Business Consulting Report: Analysis of Grape Tree's Challenges

This business consulting report analyzes the challenges faced by Grape Tree, a British organic retailer specializing in food and health products. The report begins by clarifying the client and summarizing the core problem: increasing competition in the organic food market. It then delves into a critical analysis of key areas of importance, including competitor analysis (identifying key competitors, studying their content, and monitoring marketing strategies) and STP analysis (segmentation, targeting, and positioning). The report also considers external environmental factors like technology, social trends, economic conditions, and environmental considerations. Finally, the report identifies and ranks the top three issues confronting Grape Tree: intense market competition, price sensitivity, and limitations in technology and marketing. The report uses secondary research and academic theory to support its analysis and conclusions, offering a comprehensive overview of the company's situation.

BUSINESS CONSULTING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Clarifying the client and summarize the problem that it is facing...........................................3
2. Critically analysing and presenting the areas of importance for Grape Tree. ........................3
3. Ranking the top three issues that the client is facing-..............................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business consulting can be defined as structuring and addressing the organization's
business needs and offering strategic advisory service (Nissen, and et.al., 2019). Grape Tree is a
British organic retailer that sells food and health products. The current report summarize the
problems that are faced by the company. The purpose of this report is to break down areas of
importance by analysing the competitors, target customers, market and external factors. It also
identifies the top issues that the client is facing.
MAIN BODY
1. Clarifying the client and summarize the problem that it is facing.
Grape Tree is a registered British retailer that sells organic food and health products. It
has a variety of products such as nuts, seeds, fruits, snacks etc. It also sells health products for
personal care and cereals and grains. It offers the finest natural whole foods that provides
prodigious value, choice and quality. The company aims at improving its value and expand its
product range with the help of commitment to sustainability and traceability. The eatables that
the company offers are focussed on rich proteins, carbohydrates, fibre, healthy fats, vitamins and
antioxidants. It focuses on the demands of the customers such as natural, organic and vegan
foods.
The organic food company is facing certain problems in the market such as competitors
(Yun, 2019). The idea of producing organic food can be easily copied and there is a big threat of
substitutes that can impact the market share and customer count. The competitors are rising
rapidly as the people are driving focus towards organic food as they have become more
conscious about health after the covid 19. This has resulted in new entrants that started offering
healthy and natural products for our day to day life. Due to this, Grape Tree is facing competition
from companies that sell natural daily products.
2. Critically analysing and presenting the areas of importance for Grape Tree.
To analyse the areas of importance for Grape Tree, the competitor analysis may be used
to obtain ideal information-
 Identify the top competitors- It is very important to identify the main competitors that
are present in the market. It becomes crucial to analyse the power of the competitors and
what impact do they have on the company (Pillay, Allen and Littleton, 2022). The idea

of organic food is not new and there are a lot of substitutes but it is important to figure
out which of them has potential to disturb the market.
 Study the content of the competitors- The products and the quality of those products
play a key role in the competitive market. It is quite important to gain understanding of
the type of content they are offering and how that content either matches or differentiates
from the company's products (Zhou, 2020).
 Monitoring the marketing strategies and social media engagement- The social media
presence is becoming a driving force for companies success in the recent times. It is
quite crucial to keep up with the new marketing trends to be able to stay alive in the eyes
of the customers.
 Identifying the areas of improvement- After performing the above tasks, it gains a
clear idea of the areas of improvement and what are the steps that can be taken to counter
the competition in the market (Zhou, 2020).
The STP analysis is an approach to identify the market segment, target customers and
location of the business (Bolon, and et.al., 2018). In context of the Grape Tree, it can be used to
break the problem of the company such as target customers and market.
Segmentation-
Market segmentation is the process of separating the market and the customers on the
basis of different characteristics and data acquired. The four types of common segments that are
important for the organization to consider during the planning process are- geographical
segmentation that is based on physical location, such as country, state type of region etc.;
demographic segmentation based on characteristics of the customers such as age, gender, service
etc.; behavioural segmentation which is based on the secondary data of the engagement and
involvement of the customers with the websites, applications and stores and psycho graphic
segmentation considering the lifestyle of the people, their hobbies, activities etc. (Bolon, and
et.al., 2018).
Targeting-

