Marketing Plan of Pet Story †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Plan of Pet Story. Answer: Introduction: The Canadian pet market is a functional market in the nation, where pet shops, pet producing markets, veterinaries and such other associated businesses are operational. It has been reported that the continuity in the sales of the products and services that are non-medical will promote sales in the Canadian pet market to about $9.2 billion by the year 2019 (Agr.gc.ca, 2018). The market has shown a steady growth by a rate of 4% since the last 5 years. However, the veterinary services in the market have gradually shown a fall with a stark decline in visits by the pet owners. The Pet Story will offer the various products associated with pets. The company is founded by Brandon Adams in Oakville, Ontario. The company will start its operations from Oakville and have distributors at many different places in Canada. The companys products would include natural pet foods, concerned with the health of the pets. They will provide supplements, vitamins, toys, and accessories for training pets, cages, rubber chains, aquariums and all the necessary pet related items. The company also aims to provide medical and dental pet products to its customers and serve to people having cats, dogs, fishes, birds, mini pigs, or any small animal. The company will have one primary retail location with multiple distribution channels and will be launching another retail store in Edmonton, Alberta. It has been developing a 24-hour online store to reach to its customers from all around the country. The report will briefly over-view the market strategies and plans of the emerging company with special attention to the germ level detector for pets that is being launched by Pet Story. The Pet Story is a pet retailer company of products and services that aim to fulfill the lifetime requirements of pets. The company will have only one brick and mortar store in the Canadian market and will be launching another store in Alberta. It will be associating with huge distribution channels through which it will be selling its products throughout the country (Armstrong et al. 2015). The company will keep a very competitive price for its products and stock more than 15000 products in store. The everyday low prices ascribed for the products would help it to retain its customers. The company aims to have good relations with the customers (Jaakkola, Elina and Matthew 2014). It opts for a slow but steady rise in its marketing outcome and will have about 5000 additional products of it in the website. The growing trend of humanization of pets in the recent times has accelerated the pet business leading to an overall growth in the pet industry by 3-5% per year. The growth in the indu stry has however led to the introduction of similar companies like the Pet Story to emerge in the market that acts as emerging threats for the new company (Baker 2014). Established companies like CanAm, Champion Pet foods, the Crump Group and others enjoy a dominant position with enormous customer loyalty that act as threats for the Pet Story Company to make greater investments and face losses in the end. Similarly, the rise in the number of investors will be productive for the company to a significant extent that can make it progressive in the overall market scenario. SWOT Analysis: Strengths- The company will be working with proper consideration of the Ontario SPCA that works for the protection of animals. It is soon to open the store in the market area of Ontario, which would bring it greater number of customers. It will have competitive price for the products. The products are mostly natural and organic, that is preferred more compared to the chemical medicines. It will provide expertise and professional advice to the pet owners. The company will sell a wide range of products concerned with most of the problems that are observed in pets. The products will encompass multiple animals and reptiles without being concentrated to a particular species. The online store of the company seeks to be highly productive for the company. Free delivery of products with no additional charges all around the country act as strength. It will be incorporating new technologies that help to keep a track on the online records and scheduling, promoting smoothness to the business proceedings throughout the nation (Kavitha and Reddy 2016). Pet Story will provide 5% off in its products if they are bought from the store. Weaknesses- Presently, the company does not aim to have any role in rescue programs or charities for pets that are often left by owners. It will have no global presence and will operate within the boundaries of Canada. It will be selling its own brand, which is unrecognized by many customers. The company will have only one operational store and will be launching another one, which is very less compared to the other operational pet companies in the industry. There is a lack of advertisement of the company that keeps it unknown to many potential customers. Opportunities- The country can aim to expand the business across the other countries. It can associate with the functional retail sites such as Amazon and Costco to promote greater sell of the product worldwide, the product being completely new in the pet market (Cooper 2013). Though the company has the scope to render veterinary services, tie-ups with veterinary hospitals with professional doctors would be beneficial for it, increasing the customers reliability. The company can adopt measures to get its brand recognition. With incorporation of services like animal training and grooming, the company has the scope of greater expansion and growth. Launching few stores in the super markets like Safeway, Dominion, Foodland and others would bring greater profits to the business (Lorch, Brian and Tony 2016). Threats- The pet industry has been facing a growth in the market that has been encouraging entrepreneurs to invest in the market and launch their own companies. Rapid increase in the number of emerging companies serves to be a major threat. Major threats from similar established companies operating in the Canadian market also affect the market of Pet Story. Declining number of children in the household has been a notable threat for the pet industry as a whole, with lowering number of adoption of the pet animals. The SWOT analysis of the Pet Story Company shows that though the company seeks to work with greater focus in its ethical considerations to create a strong customer base, it needs to integrate measures to incur profits (Ayub et al. 2013). It has several strengths that will accelerate its smooth functioning and operations. The quality of the products that the company will deliver promises quality that would help it to achieve fame. The companys plan and way of entering the Canadian market t hints at its scope to expand the business crossing the boundaries of Canada. Pet Story aims to develop consumer relations and gain customer trust by providing quality products and services (Huang, Rong and Emine 2014). Its aim is to provide the customers with sufficient knowledge and professional advice for the health and happiness of their pets. The companys new initiative to launch the pets germ level detector machine and the launch of new branches in the various parts of the country, along with the medical service has the primary objective to render better health care facilities and advices related to the health of the pets, their lifestyles, grooming, training and behavior. The germ level detector would be identifying the presence