1. MARKETING STRATEGY FOR VITAMIN WATER

2. introduction
Marketing strategy is the essential objective of up surging sales and attaining a defensible competitive advantage.
It encompasses all the rudimentary short term and long term undertakings in the field of marketing.
The procedure for marketing normally begins with scanning the business environment.
Products to be marketed should be the products that are needed in the market.
One of the most important marketing strategies is scanning the business environment which mainly consists of the market. A product should be something that the market needs for it to be successfully. If the market does not need the product then the work of the marketers is to make the market want the product by creating need for it.

3. Strategy The product to be marketed is vitamin water.
This product already exists because other companies like Coca-Cola and Red Bull produce it.
The best strategy to gain market share will be the challenger.
This means the organization has to offer stiff competition to the leader in the market.
This may include coming up with an effective pricing strategy.
The best price strategy would be the competitive pricing. Currently the market offers this product at $1 per bottle in wholesale and it retails at $2 to $3 dollars per bottle. The competitive pricing is the best option because it will emphasize on the superior quality and brand of the product and at the same time, it is a little lower than the prices of the competitors.

4. Product description
Vitamin water is essentially a vitamin booster; the product is rich in numerous minerals but vitamin is the highest in terms of content.
The product contains vitamins extracted from fruits and vegetables to give consumers maximum benefits.
This product has various benefits but most importantly it promotes health.
Comes in eleven flavors and augmented with energy enhancing natural ingredients and vitamins
One of the best ways to get this product into the market is by making it a replacement for soda. Many have been warned about the dangers of too much consumption of soda but they never stop drinking it. Research has shown that despite these warnings people still enjoy their coke drinks in the afternoon and this is because there is no substitute to the product. The vitamin water will be a better substitute because it promotes healthy eating and lifestyle unlike soda.

5. Target market
This is a cluster of customers which the business has made a decision of aiming to sell its products to.
The target market is of great significance in the marketing strategies essentially because it is the source of a business’ revenues.
Consumer demographic profile is the primary determinant of the target market.
One of the elementary demographic characteristics of consumers is the age.
Because it is a healthy drink, it is comparatively costly as matched to other drinks in the same grouping. For this reason, the product targets the middle class and high class in the society. Essentially, the Vitamin water is not very explicit in terms of demographics; it targets customers who have low vitamins and require improving. The product is a healthy drink that is commended to persons who are on a constrained diet because of health matters. Members of the society who do not certainly have health difficulties are also recommended to take the drink to increase their protection against diseases.

6. Cont..
This product is actually meant for everyone aged twelve and above.
A strong distribution channel, competitive price, insolent positioning and aggressive advertising can make this product number one energy drink.
Currently China offers the largest target segmentation and its consumption of the product hits 38% of the universal volume for energy drinks.
There are approximately 500 energy drink manufacturers in the world and only five producers control the market share. Red bull leads with 42%, monster drinks follows with 16%, PepsiCo at 13%, Rockstar at 12% and Full Throttle at 10%. It is important to note that as much as the target market is wide because the age, the youths are the ones who buy the drinks more. The flavors and colors of the product mostly appeal to the youths making them the main target market. Also looking at it in real life, the youth need more energy because they are always in constant movement and even most sportsmen are also youths and they are the ones who will be appealed to need an energy drink to boost their strengths.

7. Ansoff matrix analysis
Ansoff matrix analysis is a marketing planning tool that assists a business to plan how its product will enter the market, develop and market growth for the products. It involves the following: market penetration, product development, market development and diversification.

8. Market penetration
The market penetration style will that of a challenger.
To be a challenger means to offer stiff competition to the market leader.
The market leader include: Red Bull, Monster drinks and Coca-Cola.
Market leaders offer the product at $2-$3 per bottle and $1 per bottle for wholesale.
Vitamin water will retail at $2 and $0.90 per bottle in wholesale.
Since the product is unfamiliar to the to the market, having a lower price will entice consumers to buy it. With time more consumers will purchase the product because of its superior quality and health benefits.

