IFYBS002 Business Studies: Potato Chips Flavor & Promotion Plan

This report analyzes the British potato chips market to recommend a new flavor and promotional strategy for a hypothetical chips manufacturer. It emphasizes the importance of both primary and secondary market research, ultimately suggesting a Mexican Chilli flavor due to its popularity and alignment with UK demographic trends. The report advocates for a combined 'above the line' (mass media) and 'below the line' (personalized) promotion strategy, including television and internet advertising, social media engagement, and free sample distribution, to maximize market penetration and revenue generation. The analysis also considers the advantages and disadvantages of industry-specific market research, balancing cost and time constraints with the need for in-depth market understanding.

Running head: INTRODUCTION OF NEW PRODUCTS
Introduction of a New Flavour of Potato Chips
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction:
The potato chips market is one of the fastest growing fast food market segments in the
world and introduction of new flavours face stiff competition due to dominance of multinational
brands. The chips market in the United Kingdom is one of the largest chips markets in the world
dominated by Walker owned by none other than the American fast food and beverage giant
PepsiCo. The company sold 77 million kilogrammes in 2017 alone and owns the largest crisp
manufacturing plant globally (Walkers.co.uk. 2018). This shows that launching of a new flavour
of potato would meet with stiff competition from the existing companies. The paper would
explore this competitiveness of British potato chips market with an arbitrary potato chips maker
launching a new flavour of potato chips as its background. The aim of the essay would be
recommending an appropriate flavour which the firm can launch in the British market and an
appropriate promotional strategy to launch the flavour. The recommendation would draw
substance from the primary and secondary researches.
Discussion:
The chips company mentioned in the case should conduct a thorough primary and a
secondary research of the potato chips market conditions in order to decide on the appropriate
flavour to be launched and the appropriate promotional strategy to be used to market the product.
For example, the primary research shows that 37 percent of the respondents prefer Mexican
Chilli variants of chips. The pie chart showing the least appetising flavour shows that only 6
percent of the respondents dislike the variant. According to this finding of the primary
research it is clear that Mexican Chilli is the most appropriate variant. An analysis of the
demographic graph of Britain and Wales shows that population of Americans including
Mexicans is pretty high (Ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk. 2018) (Appendix 2). Thus,

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going by this secondary data, it can again be pointed out that Mexican Chilli is the most
appropriate variant. Slater, Mohr and Sengupta (2014) mention that conducting primary and
secondary research is important before launching new products into the market. This is because
launching of new products involve immense investment of capital and thus, an exhaustive market
research enables the launching company to predict the profit which the new product being
launched would yield in the future. Bumbudsanpharoke and Ko (2015) opine that primary
research enables the marketers to gain knowledge about the taste and preferences of the chosen
respondents like customers. Primary research also enables firms launching new products to
locate prospective upstream and downstream supply chains of their new products. Fang, Lee and
Yang (2015) contradict the previous author pointing out that the profitability of new products are
not dependent on the local population of customers who can be interviewed for the primary
research alone. They further point that macroeconomic factors like entry of new firms and
economic changes have significant impacts on profitability as well (Statista.com. 2018). This
makes it crucial for the firms launching new products to conduct a secondary research to
understand the macroeconomic trends of the selected market namely, the United Kingdom.
Thus, it can be pointed out that while primary data analysis shows the local market trends,
secondary analysis shows that macroeconomic market trends. This comparison between primary
and secondary data reveals that the latter holds a stronger position while conducting market prior
to launching of new products.
The firm in the case study based on the primary and secondary research, should
form its own market research strategy emphasising on macroeconomic research. The
macroeconomic research strategy would be based on chips market like studying the different
market factors effecting the chips industry both positively as well as negatively. This need for

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macroeconomic research pertaining to the chips industry can be reasoned on the grounds that
though macroeconomic economic research gives an overview of the macroeconomic conditions,
there are certain conditions which effect specific industries. For example, the social trends of the
United Kingdom shows that the population of American origin people surpass the population is
very high. This trend would affect the potato chips industry since ethnicity and cultural have
significant impacts on food consumption (Thøgersen et al. 2017). Moreover, as far as religious
groups residing in the United Kingdom are concerned, the population of religious groups which
generally abstain from consuming beef is very large (Ons.gov.uk. 2018) (Appendix 3). Thus, by
producing a beef based variant, the chips manufacturing would be losing a huge customer base
and incur immense revenue losses. Thus, it can be inferred from the social trends of Britain
that Mexican Chilli would be more appropriate as the flavour of the variant to be
introduced compared to the other three variants namely, Wasabi and Beef, Bolognese and
Parmesan and Indian Tandoori. These decisions are important because in the firm is required
to invest immense amount of capital in order to manufacture and market the new variant of
potato chips. It is required to gain supernormal profits on the invested amount to sustain in the
market and also give positive returns to the investors. Thus, it can inferred from the discussion
that it is important to carry out a secondary research stressing on the potato chips and crisp
market in the United Kingdom. It can also be pointed out in this context that the primary
research decisions did reflect trends in the consumers’ preferences pertaining to consumption of
chips. However, the findings from the primary cannot be regarded as a ground strong enough to
take the business decisions pertaining to the appropriate variant to be introduced since the sample
does not reflect the actual trend of social conditions of Britain which the chips manufacturer
need require to base its business decisions on. Story, Boso and Cadogan (2015) mention that

