May 2012 | Advertise the service on their website | Daily beginning May 2012 | Visit prospective customers | Daily beginning May 2012 | Advertise on the local radio and television | Daily during May 2012 | Advertise in local newspapers | Daily during May 2012 |

Marketing Organization
On my support team I would have the sales manager, advertising manager, promotion manager, regional sales person, advertising analyst, promotion analyst and several regional sales persons.
Contingency Plan
Clif Bar could have a few contingency plans when it comes to marketing the sweet potato chip. According to Brian Hill from EHow Contributor Cliff Bar could have a tactical plan in place to deal with the unexpected such as a new competitor entering the market. They could have a plan in place to address sales shortfalls, their first step is to isolate the specific cause of the unsatisfactory results and determine how to allocate marketing resources to rebuild sales momentum. Clif Bar could also prepare a plan to cope with disasters that can happen such as power outages or bad weather delaying shipments. (EHow Contributor).
Conclusion
This marketing plan is for Clif Bar, Inc. to market a new product called Baked Sweet Potato chips. Throughout this plan it has been noted how good and healthy these chips will be. It has been demonstrated how these chips would increase revenue for Clif Bar, Inc. It has also been demonstrated that Clif Bar would be the only energy bar company to produce such a product.

References:
BalanceBar, http://www.powerbar.com/, 2011
Care2Care.com, http://www.care2.com/greenliving/9-reasons-to-love-sweet-potatoes, 2012
Clif Bar, Inc. http://www.clifbar.com/soul/who_we_are/, 2011
EHow.com, http://www.ehow.com/info_7826262_marketing-contingency-planning.html, 2012
NaturalNews.com, http://www.naturalnews.com/034135_sweet_potatoes_nutrition.html, 2011
PowerBar, http://www.powerbar.com/, 2011
Quig, B.,& Wisner, B., “Selling the Right Way!”, 1998.