1. Executive Summary
Ahorn is a maple syrup company that targets mainly middle and higher class customers around the Finger Lakes region in and New York City. Our company offers the best quality, pure, organic maple syrup that is made from Dutch trees, which are planted on our local farm in Elmira, NY.
The maple syrup market is currently fluctuating due to the availability of other sweeteners and the sustainability of production along with the technological changes. However, with the different grades and quality of maple syrup the market has become very competitive. Ahorn, as an organic and the purest maple syrup, has a chance to succeed, especially when consumers tend to care about their health and the environment much more than they used to. This trend has created an industry, in which the demand for maple syrup is increasing but unfortunately the weather conditions and the long growth of maple trees go against the trend. Ahorn will therefore take an advantage of this large demand for maple syrup by positioning itself in the higher end of the market where many consumers look for healthy and environment friendly products.
Ahorn Maple Syrup can be consumed by people of all ages because the majority of people enjoy having pancakes for breakfast with a great tasting maple syrup. Our product offers not only a great taste, but also great quality and is a 100% organic product. Our company’s largest competitions in the maple syrup market are Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth, Eggo and other independent companies. However, Ahorn is one of the few syrups hat are organic and pure, which creates the product’s competitive advantage. Our marketing strategy is to provide a quality product that is organic and tastes pure. Ahorn will be advertised in 12 magazines of our target markets, on 162 domain sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace and be advertised in the pop-up ads as well.
We are aiming to capture 4% of the New York maple syrup market by June 30th, 2012 and sell to at least 30,000 customers, at a rate of 2500 customers/month. Our company is also seeking to achieve $ 840,000 annual sales by June 30th, 2012 and target a gross profit margin of 35% for the first business year. As a local company, we want to make sure that our employees gain benefits from working for us.
In conclusion, Ahorn will successfully serve the consumers in Upstate State New York that are willing to pay a little bit extra money to purchase an organic product that tastes great and does not harm the environment. We will also provide great customer support to build and maintain the strong
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relationships between our company and the consumers. The experience, dedication, and loyalty that our team possesses will lead to successes on the maple syrup market and also gaining customers’ loyalty.
2. Our Company
2.1 Company Description
Ahorn exists since 1951, in which year the maple tree seeds from Dutch immigrants reached their full tree sizes and the Native Americans, which traded the seeds for shelter, were able to get pure maple syrup. Ahorn is an organic maple syrup made from the finest maple trees that are now planted on our farm in Elmira, NY. Our company offers a pure tasting maple syrup to all age groups throughout the New York state. Our company will provide our customers with all natural maple syrup available at organic stores throughout the state of New York available in recycled glass bottles with fancy etiquettes that will attract the customer’s attention, keeping the environment in mind. Our company will celebrate its 60th birthday in spring 2011.
2.2 Organizational Structure
President – Blair Hogan
Vice President – Rahat Haque
Marketing Director – Dwayne McGee
Managing Director – Alexandra Zavadska President – Blair Hogan | |
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2. 3Mission Statement
We are nature’s carriers, delivering only the purest maple syrup from the trees to your table.
2.4 Our Core Competency * We have large enough farms needed to continue supply and take advantage of the high prices in the market even in bad seasons. * Our maple syrup has no sugar added and is therefore healthier than other syrups. People with diabetes can consume our maple syrup. * Extensive marketing efforts ensured to raise awareness about the purity and uses of the product. The 4 grades of syrup can be used differently. * We use recycled plastic bottles in different sizes and shapes that are the colors of nature with a creative etiquette. Thus it’s both environmentally friendly and asthetic.
2.5 Our Points of Difference from Competition * Ahorn will employ local people and will so create a feeling of a ‘family business’. * Ahorn will use very creative marketing strategies to attract customers such as advertising maple syrup cocktails along with maple lemonade.
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* Ahorn’s organic maple syrup will target Whole Foods as its primary market and Wegmans as its secondary market. * Ahorn will target the middle and upper class of the New York state population.
