Karma Sauce started in 2008 when neighbors challenged each other to eat local food for a month. They began experimenting with sauces using local ingredients, creating two sauces - Good Karma and Bad Karma. Currently, Karma aims to increase online sales to $1,000 per week by March 2015. A SWOT analysis identified strengths like product quality but also weaknesses such as an inconsistent website. The target market is foodies aged 20-50 in New York and other states. Current promotions include Facebook, radio ads, and festival booths. Hot sauce trends favor Karma due to its natural ingredients. Expanding social media use, especially Pinterest which sees high e-commerce sharing, could help Karma meet its sales goal.

1. ST. JOHN FISHER COLLEGE
Karma Sauce Company
Promotional Marketing Strategy
Michael DeMar, Courtney Dubiel, James Millis, Danielle Russo
12/2/2014
The followingdocumentcontainsourpromotionalideasforthe Karma Sauce companyto help them
reach theirSMART goal of increasingonline salesto$1,000 a weekbyMarch of 2015.

2. 1
Intro to topic:
Karma Sauce started with a single garden. A vegetable garden that was shared by
neighbors. In 2008, these neighbors challenged each other to eat strictly local food for a straight
month. Around the same time a new puppy was adopted: Karma, a terrier who dug out the
tomatoes.
After a while the neighbors realized there was a need for good local pepper sauces.
During a creative Saturday, they began experimenting with butternut squash, cider vinegar and
other local ingredients. This was the beginning of a very unique red pepper sauce. At the end of
the weekend they had created two sauces, both being gluten-free and healthy. One was medium
while the other extremely hot. The name Karma came from a flash of inspiration; the yin-yang
balance of the sauces is embodied in their namesake. Good Karma and Bad Karma.
Current State of Affair:
SMART GOAL
By the end of next March we would like to see Karma increase to $1,000 a week in online sales.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
· Quality of product
· Already established a presence in
stores
· Awards
· Presence at festivals
· Sales out of state
· Large space to create product (Also
looking to expand)
· Whole Sales
· 60 retailers
Weaknesses:
· Vegans may have an issue with buying
Karma
· Inconsistent shipping dates
· Indigogo/Kickstarter hasn’t been
successful for fundraising
· Facebook has proven to not be as
strong as needed
· Website doesn’t exactly catch your eye
· Only advertising with radio (not the
right fit)

3. 2
· No precise target audience
· Competitors: Forage, Heart Breaking
Dawns, Sriracha
Opportunities:
· State Fair
· Social media expansion with
Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
· Narrow down target audience to tailor
promotions for them
· Competitions, giveaways (“what can
you do with Karma Hot Sauce”)
· Start a conversation with the audience
· Start buzz about product using
testimonials, interactive medium to buy
online, etc.
· Collaborating with popular bloggers
to feature Karma in a blogpost
· Being featured in a magazine
· Combo packs
· B2B marketing
Threats:
· Competitors
· Too broad of a target audience
· Not enough space to keep up with
expanding line of sauces
· Economy
· Health Fads
· Bad season for growing peppers
· Shipping costs
TARGET MARKET
For the target market Karma is geared towards customers in New York state who
appreciate high quality products. Although it is geared towards those in NY state, it is not
exclusively for New Yorkers. Karma can be found in several other states. These people are
typically foodies who are both men and women between the ages 20-50. The age range for this
target market is pretty large due to the fact that once a customer buys a hot sauce and likes it,
they are more likely to develop brand loyalty and only purchase that specific brand. This is good
for Karma because it presents the opportunity for the target age to be even lowered if the main
purchaser for the family introduces the sauce to family members at a young age.
CURRENT PROMOTIONS

4. 3
Currently, Karma has a Facebook, radio ads, a WordPress blog, and tastings at booths at
local festivals and food shows. These promotion mediums are the only form of advertising
Karma has as of now. The Facebook page has followers and likes, but the only problem Karma
faces with this format is the lack of conversation and buzz between Karma and their followers.
For Facebook to work there needs to be a constant conversation going in order to keep Karma
from slipping the consumers mind. The radio ads on BER are also a form of advertising for
Karma. This is the lowest form of advertising for recollection for hot sauce. Although it
reminds the consumer of the name of the product it is hard to get the consumer to really
experience the product since they are only hearing it be described rather than seeing, tasting and
smelling the product. This is why the taste booths at local festivals and food shows are crucial to
Karma sales. This allows the customer to experience the product right there and if they like it
purchase it on the spot. Along with all of these mediums, the last current promo tool is a
WordPress blog. This blog is used to share information about the product and also about what’s
going on in the hot sauce industry. This works as an information agent to inform consumers
about hot sauce in general. This allows people who are interested in the information to share it
and start a conversation by commenting and reviewing the posts.
COMPETITION
Hot sauce has become a popular product found in almost every home - this is both good
and bad for Karma hot sauce. The popularity of the product itself is great, but that means there is
an extensive amount of competitors in this industry, which makes it hard to have Karma be the
one and only product that comes to mind when you say “hot sauce.” The current competition for
Karma consists of Forage, Heart Breaking Dawn, Sriracha, and basically any hot sauce sold in
the shelf space located by Karma Hot Sauce in stores.

