Module 4

CMR361

Chamina Curtis

Jiahe Wang, Yuge Yang, Da An

09/15/2019

My business involves buying fresh fruits from farmers and selling them directly to the customers. According to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) coding system, my fruit selling industry falls within retail Trade. NAICS groups the fruit selling business as code 44-45. The industry is growing steadily basing argument from the perspective that fruits demand is increasing daily. Health has been a strong selling point for fresh fruits. However, it is unfortunate that the business is seasonal. Retail trade on perishable goods like fruits is seasonal since it highly depends on weather and climate periods. Considering the industry, the current trend reveals an increasing demand for fruit products. Fruit Retail trade current trend shows that soon, fruit business will be on a high notch.

Retailers and wholesalers are the key leaders of the fruit retail industry. The leaders are successful since they operate on the grounds of loyalty and an in-depth understanding of the market. Furthermore, the types of marketing strategies used by the retailers and wholesalers help them achieve success. The marketing strategies applied in the fruit selling industry include pricing strategy, promotion and offering after-sales service to lure the customer to buy more goods. However, the business faces challenges that limit the industry operation. For instance, licensing regulation adversely affect the industry. Sometimes, the customers may not be loyal in terms of the price charged. The customer tends up disputing the price of the fruits and therefore purchase the fruits at a low price reducing the profit. Besides, the industry is highly sensitive to economic fluctuations. Once the economy goes down, the business shifts to a high level and demand. On the other hand, once the economy goes up, the business goes down. To curb the existing problem of the product perishability, preservation technology should chip in to solve the problem. Ultimately, analysis shows that there is a stable financial ground of the industry. The reasoning emanates from the increasing demand for fruits for health purposes.

The size of my business market is diverse. First, people with health complications act as potential customers of my product. Secondly, the processing industry takes a market priority for my products. Therefore, the market is segmented into different group targets to identify potential customers of the business. Concisely, my market is identified as direct customers and indirect customers. Due to health issues, the demand is increasing and the market is growing faster. This is a clear justification that fruit selling business is predicted to have grown higher in the near future.

My product targets different people. Customers of the product include people of different ages. This is because all people require fruits for health purposes. Therefore, people focusing on stable health can be considered as potential customers for my product. Besides, juicy processing industries will also be the potential customers for my products. Generally, the demand for my product is predicted to be higher due to its uniqueness. The uniqueness of the product is traced from the fact that the price of the product will be lowered while maintaining the quality. The current buyers are more focused on the quality and reduced price. Affordable price attracts more customers hence increasing the sales volume and the profit at the same time. For buyers to purchase my product, they should primally focus on the reduced price, high quality of the product and ultimately the delivery time of the product. Delayed delivery will affect the customers trustworthy and then the customers may decide on venturing on other related business.

The competition is expected to be higher. The competition may emanate from the other business-related industries. For instance, Chiquita Brands, International, Cadiz Inc., and Amazon.com, Inc. are the core competitors of my fruit selling business. However, the market can support another player given that they focus on business uniqueness. Lowering the price of the product whilst focusing on quality can be considered an inherent strategy for any new industry to succeed in the market. Furthermore, I must focus on technology to be able to succeed in a competitive market. My competitors have had much attention on technology especially preservation line to incorporate uniqueness from other similar industries.

Marketing Plan Toolkit for my Restaurant Business

I am currently operating a restaurant business with two branches in California; one in Los Angeles and another in San Diego. The following marketing plan toolkit is going to highlight the market aspects within which these two restaurants operate in.

What market am I in within the industry?

I am operating a restaurant enterprise, which belongs to a Business to consumer market; the main product I am marketing being food. According to a website “jcboseust.ac.in”, a Business to consumer type of market is one where consumers buy directly from retailers. As such, my customers do buy food directly from my restaurant, and they are the ones whom I target in the food market.

What size is my market?