This approach refers to targeting the market segment that is most likely to be beneficial
for attaining the company's objectives (Wuryandani, Ismoyowati and Nugrahini, 2018). The
points that are considered before targeting the market segment are- size of he segments as larger
segments have higher potential growth; calculation of profitability and lifetime customer value to
ensure that which segment of customers are most likely to spend money on the kind of product
that are offered and reachability to the customers as this adds up as a big cost sometimes.
Positioning-
After the type of customer segment and place id decided, it becomes important position
the product at the best place where the customers can easily acquire the services and it can
efficiently reach to the potential customers. The other goal of positioning is to ensure interaction
with the customers on a personal level and develop a competitive advantage (Wuryandani,
Ismoyowati and Nugrahini, 2018).
The factors of the external environment that influence the organization are-
 Technology- The role of technology becomes quite important as producing bulk of food
items can be a heavy task and it can only be done with the help of technology (Zhou. and
Yan, 2021). Lack of technology or better technology acquired by the competitors can
influence the work operations on the other hand better technology can prove to be an
advantage as well.
 Social factors- The demand of the customers is vegan products and this becomes a factor
that can most likely influence the company and failing to keep up with the type of
product and quality can result into losing customer's trusts.
 Economical factors- It refers to the economic condition and stability of the market
(Zaiats, and et.al., 2018). The organic products are likely to be expensive and the
financial condition of the people in the market becomes the main factor for the sales of
the products.
 Environmental factors- The climatic condition and type of geographical area plays the
key role in influencing the business because these type of products demand specific
environmental conditions and failing to get the right place can result in lack of proper raw
materials and low production (Zhou and Yan, 2021).

3. Ranking the top three issues that the client is facing-
1. The biggest issue that the organization is facing is competition in the market. The
products that Grape Tree is offering such as food and health products are already
available in the market and are sold by big brands that have the potential of attracting
large customer base. The fact that food and daily products can be easily duplicated and
the idea of organic products is not as unique. The competitors that can acquire better
resources and marketing strategies can easily beat the company.
2. Price issue- The prices of these type of commodities is always high as compared to
common products and this becomes issue for the company to target and acquire the
customers with lower income. The products become limited to only premium customers.
The quality comes with price and therefore, the customers with lower income cannot
afford the services. The cost of the production is higher and the maintenance cost and
transportation cost also becomes a key issue. The issue of price is not the biggest.
Considering the economic condition of UK there are adequate number of premium
customers.
3. Lack of technology and marketing issue- the company does not have higher technological
advancement to reach out to larger audience. Also, the marketing of the company is not
up to the mark to reach out and attract more customers. The technology such as online
selling and storage capacities are not adequate and the marketing strategies are not
effective in context of the current competitive market. This factor is the least impacting
issue out of the three because the organization is still having a market that can be easily
expanded only on the basis of quality. Hence, the marketing strategy only plays role in
speeding up the business.
CONCLUSION
From the current report, it has been analysed that there are certain problems such as
competitors that are faced by the organization during its business operations. There are various
areas of importance for an organization such as the competitors, target customers, market that
has been analysed by using theories such as competitor analysis and STP. It has also been
concluded that external environmental factors such as technology, social, economical and

environmental factors influence the business. The top three issues that the organization has been
facing are competitors, price and marketing strategies.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Nissen, V., and et.al., 2019. On the current state of digital transformation in the German market
for business consulting. In Advances in Consulting Research (pp. 317-339). Springer,
Cham.
Yun, J.M., 2019. Potential Competition and Nascent Competitors. Criterion J. on Innovation. 4.
p.625.
Pillay, P., Allen, M.S. and Littleton, J., 2022. Canine companions or competitors? A multi-proxy
analysis of dog-human competition. Journal of Archaeological Science. 139. p.105556.
Zhou, K., 2020. Marketing Experience: Analysis of Competitors.
Bolon, B., and et.al., 2018. STP position paper: recommended best practices for sampling,
processing, and analysis of the peripheral nervous system (nerves and somatic and
autonomic ganglia) during nonclinical toxicity studies. Toxicologic Pathology. 46(4).
pp.372-402.
Wuryandani, S., Ismoyowati, D. and Nugrahini, A.D., 2018. STP analysis in marketing
pigmented rice as functional food. KnE Life Sciences. pp.128-135.
Zhou, Y. and Yan, L., 2021. An Analytical Study of the External Environment of the
Coevolution between Manufacturing and Logistics Based on the Logistic
Model. Complexity. 2021.
Zaiats, Y.I., and et.al., 2018. Risk level assessment while organizational-managerial decision
making in the condition of dynamic external environment. (2). pp.123-129.

10