Executive Summary

Snack Bears is currently a small, subscription service company with relatively little brand exposure.
There is a need to gain sales revenue and market share in order to achieve long-term profits.

Snack Bears currently sells assorted snacks from all around the world in packages. Despite this food
delivery market being relatively new in the food & beverage industry, there are already many
competitors with similar product offerings, making it hard for Snack Bears to stand out.

This marketing plan aims to provide Snack Bears with a marketing strategy which can give them a
competitive edge in this market. We propose a customer-driven marketing strategy where snacks are
delivered based on customers’ needs and wants. We would want to increase the digital/ online
presence and build up a brand focused around convenience, variety and specialty.

With the current food/ snack trend of healthy-eating, we propose Snack Bears to provide a new
product offering- Tailored snack packages for different people with different dietary requirements
and/or boundaries. In addition to this, we would also utilise our competitive advantages and focus on
value-adding service experience, which align with our brand position. We would then aim to convert
the newly acquired customers into loyal subscribers by developing stronger emotional connections
with customers. Finally, we plan for Snack Bears to introduce smaller niche brands, slowly nearing
micromarketing.

Situation Analysis

A. Customer Analysis
Customer Needs:
Customers of Snack Bears want food, particularly new and unique snacks that meet their dietary
requirements.
Different diets are popular these days due to health-related reasons, ethical reasons and cultural
reasons. We will be serving snacks accommodating to vegan/vegetarian diet and high-protein low-
calories diet thus the reasons for their popularity will be discussed below.

Vegan/Vegetarian Diet:
Vegan/vegetarian diet is highly popular due to health-related reasons as it tends to be richer in certain
nutrients, helps in losing excessive weight due to low calories nature, may possibly lower blood sugar
levels, improve kidney function, may protect against certain cancers, and it lowers the risk of heart
diseases (Petre, 2016).
Besides the aforementioned health benefits, many people choose to go vegan or vegetarian as they are
strictly against animal brutality. Such people believe that animals have the right to life and freedom,
and are not food stables for human beings (Capritto, 2019).
Additionally, some cultures prohibit the consumption of meat, such as the Sikh and Hindu culture
from India. Therefore, people from such regions are bound to be eating vegan or vegetarian products.

High-protein low-calories Diet:

The popularity of high-protein low-calories diet is entirely due to health-related reasons. As widely
agreed, high-protein low-calories diet is a staple in the fitness community as it helps to build lean
muscle mass, assists in weight loss and fat loss.

Market:
We will be serving the consumer market as the snacks to be sold are for personal consumption of the
customers, not goods that are acquired production of other goods that are sold or supplied to others.

Target Customers:
Primary customers: Late teeangers to people in their twenties (Price insensitive; emphasis on
healthy snacking)
Secondary customers: Families (Seek convenience which we deliver as they don’t need to go to
physical stores to shop, but can do so from their devices; healthy snacks ideal for family
snacking as suitable for all age groups)
Reasoning for primary and secondary customers: Having secondary target customers will help us
to avoid having overdependence on one market segment. This is especially important as late
teenagers and people in twenties are known to not have loyalty towards one brand. Although
designed to serve primary customers, products can simultaneously serve secondary
customers as well.

Target Customers Traits:

Cultural factors/traits:
The target customers belong to the upper class and middle class as the working class and lower class
focuses on essentials such as basic food, not international snacks that meet their dietary requirements.
Moreover, our target class customers are more educated thus more likely to follow different diets.
Social factors/traits:
Our target customers are influenced by the reference group being YouTubers. YouTubers have
popularised international snacks as they have made several videos about it, such as the video by
YouTuber “MoreTDM”, titled “TRYING FOOD FROM AROUND THE WORLD!!” , which has
about 15 million views. The subscribers of such YouTubers are more likely to order out products as
their favorite YouTubers tried international snacks.
Personal factors/traits:
Our primary customers will be aged in late teens to twenties. However, we will also be secondarily
targeting families, which can have a variety of ages.
The target customers will be students and white collar workers, as they have higher curiosity and seek
convenience respectively.
In regards to their lifestyle, they are health conscious and busy, thus seeking convenience.
They have a personality and self-concept where they seek superiority and high autonomy.
Psychological factors/traits:
The target customers have a perception top in positive selective distortion with marketing through
influencers.
They have a belief that snack cravings should be satisfied, but health should not be compromised
simultaneously.

