Executive summary

This document  aims to be a marketing plan for a fictitious company called Meat Love
.
We started by doing a Value proposition which its main points were.
1-Our main activity is to import exotic meats from abroad and also buy sophisticated domestic meats, and sell them to fancy restaurants. “
2-. We aim to reach a different provider, we can see lots of distribution companies in the market but we offer a different product and a better service.
3-Our products are thought to be cooked by the chefs of the most demanding restaurants and hotels and therefore their guests will be experienced and conscious about how quality tastes.”
Later on  we focused on the needs and demands of our customers realizing that since we are a b2b company those are quite different as a b2c business.

The next step was to do a SWOT analysis, in our case few competitors was the main strength and the most important weakness of Meat Love displayed was rising  economical resources  to run a new company in this crisis environment.

In our case we decided to work in a Business-to-Business market and that means that we sell our  products to other professionals.Those will resell it to try to get a profit. However we analyzed the consumer behaviour of those who are the final consumers of our product. When we did that we noticed that the final customers of our products portray a characteristic profile.They are  mid/high income with medium high education level  and predominantly an avantgarde lifestyle. They also have a social need of  belonging and the one of self-express themselves so they  buy our product.In this part  we concluded that the guests of our meat  may eat our product because they want to eat a different product and experience something new as well as something that is not regularly eaten by everybody.
To understand the actual purchasing process carried out  by our customers we had to understand first the characteristics of this market. We agreed in that there was a high concentration of customers, that their demand was derived and whereupon highly fluctuating, and that relations are even more important here than in B2C markets due the dependence that customers and suppliers have of each other.   
To sell our products we use a commercial network to show our products and introduce them into the customers.By the time we deal with the customer to sell our product we also advise it about how our product is.

The composition of restaurants and hotels is heterogeneous but most of times we will find family businesses that call for a non rigid structure in which we will deal with one person that embodies all the roles related to the purchase .Some other times we will have to deal with more complex organization charts in which more people play different roles.    
To segment the market  we decided to locate ourselves in Denia and serve just te suroounding areas and Balearic Islands.We want to reach small and medium companies that use Internet as well as old school comunication channels and we want to make the point in the service that we provide.

We will serve a niche market so that is on an introductory stage,so we decided to go for a concentrated target strategy.we’ll launch only one proposition but dedeicated to our market and tailored to each customer.

When talking about differentiation we decided to be different not only in the product but also in the service we provide. We want to set strong relations with our customers specially thoroug our sales representatives and our people.

Regarding the potential customers,we observed that the touristic sector has grown over the years in that area.On the other hand this number is deceitful because many of those can have no movement at all during a great part of the year so their orders can be closed to zero.

About the 4 p’s

-We want to be perceived as a company that gives more for more so our products will be more expensive than our competitors
-Our product is not just exotic meat but also implies all what is needed to bring it to our customer doors without any trouble and in the most satisfactory way feasible  
-We are a XXI century distribution company whereupon the logic channels to use are internet and especially our own sales  force.
-We believe that those two channels are the best way to make us notice.
  

Demand dimensions

We located ourselves in Denia due that is in the midway of three touristic areas in the Mediterranean coast.

Our main markets are located less than 100 km away from where we are and also, the surrounding area of Denia is a very touristic zone.

To estimate the number of potential customers that we can reach in this area we took some data from “Camara de Comercio de Mallorca”, “Observatorio turístico de Islas Baleares”, “Observatorio turistico de la Comunidad Valenciana”.

This data just provided us of the number of restaurants and hotels that are located in each area as well as their category. We have taken the 4 and 5 stars hotels and the 3^rd  to 5^th category restaurants as a base of potential customers for our products. A priory seems that those businesses might have enough interest in our products to constitute a base of potential customers but this doesn’t mean that any of them will buy it. On the other hand   companies that don’t have this category can be interested in our products. It is hard to know without further investigation.

This data also explains which has been the growing trend for companies in this sector during the last 10 or 20 years. This information is valuable because it let us see that the sector still expanding. It shows how the number of businesses has increased even during this long recession in which we are in.

Something very interesting about it is that this area is severely affected not only by the Spanish economic climate but also by the economic situation of those countries that send their visitors over there. This fact comes to our doors because the demand of our product from our consumers will depend on the demand of their consumers. Since their customers come from different countries, the risk for us to lose our entire customers base is theoretically more diversified.

