Marketing Plan: Mr Bean Singapore

Executive Summary

The present report consists of a marketing plan created for “Mr Bean” the foremost chain soya bean food & beverage retailer in Singapore today. The international marketing plan is prepared for the organization for diversifying its activities and operations in the Costa Rica market. The marketing plan contains marketing aims and objectives and benefits of products and services of Mr Bean. The current report involves STEEP, SWOT and Market analysis of Mr Bean in the markets of Costa Rica. The report highlights marketing strategies and other important measures implemented by Mr Bean to market its products and services in the Costa Rica.

Background

Mr Bean was founded by Kang Puay Seng and Loh Jwee Poh in the year 1995 and at present is one of the leading chain soya bean food and beverage retailers in Singapore. The company has initially started as a small stall in People’s Park hawker Centre, Singapore. The company is a renowned retailer of Singapore. The owners of the company while visiting an exhibition discovered a machine that could effectively produce soya products rapidly. Considering this a big business opportunity, they build small kiosks in target areas at schools, shopping malls, hospitals and stations (Mr Bean, 2009).
As a result of good response by people owners of the company started two more stalls, one in Marine Parade and the other in Ang Mo Kio. The company mainly sells soya bean based products and beverages. Mr Bean provides a range of soya bean drinks and snacks. People of all age groups enjoy varieties of ice blended flavored soya drinks, pastries, cookies, ice-creams and many more delicious products.

The company operates a chain of retail stores through its operating organization. At present, the company runs more than 60 retail stores (63 island across Singapore, and 2 in Japan). Due to its popularity and fame among people of Singapore, the company received two most precious awards which are Singapore Promising Brand Award and the Most Popular Brand Award. The Singapore Food Manufacturers Association entitles the company with My Favorite Consumer Brand Award.
Today, the brand is so popular across the world that visitors cannot resist themselves to bump into a Mr Bean store. The brand has no or very little direct competition and a limited geography. The brand to interact more with customers has now moved to online and its online portal is created to offer customers a direct brand association- from the jolly brand lucky charm to the application of signature fonts and colors. The company is now planning to diversify its operations in the markets of Costa Rica to increase sales and achieve high revenue.

Business Environment

The company has been able to attract a major segment in the markets of Costa Rica and the present marketing plans involve the development of marketing strategies for customers of all age group. The company will adopt the same fast food concept while marketing soya products and beverages in the Costa Rica. By making use of experience and technology, Mr Bean will produce fresh and delicious soya products with rich nutritional value. The company will create a visionary management team and dedication to expand successfully in the regions of Costa Rica. The company will conduct following four analyses to understand the business environment and preferences of people in the Costa Rica.

STEEP Analysis

STEEP Analysis stands for social, technological, environmental, economic and political factors influencing the business and is highly considered to be one of the most efficient analytical tools implemented by international marketers to analyze the effects of externals to the organization. The following STEEP analysis is conducted for the Mr Bean for its operations in the Costa Rica:
Social Factors:- There is a extreme change occurs in the desires and needs of consumers in the Costa Rica and it is necessary for the businesses associated with the soya products and beverages to introduce changes offered by the company according to the changes in tastes and preferences of the customers in the Costa Rica (Drummond, Ensor and Ashford, 2013). It is essential for Mr Beans to develop soya products according to the taste of customers along with the business practices to remain successful in the markets of Costa Rica.
Technological Factors:- There are fast changes happening in the technology. Mr Beans in order to make minimize the overall cost of the company and to enhance sales and profits of the company need to make huge investments in the research and development process to explore new and innovative technologies for soya products. It is necessary for the Mr Beans to adopt new and advanced technologies which in turn, assist in enhancing the productivity and sales of Mr Beans.