B. Competitor Analysis

There are several key competitors in the snack subscription box industry and here’s the comparisons
between Snack Bears and: 1) Snackcrate; 2) MunchPak; 3) Snack Nation; and 4) Universe Yums

1. Snackcrate

Firstly, Snackcrate and Snack Bears have a difference in terms of sizes to snack boxes to be chosen.
Snackcrate’s snack boxes have three sizes for customers to choose, which are “mini”, “original” and
“premium”. However, Snack Bears only have one default size for customers to choose.

Apart from that, Snackcrate gives more attractive discounts to customers than Snack Bears.
Snackcrate gives every individual subscriber a referral link. When their friends sign up using the
referral link, a $10 off will be given to the next month’s crate and there’s no limit to how much
customers can earn. On the other hand, Snack Bears only give a one-time 10% off discount to
customers who join their newsletter. The discount provided by Snackcrate is more sustainable and it
gives customers way more incentives and motivations to purchase their products in the long run. In
the meantime, customers become more loyal and attract more potential buyers as well by encouraging
referrals, leading to higher brand exposures and ultimately expanding customer base.

Moreover, Snackcrate gives a chance to customers to win a free adventure ticket and be flown to that
month’s featured country while Snack Bears does not give any reward to customers. It means that
customers for Snackcrate are more loyal than those for Snack Bears.
Besides, Snackcrate allows customers to purchase single products instead of snack boxes while Snack
Bears does not. Therefore, this might hinder Snack Bears from enhancing their overall sales.

Furthermore, Snackcrate enables customers to check their orders in the Snack Tracker on their
account page so that they can exactly know when their subscription boxes will be shipped and how
long it will still take to receive their products. However, Snack Bears cannot enable customers to
know about the status of customers’ purchases. The difference of transparency gives them a different
degree of trustworthiness from consumers.

Moreover, Snackcrate does not only allow payments by credit cards, but also allows the usage of
BitCoin. As this gives their customers more options to pay their subscription fees and Snack Bears
only allows payment by credit cards, Snackcrate can attract more potential customers by giving them
convenience.

Last but not least, Snackcrate has nutritional breakdown for every item in the boxes along with a list
of ingredients while Snack Bears does not have. Therefore, people with special needs such as those
suffering from food allergy and diabetes usually prefer Snackcrate more than Snack Bears.

Why Snack Bears is better:

Snack Bears provides a platform for customers to fill in their wish lists and share their feedback
while Snackcrate does not. This can enhance the relationships between customers and Snack Bears
and thus they can further improve the quality and variety of products soon or later.

Snack Bears provides shipping worldwide with an additional fee and free shipping Australia and
New Zealand wide. However, Snackcrate only provides shipping in the US. This significantly hinders
customers outside the US to purchase snack boxes from Snackcrate and decide to purchase those from
Snack Bears.

Snack Bears allows customers to purchase previous snack boxes while Snackcrate does not.
Therefore, Snack Bears can better satisfy customers with specific preferences.

2. MunchPak

To begin with, MunchPak allows customers to purchase particular products which are also classified
into several categories and countries while Snack Bears only allows customers to purchase their snack
boxes. MunchPak can attract more customers who have specific preferences.

Apart from that, MunchPak has a travel guide filled with interesting facts and more information about
the snacks customers receive and the countries they originate from while Snack Bears does not. Thus,
MunchPak provides more comprehensive snack boxes and attracts more customers who would like to
have a better understanding of the background of snacks.

Moreover, MunchPak encourages snack suppliers to contact them and collaborate together. Suppliers
are usually attracted to do so as they can receive instant comments about their products from
MunchPak’s customers through their website and use this platform to test new products. As Snack
Bears does not have this feature, MunchPak has a higher ability to attract potential suppliers
automatically and as a result, enhances the variety of snacks included in the snack boxes.

Furthermore, MunchPak guarantees that all items must have a minimal 8 weeks shelf life while Snack
Bears does not have any guarantee on the quality of their products. Thus, this leads to higher
transparency and trustworthiness of MunchPak’s products than that of Snack Bears.

