Recreational Marijuana marketing plan

Marketing plan for the recreational use of marijuana in Canada after the legalization in July 2018.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is the overall game plan of the business which aims to reach the maximum people and turn them into customers of the product and services that the organization is providing (Baker, 2014). We would use the following marketing strategy to reach out maximum people in the market and turn them into customers of our product. 
•    Solidify the brand design and strategy as soon as possible: it is very important to make a first impression of the product in the eyes of the customers. So, we need to create the first impression of our product through consistent and effective branding (Olson et al., 2018). It gives customers something else than the name of the company to remember the product. It will also create an expectation of the quality of the product that we would provide. 
•    Promote the product and offer customer incentives: one of the most important factors which make the product successful in the market is a promotion. Promotion brings the product and its benefits among the customers which induce them to buy the product. Apart from promotion, customer incentive such as buy one gets one also helps in attracting more customers. We would also provide a discount on the product to attract more customers.
•    Hit on the health factors: nowadays almost all people are health conscious. They eat healthy food and avoid those things which have a negative impact on health such as smoking. We would create a sense of benefits in the mind of the customers which would fit the lifestyle of the customers (Olson et al., 2018).  We would provide the health benefits of cannabis to the customers. 
•    Join the conversation and the community: cannabis is not only a product. It is a movement. It has a medical application, enjoyment values, legal issues, and many more. We would drive our product into the cultures which are around the product. 
•    Know the law and follow that: it is very important for such product that the manufacturer of such product should know the law related to the manufacturing, selling, and use of such product. We are fully determined to follow the legal rule and law of the government. 

Marketing Programs

The marketing program is a set of activities which is designed to achieve the marketing objectives (Armstrong et al., 2015). The marketing mix or 4Ps are the main factors for designing the marketing program. 4Ps of the marketing mix are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Product

Product is what a company offer to its customers. The design of our product should be attractive which can catch the eye of the customers (Armstrong et al., 2015). The package of the product should also contain the health benefits of the product to convince the customers to buy the product.  We would also ensure the high quality of the product which can meet the expectations of the customers. 

Price

Price is what the customers pay in exchange for the product. Price is one of the most important factors which determine the success and failure of the product (Huang et al., 2014). We would use penetration pricing strategy to capture the market. The pricing objective is to cover the cost (fixed and variable) initially and capture the maximum market. To achieve this objective penetration pricing would be used.

Place

Place is where the product is being exchanged or buy and sold. The place also plays a very important role in making the product successful (Huang et al., 2014). The place should be convenient for the customers so that they can easily approach to buy the product. We would offer online to provide our product at the doorstep of the customers.

Promotion

Promotion is also very important factors for the success of the product. To promote our product, we would use a social site such as Facebook, Snap chat, Whatsapp, Instagram, etc. Apart from this, print, as well as broadcast media, would also be used to promote our product (Huang et al., 2014). 

Distribution System

Distribution chain is a series or organization which passes the product from the manufacturer to the customers (Thaler et al., 2017). Distribution chain helps in transporting, storing, and distributing the product to the customers. 
The distribution system is a procedure or method of distributing the product to the customers. The distribution system should be appropriate so that we can provide our product to the customer at any time anywhere (Thaler et al., 2017). We would provide our product to the customers through our own retail outlets. Apart from this, we would also have an online distribution channel to provide our product to the customers at their doorstep.

Marketing Communication

Marketing communication means the promotion of goods and services. It is one of the most important factors for the success of goods and services (Belch et al., 2014). In marketing communication, the marketers communicate with their target customers about the product, its benefits, and features, etc. We would use social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, Snap chat to communicate with the target customers. Apart from social media, we would also use print media and electronic media to communicate with the customers. To promote the product we would also provide discount offers such as buy one get one which is called as sales promotion (Belch et al., 2014). 
The promotion also would be done through public relation in which the representative would describe the health benefits of the product to the customers directly and build strong relationships to retain the existing customers and attract new customers. 