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though industry specific secondary market research is very important to make appropriate
decisions due to its advantages and benefits, the method suffers to several disadvantages as
well. The first advantage of industry specific market research is that it gives a more in depth
knowledge about the market conditions. For example, an in depth research on chips and crisp
markets in the United Kingdom would enable the chips manufacturing firm make appropriate
business decisions. The second advantage is that an industry specific market analysis attributes
firms with the legal and technological factors specific to the particular industry. For example, the
National Minimum Wage rates in the United Kingdom apply to all firms including the chips
making firm (GOV.UK. 2018). However, it can be pointed out that regulations like Food Law
Regulation applies to the chips companies but not to other industries. Thus, it can be inferred that
industry specific secondary market analysis allows the firms to adapt better with the market
conditions. Nechaev and Antipina (2016) contradict these two advantages and point out two
disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that industry specific market analysis is extremely
expensive. Moreover, the in depth research is very time consuming and adds to the research
expenditure of the firm. The outcomes of these two disadvantages are immense time and cost
variances of the new product development projects.
The chips manufacturing firm should use ‘above the line’ as well as ‘below the line’
promotion strategies as methods to launch the new flavour of potato chips namely, Mexican
Chilli. The firm should at first stage initiate ‘above the line’ promotion comprising of mass
media like audio visual media and the internet. Powell, Wada and Kumanyika (2014) points out
that mass media promotion is very important to create awareness and demand for the products
among consumers prior to releasing them in the market. As far as the chips manufacturing firm is
concerned, the firm should use ‘above the media strategy to create demand for the Mexican

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Chilli variant of chips among the consumers in the United Kingdom. This would guarantee
higher sale of the variant and higher revenue generation for the firm. Horner and Swarbrooke
(2016) contradicts these benefits of mass media promotion and mention that customers today
prefer personalised product promotions which the former cannot offer. This gap in the ‘above the
line’ promotion strategies call for ‘below the line’ promotion strategies. The ‘below the line’
promotional methods like distribution of free sample provide a more personalised product
purchasing experiences to consumers. This enables the companies to strengthen the positive
perception among consumers created by the ‘above the line’ promotional strategies. However,
the method of advertising in the local newspapers is not suitable. This is because it would not
allow the firm to reach out to a large consumer base and is expensive compared to the revenue
generated from local sales.
The recommended promotional strategy of the chips manufacturer to promote the
Mexican Chilli variant chips should consist a combination of ‘above the line’ and ‘below the
line’ strategies. The ‘above the line’ strategies would consist of audio visual media like
television advertisement as well as internet advertisement. The company must also use social
media platforms like Facebook and Youtube. The ‘below the line’ strategies on the other hand
should consist of free sample distribution and contests like ‘guess the taste’.
Conclusion:
It can thus be concluded that the most appropriate variant of chips which the chips
manufacturing firm should introduce is the English market is Mexican Chilli. The firm must
form a strong promotional strategy consisting of both ‘above the line’ and ‘below the line’
strategies to secure high volume of sales. This would attribute high revenue generation and
positive return on the investments.

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Bibliography:
Bumbudsanpharoke, N. and Ko, S., 2015. Nano‐food packaging: an overview of market,
migration research, and safety regulations. Journal of food science, 80(5), pp.R910-R923.
Ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk. 2018. Retrieved from https://www.ethnicity-facts-
figures.service.gov.uk/british-population/national-and-regional-populations/population-of-
england-and-wales/latest#history
Fang, E., Lee, J. and Yang, Z., 2015. The timing of codevelopment alliances in new product
development processes: Returns for upstream and downstream partners. Journal of
Marketing, 79(1), pp.64-82.
Food.gov.uk. 2018. Food.gov.uk. [online] Available at: https://www.food.gov.uk/ [Accessed 24
Nov. 2018].
GOV.UK. 2018. GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-
rates [Accessed 24 Nov. 2018].
Horner, S. and Swarbrooke, J., 2016. Consumer behaviour in tourism. Routledge.
Nechaev, A. and Antipina, O., 2016. Analysis of the Impact of Taxation of Business Entities on
the Innovative Development of the Country. European Research Studies, 19(1), p.71.
Ons.gov.uk. 2018. Ons.gov.uk. [online] Available at:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/
religioninenglandandwales2011/2012-12-11 [Accessed 24 Nov. 2018].

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Powell, L.M., Wada, R. and Kumanyika, S.K., 2014. Racial/ethnic and income disparities in
child and adolescent exposure to food and beverage television ads across the US media
markets. Health & place, 29, pp.124-131.
Slater, S.F., Mohr, J.J. and Sengupta, S., 2014. Radical product innovation capability: Literature
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Statista.com. 2018. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/788119/leading-crisp-
brands-ranked-by-sales-volume-in-the-united-kingdom/
Story, V.M., Boso, N. and Cadogan, J.W., 2015. The form of relationship between firm‐level
product innovativeness and new product performance in developed and emerging
markets. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(1), pp.45-64.
Thøgersen, J., Pedersen, S., Paternoga, M., Schwendel, E. and Aschemann-Witzel, J., 2017. How
important is country-of-origin for organic food consumers? A review of the literature and
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Usnews.com. 2018. Retrieved from
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foreign-direct-investment?slide=3
Walkers.co.uk. 2018. Retrieved from https://www.walkers.co.uk/fresh-crisps-taste-guaranteed

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Appendices:
Appendix 1: Sales volume of main chips brands in the UK in 2017 (mn kg)

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Appendix 2: Graph showing ethnic population of England and Wales 2001-2011:

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Appendix 3: Minority religious groups in England and Wales