Besides, MunchPak encourages customers to join their affiliate program for free, which allows them
to earn money for every new customer they refer to MunchPaK. Therefore, affiliates can have
financial reward when a sale results from a customer who they referred to MunchPak. Therefore,
MunchPak can maintain customers’ loyalty in a better way than Snack Bears, even minimizing their
advertisement cost.

Why Snack Bears is better:

Snack Bears provides a platform for customers to fill in their wish lists and share their feedback
while MunchPak does not. This can enhance the relationships between customers and Snack Bears
and thus they can further improve the quality and variety of products soon or later.

Snack Bears allows customers to purchase previous snack boxes while MunchPak does not.
Therefore, Snack Bears can better satisfy customers with specific preferences.

3. SnackNation

SnackNation targets companies which encourage work-from-home and their snack boxes are named
Work-From-Home wellness boxes while Snack Bears does not have any market segmentation.
Therefore, SnackNation can provide more specific products to satisfy their targeted customers and
increase their market share.

SnackNation is partnered with Feeding America and donates meals to the needy according to the
number of snack boxes being sold while Snack Bears does not involve in any charitable activities.
Therefore, SnackNation might have a better brand image and reputation than Snack Bears based on
this aspect.
 Why Snack Bears is better:

Snack Bears allows shipping worldwide while SnackNation only allows shipping to the US. Thus,
Snack Bears is much more popular than SnackNation for customers outside the US.

Snack Bears provides a platform for customers to fill in their wish lists and share their feedback
while SnackNation does not. This can enhance the relationships between customers and Snack Bears
and thus they can further improve the quality and variety of products soon or later.

4. Universe Yums

First of all, Universe Yums responds to errors related to snack boxes instantly and sends replacements
or extra snacks as compensation to customers who are affected while Snack Bears does not.
Therefore, it indicates that Universe Yums provides better customer services than Snack Bears and
performs better in maintaining customers' loyalty.

Apart from that, Universe Yums includes a booklet in the snack boxes which is about the recipes of
snacks while Snack Bears does not have. Universe Yums can provide products with better quality
than Snack Bears.

Besides, Universe Yums allows customers to purchase particular products which are also classified
into several categories and countries while Snack Bears only allows customers to purchase their snack
boxes. Hence, Universe Yums can attract more customers who have specific preferences.

Lastly, Universe Yums’ customers can purchase the past 12 months boxes and they are all described
in detail while Snack Bears only provide limited descriptions on their previous products. Thus,
Universe Yums is better at selling their idle inventories than Snack Bears.

Why Snack Bears is better:

Snack Bears allows shipping worldwide while Universe Yums only allows shipping to the US. Thus,
Snack Bears is much more popular than Universe Yums for customers outside the US.

Snack Bears provides a platform for customers to fill in their wish lists and share their feedback
while Universe Yums does not. This can enhance the relationships between customers and Snack
Bears and thus they can further improve the quality and variety of products soon or later.
 C. Market analysis
This section introduces the snack food industry’s characteristics & trends that impact the company.

Market size and growth rate

According to a Food Report, Statista (2019) stated with the constantly updated data that the
global snack food segment’s revenue is US$401,047 million in 2020. Also, it is expected that the
market’s compound annual growth rate is 4.2% from 2020 to 2025. By comparing globally, the U.S.
market has generated the most revenue, at the amount of US$100,335 million in 2020. Concerning the
per capita consumption of snack food, the revenue generated per person is US$53.89 in 2020. And
these have indicated that the potential market volume of the snack box market is actually quite high,
and this market is attractive for the company (Statista, 2019).

Market Opportunity
According to a report regarding the snack food market, Motor Intelligence (2019) mentioned
that in the light of rapid urbanization, consumers are shifting their behaviorial patterns on food.
Consumers tend to treat snack food as an alternative for full meals, and snacks are more preferable
attributing to the convenience feature (Motor Intelligence, 2019).
Furthermore, due to the growing phenomenon of double-income and nuclear families in the globe,
snacks are more likely to be treated as the substitutes of regular food. And it may lead to a rising
demand of snack food under this demographic change, as workers are lacking time to cook by
themselves, which enhances the snack food market opportunity (Motor Intelligence, 2019).

