Marketing Plan Essays (1880 words) - Crops, Coffee, Arab Culture

Marketing Plan Components of the Marketing Plan I. Situation Analysis: Where are we now? A. Historical Background The coffee tree is native to Ethiopia. From there it spread throughout the Middle East. Until the 17th Century all the coffee of commerce came from Arabia. Slowly, the efforts of Dutch merchants spread cultivation to the East Indies. Coffee cultivation began in the Americas in the early 1700's. Most of the coffee trees of the Western Hemisphere are said to be descended from a single plant. It was carried from a botanical garden in France to the island of Martinique in the West Indies by Capt. Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, a young military officer. He kept the tree alive during an arduous voyage by sharing with it his limited ration of drinking water. Coffee cultivation spread quickly through the West Indies in the next few years. Coffee was the first grown in Brazil in 1729. Brazilian coffee exports achieved importance by 1809, and since the mid-1800's Brazil has by a considerable margin been the world's leading coffee rowing nation. Between 1850 and 1900 other Latin American nations developed extensive coffee plantations. Commercial coffee growing began in central Africa about 1900. Africa, however, became a major source of coffee only in the period following World War II. The origin of man's use of coffee is lost in the timeless legends of the Middle East. One of the most appealing relates that some monks, after observing the liveliness of sheep which had eaten coffee cherries, began to eat the cherries to help keep themselves awake through long nights of prayer. Consumption of coffee probably began by the 6th century AD. A reference to coffee appears in a medical manuscript of AS 900. It was first used as a food, as a medicine, and as an ingredient in wine. Coffee as a beverage similar to that of today - a water extracted of roasted beans - appeared around 1300. In the middle political discussion. Rulers periodically attempted to suppress them; King Charles II of England termed coffeehouses "seminaries of sedition." When it became known that roasting coffee beans brought out their flavor, roasted beans were crushed, boiled in water, and then consumed grounds and all. Spices were often added to the brew. In Egypt soon after 1600, sugar was added to cut the bitterness of coffee. The use of milk became common in the late 1600's. In Scandinavia and colonial America, eggs were added to reduce bitterness. Espresso, which is brewed by forcing steam through finely ground darkly roasted coffee beans, became popular in the 1940's. It was the main beverage served in the coffeehouse that began to flourish near college campuses. Again the centers of literary and political discussions, as well as poetry and folksinging , coffeehouse were favorite spots for the beatniks and hippies of the 1950's and 1960's. B. Consumer Analysis Bad Ass Coffee Company products are attempting to serve the serious coffee drinkers out there. We are trying to focus of course on the older generation as well as the younger generation of coffee drinkers in the United States today. We want to try and aim our coffee more toward the younger generation of coffee drinkers since more and more young adults are starting to drink coffee. a. The Bad Ass Coffee Company distribution channel can be segmented into 4 categories. ? Independent retailers ? Supermarkets ? Mass Merchandisers ? Our personal market customers b. Bad Ass Coffee Company will be targeting the independent retailers as well as the supermarkets and hope start our own brand name stores around the world. c. The people who would probably enjoy our products the most would most likely be the baby boomer type era. We would like to aim our products more toward the new generation of coffee drinkers to come. d. Kids and minorities are not really going to be targeted as much as the young adults but everyone will be recognized as a coffee drinker by our company. e. The serious coffee drinker buys an average of 5lbs of coffee a week. Our goal is to try and raise this average with the bad ass coffee name in every household. C. Competitive Analysis Some firms are forced to develop unique distribution channels because of inadequate promotion of their products by independent marketing intermediaries. Not Bad Ass Coffee Company, we add a direct sales force through selective distribution. We only sell our coffee to a limited number of retailers. In order to get Bad Ass Coffee you must got to one of our