What Is Marketing

As this was Keller’s first audit on a dog Foods company, additional research was conducted to gain insight on some the most common risks that occur in the dog Foods industry. The audit team also went to visit the client prior to the audit to gain a clear understanding on how their business works. The audit team consisted of the audit manager Pete, and two audit staffers Maureen and Ben.

Tough times call for tough measures. Wal-Mart has started moving from higher priced national branded goods to cheaper alternatives. Wal-Mart has even went to the extent of producing its own in-house brands such as Great Value, Ol' Roy, Sam's Choice, No Boundaries, Equate, EverStart, Mainstays, and many others. Ol' Roy, a hard dog food, has become the United States' most popular brand of dog food since its creation in 1983. Ol' Roy sales are about 20% higher than any other brand of dog food. Great Value food products where launched in 1993 and have become just as good if not better than the national branded food stuffs. Great Value products are typically sold at a much lower price due to not having any marketing expenses. "Combined, the improved product quality and the price advantage over the national brands bode well for current economic times" (Canning 20-26).

I prepared an analysis of several marketing strategies that can be used by executives at A.1. Steak Sauce. This case analysis will provide a summary of A.1.

After hearing Marketing Momentum Unimited’s proposal, Breeder’s Own Pet Foods was presented with the problem of: Should Breeder’s Own Pet Foods go with the advertisings firm’s proposal, if so, which one?

The company needs to evaluate who comprises its target market. Is the market the entire dog food market? The 10 percent that is currently purchasing frozen food or the 15% that would purchase if it were more convenient to do so? Currently consumers do not associate dog food with frozen food; but even if they did, the product may still not appeal to the average consumer due to time requirements for its preparation and thawing.

ALTERNATIVE 1: _Eliminate poor performing hot dog brands and re-allocate the funds associated with them to existing brands that are doing well in order to increase their sales._

Nevertheless, the majority of customers are very satisfied with the amount of serving along with the quality of their meal as well as the price paid. The strategy of being a low priced high value added has seen problems due to lack of customers which is affecting the bottom line drastically. This inevitable circumstance has put a hold on operations and started an investigation upon various neighboring competitors and their own strategies.

Since Breeder’s Own Pet Foods does not have any Brand Equity, they must win the “hearts and minds” of its consumers by performance, availability and pricing. To accomplish this feat, it must train the minds of its patrons to begin to shop in the frozen department for organic dog food. Without the latter two suggestions, Breeder’s Own Pet Foods may have unsuccessful

Positioned to be perceived by buyer as the only dog food that they would want to purchase for a dog that is considered part of the family

|Weaknesses: •   Lack of availability in all stores •   Lack of appeal to consumers due to thawing time / freezer space (convenience) •   Lack of appeal to supermarkets due freezer location •   Lack of brand equity in retail market •   Premium price | Threats: •   Store Location - Consumer must be educated to find product in different area of store •   Saturated market – sales top 14 million in 2011.   Dog food is also heavily advertised, so the challenge is to entice the consumer to buy Breeder’s Mix. •   Competition - 5 major brand name dog food companies dominate market with 75% of US dog food sales •   Challenge to get supermarkets to give up valuable freezer space for dog food |Evaluation of AlternativesBreeder’s Own Pet Foods product development strategy should be evaluated.   Currently only 1 out of 10 dog owners regularly buy frozen or refrigerated dog food and ¾ of those surveyed expressed no interest in purchasing frozen dog food (Kerin and Peterson, 2013).   This indicates that there is a limited market for dog owners who would be interested in a product such as Breeder’s Mix. Research does suggest however that frozen dog food dollar volume is increasing annually indicating there is a strong opportunity for Breeder’s Own to be the first to tap into the frozen dog food market in the Boston area.   Breeder’s Own Dog Foods needs a strong marketing campaign to convince consumers their brand is superior to

After careful review of each of the elements in launching this product, the following analysis can be determined. Zenith has to answer a specific series of questions in order to decide if their product of Show Circuit dog food will be a viable product. The market was in fact correctly segmented, although Zenith needs to see the shopping behavior of those willing to spend more on pet food. Marketing in a supermarket could inhibit the potential growth of the product. Because the market is already segmented and offered such a variety of dog foods, Zenith will have to market the product correctly and focus in on the benefits to be successful. Show Circuit needs to seek a position of a higher quality product in a different, more convenient location. It is important to play up how the location is a benefit rather than a detriment. This goes along with the sales program being successful. Show

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.

Caninantics’s mission is to be the leader in introducing innovative, dog food dispensing product to the market. Through close customer contact and excellent relationships, Caninantics, will meet the needs of the customers. Caninantics, LLC, is a privately-held corporation and maintains an office and a small warehouse in a mixed-use area of North Beach. Three of the four investors in the company have full operational responsibility, the co-founders, have both entrepreneurial and industry experience to brings operational management, marketing, and financial skills

to buy them expensive dog kibble from the store. People who have a dog spend

Conventional marketing has appealed to consumers based on the idea that the pet food is enjoyed by the animal. Our product marketing will instead appeal to the parental instinct in pet owners, emphasizing health characteristics such as omega-3, senior pet health supplements, and calcium enrichment. Our preliminary research leads us to believe that consumers feel lost in determining which foods are safe, and which are potentially dangerous for their pets. Our campaign will attempt to create a memorable campaign to classify the relative health and safety qualities of a particular product in a simple way.