2.6 Keys to Success for Our Company
One of the most important keys to success for our company is to produce top quality organic maple syrup and compete with non-organic syrups on the market. Since we are not adding sugar to our maple syrup, diabetic can consume our maple syrup, but it is also healthier for the general population. We will use natural colors of the glass bottles along with a variety of fancy shapes and sizes, with very eye-catching advertisements on the billboards and on TV. Ahorn will focus on providing a strong marketing mix, “a set of controllable tactical marketing tools-product, price, place, and promotion-that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market,” (Armstrong & Kotler, 2010, p. 53) in order to succeed on the market. Another key to our success is the use of product development strategy, which is a strategy that offers modified or new products to current market segments, (Armstrong & Kotler, 2010, p. 46) meaning that we will introduce our organic maple syrup to the existing maple syrup market in the hope of achieving our goal to be the top seller of maple syrup. Ahorn will also focus on producing a star product, which is high-growth, high-share product that needs heavy investment in order to grow. However, the growth will slow down and then the organic maple syrup will become a cash cow (Armstrong & Kotler, 2010, p.43).
2.7 Warning Signs for our Company
The potential problems with our keys to success are our competitors, which are big companies that have been on the market for longer than we have, meaning that we might experience some issues with the size of our company. We also need to make sure that wage raise does not get out of control and we are still able to pay all of our employees accordingly. Another problem that can potentially face Ahorn is the change in climate or a natural disaster that could ruin our tree farm, which would then result in having to use trees from somewhere else, which would affect our core competency of having Dutch maple trees. Lastly, our company might have to keep lowering the price of our maple syrup if suddenly the maple syrup will not be at boom anymore. In addition, the organic maple syrup’s price in Wegmans and Whole Foods might drop as low as the non-organic maple syrup, if the demand for maple syrup changes, which would result in the loss of one of our core competencies. If the customer’s taste changes too, maple syrup industry as a whole will experience a downfall, which will affect Ahorn too.
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3. Situation Analysis
3.1 Industry description/ Historical analysis * Most of the maple syrup in North America is produced in Vermont, Upstate New York and southern Ontario and Quebec. Our maple syrup farm located on the outskirts of Elmira, upstate NY. * The production of maple syrup is a very labor intensive process. From approximately 40 gallons of maple sap, 1 gallon of maple syrup can be obtained. This is okay, as this down trodden economy has decreased the wage rate as the demand for jobs increase. We will recruit and train enough workers in order to draw sap from these trees. ( All tapped out, the daily climate) * From a historical perspective, maple syrup was always seen as a source for sugar and maple trees were sent to Europe for the harvesting of sugar. But maple trees need a specific weather pattern in order for them to produce enough sap. Specifically there needs to be subfreezing nights followed by days with temperatures around 40 F over an extended period of time. So the trees failed to produce enough sap and other alternatives were adapted. However, the weather conditions here in North America are better suited and so we are in a fortuitous position. * The Indian tribes such as the Alongoquins and the Crees were the first to extract the sap out of maple trees by cutting a slash across the tree bark. Later on, when maple syrup began to be mass produced, this technique was improved upon. So we benefit from the newest method of producing syrup. A shallow hole is made in the tree and spout is inserted, allowing the sap to flow into buckets or hoses. * It takes 35 to 60 years to have full grown maple syrups tress before they can start producing sap in the desirable quantities. We have full grown trees in our farm as the company was established in 1951 and maple tree seeds were imported from Netherlands to be planted in our current farm. * One of the biggest costs of producing maple syrup is the fuel costs of boiling it the traditional way. A new method called reverse osmosis is being experimented with where the water content of the sap is reduced. But this does effect the quality of the syrup and we won’t be going for this process as we aim to sell high quality pure maple syrup. (Huffingtonpost.com, Maple syrup industry fires back at John McCain). * Maple syrup is an industry in where demand exceeds the supply. There is never any surplus. * The maple syrup industry in New York is at $18 million, as of 2009. This is excluding international sales. Senator E. Schumer, a New York democrat believes that sales can be
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* increased by 400% based on the fact that NY taps less than 1 % of the 289 million maple trees it has. Once we start production, this percentage will increase. ( NY times, As maple syrup prices rise, New York Leaders see opportunity) * A lot of funds for research in the maple syrup industry are being proposed by politicians. Since we are an upstart company, getting our hands on these funds will save us a lot of costs in research and development.
