The Group Work - Coursework Example

Part A and Part B Contents Contents 2 Part A 3 Conclusion 3 Learning 3 Issues experienced 5 Part B 6 Anita Roddick (The Body Shop) 6 Ingvar Feodor Kamprad (IKEA) 6 Origin of the company 7 Value adding Process 9 Huddles 10 Customer Segmentation 11 Competitor 12 Marketing channels 12 References 13 Part A Conclusion Learning The group work has helped us to learn one thing that before developing a new business idea related with a product, fixing the target customers is significantly important. During the course of this group work, it has been observed that proper targeted customer’s i.e. deaf and hard hearing people of UK have been identified. From this thing we have learned the importance of targeted customer identification. The group project has clearly showcased that identifying a proper organization for the purpose of new product development is significantly important. That is why Huawei has been selected for the purpose of new product development. The group work has made us aware that, it is important to judge the market potentiality of an organization on the basis of its competition, organizational characteristics, distribution channel and marketing. Any kind of new product development requires some degrees of investments. It is highly important to invest the money into the proper product and company. The collective work has categorically indicated that investments for the new product development always should be done in a calculative way after significant analysis. The group work has assisted us to learn that, product designing is an important factor as far as the new product development is concerned. It has also indicated that in the highly competitive market of electronic gadgets, product differentiation is also required. Here in this case product up gradation has been chosen for the purpose of smart watch (Mukherjee, 2009). During the course of this group work we have noticed that innovative thinking is highly required for the purpose of product up gradation. Without innovative thinking we would not have come up with these new features. The selected group work has taught us that each and every extra device has its own specific functions and operations. It means all the newly added devices have their own advantages and superior functionalities, which provides competitive advantages to the upgraded product. The group work has helped us to learn one thing that, strategic partnership is significantly important for the purpose of new product up gradation (Kahn, 2012). It has also indicated that selecting the right strategic partner is also a highly important matter which can promote the service effectively. Here in this case UK government and NHS have been chosen as the strategic partners. The group work has also pointed out one thing that, appropriate strategic partnership can provide significant competitive advantage in the market. It has been observed in the group project that, due to the appropriate selection of strategic partners Huawei will be able to sell the upgraded product in cheaper price than the other competitors available in the market. It also can promote the new product extensively. During the course of this group work one thing has been clear that understanding the characteristics of customers on the basis of their demographics, psychographics and brand loyalty is very much important. Industry analysis is also very much essential as far as the new service up gradation is concerned (Kahn, 2006). It provides the real picture about the industry. The group project has clearly indicated that identifying proper channel of marketing is significantly important and for the purpose of new product up gradation a suitable combination of both direct and indirect marketing is utterly suitable (Fuller, 2011). One more thing we have able to learn that selection of direct and indirect marketing channels should be done according to the nature of the product. Issues experienced In case of any new ideas issues will be there. When the ideas are coming from a bunch of people the chance of arising issues are much higher. Here in this case one issue rose when the concept of strategic partnership came into our minds (Barclay, Dann and Holroyd, 2010). All the group members were providing their suggestions. A situation of information overloading took place which created significant issue as far as our focus is concerned. It created high degree of confusion into our minds and we were totally clueless for the selection purpose of the strategic partners. Getting the contentious from all group members was another issue (Barclay, Dann and Holroyd, 2010). Members with varying opinion were prioritizing various things and according to that were coming out with various options. Choosing the base company for the upgraded product was also an important issue. Many options were present in front of us as the base company. We were significantly confused about the organizational selection. We were confused because through which parameters potentiality of the company can be measured was not known to us (Annacchino, 2003). We found serious issues for the purpose of new product design. Our business objective is to gain long term competitive advantage out of our new product. It created lots of challenges for us. At first we were not finding the new features for the purpose of long term competitive advantage out of the new product (Annacchino, 2011). Our targeted customers were fixed but we faced significant issues to identify the future trends of those customers. It was a major issue that the whole group has experienced. Due to this issue the group was finding it difficult to understand the viability of the project. During the course of the group work all the ideas were not noted down by us in a formal or structured way (Rafinejad, 2007). All the group members noted it down in a rough way. It created lots of problem when we tried to connect all the ideas with each other. Many ideas were missing and some of the ideas were there in scattered way. It took unnecessary time to bring all the ideas together. Selection of the various marketing channels also was a prominent issue for the whole group. Developing the