Environmental Factors:- The owners of the company believe in the art of giving and sharing. The company believes in involving resources, efforts and most specifically hearts in providing pleasures and happiness to those who are in need of help. Since many years, Mr Beans have adopted many innovative and advanced efforts in terms of environment. The company has created policies and rules in terms of recycling, eliminating waste, building environmentally sound stores and facilities, saving the energy and water. The company use and buy renewable energy credits to eliminate the environment footprints of its operations (McDonald, 2012).
Economic factors:- As people are becoming health conscious the industry of soya products has now become high and growing market in the world. On the basis of researches it has been observed that people of Costa Rica have been continually including healthy and nutritional products in their diet as a result of which Mr Beans has high chances of gaining more and more market shares in the Costa Rica (Marich, 2009). It seems that there is high potential for Mr Beans in the new emerging markets such as Costa Rica and other parts of the country as well.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is tool that offers information about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that exist in the internal and external business environment of an organization. It helps the business to develop various strategies and plans for cope the threats present in the era of high competition (Reid & Bojanic, 2009). Besides this, it also aids in developing strategies and schemes for achieving new opportunities available in the market.

Market Analysis

Mr Beans has its own plans and strategies to expand and capture markets in the Costa Rica. It also suggests the launch of new varieties of soya products and beverages in various new markets of the Costa Rica. Irrespective of the uncertain economic and financial conditions prevails in the Costa Rica the company has various schemes to propose innovative marketing and investment strategies. Market analysis refers to the process of dividing and classifying the market into various groups as per relevant criteria. Market analysis has been done on the basis of demographic, geographic and psychographic characteristics (Shankar et-al., 2012).
In this context, Mr Beans has divided the market as per the usage of soya products and beverages. The products offered by Mr Beans are not used as nutrition provider, but also helps in enhancing the capability of strength and endurance by offering protection against physical and mental stress. Market analysis in Costa Rica will be done according to the nature of costumers and uses of soy products. It is divided equally among customers of all age group which are kids, adults, youths, professionals, athletes and others.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy of Mr Beans aids the company in offering information about the changes occurring in various elements of the business environment. It facilitates company in entering the markets of Costa Rica, which in turn, helps in achieving the goals and objectives of the business in an effective and efficient manner. The market strategy of Mr Beans, involves the following four essential features (McDonald, 2012).

Objectives

The new variety of Mr Beans in Costa Rica would aims at offering high quality and low fat soya products and beverages, so that customers can experience a high energy level for the whole day. The objectives are as follows:
a.) To increase the sale of products and services of Mr Beans by 10% in the coming next two quarters, by mainly targeting working professionals in the age group of 24-35 years.
b.) To develop female customer focused plans, in the next few months to enhance the brand image and increase sales margin.
c.) To spread awareness about the soya products and beverages, through health advertisements and effective promotions.
d.) To create strategies and schemes that can be implemented to enhance the profit margin in emerging markets of Costa Rica by 7% in the next year.
e.) To improve the acceptance of the idea of soya products and beverages for female customers, which makes them enthusiastic and energetic
Target Market Segment.

The primary target market of Mr Beans in Costa Rica would be men and women aged 25 to 35. They will account for almost half of company’s total business. The particular market plan of Mr Beans also focuses on working professionals of the Costa Rica, aged between 24-35 years. The expected number of consumers, in this age group, is more as there is a large number of working professionals. The company will appeal to its customers directly through implementing advanced technology in its products as soon as it comes available, along with promoting soya products on social networking sites (Schermerhorn, 2009).

Market Positioning

In the international marketing plan, positioning of the product is considered as an important criterion, which influences the building of a unique image of the specific brand. In the marketing plan for working customers, the new variety of products will be chiefly advertise at places, which have high working professionals. The new variety of soya products and beverages will be according to health demands of customers in the Costa Rica to attract more customers to change their preferences for local or domestic soya products.
People of all age groups especially working professionals need high amount of protein and energy to manage workplace and household activities, and thus the use of soya products and beverages can revitalize them and take care of their health (Peng, 2012). Therefore, positioning is used as a target market strategy, which is needed to enhance the sales and profit of Mr Beans.

