Week 10 EOC: How Do You Sleep at Night?

When it comes to my food truck and figuring out which side of the coin is better, then it is a little more difficult then expected. Although my food truck is up and running, many people don’t realize what else a food truck is capable of doing. So when it comes to listing out the benefits of the food truck rather than the features, many people are shocked by what good it does, but before anything is explained, the best thing is to define some terms that the list for most part follows.

One way to figure out some of the benefit is by using a Benefit segmentation that is basically dividing the market into segments according to the different benefits that consumers seek from the product. This is probably the simplest and easy way to take on the project, which is won’t make other things complicated. The way that I see how everything is going to work out is by keeping everything simple so that organization will not be a huge factor. So then when the hectic times do hit, the owner or manager will not have to worry about keeping everything in order because it will already be. Another benefit to having a food truck is because the company will be able to reach out to customers and make it better to win their hearts, so that they will not have to travel very far to get a meal and that it will be near by.

Implementation Evaluation Control

When it comes to the last thing about this whole planning thing, I think that I could and would go back and plan things differently because then it would have been better for business. Another thing that I think about is maybe if I could, I could also have kept organized and documented everything so that when it came to me figuring out what else I could of changed then it would have been much simpler.  Another thing that would be helpful to this process is that once I know what is not working then I could stop that immediately and work out another plan to be able to sell the products. Although a lot of my small plans did not get documented and those simple plans didn’t work, I still came up with another way to sell just doing all of it at the top of my head. So in away I was improvising and being creative, although I didn’t do it the right way, in a sense I still made it work just worked it out in my head instead of having it on paper. Other than that, I think that I would have really changed much about it all and that I think that I did a good job on it all and made a profitable business. 

Price

When I think of pricing all of my stuff for my food truck, I always think that it will always be changing because I think that depending on what I will be going up against will always be competing with me so that they can get more business than me. Another reason that I think that my prices will always be changing is how my food truck will always have some type of deal going on for the month. One type of pricing that I can use is Promotional pricing “which is temporarily pricing products below the list price, and sometimes even below cost, to increase short-run sales.” Which can be found on page 42 in the Marketing: An Introduction for Education Corporation, 10^th Edition by Armstrong/Kotler.  

Or another pricing that I could do is Competition-based “pricing which will most likely happen since it’s setting prices based on competitors’ strategies, prices, costs, and market offerings. “For this quote can be found on page 16 in the Marketing: An Introduction for Education Corporation, 10^th Edition by Armstrong/Kotler.  But the biggest problem that I see when it comes to either of these different types of pricing is what the customers are going to think, which brings up another type of pricing that the author left as a comment within the text, which I think has a valid point. The name of this pricing is called Customer Value-Based Pricing, which the author’s comment states, “like everything else in marketing, good pricing starts with customers and their perceptions of value.” Which this comment can be found on page 5 in the Marketing: An Introduction for Education Corporation, 10^th Edition by Armstrong/Kotler. So know that I know what I am up against and that I know what is out there on pricing, I think when I set my price, it will be a combination of all these different methods because then it will be easier on me to decide. 

Promotion

When it comes to the whole promotion part of the food truck, I was thinking of coming up with a commercial or something creative that went under my creative content but now that I think about it, I’m not too sure on what I want to do, given that I am an audio student, I could possible write a song, but now that I think about it, I will either do a poster or some kind of video type of thing. Although there are all different types of promotions, there are just a few that I can use for as an example: I can use consumer promotion, trade promotions and sales force promotions. Now if I understand every aspect of this correctly then ever/any type of business will defiantly at least need these different types of aspects so that it will be easier and will be organized. For the "consumer promotion it is used to urge short-term customer buying or to enhance customer brand involvement." As from being told on page 37 in the Marketing: An Introduction for Education Corporation, 10^th Edition by Armstrong/Kotler.

