Lays chips

Nielsen cooperation is a global marketing research firm. This kind of firm as an agency which focuses on helping company to do marketing research. The Nielsen retail panel is selling the useful information to company. In other words, they help company to do investigation and then conduct the marketing information according to company requirements. My targeting product is Lay’s potato chips, which belongs to convenient goods. Currently, there are some serious situation should be paid attention by the manufacture of Lays. According to my research, ‘the growth in cracker sales could hurt the market share of lays chips, which result from the customers look to switch to snacks using healthier ingredients such as high-protein foods, vegetables, and legumes’ (Frito-Lay Dominates U.S. Salty Snacks, But Rising Cracker Sales Could Stall Growth, 2014). So that I think the manufacturer of Lays can buy some data about the changing of customer choosing snacks. Through this information, the Lays can make marketing strategies to save the current situation. For example, adjusting the targeting customers and product position. Which can help company to reduce financial loss and achieve the high profit.

‘GfK is the trusted source of relevant market and consumer information that enables its clients to make smarter decisions’ (About GFK, 2016) The customer panels services means GFK can help company to identify who is your customers and analyze the potential customer behavior. That is really useful for all company want to sell their products. For Lays company, to identify the potential customer will be benefit to company setting products position. As it has been described before, Lays company faced on the situation of sales decreasing. To investigate the potential buyer is necessary for the development of Lays company.

In order to investigate the consumer attitudes towards Lays brand, I will conduct a questionnaire based on the example form other report(see Appendix).  As the Lays questionnaire can be showed on below, which consists of 12 questions. 

1. Do you know the brand of Lays?   A: Yes       B: No

1. What is your attitude toward to Lays products ? ___________________________________

1. Have you brought the Lays products?  A: Yes  B: No

1. If yes, Which is your favorite flavor of Lays chips? __________________________________

1. If yes, compared with other brands of potato chips, why do you choose Lays_____________

1. If yes, did you recommend to your friends to buy Lays chips?  A: Yes   B: No 

1. If yes, did you ever thinking about the healthy issues when you brought Lays chips._____________________________________________________________________

1. If no, why did you never brought Lays products? ___________________________________

1. If no, did you brought other brands of potato chips?   A: Yes   B: No

1. If no, do you want to buy it in the future?_________________________________________

1. Which brand of potato chips that you brought?(except Lays chips)_____________________

1. Do you have any suggestions for Lays brand?____________________________________

Thank you for your participation!

Bibliography

About GFK. (2016). Retrieved November 15, 2016, from GFK: http://www.gfk.com/about-gfk/about-gfk/

Frito-Lay Dominates U.S. Salty Snacks, But Rising Cracker Sales Could Stall Growth. (2014, July 27). Retrieved November 15, 2016, from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/06/27/frito-lay-dominates-u-s-salty-snacks-but-rising-cracker-sales-could-stall-growth/#7cc7e2de274a

Lays Chips logo, Vector Logo of Lays Chips brand free download (eps, ai, png, cdr) formats. (2016). Logo          types101.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://www.logotypes101.com/logo/lays-chips 

   

Lays company final

Week 1.7 Marketing planning and forecasting sales potential 

Market potential means ‘the total amount a products that the customer will purchase within a specified period of time at a specific level of industry-wide marketing activity’(Dibb, 2012). That is really important information for the company, because the company can decide how many products they will produce. In term of sales potential which means ‘the maximum percentage of market potential that an individual company with an industry can expect to obtain for a specific products or service’(Dibb, 2012). The company can expect that how many products they will sale. For Lays company, I will use the build-up approach to estimate the market potential and the sale potential in the Netherlands in the year 2015. Firstly, I will analyze that how much of a Lays chips a potential buyer in the Netherlands. In other words, I can do investigate about how many Dutch people are willing to buy potato chips, and then how many Dutch people are willing to buy Lays chips. The data can be collected through each Lays retrial stores. The Netherlands is a total market, which can be divided into several areas. For example, it can be divided into the North area, the South area, the East area and the West area. In each area to do specific research, which could be more accurate.

