Soupman, Inc. Business Plan Marketing Plan Team 2: Brandi Seich, Mark Seich, Jonathan Downes, Jessica Gonzalez, Yiren Jiang, Jiachen Li 2-27-2017 Market Analysis Summary Soupman, Inc. focuses on reaching three primary segments under the name “Original Soupman”: 1.1. The Convenience, Quality Shopper. Someone interested in purchasing a consistently tasteful quality, fresh product for themselves and/or their family, which can be prepared with ease and convenience. 1.2. The Business Folk. Local business workers within the tri-state area of NY, NJ and CT in search of a local dining experience for lunch or a quick dinner. 1.3. The Educational Consumer. Buyers within the educational market of high schools and colleges looking to provide vegetarian, quality products to students and faculty. Market Segmentation Soupman, Inc. under the name Original Soupman will continue to focus on three key market segments: convenience, quality shoppers; business folk; and educational consumers. There are multiple delivery systems to service these three markets including: grocery locations, food services – brick-and-mortar and mobile; and educational. The convenience, quality shopper would be those individuals shopping at a grocery or soon to come convenience store location looking for a quality, convenient product they feel confident in for their own consumption or their families. Their needs are met through the Original Soupman soups which are available in 17 ounce Tetra Pak cartons delivered through the grocery segment in 6,500 grocery stores. The soups have prime positioning beside market leaders such as Campbell’s and Progresso. Some of the prestigious retailers within the grocery segment include Kroger, Costco, Safeway, Albertson’s, Publix, Wegman’s, HEB, Shoprite, Acme, Shaw’s and Winn Dixie among other regional chains as well. The business folk are those within the NY, NJ, and CT area who are looking for a quick, convenient, but consistently tasteful dining experience for lunch, dinner or anything in between. In addition to soups, sandwiches and salads are also available. These consumers are served in one of our eight franchised and licensed brick-and-mortar locations. They can also be served by our mobile location, which provides a daily calendar for consumer convenience. This mobile market is served through using heat ‘n service pouches to ensure consistent flavoring no matter the location of choice. The educational consumer is served in a number of schools and colleges in the NY area. This segment is serviced through the use of bulk flash-frozen soups and other products (e.g., Mexicali Beans, Stewed Pinto Beans and Curried Chick Peas with Tomatillos). Soupman has identified substantial distribution opportunities in national restaurant chains, college campuses, stadiums as well as other food service venues. Early testing has begun within a national restaurant chain and has been quite successful. Significant opportunities reside within the grocery se.

1. Soupman, Inc.
Business Plan
Marketing Plan
Team 2: Brandi Seich, Mark Seich, Jonathan Downes, Jessica
Gonzalez, Yiren Jiang, Jiachen Li
2-27-2017
Market Analysis Summary
Soupman, Inc. focuses on reaching three primary segments
under the name “Original Soupman”:
1.1. The Convenience, Quality Shopper. Someone interested in
purchasing a consistently tasteful quality, fresh product for
themselves and/or their family, which can be prepared with ease
and convenience.
1.2. The Business Folk. Local business workers within the tri-
state area of NY, NJ and CT in search of a local dining
experience for lunch or a quick dinner.
1.3. The Educational Consumer. Buyers within the educational
market of high schools and colleges looking to provide
vegetarian, quality products to students and faculty.
Market Segmentation
Soupman, Inc. under the name Original Soupman will continue
to focus on three key market segments: convenience, quality
shoppers; business folk; and educational consumers. There are
multiple delivery systems to service these three markets
including: grocery locations, food services – brick-and-mortar
and mobile; and educational.
The convenience, quality shopper would be those individuals
shopping at a grocery or soon to come convenience store
location looking for a quality, convenient product they feel
confident in for their own consumption or their families. Their

