Strategic Marketing Plan For LISA’s Hummus In New Zealand

Market Situation of LISA’s

LISA’S Hummus is a New Zealand based company, which serves hummus and dips. It is part of the healthy food industry, which exemplifies as an easy way of home entertainment. The company is focused over the more of optimism and uncomplicated method to offer the food products to the customers. The company offers the fresh quality of dips and hummus, which remains originally fresh from the home kitchen of Lisa’s (lisas, 2018).  

Heart of the company is “integrity,” and its vision is “perfectly happy customer” through the flavor of the product and freshness. To ensure quality and safety, the products are stored at very low temperature  (lisas, 2018).

• New Zealand market trends for food industry include the growth towards healthy pace since 2017. Personal final consumption has steady gains. Foodservice organizations are compelled to diversify their product range to pace competition. The new trend majorly involves health and wellness including better quality of food and particularly dietary issues, the reason being the high obesity rate in New Zealand. Product innovation and technological advancement (Chen, Flint, & Perry, 2015)
• Opportunities for Lisa’s include, targeting health-conscious customers, and people with more quality concern. More innovation in products can be the opportunity for the company to gain in near future.
• Challenges for the company are increasing the number of options in the food industry for New Zealand residents. Increase in competition is a major challenge for the company. Another challenge is persuading people for more healthy and fresh products instead of food with a high amount of fats and cholesterol.    

The company offers food products like soups, dips, and hummus. It is one of the major competitors in New Zealand, focusing on Hummus as it also targets non-vegetarian customers. The company offers hummus with tahini, chicken peas, and a squeeze of lemon for better and a creamy texture of hummus. Moreover, the company is also offering specialty dips with different flavors like avocado (goodtastecompany, 2018). While considering this company, the main product for completion with Lisa is “the original Hummus.” The price of this product is $3.99 for a 200g product (stuff, 2018).

Figure 1: The good taste co-original hummus (source: (goodtastecompany, 2018)

Just Hummus is another competitor of Lisa’s, which is offering various flavors of Hummus. The main product for competition for Lisa’s is “Hummus with garlic and lemon.” The competitive advantage of this brand over Lisa’s is nutrition that is least fat as 8.8g and least sodium of 380 g per 100 g of product. However, the price for this is $3.69 for the 175g product, which is most expensive. However, the sodium is high of Liza’s hummus. Just Hummus is a major competition when online trading of Hummus is considered (justhummusboston, 2018).

Figure 2: Just hummus (with garlic and lemon) (Source: (justhummusboston, 2018)

The company is offering products like dips, falafel, and various flavors of Hummus like Smokey Hummus with garlic and tahini, falafel mix, jalapeno & coriander, beetroot, Kumar, coconut and turmeric, aubergine, basil pesto, hummus with dukkah, sesame, and chili and many other products (lisas, all-products, 2018).

• Health conscious- one of the target markets includes customer with high concern for health, like young people, obese people, and old age group.
• Vegetarians- the company is focusing on target vegans as non-vegetarian options are not offered by Lisa’s

• One of the competitive advantages is the price of the products; it is quite low as compared to its competitors. For example, $2.99 for a 200g pack of original Hummus with lemon and garlic, which is the cheapest amongst competitors(shop.countdown, 2018).
• Another competitive advantage of Lisa’s is product quality; the brand is popular for freshness and high quality of food products. There are various food options available, but those generally contain a high amount of sodium and fats. This brand is providing food, which is healthy for every being and will not be responsible for bad health and obesity(lisas, Home, 2018).

• Product – the strategy for products is high-quality products and healthy foods. Products include various flavors of hummus, feta dips, toppings, and falafel. Major ingredients used for the production of products are capsicums, coriander, chickpeas, coriander, cumin, eggplant, garlic, Jalapeno, kumara, lime, pumpkin, mint, tahini, spinach, and lemon. Along with its products, the services of the company include providing recipes with the food company offers(lisas, new products, 2018).
• Price- the pricing strategy of Lisa’s is price penetration. With lower price as compared to its competitors, the company gains a competitive advantage in New Zealand
• Place- the target place that the company provides its products at its stores in New Zealand. Although for any inquiry or customer complaint, it can be sent through message box or through email or contact on phone. Moreover, products of Lisa’s also traded over an online, at shop.coutdown.co.nz (countdown, 2018)
• Promotion – promotional strategies of the company mainly include an online website, for providing awareness of all its products and ingredients. The promotional message is generally related to health and quality of products used for the production of food. The tagline is “A fresh way to entertain.” Also, promotes gluten-free products(lisas, gluten-free, 2018).

