Report Example: Marketing Plan for Born & Bred

Born & Bred is a small enterprise situated in Yorkshire which specializes in artisan recipe boxes. The firm is a family ran business whose operations are presided over by two brothers. The company plans on embarking on an expansion plan, which will see it, exploit new potential target markets. Having identified Yorkshire expats in London as its target market, the company requires expert and informed data to guide its market expansion plan. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to design a marketing plan for Born & Bred. The marketing plan will provide it with a guideline of how to expand its outreach and serve its new target.

Approach for the Segment

Potential Size of the Segment

According to the Office for National Statistics (2015a, para. 1), the population of the United Kingdom is 64.6 million as of 2014. For the last ten years, the population of the United Kingdom has been on a growth trend of 0.7% annually. However, the population is 8.5 million, while that of Yorkshire is 5.4 million. Population growth in London has been on average 1.4% which is the highest in the United Kingdom. Perhaps the population increase in London may be attributed to persons moving out of Yorkshire and into London. Out of this population, the company target a portion that has a disposable income by virtue of being employed. Hence, between the ages of 16 to 64, the population that is employed thus possessing a disposable income is 75.1%.

According to Youngman (2017, para. 4), the proportion of population in the United Kingdom between the ages of 16-34 that enjoys experimenting with cooking but lacks the experience and guidelines required is 60%. Youngman (2017, para. 4) further states that 49% of British consumers love cooking since it allows them to control what goes into their meals. Furthermore, 47% of the consumers state that they love cooking to its alternatives since it saves costs.

Shead (2016, para. 3) further shares statistics on this segment by stating that according to the spending behaviour of 5.8 million bank customers in the United Kingdom 47.6% placed orders with meal kit delivery companies. Shead (2016, para. 8) further adds to state that the value generated by the meal kit delivery system was $1.5 billion in 2016.

Key Competitors

Born & Bred competes with established companies that utilize its business model as well a conventional groceries stores. It also competes with supermarkets that have grocery store segments within their stores. Within Born & Brends industry, the key competitors operating within the United Kingdom include Hello Fresh, Simply Cook, Riverford, and Mindful Chef. These competitors take a huge portion of the industrys market share owing to their vast outreach, pricing strategies, strategic product offerings and renown brand names.

Perhaps the biggest competition to Born & Bred is supermarkets that have grocery segments. Companies like Born & Bred possess a limitation whereby they are unable to satisfy fully the grocery needs of the consumers by providing all of a customer's needs when it comes to meals. The supermarkets fill the gap by providing these products to the consumers and in most some areas they are more popular than the Born and Bred Company. In essence, companies such as Born & Bred fulfil needs partially. Therefore, the occurrence implies that the company cannot compete with the conventional grocery store on an equal basis. It is for this reason that Shead (2016, para. 7) states that recipe kit companies are making an insignificant dent in grocery sales within supermarket. Hence, artisan recipe box companies are losing significant market to supermarkets, which provide customers with solutions to their limitations.

Adaptation to the Segment and Competition

Born & Bred market positioning is adapted to the segment and the competition. The assertion is based on the fact that to the customer, the Born & Bred brand specializes in the delivery of the best in Yorkshires ingredients. It is a brand from Yorkshire, for Yorkshires and for those interested in Yorkshire delicacies. Born & Bred market position is also adapted to its competition. The proclamation is backed by the fact that while its key competitors are focusing in pricing strategies, nutritional values, organic and inorganic components in recipes, Born & Bred focuses on the indigenous recipes which provide it with an avenue for differentiation from its competitors. Hence, its uniqueness provides it with a basis for adaptation into the competition hence giving it an edge over its competitors.

Should the Offer Evolve in Terms of Convenience?

Born & Bred can decide to evolve its offerings to provide its customers with more convenience. Currently, the companys offering is more of an occasional treat to its customers. It, therefore, subjects them to a scenario where it loses customers who prefer artisan recipe boxes being provided as regular dinner time meals. Hence, it should offer a subscription service where its clients receive the recipe boxes daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. The constant provision will make it more popular and enable it to retain most of its customers. Other than adding a subscription-based service to its operations, the company can differentiate its recipe offerings by categorizing it as nutritional or organic. In his article, Youngman (2017, para. 4) stated that 49% of British consumers love cooking since it allows them to control what goes into their meals. Born & Bred can take advantage of this preference by giving consumers the opportunity to choose nutritional and organic offering while maintaining the standard recipe offering. Such as evolvement will position the company to an increased customer base.

