Selling the LifeStraw Go Bottle to The Oops! Co.

Colin Lopez

Tracey Swartz

MKTG457-002

The Table of Contents

Seller Profile………………………………………………………………………………...3

FAB…………………………………………………………………………………………4

Marketing/Promotion Plan……………………………………………………………….....7

Business/Financial Analysis……………………………………………………………......12

Sources…………………………………………………………………………………......14

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ABOUT THE SALESMAN

Colin Lopez was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and was a student at Loyola Blakefield High School in Towson, Maryland. Later, he attended the University of South Carolina as a Finance Major and Sports Management minor. Colin is a member of the University’s lacrosse team. He intends to go into Information Technology sales soon after graduation in May of 2018.

Colin has been working in the restaurant business since he was 14 years old. His experiences in the industry have given him a great perspective for what it is like to

grind for long, unorthodox hours. They have also allowed him to improve and fine-tune his people skills. He started off as a steamer at Higgins Crab House in Ocean City, Maryland then moved on to become a bar-back and later a bartender at the Crab Cake Factory, a bar in Fenwick Island, Delaware.

After the years of working in the Delmarva beach area, Colin decided to work closer to home in Baltimore as a waiter at Bluestone, a fine dining restaurant. While working this job, Colin interned at VSS, a platinum partner to IBM. In this capacity, he learned what it was like to work in a corporate culture and got a better idea of what life would be like to sell IT products on a day to day basis.

Upon graduation in May 2018, Colin will join VSS as a sales associate trainee. He will attend the IBM Summit Program where he will learn about software and sales techniques. Colin hopes to take his knowledge from his life experiences and use it to build VSS into a household name for business to business IT sales.

COLIN DOUGLAS LOPEZ (410)-960-1261

cdlopez2014@yahoo.com

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The LifeStraw Go Bottle FAB

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5

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LifeStraw Go Bottle Marketing Plan

PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION:Shelf Positioning:

The shelf position is not so much a concern as long as the product is in the store window. When people walk into Oops Co. In Five Points, they only see clothing; however, they know that Yeti is sold in the store due to the large banner in the window. The LifeStraw Go would be located with the Yeti gear and other bottles, and at eye level to the average shopper. With that, the location would be in the front of the store with the other water bottles.

According to your employees, you reshelf frequently to keep the newest products by the register. When first walking into the store, most water bottle options are all on the left side of the doorway, ready for comparison by the consumer. This product would be in that area but in the center, since it is a prime product.

Inventory System:

When working with smaller stores such as yourself, LifeStraw is very easy going and fluent when it comes to inventory management. In the relationship with Mast General Store, LifeStraw usually asks for three months in advance, since the product is more so secondary and does not fly off the shelves. Mast General and your store both usually use historical analysis and trends to order their inventory and very seldom run out of anything. This strategy would not need to change when incorporating the LifeStraw Go. There are also not any minimum quantity restrictions. Co-op support is provided after purchasing two cases

Do to these factors, LifeStraw would use the ECR inventory technique

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Shelf-Facings Required:

The LifeStraw Go sell best with five shelf-facings to show off the five colors available. This again is not a priority given that the bottle filter features sell it; the colors cater to secondary preferences

It could still sell with one shelf-facing, much like it does in the Mast General Store.

Number of Stock Keeping Units (SKU):

This product will only require five SKUs since all of the bottles are the same size (22oz) and there are five colors. Those colors are pink, purple, blue, black, and green.

PROMOTION:Advertising Support:

After speaking to your staff, you all seem to prefer being lower key when it comes to advertising. LifeStraw usually does not provide much Ad support regularly, but they do have a marketing team that is willing to discuss possibilities. One area where they do help is adding it to websites. According to Mast General, they may do more advertising with bigger buyers such as Dicks Sporting Goods or Walmart.

The bottle actually does have an occasional commercial on the television. If people are aware that they are sold at your store and are intrigued by the commercial, they will go down to the store and see why our product has such a good reputation. The store would not be mentioned in the commercial, it only advertises the products that we sell.

Trade Promotion Tools:

They already have a prime store location off of Blossom St in Columbia, SC and like to use their window as an effective way to advertise what they have. Since the LifeStraw brand actually entails a great deal of goodwill, it is definitely something recommended to advertise in the window. People know the store just from the Yeti flag in the window and LifeStraw would like to do something similar to that and provide a sign or banner with the “LifeStraw by Vestergaard” logo on it.