Lisa’s Hummus has the ambitious goal of providing high quality, fresh products to customers with integrity and making customers perfectly happy. Considering this, the growth opportunities identified are as follow:

The first opportunity identified, is providing an online platform from where customers can easily purchase their products. The website of Lisa’s, where only information is provided to the customers, the company can start trading at that platform to increase the sale of the company. In today’s world, where online trading has a high scope, to compete in the market and sustain in the market it is essential for the company to reach out its customers through the online store. The company can also promote and sell its product through social media platforms. People spend most of their time on social media, and for such generation, promotion through social media sites can be the best way. With the help of social media platforms, it will be easy for the company to encourage youth to have healthy snacks (Gibson & Van, 2017).

Competitors of LISA’s

Another opportunity is expanding business in other countries; there are many countries, where healthy eating habits are very much considered in their lifestyle. For example, China, Japan, and many more countries, the company can enter into the international market and target new customers. The company can not only gain opportunity in the countries who are more health conscious but can also go for the countries who are taking the least healthy food and obesity rate is very high. Making people aware about the healthy snacks, and they can have snacks while not putting up weight would be attractive for the customers in such countries (Geraldi & Soderlund, 2018).

Another growth opportunity for Lisa’s hummus is trading business to business. This can be done by collaborating with the companies serving lunch boxes in schools like food truck and Bento Box. This will encourage healthy food among children studying in schools, and can be a great opportunity as it will enhance customer base of the company. This will also be beneficial to make children aware and habitual to the taste of Lisa’s Hummus and will continue to consume it after schooling. Moreover, another B2B opportunity can be the affiliation of Lisa’s with various fast food chains, for example, dominos, which is very popular in New Zealand. Moreover, grand hotels, restaurants, and cafes can be a target to sell hummus of this brand. This can be the best way to expand the business and with this people will become more aware of the brand, and goodwill of the brand will also increase when affiliated with most popular places, people visit the most. With this, the brand can target customers of such popular eating-places. Some other fast food chains that Lisa’s can target for B2B business are subway, McDonald’s pizza hut, burger king, taco bell, and Starbucks coffee. Selling the products to such popular fast food chains will increase the sale of the company and will able to reach customers of New Zealand and foreigners (newshub, 2018).

The initial stage in marketing strategy is setting goals for the company, towards which the company will work further. The marketing goals for Lisa’s Hummus are:

This goal involves targeting customers that are not yet considered. For example, a new group of people can be targeted. For this, the company can target customers of other restaurants, fast food consumers. To search and target new customers, the company initially needs to know their customers well, and understand their needs and perspective about the brand. Then for reaching the new potential customer, Lisa’s can give exclusive discounts and deals to attract new customers, giving out samples to people who are still new for the taste of Lisa’s hummus.

Other than targeting new customers, retaining the existing one is also very important. For attracting existing customers, and sustain business in the competitive market, the marketing goal is launching new products and services to the customers. For launching any product, it is essential to ensure the readiness of your organization, is your company enough capable of supporting this rapid change in the product line, and ready to publicize. The company must have adequate staff, processes, and supply lines to make new products reach to the customers, and with the launch be prepare to handle customer inquiries effectively. The product Hummus can launch is more varieties of hummus, or increase the type of product other than hummus and dips. Moreover, a range of non-vegetarian option can be another product line to attract non-vegetarian customers (Pansari & Kumar, 2016).

LISA’s Products

Group of customers that can be targeted by Lisa’s Hummus is people that do gymming, dance, aerobics, Zumba, or any other physical activity. Age of this customer group would be within 20- 45. They can be targeted because it seems they are concern about their health and will be willing to include healthy food in their lifestyles. This segment of customers can easily be approachable and attracted to the products of Lisa’s Hummus

Another target market can be other business. As discussed above, dealing with food trucks and Bento lunch, that will provide Lisa’s Hummus to students every day in lunch box, to increase number of customers and make students identify the brand. Moreover, some of the major fast-food chains can be the target market for Lisa’s. Targeting other business could be a growth opportunity for the brand, to target customers who visit fast food places very often. The target customer’s age ranges from 15- 35, because students and young people more often visiting such places, and comes from medium to high-income group.

For above target market, the products and services will include many flavors of hummus. The hummus for first target group will include ingredients with more of proteins and nutrients that are beneficial and helpful while exercising or any severe physical activity. Moreover, hummus with more innovative flavors like avocado, and other fruits can be offered to young customers visiting other restaurants and fast food chains.

The pricing strategy for the product would be price penetration that is targeting customer with lower prices to attract new customers. Moreover, it is one the competitive advantage of the brand that it is serving the products is lesser price than that of competitors. For example, the original hummus is $1.50 per 100g. This will be budget friendly for most of the customers.  The discounts can be provided to the customers, at the time of the festival (Nagle & Muller, 2017).

The product or services are delivered to the potential customers through brand’s store, online platform (shop.countdoun). For promotion, the brand has its own online site where all the relevant products information is available and social media platforms like, Facebook is also used for promotions.

