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Dax Go

Marketplace Success

For me, marketplace success is achieved when a company knows what their product and brand is, identifies their target market successfully, knows what features and benefits their product offers, and uses all these to promote a clear and consistent message which eventually translate into sales.

Promotions

Promotions is the use of media vehicles to let people know or be aware about a product or brand. Promotions can be anything from TV advertisements, posters, flyers, marketing stunts, booths, endorsements, billboards, etc. Promotions is important for marketplace success because without it, it is impossible to let people know the differentiating factors that the product or brand has compared to its other competitors. With so many competitors in the market, promotions allows a company to differentiate themselves and provides the venue for the company to send the marketing message they want to convey to the public. Promotions is closely connected to an identified target market. Knowing the target market allows marketing efforts to be more fine-tuned to the characteristics and lifestyle of the target market. A challenge with promotions is to decide which venues would make the most impact. In the case of Origin Organics, we had to debate which promotions (sampling booths,  merchandising, etc) was the best way to increase brand awareness.

Target Market

Having a target market means knowing who you want your product to be geared towards to. Knowing your target market allows a company to narrow its marketing efforts thereby decreasing marketing expenses while increasing marketing effectiveness. With a target segment, a company can have focus and know which actions to pursue. Target markets can be easily be dismissed but will actually give a company much more focus. A challenge in clarifying a target market is that most companies think that having a "everyone is our target market" is better than being specific because intuitively, having everyone as a consumer should mean more sales. However, what I gained from working with Origin Organics is that it’s hard to do promotions or positioning without a target market just because you don’t know what marketing actions to take. The only way to identify your target market is to sit down, do primary and secondary research, and ask a lot of questions about what the company wants to achieve.

Positioning

Positioning is where the company tries to create a specific image or identity of the brand or product to the consumers. Positioning is important to marketplace success because with all the brands out there, a company has to make sure that their brand is positioned in the way the company wants it to be. Being positioned allows consumers to understand the brand against competitors and can also help the brand be better remembered. A challenge to positioning is the difficulty of deciding where the brand should be positioned. For instance, our group was tackling what message Origin Organics should send in their promotions. Should we position ourselves as a local company or as a very sustainable company? If both, which one should be the primary one? Basing our decision on the research we gathered, which showed that most people value locally grown produce as more important, being locally grown was one of the message we chose.

Product Type

I also realized the importance of product type. Whether the product was a low involvement or high involvement product greatly affected the product's promotions. A low-involvement product meant that promotions had to be more emotional than factual. If facts were presented, facts had to be presented in a way that was easy and short to read. People didn’t really want to read a long list of reasons of why to buy the brand. Knowing this can greatly help companies with their promotions and make better marketing decisions that lead to marketplace success. In choosing what marketing venues to use, we had to consider that tomatoes were a low involvement product and so they commonly weren’t given a lot of thought when being purchased, we decided that some marketing venues were better than others. Providing wallpapers around the superstores that detailed the technological aspects of the sustainable program of Origin Organics wasn’t as effective as a simple blow up of a sliced tomato that showed what benefits and features the consumers could get out of it. The later was more visual, more eye-catching, shorter, and better. We also decided that using social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) wasn’t as effective as using taste test, which allowed consumers to actually taste and interact with these low involvement products.

Brand Equity

Brand equity is how the brand is perceived, its awareness, its personality, who it is. It’s important for marketplace success because companies that have a lot of good brand equity usually are the brands that are well-known and usually bought by consumers just because consumers know what the brand is all about. Origin Organics had low brand equity. Not a lot of people were even aware that they existed. What I learned was that promotions are closely tied to brand equity. If the marketing message is consistent, brand equity will eventually build up and  consumers will eventually know what the brand stands for. A challenge is that brand equity takes a long time to build and making sure that the brand logo, slogan, and other marketing campaigns are consistent with each other takes a lot of effort.

