Ong, Dan Joel Santiago, John Lemuel Strategic Marketing Case Study Submitted to: Sir Sanchez Henshall

Confectionery Problem Identification In this case study, when Peter Avery took the responsibility for the Vendomatic account, the performance was already disappointing. Sales had slipped by nearly 20% on the previous year and the contribution of 6,000 pounds for the ten weeks of operation looked definitely bad. Mr. Avery needs to figure out and solve the dilemma Henshall Confectionery is facing. Objectives To find out whats the source/cause of the problem To come up with recommendations that would help Henshall Confectionery To analyze the table given and comprehend To be able to provide the best solution regarding the problem

ACA and Recommendation Based on this case study, Mr. Avery calculated that if he eliminate nut chocolate altogether in favour of plain chocolate, he could increase the 6,000 pounds contribution for the ten weeks by a futher 500 pounds. With the added requirements of its manufacturer, nut chocolate remained the most expensive even after adjustment of the chocolate and nut content. Thus, hes considering to lower the production cost by removing the nut chocolate variety in Henshall Confectionery product offerings since it is the most expensive variety. He predicted that this process would also result to increase in revenue for the company by an additional 500 pounds. A typical alternative course to consider is the development and production of the product. Even though the nut chocolate is expensive, we cant deny the fact that it also gives product variability and generates revenues for the company. Some customers want alternative options when buying a product and by eliminating the nut chocolate, Henshall would also avert loyal customers who loves nut chocolates. The recommendation is to improve and modify the production and the ingredients so that their quality of nut chocolate would be more satisfying to

the customers in order to generate more sales. This can be applied if they have time and patience for them to be able to come up with a better nut chocolate in a less expensive production cost. Another alternative way is to drop the Vendomatic account, since they doesnt really provide good service for Henshall products to sell to their advantage. Henshall Confectionery is forced to just choosing one type of chocolate to sell for the whole week, this affects the product variability of the company. Vendomatic also have a problem in dealing with one supplier, clearly they dont give importance to loyalty since they are entertaining other competitors products for them to sell. As shown in the table, Vendomatic issues of loyalty also revealed that most of the time, the type chocolate Henshall is selling differs to what the competitor is also selling. This could mean that maybe Vendomatic is informing the competitor (Pastile) what Henshall have chosen to sell for the week and make sure that Pastile doesnt sell the same variety of chocolate. The table also shows that Pastile chocolates are more in demand, there is also a possibility that the marketplace or area of their vendo machines prefer the chocolates of Pastile than Henshall. Thus, Henshall should find a distributor that would help them sell their product better than Vendomatic did. This alternative can be applied if Henshall have other options of distributors. Plan of Action Based on the table provided, Henshall Confectionerys best product is the plain chocolate as it gives them the best revenue of 2,848 pounds in a span of ten weeks, while the Milk chocolate and the Nut chocolate only gives them 1,786 pounds and 1,428 pounds respectively. If you are dominating the market, a typical advice is for you to improve on your weaknesses so that your competitors would have a hard time in finding a profitable market space for them to insert their product over yours. But since confectionery industry is competitive and specifically Henshall Confectionery isnt doing well when compared to its competitors, Mr. Avery would need to come up with a plan that would help them solve their sales dilemma and that would also fit their current situation. After performing Situational Analysis, Henshall Confectionery is in a bad position for an organizational change or product development. Although these strategies would help them create an opportunity for them to increase their sales and solve the problem, these isnt the best solution for their problem since this would require more time and would make them risk more. According to Exhibit 1, Pastile Brand and Volume, their best product is the milk chocolate, it sold 71.1 packs in a span of ten weeks, while plain and nut chocolate sold 51.3 and 50.8 packs respectively. With strategic marketing and competitor analysis, I recommend Mr. Avery to switch the desired type of chocolate to be removed. I prefer the milk chocolates of Henshall Cofectionery to be the one eliminated than the nut chocolates and it should be replaced by the plain chocolates, because the Milk chocolates have been the most sold chocolate of Pastile and it would be hard for Henshall to penetrate the milk chocolate market or even develop a milk chocolate that would

be better than Pastiles. The table also proves that Pastile choose milk chocolate as their product to sell 4 out of 10 weeks, therefore I conclude that it must have been their best product among the three variant, as Henshalls plain chocolate also was chosen 4 out of 10 weeks. The table illustrates that Henshalls plain chocolates have sold better than any Pastiles chocolate variants. Henshall and Pastile nut chocolates have sold almost in similar amount of volume so it would be more appropriate if Henshall replace the milk chocolate since the volume of packs sold between Pastile and henshalls milk chocolate is wider than the nut chocolates. In conclusion, I recommend this plan of action to Mr. Peter Avery, since it would be the best solution that would fit the current situation of the company as it results to more sales and have fewer risks to take. With this strategy it would be best if, while you are replacing the milk chocolate with plain chocolate in the vending machines, you should come up with the best chocolate product or improve your current chocolate products with research and product development. With a good market penetration strategy, your new and improved products can catch Pastile and other competitors off guard and would make you the benchmark of confectionery.