9. Product development
Once the product has gained a significant market share it will be considered developed.
Here the organization will increase its price to be the same of higher than that of the market leaders.
Also the organization can modify the product by giving it a new physical outlook and increase the price.
Consumers will buy the product because the price will be the same as that of the market leaders.
Modification of the product may mean changing the design of the sticker on the cans. This combined with the increment of the price to match that of the leaders will lead higher sales.

10. Market development
This involves expanding to new markets also known as market extension.
Once the product has gained sufficient market share in one place, the organization can decide to venture in a new market.
With the good reputation created on the previous market, there are higher chances it will succeed in the new market.
This strategy always assumes that the first market has been completely exploited and the product is leading before venturing into a new market. If the product was successful in the previous market chances are high that it will succeed in any new market as long as the product meets the requirements of the consumers.

11. Diversification
Diversification involves the organization coming up with a new product line to ensure that they don’t run out of business.
Product have a life cycle and when they are in the final moments, the organization should bring a new product that is related to the product.
The new product will undergo the same phases as the previous one and since they are related, consumers may choose to purchase them at the same time.
The organization can venture into a new product such as the Grape seed and vitamin E soft capsule. With success of the previous product, they would have gained sufficient market share and a good reputation and a strong brand. This means that marketing the new product(s) will be as easy as snapping fingers.

12. Distribution strategy
The product will be sold in wholesale to grocery stores, convenience stores and anywhere bottled drinks are sold.
Wholesale price will at first be slightly below the market price in order to attract buyers.
The product will also be found in vending machines and specialty events like concerts and festivals.
The best wholesale buyers will be the supermarket as many people visit the supermarket.
To make the product leave the shelves quickly then aggressive advertisement will be needed. The best way to advertise will be through the social media and the internet in general. The product will advertised as add ons on web pages like Facebook, twitter and YouTube as many young people visit these sites several times a day. In order to reach those who don’t spend lots of time on the internet, the traditional media will do the work. This includes news papers, televisions and radios. To appeal to the market, the advertisements will be juxtaposed with messages related to performance and emotional well, being advantages that go beyond conventional nutritional science.

13. Overall market size
The market size fundamentally denotes to the percentage of the market that a business organization commands.
A larger market share means that an organization makes more money from sales and this boosts their revenue.
Businesses need to implement proper strategies that will enable them boost their market share.
Vitamin water is commanding 30% of the drinks market due to the preference of customers.
It is anticipated that this product will change the current situation and increase its market share. This is mainly because of the quality of the product; there are high chances that the product will make progress and gain a larger share of the market. With aggressive advertisement, this product will slowly replace juice and soda. As mentioned earlier the advertisements will be juxtaposed with messages related to performance and emotional well, being advantages that go beyond conventional nutritional science. This will surely make the market shift their demand from soda and other cold beverages to this vitamin water.

14. Marketing methods
Posters: this is a free board space for announcements and advertisements.
Value Additions: this will encompass discounts for recurring customers and referral awards.
Referral networks: this is a very invaluable methods as it encompasses business to business referral.
Follow-up: this will involve the use of questionnaires to find out what customers think of the product.
Posters can be placed on bill boards and be positioned near very busy roads so that people can see them as they use the roads. Value additions are simply ways of rewarding constant customers and those who bring other customers. Referral network for this case may involve a health institution which will encourage people to use vitamin water to quench their thirst rather than soda. Follow up finally, will help the company make improvement based on what the customers want.

15. References
Daily, S. (2015). Little or no benefit from nutrient additions to vitamin waters and energy drinks.   Retrieved from
 Dean, G. Vitamin Enhanced Water Could Make a Bigger Splash.  Retrieved from 
 O'Reilly, L. (2014). People Who Felt Tricked Into Thinking Vitaminwater Was A Health Drink Might Be Compensated With Cash.  Retrieved from  vitaminwater-misleading-advertising-lawsuit
 Wong, S. (2014). Transcript of VitaminWater
VitaminWater. Retrieved fromhttps://prezi.com/jrqbp4evra_b/vitaminwater/