idea of proper combination between direct and indirect marketing channels created headache for us. All the above discussions are indicating that several issues were experienced during the time of stringing the ideas. The new business product idea of the group was not at all free from issues. Part B Anita Roddick (The Body Shop) Dame Anita Roddick is always counted in the list of world’s best known social entrepreneurs. She was one of the rare business women who are famous for her true social works and success in its business. She expired in 2007. Her work is continued. Her company still follows the principles and the core value stated by its founder (Bamber, et.al. 2011). Roddick have left exceptional impression about the practice of business in an ethical way. From the beginning the Roddick made charitable and social issues in the main focus of the company. She was famous for initiating ethical business ways in the industry. Her company was the first initiator of fair trade and prohibiting animal testing for cosmetic products. Ingvar Feodor Kamprad (IKEA) The founder of IKEA is Ingvar Feodor Kamprad. He was born in 1926. IKEA is a Swedish retail company of furniture. A business magazine reported that this entrepreneur has become the world’s wealthiest person and have suppressed Bill Gates (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 2008). In its early age learned the way of making good profit. He is a wise man and a brilliant marketer. Origin of the company The Body Shop International PLC is a cosmetic company. It was founded in 26th March 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick. The company has its headquarters in Littlehampton, West Sussex, and England. Presently the company has the range of 1200 variety of products which includes make up and cosmetic products. Anita Roddick in 1970 visited The Body Shop store in car garage and repairs in California. It sold scented lotion and soaps (Boxall & Purcell, 2007). It was run by Jane Saunder & Peggy Short. After six years Roddick opened a same type of shop in UK by the same name, cosmetic lines and colour scheme. In 1987 she gave 3.5 million to Saunder & Short and changed their shop’s name to Body Time. It was again renamed and finally launched in 1976. The company had its rapid growth from its starting and expanded at a rate of 50% per year. The time when Anita Roddick started her first shop she did not expected to become rich. Rather she hoped to keep her business with her body shop store. Her simple plan was to create various cosmetic products with the help of natural ingredients. She combined low marketing strategies educated its customers and activated socialism. Anita Roddick was born in England. From its very childhood she has a craving for adventure. In the latter part of her life in absence of her husband she opened the cosmetic shop. In her shop she offered discounts to her customers who came with their empty container for keeping low cost in packaging. This entrepreneur avoided advertising and focused on her social cause which promoted her business and gave in store pamphlets for selling its products. The combination of her good public relation, unique product and her highly defined values with her well trained staff gave a huge popularity to her business. For her extra ordinary entrepreneurial skills she made a remarkable growth in her business and opened her second store (Beardwell & et.al. 2004). In 1977 The Body Shop became very popular and it started to sell its franchises. Gradually its growth became high. From 1982 new stores of body shop was opening in a rate of two per month. In 1984 the entrepreneur made The Body Shop as public for capitalizing its massive expansion. The company was so popular that after one day of trading the price of its stocks were doubled and continued to rise rapidly till the late of 1980s as many of its franchises were developed in US and Europe. The company name IKEA was formed from the initial of Kamprads and his village Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd where he was brought up. The company deals in the furniture product. He expanded his business in different types of goods like jewellery, watches, wallets etc. He developed his abilities to make calls to its potential customers. He converted that process into operations. The entrepreneur hired local milk vans to deliver its products (Briscoe & Schuler, 2008). In 1947 he expanded the company product line by introducing furniture as a product. It was a hit decision. The company started generating good revenue from this new product line. Then in 1951 Kamprad decided to stop the business of all other product lines and give its sole focus on the furniture business. In 1953 the company opened its first showroom under the guidance of Kamprad. The showroom was opened mainly to handle the completion. The company was involved in a price war with its major competitor. Therefore the entrepreneur decided to open the showroom in order to allow the people to see, touch and purchase its produce (Onkvisit and Shaw, 2009). The company distributed booklets to its customers which were named as IKEA News. In the early 50’s he brought a small factory in Sweden which permitted him to make the production flow cheaper for his furniture. He took unusual steps to for the survival of his business. From Polish suppliers he acquired furniture components at a cheap price. In this way this entrepreneur made a strong foundation of IKEA and created future strategies for the company. In the early 60’s Kamprad went to US and learned about the system o0f cash and carry trade. He opened the second store of IKEA in 1965. Sales of the company increased rapidly for its cheap priced product. This entrepreneur also expanded his company internationally in many countries of the world (Dicken, 2011). Value adding Process The main reason of Roddicks achievement was her active interest in the social works. Her supported social causes are Amnesty International, Greenpeace, banning animal testing, saving rainforest. She kept her company far from the competition and generated a base of loyal customers. Roddick’s efforts for her business were very prominent so the people felt