EOC Week 10: What are the benefits vs the features?

The benefits of my food truck are that all our products are made from fresh ingredients. Everything will be made to order instead of all the fast food restaurants that have heating lights to have food already made by the time you place your order. Our beverages will be all home styled beverages making it seem like your drinking the best and putting the best ingredients on your system. Our lemonades will be freshly squeezed every morning.  Like most of the wraps that are made they use the already made big tortillas, mine will be made from scratch like my mom would make them when I was little. They will be homemade flour tortillas.

We won’t only serve food but we will serve you with excellent customer service. Products and services both go hand on hand. Me as a customer I expect to go to a restaurant or even a store and be provided with good customer service. Usually I go to a place just because the employees are really friendly and treat me as if I was part of their family, when you eat at my food truck you will get the same feeling.  Another benefit about my business is that is convenient to eat there since my food truck can be just one day be placed outside of your work. You don’t have to be looking around the city to see what you want to have for lunch when it’s already in front of your job or school etc.

Basically the two main benefits about eating at my food truck is the food you’ll be buying and the serves you’ll be getting. When you have a good and healthy meal your day just goes a lot smoother. As well as when you just get a nice friendly smile it can even make your whole day better.

Implementation Evalution Control

The final step is putting everything together, sometimes it can be the hardest or easiest if you have all your plan organized. Lunch in a Wrap will come together by the customers. Our loyal customers are going to make our business grew by telling their friends and relatives about the great products we carry.“Through implementation, the company turns the plans into actions. Control consists of measuring and evaluating the results of marketing activities and taking corrective action where needed.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 31). Lunch in a Wrap will be a more of a consumer own business, they will control it by choosing where they want to see the truck park. The customers will interact with our business and we will take every ideas they will give us to make it more for them.“Many managers think that “doing things right” (implementation) is as important as, or even more important than, “doing the right things” (strategy). The fact is that both are critical to success, and companies can gain competitive advantages through effective implementation.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2, page 33).

Market Strategy: Price

When it comes to pricing for our wraps will be $5.99 each,we will also give you a choose for those who don’t eat a lot of a 3.99 for half a wrap. This will not include our beverages. Our lemonades will be $1.99 for the regular size, we will only offer one size for the beverages.“Competition-based pricing involves setting prices based on competitors’ strategies, costs, prices, and market offerings.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 9 page 16).I think our prices are very reasonable for the product we are offering. When your working with the freshest ingredients you tend to pay more for them. “Consumers will base their judgments of a product’s value on the prices that competitors charge for similar products.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 9 page 16). Yes since our business is new we are taking a risk with the pricing. I think for the first year it’s more like a trial period and testing for our prices and products.“Pricing may play an important role in helping to accomplish company objectives at many levels.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 9 page 18).

Market Strategy: Promotion

As for our promotions I want Lunch in a Wrap to be more of the social networking with our promotions. I will have promotions on our Twitter page, so who ever follows us will be able to take full advantage that Lunch in a Wrap will throw your way. On our Facebook page will give you an extra discount and depending on our day it could be a free fresh lemonade or a free wrap if you check yourself in when you eat with us. That won’t happen all the time that’s why you have to follow us in Twitter too to find out when those days will be.“Sellers may use consumer promotions to urge short-term customer buying or to enhance customer brand involvement.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 13 page 37).By doing this promotions we will get more faithful customers that will follow our every move. “In developing a sales promotion program, a company must first set sales promotion objectives and then select the best tools for accomplishing these objectives.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler Chapter 13 page 37).

Market Strategy: Distribution

Lunch in a Wrap is not planned to be a franchise or a big brand. I want to stay local for the most part. Since it’s a food truck we can easily go to drive to another state to give the people a little taste of what Lunch in a Wrap it’s made out of. “Companies often pay too little attention to their distribution channels, sometimes with damaging results. In contrast, many companies have used imaginative distribution systems to gain a competitive advantage.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 10 page 5).We will do have a website talking about our product and how the history of Lunch in a Wrap. This will also get people familiarized with the product. “But when they set up distribution channels through contracts with franchisees, independent dealers, or large retailers, they cannot readily replace these channels with company-owned stores or Web sites if conditions change.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 10 page 5).

