Adams Case

The premium chocolate industry is a large market in the United States and continues to grow around 10% annually. It is also populated with very strong

At Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Jim Harris was the COO (chief operation officer) and was with the company for about 18 months and was observing the increased demand for their chocolate. “America’s finest dark chocolate” company wanted to increase production by equipping factories with new machineries and equipment but did not want any difference in the taste of the chocolates they produced. As the company totally agrees on not compromising the taste of chocolates and increase the production in order to meet the rising demand for their chocolates they should probably get into customizing chocolates blend for the mass-market retailer in order to grab huge market share, increase accessibility of the chocolate to customers and provide variety of choice to the customers by maintaining the taste they are known for. As the demand is increasing from 50%, 100%, to 150% by the start of 2006, Harris has to make a significant decision in order to invest Scharffen’s capital budget in expansion of the Company. Harris is recommended to acquire the required machinery in order to fasten the production and increase the capacity of the plant and should be careful about the quantity to be produced as the acquiring of machinery will increase productivity multiple times but the initial demand for

Porter’s Five Forces is a market-based view used to analyze the confectionery industry as a whole in a narrower context. The threat of potential new entrants is pretty low because entry barriers to the confectionery industry are pretty high and firms are not likely to enter due to many well-established brand names clustering and taking over the majority of the confectionery industry. The bargaining power of buyers is pretty good in general because there are a lot of different brands and types of chocolates and confectionery products for consumers to choose from. However, when looking at specific types of confectionery products, such as gluten-free or sugar-free products, buyers have no bargaining power whatsoever because these special types of products are not plentiful. The threat of substitute products is low because good substitutes for chocolate do not exist.

Kudler Fine Foods evaluation and examination of the market trends in the industry in which operates presentation takes special interest in this paper. How market trends play a role in the market structure, effect of new companies entering the market, prices, and technology, productivity, cost structure, price elasticity of demand, competitors, supply, and demand analysis, and effect of government regulations will show in following parts of this presentation.

Candy is not yet a “mature” industry in the United States. The compound annual growth rate for candy in the past ten years has been close to 6% a year, a very solid gain in an industry that is supposedly mature. In fact, within the chocolate confectionery subcategory, the United States ranks 11th in the world in per capita consumption and fifth in the world in growth since 1980. Based on current demographics, many analysts believe that there will be further growth for confectioneries. A “baby-boomlet” is on the way, significantly increasing the teenage population. By the time the population bulge peaks in the year 2010, it will top the baby boom in the 1960s in both size and duration. According to government statistics, the percentage of children between the age of 5 and 14 will rise during the 1990s, increasing from 14.2 percent of the population in the 1990 to 14.5 percent in the year 2000. This trend will serve as a strong foundation for increasing consumption of confectionery products through the end of the century. Nevertheless, spending for food and drink as a percentage of all personal consumption is declining in the United States, and most manufacturers recognize that future opportunities lie in using profits from domestic

With the increasing trend in healthy diet preference, the underlying drivers of change of competition in premium chocolate industry at the strongest level are the buyers’ preferences for differentiated, refined products, instead of standardized ordinary products that are no longer demanded. In addition, baby boomers - generation with their disposable income are spending a lot on high quality premium chocolates.

Retailer 's awareness is vehemently tainted and totally imbalanced; their aim is to satisfy their shareholders first and foremost - too few consumers don 't configure retailer 's allegiances let alone their marketing prowess. The imperial scenario simulates... chocoholics orchestrating chocolate production;

The Russian confectionery market is very prospective since it is a gateway to the European confectionery market in which is the biggest confectionery market (Jeon, 2009). Furthermore, the level of Russian confectionery product technology is relatively lower than Orion’s one. In detail, although the Bolshevik Confectionery, the main competitor, took seventy-three percent of the market share it did not threaten the Orion because their manufacturing, processing, and wrapping skills are low-level (Jeon, 2009). These factors are concerned with the location specific advantage and explain the reason that Orion choosees the green field method rather than the direct export or the licensing.

Hausser Foods is clearly experiencing a decline in sales growth due mostly to competition and a decline in population growth. The case focuses mostly on the southeast sales region; however the decline in sales growth is affecting the entire company. The lack of new ideas by the sales force is primarily due to a lack of reflective and adequate encouragement from HDQ as well as a fear or concern that such new ideas for sales revenue might actually burden the sales force in the following year through increased sales targets.

Family consumption segment was relative small, but it was the most promising. Compared with impulsive consumption segment, it had less seasonality since ice cream was eaten in the warm houses in winter, which reduced the demand to producing capacity. Shelf space in the super market was crucial to succeed in this segment. To get this valuable resource, two measures should be adopted. Firstly, building a close relationship with supermarket was a necessity. This cooperation would guarantee the shelf space. A strong brand with strong customer preference would pull the demand and increase the bargaining power with supermarket. Secondly, a special package and longer quality guarantee period was necessary as well. If the products could be kept long, supermarket would have to discount the product as the deadline approaching.

Chocoberry is an established company that is involved in creating healthy chocolate candies for the health-conscious consumer in ages 25 - 45 in the United States. A business plan to how Chocoberry would be able to distribute the product to the customers has been drafted along with a variety of alternatives to distributing the product to the customer. Another important factor that has been covered is the delivery processes. It should be noted that chocolate candy is being developed by technical departments. The key players involved in the paramount decisions regarding the direction of Chocoberry are Candy Marshall, VP of Marketing; Terry Hersch, VP of New Product Development; and finally, Bill Ferrel, Director of Distribution. One important factor in regards to Chocoberry is that this company has never offered retail chocolate products to consumers. It has been stated that there are logistical considerations – such as the relationships with retail outlets and the variant expedience of the distribution. As an independent consultant, my objective is to create and evaluate this company’s alternatives, provide a report, and even craft at least three possible distribution options for Chocoberry’s new venture.

Even though cupcakes are not life’s necessities, they have become popular because they symbolize one of life’s little luxuries for those of us who are on a budget. This market plan begin with a market challenge that is required to make the business of “Cupcake Central” bakery a Successful business. The main aim of “Cupcake Central” business to give cupcake a whole new dimension to get growth in both revenue and in size. We seek fair and reasonable profit, enough for the company to keep it financially healthy. The main mission is to make the business of cupcake company name “Cupcake Central” a unique business. We identified one main issue for this problem is differentiation strategy. As this bakery provide different range of products with different

The company recognizes that there are problems in the existing personnel selections, so they delegated the committee to address the problem. The new selection shows promise as it improves the the old selection process. Some of the strengths include:

Currently, Fine Fruit Cakes Company sells its cakes mostly to cafes and restaurants. In trying to increase sales to crafts shops and tourist centres, the following advantages and disadvantages need to be considered:

Furthermore, there are several factors that influence customers’ immediate environment, which consist of the company’s capabilities, competitors and corporate partners. In this case, it will be focused on the competitors. Competition is a significant factor that affect consumers in the immediate environment. During the year of 2008, the market share above 10 percent was occupied by only three manufacturer which excluded Nestle Japan. In addition, the confectionery market growth was sluggish due to the aging population crisis in Japan. Hence, it is vital for the team of Ishibashi to consider various options for developing the KITKAT and