PURINA ONE SMARTBLEND DOG FOOD (CASE & BUYER SHEET)

For over 80 years, Purina has been making high-quality pet food and has championed pet welfare. Purina works to help create safe havens for domestic violence survivors and their pets. Purina also treats its employees well, as evidenced by Purina being ranked number 3 on the Best Places to Work.

Purina is committed to offering the best dog food in the world. "We were the first brand in grocery and mass retail stores to offer pet food with real meat, poultry, or fish as the #1 ingredient (starting in 1987). We have continued as a leader through our development of targeted nutrition. Our team of more than 400 Purina researchers around the globe is dedicated to providing best-in-class nutrition for your pet," says Dan Chausow of Purina Global Nutrition. One of the highest-quality brands that Purina sells is its Purina ONE SmartBlend brand.

Some features of ONE SmartBlend brand include:

Real meat, fish, or poultry is ALWAYS the number 1 ingredient

Shredded meaty morsels (U.S. patent pending)

Breakthrough use of botanical oils in senior formula

Over 85 years of innovation in pet nutrition

Only manufactured in company-owned facilities

No added artificial flavors or preservatives

Current users overwhelmingly like the product, with more than 93 percent indicating they would recommend Purina ONE to other dog owners.

Purina ONE SmartBlend comes in a variety of formulas (see its Web site for the most up- to-date list of products and prices, and information on each type):

1. True Instinct Formula

With Real Turkey & Venison Dog Food

With Real Salmon & Tuna Dog Food

Grain-Free Formula with Real Chicken & Sweet Potato Dog Food

Grain-Free Formula with Beef & Sweet Potato Dog Food

2. Puppy

Healthy Puppy Formula Premium Dog Food

Large Breed Puppy Formula Premium Dog Food

3. Adult Premium

Lamb & Rice Adult Formula Premium Dog Food

Chick & Rice Adult Formula Premium Dog Food

Small Bites Beef & Rice Adult Formula Premium Dog Food

Large Breed Adult Formula Premium Dog Food

Sensitive Systems Adult Formula Premium Dog Food

Healthy Weight Adult Formula Premium Dog Food

Vibrant Maturity 7+ Senior Formula Premium Dog Food

While prices can vary, we will assume these are suggested retail prices, based on size of the bag:

Purina offers the following noncumulative quantity discounts for resellers. (The total number of bags can be based on mixed items. Thus a reseller that buys 10 bags of True Instinct Formula with Real Turkey & Venison Dog Food and 31 bags of Large Breed Puppy Formula Premium Dog Food would get the 25 percent discount because it purchased 41 bags total in that single order).

Purina also offers a number of promotions for resellers. Resellers that set up an end-of-aisle display of at least 30 bags of a mix of sizes and flavors earn an extra 50 cents per bag discount on all bags purchased. For resellers that advertise Purina's products in the newspaper, there is a 50 percent co-op payment for the actual portion of the page cost of the advertisement. Thus, if a grocery store runs a newspaper ad that includes one-eight of a page for Purina's products, Purina will reimburse the grocery store for 50 percent of the cost of the ad.

There are a number of competitors in the premium dog food market that compete directly against the Purina ONE SmartBlend products, including IAMS ProActive Health and Rachael Ray Nutrish. There are also other premium dog foods, such as Natural Balance, Canidae, and Premium Edge. Plus, there are many private-label dog foods and other brands (ALPO, Wellness, Hills that sometimes compete for the same customers. Even Purina's Beyond Natural Dog Food, Purina ProPlan Dog Food, or Purina Dog Chow (Purina's most popular brand) could perhaps be considered a competitor.

Useful Sources:https://www.purina.com/about-purina https://www.purina.com/purina-one/dogs

SmartBlend Dog Food Final Role Play Buyer Scenario

PetSmartDenver Local Store (Resell Situation)

Buyer social style:You are a driver.

Needs:You're a very experiences manager who runs a very successful PetSmart location in Denver, CO. You know exactly what your customers want and give it to them. You don't have time to waste listening to thousands of sales presentations every day. You've learned to get down to business quickly and then move on. You carry several major brands of dog foods.

Lately, however, your sales forecasting suggests that there may be higher demand for pet products that are more nutritious or address animals' specific dietary needs. But you are concerned about how expensive these types of products can be and whether or not stocking them can impact your bottom line. You are also unsure about how to effectively and inexpensively market these products.

Objections:

So, I always start off with an easy question. Or two. What are you selling and how much does it cost?

Do you make calls often in our town? [seller answers] I don't remember you calling on me before. Or am I mistaken?

I can see that you've probably got a good set of products there. I hate to say it, but let's face the facts. Every dog and every dog owner has their own tastes. I can't stock hundreds of dog food brands. Don't have the room.

I don't know if I can trust the marketplace trend for increased demand for healthy pet products. Some of my customers just buy the cheap brands and add their own meat and table scraps to them. I know that's what my friends do.

Even if I did decide to carry your brand, I don't want to spend a bunch of money letting my customers know about it.

At the end:Don't buy today. You'll take a free sample, if offered, and let your friend try it out, though. If you're impressed with the results of that trial, you'll call the sales rep.

Or

If the seller does a pretty good job at answering your questions and tries to obtain appropriate commitment, agree to purchase a few SKUs to see how they sell. If they sell well, you might be willing to purchase more at a later date.

Situation Questions(3 pts each, 6 pts total)

Develop to questions to gather facts you need, which could not be discovered during your pre-call research.

1.)

2.)

Problem Questions(3 pts each, 6 pts total)

Develop two problem questions (based on your pre-call research) that aim to uncover and explore potential implied needs.

1.)

2.)

Implication Questions(3 pts each, 9 pts total)

Following up on the Problem questions above, develop 3 Implication Questions, which transform those problems (i.e. implied needs) into explicit needs.

1.)

2.)

3.)

Need-Payoff Questions(3 pts each, 9 pts total)

Develop 3 need-payoff questions, which aim to get the buyer to tell you the benefits of the solution. These should be informed by the problems the prospective customer is likely to have and the benefits that you can provide.

1.)

2.)

3.)

Objection-Handling

List 2 objections the customer is likely to have. (3 pts each, 6 pts total)

1.)

2.)

Respond to each objection by using one of the seven objection-handling methods we went over in class (and state which method you're using). (3 pts for objection handling method and 2 pts for proper identification, 10 pts total)

1.)

2.)

Closing (Obtaining Commitment)(2 pts for closing statement and 2 pts for proper identification, 4 pts total)

Write-out a closing statement and state which method you're using. How will you ask for the business (or the appropriate commitment) from the buyer? What method are you using?

1.)