ABC PROJECT PLAN Alan’s Best Chocolates (ABC) is a leading company in the sales of confections and chocolates throughout the United States. The company’s products are sold from 50 stores across the country and maintain a high reputation for superior quality and taste. While the company’s sales have grown over the past ten years, the rate of growth has significantly slowed. One key factor for this slowing rate of growth is the shift in the marketplace to purchasing chocolates and confections online. For a company to succeed, it needs to plan on how to capitalize on this online marketplace by leveraging existing technologies, industry best practices, and aggressive marketing and sales campaign to ramp up the its growth projections for the foreseeable …show more content…
In FY20xx online sales of chocolate accounted for about 20% of total chocolate sales around the globe. All of the company’s current major competitors already have an established online presence of at least 3-5 years. This serves as another major reason as to why we need to implement the e-commerce program to stay competitive in the market. Through providing a more convenient means of purchasing our products online, it is anticipated that we will retain its current customers while carrying out an online marketing campaign for more new customers as well. The company will distribute online purchases via direct shipping from the nearest stores. MARKETING STRATEGY Rohm, Kashyap, Brashear and Milne (2004) suggested that in order for a company to be successful, it must differentiate itself from competitors to appeal to customers in the online marketplace . To achieve this, the company will utilize its practice of personalizing its product packaging that it currently offers in-store customers. ABC will implement a customer e-mailing list to send sales advertisements, product promotions, and other special offerings to customers who …show more content…
In addition to that, ABC’s current marketing and sales staff will require special training in online marketing and sales practices. The training service will need to be contracted to a training provider as part of our startup costs and schedule. ORGANIZATION AND STAFFING Though the ABC Company online sales campaign is not anticipated to significantly impact on the organizational structure of the company, several staffing additions are required to successfully implement the online sales campaign. Among them include the online Sales Manager and the online Marketing Manager. SCHEDULE The following is a high level program of the vital steps for this initiative: Jan 1, 2015: Initiate Project February l, 2015: Project kickoff meeting March l, 2015: Complete the design of online sales site April 1, 2015: Complete testing of online sales site June 1, 2015: Complete the beta testing trials of the online sales site July 2, 2015: Go live with site launch After the approval of this project a detailed schedule will be made by the assigned project team to include all deliverables and tasks. FINANCIAL
Availability of online ordering facility presents the franchise with a competitive edge over its rivals.
The ecommerce industry is growing faster than ever. TJ Maxx needs to start focusing more on ecommerce not only to keep up with competition, but also to make sure they do well during weak economic periods. ecommerce, overall, tends to do very well during lackluster economic times. TJ Maxx will be able to cut costs more easily the more they expand their ecommerce business. Our business idea will allow them to expand their ecommerce as we will take over their website and delivery. TJX Companies’ three ecommerce sites accounts for only about 1.0% of the company’s total sales. However, the online channel is a key growth driver and TJX is taking initiatives to improve its online business. The ecommerce sales
Dickens uses verbal irony in his description of the Monseigneur’s chocolate ritual by showing that he must have four men prepare his hot chocolate. If only three men to prepare his hot chocolate it is difficult for him to swallow it. “Yes. It took four men, all four a-blaze with gorgeous decoration”(108). This quote shows how Monseigneur needs specifically four men because each man has one job it has to do like give Monseigneur a napkin, “presented the favoured napkin”(108). “Monseigneur could swallow many things with ease, and was by some few sullen minds supposed to rather be rapidly swallowing France” (108). Dickens uses irony to show the ridiculous situation of the ritual to how France is being destroyed. He uses this to show the contrast as a lord to a servant.
Besides marketing its customer service, the company markets different programs according to its three major types of customers. Some of them being,
Market research and information about the industry is very important to the organization because it will allow the organization to position itself well in terms of sourcing chocolate raw materials and in identifying the market for its products. For example, understanding that some chocolate product purchases are seasonal, e.g., at Christmas; around Mother’s Day; and, on Valentine’s Day, allows the organization to have more product on hand and to create displays, in store, that will increase purchases and attract more customers when existing customers tell their friends about the availability of high end products, at reasonable prices, in their store.
A Couple of Squares is a company specializing in producing and selling gourmet cookies to retail stores. Recently, A Couple of Squares has been brainstorming the idea of starting an e-commerce website so they can sell there gourmet cookies directly to consumers instead of selling to retailers. There are many considerations that need to be evaluated when deciding to launch an e-commerce website. First, the risks of launching an e-commerce site and the steps to mitigate the risks must be evaluated. Along with the risks of launching an e-commerce site, the benefits of launching an e-commerce site also need to be taken into account. In order to seek profitability a break even analysis must be performed. Once profitability is feasible, A Couple
There is also the growth of customer base with the increase in technology which has enabled the company expand its physical locations. Online Customers have also increased within this time as a result of utilizing modern technologies.