5. 4
TRENDS
There are always new developing trends, no matter what industry you look at. As for the
food industry, there are a few trends which could make or break a product line. Recently, there
has been a fad in all natural ingredients, which in the case of Karma is great because they grow
all of their ingredients in a garden. This also comes in handy when dealing with both locally
grown trends and health fanatics. Lately people have been more likely to buy products produced
locally to help stimulate the local economy. The most important trends going on right now
would have to be the fact that people are putting hot sauce on pretty much everything and the
fact that it is becoming popular to push the limit as to how hot you can handle a hot sauce is
great for Karma because they really push the boundaries when it comes to developing both a
unique taste that is extremely hot - the hotter the better. Trends for this particular industry are
both good and bad, but for the most parts these trends work in favor of Karma.
OFFERINGS & PRICES
Karma Hot Sauce has many different varieties of sauces. They have the “Original Karma
Sauces,” which includes Mustard and Kats’up, Chilehead Series Hot Sauce, and Karma Rubs.
These products can be combined to form combo packs. The combo packs consist of a collection
of all four varieties of Karma sauce, which is $20.00. The collection of Mustard and Kats’up
sauces costs $16, the collection of all 3 Chilehead sauces costs approximately $21, and the last
collection of all four Karma Spice Tins costs the consumer $20. If a customer wants to buy
individual bottles of Karma sauce it goes for about $5-6, but you have to keep shipping in mind
which will vary depending on location. Karma sauces can also be found at Wegmans for about
$4.
Informationwe found:

6. 5
HOT SAUCE INDUSTRY
The main age range for hot sauce use is between the ages of 35 and 64. This age range
makes up roughly 83% of hot sauce use, with individuals’ ages 45-54 being the main consumer
at 37%.
Fig. 1
The gender of the consumer also causes very little differentiation. Based on a study
conducted by, Persuadable Research Company, 52% of people who use hot sauce regularly have
a “go-to” brand. What this means for Karma Hot Sauce is that there is still 48% of the market
that does not currently exhibit any form of brand loyalty. This will be crucial for increasing sales.
Currently Tabasco has the largest market share with 29% and Franks Red Hot is in second with
21%. So, while Karma may not be able to initially compete, market share wise, with the current
staples in the hot sauce industry, it does have the potential to take market share away from the
lesser known national brands. In order to break through to consumers, the best thing a new brand
can do is increase its availability to the consumer. Due to this, a company offering free samples
or discounts can expect to see an increase in consumer interest as they are more willing to risk

7. 6
the outcome of a new experience.
Fig. 2
Furthermore, the main reason people do not use hot sauce is that they feel the heat or
spiciness is too much for them. In order to avoid this problem, companies need to make it know
that they offer a variety of flavors to help encourage these consumers to risk the outcome of a
new experience. In terms of brand awareness, the best way to build this is through print
advertisements. Print ads see an astonishing 31% recollection in terms of knowing the hot sauce
brand while other forms of marketing like radio, 1%, and internet, 4%, pale in comparison. It is
also crucial to note, that 71% of consumers pay attention to the hot sauces used in restaurants.
PINTEREST
Pinterest is one of the newer social media websites that has experienced a tremendous
growth since its launch. Pinterest currently has 4 million users and is still growing. The site
currently sees 1.5 million users visit it a day spending, on average, 14 plus minutes on the site.
The main demographic of Pinterest users is women ages 25-54. This is relevant because it has
been shown that women are the biggest influencers in terms of purchasing decisions.
Fig. 3

