Product Launch Plan the Elements of Product

Product Launch Plan

The elements of product launch plan that are going to be looked into here include the distribution strategy, financial information, and marketing research.

Marketing Research

Teas N. Line has undertaken to deal in Oolong, Green, Yellow, and Black tea after realizing that tea after some time tea loses its freshness after it has spent some time on the shelf and that consumers want tea that is freshly packaged and shipped in oxygen free packaging. The consumer's preference for pleasant smelling tea as opposed to those having bitter and stringent taste has made the proprietors of Teas N. line to consider introducing the above named teas in the international market. Consumers have become very aware of the health risks they are exposed to by soft drinks and have consequently turned to flavored waters and tea as alternatives. The Teas Line N. seeks to be a healthy alternative to tap water and soft drinks.

This line of tea targets the three top portions of consumers eager to try new products, the innovators, early adaptors and early majority. It is projected that the products will appeal to middle and upper middle-class market. With regard to market demographics, it is projected that the youth and the children can use bottled tea as an alternative to soft drinks. Teas N. Line is easily accessible in fast food chains and grocery shops, is available in many flavors, its natural ingredients have health benefits, and it has unique packaging for prolonged shelf life. These make the product appeal to customers' desire for healthy lifestyle changes. The product also has reduced cost.

The only threat to its penetration of the market is competition from already established participants and economic decline that has continued to affect sales and distribution of products. The tea has also to be imported from overseas.

The Teas N. Line is seized of the fact that Brazil, in terms of geographical area it covers and its population, is the largest country in the South America having a population of over 200 million people. In fact, it is one of the world's fastest growing major economies. This has made the product line to come up with marketing strategies that are responsive to the demand of this enormous economy. The pricing decisions that have been initiated have been informed by the fact that this product is unknown in the country and that there would be transportation and distribution expenses that would be incurred in order to get the product delivered to Brazilian distributors. Focus has therefore been put on Brazilian cities where the upper and middle class reside. Pricing will in the mean time be pegged on the economies of scale.

Distribution strategy

In the Brazilian market consumption of tea in 2009 stood at 2.1kg per capita. Since 2009, the trend for premium tea has increased because the middle class Brazilians are becoming larger and wealthier. They have developed some preference for flavored tea. Teas N. Line domestic marketing channel bridges the gap between producer of a product and the consumer. The channel strategy uses a mix of selective and intensive distribution in the domestic market to limit distribution to retailers who have health food section (Daniels, 2010). The line has contracted an international distribution company with Brazilian ties with representatives who are bilingual and understand how the government works. This is part of its international channel strategy.

Communication plan

Effective marketing tools will be used to communicate new products and their values to the customers. Target audience will be communicated to using effective communication tools (Cooper, 2001). The target audience will first of all be identified and their characteristics put into perspective followed with definition of communication objective; selection of communication channels; establishment of total promotion budget; division of promotion budget among the main promotional tools; monitoring of how the market becomes aware of the product, how it tries it, and whether it gets satisfied. The advertising and promotion agencies will attract the right target group to the product.