Summary

This project allowed me an opportunity to learn a lot of about different marketing concepts and their importance in making marketing choices. Promotions, targeting, product type, positioning, and brand equity are all important factors to consider for an organization's success in the marketplace.

Matt Chow

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.

Sam Do

Define Success In the Marketplace
Success in the marketplace is ultimately being able see progress in a company’s performance from implementation of a marketing plan. It is also very crucial to measure the effects of the marketing plans so that the company knows what works as well this measurement can be shown as evidence to the board for financial backing or increase/retain the marketing budget.  


Brand Equity 
Brand equity can be seen as the value of the brand. The brand’s value may be seen by stripping away some aspects of a current product and making the exactly the same as generic brand. Then we put your brand on one product and put a generic brand on the other exactly the same product and compare which one performs better in sales. We discovered in our research/survey that for low involvement products like tomatoes, which people don’t think too much about the product before they buy it as opposed to the idea of buying a 70” plasma TV where you have to think about as it is a “big” decision, people are likely to buy tomatoes that belong to a brand with high reputation. According to our research, Origin also has very low market penetration. Not a lot of people know about them or have ever tried their product. Brand equity can still be built up as Origin is still a growing company. Brand equity is extremely important in these lower involvement products or even commodities because in this case, the only differentiator will be the brand. Therefore in types of markets, brand equity plays a big role in market success. Brand equity is very difficult to build especially when shifting focuses and when just starting a new brand. 


Targeting 
Initially, our team thought that the target market for organic tomatoes is the typical mother of three with an education and on a higher income bracket as found in researches done by the government. These are only the current most frequent buyers of organic produce but not exactly but part of the intended target market of an organic tomato producer. We had the thought of targeting families and individuals who had higher income(s)/education(s), but we discovered that the intended target market for an organic tomato producer was: “health conscious and/or environmentally friendly”. It was a psychographic rather than a demographic. It is very important to know the target before jumping into conclusions. This will save the company money and time. 


Positioning 
To target a certain psychographic and build up brand equity, a company has to know what position it wants in the consumer’s mind and what realistic position it wants in the market. Positioning is where the company would want to be seen at in a consumer’s perception map. The price set by the company has to somehow relate to the consumer’s perceived value of the brand. The company has to set the proper and desirable points of difference for its products as well as establish competitive points of parity with its competitors. The recommendations our team gave Origin showed extensive competitive points showing health benefits and environmental benefits over the competition where they (Origin) still needed to work on. 


Sustainable 
Competitive Advantage A sustainable competitive advantage is a huge success factor to any company. This can be utilized as (but not necessarily) the center of the product’s marketing plan. This could be a patented technology, trade secret or any advantage you have over the competition. In Origin’s case, their advantage is in their production process and does not really translate as a direct benefit to the consumer. A competitive advantage can be used in marketing only if the effect it gives to the consumer is unique. 


Vision, Mission, Goals 
 The Vision, Mission and Goals of a company has to be consistent with their brand. This has to be a strong foundation of values that the company can build upon. A clear vision, mission and goal is a key success factor for a company’s growth. Sometimes the market changes and overtime, the vision and goal might not suit the market’s needs. Similar to the Origin Organics case, a company has to change its vision, mission and goals overtime to suit the market’s needs. Their efforts to shift their direction from a more technology-oriented farm to a more local, nutritional company had to be done to incorporate the consumer’s perceptions and lifestyles. 


How they All Tie Up 
Brand equity is built upon a strong vision/mission statement driven by a clear goal of a company that is communicated to the public. The right target is also required to further this building of brand equity as well as the right positioning of the company/product. The sustainable advantage of a company may be communicated to the public through its positioning and differentiation.

