Question

Case study 4

Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Mohammed have been good friends for a long time. They completed their Bachelor's in Ibra College of Technology. Mr. Ahmed was well versed in accounts and Mr. Mohammed had some knowledge in sales. They both came up with an idea to open a small venture on their own than getting employed in private companies.

Hence they decided to open an organic fruits and vegetable shop focusing on a health-conscious target market in Alyat Ibra. The friends managed to get some loan from the bank and started their small business. They had a belief in giving quality products to the customers than making more money out of it. Initially, customers started to buy their products slowly and hence sales were too slow in the business. As days passed the profit rate was faster as the customer rate was increasing. The heavy competition brought by their local competitors forced the friends to have a second thought to give some offers to retain their customers from shifting to their competitors shops.

Though with few changes implemented in their business still Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Mohammed were in stress as their business are getting down day by day and do not have any clue what to be done further.

Question 4

i) Discuss the various ‘promotional mix’ to be followed by Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Mohammed for the success of their business. (4 Marks–100 /125 words)

ii) Identify and discuss the PLC stages and the distribution channel followed in the above case.

(4 Marks–100 /125 words)

iii) Do you think that Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Mohammed did the right product positioning? Discuss.

(2 Marks– 50 /75 words)

Answer 1

i) The various 'promotional mix ' to be followed by Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Mohammed for the success of their business are as follows:

Advertising: The first element of promotional mix is Advertising. They can increase their Sales by way of doing advertisements in various ways like Oral publicity, Banners, Newspapers, Television, Internet, Radio, etc.

Free Samples: They can also increase their Sales by giving free samples to potential customers so that they can use and purchase their products.

Ecommerce: They can boost up their sales by selling their products on various Ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Grofers, etc.

ii) The business is in the second phase of PLC which is Market Introduction. In this stage of PLC, the product is into the introduction to the market and trying to cover market by selling their product.

The distribution channel in the above case is Retailers as they have opened an oraganic fruits and vegetables shop and selling their products to end consumers.

iii) Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Mohammed have opened an organic fruits and vegetables shop focusing on health conscious target market in  Alyat Ibra which is the right product positioning as they are focusing on target audience but they can focus more on their marketing strategies which will lead to the right product positioning.