I am targeting Spanish customers and as such my restaurant recipe is made up of Spanish cuisines. Currently running two restaurants in Los Angeles and San Diego, my main market is made up of Latinos and Hispanics. The total population of California as of July 1st 2018, according to the governmental website “census.gov ” was 39,557,045, Spanish people marking up 39.3% of it. However, given the popularity of Spanish dishes in these cities, Spanish food is consumed even by other races which further increase the size of this market. As highlighted by the “San Diego Business Journal” food markets in San Diego are highly diversified beyond the city’s racial classes. On the other hand, “LA Business Magazine” online platform highlights that the food market in Los Angeles is steadily growing thanks to the population increase. As such, my market size from a consolidative perspective is still quite large.

Can the market be segmented?

The food market in California is highly segmented. According to “ibisworld.com”, Californian food consumers are highly segmented. Given the diverse races living and working in California, there happen to be other hoteliers offering other types of dishes, for example Mexican dishes and European dishes. As highlighted in the website “Opentextbc.ca” Californian food market happens to be segmented on a demographic basis, although there is an increase in how consumers are diversifying their tastes and preferences for food beyond their racial traditions. As such, this market is already highly segmented with different customers having different food preferences.

Is my market clearly identifiable?

The food market is clearly identifiable in both Los Angeles and San Diego. My restaurant currently targets consumers around the El Mambi Market in Los Angeles and San Diego food Markets. As highlighted in the website “Yelps.com” these markets are not only popular to the residents but also to visitors and tourists, who put the two restaurants in strategic positions as far as food markets in California, is concerned. As highlighted in the website “trip101.com” Los Angeles food markets are distributed in relation to the ethnic compositions of the city’s regions.

As stated in the “International Journal of Market research, San Diego food markets are largely identified in relation to the ethnocentric composition of their localities, hence the location of our restaurant in San Diego puts it in a very strategic position within the market which is highly Spanish.

How fast is the market growing?

According to the website “Newhope.com”, the food market in California is among the fastest-growing food markets in the entire U.S. food markets, given the steady increase in the state’s population. The “San Diego online magazine” highlighted that the food markets did experience a boom at the beginning of 2019, which represents a positive growth. Los Angeles on the other hand also shows a huge positive growth in the food markets as highlighted in a recent copy of “The Los Angeles Times” magazine.

References

10 Food Markets To Check Out In Los Angeles, California. (2019, February 14). Retrieved from https://trip101.com/article/food-market-in-los-angeles

Every U.S. region seeing serious growth in natural food and beverage sales. (2019, September 13). Retrieved September 16, 2019, from https://www.newhope.com/market-data-and-analysis/every-us-region-seeing-serious-growth-natural-food-and-beverage-sales

Industry Market Research, Reports, and Statistics. (2018, December). Retrieved September 16, 2019, from https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-trends/market-research-reports/california/accommodation-food-services/hotels-motels-in-california.html

Inside San Diego's Big Farmers' Market Boom. (2019, January). Retrieved from https://www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/January-2018/Inside-San-Diegos-Big-Farmers-Market-Boom/

LA Business Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://labusinessmagazine.com/

Market Segmentation – Introduction to Business. (2018, September 18). Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/businessopenstax/chapter/market-segmentation/

Restaurants are booming despite financial market turmoil. (2019, February 17). Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-restaurants-boom-20160217-story.html

San Diego Business Journal. (2019, September 16). Retrieved from https://www.sdbj.com/

Segmenting Food MarketsThe Role of Ethnocentrism and Lifestyle InUnderstanding Purchasing Intentions by Bahtisen Kavak, Lale Gumusluoglu :: SSRN. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1068222

Top 10 Best Spanish Market in Los Angeles, CA - Last Updated September 2019. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Spanish+Market&find_loc=Los+Angeles%2C+CA

Types of Consumer Markets. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://jcboseust.ac.in/mba/images/Study_Material/Five_Types_of_Business_Markets.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: California. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/CA