Starting a Business and Fundamentals of Marketing

This study material from Desklib covers the basics of starting a business and fundamentals of marketing. It includes an evaluation of the external environment, competition analysis using Porter's Five Forces, suggestion of proposed target market, and a SWOT analysis. The content also covers the VRIO analysis and the impact of political, economic, social, and technological factors on the organic food industry. Course code, course name, and college/university are not mentioned.

Starting a Business and
Fundamentals of Marketing

Table of Contents
Business Overview..........................................................................................................................3
An evaluation of the external environment:....................................................................................3
Competition.....................................................................................................................................5
Suggestion of Proposed Target Market...........................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................1

Business Overview
Organic Foods is the proposed business idea. The selection of the business idea is done
on the basis of the increasing market trend for the need of health conscious products. Market
research revealed that the customer in the market highly prefer products that are healthy and
tasty. The aim of the business is to earn profits by competing the existing firms in the market by
satisfying the wants of the audience in the market.
Vision
Vision of the company is to bring quality to the society and being the bench mark in the
food and health care industry. Company has a set of objective which it will strive to achieve for
its success in the market.
Mission
The mission of the company is to help people in maintaining their health at affordable
prices. It aims at making the maximum number of people able to lead a healthy lifestyle and
reduce the stress in people of getting diseases.
Objectives
Its objectives include a sale of 50000 units in the first quarter of the year 2023.
Maintaining a growth rate of 3 % of profits in its first 3 years of operations. Keeping a zero
percent of carbon footprints in its operations.
There are a wide range of activities in food industry right from agriculture stage to the
distribution stage. The company will purchase organic agricultural produce from the nearby
market and then it will manufacture a variety of products in the industry of the company after
which the final products will be sold at retail prices in the company’s own stores and also at
wholesale prices to the wholesalers so the products are available at almost all the grocery and
medical stores of the region. Consumers of the Organic Foods company will be able to purchase
the products online through company’s website and its mobile application.
An evaluation of the external environment:
1. POLITICAL FACTORS:
In the view of importance of organic foods in the UK market, the government has
interfered in the operational activities to boost the influence of such food systems. To support the
organic food theory in the substantial market, the government has taken various measures to

increase the stability and the growth rates for healthy consumption (Ariwibowo. and Haryanto.
2021).
The main motive is to create awareness in people about the recent changes and the trends
by creating efficient and effective policies and strategies for the agriculture sector. Since the
activities of the government have a great influence on a territory's applications, it is very
impactful for the business operators to take assistance from the legal entities.
The aim of the political factors is to take better decisions for the firm's significance
presence and the wide reach of the products and services. The role of such factors is to ensure
that the people are not vulnerable to poor quality eatables and also the firm gains respective
profit margin.
2. ECONOMIC FACTORS:
The economic factors of organic food is a movement towards sustainable development
through sustainable food and eateries. It requires the elements of overall harmonizing of the
society by supplying people with the organic standards which can ensure integrity and the
peaceful living habits of the people.
The organic food industry is the real reason behind the consistent change in the stability
of the economy with food of high quality and health nutrients that can positively affect the health
of people as a whole. In this way, the other retails can even get influenced by the trends and
might adopt the idea of sustainability to prevail in the market.
The government can also increase the labour costs and other pricing policies for the
betterment of the middle class people that can be a positive influence and can even abolish the
uncertainty of various economic crisis such as inflation, deflation, etc.
3. SOCIAL FACTORS:
Nowadays, the organizations with organic food delivering process should maintain
difference between the real organic items and the ones operated with chemical equipment. It is
necessary to have a clear relationship of food and its consumers for better health consciousness
of high calorie fried items which is the exact opposite of organic food items and is not a good
signal of sustainability.

