Independent Marketing Consultanting for Haagen-Dazs - Assignment Example

January 2004 – First Semester Assume that you are an independent marketing consultant for Haagen-Dazs. Q Analyse the major factors contributing to Haagen-Dazs’ success to date. What are the companys key weaknesses that Haagen-Dazs should address? Strong Points: Aside from offering the public with a luxurious quality ice-cream products, one of the major factors that contribute to the success of Haagen-Dazs is the company’s ability to create and establish a good brand name which being categorized as luxury ice-cream. Ice-cream products with an established private label are well patronized by the consumers in Europe and in the United Kingdom. Even though countries like the Germany and France is not much into buying products with an established brand name, it is still considered as one major factor that enables Haagen-Dazs to experience a rapid growth in the market shares. In fact, the brand value of Haagen-Dazs has become the top-ranked ice cream all over the world. Another strong point of Haagen-Dazs is its decision to penetrate the global countries particularly in Japan, the United States, Canada, London, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Taiwan, and South Korea. Reaching out for the global market contributes to a bigger global share for Haagen-Dazs. A good marketing strategy was used by the company in terms of their decision to penetrate the five-star hotels and high-class restaurants. The said marketing promotion by giving the customers who purchase at least a 500ml tub of Haagen-Dazs ice cream products would receive a free voucher which entitles them for a discounted meal for two among the participating restaurants. This strategy was effective in encourage the spread of word-of-mouth which creates a brand awareness for Haagen-Dazs. Lastly, the company uses a massive marketing distribution such as the retail stores, supermarket chains, delicatessen, cinemas, convenience stores, bakeries up to video stores, etc. Considering the good quality product, store outlets were carefully chosen by the marketers. Weak Points: Unlike in other multi-national companies that manufacture ice-cream products, Haagen-Dazs is focused only in producing luxury ice-cream. This makes Haagen-Dazs lose some market shares who prefers product that ranges between economy to standard quality ice-cream. When other competitors started to follow the foot-step of Haagen-Dazs in terms of producing an extra luxury ice cream at a much lower price, Haagen-Dazs was no where to go but to shred of some of their market shares with the competitors. The only way for Haagen-Dazs to be able to win back its market share is by producing a much better quality ice cream at the same price or produce a lower quality ice cream at a much lower price. Q.2 Which of the Haagen-Dazs’ quality is considered to be the most difficult for their competitors to duplicate and why? I believe that the strongest quality that Haagen-Dazs was able to create is establishing a very good brand name. The company was able to successfully position the brand name as a global luxury ice cream. Other competitors will have a hard time duplicating this quality from Haagen-Dazs since most of the other competitors were know to produce a much lower quality ice cream. Q.3 One of Haagen-Dazs main marketing strategy is to position its brand name as luxury ice cream producer. Advise if Haagen-Dazs should follow the strategy of its competitors and give reasons why. I believe that Haagen-Dazs should start following the strategy of its competitors in terms of creating a product that will suite the needs of the lower market. For instance, consumers in Germany are not really sensitive to brand name. For this reason, most of these consumers are more sensitive to price. The only way for Haagen-Dazs to be able to penetrate this lower market is to produce a lower quality product at a lower price. This marketing strategy could be promising in terms of being able to grab a bigger market share considering the huge population of the people in Germany. In the end, Haagen-Dazs would still earn a better profit annually. Q.4 Haagen-Dazs was able to maintain its image as the leader of ice cream wars despite the fact that its competitors was trying to grab Haagen-Dazs’ market share. Provide at least two reasons why this might be so. One of the main reason why Haagen-Dazs was able to maintain its image as the leader of ice cream wars is due to a good timing. Haagen-Dazs was the first one to penetrate the market for luxury ice cream. The customers already have a good impression on Haagen-Dazs for being the best producer of luxury ice cream. When Unilever tried to penetrate the Haagen-Dazs’ market by introducing Too Good To Be True – a zero fat or fat-free ice cream, Haagen-Dazs also immediately introduced its Weight Watcher ice-cream brand. This enabled Haagen-Dazs to stop Unilever from penetrating its market shares. Also, when Unilever introduces Super Premium ice cream to the market in order to compete with Haagen-Dazs’ luxury ice cream, the market did not respond to Unilever product. Perhaps this is because Unilever was “too late” or is only copying the market strategy of Haagen-Dazs which never was appealing to the eyes of the consumers. May / June 2004 – Second Semester Assume that you are an independent consultant for Haagen-Dazs. Q.1 The success of Haagen-Dazs’ is a reflection of a successful marketing strategy. To what extent do you agree with this statement? I strongly agree and it is very clear that the success of Haagen-Dazs is due to a successful marketing strategy since we all know that it was a good brand positioning and establishing a good brand name contributes a lot to Haagen-Dazs success in the global market. Despite the high costs of Haagen-Dazs ice cream, the company was still able to retain a huge market share from individuals who are sensitive to brand name and good quality product. Another point is that the marketing manager of Haagen-Dazs was able to implement an effective marketing distribution approach wherein the consumers started to spread the good news about Haagen-Dazs products through the word of mouth. Also, Haagen-Dazs was early in trying to penetrate the market for luxury ice cream. This makes it easier for the company to establish its brand name since there were not much competitors competing with Haagen-Dazs for the particular market share. Personally, I believe that the good quality products of Haagen-Dazs is also one main factor that enables the consumers to constantly or regularly patronize Haagen-Dazs ice cream. In case of a good marketing strategy, if the quality of Haagen-Dazs products is bad, the consumers may