Marketing Plan for a New Fair Trade Coffee Company Coursework

Marketing Plan for a New Fair Trade Coffee Company - Coursework Example The price fixing mechanisms in fair trade, meanwhile, involve setting up floor prices to be market prices, with buyers agreeing not to purchase products lower than those market prices, in the name of providing fair prices to the producers of agricultural produce and derivatives from the developing world (Fair Trade Foundation 2011). The name of the company is Freeflowing Coffee Inc, and the fair trade product for this marketing plan is coffee. This marketing plan takes note that in the UK, there is a wide range of product choices available to the UK customer that all fall within the category of fair trade coffee, and this paper presents a marketing plan to introduce a fair trade coffee brand, FreeFlowing Coffee, into the UK market (Fair Trade Foundation 2011; Global Exchange 2011). II. Situation Analysis A. External Analysis- PESTLE A.1. Political The level of political integration with the rest of Europe is high. That said, the UK has remained separate from the EU's monetary policy and union, choosing instead to engage the EU nations in trade. The UK engages the world politically as a major western power, and its stature is confirmed by its being part of the UN Security Council. Politically, therefore, the country has clout and some stability that allows its citizens to engage the world in trade on positive terms (Central Intelligence Agency 2013; CIPD 2013). A.2. Economic The UK economy is strong and resilient, one of the biggest in Europe. Recent financial crises have spun government measures to tighten its spending. The previous year was also marked by a contraction of the economy, as the UK continues to reel from the economic crisis of the past several years. That said, the economy remains relatively large and resilient... This article approves that the level of political integration with the rest of Europe is high. That said, the UK has remained separate from the EU's monetary policy and union, choosing instead to engage the EU nations in trade. The UK engages the world politically as a major western power, and its stature is confirmed by its being part of the UN Security Council. Politically, therefore, the country has clout and some stability that allows its citizens to engage the world in trade on positive terms. This paper makes a conclusion that there are many ways to segment the market for fair trade coffee consumers in the UK, the most obvious of which relates to certain demographic characteristics relating to level of education and level of income. Income levels are implicit in the way fair trade coffee discussions center on providing fair prices plus a premium to existing players in the space. This means that the income demographic for the potential target market is also those who have middle class income levels. In terms of educational attainment, it is clear from the level of sophistication of existing customers of fair trade coffee that the level of education of the target market is tertiary or higher. Looking at the existing players for fair trade coffee in the UK market, one sees that with the exception of Starbucks, which as a high price and high quality positioning the rest of the market is impliedly located in the high price and low quality as well as low price and high quality quadrants. Decidedly, the positioning for FreeFlowing Coffee is high price, to position it as a premium brand.