2. needs are met through the Original Soupman soups which are
available in 17 ounce Tetra Pak cartons delivered through the
grocery segment in 6,500 grocery stores. The soups have prime
positioning beside market leaders such as Campbell’s and
Progresso. Some of the prestigious retailers within the grocery
segment include Kroger, Costco, Safeway, Albertson’s, Publix,
Wegman’s, HEB, Shoprite, Acme, Shaw’s and Winn Dixie
among other regional chains as well.
The business folk are those within the NY, NJ, and CT area who
are looking for a quick, convenient, but consistently tasteful
dining experience for lunch, dinner or anything in between. In
addition to soups, sandwiches and salads are also available.
These consumers are served in one of our eight franchised and
licensed brick-and-mortar locations. They can also be served by
our mobile location, which provides a daily calendar for
consumer convenience. This mobile market is served through
using heat ‘n service pouches to ensure consistent flavoring no
matter the location of choice.
The educational consumer is served in a number of schools and
colleges in the NY area. This segment is serviced through the
use of bulk flash-frozen soups and other products (e.g.,
Mexicali Beans, Stewed Pinto Beans and Curried Chick Peas
with Tomatillos).
Soupman has identified substantial distribution opportunities in
national restaurant chains, college campuses, stadiums as well
as other food service venues. Early testing has begun within a
national restaurant chain and has been quite successful.
Significant opportunities reside within the grocery segment. The
North America Soup market shows continual growth in revenue
of 0.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2014
and 2020. Chart I demonstrates the continued projection aligned
to this prediction. As the Soupman has gained positions within
6,500 grocery store locations across the US, we see continued
sales growth within existing locations, as well as opportunities
in similar distribution channels such as convenience stores.
CHART I: North America Soups Market Revenue

3. To broaden our reach within the convenience, quality shopper to
the millennial demographic, related products to our core
offering such as bone broths will be offered in 2017. This will
be in addition to new flavors of soups. These additions are a
natural extension of our brand and the category is trending
positively on sites such as Amazon.com and ThriveMarket.com.
Target Market Segment Strategy
Soupman, Inc. is geared to serving the buyer who is looking for
a consistently tasteful, quality, convenient soup at a reasonable
price with fresh ingredients. The buyer doesn’t have time to
prepare a gourmet soup, but has money to purchase something
outside of the norm, with no preservatives and served in BPA
free packaging.
To reach this segment, Soupman has identified 30 second radio
ads within the grocery store to be the most cost effective and
providing the highest return (44% within the test market). When
available this channel will be utilized, whereas in other
locations sampling as well as promotional pricing will be used.
Pricing previously tested showed a spike in sales with the slight
discount offered from $3.49 to $2.99 per unit. Our target market
testing has confirmed that once a consumer tries our product
they will purchase and continue to purchase over other
competitors in the market.
Personas
At Soupman we have developed a persona for each of the three
segments we target: grocery, food services, and educational.
Market Trends
According to the US Soup Survey in 2014, nearly two-thirds of

4. respondents report buying condensed canned/boxed/carton soup
for someone in their household within the last six months. The
predominant use of the soup was for the lunch mealtime for
busy consumers and fewer than half of the respondents
reporting eating for soup for dinner. There was a total of 14% of
respondents who reported eating soup as a snack between meals.
This data opens up the opportunity for better positioning of
dinner time use as well as the drinkable soup solution, which
presented Campbell’s Soup on the Go with growth of 39.6%
between 2012 and 2013.
Additional product features of importance were low-sodium,
added vitamins and minerals, high fiber, all natural/organic, and
a full servings of vegetables. A third of the respondents who do
not buy soups say it is due to the preference for homemade
soup.
An overall conclusion of the survey is “Overall, it appears that
slow market growth stems from a number of factors, including
the perception among many consumers that while soup is a
relatively healthy meal, soups that contain high amounts of
sodium, artificial ingredients, and/or preservatives actually may
pose a health risk.” This presents another opportunity for better
brand positioning and awareness of the Soupman brand, which
is indeed a better for you option.
Soup stations have also been identified as an important area to
concentrate on by U.S. retail executives in 2015. This can
present another opportunity for sampling events or for retail
sales within the deli department.Market Growth
The soup market had a moderate decline between the years 2008
to 2011, but then slowly began to increase between 2011 and
2013. These soup sales are expected to continue growth between
2013 and 2018 from $6.9B to $8B.
The North America Soup market shows continual growth in
revenue of 0.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between
2014 and 2020 as previously shown in chart I.
Specific to the ready-to-serve wet soup market compared to
other types of soup, the category split can be seen in Chart

