Marketing Strategy
The Halal diet is consumed mostly by the Muslims in different countries of the world. The diet has been accepted in various countries, and this makes it popular in many countries where Islamic faith is practiced. Countries advocating for religion diversity, such as the United States, have accepted the use of such products in their markets.
This means that the product is not limited to Muslim countries but also other countries globally (Brazin, 2006). For this reason, the diet is intended to be marketed across the religious and other sects in the United States. The diet is to be marketed across different eating cultures.
This means that the diet is to be marketed to Muslims and people of other religions because it helps in weight loss reduction. The health benefits of the product will make it acceptable by other religions, cultures, communities and countries.
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) has been an efficient method of accessing and maintaining a product in the market (Shimp, 2010). Firms use IMC to improve their market position by delivering the important information that consumers might require. The marketers also collect important information about the behavior of consumers.
This helps develop products which match the needs of the customers. On the other hand, the consumers are able to deliver the information they feel is important about the products being offered in the market by the company. The major importance of IMC is that it makes a product to have a stronger competitive advantage in the market (Shimp, 2010).
This strategy will be adopted in the marketing of the Halal Diet in the United States. Since Halal Diet is not a new product in the market, the difference has to be brought about in order to make distinction from the normal Halal diet in the market.
Therefore, issues that will be given maximum attention in strategizing the marketing process are: branding and advertising, promotional activities, budgeting and media rationale and publicizing of the diet.
The first thing will be the branding of the diet since it will give the diet the aspect of uniqueness in the market (Franzen & Moriarty, 2009). The diet will have a single brand name which is ‘Special Halal Diet for Weight Loss.’ This name will be enclosed in a caption on a packet in which the diet will be packaged for delivery.
The color of the packages will differ for the vegetarian diet and for the non-vegetarian diet, and this will be written on the packet for ease of differentiation. This is because the diet is meant for customers with differing consumption habits. A clear distinction has to be made when packaging and branding in order to make it easy for the customers to identify their taste of the diet.
Since the diet will be introduced as a new product in the market, massive advertising is required in order to make the product known to the market (Ishikawa & Tsujimoto, 2008). Advertisement will be done through the internet, the radio and the television and posters.
The internet will be used because modern marketing embraces the use of e-marketing; which has proven to be very effective because many people in the United States have adopted e-shopping and marketing (Kurtz, 2011). In addition, most people in the US have access to the internet, and the internet also gives a room for explaining the diet to the customers in a quite detailed manner.
Amazon.com, which is one of the widely used marketing and advertising websites, will be used in advertising the Halal diet.
Television and radio are also common tools of advertisement, and adverts of the diet will be aired on the radio and the television in order to reach more customers who do not visit the internet regularly. Moreover, the products will be posted on the billboards and posters in order to instantaneously alert people of the diet.
Mission
For any business to grow, it has to have a strong vision and mission which are the guiding factors that always put the business on truck. The vision of this business is “preparing high quality and healthy food for all Americans.” The mission of the Halal Diet business is “preparing and delivering of quality and healthy diet for all Americans.”
The objectives of the business are to produce food that cuts across the cultural divides of America, making food that is healthy for the population and which will help in addressing the healthy and consumption needs of all Americans.
In summary, the mission and objectives of this business centers on marketing across cultures, addressing the modern health needs of the customers in the diet and addressing different eating habits of the customers. These three diversities are important and will help the firm in capturing a big market for the business; and therefore propel the growth of the business in the United States.
This diet intends to help customers tackle the problem of overweight, thus as they continuously consume the product and achieve this goals, they will yearn for more diet. Also, both vegetarians and non-vegetarians will have their needs captured by the business, making it to have a more competitive advantage more so over the normal halal diet.
Marketing Objectives
The objectives of marketing the Halal Diet are as follows:
The first objective is to introduce the new Halal Diet to the customers in the market. As such, the main aim is defining the diet to the customers in order for them to know that such a diet exists in the market. Advertisement and promotional activities will be greatly deployed to see that this objective is fulfilled.
The second objective is the familiarization of the diet in the market. After customers have known that such a diet exists in the market, it is important to make them get used to all the aspects of this diet which include the different tastes and flavors of the diet and the benefits that come from eating the diet.
The third objective is to promote the sales of the diet. The sales of the product will be largely dependent on the marketing strategies used in achieving both the first and the second objective.
Putting in place efficient and effective marketing strategies will automatically lead to the achievement of this objective. More sales will be gained through effective application of public relations by the firm and the manner in which the business will carry out its corporate social responsibility (Pride & Ferrell, 2011).
Financial Objectives
Just like any other business, this marketing plan has financial implications. The ultimate goal of marketing the halal diet is familiarizing the diet to the customers which will help the product to be known and purchased by these customers, thereby helping advance sales and increase the earnings from the business. Huge sums of money will go to branding, packaging and advertisement of the diet to the potential customers.
Since the US is a very big country in size, it will be very costly to market the diet in the whole country at a go. To limit the cost of marketing, the diet will be marketed in different phases. The first phase which is the determinant one will take place in one state – New York. Thus, owing to this fact, it is only the Internet advertisement which will cover the whole country.
The posters and billboards advertising the diet will only be used in the city of New York. Promotional activities which are equally important in introducing a product to customers will be confined to the city of New York.
Once the diet has been sufficiently marketed in the State of New York, it will be easy for access the markets in other states. Sufficient marketing will be determined by observing the number of customers and the amount of sales that are made in the state of New York.
This progress will be assessed after every quarter; that is after every three months and adjustments made at after every quarter depending on the marketing achievements that will have been made.
Target Market(s)
The target market for the Halal diet is so diverse. The diversification is aimed at going beyond the market of the prevailing Halal diet. The advantage of this diet is that it will traverse the religious lines, thus it is expected to attract more customers. The diet is meant for the youths, the adult people as well as the aged population. There is also the special category of people; that is people who have overweight and obese cases.
The cases of obesity in the city of New York have been rising since the year 2000 (City University of New York, 2007). The diet will be made known to these customers through the advertisement that will be done. Potential customers will be given a chance to order for the diet.
Customers will order for the products online or come to the established restaurants and order for the product from there. Customers will make a choice of either having the food delivered to their homes or get it direct from the restaurants.
References
Brazin, L. R. (2006). Internet Guide to Medical Diets and Nutrition. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth press Inc.
City University of New York. (2007). Reversing the Diabetes and Obesity Epidemics in New York City: A call to action to confront a public health, economic and moral threat to New York City’s future. Web.
Franzen, G., & Moriarty, S. E. (2009). The science and art of branding. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe.
Ishikawa, A., & Tsujimoto, A. (2008). Creative marketing for new product and new business development. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific.
Kurtz, D. L. (2011). Contemporary marketing. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2011). Foundations of marketing. Mason, OH: South Western Cengage Learning.
Shimp, T. A. (2010). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.