Executive Summary
Introduction
Company Background
The Mr. Bean Group Limited is a Singaporean based food and beverage retailer registered with an intra vires role of production, packaging and distribution of soya bean-based foods, food products, and drinks. The company, founded in 1995, produces soya milk as its major product among other products such as beancurd, grass jelly, soya beans, ice creams and pancakes. It is a subsidiary of the larger Super Bean International Company, and it has a considerably large market share in the South-east Asia. The Group has a sizable number of outlets including 50 outlets in Singapore and an additional five outlets in Japan, Philippines, and China. This places it in a better position to satisfy the increasing demand for convenience goods by consumers in the aforementioned countries (Zarella, 2010). The growing demand is well evident in the company’s growing revenue and profit. In the previous fiscal year, 2014/ 2015, the company’s revenue and profit grew by 6.6% and 10.3% respectively.
Product Background
Soya milk is a soya beans product that is manufactured by soaking squeezed soya beans in water followed by sieving or simply using the soy milk machine. Production of homemade soya milk is common in Central and South East Asia. In fact, Soya milk and soya beans form the traditional staple food of most East Asian ethnic groups. Soya milk as a product has considerable strengths derived from the fact that consumers are aware of its benefits. Most of the consumers go for Soya milk as a protein supplement; as an alternative to dairy milk and meat. Even so, the product has considerable weaknesses derived from the fact that a sizable number of medical practitioners and nutritionists cite the product as a controversial one with many health effects. Some of the health effects associated with Soya milk include high levels of phytoestrogens and phytic acid that are harmful to the health of consumers.
Competitor Analysis
While the Mr. Bean’s Company positions itself as one that provides a variety of soya milk with the most nutrients, Lao Ban (one of its competitors) positions itself as the most nutritious soya milk, provide in spite of the few milk varieties. Consumers who go for nutrients rather than a variety to choose from, therefore, go for Lao Ban’s soya milk. Jollibean, on the other hand, focuses on variety and positions itself as a variety provider and ignores nutrition. The assumption made when marketing its products is that consumers assume that all soya milk products are of equal nutritional value.
Looking at the unit price of the soya milk offered in the market by the three companies, Mr. Bean uses a rapid skimming strategy. This is where the product is introduced in the market with considerably high price and high promotion (Blick, 2011). As evident in the product’s life cycle, this market entry strategy has, however, been derailing sales. Jollibean, on the other hand, adopts a rapid penetration strategy where the product is introduced to the market at a low price and high promotion. As such, customers are informed of the product’s existence and the products demand is increased due to the low price offering. For this reason, newly introduced soya milk varieties from Jollibean approach the market with mega sales. Lao Ban introduces its new soya milk varieties with a slow penetration strategy (Pulizzi, 2014). In this case, the products are introduced with a low price and low promotion. Consumers are attracted to them due to the low price. However, information regarding their existence takes long before it reaches the target consumers due to the low promotion.
Macro Analysis
Political
Singapore is one of the most politically stable nations in Asia and, therefore, ranks to be one of the most attractive countries as far as political stability is concerned. In spite of its ethnically mixed population (composed of Chinese, Malay, Indians amongst other groups), the country registered a political stability index of 1.53 on a scale of -2.5 as the least stable and 2.5 as the most stable.
Economic
As at the end of 2013, the population of Singapore was estimated to be 5.399 million with a GDP of USD 297.9 billion representing 0.50% of the world economy. This is a fairly large economy considering that Singapore is considerably small going by the land area covered. The average annual GDP growth of the country is 2%. Singapore has a well been rated as one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Socio-Cultural
As at 2013, the literacy rate of Singapore was 97%. This implies that at least 97% of the total population (persons above 15 years of age) are in a position to read and write. Literacy provides a suitable platform for businesses to thrive.
Technological
A report released in November 2015 proved that technological advancement in Singapore was on the rise and that it rose at the highest rate ever. The report provided that in 2014, 74% of citizens beyond the age of 50 used the computer at least once every three months. These are senior citizens. Even without conducting a detailed research study, it is evident that most junior citizens are more technologically advanced than the senior citizens. In a nutshell, the country is of the fastest growing based on technology.
Physical Environment
Most of the roads in Singapore were constructed between 1980 and today. As such, they are modern, highly developed and well-maintained. It has two public airports and one airstrip with several military airbuses. Further the country has an old but well maintained major port known as the Port of Singapore.
Legal
Recently, the Singaporean parliament passed bills that encourage more investors into the country. The laws regulating businesses in Singapore are less strict, and they create a better business environment compared to other countries of its level. Rarely are there bottlenecks and unreasonable bureaucracies for entrepreneurs. Even so, there are provisions that one must comply with before initiating a business.
