8.12.2015

Samuli Tahvanainen, Kateřina Kalinová

Marketing Plan

Table of contents Executive Summary .................................................. 2

Situation Analysis ..................................................... 2

Market summary Mission SWOT Analysis Market Segmentation Strategies – The Hybrid Grid Product Offerings

Marketing Mix .......................................................... 9

Sales Promotion Digital marketing channels

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Executive Summary Meater - The First Truly Wireless Smart Meat Thermometer - is first of its kind on the market, it is a real treasure and must-have gadget for everyone’s kitchen. Our product helps people to cook their meat to perfection without unnecessary stress and worrying about burning or overcooking it. It is designed to be perfectly suitable for high temperature environment and to be able to measure temperature of the meat and of the outside. Its unique design makes Meater a universal thermometer that can be used with any kind of meat in any kind of oven or grill. The simplicity of our product makes it the best cooking partner for anyone, users do not need to have superior cooking skills, on the contrary Meater will help them to improve them.

Apption Labs is not a well-known company, but has the experience of more than 20 years of developing products for Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Government, and Commercial/Industrial markets, and has launched 40+ electronic products from conception to product release. Meater was introduced on Kickstarter in October and after just 2 days raised all the needed money, in total it has raised 12 times more than its original goal and is the most successful kick-starter project. This huge interest leads us to believe that market has been missing our product for too long and we are ready to launch it in the beginning of the year 2016. We will go into further details of the Meater and ways how to promote and sell it in next chapters.

Situation Analysis This paragraph introduces the market summary and then focuses on the current state of the company and its capabilities to compete in the target segments of the market. This is done by defining mission and goals, SWOT analysis, target markets, competition, objectives, positioning, strategies and product offerings.

Market summary Meater is entering the market of cooking and kitchen accessories and it is considered to be a niche market, mainly because this kind of products is not in the market yet and it may either hit the market quickly, slowly or not at all. The possibilities of this market are great for Meater to gain market leadership in smart thermometers. There is nothing to compare this product's market with because there are no similar products in market right now. This is mainly an advantage for Meater penetrating the market. The market for smart thermometers includes some challenges because its quite unknown but Meater aims to meet these challenges successfully. The niche market for smart thermometers is considered large due to the fact of development of new technologies to help cooking and the rising popularity of self prepared foods. People are more and more interested in cooking and the value of self prepared food is rising constantly. Cooking food seems to be a trend in social media too; youth follow professional cooks and food blogs while posting pictures of their self prepared foods to online communities like Instagram and Pinterest. The market for cooking equipment has needs for cheaper alternatives for expensive smart ovens and better alternatives for traditional thermometers and that’s why Meater has good chances to gain market leadership.

Mission Meater’s mission is to help and ease to cooking while delivering superior design and newest technologies. To do this, we’ll use our experience of cooking meat and developing new tech with an aim to be market leaders.

We strive to create culinary customer experiences and to satisfy our stakeholders by doing business in a way that can be admirable by others and can grow our business.

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SWOT Analysis The marketing environment of Meater offers major opportunities and with it some threats. The SWOT analysis is done based on the information of Meater’s position in the market for smart thermometers. Meater’s SWOT analysis is introduced in the following figure.

The strengths of Meater are its unique design that allows using it in high temperature environment, easy cleaning and storing; interesting start-up company with innovative ideas and patent pending tech; and price which is set to make our product affordable for anyone. With the market lacking smart wireless thermometers, Meater can use the market situation as its strength.

Currently the biggest weakness of our product is our unknown brand, we are relatively new to the market and do not have database of customers, it will take some time and effort to earn trust of customers and get our product well-known. We also need to focus on the promotion of the product during seasonal changes.

One of the opportunities for the Meater is the fact that there is no such product in the market, so we can benefit from this niche market. Another opportunity is joint promotions with better known companies selling spices or kitchen equipment, this could help us get more attention and customers. Social media in today’s world represent huge opportunity to promote products and reach more potential customers, we will use every bit of it to do so.

Although there are no direct competitors to our product, there is still a threat from other companies providing other thermometers or even smart ovens. However, we believe that our product is unique and superior to regular thermometers and definitely more affordable than smart ovens.

Market Segmentation In this paragraph we will focus on segmentation and target markets for our product. This contains short descriptions of our target customers. The market segments are introduced in the following graph.

• Niche market• Joint promotions• Out of the box thinking

when competing with smart ovens

• Social media

• Traditional thermometers• Smart ovens• Unknown market

•Unknown brand•Seasonality of products•Unknown product

• Unique design• Patent pending tech• Interesting brand• Specific need• Price

Strengths Waknesses

OpportunitiesThreaths

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• Housewives

o Often unemployed women who manage their household as their principal occupation and want to prepare meat to perfection. Their decision of buying a product is frequently influenced by their husbands or partners. It is based on recommendations from friends or family members, advertisements on TV, and cooking or household magazines.

o Age: 30-60 years

o Life stage: Married, In relationship

o Gender: Female

o Income: middle, upper and higher

o Generation: Gen X, Baby boomers

o Social class: working class, middle class, upper middles, lower uppers

o Geographic: all around the world

o Initiator: Housewives who want to improve and enhance their cooking skills and possibilities.

o Influencer: Relatives or friends who are innovative and seek newest technologies.

o Decider: Housewives themselves or husbands/partners.

o Buyer: Housewives or husbands/partners.