The marketing plan is really important for a company. Firstly, through the marketing plan, the company can enter the market step by step. The marketing plan as a good preparation for a company to do business. Secondly, the marketing plan can help company to avoid risk when the company enter the market. Last but not least, the marketing plan can figure out which kind of product meets the market needs. In contrast, there are also some limitations for company to do marketing plan. Firstly, the market environment will change all the time, so that when you completed a marketing plan then to enter the market which could resulting in this marketing plan already has lost value. In addition, we cannot make sure the process of marketing plan is prefect, it could also have some errors. 

In order to develop a sale forecast for Lays chips in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018. I will use the Time series analysis, which consist of trend analysis, cycle analysis, seasonal analysis and random analysis. Using this forecasting methods has some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is this method operate through four steps, which can make sure conducted the accurate data. In addition, this method is not difficult to do for forecaster, because this methods uses the company’s historical sales data. However, in term of disadvantages, this method uses the past data, which cannot make sure the effects continue to future. Moreover, this method has some limitations, which only suitable for a product has reasonable stable demand.  

References:

 Lays Chips logo, Vector Logo of Lays Chips brand free download (eps, ai, png, cdr) formats. (2016). Logotypes101.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://www.logotypes101.com/logo/lays-chips 

Dibb, S. (2012). Marketing concepts and strategies. Andover: Cengage Learning. 

Lays chips

Week 1.6 Marketing in international markets and globalization

The brand of Lays belongs to international brand, which is the level of global marketing. The Lays company already has exported to the worldwild. The company made marketing strategies based on the global market. According to different requirement of markets, the company is adapted the local needs. For example, the different Lays chips market, where were provided different tastes of potato chips for local people. The Lays chips is available in many countries. For example, India’s Lays chips had high market share in potato chips market. According to the table, the market share of Lays accounts to 50% approximately. 

(Market share of Lay's potato chips India 2015 | Statistic, 2016)

 Lays company uses a lot of marketing strategies to enter India market. For example, the prices strategies, which Lays company provides varies prices to customer. In addition, Lays offers different packet sizes. Lays also started giving 20% extra on few of its packets(Marketing Strategy Frito Lays In India Marketing Essay, 2016) For India market, Lays also provides promotion strategies, which ‘its campaigns are supported by mega 360-degree communication medium on TV, Radio, Print, Viral, Outdoor and Cinema’ (Marketing Strategy Frito Lays In India Marketing Essay, 2016). 

According to the research, ‘PepsiCo Inc. warned the global economy appears to be weakening, singling out South America and Eastern Europe in particular, even as its first-quarter results topped Wall Street expectations’(Esterl, 2016). The economic situation has effected on Lays’s products. The recovery of economy has good influence on the sales of Lay chips. 

The US. Food&Drug  administration announces some regulations for potato chips. They gave the new definition for potato chips.The name "potato chips" may be used without qualification to describe the article made by frying thin slices of potato in deep fat(CPG Sec. 585.710 Potato Chips, Ingredients - Labeling, 2016). To be honest, I did not found some relevant national or international  laws about Lays chips. 

Here is my blogger link

References:

1. Lays Chips logo, Vector Logo of Lays Chips brand free download (eps, ai, png, cdr) formats. (2016). Logotypes101.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://www.logotypes101.com/logo/lays-chips 

2. Market share of Lay's potato chips India 2015 | Statistic. (2016). Statista. Retrieved 12 October 2016, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/562659/market-share-of-lays-in-the-potato-chip-segment-in-india/ 

3. Marketing Strategy Frito Lays In India Marketing Essay. (2016). https://www.ukessays.com. Retrieved 12 October 2016, from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/marketing-strategy-frito-lays-in-india-marketing-essay.php 

