Using Internal Marketing To Foster An Entrepreneurial Culture In Fleet River Bakery, Essay.

New Ventures

Critically evaluate how the firm uses ‘internal marketing’ to achieve an entrepreneurial culture, staff motivation, improved performance and staff retention?

The study aims to give an insight of a business for not having its operations for less than ten years. Entrepreneurship concept involves development of a business plan or strategy that acquires resources essential to run a business and the individual responsible for the success of the organization. For a better understanding of the topic the researcher has chosen the company is into the bakery business. Functions of internal marketing are analyzed. The entrepreneurship culture affecting individual and corporate performances is devised. Financial projections for a new start up venture are made in accordance with the budget.

The organization Fleet River Bakery is a confectioners shop situated in London serving food and cakes to the citizens of London. The location of this company is at 71 Lincolns Inn Fields, WC2A 3JF.  Fleet River not only specializes in bakery products and catering but also has fleet river rooms for special occasions. They make private hire in the evening. They have an arrangement for hiring the whole place in the evening or back room at the lower level as per requirement. The company has just expanded its business by opening its sister site, Upper fleet. The place is famous for its bakery products and it updates the menu for lunch each day. The main activity is baking of coffee, pastries, cakes and other bakery products, and also different lunch on per day basis. The bakery is open from 7am to 9 pm. It is open on Saturdays and Sundays but for less span of time. The employees follow a log in and log out system at the starting and end of their shifts. They also provide for rooms at this place. The main popularity was gained because of updating of lunch menu (Fleetriverbakery.com, 2015).

River needs a new website designed for its business, which would include all the information regarding the business about its business process (Jeong et al. 2013). It would include the specialties, special services and blogs along with customer complaint forums for better customer analysis. It would include the specialties, special services and blogs along with customer complaint forums for better customer analysis.

Entrepreneurs focus on individual as well as corporate performances in the organization. Through different techniques of motivation and training, an entrepreneur plays a key role in staff development. The River Fleet Bakery aims at providing highest quality products and personalized services to the customers. The internal management system of the company aims at increasing brand awareness by promoting new marketing strategies. They have an understanding of strategies and organizational goals to be achieved. Performance maybe improved as the non-marketing staff tends to do their jobs effectively having a marketing focus in mind (Google Books, 2015). The personal and professional needs of employee are met for integrating organizational culture. A goal is set with the company for improving performance and plans may be developed after once setting up organizational goals. This may be done to change the culture of the company fundamentally. The departments may be reorganized, new product lines maybe developed, new website maybe designed (Acta.fih.upt.ro, 2015).

Individual And Corporate Performances

River Fleet Bakery tends to retain the staff. They encourage employees in each department by motivating them to perform better. Work is organized in such a way that would empower the employees of the company by assigning them with responsibility and accountability. Employees existing in the firm are given value for their development and retention. The employees perform better in turn because of the expectations laid on them.  Extensive training programs provided to employees to improve their efficiency and provide with exceptional customer service (Frederick, Kuratko and Hodgetts, 2006).

At a corporate level, the entrepreneur forms a team to carry on operations at different levels. The management aims at increasing the profitability and growth creating a positive effect on performance of Fleet River Bakery.  The team for orientation figures out the strategies of the firm by setting vision and resolve issues accordingly(Ccsenet.org, 2015). The entrepreneur constructs ways for differentiation and having cost leadership at the same time. The management prepares itself to adapt to the circumstance quickly. The entrepreneurs also define new strategic directions by desiging new ways to work or learn in the organization. The company may use newsletters, corporate retreats, departmental meeting and blogs to educate the employees on organizational goals Bridge, (S., and O'Neill, K.,2012). They may offer vacations or bonuses and other incentives to motivate them. Employee feedback cards maybe generated to know what they feel about the company. This would help the management make the changes as per employee convenience. The employee’s grievances is resolved so as to increase productivity. This may also track their attitudes towards company policies, loyalty and job satisfaction (Kuratko and Hodgetts, 2004).

Social Forces- These include the population characteristics, value and behavior. These forces may have an impact on the entrepreneur. For instance, there may be some demographic shifts in London, UK that help in growing diversity in ethnicity and aging population. In case there is a continuation in the niche marketing, these factors will tend to emerge. Fleet River entrepreneurs have launched business to appeal specific ethnic groups; they have put on certain menu that invites specific ethnicity. Another social force in the bakery business is culture; there have been notable changes in culture that affects customer values and attitudes. For instance, there has been an increase in the number of working women, expansion in task but the time available is diminishing. Thus to reduce this time poverty, delivery services and online orders are being forced into the market (Entrepreneur, 2002).

