Marketing Strategies the American Snack Chip Manufacturing

Marketing Strategies

The American Snack Chip Manufacturing Corporation ("American Snack") has the mission of delivering the world from hunger, one chip at a time. The company will produce flavored snacks from its home in Queens. The company was founded by two women and some inherited commercial-grade equipment.

The branding strategy must be tied to the business model, it must be consistent and it must connect emotionally with the customer. The brand, American Snacks, is a statement of intent. Americans connect to all things American, and foreign markets understand that no country produces a wider variety -- and higher quality -- of snacks. The brand will be associated with classic snack products. Pricing will be premium to match the premium positioning of American Snacks. With this premium pricing, the brand will be able to capture healthy margins not only in foreign markets, but also in the domestic market through premium retail channels like Whole Foods and those types of stores. The company will employ a pull strategy, and utilize wholesalers to expand its distribution area beyond New York City. A distribution partner will be critical for entering the Japanese market.

The marketing position of the company is that it will convey the authenticity of American snack products -- the name says it all. The packaging will also convey this simplicity, and the message in all forms of communication in the integrated marketing plan will be authenticity and deliciousness. The company will work through traditional media transmitters (Foulger, 2004). Customer satisfaction will be assured through a combination of great ingredients and processes, and through product testing prior to launch to ensure that only the best products make it to the market (No author, 2012). Market research after the launch will also help to make future product decisions (Inc., 2012). The launch strategy will therefore be geared towards increasing brand awareness and spurring curiosity about the products (Daye & VanAuken, 2012).

The company has a lot of competitors. The largest of these is Frito Lay, which is owned by Pepsi and is the worldwide giant in snack chips. However, the closest competition is with the different small chip makers, ranging from Kettle Chips to mom-and-pop snack chip makers. The competition in this industry is intense, based on both price and quality, and there are no serious barriers to entry to prevent even more competition in the future. The strength of the company is going to lie with the high quality of its products, and the branding program. The weaknesses that the company has are that it has an unknown brand at present, and only limited marketing dollars with which to achieve its branding objectives. Thus, the marketing program is going to have to be well-targeted, and contains several points of differentiation.

The differentiation will be based on the quality of the chips, the recognizability of the brand, and on the unique flavor offerings. The classicness of the brand is absolutely going to be a key point of differentiation, because that gives the company the ability to do different products and flavors but still build on the past work that the marketing program has done with respect to building the brand. Building on that brand strength, the company is expected to be a leader in the industry, focusing on innovation. As a niche product, American Snack is to be understood by the market at the best and most innovative snack chip company in the galaxy.