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INTRODUCTION:

This case paper is all about plan of execution for launching a new herbal soft

drink in eighteen months of span; this case study also enables assistance in execution

during first few months' of actual production of the product which is made up of

natural herbal ingredients.

The study also compromises of analysing consumer mentality and behaviour

abut regular soda drinks, their awareness of ill effects on health due to consumption of

soda drinks, exploring opportunities in up bringing the herbal values in the diet.

Study compromises the research involving in analysing current market

scenario of all soft drinks available in the market, understanding people's mindset

about brand and soda drinks, their awareness about herbal products and its health

benefits.

Later part will explain on creating strong consumer awareness for Bubble Buzz

through the 4 P’s, and will undergo industry analysis for our strengths, weaknesses or

shortcoming of our product, opportunities in the market, threats to the business and

brand. The name of the product and its marketing statement is-

HerboSpark .. a refreshing bubbly drink..!!

Study Contents:

Introduction ..01

Purpose Of The Study ..02

Objectives Of The Research ..03

Scope Of The Research ..03

Research Prototype ..04

Sampling Technique Used ..04

Sources Of Data Collection ..05

Statistical Used Tools ..06

Analysing The Data ..07

Segmentation Targeting & Positioning ..22

Segmentation ..23

Market Targeting ..24

Positioning For Commutative Advantage ..25

Marketing Mix Activities ..26

Product ..26

Price ..24

Promotion ..25

Place ..26

Limitation Of The Study ..26

Recommendations And Suggestions ..26

Logical Conclusion ..27

References And Supporting Evidences Of Research & Analysis ..28

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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY:

Aim of study is to understand the awareness of people towards herbal drinks,

on the other hand understand how much they are aware of the hazards of currently

available soft drinks on their health; on the basis of this a detailed business plan has

been prepared.

Objectives of the research:

To understand the people preferences for soft drinks through various

demographics, age groups & various income groups in the society.

To find out the end user’s awareness of the adverse effect on the health due to

the consumption of the soda containing soft drinks.

To find out the influencing factors of the consumer’s intake of the soft drinks.

To check the consumers behaviour and brand loyalty off the various brands

present in the soft drinks and juices market.

To study the brand positioning in the consumer’s mind

To analyse and understand beverage industry analysis.

To be aware of the advertising medium and buzz factors in the various

demographics

How to create the brand name in the minds of consumer.

How to win customer base and make them frequent buyer beyond making

them brand loyal.

Scope of the Research:

Only canned and bottled drinks has been considered

We are not considering the seasonal drinks and juices in the study.

Water and alcoholic drinks has been excluded from the study

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Research Prototype:

A research prototype is a framework or blueprint to conduct the marketing

research project. It specifies the details of the set of actions necessary for procuring

the information needed to iron out the marketing research problem.

With regards to fundamental research objectives, research design can be classified

into two types as follows:

1. Exploratory research:

It is a type of research design having its main objective as the provisions of

insights into & comprehension of, the problem situation to confront the

researcher.

2. Conclusive research:

This type is designed for decision maker to assist to determine in evaluation

and selection of the best course of action to be taken in any given situation.

There are further two sub types in which conclusive research can be divided:-

Descriptive

Experimental

This project has been designed to research on the basis of DESCRIPTIVE DESIGN

which describes something in terms of characteristics of the entity for e.g. Users of a

given product; the extent to which the product is used varies with the factors as age,

income, etc.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE USED:

Convenience sampling technique has been used as its one of the convinient

and accurate exploratory research methods in which the researcher is keen in getting

an inexpensive approximation of the facts. This technique has been selected as it gives

facts and figures in timely manner considering a vast number of sample data.

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SELECTION OF SAMPLE SIZE:

For this research we have planned to study, a total sample size of 50,000 will be taken

into consideration which compromises equal distribution in males and females of

various age groups, various religions and all standards of the income will be

considered.

SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION:

Below two types of data sources has been used in the research conducted-

1. Primary data

2. Secondary data

1) PRIMARY DATA:

Questionnaire: Primary data has been collected from the people who were

randomly requested to fill them, with the help of questionnaire, the template for which

has been mentioned below.

DETAILS OF THE PARTICIPANTS:

Name - …………………………………….

Age group - 15-20 21-30 31-50 51+

Gender - Male Female

Occupation - Student Housewife Business Service

1) Do you usually drink soft drinks?

