Impact Of Marketing Strategies Of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company On Its Profitability – Project Proposal

Problem statement

Marketing strategies are an essential part of the business for any product or service company. According to Fifield (2012), marketing strategy refers to the concept of long term and forward looking approach in marketing goal and objectives that aims to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the market. The market oriented research, observations, information, analysis and plan formulation are all important components of strategic planning and strategies are formulated to implement those plans for successful marketing. As stated by Baker (2014), marketing strategy lays out the plan for creating value proposition to the target market, based on the best opportunities available in the market. All the product or service companies need to make and implement marketing strategies to establish its position in the market, which also helps in earning profit. In line with this context, the topic of the project is to evaluate the impact of the marketing strategies of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company, USA on its profitability.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company is one of the most popular ice cream companies in the USA that has total of 26 stores across 6 states, along with retail distribution nationwide (Jenis.com, 2018). Similar to other ice cream companies across the country, Jeni’s has also introduced various marketing strategies since its establishment in 2002. Even though the company has only 26 stores, it has managed to make a successful name for itself in the ice cream and novelties market. It can be assumed that with successful marketing strategy and delivery of superior quality products have contributed in increasing the profitability of the company. The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of marketing strategies on the profitability of the company and the purpose of this assignment is to present a project proposal to fulfill the purpose of the study.

The organization of the assignment is as explained. Section 1 introduces the project proposal to the readers, followed by the problem statement, aim and objectives of the research, research questions in sections 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Section 5 presents justification of the research and potential outcomes. In section 6, conceptual framework and development of hypothesis will be described. Lastly, section 7 will present research methodology, project activities, proposed budget and timeline or Gantt chart.

Marketing strategy refers to the plans of the marketers to make segments in the market, targeting and positioning of a particular product or service. A successful marketing helps the product or service gain a status in the market, which gets reflected in their sales revenue and profit (Armstrong et al., 2015). An effective marketing strategy can contribute in building a brand image for a company. However, profitability of a brand can be affected due to many factors, including marketing strategy. The focus of this project is to study how the marketing strategies used by Jeni’s are influencing their market share and profitability by creating value for the customers.

Research aim and objectives

The aim of the report is to examine the impact of the marketing strategies on the profitability of a company. The report will focus on the marketing and business activities of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company, USA. The analysis would explore the data on the last 5 years revenue of the company.

The objectives of the project are:

• To explore the marketing strategies adopted by Jeni’s to increase the market share
• To assess the key factors of marketing required for increasing the profitability of the company
• To explore the challenges faced by Jeni’s while implementing the marketing strategies
• To examine the role of the marketing strategies in increasing profitability of Jeni’s

The research questions are as follows.

• What strategies are adopted by Jeni’s to increase their market share?
• What are the key factors in marketing that can influence the profitability of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company, USA?
• How do the marketing strategies impact the profitability of Jeni’s?
• What challenges are faced by Jeni’s while effective implementation of the marketing strategies?

From the review of various scholarly articles, it is found that authors have focused on various organizational elements as contributory factors in the profitability of a company. Among those, authors have mostly emphasized on the quality of products or services as the fundamental factor for increasing profitability. There are also studies on the importance of value proposition created by marketing strategies and advantages and disadvantages of marketing strategies. There is very limited study on the relationship between the marketing strategies and profitability of a company. Hence, a gap in the literature has been found that whether online marketing strategies and any special promotional offer in store have any impact on the profitability of any product or service company and that makes the background and rationale of this study.

The research questions of the study will be answered through appropriate data collection and its analysis. The findings are expected to be beneficial for future researchers while exploring different aspects of this subject further and also for the companies while making marketing strategies and plans for increasing profitability.

Marketing strategy is an extremely essential part of the business activities. As stated by Wilson & Gilligan (2012), marketing strategy represents the general game plan of a firm to reach out to people and turn them into customers of the product or service that the business offers. In other words, marketing strategy is prepared and implemented by the businesses to create a customer base in the market. This plan contains the value proposition of a company, along with important messages, that are communicated to the target customers by using various communication channels, information about the target consumer group and many other important factors.