Market Trend: Growing trend of healthy snacking

According to the Healthy Snacks Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, Grand View
Research (2019) stated that in 2018, the market size of healthy snacks was USD 23.05 billion globally
(See Appendix 1). While the U.S. is known to be the greatest market for snacks, the above graph
indicates that the estimated healthy snacks market size of the U.S. has a perpetual rising trend.
Concerning the rationales behind, The rise of healthy snacks market size in the U.S. may mainly be
attributed to the incentive offered by governments. For instance, the tax relaxation on health care
products may lead to a rise in health spending, which boosts the sales of healthy snacks (Grand View
Research, 2019).
Besides the U.S., when we look at the globe generally, consumers tend to focus more on the
nutritional value of food. Due to the Health awareness campaigns that are launched by government or
other related organizations, the campaigns have raised consumers' health consciousness. Also, in the
light of modernization, consumers have higher disposable income. While healthy snacks usually have
higher prices, healthy snacks become more affordable to them, which gives a rising trend of healthy
snacking (Grand View Research, 2019).
 D. SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses
● Worldwide shipping ● Lack variety
● Interaction with customers- strong ● Lack size options
customer relations ● Outdated website
● Customer “wish-list” ● Lack of social media presence
● Cost of production relatively low for
food & beverage industry
● Snacks are not easily perishable (can
stock up on large inventory)

Opportunities Threats
● New market: Health-conscious society ● Competitors
○ Increasing demand for healthy ○ Munchpak (market leader)
food products ○ Snackcrate
○ Switch of focus on food’s ○ SnackNation
nutritious value ○ Universe Yums
○ High growth potential ● COVID-19 pandemic-
● COVID-19 pandemic ○ Shipping difficulties
○ Increasing demand for food ○ Need for better hygiene
delivery services standards

Recommendations:

A. Marketing Objectives
1) Grow digital/ online presence
2) Build brand awareness
3) Promotion of a new product/ service
By:
• Leveraging social media platforms and increase visibility
(KPI: # of social media follows; network traffic)
• New customer acquisition by introducing new augmented product as added-value
(KPI: # of new customers)
 B. Marketing Strategy
1. Competitive Advantages
1) Worldwide Shipping
- Larger market access
- More variety available
2) Interaction with customers
- Platform for customer feedback to enhance B2C relationship
- Creates emotional connection
3) Availability of previous snack boxes
- Data collection
2. Targeting and Positioning
Current market trends indicate that our primary customers show increased health consciousness and
an emphasis of nutritional value on food. Thus, our products are focused around the health benefits.
Our existing competitive advantage of customer interaction must also be maintained, via a strong
emotional appeal.

Targeting:
Niche (concentrated) Marketing
Delivering highly customized snack boxes which generate high customer satisfaction
Customization:
- To cater towards different dietary needs and healthy-eating habits of customers
- To establish strong emotional appeal based around convenience & warmth (care)
Positioning:
1) Product & Service Quality- Health & emotional appeal
2) Variety (personalized/ customization)
3) Delivery convenience via increased digital presence

Competitive Marketing Positions

1) Subscription boxes for people who’d like to cook and enjoy foreign cuisines-
Foreign country food + foreign sauces, herbs, along with recipes
2) Personalized boxes for gifts-
Combination of snacks picked/ chosen by the customers to deliver to friends or loved ones
3) Festival snack boxes-
Special series of snacks related to the different festivals, like gingerbread man for Christmas
and chocolate eggs for Easter
4) Snack box for different diets (vegan, gluten-free, healthier options)-
Snacks that match up to customers demand according to their diet needs
Positioning Statement:
For millennials with high awareness for personal health and/or with specific dietary requirements,
Snack Bears allows them access to a wide variety of dietary foods which can cater to one’s individual
needs. Because (unlike others), our wide network and better interaction with customers allows for
clearer differentiation and segmentation of the market.

Position Maps:
Only Snack Bears has a platform which
allows customers to feedback on the products
and delivery service. This will develop
stronger B2C relationships to show Snack
Bears’ customer-driven position.

Despite previously lacking in product

variety, Snack Bears may utilize their
feedback system to produce more specific,
customizable products for their customers,
aiming to overtake competitors.

In addition to producing more variety of

products and worldwide shipping, Snack
Bears will want to maintain their emotional
appeal to provide more added-value with
augmented products, which most of their
competitors lack.

