Principles of Marketing (MKT - 201)

Submitted to:

Miss Aisha Rehman

Submitted by:

Group Leader:
Mahyn Fatima 17104054

Group Members:
Maheen Mehmood 17104066
Noor Ul Sabah 17104031
Areeba Fayyaz 17104065
Ali Afzal 17104056
Hina Zulfiqar 17109006
Acknowledgements

First and foremost, we would like to thank Allah for all that He has always bestowed us. Despite
our sins, negligence and mistakes; He has not only forgiven us, but has showered even more of
His bounties on us. For blessing us with more than we deserve and for enabling us to complete
this project, we have Allah to thank.

Secondly, we want to thank our parents, who have spent their lives sacrificing their pleasure and
peace for our needs. In a time where millions dont get two decent meals a day, they gave us the
opportunity to a quality education. For this, we owe them a great deal.

Lastly, we present our thanks to our instructor Miss Aisha Rehman, for all that she taught us
during the length of this semester. As students of fashion design, we had no background of
business subjects. It was her constant support and unfaltering vigilance that gave us the ability to
produce a project like this on our own. Thank you miss, this project is truly your doing, not ours.
Acknowledgements 3
Executive Summary 5
1. Business Idea 6
1.1 What is your business idea and why is it important to propose in the market?
6
1.2 What is “new” in your business idea? 6
1.3 Who will be the customers and why will they buy your product 7
1.4 Who are your competitors and how are you going to position your product in
their presence? 7
1.5 What options are available to you for capital raising? Which option are you
going to select? Why? 8
2. Marketing Environment 8
2.1 Explain the components of the micro environment (the company, the the
suppliers, market intermediaries, publics, customers). 8
2.2 PESTEL Analsyis 10
2.3 SWOT Analysis: 12
3. Customer driven marketing strategy: Segmentation, Targeting, Differentiation,
Positioning. 12
3.1 Identify the potential segments for products and services. Segments should be
identified based on their geographic, demographic, behavioural and psychographic
features. 12
3.2 In the light of requirements of effective segmentation, present your reasoning
for the selected segments. 13
3.3 What is your target market strategy? Present reasoning for its selection. 13
3.4 What is the positioning statement of the company and why? 13
4. Marketing Strategy: 14
4.1 Explain your marketing organisation; which are key marketing positions for
your companies marketing and promotion. E.g. Advertising Manager, Sales
Manager. 14
4.2 Present your marketing mix. 14
Executive Summary

The food business in Lahore has seen rapid growth in the recent years. The areas of Gulberg and
Defence in particular have shown a healthy trend of people eating out. A major reason for it is
that the market is full of gourmets’, who are compelled to look for good food at all times. “Food
Wheels”, as the name suggests; will be food on wheels. The aim is to penetrate the market by
ensuring that what we make stands out. With this thought in mind, we will introduce live food in
Lahore for the very first time. In a truck that will have all kitchen equipment, we will make food
for our consumers right in front of their eyes. The food will be fresh and healthy all at the same
time. The idea is to target the people who want fresh and tasty food, and make access to the food
easy for them by bringing the truck in their neighbourhood. Initially, the business will kick off
with only one truck, that will roam around between Defence and Gulberg, making predetermined
stops. The starting investment will partly be a mixture of partnership based investment and bank
financing for lease and insurance. We will be working with a staff of 9 people, 3 of which will be
on the truck at a given time for a 8 hour long shift. In the long run, we intend to buy more trucks
and spread our operations to other areas of the city. If all goes well, we believe our idea holds the
potential to revolutionise the food market all together.
1. Business Idea

1.1 What is your business idea and why is it important to propose in the
market?
Over the years, financial analysts have spent a significant amount of their time in understanding
the trade off between risk and return, in order to reach a conclusion regarding the best type of
investment. Where the majority believes that investor safety is maximised in real estate, the
norms of Lahore defy their belief system. It wouldn’t be an over statement that people of Lahore
prioritise good food over a good home. They may not even care about where they sleep, but
where they eat is of their utmost concern. With such dynamics, a city like Lahore possesses
obvious potential for investment in the food business. Despite the fact that there are countless
restaurants on the MM-Alam road and Y-Block defence alone, people still end up spending a lot
of their time waiting for their turn to be served at the restaurants. This simple lapse of supply to
meet the demand leaves room open for new entrants to come and fill the market gap. Making it
an even more viable option is the spending pattern of these consumers, who hardly care about the
prices, provided that the product have a significant quality. When entering such volatile markets,
the key is to think out of the box. This is exactly where our idea comes from. With the mission of
bringing food out of the box instead of dragging people into the box to eat, we proudly present
“Food Wheels”. The idea is to cook fresh food; live in front of the consumers. Whats even more
exciting is the fact that instead of cramming people up in a “box” labelled “restaurant”; we bring
an entire restaurant on the wheels. Our business will be that of a food truck, that will be equipped
with kitchen equipments such as stoves, refrigerators, ovens, etc. The truck will drive around
Gulberg and Defence, making stops at stations that will be predetermined. The consumers will be
able to see their food being cooked right in front of their eyes through a window in the truck, and
they will also be able to ensure the quality of the ingredients being used.