Market Research

Research is very important from the manufacturer point of view. Market research provides the detail information regarding the target customers, target market, the attitude of the potential customers towards the product, etc. (Sarstedt et al., 2014).
Here we would conduct both qualitative and quantitative research to analyze the potential of the market and gather more information regarding the needs and wants of the potential customers. The qualitative information provides deep insight into the research problem while quantitative research provides detail information regarding the taste and preference of the target customers. In the qualitative research focus group, the interview is conducted to collect the data while in a quantitative research survey through the questionnaire is conducted to collect the data. 

Action Program

Task Representative Time Duration Cost
Formulating marketing strategy  Top Management  Three months $100000
Formulating media strategy  Marketing manager Two months $75000
Selecting media  Marketing manager One month $25000
Formulating promotional message Media partner 15 days $50000
Formulating budget plan Finance manager One month $50000
Delivery of promotional message Media partner 15 days $150000

Financial Impact 

It has been estimated that the total cost of production would be approximately $1000000, and total estimated revenue would be approximately $1000000. As we have mentioned that the pricing strategy would be penetration pricing to penetrate the market and capture the maximum market and cover the cost of production initially. So the revenue has also been estimated $1000000. The specific costs of an action plan which are needed to be monitored are the cost of formulating a promotional message, the cost of selecting media, the cost of delivering the promotion message, and the cost of strategy formulating.

Break-Even Analysis

Break-even analysis is the calculation of a point at which the total revenue equals total expenses. Break-even point is a point at which the total revenue is equal to total revenue. At the break-even point, the total revenue is equal to the total cost including fixed cost as well as variable cost (Chapman et al., 2018). At the break-even point, the total profit is zero. The company at the break-even point has neither profit nor loss. Therefore, every company wants to reach at the break-even point as soon as possible so that that company can make a profit after that. At the break-even point, the risk of the company to be in loss is adjusted. 
 

Control and Contingency 

It is very important to monitor and control all the activities to avoid deviation from the expected desired path. If there were a negative deviation from the expected desired path, there would be a loss on the part of the whole organization (Binghum, 2015). Therefore, to avoid the losses the company should monitor and control all the activities of the organization. To monitor and control all the activities, the company should have a contingency plan. Here is the contingency plan for the Aphria Inc.
•    Awareness of the risk: The first and foremost thing is that the company should identify and measure the risk and its impact on the whole organization. If the company would not be aware of the risk, no measures can be taken to mitigate the risk.
•    Monitor: after identifying the risk the company should monitor the activities to mitigate the risk. Monitoring of the risk is important because it provides early information regarding the risk.
•    Response: when a risk occurs in the organization, the organization should respond to the risk immediately to take appropriate measure to deal with that. 
•    Manage: In this step, the organization would take appropriate measures to deal with or mitigate the risk and avoid losses. 

References

Baker, M. J. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Olson, E. M., Slater, S. F., Hult, G. T. M., & Olson, K. M. (2018). The application of human resource management policies within the marketing organization: The impact on business and marketing strategy implementation. Industrial Marketing Management.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Huang, R., & Sarigöllü, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to the market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-132). Springer, New York, NY.
Thaler, J., & Friedson, D. (2017). U.S. Patent Application No. 15/435,901.
Belch, G. E., Belch, M. A., Kerr, G. F., & Powell, I. (2014). Advertising: An integrated marketing communication perspective. McGraw-Hill Education.
Sarstedt, M., & Mooi, E. (2014). A concise guide to market research. The Process, Data, and.
Chapman, L. W., Ferris, K., & Zachary, C. (2018). Utilizing break?even analysis in a competitive laser market. Lasers in surgery and medicine, 50(1), 10-11.
Bingham, F. G. (2015). An Enrollment Marketing Plan for Institutions of Higher Learning. In Proceedings of the 1987 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference(pp. 402-407). Springer, Cham.

Get Quality Assignment Without Paying Upfront

Hire World's #1 Assignment Help Company

Place Your Order