Yes No

2) How frequently do you consume soft drink on weekly basis?

Daily 2-3times more than 3 times

Only once in a week

3) Tick the occasions, when would you consume the soft drinks more often?

When Thirsty Without reason (just like that)

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Parties / Celebrations Others, please specify…………………..

4) What encourages you buying a soft drink?

Quantity and price Health Drink Status symbol

Taste Variety Advertisement

5) How much does your purchases is affected by advertisements?

To greater extend To great extend Neutral To less extend

To lesser extend

6) Which soft drink do you like more?

Cocacola Pepsi Mirinda

Limca Maaza Other (specify)……………………………

7) Do you take the same soft drink every time?

Yes No

8) Which flavor do you like most?

Mango Orange lemon

Apple Other (specify) ________

9) How do you rate canned juices as compared to fresh juices?

Same as of fresh juices Have artificial added flavor Healthy with

preservatives Not as healthy at all

10) Do you think taking too much soft drink would cause health problems?

Yes No No comment

11) Do you think these drinks have caused health problem to you before?

Yes No

12) Are you aware that you are being charged more than 10 times than of the

actual cost of the drink?

Yes No

13) If TV advertisements are considered then which one do you like more?

Cocacola Pepsi Mirinda Thumsup

Maaza

Others specify…………………..

14) Does advertisement influences you to switch to that particular one?

Yes No

15) What changes would you like to see in the manufacturing to increase the sale?

Quality Price Advertisement Flavor options

Others (specify)……………………….

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18) Do you think if any disease caused due to consumption of the soft drink if so

which one of the most diseases could the pesticides of the soft drink causes?

Cancer Tooth decaying Polarization Pregnancy

Problems Not aware

Others specify:

19) Do you think any of the below significant quantities are there in cola Soft

drinks

Caffeine Nicotine Tannin Rennin

Do not know

20) Do you feel government should do any of the things to stop the detrimental

practices carried out by soft drink firms?

Standards should be increased Quality checks should be frequent

Advertisements be controlled others

2) SECONDARY DATA:

In this section some different literatures such as published articles, books, internet

sources which are official only websites including government and food and

beverages association websites will be considered to enhance the accuracy of the self

generated primary data of the research.

In order to reach relevant conclusion, research work has to be designed in an

appropriate executable structure.

STATISTICAL USED TOOLS:

Mainly statistical tools considered for the collection of the data and the analysis of the

data of this research are:

Questionnaire

Pie Charts

Bar Figures

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ANALYSING THE DATA:

The data collected has been fed to various types of visualization and scientific

methods of its representation and analysis as –

1) Do you usually drink soft drinks?

YES NO

83% 17%

2) How frequently do you consume soft drink on weekly basis?

Daily 2-4 Times More than 4 times once in a week

6% 3% 11% 58%

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3) Tick the occasions, when would you consume the soft drinks more often?

When Thirsty Without reason Celebrations & parties Hard work

38% 36% 36% 1%

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4) What encourages you buying a soft drink?

Quantity and

price Health

Status symbol Taste Variety Advertisement

8% 5% 5% 50% 13% 13%

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5) How much your purchase does is affected by advertisements?

To Greater Extend

To Great Extend Not much To Less Extend To Lesser

Extend

13% 30% 35% 13% 10%

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6) Which soft drink do you like more?

Coca cola Pepsi Miranda Limca Maaza Other

10% 21% 28% 5% 18% 19%

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These are the OTHER soft drink which are preferred by people

7-UP Dew Tropicano Slice Frooti Fanta Sprite

5 3 1 2 1 1 2

7) Do you repeat taking same soft drink often?

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YES NO

31% 69%

8) What is your favorite flavor of the all drinks?

Mango Orange Lemon Apple Others

24% 31% 21% 10% 14%

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9) How would you rate fresh juices as compare to canned juices?

Same as of fresh

juices

Got artificial

flavoring

flavoring

preservatives are

healthy

not healthy at all

8% 33% 10% 50%

10) Does over consumption of soft drink causes any health problems?

Yes No No comment

65% 15% 20%

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11) Do you think these drinks have caused health problem to you before?

Yes No

15 65

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12) Do you know that you are being charged more than eight times than of the

actual cost of the drink?

Yes No

50% 50%

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13) If TV advertisements are considered then which one do you like more?