The promotional tactics that will be applied to increase brand awareness and attract more customers, the channels for such promotional tactics are as follows:

One of the best ways to aware customers about your product is through emails. Sharing the product information, new product launch, and discount for the days can be sent through email to the potential existing and new target customers. This is the most budget friendly, not a time-consuming channel for promotion as an email broadcast list is prepared, and according to the customer database, the list is updated or edited timely.

Various social media platforms can be selected for the promotion of the products; this can attract maximum customers at the same time. An attractive blog or video form of messages can be prepared for promoting the brand and its newly launched products, and benefit to consuming the products can be included. Some of the social media platforms include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channel, and many more (Hu, Krush, & Agnihotri, 2016).

Positioning

The printed channel is to target customers who do not use social media much, for example, old age. Printed form can be the use of pamphlets, road hoardings, advertisement in newspaper and magazines. This is the traditional method of promotions, which can still be very effective for a brand to enhance awareness and create brand loyalty and trust (Matteo & Dal, 2015).

The marketing strategy proposed will be beneficial for the company’s growth. With effective implementation of the marketing strategies, the brand identities would be developed, which will eventually increase sale and market share of Lisa’s Hummus. The strategy of going international will gain the opportunity to increase sale through the new market, attract new customers, and brand awareness in the international market. By increasing the target customers and increase in customer lists and through expanding business in the new market will let the company gain an advantage with economies of scale, which will decrease operating expenses of the brand. This will result into increase in net profit of the company (Muller & Nagle, 2017).

Marketing strategies objective includes disseminating brand information, products offering, and promoting brand products. This will affect intangible assets, these are the beneficial assets of the company that are not physically seen but will affect the financial performance of the company. Some of the intangible assets that Lisa’s will have with this proposed marketing strategies are brand recognition, goodwill, trademarks, patents, and other intellectual property rights while going international. While establishing a business in other countries through franchise also creates it as intangible assets. These are the non-monetary assets, which will eventually increase the monetary value of the firm  (Arena & Azzone, 2015)

Stakeholder value is the delivered valued to stakeholders of the company that is customers, employees, suppliers, community, and shareholder. The marketing strategies include price penetration, that is beneficial for customers, as they are paying less for the product of high quality, similarly, high-quality products and fresh products will also be beneficial to customers. With the new launch of products and expanding the business to the international market, the employees will be increased and for existing staff, the salary would be increased as well. By generating employment in the environment, it is profitable for the community. With an effective marketing strategy and an increase in net profits of the company, the shareholder value will be increased. The ingredients used are very healthy, and this will benefit the suppliers for the purchase of ingredients and customers for the availability of a healthy product. Since the healthy products are promoted, it is positive for society (Robson & Zeriti, 2014).

It is the value, which indicates the effectiveness of the company. For Lisa’s key performance indicators are:

This is one of the indicators, which will define how many customers are shifting from one brand of hummus to another. Through this indicator, the company will realize where they are lacking or performing well (Paramenter, 2015).

This indicator will describe the portion of a particular product in net sales. Through this indicator, the company will understand which product is providing more sale among all the products.

Target Markets

This is another indicator, which shows the satisfaction level among customers for the brand. Through this indicator, the company can understand the area where it is lacking or needs to improve its performance (Yin, 2015).

Conclusion

The enterprise selected for discussion of marketing strategies was “Lisa’s Hummus and Dips,” a medium enterprise of New Zealand. Being part of food industry, the situation of New Zealand was discussed. There are many opportunities for Lisa’s as the food industry is rapidly growing in New Zealand, but for the same reason, it can be challenging for the firm. The two major competitors observed were Just Hummus, and The Good Taste Company. Lisa’s products offered to the customers are hummus, dips, topping, and falafel. The current target market of Lisa’s is health conscious group of people, and vegetarian of New Zealand residents.

The growth opportunities of the company in near future are “online trading” and “going international.” One most important opportunity of the company is Business 2 business trading, where Lisa’s can trade with food trucks and Bento lunch box for students and also trade with major fast food chains of New Zealand, such as McDonalds, and Dominos.

Marketing strategy of Lisa’s Hummus New Zealand includes two major marketing goals that were targeting new customers, and launching new services and products. Targeting new customers can be by targeting new group of people, or targeting completely new market, that is establishing business in new country, the suggested one would be China, because of heath concern nature of residents. Target market in the marketing strategy was group of customers that goes to gym or do any physical activities, and target other business, that is become B2B enterprise along with B2C trading. The targeted businesses were food trucks for students, most popular restaurants and fast food chains, to attract new customers who go to school and visit these places quite often. The pricing strategy of the company includes price penetration that is offering products at lower price initially to attract customers. The products are available at stores, or online shopping platform, that is shop.countdown. For promotions, the channel used would be through email marketing, printed advertisement, and social media platforms. The proposed marketing strategies will impact company’s net profit, intangible assets, and all the stakeholders to a large extent.

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