Assignment 4 - Business Plan - Final
AT2000
Assignment1Sweetblend1.docxSWEET BLEND 1
Thank you for your Assignment 1 submission. I have graded your submission and developed feedback for you to review. Please carefully review my feedback to ensure you have an improvement strategy for the next assignment. Nice job with creating your company, product, and justifying the company name in detail. The company name is your brand and should be unique and easy to remember. Clarifying what your product does and how it will achieve its intended purpose is critical for securing funding from the investors and to clarify how your product is different than the other similar products already available on the market. The company description section of the business plan can also include brief information about management and leadership, business location, milestones achieved to date, and the financial status of the company.
Great job with the mission statement. What really impressed me the most, was your thorough support and rationale in explaining the components. The mission statement represents what your company stands for in the present. It also shows that you understand the focus of your company and you can articulate your objectives concisely. It is your opportunity to tell the world what your company stands and it determines the company's direction. This is also a reminder to all employees about what makes the company successful and it is a points of reference keeping everyone clear on the direction of the organization.
You have done a good job in this section. It is important to understand the trends in your industry so that you can identify patterns or take advantage of opportunities. You should pay attention to past performance and growth projections. Evaluating the industry increases your knowledge about the factors that contribute to your company's success and also shows potential investors that you understand external business conditions in which your company operates. It will also allow you to identify opportunities for your business.
Great work! You demonstrated understanding of the strategic position and how it helps you establish a position in the market, clarifying what sets you apart from other companies. A clear strategic position influences every aspect of your business, such as development of new products, marketing approaches, operations, and location. Your strategic position can evolve over time. When you find opportunities in the market, you will always have to identify a strategic position to distinguish your company from others.
Your distribution methods are certainly options for your product but you are missing a clear explanation on how your product will reach the end users. You must provide more details when justifying the selection and explain why is your selected distribution method is the most appropriate for your product. Consider all distribution methods Wholesaler, Internet, Catalog, Sales Team, Dealer, Retail, etc.) and evaluate for the best fit. As a final note, there were several grammatical issues with this assignment. The formatting needs some adjustments as well. Be sure to use the template posted in the Course Info area. Read the paper to ensure all your ideas are presented clearly. Make the necessary adjustments for the final business plan due week 10.
You were required to have a heading for each of the sections in your paper and your SWOT required the use of bullets for each of at least 5 items in each category of the SWOT matrix and a brief description of the key items in each category under the SWOT table.
Company Description and SWOT Analysis
Alita Heckstall
Assignment 1 Bus 599 Strategic Management
Dr. Andrea Banto
Strayer University
July 27, 2019
Non-Alcoholic Beverage (NAB) Company and its significance
The Non-Alcoholic Beverage (NAB) Company’s name is Sweet Blend. I chose the name Sweet Blend for our company because the mission of our company is to produce the most nutritious and fresh fruit juices which meets the current market standards and the needs of the needs of our target customers, taste and preference. The company aims to bridge the gap in the market by producing the most nutritious and the healthiest juice around. The non-alcoholic beverage company name that best fits our description here is the Sweet Blend as we seek to produce the sweetest and most nutritious fresh drink in the state and across the borders.
The mission of the company is to produce a juice that meets the health needs of the population. The company seeks to improve the health of the people by providing them with a juice that will fulfill their nutritional needs. There are two primary components of this mission statement. The first component of the mission statement is the nourishment needs of the people. The mission statement captures the nourishment needs of the people and seeks to address them through the fruit juice. The second component of this mission statement is the fact that the fruit juice is being customized to meet the specific nutrition requirements of the population.
There exists several trends in the Non-Alcoholic Beverage (NAB) industry and this includes the choice and preference of the people to get healthy and nutritious drinks. This generally means most of the population is looking forward to having naturally produced fresh and nutritious fruit juices. People nowadays are trying to shift away from carbonated drinks and live a healthier lifestyle and this is opportunity where we come in now to meet the needs of the people (Rayner, Wood, Lawrence, Mhurchu, Albert, Barquera & L'abbé, 2013).
Reasons for choosing the soft drink is among them that wish to produce healthier drink and to fulfil the healthy needs and goals of the people. The company also aims to produce the most affordable and the sweetest drink in the state.
Sweet Blend’s Strategic Position
The strategic positioning is very crucial for determining how any business is competing fairly against its competitors in the industry and the extent to which it is serving the needs of its customers. The positioning strategy that our company is developing is very important in the attaining prosperity of our product in the market. For our nutritious fresh fruit juice to succeed in this dynamic market, the company finds it crucial to choose the most strategic position which will in the short run deliver the best results as desired. The company will capitalize on product differentiation by producing unique brands
The fundamental reason for this approach is that it uses an already available distribution channels such as the wholesalers which makes it cheap for the company to spend small amounts of resources in the establishment of the distribution channel for its products.
Potential risks the company may face several potential risks do exist that the business is facing and they may possibly affect the market performance of our company. Therefore, this makes it very necessary for our Sweet Blend company to ensure that it does a research on the desired quality standards as required and perform the most appropriate adjustments according to the demand of the market. Another threat for Sweet Blend is high cost operations. A quick check at the costs of production shows an upward increase which will affect the profitability of our company. It is emerging that the costs of fruits and labor are skyrocketing at a shocking pace (Mhurchu, Vandevijvere, Waterlander, Thornton, Kelly, Cameron & INFORMAS, 2013).
Sweet Blend Company has accumulated sufficient resources to invest in the production of the fresh fruit drink. The employees will be given the opportunity of coming up with creative ways of improving the company’s products and services in order to obtain more and loyal customers. The company’s services and products are always meant to attain customer satisfaction for the company's success. There are also motivations that encourage the staff members to do best at work.
Weaknesses
The company is limited to invest and focus on the products as well as services that significantly attract clients and keeps them to come back. The customers are very specific on the type and quality services and products that they always crave for, and in case of its absence, it would lead to the company losing a significant number of loyal customers, Storey (2010).
Opportunities
The company is welcoming partnership requests from interested investors who have seen the potential of the company that reflects outstanding performance if it is financially stable and the management comes up with a well-written marketing plan that can be easily implemented and blends well with the company’s goals and objectives. The company’s products are unique, and the value will increase due to the excellent branding to be implemented. A new market is also greatly considered whereby the company’s products are yet to be tested in a new environment by opening new stores to obtain more clients and expand its market, Storey (2010).
Threats
The company will be faced with intense competition from other companies that offer some of the same products. The numerous successful marketing companies make it difficult for the company to pursue a complete and successful marketing strategy for the business, and also other companies in the similar field may apply better and advanced marketing strategies than that of the company to sell their products, improve their services, and increase their client base, Dana (2012).
Reference
Ni Mhurchu, C., Vandevijvere, S., Waterlander, W., Thornton, L. E., Kelly, B., Cameron, A. J., ... & INFORMAS. (2013). Monitoring the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods and non‐alcoholic beverages in community and consumer retail food environments globally. obesity reviews, 14, 108-119.
Dana, B. G. (2012). SWOT analysis to improve quality management production. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 62, 319-324.
Rayner, M., Wood, A., Lawrence, M., Mhurchu, C. N., Albert, J., Barquera, S., ... & L'abbé, M. (2013). Monitoring the health‐related labelling of foods and non‐alcoholic beverages in retail settings. obesity reviews, 14, 70-81.
Barringer, B. R. (2015). Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures. Pearson Education India.
Storey, M. (2010). The shifting beverage landscape. Physiology & behavior, 100(1), 10-14.