3.2Market description/analysis * The maple syrup industry is an important component of the New England and New York’s character as well as economy. The most production of maple syrup takes place in Vermont, but New York has 16% of the market based on production by state (“Maple Syrup 2010”) Vermont is the largest producer of pure maple syrup in the U.S. and was the first state to establish a maple law. (“Vermont Maple Overview”) The market for maple syrup has fluctuated due to the availability of other sweeteners and the sustainability of production along with the technological changes. However, with the different grades and quality of maple syrup, the market is becoming a more of a competitive place due to the different brands of artificial maple syrup and the real maple syrup. On the other hand, the overall maple syrup industry is declining mainly because of the weather conditions and the long growth of the maple trees, but the demand for maple syrup is increasing, which results in a production of counterfeit maple syrup made from corn syrup and maple flavorings. (“The Maple Syrup Industry”)Maple syrup is enjoyed by all age groups because it is a traditional food that is found in every American household.
How do they make their buying decisions? * Based on quality * Based on price * Based on strong customer relationships * Based on design
What are the different types of maple syrup consumers?
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* Families – spent the least $ * Restaurant chains (eg: ihop) – spent more $ * Local bakeries/diners – spent more than families * Hotels – spent the most $
Where do they buy? * Wegmans * Rainbow * Cub Foods * Safeway * Albertsons * Walmart Super Stores * Target Super Stores * Whole Foods * Trader Joe’s * Small local producers
How do you reach them with your marketing and sales messages? * Through good advertising in magazines that target the consumers * Giving out samples at the stores * Maple Syrup value in ny: roughly $6million * Largest competitors: aunt jemima, mrs. Butterworth, eggo, other independent companies * Major companies priced around $5-6 where independent companies $10-12 * Entire industry value:roughly $500 million * Most maple syrups contain roughly 800 calories and nearly 200 grams of sugar per serving * New York responsible for roughly 300,000 gallons of maple syrup per year
3.3 Competition review: 10
3.4 Product Review: * Four different flavors * Most organic form of maple syrup on the market * Little to no additives (no sugar or other preservatives) * 2 different bottles: pint, quart * Resealable bottles that are “molded” into one another * Made from foreign trees that are grown locally
3.5Industry Macro Environment
Industry Macro-environment consists of the larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment-demographic, economic, natural, technologies, political, and cultural forces. The company’s major
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macro_environment consist of six major forces. Demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, cultural. * In the maple industry there are many different macro-environmental forces that will affect the success of the Ahorn product. There are a few different natural factors that may affect the success of the product such as health issues with the trees being used to produce sap. These trees naturally get older and over time bugs and other insects get inside of the trees and destroy them. Another natural force is the climate in which these trees are growing. Many different factors such as pollution are constantly changing the climate that these trees must grow and produce sap in. * There are also technological forces that may affect the success of this product. Due to the rapid advancement in technology today, the different gadgets and tools being created today will constantly change the way sap is collected from these trees. As an organization that promotes an organic product, we will want to collect as much sap as we can with the least amount of damage to the tree as possible. * One economic force that may affect the success of this product is the fact that our product is targeting a class of people who will be greatly affected by an economic downturn. Depending on the condition of the economy, our targeted consumers will be trying to spend or save their money which is a major factor that plays a roll in our success. * One last macro-environmental force that will affect the success of the Ahorn product is based upon cultural factors. In today’s culture our targeted consumer has a high percentage of people who are trying to eat healthy. Being fit is a big part of today’s society, and the more this trend is followed and promoted, the more successful our company will be. 3.6 Distribution Channel * A distribution channel is a set of independent organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user. The market is following a trend of Disintermediation channels. This is where the company bypass intermediaries and going directly to final buyers or that new types of channel intermediaries are emerging to displace traditional ones. This can be cost efficient and is the latest trend in channel distribution. Because of the long distance of from the Netherlands to the United States, we will
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* have waterways to America because of the low price. From there we will use railways. The rail ways are beneficial because of the large carrier, its cost effective for shipping bulk products. When it comes to communication with our supplier of maple seeds, we stress over the relationship very strongly. Many of the workers are mainland born from the Netherlands. We pay regular visits to our distributors. We adopted a method of repeated consultations when encountering serious problems rather than taking a simple confrontation approach in dealing with confrontation. While having a good relationship with your distributors, in maximizes performance and in the end benefits the company. 3.7 Swot analysis Strengths | 1. Pure and organic product. 2. International experience. 3. Great resources/ already established farm.
