Zummo Smoothie Bar International: Marketing Strategy - Research Paper Example

Zummo Smoothie bar international: Marketing Strategy Executive summary The smoothie market is a big one and continues to become even bigger. People are becoming more conscious of their heath and smoothies are becoming more popular due to the fact that they offer healthy, natural way of nourishing the body (Garlough & Campbell, 78). According to (Rubin & Remedios, 174), as more people become more conscious of the need to use natural fruit products such as smoothies, the market is only going to get bigger and those who will be able to cut a market segment in the ever growing industry will be in good business. It is on this postulation that Zummo Smoothie Bar will be founded upon. Zummo Smoothie Bar will seek to serve the underserved market of smoothie lovers who don’t have too much cash to spare. It will also seek to provide better services by allowing the customers to choose their own menus as well as offer delivery services. By giving these value-adding services to the business of smoothie, it will be easier for Zummo Smoothie Bar to create a market segment for its products and survives and overcome competition from the already existing and established competitors such as Starbucks. Introduction The Smoothie market is a big market, in terms of the various market drivers such as number of potential customers (Cross, 58). Smoothies come in all forms, qualities, and amounts. In the Camden town, London, the smoothie business is a big business as indicated by the numerous smoothie bars which offer numerous services. There is however a market segment that seems to be underserved. This market segment includes those who would want to have a smoothie without having to dig too dip into their pockets. Most smoothie bars in Camden offer very expensive products which many people may not afford. In this regard, there is an opportunity to offer the products to this market segment. This market segment is composed of the people who are willing to compromise a little in the quality of the smoothie as long as they ca get on a better price (Lerner & Roberto, 90). Competitors The main competitor in the smoothie sub sector is Starbucks which offers high quality smoothies in the Camden area within London. Starbucks is an international brand which offers different types of beverages including smoothies. Apart from Starbucks, there are also a number of other competitors such as Chaboba Bubble Tea, White Kitchen, Shake My Shake and The Espresso Bar. These businesses offer smoothies as well as other beverages such as coffee and tea. Most of them are high-end smoothie bars and offer very expensive products. As a result, although these competitors will be offering the same products as Zummo Smoothie bar, they will not offer direct competition to Zummo due to the fact that Zummo Smoothie bar will be looking for a subsection of the market which the rest of the bars don’t attend to. Marketing strategy for Zummo of the Smoothie bar According to Weinstein (45), market segmentation is a very important market strategy. Zummo Smoothie bar will target a market segment which is composed of the younger people in the market which will include students. This segment of the market is composed of the people who may not have enough money to send too such on a product like a smoothie. In this regard, the Zummo Smoothie Bar will offer smoothies of average quality in order to make sure that its costs are within the profit threshold. This will help the Zummo Smoothie bar to be able to offer the product at a much lower price and therefore be able to meet the needs of the market. Discounts As Donnelly (85) says, offering discounts is a major way to engage the customers. Zummo Smoothie bar will make use of discounts as a way to attract and maintain its customers. Since the Zummo Smoothie bar will be targeting the students, they will be given discounts for buying from the shops. Quantity discounts will be offered to the customers for being regular customers. To achieve this, the customers will be issued with a customer loyalty card which will give them points for buying any product from the Zummo Smoothie bar. Customers can then redeem their points for products of their choice. Personalising the menu One of the main complaints by customers as seen on yelp is the fact that most of the smoothie bars do not have good menus. Customers complain on certain ingredients missing from the menus. For instance, one customer on Yelp complained that a certain smoothie bar did not have a good menu and that they did not have soy milk. To deal with this kind of shortcoming, Zummo Smoothie Bar will provide a flexible semi-personalised menu where the customer will be able to personalise his or her product. This will make the customers more satisfied with the products and they will be more likely to come for more products (Doyle). Diversification According to Paley (85), diversification is a major business strategy which can give businesses more edge in the market. Zummo Smoothie Bar will also use diversification as a way to make sure that the customers are well served. In this regard, Zummo Smoothie Bar will also sell other products which are related to smoothies. This will include coffee, water and other juices. This will mean that Zummo Smoothie Bar will be able to meet the customers need and also make sure that the revenues will be increased and secured. Online marketing Online marketing is a major way of marketing in the modern business environment (Bailey 189). Zummo Smoothie Bar will use online marketing as a way to promote its products. In terms of the online marketing plan, Zummo Smoothie Bar will use the following platforms; Website Zummo Smoothie Bar will develop a website which will be used as a contact point between the business and the customers. The website will serve a number of marketing services which will include displaying the menus and the various products. Customers will be able to log into the website and look and review most of the products. At the same time, customers will be able to order and buy for products online. The website will be developed to support online purchases by the customers. This will be doubled with delivery services where customers will not need to come to the shop but can buy the products online and have them delivered to them in their homes, offices or school. Customers will be