YOUR FUTURE IN FOOD

Writing a Marketing Plan

for Your Food Product

Marketing your product and business can feel Section 1: Executive Summary
overwhelming, but it does not have to be. Think
about creating a comprehensive marketing ■■ Your executive summary should always be
plan that helps you identify and formalize your written last. It should clearly summarize
marketing ideas and concepts. and highlight the key points in each
section.
Writing down your plans will help you stay
focused and ensure that your marketing ■■ Your executive summary should be
objectives align with your overall business goals concise and no longer than one page.
and strategy. It will help you establish tasks
and timelines, and ensure you are using your Section 2: Market Research
resources efficiently and effectively. It will also
give bankers and lenders a good idea as to
■■ Research the potential market for
how you plan to sustain and grow your business. your food product. Consider using a
combination of:
Consider using the following eight sections as a –– primary research, such as field
guide to writing a comprehensive marketing plan research, interviews, surveys, focus
for your food product and business. groups, experiments and trials
–– secondary research, such as existing

research, published articles, industry

blogs and online data
■■ Collect valuable qualitative and
quantitative information that will help you
determine if a market exists for your food
product.

Section 3: Branding
■■ To build a strong brand, you need to
define your company’s core philosophies,
including your:
–– mission statement – define your

company’s core purpose and focus

–– vision statement – define your

company’s high-level goals for the future

 –– unique value proposition – identify why
customers should buy your product, by
stating what value your company provides
to them that no other competitor does
–– positioning statement – identify your target
market and how you want your brand to be
perceived in the marketplace
■■ These philosophies will clearly identify the
value your company brings to the market and
how you will attract customers.

Section 4: Target Market

■■ Using your market research, clearly identify
the target market where your product will
provide the most value.
It is very unlikely that everybody will be a
Section 5:
■■

potential customer for your product. Do not

try to sell to everyone. Analyze your statistics Competitor and Business Analysis
to show that there is demand for your food ■■ Use the market research you have gathered
product in your target market. Here are a few to identify and analyze your competitors.
ways to define your customer:
–– Demographic profiling can divide or
■■ Create a comparison chart to capture
segment your market by age group, gender, competitors’ information in terms of:
–– where they are located
education level, occupation, income range,
–– how long they have been in business
martial status, family size and cultural
–– their target market
background.
–– what percentage of market share they
–– Psychographic profiling can divide or

segment your market by personality, currently hold

–– their product – size, pricing, packaging
values, interests, behavior, opinions and
lifestyle. Two typical methods for obtaining and variety
–– their strengths and weaknesses
psychographic data are by interviewing
–– their long term plans, if made public
your customer or reviewing website
analytics. ■■ Identify your company’s strengths,
–– You can further define your customer by weaknesses, opportunities and threats in
identifying how they like to do business. comparison to your competitors.
What types of food products do they like
■■ Clearly identify any competitive advantage
and where do they like to buy them? How
your company has over its competition.
much are they are willing to spend? By
identifying similarities among the people ■■ Identify what level of sales growth is expected
in your target market, you will better in your food category in the next one to three
understand your customers and their needs, years.
and how to market to them most effectively. ■■ Determine if your competitors have the
■■ Estimate the total number of customers in your production capacity and resources to meet
target market that meet the demographic and current and future market demand for your
psychographic profile and behaviour of your food category in your target market. If they
target customer. do, consider changing your target market.
■■ Determine your unique selling proposition,
which will differentiate your product from your
competitors.

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Section 6: competitively under changing circumstances.
For example, identify if there is adequate room
Marketing Strategy and Action Plan to offer discounts or to cover additional costs,
Before creating a marketing strategy and action such as freight or selling through a broker,
plan, review the target market profile you have distributor or at retail?
created. Identify the best ways to make your potential
customer aware of and interested in your business Distribution Channels
and make them want to purchase your product.
■■ Identify fast, easy and convenient processes
Product and methods for your customer to find and
purchase your food product.
■■ Describe your product based on your customer’s
needs and wants. Identify what value your ■■ Make customers feel good about your process
food product brings to the customer in terms of and reward repeat purchases to encourage
product features, benefits and uniqueness. loyalty.
■■ Identify what type of distribution channel you
Pricing
plan to use to get your food product into the
■■ Identify potential objectives when setting your hands of your consumer. For example, will you
price, including: sell your food product directly to the customer
–– maximizing profit
or through one of more of the following: broker,
–– product positioning (correlation between price
distributor, wholesaler or retailer?
and quality) –– Identify all partners in the distribution channel.
–– to encourage customer trials –– Identify the costs associated with each of
–– to avoid product return or spoilage
the partners you will be working with in the
–– to drive traffic
distribution channel.
–– to gain attention –– Determine how you will package products for
–– to be competitive
shipping.
–– who you plan to sell to (e.g., grocery stores, –– Determine the minimum order size you are

food services and gift markets) willing to ship or deliver.

