Developing a Project Plan: Frozen Pizzas - Assignment Example

DЕVЕLОРING А РRОJЕСT РLАN - FRОZЕN РIZZАS Various forms of competition have prompted myriads of organisations that are aiming at being globally competitive to seek new methods of marketing their products (Freimer &Horsky 2008, p.799). “Competitive advantage is secured through an intelligent identification and satisfaction of customers’ needs better than competitors and sustenance of customers’ satisfaction through better customer service tools” (Obasan & Soyebo 2012, p.1). In the attempt to acquire requisite responses from the potential customers, marketers deploy a myriad of tools. These tools are termed as marketing mix. McCarthy (1999) coined and used P’s to describe these marketing mixes in which he argues that the umbrella of the marketing mix comprises the price, promotion, and product, and place (p.24). With the appropriate combination of these elements, an organisation can develop a strategy that will enable it reach large numbers of people within the target segments (Shannon1996, p.57). However, in the determination of these mixes, the time through which changes can be effected is crucial. In this end, Obasan and Soyebo (2012) assert, “Typically, a firm can change its price, sales-force size, and advertising expenditures in the short run” (p.2). On the other hand, an organisation will have to take a lot of time to create new products. Consistent with this argument, Obasan and Soyebo (2012) reckon, “firms typically make fewer period-to-period marketing-mix changes in the short run than the number of marketing-mix decision variables might suggest” (p.2). Winning in the marketplace means that businesses and project teams must build in a customer-focused strategy, identifying and exploiting competitive advantage. Pizza is an oven-baked, round bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings. Its origin dates in Naples Italy. There are many varieties of pizza that exists worldwide. This is dependent on how they are baked and the types of ingredients used. HISTORY OF PIZZA Originated in Greek and it was initially developed as flat bread with a tomato topping. There have been great innovations branding the flat bread with tomato topping the name pizza. Initially Europeans believed that it was poisonous. However by the late 18th C, people around Naples added tomato to their yeast-based flat bread and so the pizza began. This dish gained its popularity and soon it became a tourism attraction as visitors to Naples ventured into the poorer areas of the city to try the local specialty. It was initially sold in open air stands and out pizza bakeries. There are various types of pizza depending on different countries, for instance, a home-made pizza from Australia that is made from ingredients such as salmon, dill, bocconcini and tiger prawns. This can be compared to the pizzas made using chocolate that are served as a dessert among others. The introduction of frozen pizza exemplifies the application of consumer segmentation strategies. Unlike most other products, pizza is referred to as highly differentiated brand products. Consequently, information about the lifestyle and values of the various target groups is considered very important, and is carefully incorporated into the final products. Such information derives primarily from consumer segmentation strategies, of which Norwegian Pizza is the most important. The categorization of pizza as a highly differentiated brand product is partly normative, in the sense that it implies that consumer segmentation profiles ought to be taken into account. At the same time, it may be seen as a reflection of the current state of affairs; the wide range of pizza products on the market does differ in ways that might be considered significant. For Viking Food’s, the promotion of pizza represents an interesting challenge, in the sense that it offers a good opportunity to practice brand identification. Frozen Pizza was introduced in Norway by the establishment of a well-known pizza restaurant in Oslo named Peppe’s in 1970. Quickly adopted as a popular meeting place for youth in the city and the suburbs, the American-inspired restaurant was very successful, and two other Peppe’s restaurant was opened within the first few years. Since then, the number of pizza restaurants and take-away services has steadily increased. In 1993, there were more than 30 restaurants and/or take away services explicitly marketing pizza in Oslo. In fact, pizza is the dish that is most frequently referred to in the list of Oslo restaurants. The popularity of fresh pizza in Norway is only surpassed by the popularity of frozen pizza. In the mid 1970s, when Peppe’s was well established, a major food manufacturer launched frozen pizza on the Norwegian market. Within the next few years, two other manufacturers followed suit. Still, the popularity of frozen pizza did not really take off until the early 1980s. Since then, the total sale of frozen pizza has steadily increased until it reached a total of approximately 14 million frozen pizzas sold in 1991. The popularity of frozen pizza in Norway has, to some extent, also granted manufacturers the privilege to define what a proper pizza should be like. In parts of Norway where no freshly made commercial pizza was yet available (and the familiarity with Italian cuisine was still fairly limited), frozen pizza sometimes set the standard of what a proper pizza should be like. During the processes of appropriation, pizza has been transformed, both at the material and at the symbolic levels. First of all, the material product referred to as pizza is materially quite different from its original Italian counterpart. However, in other to gain customers, frozen pizza should contain meat. The Frozen pizza must be manufactured to identify consumer need for high-quality frozen pizza. Numerous consumer-based quantitative and qualitative tests should be