What makes the proposal of a service like ours important at this point in time is the gap that
exists within the market. The food business has worked on the minor differences, where
ambience, service and venues have been defining factors for the market share. From the indoor
fancy places to verandas, rooftops and floor sittings; the food market has it all. The only gap that
exists with the potential that can be capitalised on is that of live cooking. Our product is an
innovative solution for not only catering to the lapse in supply, but to enter in this highly
competitive market with style as well.

1.2 What is “new” in your business idea?

Lahore is not short of fancy restaurants offering the best cuisines. The question is, how many of
these places cook live food for their consumers? Almost all of the restaurants offer home
delivery of food that does not remain fresh by the time it reaches the consumer, but exactly how
many of them manage to bring their entire kitchen to their consumers neighbourhood? The
answer to both of these questions is a blunt “none”. We are here to change that. Whats new in
our product is food that is fresh, and cooked right there in front of the conusmer. Where these are
the two major unique selling points (USP) of our business, the additional attraction of our
product that it helps bypass traffic as the truck will be in the consumers own walking vicinity.

1.3 Who will be the customers and why will they buy your product
Primarily, our customers will be the residents of the posh areas within Defence and Gulberg.
These are the people who have been to all the fancy places and have turned tired of them, and are
looking for alternative options where the restaurant formalities may be avoided. Moreover, these
people spend a major part of their day stuck in the traffic on the busy roads of Lahore. Hence,
they are in pursuit of options that would help them avoid going back in the traffic or waiting for
their reservations. In addition, our customers are the foodies, as we call them. These are the
people who consume food for the pleasure of eating more than for the energy based needs. These
individuals seek high quality food that tastes good. In order to get that, they would even travel
long distances. Even though our original plan is to target customers in the vicinity, but our high
quality food and live cooking will make this population of people come all the way to our truck.
Defence and Gulberg, both are densely populated areas that have residential and commercial
occupations alike. As our truck will travel between the two, all the people that live between
Defence and Gulberg will also formulate a significant part of our customer base. The people
shopping in the major markets of these areas, and the shopkeepers will also buy our product, as it
will be convenient for them. Lastly, there are numerous universities, colleges, schools and
academies in these areas. The individuals affiliated with these institutions will be our potential
customers as well, who will chose our product based on their convenient access to them.

1.4 Who are your competitors and how are you going to position your
product in their presence?
Where the passion of Lahori’s for food has enabled the food industry to flourish, it has also
contributed to making it a highly competitive industry. The consumers are absolute gourmets’,
who are extremely picky about their food. We will have to work very hard on our food quality if
we wish to survive in this market. Direct competition will be given to us by the big restaurants
on MM-Alam road, Gulberg and Y-Block, Defence. These restaurants have already established
their hold on the market. However, they are inconvenient to approach for consumers against our
product. By delivering the product in their neighbourhood, we deal with them rather easily.
Besides the restaurants, some local vendors also constitute the food industry in the vicinity. They
have the potential to prove to be more catastrophic to us than the big restaurants, as their product
is very cheap. By making our product mix (menu), highly different from what they offer, and by
alleviating our food quality, we can easily counter any threat they pose to us. Additionally, our
mobility positions us in a huge market in ways that they will simply fail to stand against.

1.5 What options are available to you for capital raising? Which option are
you going to select? Why?
In order to raise finance, we have multiple options. A major part of our financing will be based
on personal financing, from 4 partners. The remainder will come through bank loan. For the
stoves, refrigerators, generators, initial salaries and initial inventory; we will use our personal
investment. Part of the payment for truck will come through bank lease, while the rest will be
submitted as downpayment for the lease. We are using a mixture of this structure, as we want to
minimise the risk. Having 4 partners will minimise the risk if things go down the hill. The bank
interest rates for loans are rather high, however the interest rate on vehicle financing is
comparatively lower. Based on these calculations, we have decided to equally share the risk to
the maximum possible level, through a mixture of financing from different sources.

