BUS 599
22 July 2017
Introduction
Athletic Quench Company is a fast growing manufacturer of sports-based non-alcoholic aerated or carbonated drinks. They include sodas of different flavors and squashes. The company aspires to provide products that comply with the internationally recognized athletic games or competition requirements. In the first place, the objective of the company was to cater to professional sportsmen and protect them from other products that contain various prohibited products such as stimulants. Also, the company has extensively researched beverage-based ingredients that cause a heart-related disease in order to provide health conscious products to people who have cardiac-induced problems. Therefore, the company's target customers are sportsmen, gymnasium enthusiast, and health conscious people.
Mission Statement
Athletic Quench was founded with distinct ambitions and a lofty objective: build the best products, cause unnecessary harm, secure sportsmen, improve their integrity and provide solutions to the doping and health-based crisis. Basically, the mission of the company is to offer athletes with special made non-stimulant beverages at an affordable price as well as providing solutions to health conscious individuals.
Special Sports-based Carbonated Drinks
Cola, orange, root beer, ginger, and lemon/lime are combined with sugar and preservatives to create non-alcoholic carbonate drinks. On the other hand, squashes are aerated drinks that are made in the form of fizzy juices. The current trends in the market indicate drastic growth in the carbonated drinks sector. All the carbonated products are subjected to special reductive measures that are meant to remove ingredients that may cause doping or health concerns. Also, they are added with athletic-based nutrients that enhance critical muscle development.
The three reason for selecting the sports-based carbonated drinks are due to lower cost of operations, market opportunity, and low competition. The cost of operating a specialized carbonate drinks company is lower, and the return on investment is high. On the other hand, market opportunities for healthy and specific sports-related aerated drinks are enormous. Lack of other competitors and early entry into the market segment provides the company with the best channels for dominating the sector. Also, early entry offers the company an opportunity for capturing the targeted market first and retain a cult-like customer base hence, establishing a framework for future growth regarding customer base, revenue, and profits (Tracy, 2015).
Strategic Position
The strategic position that Athletic Quench will use to differentiate their carbonated drinks from other non-alcoholic beverages involves branding of the company's product. In the first place, carbonated products can be made from different ingredients, and some of them may contain stimulants or sports-prohibited elements. Considering that the market lacks companies that specialize in carbonated products that do not contain any substances prohibited by international laws that regulate the athletic games or competitions, Athletic Quench Company aspirations is to fill in the void. Thus, the company will differentiate its products from other ordinary carbonate products through thorough branding.
Distribution Channels
Athletic Quench Company distribution channels will consist of regional intermediaries based in each county. The regional distributors will be required to re-stock targeted points of sales and which will include all sports-based merchandizers, sports venues, sports clubs, gymnasiums, and sports academies. The points of sales or shops will be equipped with the latest supply chain tracking technologies to keep a constant stock of products and to ensure that each company's product is available to loyal customers. However, supermarkets, malls, and other kinds of hyper-stores such as leading fast-food chains will be supplied with the company's products directly from the main facility upon request. In addition, the company will partner with leading home delivery companies as well as e-commerce platforms to ensure that online shoppers can access the needed products.
Types of Risks
The three types of risks the company faces include regulatory risks, counterfeit risks, and unhealthy competition. Regulatory risks amounts to chances of going against the regulatory laws that govern beverages while the counterfeit risk amounts to challenges that are posed by rogue product imitators operating in Asian countries such as China. On the other hand, unhealthy competition issues stem from established entities who feel threatened by the company’s concept and are ready to sabotage the company’s objectives. They include unhealthy business operations such as cannibalism and which involves buy all of the company’s product from the market so that consumers can neither access them nor can they be able to establish a connection with the new approach (Biegelman & Biegelman, 2014).
The best method to mitigate against such acts is to establish a compliance system and product supply chain monitoring system. Compliance adherence and product supply chain monitoring systems help to identify, evaluate and track compliance level in the company as well as the movement of products in the market. This is very important in creating patterns that may identify rogue business practices.
SWOT Analysis
The company's strength lies in the new concept which has not been previously exploited by leading manufacturers of carbonated drinks. Most carbonated drinks contain stimulants or doping elements that most sportsmen are not aware of. Thus, the strength lies in gaining an unutilized market and being the first in the market segment helps to retain a cult-like customer base hence, establishing a framework for future growth in terms of customer base, revenue, and profits (Sarsby, 2016).
However, the new concept is untested and widely unexploited meaning that it is kind of a revolutionary approach. In other words, the widely unexploited concept will pose many challenges especially with making products that are not harmful people’s health. This will require extensive research and development resources, and of which a slight mistake may sink the entire mission and objectives of the company.
On the other hand, a lot of opportunities lies ahead of the company’s prospects and future. Thus, the concept gives the company an opportunity for capturing the targeted market first and retain a cult-like customer base hence, establishing a framework for future growth in terms of customer base, revenue, and profits. In addition, the company is presented with enormous opportunities for diversifying in other sports-related products such as skin creams, wearables, and other core components in future. However, threats exist due to the fact that established companies dealing in carbonated drinks can also establish their own sports-based carbonated drinks. This is because of the company’s laws that do not have provisions that can protect revolutionary approaches such as the one Athletic Quench has devised.
Conclusion
In conclusion, introducing a new concept in a widely invested market segment requires extensive research, analysis such as SWOT analysis, risk assessment, and operations as well as supply chain and strategic business evaluation. All strengths and opportunities need to be identified to optimize them fully while, weaknesses and threats also need to analyzed comprehensively to eliminate avenues of failure (Tracy, 2015).
References
Sarsby, A. (2016). SWOT analysis.
Biegelman, M. T., & Biegelman, D. R. (2014). Building a world-class compliance program: Best practices and strategies for success. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
In Banks, T. L., In Banks, F. Z., & Wolters Kluwer (Firm). (2016). Corporate Legal Compliance Handbook.
Sparrow, M. K., & Council for Excellence in Government. (2015). The regulatory craft: Controlling risks, solving problems, and managing compliance. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press.
Tracy, B. (2015). Business strategy. New York: AMACOM.
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