The Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994
This act amended both the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. It applies to all goods including food, regardless of where they are bought, for example, at shops, market stalls, door-to-door sale, home party sales, or catalogue mail order. According to the Act the seller must ensure that goods are:
§ Of satisfactory quality: this term has replaced 'merchantable quality' used in the previous Act. Satisfactory quality is defined as the standard that a reasonable person would regard satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods. The quality of the goods includes their state and condition plus fitness for purpose, appearance and finish, freedom from minor defects and safety durability.
§ Reasonably fit for any particular purpose, e.g. they must be able to do what the seller claims they can do, for example, an electric toaster should be able to toast four slices in one minute if this is how it was described.
ECONOMIC FACTORS:
Economic factors will influence the future potential profit of a business. The level of consumer demand is a key variable affecting the quantity of sales and the price at which output can be sold. Interest rates will determine the cost of finance to the company. Final profits will be taxed by the government. The economic cycle of recession and recovery is an important influence on the opportunities and threats to the organisation.
UK’s employment status:
The relationship between unemployment and demand for my product is essential to note when considering a marketing strategy. If the unemployment rate is high, people have less disposable income. Seeing that my product is not a luxury good, it might not be greatly affected. People will drink fizzy drinks to satisfy their needs; therefore, my product tends to be income inelastic. The only affect it could have on my product is the fact that customers could switch to cheaper brands. If the unemployment rate is low, it means more people are in employment, resulting to greater expenditure levels. If unemployment rate rises, I will have to base my marketing strategy on other features like flavours, taste and etc may be these points could help motivate my consumers to purchase my product
The strength of pound:
Inflation:
Inflation is a continuous persistent rise in the general price level and is usually measured by retail price index. If Inflation increases people will pay more for the products and services. This could mean they would have to switch to a much cheaper brand. At periods like this, it's when other cheaper drinks increase sales value. If inflation tends to occur when I am marketing my product I will have to decrease the price of my product to the same as the other cheaper drinks. This would attract customers to demand more on my product seeing that it has decreased in price.
Interest rates:
When interest rates are increased it will affect my strategy. This is because it will raise the interest rates when borrowing money from the bank. Higher interest rates discourage spending and dampen down business activity. Therefore I need to increase the price of my product so that I don't loose money. If the bank lowers the price of borrowing, people will borrow more and spend more. By increasing the interest rates will also mean that my suppliers are going to be more anxious because of high prices on the products. The products might not get sold. This will lose the demand for the product.
SOCIAL:
Changes in society can have lot effect on my product in various ways. First external influence is that by drinking fizzy drinks can prevent excessive weight gain, according to new research available at bmj.com. As more people know this kind of stuff, it will mean fewer consumers will purchase my product. The ageing of the population can affect my product has well because the type of products which are developed and the channels of distribution used to deliver products to consumers. The products might not be delivered on time to suppliers, for e.g. more traffic. Another external influence which can affect my product is that by drinking fizzy drinks, it can prevent low birth weights. Also the Fizzy drinks can affect children's behaviour; scientists have confirmed. By drinking a lot of fizzy drink can affect the concentration of individuals and can have big impact on the children’s brains. All these changes in the society can affect my product dramatically.
There is also lots of crime happening in Nottinghamshire. The guns used have increased lately by 30%, taking the position of Nottinghamshire to a very bad state. Over many years Nottinghamshire have remained the second most criminal place in UK. This means that heavy security have to be provided to protect the business from burglars.
TECHNOLOGICAL:
Changes in technology can affect my product market planning in variety of ways. As I said that I will be producing my product in choice of consumers. This can be very costly due to quality and doing promotion to increase the awareness of the product. This probably can lead to greater obsolescence and shorter product life cycles. Another external influence which can affect my product is that parents have stated in BBC New’s network that wending machines which sell fizzy drinks should be closed down due to the high level carbonate which damage teeth’s and as well as increase the weight of individuals. This will make the merchandising of my products more difficult.