Marina Tran-Vu

Differentiation 
A company’s unique product offering to a market is essential in it succeeding in the marketplace.  In order for a brand or a company to be distinguished, it must be known for something, and this point of differentiation must be compelling to the consumers that the company targets.  It is this point of differentiation that yields a brand’s marginal opportunity within a marketplace in terms of financial success.  In addition, while a brand must be differentiated, this point must be relevant to the target consumer on all levels of the product and brands.  Differentiation can ultimately be categorized in to the brand’s associations (benefits, reliability, design, price, value); brand imagery (brand identity, social frames) and consumer insight associations (consumer needs and wants).   In the case of Origin Organics, the company’s largest differentiating factors were the products’ unique nutritional value and its production methods.  However, while the company had these properties in place, it struggled to portray to its target audience these factors.  In addition, the company focused highly on its irrigation methods as a point of differentiation, while not being aware of the fact that general consumers find the technological aspects of production irrelevant to their associations with organic produce.   In addition, the company’s strong focus on nutritional and technological product values seemed to largely ignore the most important parities of produce; taste and price.  By focusing on trying to make its points of differentiation relevant to its consumers, Origin Organics will be able to build a distinguished position in the market.

Defining a Target Market 
Targeting a certain consumer is also essential to a company’s success in the marketplace, as it allows the company to focus its product offerings and marketing communications.  Doing so can determine the effectiveness of a company’s business efforts and allow it to measure areas of success and needed improvements. Origin Organics previously had no defined consumer segment, opting to target the entire market of produce consumers.  This generalized target dampened the company’s ability to focus its marketing communications, resulting in very non-unique and non-personalized marketing messages to the consumers.  The company failed to determine which consumers would be highly affected by its differentiated factors and thus, only received minor success in the marketplace it its initial launch of its brand.  Through defining a certain target segment, the company will be able to better understand the needs of the consumers that it needs to meet and how to best communicate its solutions to the consumer’s desires.

Positioning
Positioning a product in the market considers how it is able to uncover, meet and deliver to the needs and wants of consumers.  A company’s products must be relevant to the consumer’s desires and be in touch with their tastes and preferences.  This can be done in its differentiating factors, perceptions of price versus quality and brand reputation.  This unique positioning in the market is necessary to establish points of parity with competitors.   While Origin Organics certainly had a unique positioning in the market, it has not been successful in establishing its position in the market, nor communicating it to its customers and consumers.  The company still suffers from low recognition and low perceived differentiation which has affected its ability to position itself.   

Branding
Branding is considered to be a distinguished name, mark, or symbol that is used to indicate a company’s source of origin, quality and differentiation.  It is used to influence consumer preferences by signalling quality, commanding a price premium, leveraging awareness and meaning in new categories, and influencing channel acceptance.  This influence drives associations that affect the perceptions and shapes the attitudes and behaviours with a brand.  Branding can be evaluated on three levels: brand awareness (consideration set of retrieval), brand association (differentiation, reasons for purchase) and brand loyalty (consumer retention).  Origin Organics’ brand, while unique in its position, received very low awareness in the marketplace with little recognition by consumers.  The company’s brand logo also was considered to be undistinguished in the marketplace, confused often with the Safeway private-label brand “O”.  This confusion and low brand awareness has affected consumer purchase decisions when deciding between commodity products, ultimately damaging the company’s ability to perform in the market.  

Integrated Marketing Communications 
Integrated marketing communications considers all marketing messages that are communicated to the market over time.  A company must not only be able to send a consistent message to its consumers, but must make sure to keep this message current.  Effective marketing tactics affect brand equity, brand and product awareness, and brand sustainability.   With Origin Organics, its marketing was confusing with its use of seemingly unrelated images in its communications, an unclear brand tagline (“best of both worlds”), and low general brand awareness.  By clearly defining what message it wants to communicate to its audience, the company will be able to provide consistent communication to consumers that will allow it to definitively establish a position in the consumer’s minds and allow for easy recognition of the brand’s marketing.

Joe Santos

How do you define marketplace success?

