Marketing Plan in Food Industry

This is the second milestone of your business plan—the marketing plan.

Tasks:

Research the market of your chosen project (Food Industry). Based upon your research and what you have learned in the program, generate a 4 page marketing plan for your chosen project. Attached is the first paper that explains the business. Next in your marketing plan, you should address the following points:

Explain how the marketing plan targets the market segment.

Provide a positioning statement for your project.

Define the products and services you will offer.

Develop and detail a pricing strategy you will use.

Describe the promotion plan you will implement.

Identify the target locations with an assessment of their viability.

Running Head: BUSINESS PLAN

BUSINESS PLAN 6

The Choice of Business: Preserving the World through Fresh Foods

Argosy University

January 2, 2019

Business Plan: Preserving the World through Fresh Foods

The initiative is a business plan that is aimed at establishing greenhouses which will grow different vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, lettuces, garlic, brassicas, carrots and different types of herbs. Food security is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world is aiming to achieve. While food accessibility in the United States has not been a major issue, access to quality food has been remained to be an issue of concern among Americans (Rubatzky & Yamaguchi, 2012). Quality food is expensive and, therefore, not many people can afford it in the required amounts. The initiative aims at enhancing food security by the engaging in agribusiness hence developing crops that are safe for consumption at lower prices.

Vision, Core Beliefs and Culture

The vision of the initiative is to achieve food security in the United States of America by providing cheap quality vegetables for the entire American population. The mission of the initiative would, therefore, be to become a highly profitable company through the production of quality vegetables and making sales at affordable prices to all Americans. The first major core belief of the business would be accountability, which will involve taking responsibility for all the tasks associated with the company. Integrity is another significant core belief which will involve being committed to excellence, consistency, and honesty. Respect is another major core belief the company will uphold. Teamwork and transparency are also key to ensuring the company achieve its goals, mission, and vision.

Social Responsibility Commitment

The business aims at creating a culture of customer focus, whereby most decisions and activities will always focus on how they impact the customers. Customers’ needs will thus be a major priority in dictating the quality of products and also performing other important activities such as marketing, adverts, and channel for sales. The company will be socially committed to championing healthy food consumption, which is important in avoiding the possibility of various chronic diseases.

Comprehensive Venture Description

As stated previously, the venture will be an agribusiness company that aims at producing vegetables on a large scale. On a three-acre piece of land, the business aims at establishing greenhouses of different sizes and plant various vegetables that will be supplied in all the 50 states of the United States of America. The company will use some of the modern technologies in the establishment of greenhouses. Some crops will be grown while suspended and not necessarily having their roots within the soil. The technology aims at using the minimum amount of water possible to ensure there is sustainable utilization of water. The company obviously falls under the Agricultural sector as it deals in the production of vegetable for commercial purposes (Schaper, Volery, Weber & Gibson, 2014).

The organization will a family owned business as it will be started by my family with each member having a certain percentage of shares that will be determined according to their original contributions. The initiative aims at satisfying the great need for healthy foods in the United States of America. Most individuals are coming to terms on the benefits of consuming healthy food and, therefore, the company will be executing an important role in establishing such an agricultural organization that will be providing healthy supplies of vegetables to the Americans. The strategic advantage the company will have is the provision of cheap quality food, affordable to all Americans. The legal structure the company will take is that of a sole proprietorship. The business will be family owned with all management decisions given to the founder of the business. With time, however, the company will develop and become a publicly traded company.

Justification of Fresh Foods

Food security is not only an American problem but also a global problem. Many nations are struggling to feed their citizens and those which are capable of feeding the citizens, they strive to have access to the best quality foods that will not have various negative health impacts on the population. The choice for this initiative was thus based on this idea; it aims to achieve quality food accessible to all Americans despite the income disparity that exists in the United States of America.

The initiative is also important as it provides the practical aspect of management. It provides the chance to exercise all the management concepts taught in class and ensure they are effectively applied to the success of the venture. Lastly, the choice of the initiative was also made as a result of its great contribution to society. There is a need for people to consume healthy foods, which will ensure they do not become subjects to the different chronic health conditions (Han, Powell & Chaloupka, 2012). A large number of Americans consume junk foods, which have large amounts of fats and have been associated with obese conditions, in addition to other health conditions such as cardiac issues that come in conjunction with obesity.

Feasibility of this Opportunity

The feasibility of the agribusiness opportunity was assessed using a survey that targeted teens, youths, adults and the elderly. The survey involved the use of a questionnaire which contained several questions concerning the opportunity. The questionnaires were sent via emails to ensure there was a larger coverage for the survey. Among the youths and the teens the responses were fair, but among the adults (people above 35 years) and the elderly, the response was encouraging. 90% of adults and the elderly were I agreement for the consumption of quality nutritious foods.

SWOT Analysis

On SWOT analysis, the business’ strength included: strong financial backup for business initiation, deep knowledge in management and agricultural services and the availability of technology for effective production. Concerning weaknesses, the brand of the company is still unknown, and there isn’t a very clear picture of how the business will end up performing, despite the early good signs. With regards to opportunities, the company has the chance to expand its production beyond vegetables and focus on growing other crops to achieve its food security vision. On threats, water availability is a major threat that could affect the production process. Despite the company focusing on sustainable water use, availability of water is a global issue that would affect the business. Climate change would also have mild impacts despite the venture not being fully rain-dependent.

Industry Trends, Environmental Trends, the Target audience, and the Competition

Agricultural industry will forever remain to be prosperous because people will never stop consuming food. It is, therefore, a matter of establishing and ensuring it gets an excellent reputation from customers to obtain loyalty and make it easy to attract new customers (Burns & Dewhurst, 2016). With this company’s strength, it is possible to launch the company and ensure it performs above the standards of the industry. Fighting competition will not be a major threat due to the great demand for agricultural products in the United States and also the neighboring countries.

References

Burns, P., & Dewhurst, J. (Eds.). (2016). Small business and entrepreneurship. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Han, E., Powell, L. M., & Chaloupka, F. J. (2012). Classification bias in commercial business lists for retail food stores in the US. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 46.

Rubatzky, V. E., & Yamaguchi, M. (2012). World vegetables: principles, production, and nutritive values. Springer Science & Business Media.

Schaper, M. T., Volery, T., Weber, P. C., & Gibson, B. (2014). Entrepreneurship and small business. SAGE Publications.