The marketing strategy will seek to use several techniques to increase awareness of Basket of Goodies in the city of Stevens. The first method will be a Website. The second will be the use of brochures. These two methods will target the individual customers. The corporate customers will be targeted  through a networking campaign, leveraging owner Susan Presento's contacts from her previous employers.

Mission

Basket of Goodies' mission is to create the finest gift baskets available. We exist to attract and maintain customers. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall in to place. Our products and services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

Marketing Objectives

• Increase repeat customers by 7% per quarter.
• Increase the number of corporate clients by 6%.
• Decrease the marginal per customer acquisition costs by 8% per year.

Financial Objectives

• Profitability by the end of year one.
• Reduce the labor costs for order fulfillment by 3% a year.
• Increase sales enough to warrant hiring an employee.

Target Markets

BOG has two distinct groups of customers, individuals and corporate customers:

1. Individuals- The individuals are people who are looking to give a friend, relative, colleague, etc., a gift basket as a gesture of goodwill. These customers typically do not have a specific type of gift basket in mind when they look at BOG's product offerings, they just want to give a gift.
   
2. Corporate- The corporate customer is typically buying the basket for a colleague at work either as a sign of appreciation or for a special event or as a thank you for a customer. The corporate market can be further broken down to banks, health care, employment gifts, real estate, apartments, special events/promotions, corporate headquarters, hotels/vacation resorts, and automobile dealerships.

Positioning

Basket of Goodies is positioning itself as an upscale manufacturer of gourmet gift baskets through the introduction of several production baskets as well as custom options. BOG will achieve this positioning by leveraging their competitive advantages.

The competitive advantage is based on two factors, low overhead which supports reasonable prices, and an unrelenting desire for the highest quality product and service.

1. Overhead- BOG's overhead is particularly low because it is a home based business. Most of BOG's competition is based in retail shopping areas. While they receive more walk by traffic and therefore higher sales numbers, their rent is a very large monthly expense. BOG avoids this large expense by having the business run out of owner Susan Presento's home. Additionally, Susan will be using a modified version of JIT (just in time) inventory and assembling. Susan's husband passes by 90% of Susan's vendors on his way home from work so Susan is able to order inventory when she needs it and have her husband pick it up on the way home from work. This significantly lowers shipping costs and carrying costs for inventory. BOG will have some of the standard baskets in stock for walk by orders, but will try not to have large amounts in overhead.
   
2. Unrelenting desire for the highest quality product and service- Let's face it, this market space is already crowded and a mediocre gift basket service is not going to fly, so Basket of Goodies must have some sort of differentiating feature that lets it stand out. Susan only uses the finest quality ingredients and can afford to because of her low overhead. Additionally, she always follows the maxim that the customer must be 100% satisfied. That means she is willing to loose money on an occassional order, if necessary, to please a customer, confident that in the long run this is a wise business decision.

Strategies

The single objective is to position Basket of Goodies as a manufacturer of unique, attractive, gourmet gift baskets for individuals as well as corporate customers. The marketing strategy will seek to create customer awareness regarding the product offerings, develop the customer base, and work toward building customer loyalty and referrals that will significantly decrease customer acquisition costs.

BOG will seek to communicate the message that they offer a higher quality, gourmet alternative for gift baskets relative to the baskets currently available. This message will be communicated through various methods, tailored to each target market. The first method will be the use of a Website. The Website will have product information, company information, as well as ordering information and order taking. The site will be useful to both targeted groups, individuals as well as corporate customers.

The second method will be brochures, primarily marketing to individuals. These brochures will be dispersed through many different sources.

The last method of communication is networking and it is primarily for the corporate customer. Before founding Basket of Goodies Susan worked within the Human Resource Department of several larger corporations and has developed a large list of contacts. Susan will leverage these personal/professional relationships to generate business for BOG. Since she has worked within the HR departments before, she is quite familiar with the buying habits and decision making processes; key knowledge for generating corporate sales.

Marketing Mix

BOG's marketing mix consists of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

• Pricing- BOG will be charging a per basket fee for the stock production baskets. Regarding the custom baskets, a price can be quoted once the customer decides on the ingredients that they want.
  
• Distribution- While the orders for the baskets can be placed on our secure Website, by phone, or at the office, the distribution of the product will occur from the office and can be shipped to any continental U.S. address.
  
• Advertising and Promotion- A Website, brochures, and networking will be used to raise awareness and generate sales.
  
• Customer Service- Following benchmark companies such as L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, and Siemens, customer service will be a priority. Susan truly believes that reputation is everything.

Marketing Research

The informal market research began five years ago when Susan was purchasing a gift basket for a friend. She did not have the time to make her own basket so she called a few different places to get quotes. Over the next few years she purchased several more baskets from established companies while keeping the idea in the back of her head that she might start her own basket company. With this idea she analyzed the different vendor's offerings.

While working on the initial business plan for BOG, Susan held two focus groups, each with seven to nine people, to determine customer preferences in regards to gift baskets. The focus groups explored the different preferences that the people held in regards to gifts and gift baskets. Although Susan had a list of questions already drawn up that she asked both groups, she also had time set aside where there could be a free flow of discussion. The focus groups proved to be a very worthwhile exercise giving Susan valuable insight into the participant's minds as well as confirming a number of assumptions that Susan held. Overall, this market research confirmed and strengthened the BOG business and marketing plan.

Getting ready to create a marketing plan?

Get practical ideas and good models with dozens
of examples of successful marketing plans

Finish your own Marketing Plan