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It may be most effective to have the product in store to poor into cups for customers to experience first-hand what the LifeStraw Go is capable of. This would only cost the wholesale price of one unit and soda that you can buy at any super market. The bottle does the rest of the work.

Rather than an in-store demonstration, it would be free of charge for LifesStraw to send a demonstration video that displays the power of our particular product. Much like the what kids on youtube.com do, the LifeStraw staff would demonstrate the filtration process by using drinks such as Red Bull or Coca Cola and drinking it like it is water.

Sales Promotion Support Provided:

Typically, there is not sales promotion support provided for the smaller stores.

PRICINGPricing Strategy:

The pricing strategy that Oops Co should use is pricing at a premium. Since they would be the closest and most convenient location that sells LifeStraw in the Five Points area of Columbia, SC, it would definitely be worth up-charging for some extra profit. Both Dicks and Walmart sell the bottle for $39.54 while Mast General, a smaller store, charges $39.94 for just the filter, not along with the bottle. Given this information, Oops Co should be able to sell the LifeStraw Go bottle for around $42.00 safely due to the convenience and the quality of the product. Columbia residents will not have to drive at least 25 minutes to a Walmart or deal with the traffic and lack of parking on Main St. They can just go to their local Oops Co!

Consumer Discounts:

There are no consumer discounts typically offered for this product in-store but there are coupons up to 30% off and promo codes online. We will usually pay for the discount when the coupons are put to use.

Bringing Value to the Buyer:

The big factor with using LifeStraw products is the message that it gives. Much like Toyota and their Prius, LifeStraw plays a role in trying to make the world a better place. The company is so involved in providing clean water to those who do not have access to it, and they are some of the first responders to natural disaster victims. Not only does promoting and selling this product mean that the store supports their mission, but they contribute. LifeStraw uses the money that they make via sales to be active in communities that need clean water all around the world.

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PRODUCTDeterminant Attributes:

The consumer benefits from the product because it purifies water on the go no matter what fresh water source goes into it. This can range from stream water to toilet water. If an individual does not need the water at the time, they can collect up to 22 ounces to bring with them to avoid future dehydration.

The product is extremely portable weighing only 5.9 ounces when empty, yet it is still quite sturdy. It does not require any batteries or electrical power either. This product also comes with a carabineer to easily attach the bottles to a belt or bag. The purifier also does not need to be replaced until 4,000 gallons of water have been filtered.

Competition Analysis

-Direct Competitors

The next big competitor is the Katadyn MyBottle. This bottle is extremely similar to the LifeStraw Go in the sense that it filters water on the go. It is a 24-ounce metallic bottle with a three-stage purification process in comparison to my products two-stage process. With the extra durability and extra purification comes a higher price ($40-$60). According to many reviews, it takes up a lot of space and has the tendency to leak. This is a primary reason that the LifeStraw Go has prevailed and surpassed this bottle over the years.

The Brita filter bottle is another direct competitor with the LifeStraw Go bottle. This bottle does not have a very intense filter as the other options, but it is also significantly less expensive. Some can be as cheap as $8.99. The filter is intended to mainly deal with tap water that would not be very clean otherwise; it would not be able to handle the bacteria from a stream or anything from the wilderness. There are many colors, shapes, and sizes as well.

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-Indirect Competitors

Any disposable water bottle can compete with the likes of the LifeStraw Go. They are confirmed purified and can quench thirst as any other bottle would. Honorable mentions for these are Deer Park, Dasani, and Aquafina. There has been an issue with waste and plastic leakage for these products but they are as reliable as anything else. When everybody recycles their bottles, there is minimum harm done, but people just need access to them and money to purchase them.

The Camelbak bottle is one of the biggest competitors for the LifeStraw Go. These bottles can be found most anywhere and come in all different colors, shapes, and sizes. They are also sold at a much cheaper price (around $16). When one thinks of the typical, reusable water bottle, odds are they are thinking of a Camelbak bottle. They may not have the filter or the durability of the LifeStraw Go, but they are still reliable and easy to buy.