As for "trade promotions it is known for getting retailers to carry new items and more inventory, buy ahead, or promote the company’s products and give them more shelf space."  While "the sales force, is for getting more sales force support for current or new products or getting salespeople to sign up new accounts," which all this information was given to me on page 37 in the Marketing: An Introduction for Education Corporation, 10th Edition by Armstrong/Kotler. So when it comes to me trying to promote all of my products from my truck, you know that will defiantly be using all of these terms so that everyone will have a good time and that the business will not run down into the ground and will be good for everything to go smoothly. 

Distribution

Now that you have seen what is offered the next thing that will be needed to discuss is how everything will be distribute. They way that I am thinking of how to make all of this work would be to have all of the items be given out in combos so that the customers can have it easy to order what they want during they’re short lunch break. The only way I think that will make it all work is by using intense distribution. The whole reason I think that using this method is so that everything will be very simple to operate the truck. By now you are probably wondering what intensive distribution is, well from page 25 in the Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10^th Edition written by Armstrong and Kotler, "intensive distribution is stocking the product in as many outlets as possible."

The reason that I chose this method is because when having a food truck, it would be better to own maybe about four to five food trucks, then be sure to stock up on supplies for just the one break that is given to sell to the customers. This would also make sense so that it wont get too confusing for some of the employees that will be helping the owner to calculate everything and especially at the end of the day count.Another thing that will help distribute the food that will be sold is having it all neatly packed in dispensable containers for their meal to either be to go or can have stay there to eat at the picnic table that will be provided.   

Product

When it comes to the products for my food truck, the primary item that will be given out is all food products. So when it comes to figuring out how to organize all the different products is by using a Product Mix or Portfolio. A “product mix (or product portfolio) is the set of all product lines and items that a particular seller offers for sale.” Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition, Armstrong/Kotler-pg. 22. Another way that is can be described or displayed is by using a menu. With the menu it is best to keep it simple so that the customers will be able to understand and know what they will be ordering.

Another thing that affects the menu or product mix is the width, length, depth, and consistency. Each one of these terms will help determine what is going to be needed to organize everything and it is good for the owner or manager to over see what will be needed or used. But in other words, the “product width refers to the number of different product lines the company carries.”  Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition, Armstrong/Kotler-pg. 23 While “the product length refers to the total number of items the company carries within its product lines.” Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition, Armstrong/Kotler-pg. 23 Then the “product depth refers to the number of versions offered of each product in the line.” Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition, Armstrong/Kotler-pg. 23. The last thing that makes everything work is the “product consistency of the product mix that refers to how closely relate the various product lines are in end use, production requirements, distribution channels, or some other way.” Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition, Armstrong/Kotler-pg. 23. So now you know just a little more terminology, the next thing you will see at the top of this blog is my actually menu of what will be sold from my food truck. 

Target Market Strategy

When it comes to the Target Market, the strategy on trying to make it work is very complex. The only way to make sure that every thing falls through is by considering every part of the strategy to work and serve the purpose of the different segments.  The first two parts is called Market segmentation--"Dividing a market into smaller segments with distinct needs, characteristics, or behavior that might require separate marketing strategies or mixes" as from the Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition, Armstrong/Kotler-pg. 23. there the next thing part to it is the Market targeting which is the "process of evaluating each market segment’s attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter" which is mentioned in the Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10th Edition, Armstrong/Kotler-pg. 24. Now that we understand what it takes to crate Market segmentation, then we are now able to create one with meaningful strategy that will best suit my business.

For my market segmentation, I think my food truck has very distinct needs, which is that the food that is needed to be prepared takes very unique and skilled full knowledge. The knowledge to prepare these certain types of food is in some times hard to find because not many people are learning to keep it going. Even for myself, there are quite a few meals that I am not to certain to prepare, unless I have the help of my mother. Another distinct need is having certain herbs, animals and materials to create the special food that is served. After doing dealing some deals with companies that will provide the certain materials that is needed, I will be giving the economy a boost. The reason I think that this will happen is because back home everything is very slow and I will be helping them to not go out of business. Now that is done, the target marketing would be to try and to extend my needs to another type of marketing, which will then open up new opportunities for my food truck.