The recent product, liquor filled chocolates is a viable business that can sell if it is implemented professionally. This recent innovation should be able to acquire attention from the market owing to its combination of selling products. Put simply, the liquor-filled chocolates are chocolates that contain alcohol. According to Novellino (2011), Chocolate-candy sales summed up to $16 billion in 2008 in the U.S. Furthermore, the statistics on alcohol reveals that liquor sales hit $19.9 billion in 2011. What does the statistics reveal about the product? This reveals that the market for the two products is present and combining them will result in a profitable business. This paper is a report on targeting and segmenting the new liquor filled chocolates as a potential business.
4. A discussion of the resources that are required to implement the marketing strategies, such as personnelinvolved, costs and budgets, equipment if any required and any other resources as
Product differentiation – by offering different products, services, or product features, the company can charge higher prices, or appeal to different audiences. Use of IS have enabled new products and services, that increase the levels of convenience in using existing products and services. By acquiring PayPal, eBay greatly enhanced the ease with which customers can pay for their products. Google keeps an innovative approach towards search engines, by introducing Google Maps, Google Translate and others, which improves the ease of usage. Using online live chatting systems and social networks contributes to understanding of customers. It also adds value and improves customers’ stickiness to website (Booth, Roberts, and Sikes 2011)
The natural progression of the Internet and emerging technologies is towards streamlining our lives both personally and professionally. Instantaneous communications and available on-line services continue to reduce the physical distance between individuals. Almost anything is now available in cyberspace from shopping, schooling and education, on-line trading, banking, to social and political on-line communities. On-line service providers are shifting from a product centric approach to a more personal and customized approach to marketing their products and services. The idea of one-to-one marketing is very powerful and has become an important tool for competing in the interactive age. One-to-one marketing takes a customer-orientated approach to selling; customers are treated as individuals with different interests and needs. We respond positively to individual attention; when we visit a web site we want to see products and services of interest to us not every available product. We do not want to waste our time. For many people, time is money and the convenience factor ways heavily on the decision to return to a web site.
The Cheesecake Factory joined the casual dining sector in 1978 with the introduction of its namesake concept. For “The Cheesecake Factory” brand, the Company’s identity and reputation for offering high-quality desserts results in a substantially higher dessert mix at about 16%, generating a higher average check at over $20 in the past two years. The Company has per unit sales at over $10.5 MM, a leading metric among its peers. This short thesis is built on the assertion that CAKE’s consecutive 26 quarter streak of positive same-store sales is likely unsustainable. Despite the per unit sales average being more than double that of the segment average, CAKE’s contribution margin is among the lowest across the peer group at more than a 15% discount to the peer average.
The chocolate market is oligopoly therefore this means that there is a few companies that dominate the market, which means that it is very difficult to enter this market and become well established. From a managerial perspective this means that it would be essential for the product to have a unique selling point that would ensure that the product stands out against the competition. Using Porters five force model and the threat of new entry factor this would show that the business has got the power to offer a new product to the market and potentially steal customers from the other dominant companies. There is also the risk that the more dominant companies in the market have prepared for the new entries and then use tactics to combat them and force the new entries out the market. As a business there is very little control over the competition in the market therefore this makes it a difficult aspect to manage, but the business can reduce the risk by ensuring that the price of the product is very competitive and the product is also very good
Another method of distribution that we will use to sell our products and services is e-commerce. With everyone using the Internet and technology at an all-time high today, this method gives the company a strategic technique to help sell these items for consumption. It allows for them to reach all customers, any genders and ages. This is beneficial because customers are more apt to purchase these items when they are eased into it and it is very convenient. More and more people are interested in clicking on a link to go directly to our website, see our menu, and place their order. Adapting to this fast pace environment is a great benefit for our company, especially since we send the items right to the customers. This process is easy and
Globalization - Globalization of specialty desserts is growing steadily due to Internet marketing (Global Monitoring, 2004). By marketing its business on the Internet, CC will reach and please a growing customer base. But first, CC must design an appropriate Web site, offering colorful, high-resolution photographs of the specialty cakes it produces so consumers can see how the cakes are designed (Global Monitoring). Leveraging emerging Web technology to its advantage, CC's Web site could offer an interactive feature, in which customers design a custom-made cake to suit a particular occasion by clicking a few buttons to visualize the design of the finished cake. Strategic objective: Add a range of cakes to CC's product line that can be distributed fresh or frozen, which will build an Internet customer niche based on CC's mission of quality and freshness.