identified and the main source of consumer dissatisfaction with frozen pizza (its dry cardboard-like crust) must be identified. Additionally, just because the product has entered the development stage is no reason to turn inward. The customer must be an integral part of the development process. Furthermore, when conducting various customer investigations, be sure to spend sometime on launch issues, gaining insights into the customer’s buying behaviour`- the “who, what, when, where and how” of the purchase decision. With this knowledge, you are better able to craft the market launch plan; for example, your marketing communications, collateral materials, and trade show plans. Pricing is an important facet of market launch plan; thus, the market plan and voice-of-customer must deal with the issue of quantifying value to the customer- what the product is worth or what is its economic impact on the customer. Understanding customer value is fundamental to designing a superior product with a compelling value proposition, and hence the key to success. To understand value, be sure to go beyond what customers say they want-customer wants, requests and specifications. SCOPE OF THE PROJECT The project seeks to establish or develop a business idea of baking pizzas that would attract more customers so as to increase the profit margin. This idea is developed so as to shun away from previous methods used to prepare pizzas. This is why we have come up with idea of developing pizzas that are more appealing and attractive to customers as compared to other varieties available in the market The objectives of this project are to: Maximize on the collection of revenue from the marketing of frozen pizzas Attracting more customers so as to increase the organization target market Introduce food labeling (frozen pizza) that would enable consumers to make the best decision when choosing the type of pizza to buy To establish a pizza an organization in a strategic location that will attract more customers thus increasing the target market To be a leading organization in providing best pizzas BENEFITS OF ESTABLISHING A FROZEN PIZZA COMPANY Frozen pizzas contain lycopene which is contained in tomato products that tends to reduce chances of developing cancer It will create job opportunities for the people within Mena region It will increase the revenue of the country through provision of extra taxes that can be used in the development of other economic sectors OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT PROJECT The current project entails baking of frozen pizzas using locally available ingredients. It involves the use of local labor that is provided by the residents of the Mena city. It therefore focuses on mass production of frozen pizzas so as to serve the local market. Because of the need to maximize the profit margins and increase the revenue of the country, there is need to plan for such an efficient project. THE MANAGEMENT APROACH The management has therefore engaged in marketing of frozen pizzas by targeting on a narrow niche market for instance parties, occasions that cater for the niche consumer by using organic products. This makes this company cost effective. It has also decided to gain customers by attracting them with value added features on them. Also in the frozen pizza business they have decided to increase the quality of the pizzas by using premium ingredients and customize them. CONSTRAINTS AND CHALLENGES FACING FROZEN PIZZA COMPANY IN MENA CITY. 1. Financial constraints. The cost of setting up a frozen pizza company is extremely high, for instance, the amount of money required for the purchase of raw materials like tomatoes, baking flour and paying the workers poses a great challenge 2. Marketability The marketing of frozen pizzas may prove to be a difficult task due to the availability of different varieties of pizzas 3. The location of frozen pizza company may have negative implications to the company, for instance, if it is not strategically located near the market it may be difficult for the company to maximize on the profit margins 4. Storage Frozen pizzas are made from ingredients that are highly depreciable. Therefore if they don’t reach the market within the stipulated time then they may go bad and be a loss to the company 5. Health risk Mass produced pizzas by food chains have been criticized as having an unhealthy balance of ingredients, for example, frozen pizzas can be high in salt, calories and fats. These are negative healthy effects. For example some pizzas have high salt content which is twice that recommended for an adult. RISK ASSESSMENT (i) Quantitative method of risk evaluation An operation risk refers to the risk of losses resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems, or external events. There are three distinct approaches that can be used: Basic indicator approach Standardized approach Advanced measurement approach Basing on this we are going to base on advanced measurement approach to quantify the risk evaluation This is because this method allows the bank to use the internally generated risk estimates. The bankers must meet the following preconditions. (a) Banks must meet qualitative standards before being allowed to use the advanced measurement approach (b) Banks must meet quantitative standards before being allowed to use the advanced measurement approach Risk mitigation via insurance must be possible Given the continuing evolution of analytical approaches for operational risk, the committee is not specifying the approach or distributional assunptions used to generate the operation risk measures for regulatory capital purposes. For instance, the total loss amount can be calculated as follows in the equation. Total loss amount be denoted by N(t) the (random) number of losses over a fixed period [0,t] and write X1, X2,….. for the individual losses. The aggregate loss is S N (t) = ∑ X Remarks FSN(t)(x) = P(SN(t) Read More