Marketplace success, in my opinion, is being able to take into account all the factors of the marketplace and transform it into an effective business model. By understanding the different business environment characteristics, a company will be able to provide the best possible product. Although this definition may be associated with the ideal situation in which the company is able to collect and interpret all information, the concept of being successful in the marketplace can be simplified and interpreted as providing a product or service that provides added value to consumers. Brand equity, market research, differentiation, segmentation and measurability are five concepts I have identified as contributors to the success within the marketplace. 

“What do these terms even mean? Why are they important?”


Brand Equity

The first term, brand equity, can be interpreted as how much a particular brand name is worth. In other words, brand equity relates to the reputation of the brand and its effect on making the product or service more appealing than other similar products or services. When consumers choose to buy a branded product at a higher price as opposed to a similar no name product, the difference in price paid is a measure of the brand equity. Brand equity can be “gained” or “produced” through different means. A company’s reputation, involvement within the community, product quality, and packaging are just a few of the factors that contribute to brand equity. Brand equity is an important concept because often consumers will make purchase decisions based on what’s behind the company name. Within our studies regarding produce purchases, we found that although the brand name alone may not be important to consumers, they often associate the aspects of organic or environmentally friendly with brand and show more willingness to purchase. 


Market Research

The second concept, market research, is important as it can give insight into the minds of consumers and market. Simply put, through market research companies can gain useful information to help in their creation of a marketing strategy. Through observations, surveys, interviews, and discussion groups certain information can help companies create marketing plans that are more effective. Further, companies can use programs to interpret the information and tie their results together to discover new directions for their marketing plans. When implementing market research throughout our OriginO marketing plan, our team was able to discover which strategies were effective and which were not. 


Differentiation

The third term, differentiation, is a fancy way of saying how your product stands out from other products that are similar. Differentiation and positioning are key in achieving success within the marketplace because through effective use of these strategies you can set yourself apart from the competition. In a sense, differentiation is like providing the consumer with a reason to purchase or use your product or service over others. In our project with OriginO differentiation was a key concept because of the vast amounts of produce farmers and the growing organic industry. One goal for our marketing plan was to differentiate the OriginO product from being just another tomato and provide a positioning strategy that would allow the brand to experience short and long term growth.


Segmentation

The fourth term, segmentation, can be interpreted as separating the market into different groups based on certain characteristics such as age, location, sex, and lifestyle. These categorizations of consumers can be marketed to in different ways based on their classifications. Overall, it means that companies must know their consumers and decide how they want to reach each grouping. Segmentation is important as it allows marketing strategies to be more concise and specific to a group or demographic that a company wants to address. In the OriginO project, our group was able to gain insight as to which strategies would be most effective by first defining the family members which shopped for produce.


Measurability of Strategies

The fifth concept, measurability of strategies, can be understood as being able to see how much of an effect the particular marketing strategy had on improving your standing within the marketplace. The ability to measure a strategy means that the initial goal must be clear and attainable. A goal like “be the best”, for example, is hard to judge if you have achieved it or not. Having a measurable strategy allows for reevaluation and tweaking to better target consumers in following periods.


How do these concepts tie in with one another?

In all of these concepts and throughout the project the general underlying theme is taking into account as much information regarding the business environment and integrating it into a strategy that will increase the company’s success within the marketplace. By taking into account the characteristics of the market environment, the characteristics of consumers, and the strategies of competitors, a company can create a marketing plan that will be effective in targeting their current and potential customers. Further, by implementing a strategy that is measurable in its effectiveness, companies are able to re-evaluate their strategies and add new research and be flexible with market changes.


What are the challenges to these concepts?

In perfect conditions a company would have all information regarding the market and be able to interpret it to create the ideal marketing strategy. These concepts, however, are very sensitive to changes in information and consumer opinion. Realistically, companies will not have all information readily available to them when constructing their marketing plans. Market research and measurable strategies will help in creating an effective business plan but cannot take into account the constant changes within the business environment. Further, companies are subject to consumer opinions that can damage brand equity and differentiation easily. One bad review or negative news coverage can sway consumers against a brand and hurt the marketing strategy in place.

