The Country's Best Yogurt (Tcby) Case Study Essay

This results from the fact that it is a mature segment with many well established companies vying for market share. The industry is highly consolidated and very fragmented. To grow their businesses, companies rely heavily on mergers and acquisitions to capture additional market share. Historically, the grocery industry has been characterized by slow growth which results in strong price competition and the development of aggressive marketing campaigns between existing firms. Perceived product quality and strong brand recognition by consumers are the basis of competition among firms in the industry. The source of General Mills’ competitive advantage lies in its ability to develop innovative products and highly reputable brands. As a result, they hold cost leadership positions across a number of grocery categories. Exhibit 1 shows the top US companies according to their sale of packaged foods globally. Market leaders include Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Nestle, Mars, Kellogg, and General Mills, however, neither company possess an overwhelming share of global sales. This is in part due to the large degree of product diversity throughout the industry and the strong brand rivalry of each competitor’s labels.

Trader Joe's faces several threats to its business, as competitors try to invade the company’s niche and attempt to imitate the company’s core strategies. The supermarket industry itself faces a major threat, as larger chains such as grocery retailers Wal-Mart and Tesco have begun to open small-format stores that mimic the Trader Joe's approach. This invasion results in additional cost pressure for incumbents like Trader Joe’s, which had to let go employees in order to become more cost competitive.

In order to keep his company ahead of the competition, he realized that further innovation should be a top priority. This has been full filled by opening a unique retail store in New York City called Chobani SoHo. Consumers now are part of the experience by directly contributing towards the creation of new yogurt flavors. In addition, this unique store is a very good place ,right in the heart of the metropolitan area of the city, for promoting the products but

We believe that Ice-Fili, to stop the decline in its market share, should focus on the market opportunities in the Russian ice cream market. The main opportunity seems to lie in consumers’ behavior. They only consider ice cream as an "on the go" snack. Ice-Fili should use all possible means to create a change in their way of consumption. It would be doubly useful as it would both increase ice cream sales in restaurants but also in supermarkets so that families eat them at home.

With giants such as Walmart, and Kroger running the grocery store industry it’s difficult for companies such as Smuckers to bargain for shelf-space and prices. Brand name items drawn to the center of the store are what leverages these companies to succeed in the industry. After numerous acquisitions and strategic alliances, Smuckers developed a solid core of product lines which experienced success rapidly. Product lines that experienced the most success as a result of strong positioning in the industry included their Coffee labels, flour and baking products, Oils and food spreads. A 9-Cell Industry Attractiveness/Business Strength Matrix shows that the Industry attractiveness is relatively moderate. With many competitors and strong buyer power from large grocery chains such as Kroger, companies such as Smuckers have explored different strategies that have proved successful in what can be described as a saturated industry. The case insinuates that there may be opportunities in the industry in regards to special markets and perhaps Oils and Baking with sugar free products, but otherwise the recession, although it drove families to buy store bought as opposed to eating out, has had its effects on the food service industry as well.

The second force that I will use to analyze the Trader Joe’s company is the “the rivalry among established competitors”. Factors to consider when looking at the rivalries in the industry are industry demand, cost conditions, and exit barriers. Trader Joe’s competitors include The Kroger Co., Whole Foods Market, and Safewat Inc., and all super markets in general (Llopis, 2011). With that said, there seems to be a high demand for what Trader Joe’s offers, private labels. This means that the intensity in the industry is less compared to an industry with a flat demand. Trader Joe’s does not have to fight hard to sell their products because of the service they have created. Trader Joe’s brand can be considered “diversity on steroids” which has somewhat of a cult following among consumers (Llopis, 2011). Consumers that want unique experiences with their food are able to do exactly that at

The ice cream industry is very a competitive field. Blue Bell has many competitors with a bigger budget and a bigger distribution channel. The company still manage to produce top brand ice cream to please its customers. According to the U.S Market for Ice Cream, “Sales nearly $12.2 Billion in 2005 with the sales of frozen, yogurt frozen desserts at scoop shops, restaurants and vending outlets. Three years ago there was a tremendous interest in ice cream nutrition panel. Other competitors were introducing product such as; low crab ice cream, no sugar added and low fat ice cream.

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.

We at Temple Consulting have completed an analysis of Ice-Fili’s current corporate standing using data collected over the past several years. Using tools such as Porter’s Approach and SWOT we have analyzed the internal and external environments and have recommended several strategic plans of action. Current areas for improvement such as marketing initiatives and re-evaluation of distribution channels will increase sales and profitability almost instantly. Long term plans such as lobbying against luxury tax on ice cream, partnerships with franchise vendors, and bringing new products to the market, performing an IPO, and planning more global efforts will help keep Ice-Fili rooted as the

As marketing manager of the RBG business, Ivan Guillen must propose a solution to repair Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RGB)’s business performance. Since the refrigerated-cookie product line consisted of 62% of RBG’s unit sales and over 75% of the company’s profits, Guillen found it appropriate to alter this segment in the market. Proposing this idea to GMCC would require Guillen to consider all the challenges he faces. Guillen will have to discover a strategy to increase household penetration since it has fallen to 24% in the past few years. The lack in market penetration has

Abstract – Yogurt is a product of lactic acid and lactose. In order to produce yogurt, milk is pasteurized (at 45 degrees Celsius) and the inoculum is added followed by incubation. Over a period of 7 days, yoghurt fermentation was attempted using lactobacillus cultures. A liter of milk was supplied and plain yoghurt was used as a starter culture as it contains the necessary bacteria to ferment lactose and produce lactic acid. The milk was added to a flask: then boiled, cooled and inoculated. The milk was incubated for a week and all the while the milk was tested for changes in pH, density, mass and physical changes. The values obtained were then used to determine the growth kinetics of Lactobacillus bulgaricus.

This case involves a mid-sized, regional grocery store chain called Reed Supermarkets. Reed has 192 retail stores, two regional distribution centers and 21,000 employees in five states in the Midwest of the United States. This case discusses Reed’s market strategy for the Columbus, Ohio, market in particular, which is one of Reed’s largest markets. The Columbus market has grown slightly over the past five years, while Reed’s market share has dwindled slightly in the market. Reed has watched their market share stagnate with the entrance of new competitors (10% growth in stores) and a dramatic shift in customer preferences to value or

b. Instead of producing a large product line, Pamberton and Krispy Natural should use a niche strategy and stick with a few products in the “Crackers with Filling” market. The four products that they should launch in this market are: white cheddar, creamy Swiss, tomato basil and smoked Gouda. These products have the highest positive purchase intent and the highest percent of testers that preferred the taste of Krispy Natural over leading brands. Eliminating some of the product line will enable the Pamberton trucks to continue carrying the line without running out of room, so they can keep the same distribution.

1. Decline in competitor popularity – As frozen yogurt seems to have reached its maximum tier, this creates an opportunity for an ice cream business to obtain more of the market share.

Besides sales increment, the number of ice-cream manufacturers, parlour and restaurants has grown and they are gaining popularity by introducing new flavours of ice-cream and providing a comfortable environment. Supermarkets play a role in supporting the sales by selling multipack ice-cream and bulk ice-cream. (SeowMIee, 2011) Hence, we will use PEST, SWOT and Porter's five forces analysis to analyse the industry.