Structure of the Marketing Plan

Potential Target Sub-segments and Recommendations on Sub-segments to Concentrate on

The company has four potential target sub-segments in the London area. The sub-segments include persons who have a strong relationship in Yorkshire but reside in London, persons who have recently moved from Yorkshire to London, Londoners who have ever spent their holidays in Yorkshire and people who are originally from Yorkshire but are established in London. The four target sub-segments constitute persons who may have had experience with Yorkshire cuisines and may want to try them again through their own cooking.

It is recommended that the company focus on all of the four sub-segments. The rationale for the recommendation is that all of the four segments are too small for the company to focus on independently. The detriments of focusing on one of the sub-segments will be manifested in the inability of the company to attain economies of scale thus limiting is profit margins. Furthermore, as it will be observed that the company is facing a threat of inflation of cost of food items, the problem will further be compounded by having a narrow market that cannot help the company attain economies of scale. Another basis for the recommendation is that the sub-segments will be receiving similar food items and recipes due to the companys indigenous concept. It will, therefore, eliminate the need to differentiate products which creates complexity.

Estimated Opportunity Market

Gilliland (2016, para. 5) shares that there is an opportunity in the market to solve problems. For instance, recipe boxes reduce the hassle by customers of shopping after work, wasting food and being stuck in a food rut. Companies that provide recipe boxes solve the problem by eliminating the need for visiting a grocery by providing door-to-door deliveries. Another problem that these companies solve is waste of food. By providing customers with a specific portions of food, waste of foods can be eliminated.

According to Gilliland (2016, para. 4), there exist an opportunity market in the recipe box industry where consumers are tapping into a trend; there is a global obsession where people tend to photograph everything they eat. The trend has prompted various companies to exploit the visual preoccupation with food that people have. The occurrence thus prompts recipe companies to challenge their customers to purchase recipes and photograph their best dishes while sharing them on various social media platforms such as Instagram.

Another opportunity in the market is the ability to offer nutritious and healthy foods. Consumers may sometimes find it difficult to choose healthy foods on their own. The companies, therefore, position themselves in a way that they can provide customers with nutritious offerings such as gluten-free, dairy-free, and paleo diets.

Competitor Analysis

According to Hilpern (2017, para. 3), one of the key competitors for Born & Bred is Riverford. Riverford offers its customers with recipe boxed that are 100% organic and credits itself to offering delicious recipes such as Thai green curry and parsnip. The company offers products for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Riverfords purchases are not restricted to subscriptions alone. Instead, one can buy them as a one-off treat. The second competitor is Hello Fresh whose unique selling point is great home cooking.' It most sought-after recipes include chicken fried rice with mushrooms, peanuts, chili and soy. None of the company's recipe boxes take longer than half an hour to prepare, and each order is accompanied by a recipe holder for the ones one think he or she will cook again. Hello Fresh allows its customers to make purchases either through subscriptions or single purchases.

The third key competitor is Simply Cook whose customer base, astonishingly quadrupled in 2016. Though the enterprise is a recent startup, it has positioned itself as a notable competitor due to its pricing strategy which ranges from as low as 8.99 per box. In each kit it delivers, customers get up to four meals and its recipes can be delivered weekly, monthly or per fortnight (Hilpern 2017, para. 6). Lastly, Hilpern (2017, para. 7) describes Mindful Chef as another worthy competitor owing to the company's focus on nutritional and weight loss diet. All its offerings are lean, healthy, organic and gluten-free.

Key Risks

According to PWC (2018, para 1), on one of the biggest threat that could possibly undermine the venture arises from food price inflation which is a challenge to both retailers and suppliers. The threat that arises from increased commodity pressures and devaluation of the sterling is compounded by the fact that companies are yet to cushion themselves by price reciprocation by increasing shelf prices. The occurrence has led to the increase in the cost of operation for businesses such as Born and Bred further lessening their profit margins. PWC (2018, para. 6), concludes by stating that the only way forward will be for retailers and suppliers to initiate a corresponding price increase of the recipe offerings to customers. Unfortunately, price hikes are often an unpopular move and often result in the reduction of demand for commodities offered. Hence PWC faces dilemma of whether to increase prices in line with inflation affecting demand or retaining previously used prices thus reducing profit margins.

Another weakness is inherent in the fact that the companys business model is limited for its prepped kits cannot provide its consumers with every-day essentials such as fruit and milk that might be needed throughout the week. Though the company hails itself with the ability to save a customers time taken in trips to grocery stores, a customer may still have to visit the grocery store for the essential commodities. Hence, the companys concept does not fully replace the need to visit grocery stores (Rowe 2017, para. 6). The occurrence ca...