Coca cola Pepsi Mirinda Thumsup Maaza Other specify

13% 23% 20% 29% 5% 11%

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14) Does advertisement influences you to switch to that particular one?

Yes No

38% 63%

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15) What changes would you like to see in the manufacturing to increase the sale?

Quality Price Advertisement Flavour

options

Other

specified

48% 33% 14% 10% 0%

16) Do you assume if any disease caused due to consumption of the soft drink if so

which one of the most diseases could the pesticides of the soft drink causes?

Cancer Paralysation Tooth decay Pregnancy Problems Don’t know

25% 13% 26% 11% 25%

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16) Do you think any of the below significant quantities are there in cola Soft

drinks

Caffeine Nicotine Tannin Rennin Don’t know

40% 10% 3% 4% 43%

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18) Do you feel government should do any of the things to stop the health

detrimental practices carried out by soft drink firms?

Standards should be

increased

Quality checks should be

frequent Advertisements be controlled

30% 59% 11%

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SEGMENTATION TARGETING & POSITIONING:

Segmentation:

Breakdown method has been used to identify groups which share particular characters

and, we use the data which we have collected based on certain keys, the market has

been segmented on the basis of:

A. Demographic segment

B. Psychographic segment

C. Behavioural segment

D. Inter-market segment

Demographic segment:

GENDER: We are considering both the gender equally for our product launch and

actual marketing purpose

AGE GROUPS:

During research it has been seen that the teenagers are the potential buyers for regular

soda drinks who mostly buys the drink for the sake of taste mainly. The herbal drinks

may not be initially welcomed very well in the teenagers group and hence our

potential customers are widely who are mature say 21 years old and above.

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Psychographic segment:

1. Life- style: Busy working professional

2. Personality: from normal level to ambitious, from general to challenge acceptors.

Behavioral segment:

Occasions:

Regular Consumption: During lunch time, snack time and on the go.

Special Occasion: Especially when high energy is required such as in sports events,

parties and celebrations.

User status:

Being a new drink there will be a brand new users across UK, during introductory

span of the product.

Benefits:

As this is completely 100 % herbal product, it will be completely safe to health to

consume any normal limit of the drink, It will stimulates the nervous system leading

to improve alertness, assist in memory improvement, boost the blood circulation

system, and its herbs are introduced mainly to improve anti- oxidant properties

unlike other regular soft drinks which rather reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of

the body, hence we can afford to add the carbonated water to get sparkling effects

without any ill effects on the health.

Market Targeting:

The herbal drink has been targeted to niche marketing as it's a brand new

product in the market and niche marketing is suitable for all ordinary soft drinks as

well.

During research it has been seen that the teenagers are the potential buyers for regular

soda drinks who mostly buys the drink for the sake of taste mainly. The herbal drinks

may not be welcomed very well in this age group and hence we are targeting widely

to the group significantly who are mature say 21 years old and above. As the

competition is very high to penetrate in the age group of school and college students

our primary target will be on working people who are mostly 25 and above, this

includes all sports persons, busy professionals, the high level managers, overworked

labours, hard working class, and all those who want to improve in overall immune

system.

Positioning for commutative advantage:

Competitors:

We don’t have any specific competitors as this is a very unique product however the

market switchers would be ranging from all the beverage sectors, it implies that we

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have a biggest challenge to pull out the customers from almost all categories of soft

drinks and juices group viz. energy drinks, cola drinks, juices and adult drinks.

MARKETING MIX ACTIVITIES: UK consumed about 1,500 million liters of soft drink and juices every year with about

5 % increase in volume on year on year basis. In terms of value soft drink industry is

about £1,770 million a year; hence we see a plethora of opportunities in these

consumer products.

This section will introduce and later highlight the marketing mix activities to launch a

new herbal soft drink based on the below main elements as

A) Product

B) Price

C) Promotion

D) Place

This is explained as below,

A) PRODUCT

Herbal soft drink will be a unique formula with real natural ingredients and taste a

novelty refreshing drink which provides energy, containing many medicinal

properties with no side effects

This health drink will be initially packed in 250ml of cans and plastic bottles. Over

the period it will be made available in various sizes.

The herbal ingredients used in the preparation of the drink would be mainly-

GUARANA:

– This is a naturally occurring berry mainly into the Amazon, Tamilnadu (India) and

in some common of Brazil; Guarana is very effective energy booster and is well

known for stimulant properties, it improves the physical endurance and the stamina

while boosting the immune system.

