Identification and Evaluation of Marketing Opportunities - Case Study Example

PROJECT 1 A REPORT ON IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUATION OF MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES Description of the organization Calvin’s is a fast-food service restaurant with a total number of 20,000 restaurants in more than 20 countries. The company has employed more than one million people in the countries it is located. The organization serves an estimate of 40 million customers each day with most of the population comprising Australian population. The organization has large market shares in the fast foods industry and it poses stiff competition to the leading brands which are McDonald’s and Yum. However, the organization has adopted various strategies to differentiate them from the stiff competition posed by the fast food industry. The organization employees the "Plan to Lead" strategy which advocate for a clean quality environment on customer service delivery. The strategy focuses on the customer experience to ensure the customer is fully satisfied. The company's strategies advocate for a good relationship amongst the operators, suppliers, employees and also the organization's shareholders so as to ensure the company's activities are streamlined. Products and services Calvin's offers a menu which comprises of the variety of delicious fast foods as a way of ensuring customer satisfaction. The fast foods range from chicken sandwiches, nuggets, hamburgers, salads, desserts, beverages, cheese, hot dogs, and many others. To ensure that it is relevant in the countries it is situated, Calvin’s offers other locally relevant foods. For instance, Calvin’s offers the black and white burger in China, the popular gazpacho in Spain and even the Puff in India. Current markets Calvin’s has a strong customer base in most of the European Countries ranging from UK, Australia, Germany, Italy, France and many others. In the Asian continent, Calvin’s is situated in China, Japan and India. The company traces its origins to a restaurant in Melbourne, Victoria. The company became an international corporation in the year 2001 when it opened a location in Barcelona, Spain. By the end of the year 2007, Calvin’s restaurant existed in four major regions in both Europe. The company was located in America in 2009 in Michigan. To cater to the local tastes and also culinary traditions, Calvin's provides regionalized fast foods menus depending on the country. The organization also respects people religious beliefs and also the culture which has made some of its products to be found in one region but not in others. Opportunities to enter new market Calvin's has two major opportunities to engage in a new market with its current or new products. The company is seeking to open new restaurants in Johannesburg in South Africa. This move will see Calvin’s have a wide market in majority of the continents. Johannesburg offers much development and also growth potential and entering into the market will make Calvin’s continue building its brand. Calvin’s in Johannesburg will be opened by the end of the financial year 2016. This will be a destination for customers especially tourists who will be in search of a high-value experience. The organization plans to install free WI-FI and also add their varieties of fast foods at the same time improvising cutting-edge design to improve the customer experience. The other opportunity Calvin’s has is to expand their base in their existing markets. The organization is trying to widen the number of its restaurant in their current markets such as in Melbourne, Victoria. Widening the customer base in their existing markets will provide an excellent opportunity for the organization to enter new markets which were not explored before. For instance, considering that Calvin's has an extensive experience and have proven a good record of running the successful business in Australia, the company can decide to open more restaurants in the country. Opportunities to introduce new products One of the possibilities Calvin’s has to introduce new products to its existing market is to introduce health versions of fast foods such as salads and also wraps. This is because the company currently offers junk unhealthy foods which contain excess calories and sodium. Also most of these junk foods provided by Calvin's contain empty carbs and unhealthy fats. Health studies have shown the dangers of eating these unhealthy junk foods. These fast foods have been shown to cause cardiovascular diseases, type two diabetes, liver diseases and even cancer besides obesity which has raised the alarm to the company. The increasing pressure, especially from health organizations, have made Calvin's see a new opportunity to introduce new products which are healthy consistent to their current menus. Examples of these foods include diet coke, salad, wrap and dessert which have low than 860 calories. Another opportunity for Calvin’s to introduce new products to the current market would be to introduce tasty, organic non-genetically engineered foods. The company has an opportunity to introduce these types of foods to replace the existing ground beef in their burgers. For example, the company may decide to introduce the Newman's Organic coffees as a way of increasing the variety of their foods to meet more customer expectations. It would be substantial for Calvin's to consider past trends and also consumer preferences before they decide to spend on the introduction of the healthy fast foods in their menus. i) Potential contribution The opportunities stated have the potential contribution to our organization in various ways. First, entering new markets will facilitate the development and growth of Calvin’s thus building our brand. With growing the number of store sales and opening more restaurants in our current markets our business will drive our