Vegetari Healthy Bites: A Digital Marketing Plan During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Date

6-2022

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Gian Carlo U. De Jesus

Committee Member

Cris Edwin B. Bonalos, Jewel Joanna S. Cabardo, Mar B. Cruz

Restrictions

Restricted: Not available to the general public. Access is available only after consultation with author/thesis adviser and only to those bound by the confidentiality agreement.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the world economic and financial markets, in addition to becoming a global pandemic and public health crisis (Pak et al, 2020). It brought numerous negative repercussions and an impact on the nation's various businesses. When the pandemic first started, quarantine restrictions were impose in many areas of the country, preventing individuals from going outside and forcing them to carry out their regular task inside. As a result of consumers being unable to physically purchase from them, this presented a significant difficulty for businesses that sell and market their goods and services through physical locations and depend on foot traffic to generate sales (World Trade Organization, 2020). Many business owners were compelled to close their locations, conduct activities remotely, and embrace digital tactics in order to survive. One of the companies impacted by the pandemic's effects was Vegetari Healthy Bites (VHB), a manufacturer of vegetarian foods that provides plant-based meat and vegetarian snacks. Due to the closing of its numerous retail stores and resellers as well as changes in consumer purchase behavior, the market demand for its products decreased.

Thus, this research was conducted to determine the strategies that the business can apply to cope with the effects of the pandemic while taking advantage of the opportunities in the digital economy. Specifically, this research intended to (1) Describe Vegetari Healthy Bites’ business profile: (2) Assess the internal and external environment of VHB; (3) Determine the disruptions caused by the pandemic to VHB’s business operations; (4) Evaluate the pre-pandemic and current marketing strategies of VHB; and (5) Formulate a digital marketing plan to recommend to the business.

The research study made use of a qualitative research design to discuss the business disruptions caused by the pandemic as well as assess the other problems that may also be experienced by the business that may hinder it from adopting digital strategies. These included the internal factors such as the four business functions and the external factors such as the macroenvironment and the microenvironment. It also evaluated the current marketing strategies of the business in order to pinpoint what improvements can be done through digital marketing. The research design was helpful in generating the proper recommendation for a digital marketing plan. Data gathering was primarily conducted through personal interviews with the founder as well as key personnel of the business. The information gathered was also used in assessing the internal and external environment of the firm. Observations were recorded as part of the data to be gathered. Secondary data were obtained via the internet, primarily online journal papers and websites including PSA websites and social media sites. Undergraduate special problem reports, dissertations, theses, manuals, magazines, and books were also used as references and data sources, and can be found at the UPLB CEM library. Government and non-government institutions as well as other school libraries found online were also helpful in collecting necessary data. The firm's financial records which were requested from the business’s finance department were also part of the secondary data.

The results of the study showed how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the business. The internal analysis of the business revealed that it was heavily affected by the pandemic in all its different functional areas. The lockdown measures forced businesses to close or decrease operations which decreased local distribution channels of Vegetari Healthy Bites. Consequently, these decreased the sales of VHB since they relied on physical events like bazaars, expos and talks to market their products. With this, their goal to build brand awareness among their target market among the B2C market was disrupted and forced them to apply other strategies to reach their consumers. When the demand for VHB products dropped during the pandemic, production operations were also limited, resulting in a less need for staff as well. Full-time employees had work less than their usual time and their salary was cut as well. With less salary, some employees find other opportunities outside the business to be able to earn more, resulting to high attrition rate.

External environment analysis revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the lives of people, from their perceptions about health to the way they do their daily activities. It was identified that because of the health risks brought about by the pandemic, people were more concerned about living healthily now more than ever. People are more into eating healthier food and living a lifestyle that make them more healthy overall. With the restrictions on going outside being placed and the fear of contracting the virus heightened, people were inclined to stay home. This altered the way they spend their time and affected the way they do activities that they usually do outside. The use of different technologies aids in doing these activities. Work, school, and other activities and transactions are now done remotely through online platforms. The increasing technological environment also caused changes in consumer behavior. Spending time online made people realize the advantages of using online channels in purchasing from and transacting with businesses. This pushed businesses to adjust their business activities online. On the other hand, it was discussed that VHB is capable to face the threats and grab the opportunities available for them. It can react positively when threats are encountered and it can take advantage of the opportunities. These factors were further used in the assessment of the recommended strategies for VHB.

Since it was identified that VHB's goal to increase its brand visibility and increase sales in the B2C market was disrupted by the pandemic, the increasingly digital economy served as both an opportunity and a challenge for the business. It drived VHB to boost its digital presence to reach this market and improve the business. Moreover, VHB was challenged to enter the e-commerce market, otherwise it may be left out in the near future as it has been identified in the environmental analysis such as the competitiveness of the industry and the issues being faced by the business in its function areas served as challenges as it boosts its digital presence to market its products.

The final recommendation to the business was a basic digital marketing plan, considering all the factors which drive and challenge the business in adopting digital strategies. The marketing plan defined VHB’s digital audience as health-conscious people, the upper- middle to high-income families, as well as teenagers. These were suggested to be targeted by VHB since they have been found to be the ones concerned about their health and are not sensitive to price. The main objective of this digital marketing plan was to focus on creating brand awareness to reach target customers and generate sales. The digital marketing plan also aimed to improve the performance of the business's existing online platforms and add additional strategies to increase engagement with the existing audiences and create new ones that will eventually buy their products. The SMART Model was used to formulate the specific objectives of the digital marketing plan. To achieve the objectives, the marketing plan suggested to implement the following strategies: enhance the social media marketing strategy of the business formulate a series of content marketing strategies, and utilize search engine optimization to improve its website. The tactics recommended to carry out the specific strategies were identified as the creation of viral marketing contents, use of influencer marketing and on-page optimization. These activities was suggested to have a total budget of Php 60,000 per month allocated to the salary of a digital marketing associate who will implement the strategies, cost of hiring influencers and PR packages, and contingency budget. As a final step of the digital marketing plan, it was recommended to evaluate the strategies using different measuring tools such as Buffer, Google Analytics, and Tiktok Analytics, in order to analyze the effectiveness of the strategies in achieving the objectives.

Language

English

LC Subject

Vegetarian foods, Internet marketing--Management, COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023

Location

UPLB College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Call Number

LG 993 2022 M17 R49

Document Type

Thesis

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