Executive Summary
Tervis tumbler Company has invented a new marketing plan for its product. This report will elaborate more about the company and how it began, the background of its clients, its internal environmental analysis and why a new integrated marketing plan is required. Tervis tumbler is a steady competitor in the tumbler product market and it aims at increasing the sales volume of its products with a bigger margin.
The company’s aim is to ensure that its consumer durable goods are of outstanding quality and are able to meet the expectations of the consumers. The company has carried out an effective marketing plan to ensure that clients have sufficient knowledge regarding tumblers and their use. Tervis tumbler focuses on maximizing profits by penetrating a wider market. The company also concentrates on remaining competitive in the tumbler market through the provision of quality products at competitive prices.
Background
In 1946, engineers Frank Cotter and G. Hawlett Davis bumped into the possibility of exploiting the insulating potential of air and realized that this could be used to form a completely sealed tumbler. This could be used to maintain high temperatures of hot drinks and similarly retain low temperatures for cold drinks.
Additionally, the tumbler cannot be destroyed. This innovation turned around the drink ware business completely. By putting together the last three letters of their surnames, Cotter and Tervis branded their new product ‘Tervis’. In the subsequent years, they worked industrially to improve on their product. Lately, the product is in six different sizes and an ice bucket, together with other numerous customized designs (Tervis Para 2).
The company targets consumers with diverse income capabilities. To reach these target groups, Tervis tumbler has been tailor designing its products such that those tumblers meant for high-income earners have more benefits and uses compared to those that target other income earners. The company has been engaging in extensive research and extension to ensure that their products meet the diverse needs of the market.
Tervis Tumbler’s objective
As this century moves on, Tervis Tumbler keeps ensuring that their product is adding unmatched flavor and quality to the drink ware industry. The Company works at ensuring that the diversity and quality of the tumblers are better not only presently, but also in the days to come. This is to be achieved by continuously supplying the tumblers to the clients at all seasons to enable them keep enjoying their drinks, whether hot or cold.
Budget Proposal for the Marketing Plan
A suitable money and time project are very vital elements of any good marketing plan. We have deliberated over all the requirements with the accounting department and have decided that two million and five hundred thousand dollars be approved to facilitate the marketing plan. Our teams that are concerned with both advertising and research have revealed that a time span of one year is sufficient to implement all relevant areas. This will be conveyed to both our retailers, clients and distributors.
Tervis Tumbler’s SWOT Analysis
This refers to elements that portray the internal environment of a company. It entails the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that a company is facing (Norton and Hughes 274). It brings out the strengths that have enabled a company undergo successful development from its past to where it is currently. It also reveals the weak points that have been evidenced in a company that may need to be neutralized or be changed into strengths.
Concerning the market, the analysis highlights the opportunities and threats that are to be anticipated. Therefore, marketing should present the aspect of SWOT analysis. The aim is to scrutinize Tervis tumbler’s internal strengths and shortcomings and its outward weaknesses and opportunities in order to come up with relevant marketing strategies (Bohm 1).
The strengths of our product are first their reduced unit cost. The amount it costs to purchase its unit is low encouraging clients to make more purchases. The rate at which people take drinks and other beverage is high implying their regular need for tumblers and straws that the company provides.
This has also led to increased sales. Thirdly, the products are customized easy to use. This encourages increased purchases at almost all places apart from being appealing to diverse consumers. Few companies produce double walled insulative tumblers. This makes our product both unique and competitive in the market. Besides, the quality of the tumblers, straws, and ice buckets is exceptionally outstanding.
This is due to their ability to be customized and to retain the temperature of the drink contained in them. The weakness affecting the company is the challenges of minimizing the cost of production so that the final cost of the product exceeds the production costs, to enable the company generate substantial gains. The cost of raw materials used to design the tumblers is a little expensive.
This makes it difficult for the company to sell the products to the customers at a friendly price and still make good revenue. Although not all the other companies produce double-walled tumblers and ice buckets as we do, their closeness to the customers in places our products have not yet reached, and their lower prices make them have a presence in those areas.
On the other hand, the opportunities present for our company put us in a position to have a cutting edge over our business rivals. First, there is a large population of the clients who form the main target of our market. People across gender, religion and age would prefer to have their drinks kept either hot or cold. Most of them thus go for Tervis tumbler’s products. This increases the probability of maximizing sales within Florida and its vicinity where the company’s outlets are based.
In addition, there are potential customers in other states apart from Florida where Tervis Tumbler can market its products. The international community is also a great potential market for the company. The technological mindedness of most Americans will boost the demand for tumblers since their operation is based on improved technology principle of insulation. This will increase the avenues of our marketing to enhance maximum impact.
Lastly, the threats that the company is likely to encounter include marketing products to new customers who are of varying behaviors, personalities, and lifestyle. Studying these consumer attributes may be fiscally and time involving for the company. In order to expand its market, the company ought to understand these customer features to design products that will suit their needs.
Therefore, the challenge at hand is shipping the product to new markets, making the product known and used in a manner that is well understood by the potential clients and communicating the attributes of our product to a new crop of clients in a manner that will be accepted and appreciated. Thirdly, there is still competition from other companies that manufacture glass and plastic products that customers can use instead of the tumblers.
Marketing plan
Given Tervis Tumbler is a distributor-oriented company, it is charged with the duty of advertising for distributors as well as their clients. Our strategy aims at using a greater percentage of the budget to advertise for the distributors’ customers with a smaller percentage being allocated towards the distributors.
