Term Paper on "Marketing Plan for Miller Inc. Marketing Management"

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21.0 Executive Summary

32.0 Situation Analysis

42.1 Market Summary

42.1.1 Competitive forces.

42.1.2 Economic forces.

42.1.3 Legal and regulatory forces.

52.1.4 Technological forces.

52.1.5 Sociocultural forces.

62.2 SWOT Analysis

72.3 Competition

72.4 Product Offering

82.5 Keys to Success

82.6 Critical Issues

83.0 Marketing Strategy

83.1 Mission

93.2 Marketing Objectives

103.3 Financial Objectives

103.4 Target Markets

113.5 Positioning

123.6 Strategies

123.6.1 Target markets.

123.6.2 Marketing mix.

133.7 Marketing Mix

133.7.1 Product.

133.7.2 Price.

143.7.3 Place.

153.7.4 Promotion.

163.8 Marketing Research

164.0 Controls

174.1 Implementation

174.1.1 Creation of a sales team.

184.1.2-Month 1 to Month 12

194.1.3 Evaluation

194.2 Marketing Organization

204.2.1 Market segmentation.

214.3 Contingency Planning

215.0 Conclusion

Marketing plan for Miller Inc.

1.0 Executive Summary

Miller Inc. is a bakery with over 12 years' experience producing the highest quality bread. It was founded by American entrepreneur Mickey Miller who has an undergraduate degree in marketing and a master's in business administration. Mickey Miller has worked in the baking industry for over 25 years and has managed such large bakeries as America's freshest and Jubilee bakers before turning to start his own company thus turning from being an employee to being an entrepreneur. He has managed to keep Miller Inc. profitable ever since the company began with sales of under $500,000 per month to date where sales are currently at $10,000,000 per month.

Company sales have tripled over the last three years and Miller Inc. is committed to expanding its bakery facilities in order to reach more cities. Their Super-duper loaf brand has become the most sought after and most purchased brand. Despite stiff competition from other companies, Miller Inc. has managed to keep sales figures high and to obtain as much business as possible from the cities which they are present.

Miller Inc. operates in 45 cities across the country and currently sells over 10,000 loaves of bread per day per city which they operate. The company has bakery facilities in each city with as many as 4 bakeries in some cities. Every item that is sold, despite the production facility, is checked to be of the highest quality standards through batch testing. This makes sure that the consumer receives the same quality loaf of bread despite their location.

In terms of marketing, the company uses its company colors -- orange and white -- on all their advertising and promotional material as well as on the packaging material. This makes sure that their marketing materials are consistent with the branding of the company. Miller Inc. keeps their marketing budget at 10% of monthly sales with a larger percentage being allocated when there is a dip in sales for any month.

This is a five-year marketing plan for Miller Inc. To attempt to double the company sales over the period in order to grow the company to double its current size in terms of revenue, employees, asset base, and profits. It involves expanding the bakery facilities and opening up new bakeries in more cities and increasing the number of bakeries per city in the current cities that Miller Inc. operates.

2.0 Situation Analysis

The marketing environment for Miller Inc. presents huge opportunities for the company. It also brings about some challenges which the company believes it will be able to successfully meet. The company is considering expansion of its current bakery facilities and opening up new bakeries in other cities in order to increase sales of their products. The firm will have to place safeguards against the common failure to recognize the scope of its business which is called marketing myopia in order to prevent any slip in quality.

As the company finalizes the plans for expanding their sales, its management will also need to create a strong competitive advantage in order to prevent competitors from gaining foothold in the cities where the presence of Miller Inc. is strong. They will have to build strong long lasting relationships with their consumers, suppliers and retailers in order to thwart competition.

2.1 Market Summary

2.1.1 Competitive forces.

The competition in the bakery industry is extremely strong both on a local and regional basis. However, it is quite weak nationally because of logistical challenges in terms of distribution of the products while ensuring they reach in good time to ensure they remain fresh. Sales figures for the industry are quite difficult to obtain since many of the companies operating in this industry are private companies, most of which are not willing to disclose their financial performance.

2.1.2 Economic forces.

On a national level, many companies in the bakery industry have reduced their overall promotion budgets as they continue to face the need to cut their expenses. Most of these budget cuts have taken place in the allocation for mass media advertising including TV, newspapers and magazines. Radio has been kept since it is a more cost effective mode of advertising. Even though promotion budgets are shrinking, many of the companies are diverting their budgets towards promotion of sales and other specialty advertising. However, Miller Inc. intends to keep their promotion budget at 10% of the previous month's sales and this may be increased if sales for the month dip. This is because advertising and especially mass media advertising helps to keep the sales of Miller Inc. high.

2.1.3 Legal and regulatory forces.

The bakery industry is not affected much by the legal and regulatory framework. Provided the bakery complies with public health standards and occupational health laws, there is not much legislation that affects the industry.

2.1.4 Technological forces.

There is a need for Miller Inc. To keep up with emerging technological trends. The current trend is the use of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and company blogs. These are effective advertising platforms that cost much less than traditional media such as TV, newspaper, magazines, billboards, etc. However, the use of social network advertising in the bakery industry remains undocumented.

2.1.5 Sociocultural forces.

The current society that we live in does not provide a lot of time for work or leisure for individuals. Therefore, the most successful products are those that offer consumers a convenience and ease of use. In the bakery industry, this involves using packaging that is easy to open but keeps the product fresh. This is why Miller Inc. pioneered the use of Zip lock technology for packaging their bread.

2.2 SWOT Analysis

Helpful for achieving the objectives

Harmful to achieving the objectives

Internal

Strengths

Miller Inc. has been in the market for over 12 years over which they have gained invaluable experience

Miller Inc. has a strong dedicated management team

Miller Inc. has well-focused and rounded members of staff that are knowledgeable and dedicated

Miller Inc. has a fair pricing structure that focuses on gaining a low profit percentage of profit from a huge volume of sales.

Miller Inc.'s differentiation strategy is the result of a strong orientation of the market, its commitment to high quality products and customization of bread products.

There is little turnover among the company employees who are well compensated and are liked by the customers. This relatively small size of staff promotes a good camaraderie with customers and coworkers and fosters communication in the workplace.

The company has strong long-term relationships with its customers, suppliers and distributors which has led to shared knowledge on the requirements of the products, adherence to quality standards and a common vision of development and production.

The company has huge reorders from institutional customers and sales from individual customers are also increasing daily which suggests customer satisfaction and thus generates good business for the company.

Weaknesses

Overdependence on few key staff thus making the organization unable to handle certain processes such as machine repairs effectively and efficiently.

Absence of strong… READ MORE