Resilience in Co Operative Business Model †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Resilience in Co Operative Business Model. Answer: Introduction: Product is a type of marketing mix, product life cycle is a cycle which depicts stages that a product passes and the returns expected from it at different levels over time (Aitken,et.al,2003); these stages include: Development-this is a stage where products are investigated and planned for. The ideas about a product is weighed and looked into with keenness. Most of the ideas die up in this stage because companies fear taking risks of coming up with a new product. In this stage, the companys expenditure is high and no income as it spends much in developing the product ideas and no sales is done (Golder Tellis,2004). For a company to do well and pass this stage, it should look on issues like product branding and establish the quality level, good branding will attract customers and would want to taste the product. Pricing also should be considered whereby entry price should be lower to favor its venture into the market. Channels of distribution should be one-sided; it should select the areas of marketing the products until the product is received well and then move to other markets. product promotion should also be done at this early stage to help with awareness of the product to the potential market. Growth this is a stage where sales begin to grow after product launching and marketing. The cost level may come down because if the product has been received by potential customers, production of the product will be high to meet the demand. In this stage there is also entry of competitors as they try to copy what another company is doing and they produce a similar product, this can affect sales in the company. For a company to counter this and improve it sells, marketing strategies should be implemented and they include; increasing demand of the product but maintain the prices, maintain/improve the quality of product, increasing distribution channels due to rise in demand of the product, widening promotion to higher market level. Maturity and saturation is a stage where sales growth is constant. Entry of more firms to offer competition to existing companies makes the market to be saturated. At this stage, many businesses use different ways to improve and extend the product life and this include; Company trying to change the image of product by adding features which are different from that of competitors. The company should also intensify the distribution channels as competition is high and also do promotions which depict the product differentiation from that of other competitors. Decline- at this stage sale of products will come down because of change in customers tastes and preference, change in technology, and/or the coming in of new products. This stage is critical for the company as it can cause product withdrawal. At this stage, the firm can decide to maintain product and improve its uses so as to increase the declined sales. Another option is the company to harvest the product, that is, continue offering the products but at a reduced price. A company can also decide to withdraw the product from the market and either turn the remaining inventory to cash or sell the product to a firm which wills to continue. The company can try to extend the life of fallen product by looking ventures for the existing products, establishing wide range of products, setting the target audience, rebranding and repackaging of the products, encouraging customers to use products anytime on frequent basis, changing the components of the product. It is advisable that a company should try to save the life of mature products before it reaches decline stage by implementing the extension strategies. Matrix is a model which helps a company in analyzing its portfolio products. A company with a wide product range has portfolio for its products and can be analyzed using Boston matrix (Lowy Hood, 2004) which categorizes products on market share and market growth basis and can be described as follows: Stars are products with high growth and are competing in a competitive market. As per illustration in exhibit 4 and exhibit 5, the regular product is termed as the star as its competing in a competitive environment. These stars required strong and stable investment to sustain its growth rate. Cash cows are products whose growth is low but its market share is high and they need little investment due to its stability. In this case the UHT and reduced fat products are considered a cash cow as they bring in high percentage of profits and its investment is minimal. They should be managed well so as to generate enough income which are to be used by the products with high growth rate. Question marks describe the products whose market share is low and operates in high growth markets. Despite high competition from the market. They have the potential which need enough investment to help them grow. As depicted in exhibit 4 5, question marks are flavored products because they need a lot of ingredients to produce it and therefore need high capital and to the management these products have to be thought of to find out what they should invest in. Dogs is a term used in portfolio matrix to mean products whose market share and growth is low. They bring in income despite being rarely invested on. In this scenario on the lists 4 5, the non-fat product is termed as dog as it earns a high percentage but it is rarely needed. In-store shops continue to remain the crucial channels in selling milk products despite high competition from the home-made brands (Bijman,2006) Supermarkets have tried their best to reduce entry of homemade products by launching other products like the modified and flavored milk by product differentiation which is not done by home-made sellers. This has helped the supermarkets remain attractive. Supermarkets have mode great success in building margins by use of product developments (Glanz, et.al, 2012). Lower average selling prices have made supermarkets to rise in profits hence high milk consumption. Sometimes supermarkets offer discount on some milk products hence attracting the consumers. Handling food like milk is very sensitive and requires great hygiene to be maintained, therefore good packaging and cleanliness in the supermarket has made them remain important unlike the home-made products which are sometimes handled in an unhygienic manner. Because of the popularity of the supermarkets, it has remained the dominating seller of milk products. Supermarkets are believed to be good gate keepers of customers wishes as they ensure they have impact on what a customers buys and where to buy. Because of the high buyer power in the supermarket, they are of great advantage to the supplier as it helps them determine what to stock and what not to, hence breaking up the spirit of retailer who has no buyer power (Rajagopal,2013). Dairy producers have therefore devised ways to counter the buyer power in the supermarkets by increasing market share hence reinforcing the buyer power with supermarkets. Dairy producers have also changed location of business in that they now go looking for consumers in their residential places hence increase of sales and at same time making good promotion. Another way of dealing with buyer power (Mabaya, 2011) is by producers lowering the prices of selling the products to consumers to a lower level compared to that of the supermarkets; this will make customers get attracted to their prices. References Aitken, J., Childerhouse, P., Towill, D. (2003). The impact of product life cycle on supply chain strategy.International Journal of Production Economics,85(2), 127-140. Bijman, J. T. (2006).International agri-food chains and networks: Management and organization. Wageningen: Acad. Publishers. Francesconi, G. N. (2009).Cooperation for competition: Linking Ethiopian farmers to markets. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers. Glanz, K., Bader, M. D., Iyer, S. (2012). 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