We also observed that the number of visitors that occupy the hotels and that go to these places varies widely from month to month. There is a high seasonality linked to all touristic products and this one doesn’t skips. So, it is natural that the total cost of each order made by our customers can differ significantly depending on the season. Even more, there are many hotels and restaurants that are opened only during the busiest months of the year. For us it will be translated in customers that appear and disappear regularly. Probably the easiest way to measure this phenomenon would be looking at the labor statistics. A good estimation could be seeing when do start and finish the “fijo-discontinuo” contracts.

All this leads to an idea of uncertainty. It is hard to make a more accurate estimation of our customer base without doing a survey or without seeing real data of a company of our characteristics. Probably the best way to operate in this case would be start working only with one area and see what the result is. 

Segmentation targeting and positioning

         Segmentation

The main variables that we take into account while trying to segment our market are:

-Nature of the industry we serve: food and hotel industry

-Company size: small and medium companies

-Location: Balearic islands , Valencia and Alicante.

-Technology: we are focused on the advantages that internet offers as well as the old school communication ways such as telephones, fax, and the most important a personal distributing channel with a sales people team.

-Stressing the service point: we want to be chosen by our customers because we can deliver our products in a shorter time than the others in the area in which we operate. We will serve orders of any size no matter how little or how big they are  and we want to provide of the easier payment means to our customers, etc

We will not be the cheapest but the most reliable.

-We want to build a relationship between our customers and us. We don't want to be mere suppliers of exotic meats but be able to be the emergency stock of our customers as well.

  

Targeting

  

            The market we serve is a niche market so it wouldn't be very clever to make an undifferentiated value proposition. On the other hand our product is on an introductory stage therefore segmenting too much might be a mistake. Since our customers are quite alike between them and obviously segregated from other customers, do only one  proposition thinking just on them make sense. Also concentrating in just one segment is the best way to optimize resources especially when those  are scarce.

            There are other companies that provide exotic meats as the ones we want to sell. We want to make the point not in the product we serve but in the way we do so. This means provide to our users , better services than our competitors and look after each of our customers.

Even if we will launch just one proposition for all our potential customers we want to tailor it as much as possible to the needs of every single consumer we could possibly have.

            The customer that we want to find is not the one who is looking for the lower price, and changes of supplier every now and then. Our aim is to target that customer that is willing to pay an extra price just to keep regular headaches derived from the “order and deliver process” well away.

Differentiation and positioning

            We want to be perceived by our customers as  their exotic meat supplier. The one in which they can always rely. It have to seem that we are working exclusively for them.

Our proposal is to offer  the same quality products as our competitors do but adding value in the service, the channel, and especially the people. We want to offer the best overall value  products to our customers.

            Since our product is not that conventional, we want to have the best sales team possible.

This doesn't mean just sell our products as much as possible, but at the same time sellers do their best in selling, they must give the best advise feasible about each of our products and services.

They have to be knowledgeable not only about the specifications of our products but also how a restaurant is usually run. This way they can predict and foreseen the movements of our customers and we are able to anticipate our moves to their demands. 

             We believe that electronic channels are powerful and it is obvious that they are gaining more and more adopters every time. It is because of  that that we want to have an online ordering website, were our registered users can always buy or re buy at a given conditions.

Each customer would have its own “skill” so they already will find in the website the especial offers and prices that are available to them.

            But this is just one side of the token. We want to put more efforts than any other competing company  in our sales team and in the end in our people. We truly believe that a great deal of  buyer-seller relation is lost while using electronic channels. This is because it is very hard to be loyal to someone when all you have to communicate each other is a filling shed. For instance ,sometimes, it is necessary  to do a complain.  When the only way to do so is through a e-mail it can be very frustrating. Especially when it is not answered or when the answer is not satisfying. 

The way we understand our company,situations like those are unacceptable.

We are aware of the power of internet, and the advantages it brings  but we are also aware that many people is feed up of wasting time in sending and receiving e-mails while many things could be better solved with a simple phone call.

At the same time we thing that going to the place were our customers are instead of waiting for them to come to us (or our website in this case) is a simple but effective way to make grown relationships with our customers.   

       

            It is not because the price or ought to the quality of our meats that they will choose us upon our competitors,it is because the easy going policy of  our company which aims to be as much adjustable as possible to the specific wants of each of our customers.

We will supply our customers with excellency but we will charge them more than our competitors.

Our positioning statement is:

         “To those small and medium restaurants and hotels that want to surprise their customers with the most exotic and quality meats and expect from their suppliers the same excellency which they provide to their consumers,The Meat Love supplies of thees products in the easiest  and most reliable way possible and always focusing in your own necessities.”          