Solomon et al. (2014) highlight that, marketing strategy of any organization is a comprehensive plan combining all of the marketing goals and objectives. A good market research should be the fundamental basic of any marketing strategy and this strategy is the foundation of a marketing plan. Many a times people interpret the marketing plan and strategy as the same thing, however, there is a difference between the marketing plan and marketing strategy. As stated by Lindgreen et al. (2012), marketing strategy represents the bigger picture of what a business is offering including the brand messaging and value proposition, while marketing plan represents the plan of the business about how to reach the target market and communicate the message by using different platform, different channels of communication, timing and marketing mix for the product or service offered.  

Research questions

Hassan (2012) highlights that value proposition of a company often lays out the foundation for marketing strategy. Value proposition of any company is the summary of all the elements of the company’s competitive advantage in the market. Through the value proposition, a company presents the key message for all types of marketing activities. Hence, creation of value proposition is the most important factor for creating marketing strategies. Once it is done, the company designs the marketing plan to communicate the value proposition to the target market and steps to deliver it. Market research is conducted to identify the untapped market or refine the target market, which helps in increasing the efficiency of marketing strategies. Thus, a marketing strategy of an organization consists of all subsequent marketing plans for delivering the value proposed by the organization to its customers. Bottom line goals, such as, increasing profit, increasing sales or improve the industry ranking can be the goals for marketing strategy. At the same time, Kozlenkova, Samaha & Palmatier (2014) state that resource-based theory (RBT) has become a foundation for marketing research and plan as the businesses must make plans that will utilize its resources most efficiently and yield profits.

As discussed by Osterwalder et al. (2014), marketing strategies are of various types. Every different situation during the course of achieving marketing goals and objectives might need a different strategy. Hence, it is a very dynamic process. At the same time, as the technologies and market scenarios are changing very rapidly, organizations need to design and implement new marketing strategies by incorporating the new techniques. Hence, they need to be updated about the new technologies and market trends. For example, in the modern world captured by social media and its trends, the organizations must consider the use and benefits of including digital and social media into their marketing strategies. Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick (2016) highlight that three major type of marketing strategies are currently being used in the modern industrial world. Those are as follows:

• Interactive marketing:This marketing strategy encourages active participation between the marketing campaigns and consumers. This represents a shift from one-sided consumer interaction to a two-sided interaction between a company and the consumers. With the invention of internet and technologies, enabling internet marketing and e-commerce experiences better, the companies are obliged to adopt the new technologies for a better customer experiences and increasing their market share (Stone & Woodcock, 2014). Hence, through interactive marketing, customers have the power to give and receive instant update and feedback on a particular product. Companies that make virtual customer profiles use this strategy by remembering individual searches and providing suggestions based on those.
• Digital marketing:This is aimed at exploring the digital marketing opportunities. With the growing digital market for almost every product, companies use digital marketing strategies. Apart from television and radio, the usage of other digital platforms, such as, social media, YouTube, text messaging, mobile marketing, podcasting, emailing etc. are part of digital marketing strategy. Öztamur & Karakad?lar (2014) showed in their research study that social media influences the business performance of the SME’s significantly, which in turn gets reflected in the profit of the SMEs.
• Online or internet marketing:This strategy includes a plan that requires internet connection to conduct the marketing activity via online channels. In this strategy, all the marketing activities are carried out online. For example, a home based freelancer can put up an advertising in social media and YouTube and through blogs for a product or service and customers can contact that marketer through online channels. As highlighted by Berthon et al. (2012) that online marketing is extremely helpful in the case of international marketing.

According to Ahola & Hill (2012), profitability of any organization depends on many internal as well as external factors, such as, product life cycle, quality of product or service, pricing, market share, promotional activities, competition, exchange rate, production costs, brand image, price discrimination strategies, economies of scale and economic growth. All these factors have significant influence on the profitability of a company. At the same time, the impact of one may push or offset the impact of the other. A company cannot sustain in the industry if it does not earn profit and for increasing profitability, it must take suitable measures through different sections of the business. Agus & Shukri Hajinoor (2012) show in their study that a company must improve the quality of product or service. It should also put an appropriate pricing so that customers get value from the product. On the other hand, Beesley & CLittlechild (2013) show that monopolistic and oligopolistic firms opt for price discrimination strategies to increase their profit and market share. Acs et al. (2012) demonstrated in their study that the economic growth of a nation puts a massive influence on the profitability of any business. It improves the income of the citizens, leading to increase in aggregate demand, which in turn increases aggregate production and supply. That helps in improving the profit earning condition of the firms. Apart from that, Stahl et al. (2012) have performed a study on impact of brand equity on the consumer attainment, retention and turnover margin of a company. They showed that brand image plays a significant role in improving the customer acquisition, and retention and in turn business growth, however, the firms must implement new strategies for maintaining the brand image along with delivering the value proposed through better quality product and customer service.