5. II.CHART II: Dollar sales of soup in the US in 2016, by
category (in million USD)
Market Needs
The US consumer craves convenience, but with quality
ingredients. This is exactly what the Soupman stands for.
Consumers need products they feel confident giving to their
families without long term harmful effects on their body.
According to the US Shopper Trend’s 2016 survey, 66% of
consumers seek product claims to avoid negative ingredients
implicated in health conditions or concerns and 22% worry that
the food they eat isn’t healthy enough. With so much pressure
on being a health aware consumer, product labeling should offer
insights into these areas. Industry Analysis
Consumers in the United States consumed over $5 billion in
soup as recently as 2015. That amount showed a 4% rise in sales
that has continued upward since some declines back in
2010/2011. This success can be attributed to ready to eat or
serve (commonly referred to as RTE or RTS) as younger
professionals look for quality easily to prepare soups. While
some other segments of the soup industry have remained flat or
have slight declines, the focus on quality products and ease of
preparation have been a driving force for the rebound in soup
sales. While the larger players in the market such as Campbell
Soup Co. lead market share with 44%, that total has been in
decline. This is being driven by smaller companies coming into
the market that are specializing in quality products and focusing
on a target segment of the consumer population instead of the
masses. The forecast on the industry as a whole is to remain flat
or even decline in some segments. However, the innovation of
some segments will be the driving force to reach a wider
consumer base than the traditional soup buyers. The rise in
consumption of soups in North America is supported by
increasing busy lifestyle and growing demand for ready to go
foods in the U.S. In addition, the growing demand for healthy
foods will drive the growth for soups market over the next few
years. SWOT Analysis

6. Distribution Patterns
The largest segment of the soup industry comes from the
grocery segment where consumers purchase either ready to eat,
wet or dry soups to prepare at home. Another big piece of the
consumption comes from the food services side where soup is
provided in bulk to restaurants and other commercial food
suppliers. However, with the largest segment of growth
expected to come from innovation along with the professional
consumers, the niche focused companies have an opportunity to
widen the consumer base within the grocery segment.
Competition and Buying Patterns
There are a few different competitors in the various areas where
Soupman operates. These include restaurant chains that center
around soup specialties on their menu such as Zoup, the grocery
segment suppliers such as Campbell Soup, Progresso, as well as
the specialty fresh private label and niche suppliers, and lastly
the bulk soup providers to for restaurant and educational
segments such as Kettle Cuisine among others. There is a wide
distinction between the various products and expectations of the
products between each of those segments. They also tend to
cater to different demographics depending on the channel.
In the restaurant segment is where The Original Soupman began
and gained its notoriety. This segment caters to great tasting
high quality ingredients that as their slogan states “The soup
that New Yorkers – who don’t wait for anything – lined up
around the block for”. While many restaurants offer various
soups they create on their own, given the local nature of The
Original Soupman with 8 locations in and around New York and
New Jersey, the direct competition isn’t as aggressive. There
are numerous national chains and local individual restaurants
that have a similar look and feel, but for various purchasing
reasons. These include time of order to receive, as well as some
looking to have the authentic cultural experience of an original

7. New York specialty eatery. However, with the growing success
of food truck specialty eatery, this is a competitor that could
begin to challenge the experience seekers.
Consumers of the grocery segment vary widely. This variation
is due to the nature of various demographics and desires ranging
from using soup as a piece of other meal preparation, to quick
and ready to eat, and also the desire for having high quality
ingredients and taste. While national competitors exist here
such as Campbell Soup and Progresso, who lead in market
share, the smaller up and coming suppliers of fresh, high quality
soups are seeing the biggest growth filling a demand from the
younger 40 and under professional health conscious buyers.
For the bulk supply aspect of the business, this again has a wide
range of consumers and competitors. The large educational
institutions and restaurant chains seeking acceptable quality at a
low prices may buy from larger competitors such as Kettle
Cuisine or even Sysco. But those organizations seeking a high
quality product at a reasonable price would look to more
specialty suppliers such as Soupman or Boulder Soup Works.
These smaller organizations put a higher weight on quality
ingredients and those competitors can be the same fresh
ingredient suppliers in the grocery segment as many of them
offer bulk and private label products and are a direct
competition to Soupman.Main Competitors
SoupMan Inc has no direct competitors that mirror their entire
operating model since we have three very distinct different
ways to provide products to our consumers and operate in a
regional basis for the restaurant piece. However, in the grocery
and bulk food segment there is significant competition on many
fronts. These range from national large corporations to smaller
regional focused new suppliers that provide products to both of
those segments. Restaurant Competitors
Zoup was founded in 1998 and is now one of the fastest growing
soup restaurants lead by its fast food like structure providing
hundreds of premium and proprietary soups, though only
offering 12 rotating soups at a time. This franchise model has