Marketing Mix

Download PDF(Marketing Plan Mr Bean Singapore)

Product strategy

The soya products and services that will be launched in the Costa Rica markets will mainly concentrate on the protein needs of customers mainly of working professionals. The product will highlight the nutritional needs, and focus on the different health related demands of working professionals. The product has a strong brand image, and customers are satisfied with the soya products in Singapore so the company is targeting to enhance the brands popularity among working professionals in the Costa Rica (Reid & Bojanic, 2009).

Product Characteristics

The soya products and beverages launched by the company will have more new features to attract larger working professionals in the Costa Rica. Mr Bean’s products are delicious in taste and revitalize and refresh the body and person feel healthy through the day. It provides nutritional value to professionals and act as energy provider for the working professionals, enabling them to work for longer hours (Martinez and Wolverton, 2009). The protein and essential content in the products of Mr Bean would be an attractive factor for health conscious working professionals in the Costa Rica.

Product Design

The packing bags and containers of the new variety of soya products will consist of attractive packaging and various colors to attract a larger number of populations in the Costa Rica. The products will be specifically designed for the female working professionals, and will focus to attract their focus through attractive designs and packaging.

Pricing Strategy

The prices of Mr Beans’ products and beverages will be comparatively higher than the other available soya products and beverages available in the market of Costa Rica. For the new product, Mr Beans will follow the “Skim the Cream” strategy and develop a specific strategy that will attract working professionals especially females of Costa Rica. Further, the price will be adjusted according to the changing market conditions (Russell, 2010). The entrance of any direct competitors will be also be taken into consideration as an important factor that may influence the pricing strategies of the new varieties of products.

Distribution Strategy

As the soya products and beverages will launched into Costa Rica the brand implement intensive distribution campaign by selling the product varieties through stores that are located in areas which are mainly visited by working professionals. The product distribution will be promoted through the Costa Rica and all the stores will display separate racks for the innovative product varieties.

Promotional Strategies

Mr Beans will advertise its products and services through attractive advertisements designed especially for working professionals on their favorite TV channels. The company can also make use of magazines, brochures, pamphlets, etc to advertise its products in Costa Rica. Moreover, the brand can advertise its products in metro, trains and other destinations which are mainly visited by working professionals.

Implementation and control

The marketing plan of the products and services should be evaluated and examined timely so that changes can be made if required. The evaluation and judgment of the plan should be based on the objectives of the plan (Giving wings to people and ideas, 2014). To evaluate the results appropriately, it is essential to set up set standards of quantifiable measures, which could be used to measure the progress of the marketing plan. There is a need to evaluate the performance of the business through the actual results and then compare it with the standard established by Mr Beans (Smith, 2011).
There is a need to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of various marketing processes and adopt variety of measures to enhance effectiveness, as it directly influences the sales and profits of the business. In the world of high competition, Mr Beans should make more investment in research and development and introduce advancement in the products to achieve the first mover advantage in the market. The company along with premium pricing strategy should also implement target costing or cost plus profit method which helps in enhancing the number of customers.

Conclusion

On the basis of above discussion it can be concluded that marketing plan is important for starting any new business for gaining an outline of business and therefore, helping the idea of an organization to change into reality. The best marketing plans are those which are not lengthy and complicated and only explain the most significant information, which can be achieved through the marketing plan. In context to this, the international marketing plan of Mr Beans assists the company in diversifying its operations in the Costa Rica.
The concept for the company is to sell soya products and beverages to consumers of the Costa Rica through local or domestic outlets. The company will offer a huge variety of company products to attract new customers in the Cosat Rica. The marketing plan of the company also discusses the promotional activities adopted by the company to meet the objectives of the company. It has also highlighted the innovative strategies that will be used to target the important market segments in the Costa Rica.
The company has discussed its plans and schemes to expand and capture markets in the Costa Rica. It also suggests the launch of new editions of the soya products, in various markets of the Costa Rica. The STEEP, SWOT and Market analysis has provided information regarding the changes taking place in different elements of the business environment. It also helps in taking decisions regarding different strategies, which in turn, helps in attaining the goals and objectives of the business in an effective and efficient manner. The use and implementation of different marketing strategies used by Mr Beans has helped the company to attracting and retains new and existing customers in the Costa Rica.

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