Question

The Course Project requires you to act as consultants for a fast food chain and develop a new food product. Your competitor has just launched a new campaign introducing Junior and Grand sizes to their already famous and successful hamburger and is drawing sales away from your client. Time is of the essence, yet you do not want to over-react and make a costly mistake. You will need to be innovative and capitalize not only on your client’s success, but also focus on how to bring back lost revenue and launch a strong marketing campaign. Your market research and product launch strategy will be described both in a written paper as well as presentation of your recommendations to the class.

1. Complete product/service description, including the type of innovation represented, and the source for the idea.

2. Product/service offering and a description of benefits that customers will both recognize and realize

3. Competitive analysis

"Points awarded for description of the innovation of the new competitive product and how it will compete in the marketplace. Product offering and a description of benefits customers will realize over that of your client’s competitor. In short, how will your new innovative food product increase sales for your client and as well as win back sales from your client’s competitor. Include in this section an identification of competitor products and specific customer benefits. The material in this assignment covers sections 4-6 listed in the outline above."

Answer 1

In the above problem, the examiner has clearly specified three bullets on which candidate has to describe in detail which is divided into three sections, i.e. product description, product presentatin and competition analysis.

A. Product Descriptoin: It is defined as an art of identifying product's unique selling proposition which makes the product different and better from the rest of the market and to generate sales by continuing product innovation. So, here we can see that it is a much wider definition which entails many steps to highlight the product apart from its competitors. The product can be identified as one which provides solution to what the market is demanding or what customer really find worth to purchase it. In our case, as the client is based into food supply, it can be advised to identify different combination of hamburgers with a mix of innovative ideas and also maintaining there core legacy.

B. Product Presentation: This is a very crucial and deciding factor as to how your product or service is primary interfaced with your potential customer. This should be the most charimatic movement where your customer feel special for the price he is ready to pay for the goods or services offered by you. In product presentation, the business should identify the ways which can make imprint the image or experience in the minds of customer which he can never forget. Also, there should be element of diversification which will allow him to be curious and visit again thereby increasing the number of foot-falls.

C. Competitive Analysis: The first and most essential step to eliminate or get ahead of your competitors is first to identify who are your possible threat by doing competitive analysis. Competitive Analysis by its very nature is defined as strategic research which follows thorough collection and analysis of material information about the rival firms which can possibly impact the going concern assumption for your business.

However, competition may not always be something right infront of our eyes which results into impacting loss of sales and thereby ultimately affecting business's financial well-being. Competition may be categorized into two types, viz direct and indirect. In case of Direct Competition, the competitors can be easily identified with the ones who are actively engaged into selling or providing the same goods or services which is provided by your business. Some tools which can help in identifying the direct competition includes market research, obtaining and evaluating customer feedback, digital platforms such as social media, community forums etc. The second type which is Indirect Competition are much difficult to identify and eradicate. Indirect competition means those category of competitiors who are engaged into selling or providing those goods or services which are not directly related to your business but relates to impacting with either vertical integration or horizontal integration and can also be caused by advancement in technology. To understand Indirect competition, one should have thorough understanding of supply chain management, product diversificiation, adoption of latest technology, market research and various other data. For this purpose, the firms often hires team of expert who are well equipped to identify such threats and provides solutions based on custom needs of the business.