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However, Team B Is getting ready to Introduce a marketing plan for a ewe product for the Struck line for the holiday season. In this paper, team B will give an overview of the Struck organization, a description of the new Cafe Brutal product, an explanation of the importance of marketing to the Struck organization, and a SOOT analysis of the new product that will be introduced. Struck Coffee was founded in 1971 in Cattle’s Pike Place Market. The company was named after the first mate in Mob Dick (Wisped 2007).
The mission statement of Struck is to establish Struck as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in he world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow (Struck 2006). Currently Struck offers more than 20 blends of coffees, hand- crafted beverages, hot espresso beverages and Taco teas. Struck focuses Its efforts on buying premium coffee for premium prices and working with coffee farmers to ensure their long-term success (Struck 2006). Struck currently multinational coffee house chain and the leader in the coffee industry.
Struck stores can be found in urban and suburban areas and have a wide range of market that they appeal to. The Struck organization has decided to introduce a new hot coffee drink with citrus flavored liquors to its menu for the upcoming winter and holiday season. The hot drink offers a new and different option for our customers. The drink incorporates several seasonal flavors and aromas of the holiday season. Furthermore, the new drink is a warm menu item which caters to the cold winter season.
The new drink offers a strong Louisiana coffee with orange and lemon flavored citrus liquors and is complemented by the sharp spice of a cinnamon stick and cloves. The process of making the new drink, although slightly time consuming, is a cool attraction for our customers to enjoy as the liquors are ignited. Cafe Brutal (hot) 3 cups Louisiana coffee (with chicory) 1/2 cup orange flavored liquor 1/4 cup brandy 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 cinnamon stick 5 whole cloves 1 orange rind – slivered thinly 1 lemon rind – slivered thinly Place sugar, cinnamon, cloves and rinds in a skillet, heat until sugar begins to dissolve.
Add orange liquor and brandy continue to heat when hot, fill a metal ladle with liquid, and carefully ignite. Carefully add back to skillet, to ignite liquid in skillet. After Flame goes out, add coffee. Continue to heat when hot, serve. When dealing with a large corporation such as Struck, marketing plays an important role in the success of the company, coupled with a strong foundation, careful planning and organizing which are all essential activities within the corporation.
It is also important that managers develop and process effective marketing skills that will focus in the areas of sales revenue forecasting, positioning and strategic marketing. When introducing a new product, it is Struck goal to effectively position the company in the target market area and to equally develop the mental concept that will impact on the company, in addition, help to sustain any future hardship in the marketing world.
It is equally important that managers maintain awareness and understanding of their customer’s needs, likes, and dislikes by establishing a customer relationship. This approach will further enable managers to learn more about the market trend. “An effective network of communication is essential for any form of promotional activity. It enables an organization not only to ammunition with its customers and satisfy their expectations, but also to build an image with the world at large.
Such an image will help others to form a Judgment about what the organization stands for and will influence their dealings with it. It is also at how they deal with their customers because the customer’s needs and requirements are identified in every area of organizational activity. For marketing purposes, communication of products and or services contributes to the persuasion process, which encourages consumers to buy at whatever the offer might be” (www. Lempel. Com).
It is important that Struck analyze the communication process carefully. Struck must have a strong concept and clarity of their message to the consumer, to what audience it will market to, and what is the expected outcome of the new product being marketed. It is with every intention that Struck will seek to establish and continue to maintain strong customer relation through effective communication and to promote and maintain consistency in their customer satisfaction.
Rolling out any new product takes planning and understanding of the racetrack, along with this the company needs to know that the product is right for the geographical area and the intended audience is correct. In order to achieve this, a SOOT analysis must be done to identify the organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in launching a new product and is the company sound and ready to take on the task. According to Thomas Bateman and Scott Snell (2007), “SOOT analysis helps managers summarize the relevant, important facts from their external and internal analyses.
They can then identify the primary and secondary strategic issues their organization faces. This helps management identify the need fro a new product either seasonal or regionally and how it will affect the company and is there truly a need for the introduction of a new product. Bateman and Snell (2007) further go on to say, “The strategy managers then formulate will build on the SOOT analysis to take advantage of available opportunities by capitalizing on the organizations strengths, neutralizing its weaknesses and countering potential threats. The introduction of a new product such as the Cafe Brutal would compliment the companies existing holiday fare as well as built on the popularity of he Louisiana cuisine and drinks. Production of the new product would need no new increase in capacity but the introduction of holiday drinks would, and the new product would be priced, to beat the competition and make this drink the leader in its class. Identifying the internal weakness of the company is the first step, these are few and do not impeded the introduction of the product.
In fact the large distribution network readily available along with experienced “Baristas” along with brand and name recognition, give the company an advantage in the market place. External actors are mostly geographical and regional preferences or taste. Can a hot drink do as well on the west coast as it will do on the east coast? Market research shows that this winter will have below normal temperatures in the west due to the lack of any expectation of an “el Nine. Therefore, the business strategy is to introduce the product chain wide to coincide with the introduction of our other holiday drinks as a special limited time offer. We then need to expect our competition will introduce their own line of holiday drinks and we need to know how they will compare to ours. We need to gather information by researching past introductions and analyzing historical marketing campaigns of our competition; we must set a low introductory rate to will over consumer loyalty and offset the competitions holiday product introduction.
We could introduce the product at cost as a lost leader to increase product right away. With a solid marketing plan, we will have the customer in our retail locations and they will buy something. Part of the business strategy will be to up sell other items during the holidays and as the Cafe Brutal take a few minuets anger to make, our customer will spend more time in our stores looking at and buying additions merchandise.
An introduction of the product is well within the company’s capabilities, we will launch the product before the competition does and the cost to produce is minimal. Training will be required but this can be done before the introduction and due to the eye-catching formulation of the Cafe Brutal, we can have events at each location to show the product uniqueness. The task is simple, using existing supply chains and retail unit launch a new product that captures the rue essences of the south and capitalizes on the holiday spirit and the popularity of Louisiana.
In an age of vast competitive technology and an equally diverse market, it is with every intentions that Struck will seek to not only gain a full indent understanding of their customers, but continue to provide a level of high quality services that is tailored to providing ongoing customer satisfaction References Bateman, T. S. , Snell S. A. (2007) Management Leading & Collaborating in a competitive World (7th deed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. “The Principles of Marketing,” Retrieved from website wan. ‘. Lempel. Com 2007.