# Zotter *Marketing Plan*

The same brand across two courses: first market analysis, segments and product strategy, then an SEO audit, Google Trends data and campaign concepts, ending in a complete marketing plan for entering the Slovenian market.

> Project page: https://clemenshoeller.at/en/projects/zotter-marketingplan
> Category: marketing/e-commerce

## Key facts

- **Format** · Marketing plan + pitches
- **Course** · E-Marketing & Commerce I + II
- **Institution** · WU Vienna, bachelor's
- **Period** · 2023 — 2024
- **Work mode** · Group of four

- Marketing plan as PDF ↗: https://clemenshoeller.at/projects/zotter-marketingplan.pdf

## /01 The task

Two courses, one continuous task: E-Marketing & Commerce I and II follow a self-chosen brand from the first market analysis to a finished marketing plan. We picked Zotter chocolate, the bean-to-bar maker from Styria: premium segment, 160 varieties of hand-scooped bars, organic and fair trade, sold through its own online shop, more than 4,000 retail locations and the chocolate experience world in Riegersburg.

Across two semesters this became a series of around ten pitches and, in the end, the complete marketing plan, from situation analysis through objectives and strategy to measures and measurement. What made the task special was the way of working: every claim about the brand had to come from tools, not gut feeling.

## /02 The analysis

The first stage laid the strategic foundation: SWOT and Porter analyses, four customer segments with fleshed-out personas, the omnichannel picture of the sales channels and a product idea (a sugar-free line for health-conscious buyers) including positioning and customer journeys along the RACE framework. Plus a look at the commodity market: cocoa prices hit a 47-year high in 2024, which pulled pricing strategy and assortment questions straight into the analysis.

Then it turned measurable: an SEO audit of the Zotter website with Seobility produced an overall score of 79 percent, with clear weak spots in linking, server performance and page structure. A landing page audit of the chocolate subscription showed what holds conversion back: too much text before the offer, small images, no call to action.

- Overall SEO score*Seobility audit of zotter.at*: solid
- Page structure*too many headings, missing alt texts*: weak spot
- Server*load time, especially mobile*: weak spot
- Linking*hardly any external links to the site*: biggest lever

*Seobility sub-scores for the Zotter website. The weak linking translated directly into a measure: influencer collaborations that bring backlinks along with reach.*

### The finding that turned the plan

The first campaign concept targeted the USA. Then came the Google Trends analysis: outside Austria, nowhere is Zotter searched for as strongly as in Slovenia, with recurring peaks at Easter, Christmas and World Chocolate Day. It also fit that Zotter has no physical retail there, while the brand is already known in the border regions. So we turned the plan around: not an expensive distant market, but the neighboring one where demand was already visible.

- Austria*home market*: reference
- Slovenia*strongest foreign market*: target market
- All other regions*each individually*: scattered

*Relative search interest for "zotter" by region according to Google Trends (index, Austria = 100). The gap between Slovenia and the rest turned the market decision into a data question.*

## /03 The plan

The result is a marketing plan with one measurable core objective: grow online revenue in Slovenia by 20 percent in the next fiscal year, positioned on authenticity and Austrian origin under the theme "hand-scooped & sustainable".

- **Cross-media campaign:** search engine marketing on translated keywords plus short-form video content on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, geographically focused on the border regions around Maribor and the greater Ljubljana area, with first-buyer discounts and seasonal promotions around the measured search peaks.
- **Influencer campaign:** two candidates were compared via Socialblade (engagement rates of 0.76 versus 1.32 percent), including due diligence on ad partnerships and community. Despite weaker numbers, the better brand fit won: a "baking with Kate" event at the chocolate experience world, budgeted at around €6,000 for the event, a reel, posts and stories, targeting at least 150 on-site participants.
- **Micro-moment campaign:** last-minute gift occasions (Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day) as "I want to buy" moments, served through tightly timed and geo-targeted SEM ads with same-day delivery.

Measurement is part of the plan: click-through rate, bounce rate and conversion rate for the ads, follower growth and interaction rates for social media, plus an honest discussion of the limits, from cross-device tracking to attributing ROI for awareness measures that do not sell immediately.

## /04 Context

We worked in a group of four throughout, with the line-up changing slightly between the two stages, and pitched after every work package. The plan came out of my studies and was not coordinated with Zotter; all recommendations are our own.

### What I take from it

The project turned marketing from frameworks into measurement for me. SWOT and personas give structure, but what decided things in the end was a trends chart: the switch from the USA idea to the Slovenia plan was the moment slides became a plan. That way of working, tying channel decisions and budgets to measured demand, is exactly what I use professionally today in campaign setups and funnel analytics.

**Skills gained:** SEO audits · SEM & keyword strategy · Google Trends analysis · Influencer vetting & due diligence · Campaign KPIs · Segmentation & personas

## /05 Related projects

These projects connect more tightly than the tiles on the home page suggest. Here are all the others, sorted by how closely they relate to this one:

- [AI Automations](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/ki-automatisierungen)
- [Google vs. ChatGPT](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/google-vs-chatgpt)
- [Consulting Cases](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/consulting-cases)
- [AURORA](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/aurora)
- [AI Talent Gap](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/ai-talent-gap)
- [Healthcare Fraud Detection](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/fraud-detection)
- [LLMs & Creativity](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/llms-kreativitaet)
- [Prompt Injection](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/prompt-injection)
- [This Website](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/diese-website)
- [VWA: Origin of the Internet](https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/vwa)

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*German version: https://clemenshoeller.at/projekte/zotter-marketingplan.md*
*Two courses, one brand: the complete marketing plan for Zotter chocolate (E-Marketing & Commerce I + II, WU Vienna). From SWOT and personas through SEO and Google Trends analyses to a cross-media campaign for Slovenia.*