Overall positioning strategy: (Winning Value propositions)

Since we are planning to introduce more and

new benefits which leads to increased costs of
production, we ideally want to focus on winning
value propositions, ideally “more for more” and
“more for the same”.
C. Integrated Marketing Program

1. Product/ Service & Branding Strategy

Product/ Service Strategy

Core Customer Value:
Snack Bears not only brings delicious snacks to solve hunger, but more importantly it offers variety. It
will serve a wide range of snack boxes to cater customers’ demands, such as diets for vegan and
fitness. Since its products are monthly updated, customers can try new assortments of snacks and be
surprised.
Actual Product:
Snack Bears pursues green packaging with recognizable logo. Its packaging design is easy to store
after unpacking. More size options will be provided for different usage, in order to attract groups of
consumers ranging from individual to family. Another one is specialty. Snack box can be a tailor-
made present, because customers can type the gift message in a card when ordering. Essentially,
quality is emphasized. The selection of snacks in the special diet box is based on the nutritionists’
recommendations. Snack experts will gather the popular tastes of snacks in the global market.
Augmented Product:
Convenience plays a crucial role in maintaining competitiveness of Snack Bears. After customers
order online, the snack box can be shipped to every corner of the world. It is useful especially under
the COVID-19 circumstance that people are quarantined. Apart from convenience, Snack Bears will
give small presents to affiliates, like the hand-written card and teddy bear, so as to enhance customer
loyalty.

Branding Strategy
The first one is to build closer relationships with targeted customers through social media, such as
uploading products on Facebook and Instagram to increase exposure. Also, as mentioned earlier,
inviting influencers, YouTubers or KOL to try new snack boxes for the sake of strengthening the
brand recognition.
Brand Position:
The product attributes for Snack Bears are convenience, variety and specialty. It is hoped our
customers will be benefited and inspired from our selection of snacks. For instance, they don’t need to
be confused about what to eat. They may get more exposure to the food tastes and culture around the
world. Therefore, Snack Bears not only brings convenience to customers, but also surprise and
happiness.
 2. Pricing Strategy

Comparing Snack Bears’ price with its competitors, it is more expensive and only has one size. In
light of this, it is suggested offering more size options, so that we can expand the variety of price to
increase its competitiveness. It can also attract new customers to try smaller sized snack boxes with
lower price.

The Prices of Snack Boxes of 5 Companies 2020

5+snacks/box USD 10+snacks/box USD 20+snacks/box USD

Snack Bears / 34.57 /

Snackcrate 14 26 49

MunchPak 13.95 23.95 43.95

SnackNation / 24.95 39.95

Universe Yums 15 25 39

Note. Data for the prices of snack boxes from Snack Bears (2020), Snackcrate (2020), MunchPak
(2020), SnackNation (2020), and Universe Yums (2020).

3. Channel Strategy

Snack Bears currently uses Online Direct Marketing for their snackboxes. Customers access Snack
Bears’ website to browse product and place orders, as well as sign up for their subscription program.
Payment is made through credit card (American Express, VISA or Mastercard) or Paypal, and the
boxes are delivered directly to the address users provide upon check-out. This current strategy works
best for Snack Bears, as not only is the company still quite small, but the personal touches involved in
their direct delivery service add to the overall core customer value of their products. The newly
proposed product is a simple line extension of their existing products, so the same method can be
adopted. As such, Snack Bears should not find it necessary to look into alternative channel strategies
at the moment.
 4. Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy; 2- Year Plan

Promotion Mix
As the company is still quite small, Snack Bears should use the most cost-effective methods of
promotion. Which brings us to mobile advertising, where social media platforms like Instagram and
Facebook have made it fairly easy for small businesses to promote themselves. With Instagram’s
promote tool you can advertise a post on your page, with functions that allow you to select a target
audience, a budget, and a duration. It's inexpensive and a step in the right direction for Snack Bears to
increase their online presence.

Sales promotion methods are also relatively easy to implement. In order to increase incentive and
your number of new customers, referral friend codes may be used. If successful, the chain reaction
will be immense.
Small coupon codes during relevant holidays can also help to incentivize purchase. People are more
willing to spend on occasions like Black Friday, and some might be looking for Valentine’s Day or
Christmas gifts. Snack Bears can capitalize on such occasions and boost sales by routinely doing this
on a yearly basis.

