One of the rewarding aspects of working as the senior executive in charge of finance and operations of a mid-sized company serving retail customers was that I was able to wear many hats. By working directly with all departments, I gained a thorough understanding and deep appreciation of every aspect of the business, including new product development, vendor and customer relations, marketing, and customer service. In addition, as a lean and agile management team, we were not constrained by multiple levels of bureaucracy. This allowed us to quickly identify, vet and implement bold initiatives in the retail food marketplace. Twenty plus years ago, the terms “private label” or “own brand” were usually synonymous with “cheap knock offs.” These products were viewed as inferior to the national brands and just a low cost alternative for the extremely price conscious. However, in the last 20 years, the paradigm has changed. As major retailers sought ways to expand their brand and entice customers to become loyal to their stores, private label (“PL”) and own brand (“OB”) products became a more viable and significant component of their marketing and brand strategy. However, this came with the caveat that their PL/OB offerings had to meet or exceed the quality of the national brands but at a price point of 10-20% less. The Company’s founder and I researched what it would take to get into the production of PL products in the ready-to-eat (“RTE”) kid’s meals market. We were
Introduction: Morrison’s PLC is one of the largest food retailers in UK. It has changed a lot over the last 8-10 years. Thanks to HR guidance it has improved all his sections and departments. To maintain this growth Morrison’s has to offer new services and products by using new selling strategies. To improve Morrison’s performance the HR changed the internal and external factors.
The RemyCake bakery created a cohesive team and an established clientele and became a staple within the community. Their exemplary customer service and the charismatic presence of their founders created a unique work and customer environment. However, with the recent retirement of the RemyCake bakery founder, a number of issues have arisen. Our Task Force identified the origin of their organizational issues. The following summary addresses and provides solutions for the RemyCake Bakery’s issues of ineffective leadership style, lack of organizational hierarchy, under-developed employee training program, and poor communication at all levels.
During the second half of our trading period we focussed massively on the private label market and found our niche there. We had realized that the minimum cost of the product wins the market share so we started experimenting with S/Q Ratings and percentage of superior materials to come up with the best product with the least cost price. Adding minimum profit margin to the cost price we were able to seize a massive chunk of the private label market. Attached are a few snapshot highlighting our success in that market.
In what ways does Trader Joe’s demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process- planning, organizing, leading and controlling? They have created their own University for future leaders. By controlling who they promote, only within the company, and planning room for advancement from the day you become an employee shows the value they take in their staff. For example, imagine you start as a cashier and it’s your first day on the job. It can bring great comfort knowing that your manager started in exactly the same role. Not only provides management with the ability to relate to their employees but also the employees to look to the manager’s leadership and mentoring for success.
The Pillsbury Cookie Challenge is a case study written by Natalie Mauro under the supervision of Professor Allison Johnson. The case study creates an open discussion about what the marketing manager of the refrigerated baked goods category for Canada General Mills should do to revive his products. Ivan Guillen, the marketing manager, was faced with tough challenges. He was initially “…faced with the challenge of developing a strategy that would lead to improved business performance on his category” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). To clarify, Guillen’s category is refrigerated baked goods (RBG), which means, this category is his marketing responsibility. The issue here is that “RBG was GMCC’s fourth largest category, and its performance over the past two years had been less than stellar” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). It is important to note that GMCC stands for General Mills Canada Corporation. Pillsbury has enjoyed majority market share in the RBG category in Canada, however, recently, the market was experiencing only moderate growth. Guillen was disappointed that their goal of 5%-7% market growth was not being achieved mainly in the refrigerated cookie dough segment. To be exact, their volume growth for two years was flat and they were having difficulty reaching new households. There was a shift among consumer’s purchases, which Guillen was challenged to figure out why.
Brand competitors and the diversity of choice that is available to consumers, puts brands under pressure to offer high quality products and service, excellent value and a wide availability (Clifton et al., 2009). Brands must differentiate themselves from the competition and create an unforgettable impression.
The retailers are motivated to promote private label goods because of their lower costs and greater profit margins.
In this final project paper, I am going to compile all of the topics that we have been discussing and deliberating on all this term. Moreover, I am going discuss and evaluates the Ajax Foods scenario and in module One content by Putting myself into the shoes of the CEO for Ajax Foods. What is the most important question you need to have answered before you spend thousands of dollars on the launch of a new product? In an arena that is as competitive as the food industry today, most companies are always looking for ways to add new revenue streams and limit product attrition. Therefore, launching a new product can assist a company in gaining access to new markets that might have previously been unapproachable. Therefore, for me, as the CEO of
As a manufacture of private label personal care products, Hansson Private Label, Inc. has a considerable amount (28%) of market share in its specific industry. However, private labels as a whole constitute less than 19% in the entire personal care industry. Therefore, growth of HPL depends on the growth of the industry and more importantly the growth of private label component within the industry. In terms of the personal care industry, market growth will not improve significantly in the future. As proven in the past four years, unit volumes in the industry increases less than 1% in each year and the dollar sales growth was only driven by modest price increases. Therefore, the opportunity for private labels
To understand the role of H-E-B’s Own Brands, we need to understand the role of private labels to a retail store. Retailers manufacture carry private brands since retail gross margins in the private labels are relatively high. Retailers are able to realize cost advantages since they do not have additional advertising and distribution costs associated with private labels. In addition to increasing profits, store brands help to attract and retain customers. Retailers however need the critical procurement revenue from national brands for ad space and displays on stores and hence need to maintain a balance between their Own Brands and national brands.
The Big 3 had high advertising to sales ratios of 10-14%, also deterring entry, because average first year advertising cost for a new brand was over $20 million. We can conclude that total costs related to producing private label products are lower than new branded products. Private label products can offer greater margins to grocers and still sell at lower prices. They have a considerable competitive cost advantage over the new branded products.
Communication to customers of the quality of the products and the steps the organization would be imperative. The website of each diverse product offering would provide details on the food and the nutritional information. The cautionary tale of Chipotle would be an example for all levels of management on what could happen to YUM (Smith & Garcia,
For Trader Joe’s, they are able to demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process by establishing a plan to serve quality products with natural ingredients, inspiring flavors, and buying direct from the producer whenever possible,. They also organize their stores to limit its stock, carrying about 1,500 to 2,000 products compared to retail mega-markets with 25,000 to 45,000 products. Through leading, Trader Joe’s support their future leaders by hiring managers only from within the company. Future leaders enroll in training programs called, Trader Joe’s University that foster in them the loyalty necessary to run stores according to both company and customer expectations. Lastly, Trader Joe demonstrated the responsibility in controlling by placing standards to sell natural based ingredient products, as well as striving to offer the highest quality type foods.
IntroductionMy name is Kevin Chen and I am a senior consultant of the Boston Consulting firm. Per the request of the A/S Dansk Minox, a food products manufacturer, I am preparing this analysis to identify the existing problems within the business of A/S Dansk Minox and provide possible recommendations. As a consultant, I will present the analysis without bias and for the best benefits of A/S Dansk Minox. In the following analysis, I am going to answer the following question: Should A/S Dansk Minox bring the new product, complete meal, to the market?Company backgroundThis case is set in Denmark in 1967 when the "boom" in consumer food products was just beginning more working mothers, more disposable income, more choices in convenience food
Branding is a tool to make the goods of one producer different from another producer (Keller, 2003). Carroll (2008) asserts that branding is a sign of quality, and it is helpful to increase