Operation management

Our company, DAKAT Foods, produces, markets, and sells wholesome and socially beneficial foods and beverages around the world. The purpose of our talk today is to tell you about our newest product, an organic, fair trade, low-glycemic, environmentally friendly, and socially responsible iced coffee drink called HAPPUCCINO.

Product

HAPPUCCINO is a blended organic and fair trade blended iced coffee, deliciously creamy and served in compostable packaging. The product consists of organic fair trade coffee, organic and naturally low-carb sweeteners, and vegan nut-milks with other natural flavors. Our major competitors are Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, and Dunkin Donuts. Future partners will include REI, Whole Foods, Fresh Thyme, local grocery co-ops, and sustainability-minded restaurants and cafes.

Marketing strategy focuses on a business’s overall plan to reach and retain potential customers through establishing a value proposition, gathering demographic data, and setting objectives.

According to Abedin & Jafarzadeh (2013), a unique marketing strategy starts with product differentiation, which results in higher brand love, enhanced image, and customer loyalty.

The products’ value proposition is also based on a great customer experience supported by an outstanding store atmosphere meant to decrease stress and increase the sense of well-being in our customers.

Market and Customer

HAPPUCCINO will be marketed through the use of mass media and online social-media advertisements, focused on long term branding of the product as a healthy, sustainability-focused, customer-oriented, and ethical business. We will also partner with established brands to co-market our products together.

We plan to market HAPPUCCINO in several markets, including:

· Online, via social media including Facebook, Instagram, Tick-Tock, and other person-to-person social media platforms

· By engaging young influencers, such as popular Youtubers, young celebrities, sports figures, and others that our target customers trust.

· By cross-promoting with other brands in the LOHAS space, e.g., REI, Whole Foods, Fresh Thyme, local grocery co-ops, and sustainability-minded restaurants and cafes.

· We will run special ads in local publications, to drive foot traffic to our own and partner stores.

As HAPPUCCINO moves through its life cycle and gains market share, we may decide to increase pricing; e.g. skimming price strategy, to increase revenues and further establish our superiority in the crowded coffee market.

According to Akaeze and Akaeze (2017), business practitioners achieve a competitive advantage when they perform a careful value-creating plan or method not simultaneously performed by competitors. In our case, HAPPUCCINO is superior in health and environmental benefits.

It is instructive to note that most initial pricing strategies are temporary and as the product life cycle advances, there will be changes in the demand curve and costs of the product that would naturally necessitate a reassessment of the pricing policies and their impacts.

· We plan to market HAPPUCCINO to the LOHAS (i.e., lifestyles of health and sustainability) market segment (Schüpbach, Gröli, Dauwalder, and Amhof, 2007).

· This segment includes affluent individuals that care about their health and the health of the natural environment.

· Our product will appeal to this market because we will use organic, fair trade, healthy, and environmentally friendly products, and packaging.

· We will also donate a portion of our profits to causes that our customers care about, such as helping people in developing regions, restoring natural habitats, and providing education and outreach for communities in need.

We plan to market HAPPUCCINO in several markets, including:

· Online, via social media including Facebook, Instagram, Tick-Tock, and other person-to-person social media platforms

· By engaging young influencers, such as popular Youtubers, young celebrities, sports figures, and others that our target customers trust.

· By cross-promoting with other brands in the LOHAS space, e.g., REI, Whole Foods, Fresh Thyme, local grocery co-ops, and sustainability-minded restaurants and cafes.

· We will run special ads in local publications, to drive foot traffic to our own and partner stores.

Customer retention is the process of building long-term strategic relationships with existing customers that continue to support our products and brands over time. It is important to retain existing customers because it is much more expensive to find new customers than it is to keep existing customers.

· We intend to develop incredible relationships with our customers because we offer a unique, healthy, and sustainable products that they want and need. (Bridges, Goldsmith & Hofacker, 2005).

· By providing an exceptional product at a premium price, we will develop trust within our existing customer base.

· Our product and in-store experiences will be exceptional, building brand love and motivating customers to purchase our products often.

· We will utilize social media and viral marketing campaigns that will be shared by our customers, creating word of mouth and peer to peer communications. This will help to increase trust in our brand.

· We will continue to reward our customers with loyalty bonuses, such as free size upgrades and free drinks after accruing points in our rewards program.

Processing

The process for our production line that we believe will be the most beneficial in the startup phase of our organization is a three-part process. In the initial phase is the roasting phase. In this phase two commercial, industrial roasters will take the raw coffee bean and roast it during a 2-hour process which will roast our bean to industry preferential standards at 375 degrees. This process will be a gradual heating until the beans reach the internal temperature stated above. The second phase of our production process will be the grinding and brewing phase. In order to minimize expenditures, we will not create an automated production line, instead opting for large quantity brewers that will enable us to create a product using a minimal labor on the production and assembly line.(ND) During this second process the coffee will be ground down and brewed into large commercial vats that will be done in 10L batches. The third and final phase of the production process will be bottling and packing. In this process our custom labelled and produced bottles will be filled with our proprietary blend of coffee, low carb sweeteners, nut milks and flavor enhancers. As our product will be shelved in cooled fridges within a retail location, the requirement for us to chill the product prior to shipping is nonexistent.

Layout

The layout of the facility will follow along the manufacturing process described previously. The layout will be a square layout divided into 4 segregated rooms that will house each one of the three production phases and the last room will be for storage of the product and serve as a shipping bay as well. This particular layout we believe will be the most beneficial to our production process and allow us to keep each phase separated from the next and thus have minimal chance of cross contamination and pollutants getting into our products.

Location

The location for our first production facility will be in Houston, Texas. The rationally behind locating our facility in this area is accessibility both to shipping and an ideal waypoint for disbursement into large scale freight forwarders and distribution channels. Houston is ideally located next to the port of Galveston, one of the primary shipping ports for products from the Caribbean and South America where many of our products will be sourced. It is also ideal as it is the 7th largest city and its access to transportation links for the greater continent is unparalleled. To further add to the benefits of the location, production facilities costing is one of the lowest in continental USA.

Work and Job Design

There are several elements that we need to pay attention to in the design of the job and work required to manufacture products or offer services, including tasks, motivation, resource allocation, and reward systems (ND) as follow:

1. A task is defined as a piece of assigned work expected to be performed within a certain time. At Happucino jobs will be divided and spread into three processing phases: the roasting phase, the grinding and brewing phase, the bottling and packing phase.

2. Motivation describes forces within the individual that accounts for the level, direction, and persistence of effort expended at work. Happucino is committed to designing work that motivates its employees to remain compelled, excited, and passionate to do their work. On the way, monitoring will be done by giving surveys to employees.

3. Resource allocation occurs when an organization decides to appropriate or allocates certain resources to specific jobs, tasks, or dilemmas facing the organization. Happucino will operate as a company at the startup level so that the allocation of human resources will be done very carefully, identifying and structuring the work in such a way as to be efficient in utilizing company resources.

4. Reward systems include compensation, bonuses, raises, job security, benefits, and various other reward methods for employees which in Happuccino will also be determined through the employee performance appraisal system.

References

Abedin, B. & Jafarzadeh, H. (2013). Attracting and retaining customers on Facebook business pages: A content analysis of an online discussion forum. International Journal of Technology Marketing. 8(3). DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2013.055340

Bridges, E., Goldsmith, R., & Hofacker, C. (2005). Attracting and retaining online buyers: Comparing B2B and B2C customers. Advances in Electronic Marketing. 1-27. 10.4018/978-1-59140-321-0.ch001. xxfryu