Marketing Plan Shisha cafes in Montreal, Canada. Report

Target Market

Product and market definition

Shisha is flavored tobacco for smoking. It is smoked using a hookah. The product is deemed to have originated from Turkey, but some have argued that it originated from the Middle East. The Shisha tobacco is mixed with fruit shavings like grapes, apples, and even strawberries.

Shisha smoking has become a common tradition in the US, UK, and Canada¹. It is considered to be a luxurious tradition where people smoke in cafes. Shisha culture is synonymous with the elite class. With the smoking laws in place, there has been an innovation in Shisha smoking whereby electronic Shishas have been developed.

Numerous Shisha smoking cafes have been developed across the globe. The luxurious smoking of Shisha has been attracting many customers in these cafes². Therefore, this plan aims to open Shisha cafes in Montreal, Canada. It will also aim at getting customers and a favorable operating market.

The first thing will be to find a favorable place from where to situate the cafes within the city. This is an important factor in marketing. The bars, restaurants, and clubs will be the target joints for the Shisha cafes as they comprise of people who come for luxurious activities. The target clients for the products to be marketed should be found in certain places where the business is located. The target market for the Shisha cafe business in the State of Montreal is the elite class especially those people who smoke the normal tobacco³.

The first thing that will be done is establishing the number of Shisha cafes that will be opened. For this case, a total of five cafes will be opened, and they will be used as pilot cases as the possibility of opening more such cafes is assessed. Therefore, five key destinations will be identified as locations for the first five cafes.

The Shisha cafes will be located adjacent to the identified places: two, adjacent to bars; one, adjacent to a restaurant; one, adjacent to a casino and another adjacent to a club. The identified places are deemed to have an inflow of people who have the mission of refreshing themselves. Therefore, they are likely to develop interest in the products being offered by the Shisha cafes.

Pricing for the products

This business will aim at providing a variety of Shisha flavor products to customers in Canada so that customers can enjoy different tastes of products. The varieties of Shisha flavors that will be offered include Al-Sultan Shisha, Soex Herbal Shisha, Al- Fackher Shisha, Hydro Herbal Shisha, Starbuzz Shisha, Baraka Herbal Shisha, Nakhla, Al-Waha, Haze, Fantasia, and El-Rosha Herbal Shisha. The prices of these flavors will be adjusted so that customers can be attracted by virtue of price.

This is one of the positioning factors. The price of each flavor will be set at 1 per cent lower than the normal retailing price of the flavors. The consumption of Shisha has been growing, and the number of dealers in these products has been swelling. Therefore, it will be worthwhile to adjust prices relative to the prices of the present dealers of the product in Canada⁴.

Different goods are priced differently depending on prices at which they were acquired and the profit motive of the company retailing the product. These aspects must balance for each of the products on offer at the Shisha café.

Prospects of the target market

Customers always seek the utmost utility in the products or services that they receive from the market. In Canada, there has been an advocacy for products with less tobacco because of the health defects that are presumed to result from tobacco products.

Therefore, it will be beneficial if Shisha brands with minimal tobacco are chosen. Such brands will attract customers because of strict health policies on tobacco use in Canada. Customers also need high quality products that have minimal defects upon use. Therefore, the electronic Shishas are the most preferred as they reduce the amount of smoke⁵.

The customers are seeking a reassurance from dealers that Shisha products have minimal health defects. They are also seeking a price offer that is reasonable and which matches the quality of the products on offer. Therefore, the café has to ensure that customers fully understand the products on offer. It must clearly explain the different flavor of Shisha and how they are prepared. This should include ingredients that go into their processing⁶.

Marketing Mix

Product strategy

The objectives of the marketing plan for the Shisha café include:

• Introducing and familiarizing the different aspects of Shisha products in the country. This will be achieved through the use of better market communicative skills that will help capture the attention and impression of the customers.
• Enticing customers to buy Shisha products in the region of Quebec and the country at large. This will be achieved through the effective use of advertising and promotional skills that are aimed at convincing the customers about the goodness of the Shisha products.
• Ensuring the delivery of quality Shisha products at rational prices to the customers in the country. This will be attained through the use of advanced branding skills and using effective market research skills that will help in assigning of favorable prices.

Strategies

• Different marketing strategies will be employed in order to meet the marketing objectives.
• Market entry is an important factor that will give customers a good impression of the product.
• The skills of enforcing the marketing strategies will be derived from the hiring of staffs that are proficient in marketing.
• Product placement will be one of the points to consider in attaining the marketing objectives.
• Different forms of advertising will be used to let the customers aware of the presence of the cafes and the products on offer.
• Open promotion campaigns will also be critical in ensuring that customers get to know the different flavor categories of the products.
• Branding of the products will also be important in positioning the products in the market
• Branding will entail a number of sub-strategies which include pricing, using of proper brand name and diversifying the products in the market. This will be done prior to the beginning of the marketing exercise.