SWOT Analysis
Marketing Strategy
Segmentation of Consumer Profile
Figure 1: Pie Chart Showing Gender Population in Singapore
Source: Author
When Mr. Bean’s Products are segmented based on psychographic variables, different soya milk products are produced and packaged for people with different lifestyles, personality, and social classes (Peterson, 2007). In this case, the packaging, the price, and the market positioning hence market perception determine whether or not potential consumers in certain social classes will buy them or not. Mr. Bean’s consumer profile segmentation has been designed in such a manner that all potential soya milk consumers are captured in their specifications.
Figure 2: Pie Chart Showing Working Female Chinese Population in Singapore
Source: Author
As it had been pointed out earlier, consumer segmentation at Mr. Bean is also done on a geographical basis. As such, consumers are segmented based on their consumption regions. The pie chart below shows how the Mr. Bean Company could have segmented its consumers using resident and non-resident population.
Figure 3: Pie Chart Showing Resident and Non-Resident Population
Source: Author
Targeting
The product is accessible because the Mr. Bean Company has developed an effective supply chain that ensures that all its outlets are supplied with sufficient soya milk. The supply chain management team ensures that there is no single outlet that goes out of stock of any single product.
As it had been pointed out earlier, Mr. Bean’s target consumers are differentiable. The interests of kids between the ages of 0-9 years are easily distinguishable from the interests of the senior citizens. The basic soya milk product is the same, but the packaging and taste flavor could be different in a bid to distinguish the components of the target markets (Stokes & Lomax, 2008). Opening hours also proves the differentiability of a target consumer market. Opening very early in the morning before working hours is not meant for children but for working adults rushing to work but still aim to take a health morning meal.
Positioning
Figure 4: Perceptional Map
Source: Author
Marketing Mix
Product
Place
Among the main factors that interact when the location of a business is to be considered include human traffic, demographics, and competition. Social-culturally, Singaporeans are known for their love for dining outside (Hutt & Speh, 2013). As such, shopping malls form one of the most preferred choices. Other locations include train stations and bus terminals due to the considerably high human traffic ranging from non-working to working class.
Pricing
Pricing intends to increase brand awareness and the market share. The prices for other major competitors such as Jollibean form an important part of the pricing decisions. Mr. Bean will adopt a fair approach in pricing in which neither a single price is fine-tuned nor are local subsidiaries sanctioned total liberation in setting the price. The soya milk product can as well described based on the cost of living in Singapore. Further, the organization may use the cost-plus pricing method whereby commodities are priced using their cost of production plus a suitable and reasonable profit margin.
Promotion
A large number of people in Singapore own radios and televisions. As such, the most appropriate promotional channel is advertisement through radio and television. Personal selling and use of social media platforms should also be used in a bid to persuade potential customers. Moreover, sale promotion with dealer incentives accompanied by trade shows would play a key role towards the achievement of organizational rapid penetration strategy. In the long run, other elements of promotion such as public relations should as well be incorporated without fully dropping the tactical promotional methods. Public relations is expensive and should be used with a lot of caution (Cant, 2006). The company might also end up receiving a lot of publicity, in the long run, depending on the results of the tactical operations, plans and decisions.
Recommendations
Marketing Strategy
It is recommended that the company should identify and utilize other segmentation strategies such as behavioral segmentation that use the knowledge, attitude, use and response to a product, occasional segmentation that uses occasions where buyers get the idea to buy and benefits segmentation that uses the benefits that individuals accrue from use of certain products to segment the market.
Marketing Mix
It is recommended that the organization defines an elaborate distribution channel for its products. The company has a variety of options to choose from including zero level, one level, two level or three level distribution channels. The commodity being dealt with, however, compels the company to settle for a one or two level distribution channel since it is a perishable commodity. It is also recommended that, by any chance, the cost plus method of pricing should be dropped in the long run as it is a poor pricing method (Lilien et al., 2013). A floor for the price should also be set that covers all its costs for producing, distributing and selling the product and delivers a fair return for its effort and risk. After playing in the market for a while, the organization should be in a position to determine the market and demand limits. Economic factors in Canada should also be considered in the long term when setting the minimum price.
References
Blick, D. (2011). The ultimate small business marketing book. Surrey: Filament Publishing.
Cant, M. C. (2006). Marketing management. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta.
Hutt, M. D., & Speh, T. W. (2013). Business marketing management: B2B. Australia: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of Marketing: Study guide. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Lilien, G. L., Rangaswamy, A., & De, B. A. (2013). Principles of marketing engineering. State College (Pa.: DecisionPro.
Peterson, R. (2007). Principles of marketing. Delhi: Global Media.
Pulizzi, J. (2014). Epic content marketing: How to tell a different story, break through the clutter, and win more customers by marketing less. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Stokes, D., & Lomax, W. (2008). Marketing: A brief introduction. S.l: Thomson.
Zarrella, D. (2010). The social media marketing book. Beijing: O'Reilly.
Zarrella, D., & Zarrella, A. (2011). The Facebook marketing book. Beijing: O'Reilly.