Weaknesses
1. Fairly new company. 2. Market only restricted to NY. 1. Foreign origin/ seeds were imported from Netherlands decades ago.
Opportunities
1. Large market in NY/ NYC being the cultural capital of the world. 2. Booming syrup market/high demand. 3. Creating a whole new market/ taking advantage of our product’s exclusivity.
Threats
1. Competition from other bigger companies. 2. Natural disasters and climate change. 3. High prices might lead to backlash.
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3.8 Keys to success for the industry * Maple syrup is nowadays part of the luxury market. (NY times, As Maple syrup Prices Rise, New York Leaders See Opportunity). * Local retail prices can go over $100 a gallon. (NY times, As Maple syrup Prices Rise, New York Leaders See Opportunity). * International demand has increased because of the marketing efforts of organizations Federation of Quebec Maple syrup. America is also big on exporting maple syrup; exporting around $6million in value in North America alone. But our target market is the state of NY only, so at least we could curb the demand for imports by giving the public their own state produced syrup, if not raise their total demand for the good. Maple syrup is a widely imported good. America is responsible for around 60% of the world’s maple syrup imports, importing around $161 million in value. We shall reduce these figures by starting production in America. America also incidentally imports maple syrup from Netherlands. So since our maple trees were originally Dutch, we can obliterate this import market totally. ( The 2009 world market forecasts for imported maple sugar and maple syrup) * Our unique selling proposition is based on the fact that Ahorn maple syrup only gives customers the purest and most organic maple syrup. So, the “health conscious’ segment of the market will always form a huge part of the whole market base. * Maple syrup consumers are looking forward to buying the maple syrup products with the USDA organic seal. We will have our brand approved by the USDA. * We will have our company approved by Quality Assurance International which will certify that we follow sustainable forestry practices, use no pesticides and follow appropriate cleaning process. * We sell pure organic maple syrup but there exists this market called “organic avoiders”. This group wants to purchase traditional maple syrup, the reasons being they are cheaper and are high quality store brands giving the consumer a sense of satisfaction. Our company can’t promise necessarily a cheap price tag, but the marketing efforts will make our product into a premium high quality store brand. Consumers will know that they are buying a brand which is rapidly becoming popular. Ahorn will soon become a household brand name, just like Aunt Jemima or Mrs. Butterworth’s instead of like those generic sellers of organic maple syrup. * People are beginning to see maple syrup in a whole new light. Besides just seeing it as an option to go with pancakes and waffles, it is being used as a grilling sauce, an ingredient in sweets, fill-
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* in for whipped cream as a topping, cocktail flavoring etc. Ahorn has these consumers in mind, and our marketing efforts will attempt to convince everybody that pure unadulterated maple syrup tastes the best and therefore can be used best in all of the above ways and more. The health benefits are there as usual. * Price reduction works well too with customers. And because our product will be high priced to begin with, we can slash the prices from time to time. With such offers, we can entice the crowd who will be tempted to try out our lucrative product at lower prices. * We keep producing syrup starting from late winter to late spring, not wasting any optimal time for production. This is done so as to get all the four most recognized grades of maple syrup, namely; grade A light amber, grade A medium amber, grade A dark amber and grade B. The market is segmented according to the different wants of people and our company will supply the purest of each form. * The price of maple syrup had increased in 2010 in NY due to the massive fall in production of 29%. (Maple Report 2010, USDA). So people have seen the prices go up and are somewhat more adjusted by it. This year’s tough winter has meant an increase of the supply of maple syrup in NY. So while we can produce maple syrup in sufficient quantities, maple syrup customers will be more used to high prices even though the avg. price of a gallon is expected to fall.
3.9 Critical issues for the industry * The climatic or weather changes are taking a big toll on the maple syrup industry. Because it’s an industry totally dependent on a specific set condition of weather, the recent changes in climate spell doom for the industry. * The weather has been haywire over the past decade in New England and New York. Temperatures have fluctuated without any definite patterns. There have been also more storms which affects the condition of the maple trees. There are other environmental problems too such as the case with gypsy moths and droughts. Thus the maple syrup business has become very risky due to the unpredictability in supply. * The maple syrup seasons are getting shorter; in 2010 it was 23 days. But more alarmingly, the sugar content of the sap is also getting lesser, thereby needing more gallons of sap to produce 1
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* gallon of maple syrup. In 2010, 47 gallons were needed, compared to 2009’s 44. Thus such new trends mean increased costs. ( Sugar and Sweeteners Outlook) * The maple syrup industry is getting grants for research, but the allocation of such grants has come under fire recently for being wasteful. John McCain has blasted the $165,000 grant for maple syrup research in Vermont. In the future such grants might be blocked in the state of NY. (Huffingtonpost.com, Maple syrup industry fires back at John McCain).