The execution of marketing strategies must be coherent with the objectives. First of all, there must be adequate resources. This will ensure the effective implementation of marketing strategies. Creating a first impression is quite an expensive exercise. Therefore, enough financial resources will be gathered, and a budget made to ensure that the finances are effectively deployed.

There will be the recruitment of staffs to aid in the marketing exercise. These staffs will be hired depending on their skills and experience in marketing field. Effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms will also be established. This will help in assessing the progress of the marketing function so that changes can be induced where necessary⁷.

Place strategy

The objective of this marketing exercise is to find a favorable place for setting up Shisha cafes. Customer availability will be the main consideration here. For the first five years of operation, the business is expected to have fully picked up with a large network of customers and a possibility of expanding the business⁸.

The place will be identified through a marketing survey exercise. This exercise will help determine the probability of the flourishing of this business. Experience from working in the region will also help in choosing the best place for establishing the cafes. The structure of the survey will ensure that it explores all potential marketing implications in the area. The marketing surveys will be supported by other tools like observation and academic experience. All these will be conducted prior to identifying the right places for establishing the cafes.

Price strategy

Pricing strategy is a critical aspect in of the marketing mix and can help in positioning a product within the market. The objectives of effective pricing will be to set prices that will attract customers. The other objective is to make the product affordable to customers while at the same time ensuring that the café is making profits from the set prices⁹.

The attainment of right prices will be done by assessing the prices of these products in different places where they are marketed. This will be followed by establishing the amount of money that will go into the processing of the product. This will help in setting prices for the product that are deemed to be relatively lower so as to entice customers. It will also enable the business to gain strong grounds.

The setting of prices will depend on the quality of the products. The ingredients of the products will be attached to the packaged products. Customer information will be a critical resource and will help in identifying customer opinion on the products.

Promotion strategy

The objectives of the promotional strategies will include: creating awareness of the products, promoting sales, acquisition of skilled personnel, enhancing customer confidence and boosting the level of product knowledge¹⁰. Direct marketing will be the main means of promoting Shisha. This will utilize several promotional tools including direct advertising, road shows, posters, promotional games among others. Direct sales personnel will also be deployed to help in reaching a wider population.

Advertising will be used at the initial stages. The media will be the best resource in reaching a wider population. Advertising will begin one month prior to opening of the café in order to create anxiety amongst the population. Direct marketing will commence at a similar time when the cafes will be opened.

Bibliography

Alberta Health Services. Strategic Brief: Water-pipe Tobacco Use. Web.

Aljarrah, Khaled, Zaid, Q Ababneh and Wael K Al-Delaimy. Perceptions of hookah smoking harmfulness: predictors and characteristics among current hookah users. Tob Induc Dis. 5, 1, (2009): 16.

Christensen, Shane. Frommer’s Dubai. Chichester: John Wiley, 2010.

Ferrell, O. C. and Michael D. Hartline. Marketing Strategy. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2011.

Herald, Calgary. Tobacco-free smoking allowed in shisha bars. Web.

Kurtz, David L. Boone & Kurtz Contemporary Marketing / David L. Kurtz. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2012.

Lamb, Charles W., Joseph F. Hair and Carl D. McDaniel. Mktg5: Student Edition. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2011.

Mills, Gordon. Retail Pricing Strategies and Market Power. Melbourne: University Press, 2002.

Shechter, Relli. Smoking, Culture and Economy in the Middle East: The Egyptian Tobacco Market 1850-2000. London [u.a.: Tauris, 2006.

Footnotes

1. Alberta Health Services. Strategic Brief: Water-pipe Tobacco Use. Last modified January 2011.
2. Relli Shechter. Smoking, Culture and Economy in the Middle East: The Egyptian Tobacco Market 1850-2000. (London [u.a.: Tauris, 2006), p. 122.
3. Calgary Herald. Tobacco-free smoking allowed in shisha bars. 2007.
4. Shane Christensen. Frommer’s Dubai. (Chichester: John Wiley, 2010), p. 141.
5. Khaled Aljarrah, Zaid, Q Ababneh and Wael K Al-Delaimy. Perceptions of hookah smoking harmfulness: predictors and characteristics among current hookah users. Tob Induc Dis. 5, 1, (2009): 16.
6. Alberta Health Services. Strategic Brief: Water-pipe Tobacco Use. Last modified January 2011.
7. O.C. Ferrell and Michael D. Hartline. Marketing Strategy. (Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2011), p. 348.
8. Charles W. Lamb, Joseph F. Hair, and Carl D. McDaniel. Mktg5: Student Edition. (Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2011), p. 25.
9. Gordon Mills. Retail Pricing Strategies and Market Power. (Melbourne: University Press, 2002), p. 3.
10. David L. Kurtz. Boone & Kurtz Contemporary Marketing / David L. Kurtz. (Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2012), p. 512.