Food Marketing, Consumption, and Manufacturing Essay

feed Marketing. f atomic number 18 crops ofttimes see the general marketing approaches and techniques applied the marketing of separate kinds of products and services. In nourishment marketing, topics such as test marketing, segmentation, positioning, soft touching, targeting, consumer query, and market founding strategy, for example, are highly relevant. In addition, food marketing involves new(prenominal) kinds of challengessuch as dealing with a perishable product whose quality and accessibility varies as a function of current harvest conditions.The cling to trainthe extent to which sequential ploughshareies in the marketing channel add value to the productis forkicularly important. Today, processing and new distribution options provide increase change magnitude opport unities lendable to food marketers to provide the consumer with public comfort station. Markting, services, and processing added do, however, result in significantly high(prenominal) costs. In the old days, for example, consumers might return bake their own bread from topical anaestheticly grown flour. Today, to the highest degree households bribe pre-manufactured bread, and it is estimated that the farmer receives only some 5% of the determine paid by the consumer for the wheat.Demographics and aliment Marketing. The study of demographics involves understanding statistical characteristics of a creation. For food marketing purposes, this whitethorn help soakeds (1) understand the current market place (e. g. , a firm interested in entering the market for sports drinks in a given(p) country, or worldwide, might investigate the number of people between the ages of cardinal and thirty-five, who would constitute a particularly significant market) or (2) predict next trends.In the United States and Ger numerous, for example, birth rates are relatively low, so it can be predicted that the demand for school lunch boxes willing believably decline. Therefore, firms marketing such products might see if they, instead, can shift their resources toward products consumed by a growing population (e. g. , bait boxes for a growing population of retired individuals who want to go fishing). Food marketers must consider several issues imprint the structure of a population. For example, in some rapidly growing countries, a man-sized percentage of the population is concentrated among younger generations.In countries such as Korea, China, and Taiwan, this has helped stimulate economic growth, while in certain poorer countries, it puts pressures on society to accommodate an increasing number of people on a fixed amount of land. Other countries such as Japan and Ger some, in contrast, experience problems with a graying society, where fewer non-retired people are around to champion an increasing number of aging seniors. Because Germany actually hovers around negative population growth, the German government has issued sizable financial incentives, in the forms of subsidies, for women who take for children.In the United States, population growth occurs both through births and immigration. Since the number of births is non growing, problems occur for firms that are dependent on population growth (e. g. , Gerber, a manufacturer of baby food). Social class can be apply in the positioning of food products. One strategy,upward pull marketing, involves positioning a product for mainstream consumers, but portraying the product as being consumed by upper class consumers. For example, Haagen-Dazs takes care in the selection of clothing, jewelry, and surroundings in its advertisements to portray upscale living, as do the relieve oneselfrs of Grey Poupon mustard.A nonher strategy, however, takes a diametrically opposite approach. In at level positioning, blue tierce families are portrayed as such, emphasizing the working class lifestyle. umpteen members of this demographic group associate strongly with this setting and are majestic of t heir lifestyles, making this sometimes a viable strategy. An advertisement for Almond Joy, for example, features a struggling high school student being quizzed by his instructor remarking, Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you dont Nowadays, by the way, social class is often satirized in advertising, as unmixed in the Palanna All-Fruit commercials while the matron faints because the police murdericer refers to the fruit preserves as jelly. Demographics in the U. S. have significantly affected demand for certain food products. With declining birth rates, there is less demand for baby foods in general, a trend that will continue. Immigration has contributed to a demand for more respective(a) foods. Long working hours have fueled a demand for ready foods, a category that has experienced significant growth in supermarkets since the 1980s.Food Marketing and Consumption Patterns. Certain foodssuch as chicken, cheese, and soft drinkshave experienced significant growth in consu mption in new-fashi championd years. For some foods, total market consumption has increased, but this increase whitethorn be primarily because of choices of a subgroup. For example, while many Americans have bring down their intake of pork due to concerns about fat, overall per capita consumption of pork has increased in the U. S. This increase probably results in large part from immigration from Asia, where pork is a favored dish.Consumption of certain other products has decreased. Many consumers have replaced whole milk with leaner varieties, and substitutes have expire available to reduce sugar consumption. Beef and egg consumption have been declining, but this whitethorn be reversing as high protein nourishments gain increasing favor. Some food categories have seen increasing consumption in large part because of heavy promotional campaigns to stimulate demand. International Comparisons. Americans generally cash in ones chips a significantly smaller portion of their income o n food than do people in most other countries.Part of this is due to American affluencein India and the Philippines, families are estimated to spend 51% and 56% of their incomes on food, respectively, in large part because of low average incomes. Food impairments as well tend to be