8. grown to nearly 100 stores and focuses on the convenience of
fast food, but providing high quality products. They were
awarded #34 Top 100 Food & Beverage Companies by Inc.
5000.
Soupman has some significant competitive advantage over these
type of regional chains such as Zoup because of the following
offerings:
· New York experience and local notoriety
· Community grounding to their non-franchisee model
· We offer our products in grocery stores for wider scale
consumption
· We offer bulk sales of our product to educational institutions
as well as other restaurant chains like Tim Hortons
· Consistent menuGrocery Competitors
In recent years Campbell Soup Co. closed a plant while letting
go over 700 employees amidst a 2 percent decline in U.S. soup
sales in 2012 which included a 7 percent drop in ready to serve
product sales. While they still held a strong market share of
44%, they are struggling to find a way to stop the decline and
turn the products around. Campbell’s has varying product lines
attempting to target different consumer groups, but all around
the canned product ready to eat line. Other smaller niche
companies are showing substantial growth in this market such
as Boulder Soup Works. They provide to retail stores such as
Whole Foods, Kroger (as does Soupman) and over 500 other
retailers throughout the country. They also provide a private
label option for their buyers that provide another client base
option than Soupman. Their sales have increased from 115-120
percent each year since opening in 2009 and have tripled their
workforce. They focus on fresh ingredients and target a specific
demographic.
The competitive edge that Soupman has over these competitors
include:
· Restaurant service options
· We offer bulk sales of our product to educational institutions
as well as other restaurant chains like Tim Hortons

9. · We package using Tetra Recart packaging providing a more
marketable shelf space, and also providing more product per
square foot of shipping and shelf space
· High quality fresh ingredients over national chains such as
Campbell SoupBulk Food Supply Competitors
Companies such as Kettle Cuisine create a tough competitor as
they provide fresh private label options and sell their products
in bulk. Their all-natural soups are provided to both restaurants
and institutions who desire high quality products and
ingredients. At one point Kettles did provide a retail product,
they since discontinued that line and now solely sell business to
business. With over 60 percent of their sales coming from food
service institutions and restaurants. Kettles also provide ethnic
varieties to widen their audience and offerings.
In the bulk food segment, Soupman has a competitive edge
because of the following:
· Restaurant service options
· Large retail product offering
· We package using Tetra Recart packaging providing a more
marketable shelf space, and also providing more product per
square foot of shipping and shelf space
· High quality fresh ingredients over national providers such as
SyscoOther Competition
Soupman realizes there are other niche market players in all of
the various segments that we offer products. We will have to
continue to improve and leverage innovative solutions to
differentiate our products and brand. We have now started to
offer our retail products on Amazon as another way to get in
front of our buyers in a convenient way. There will always be
another competitor doing a specific thing better than Soupman,
but collectively with all of our operations Soupman will hold its
quality to a high standard while recognizing the needs of the
consumer.
Conclusion of Industry Analysis
The North American soup market is expected to continue its

10. growth into 2020 at a rate of 0.7% from 2014-2020. Retail
outlets such as supermarkets will be the driving force behind
this growth and expected to lead the distribution share of the
soup market by 2020. Recent results from 2015 found that the
current soup value growth was 4% and volume growth at 2% in
the U.S., ahead of expectations.
Sales of pre-packaged soup in the retail segment are expected to
continue growing slowly between 2013 and 2018, from $6.9
billion to $8 billion with a large portion by consumers aged 25-
44. This will be driven by the current marketing trend of fresh
quality ingredients on the store shelves. The global market
intelligence agency Mintel has forecasted that the US soup
market will grow slowly between 2013 and 2019. This aligns
with other market research and also supports the indications that
brands can encourage that growth by offering higher quality,
better-for-you soups. Additionally by offering expanded flavor
varieties, and more convenient packaging that can allow easier
consumption by heating and eating from the same container will
drive desire for the product. There is a challenge in the future
outlook at the moment as younger consumers aged 18-24 are
least likely to choose a higher quality product item due to the
high price point and their lower household income. However, as
they move to a higher income, the question is will they begin to
seek those products or stick to their more reserved buying
behaviors? Either way, the industry is growing and Soupman
has an opportunity to grow with it.
Sources:
Avention. (2017). Avention One-Stop Reports for Soupman Inc.
Concord, MA: Morningstar.
Scarborough, N. M. (2014) Essentials of Entrepreneurship and

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