My purpose of this report is to develop a new marketing strategy for HFS Ltd and to solve their existing problems with the decline in their profit over the past few years. I am aiming to create a new product for Health Food Snacks Limited to revive the bu

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Unit 3 Business Coursework

Stephen Olasupo

Stephen Olasupo

Unit 3 Investigating Market

January 2010

Part 1 - Purpose/Aim

My purpose of this report is to develop a new marketing strategy for HFS Ltd and to solve their existing problems with the decline in their profit over the past few years. I am aiming to create a new product for HFS to revive the business and increase profit. Their current marketing strategy has obviously failed or not turned out how they would have preferred because a company with a solid strategy knows where it is going because it is able to plan ahead. Ultimately I will need to generate a new marketing strategy.

I am Emmanuel Oparah. I am 18 years old and I live in Tottenham, north London. A few months ago I completed my A Levels at Acland Burghley School. I took Business, ICT and Media and achieved A Grades in all. Instead of going straight to university, I have decided to take a gap year to be of assistance to my uncles business, Health Food Snacks Limited (HFS Ltd).This will allow me to put the business skills I learnt into practice.

I have understood that an aim is a general and long term target. It is a statement of purpose. A companies aim shows why the company is even is business.

Objective a more specific short term targets that firms specify when working towards their main aim. They are constrained and measurable.

Objectives must be S.M.A.R.T

S  Specific

They have a strict focus and are not ambivalent

M – Measurable

They must include something that can be measured

A – Achievable

Their aim should be difficult but achievable

R – Realistic

The aims but me possible from the business to attain

T – Time related

The objectives must have deadline dates so that successes can be observed

HFS corporate aims are which is to survive as a business since the profits have fallen for two consecutive years. This is important so the so HFS can I begin to rise again as a business and begin to make money. Profit and sale must be increased, for this to be achieved HFS has to closely analyse how they take the four P’s into consideration as they run their business:

  • Price: Pricing is very important as well. The price has to be right or the product will sell very few units and competing businesses may offer better prices for the same product or service. The way a business prices its product often reflects who the target market is. Production costs can also influence pricing.
  • Place: The place is the where the product will be distributed to the customer. This is an important factor as one place may attract more of the target customers than another. The product must get to the right place at the right time. This will also mean making decisions about how the product is distributed.
  • Product: The product aspect is based around the brand name, aesthetics, quality and other factors such as repairs, warranties and accessories for the product. These help to attract the target market. Fundamentally this means businesses will have to pay close attention to their product customer needs to ensure that their product sells.
  • Promotion: There are many promotional methods a business can use for example, TV advertising or advertisements on popular internet pages. A business has to choose the right method that will appeal to their customers and sometimes use promotions to promote a price cut in a particular item.

HFS Ltd has to move into a new industry because the health food market isn’t helping the businesses prospects in terms of sales profit. So as I take up my new role in the business I have felt to change the businesses forefront to confectionary which will hopefully bring up the sales we need to reduce our fall in sales profits. A new healthy chocolate bar must be made that is worthy to compete in the current climate of the chocolate confectionary market.

 

Part 2 - Introduction

HFS Ltd is situated in North London. The company Owner is my Uncle. The business left how it is in its current state is on the decline. Partially this could be due to the fact the business is product orientated which is a risk especially in the healthy food industry as people who want to eat healthy would prefer a product that they are used to or would have liked to have seen created. Although at the time HFS may have thought that their product could create their products and they would sell, this plan clearly failed.

HFS is a private limited company. Private limited companies are often family business with the shares split amongst family members or close friends. The problem with private limed companies is that they often find it hard to raise money because they cannot sell their shares on the stock market.  

The advantages of a private limited company are that shares to friends and family. Limited liability

 

PROFIT

This is a line graph displaying the fall in HFS’s profits over the past 4 years. Before and up to the year 2006 the profit was relatively high until 2007 where the profit began to drop radically and has continued falling ever since until now. HFS’s directors need to realise that a completely new strategy is needed to keep impact growth of business.

At the moment the current problem for HFS is that they are a product orientated company this means they create products and try to convince the public to buy it through advertising. This is obviously more risky.

The product I will make will be market orientated and will be beneficial for HFS. I will carry out market research before production as this is what HFS needs to take their business out of their continued profit and sales losses. The advantage of producing a market orientated product is that it will meet public demand so it is most probably guaranteed that the product will sell. There are several more advantages of being market orientated such as:

  • A market orientated product can respond more quickly to changes in the market. E.g. if consumers begin to like their chocolate prepared in a different way to the usual, things can be altered fast.
  • You can continuously consult customers. This lets you constantly know their likes and dislikes.
  • Produce the product in quantities that the customers want to buy. This may be because of storage or what the customer is willing to buy at one go.
  • Design the product the way the customer wants it. Whatever will catch the consumers eye and draw their attention to the chocolate bars can be included in the design.
  • It will be more confident that the launch of a new product will be a success because you would have already known that it fits the criteria of what the consumer wants.

Part 3 – Background to initial idea

HFS Ltd currently has three products in its range:

  • Bran Plus Cereal Bar

  • Fruit Plus Cereal Bar

  • Nut Plus Cereal

There are different existing packaging’s for the cereal bars that seem to correlate with the colour of then cereal bars contents.


My preliminary research has shown the following about HFS:

I have carried out some very basic preliminary research and have made the following observations:

  • Only people who want specific health foods or remedies generally visit health food shops.
  • There has been an increase in “healthy” snacks and cereals in the supermarkets. These are targeted at the “already health-conscious”.
  • The highest “snackers” are the 16-24-year-old-market, who tends to miss at least one meal per day and snack mostly on chocolate and crisps.
  • The chocolate confectionary industry is a large market in the UK.
  • Such food provide a quick fix of energy only, are usually high in calories and fat and provide little in the way of daily dietary requirements such as vitamins, minerals and proteins.
  • Cereal-, fruit- and nut-based products provides slow-release energy and contains valuable nutrients to help make up the daily recommended requirements.
  • Young people tend to follow fashion trends and may be influenced by marketing.

As a young adult myself, I am aware of technology to miss meals and snack on high-sugar, high-fat foods. They are all too easily available. However, to save time and money, you often grab what is available at home.

The basis of my idea is to develop a new product to move into a larger Fast Moving Consumer Goods (fmcg) market. This will be the chocolate confectionary sector, whilst maintain the heath standard in the product that HFS is known for.

As I’m moving into the chocolate confectionary market I need some knowledge on different types of chocolates. The market has a number of product types, which are defined as follows: As I’m moving into the chocolate confectionary market I need some knowledge on different types of chocolates.

Join now!

Excluded from this definition are all chocolate confectionary items based mainly on sugar or artificial sweeteners, such as toffees, jellies and mints (unless they are chocolate coated); all other types of biscuit which are not chocolate biscuit countlines; and cereal bars cakes and desserts of all types.


Part 4 – The principles of marketing

As a marketing advisor it is important to understand marketing thoroughly. My view on marketing is getting the four P’s in a balances proportion.  Here are some other definitions.

Marketing is not just about selling or advertising your ...

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