Masafi Bottled Water: Strategic Situational Analysis & Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive situational analysis of Masafi, the leading bottled water company in the UAE. It examines the company's organizational structure, mission, vision, and historical performance. The analysis includes a PESTEL analysis, SWOT analysis, and a review of Masafi's financial and marketing performance, corporate social responsibility efforts, and target market. The report identifies Masafi's strengths, such as its continuous reinvestment and unique water source, as well as weaknesses like depleting water resources and lack of global competition. It explores opportunities presented by rapid globalization and potential threats from new market entrants and scarce resources. The report concludes with recommendations for Masafi to maintain its market leadership and capitalize on future opportunities, including improvements in packaging, increased product placement, and employee satisfaction initiatives. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and solved assignments for students.

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS FOR MASAFI

Executive Summary
The following Narrative focuses on the organizational and marketing ideas of the bottled
drinking water company Masafi which is the largest and only producer of this particular product
in the Middle East.it is a generic name for packaged drinking water in the region and is the
leader of the segment. The narrative discusses its organisational structure, functioning and vision
in order to understand the success factor of the organisation. The strengths and weakness have
been analysed to identify threats and opportunities that might present themselves in front of the
company with the country facing rapid globalisation. Factors have been identified that if
followed through will be highly beneficial for the future of the company.
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Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Environmental Analysis...................................................................................................................3
Political........................................................................................................................................3
Economic.....................................................................................................................................3
Social...........................................................................................................................................3
Technological..............................................................................................................................4
Legal............................................................................................................................................4
Organizational Overview.................................................................................................................4
Mission and Vision......................................................................................................................4
History.........................................................................................................................................5
Company performance.....................................................................................................................5
Financial Performance.................................................................................................................5
Marketing Performance...............................................................................................................5
Corporate Social Responsibility......................................................................................................5
Target market...................................................................................................................................5
Competitive market.........................................................................................................................6
SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................6
Strengths......................................................................................................................................6
Weakness.....................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
This report includes an in-depth critical analysis of the business strategy of the consumer goods
brand Masafi. The narrative offers a detailed situational analysis highlighting the strengths,
opportunities and threats that are and will be faced by the company. Masafi is one of the largest
producers of natural bottled water in the UAE. Their range of products also includes other
consumer goods. established in 1976 it has made its place in the market as a unique brand and
has held the lead in the market for 27 years. The name of the brand become a generic name for
bottled water in the Middle East and has become a symbol of status by providing exclusive
products.
Environmental Analysis
Political
Being a generic brand in the country for 27 years Masafi has enjoyed a separate brand value both
in the market and politically (Prayag and Hosany, 2014). In its recent times of economic growth
the country is looking forward to expanding their local business and the company believes that in
the upcoming years the UAE government will provide the brand with the opportunity to expand
on a global scale competing with international brands and catering to a substantially larger
consumer base.
Economic
Masafi has been the leader of its segment in the market and thus enjoys a certain level of
economic freedom to pursue other initiatives (Mohamad et al. 2017). Thus after its success as a
bottled water producer, Masafi introduces other consumer goods ranging from potato chips to
soft facial tissues. These products have helped the company strengthen its position economically
in the market contributing to its brand value.
Social
With its expanding market and rapid globalisation, UAE is providing new opportunities to its
domestic brands. But with the markets opening up international brands are also arriving in the
country and bringing new competition. This will be a new challenge faced by the brand (Pike
and Kotsi, 2018). Though Masafi holds the leading position in the market and has a cultural
stronghold in the country by being a generic name for bottled water with the arrival of
international brands the company needs to update their strategies in order to hold on to their
market value and change accordingly (Hvidt, 2015).
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Technological
Masafi is completely dependent on technology to propagate their business and successfully
produce their products in the market. Manufacturing plants for the company use deep
underground drills to harvest the most natural water available in the country (Kirk, 2014). That
water is then packaged with machines. Masafi has marketing strategies in place in the electronic
media using both televised an social media for promotional purposes. It has pages n all major
social media sites and frequently launches ad campaigns in the country to keep its brand value
relevant and intact in the country.
Legal
Being the country’s largest and only producer of bottled water comes with its own set legal
challenges. The company has its plants located in the Masafi village and uses legal authority to
use these plants to harvest deep underground water reserves and bottle them at their plant
(Ahmad and Saber, 2015). Depleting water reserves in a largely desert country, Masafi has faced
legal challenges from environmentalists and conservationists. Though it has changed its
manufacturing processes and its business ideals, the brand faces continuous legal predicaments
as it holds a monopoly in the market (Malik, Abdallah and Hussain, 2016).
Organizational Overview
Masafi was founded in 1976 and is currently the country's largest and only bottled water
producers. It harvests its water from the mountainous region in Ras Al Khaimah and packages it
at their manufacturing facility located near the source in Masafi a region endowed with several
rich underground springs (Masafi.com, 2018).
Mission and Vision
Masafi’s tagline ‘Ask for Natural, Ask for Masafi’ incorporates all its brand ideals and values in
one simple statement.
