Dorset Flakes marketing plan

Dorset Flakes: Marketing Plan

Dorset Flakes: Marketing Plan

Introduction

Hailing from the charmingly-named Poundbury (an English village created under urban principles espoused by Prince Charles), Dorset Cereals produces a tasty variety of muesli, porridge and cereal bars. Unfortunately for American eaters, the only imports currently on supermarket shelves are a limited selection of the company's muesli—a mere four whittled down from its range of ten mixes. Nevertheless, these four serve as a ray of light among an often dim collection of breakfast cereals. Dorset Cereals' packaging makes the first good impression. With pleasing colors, a no-fuss layout and a die-cut pattern of abstract leaves, it's an honest-to-goodness cereal in a simply appealing box—no further claims necessary. Dorset highlights the contents of every mix on the front, noting the approximate percentage of featured ingredients, for example "Simply Delicious Muesli" features 30% fruit, nuts and seeds while half of the "Berries & Cherrie" mix is fruit. And fortunately, the product lives up to its straightforward exterior. While the "Simply Delicious Muesli" is a tad on the chalky side and benefits from the addition of some vanilla yogurt, the "Super Cranberry, Cherry and Almond" mix tastes like a wholesome cookie. Kids will probably reach immediately for the "Berries and Cherries," though, as noted, with that amount of dried fruit, this variety makes a better trail mix. And there's also the "Fruit, Nut & Fiber" blend, a rather pragmatic name for a delicious cereal that smells oddly like a Kudos Bar. (Joshi, Rakesh Mohan, 2005, 45-76)

 

Case Analysis

When it comes to the buying preferences of consumers of Dorset Cereals products, a major new business study reveals that what keeps the consumer buying a particular brand has less to do with pricing and manufacturing or merchandising than with how well the company treats its customers.  Tendency of the consumers is to buy or purchase goods and services which are healthy.  Consumers are more likely to know all the information of the products before they would consume it (Joshi, Rakesh Mohan, 2005, 45-76). Thus, the decision process as one of the elements of consumer behaviour is influenced by the information available to the consumer and the way in which the consumer processes that information. The decision process is also influenced by the consumer's beliefs, attitudes, and intentions as well as many other individual characteristics. Two stages in the decision process are particularly relevant to this study: search that is whether the consumer seeks label information when selecting products and alternative evaluation, that is, whether or not the consumer uses label information in considering product alternatives. (Joshi, Rakesh Mohan, 2005, 45-76)

Whether consumers will search for and use label information will be influenced by both characteristics of the product and of the buyer. Product characteristics include the extent to which the product's probable performance can be assessed by visual inspection and its complexity, that is, the number of decisions the consumer is required to make about it. Consumer characteristics include experience with purchasing the product, and the ...