• Men

o Men interested in grilling, BBQ, hunting and cooking, who like to use the newest gadgets and high quality technology to achieve excellent results. They often make decisions of buying certain

Houswifes50 %Men

35 %

Young people

interested in cooking

15 %

Market segments

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product on their own, their decisions are influenced by advertisements in TV, magazines, internet sites etc., their friends’ and relatives’ suggestions, or their own research.

o Age: 20-60 years

o Life stage: Married, In relationship, Single

o Gender: Male

o Income: middle, upper and higher

o Generation: Gen Y, Gen X, Baby boomers

o Social class: working class, middle class, upper middles, lower uppers

o Geographic: all around the world

o Initiator: Men who like their meat cooked perfectly and with ease.

o Influencer: Friends or relatives who are innovative and seek newest technologies.

o Decider: Men themselves or possibly wives/partners.

o Buyer: Men, wives/partners.

• Young people interested in cooking

o Young and modern people, usually bloggers, using social media to promote their cooking skills and share recipes. These people are usually deciding for themselves, they buy products that they like and feel the need of purchasing it. They are often innovative and test new things on the market. Being the first one to present a product to others is often the main reason why they buy it.

o Age: 15-30 years

o Life stage: Married, In relationship, Single

o Gender: Male/Female

o Income: middle, upper and higher

o Generation: Gen Z, Gen Y, Gen X

o Social class: working class, middle class, upper middles, lower uppers

o Geographic: all around the world

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o Initiator: Young people who are interested in cooking and sharing their skills and results with others.

o Influencer: Friends, other people with similar interests, possibly companies that offer their product straight to those people for promotion.

o Decider: Themselves

o Buyer: Themselves

Meater seeks to take a competitive advantage in this market by being the first and only completely wireless thermometer with smart properties. The competitive advantage is ensured by having patents pending on the design and technologies. Meater’s competitors are the oven manufacturers, kitchen equipment producers and traditional thermometer producers such as Tescoma, Miele, Maverick and Taylor.

As Meater is still a start up project, the main objective is to get on the market and get our product well-known among society. We want to help people in preparing meat and improve their skills to perfection. Our product is more than just thermometer, that eases the process of cooking while leaving users to engage in other activities without stressing about burning the meat and ruining whole dish. People who use the Meater can enjoy both excellent food and free time. We could not be happier to present this revolutionary product and bring so much joy, ease, and possibilities with it. Meater can improve users’ cooking skills and bring new horizons in preparing various dishes.

Our product is a modern gadget that people do not really need, but we want to create the demand by positioning it as a “luxurious” product that helps with cooking and preparing meat, and makes it easier, so you can engage in other activities and do not need to check the oven/grill all the time. Meater will improve the cooking results of all customers by checking the temperature, measuring estimated time and notifying when the meat is ready. Another benefit for our customers is that the app can help them with preparing side dishes by telling them when is the right time to start.

Strategies – The Hybrid Grid The strategy to achieve the mission and the set objectives is introduced using the the hybrid grid including Demand-generation tasks on the upper row and Marketing channels and methods on the left line.

Gather relevan informa

tion

Delevop &

disseminate

communications

Reach price agreements

Place orders

Acquire funds for

inventories Assume

risks

Facilitate product

storage & movement

Facilitate payments

Oversee ownership transfer

Internet 5 5 5 4 4 5 4

Direct Sales 5 5 5 3 3

Direct Mail 5 5

Distributors 3 3 3 3 2

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Gather relevan informa

tion

Delevop &

disseminate

communications

Reach price agreements

Place orders

Acquire funds for

inventories Assume

risks

Facilitate product

storage & movement

Facilitate payments

Oversee ownership transfer

Dealers and value added

resellers 4 3 4 4 4 3 1 2

• Internet Our goal is to present all the needed information about our company and product through our web page. This is because we really need to make a buzz about the product before we actually have a big launch. From the web page the customer can see how the product looks like, how to use it and how to get it. We introduce “innovative use of Meater” campaign for our customers to put a dummy product to various usage situations and then post a picture of it to social media. Customers can order the product through our web site and that’s why we need to focus on having an online inventory. We need to well prepare the promotion and campaigning done on internet most of all because the product is so unknown it includes some risks.

• Direct sales Through direct sales there is communication to the customers about the product and its specifications. Price agreements need to be done according to the campaign offers and coupons. Orders can be done via direct sales by filling an order form or buying the product straight from the salesperson. Minor product inventories are needed for direct sales to provide the chance of buying the product straight from the salesperson. Risks include product placement, communication, information and the capabilities of the salespeople.

• Direct mail Offers and information delivery to the customer about the product. Customers can order products using the provided link to the online shop.

