WEEK 8 EOC: The Adventure

On my glorious adventures I've encountered quite a few amazing things. As I continued to embark on this once in a lifetime excursion, I had found myself moving along the Miura Peninsula of Japan in Yokosuka. It was a beautiful day with a few clouds near and far. As I cleared way through these clouds, the imagery of naval ships had started to surface. One of the ships had just pulled out from dock and I could see the sailors all formed around the edges of the ship as what I would believe to be friends and family waving goodbye until their return. I landed in a neighboring city called Yokohama. I strolled along for about an hour and came across this wonderfully spirited local who laughed as I walked past her. She was the only one who acknowledged my attire (being so different) and thought it hilarious. Her name is Keiko meaning "blessing" and that she was. She happened to be a local who spoke English quite well and asked me if I was lost. I asked if she could tell me about some of their most popular snacks. As I was bing escorted, there was an earthquake that lasted what seemed to be forever. We ran for cover anywhere we could find. It was so huge, buildings were crumbling and I had never seen people scatter so fast except that time Godzilla came to visit them. From what I could tell no one was severely injured. After all the commotion had settled there was this thing from afar. A character of some sort. It turned around and it was this big dirty Hello Kitty character roaming the streets with a busted cart of some type of food. Turns out to be a trail mix cart of different flavors. I had an epiphany. I had come up with a party mix of peppered bacon and pretzel crisps.

Implementation Evaluation Control

It was fun while it lasted doing the project or at least what I was able to get done in the end. I feel, honestly because I have some really weird friends that this would possibly work. People all over the US have tried different things including real authentic MEALS from other countries. I don’t see why snacks would be any different. Especially the fact that it’s just pretzels and bacon and then you have a Japanese twist with wasabi rice crackers. Doing this project has actually got me interested myself in what the status of this development would become. "Through implementation, the company turns the plans into actions. Control consists of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing activities and taking corrective action where needed" (Gary Armstrong, 54). New things are being created every day and things that look just downright disgusting many people love. So you never really know how things could go. I have actually mentioned this project to a couple of friends and once I said bacon they were ready to spend. Who doesn’t love bacon? It was pretty cool getting that reaction. I didn’t even think to ask my mom for the simple fact according to her, I’m one of the weird people. It was quite interesting though, if in fact that this was to be carried out, I would stick with it and see how it goes. It would be really cool to build a business that you thought of and planned out to share with the world. The most rewarding thing about the whole thing is the look on people’s face once they’re satisfied with your product. Who knows maybe one day I will actually give this a go and see what happens. It would be awesome to look back on it one day and say “Yea. I did that.”

Marketing Mix: Price

"Price is the amount of money customers must pay to obtain the product" (Gary Armstrong, 53). As far as price goes, if sold in stores it will be $1.50. If it’s a family size it will be $2.25. As for bars, if ordered will be $3.15. It will serve up to 4. There will be discounts along the way every once in awhile. For being a snack and nothing of where the price would really need to fluctuate much. The stated prices above are pretty much the only prices that they will continue to be. There is no allowance or discount prices for these snacks.

Marketing Mix: Distribution

 “Place includes company activities that make the product available to target consumers” (Gary Armstrong, 53).This touches base with distribution. Being that it’s just a snack it will be greatly be advised to score with convenient stores such as 7-11 and pretty much any gas station. I feel it will also do great in bars especially because this is the kind of snack that goes great with numerous kinds of beer. We will have our own moving shipment trucks from the company and as of right now being just local i'd say about 5,000 bags shipped to start off and see how fast that goes that we can then determine roughly about how much we will need throughout the day and roughly calculate how many we would need a hold of and how often we would need a shipment to restock. In other words we would need to keep a highly up-to-date inventory of the product.   

Marketing Mix: Promotion

Promotions will be advertised in stores on "new" stickers. We plan on buying billboards to post pictures and buying spots on radio channels to help advertise as well. We can turn to social media also. It will be great to have all these outlets for promotion but its said that word of mouth is the best way of receiving information. So naturally we will start spreading the word and for people not to forget we will be passing out flyers with the picture of the product and price on it. "Promotion means activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade target customers to buy it" (Gary Armstrong, 53-54). We will try everything in our power to get customers on board to try our new product because we absolutely know that they will enjoy it to the fullest. They will be so excited. They will tell their friends and family and then their friends and family will till their friends and family. "An effective marketing program blends all of the marketing mix elements into an integrated marketing program designed to achieve the company’s marketing objectives by delivering value to consumers" (Gary Armstrong, 54). With the power of promotion everyone will get a sense of who we are and what our company is about. More times than not without promotion, you usually don't go far. We can promote personally and through social media of pretty much any kind. Good or bad, news always travels fast.

Marketing Mix: Product

The product is a newly created bar snack (which could really be sold anywhere). It's a different taste than most to bring to America. This business has a long line of different mixes and flavors of snacks from all over the world and by selling it in the United States. I believe it will shape up the whole "breaking barriers" situation. Opening up people's eyes and broadening the horizons of our fellow people to be able to explore what other different countries have to offer without having to actually worry about spending money on having to travel to that specific location. "Product means the goods-and-services combination the company offers to the target market" (Gary Armstrong, 53). Our company will be bringing a whole new kind of snack that will accompany numerous kinds of beers for the bar lovers. I truly believe this product will go far and become a most favorite within the first two years of production. Top notch quality authentic snacks that derive from the portraying country on each bag. The logo on each bag will of course remain the same which is a hot-air balloon shape with the name Phileas Fogg written inside. Very simple and very "chip logo".

Target Market Strategy

“The company must first decide who it will serve. It does this by dividing the market into segments of customers (market segmentation) and selecting which segments it will go after (marketing)” (Gary Armstrong, 9). Being that it's a snack and it can be sold pretty much anywhere, our target audience would be of all ages. We would want this to be a fun type of snack for anyone and everyone. As far as target suppliers, we would want to go for grocery and convenient stores, gas stations and bars. I believe that Trail Mix could be a competitor for the simple fact that both our snacks are mixes. Even though they are more on the nuts, oats and small candy side of the mixes, they are pretty much similar but you never know if in fact, they will tend to try and expand into something bigger just because we've come out with our brand of mixes. “The company must also decide how it will serve targeted customers—how it will differentiate and position itself in the marketplace” (Gary Armstrong, 9). We plan on doing little things to put a smile on our customers’ faces. Maybe we will place a small prize at the bottom of the bag. We could include survey codes and/or game codes on the back where the customers could win a few items here and there like McDonald’s and their monopoly bit. Beside that notion being familiar, our snack would still be different because there’s not one close to the taste nor close to the adventure filled job in itself to satisfy customers of a different country. It's unique.