Comprehensive Marketing Plan for a Small Business

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Groovy Smoothie

Groovy Smoothie will be a food truck to service the students of Stockton University. Groovy Smoothie will provide delicious, freshly made smoothies and light snacks for students that will be compatible with the meal plans available through Chartwells. Credit cards and cash will also be accepted for payment. The food truck will have compatible hours for students, particularly starting from 12 PM to late night services. Groovy Smoothie will feature a number of flavors that will come in a 12 ounce, 16 ounce, and 20 ounce sizes in a clear cup with the Groovy Smoothie brand logo. The prices will range from a $3.00 to $6.00 depending on the size the customer chooses. The flavors of our smoothies will range in what fruits are in season. Some specialty items that will be featured are our Broken Wing smoothie, for long nights spent by students who need an energy boost, the Saatkamp Special, and many more specialties. Small snacks will also be available to accompany smoothies, including but not limited to: fruit cups, small salads, hummus, yogurt, and rice dishes. The food truck will hope to become an asset to Stockton University, and a service the students will utilize on a daily basis for both their health and heuristic eating habits.

Mission Statement

The mission of Groovy Smoothie is to provide healthy, high quality smoothies and snacks. We believe in using only locally farmed fruits and vegetables to support local farmers and also want to help lower our ecological footprint. All of our food waste will be either composted or donated to local homeless shelters.

Marketing Objectives

Objective 1:  Acquire Stockton University permission and approval to operate on and around campus by June 1, 2015

Objective 2:  Beginning to operate, with one truck, in order to meet the minimal demand for the products and service until August 1, 2015

Objective 3: Aggressively advertise the business through a number of media outlets, primarily through the company’s official Facebook and web page, as well as the school newspaper. The goal of this marketing campaign will be tripling the demand of company’s products until the beginning of the second semester, January 13, 2016

Objective 4: Putting two more trucks into service in order to meet the increased demand as a result of the aggressive marketing.  January 20, 2016

Objective 5: During this time, Groovy Smoothie will attempt to gain loyal costumer by offering different loyalty plans and care plans as well as coupons and discounts for the university’s students and staff. The goal is to increase awareness among students of our company products health benefits, and get people to use the company’s products as a primary source of healthy food and snacks.

Objective 6: Increasing profit by marginally raising the prices of company’s products.  The extra profit will be used for expanding the business. Starting May 1, 2016

Objective 7: Acquire Stockton University permission and approval to operate in Stockton’s new building and research center in Atlantic City, Sea View Hotel, as well as universities’ buildings in Hammonton, Manahawkin and Woodbine by January 1, 2017

Objective 8:  Putting four more trucks into service in order to meet the increased demand as a result of expanding the business in four new locations. This will be the final step of reaching our goal of 40% market share in Stockton University.

Groovy Smoothie’s Target Market

The Groovy Smoothie’s target market is college students who want to eat quick but healthy food and snacks. The Groovy Smoothie truck will offer students convenience and healthy food choices on campus, especially the freshmen since many freshmen either don’t have cars on campus. Also, upperclassmen who live farther away from the Campus Center Food Court on cold nights will appreciate the food and beverages options provided by our business. The Groovy Smoothie will accommodate for any student on campus every day during the fall and spring semesters.
A particular segment of Stockton University’s students that we will target on are health conscious students, including but not limited to: vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free diets, and more. Appealing to the segment of health conscious students shows our market opens us up to the positioning base of a health attribute. We are a company with the goal of giving customers healthy food at a fair price.

Customer Scenario

Cassie and Emily are college freshmen who are looking to keep off the infamous "freshman fifteen." In order to do this, they need to make healthier dietary choices. However, they need their food to be fast, convenient and cheap and have options that fit with a typical college student budget and time frame. That's why Cassie and Emily are now regular and satisfied customers of Groovy Smoothie. They are able to get a healthy smoothie or snack to take on-the-go that that doesn’t drain their meal plan. This way they can avoid unhealthy options and stay on budget. Now instead of gaining fifteen pounds, they are losing some pounds!

Our Brand

The name of our company, Groovy Smoothie, will also serve as the brand name for all of our products. The name, Groovy Smoothie, reflects the theme of our products and the basis of most of our sales and main products: smoothies. Our company will primarily offer smoothies as the featured item in our food truck, and we call ourselves “groovy” because of Stockton University’s history. Stockton University once started out as a small liberal arts public college that was filled with some New Jersey’s young hippies and bohemians, and still attracts the same type of “groovy” people today. The image below is the brand logo. [pic 10]

The logo reflects the theme of our brand through its subtle rainbow colors that catches the eye and the peace sign which reflect the “hippie” vibe we are hoping to achieve. We believe this brand logo will catch the eye of students at Stockton University and draw in customers. We plan to trademark this brand logo at a later time when the business proves to be successful and growing.

Customer Service Concepts

Free peppermints will be available to any customer after a purchase is made. Napkins with the Groovy Smoothie logo will also be provided.
All service providers will be formally trained and tested on their performance prior to being stationed in the food truck. Customer satisfaction is our number one priority. Every employee will be so well trained that the customers won’t even have a favorite provider. Instead, they will be happy with the service of any employee. If an employee is found violating any of the rules in the employee handbook, or found not satisfying the customer to our standards he/she will be issued one warning, and if repeated then immediately removed from the work force. If students of Stockton University are hired, we would preferably hire Hospitality and Tourism Management students or student who have taken “Introduction to Hospitality” to encourage an emphasis and understanding of great service.
A good majority of the products are perishable and will spoil if not used. All the products will remain refrigerated. Any products approaching their spoil date will be used to make free samples to promote products, used for a sale item, or donated to the local soup kitchen for immediate use that night.