Brief Case: Reliance Baking Soda Situation Analysis: Reliance Baking Soda is an established mature product that is common in households. The product is sold through several types of retailers and is often sold through promotions at both the consumer and trade level. As the year 2008 quickly approaches the domestic brand director is tasked to increase profits by 10% before SGA, overhead, and taxes in order to fund the launch of two new high priority products by 2008. Problem Definition: Baking soda is a boring product that has low turnover. Furthermore the brand has the current advertising campaign emphasizing on different ways to use baking soda can be assumed to not be very effective since advertising recollection is low.
Beatrice foods then found another new owner who bought Krispy Kreme; it was a group of franchisees led by Joseph Mcaleer. Beatrice Foods made some drastic changes in order to cut costs. • Using cheaper ingredients • Changing the appearance of the
Next instead of promoting from within, they searched for new blood and hired former Barney’s CEO Allen Questrom. Penney went on to sell one it’s direct marketing unit to raise capital to reduce debt. They restructured the company to focus on its struggling department stores, cutting employees and closing down many stores. By September 29, 2003, the culmination of CalPERS active investment in Penney, JC Penney seemed to right the ship and was able to streamline operations to be more efficient and profitable. Chronology of Events 2/22/00: CalPERS identifies 10 underperforming companies that will serve as their primary focus for corporate governance activism for the 2000 proxy season.
Consumers are buying more snack chips per person, an increase of 2 pounds over four years. * Frito-Lay is the worldwide leader manufacturing and marketing of snack chips. Frito-Lay is a national brand firm that distributes products nationwide. Frito-Lay accounts for 13 percent of snack-food sales in the United States, with about one half of retail sales in the snack chip category. Also, Frito-Lays has eight of the top ten selling snack chips.
| The Economics of Popcorn | ORVILLE REDENBACHER-CONAGRA FOODS | | Lucy Kamau | 3/4/2011 | | A big name in popcorn was Orville Redenbacher. Born in Valparaiso Indiana, he developed an interest in popcorn at an early age and starting experimenting with it as a teen. He graduated from Purdue, where he continued his research on popcorn. At age 44, he bought a seed company and at age 63 he started his popcorn company. His “gourmet” popcorn came out in 1971 when he was sixty four years old.
CRACKER JACK An analysis of potential brand acquisition by Diversified Products Corporation John Bry Sonja Gessling Phil Mark Sara Meinke Jordan Schulz Som Thamma Cindy Tsai Cohort C ‐ Team 4 CURRENT SITUATION ANALYSIS: Cracker Jack (CJ) is a classic American caramel-coated popcorn and peanut snack that was acquired by Frito-Lay (FL) in 1997.1,2 Sales peaked in 1998 to $100M but soon sank back to $30M per year and has remained at that level since.3 Several factors are attributed to this sales slump. FL incorporated CJ into its existing distribution model that utilizes Direct Store Delivery and packaged CJ in Mylar bags (as opposed to the classic boxes).They also shelved CJ with other Frito-Lay salty snack products such as Lays Potato Chips, despite 98% of consumers rating CJ as a sweet snack and not a salty one. 4 Although priced lower than the leading caramel corn brands, CJ still appears expensive when merchandised next to inexpensive potato chips. Consequently CJ has numerous misalignments and a comparatively low profit margin (8.2% compared to snack average of 20.5%).5,6 The low price point combined with rising commodity prices has forced FL to substantially cut the quality of the prizes found inside each box to control costs, angering long time consumers.7 CJ, having stagnant sales for the past ten years, has not received the support required for brand revitalization, instead relying on steady baseball stadium sales to survive.8 Overall CJ has become a neglected brand and is ripe for acquisition. MARKETING RECOMMENDATIONS: First, DPC will merchandise CJ with other caramel popcorns, which will permit a price increase of $0.29 (19.5%).
They were faced with a decision that had to be made promptly: to stay the small wholesale bakery or make their gourmet brownies. The bakery had been in operation for 20 months and experienced a steady increase in sales. This was due to their commitment to quality. They sold their goods to restaurants and specialty shops in the area. They used quality ingredients and mixed the product by hand and went by the rule of thumb that if they were not completely satisfied with the product they would not sell it to their customers.
The last letter he sent included a Snickers bar contaminated with a substance which was later identified as rat poison In the early 2000s, deep fried chocolate bars (including Snickers, and Mars bars) became popular at US state fairs, although they had been a local speciality in fish and chips shops in Scotland and England for some years despite containing an estimated 440 kilocalories per bar. A replacement for the king size Snickers bar was launched in the UK in 2004 and designed to conform to the September 2004 Food and Drink Federation. In the late 1990s, Snickers ran ads which featured someone making a self-inflicted mistake, with the voice-over saying "Not going anywhere for a while? Grab a Snickers!". One such ad had a player for a fictional American football team showing off his new tattoo of the team's logo on his back to his teammates.
Others may begin to think McDonalds is stepping into a new realm of service, looking to acquire a higher standard of customer, who in return will be looking for a higher quality menu and service. In 2001 the company tested McCafes in the United States to sell specialty coffee at McDonald's restaurants . But the drinks were not available at the drive-through windows that provide 2/3 of its business. McDonald's thinks its new plan has a greater chance of success. Shares of Mcdonald’s stock over the last two trading weeks (1/7-1/18) have dipped slightly, closing at just above $58 on 1/7/08, and $52.40 on 1/18/08 respectively.
An Overview - Company Situation and strategy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (KKD) which began as a family-owned business back in 1937 has started from a wholesale business selling to local grocery stores, extended business to company-owned retail stores and franchising business. Since taking the company public in 2000, KKD had shined out on Wall Street, where its stock price and profit quickly rose. Revenue and earnings grew at 20-25 percent per year. The stock has tripled in price since its initial public offering of 3.45 million shares at $21 per share. Until mid of 2004, the company faced a lot of problems which included declining in sales, falling revenues, failing franchisees, closing stores, having problems with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over false and misleading financial statement, and law suits.