4. Objectives 4. 1 Marketing Objectives
Our business year begins on July 1st, 2011. * Market share * Total: * Capture 4% of the New York maple syrup market by June 30th, 2012. * By segments: * Capture 2% of the buyers who are regular consumers of other brands, and capture the remaining 2% of potentially all new first time buyers of maple syrup or irregular indecisive buyers. * Customers * Total: * Sell to 30000 customers by June 30th, 2012, at the rate of 2500 customers each month. * Percentage retained: * Maintain a 94% customer retention rate over the next year. * Customer satisfaction: * Score more than 93% on all of next year’s customer satisfaction surveys. * Sales and promotion
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* Total: * Sell 60000 units by June 30th, 2012, at the rate of 5000 units each month. * Product development: * Introduce two new products in the second half of the year only if the first four products launched take off well, and all other targets are on par. * Sales promotions: * Have two weeks of special offers strategically located within the 12 months of the first business year. * Lead time: * Maintain a lead time of three weeks for the first year. * Website traffic: * Have 12000 or more visits per month over the next year. * Advertisement: * Advertize periodically in 12 magazines and on 162 domain sites by June 30th, 2012. * Channels * Dealers: * Have 8 recognized supermarkets selling the product at the start of the business year. * Partnerships: * Combine with 2 of these chains to lower marketing costs by June30th, 2012. * Market research * Completion:
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* Complete 6 surveys by June30th, 2012 telling the NY customers how our product can be improved and what would make them consume more of it. * Initiation: * Initiate 2 research projects by June 30th, 2012 aimed at studying the properties of pure maple syrup. 4.2 Financial Objectives * Sales volume: * Achieve $840,000 annual sales by June30th, 2012. * Channel sales: * Target internet sales of $200,000 out of $840,000 by June30th, 2012. The rest is to be sold on supermarkets and corner stores. * Profitability: * Target a gross profit margin of 35 % for the first business year. * Return on investment: * Achieve a 25% ROI on funds invested in direct marketing activities for the first business year. * Break even point: * Manage sales and costs to reach that break-even point by June30th, 2012.
4.3 Social objectives * Local employment/employment benefits: * Aim to have 25 % of all employees from Chemung County.
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* Give all our employees paid leaves up to a week in case of emergency. * Education: * Sponsor courses about the maple syrup industry and the benefits of pure organic maple syrup at the top 4 leading universities in NY.
5. Marketing Strategy
5.1Target Market * We will pursue differentiated (segmented) marketing. Though we are releasing one set of products to the whole market, through other factors in the marketing mix (price, promotion, place) we will attempt to churn out more sales by segmenting the market. It’s common knowledge that businesses usually use more than one tool for segmentation. * Our tools will be- * Geographic segmentation: Sell a high % of the product to retailers located in the high populace locations of NY. * NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse. This will be geographical segmentation based on population. * Income segmentation: Since it is a higher end product, higher income brackets will be advertised to with more care. * Psychographic segmentation: The personality aspect of psychology will come into play. People who want to get the newest product in the market will be targeted. Health conscious people will be targeted. Maple syrup aficionados will obviously be targeted. * Intermarket segmentation: Since Ahorn Maple Syrup will be on the sale on the web too, anybody can order them. The potential customers will come to the product irrespective of where they are in NY.
