Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan

The marketing of a new Jamba Juice smoothie will be done at the Ace Train stations as passengers depart the trains after a long day of commuting and working. The smoothie will offer a cold, refreshing drink to give the people a boost before returning home to begin with the day-to-day family or friends issues whether needing to go to a back-to-school night for their kids, picking up children or participating in sports activities, or working a second job to make ends meet.

Jamba Juice was founded in April 1990 by Kirk Perron, and incorporated in 1991 as Juice Club, Inc. in San Francisco, California. Jamba Juice is known as one of the leaders in the quick-serve fruit and vegetable juice markets nationwide. In 1993, the company opened and started along with two other California stores; one in Palo Alto, California and one in Irvine, California. In 1995 Juice Club Inc. of San Francisco changed its store name to Jamba Juice. In August of 1997, Jamba Juice entered into an operating agreement with Whole Foods Market to sell only "natural" products inside some of the Whole Foods’ locations, including Jamba's smoothies' ingredients. In March of 1999, Jamba Juice acquired all nation-wide Zuka Juice, Inc. stores. Since then Jamba Juice has expanded to become one of the nation's best known smoothie chains, emphasizing the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Jamba Juice uses real fruit and 100% fruit juices (from all fruit concentrate). All smoothies, except for its "All Fruit Smoothies," contain another ingredient, as per the recipe: sherbet, frozen yogurt, sorbet, plain yogurt, lower-calorie dairy base, or soymilk.

Jamba Juice introduced "Enlightened Smoothies" in 2004 with less sugar and fewer calories and carbohydrates. They have since been renamed "Jamba Light." The lower-calorie dairy base is made with Splenda, non-fat milk and whey protein.

In addition to the smoothies, Jamba Juice sells fresh-squeezed orange juice and carrot juice, as well as wheatgrass juice shots. Jamba Juice also offers a substitute to coffee, for a caffeine fix, called Matcha Green Tea, which can be taken in a smoothie or as a small 4-ounce shot with soy milk, orange juice, or a mixture of the two, called a "matcha dream shot". Any smoothie can be modified from its standard recipe. Every customer has the opportunity to remove ingredients and substitute others.

The product to be marked is the Very Berry Smoothie. The location the marketing will occur will be at the Ace Train Station in Lathrop, California. There will be a trial period for the product to be sold during the summer months of June through August, 2008. There will be a vendor cart operated during the hours of 4:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday to give departing passengers an opportunity to purchase a Smoothie when leaving the train station.

Has Jamba Juice achieved success as a well established organization with a recognizable brand simply through the sales of smoothies? While selling a product to produce a profit contributes to an organization’s success, it is not the only factor. Marketing is another major contributing factor that an organization must consider to achieve success. According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”(American Marketing Association, 2008). Why is marketing important to Jamba Juice’s success? “Financial success often depends on marketing ability.”(Kotler, 2006). Based on Kotler’s quote, marketing ability is important for Jamba Juice to achieve success not only for its existing products and services, but also for new product introductions and services.

Jamba Juice wants to release a new flavored smoothie, Very Berry Smoothie, and sell it, as well as, existing flavors to ACE train commuters. Success of this project depends on how well Jamba juice, creates, communicates, delivers, and exchanges these new offerings to a new target consumer base. Since this is a new product and service, the communication piece of marketing will be key in the promotion of the product and service because this is how Jamba Juice will attract the new customers that ride on the Ace train.

The most important aspect to consider for the SWOTT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and trends) analysis is location because it will determine what aspects are important to consider and why. Strengths and benefits associated with having Jamba Juice at ACE train stations include: made to order nutritious and great-tasting fruit drinks, a healthy alternative to fast food or hot dog vendors, considered reasonably priced, trendy and conveniently available