Competition Analysis Graph

55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95$0

$10

$20

$30

$40

$50

$60

$70

Competitive Analysis

Durability .1x(MPa)

Price

LifeStraw Go

Katadyn MyBottle

Brita

The durability is measured the material stress tests. It is measured in megapascals (MPa)

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Business/Financial Analysis

Plan 1 Plan 2 Plan 3 Plan 4 Plan 5Units per case 10 10 10 10 10Unit cost $30.00 $30.00 $30.00 $30.00 $30.00 Cases 1 2 3 4 5Units 10 20 30 40 50Case Cost $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 $300.00 Total Cost $300.00 $600.00 $900.00 $1,200.00 $1,500.00 Co-op% 0% 1% 1% 1% 1%Co-op$ $0.00 $6.00 $9.00 $12.00 $15.00 Net Cost $300.00 $594.00 $891.00 $1,188.00 $1,485.00 Net Unit cost $30.00 $29.70 $29.70 $29.70 $29.70 MSRP/unit $42.00 $42.00 $42.00 $42.00 $42.00 Revenue $420.00 $840.00 $1,260.00 $1,680.00 $2,100.00 Net Profit $120.00 $246.00 $369.00 $492.00 $615.00 PM/case $120.00 $123.00 $123.00 $123.00 $123.00 PM/unit $12.00 $12.30 $12.30 $12.30 $12.30 MU/unit 40.00% 41.41% 41.41% 41.41% 41.41%

NOTES: As seen in the spreadsheet above, LifeStraw does not offer any kinds of quantity discounts within

the five plans offered.

What separates Plan 1 from the other four is the co-op support which is minimal, but could be worth the extra assistance on the other side of things. Plan 2 is the first plan that offers 1% co-op. This percentage is determined by the minimal yet helpful actions performed by the distributor.

LifeStraw uses a Free-On-Board Destination process where they are liable until the products arrive.

The distributor will use historical analysis (with co-op) to help with the inventory process, but when placing an order, they prefer to know at least three months in advance.

It is also worth noting that the recommended price is states as $42.00 instead of the usual $39.95 that the other stores offer because of the convenience of being so close to campus compared to the other locations. Students will likely pay two extra dollars rather than drive twenty minutes to the nearest Walmart or Dick’s Sporting Goods store.

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RECCOMENDATION AND ANALYSISFor this product, the second plan is the most efficient option. The first reason for this is simply that ten units in a store may possibly not be enough for a store with such a prime location, but 30 units may be too many for a store of such a small size. The first plan would not be as effective is because if the store runs out of their ten units from their only case, they may need to wait need to wait three months to restock due to our company requirements. The first plan is useful as a trial.

Another reason that the second plan is the best plan is that it boasts a staggering percent increase in net profit with 105%. This is the biggest difference between all of the plans. For the final four plans, the mark up and profit margin also increase by 4% and 3% respectively compared to the first plan. They also offer co-op support. The final three plans are solid options if the buyer wants just one delivery in the near future and has an extremely high demand for the LifeStraw Go bottle. Assuming that all units sell, the fifth plan provides the highest net profit by a significant margin.

Plan 1 Plan 2 Plan 3 Plan 4 Plan 5$0.00

$500.00

$1,000.00

$1,500.00

$2,000.00

$2,500.00

$420.00

$840.00

$1,260.00

$1,680.00

$2,100.00

$300.00$594.00

$891.00$1,188.00

$1,485.00

Net Profit

Revenue Net Cost

The following chart shows the comparison of revenue and net cost for each plan. As expected, both categories grow as the chart progresses from Plan 1 to Plan 5. Most importantly, however, is that Plan 2 provides the largest proportional spike from Plan 1 as seen in the chart below. The fifth plan would earn the most revenue but also accrue the most cost.

Plan 1 Plan 2 Plan 3 Plan 4 Plan 50%

105%

50%

33%25%

Net Profit % Change

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Sourceshttps://www.lifestraw.com/products/lifestraw-go/

https://www.rei.com/product/109315/lifestraw-go-filter-bottle-with-2-stage-filtration-22-floz

https://loadoutroom.com/15186/lifestraw-go-water-bottle-review/

https://prezi.com/mo48tlooyrkj/lifestraw-business-plan/

https://regnskaber.cvrapi.dk/01375473/ZG9rdW1lbnRsYWdlcjovLzAzL2JhL2E3LzkyLzhiLzViNWUtNDkwYi1iZDhkLWMxM2UwYjYyNDMyYw.pdf

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/reusable-water-bottle-market-to-reach-us1019-billion-by-2024---new-research-report-published-by-transparency-market-research-597905681.html

Kaitlin Cole Dunning, Representative of LifeStraw (email: kcd@vestergaard.com)

Mast General Outdoor Product Buyer (Did not get the name) (Phone call: 828-963-6511)

Walmart Help Desk (Phone Call: 1-800-966-6546)

Oops Store 5 Points Reps (Did not get name) (email: oops3store@gmail.com)

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