Apart from the differentiation, the verification of the target consumers also play a
significant role in their own knowledge of their balance diet. This has made them well-informed
about their health and their expectations increase respectively with their standards of growth.
This is often treated as a great factor of influence for the society since it has all the
essential elements a person should consider in ahead of its health. Also this can create a sense of
fear in the retail market constituting the organic food items since the realization of the society for
their own benefits have increased and no form of manhandling can succeed in the market.
4. TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS:
With the vast expansion of the technological factors and great innovative techniques, the
market industry has adopted to many criteria right from their production to their final destination.
This causes the consumers to be extra cautious about their health products and want to avoid the
factors which can easily affect their sustainability and the balance diet.
In the verge of the technical events, every organic items firm wants to expand their
production and sales of their products. There is no wrong in the adoption of technology and the
innovative techniques, but firms need to comply with the genetic ideas and the revolution of
customers relevant with the organic items.
Technology does its best in boosting the profitability, but for the customer oriented
industries, such as the organic food industries, it is necessary to attain the customer satisfaction
rates in order to enjoy profitability.
From the above analysis of organic food items (PEST ANALYSIS. 2022.), it can be
assumed that external factors can affect the firm's operations both in a positive and a negative
manner. The simple formula for the better utilization of the resources and customer satisfaction
rates to increase is to follow the rules and regulations, evaluate the marketing techniques and to
make effective leadership strategies in order to be on the safer side of the business industry.
Competition
Porter’s Five Forces: This framework will be used for analysing the competitive
environment of the industry for the Organic Foods Company. This model will be helpful in
formulation of the strategies for the company.

Competition in the industry: This force is used to analyse the level of competition that
exists in the market. There a number of firms that already exists in the industry, so the level of
competition that will have be faced by the company will be high (How Porter’s Five Forces Can
Help Small Businesses Analyze the Competition, 2022). For this purpose, the company will make
its products available at competitive prices and offer the best quality products. The aim of the
strategy by the company will offering best of the quality products to the buyers of the market.
Potential of new entrants into the industry: coming up of new firms in the market increase
the level of competition in the market. So it is very crucial for the company to analyse the
potential of new firms coming up in the market (Jelonek and et.al., 2022). The threat of new
entrants is high in the industry as the business is highly attractive, progressive and trending and
also profitable.
Power of suppliers means that when the number of suppliers is high for the company the
bargaining power of suppliers is low as any fluctuations in the prices will make the firm to
change the suppliers. In case of Organic Foods, the bargaining power of suppliers is moderate as
there exists a few number of suppliers that offers quality raw materials.
Bargaining power of customers: it is high if there are a large number of producers
producing the products that the company produces. For Organic Foods the bargaining power of
customers is low as there are a very few firm that offer the level of quality products that the
company offers. This particular force is in the favour of the company as the company can keep
the price of the product in its favour that will yield profits of the company. But at the initial stage
the company will price its products at low prices so that large number of people make their
decision to give these products a try.
Threat of substitute products: substitute products refers to those products that the
customer can purchase instead of the products that the company sells. There are wide variety of
products that are available in front of consumers to purchase in place of what the company
offers. There are large number of products like healthy organic products from the companies that
are in competition and also the products that are preferred by the consumers to consume instead
of healthy products as the taste of such products attracts them (Song, Wang and Zhu, 2018). To
deal with this the company will offer products that are tasty and are healthy.
VRIO Analysis of Organic Foods:

The tool of VRIO analysis is used to maintain the internal resources of an organization
for its competitive advantage in ahead of its competitors. It considers the internal
competitiveness of a firm and suggests that how the products are rare from its competitors or are
these under the imitable category (Chu. 2018). It also identifies the capabilities of a firm in front
of its final consumers.
CAPABILITE
S
V
VALUE
R
RARE
I
IMITABLE
O
ORGANIZED
COMPETITI
VE
ADVANTAG
E
Supply chain Yes No No Yes High
competitive
advantage.
Customer
satisfaction
Yes No, it might
not be rare but
has a
preferable rate
of customer
satisfaction
Yes Yes Reasonable
attainment of
satisfaction
rate.
Financial gain Yes Yes No Yes,
sometimes
prone to high
competition.
High
competitive
advantage to
the firm.
Technology Yes Yes, in terms
of the firm's
creativity and
innovative
ideas.
Yes, but not to
great extent.
Yes High
competitive
advantage. A
good
implication of
the firm.
Pricing Yes, to a great No Yes, the Yes, to a full Good example