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* Behavioral segmentation: Benefit segmentation is a subpart of this. Again those who want a green product, in the sense that the environment was minimally interfered with in the making of the product will be targeted. Usage rate and loyalty status will be important as well. Special marketing efforts will be given to heavy product users and those who display most consumer loyalty. 5.2 Positioning
The competitive advantages chosen to be promoted by us: * Delicious maple syrup, one for every taste bud. (Our four products will vary in the strength of taste) * Purest maple syrup. (In the sense that it’s the same as sucking the sap out of the tree with your own mouth. Thought the actual syrup is made by boiling the sap) * Organic maple syrup. The health benefits of natural maple syrup will be conveyed. * Green product. Recycling of the bottles will be encouraged and the bottles themselves will be made of recycled material. The design of the product will be such that less plastic is needed in the first place. The cap of the bottle will be ultra thin. * Good value for the price. * The last competitive advantage brings us to the next point, value proposition. * We’ll be going for a “more for more” value proposition, which is a winning value proposition. * The price will be high, but so will the benefits. * Our positioning statement (different from mission statement) will be: * “To fans of maple syrup who value quality and purity and above anything else, Ahorn Maple Syrup is a New York based maple syrup producer that brings you the satisfaction of consuming syrup that is not only delicious, but healthy for the body and friendly for the environment.”
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5.3 Product Strategy | | |

| | | * It will be a shopping product. * Core customer value: Pure, healthy and organic syrup. Best quality. * Actual product: * Brand name. We are Ahorn Maple Syrup of course. We will be instantly recognizable with the A which will be shaped like a maple leaf. The h,o,r,n will follow. * Packaging. The packaging in this case is the containers themselves. They will hold and protect the maple syrup just fine. The containers will be made of recycled plastic and will have screw caps. They will be sold individually and also in package of four. When this is the case, only shrinkage would be used to bundle the four types of syrups together as they already fit. This will also be ergonomically beneficial. It will take up less shelf space thus impressing retailers. It will save transportation costs too as they will be easier to fit in boxes. * Design: Value will be added to the product because of its distinct curved style. * Labeling: The labeling will carry the brand name, and the product’s name. * Augmented product: * Delivery and credit: When bought from the web, it will be delivered to your house through UPS. Buying from the store is explanatory. It’s only maple syrup, so no credit will be given to the customers. Though depending on any awards systems of the retailers we sell our product too, the customers may get a price reduction or credit.
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* Product support: Our website will answer a lot of the questions one may have about the product. Once again, it’s only maple syrup so warranty and after sales service are non applicable. * Company’s product mix * Product mix’s width is limited. We only produce maple syrup currently. That’s only one line of products, bottled maple syrup. * Product mix’s length is of medium range. We have 4 maple syrup products in our product line. Chestnut, shadow, copper and ebony. * Product mix’s depth is fair. For each of the four varieties, there are two sizes, pint and quart. * Product mix’s consistency is heavy due to the limited product mix width. The final consumer use, production requirements and distribution channels are all very similar and hence the consistency is very high.
5.4 Pricing strategy * Amongst major pricing strategies, we will use customer value based pricing. A pint of Ahorn Maple Syrup will be charged $11.99. A quart will be charged $15.99. * More specifically, we’ll use value added pricing. Our marketing efforts will be directed at convincing the customers that our maple syrup is more pure than the rest. The health beneficial compounds of pure maple syrup will be promoted. This added with our attractive packaging will add value to our product, enabling us to charge a slightly higher price than what is the usual for a pint and a quart in the state of NY. There will be tinge of competition based pricing as well. We would ideally want to charge a bit more than other producers of pure organic syrup. Setting an example of our high standards through our price. We could even be price leaders. * For new-product pricing, we’ll use market-skimming pricing. Ahorn maple syrup will be advertized as a revolutionary product, bringing the pharmaceutical quality maple syrup for the first time to local supermarket shelves. Thus the newness will justify the high prices, and the market will be skimmed.
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* For product mix pricing, we’ll use product bundle pricing. The four flavors or grades of syrup will be sold together as well as individually. When sold together, the prices will be a little cheaper to convince the consumers to buy them. This will get the sales going. A four pack pint sized Ahorn maple syrup will be $45.99. A four pack quart sized Ahorn Maple syrup will be $ 61.99. * Psychological pricing will also be used. Consumers deem higher priced products to have higher quality, and this will certainly work towards our advantage. Promotional pricing will be used in special holidays. In keeping up the spirit discounts will be offered on those days. The product will be marketed as an excellent gift giving option. (Especially the Ahorn Maple Syrup four packs) Though this is digressing on to the field of occasional segmentation. Anyway, the prices will be cheaper on Holidays. There will be a 2 dollar on every product discount on National Maple syrup day (dec.17th).
