Please read the article about the Ooooby Case and answer the multiple choice questions that follow.

Ooooby - Auckland food box business set to grow

Source: NZ Herald

Waiheke-based entrepreneur Pete Russell is on a mission to revive the local food market, one city at a time. After founding fruit and vegetable home delivery businessOoooby(Out Of Our Own Backyards) in Auckland nearly three years ago, Russell now operates the concept in Sydney, Waikato and Christchurch. Ooooby's mission is to put small-scale sustainable farming at the heart of the food system.

The self-declared "start-up guy" wants to makes locally-grown food as affordable and convenient as what people can buy in the supermarket. "We believe we can do that because we can cut a whole lot of fat out of the supply chain," Russell said. By applying the same technology and methods used in long distance supply chains, he aims to get local, natural food into the market at a competitive price without squeezing the farmer. "If we prototype that in Auckland, we can replicate from city to city," he said.

Russell started Ooooby as a social network about six years ago, building a community of local and organic growers who could trade tips, and swap seedlings and food. The network soon grew to 1500 members and Russell identified a viable food production group lacking a channel to market. "We figured 'what would happen if we could provide a way for these guys to tap into the market and make some money from their backyard?'" Ooooby has since grown to 16 part-time staff and a base of 100+ growers, and have delivered over 300,000 boxes of local and organic food to more than 30,000 homes.

In Auckland, growers deliver their food to a depot in Mt Wellington every Tuesday morning, where the boxes are packed to order and sent out in the afternoon. The food was usually picked that morning and carrying out all the work in one day meant there was no need for storage or double-handling, Russell said. A similar model is used in the other cities Ooooby operates in. Customers can choose from a variety of boxes, ranging in price from $20 for the 'Essentials Box' to $60 for the 'Big Mix Box'. Customers can also add individual items, such as miso paste, Bellbird Bread, free range eggs, among many other items, to their box orders.

"We've got a system now where we can cover all our expenses, pay everyone on less than 300 deliveries a week. So we've cracked it in terms of proving the financial model on a small customer base," Russell said. Growers were being paid a minimum of 50 per cent of the retail price. "They're getting paid well compared to if they were selling through traditional outlets," he said. Russell said the model was about being as lean as possible, leveraging off the fact that local food did not have to travel far.

Russell is originally from Australia, and has started a number of businesses there. One of the other businesses he started involved importing pastries from Europe, which were frozen and shipped across to Australia, then distributed throughout the country. "It was good money but I wasn't working on things that were fulfilling or inspiring. It was all about the money," he said. Russell said the biggest problem in the current industrial food system was that family-scale growers were fast "dropping off the vine. As the mainstream markets are consolidating and looking for efficiencies, they're not wanting to deal with 100 different suppliers. They want to deal with one supplier that can do the volume of 100." The result was that family growers were left selling at farmers markets, which were "a minute fraction" of the main market, Russell said.

End of Case

(i) Ooooby is positioning themselves using the slogan "Local, Sustainable Organic Food", Ooooby is positioning their offer ________________.

a.by attribute

b.by benefit

c.relative to their competition

d.on price/quality

e.by associating their offer with a specific use or application

(ii) Visitors to the Ooooby website have the ability to regulate the information they view and the activities in which they participate on the website. This is an example of:

a.control.

b.connectivity.

c.addressability.

d.accessibility.

e.interactivity.

(iii) Customers have reported to Ooooby that they are having problems with the consistency of delivery (e.g., sometimes the boxes arrive in the morning and sometimes they arrive in the afternoon). Ooooby is experiencing a problem that represents which special characteristic of services?

a.Heterogeneity

b.Intangibility

c.Inseparability

d.Perishability

e.Tangibility

(iv) Ooooby has decided to hire an advertising agency to help them develop a new advertising campaign. When the advertising agency translates the company's thoughts (meanings) into signs or symbols this is called:

a.noise.

b.transmission.

c.decoding.

d.encoding.

e.interference.