Target Market and Persona for Healthy Carbo Bar

Overview

In this milestone, you will select the product that will be the basis for all of your work on the project from the list provided in the Project One Guidelines and Rubric. Then you will conduct research on the target market and develop a persona, which will guide your decisions and work on the remaining marketing plan components for the project.

You will receive instructor feedback on this milestone, revise your work, and add it to your project submission.

Prompt

Complete the Module Two Milestone Worksheet in your Soomo webtext and submit it for instructor feedback. To navigate to the worksheet, click the Contents button on the upper right, then select the Milestone: Module Two Milestone tab from the Chapter Two drop-down menu.

Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

Product Selection

Name the product you selected. This product must be one of those listed in the Project One Guidelines and Rubric and will form the basis for all of your work on the project.

Demographic and Psychographic Characteristics

Conduct target-market research to determine who the potential buyers of your chosen product are, and research to identify the key demographic and psychographic characteristics that will allow you to understand your buyers’ needs, wants, and preferences so you can market to them effectively.

Identify the following demographic characteristics, based on your research: age, gender, occupation, level of education, income level, marital status, and number and age range of children.

Identify the following psychographic characteristics, based on your research: hobbies and interests, wants, current product-related buying behavior, goals, product-related preferences, shopping preferences, and lifestyle.

Persona

Based on your research, create one fictional persona that represents members of the target market. A persona is a portrait of a typical example of an actual person who is a part of the target market.

Your persona should be an accurate representation of individuals that belong to the target market.

Your persona must include all of the required elements in the Persona section of the Module Two Milestone Worksheet.

Project Guidelines and Rubric

Competencies

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:

Apply elements of the marketing mix to inform business decisions that support organizational objectives

Determine appropriate marketing and communication distribution channels

Explain how marketing decisions are made to target the consumer

Scenario

Chocolate Bliss started as a small, family-owned store in Seattle, Washington in 1976. While once a boutique chocolatier selling handmade “secret family recipe” chocolate bonbons, the company today has a wider variety of product offerings including boxed chocolate candies, chocolate baking products, and carob (chocolate alternative) candies and health bars. Chocolate Bliss products are sold online and in their stores to consumers and to other businesses, specifically grocery stores, throughout the Northwest.

The company has maintained its “secret family recipe” brand even as it has expanded its product offerings, and today enjoys strong brand awareness in the states where it is sold.

The company’s primary competitors are:

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company

Chocolate Bliss’s higher-price range baking products, sold to grocery stores, compete directly with Ghirardelli.

Chocolate Bliss also competes with Ghirardelli for its boxed chocolate candies sold in their stores and online to consumers, and sold to grocery stores.

Nestlé

Chocolate Bliss’s mid-price range baking products, sold to grocery stores, compete directly with Nestlé.

Rise Bar

Chocolate Bliss competes with Rise Bar for its carob (chocolate alternative) products sold in their stores and online to consumers, and sold to grocery stores.

Chocolate Bliss is financially healthy and has plans to expand into the midwestern United States. This expansion will include the launch of a new product.

You have been with the company for a few years and have been selected to be on the team that will develop a marketing plan for the new product launch. The executives at Chocolate Bliss will use the marketing plan to make decisions about how to best use the marketing budget to ensure a successful product launch, so you need to have sound research and reasoning to support your work that will contribute to developing a marketing plan. You also realize that the marketing plan is not just about a successful product launch; it is about building the Chocolate Bliss brand and positioning the company strongly against its competitors, especially when it comes to price point.