My Engaging Story about Cookins

Imagine sitting on your couch on a Friday evening after a long week.  You just put your feet up on the ottoman and suddenly the aroma of delicious chocolate chip cookies is coming from the kitchen.  Are you dreaming?  Could these smells be real?  You rush to the kitchen to find your loving spouse tossing a small box in trash and what looks to be 12 mini muffins baking in the over.  "Why do these muffins smell like cookies", you ask.  Your spouse replies,  "they're not mini muffins, they're COOKINS".  "Cookins are awesome!", you exclaim.  You rush to the refrigerator to check if there is any milk.....to your dismay, there is no milk.  "NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"  You grab your coat and keys and head straight for the grocery store.  You quickly park and rush inside.  In the milk isle you run into your neighbor that you have always meant to say hello to but never got around to it.  You finally say "Hello"!  And invite him over for milk and Cookins.  Your neighbor exclaims, "Cookins are awesome!"  He agrees to join you and picks up some milk of his own.  During check out the grocery clerk asks you if you'd like to donate a dollar to the local homeless shelter.  You say yes and feel good about yourself.  You head home with your newly befriended neighbor to the smells of freshly baked Cookins.  Your spouse has just plated the Cookins and throws the Cookins cooking tray in the recycle bin.  She feels good about herself.  You poor two glasses of milk for you and your neighbor, your spouse gets mad, and you poor a third.  The three of you each grab a Cookin and bite into the hard exterior to unveil the gooey interior that you desire.  You all take a sip of milk.  You all feel good about yourselves.  There is a knock at the door.  You open the door to find you mother-in-law has paid you a visit.  She smells the Cookins and asks, "Do I smell those all-natural Cookin things?."  You tell her that they are and give her one to eat.  "Cookins are awesome!", she exclaims.  You each eat two more Cookins and feel really good about yourselves.  You all sit on the couch.  Your mother-in-law inquires about your new neighbor friend.  You tell her he's your neighbor.  They talk and find they both love to play scrabble.  All four of you end up playing scrabble.  You spell Cookin, everyone laughs, and you feel good about yourself.

Feel good about yourself.  Eat a Cookin.

Estimating Market Size

Demand
Total cookie/cookie bar revenue was estimated to reach $6.4B in 2011.  This represents sales growth of 2.7% for the year.  Future demand for cookies is strongly tied to household disposable income.  When consumer incomes dropped during the recession in 2009 & 2010 demand for cookies dropped.  As the economy recovers we are seeing an increase in cookie demand.  The future demand for cookies are forecasted to drop for the following reasons...
1) consumer sentiment is still low due to looming recession in US
2) shifting consumer demand to more healthy snack choices
3) decrease in the average number of children per household will cause demand to soften


Addressable Market
Based on 2008 study by Mitel, under-45's are significantly more likely than over-45s to buy fresh-baked cookies or pre-made dough.  Adults aged 18-44 are very interested in trying new cookie types and flavors, but interest fades after 45.  Women are somewhat more likely than men to experiment with types, flavors and brands.  Research also showed that consumers do not view healthfulness as a necessary attribute when choosing cookies.  So although overall demand may be shrinking because some consumers are choosing to skip cookies all together, the remaining cookie eaters overall do not necessarily consider the healthfulness.  There has been success in the 100-calorie cookie packet as of late.  This is the cookies market attempt at addressing the health-conscious consumer but also the every growing time-poor consumer.  CookIns will nicely address the 18-44 year old women and men that like to save some time while freshly baking our all-natural cookies.

Realistic Opportunities vs Competition
Although the cookie market is dominated by single brand names like Oreo, Chips Ahoy, and Pepperidge Farm, private label cookie brands make up 15% of the total demand.  CookIns will not likely be able to compete with the strong brands of Nabisco, Little Debbie, and Pepperidge Farm due to their strong brand recognition and loyalty.  CookIns do stand a good chance in locations where these brands names are not carried like Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Stew Leonards.

Targeted Selection of "Winnable" Market Opportunities

CookIns are targeted to individuals and families that want freshly baked all-natural cookies but don't necessarily have the time associated with actually mixing cooking dough, baking, and cleaning.

Inny or Outy?

Can a company today survive on inbound marketing? Why or why not? What is the role of outbound marketing?


Absolutely not.  A company could not survive on inbound marketing alone.  Due to the popularity of the internet and social media by individuals and now companies, inbound marketing has become a critical addition to the marketing tool belt, but is not a stand alone strategy.  The sales teams outbound efforts are critical to a companies success.  The inbound efforts may help better target the outbound efforts, however the inbound marketing can not stand alone.

Certainly for a start up, perusing the inbound marketing approach is a reasonable choice since the cost is significantly less. However, as soon as financially possible, a company needs to invest in outbound marketing.  In order to establish a strong brand, there is a consumer expectation that your branding is prominent.  All the brands that advertise at sporting events, highway billboards, and television and typically viewed as being a strong brand; Coke, Chevy, Capital One, Verizon, etc.  Large commercial product companies with out an outbound marketing strategy would leave themselves conspicuously absent from the market landscape.

Inbound marketing can certainly aid in determining demographics and even specific target leads, however, you still need direct marketing to engage with these leads.  The problem is that it limits you to only the confines of the internet.  It's funny to me how many of the social media marketing consultants spout that "business is social" in an effort to illustrate that our historically personal social media profiles can be utilized for business.  I agree that social media is indeed social, however, I would also point out that trade shows are social, and sales calls are social.

I believe a balance can be reached between inbound and outbound marketing.  Inbound marketing limits you to selling to only that are looking to buy.  A good salesman will be able to sell things that people arn't naturally looking  buy.   Inbound should be getting peoples attention, so the the outbound team can follow the leads to the customer.