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Company Description
The business will be named Star Up Online Company. It will be a sole proprietorship online company that will specialize on selling popular candy brands such as dum-dums, blue berry, Laffy Taffy ropes, safe t-pops, Spangler candy canes, candy corns, gum balls, and other favorite candy brands. The total budget allocated to start up the business will be $2,500. This money will be raised by the owner of the business (Abrams 27).
Product List and Services
The online business will also manufacture and market other licensed brand names namely Jelly belly, Sweethearts, and smarties on selected candy cane and lollipop items. The diversification of the brands will provide the consumers with a variety of product choices. The following is the list of candy products that will be sold by the company.
Marketing Plan
To ensure the success of the online candy shop, the owner will employ different marketing plan strategies (Crystal 22). The owner will analyze the marketing environment using the marketing mix below.
Product
The proprietor will ensure that the online candy shop satisfies the needs of its target clients (Dornenburg, Page, and Sofronski 13). Being a candy shop, most of the clients will be young boys and girls. The establishment of an online candy comes with many advantages (Kerin, Hartley, and Rudelius 15). Firstly, the online candy shop enables customers make orders for their favorite candy at the comfort of their home (Nizam 68). For candy containers, the proprietor will buy then online by visiting the candywarehouse.com where there are a variety of candy containers. Other containers will also be purchased from Ebay and candy concepts incorporation. To buy paint cans, bins, and soda containers, the proprietor will consider price and convenience. In this regard, the proprietor will make bulk order of containers similar to the ones for Dylans Candy from the local recycling industries because they are cheap and easily available. This situation reduces the operational costs (Smart 57).
Source of the Candy Products
About 60-percent of the candies will be bought in bulk from the online store CandyWarehouse.com that offers a variety of such products. The rest of the candies will be obtained from vendors and retailers (Nizam 68).
Price
Pricing of the product will be done in relation to other online candy shops. The owner of the business will gauge other candy shops such as Dylanas candy Bar, Itas Sugar, and candylati to determine the prices that they will charge their online customers (Solomon 24). To gain a competitive advantage, there will be a need to price the produces a bit lower than other main competitors during the start-up of the business (Sorger 23). The company will also provide different online payment methods to facilitate online purchases. This undertaking will improve convenience for its customers. For children who do not have a bank account, they can provide their home addresses to pay on the spot once the order is delivered to their doorstep. However, other methods of payment for each purchase will include online credit card payment or month cut off for each order delivered (Enrico and Kornbluth 46). Clients will be asked to provide their personal details to establish a long-term relationship with the company.
Promotion
Since it is a start business, the company will employ different advertising methods. First of all the company will make use of the social media because it is an online business (White, Oliffe, and Bottorff 113). This situation means that the owner will open accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter among other social sites (Palmer 45). This undertaking will enable them advertise different products and upcoming promotion events. As part of the promotion strategy, the company will also advertise special offers for new clients to establish new clientele base. The company will also make use of posters, print brand t-shirts, business cards, and brochures that will be placed in specific areas (William 56). Brand t-shirts will also be provided to customers as they make online purchases. Each item purchased will be wrapped with a free t-shirt among other gifts during start-up marketing (Armstrong and Kotler 76). There will also be TV advertising besides engaging in school programs to attract more support.
Place
The candy business has enjoyed a lot of support from offline customers over the years. Candy stores are popular amongst children and lovers who often buy their candies, chocolates, and ice creams. However, the new company is going to introduce exclusive candy shop products to its target customer. The business will select the best online hosting site where it will publish its website. While selecting the online portal, the proprietor will examine qualities such as virtual private server hosting (VPS), windows, dedicated hosting, bandwidth size, disc space, email, E-Commerce, and phone tech support. In this respect, the best place to host the business will be the Blue host as it offers friendly prices. Since it is an online shop, the clientele is open to everyone visiting the candy shop website (Nizam 69).
Personnel
The company will employ qualified personnel in all fields of the business. There will be a Chief Executive Officer (responsible for the goodwill of the company), marketing manager, and information technology experts to oversee the online requirements. The manufacturing and distribution departments will ensure that company offers custom made candies to the customers (Chernev 100). Besides, the employees will be offered free training sessions to promote their skills in the online trading business.
Legal Issues
To keep up with the law of the country, the owner will ensure that all legal requirements are met. The company will register with the countrys trade commission, which is responsible for e-commerce (Longenecker et al. 7). This strategy will ensure the protection of the company against online transactions, emails, consumer privacy, and digital rights. Registration of the company with various legal authorities will ensure compliance to both the local and national business laws.
References
Abrams, Rhonda. Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies (Successful Business Plan Secrets and Strategies). Palo Alto, California: Planning Shop, 2014. Print.
Armstrong, Gary and Philip Kotler. Marketing: An Introduction. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2012. Print.
Chernev, Alexander. The Marketing Plan Handbook. Chicago: Cerebellum Press, 2011. Print.
Crystal, Gregory. Ad Serving Technology: Understand the marketing revelation that commercialized the Internet. New York, NY: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012. Print.
Dornenburg, Andrew, Karen Page and Michael Sofronski. What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea Even Water Based on Expert Advice from Americas Best Sommeliers. New York, NY: Bulfinch Press, 2006. Print.
Enrico, Roger and Jesse Kornbluth. The Other Guy Blinked and other Dispatches from the Cola Wars. New York, NY: Bantam, 2007. Print.
Kerin, Roger, Steven Hartley and William Rudelius. Marketing. London: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.
Kubik, Martha, Leslie Lytle and Mary Story. Soft Drinks, Candy, and Fast Food: What Parents and Teachers think about the Middle School Food Environment. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105.2 (2005): 233-239. Print.
Longenecker, Justin, William Petty, Leslie Palich, and Frank Hoy Small business Management. London: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.
Nizam, Fairuz. Strategic Marketing Plan for Handicraft & Trading Business: A Case of Wanisma Craft & Trading. New York, NY: Amazon Digital Services, 2010. Print.
Palmer, Adrian. Introduction to Marketing: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Sharkey, Joseph, Wesley Dean and Courtney Nalty. Convenience Stores and the Marketing of Foods and Beverages through Product Assortment. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 43.3 (2012): 109-115. Print.
Smart, Barry. Consumer Society: Critical Issues & Environmental Consequences. London: SAGE Publications, 2010. Print.
Solomon, Michael. Consumer Behavior. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2012.
Sorger, Stephan. Marketing Analytics: Strategic Models and Metrics. New York, NY: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2010. Print.
White, Cameron, John Oliffe and Joan Bottorff. The marketing of better-for-you health products in the emergent issue of mens obesity. Health Sociology Review 23.2 (2014): 113-124. Print.
William, Judith. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising . London: Boyers, 2008. Print.
Appendix
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