good to in purchasing its product (Wetherly and Otter, 2014). Her efforts became positive for business which increased the sale of its products. At the end of 1992 the company has 700 Body Shop stores which generated $231 million revenue. Throughout her career Anita Roddick showed her talent of gaining free publicity. Unlike other this successful entrepreneur did a number of social services for benefitting people. She believes that an organisation have a responsibility to reward back something to the world and the community. For this reason the franchisees of The Body Shop were bound to support some environmental projects or social activities of local communities. She also encouraged the company to support the employee of each store in involving in at least one community projects. Roddick believed that lack of formal management system and plan was highly involved in the organisational structure of the company. IKEA plays an important in the value in doing social activities. Kamprad adopted such policies by which the company manufactures products which meet the safety and requirement of the children. He also encourages IKEA to evaluate risk assessment based on the need of the children. The company under the guidance of its entrepreneur gives regular training to the children for their development (Inter IKEA Systems B.V., 2012). He believes in the sustainable product development so the company makes and packs it’s the products according to that. He has also set the criteria’s for its suppliers to deliver products meeting environmental requirements. The company produces recyclable products. Huddles The Body shop grew its popularity and the entrepreneur gave more attention the social causes. She launched many environmental projects but did not launched new products for her business. This gave the opportunity to its competitors capturing The Body Shops customer base. The critics also published negative things about the company’s. All this resulted in the loss of sale and decrease in profit of The Body Shop (Thompson and Martin, 2010). In 1996 the entrepreneur realised that her company badly needed a change for existence in the competition. She then again focused on the day to day business of the company and hired the managing director Stuart Rose. Under their guidance the company was restructured rapidly (IKEA Group). They hired many other professional managers, installed streamlining process and tight control of inventory. But all these things were not sufficient for the business. The company still then faced a decline in sales. For this negative financial performance of the company Roddick left the CEO post of her company and appointed Patrick Gourney (Cullen and Parboteeah, 2009). She framed out the company’s US franchises to Bellamy Retail Group. In 1999 The Body Shop under the supervision on Roddick the company announced that it gave up manufacturing and focused on its retail section. This decision was projected well. But still there is a doubt that if the entrepreneur will be able to gain the loyalty of customers. Giving the information of products and not employing high budget advertising for selling its products (Ireland, Hoskisson and Hitt, 2011). Kamprad faced the huddle of the rise of furniture price which affected his company. Then he created new concepts like developing suburban stores with large parking, cash carry concept etc area by which the company adopted itself with the modern life. Presently the entrepreneur is also facing the huddle of strong competition for its different competitors. In the comparison it is well established that Roddick faced many huddles for holding the position of its business and presently the company is facing a threat. Whereas Kamprad handled his business in very tactful way which stills makes his company profitable (Ireland, Hoskisson and Hitt, 2008). Customer Segmentation The Body Shop has stores worldwide. The company sells various products at different places. The company focused on the quality life. Its products are affordable to the middle and upper class people (Aswathappa, 2008). Most of its products are for women and a little part of its products is for men. The company target the person who uses organic products. Its main target age group is 20-25. Earlier the company only focused on beauty products but now it produces variety of skin care products. Kamprad priced its good very low (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). Therefore it has a wide range of targeted customers. The company’s customer base includes middle class, upper class and also the children. By the ide3a of the entrepreneur the company deliver huge range of products which satisfies the requirement of its all customers. Its variety of household and personal goods attracts many women. Competitor The Body Shop’s main competitors are the retailers who produce beauty products. The companies are like Lush, Aveda, Yves Rocher, Maybelline New York etc. Though The Body Shop is a very old company having its strong presence in the market but still it is facing challenges from its new competitors. They are very interested to take risk and develop new products. Lush has become a strong competitor of it with a high growth rate. Maybelline New York is also promoting itself rapidly (Partridge and Sinclair-Hunt, 2005). Ingvar Feodor Kamprad faced a strong competition from its rival companies like American Furniture Warehouse, Ashley Furniture and Walmart etc. They manufacture stylish home furniture which is similar like IKEA. For a long time IKEA is into this business. Therefore Kamprad is well aware of the taste of its customers. But for the presence of much furniture company people are purchasing the products after comparing some brands (Combe, 2014). Marketing channels The Body Shop entrepreneur had marketed its products through many franchisees covering maximum part of the world. The company also follows indirect marketing channels of emailing its customers. Apart from the retail store the company has its online store from where people can directly purchase its products. Kamprad marketed his company’s product in many countries of the word. 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