The Home Final Exam of Marketing Management
Energy Rice Ball
Name：魏筱昀
Student Number：9631537
The Department of Management Science
NationalChiaoTungUniversity
Energy Rice Ball marketing plan
9631537 魏筱昀
Executive Summary
We are planning to put out the rice balls on the noisy street where a lot of cram schools were crowded. Our target customer is aimed at the student groups. In Taiwan, most of the students often go to cram school for refresher courses instead of coming home after school. Therefore, they often eat dinner out of home. Consequently, many fast-food restaurants and street vendors are gathered around the cram schools. Owning to observing such tendency, we propose to provide our products at dinner time. We expect to provide another choice of dinner style for students.
The reasons why we can compete with other street vendors are that we provide cheap rice balls and sanitary service; moreover, it is convenient to carry rice balls along with oneself. Our main goals are that we want to balance the revenue and expenditure as soon as possible, and furthermore we would strengthen our own brand to mould to let the products leave the clear, good impression in consumer's mind. In the prospective future, we would extend our business to other places nearby cram schools in Taiwan to serve for more students.
Current Marketing Situation
According to the survey of the stream of people, Nanyang Street in TaipeiCity is the region with the most students and cram schools. Therefore, there are many fast- food restaurants and street vendors on that street nearby. High-speed is the common characteristic with Fast- food restaurants and street vendors there. That is, in order to serve with the hurried students, we must prepare meals for them as rapidly as possible. Students are the main clients in this market so that the product has a high flexibility. What they want to buy is often determined by whether it is cheaper or not. Additionally, because the target customers are at the age of puberty, volume of the food is also the factor that students would take into consideration when they choose food. For these reasons, fast- food restaurants and street vendors nearby often utilize the way to promote at a low price, attract more new customers to buy.
Market Description
In addition to the students going to cram school after school, office workers are also included into our customers. At the beginning, we will put out low-price menus and take advertisement to attract customers. After the public praise has been raised, we will realize out the new way that customers could buy by call-to-appointment. Otherwise, we would make a discount if customers buy more at a time. In the aspect of the sense of taste, according to our field work, students showed that they prefer traditional taste such as fried pork flakes. They also showed that it would be better if we could add another appetite for them to choose. Therefore, we expect to provide two kinds of rice balls with different flavor, they are “Fried pork flakes rice ball” and “Toro rice ball”. In addition, we provide three types of beverages, including milk (black) tea, soybean milk as well as coffee for our customers.
Business process
We will prepare materials properly in advance before our shop opens every day. Ingredientswill be cooked thoroughly and be made from semi-finished goods. We expect that our operating hours are from 4:30PM to 8:00 Pm.
When customers visit our shop, our waiters will smile warmly at them and inquire what they want. Because of that the ingredients has been made from semi-finished goods that we can quickly prepare for customers what they want.
Competitive review
According to our field work, owing to the fast- food restaurants and street vendors clustered together, they provide a variety of choices, such aslunchroom, fast-food restaurant and street vendors…..etc. One of all the stores is Goose*2 Onigiri Rice Ball.What Goosex2 Onigiri providesis the Japanese-style rice ball,their price is high, the volume of their rice ball is few.
According to our field work, student groups show that the rice ball providedby Goose*2 Onigiri is too expensive and few that they are unsatisfied. As a result, student groups patronize less frequently.
Therefore, we believe that in order to enter into the rice ball market successfully, we could adopt low-price strategy, that is to say that our lowermark-ups for customer’slargerorders.
Curbside store design
Image:
We firstly think out three names for our store, including: (1) Energy Rice Ball; (2) Fragrant Rice Ball; (3) Mother Rice Ball.
According to our field work, the name”Energy Rice Ball” is popular among student groups. As a result, in order to mold the affable image for student and let them feel full of vigor and energy with their body after eating our rice balls,we will adopt the name”Energy Rice Ball” as our store’s name.
Quality of the products(co-brand):
We persist in providing high-quality products at a low price. Therefore, we will adopt Kuang Ta Hsiangfried pork fibre, AGV tuna slice, Chick Farm eggsetc. to make rice balls. At beverages, we will adopt Lipton black tea,Nescafe’ coffee, and hand-made soybean milk etc. So customers can enjoy high quality assurance of food at low prices.
Table1. Materials for rice ball
Materials for rice ball / Kuang Ta Hsiangfried pork fibre / AGV tuna slice / Chick Farm eggs
pictures / / /
Table2. Materials for drinks
Materials for drinks / Lipton black tea / Nescafe’ coffee / Nestle coffee matepictures / / /
High levels of sanitation:
Our store is expected to be acurbside store that is generally considered as lack of hygiene. But we hope to convey the feeling of health and safety to customers, in the process of making rice balls, we will be full with plastic gloves andmasks, and putting covers on beverage and food storage barrels, to ensure health and hygiene.
Product strategy
We will use co-brand strategy to ensure our productsare high quality. Our waiters will also provide good service to consumers.
Pricing strategy
The single item’s price is NT. 25. The price is cheaper than the competitor “Goosex2 Onigiri”, and the volume of our rice ball is bigger. We think it is attractive for our target consumers.
Place strategy
Energy Rice Ball is a curbside store, and many people think curbside store is lack of hygiene. Therefore after achieving break-even, we may open a store to replace the curbside.
Promotion strategy
We will use a poster in the opening in order to advertise. After a period of time, we would like to provide a business card to consumers, so they can use the cell phone number to order foods in advance.
Table3.Poster and Business card
Poster / Business cardProduct cost analysis
We provide two kinds of rice balls and three sorts of beverages. Items following are about the cost analysis of our products.
(1)Rice balls:“Fried pork flakes rice ball” and “Toro rice ball”
<Package>：Plastic bag NT. 0.5
<material inside>：
Fried pork flakes (or Toro) NT. 4
Rice NT. 5
Stewed Eggs NT. 1.5
Pickled cabbage NT. 1.5
Fried bread sticks NT. 2.5
(2)Beverages: milk (black) tea, soybean milk, coffee
<Package>：Plastic cup (10 ounce), a cover, pipetteNT. 2
<Material inside>：
- Milk tea NTD.7
- soybean milk NTD.8
- Coffee NTD.10
According marketing survey, there are 60% rice balls, 20% milk tea, 10% soybean milk, 10% coffee in the products which are sold.
We assume the products sold as X, so the variable cost is:
Variable cost=(0.6*15+0.2*9+0.1*10+0.1*12)X
Fixed cost
Fixed cost includes a dining car, equipments, the signage etc. According to survey, the fixed cost of Energy Rice Ball is NTD. 45000.
Figure1. Break-Even
At the NT.25 price, Energy Rice Ball must sell at least 3750 units products to break-even. 3750 units products include2250 units of rice balls, 750 units of milk tea, 375 units of soybean milk, 375 units of coffee. That is, at this level, total revenue will equal total costs of NT. 93750.
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