Stuffel Toy Company: A Case Study in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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OPPORTUNITY INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
RESEARCH REPORT

Executive summary
This study is based on analysing of entrepreneurship, opportunities of marketing and innovation
of products. The researcher has mediated an interview with entrepreneur of Stuffel toy making
company. This study has analysed their marketing strategy ad discussed important characteristics
of entrepreneurs as well. In addition to that, this study also mentioned innovation as basis of
manufacturing of toy bags which is flagship products of Stuffel. There is marketing mix and STP
analysis also given which gives critical overview of their initiative as small business. Critical
evaluation of entire interview also reveals some of their mistakes from which they learnt useful
lessons about how to manage business successfully.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Company background:.....................................................................................................................4
Critical understanding of business opportunity and centrality to entrepreneurship and innovation4
Innovation........................................................................................................................................5
Entrepreneurship..............................................................................................................................6
Marketing mix of Stuffel.................................................................................................................6
STP analysis of Stuffel:...................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference list.................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Innovation in an organisational context can be defined as ability to implement creative solutions
to such opportunities and problems in order to enrich society or people’s lives. Entrepreneurs of
any organisation generally get success through doing and thinking new and innovative things.
They can also integrate innovation in their business strategy by incorporating new things and
strategies to their old business. Economy of the United Kingdom is composed of businesses and
enterprises. In order to successfully survive in global toy market, organisations like Stuffel must
adapt new and innovative strategies with changing times.
Company background:
Stuffel is a perfect toy storage situated in the United Kingdom. It has unlimited usage but it is
perfect for playmobil, Barbies, stickle bricks and Lego. Their main speciality that makes them
different from others is that they offer large play bags that can be opened in large play mats as
well (Stuffel.co.uk, 2019). Their principle goal is to keep homes tidy after playing with toys
(Welter et al. 2016). The company possess a working capital of £3,002.00 and additional
£3,004.00 as shareholder funds.
Critical understanding of business opportunity and centrality to entrepreneurship and
innovation
Innovation in an entrepreneurship allows various opportunities for growth and success as well.
Economy of United Kingdom integrates all types of business either it is small or big. Without
integration of economy and business, economy is hard to survive. Business organisation like
Stuffel needs to constantly evolve so that they can accomplish demands of their customers and
community. In every business, it is crucial to be resourceful, industrious and innovative to attract
a lot of customers and increase rate of profit margin (Goldsby et al. 2017). In this interview
taken by researcher to a respective business manager of Stuffel toy company. The manager gives
a brief outline of all business strategy and idea that has helped in initiating such an innovative
business. Entrepreneurship provides financial profit for those organisations and maintains that
economy afloat. In an innovative entrepreneurship, entrepreneur of Stuffel must think about
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demands and issues faced by particular community. They must look forward to making certain
products which are beneficial to the target customers and it does not harm other community
people. In this case, Stuffel targeted respective parents rather than children while manufacturing
their products. The entrepreneur of Stuffel felt the untidiness of a room after children’s play.
This critical problem makes her thought about preparing such toys which can be integrated easily
after playing. In addition to that, being a mother, the entrepreneur faced this serious issue in her
life as well. It motivated this leader to initiate such a company which can address such issue and
as well do not interfere with children’ playing experiences (Acs et al. 2017). In order to solve
that serious issue the entrepreneur of Stuffel started producing toy bags full of toys. Entrepreneur
along with her co workers prepared beautiful, elegant and practical toy storage solutions. They
started manufacturing Lego bags or toy storage bags, play tents and Tepees made with hands. In
this case, innovation has been rightly took place with Stuffel. Reason behind success of Stuffel is
that they tried to solve one pragmatic and universal problem which others were taking as a
compromise. It not only solved issues of toy storage but also vibrant colour of those toy bags
helps in decorating rooms of children as well. In this way, Stuffel can make their profit by
helping others and motivating parents to buy their product toys. It indicates significance of
innovative works in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs can be considered as innovators of economy
(McLuskie, 2017). From this above interview it can be commented that there are not only
scientists who come up with innovative ideas. There are some leaders also who shows innovation
in their ideas and pragmatic works.