Snack Bears currently has an online newsletter and a small food blog on their website. On their
Facebook page, the content is made up of reposted images from other accounts. But none of these
seem to be effective in increasing their online presence. Two of the most prominent social media
platforms today that will allow the company to express creative freedom and increase customer
engagement are Instagram and YouTube, which are both very visual. Instagram today goes beyond
image-sharing and companies can make use of IGTV to showcase short promotional material. Using
the poll or Q&A feature allows Snack Bears to carry out market-research or simply interact with
consumers. Responding to comments on their posts will also boost customer service reputation, and
allow the company to build a better relationship with their consumers. On YouTube, Snack Bears can
extend their customer benefits by creating a sense of an online community. Keeping up with trends in
content curation and participating in fun segments will allow them to stay relevant, and increase their
online visibility, all while promoting their products at the same time.
 Target Audience Message Who in the Media?

Snack Bears’ target Currently Snack Bear’s message is The optimal channel of
audience will mostly be the about tasting snacks from around the communication would
millenial group. Today world. However, this is a common again be social media. As
they are known to be the concept with many snack subscription mentioned before, reaching
most health-conscious, and boxes. With the introduction of 2 new the target audience through
active on social media. This snackboxes, their message seeks to key opinion leaders and
group is also young enough increase accessibility for highly- influencers would be most
to be on the lookout for new specialised lifestyles. By targeting the effective, as both Snack
experiences and needs of increasingly popular plant- Bears and the influencer
opportunities, but will also based and fitness conscious lifestyles demographic share the
have some money to spend Snack Bears can show that they value same target audience.
for personal wants. inclusivity as a company. The focus
with the new boxes is the consumer,
whereas previously it was the product.

2 Year Plan: (See Appendix 2)

Pre- Reach out to influencers on Instagram and YouTube by gifting them a

Launch complimentary box in exchange for promoting Snack Bears to their followers. Here
the company should be looking to increase consumer awareness.
Examples of possible influencers/ KOL’s:

Ashley Alexander (ur mom ashley on YouTube/ @aaashleyk on Instagram)

• Age: 20, University Student, USA, 696K YouTube subscribers
• Lifestyle vlogger (content: daily vlogs, university life, clothing/fashion etc)
• Vegan, and while this is not her main focus on her channel, she often
includes her vegan recipes and snacks in vlogs. If anything, this makes her
veganism more “approachable” and also means she has access to a large
non-vegan audience, so she can endorse the Vegan snackbox for everyone,
not just vegans
• Filmed many snack-related content with siblings- Fun environment, target
audience
 Chloe Ting (YouTube & Instagram)
• Age: 33, Australia, 6.98M YouTube subscribers
• Fitness Guru (content: workout videos, healthy food/meals, travel photos)
• Has her own fitness community with a wide age demographic so Snackbox
would be sure to penetrate a large audience interested in fitness

1st Year In the beginning the focus is on taking in new customers with the new products,
and at this stage continuing to build on social media presence will be paramount.
Another partnership with influencers to help announce the launch of the new
snackboxes. We can assume at this stage most of the purchases will be one-off.
Referral friend codes can be handed out at this stage to help encourage a chain
reaction of sales - an associated purchase must be made to obtain a discount, and the
discount will encourage a second purchase.

1st Year, 6 From 6 months onwards, Snack Bears should be looking to convert current one-
months in off buyers into loyal subscribers. Developed partnerships with influencers at this
stage is important, and their loyalty may encourage audiences to join in as well.
Snack Bears could consider product giveaway in partnerships with influencers or
introducing affiliate programs, giving influencers promotional codes they can
share with their followers for a limited time.

2nd Year At the second year mark, the company should be looking to encourage current
subscribers to renew their subscriptions by rewarding their loyalty. E.g 10% off
on a renewal of subscription. Conducting an Instagram giveaway for one lucky
winner to receive a free 6 months subscription package will also help Snack Bears
continue to increase their following and online engagement. If the 2 new snackbox
products look to be doing well, Snackbox can look towards product-oriented
methods again; they can differentiate themselves by reaching out to smaller niche
snack brands to introduce to their customers. In this way Snackbox can also start
positioning themselves as a top purveyor for vegan/fitness related snacks.