Market Strategy: Product

“Developing the product concept into a physical product in order to ensure that the product idea can be turned into a workable market offering.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 8 page 17). Lunch in a Wrap’s product will be delicious home-made wraps. This product I personally think will attract all the people that watch what they eat. Like mentioned before on previous parts of my marketing plan, all of our wraps will be made out of fresh ingredients.

“Next, the company must decide where to launch the new product—in a single location, a region, the national market, or the international market. Few companies have the confidence, capital, and capacity to launch new products into full national or international distribution right away.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 8 page 21). Lunch in a Wrap will only be introduced in Las Vegas. I feel if we would have it all around the country the business will get too main stream and I want it to be more like a niche inspired lunch truck. People will be more eager coming to Las Vegas and follow our truck since here is the only place you can try our delicious wraps.

Target Market Strategy

A target market strategy is very important for a business, depending how good your strategy is it can easily make or break a business. A market strategy is basically finding away place your product for it to stand out from other competitors and bring back your current customer. With Lunch in a Wrap we have an advantage because we can easy place our truck where we know people will buy and consume our product. “Planning good strategies is only a start toward successful marketing. A brilliant marketing strategy counts for little if the company fails to implement it properly.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 57). At this point of your marketing plan you need to start getting more creative and aware of the decisions that you take towards your business. One of the things I will be using will be the placement of our product; which is our food truck. “A marketing strategy consists of specific strategies for target markets, positioning, the marketing mix, and marketing expenditure levels. It outlines how the company intends to create value for target customers in order to capture value in return.”(Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 57).

This will be my business logos.

Logos done by Filipe Carvalho

a Graphic Design Student at The Art Institute of Las Vegas

Situation or SWOT Analysis

SWOT is basically knowing what your business has to offer. You see what your challenges are and the benefits of your business. “Managing the marketing function begins with a complete analysis of the company’s situation. The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis, by which it evaluates the company’s overall strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T).” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 55). Below I will do my own SWOT analysis my food truck Lunch in a Wrap.

Strenghts: In Vegas where the it is getting more popular to see more food trucks driving around, Lunch in a Wrap will stick out from the rest because of the fun and friendly look of our food truck. It will definitely will make you look when Lunch in a Wrap drives by you. Not only will our look turn heads but our healthy and delicious food will too. Mostly all food trucks will sell you fattening food and very unhealthy; Lunch in a Wrap is design to give you healthy fresh food all the time. No exceptions. 

Weaknesses: Like mentioned before there is a lot of food trucks driving around Las Vegas not a days and they seem to get there cliental by the food they serve and most of it is greasy and not so healthy food, but it seems to me that it has been working for them. The weakness with my food truck is that it is really healthy food that a lot of people might not like. There might be just a small niche of people that may be interested in eating healthy. “Weaknesses include internal limitations and negative situational factors that may interfere with the company’s performance.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler Chapter 2 page 55). 

Opportunities: To biggest opportunity is that we are not a “brick” store we have wheels which means we can go anywhere we thing there is more business around. We are able to control our environments by simply just driving to places and selling our products. It is also a newer concept so people want to get that new and modern experience of a food truck. Also we plan to take advantage of all the free social networking that is around us which can help advertise through different groups of people.

Threats: “And threats are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 55). For Lunch in a Wrap one of the biggest threats will be other food trucks that are arising. People are more creative now and like to come up with new concepts and products. Food trucks are becoming to be very popular that it might be tougher for Lunch in a Wrap to stand out from the others.

Objectives

Lunch in a Wrap will focus a lot on their marketing objectives. By staying focus on our business objects it will make us succeeded and grow our business. Our objectives will be determined by two main factors, to make our customers happy and making profits. “The company needs to turn its mission into detailed supporting objectives for each level of management. Each manager should have objectives and be responsible for reaching them.(Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 43)”.

Here are the following objectives for Lunch in a Wrap:

1. Our customers happiness is our priorities.
2. To always give the customer the freshest food to order.
3. The only way we will market is through all social medias like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blog sites. This will make our food truck more like a niche product.
4. Always delivering great products and also to grow our business at least 40% .
5. To have our customers participate in every movement that we do and use their feedbacks to benefit Lunch in a Wrap.

So basically for Lunch in a Wrap we care about our customers and we make sure we take care of them. They are the once that will help grow the business by a simple word of mouth. “This broad mission leads to a hierarchy of objectives, including business objectives and marketing objectives. (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 43)”.

