Strategic Marketing Plan for a Doughnut Shop

Abstract

A marketing plan is a very important step to the success of any product or service. The marketing plan is generated as a step-by-step instruction guide to achieve the set marketing goals. Secondly, it is created to help companies monitor the different marketing strategies in use. This document is also a tool for management and owners to identify what strategies are working and which ones need to be redone.

Strategic Marketing Plan:

Dough Boy Doughnuts

Introduction

A marketing plan is vital in the achievement of the company's marketing objectives. This plan, if articulated and well written, can serve as the foundation for the company's marketing strategy. This plan can be created for a specific product, line of products, or brand as a whole.

Mission Statement

To reach out and enhance the community and customers lives through delicious food and community service.

Objectives

The objectives for our business will be the SMART format. That is they will be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timed (Marketing Teacher, 2012).

1. Profitability Objective: to attain a 10% return on the employed capital by October 2014.

2. Marketing Share Objective: to command 20% of the doughnut market by October 2014.

3. Promotional Objective: to increase

4. Objective for Survival: to survive the current slump in the US marketplace.

5. Objective for Growth: Increase the size of our current Hawaii based operations by 50% over the first two years and begin expanding to the west coast of the US within the first 10 years of operation.

6. Objective for Branding: To make Dough Boy doughnuts the consumers preferred brand in all targeted audiences and markets.

Customer Targets

The region which this company will be operating is Oahu, Hawaii. Geographically Oahu is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Oahu makes up 70% of the populace for the state of Hawaii and has 953,207 residents. This is the secondary market for the area. The primary market is the tourists who frequent the area. Oahu is visited by more than 5 million vacationers each year (govisithawaii.com, 2009). Of these visitors most are traveling for pleasure and 68% have previously visited (State of Hawaii, 2011). So a focus on having an unforgettable experience is a must, to draw in repeat customers. Other demographics for this group have not been identified. In the secondary market, gender is split evenly. The main focus would be people over the age 18, which is 77% of the populace and nearly 100% of the GDP. This can be further segmented to identify the largest group, which is age 35-49. The largest race on the island is Asian and makes up 43% of the populace. Whites are the second largest race and make up 21% of the populace. The education level consists of 90% being high school graduates and 31% holding a bachelor's degree or higher.

Competitor Targets

The competition in this market is grocery store bakeries, Dunkin' Doughnuts, and Krispy Kreme. As a note, Krispy Kreme has very little market in Oahu although they do have a store located on a neighboring island. Rivalry among existing competitors in this market is high. Dunkin' Donuts is the largest doughnut retailer in the world. The company is operated by a British conglomerate, Allied Comecq PLC. Their 3,600 stores worldwide, service nearly two million customers each day. Currently Krispy Kreme holds 30% of the market for all donut sales. They report sales of nearly $666 million annually (hoovers.com, 2011). The company has 394 stores worldwide. Since the company went public in 2000 they have aggressively expanded their operations. Over the last decade sales for both major competitors has slowed. This is due to society placing more emphasis on combating obesity. Dough Boy Doughnuts will fit into this market by starting regionally. The startup location has little to competitor presence. The company will include various benefits from its competitors and bring them together into once convenient package.

Product/Service Features

The product or service is the Dough Boy doughnut shop. This product would combine features from other doughnut shops but would have a twist. The doughnuts would be available hot and fresh like Krispy Kreme. They would be complimented by gourmet/Kona coffee, which will be as marketable as the doughnuts themselves, like Dunkin' Doughnuts. They would also provide a call in order/delivery service. Product location plays a large part of the pending success. In order to be a more convenient product the stores will have a drive thru. This product will be sold gas stations and convenience stores as well.

Core Strategy

The core strategy is part of the complete marketing strategy and consists of two major parts; they are value position and product positioning. When discussing core strategies, "the most important component...is crafting the value propositioning" (Winer & Dhar, 2011). Value proposition is a summary of customer and competitor targets, product categorization, and is a concise statement that describes how one's product is different from other in the same market and is the reason a customer should chose this product over the competitors option. This is done and placed in the customer's minds through product positioning.

Marketing Mix: Communications & Promotion

Rationale for Choosing Communication Channels

Dough Boy Doughnuts will use four channels of communication to convey the product to the public. The four channels used will be advertising, limited direct marketing, sales and promotions, as well as public relations. Advertising will be done through various media to include the local newspaper, magazines, local television, and billboards. This type of advertising will be expensive and will reach a large audience. This is the primary way to develop brand and product recognition. Direct marketing will be used through various media as well. One will be mail out brochures and fliers. As well, the internet will be used to send out email brochures and social media (twitter, Facebook, and etc.) will be used to provide interaction with the public. This method is fairly inexpensive

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