GINKGO-BILOBA:

– In Japan and China, these trees are cultivated for their seeds as they are considered

to be a one of the best a natural product to help in improving mental alertness; assist

in memory building, blood circulation is improved and is very well know for its

antioxidant properties, this enable us the competitive edge over all other soft drink

products of the cola category and would be a widely accepted because of this anti-

oxidant properties as on the other hand the available majority of the drinks in the

market reduces oxygen carrying capacity of the system.

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NATUARALLY OCCURING SUGAR:

We would be using naturally occurring sugars which are very low in calories and

could be used by diabetic person too, this would cost us a bit more but considering the

data research done would be appreciated by majority of obsessed persons who are

majority in UK and they are very few soft drinks who really takes care of obesity the

sugar substitutes are -

Stevia:

It is natural sweetener derived from plants and has passed regular safety taste.

Diabetics can consume it as it will not contribute to increase the sugar levels in the

blood.

Xylitol and Erythritol:

These are derived from the fibres of commonly available fruits and some of the

regularly found vegetable plants which can be cultivated across UK and Europe such

as mushrooms

These molecules are slowly absorbed in the blood stream as compate to any other

regular sugar and are extremely low in terms of carbohydrate intake. This is having

another age as medicinal property rather than being saturated in the body they are

quickly excreted through urine.

B-GROUP VITAMINS:

Deficiencies in B group vitamins causes' majority of diseases where as a little more

intake if these groups of vitamins do not cause any ill effects on the health as any

excessive b-complex vitamins would be eliminated by the body. All kind of B

vitamins will be extracted through naturally and readily occurring foods and

vegetables

During Manufacturing

Keeping consumer needs in mind must insure that their needs are met by

product attributes

Attributes should be fully control while in pilot plant , production etc

Thought the distribution process make sure that product attributes are

retained

Must take care of components such as chemical, physical, nutritional

value, product packaging and shipping

Train all pilot plant staff; keep of quality assurance policy in place for the

QA team.

QA personal involvement should be in all phases of product.

Must track the storage of raw material and the final products through

warehousing and delivery.

Keep track of history of distribution in terms of manufacturing and expiry

dates.

Ingredients quality check should be done at regular basis and must be in

compliance with all industry standards.

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B) PRICE:

The price would be about the 150 % of the regular cola drinks this will improve

brand image considering 'higher the value higher the brand value' and hence

expected operating profit margins would be higher, this would enable us to spend

more on the advertising a making public aware of herbal drinks benefits.

Introductory price of the drink would however be slightly less than cola drinks.

There would be many promotional offers run during launch period of the product

which will enable significant higher margins for retailers to attract the higher

stock of the product. Some free samples would also be distributed during launch

period would be at government offices and big public firms and public places.

C) PROMOTION:

We would be using promotional medium as advertising and publicity over

news papers, TV and radio, Street campaigns and shows will also be used during

launch period.

The brand ambassadors would be considered the top football players and some

movie stars including local celebrities.

Some free samples would also be distributed during launch period would be at

government offices and big public firms and public places.

There would be many promotional offers run during introductory period of the

product which will enable significant higher margins for retailers to attract to stock

significantly higher volume of the product.

We would be soon approaching the Olympic 2012 committee to see how we

can make publicity by sponsoring the event.

D) PLACE:

We are covering all places across the UK and hence the model used for physical

distribution of the product is intensive distribution.

To monitor inventory of the stock an IT system will be enabled at various distribution

centers.

During Distribution will need to take care of:

Maintain and establish self- life procedures for testing.

Must track and respond according to customer complaints

Frequent reviews of records of overall distribution system through IT

system.

Continuous review of sales records

Must tract our main competitors closely in terms of price quantity and

quantity

MANUFACTURER: Our first production unit will at Barmingham as we are getting a

good deal to acquire the running cold drink plant and our packaging unit is in the

same industry zone which will reduce the material transpiration cost, as per the

demands we would also plan for another unit in Cardiff.

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AGENTS: We are extending the offers to our existing agents of our other regular

consumer products.

DISTRIBUTORS: We would ask and open new tenders to well set players in the

industry.

RETAILERS: Distributors will decide their retailers' on the other hand any retailer

willing to offer our products will b assigned to that physical areas distributor.

