The Coolest Cooler: Company Overview
Question:
Discuss About the Marketing Plan for Coolest Cooler?
Coolest cooler was started by Ryan Grepper in the July of 2015. It is an American company which was started in Portland. The coolest cooler is a “portable patty disguised as a cooler, bringing blended drinks, music and fun to any outdoor occasion”. According to their website around 62,642 people have pledged an amount of $13,285,226 to help kick-start the project. Their main aim was to invent a cooler which would suit the needs of the 21st century man. It has a Bluetooth speaker system which is waterproof, a built-in USB charging port and also a blender to crush ice. The blender has an 18v battery which is also rechargeable. It also comes with an LED light, bottle opener and also cutting boards, storage for plates and knives. It has been listed as one of the best inventions of 2014 by the Time Magazine. It has also been referred to as the most contributed to and funded campaign of Kickstarter in 2014. They had started out through the very popular and modern method of crowd funding (Gierczak et al. 2015). This is also why some people do not trust this company totally (Ho, 2014).
Hartsville is one of the smallest cities in America. As of 2017 it has a population of around 5,000 approximately (Kaur, 2016). It is one of the smallest cities in America in terms of size and population. It was founded by an early settler by the name of James Hart. It is a district municipality as well, despite being a mix of city and country governed by the government. It is a very peaceful town as well. The coolest cooler company has decided to expand their bases in Tennessee after they opened shop in Hartsville (Wiid and Diggines, 2010).
- Political Factors
The Coolest cooler operates in certain parts of America. Hence they have to operate keeping in mind the political factors of the different states of America. These political factors include the tax rates, current economic conditions, legislative acts and so on. The Coolest cooler has managed to create jobs for the small population of Portland. Now it aims to create more employment opportunities in the area of Hartsville. It has given jobs to nearly 0.5 percent of the population in this very small city. This has increased the demand for their own products in Hartsville and also managed to diversify their workforce (Michaelidou et al. 2011).
The coolest cooler is a very understanding company when it comes to providing jobs to people of all ages. Since it is both a student town and retired people’s town, they offer job opportunities which are both flexible, locally based and also require fewer skills. They do not use outsourced raw materials. Instead they purchase them locally. They have also come to employ a large number of students, people with disabilities and also elderly retired people. This has worked out in the advantage of both the city’s and theirs. They have gained a huge base of loyal and desirable employees. The city in turn has found a good place from which they generate revenue and also a goldmine of jobs (Stelzner, 2011).
Expanding to Hartsville
They have repeatedly said in the past that they do not affiliate to or associate with any political parties. But that is not true in the case of Hartsville. The Coolest cooler there has tied up with the local political party in order to get tax cuts and compensations. They have done this to increase their own sales in this tiny city. Tax rates play an important role. An increase in the VAT will lead to a fall in sales and vice versa. Hence they are co-dependent (Gordon, 2012).
- Economic Factors
GDP is calculated by taking into account the total economic activity affects the rise in prices, fall in them and inflation. The research carried out by the above mentioned analytic and accounting firm has revealed that the GDP for Hartsville has been static in the last few years. Since The Coolest cooler is a consumer dependent and consumer based company, it is hardly a positive sign (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014).
Economic factors are the most important factors for the Coolest cooler’s business. The costs, demands, profits and prices are the ones that will be affected. The company needs to be aware of change in any policy in the economy. It needs to function keeping in mind the economic factors of both their home country and the city in which they are operating. Although the Coolest cooler has expanded in more than one city and is operating very well at that, they are still dependent on the USA market. In Portland and Hartsville they have a total market share of nearly 30 percent. However the Coolest cooler has followed both nationalisation and diversification. They have easily adjusted in the economy of Tennessee’s Hartsville. Their policies of diversification and nationalisation have led them to achieve success.
It is true that they cannot control the economic factors which affect them externally. But they can do their best to outperform them from affecting them negatively. However with the opening of the Coolest cooler in Hartsville it has led to an increase in the disposable income of the people there (Harrison, 2013).
- Social Factors
The recent trends in the American market show that the customers prefer the shops which sell everything under one roof. With a shift in the demographic in the city, to an aging and more female oriented population, people have started liking products which are value added. People have become more aware of what they are consuming. Hence this has made the Coolest cooler make products which will satisfy the needs of the consumers. They have changed and adapted to the altering demands of the population of Hartsville. They make locally sourced goods and also out of natural ingredients. As people are becoming more and more aware of the health and environmental hazards involve, the Coolest cooler is changing their manufacturing processes to produce environmentally safer and better versions of what they are selling. People everywhere have also become more used to buying in bulk. This has become advantageous to the Coolest cooler’s business and has helped them grow (Morabito, 2015).
