Marketing Plan For Coolest Cooler: SWOT Analysis And Features Essay.

Coolest Cooler: Unique Features and SWOT Analysis

Question:

Discuss About The Marketing Plan For The Coolest Cooler?

The coolest cooler is a cooler with integration of several features which makes it ultimate product in terms of innovation. The features distinguish it from the others due to its ice- crushing blender, water resistant Bluetooth supporting speakers, USB charging ports for mobile charging, led lights, bottle opener with magnetic cap catch, plates, knife, cutting board and locking tie downs, and beach tires (Beck, 2016). It is empowered with lithium ion battery which provides long back up. Coolest cooler is awarded for one of the best invention of 2014 by Times Magazine, world’s largest circulation weekly magazine.

Coolest cooler is a complete solution for party lover. The main product feature is to provide consumers with insulated products to keep food and drinks cool. There are several competitors present and involved in this industry. They are Coleman, Igloo, Rubbermaid, Thermos and Yeti. The main focus behind the product development is to create durable, portable, high quality and appropriate daily use product. Coolest cooler has successfully transformed the everyday cooler in to a luxury item (O’Callaghan, 2014). Four options exist to fulfill consumer needs: Classic Coolest, Coolest Blue Moon, Coolest Sangria, Coolest Dark and Stormy. Price for all the different models is $399 with free shipping in USA continent

• To provide a quality product with value added features that may create sense of additional comfort for the price paid by customer.
• Regular innovation with best quality product to ensure durability, comfort and design.
• To cater young generation and provide useful solutions to make customers worry free.

The below SWOT analysis will focus on strength and weaknesses and help forming marketing plan for the possible threats and opportunities present for Coolest cooler.

The core strength of Coolest is it has incorporated new life to an aging industry. It has defeated its competitors on several features such as Bluetooth wireless speakers, the USB charger, LED light, blender etc. to stand far ahead from its competitors. Users will not worry to take mobile chargers, bottle openers, and most important worry when going for outing is the music, so it can be said that coolest cooler is complete picnic solution for the party people. One more feature is accessory deck to put things such as wallet, mobile (Waniata, 2014).

The targeted area of coolest cooler is very limited population. The tendency of customers is to compare prices so customer may reject Coolest on basis of price. This is not a reasonable deal for the persons who only occasionally enjoy outdoor activities. Quick production and supply in the specified time is a big challenge. There are several delays in product delivery. Ice coolers are made to target middle income families; it is too expensive to afford which discourages potential buyers.

In the current scenario there is a need for value added features, so the Coolest cooler provides opportunity to teenagers and young adults, sports persons and many others to enjoy. Its durable beach tires, LED light, extra space for plates and utensils targets the families to enjoy even more than past. Shortly coolest cooler will be available at local supermarket or Walmart, so the prospective buyers no need to wait for this product to order and then wait for it to be delivered.

Challenges Faced by Coolest Cooler

The biggest threat the company may face is the durability, as there are several features inculcated in this product so it is important to maintain quality of the product. Second major issue is short supply they are not able to deliver the product in the specified time taken from the customers. It may also happen that the competitor may introduce same type of product in cheap prices. To lower down the price and quick supply are also big challenges for coolest cooler. Some of its international competitors Pelican, Grizzly, Yeti and Igloo are popular than Coolest cooler (vanWijngaarden, et al., 2012).

Government regulations regarding the taxes on import and export of products will affect the price of coolest cooler. The production of coolest cooler is currently taking place at China so there will be complexity of shipping and logistics cost. Due to increase in taxes or transport cost the price will be hiked and in case or relaxation vice-versa. Tourism in country also affects the demand o coolest cooler unto certain extent (Ho, 2014).

There are several economical factors that affect the demand of coolest cooler such as the interest rate, household income of families. Higher the income, the spending is more and lower the interest rate the firm can produce more and the customer will purchase through bank finance. On the other side if the income is less than the demand will sink.

The demand of coolest cooler also depends on lifestyle, society and sometimes education. If the population is having better lifestyle, than they will attract more towards life ease gadgets. Similarly education and society brings new and advanced thinking which adds benefits for the company (Ho, 2014).

There are two aspects of technology on is for product and other is for promotion of product. The promotion of coolest cooler is already made it popular and the inculcation of several features like Bluetooth wireless speakers and LED light are showing good technological involvement.

Coolest cooler have already marketed by Kickstarter and they are producing a product with integration of 9 special features in addition to ice cooler. This is an extraordinary product in the ice cooler industry. The customers are well educated now days and are aware of the benefits of different products available in market. They compare features, price and the quality on several measures (Enis and Murphy, 2011). So there is surely neck to neck competition in ice cooler industry. There are several companies present in the USA market and several other multi-national players, but Coolest cooler is far ahead from them in terms of features and benefits.

Coolest cooler is ice cooler used to take beverages and food cool for a period of 4-5 days. It is the basic feature of every cooler but the added features present in coolest cooler are wide wheels, rope to tie and carry clothes or other useful items on the cooler, water proof wireless Bluetooth speakers, USB charging ports for mobile charging, separate box (Accessory deck) to put important documents and gadgets, LED light to see in dark, other features like bottle opener, space for plates and sharp knife and corkscrew (Alois, 2014). 20% of the budget will be spent on how to increase production and maintain quality of cooler.  