Business markets

                As we said before, The Meat Love is a company which deals with professional customers, so we are into the business to business market. The main difference between our market and a consumer market is that agents in Business markets buy products and services to reselling or renting them to other companies. We sell our meat to restaurants, resorts gourmet boutiques etc, and after that, they introduce our products in their production line to elaborate a new product and obtain a profit through it.

Characteristics of the markets

                1-When we decided to locate ourselves in Denia we thought that it was the best choice because among other reasons (explained in unit 1) this way we could be near to high income and  touristic places in which there are lots of potential final customers for our potential users. This is one of the characteristic of Business Markets, companies are usually geographically concentrated.

2-In the Business markets we should talk about derived demand. There is a direct relation between the demand of the final consumers of our products and the demand from our customers (seen in unit 3).  But our sales can fall or grow not only because of the increase or the decrease in demand of the final customers but there are plenty of reasons for it. As an example, it could happen because our customers might be afraid of the financial market and then they will buy fewer products.

3- As a company which operates in the b2b market, and is dedicated to the distribution of products, one of our main goals is to avoid the problems derived from the highly fluctuating demand. We shall consider the nature of the restaurant guests to control the temporality and avoid shortages or excesses of stock.

4-The nature of our customers is quite different to the consumer market customers. The purchasing method its more complex. There are ironclad contracts that  have been signed long time ago, relations with suppliers that could have started many years back ,the stages that a purchasing process follows  are more numerous and sometimes there are more people involved than in the b2c, agents have better bargaining skills and more bargaining power... In short, this market is characterized because the in-elasticity of its demand over the short run

5-Finally in business to business markets we can see that buyers and seller are much more dependent. In our case, we can see a strong dependence between them and us because we provide of an exotic product that is hard to find it in the market, and that there are not many companies dedicated to this sector. However, we must take care of our customers because there are not many customers interested in the kind of products we serve either

The Meat Love purchasing process

           
            We use our commercial network to show or products and introduce them to our potential customers. We create this external stimulus because our products are not that well known. Most of customers will not come to our doors looking for our services. It is us who will have to go and find them, especially, since we are a new company and the product we offer is in an introductory stage.

It is possible that once our products and ourselves get known customers will recognize the need of offering something new in their menu so they could come to us searching for a supplier which can provide those exotic meats.

As we said before it is probable that the ignition of the buying process would be started from us and not from our customers. However the number of items that we will have in list to sell will be not too high. It will be the task of our sales force to let potential customers know about the products we offer and hand them all the necessary specifications of our meats.

In this case our sales people will act as a seller as well as a product adviser. With this we attempt to make the customer totally aware and ready to buy our products. It will know exactly what it will receive. All this effort is due to we provide not standard products so we shall introduce them carefully.

On the other hand, by doing so, we will be setting up a relation with our customers even before we started to exchange our products with them. We want to be perceived as the only reliable and trusty suppliers, the suppliers that are working focusing on their needs and wants. All this, aims also to make the supplier decision the easiest possible and obviously in our side.

Actually, we are not trading with very complex stuff which its incorrectness could carry further heavy consequences ,as it  could happen if it was a engineering piece for a car. Also our products are neither that expensive so there is the need of creating a whole committee to discuss about the purchase of our products.

Truth is that most of the restaurants in our country are family businesses. This composition calls to a less rigid structure while talking of a purchasing process.

Usually we will deal with the head chef of the restaurants. This person is in many occasions the one that takes almost all decisions affecting the kitchen and also it is the one in charge of elaborate the menu.Sometimes the head chef and the owner of the restaurant are the same person and in this case roles affecting the purchasing decision are performed all by the same human.

In the case in which the head chef and owner are different persons, the first have to take in consideration the opinion of the second since the owner is the one who pays in the end so  the cook is the user and the buyer but not the decider which is the owner.

There are cases, and it is likely to happen in the hotel industry, in which we can easily observe different people that embodies each role.

The Head chef is clearly the user, the one that sees the need and probably the initiator of the buying process.
The influencers are the ones that shape some of the specifications that the product to be purchased should fulfill. This role is played by some medium managers as well as other people that work around the master cook. 
In the hotels there is usually a department or at very least a person specialized in decide which are the suppliers that they will use, which are the payment conditions etc... This is obviously the buyer.
This is not a high risk operation, so usually the decider and the buyer will be the same person.
However if there was another person which should decide over the buying department, because it is a new operation or because it is an annual purchase or whatever, this person would be someone of the top management of the hotel.