Tervis Tumbler will blend various promotional elements that entail advertising, personal selling, and public relations. A diversity of tools will also be incorporated to apply these elements. This will be mainly through our distributors, websites, advertising, marketing collateral (brochures, case studies, and white papers), online selling (through direct emailing) and trade shows, conferences and events.
Website
Our latest website is both enlightening and user friendly. It presents one with alternatives of reading, viewing and ordering products online. Potential clients are also able to view the profiles of our managers, have a thorough survey of our facilities, and hopefully, sign up to join the distribution teams of our company. It can be accessed any time and its updates are frequent. However, we will need to allocate some funds for the development of a U.S based website, which should be both enlightening and user friendly.
Additionally, we will continue utilizing the information that is available in our current website as we also encourage distributors to use their own websites. Additionally, we will ensure that our website address (URL) is available on other marketing material such as billboards, brochures, and newspapers. This will help us spread the word about our online presence (Rich 170).
Marketing collateral
We will reproduce new brochures, case studies and white papers in the United States and which will be given to distributors to be dished out to their clients to make them more conversant with our products’ use and attributes. The messages will also be put in large font and will be brief enough and yet capturing all the essential aspects about our company and its unique products.
Accompanying this, will be trial samples of the company’s products to be distributed to those people attending our events in a bid to let them have an encounter of the uniqueness of our product’s taste. This is meant to give them an experience that will raise their interest and leave them longing to purchase and continue using the product.
Advertising
Since our target is the youth, adults and the elderly, our advertising will be through newspapers, billboards and online. Our research reveals that these are the three most crucial media since they comprise of what most of the United States population are conversant with. Ads and commercials will also be employed.
The ads will show people who are in these age brackets using the tumblers, mugs, straws, and ice buckets. After this, they will be placed in commercials, print form and will be direct emailed via the regularly visited websites. Using direct mails over banners has revealed that the former has a higher impact compared to the latter. In addition, studies reveal that only a few people are able to read a whole ad up to the end.
Every available space in Florida and the neighboring states will be used for billboards. Their popularity is enhanced by the fact that there are numerous pedestrians on the streets who can stop occasionally to see them. They can also view them as they walk because they will be put in bright colors (Jackson 83). There is therefore adequate viewing time. Moreover, advertising through billboards can be paid for either monthly or annually, which is a reasonable duration for the company to have made gains and be able to meet such expenses.
Online advertising (direct mail) is the most visited and responded to form of advertising nowadays. Research reveals that people can give feed back to adverts they choose rather than have some adverts pop up vexingly while they are online viewing something else.
The newspaper that we have decided to use for advertising is the New York Times and Alachua newspapers. With its much popularity, our ads will be visible to so many people. This will form the largest expenditure of our budget with the New York Times charging $67,750 weekly and Osaka demanding $31,445 on weekly basis.
Trade Shows, Conventions & Events
There will be a presentation at the Drink ware Business Fair to be held at Washington. We will also have booths at other Washington based exhibitions held at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center. We will have our distributors present with promotional materials such as coupons among others.
Their will be video and audio recording to ensure that the views of customers have been recorded to be used later on for management and other companies. People all over the United States will be invited to the event through advertising using both print and electronic media.
Financial Budget
The following pie chart shows how the amount ($2.5 million) will be allocated for the plan:
- Newspaper costs ($1,200,000).
- Direct e-mail costs ($250,000).
- Billboards ($450,000).
- Trade Shows/Conventions/Events ($250,000).
- Brochures/CD’s ($300,000).
- Hidden Costs ($100,000).
Time Budget for the year 2011
In the month of January, we will start sending literature to distributors accompanied by a calendar of activities for upcoming trade shows, events, and conventions. Websites will be developed as well as other relevant sites. The department in charge of advertising will have ads ready for newspapers and direct e-mails. Billboards will be ordered from various suppliers at this time.
During February, a booth should be set up at the main exhibition sites. Distributors should have already undergone training and be prepared to do presentation. Billboards are supposed to be put in place besides beginning all newspaper and online ads. During March, a booth should be put up at the Washington Drink Ware Show with all distributors present.
In the period between April and August, ads will keep being posted in newspapers and online. The Information Technology team will continue monitoring websites as they update their functionality. The sales department will supervise the sales while the customer care team will facilitate deliveries a part from sorting out other problems.
In September, there will be a historical trade show meant for presentations and workshops. Distributors and other team leaders will be expected to be present. Between October and December, there will be continued marketing through all our choice media. Continuous monitoring by departments will also be upheld.
Concluding Evaluation
Towards the end of six months, we will weigh up how well our marketing plan is performing by evaluating sales and expenditures. At the same time, we will also assess how effective the shipping is being conducted and how efficient the shows are. We will also have our team leaders hold a meeting with distributors and retailers to see the efforts that everyone is putting in to raise sales and to make ensure they are motivated.
Works Cited
Bohm, Anja. The SWOT Analysis. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. 2008. Web.
Haghirian, Parissa. J-Management: Fresh Perspectives on the Japanese Firm in the 21st Century. Bloomington: iUniverse. 2009. Web.
Jackson, John, B. First, Best, or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing. Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing. 2006. Web.
Norton, A. and Hughes, J. CIMA Official Learning System Enterprise Management. Burlington: Elsevier Ltd. 2009. Web.
Rich, Jason. The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Business Online. NJ: Wiley, Hoboken. 2006. Web.
Tervis. Still Going Strong. 2010. Web.
Wings of Success. All About Baby boomers. New York: Vicki L. Schutt. 2010. Web.