competitors. The organization will capture a large customer base thus developing it. Secondly, the new opportunities will also contribute to economic and business growth of our company, Calvin’s. Opening more branches will make Calvin’s employ more citizens thus adding jobs to the economy. This will not only lead to an economic growth of the individual countries but will also increase the revenue generated by Calvin’s thus promoting business growth of the firm. The organization will spread out its experience of quality food service to more customers thus making it to be recognizable worldwide. This will make Calvin’s to overtake the other fast-foods companies and become the Europe’s leading fast food retailer. ii) How the new opportunities fit Calvin’s has goals and capabilities which enable it to run efficiently. The goal of Calvin’s company is to provide quality food services for quality customer experience. On the other hand, the organization has its organizational capabilities such as ensuring the effective combination of tangible and intangible resources for running its business activities efficiently. There are numerous ways to which the opportunities fit with the Calvin’s current goals and capabilities. One is that the company makes good use of time and its human resources which can make it possible to run even more restaurants with the help of sustained leadership skills. The organization is capable of using its capital and human resources well to maintain its value for continued customer satisfaction even in its new restaurants. This will enable the company to preserve its goal which requires a quality food service for good customer experience. Additionally, the organization emphasizes on good leadership in all its levels of management. The top executives of Calvin’s have been facilitating the spirit of teamwork and have set clear targets for their employees. This will fit properly with its opportunity of widening its market share in that it will make the employees of the new restaurants continue working in the same team spirit to ensure the success of the newly opened branches. The organization emphasizes the need to ensure a consistent corporate culture amongst the managers and even the employees as a way of ensuring quality fast foods products for the consumers. iii) Impacts on current business and customers The opportunities are likely to impact positively the current companies and customers. The organization is hoping with the changeover brought by the opportunities it will boost its sales thus increasing the revenue it generates. Additionally, the organization believes it will stay current with the introduction of the new opportunities. Since the current fast-food industry trends to emphasizing healthy foods, the company will stay current thus attracting more potential customers especially those who are keen on the healthy diet. This will also enable the company to maintain its current customers. On the other hand, the opportunity of introducing healthy fast foods in the menus will ensure the health of the customers. The introduction of healthy versions of fast foods such as salads and wraps will ensure the consumers of the organization are healthy thus avoiding risks of diseases such as Type two Diabetes, Cancer, and even obesity. The healthier food items would also attract more customers thus widening the company’s customer base. The reputation of the company will be improved, and many customers will view it as a fast food company concerned with their health. iv) External influences on financial viability There are numerous external influences on the financial feasibility of each opportunity of Calvin's. One of the external influences will be international trade agreements. Since the company has the opportunity to expand its business with starting many restaurants in many regions worldwide, it will have to seek to improve the international trade agreements in the various regions. Additionally, the other external influence of the financial viability is public health policies. The new public health policies are a threat to our organization in that they discourage people from taking fast foods on the basis that they are unhealthy. For this matter, Calvin's ought to shift its menus and ensure healthy versions of foods for it to conform to the increasing health policies. The last external influence on the business opportunities is the risky European economies. Considering Europe is the main market of our fast-food products, the current slowdown poses a threat to the opportunity of widening our market. Since our organization wants to take considerable steps and open more restaurants in the continent, it would not be economically viable to do some with the current financial decline of most of the European countries such as Greece. v) Probable Return on Investment(ROI) With the new opportunities, Calvin's will target to achieve an ROI of around 16.00%. The company will expect to increase the returns on investment due to increased number of sales with the increased market share. The company expects to invest around $29 billion thus generating around $3 billion revenue in the first quarter of the financial year 2016/2017. vi) Changes needed to current operations Calvin's need to change the menu to satisfy customers as per their exact specifications. The company needs to change their menus and include healthier options which will attract more customers who are concerned with their health. The company also needs to change their marketing strategy. Calvin’s should revamp its marketing and put more emphasis on quality healthy fast-food. This will re-establish the loyalty and emotional connection of the consumers and the organization. vii) Changes to maintain quality of customer service One of the changes the company has to do to maintain the existing customer service quality is to invest in service training. Calvin's ought to invest