8. 7
Furthermore, the average users’ individual yearly income falls between $25,000 and
$75,000. This implies the users have enough income to make purchases on a whim if their
interest is peaked.
Fig. 4
In fact, 47% of online shoppers have made at least one purchase based on a Pinterest
find. Also, Pinterest is responsible for the largest percentage of e-commerce sharing, or the act
of sharing links to a company’s product that can be purchased online, at 41% while Facebook,
the second highest in e-commerce sharing, is only responsible for 37%. It is important to note
that after the initial pin to Pinterest one can expect the following results; two site views, six page
views, and ten repins. This means that for every pin and repin a company’s post receives, they
will see twenty new consumers visit and browse their entire site.
On Pinterest, there are three key demographics companies can target in order to see web
traffic and online purchases increase. For Karma Hot Sauce, the most important demographic is
the Families Matter Most (FMM) demographic. This is an ever-growing demographic as FMM
consists of young, middle-class families in suburban locations leading active, family-focused
lives. Their households almost unanimously have at least one child, 90%, and are just settling in
or have recently settled in to a suburban development. This demographic is proud of the area
they are raising their kids in, and is known for having adaptable attitudes and routines to help
juggle their newly busy lives. Since two major factors for this demographic are family values as

9. 8
well as focusing on their children, they tend to be very informed consumers looking to make
smart educated purchases they feel benefit them, their families, and the local area.
Implementation:
The first implementation we suggest is for the website to be formatted to make buying
more interactive for customers, add testimonials, and push combo packs. The improvement of
these things will help increase traffic and sales. The testimonials will help people trust the
product more and build product awareness and loyalty. Also, by pushing combo packs Karma
will increase profit as well as allow customers to experience multiple products produced by
Karma, which will help them “find their Karma.” This will help people become familiar with the
products and decide which one is for them.
The second recommendation we have is to increase conversation on social media sites
such as Facebook. There are many ways to start buzz about the product, but we recommend
starting competitions and giveaways executed through Facebook. This will start conversation
and buzz with customers, which in return will help buyers think of Karma Hot Sauce when they
want to make a hot sauce purchase. Plus, as the research shows, hot sauce is a commodity
consumers are willing to try different brands if they can find a deal. There are multiple
competitions that could be started through Facebook that will both increase conversation and
sales. Each month there could be a new one created in order to spice things up.
The third recommendation is to create a company Pinterest account and page. This would
be a great way to hit new consumers as they would not need to have a local dispensary stocked
with your product as they can go directly to your website. Also, with a large amount of users
being female, it is more likely to have your new Pinterest followers influence the purchasing
decisions. Then, taking into account the e-commerce sharing Karma would see along with the

10. 9
greatly increased chance of purchase from being on Pinterest, one can expect an increase in both
traffic and purchases online. Furthermore, if you target the correct demographic [FMM] then you
can not only gain new consumers in the parents but build a preferred taste with their children so
they will grow up liking your brand.
The final recommendation is creating a What's Your Karma (WYK) low-cost advertising
campaign for the local area. This creates a catchy and memorable slogan for the company that
will hopefully be recognizable by loyal consumers and will make those who hear it curious. It
involves three different elements in order to hit a variety of potential consumers; WYK flyer,
WYK bottles and WYK “plants”. The WYK flyer is a simple idea to help drum up interest and
curiosity as well as get consumers to visit your website. The idea is to create a flyer with the
Karma dog face split in two, with one side being designed to be angelic in nature while the other
side is demonic. On the bottom would be little pull off tabs in the shape of hot sauce bottles with
the Karma website address on them. The WYK bottle is also relatively inexpensive and can also
be very influential to potential consumers. This is simply taking used old Karma Hot Sauce
bottles and adding little features to them to create a “devil” bottle and “angel” bottle, with the
slogan What’s Your Karma and the website address under it. To do this you would need to just
attach extra pieces to the bottles to make them appear like an angel [wings and halos] or a devil
[horns and tridents] and leave them on tables of the wineries and shops your product is served in.
This allows consumers to be drawn to your product while eating at these locations and make
them more likely to try and purchase your products. The last part, the WYK “plant” is the most
costly one. This will only be used at food festivals you attend. The idea is to have a single
cardboard cut-out in the design of a pepper plant, and attached to it are “karma peppers” with the
What’s Your Karma slogan on top. Only those who make a purchase will get a “karma pepper”

11. 10
and they are codes for special coupons and offers that can only be redeemed online. This
encourages people to make purchases online, and brings awareness to your site. Furthermore,
because it is supposed to play with the WYK theme the coupons never have to be drastically
cutting into your prices because people will just be amused at their “bad karma”.

12. 11
Works Cited:
Hot Sauce Study: Research Summary and Observations - National Perceptual Study. (2007,
June). Retrieved November 24 2014, from www.provisormarketing.net Web Site:
www.provisormarketing.net/ourpartners/resources/PR_SampleReport.pdf
Pinterest Demographic Data: The Marketers Guide to People Who Pin. (2012, June24).
Retrieved November 24 2014, from www.ignitesocialmedia.com Website:
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-networks/pinterest-demographic-data/