Opportunities for Coolest Cooler

Price of a product is key deciding factor for purchase or rejection of a product. Coolest cooler is no doubt wonderful product but the price is still a matter of concern. Although coolest cooler is having lots of orders to deliver still there is huge competition in near future. There are several local companies which are selling ice coolers at just $50 and the prices of branded coolers are ranging between $165- $250 and the rate of coolest cooler is $399 (Dent, 2016). No doubt it is providing a better product but still the price difference of around $150 is a matter of concern for coolest cooler (Allender and Richards, 2012). The other factor of concern is to control taxes and transportation expense from China to USA. 25% of the budget will be assigned to the pricing strategy, while 55% will be placed towards promotion.

The production and the selling place for the coolest cooler are different. And the channels of distribution for coolers are still not well developed. So the major challenge for the company is to clear the backlog and then make proper supply chain channels for timely delivery of the product. Soon the company is planning to sell the coolers with online selling giants such as Amazon and Campsaver. And the company is planning to make it available at supermarkets Wal-mart, Costco, Kroger etc. which provide it approachable to customers.

75% of the budget will be aimed at promoting the Coolest cooler. Promotion is a very important tool in product recognition. As coolest cooler is new company so major part is spent in creating brand image so that the brand is known to everyone. With the change in time there are various new promotional methods introduces in market.

• Social Networking sites and Application development: Facebook, twitter, Google+, Youtube and Instagram are very good platform to promote products. Coolest cooler has already introduced on Facebook and the other networking sites are registering soon. Application can be designed which is having information about the new product launch, features, and details of new picnic places to make product popular (Hanna et al., 2011).
• Search engine advertising or optimization: there are several marketers who promotes the products by improving the online search with the help of key words example for coolest cooler they use words such as cool, ice cool, super cool, and many more the user searching for such words find our product in the searches.
• Telivision and radio marketing hits directly to the mind of customers.
• Some other ways are publication in travel magazines, advertisement in local newspaper, E-mail to specific purchased data of party people and text message to same group of persons (Alois, 2014).

The above mentioned methods will help reaching the coolest cooler to all the population of USA. Within a short span of time, and will definitely help in brand recognition and increase in sales.

The total budget for the marketing plan is $ 1,20,000. 25% of the budget will be placed towards the pricing strategy while the 55% o the budget will be assigned for promotion of Coolest cooler and rest 20% will be spent on research about increase production and quality of product.

Conclusion

The marketing plan for Coolest cooler will definitely impact on the consumers and helps increasing brand image. But still there are lots of consumers who paid advances for the ice coolers but still after a period of one year they are not delivered the ice coolers. Except this the product is popular in youngsters and party loving peoples. Its several unique features attracted lots of customers and this is the reason that there are lots of advance orders with the company. The price of the Coolest cooler is also a matter of concern for the company but the features provided will compensate the extra price paid by the customer. Social media marketing and lots of coverage in press and newspapers have already created the brand image of the coolest cooler in USA. If the production and supply of the product fills the gap of the demanded coolers than the marketing plan will be successful within the given time as the market is having huge capacity to purchase such product.

Reference:

Allender, W. J., and Richards, T. J. (2012) Brand loyalty and price promotion strategies: an empirical analysis. Journal of Retailing, 88(3), pp. 323-342.

Alois, J.D. (2014) Coolest Cooler Kickstarter Re-Do Delivers Incredible Crowdfunding Success.

 Available at: https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2014/07/43736-coolest-cooler-kickstarter-re-delivers-huge-success/ (Accessed: 5 May 2017)

Beck, K. (2016) The saga of the Coolest Cooler: How a Kickstarter campaign goes south. Available at: https://mashable.com/2016/04/16/coolest-cooler-money/#lob6zv6boaqq (Accessed: 4 May 2017).

Dent, S. (2016) Coolest Cooler Asks Backers for More Money. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274108 (Accessed: 5 May 2017)

Enis, B. M., and Murphy, P. E. (2011) Marketing Strategy Implementation. USA: Marketing Classics Press.

Hanna, R., Rohm, A., and Crittenden, V. L. (2011) We’re all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem. Business horizons, 54(3), pp. 265-273.

Ho, J. K. K. (2014) Formulation of a systemic PEST analysis for strategic analysis. European academic research, 2(5), pp. 6478-6492.

O’Callaghan, J. (2014) The coolest cooler ever: Ice box contains all the ingredients for a party - including a fridge, a USB charger and even speakers
Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2689056/The-coolest-cooler-Ice-box-contains-ingredients-party-including-fridge-USB-charger-speakers.html (Accessed: 5 May 2017)

van Wijngaarden, J. D., Scholten, G. R., and van Wijk, K. P. (2012) Strategic analysis for health care organizations: the suitability of the SWOT?analysis. The International journal of health planning and management, 27(1), pp. 34-49.

Waniata, R. (2014) THE HOTTEST COOLER ON THE PLANET: COOLEST COOLER TAKES TOP SPOT ON KICKSTARTER. Available at: https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/coolest-cooler-most-successful-kickstarter-campaign-ever/ (Accessed: 5 May 2017).