What is Marketplace Success
To me, success in the marketplace can be summed up with three key factors. Each of these factors are equally important to each other, and all must be present in order for a company to truly be successful in the marketplace.
1. Making a profit – At the end of the day, making a profit is one of the top priorities of a good organization. Having your company “in the black” is a good indicator that you are doing better, at least in one area, than other companies struggling to break even. Making a profit allows your company a larger pool of resources to expand or try new approaches without being too worried about finances.
2. Brand Awareness/Recognition – What good is a brand if nobody knows what it is? Brand awareness is important because it shows that people think about your brand, which means that when it comes down to making a decision about a product, your brand is thrown into the mix as a potential choice.
3. Making a positive contribution to the world – People may have different opinions about what “positive” means, but as long as you feel that you are truly giving something back to the world, or even just your market, it doesn’t matter what that “something” is. Practicing ethical business, becoming more sustainable, or sponsoring a not-for-profit organization are a few examples that a company can do to make the world a better place.
Differentiation
Differentiation is a characteristic about your product or brand that distinguishes you from your competitors. It makes your product different than the other competing “generic” brands and gives a reason for consumers to choose your product over somebody else’s. In theory, it is simple – create a product that is different than your competitors, which makes it superior to theirs, and consumers will come flocking in to buy your product over another. The difficulty arises when figuring out WHAT is different that the countless competition (especially in the produce market) and HOW to make it different. The communication of these differences is also necessary to educate the consumers about your product. During our project with Origin Organic Farms, we researched and debated amongst each other about what made OriginO different from other produce growers. We visited their greenhouses and found that their growing techniques were extremely up-to-date and much more efficient than other produce growers. They communicated this through much of their marketing materials; posters and pamphlets stressing the advanced technology and efficiency of their greenhouses.
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is about building relationships and forging loyalties with consumers. It is also about being relevant to a consumer – if you give them a reason to buy your product, they will. Your product must MEAN something to the consumer and IMPROVE their lives, or else it is useless to them. The challenge to relationship marketing, like differentiation, is to find out what is relevant to consumers and how your product can communicate this. Relationship marketing builds consumer loyalty; if you can touch something within your consumers by becoming relevant to their lives, you make a connection with them that they won’t soon forget. With OriginO, they focused all their marketing efforts towards educating the consumer about how technologically advanced their growing practices were, however, we found that consumers didn’t really care about their growing techniques. Consumers wanted things that meant something to them – healthiness, good tasting, and sustainable, to name a few.
Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Being a sustainable company means making as little of an environmental footprint into the earth as possible. Many people, in this age, are putting more emphasis into the importance of saving the earth and keeping it green. We have found that, unless we change our ways, we are going to destroy the world at an exponential rate by overusing her resources and polluting the earth. Sustainability is also a good indicator that your company cares about being ethical, which appeals to the consumer because consumers love a good and honest company. The challenge with being a sustainable company is the time and capital it takes to R&D environmentally friendly techniques, and to STAY sustainable in the future with new practices. With OriginO, they HAVE been practicing sustainable business, but have had trouble communicating this fact with their consumers. Effectively communication would increase their brand equity and have a positive effect on the consumer’s esteem of their brand.
Supply Chain Management
The supply chain is basically “how a product gets from being a raw material into your household”. Good supply chain management includes “getting the right product, at the right price, to the right store, at the right quantity, to the right customer, and at the right time, which results in higher profits” (Tim Huh’s COMM 399 Class). The challenge to supply chain management is finding what is “right” in all of those areas. With OriginO, we found that one of the largest problems that they had was in the area of distribution – how to get their produce to retailers. Their main distributor, Oppenheimer, was a large US distributor which exported a very large portion of their products to the US. Being aligned with Oppenheimer created two problems for OriginO; one being that people mistook them, a Canadian company, for being American and second, because Oppenheimer was so large and OriginO relied on them, OriginO had little negotiating power as to the setting of prices or locations they wanted to ship their products to. We found that OriginO was working to fix this problem, by attempting to start self-distribution, but realizes that it is a long process and still a while away.
Product Line Management
Product line management is ensuring that the variety of products offered by your company is the right amount and the right mix. It is important because, the more products you offer, the more recognizable your brand will be to consumers. Consumers who regularly buy one product from a brand and are looking for another product may stick to the same brand because they have had good experiences with the brand or are just comfortable with the brand because they trust them. Challenges to product line management is keeping the “right” amount of product offerings and making sure the mix of products is also “right”. With OriginO, their flagship product was tomatoes – on the vine, cherry, and grape to name a few. They also offered seasonal cucumbers and peppers, which is in line with their market of produce (it wouldn’t make sense for them to make something else, say, bread). Although they had a small assortment of produce offered, they ensured that their main product was exceptional in taste, nutrition, and looks, which may help them in the future, if they decide to grow other produce. We did address this in the report, but realized that the limited resources that they had was not feasible for them to grow other produce, at this time, due to the large amount of time and capital required to R&D.
How They Tie In
All of these marketing concepts – differentiation, relationship marketing, sustainable competitive advantage, supply chain management, and product line management all relate to the three key factors of marketplace success. Each of them adds to making profits, increasing brand recognition, and making the world a better place. At the moment, OriginO seems to be struggling with marketplace success because of problems in some of these areas, but are on the right track to fixing these problems and becoming a truly successful company.