• Distributors Agreements about specific pricing per quantity need to be made. Inventories need to be funded to ensure distribution. There is some risks about pricing, reliability and speed of distribution. Product movement to storage and distribution centres need to be considered, Payments need to be facilitated per distributor.

• Dealers and value added resellers Communication to the customers about the product and its specifications are performed by dealers. Agreements about specific pricing and campaigns need to be done accordingly. Customers can order/buy products from the dealers and resellers so stores need to have some inventories to meet the possible high demand of the product. Risks about product placement and communication of information to the customers and risks of low inventories. Products need to be delivered to stores based on need and demand of the product. Payments need to be facilitated per dealer/reseller. The ownership of products need to be transferred according to agreement.

Product Offerings In this paragraph the features of Meater probe, Meater Block and Meater App are listed and introduced.

Meater Probe: • Features

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o Stainless steel casing o All technology inside the probe o Design made to be water resistant, dust proof and easy to clean o Wireless up to 10 meters, Bluetooth LE connection for smart devices (Android, IOS) o Dual sensor system (Internal and ambient sensor) o Internal temperature sensor range: 100 Celsius degrees o Ambient temperature sensor range: 275 Celsius degrees o Rechargeable battery with a battery life of 48 hours in continuous use

Meater Block: • Features

o For homes in need for more wireless range o Allows the use of meter without a smartphone o Includes a LCD touch display that shows the same information as the smartphone app.

Meater App: • Features:

o You can choose the type of meat and the wanted end result

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o Can be used with multiple different smart devices (Including Apple Watch) operating either Android or IOS

o Visual and audio notifications for your or your friends’ smartphone about the current status of the cooking to guarantee the perfect result.

o Visual and audio notifications for your or your friends’ smartphone about the temperature changes lower or higher than wanted.

o Shows you the cooking time, next phase of your recipe and the real time temperature of the meat using your smartphone app

o Allows you to upload and share your recipes and pictures to social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest.

Marketing Mix

Sales Promotion • Samples - Free samples for “bloggers/instagramers/vloggers…” who are cooking and showing new

products. This should help us to get more people to know us and get them interested. • Coupons - Coupons are distributed in magazines (cooking, lifestyle, men, technology) to subscribers and

even in shops. o 25% discount - we shall give them away in the first quarter and they will be valid till the end of

second quarter. o “Buy 1 Meater and charger dock, get 1 for free” - This kind of coupons will be distributed in the

third quarter and will be valid through third and fourth quarter. Christmas should motivate people to use this offer.

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• Prizes/Competitions - We are going to organise some photo competitions for our customers and potential customers, so they can win another/their first Meater. People who yet do not possess the Meater can still download our app and upload their pictures, recipes etc. and take part in the contest. Every winner will get one Meater and the charger dock.

o “Innovative use of Meater” - There will be scale models distributed during the month of January (magazines, various presentations…), people will use them and take photos which they will upload to instagram/facebook/our app and therefore they will take part in the competition. We will choose the best idea. First quarter

o Most popular recipe - People can upload their recipes to our app and share it on facebook, the most popular one is the winner. Second quarter

o “What happens if you don’t use the Meater?” - People can upload their photos of burnt/overcook/destroyed meat and take part in competition. The one with most “likes” will win. Third quarter

o “Meater success stories” - Customers will upload their pictures of successful meals cooked with the Meater with hashtag “CookSmart”, the one with biggest amount of likes is the winner. Fourth quarter

• Free trials - for specified amount of customers for specified time period • Joint promotion – cooking mitts/gloves or spices for free if you buy our product, discount for dish etc.

o Join promotions in retail stores with oven and grill manufacturers, spice brands and kitchen equipment.

o If you buy an oven from Miele at winter time (January 1st - March 31st) * you get Meater and the charger dock for free.

o If you buy a grill from Weber at summer time (July 1st - September 30th) * you get Meater and the charger dock for free.

o If you buy the Meater Block in autumn (October 1st - December 31st) * or spring (April 1st - June 30th) * you get 5 different spices of your choice from a partner brand.

o If you buy the Meater Block in summer or winter, you get to pick either kitchen or grill equipment from certain selection provided by our partners. *the dates and partners can change

• Point of purchase Displays and Demonstrations - Direct selling in the supermarket, cooking fairs and shows with a special discount of 10%.

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Digital marketing channels We will effectively use our digital marketing channels such as Youtube, Instagram Facebook and our webpage to provide useful information and promote our products.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF0Ljh_eUy0

• On YouTube we will show product introduction videos and cooking videos to promote the product and to help our customer to get new ideas on how to use the Meater.

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/MEATER

• In Instagram we launch different competitions and share pictures including prepared dishes and cooking process itself using hashtags like: #MEATER #smartthermometer #ineedameater #CookSmart.s

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apptionlabs, https://www.facebook.com/MEATER

• In Facebook we launch competitions, promote campaigns and share links to sites including helpful information to our customers while promoting our product.

Our own webpage:

• From our webpage, customers can find useful information about the product and tips on using it. Potential customers can even order their own Meater using our online store.