Decision-Making Process at Cowboy Chocolate - Case Study Example

Assignment two: Individual case study analysis Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Introduction 4 Cowboy Chocolates; decision making trend 4 Personality and value based approach 6 Conclusion and recommendations 9 Executive summary This analysis utilizes the personality and value based approach to explore the decision making process at Cowboy Chocolate. This is revealed to be central in informing the nature of the individual-based approach in this firm which are attributed to the poor performance of this company. At Cowboy Chocolate, decisions related to production, pricing and distribution as well as promotion are undertaken by one individual-Marilyn who is revealed to have different values and personality traits which negatively affect her decisions. As a result, the company is under constant threat from competition, lack of financial capital as well as non-profound approaches to promotion. Despite several approaches undertaken in this company, for instance, the introduction of spicy chocolates being perceived as an insightful towards differentiation, it is felt that the general lack of extensive consumer survey made this approach to be ineffective in meeting the specific consumer demands. Lastly, this analysis has forwarded recommendations which if put into utility can be integral in turning the tides for this company. This includes a greater inclination towards group decision making which is key in generating a wealth of ideas on problem-solving and opportunity identification as well extensive consumer survey to aid in meeting the specific consumer needs. Assignment two: Individual case study analysis Introduction This analysis is aimed at exploring the decision making process at Cowboy Chocolates, a company which was started in 1997 in Moscow, Idaho. This company experienced extensive challenges in the course of its establishment, most of which can be attributed to indecisiveness and poor decision making processes at the managerial level. This is mostly in regard to decisions on production, distribution and pricing as well as promotion among other basic tenets which are central in ensuring that a firm attains the desired sustained competitive advantage in the market. This report will predominantly utilize the personality and value based approach in the efforts to identify inherent problems in the decision making process at Cowboy Chocolates which will also form a robust foundation for forwarding recommendations. These recommendations will be instrumental in enhancing the decision making process in the future of this company. Cowboy Chocolates; decision making trend In a generic sense, decision making can be perceived as inferring to the process of selecting a logical choice(s) from a variety of available options. For this process to achieve the desired effectiveness, an individual or a collective ought to engage in forecasting of the results of each option and based on the outcome of all the available options, be in a position to determine which of the option is best suited for a specific situation (Armesh, 1). In the case of Cowboy Chocolates, the general decision making framework can be perceived to have been founded on one particular individual; Marilyn. This is despite the company being instigated by inputs from different quota, most notably, her husband and a wide circle of friends. This approach is contrary to the findings by various scholars and practitioners, for instance, Armesh (9) who determined that group decision making often culminates in better decisions which are key in solving organizational problems than the best individual in the group. This is best epitomized in a situation whereby when the company was confronted with the challenge of finding a manager of the wholesale side of this company. Marilyn made an individual decision to source all Cowboy chocolates’ chocolate products from Seattle Chocolates and hoped that this firm will be willing to undertake the above function. Nonetheless, Seattle Chocolates was reluctant to undertake the managerial role on the wholesale side of Cowboy chocolates based on the uncertainty over the market of this product. In this particular instance, it can be noted that Seattle Chocolates practically enjoyed being a supplier of chocolate products to Cowboy chocolates but on the other hand reluctant to push the final products of the latter company to the market. Perhaps if Marilyn had previously engaged group decision making model while making the sourcing decision would have been central in ensuring that the company got a strong supplier who would have been willing to push the subsequent products to the market. Therefore, the high level of individualism in the decision making process at this company can be perceived to have been a core threat to the future viability of the firm, either at production, distribution or promotional perspectives. Nonetheless, it is imperative to be cognizant at this juncture that group decision making has been linked to degenerating to group think tendencies. In this case, groupthink can be perceived as a concurrence seeking tendency which can play a central in inhibiting collective decision making processes and often culminate in poor decision making. This latter development has been revealed to induce fiascos (Choi and Kim, 297). Personality and value based approach According to Ahangar (955), persons behave differently to basically similar situations and proceed to assess conditions differently based on their peculiar values, expectations, previous experiences as well as temperament. These differences in values and expectations play a key role in determining how they cope with a particular situation and evaluate its outcomes. In the Cowboy chocolates’ case, the personality and values of the proprietor (Marilyn) played a central role in how she made her decisions to cope with specific situations. This is best exemplified whereby with the anticipation of having her products placed in the military PX stores by the end of 2000, she had ordered $5,000 worth of packaging materials. This culminated in a situation of having more packaging in inventory than she would normally have based on her anticipatory approach to procurement of these materials. It is also imperative to note that the non-premeditating personality of the proprietor was apparent in her pricing strategy in this particular company. This is best epitomized whereby in pricing its products, the company had not conducted robust market survey to ascertain the actual prices of other competing products which would have ripple impacts on the purchasing behavior of the consumers. This is exemplified in a case where despite Marilyn pricing her products at $2.99 similar to Seattle Chocolates where she sourced her products, other competitors priced their products at $ 1.99 and even $1.49 for the smaller bars. Based on this reality, Marilyn was unsure of how the size as well as the quality of