4. Esterl, M. (2016). PepsiCo Warns of Weakening Global Economy. WSJ. Retrieved 12 October 2016, from http://www.wsj.com/articles/pepsico-earnings-top-expectations-1460978140 

5. CPG Sec. 585.710 Potato Chips, Ingredients - Labeling. (2016). Fda.gov. Retrieved 12 October 2016, from http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/ComplianceManuals/CompliancePolicyGuidanceManual/ucm074634.htm

Lays company

Week 1.5 Environmental analysis

According to my research, I found the recent statements about environmental factors is the Pepsico sustainability report in 2014. As we all know, the Lays company belongs to Pepsico cooperation, so that I can found some useful information about Lays company. The macro environmental factors includes six items, which are the demographic development, the economic and competitive force, political and regulatory forces, the ecological forces, the social culture forces and the technological forces(Dibb, 2012). Nowadays, the political and regulatory forces has a major impact on marketing policies. For Lays company, they innovate the packaging to make it increasingly sustainable, minimizing our impact on the environment(sustainability report 2014, 2016). The organization in orders to meets the regular of  recycling. 

Table1 

(CBS StatLine, 2016)

According to the table 1, the amount of environmental investments was increased dramatically comparing with 2012 and 2015. That means people pay more attention on environmental issues. For the Lays company, they work to achieve an absolute reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our global businesses (sustainability report 2014, 2016).

(CBS StatLine, 2016)

According to the table 2, the waste issues still are serious problem. The waste of environmental investments by domain has dramatically increased from 39 to 80. Lays company work to eliminate solid waste to landfills from our production facilities(sustainability report 2014, 2016).

There are two tables can showing the   

The Netherland markets has some effects from religions factor. For example, some Dutch people is Muslin, so that they cannot accept the pork. In contrast, some tastes of Lays chips are containing the pork. On another hand, the people in Netherlands have habit of eating potatoes, which belongs to social and culture factors effect on market.    

Here is my blogger link

https:

References:

 1. Lays Chips logo, Vector Logo of Lays Chips brand free download (eps, ai, png, cdr) formats. (2016). Logotypes101.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://www.logotypes101.com/logo/lays-chips 

2. Dibb, S. (2012). Marketing concepts and strategies. Andover: Cengage Learning.  

3. Sustainability Report 2014. (2016). pepsico. Retrieved 10 October 2016, from http://www.pepsico.com/docs/album/sustainability-reporting/pep_csr14_sus_overview.pdf  

4. CBS StatLine. (2016). Statline.cbs.nl. Retrieved 10 October 2016, from http://statline.cbs.nl 

Lays company

Week 1.4 Business Marketing

For the Lays company, the business marketing could be the some resellers. The reseller buys the Lays potato chips from manufactures and then sell to customers. For example, the supermarket could be the most familiar reseller for us. The business marketing is the selling process between Lays company and supermarket. For example, the Netherlands supermarket, which called Albert Heijn(AH). According to the official website of AH, that sale 55 different kinds of Lays chips (Albert Heijn, 2016) ( As it can be showed in below chart) It means that the AH is the business buyer for Lays company. The difference between business buyer and customer buyer is ‘Business buyers tend to order in larger quantities than do individual consumers and often demand customized propositions’(Dibb, 2012) The AH imports a certain amount of Lays chips and then sells it. 

Lays chips	Number of different types
Naturel chips	7
Paprika chips	8
Bolognese chips	1
Cheese&onion chips	2
Smaakvarianten chips	10
Luxe chips	13
Chips met een vormpje	11
Uitdeelzakjes chips	3
Total	55

To be honest, I think the Lays chips has already adopted in the business market.That is why a lot of individual customers can buy it easily. The big business market would have more individual customers.