Justification of the research and potential outcomes

In the light of the literature review, the proposed research hypotheses are:

1H₀: Online marketing strategies do not have any influence on the profitability of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company

1H₁: Online marketing strategies have significant and positive influence on the profitability of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company

2H₀: Endless sampling of flavors does not have impact the profitability of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company

2H₁: Endless sampling of flavors has a positive impact the profitability of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company

The researcher will adopt quantitative research approach for this study. Any research study is highly dependent on data collection and analysis. On the basis of the nature of the topic, an appropriate research methodology, that is, the process and type of the data to be gathered and the process of analysis, is chosen (Bevir & Rhodes, 2012). For this particular research study, the chosen case study company is Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company, USA. The researcher will collect both primary and secondary data to conduct the study. Primary data on the efficacy of the strategies of marketing of Jeni’s will be collected from the customers and secondary data on the sales figures, profit, inventory records, and balance sheet of the company for the last 5 years will be collected from the annual reports of the company and various relevant journals.

Population

The population for the study is the customers of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Company, spread across the nations. The company has 26 stores across 6 states, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia, California, and Missouri, and distributes its products across the retailers nationwide.

Sampling

Sampling is necessary for any data collection. It is required because entire population cannot be studied. Sample is a subset of the population with the same features. There are two types of sampling, probability and non-probability. The probability sampling is the one in which each sample is chosen randomly and has equal chance of being selected (Levy & Lemeshow, 2013). Simple random sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling and systematic sampling are types of probability sampling. On the other hand, under non-probability sampling, each sample has no equal chance of being chosen and it is mostly based on the subjective judgment of the researcher (Uprichard, 2013). For the given research, the researcher will pick a sample with 60 customers through simple random sampling. The survey questionnaire form will be handed out to the random customers at the stores in Ohio for primary data collection regarding the effectiveness of the marketing strategies adopted by Jeni’s.

Conceptual framework

Variables and analysis

The research study will evaluate the connection between the profitability of the company and the marketing strategies adopted by it. A positive relationship is desired from the analysis. In this case, effectiveness of marketing strategy is the independent variable and profitability of Jeni’s is the dependent variable.

The researcher will be applying quantitative analysis on the gathered primary and secondary data. The survey responses will be collected through a five point rating scale, such as, the Likert scale and the responses will be converted into numeric values for applying the statistical methods on it. Various statistical tools, such as, reliability test, correlation and regression will be performed on the data to find out the strength and direction of the relationship between the variables and the internal consistency. The patterns in the responses will be illustrated through tables and bar graphs.

Secondary data on the sales figures and profits of the company in the last five years will be analyzed using thematic analysis. This will be performed for providing validation to the findings from the primary data. After both types of data analysis, the findings will be presented under different themes, which are chosen according to the research objectives and interpretations will be provided. This will lead to the conclusion about whether the null hypothesis is accepted or rejected.

The organization of the research study is as follows.

• Chapter 1 is Introduction. This will introduce the research topic to the readers by presenting the background context, research aim and objectives and research questions.
• Chapter 2 presents a comprehensive Literature review on different marketing strategies and factors influencing profitability of the organizations and presents a context and concept for the research study.
• Chapter 3 illustrates the Research methodology for the study in details. This includes the research philosophy, research approach, design and strategy, types of data required, data collection, sampling and analysis process.
• Chapter 4 is the chapter on Data analysis and interpretation. The findings from the collected data and its interpretations are the subject matter of this chapter.
• Chapter 5 Is for Conclusion and recommendations. This will present the summary of the important findings and their implications for the current topic and will also present some recommendations for improving the problem scenarios.

$5000 has been allocated as the budget for conducting the research study and completing it within the timeframe as given in the Gantt Chart below.

Table 1: Project activities and schedule time frame: Gantt chart

(Source: Author)

References 

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Research methodology and project activities

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