I would like to create a product line of four different types of mayonnaise sauce, which I can sell out to grocery stores, restaurants

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

* New Mayonnaise tastes

* Lower prices

* Four selections of mayonnaise.

* Healthy product,(fat free one).

Weaknesses

* New brand name

* Slowness in adapting to customer changes in taste - healthier choices

* Customer used to big brand names, ex: Craft

Opportunities

* Continued expansion

* Continued development of new taste and items lower in fat, cholesterol, calories

* Expanding to big market

Threats

* Competitions from other mayonnaise retailers like craft, Heinz.

* Enhancing a new type of mayonnaise which decreases popularity

* Product satisfaction

In my project today my budget is low, so I am going to work on a limited budget.

The best way to get preorders from retailers and to select a turnkey manufacturer is.

I would start with what is not going to happen, which is that I am not going to get any preorders from retailers. Retailers are going to want to see - and taste - a finished, packaged product before committing precious shelf space to my sauces.

There are a lot of steps that any new brand product will need to undertake before even start talking with retailers. Here's a very abbreviated road map:

Study the market.

Hold focus groups to find out what strangers - not just friends - think of your mayo. I would start taking homemade mayo into the cafeteria of the company where I work.

I would also set out questionnaires that people could complete when I am not around, so they wouldn't give there honest opinion about the product.

"If everybody said a product was terrible, I wouldn't spend time on it. "I'd go back to the kitchen and try again."

I would go to gourmet stores or food trade shows and check out every other brand of mayonnaise sauce. Believe me, there are a lot.

I'll need to be able to make a convincing case to retailers and consumers about how my mayonnaise sauces are different from all the others.

Once I've established that my recipes are winners, I will contract with a food scientist to ensure that my products meet food safety standards when it comes to things like PH level. (The food scientist can also provide you with nutritional data for your labels.)

"If it's not PH balanced, I may have to pay a state food inspector to be on site for production and inspect every batch before it's released.

My first manufacturing facility is my basement, which I made it ready for my new brand.

Batches of hundred or two- hundred cases, is not easy to find, because most co packer do not take less than five- hundred cases.

Work on branding, design and labeling. Very small food producers aren't required by law to place nutritional data on their labels, but many stores and consumers expect it these days. Ditto for bar codes is not required, but supermarkets will insist upon them.

Insurance is an important play role in business. Most supermarkets will require having at least two million of liability insurance in their name as well as mine.

Once the product is ready, I will try to sell them at farmers' markets - a good way to gauge consumer reaction firsthand. Or directly approach small gourmet stores in my area.

"One of the most important things to ensure sell-through (consumer sales) is a product demo. I'll need to come in on a Saturday and give samples so people can taste it." Or make plastic packing samples and send it to homes, so people can taste the difference.

I may also have luck selling to small upscale supermarket chains, which are willing to take risks on trendy new products that their larger competitors don't carry.

And some individual whole foods stores may be willing to carry my mayonnaise sauce at this early stage, before the chain as a whole would consider it.

Placing my product in these kinds of local stores will help me land a distributor, which in turn is my path into the larger chains.

I will need to get the product out there first so I can develop demand and get distribution, before I can get orders from a chain like whole foods.

Mostapha

Budgeting

Budget is the main useful tool for a new brand; it can introduce it to the market strongly by television advertising and viral marketing like commercials and websites etc....

A business plan every new entrepreneur should have -. Figuring out my costs and my pricing in advance. Margins are tight in the specialty food business. My mayonnaise sauce may be hot, but without good planning, I could be the one who ends up feeling the burn.

The nonprofit agency that I work for receives funding in unpredictable spurts. Sometimes we have lean times with tight cash flow, and other times there is a fair amount of cash in the bank. How much cash should a nonprofit keep in reserves, and under what circumstances should it tap those reserves?

There's a short answer and a shorter-answer-that-is-really-a-longer-answer. The short answer is that I should aim for cash reserves equal to three to six months of your operating budget.

Using independent representative

Number one reason for using independent representative is their knowledge of the customer base in a well-defined territory. They know who the key decision makers are, what products are currently being used and what new projects are underway. Early penetration into key accounts can be accomplished by using representative with synergistic product lines.

Representative are the last to be paid, only after the sale, shipment and payment by the customer. That is what makes it their main goal is to sell the product.

Representative do not do "marketing research" but can provide a lot of practical in-sight for product development, pricing strategy and corporate intelligence.

Conclusion

Any new brand companies must take in consideration these four steps for recipient's purchase decision-making process:

Awareness: the consumer is aware of the product/service but is not currently interested, or need more information to under stands the benefits

Interest: The consumer is aware, develops interest and hence decides to learn more about the product.

Evaluation: The consumer has sufficient evidence that the product addresses his/her need, provides a benefit, and might consider its purchase.

Decision: The consumer has now taken an observable action, a purchase of a good service or the sustained adoption of an innovation.

In conclusion creating a new brand was such a good experience .I learned how many new brands company go through to achieve their goals. Customer's satisfactions are the main role-play in any new brands or any other services, popularity of the products go through hard stages, it last and expand by customer happiness.