2. Marketing Environment

2.1 Explain the components of the micro environment (the company, the
the suppliers, market intermediaries, publics, customers).

The company:

The company will need to work in a close liaison with each other. As far as the operations
themselves are concerned, the key thing to work on will be our punctuality. The predetermined
schedules will have to be met. Initially, we will start up with one truck, so close track of its
whereabouts will have to be kept. The moving truck will be monitored remotely by the
operations manager via his cell phones through an application giving access to the trucks
location to him. The truck will have a tracker placed on it, which will further assist in ensuring
about its definite location. The business will intimate from Gulberg at 7 in the morning, where it
will start its operations with breakfast. From 7 till noon, it will make stops along the main round
about for an hour each, till it reaches defence. The lunch will be served in areas of defence that
will fall in the vicinity of offices, schools and universities; again making hour long stops at
priorly selected points. From lunch till dinner, the truck will roam in the residential areas of
Defence, till it serves dinner in the main market of Y-Block. After that, it will start moving back
towards Gulberg again, stopping near the main markets this time. Once the markets close, the
truck will cruise around the residential areas of Gulberg for as long as 2 A.M. After that, the
truck will be directed to return to the original station. The few hours till breakfast will be spent in
restocking and cleaning the truck from inside and outside. The stock will be bought fresh
everyday to ensure the promise of fresh food is met. Since the truck will have its own stoves and
refrigerator, no stops will be made for supply runs during the day. The workers will be hired for
8 hour shift each, and the truck will have 3 individuals on it at all times. Having 3 people on the
vehicle at all times will ensure the quality, serve as an audit tool and will prevent it from
becoming a one man show. For the length of an entire day, we will hire 9 individuals, who will
work in sets of 3 at one time. The duties will be of a cashier, a driver and a chef respectively. We
will pay hefty amounts to hire and train our chefs so that the food taste and quality remains
constant. The chef will also be in charge of keeping the interior of the truck and the kitchen
equipment clean at all times. The chef will also be trained to be flexible as to his recipes so that
slight alterations can be made as per the requirement of the customer. The driver will be
responsible for the maintenance of mechanical parts of the truck and to ensure its exterior
cleanliness. Moreover, the drivers will be trained on road safety and driving ethics to make the
roads safer to travel on. This will also serve as a part of our corporate social responsibility, one
that we will gladly take up. The cashier will serve as a liaison between the chef and the customer.
He will take up the order, receive the payments and hand over the order to the customers once
they are completed. For their performance evaluation, cameras will be placed inside the truck as
well. Furthermore, customer reviews, peer reviews and surprise inspections will be conducted to
ensure all matters are going smoothly.

The suppliers:

Our micro environment will have K&N’s, Dawn Foods, Shan Masala and the local vendors of
vegetables and fruits.

Marketing Intermediaries:

Since our operations are B2C, we have no intermediaries as far as our supply chain is concerned.
However, financial intermediaries in form of bank for the lease of truck and insurance of our
business will need to be incorporated. Moreover, we will use marketing services agencies as our
marketing intermediaries to promote our product.

The Customers:

The customers will include the final consumers of our product, as we are selling our products
directly to them.
2.2 PESTEL Analsyis

The external factors influencing our business need to be clearly studied so that they can be turned
around in our favour instead of becoming an issue for us. For this purpose, we have conducted a
PESTEL analysis, which is as follows:

Political:

The political factors may be underrated and subjected to little attention, but for a country like
Pakistan, these are very important factors. The political unrest leading to strikes, sit ins and road
blocks are very usual. Since we have a schedule to meet and places to be at, it is a highly
alarming situation for us. However, we have formulated a way to turn it around for us. Our team
will be given the protocol and directions to open the window for services in case if the truck gets
stuck in a very long congestion. This will not only serve as an automatic mode of marketing, but
will capitalise on the lost time by sales from elsewhere. The corruption based political factor
overlap with the legal factors, and will be discussed there.

Economic:

The economic situation of Pakistan has been on the downside for many years. Where the changes
in dollar prices effect the entire economy, they effect the multinationals more than they effect the
local businesses. Besides, since we are dealing with the necessities for sustenance in a very posh
area, the economic conditions have very slight effects on our product. Though the dollar
appreciation effects our pricing; it effects those of everyone else as well. Our target consumers
are typically the people who are financially well endowed, and are generally indifferent to
changes in their disposable incomes. Hence if we regulate the prices smartly, even the economic
recession will have little, if any, effect on our business activity.