able to review the various products and also give their ideas and suggestions. The online ordering system will also allow the customers to be able to create their own menus and their specific products ingredients. Social media Social media is also becoming a very important way to market businesses (Zarrella, 54). According to Kabani (90) social media is an easy, affordable and efficient way to provide customer services. Zummo Smoothie Bar will use social media such as twitter and Facebook to respond to customer issues. Zummo Smoothie Bar will have a dedicated team who will be handling customer issues brought up by customers in the social media. This engagement by the customers will help in making the customers feel more appreciated and this will therefore increase customer satisfaction (Anderson 138). Apart from twitter and Facebook, Zummo Smoothie Bar will also use other social media such as Yelp which is a social platform which allows customers to rate and comment on services and products offered by businesses (Salt 48). Zummo Smoothie Bar will take customers comments on yelp as a way to make sure that customers are assured that their concerns are important to the business. This will help in creating a better and working relationship with the customer thus increasing their loyalty and commitment to the brand. SWOT analysis for Zummo Smoothie Bar Strengths The main strength which Zummo Smoothie Bar will have will be its market attitude. Zummo Smoothie Bar will be operating in a market where the customer has been ignored. Bringing these products to the ignored segment of the market will mean that Zummo Smoothie Bar will have less competition. The other strength for Zummo Smoothie Bar is the fact that there will be enough market for the product. Being located at Camden will mean that the business will have a ready market for its products. Weaknesses One of the weaknesses will be the fact that it is a new business in s very competitive industry. According to Porter (49), customers seem to only trust old brands, especially in the food and beverage sector. This will mean that Zummo Smoothie Bar will have a harder time to break the market and have a market share. The other weakness will be the fact that Zummo Smoothie Bar does not have enough experience in the skills and therefore most of the marketing and branding strategies will be made based on assumptions speculation. Opportunities The main opportunity as explained above is the fact that the there is an underserved market segment in the smoothie sub sector. Zummo Smoothie Bar will have to capitalise on this opportunity in order to succeed. The other opportunity is that there are numerous students on the Camden area and this will offer a great opportunity to the business. This is because the students are likely to be able to buy the products and this will create a completely unique market share and clientele. Threats Threats will include the fact that there will be barriers of entry which will make market penetration hard. This will come in the form of regulations since the food and beverage industry is one of the most regulated industry (Klug 89). Competition from the already existing competitors is also another issue (Newfarmer et al 59). This is because although Zummo Smoothie Bar seeks to target an unattended market segment, the already competitors may steal this idea and implement it themselves, thus introducing more competition at the segment level. Other threats will also come in the form of legal suits from the already existing competitors because they may sue Zummo Smoothie Bar for patents and loyalties. This means that Zummo Smoothie Bar must be very careful in this product development in order to make sure that there will be no issues with this. Recommendations A proper market research should be carried out in order to determine other market drivers such as demographics, economics, government regulations etc. This will help in fine-tuning the strategy of the business. It will also help in making sure that the firm is providing the right product to the right market (Westein 29). Zummo Smoothie Bar should also have a flexible strategy, especially in its maiden years in order to crate a business that best suits the needs of the target market. In this regard, Zummo Smoothie Bar will heavily rely on customer insights and suggestions to fine-tune its menus and its products. Zummo Smoothie Bar should seek to be consumer driven and should seek to design products which are designed around the needs of the customers rather than designing the products and forcing the customers to like them. This will help in making the customers to feel like they own the products and the business as well (Gibson 78). Zummo Smoothie Bar should also be geared towards making sure that the Zummo Smoothie Bar provides a friendly environment for customers. Conclusion Business strategy should be geared towards giving the business a strategic advantage over its competitors (Williams). This is what Zummo Smoothie Bar will be counting on in terms of dealing with market issues. Zummo Smoothie Bar will develop a strategy that is based on making sure hat the business is sailing in a way that the competitors can’t compete with. In regard to that, Zummo Smoothie Bar will use ht blue oceans strategy of tapping into a market segment which has not been tapped into in by the other businesses in the industry. According to Newfarmer (67), business should be able to create market strategy by going into a sector where there is not competition, rather than trying to gain a market share in an already existing market sector, this is what Zummo Smoothie Bar will depend on and for this reason, the business intends to attend to the unattended market of the people who need an affordable smoothie drink. The business will therefore have to depend on this strategy in a very deep way in order to make sure that everything is in order. Works Cited Anderson, Eric. Social Media Marketing: Game Theory and the Emergence of Collaboration. New York City, NY: Springer, 2011. Print Bailey, Matt. Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print Cross, Amanda. Low-Carb Juices and Smoothies: 50 Healthy, Delicious Recipes. London, UK: Octopus Books, 2005. Print Donnelly, Ray. CIM Coursebook: Delivering Customer Value through Marketing. London, UK: Routledge, 2012. Print Doyle, Peter. 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