New Product Launch Plan

New Product Launch Plan:  Part III

Aya Hashimoto, Cynthrea Font, Robert Lowery & Lee Williamson

MKT 571

June 4, 2015

Dr. Scott Goldberg

Executive Summary

This report is the third and final installment of the launch plan for a chipotle-flavored potato chip launch in the United States and foreign markets.  The target market will remain lower and middle-income consumers but the company will design advertisements to market the new flavor as the chip for anyone desiring a great tasting snack.  The company will leverage knowledge of behavioral and psychological characteristics of consumers by strategically locating the product near store entrances and running advertisements near meal times when consumers are hungriest.  Experts expect the salty snack food industry to continue to expand and the new flavor will allow the company to increase market share.  The cost of production and distribution of the new flavor will be low because of leveraging manufacturing and distribution channels currently in place.  The company will use penetration pricing for the initial launch of the new flavor to encourage existing and potential customers to try the new chip.  The marketing communication plan will focus on consumer engagement and have a heavy reliance on social media to accomplish this task.  The company will increase brand loyalty through consumer engagement and sponsor social media competitions to solicit ideas for additional flavors.  The company will increase marketing expenditures during the Growth Phase and look to increase market share.  The company will monitor implementation goals during the Product Life Cycle and make adjustments to the marketing campaign plan to leverage the information ascertained during the supervisory process.

New Product Marketing Launch Plan:  Part III

The Learning Team will finalize the launch of the new Frito Lay’s Chipotle-flavored potato chip.  This new product marketing launch plan contains a situational and competitive analysis and discusses market growth potential.  The plan will detail market segmentation, Frito Lay’s target market, the company’s positioning in the salty snack industry, and pricing and distribution strategies.  The plan includes a forecast of demand, the breakeven point, sales projections, the promotional budget, and marketing expenses.  The Learning Team will include marketing objectives for the first three years of the product launch and implementation milestones.  The launch plan will outline the evaluation and control metrics and the methodology that the company will use to measure performance as well as contingency planning (University of Phoenix, 2015).  

Situational Analysis

        Founded in 1961, Frito Lay’s and has over 50 years of experience in the salty snack food industry.  The company operates both domestically and internationally and has numerous instances of successfully introducing new flavors of potato chips to the market (Frito-Lay’s, 2015).  Frito Lay’s potato chips have a loyal customer base both in the United States and in numerous countries abroad.  The average Frito Lay’s consumers share similar behavioral, demographic, and geographic characteristics.  Frito Lay’s understanding of the behavioral characteristics of consumers will afford the company an opportunity for a successful launch of the new flavor.  Consumers are more likely to purchase a product from a middle shelf, near a store entrance, or at a checkout line (Sigurdsson, 2009).  Advertisements influence the purchase of snack foods more frequently when potential customers view the advertisements while they are hungry (Perner, 2010).  Frito Lay’s will seek to leverage the placement of the product and the timing of advertisements to provide the new flavor with the best opportunity to have a successful launch (Hashimoto, Font, Lowery, &Williamson, 2015).  The demographic characteristics of Frito Lays include all ages, genders, and levels of income (Kotler & Keller, 2011).  Frito Lay’s geographic market consists of the United States and foreign markets.  The company will initially launch the new flavor only in the United States in areas where spicy foods are popular and expand to other geographic markets once the new flavor gains popularity (Hashimoto et al.  2015).