Job Creation and Diversification
- Technological Factors
The Coolest cooler has been able to bring about an improvement in their own technology. They have adapted to the changing technologies of the world. Firstly they have started providing online shopping opportunities to their customers with the option of also home delivery. Secondly they started self-checkouts at their varied locations in Portland, although the latter is yet to come to the Coolest cooler at Hartsville. This is because it is a small city which prefers human interaction. Although it would have reduced the labour costs for the company, they prefer it this way and they believe small cities do not need self-service. They have been also providing internet facilities. It had been a long term goal of the Coolest cooler’s to reduce their carbon footprint. Hence after much research they have developed energy saving production technologies which will help the Coolest cooler to reduce the harm that is brought about to the environment. In fact at Hartsville they have reduced their waste production locally over the last 5 years. They have also managed to encourage local businesses to do the same (Cadle, 2010).
- Legislative Factors
The Coolest cooler’s performance has been affected and impacted both positively and negatively by various government rules and regulations which fall under the legislative purview. For example they use self-recharging batteries of 18v which are less harmful to normal batteries. To help facilitate these policies effectively, the Coolest cooler provides customers with a various facilities in one product itself.
The Coolest cooler performs their activities following the rules and regulations of whichever city they operate in. All of this they do keeping in mind their own rules and regulations and their own pre-decided morals.
- Environmental Factors
In the year 2003 there was immense pressure on companies to do their bit for the environment. The Coolest cooler was one of the first companies to take their corporate social responsibilities seriously as soon as they launched in 2014. They have aimed to reduce their carbon footprint on earth by 50 percent by the year 2020. They seem to walking in the right direction because their policies have been effective in reducing their waste production (Keller et al. 2011). They also have policies in place which aim to minimise environmental damage, lessen non-renewable resource consumption, wastage and other. They have also tried to spread awareness among their customers. They only use paper bags, goods and services made from resources which will not exhaust and so many others. They are doing their bit to save the environment (Yüksel, 2012).
- Strengths
They have an advantage over the market share in Hartsville. Being the only cooler company, they occupy more than 75 percent of the market share there. In fact they have even bought the smaller air conditioner businesses to reduce their own competition. They have expanded in not only Hartsville but are trying to expand in the other cities of Tennessee. This has led to immense growths. Since they have a large market share in Hartsville they also have large revenue and profit earnings. This has increased their capital and investment opportunities. They have grown from strength to strength in the last 3 years or so in Hartsville. They have managed to set up a plant there as well which has made it easier for them to produce locally.
Political and Economic Factors
The Coolest cooler Personal Finance has proved to be effective and helpful for the common folks of Hartsville. Their club card and life insurance policies have gained momentum heavily. They have been able to leap farther ahead of the already existing businesses as well.
Since they deliver their products at home, it has helped them gain popularity with the locals. Their online shopping opportunities also give people greater satisfaction (Helms and Nixon, 2010).
The Coolest cooler as a brand has gained regional recognition and soon aim to gain national importance. This makes it easier for The Coolest cooler to sell their products in certain parts of America. People have trust in them and their quality products. It has helped them to gain a strong foothold in the Hartsville market as well as they have carved a niche for themselves.
- Weaknesses
They are a small company with very less resources. There are a lot of cooler companies functioning both globally and nationally. They are providing a cooler at a higher price when compared to the other companies manufacturing coolers. Their justification is that they are providing additional services and goods with the cooler. However the question here arises why people would want to buy a cooler with additional facilities at a higher price than the current market rate when they do not even want the extra goods that they come with. A portion of what they earn from Hartsville has to be given back to the society as well.
They have not been able to reduce their debts yet. They have a huge capital expenditure budget and this is because they invest heavily. They have very less free cash flow since they are trying to expand into other cities as well. They also have less supply and hence are unable to meet the demand.
Their lager expansion base has not proved to be fruitful. People are still in doubt about the legitimacy of their products since they are a very new company. They need to focus on improving their brand value as well.
- Opportunities
They can further expand into the other cities of America. However they can first start with the cities of the state of Tennessee. They should start concentrating on improving their brand value and work towards building the customer’s trust in them. People will only buy their products if they trust them. Since they are the only cooler in Hartsville they can exercise monopoly and wipe out all air conditioning and cooler company’s competition by either buying them or absorbing them into the business (Issa et al. 2010).
