Blue Apron's Business Market Target and Share Paper Example

Introduction

Blue Apron's business mainly targets the young adults who often order groceries online. Young adults are the largest market for the company's products. Increasing its expenditure on the aged will give it an added advantage over the baby boomers who are getting into the industry. Therefore, raising the number of customers will provide a broader market in stabilizing its financials by more sales made. Blue Apron is a market leader with the largest market share in the industry. It held a 40.3% market share in 2017 among competitors in the industry although it was a 17% points decline from the previous year. However, it has the largest market share of 71% since its establishment.

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Volumes to Be Sold and Profitability Measures

The meal kit company projects a 10% revenue increase in 2019 while expecting a 20% decline in the same in 2018 due to pressure. Blue Apron hopes to make $697 million and $768 million in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Computing revenue involves Average Order Value, Average Order per Customer and Total Customers (Liu, 2008). Several profitability measures have been devised to realize the $768 million in 2019. The deal with Costco helps the company to avail its meal-kits to a large group of audience. The company has been able to cover 80 locations from 17 a significant factor in improving sales. Blue Apron has partnered with Fox Show Bob's Burgers. As a result, it will be able to create more awareness of its recipes to consumers. Also, the company expands its menu offerings such as recipes and protein options. It has added two offerings which it mainly targets for big meetings. The two offerings are summer grilling box and special occasion meal.

Marketing Mix Strategies

Product: the product is a commodity offered for sale (Zott & Amit, 2008). Blue Apron consists of a cookbook which has three major parts. Part one is the main ingredients which comprise of different types of proteins approximately seven. They include beef, pork, poultry, lamb, shellfish, fish and vegetarian choices. The second part consists of cuisine which varies from different countries like Morocco and Egypt. The third part of the cookbook is the seasonal recipes. It comprises methods for spring, winter, fall, and summer. Promotion: Blue Apron is destined to promote its mission statement to customers primarily in new locations with the aims of making home cooking accessible to everyone. Using advertisements with colored pictures of vegetables will catch the customer's attention. Also, Blue Apron takes advantage of using the internet. Mangold & Faulds (2009), acknowledge that social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Line provide a more extensive advertising ground.

Place: Blue Apron mostly locates its premises in urban areas which are densely populated. Urban Centres have professionals who are very busy in offices. Therefore, they order ingredients and recipes from Blu Apron which delivers to their doorsteps. Such cities include Long Island City, Richmond California, and Jersey City. It has other distribution centers across the globe in cities such as Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan. Price: Blue Apron prices vary accordingly. It charges expensively for citizens with a net income of $27, 400 or more per year. However, the company tries to standardize its prices to accommodate every class. While a decent meal in most restaurants costs about $30, one can get a recipe and ingredients of the same meal from Blue Apron at $10. Thus, the company has a good price base for retaining its customers.

The 7C's Analysis

Context: Blue Apron website is straightforward to navigate. The sign-up or login page provides clients with different options such as login via email or Facebook. Also, the page contains the company's logo at the top left followed by the web navigation options such as on the menu, price, wine, gifts, and market. The website uses simple graphics to show samples of products. Almost every page of the site contains a specific picture of either ingredients, recipes or other accessories.

Content: Blue Apron uses marketing content on the site. Description of the elements comprises of short simple to understand words. Recipes are not much detailed, and clients can get the whole message with a glimpse. Graphics wrapped with words are also commonly used on the site. For example, a package often contains words on sides written in different font styles which are appealing to read. Videos for demonstrations are usually short and brief and provide subtitles for clients to understand as they listen.

Customization: Blue Apron site requires its clients to sign up for accounts. Once they log in, they have the option to customize settings on "My Account" to suit their needs. For example, they can change language on the site depending on their nationalities like Australia, China, Japan, and many others. Additionally, customers can subscribe or unsubscribe for products and services whenever they want. Other settings include notifications if new products are available. Having the freedom to personalize one's account is a way of winning the customer's trust.

Community: Blue Apron site provides platforms that facilitate effective communication among its users or customers. Users can communicate via live chats when online and exchange ideas. They ask questions when doubtful and still provide answers to each other. New clients may want to understand the website more and thus participate in such chats for clarification and understanding purposes. Also, the site supports video charts where clients can have a live conversation with one another especially when demonstrating meal preparation plans.

Communication: Blue Apron provides its clients with contacts via which they reach the administration. The site offers a phone number for clients to call when having trouble with the website. The site also has a customer support part where it gives another telephone number for asking questions. Additionally, when clients log in, they can contact the admin via live chats and messages. Emails are also other ways of approaching the admin.

Connection: Blue Apron website incorporates other social media icons as well as other sites. The login page has images such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest via which clients can approach the company. Thus customers can reach the meal kit company via the following platforms. Moreover, the site also accommodates other places where customers can get it. For example, the Apple store and the Google play are on the login page where clients can click to download the Blue Apron app.

Commerce: Blue Apron site is for commercial purposes. The e-commerce platform has many advantages for the company. The section provides customers with browsable ingredients and recipes. Also, the company sells accessories and kitchen tools used by its kitchen staffs. Customers can visit the site and navigate all the stock on sale. They can then make orders for the following and wait for the company to deliver them at their doorsteps. The company also sells its seasonal cookbook to many customers worldwide via the site thus becoming its mostly sold item to customers.

References

Liu, S. T. (2008). Fuzzy profit measures for a fuzzy economic order quantity model. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 32(10), 2076-2086.

Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), 357-365.

Zott, C., & Amit, R. (2008). The fit between product market strategy and business model: implications for firm performance. Strategic management journal, 29(1), 1-26.