CUSTOMERS: As we are covering almost all regions of United Kingdom, all the

retailers as per their geography will be linked to country agents through the

distributors.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY:

Considering rapidly changing day to day life style and consumer behaviour it

is not necessary that after the period of 18 months the same opinion will

remain in place from the same responders.

There are some chances of biasness during survey done.

Surveyors interactions were limited some were incomplete and some may

have been filled in hurry without actually reading the questioner because of

their busy life.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS:

During advertisement will not only have to promote our product but will also

have to demoralise about consumption of regular cola or soft drinks

According to survey done, about 60% of the peple suggests that they will

prefer plastic bottles over cans.

Frequent consumption of the ingredients of this our soft drink will boost

improve immune system this has been concluded by world health

organisation, we can use this outcome of the WHO during advertisements and

promotions.

The research survey suggests that government should have frequent checks for

the quality to maximise the consumer satisfaction factor and to improve the

sales. The association of the beverage industry and food industry will suggest

government and governing bodies about this research.

Prices should not be much reduced to retain brand value as per- "Higher the

price, higher will be the brand value" however occasionally as a part of

promotion we can increase the quantity of the product. Higher prices will also

help to stand out product from market considering its compositional values.

LOGICAL CONCLUSION:

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Following are the conclusions derived based on the research and all business study

carried out so far:

Survey suggest on an important thing about consumer that 83 % of the people

still love soft drinks as compare to only 17 % who do not like. Hence we

would be adding carbonated water to get sparkling effects; this will still have

about 5% of ill effect on health as compare to regular soda drinks.

Survey also concludes that people are very much poised towards for natural

herbs and there is a huge scope of herbal ingredients in daily consumption

through the cold drinks.

Majority of consumer having soft drinks only for the sake of putting off thrust.

Most of the consumers consume cold drinks occasionally in celebrations and

parties.

Taste is the most important driving factor for the cold drinks.

Respondents are widely influenced by advertisements and marketing of the

product, and will drive their purchase.

More than 50 % of the people said that cola or soda drinks may cause health

problems and very few had health problems before.

Most of the people prefer tangy orange flavour over all other flavours.

References and supporting evidences of research & analysis:

http://www.fdf.org.uk

This is a website launched by Food & Drink Federation, government of United

Kingdom in the public interests to avail latest data of the food and beverage industry.

All the statics available here are from official government figures. It also talks about

industry standard practices for quality such as- ISO 9001, ISO 22000, PAS220

http://www.britishsoftdrinks.com

The British Soft Drinks Association is United kingdoms soft drink traders and

manufacturers association, it represents the common interests of all industry players

such as manufacturer, producer of soft drinks which includes soda drinks, fresh and

still fruit juices and bottled pure water. Its activities include –Media interactions and

communication with them, to influence government, to promote sustainability, to

reduce monopoly in the marked and availing opportunities to all players in the

industry and improve the competitiveness.

http://www.guarana.com

This website gives us insight out of our key ingredients, Guarana. This site

guides through health advantages of this natural herb. This will also guide us through

various producers and exporters of Guarana.

http://www.nwbotanicals.org

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This site throws a light on all herbal products used in our cold drink, providing

all related information side effects and amount of recommended dosages has been

also guided in the website.

http://bioweb.uwlax.edu

Ginkgo-Biloba is one of the most important ingredients of our product, and

this website provides thought information of its fruits and trees how they are

cultivated, the season in which it is cultivated, the stockiest and exporters of this herbs

and all health related information.

There are few more website used in the research and analysis, some of the sites

are noted below-

http://www.anh-usa.org

This site will provide insight-out about the naturally occurring sugars

extracted through fibers of commonly available fruits and vegetables, their extraction

process the recommended proportion of consumption and its health benefits has been

listed in the site.

http://www.thecressco.co.uk/soft-drinks.html

http://www.startupnation.com

http://www.disabled-world.com

The books referred for the research and analysis are:

A Modern Herbal

This book has widely healped in choosing the herbs off the various readily

available herbal materials such as and serves as an encyclopaedia, providing botanical

information, its medicinal properties,

Desk Reference to Nature's Medicine

This book is composed by Steven Foster who is well known for herbs and its

medicinal usages throughout the world. It provides geographical information of

various natural herbs.

Healing Tonics

This book very well categorises the various available and tonics used in drinks by

historically such as herbal teas.

There are some more books listed below which has been looked into are-

Herbal Home Remedy Book

Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook

Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health