Innovation
Significance of innovation in an entrepreneurship is reflected through coming up with advanced
way to manufacture products or solutions. Stuffel have made an innovative idea by
manufacturing toy bag products. They have not only targeted children but also their parents to
reduce their tiredness of integrating toys from mat. Entrepreneur of Stuffel released the universal
problem of tripping out of boxes and untidy rooms after playing of little kids. Hence they wanted
to prepare such products which comfort both children and their parents. Through this Lego and
toy bags, children can play build and rummage for hours (Richter et al. 2015). After playing they
can easily scoop up and make them store in minutes with this Stuffel bags. Entrepreneur of
Stuffel being a mother realised how much frustrating it is to arrange those toys after playing,
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keep tidiness and managing kids all at a time. This award received large Stuffel bags allow toys
to spread into large play mat at the time of playing (Turner and Pennington 2015). There are
wide rims which allow containing those small pieces of toys. After playing for long hours it is
easy for children and their parents to collect those toys through an easy drawstring with ease.
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship can be defined as willingness and capacity to manage, organise and develop a
business venture. Risks are unavoidable part of a business which entrepreneurs need to tackle
strategically to make valuable profit in business. In an economic term, entrepreneurship is laced
with capital, natural resources, labour and land which are mandatory to make profit. It is the
responsibility of an entrepreneur to integrate all these aforementioned components together so
that desired products can be manufactured, sold and delivered to right customers. In the
interview the entrepreneurship of Stuffel mentioned an incident of delivering wrong orders to
particular customers. Later they learnt from their own mistakes and made it sure that no products
get delivered wrong (Phillips et al. 2015). They rectified their mistakes and learnt a lesson of
doing no mistakes. This is the role of successful entrepreneurship to make people involved with
business and create a friendly environment around business. In this way, employees can learn
better and apply it into business.
Marketing mix of Stuffel
Marketing mix of Stuffel analyses this company which includes 4ps such as promotion, place,
price and products. It also explains marketing strategy of Stuffel.
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Figure 1: 4 P’s marketing mix of Stuffel
(Source: Created by researcher)
Product: Stuffel can be considered as one of most popular toy retailers within United Kingdom.
They have made their reputation more by selling Lego and other toy bags which can be stretched
into toy mats while playing (Nambisan and Zahra 2016). Products of Stuffel contains storage
bags and play mat Lego bags, tents and Teeped, original den kit, wooden Teeped beds, map print
of animal world and other toy. They have made their reputation in local as well as national
market of United Kingdom due to their innovative ideas of selling toys in storage bags or kit
format. It is not only lucrative for young children but also easy to handle after playing. Parents
also remain content with such products. Some other innovative products that got a new shape
with toy bags are Duplo, Stickle bricks, Lego and Playmobil. They also come in two varied
shapes such as large and mini. They also contain 8 glorious colours to attract little kids and make
them content.
Price: Products of Stuffel are of cheapest priced and premium quality. Consumers can easily
observe the care that they take in making those toy bags. The concept of making playing and
integrating of play matters easily is priceless. Their target customers are not children rather than
their parents. As per Burns, (2016), products including several toys and kits of toys are priced
between £3.50 of £50.00. Hence, it is clear that Stuffel is making their products available to
children of all dimensions. Principal goal of entrepreneurs of Stuffel is to make their toy bags
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reachable to children with parents bearing both high and low financial conditions. Their premium
quality products reflect their quality in their price values.
Place: In interview taken by researcher, Entrepreneur of Stuffel mentioned that she has intended
to manage prices of products as cheap as possible (Aparicio et al. 2016). Hence, instead of
manufacturing their products from China, they are preparing their toy products directly from
United Kingdom.
Promotion: Promotion or advertisement of products are very crucial because whatever the
quality of a particular product, without advertisement one cannot be aware of one’s products.
Interview with Stuffel entrepreneur revealed that, they spent very less in marketing and
advertising. They also are very content when customers repurchase their toy products. They
make occasional promotion through sending email because they don't want to make people feel
irritated. Social media like Twitter and Instagram are those platforms where they are free to
advertise their products. Stuffel also made initiative to forecast their new innovations through
press release activities via local press of UK. They have also tried of making free advertisements
about their company through writing and spreading (Stuffel.co.uk, 2019). Free magazines are
also distributed by them so that people from every sphere of UK can be aware of their innovative
products.
STP analysis of Stuffel:
STP analysis involves positioning, targeting and segmentation of Stuffel products. It is very
crucial in understanding marketing strategy of Stuffel.
Segmentation: Marketing strategy of Stuffel products addressed some principal issues. They
wished firstly attract those consumers like parents who can purchase toys, collectables and
games for their children. According to Gaglio (2018), parents purchase toy products either for
personal satisfaction or they want to increase education through playing and application of motor
skills in their children. Secondly, they want to make their products available to preschools, day-
care centres and other commercial businesses. These organisations are also need to handle their
environment tidy and less harmful (Chang, 2018). Hence, company targets to convince those
organisations as well. This company also wants their products to reach in every retail stores of
United Kingdom and globally.