5.5 Place * We’ll have a multichannel distribution system. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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* Consumer segment 1 will be web based. They can order Ahorn Maple Syrup from our website. This will be an example of direct marketing channel. Consumer segment 2 will have to get our product thorough retailers. This will be an example of indirect marketing channel. * In our indirect market channel, there will be both conventional distribution channel and vertical marketing system through contractual VMS. In the former it’ll be a case of the retailers will simply retailing our product, after we sell it to them. C Town and Food emporium are examples. We will have contracts with the other 6 stores, to reduce costs and gain economies of scale. Perhaps they could advertize our product, give it the best shelf locations or share the costs of logistics. * As for the number of intermediaries, we will pursue selective distribution. As said before, 8 store chains will retail our product for the 1st business year. Wegmans, Whole Foods, Target, Duane Reade, Key Store, Food Emporium, C Town and Walgreens. * We will maintain two distribution centers. One containing the finished product and one containing stocks of maple sap extracted from the trees. In our sugar shacks at the farm, the maple sap will boiled into maple syrup and from there it will be bottled, packaged and sent to the distribution center for the finished product. However, maple season doesn’t last all year and so the excess sap harvested will be stored at the distribution centre for maple sap. From here, whenever there is a demand for new stocks, more maple syrup will be produced at the sugar shacks before storing them again at the finished product distribution centre. Products will be sent to the store always from this warehouse. * We’ll have a very balanced inventory system, carrying just the right amount of stock at all times. Having too little of ready to be delivered maple syrup in warehouse no. 1 can be risky as demands can rise unexpectedly or more than the anticipated amount. Similarly having too much stock will mean higher utilities cost to maintain the warehouse. Just in Time management will be employed. * Transportation is vital. Our medium of choice is the truck. Whichever retail store the product has to be transported to, it can be done so by trucks. Also moving the product from our sugar shacks to warehouse no.1 will be done by employing trucks. * We will take part in integrated logistics management through building logistics partnerships. Our channel partners will have to cooperate fully with us, and us with them.
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5.6 Promotion
From the promotion mix we’ll be utilizing advertising and public relations. * Advertising: * Advertize in 12 magazines including, Food Product. Men’s health and People. Advertize on 162 domain sites including the social networking sites of facebook, twitter and myspace. Advertize on an upcoming blockbuster, preferably the next Transformers. There’ll be a breakfast scene where they talk about our product. * Persuasive advertising will be used. All the adverts will be geared towards building brand preference, encouraging switching to a brand and changing customer’s perception of product value. * The advertising budget will be set by the objective and task method. The objective is to make our brand the premium maple syrup brand in NY, and potentially USA. Thus the promotion costs will be really high, around the range of $400,000. * Public Relations: * Under press relations or press agency: See that a few articles are published on the NY times on our social work. All our social work will be based on our social objectives. Set up interviews with our company staff and executives talking about our recently released or to be released product. Have these interviews broadcasted in business entrepreneur programs in CNN and also in our YouTube channel. Get Lance Armstrong and Ray Allen to sponsor our syrup. These ads will be located in the magazines talked about earlier. * Public affairs: Our bond with the local community will be maintained. Our strong social programs will help us retain this relationship. * Lobbying: There will be efforts to maintain our liaison with legislators and govt. officials to influence the passing of bills which will help our company and the vetoing of bills which disfavor us. * As for promotion mix strategies, we will be using pull strategy.
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* Direct Marketing: * Messages will be delivered online through pop up ads, before watching videos such as the ones on YouTube. There’ll be a shift from broadcasting to narrow casting.
5.7 Marketing Research * We will be involved in exploratory research to analyze whether we’ll have a sufficient market base or not. We’ll figure out whether it’s differentiable, actionable, * Secondary data will be gathered from external agencies that specialize in the collection of data. For example: Nielsen and Experian Consumer Research. The govt. data will also be looked into as they have information about all the companies registered to do business in America. They also carry out censuses which always provide useful solid data. Beside these ploys, the most common mediums of secondary data include annual reports and annual budgets of other companies. By studying these from the companies in our industry, we can gain valuable insight. * Primary data will be gathered by survey research. The contact methods used will be personal interviews and online surveys. The research instrument used will be questionnaires. Aside from personal interviews, there will be focused group interviewing. This will also include online focus groups.

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