Anthony Pan

In a competitive market, companies and corporations need to be well prepared in all aspects of its industry to be successful. If a company does not fully research its own industry, they may be overcastted by all their competitors. For a company such as Origin Organics to succeed in its own marketplace, thorough analysis, a well structured mission statement, a specific target market, and a technology-based marketing campaign is important.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Porter’s five forces is an analysis of a competitive industry that allow for the company to have an overview of the current situations in a market. Companies may sometimes fail to see the bigger picture as they are too focused on increasing revenue and generating a profit. For example, to be able to know the bargaining power of its suppliers, the bargaining power of its customers, the threats of new entrants, the threats of substitute products, and its competitive rivalry pose for a great advantage over new and under researched companies. In certain situations, the management team of a company may not have the ability to increase or decrease the retail price of its product. As the scenario with our client, Origin Organics is in an agreement with one of its distributors that prevents them from altering the price. However, for other companies that have more power, Porter’s five forces allow them to re-evaluate their current position to either move forward or take a step back.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is another important marketing concept that provides a competitive edge for a company. It allows the company to review its line of products by looking at its current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. They can then incorporate their research findings towards a strategic plan that will allow them to develop. SWOT analysis can also be a useful tool for decision-making situations. To be successful in any marketplace, a company needs to find innovative ways to put themselves in a better position than their competitors. The SWOT analysis provides essential information for the company in areas in which they can improve on. For example, Origin Organics is currently in a stage of rebuilding their brand image. The analysis will provide the marketing team of Origin Organics with weaknesses of their current brand, and replace them with specific advantages of the new rebranded image.

Visions, Missions, and Goals

Visions, missions, and goals of a company are key components to a successful company. Before a company can begin to thrive in a fierce and competitive market, they must be able to set a consistent yet effective mission statement. This includes having every department and level of management having the same goal for the company. If for example the marketing department and the board of directors have different visions for the company, the direction of the company will clash causing major problems for consumers to recognize their brand. At times, if a company’s current vision is not being recognized by its consumers, it may be a time to head back to reconstruct a better goal for the company. Using Origin Organics as an example, they used to be technology-oriented company; however, with its current position in the market, they realized it was time to approach its consumers as a locally produced nutritious product.

Target Market

When marketing a specific product, it is necessary to know who the target market is. As promotional material is produced, it should correspond to the correct demographic that will be using or purchasing that product. A company can lose out on a significant amount of revenue if they cater to the wrong target market as they will be uninterested in any form of media used to promote the product. However, there are exceptions to this scenario; if a company feels that they already have a strong loyal group of customers, they will try to target a new segment in order to increase their market share. Origin Organics originally targeted older demographics that were frequent purchasers of their products, but they decided to target a larger segment by aiming towards customers that were health conscious of what they put in their mouth.

E-Marketing

Lastly, in a period where technology continues to advance, e-marketing is something in which companies should look into. With numerous social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook being frequented by every age group, it provides companies with additional opportunities to further their promotional efforts. Not only is e-marketing a cost effective method, but it provides a large amount of exposure to a company by everyone as it can be accessible by anyone. A downfall of using e-marketing is the uncontrollable amount of involvement by a specific product. If there is low involvement for a product, any form of media may be a weak form of promotion. For example, Origin Organics have followed such trends as they have a fan page on Facebook. Conversely to their original intentions, very few people view the page to find information about their products.

As there are many other marketing concepts that provide a successful advantage in a marketplace, the listed five are what I believe a company should focus on. They all funnel down to one motive: to better the company in providing them with a competitive edge over all other competitors. All marketing concepts provide the company with different areas of a marketing plan in which they can effectively implement.

*All examples used were taken from conversations between the Origin Organics Company*