lower in the U. S. than they are in most industrialized countries, leaving more money for other purposes. Americans, on the average, are estimated to spend 7-11% of their income on food, compared to 18% in Japan where food tends to be very expensive. This is because food charges are relatively low, compared to other products, here. Food outlets. Food, in the United States, is sold in a diversity of outlets.Supermarkets carry a broad assortment of goods and generally offer lower prices. Certain gizmo productse. g. , beverages and snacksare provided in more outlets where consumers whitethorn be willing to put up higher prices for dodge. Distinctions between retail formats are increasingly blurrede. g. , supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants all sell prepared foods to go. A small number of online retailers straight sell food that can be delivered to consumers familys. This is usually not a way to reduce costswith delivery, costs are usually higher than in supermarketsbut rather a way to provide convenience to time-pressed consumers.Internationally, there are large variations. In developing countries, food is often sold in open markets or in small stores, typically with more locally produced and fewer grassed products available. Even in many industrialized countries, supermarkets are less common than they are in the U. S. In Japan, for example, many people show in local neighborhood stores because it is long-winded to drive to a large supermarket. In some European countries, many people do not own cars, and thus smaller local shops whitethorn be visited frequently. Food is increasingly being consumed away from the homein restaurants, cafeterias, or at food stands.H ere, a large part of the cost is for preparation and other services such as ambiance. Consumers are often quite willing to pay these costs, however, in return for convenience and enjoyment. Government Food Programs. Government food programs, in addition to luck low income households, do increase demand for food to some extent. In fact, increasing demand for farm products was a abundanter motivation than assist poor people for the formation of the U. S. food stamp program. The actual touch on on food stamps on actual consumer demand is limited, however, due to the interchangeableness of money.It is estimated that one dollar in food stamps increases the demand for food by 20 cents, but when food stamps are available to cover some food costs, recipients are likely to divert much of the money they would differently have spent to other necessities. Food Marketing Issues. The food patience faces numerous marketing decisions. Money can be invested in pit building (through advertisi ng and other forms of promotion) to increase either quantities demanded or the price consumers are willing to pay for a product. Coca Cola, for example, spends a great deal of money both on completeding its formula and on promoting the scar.This allows change state to charge more for its product than can makers of regional and smaller brands. Manufacturers may be able to leverage their existing brand names by developing new product lines. For example, Heinz started out as a brand for pickles but branched out into ketchup. Some brand extensions may involve a risk of damage to the original brand if the quality is not good enough. Coca Cola, for example, refused to apply the Coke name to a diet drink back when artificial sweeteners had a significantly less spellbinding taste.Coke created Tab Cola, but only when aspartame (NutraSweet) was approved for use in soft drinks did Coca Cola come out with a fodder Coke. Manufacturers that have invested a great deal of money in brands may h ave developed a certain level of consumer brand allegiancethat is, a tendency for consumers to continue to buy a preferred brand even when an attractive offer is made by competitors. For loyalty to be present, it is not enough to merely observe that the consumer buys the same brand consistently. The consumer, to be brand loyal, must be able to actively resist promotional efforts by competitors.A brand loyal consumer will continue to buy the preferred brand even if a competing product is improved, offers a price promotion or premium, or receives preferred display space. Some consumers how multi-brand loyalty. Here, a consumer switches between a few preferred brands. The consumer may either start for variety or may, as a rule of thumb, buy whichever one of the preferred brands are on sale. This consumer, however, would not switch to other brands on sale. Brand loyalty is, of course, a matter of degree.Some consumers will not switch for a moderate discount, but would switch for a larg e one or will occasionally buy another brand for convenience or variety. The quaternity Ps of Marketing. Marketers often refer to the Four Ps, or the marketing portfolio, as a way to describe resources available to market a product * Product. Firms can invest in the product by using high quality ingredients or doing extensive research and development to improve it. Both McDonalds and Burger King, for example, literally spend millions of dollars to perfect their French friesIn todays Western markets with variable tastes and preferences, it has generally been found that products that offer a specific benefite. g. , a very tart taste in jamtend to fuck better than me, too products that merely imitate a competitors products. Less is known about Eastern and developing countries. * Price. Different strategies may be taken with respect to price. Generically, there are two slipway to make a profitsell a lot and make a small margin on each unit or make a large margin on each unit and set tle for lesser volumes.Firms in most markets are better off if the market is balancedwhere some firms compete on price and others on other features (such as different taste preferences for different segments). The same humor applies at the retail level where some retailers compete on price (e. g. , Food-4-Less and Wal-Mart) while others (such as Vons Pavillion) compete on service while charging higher prices. * Distribution. Most supermarkets are offered more products than they have space for. Thus, many manufacturers will find it difficult to get their products into retail stores.