patronize or consume the product only for the sake of curiosity. However, Haagen-Dazs products have been tested in the market for more than 20 years already. Therefore, I conclude that it is the combination of a good marketing strategy and good quality product that makes Haagen-Dazs ice cream very successful. Q.2 Evaluate the ice cream industry where Haagen-Dazs competes. Who are Haagen-Dazs’s major competitors and why? Haagen-Dazs generally competes with three multi-national companies namely Unilever, Mars, Inc. of U.S.A., and Nestle of Switzerland. Among the three big multinational companies in Europe, Mars is considered to be the most important competitor in the ice cream market since the company has become successful for extending its chocolate product lines into the ice cream market at a premium price (meaning, at a higher price). On the other hand, Unilever and Nestle offers the market a wide range of quality product from economy to standard and luxury ice cream. This makes their market shares divided into the different levels of the market share. The three big companies are considered as Haagen-Dazs three of its major competitors since all these companies are also penetrating the global market. The ice cream industry in Europe where Haagen-Dazs competes gives so much importance on the brand name. Since most of the consumers are brand conscious, it is easier to sell Haagen-Dazs products to them considering the fact that the brand name has also become successful in the global markets aside from the good quality ice cream the company is offering to their customers. Q.3 One of Haagen-Dazs main strategic marketing options is to concentrate on its International Expansion. Analyse the main advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Should Haagen-Dazs select this strategy for the future and why? I believe that Haagen-Dazs should take the international expansion strategy for the future. Considering that Haagen-Dazs is only concentrating on selling luxury ice cream at a premium price, it is best for the company to concentrate on its international expansion due to the fact that there will always be a limited market for luxury ice cream in one country alone. It is a fact that not all people could afford spending as much as £3.29 for a Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Therefore, time will come that the company will exhaust all the market shares for Haagen-Dazs in Europe. For this reason, the company should start penetrating on the global market so as not to be left out by its major competitors in terms of grabbing the international market shares. The advantage of concentrating on developing its international expansion is the fact that the company will create much more market opportunity as well as establishing its brand name all over the world. The only disadvantage in doing so is the differential in the foreign currency. It is possible for the company to sell the product at a much lower price to be able to sell the product to some developing countries. Also, there will always be a chance that some countries will not patronize Haagen-Dazs because it is produced by another country; or due to the fact that its selling price is too high. Therefore, the international marketers should carefully study the cultural differences between different countries in order for them to minimize the risks of not becoming successful. June 2005 Assume that you are appointed as an independent consultant for Haagen-Dazs. Q.1 Considering the limited size of the market for Haagen-Dazs, which quality do you think makes the company better off than its competitors that serves a bigger market share than Haagen-Dazs? I believe that the fact that Haagen-Dazs is selling much more than the selling price offered by its competitors is what makes the company be able to generate more revenue despite its limited market shares. For example: Haagen-Dazs is selling at £3.29 per 500ml tub of vanilla ice cream while Dayvilles is selling the same product for only £1.49. It means that Dayvilles has to sell two 500 ml ice cream for every one 500 ml ice cream that Haagen-Dazs sold in order for both company to have almost the same revenue (£3.29 / £1.49 = 2.2). Q.2 Evaluate the selling nature of the ice cream industry. To what extent should Haagen-Dazs extend its marketing activities. The nature of selling ice cream could be season. We expect more people to buy ice cream during summer days or holiday season more than in winter season. For this reason, marketing managers have to be aware of the seasonality of the products being sold to the market. In case the season is suitable for selling and promoting ice cream products, then it would be the best time for the marketers to pursue their job in promoting the Haagen-Dazs ice cream. If it is winter season, marketers should not focus much on advertisements since the company would only end up losing money without being able to capture a lot of consumers in buying ice cream. Another point of consideration is when the competitor is taking its move in the promotion of their ice cream products. In case the competitor is trying to promote a new recipe in producing ice cream, Haagen-Dazs should immediately take actions in order to prevent the competitors from being able to grab the market shares of Haagen-Dazs. Q.3 Haagen-Dazs have decided to focus the business into International expansion. Imagine yourself as the International Marketing Manager for the company; suggest some ways in order to make the company successful in penetrating a foreign market. First, the marketing manager needs to study carefully the culture, tradition, lifestyle as well as the consumers’ behavior within the target country. For example, a country wherein the people are highly sophisticated and are mostly brand conscious such as in Singapore, it would be easier for Haagen-Dazs to have a better sales and profit margin better than selling the product in developing country such as in the Philippines. Second is for Haagen-Dazs to develop a lower quality ice cream to be sold in developing countries at a much lower price. Third, marketers should focus on the target country’s geographical location. It is necessary for the manager to determine the areas wherein sophisticated and high earning individuals normally shop or usually hang out. This will make the manager be able to reach out to the potential buyers of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Fourth, once the marketing manager have already chosen a country with good prospective consumers, it would be good to conduct a little promotional activity such as offering a free taste to prospective consumers, offering an introductory price for a period of one week, etc. *** End *** Read More