Business Mission Statement

Lunch in a Wrap is a food truck that is design to provide the freshest and healthiest ingredients in a wrap. We deliver the a friendliest service making smiles everywhere we park our truck. “At the corporate level, the company starts the strategic planning process by defining its overall purpose and mission. This mission is then turned into detailed supporting objectives that guide the whole company. (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 39)”. Lunch in a Wraps mission is to have everybody that tries our wraps fall in love with them and our friendly staff. Our healthy food will just make you feel great all around and put a smile to your face every time you bite into our wraps. “A mission statement is a statement of the organization’s purpose—what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. A clear mission statement acts as an “invisible hand” that guides people in the organization. (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 2 page 39)”.

EOC: The Pitch

My food truck will consist of wraps; Caesar wrap, buffalo wrap, and even crispy chicken wraps. My truck will only have five different delicious wraps you can choose from. The menu will be easy so you always know what you really want right away. The name of my food truck will be Lunch in a Wrap, meaning that you can have your lunch really fast as well as in a delicious wrap. My wraps will be all made with fresh produce as well as big flour tortillas made in the spot to guarantee a fresh taste in every bite.

For refreshments you can choose from delicious homemade still fresh lemonade or raspberry tea made with fresh raspberries. Lunch in a Wrap thought that those two refreshments will surely satisfy your thirst. For your side orders you can have an option of our fresh sweet potato fries or a variety of organic chips in a bag. You will feel healthy and good eating our wraps as well as giving your taste buds what they want. My food truck will differentiate from other trucks because it won’t be your typical greasy food they sell at food trucks, it’s way to get a healthy meal on the go.

Lunch in a Wrap will have a wrap of the month, this wrap will be a wrap that is not in the menu. You will have to find out about secret wrap of the month by following us through Twitter. This is a great way to show new wraps and test them out to our customers to see if the new wrap can make it to Lunch in a Wrap menu. By letting our customers participate in choosing the next new wrap to the menu is a great way to get them involve with the brand.

EOC Week 5: Social Networks and Job Hunting

Employers are using social network sites a lot more for hiring methods. My opinion on this is that they shouldn’t use Facebook as a source for looking up their future employees. It’s kind of for me an invasion of privacy. They are other social networking sites to be design for professional use only like LinkedIn and I think that’s a better site to look at if you want to spy on your future employees. It will show their potentials and experiences that the future employee has. “Others note that while LinkedIn contains a more comprehensive résumé database,

candidates tend to value referrals from their connections on Facebook more.”( Recruiters Troll Facebook for Candidates They Like, Joe Light). Facebook wasn’t designed to be a professional social networking site; therefore I don’t understand why recruiters would be going to search for their new employees through it.

I do understand that companies are using social network sites as new sources of marketing and advertising and that’s a great idea I don’t have no problem with that. I think that’s a great way to have your consumers engage with the brand a lot more. “For example, brands ranging from Burger King to the Chicago Bulls are “tweeting” on Twitter.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 5 page 17).  Doing things like that makes the consumer participate more and get to know about special events or promotions that the brand is doing. Some companies use YouTube as another social networking site to have a different way to get to their consumers. That’s another fun and different way to get audience’s attention.  I don’t disagree with companies using social sites for advertising and marketing but I do disagree when they try to hire through this sites. Social networking sites were designed for simply social matters not for professional.

EOC Week 4: Consumer vs. Business Marketing

There are many differences between consumer and business marketing, one of them being that it is more complex for business buyer to make a quick decision on purchasing a product. “Business purchases often involve large sums of money, complex technical and economic considerations, and interactions among many people at many levels of the buyer’s organization.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 5 page 41). When owning your own business you need to think about not only making a random that affects yourself but as well as others that are involve in that business. As well as thinking about if the purchase will be beneficial to your business.

“Many business buyers prefer to buy a complete solution to a problem from a single seller instead of buying separate products and services from several suppliers and putting them together.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 5 page 45). As my experience as a consumer  I prefer making purchases in different areas, the things I would want to buy might not be available for me in the same stores, but it’s easier for business to do the whole single seller thing to keep them organized of their financial records. Also there are a lot of advantages if a buyer does buy all their products and services with one supplier, they can get better deals that way.