of germs in the body of the pets so that they can be freed from them. The product is a UV torch that would identify the germs and their locating areas on the bodies of the pets. Along the torch, there will be a meter given that would also detect the rate of the germs present in the body of the pets. This would enable the pet own ers to view the microorganisms that cannot be detected with bare eyes and consult veterans accordingly. With the new endeavour, the company will be able to achieve a good reputation in its operational areas. The good reviews from customers all around Canada in the internet site of the company would approve the quality and effective service by the company (Martnez, Patricia and Ignacio 2013). With the addition of the new initiative that the company is going to undertake, Pet Story will strive to achieve its noble objective along with the expansion of its market in the country. Pet Story will target the upper middle and middle class pet owners for their market. They will try to target pet enthusiasts who are seriously committed to their pets and consider the pets to be an important part of the family. They are potential customers since they engage themselves in buying a wide variety of products and experiment them on the pets. These people are also concerned with the health of their pets and opt for regular check-ups. Thus, the companys new endeavor to launch the germ detector would be effective for these customers. The company also tries to find people who adopt a number of pets together instead of only one. The customers are present in all demographics. Thus, the companys online services will act as an added benefit getting customers from all around Canada. The company is aiming to launch many other stores in the different places of Canada reaching customers who do not avail internet. The Pet Story will be primarily selling its own store brand of products and provide responsible services to the pets that are brought in the stores. The company will be launching the germ level detector for the pets in both the store and online to identify the root of diseases in pets, sitting at home. The product is very new in the pet industry that is being produced by Pet Story. A successful appreciation of the new product would enable the company to reach the global market scenario by selling the products online (Pe'er, Aviad and Thomas 2013). The product is absolutely side effects free and does not pose any harm to the skin or internal organs of the pets bodies. Thus, the product seems appealing and promising in the market. The company is also striving to set up more stores in the different places of the country (Khan 2014). The company will keep a very considerable and competitive price for all its products so that people coming from different class can afford them. The prices will be lower compared to the products of the other brands operating in the market (Matejovsky et al. 2014). The company will also provide store discount card through which it will be giving discounts to people buying more than three products from the store. It is the case for the website of the company as well. The new germ detector that the company will be simultaneously launching will also have a considerable price that can be afforded by both the upper middle and middle class people. Pet Story is a new company creeping into the Canadian market. The new company along its new endeavors needs to adopt various promotional activities to reach to the population at large. The company is also opening its face book page in which it will be providing updates of its location and other details and promote the new germ detecting product. It will be also providing information regarding the launch of its new store in Alberta (Scott 2015). It would also regularly update the twitter account and the official website of the company. Pet Story will also resort to radio and television ads for the promotion of its new product that is completely a new product in the Canadian market. Pet Story will be opening in the popular ByWard market in Ottawa of Ontario, which is flocked by a huge number of people regularly. The company will be expanding its business by setting multiple new stores in different areas of the country (Wilson et al. 2016). Their new launch of a store in Alberta is soon to happen. The store will be well stocked and would cater to all the requirements of the pet animals. With a good network of distribution channels the company will introduce its products to the customers from all around the nation. The company has the potential to cross the boundaries of the country and be operational in the other nations; however, it is primarily concerned in opening its two stores and selling its products and services to the entire nation (Kotabe, Masaaki and Kristiaan 2014). The company needs to incur huge profits so that they are able to balance the cost that is going to be invested in its new programs (Kotler 2015). The launch of the new product itself claims huge investment that needs to be accumulated from the profits that the company gets by the sale of its other products. Moreover, the amount that is assumed to be spent on advertisements, rents, remodeling and building new stores with the production of the UV germ detectors is also high (Tuten, Tracy and Michael 2017). Thus, the company must engage in attracting and bringing sufficient number of customers to it and incur profits from its online sale as well that would help it to maintain its business proceedings without facing any loss. The table given below shows the projection of the Pet Story Company to establish its stores and accelerate the sale of its new product. It analyses the cost that the company would incur to promote the product, including its investment in the stores that the company strives to launch within the next 5 years. The estimates of the company have been projected as follows: Year Production of the product (CAN $) Rent of the store(s)/month (CAN $) Advertisement (CAN $) Construction (CAN $) Cost (CAN $) 2018 600 2000 600 10000 13200 2019 1600 5000 800 12000 19400 2020 1800 5000 400 N/A 7200 2021 2000 5000 200 N/A 7200 2022 4000 12000 1000 20000 37000 Table: Estimates of the cost to be incurred by Pet Story from 2018-2022 The company is set to introduce the germ detector, which is a completely new concept in the pet industry. It needs proper medical assistance and technology experts to strategize and produce the detectors (Meeker and Meisinger 2015). The company must be concerned enough so that no mistakes occur that can negatively hamper the health of the pets. This would negatively affect the companys fame. Along with the new product, the company is all set to launch new stores of it in the parts of the country. This contributes to a huge investment, considering the rent, advertisements and such other essential elements (Fisk et al. 2013). The cost incurred for medicines and tools already is high. Therefore, the company must be able to control all the measures it is going to take. Conclusion: The report concludes that Pet Story, though a new company in the pet industry, seems to be very progressive with the primary objective of rendering quality products and best services to the customers. The company has multiple strengths that would accelerate its proper functioning, connoting to its progressive nature. However, there are major threats and weaknesses as well that can act as barriers for the company. The company has various objectives and initiatives to promote and extend its business in the Canadian market. 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