in training its employees at the levels on how to ensure quality as a way of guaranteeing customer satisfaction. The other change which the company can introduce would be to set quality customer goals for the employees to achieve. The goals should be challenging but attainable. Setting the goals will lead to higher levels of employee performance thus ensuring good quality in customer services. viii) Resources required There are various resources which would be necessary to make the changes mentioned. Both natural and human resources would be required. Natural sources of organic health foods would be necessary for the production of the health versions of foods. For instance, the company will now be required to invest in cabbage production as a source of salads. The company will also need to invest in human resources to be able to meet the increased demand for labor in the newly opened restaurants. (1991 words) PROJECT 2 A REPORT ON LEGISLATION, REGULATIONS AND CODE OF ETHICS WHICH APPLY TO THE MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF FOOD INDUSTRY The industry chosen in this case is food industry. There is detailed legislation that governs the marketing activities in the industry. One of the legislation is the Foods Standards Act of 1999 which was put in place to ensure only foods which are not harmful to human beings are marketed as found out by Barriento and Stephanie(49). The legislation also emphasizes on promotion of healthy foods during marketing. The other regulation put in place in the food industry regulating marketing is the Food Label Act. This legislation requires companies to be aware of the requirements before advertising their food products. They should be aware of the regulations when it comes to labeling, the use of endorsements and also food safety. Numerous regulations have been put in place to regulate marketing activities in the food industry. A good example is the “EU Food Information”. This regulation maintains that an organization taking marketing activities should provide the correct information regarding nutritional content, safety and the calories of the food product being marketed (Barriento and Stephanie,58).. This regulation was published in the Official Journal of EU in October 2011. The Foods Standards Agency is a regulatory body which ensures the marketing activities of food products are followed per the set guidelines as explained by Jackson and Charles (159). Regulations such as “Food Safety” ensure the protection of the public health of the consumers in relation to foods and drinks. The regulation is clear that the marketing organization should well inform its consumers on the possible health risks of consumption of the food product being marketed. the challenge of execution of these food regulations related to marketing is the increases criticism from food companies that the excessive regulations places a burden on their business and thus negatively affect their number of sales. On the other hand, code of ethics provides guidelines in making marketing decisions for food companies. One of the major codes of ethic which need to be considered when marketing food products is Food Safety (Husten et al,1580). It is tempting for food companies to label food items wrongly or even sell expired foods from a financial perspective. This can lead to food poisoning, cross-contamination and even allergic reactions by the consumers of the products. For this reason organizations in the food industry ought to include commitments when it comes to food safety. This code of ethics ensures companies place safety above financial concerns by enforcing high product quality standards (Husten et al,1579). The second code of ethic applicable in marketing food products is the Public Health Code. This code is put in place to combat health epidemics according to Curtis and Patricia(145). The Public Health Code commits food companies to only market and sell food products which are healthy without any harmful ingredients. The major challenge is that most of the food companies are not paying attention to fat contents, the excess calories and the harmful additives. These have been attributed to the increased number of health epidemics with increase in number of diseases such as cancer, Liver disease and also Diabetes Mellitus. This code of ethic has really being explored in the expense of the health of the consumers. For that reason it will be important for food companies to market and sell foods with healthy ingredients constituted by minimal levels of fat and calories. Additionally, Supplier Standards is another code of ethic which applies the marketing of food products in the food industry (Ghosh and Dilip, 1978). Since financial perspectives may tempt a food company to buy inexpensive ingredients without considering the harmful effects, the Supplier Standards maintains that a food company should perform a due diligence before signing a contract with a supplier to ascertain whether the ingredients are safe or not. This ensures that only safe ingredients are used to make the food product before it is marketed to the customers for them to buy. (668 words) Sources Barrientos, Stephanie, ed. Ethical sourcing in the global food system. Taylor & Francis, 2012:30-70 Curtis, Patricia A. "OSHA Regulations and the Food Industry." Guide to US Food Laws and Regulations, Second Edition (2013): 143-160. Ghosh, Dilip. "Food safety regulations in Australia and New Zealand Food Standards." Journal of the science of food and agriculture 94.10 (2014): 1970-1973. Husten, Corinne G., and Lawrence R. Deyton. "Understanding the Tobacco Control Act: efforts by the US Food and Drug Administration to make tobacco-related morbidity and mortality part of the USA's past, not its future." The Lancet 381.9877 (2013): 1570-1580. Jackson, Charles O. Food and drug legislation in the New Deal. Princeton University Press, 2015:134-190 Read More