Dulse Vita Marketing Report

Dulse Vita

Marketing Report

Group #4

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Dulse Vita

Executive Summary

Our company provides health-enhancing products to active people.  Dulse Vita is a small health oriented company with a focus on natural products to improve mind and body functions. Dulse Vita originated in Corvallis, Oregon and has a goal of creating a mix of simple to make, all-natural plant-based products which take the place of the currently available less-healthy substitutes. As a company from the Pacific Northwest, Dulse Vita shares customers’ visions of being active and living a healty lifestyle and aims to provide excellent products to support that vision. Unhealthy products such as energy drinks or prepackaged meals often use many ingredients that are detrimental to one’s health, do not provide adequate nutrition, and leave people constipated. Dulse Vita seeks to provide a solution to these problems with their plant based meal packs which include an entrée, a dessert and drink options which each focus on the vitality of one of our body’s systems. Long-term Dulse Vita hopes to become a nationally recognized brand at the forefront of healthy, plant-based, all-natural food and drink products.

Product

Our brand “Dulse Vita” literally means vitality from seaweed, the dulse variety of seaweed.  Our pronunciation of it is just like the Italian saying dolce vida, which translates literally as “the sweet life”.  The dulse seaweed is the common ingredient in all our vitality foods, as the dulse seaweed is used as a spice to both enhance flavor and serve as a salt substitute common in competitors’ entrees and beverages.  

Dulse Vita’s product mix includes a line of vitality beverages as well as a line of vitality foods. Each of our products are made with 100% plant, all-natural ingredients and focus on benefits to one body system. There are three drinks in the beverage product line:  Cardio Vitality, Muscular Vitality and Digestive Vitality.  Cardio Vitality, a watermelon flavored rehydration drink, or “spa for your heart” is focused on the body’s circulatory system improving blood flow, increasing oxygen distribution to body tissues, increasing stamina, and providing rehydration to the body using Technologies 1, 2 and 6.  It is an ideal drink before a workout, or any body-stressing activity.  Muscular Vitality is a cherry flavored re-energizer or “bounce back” drink for post-exercise, focused on the body’s musculo-skeletal system.  Using Technologies 2,3, and 6 this drink aids in the recovery from physical exertion by improving blood flow, increasing oxygen distribution to body tissues, and decreasing inflammation around joints and in tissues without negative anti-inflammatory side effects.  It is the perfect drink after a workout, hike or day of outdoor activity.  Digestive Vitality, a mixed berry flavored “body boost” drink focuses on the body’s digestive system.  Using technologies 2, 4 and 6, this drink is perfect for trips away from home or while surviving-in-place in an emergency.  This drink focuses on regulating the digestive system, improving blood flow, increasing oxygen distribution to body tissues, and keeping the body regular, thus avoiding constipation issues common to competitor products.

 We have a versatile entrée and dessert in our food product line. Vine Vitality, a pea protein burger enhanced with our Dulse Vita spice, uses Technologies 7 and 6 providing endocrine benefits while meeting the body’s need for protein and vitamins.   This entrée may be prepared a number of ways and combined with a number of other ingredients for an almost endless variety of meals.  Neuro Vitality, our cocoa-blueberry flavored ”brain boost” dessert is focused on the neurological system.   Aiding in cognition, improving memory function, and increasing blood flow to tissues, this meal-completer not only provides additional energy but keeps you alert when you are active.

Selling as “bundled” meal packs, Dulse Vita hopes to gain a competitive advantage over similar products such as Lunchables, Mountain House meals, and Backpacker’s Pantry or Thrive emergency preparedness foods. Our meal packs offer a healthy substitute to these other brands, while still maintaining a long shelf life and ease of use. By using only plant-based ingredients in our meal packs, we eliminate the high sodium, chemical, and carbohydrate levels seen in comptetitor foods and eliminate the need for the unhealthy preservatives they use.

Price

Dulse Vita’s meal packs consist of three products (entrée + dessert + drink) together with a bundle price.  Initially, we will use market penetration pricing of $5 per meal or a three pack for $14 to get a quick launch in to the market.  This undercuts the average $6.50 price of our three main competitors (Backpacker’s Pantry, Mountain House, and Thrive “survival” Food).  We feel the market will respond well to this pricing which gives the consumer a meal instead of just an entree (competitor), and gives active people a healthy choice where the competitors don’t currently offer that.  Pricing will increase after the first year to $7 per meal or a three pack for $20.

Monetization

Using market segment pricing, we will discriminate by channel offering lower pricing for higher quantities purchased by customers who have different applications for our product. Current package quantities are 3, 9, 21, 36, 52 and 144 packages. These package quantities were determined based on a per-person, per-day basis. For example, the quantity of 9 is ideal for weekend trips, as it would supply a single individual for the entirety of the outing. Furthermore, the 144 pack would be better suited for survival stocks, as the quantity supplied  could allow a couple to stay-in-place for 24 days, or twelve days worth of food for a family of four.

Market intelligence reveals competitor Mountain House features a per unit entree price of roughly $7, whereas Backpackers Pantry and Thrive offer unit prices closer to $6 (dependant on sales) for a less filling preserved meal. The competitor-based pricing of $5 rising to $7 in one year allows Dulse Vita to attract buyers who may gravitate towards Backpackers Pantry due to the lower price, but will also appeal to Mountain House and Thrive buyers due to the higher product quality; and subsequently value, associated with the lower price-point.  Once we have secured our position in the marketplace we will increase the penetration based prices closer to the true value prices of the product, which would be roughly $7. This still maintains our competitive advantage over our competitors by supplying a full meal instead of just an entree, for roughly the same cost. Furthermore the higher quality (and healthier product) will serve to increase the perceived value of our products and brand, making it more likely a consumer will choose Dulse Vita over the similarly priced market competitors.