the chocolate brands affected the purchasing decision of the consumers. This is in regard to how the consumers assessed the quality of each of the competing bars in the market in the course of making their purchase decisions. Nonetheless, such a fear would have been overcome through Cowboy Chocolate conducting extensive consumer survey which would culminate in them producing specific products tailored to meet the needs of the target consumers in terms of quality, size as well as price. As a result, despite the products from Cowboy Chocolates having previously won numerous fiery food awards, the consumers exhibited the lack of willingness in paying the premium prices for her products. This can be perceived as a key tenet which affected not only the profitability of this company but also its competitive advantage in the market. Nonetheless, some scholars can suggest that the production process at Cowboy Chocolates which aimed at elevating the product quality, giving the product distinct characteristics (for instance, having the sauce flavor) which eventually led to increased price can be perceived as a robust step towards differentiation. The imperative role of the latter strategy in marketing theory and practice is fortified by Romaniuk, Sharp and Ehrenberg (42) who determined that differentiation is central in making a particular brand to be an imperfect substitute of other brands. In this case, the consumers are bound of the differentiated brand are bound to be more loyal which culminates in increased stability of the consumer base. This approach makes the brand to be less vulnerable to the undertaking of the competitor brands in the sense that even if the competitors lower their prices (a phenomenon which confronted Cowboy Chocolate), the differentiated brands are bound to lose fewer consumers. Despite the above assertion, it is the feeling in this paper that the act of differentiating a product ought to be geared towards meeting the specific needs of the consumers in the market as opposed to just making the product to ‘stand out’ in the market. In the case of Cowboy Chocolate, the conscious or unconscious decision by the proprietor not to conduct extensive consumer survey in order to ensure that her differentiated products meet their specific needs and instead basing the production process on her inherent value and preference of spicy chocolates can be perceived as being a core contributor to her worries regarding how the price and size of her product would affect the purchasing behavior among the consumers. On the other hand, trait-based theories of personality which have been revealed to emanate from a differential tradition have clearly proposed that traits can be key in predicting and explaining human behavior (Chartrand et al, 67). In the case of the Cowboy Chocolates, the indecisive and unsure train of the proprietor of this firm can be perceived to have posed a great impact on her decisions on how to promote her products. This is best epitomized whereby she was unsure on how to promote her products to the consumers in the market based on her limited resources. This culminated in her making wavering decisions on the promotional framework ranging from ads in magazines, websites and tradeshows to hiring a public relations firm to undertake the promotion job. In the alternative of hiring a public relations firm, Marilyn was unsure whether this undertaking would result in the recovery of a staggering $2,000 per month which could be used to hire this firm. This was founded on her non-expectation that no kind of publicity generated by the public relations firm would be sufficient to offset the cost of hiring the cost incurred. This was putting into consideration the limited number of locations where consumers could purchase the Cowboy Chocolate products. Therefore, this particular personality trait of indecisiveness can thus be perceived to have posed increased impacts on her promotional decisions which at the end failed to meet the desired sales targets in the market. This not only posed negative impacts on the profitability of the firm but also eroded its competitive in the market. Conclusion and recommendations Based on the preceding analysis, it is plausible to recommend that Cowboy chocolate ought to increasingly embrace the trend of group decision making framework. This is integral in the generation of profound mechanisms of identifying apparent opportunities, eradicating any inherent weaknesses in the firms approach as well as solving any problems which might arise. Additionally, it is recommended that the company ought to conduct more profound market research. This is vital in ensuring that the products which are produced are tailored to meet the specific needs of the consumers which will increasingly result in heightened consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Lastly, it is recommended that the proprietor of this company ought to increasingly engage the services of professional consultants who are well versed in particular fields, for instance, in distribution and promotion. This will be integral in ensuring more professional and calculated approaches to these undertakings. In conclusion, the above analysis has explored the decision making process at Cowboy Chocolate mostly in relation to production, distribution and pricing as well as promotion processes among other basic tenets. This review has revealed the increased inclination towards individual-centered nature of decision making in this firm and a limited tendency towards group decision making. This has been discovered to pose detrimental impacts on the logic behind decisions in pricing and promotion of the Cowboy Chocolate products in the market. Through the use of the personality and value based approach, this review has explored how majority of these weaknesses in individual-based decision making culminated in unsuccessful undertakings in the company. Lastly, this review has forwarded several recommendations which can be utilized to turn around the fortunes of this company, most notably through increased tendency towards group decision making and extensive market research. Works cited Ahangar, Reza. A study of resilience in relation to personality, cognitive styles and decision making style of management students. Africa Journal of Business Management, 4.6 (2010): 953-961. Armesh, Hamed. ‘Decision Making’. 2009. Web. 23rd July, 2013. (http://www.wbiconpro.com/483-Hamed.pdf). Chartrand, Judy., et al. Peeling Back the Onion: Personality, Problem Solving, and Career Decision-Making Style Correlates of Career Indecision. Journal of Career Assessment, 1.1 (1993): 66-82. Choi, Jin and Kim, Myung. The Organizational Application of Groupthink and Its Limitations in Organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84.2 (1999): 297-306. Romaniuk, Jenni, Sharp, Byron and Ehrenberg, Andrew. Evidence concerning the importance of perceived brand differentiation. Australasian Marketing Journal, 15.2 (2007): 42-54. Read More