Marketing Strategies For Found Business Inspired By Close Entrepreneurial

Below is an image containing the details of the simulation scores

Dsicuss about the Found Business Inspired By Close Entrepreneurial.

Decision making when it comes to marketing strategies is very vital. Marketing department in any company is valued with great consideration (Brennan, 2015: 73). It provides important information and awareness concerning the product or services to the prospective customers. This paper provide an elaborated marketing strategies adopted to manage the market in Boomtown.

Initial choices and decisions have to be made at the beginning of every business venture no matter how big or small it might appear (Kovalainen, 2015, 45).  One also has to make decision on the market share to capture, selling and marketing strategies and in the case of manufacturing one has to know the sources of materials and what skills to incorporate in the transformation of raw materials to the finished products (Eriksson, 2015, 98)

In this case, initial choices were made on food truck, pushcart or market research options. Decision was arrived at Food truck business in consideration of profitability. Food truck is the only business that guarantees the daily sales volume. Decision was also made on the menu in different locations. This was made possible through the market segmentation.

Market segmentation also helps to know the size of the market for the products (Raymond, 2015; 79). Generally, the decision rationale involves the profitability, market share, location of the business and the product to deal with.

Market feedback is very important when it comes to adjustment and correction of the previous mistakes in business. This was done through a number criteria as follows.

• Observation from the daily sales volume

Market feedbacks were collected through the sale volume recorded each day in every week (Prijcker, 2017; 71). This is a good indication of how the product is performing in the market. In the first week the venture was located at the city market.

• Direct interaction with customers

Customers gives their feedbacks through interaction during sales. Recommendation given at this point is incorporated to the product bringing about improvements.

• Social media platforms and website feedback

Business website and a Facebook page where customers post their feedbacks was used to gather the market feedback. A website for the business also provided an interaction forum where the customer likes and dislikes was collected and analyzed for improvements and modification.Consideration of those three criteria guides in the modification of the market from one week to another. This leads to increased sales volume in the last three week of simulation.

The major choice involved to operate the Food truck. As aforementioned above, this venture is more profitable compared to the other ventures. However this venture had a number of challenges as highlighted below.

• Costly permits and License.

Market feedback assessment

High cost for the food handler certificates and permits to operate this business. Every week the menu and the location of the business had to change and so the business permit had to be applied every week leading to the unreasonable spending in the pursuit of the license and permits.

• Business immobility

Restrictions in change of locations within a week was a big challenge. This posed a challenge since the opportunity cost sometimes would be very huge. A successful business should be mobile and should be able to reach all of its customers (Burns, 2016: 43).

• Low customers turn out

This was experience in the first days of the week. This problem was associated to customer unawareness of the business. 80% of the total sales volume was made in the last three days of the week whereas the other 20% was made in the first two days of the week in all the locations.

• High initial and operational capital

The cost also extended to lending the truck and trained food processors since food track permits has more restriction compared to the pushcart venture. The cost of lending, paying

the drivers and staff is huge compared to the other ventures.  Huge saving has to be made for one to start and operate this venture.

• Stiff competitions

This was experienced much at the beach and market center. At this points, most of the pushcart vendors dominated leading to massive competition and in return leading to low sales.

Modifications and changes were made throughout the five weeks, the first modification involved the change of the menu and location. The rationale involved in making this modification was the customer feedbacks and the desire to maximize the profit.

In the first week ice cream was being sold in the downtown where the daily sales was 900. These sales was considered low depending on the targeted market. This led to a decision to shift into another market and change the menu.

Modification in the size of the package was made. Five grams was reduced in each packet. This decision was made in order to generate more revenues to cater for the huge cost of production and operations. For a business to thrive, the cost of production should be less than the value of the revenues (Doherty, 2016; 39).

Modifications were also made to shift to the beach.  This was as a result of the fact that offices during the week spent in the downtown had less workers. Making decision at the right time is very important (Doherty, 2016; 39).Smoothies at the beach did not provide good market. A low sale was experienced. The assumption when launching the venture at the beach was to capture the larger population of the market share, this was however not the case.

Business choice, challenges and modifications.

This provided a challenge to make decision. Menu and location were the main modifications done throughout the simulation.

A number of lessons was drawn during the simulation. Most of the lessons were meant to improve the entrepreneurial skills of the players. To begin with, at the start of the game one is taken through the tutorial that familiarize one with the state of the Boomtown, its population, possible markets locations , threats from the competitors and possible products to be purchased in various market (Rosemann, 2015; 120) .

Major challenges encountered throughout the simulation is to choose the market location and the menu or product to supply to the customers. Those are also the major challenges associated to the starting of the business or new product development (Brennan. 2015: 23).

This is the same case in the real business, everyone who intend to start the business in a new location should equip his or herself with this kind of the information. It is essential to understand the location, its people, and also the terrain of the land. With this information one is able to learn to strategize well enough to deal with the market conditions

Secondly, simulation help in bringing out the importance of doing the market segmentation. This entails separating the market into different segments each having a unique characteristic. This can be according to geographical location, demographic status, behavioral status or psychographic status (Kilambi, 2014; 542).

Choosing the business venture wisely is an important lesson generated in food track simulation. This enable the entrepreneur to invest wisely into a venture that will generate considerable profits. A well thought business idea is a profitable business (Eriksson, 2015; 75)

Exiting wisely is an evident lesson from this simulation. It is very important for any entrepreneur to know when it is the right time to exit the venture that is leading to loss (Eddleston, 2016; 73). Simulation enable the player to modify and shift from one venture to another providing an opportunity to try a more profitable venture.

A good entrepreneur should not stick to one business alone. Exploration of the new profitable businesses exposes the entrepreneur with new opportunities and challenges for the progress (Hodges, 2017: 109).

Given the chance to do simulation again, I would change the selection of the menu and location especially in the first week of business. The first week would include selling the frozen ice cream at the art center. No product was sold at this location. This mean the sales revenue was not extensive and many customers who would have otherwise increased the sales are left behind.

Changes and modification

Ice cream could have been sold highly at this location since one is likely to find the youths and young adults at premises like art center. This segment of population consume ice cream highly and mistake was done to avoid that market segment.

Other change to be made if given a chance is to try all the three business ventures each in its own week. Maximum sale was not achieved at the beach because there the track could not access all the places in the beach. Inaccessible locations in the beach would be accessible through the use of the pushcart.

Downtown was visited in two consecutive weeks but selling different products. If given another chance in simulation, I would not sell the products at the same point in two consecutive weeks. This can contribute to less sales leading to low revenues in return.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident from the simulation that the success of the business involve the coordination of all departments in a company. Of more important is the sale and marketing department. Marketing should be done thoroughly and necessary strategies put in place.

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