Driving Forces

Economic Forces- This helps in recognizing the macroeconomic level, to determine if there is growth in the economy and if the consumers have confidence to buy from Fleet River. The macroeconomic factors affect consumer spending and overall business. At microeconomic level, Entrepreneurs determine if the consumers have the ability to buy their food products or services provided by them. Prices are set in such a way by Fleet River that responds to current business trends (Entrepreneurship In A Box, 2011).

Technological Forces- These forces change from time-to-time. One of the most important technological force is Internet. This gives rise to social media where Fleet River wants to introduce new specialties on the website so showing prices relating to booking of rooms. There may be a Feedback section generated so as to have a review from customers. People may discuss about the freshness of food or its taste in that section. This gives a hint in the minds of consumers that they serve the best quality food. Gradually with time, the company must promote its new opened sister bakery Upper Fleet

Competitive Forces- These forces are taken into consideration by the entrepreneurs because of external environment. Hummingbird bakery and E5 Bakehouse are two major competitors for Fleet River Bakery as they satisfy their customers in their own ways. These bakeries have a website established for providing information to their customers. The entrepreneur has to frame a set of ventures how to compete and differentiate from other competitors. They should focus on designing their website that meets the expectations and needs of consumers (Drucker, P.,2014).

Regulatory Forces- Entrepreneurs should determine the regulatory forces that influence their opportunities or scope in the market. These consists of  license and legal formalities that are required in starting their new bakery Upper Fleet. These regulations protect consumers and companies as they have to comply with the federal and environmental laws. The agency to protect environment ensure maintaining sanitary standards and regulation of fresh food and water supplies (Fernández González, Landajo and Presno, n.d.).

Internal management includes interaction between employees and staff of the organization with the management. They work together on creating brand awareness by finding or creating durable opportunities. The entrepreneurs successfully find and create such opportunities for expansion of business or by establishing new ventures. These opportunities are done by environmental scanning. There are two propositions in content of establishing new opportunities (Marketing-schools.org, 2015).

Firstly, they emerge from a pattern of changing conditions in technology, political, social, demographic and economic conditions. As mentioned earlier, a social change notable is going green or getting eco-conscious (Scialert.net, 2015). Fleet River Bakery should take opportunities by providing eco-friendly products. They can reduce the use of plastic and switch to recyclable paper for packaging. The economical changes that can be brought are setting up prices affordable in a way by consumers. Also, the cost for designing the new website with required changes may be developed. It should meet the needs and expectations of the customers socially as well as economically. The internal managers of the company divide their work as per qualification. The new business venture at Upper Fleet should provide with more options of food, design innovative menu for people visiting their bakery (Digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu, 2015).

New opportunities are also recognized by developing their website. The existing website doesn’t have room tariff available. The new plan is to mention all such details for the services provided by Fleet River. The new venture of Upper Fleet invites employments for waiters, chefs and cleaners. There is opportunity to develop their staffing techniques so that more people are eager to work for them and serve customers.

The management’s function lies in planning, organizing, staffing, leading and control. Each of these steps influence to the amount available to a great degree. The assigned responsibilities to each manager cannot be conducted without understanding and knowing their financial constraints. The proposal made for starting a new venture is for website development and promotion of Upper Fleet Bakery. There is a requirement for a team of software engineers for the modification and development of website. The financial department assigns the cost for development in the mentioned specialties in co-ordination with the engineer. Also, promotional and marketing techniques for the new bakery Upper Fleet maybe devised (Lynn and Lynn, 2009).

Money may be sourced from income-producing activities like selling more of their food, attracting more people at their outlet and private investment.

The leaders of the company are accountable for the financial resources assigned to them. Workable systems are established accordingly as per the budget. A constant check is kept on the resources is kept.  Managers seek to set resources in a way to accomplish set up for new venture. There needs to be a balance between operating expenses and salary.

The non-financial resources involve Human Resources. The human resources of the Fleet River Bakery design programs in a way to provide maximum employee satisfaction and retention. The diversifications needed in the menu maybe communicated by the HR to the chef. Communication from financial department and the bakery chefs is done by the HR so as to avoid any confusion. They aim at delivering delicacies each day in an innovative style. After the website will be developed, HR needs to check for any discrepancy or irrelevancy. The feedback generated by customers may be brought into chef’s notice (Marsh, 2012).

Web Traffic- The company may suffer with less web traffic. There can be less number of visitors on the website initially. With popularity, website traffic can be increased there be attracting more people to visit the website (Carroll and Carroll, 2012).

