The Company Description
The company for which the marketing plan is being developed is called “Green & Healthy.” It is a small chain that sells products for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. “Green&Healthy” has ten stores located in several states. The main products include household supplies and cosmetics without packages, vegan and gluten-free foods, vitamins, and nutritional supplements. The main target audience of “Green&Healthy” is young people who follow a healthy lifestyle. The company is quite young: the first store was opened in 2017. During the 2020 pandemic, the “Green&Healthy” launched a website and a home delivery option. In connection with the increasing fashion for a healthy lifestyle, the company has increased its profits every year.
The Need for a Marketing Campaign
Launching an effective marketing campaign is is necessary, since there is no strong growth in the organization’s profits. The public is not sufficiently aware of the existence of the “Green&Healthy” chain of stores. In addition, it is necessary to continue to implement initiatives to modernize the business. The organization has successfully launched the site, so it can move on to facilitate interaction between buyers and the organization.
The Goals of the Marketing Company
The main goal of any marketing campaign is to achieve company or business growth. First of all, marketing campaigns can be aimed at increasing brand awareness. The main purpose is to show the business and brand to as many people as possible who are part of the target audience. In addition, the purpose of the marketing campaign is a direct increase in profits by attracting new customers.
Target Audience
The first step in creating an effective marketing strategy is determining the target audience. Understanding the target audience and communication is a success factor and a competency required for effective work (Ziek & Anderson, 2015). Since eco-products are mainly in demand among young people, creating a mobile application will be effective. The mobile application will be convenient for the target audience, as it easily adapts to digital alternatives. Quick access to the right information will be an advantage for the company and a big step towards the digitalization of business.
Proposed Initiative
To achieve the company’s goals, it is proposed to create a mobile application with a recognizable logo. Creating an application will be an important step in business modernization. Diversity marketing involves adapting a business to changing market conditions (Noormohamed & Warrington, 2016). Since Green and Healthy is in the business of selling products for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, they can create an application to help people who practice this lifestyle. The application should meet the following goals: increase brand awareness, attract customers, and contribute to the popularization and facilitation of a healthy lifestyle.
The most important section of the mobile application should include a list of chain stores with contacts and working hours, a product catalog, and advertising of ongoing promotions and discount programs. The application also proposes to include the following elements: an interactive map with separate waste collection points, a guide to identifying vegan and non-vegan supplements, a section with tips for leading a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, and recipes for healthy eating.
Efficiency Forecast
Since “Green&Healthy’s” target audience is young people, the app should be popular. Customers, the lifeblood of a business, are very demanding and picky about what companies offer them (Kitchen & Proctor, 2015). The target audience for Green and Healthy can be even more demanding as it requires adherence to ethical norms and standards. Users will download the app to get information about leading a greener and healthier lifestyle. However, when they go to the right section, they will also see information about the chain of stores that provides the products they need. The target audience of app users and store visitors is the same, so the percentage of visits to the store after downloading the app is high. The application will also be useful for receiving information about new promotions and discount programs for regular customers. In addition, such an application will positively affect the company’s reputation. “Green&Healthy” promotes a healthy lifestyle and aims to facilitate the transition to a sustainable lifestyle.
Therefore, creating a useful application with the right information about separate waste collection, veganism, and eco-alternatives will help give the company a reputation for caring about the environment and public health. The application will also be useful for the organization’s future expansion: people from other regions will already be aware of the company’s existence and its positive goals. It will also be possible to announce the opening of new stores in the application, drawing the attention of potential buyers to that opening.
Budget Planning
Since the business is not large, it is necessary to calculate the budget for a marketing campaign as accurately as possible, which an increase in sales will subsequently cover. Budget planning is critical to the effectiveness of any business strategy (Kung et al., 2013). The planned expenses for the marketing company include salary expenses for the application developers, expenses for the application advertising campaign, expenses for the work of the application support team. One of the expenses that can be reduced is spending on an advertising campaign. One of the effective ways is advertising in the “Green&Healthy” stores themselves. After the purchase, the company can issue an advertising booklet to customers; it is possible to provide a discount on the next purchase when downloading the application.
Marketing Campaign Plan
The first step in implementing a new marketing plan is to find a team capable of developing a new application. It will also require a design team that can develop a nice and user-friendly interface and integrate the “Green&Healthy” logo into the application. For the successful formation of brand awareness among users of the company’s services, the creation of an icon can be used (Ditlevsen, 2012). In addition, a team is needed to compile and publish useful articles for the section on healthy eating. To avoid mistakes, it is necessary to consider the cultural characteristics of the area where the shops are located (Song et al., 2014). Advertising of the application should begin at least in the stores before the launch. An anticipatory advertising campaign will provoke people to come to the store to receive a discount on the announced promotion.
After the application is created, the launch phase will begin, which should be led by a support team that can quickly resolve problems. In addition, it is necessary to ensure that the application is supported because errors can always occur. After the successful launch of the application, the organization can continue to make initiatives to improve it: adding new sections, announcing new promotions, deleting unpopular sections.
Key Message of the Marketing Campaign
Any successful marketing campaign has a clear message that affects the perception of the company’s customers. In the case of “Green&Healthy,” getting the message right is easy enough. As the organization itself, the application aims to increase citizens’ awareness of the need for a healthy lifestyle. The app further suggests ways to facilitate the transition to a greener, healthier lifestyle. The message corresponds to the ethical agenda of modern society; therefore, it can be considered effective. The application must meet the goals of an ethical culture of behavior concerning the consumer (Gramatnikovski et al., 2015). The application should be popular because it meets the target audience’s requirements.
Marketing Campaign Timing
The longest stage is the actual creation of the application of the “Green&Healthy.” The company should expect a period of up to 2 months, which can be reduced by first developing an application for one operating system, for example, iOS. “Green&Healthy” should not expect effective results immediately after launch; it must wait for the information to spread. The total duration of the marketing campaign should take about six months. During this time, the development and launch of the application, the elimination of possible errors, and the attraction of the target audience’s attention will be carried out.
Expected Results
As a result of the marketing campaign, an increase in customers at “Green&Healthy” chain stores is expected by about 20%. Profits for the campaign year should grow more significantly than in previous years. The launch of an eco-friendly lifestyle app should significantly boost the company’s reputation. It is expected that some customers will begin to prefer “Green&Healthy” to support the ethical initiative. The marketing campaign will raise awareness of the brand’s existence in areas where new stores of the chain are expected to open. The application will significantly reduce the cost of future advertising.
References
Ditlevsen, M. (2012). “Revealing corporate identities in annual reports“. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 17(3), 379-403.
Gramatnikovski, S., Stoilkovska, A., & Serafimovic, G. (2015). “Business communication in function of improving the organizational culture of the company”. UTMS Journal of Economics, 6(2), 266-279.
Kitchen, P.J., & Proctor, T. (2015). “Marketing communications in a post-modern world“, Journal of Business Strategy, 36(5), 34-42.
Kung, F., Huang, C. and Cheng, C. (2013). “An examination of the relationships among budget emphasis, budget planning models and performance“. Management Decision, 51(1), 120-140.
Noormohamed, N. A., & Warrington, T. (2016). “Brand diversity-A global vision”. American Society for Competitiveness, 14(1), 176-181.
Song, Y. A., Ahn, H., & Sung, Y. (2014). “Cultural values in financial services advertising: a cross-cultural study of magazine ads in the USA and Korea“. Journal of Services Marketing, 28(5), 349-360.
Ziek, P., & Anderson, J.D. (2015). “Communication, dialogue and project management“, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 8(4), 788-803.