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Targeting: Unlike other toy companies, Stuffel is not targeting to sell their products to young
children only. Their target also indicates towards those parents who struggle to make their floor
tidy and clean after playing of their children. In today’s busy life schedule where parents get
little time to take care of their children and manage their rooms clean. It will be beneficial for
them to get some toy bags which are easily accessible by their children also. Parents can easily
manage organisation of toys through drawstring. In spite of toy bags, Stuffel also offers several
products toys that help in empowering brain cells and enhance their cognitive and motor skills.
There are several other competitors in this field as well but entrepreneur of Stuffel is making
their products available at a very cheap rate (Turkina and Thai, 2015). It will eliminate some of
their competitors and avail valuable customers for their brands. In addition to that, Stuffel is also
looking forwards to giving their product toys a successful brand name and value.
Positioning: Positioning initiates with products, service, person, company and piece of
merchandise as well. After making target marketing, platform positioning is also important part
of a business (Stuffel.co.uk, 2019). Organisational strategy highly impacts upon positioning
strategy. There must be always a positioning statement for a business. Hence, Stuffel must
maintain their positioning in the local market through maintaining viability and transparency.
Conclusion
From above analysis of interview regarding Entrepreneur of Stuffel inspired researcher a lot. It
gave wide knowledge about innovation, opportunity and successful entrepreneurship. It learns
that how business can be managed with innovative and new strategies and how barriers can be
overcome. Organisations can only achieve success when they adhere to strategies that
accomplish needs of all communities. This study is based on critical analysis and evaluation of
business strategies of Stuffel. The researcher has mediated an interview with respectful manager
of Stuffel. In this study, the researcher needs to analyse those strategies that are being used by
that company. The entrepreneur has taken challenge to renovate such products which others had
taken as compromise. From this interview and above critical analysis, it can be concluded that,
innovative ideas and good marketing strategies are very important to achieve great success in
business. Longevity of Stuffel is depending upon significance of innovation and discovery in
entrepreneurship.
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Reference list
Books:
Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Limited.
Journals:
Acs, Z.J., Audretsch, D.B., Lehmann, E.E. and Licht, G., 2017. National systems of
innovation. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 42(5), pp.997-1008.
Aparicio, S., Urbano, D. and Audretsch, D., 2016. Institutional factors, opportunity
entrepreneurship and economic growth: Panel data evidence. Technological Forecasting and
Social Change, 102, pp.45-61.
Chang, L., 2018, June. Route Construction of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education
Development in Universities of Western China against the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2018 2nd
International Conference on Management, Education and Social Science (ICMESS 2018).
Atlantis Press.
Gaglio, C.M., 2018. Opportunity identification: review, critique, and suggested research
directions. In Reflections and Extensions on Key Papers of the First Twenty-Five Years of
Advances (pp. 1-47). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Goldsby, M.G., Kuratko, D.F., Marvel, M.R. and Nelson, T., 2017. Design-Centered
Entrepreneurship: A four stage iterative process for opportunity development. Journal of Small
Business & Entrepreneurship, 29(6), pp.477-490.
McLuskie, P., 2017. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurial
Behavior & Research, 23(1), pp.159-162.
Nambisan, S. and Zahra, S.A., 2016. The role of demand-side narratives in opportunity
formation and enactment. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 5, pp.70-75.
Phillips, W., Lee, H., Ghobadian, A., O’Regan, N. and James, P., 2015. Social innovation and
social entrepreneurship: A systematic review. Group & Organization Management, 40(3),
pp.428-461.
Richter, C., Kraus, S. and Syrjä, P., 2015. The Smart City as an opportunity for
entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 7(3), pp.211-226.
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Turkina, E. and Thai, M.T.T., 2015. Socio-psychological determinants of opportunity
entrepreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 11(1), pp.213-238.
Turner, T. and Pennington, W.W., 2015. Organizational networks and the process of corporate
entrepreneurship: how the motivation, opportunity, and ability to act affect firm knowledge,
learning, and innovation. Small Business Economics, 45(2), pp.447-463.
Welter, C., Mauer, R. and Wuebker, R.J., 2016. Bridging behavioral models and theoretical
concepts: effectuation and bricolage in the opportunity creation framework. Strategic
Entrepreneurship Journal, 10(1), pp.5-20.
Websites:
Stuffel.co.uk (Online) About us (2019) Available from: https://www.stuffel.co.uk/ [Accessed on:
21 May 2019]
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