Masafi aims to provide its consumers with the purest form of water straight from the mountains
of Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates
(Bayt.com, 2018).
History
The bottled water company established in 1976 has been the leader in the market for 27 years. It
has a become a status symbol and a generic name for bottled water in the country and is known
for providing fresh water. The company has adhered to international quality standards and has
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become the first recipient of the ISO 9002 certification in the in the region and has also won the
ISO 9001:2000 certifications.
Company performance
Financial Performance
Masafi holds the largest market share for bottled water in the country. Being the only producer of
bottled drinking water in a country that has not been keen in globalisation in the past the brand
has enjoyed a unique brand value in the country. The company produces around 34,000 bottles
per hour at the manufacturing facility (Emirates247.com, 2018). The company has a share of
34% of the $599m bottled water market in the UAE.and majority shares in the other segments
that the company also has products in.
Marketing Performance
The 42-year-old company started with a paid-up capital of $5.5m and expanded its product
portfolio including bottled drinking water, flavoured water, gunmen chips, basmati rice. It has
also chipped some of the product lines. Masafi as a brand stands at number one in the beverage
market of UAE ahead of both Pepsi and Coca-Cola, the two giants of the industry
(Emirates247.com, 2018).
Corporate Social Responsibility
Being a bottled water company, Masafi is largely dependant on plastic products for its packaging
and distribution. The company is committed towards environmental conservation and eco-
friendly PET or polyethylene Terephthalate, which is a highly degradable and 100% recyclable
material, for its packaging purposes (Khan, Hussain, Papastathopoulos and Manikas, 2018).
Target market
Being the largest shareholder in the market Masafi enjoys a unique and steady position in its
brand value. With the country aiming at rapid globalisation, the brand is looking forward to
targeting the international market (Al-Jenaibi, 2014). With its high quality product. Steady brand
value and unique product outlook the brand believes that they will be able to establish
themselves as a significant competitor in the international beverage market providing successful
competition with the segment leaders like Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
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Competitive market
Masafi though a leader in the market faces stiff and continuous competitions from giants in the
segment. With a country that is changing its economic policies rapidly and aiming towards
globalisation, the brand is looking forward to the arrival of major competition in the unsaturated
market of the UAE. brands like Pepsi and Coca Cola have already arrived and though Msafi is
still producing and selling the largest amount pf drinking water the other beverage segments are
rapidly becoming the market of these companies.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
● Continuous reinvestment: as a strong market leader the company enjoys a base of loyal
stakeholders that invest continuously in the company and are rewarded substantially from
the profits of the company (Alsyouf, Kumar, Al-Ashi and Al-Hammadi, 2018)
● A unique source of product: Masafi harvests its water from the deep reserves located in
the Masafi village which is one of a kind and cannot be found anywhere i the world
Weakness
● Depleting natural water: the company faces a major environmental crisis as the water
resources that the company depends on are depleting rapidly (Kumar, Srivastava, Kumar
and Tiwari, 2018)
● Lack of competition: The organisation in a local market with no global competition the
company does not have a gauge to measure its success
Opportunities
● Rapid globalisation: with markets opening up the company can look forward to
expanding internationally
● The new competition will provide the company with a new outlook and opportunities to
improve their products
Threats
● New entrants in the market: the crisis of water is daily taken as a business aspect by new
organization posing a minimum threat to the already established Masafi
● Scarce resource: Dealing with water purification, the organization faces continuous threat
of reusing and saving water as much as possible
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Differentiations and Positioning
In response to the operation that the organisation Masafi in UAE, operated they are to make
proper amendments in terms of bringing up packaging difference. The rise in the competition
asks for innovation and invention. The packaging aspect of Masafi is worth noticing as it has
served the organisation for last decade.
While discussing the certainties that the organisation must pay attention is the placement of the
drinking water o public places more often. The ATM for drinking water would be enough to
boost the goodwill that the organisation has in the current scenario.
Recommendation
The organisation is well acquainted due to its operation in workplaces along with their conflict
management status. However, to ensure that the organisation is more capable in terms of
managing upcoming threats of competition employee satisfaction needs to be developed.
Providing benefits to the Employees and making appraisal at the proper periodic time would
ensure a better place for employer and employee relation.
Hiring or outsourcing for innovation objectives, the organisation could fuel the aspect of
development on a more regular basis
Conclusion
The main aim behind analyzing Masafi is to understand the success of the company in the long
run and implementing strategies that will provide further opportunities for the brand. The
company Masafi has been the largest producer of drinking water in the United Arab Emirates
and has been the market leader in the country. With markets opening up the company looks
forward to expanding their business but also faces the threat of the arrival of international giants
in the industry a competition.
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This chapter was written during a transition between positions. The author was on faculty at
Macon State College (now Middle Georgia State College), USA, during the early stages of
manuscript development and subsequently moved to Abu Dhabi, UAE, to begin a new position
in educational research shortly after presentation of this paper at the 2012 .... In Education for a
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