Lee Marketing Strategy

Introduction

Lee is the owner of the Lee Sweet Pizza business in the local area, a pizza making, and a delivery restaurant. The business requires a marketing-oriented mission statement that will adequately define her business’s purpose, satisfy the customer’s needs, and enhance competitive advantage in the industry (David, 2019). The newly developed mission statement communicates the business’s purpose and a philosophy that is guided by high quality, satisfaction, and value. It also shows concern for the customers with an emphasis on the ‘You’ in the statement and a desire to make customer experience a second home.

Mission 

Mission statements are integral components of businesses as they define the businesses’ purpose, target customers, and products or services sold while outlining the strategies used to achieve its purpose and goals. The current mission statement “We make pizza,” requires improvement to define the business’s objectives towards the customers, public image, and philosophy that will guide its excellent customer service providence. The new marketing-oriented mission statement would read, “We Provide and Deliver You Great Tasting Pizza Made from High-Quality Ingredients, Fulfilling Your Most Desired Satisfaction and Value. Making You Feel like Your Second Home.”

Situational Analysis 

Businesses and companies analyze their internal business environments to determine the strengths and weaknesses that affect operations and systems. Identifying these strengths and weaknesses enable strategic planning on how to build on the strengths and minimize the weaknesses. Lee can utilize useful tools of analysis, such as SWOT analysis or the SWEATT model. The SWOT analysis tool will enable Lee to determine sources of strength that provide opportunities and can be used to address threats and weaknesses. Moreover, she can easily identify sources of weaknesses in the business operations and processes that may act as threats or opportunities to the business. The SWEATT model will help Lee identify strengths and weaknesses using measurements, and the movement point will enable her to make effective decisions on excellence, action, and team movement points. Lee can also monitor customer feedback on complaints and satisfaction, which will help identify the weaknesses and strengths of service providence. Consistent feedback will help in pattern identification, which is essential in defining weaknesses and strengths.

The food and restaurant industry, especially among Pizza making companies, is characterized by stiff competition. Lee Sweet Pizza business is faced with competition from both small and large companies such as Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, McPizza, and small, fast food pizza businesses. The highest competition for Lee’s business is from the well-established mature pizza companies such as Domino’s Pizza, among others, with over three stores in every street. The demographic factors that influence Lee’s Sweet Pizza business include age groups, household types, and the level of education in the area. In the local area, pizza consumption is high among the age groups of people aged 18-34, which is approximately 34% of the population, among the almost all household types including singles (28.5%), single parents (9.5%), and married without children ( 29.9%), and married with children (18.6%) (CB, 2020). Finally, the level of education influence Lee’s operations in that the highly educated people mostly dine in the restaurant or receives deliveries of pizzas are approximate, 25.9% (CB, 2020).

The advancement in technology has profoundly affected traditional delivery and operations in the fast-food industry. For instance, ordering and deliveries in the contemporary world are conducted traditionally and digitally. Mobile ordering has become prevalent, requiring businesses such as Lee Sweet Pizza to incorporate mobile applications for online ordering and adopting advanced logistics. This can be achieved through collaboration with the sharing economy such as Uber, or disruptive technologies such as drones to make fast deliveries. Lee’s competitive advantage is in her differentiated recipes that accommodate and customize pizzas according to customer specifications. She produces healthy pizzas with organic ingredients that promote the home feeling. This aspect sets her products as unique as she accommodates the healthy living lifestyle with pizzas that are categorized as ‘unhealthy’ foods. Lee can also use IP rights such as trade secrets on her secret recipe to make her processes inimitable while providing superior economic benefits and a long-term position over her competitors, which describes her sustainable competitive advantage (Mukesh Srivastava, 2013). Sustainable competitive advantage involves assets and abilities that are unique, inimitable, and provide economic benefit and long-term position of a company over its competitors.

Marketing Objectives 

Lee’s marketing plan will describe the marketing efforts and activities that will help accomplish the setout marketing objectives. The marketing goals include

• Improving product awareness through social media sites. On Facebook, 20 likes monthly
• To establish a broader customer base and market presence to attract more customers and increased sales goals by 10% in the next five months and a steady increase for two years.
• Creating Lee Sweet Pizza brand with the name and logo and advertisement of the business’s concept and philosophy.

Marketing Strategy 

Lee’s primary market includes young adults, females and males, aged 20-35. The geographic area comprises of the target customers and is attracted to Lee Sweet Pizza due to the unique, organic, and healthy pizzas’ recipe. The secondary market of the business are aged 18-35 years with standard pizza preferences, but always maintaining quality value and ingredients. To increase sales, Lee will incorporate various strategies of the 4P marketing mix, including product, pricing, place, and promotion, to increase sales and business value (Ferrell, 2015). The product in the business is high-quality pizzas with a logo describing the pizza and the name of the business. The flavors are numerous with toppings depending on customer preferences, and the packaging boxes resemble the company’s brand and logo. The pricing strategy will depend on the ingredients, toppings, and sizes. Special, high quality, and customized pizzas will be charged through product skimming strategies, but the other products and services will depend on the business’s menu (Ferrell, 2015). The logistics and supply chain for Lee’s business will be distributed through the food truck, Uber delivery, and catering. In the future, the business will consider delivery through drones. The promotion will involve digital, content, online, and traditional marketing strategies on television, billboards, and social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Implementation 

The marketing implementation project will include Lee as the PM and the help of two employees to implement the marketing strategy. The critical milestones include communication to the employees, company branding with a new logo, packaging, and mission statement, and, most importantly, the online, digital, and traditional marketing and presence. Each activity will include a budget, completion date, and a RACI chart for effectiveness.

Evaluation 

Evaluation of the marketing plan will include success criteria that will be used to measure the effectiveness and performance and close monitoring of the social media accounts through tools such as ads, SEO, among others, to track customer interaction and feedback progress. Employees will be informed and trained on better customer service providence and customer relations. Follow up meetings will be conducted biweekly with reports indicating the development and performance of the marketing strategy and plan.

Conclusion

An effective marketing strategy plan drives the success and growth of a business in addition to well-equipped and motivated employees, a productive organizational culture, and brand-customer relationships. Lee’s Sweet Pizza business will achieve its goals and objectives through the marketing strategy plan among motivated employees, as its focus is defined, and a road map sets the purpose and business goal clearly.

References

1. (2020). Quick Facts: Indiana. Retrieved from United States Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/IN/HSD410218#HSD410218

David, F. R. (2019). Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts 17th Edition. Pearson.

Ferrell, W. M. (2015). Marketing 2016. New York: Cengage Learning.

Mukesh Srivastava, A. F. (2013). Building a Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, 8(2):47-60.