- Threats
Since they believe in buying out the competition, it can make the locals of Hartsville angry and dissatisfied and boycott the Coolest cooler. It is becoming increasingly difficult for The Coolest cooler to source its products naturally and produce. It is making their production process much costlier. They are not being able successful in convincing their customers to buy it from them.
Seeing the success of The Coolest cooler, other cooler and air conditioning companies can enter the Hartsville market (Lodish et al. 2015).
The Coolest Cooler’s Business Strategy
From the above swot and pestle analysis it is clear that although the Coolest cooler is doing well in the Hartsville market it is definitely facing certain problems. The major problem is the small population and lack of adequate number of visitors. Students are always on a budget and the businessmen do not spend more than a day or two at a time in the city (Freedman and Nutting, 2015).
Mainly businessmen and the students come to Hartsville. This forms nearly 7 million of America’s population. This is a huge number. It includes people in the age range of both 18 to 25 and above 35 to 60. This number is much larger than the population of Hartsville itself (Peter and Donnelly, 2011).
My marketing plan for the Coolest cooler will target this group of customers. I believe this will lead to the Coolest cooler’s maximum growth in Hartsville. This is because both these groups of people will like to take in both the local delicacies, and other touristy sights the town has to offer. Thus with my marketing plan I plan to achieve the trend to include them in my overnight visiting market. The Coolest cooler is the largest and only store in Hartsville housing air conditioning (the rival companies) and coolers. It will satisfy the needs of the locals, new students, tourists and businessmen all under one roof in the month of summer. That is why it will be easy to increase the sales and eventually the profit of the Coolest cooler in Hartsville by having a proper marketing plan in place. The main aim of The Coolest cooler will be to understand the rest of the market of Tennessee (Westwood, 2016) .
The following marketing objectives will be adopted in this marketing plan (Hollensen, 2015):
- To increase their capital investment in the American market
- To expand to more regions in Tennessee
- To be able to open smaller branches or franchises in the remote parts of Hartsville
- To explore opportunities to reduce their pricing strategy
- Undertake an extensive advertising campaign for the city of Hartsville so that people and tourists are attracted to come there and hence shop at the Coolest cooler shop and also buy from the online website
- To donate more to the local charities
- To increase the sales and profit scenario
- To introduce the self-checkout counters as an experiment first. If it is successful then make it a permanent feature. This will reduce their labour cost (Solomon, 2014)
- Product- the Coolest cooler can start selling products which will not produce much waste. This is because it is one of their major aims to reduce their carbon footprints on the earth by 2020 by at least 50 percent. They can start producing eco-friendly goods as well. They can start adding new features to their cooler. For example they can install a mini fridge like structure which can hold food as well. They can introduce more interesting colours as well. On the other hand The Coolest cooler gets to expand into a new field (Hui, 2015).
- Place- the place has to be chosen very carefully. It has to be at a central location, preferably the town square. This will attract the maximum number of people and also boost their sales (Armelini and Villanueva, 2011).
- Price- their target market consists of poor students on a budget. The town of Hartsville consists of mainly old people. The income of the people is approximately $38,850 on an average a year. Hence The Coolest cooler has to decide prices of the products keeping in mind the income of the people. They have to make their products affordable and yet of good quality, all the while earning profits themselves. Hence the Coolest cooler must carry out a market research before adding new features to the cooler. They also need to keep aside a budget to make sure that their extra features can easily be done (Keller and Thackeray, 2011).
- Promotion- a separate budget will be created to make the people aware about the new additions. For this purpose they will distribute pamphlets, leaflets and also set up billboards in the city. YouTube advertisements can also be taken out to make sure that people in Tennessee and in other parts of America become aware. The Coolest cooler can then make announcements on radio and television as well. Since The Coolest cooler has a good relation with KIIS FM they can tie up with them and start the promotion easily. In return they can get a few free coolers for their offices (Peter and Donnelly, 2011)
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that despite having several difficulties it can be said that the Coolest cooler will be successful in adding new features to their cooler. It can also be said that they will flourish in Hartsville and also be able to capture a large portion of the Tennessee market. It is a lively town with enthusiastic people and enough resources and places to invest. It is a town with ample opportunities and various avenues which still haven’t been explored. The Coolest cooler can grab these opportunities before anyone else can enter the market and take it from them. The Coolest cooler can hence easily gain success. The marketing plan and budgets and the targets will help them expand with great success and let them thrive in their business.
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