Individual Coursework (70%)
Part A Situation Analysis (40 Marks)
- Conduct a Five Forces Analysis (Porter 1985) for Soapsmith Ltd, using current, up to date market data. This can be garnered from newspaper articles and news websites, Mintel reports etc.
- Conduct an analysis of the company’s operations and consider the following –
- The management and leadership style of the owner – what type of entrepreneur/leader do you think Sam Jameson, Soapsmith’s owner/manager is, and why
- Using the case study and other secondary data, identify where the company currently is on the Business Lifecycle, and justify your answer.
Part B Growth Plan/Strategy (50 marks)
- Recommend a growth strategy for Soapsmith Ltd – choose one of Market Penetration, Market Development, Product Development or Diversification
- Soapsmith currently sell to China – recommend one additional international market for Soapsmith to sell to, and justify your answer. What factors do the business need to consider when selling into international markets?
- Soapsmith is active on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Recommend a digital marketing strategy for the brand going forward and comment on how, specifically, this can be used by the company to enhance Customer Relationship Management.
Referencing and Presentation (10 marks)
Work based on the Case Study provided on Canvas, can be expanded upon, through extended secondary research about the company, the industry and the macro environment and from the company’s own website Home – Soapsmith
Although this is a practical assignment, work must also be supported with appropriate academic syllabus related reading. All sources must be properly Harvard referenced. This is an opportunity to explore the syllabus widely and be creative in how you would develop the business beyond what you see from current evidence.
SOLUTION
Porter’s Five Forces
This analysis method was introduced by Michel Porter, who identified the competitive forces
surrounding a business. The forces include the bargaining power of the consumers and suppliers,
the threats of new entrants and substitutes, as well as rivalry.
Threat of New Entrants (High)
New entrants in soap and body care market bring innovation, new ways of doing things and put pressure on SoapSmith through lower pricing strategy, reducing costs, and providing new value propositions to the customers. the brand has to manage all these challenges and build effective barriers to safeguard its competitive edge.
How Soapsmith can tackle the Threats of New Entrants
- By innovating new products and services. New products not only brings new customers to the fold but also give returning customers a reason to buy the company’s products.
- By building economies of scale so that it can lower the fixed cost per unit.
- Building capacities and spending money on research and development. New entrants are less likely to enter a dynamic industry where the established players such as SoapSmith keep defining the standards regularly. It significantly reduces the window of extraordinary profits for the new firms thus discourage new players in the industry.
Please contact us to get the entire copy