Marketing Research for Drawstring Thrash Bags in Brazil Essay Example

the market and to study about its profitability we need to do an industry analysis.

This industry analysis is done by using Porter's Five Forces Model. The industry is high in competition with companies such as Geral, Dover Roll, DR w/handle, Koleta, Sendas to be competing with. Along with high competition, we can also see that the barrier to entry is very low as capital to be invested is less and that even small supermarkets and stores as well can make such garbage bags with their brand names. As the raw material for such a product “plastic” does not seem to be a rare material and that it is not ery difficult to get and is cost effective to buy at bulk, the suppliers here to not have much of a say and thus reducing their bargaining power, whereas, the customers here are on full on power. Availability of plenty of options to choose from and given the fact that there is no switching cost involved, the buyers have high bargaining power here. But, the threat of substitute goods is rather low as there might be other options such as paper bags and cloth bags but compared to plastic bags they seem to be less convenient due to their leaking nature.

Having stated the industry analysis of Plastic bag industry in Brazil we have done SWOT Analysis of Ad- Liner Packaging Inc to see where it stands along with its competitors. Strength: The major strength of the FechaFacil bag is that it is has product differentiation. Basically, it has been able to identify what customers like to have in the bag. Furthermore, while

the other bags could only be used as a garbage bag, it could be used for different purpose, such as: storing the sheets, dirty clothes, shoes, towels, etc. and also it could be hanged in wall.

Additionally, it had drawstring closing feature which would further increase the ease of use for closing or tying the garbage bag. This was still not practiced by other competitor in the market. The product is launched with proper market survey and keeping customer in their mindset. Hence, they have been able to produce bags as desired by the customer. Weakness: The bag has given more focus on usability only. From the data in Appendix 4 (page 20), it is clear that price factor is the minor motivator to customer indicating its price is comparatively higher in the market.

In the survey made, it was mentioned that most of the purchase made is directly or indirectly affected by the price of the bag. Furthermore, Dover Roll is a popular brand name. In such case, it has not been able to establish its name in among customers. They are less into building brand and advertising. Opportunities: As Brazil being member of BRIC nations, its economy is one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Hence, this means economy of the garbage sector will also continue to grow well in future. With good enough marketing strategy, FechaFacil will continue to expand its business in future.

With customer being unsatisfied with the market leader like Dover Roll with its handle system, there is high probability for customer switching towards Ad-Lider. However, Ad-Lider should be able to formulate proper marketing strategy in

order to lure customer for brand switching. In Sao Paulo, there was no recognition of any brand. Hence, it will be easier for Ad-Lider to lauch its product there. Threats: The major threat for the Ad-Lider was Dover Roller. In city of Rio de Janeiro, the brand value of Dover was high. People were ready pay premium price for the Dover brand.

This will be the hard nut to crack for Ad-Lider. It is critical for any firm to identify its core strength and weak spot in it. Furthermore, company should be able to identify opportunities in market not seen by other competitors and must act upon it. Additionally, market poses threat to company also. This should be tackled by the company before it is too late to act upon. Ad-Lider should be able to utilize the available strength and opportunities to it in order to gain advantage over rivals and minimize the threat along with its weakness.

Marketing orientation In order for a business to be marketing-oriented, they need to focus on needs of the market. They need to be able to address the needs of the market. We can see in the case that company initially came up with the product even before trying the actual requirement of the market. Furthermore the product is not customer focus as they produced the product and then tried to identify the market that best fits the product. The company should have initially tried to identify their target market before producing the product.

Without identifying who the probable customer are, the company producing the product points out to the fact that they are not

marketing-oriented. For marketing purpose advertising decision brand image development plays a significant role while introducing the product. In the case we see little emphasis given by the company regarding those curtail decision. This highlights to the fact that the company has given little emphasis towards marketing decision. Evaluation of methodology used The methodology of focus group and purchase intercept interviews is very effective because of following reasons.

1. . Focus group consists of target customers. i. e. middle aged women.
2. Focus group has different variety of women. Such as one focus group consist of housewives and another consist of apartment wives in Sao Paulo and it consist of only apartment wives in Rio de Janerio.
3. Differences in lifestyle existed between participants from Rio and Sao Paulo. Such as: professional and non professional, activeness in exercise program.
4. Guide for intercept interview has been made in such a way that women participating feel like they are having women's talk rather than being interviewed.

Learning from research findings The research has been able to show the variety of consumer behavior shown within a country with same cultural background. This research has made it clear how diverse the consumer perception and rational behind their decisions could be. It is important to make initial research before launching any product, as it will provide information about the customer taste and preference. Furthermore, it will ultimately save cost of failure in successful launch of any product. From the research it can easily be understood the importance of women as decision maker in house hold activities.

Here, it is mentioned that about 74. 14%

of purchases are in the hand of women. Although this data belongs to Brazil, the number is more or less similar in most of the countries especially in home appliances purchase. Hence, for home appliance sales in general, marketing strategy should be taken by making considerations of women. Research support on the launch of product Research also showed that the purchasing power of the people in Brazil increased and that enhanced the buying behaviour of people there, which shows that there is scope for Ad-Lider’s plastic garbage bag.

Similarly place of launching can also be identified as i. e. south east for better business as 50% of business comes from 42. 6% of the population. Conclusion We see that company initially came up with the product even before trying the actual requirement of the market. So it would be even better if they have conducted this research before the production of this Climp Fecha Facil. However the research mainly focuses on the acceptance of this new product in the market and it can be concluded that strong and opaque thrash bags with ease of closing are demanded by target customers.

Recommendation After the overall analysis of the case, industry and the firm, we can say that the firm is in a comparatively good position with its strength having good capability of retaining firm in the market and plenty of opportunities to explore. However, it has some weaknesses it could work on. Thus, we recommend the following for the firm:  The company rather than being product oriented should focus on being market oriented. The company should emphasize more on advertisements and those too focusing

on its core competency of practicality and quality. It should focus more on its target market: women and base their advertisements and positioning of brand as per their consideration. It should either consider reducing its prices as per its competitors like Dover Roll or be able to be established as a brand with the highest quality and product differentiation.  Lastly, the research method used is just the focus group interviews which may not be sufficient to know the overall set-up of the industry and so the company should consider other methods too.