- Desk Research/ Secondary Research
This is where the research is gathered form existing sources. It is found from documents such as, government statistics, marketing reports, newspapers and previous market research etc. This type of research is a lot less expensive than field research because it already exists.
Ways of Promoting My Improved Product
To promote my product there are several things that I could do they are:
- Advertising.
- Personal Setting.
- Competitors.
- Coupons, gifts.
- Special offers.
- Publicity.
- Packaging.
I would probably use all of these types of promotion at different times in the product’s success. Just after the product had been re-launched I would use coupons and special gifts, this would make people buy the product because the are getting a bargain, but when the offers stop they will continue buying the product, if they liked it.
I would use Broadcast media on weekdays in the breaks in Coronation Street, and at the weekend around 5.30pm when people are starting to eat their meal.
Hubba Bubba is already cheap so I would leave the price the same.
As for the packaging I would make the packaging reflect the flavor of the chewing gum for example the atomic apple would seem to have an atomic explosion but from an apple.
Promotion Advertising Media
Price
Businesses have to decide what price to set their products. The higher the price, the lower will be the demand for their product and the less they will be able to sell. Some businesses have to accept the market price for their product if they are to sell it at all. They have no control over the price they receive. Their prices are completely by the forces of supply and demand. With a fixed price, these businesses need to decide whether their costs will be low enough to make it worthwhile carrying on in business.
The price for my product will be a fixed price, it will be the same all year round and will be the same price to everybody, the demand for chewing gum does not change with the weather, or any uncontrollable events, so for this reason I am going to make it a fixed price, the price will not be controlled by supply and demand.
Product.
Packaging & Branding.
Packaging is used to deliver products safely to the consumer. For instance, canning a food product means that the consumer can eat the food safely months and even years after the food was first manufactured.
Packaging should also help businesses and customers store the product. Bottles need flat bottoms for stability for instance. Packaging gives information to the customer about the product Packaging has other uses though. It is a way of promoting the product. Colors, designs and letters attract the customers’ attention.
Every business would like its products to be strong brands. A brand is a product which in the eyes of customers is seen to be different from other, often similar products. For instance, many customers see Daz and Bold as two separate products even though they are both washing powders. The opposite of a branded product is a generic product. Potatoes are generic products. Customers generally don’t see any difference between the same type of potatoes produced on one farm compared to those of another farm. Coal, steel, milk and bananas are other examples of generic products.
Strong branding means that a business can charge a premium price for the product. This is a price, which is higher than the price charged for similar products in the market.
The packaging for Hubba Bubba, I will change more to reflect the flavor, if the flavor is ‘atomic apple’ then I will put pictures of apples exploding to give the name more effect.
A product life cycle shows the stages through which, it is argued, a product passes over time. It evolves seven stages, these are: The development stage this stage costs a great amount of money. The launching stage the product is ready to be bought. The growth stage where the sales and profits will be rising. Product maturity stage the product has reached it’s peak in terms of sales. Market saturation stage this is where the sales will begin to fall. The decline stage the sales will drop greatly. The final stage is the withdrawal of the product form the market.
I am not going to segment my market
Place
For a product to sell, it must be in the right place at the right time for customers to buy.
My product is going to be sold in all newsagents, supermarkets service/ petrol stations and any shop that sells any variety of sweets.
My product is going to use, ‘directly to retailers’ and ‘through wholesalers’ as it’s channels of distribution.
Constraints
My business will have only one internal constraint, and that is lack of money. There will no lack of equipment because all the equipment is already in place. There will also be no problem with the cost of training the work force they are already trained.
The only external constraint that I can think of is pressure groups, or groups of people that are against the sale of chewing gum, the already are a problem and always will be a problem there is nothing that can be done about these sorts of people.
Organization
A chain of command shows how power and control is passed downwards through the firm.
The diagram above shows how a chain of command works. It means that you only pass on instructions to the people next in the chain, and they then pass on instructions to those below them. If there are any questions to be asked, or if people are unhappy with anything they take the matter up with the people in the layer immediately above them.
Coming down the pyramid are orders and instructions, going up are the requests and complaints. In any organization, the longer the chain of command, the more likely it is that orders will not be properly carried out. This is because communication becomes harder and messages become distorted.
The span of control refers to the number of people directly controlled by one person (or manager).
Strengths & Limitations
My businesses strengths; are that it sells a cheap product that can be bought by anybody, the product is not restricted to the wealthy or the over 18’s.
My businesses limitations are that, the product is cheap so a lot of packets have to be sold before another flavor can be developed.
Future Developments
My plans for the future are:
Short Term
- Change Packaging.
- Increase size of packets.
Long Term
- Develop new flavors, 15 planned flavors by 2010.
- Sell gum in multi packs, in supermarkets.
- Increase Price.
- Expand into Asian market.
Final Conclusion
From this coursework I have found out that, setting up and maintaining a business is not as easy as I had originally thought.
I think that I have met my aims and objectives, and I have done it to the best of my ability.
I encountered very few problems, one of the main problems was that not many people were willing to take the time to complete a questionnaire.
I think that my business is going to be a success, I am not changing anything too drastically, and the business is already doing well.
Next time I think that I would do a lot more questionnaires this would make the results more reliable and conclusive.