Search Marketing- Optimization for search marketing is expensive in nature. It takes time for any venture to gain popularity. Till optimization is done for the website, it may not show in the search results when a person is randomly looking up for a bakery (Brill, 2010).

Low Sales- This maybe another hurdle in the beginning since the people tends to get reviews from others in the beginning before trying it on their own. People may be hesitant to book food online hesitant with delivery packaging and timeliness. Some people may not even notice the development in website for which campaigns maybe accelerated. Also, with any negative review on the website, the sales is adversely affected (Barringer, B., 2012).

Significant Cost increase- New staffs are employed for expansion in service made. The company gives dining hall on hire for special occasions. They also have a modification in just letting out their backroom as requested by customers. Initially the Bakery doesn’t have bookings for the same which makes a significant increase in the cost (Pakroo and Stewart, n.d.).

High Sales- The new outlet at Upper Fleet may experience such a situation. There may be an overdrive of demand. The numbers of workers are as per requirement. There is a potential rise in sales during lunch hours which outstrip the capacity of serving good food timely.

Equipment Failure- In the process of marketing, more customers are attracted to visit Fleet River Bakery. There may be a mishap because of equipment failure. The company aims to start-up room services and dining hall for parties. It maybe hurdled by management failure or technical issues.

New competitors- Entry of new competitors is possible giving a tough time to Fleet River Bakery. They may specialize in the same bunch and variety of food available but focus on their marketing much more than Fleet River. This will catch attention of the people

Technical Failure- The payment gateway may experience issues and people might doubt the gateway with its security for entering their bank details. Because of overload or high web traffic, the website may slow down the speed for visitors to minimize the load a little

Renko et al. (2011) advised plans for improving marketing strategies to attain vision set out by the company. The company Aisha Food Industry Sdn. Bhd. was established in the year 1992 on October 19 is one of the SMEs in Malaysia. They started this company as a family business which got converted into medium enterprise. The company has a paid up capital of $135,000 and run by 28 employees in the management. According to the customers, the company uses slightly low level ingredients because the selling price is kept low in comparison with other bakeries. They aimed at marketing their bakery products and developing a new market with existing partners. They identified the appropriate advertising sources as billboards, newspapers, bulletins and business cards. Further, they increased the volume of profit by selling most of best selling product. They executed promotional activities for achieving target. They organized sale motivation programs and developed new distribution centers. They also collected feedback from customers to resolve the issues and grievances if any. The issues observed were very common with a baking industry (S Kiumarsi, K Jayaraman, SM Isa, A Varastegani).

The challenges faced by the company were lower cash flow operations and limited financial agencies for support as stockholders when in need for a good investment. According to survey with (International Euromonitor, 2011), Malaysian customers modified their eating habits and switched to a healthier plan. They ate bread as breakfast instead of noodles, fatty rice and other local delicacies. This helped a boost in sales of the products of this bakery as it modified its products as per customer’s wishes. Ideas to provide better storage facility were generated. Bakery packing was given utmost importance. There were color examinations and experiments for making the muffins look more appetizing. They faced a lot of issues like lack of financing, low accessibility to technology, barriers for global sourcing etc. These flaws were taken into consideration and very well managed by the entrepreneurs. They made their low quality ingredients as a strength and provided mostly in prisons, government hospitals, government hostels where the food quality was compromised than being a standard quality (Ifrj.upm.edu.my, 2015).

Fleet River Bakery has set its goal for a net income and cash flow at the end of year after website is developed and things are put into motion.

Year 1: £ 150,000

Year 2: £ 175,000

Year 3: £ 200,000

The company breaks down objectives into two-day parts : Lunch and baked products and coffee. The developed revenue targets for the week in the years being £2000, £2500 and £3000.

Table: Projected Revenues (Years 1-3)

The internal marketing strategy designed by the entrepreneurs is such that gives an idea about the start-up costs for developing website.

The new website development expense for Fleet River Bakery is projected to be approx £5000. The constraints that affect the cost of redesigned website are graphically related and content management. The site maintenance would cost approximately £100 per annum. Features such as automatic readjustment of size when opened on mobiles and tablets maybe done. The breakup of budget is assigned as 15% for planning; 25% for Interface design; 40% for programming and 20% for project management. The costs also depend on addition of multimedia elements like flash or video content. Graphic representations for rooms and evening hall maybe developed as customer-friendly. The contents like revision of menu will have to be recreated with pictorial representations and slideshows (Entrepreneurship.saddleback.edu, 2015).