Social:

The social factors of our target market is what we aim to capitalise upon. The people of Lahore
are generally very picky about the food they eat. The social norms have pushed them to a point
where they stand between eastern and western food. Either way, their concern is more with the
quality and quantity of food. For this purpose, we have developed a menu which is a mixture of
both, eastern and western food. If the food quality fails to meet the standards of consumers, we
will be thrown out of business. Generally, the social norm is to make the employees work for 9
to 12 hours a day. Our shifts restricted to 8 hours each will serve as a motivational factor to our
employees; which may even lead them into performing beyond what is expected from them.

Technological:

The defining factor for most of the businesses today are the technological ones. Our product is
unique and new, leaving room open for us to capitalise on through these factors. We will use
social media to promote our product and interact with the consumers. This however, is being
done by everyone else in the market. The technological end will be used to run the operations of
the country. Cutting edge technology will be invested in, to make sure the trucks are properly
tracked for their location and the video footage from inside is also accessible to us. Moreover,
technology will be used to assist in our marketing as we work on the initiative to use paperless
marketing. If managed properly, these very technological factors will make us stand out from the
routine business and give us the edge that we need to dominate the market.

Environmental:

The environmental factors will have little to no effect on our business, as they basically effect
agri-based businesses. The most effect of the environment on us will be a very slight change in
the taste of the vegetables. Any potential effect of the air pollution or the dust will be catered by
the use of glass all over the cooking area to make sure it is protected from the air while being see
through as well.

Legal:

The environment within the country is generally not very supportive, with little protection
provided to the investors by the state. This added with corruption among the regulatory
authorities and government create a very hostile working environment. Food business in Punjab
has been subjected to many controls by the Punjab Food Authorities (PFA), which is on a spree
of sealing any and all business that feel to meet the requirements. Policemen are known to
blackmail on road vehicles like ours for petty bribes. In order to deal with such problems that
may come up, we will get ourselves registered before our operations begin. All the relevant
NOC’s will be obtained and the given directives will be strictly followed. The cleanliness and
regulations will be ensured to prevent blackmailing through the police or other regulatory
authorities.
2.3 SWOT Analysis:
Strengths Weaknesses
 New brand
 No direct competition
 Less awareness
 Innovative new product
 Low percentage of health conscious
 Fresh food
people
 Consumer convenience
 Live cooking may take time
 Good taste

Opportunities
 Good potential market
 Partnership with health institutes
 Huge growth prospects
 Densely populated areas as the start off
market, so huge potential population
Threats
 Three chefs can cause varying tastes
 Competitors may arise, as no barriers ti
entry
 People may not like the product
 Not targetting the entire city

3. Customer driven marketing strategy: Segmentation, Targeting,

Differentiation, Positioning.

3.1 Identify the potential segments for products and services. Segments
should be identified based on their geographic, demographic, behavioural
and psychographic features.

There are many segments that can be worked on, when operating in a market like ours. Since we
are restricting ourselves to only two areas, there are geographic segments in place. The residents
of Defence and Gulberg form a major part of the segments in the market. The people who work
in these areas, commute between these areas and visit these areas for shopping or leisure
purposes also form segments of this market. Where these are the geographic segments; this
market may be demographically segmented on the basis of age, gender, income and occupation.
Ideally, young people chose to eat out so they form a segment, women who are out shopping end
up eating out, the people with enough resources chose to eat out and the shopkeepers who spend
their days working chose to eat out. All of these, again, form segments of this market.
Behavioural and psychographic segments of the market include the buying behaviour that is
typical of the consumers which can be distributed on basis of their priority for the product
quality, brand loyalty, taste, its health benefits, ambience, status symbol and ease of access.

From all these segments, we will be targeting all the geographic segments, our demographic
segments will only include income; while the other segments of our interest will include the
gourmets’, people seeking ease of access, quality and health benefits.

3.2 In the light of requirements of effective segmentation, present your

reasoning for the selected segments.

The key thing when selecting the segments is to understand that it is better to effectively target a
few segments than to ineffectively target all of the segments. This is a usual lapse that occurs
when selected the market segments, and leads to loss of customers. To cater this, we will select a
few segments, based on the number of people it gives to us who belong to that particular
segment. The selected segments have been done so because they capitalise on our strengths, and
give us access to the widest spectrum of population.