Also to keep their customers a lot of business look for ways to buy products that help the environment.  Business buyers are heavily influenced by environmental factors, such as economic, technological, political, competitive, and social and cultural developments.” (Marketing: An Introduction, Armstrong & Kotler, Chapter 5 page 48. When businesses buy their products they also have to make decisions to see if it affects their company as well as their business towards their consumers. Now a day people are really worry about protecting our planet and if a business makes a wrong move by purchasing a product that goes against that they could lose a lot of business.

 

My Demographics

My generation is called the Millennials, this group includes people that were born between 1977 and 2000. They say that this generation grew up with technology and I believe that’s true. They don’t just embrace technology; it’s a way of life. The Millennials were the first generation to grow up in a world filled with computers, cellphones, satellite TV, iPods, and online social networks. (Marketing : An Introduction, Armstrong  & Kotler , Chapter 3 page 17). Our generation is much more involving with social networks sites than ever before. Companies that are trying to reach this market use sites as Facebook, Twitters, etc. to advertise their brand and products. That’s basically a way to catch a Millennials eye.

I do agree that I fit well in this generation; my life revolves around technology in a daily basis. I have my cell phone with me all time. I’m always keeping up with the latest’s news by simply login in into my social networking sites. There is no day I don’t use the internet in my life. A recent study found that 91 percent of Millennials are on the Web, making up 32 percent of all U.S. Internet users. (Marketing : An Introduction, Armstrong  & Kotler , Chapter 3 page 17). In this fast moving pace live that we are in, I usually don’t have the time to sit down and watch the news on a TV, we rely on internet to get our news.

 “Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand,” (Marketing : An Introduction, Armstrong  & Kotler , Chapter 3 page 17). That’s a smart move for the campaign to go that way because if they wanted to target the younger target, they could only do it by mastering social media sites.

Great Customer Service

I recently just purchased my first car, it was a big step to make and a bigger decision. When I was first thinking about buying my first car I had many options but I was set on a Scion tc, I have never been that interested on this type of cars but when they came out with a new model this year it was love at first sight.

 At first I was having such a hassle trying to get approve for a loan, when I went to apply in a credit union even with my dad co-signing the loan I couldn’t even get approve plus they weren’t much help anyways. I was getting really frustrated thinking I might not be able to get my car any time sooner but I was still determined so I decided to try another bank, Nevada Federal Credit. When it was my turn to talk to one of the representatives I had explained my situation to the rep and she was so helpful. If it wasn’t for the lady giving me all the advises she did I probably would be without my car right now. What I liked about the representative is that she didn’t try to run my credit just so she can get credit for an application loan, she really did wanted the best for me. She explained to me that if I didn’t get approve for the last bank that I might not get approve with them either since they work kind of the same way but she did tell me to go try a dealership. So after that I decided to go to the dealership.

Nick help me and he was so nice and helpful. He sat me down and gave me all the paperwork to fill out, he also brought me and my family some water. They sure enough run my credit and I was approve with a really low interest and with no co-signer. “Customer relationships and value are especially important in today’s tough economic times, when more frugal consumers are cutting back and spending more carefully.” [Marketing: An Introduction by Armstrong and Kotler, Chapter 1 Page 4]. I was really dreaded the thought about the experience on buying my first car but, Nick as well as the representative at the bank made my experience much smoother then I thought making me want to refer all my family and friends back to them. Great customer service is the key to a successful company.

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

After graduating high school and started the work field for a couple of years, I realized I wasn’t happy being a full time teller at a bank. It was either start moving up on the banking industry or get out of it. This is when I realized I needed to go back to school for a degree that would get me to a career that I would enjoy waking up every morning and doing. One thing that I have always had a passion for was fashion, so I decided to get a Bachelor Degree on Fashion and Retail Management. Going to school for fashion is where my passion and knowledge grew for this industry. I learn to see fashion in many ways, not just as clothes people throw on every day. Fashion is an expression without words. You can show your emotions and feelings; it’s another creative and fun art form. I can definitely say fashion is part of my life. Finding out about the new trends and silhouettes that will be featuring every season excites me.  Styling people is what I enjoy the most, making them feel fashionable and confident. Shopping for the perfect accessories to pull the perfect look together makes my day brighter. Fashion is not a choice, it’s the way I live life.