policies extent pricing
policies can be
imitated to a
great extent.
extent of pricing
strategy to
attract the
customers.
An overview of the VRIO analysis:
From the above analysis of the firm's competitive advantage, it can be seen that the firm
has great strategies formed for its overall business operations and also it does not get much
affected by the major hits of its competitors in terms of imitating factors and innovative ideas
(Nikmah. Rahmawati. and Sukma. 2021).
It can also be concluded that Organic Foods might be hindered by its competitive
advantage, but it has all the marketing strategies formed to pass through all the hurdles.
Suggestion of Proposed Target Market
Segmentation: It means division of market into segments or divisions, that are easy to
describe, access and profitable for the firm. It is not feasible for any firm to focus on a market
entirely. The four types of segments are demographic, behavioural, geographic and
psychographic segments. Selected segments by the Organic Foods are demographic, behavioural
and psychographic segments (Cheng and et.al., 2021). The demographic segment is selected as
the products offered by the company are age, and income specific. Behavioural segment is online
shopping habits in the consumer. And lastly the psychographics segment is chosen as the
products for people concerned about their eating habits and want to leave healthy lifestyle.
Targeting: Targeted age group is people of 20 -40 years as the products are for health
conscious people of the society and this age group is more concerned for its health. The families
with medium and high income levels are targeted as both products of affordable ranges and
products with high prices are offered by the company (Tsurutani, Lakhina and Hajra, 2020).
Further for online sales customers that are technology friendly are targeted.
Positioning: The company positions its products as heath based grocery products. The
products offered are economic group products.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths Opportunities
 There are various barriers in the
industry on entry of new companies so
it is strength for Organic Foods.
 The owner of the business is highly
competent and experienced.
 The products of Organic Foods are
available in online market.
 Expansion in online sales.
 Development of new stores.
Weaknesses Threats
 High competition in the market is
major weakness.
 Transportation costs are high.
 Changing preferences of customers.
 Changes in the regulations and policies
of government.

References
Books and Journals
Ariwibowo, P., Saputro, F. B. and Haryanto, H., 2021. Analysis of Strength & Weakness, Using
the Concept of Resource-Based View with the VRIO Framework in Sharia
Cooperatives. Jurnal Manajemen Strategi dan Aplikasi Bisnis. 4(1). pp.279-294.
Cheng, D. and et.al., 2021. A comprehensive survey on STP approach to finite games. Journal of
Systems Science and Complexity. 34(5). pp.1666-1680.
Chu, K. M., 2018. Mediating influences of attitude on internal and external factors influencing
consumers’ intention to purchase organic foods in China. Sustainability. 10(12). p.4690.
Jelonek, D. and et.al., 2022. Comparative analysis of business strategy of Vietnamese real estate
developers: the use of Hoffer matrix.“. International journal of multidisciplinary
research and growth evaluation. 3(1). pp.197-204.
Nikmah, F., Rahmawati, R. and Sukma, E.A., 2021. Resource-based view: Implementation in
Indonesia SMEs to achieve competitive advantage. European Journal of Research and
Reflection in Management Sciences Vol. 9(1).
Song, Y., Wang, H. and Zhu, M., 2018. Sustainable strategy for corporate governance based on
the sentiment analysis of financial reports with CSR. Financial Innovation. 4(1). pp.1-14.
Tsurutani, B. T., Lakhina, G. S. and Hajra, R., 2020. The physics of space weather/solar-
terrestrial physics (STP): what we know now and what the current and future challenges
are. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics. 27(1). pp.75-119.
Online
How Porter’s Five Forces Can Help Small Businesses Analyze the Competition. 2022. [Online].
Available through: < https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5446-porters-five-forces.html>
PEST ANALYSIS. 2022. [Online]. Available through: <https://pestleanalysis.com/pestle-analysis-
of-the-food-industry/>
1