OUNTRY FARMHOUSE SOY PRODUCTS

The future had looked bleak when Kevin D'Aguilar had lost his job at Breads Continental Foods, after 23 years of service. However, when his wife told him about Soy Projects International which was seeking partners to manufacture and sell soya products in Caribbean countries, he quickly jumped at the idea.

Although he did not any formal research, Mr. D'Aguilar, who is a vegan, knew that there was a market for non-meat products as he had firsthand experience due to his own difficulty in getting these products to eat. The rise in animal rights groups and animal prone disease scares such as the mad cow disease also provided an increase in people seeking non meat protein alternatives. Indeed, CFS gave Mr. D'Aguilar an ideal opportunity to turn his healthy vegan life style living into a business by making and selling tofu.

Mr. D'Aguilar used his redundancy payment and started Country Farmhouse Soy Projects in 2008 with technical and production support from Soy Projects International. The business which was operated on a shoe-string budget, was located in Duhaney Park, St. Andrew, Jamaica. It had two full time and two part-time staff working out of a tiny 10 X 40 foot shed, at the back of the D'Aguilars house. They produced 1500 pounds of tofu per week for sale. Great effort was made to keep production efficient. Only one type of tofu was made while the other competitors offered at least two types of tofu. Keeping staffing low and production equipment fully utilized while reducing raw material and set up cost by making only one type of tofu have allowed CFS to price its tofu less that its competitors.

In 2010, CFS sold its tofu (firm) for $260 for the 549g package. The tofu, made from soya, was placed in clear plastic bags with water with a simple label marked "Country Farm House Soy Tofufirm. Lee Kee's which is a local producer sold their tofu for $308 for the 549g firm and $315 for the soft version while Mori_Nu tofu was priced at $270 for a 334g (firm) and $285 for the 344 g (soft) package. Mori-Nu which is imported from the USA is packed in attractively designed tetra boxes which allows the tofu to last longer

CFS sells its tofu directly to restaurants and health food stores in Kingston from its own premises and from its sale vans. Some of the products were sold at a weekly market sponsored by the Jamaican Vegetarian Society. CFS does not sell directly to individual consumers and households.

Despite the need to have its product widely available in Jamaica, distribution has been a sore point at CFS as Mr. D'Aguilar is reluctant in giving perks or paying supermarkets to stock CFS tofu on their shelves. As such, most of its products are restricted to the tri-parish area of Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine and are not in major supermarkets.

Mr. D'Aguilar's approach to business was another area where his views had affected the promotion of the company and its product. He felt that "if you made the right product at a low price sold from the right place, then 'fancy marketing' was not necessary". As such not much promotional activities were done.

The challenges facing CFS were many but common to many growing mom and pop shop as well as larger companies. They all had the tasks of satisfying customers' needs better than the competition which required businesses to analyse, plan implement and control their operating activities.

Despite or inspite of the challenges facing CFS, the company has seen a continuous growth in sales since its inception. Buoyed by the increased sales, Mr. D'Aguilar was envisioning increasing the company's output by acquiring additional production equipment and expending its distribution reach. There was no formal mission statement to guide the firm's growth but t his move would be in congruence with his vision of being leaders in the provision of healthy nonmeat protein alternatives while reducing production cost.

Nevertheless, as the new marketing manager, you know that any attempt to develop or expand the business should be done after a proper analysis and understanding of the environment and the impact it will have on the business. This would help the business in providing customer satisfaction and improving company's profitability.

TASKS

As the new marketing manager for CFS, prepare a report to Mr. D'Aguilar that gives an understanding of the market the company is operating in. Your report should specifically identify the key core concepts of marketing in relation to CFS and covers the following:

1. Identification of the needs, wants and demands being filled by CFS?
2. Explanation of Marketing Myopia. Determine which marketing philosophy is being used by CFS and state whether it suffers from Marketing Myopia. Why?
3. Identification of the four (4) elements and corresponding variables of the marketing mix for CFS.
4. Proposal for mission, vision and value statements for CFS. State two (2) reasons why these statements are important to CFS.
5. Outline of the marketing process steps that CFS needs to do to satisfy its customers efficiently and effectively.