–– Determine the turnaround time you need to fill
■■ Determine the cost of goods sold of your
food product. Include direct materials (e.g., orders and get them to your customers.
–– It is expected that you will typically extend
ingredients, packaging and labelling), and
direct labour associated with manufacturing the credit to your wholesale customers. Determine
food product. how many days you are willing to wait to be
paid.
■■ Determine if there is sufficient gross margin –– Determine how late deliveries, back orders or
between the manufactures’ wholesale cost large shipments that need to be broken down
and the customers acceptable price range for will be handled.
your business to be sustainable long-term. Your
product price should factor in all potential future Promotion
costs to ensure your product will remain priced
■■ Identify how you will communicate the value
of your food product to your customers through
your promotional strategy. Your strategy should
help you gain new customers, retain customers,
encourage repeat purchases and build customer
loyalty. Consider using a combination of
networking, direct marketing, advertising, direct
selling, news releases, publicity, trade shows
and websites to form your promotional strategy.
Identify how much you will spend on each
category per year.

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 Advertising Selling
■■ Identify what marketing strategies you plan ■■ Create a list of potential customers and contact
to use to advertise your food product(s). information.
Advertising media could include business cards, ■■ Research the benefits associated with dealing
co-operative advertising with distributors and
with different partners in the distribution
retailers, online, newspapers, magazines,
channel. Decide how you plan to sell to the
billboards, radio and public relations.
customer (e.g., selling directly, or selling
■■ Determine the cost associated with each type through a broker, distributor, wholesaler or
of media. retailer).
■■ Determine your advertising media budget, the ■■ Identify any tools and resources you or the
types of media you will use and how often you person selling your product will need to secure
plan to use each of the type of media. orders (e.g., using sell sheets, factsheets,
brochures, offering volume discounts, and
■■ Determine who will design and provide content
budgeting to purchase shelf space).
for each type of media you choose. Make sure
your communication approach is consistent ■■ Identify what your sales training program will
among all types of media. look like.

Sales Promotion ■■ Identify how you will track and measure sales.

■■ Identify what type of sale promotions you plan ■■ Identify what incentive programs will be
to use. Some examples of promotions include offered.
in-store demonstrations and sampling, point-
of-purchase displays and sales aids, coupons, Section 7: Marketing Objectives
consumer or wholesale trade shows, direct
mail, giveaways, contests, tie-ins, testimonials, ■■ Establish achievable, measurable and timely
referrals and endorsements. marketing objectives. Examples of marketing
objectives could include increasing sales,
■■ Regardless of the sales promotion method you building brand awareness, launching new
choose, ensure that a consistent message is product and targeting new customers or
communicated to the customer. markets.
■■ Determine the cost associated with each method ■■ Determine the key performance indicators you’ll
of sales promotion. use to measure your marketing objectives.
■■ Determine your promotional budget and how For example, if your marketing objective is to
much you will spend on each method of sales increase brand awareness, you may decide to
promotion. track website traffic, social media chatter and
referrals.
■■ Identify a customer service policy that will
help retain and acquire customers. This could ■■ Measure and document before, during and
mean creating good press about your level after each marketing initiative to ensure
of customer service and promoting it as a that you’re receiving positive results. If
benefit of doing business with your company. not, this gives you an opportunity to make
It could also mean using customer reviews and improvements to your marketing initiatives and
testimonials in promotions online and in print. help with future planning.

Publicity and Public Relations

Section 8: Financial Projections
■■ Identify and participate in activities that will
gain public awareness for your food product ■■ Include the following up-to-date financial
and company. Publicity can be obtained information to show financial viability during
through featured news articles, interviews, a specific time period (typically 12-month time
reviews, news releases, testimonials or referrals. period):
–– Market potential – estimate the total
This is a great way to promote your food
product and company on a small promotional population that would be interested in
budget. your company’s food product.

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 –– Sales potential – estimate the prospective market share your
company can realistically achieve for your food product.
–– Sales forecast – estimate future sales revenue spread over a
12-month time period.
–– Break-even analysis – estimate how much your company
will have to make before it starts to return a profit.
–– Fixed costs – identify all expenses that your company incurs,
with or without producing any of your food products (e.g.,
facility rental, utilities, insurance and depreciation).
–– Variable costs – identify expenses you have directly incurred
because of producing your food product. Examples include
ingredients, labelling, packaging and labour related
directly to production.
–– Balance sheet – project your company’s assets, liabilities
and shareholders’ equity.
–– Income statement – project your companies revenues and
expenses.
–– Cash-flow – show how changes in the balance sheet and
income statement affect your company’s cash and cash
equivalents.
■■ Base your projections on your marketing research.
■■ Document all assumptions used to determine your financial
information.
■■ All financial projections should be collected for the same
12-month time period.
■■ Create an implementation schedule that lists tasks and
deadlines associated with completing your marketing
objectives on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis.

Other Considerations
Throughout your marketing plan, you should include potential risks
that your business could face and clearly identify how you will
deal with each situation. Some examples of unforeseen challenges
could include negative press, new competition, shifts in trends and
buyer preferences and regulation changes in terms of packaging,
labelling and claims.
When creating a marketing plan, no element of your marketing
strategy works in isolation. Information you determine in one area
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balance between your product, price, distribution and promotion. manitoba.ca/agriculture and
These four elements work together to successfully position your click on Food and
product or brand and gain market share. Ag Processing

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