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MARKETING ASSIGNMENT NO. 1 Which concept is used by Mc Cain Foods? McCain is the largest producer of chips in the world today. Founded in 1957 by the four McCain brothers, it has grown to hold 33% of the market share for chips production and it has over 20,000 employees working in 57 different locations worldwide. The company is operated from the UK, and is especially big over there. Even though, McCain Foods produce a pretty unhealthy product, that being different brands of chips, it has worked for over 30 years to improve the healthiness of the products. It has worked, even though it's still not the most healthiest thing, it certainly isn't the worst either. They are very outright about what is in their product. To make themselves different from other products, and try to help people with maintaining a healthy diet, they are very straight forward about how many calories and how much fat is in their products. In an attempt to create a healthy image for themselves, McCain Foods sponsors UK Athletics to promote the Track and Field sport in the UK and also the government's Change4life campaign, which encourages people to “Eat Well, Move More, Live Longer”. It focuses on the casual joe's of the world, and the importance of them exercising and eating healthy. McCain's brand message is “It's all good”. It has the philosophy that it needs to create a good relationship with it's customers, and listen to their feedback. They do so by sending a newsletter, which the customers can respond to with complaints, ideas of improvement, and just general feelings about their products. They believe that it is important to take care of the environment. Their factories are located near key potato growing areas, in order to prevent food miles. Food miles is how long the food has to be transported, to reach the factories. That of course is good for the environment, because it prevents long transports with it in cars, planes, ships etc. In one of it's factories in the UK it has installed 3 125m high wind turbines, which creates electricity to the factory. McCain foods also strives to get a good image going by helping different charities and generally try to help the community. So really, the concept of McCain Foods is to make food that is quick to make, but also healthy. Describe the needs and wants of the users of Mc Cain products. McCain Foods is a basic physical need, in that it is food. It is also a want, in that a person needs food but wants a McCain Foods product, maybe because of the good taste of the product, or because it is a relatively healthy thing to eat, that is easy to make. You can put a McCain product for an example in a microwave, and a few minutes later it is ready for consumption. So obviously it attracts itself to people with long and hardworking jobs, who really don't have time to make something themselves. Of course a person like that could just go to McDonald's on their way home, or order a pizza, but the fact that McCain products are seen as a bit more healthy, definitely helps them. The general trend nowadays seems to be that you need to watch what you eat, and try to follow a healthy diet. Since McCain Foods have embraced that trend, and are marketing themselves as healthy, they are very attractive to modern hardworking people. McCain Foods focuses both on people wanting to live healthy, and also on people just wanting a good tasting snack. Outside of offering chips, it offers frozen vegetables, but also frozen deserts. By doing so, it offers products to a wider range of people, than if it just sold healthy food, or just sold deserts. You can also say it's a social thing to eat, because the company also sell their products for use in canteens and restaurants. Discuss why Mc Cain is sponsoring athletes as a part of their marketing mix. I have already sort of answered this question earlier in the assignment, but I will try and elaborate a little bit more on it. I would say they are doing this to create a better image for themselves. As mentioned earlier, they focus a lot on their products being healthy, and with good reason too. McCain Foods are of course in heavy battle with other “fast food” alternatives, and by creating a healthier image for themselves, they might attract more costumers who don't have time to make their own food, but still want to eat healthy. In a time where your health is seen as more and more important, to sponsor something involving sports will gather you a better image. Why do you think McDonald's or Coca Cola sponsors something like the Olympics? It is to get their name associated with something healthy, and thereby creating an image, that their product is healthy. That is exactly what McCain hope to gain out of this sponsorship. This well tuned athlete eats our product, and is strong, healthy and able to achieve big things. It gives the company great PR, obviously, if the athlete ends up winning an Olympic gold medal. The sponsorship also fits well in with McCain Foods' whole strategy to promote their food as healthy, and to help the community. It focuses a lot on healthy living, and by giving money to Track and Field it will also give them good PR. It gives them good PR in the sense that it helps a local sports club, so parents with kids participating in it, will probably get a good feeling of the company and might want to support them by buying their products. All very important parts of running a successful business. Discuss the pros and cons of the Boston Matrix in general. The Boston Consulting Group Growth-Share Matrix basically shows the worth of a companies different products. It has four different categories a product can be in; Question mark: That is mostly a new product, where you are not yet sure whether the product will be profitable or not. Star: A star is what companies hope their question mark will turn into. It is basically a product that has a high market share in a market that is growing quickly. For an example: The Apple iPhone is a star, because it has a high market share in a growing market, but Apple also has to invest a lot of money in it to keep it there. Cash Cow: They are products that maybe have been stars before, but still make the company a lot of money, and still have a high market share, though in a low growth market. For an example Nokia mobile phones used to be stars, but are now cash cows because they still lead that market, but it's a market that is not growing. The advantage of a cash cow is that you don't have to invest a lot of money in developing the product, and it can finance more question marks, that could eventually turn into stars. Dog: A dog is something no companies want. It could be a question mark that never became anything, or a product that has been through all the steps, and is now ready to get taken off the market. It may be because technology, innovation or trends have changed. A perfect example of this are VHS recorders. They were a growing market for many years, before DVD players were invented and completely changed the technology. Suddenly no one wanted a VHS recorder, and it quickly died out.