Question

ou are employed as a business analyst at Marketing Department in XYZ company (a company in any field that you may be interested in working there upon your graduation). Your department director has asked you to come up with a draft marketing plan for a new (or an existing improved) product that would be available for consumers in year 2022 in United States.

In general, marketing plans are developed annually, exceptions of longer period do exist for some big-ticket industrial products such as commercial aircraft, as well as to some highly volatile industries such as telecommunications or electronics which may require diligent planning semi annually or quarterly.  

Plans typically follow a format similar to that outlined in Exhibit 1.10 "Contents of a Marketing Plan" on page 15 (also in Canvas under "Files") in Chapter One which including ten (10) parts:

1. Executive summary
2. Current situation and trends
3. Performance review (for an existing product or service only)
4. Key issues
5. Objectives
6. Marketing strategy
7. Action plans
8. Projected profit-and-loss statement
9. Controls
10. Contingency plans

Answer 1

1. Executive summary

It has been examined that, PepsiCo will focus on providing wide range of dietary and nutritional food products to the customers which helps in gaining wide set of health benefits. This study has stated that email marketing, social media marketing, SEO are effective marketing strategies. Moreover, it has been evaluated that, financial, lack of trained employees and non- compliance with laws are major risk to the Pepsico.

2. Current situation and trends

The preference of the customers has been drastically changing because they focus on living a healthy life by consuming high quality nutritional products to the customers. People tends to highly focus on consuming those goods which are high in energy, free from sugar, free from sodium or salt. According to the current trend scenario, customers tend to highly focus on eating food products which are rich in quality, natural and provide various benefits to the health. Another current trend associated with the industry is that customers tend to largely focus plant based meat in order to behave sustainably to the environment.

3. Key issues

The key issue associated with the production of the dietary and nutritional products is that the PepsiCo needs to find an effective way to preserve dietary and nutritional products by using recycled plastic. This is a sustainable way to carry out business.

4. Objectives

· The key objective is to become one of the number one choice of the customers in order to provide nutritional and dietary products.

· To increase the sales of the PepsiCo company by 20% by the end of year 2020.

5. Marketing strategy

Email marketing, using appropriate social media platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, et cetera are effective marketing strategy which helps in gaining attraction of the customers. Paid media marketing is also one of the most appropriate marketing approach using television, magazines, print media, blogs, newspapers, etc. which helps in gaining attraction of more number of customers. Search engine optimization is also an effective marketing strategy which is very prominent to sell dietary and nutritious products to customers.

6. Action plans

· Evaluating the product and carrying complete research and development about market and products.

· Completely evaluate the key competitors within market.

· Identifying the target market: Customers of all the demographics will be targeted and also people who are into healthy eating habits.

· Developing an effective marketing strategy.

· Promoting the product and carrying out pre- launch trials.

7. Projected profit-and-loss statement

Particulars	2022 (in $)
Turnover	840000
Cost of sales	500000
Gross profit	340000
Distribution cost	180000
Overhead	110000
Operating profit	70000
Dividend paid	5000
Retained earnings	54000

8. Controls

· Proper financial resources will be kept in order to carry out activities effectively.

· Complying with legal laws and standards.

· Coordinating all the business activities within PepsiCo by developing strong human resource management team.

9. Contingency plans

Risk	Mitigation plan
Financial risk	The financial team of the PepsiCo will keep extra cash reserved to meet any urgent needs.
Non- compliance with legal laws	The legal team must comply with all the legal laws and standards.
Inefficient skilled workers	Proper training to the employees are given which helps in delivering productive services.