3.3 What is your target market strategy? Present reasoning for its
selection.
We will adopt focused / concentrated targeting strategy. The reason to use this is to strategy is
that we understand how important it is to channel our marketing resources in the right
direction. The entire marketing effort will be futile if the product is marketed to the wrong
consumers. For this, we will select few segments of the greater market and rely strictly on
adhering to them in a way such that the entire segment will be reached and will respond to our
campaign as well.

3.4 What is the positioning statement of the company and why?

For the gourmets of Defence and Gulberg seeking quality and fresh food, “Food Wheel”
provides live food right in your own neighbourhood because what happens right in front of your
eyes, can never be wrong.
The positioning statement makes it very clear that our product is high quality, fresh, cooked live
and can be bought in the neighbourhood by the people of Defence and Gulberg. Choosing this as
a positioning statement automatically makes all our target segments very clear, and creates
mystery about our product that will intrigue the consumer and bring him to us.
4. Marketing Strategy:

4.1 Explain your marketing organisation; which are key marketing

positions for your companies marketing and promotion. E.g. Advertising
Manager, Sales Manager.

Position Team Member Duties

Marketing Manager Ali In charge of all the marketing plans and interacting
with the marketing intermediaries to innovate new
strategies.
Purchase Manager Areeba In charge of buying the inventory everyday and sending
the invoices to the finance department.
Human Resource Mahyn In charge of hiring, firing, initial training and wage
Manager increment of the staff.
Operations Noor To keep track of the whereabouts of the truck by
Manager monitoring through the camera and tracker. To count
the inventory everyday and ensure the truck is all set
and ready to leave in the morning.

Supervisor Hina To cater to the complaints by consumers, to probe into

the bad reviews, to resolve any conflicts among the
employees and to conduct sudden (unannounced)
visits of the truck to ensure smoothness of affairs.

Finance Manager Maheen To maintain databases of the purchases and sales

being made, make payments to the creditors, to raise
finances, create financial statements and to tally with
the stock count of operations manager for auditory
purposes.

4.2 Present your marketing mix.

Product:
 Our product is unique in essence of the style of its offering. No one else in Lahore offers
live cooking, that as well on the road. The taste, presentation, location and quantity of our food
will satisfy the requirement of our consumers. Attached in the Appendix (A) is the menu that we
will be serving. It is primarily divided into breakfast, lunch, dinner and beverages. In those
categories, there is a variety of eastern and western food that constitutes the items up for sale.

Price:

Our operations are largely based in posh areas, so our prices will be slightly on the
upward side. They will be just under the those of the fancy restaurants, and higher than those of
the normal vendors. We will be able to charge high prices, as quality of our products will be
unrivalled, with other features that no one else has. In that respect, we will be the only seller of
our kind, which will give us a slight similarity to that of a monopoly. As a result, our asked
prices will be given out to us. The details of the prices is shared in the menu attached in
Appendix (A).

Promotion:

The food truck business is a new entrant in the market. In order to intrigue the consumers
enough to influence their buying decision, creating awareness about our product is a prerequisite.
For this purpose, effective promotional strategies will need to be incorporated. With the influx of
technology, the mediums adopted for marketing have also evolved. The most heavily reliant
medium for promotion will be social media. Through a facebook page, website, instagram profile
and designated application; awareness about “Food Wheels” will be created. The users of the
application will receive a notification, informing them about our food truck being in their
location. Moreover, advertising through TV commercials and bill boards will also be done. Since
our truck will be moving around the city, it will be marketing its own self to everyone who
watches it travel. Through catchy phrases on banners along the sides of the truck, we will put out
the information about what is inside the truck. Lastly, we aim to keep our operations eco-friendly
to the maximum extent. Hence we will be using biodegradable papers for the printing of menu’s.
Our marketing will be mainly digital, so we will not be relying on flyers or pamphlets. Next to
the cash window will be a huge LED, which will have the entire menu and the price lists, to
make the truck even more visible to everyone.

Place:

We plan to launch our operations from the posh areas, which are busy for the most part of
the day as well. The idea is to begin from Gulberg and Defence with one truck only, and see how
the market reacts to us. With stops in commercial areas and cruise in residential ones, we intend
to reach the maximum population of these areas. If all goes well, the long term plan is to increase
our number of trucks so that one can be designated to each area, with expansion into Johar Town
and Allama Iqbal Town in the future.