Internal management helps in improving employee development. They should be motivated in order to retain in the bakery. Fleet River should also devise attractive incentives for employees so that more of them join them for work at Upper Fleet. The entrepreneur must work on the website development and make it attractive to lure more customers. The customers must be able to compare the prices of products and services with other competitors. The website development may contain better graphical and pictorial representations. Other features like booking of rooms must be worked on soon. A feedback forum may be provided both on the website as well as in the bakery and complaints must be taken seriously. On the other hand, in case of excellent reviews, various appraisals may be made to the employees motivating them to perform better. Diversifications in food menu could be made in innovative ways for each day.

Presentations and packaging for food provided could be top-notch that looks sumptuous in the first look. Online services must be marketed and promoted so that number of orders increase per day and is convenient for the customers at the same time. Any grievances must be looked up in real time. The employees may keep a track of customer’s likes and preferences with changing time.

References

Acta.fih.upt.ro, (2015). ACTA TECHNICA CORVINIENSIS - Bulletin of Engineering. [online] Available at: https://acta.fih.upt.ro/ .Marketing-schools.org, (2015). Internal Marketing | What is Internal Marketing?. [online] Available at: https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/internal-marketing.html

Barringer, B. (2012). Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, (2012).

Bridge, S., and O'Neill, K. (2012). Understanding enterprise: entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan.

Brill, J. (2010). Bringing New Technologies to Market: Hurdles and Solutions. Gastroenterology, 139(1), pp.32-35.e1.

Carroll, S. and Carroll, S. (2012). Request for proposal (RFP) for website design and construction. Magnolia, AR: Southern Arkansas University.

Ccsenet.org, (2015). [online] Available at: https://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/article/viewFile/22998/14857

Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Entrepreneur, (2002). Internal Customer Service: Getting Your Organization to Work Together. [online] Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/51804 [Accessed 18 Jun. 2015].

Entrepreneurship In A Box, (2011). Analysis: Main Forces Driving Changes. [online] Available at: https://www.entrepreneurshipinabox.com/1687/analysis-main-forces-driving-changes/ [Accessed 18 Jun. 2015].

Entrepreneurship.saddleback.edu, (2015). Entrepreneurship & Innovation Learning Center. [online] Available at: https://entrepreneurship.saddleback.edu/Resources/Business%20Plan%20Examples/Bakery.pdf

Fernández González, P., Landajo, M. and Presno, M. (n.d.). The driving forces of change in environmental indicators.

Fleetriverbakery.com, (2015). ::::: Fleet River Bakery - London :::::. [online] Available at: https://fleetriverbakery.com [Accessed 18 Jun. 2015].

Frederick, H., Kuratko, D. and Hodgetts, R. (2006). Entrepreneurship. South Melbourne: Thomson Learning.

Google Books, (2015). Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, and Practice. [online] Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books?id=a4ndCCdI_m4C&pg=PT421&dq=bakery+entrepreneurship&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lO6CVeWkLdLjuQS_v4LYAw&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=bakery%20entrepreneurship&f=false [Accessed 18 Jun. 2015].

Harris, C. (2015). 21. Migrant manufacturing: translocal production and the establishment of a Polish bakery in Birmingham, UK. Handbook of Manufacturing Industries in the World Economy, 326.

Ifrj.upm.edu.my, (2015). International Food Research Journal. [online] Available at: https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.incentivemarketing.org/resource/collection/AA28A586-EAC9-43DA-BC08-4A6A2018994A/internal_marketing.pdf

Jeong, J. S., Jeong, H. N., Ko, K. H., Moon, J. H., and Kang, H. G. (2013). Success Factors of Paris Baguettes Bakery Franchise Business. Asia Marketing Journal, 15(2), 1-27.

Kiumarsi, S., Jayaraman, K., Isa, S. M., and Varastegani, A. (2014). Marketing strategies to improve the sales of bakery products of small-medium enterprise (SMEs) in Malaysia. International Food Research Journal, 21(6), 2101-2107.

Kuratko, D. (2013). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.

Kuratko, D. and Hodgetts, R. (2004). Entrepreneurship. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western.

Lynn, J. and Lynn, J. (2009). Start your own restaurant and more. [Irvine, Calif.]: Entrepreneur Press.

Marsh, C. (2012). Financial management for non-financial managers. London: Kogan Page.

Pakroo, P. and Stewart, M. (n.d.). The small business start-up kit.

Scialert.net, (2015). The Role of Internal Marketing in Creation of Sustainable Competitive Advantages. [online] Available at: https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=tasr.2011.364.374&org=10 [Accessed 18 Jun. 2015].

Thompson, D. (2012). L3CS: An Innovative Choice for Urban Entrepreneurs and Urban Revitalization. Am. U. Bus. L. Rev., 2, 115.