Question

Two enterprising youths, Mr Paul Bee and Mr Loyd Bee, have just completed the Zambia Institute of Marketing’s Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing. They opted not to look for formal employment but instead start their own business of producing and selling fresh vegetables on the Zambian market. Having learned of the future of conventional foods, they have decided to venture into the cultivation of mushroom.

Mushrooms are known to be the best alternative food for vegetarians. For paul and loyd Bee,fundraising was a serious handicap for mass production of mushroom. However, their first trial batch of mushroom was bought by Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka. Further, the hotel placed orders for the supply of 20 kilograms of mushroom per day.

The mushroom industry in Zambia is currently run by man small entrepreneurs like Paul Bee and Loyd Bee. However, a major big player, Yong Ling Limited has just entered the market, and is equipped with modern cold storage facilities, although the company is more interested in the export market.

Paul and loyd have set their sight high. They aim to sell mushrooms in a very big way all over Zambia. Mushrooms have a great market potential in Zambia, and is a perishable food.

QUESTIONS

You are required to prepare a report to the Principal that addresses the following issues.

(a)        Identify the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the business run by Paul Bee and Loyd Bee            

(b)        Advise Paul Bee and Loyd Bee on how they can increase consumer awareness of their product.

(c)        Suggest channels of distribution that Paul Bee and Loyd Bee can use to distribute their mushroom in Zambia.

Answer 1

STRENGTS	WEAKNESS
1. Paul and Loyd Bee have already been in the market before Yong Ling Limited and thus have a better understanding of the local market. 2. They already have a daily order from intercontinental hotel, Lusaka. 3. They are already aware of the market conditions for demand.	1. They do no have the funds that may be needed to grow their business. 2. They are still exploring the local and the international/Zambia belt market. 3. Since their product is perishable and they do not have any storage as of now, they can not transport it to far off places and can not bulk produce due to the lack of storage
Opportunity	TREATHS
1. Since they already have an experience, they have an upper hand in the time frame. 2. The small company can tie up with the fig firm and tap other markets.	1. Young Ling Limited is focused at international export and thus is a threat to the small business. 2. Young Ling Limited is a bigger company with huger resources and storage capacity. They can employ economies of scale and complete the order sooner than the smaller company

B. Since Paul and Loyd Bee’s product and company are new in the market. The market awareness is low as it always is in the beginning sates of a business. There are a number of ways that can be employed to built market awareness. A few of them are:

1. Use Social Media. One of the quickest ways to spread any news in the current times is through social media.

2. Have videos of behind the scenes, i.e the process of cultivation, harvesting, cleaning and packaging shown to the public. This way people are aware that the product is of high quality.

3. Since it is an alternative for vegetarians, the small firm can endorse it as a healthy alternative. They can come up with simple recipes made with mushrooms and post it on their social media page or website.

4. They can ask customers to review their product and put up ways in which mushrooms can be consumed.

5. they can give free samples on the purchase of some other product that has a high demand in the market through tie ups with these brands.

6. Shop keepers can be given incentives on achieving sales targets.

c. Paul and Lyod Bee can use the different channels available.

1. Direct selling/Retail: they go directly as sole sellers in the market.

2. Intermediaries: some companies are in businesses related to export of food items. These businesses can be approached to introduce their product in the international markets.

3. Paul and Loyd can get approach other big grocery stores with their product

4. Cataloguing: online platforms now offer groceries as well; they can list themselves on such site and receive orders

5. Distributor: Mr Bee can approach hotels and other businesses that may have a high demand for their goods and increase their business.