For the Lays chips, I think it belongs to modified rebuy purchase. Because when customer wants to buy Lays chips, they will think about the selling situation. For example, the supermarket will consider which brand of potato chips has better selling, and then decide which brand will buy more. The person who involves in making business to business purchase decisions, that person or group is called buying center. As I mentioned before, the AH supermarket’s buying center could be the marketing manager in this company. In addition, the searching for products and suppliers  is the main buying process for Lays chips. The company needs to consider the main supplier for Lays chips. The concept of derived demand means that demand for business products that arises from the demand for consumer products(Dibb, 2012) If more customers buy Lays chips, the business market also will increase. 

References:

Lays Chips logo, Vector Logo of Lays Chips brand free download (eps, ai, png, cdr) formats. (2016). Logotypes101.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://www.logotypes101.com/logo/lays-chips 

Albert Heijn. (2016). Ah.nl. Retrieved 28 September 2016, from http://www.ah.nl/producten/snoep-koek-chips/chips/merk=Lay's 

Dibb, S. (2012). Marketing concepts and strategies. Andover: Cengage Learning. 

Consumer buying behavior

The social influences has four parts, which including roles and family, reference group, social classes and culture & sub-culture( Dibb, S&Simkin, L, 2012)  Lays product is a famous snack brand in the words. In my opinions, the influence could come from the roles and family, the lays has 90% of total buyers, which are age between 20 to 30(Research on Consumer buying behaviour for Lay's chips, 2016). So the young people much like to buy lays chips, the roles for those people mainly are students, not marry, married (no child). They are just entrant into the society without parents cared. Moreover, for the age between 5 to 10   years old, which only have 1% buyer. That also can be explained by roles and family. For most family, the parents all know the Lays chips is not healthy for children grow up. In term of culture factor, there is significant effect on  the customers of Lays. According to research, the South American is the biggest potato eating country in the world (Potato Facts and Figures - International Potato Center, 2013) Therefore the Lays as an American product is the most famous brand in the world. The culture of eating potatoes could expand market. 

The family cycle includes Single I, Empty Nest I, Full Nest I, Full Nest II, Empty Nest II and Single II. As far as I am consider, Lays potato chips more relate with Empty Nest I. As it has been mentioned before, the main buyer of Lays chips is age between 20 to 30. In other word, the Empty Nest II and Single II, which haven’t provided the market to Lays chips. Those ages of people more focus on healthy life style. 

The evaluation of alternatives is most likely for Lays chips. When people want to buy potato chips, they will establish criteria for comparing the products. They will think all brand of potato chips in the market. Luckily, Lays is best selling and a well-know brand product. That could be a big advantage for Lays chips selling.

Attitudes Toward Lays chips 

ATTRIBUTE	Importance	Brand Evaluation	Importance*Brand Eval
Taste	4	4	16
Price	3	2	6
Health	3	2	6
Package	1	1	1

*1=Unimportant…5=Very Important

    **1=Unsatisfactory…5=Very Satisfactory

References

Dibb, S. (2012). Marketing concepts and strategies. Andover: Cengage Learning.

Research on Consumer buying behaviour for Lay's chips. (2016). Slideshare.net. Retrieved 19 September 2016, from http://www.slideshare.net/JasvinderNotra/research-on-consumer-buying-behaviour-for-lays-chips

Potato Facts and Figures - International Potato Center. (2013). International Potato Center. Retrieved 20 September 2016, from http://cipotato.org/potato/facts/      

Lays Chips logo, Vector Logo of Lays Chips brand free download (eps, ai, png, cdr) formats. (2016). Logotypes101.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://www.logotypes101.com/logo/lays-chips  

Lays company

Week 1.2 Marketing strategy and understanding competitors

The main product for Lays is potato chips, which has already sold in all around the world. We can buy it in a normal supermarket. The mission of Lays truly is the world's favorite snack and is always within arm's reach(profile, 2013). Lays wants to become the leader of snack market and the customer’s favorite snack.

Lay’s has high market share comparing with other potato chips brands, so there are no generic competition can effect on the market of Lays potato chips. The direct competitor is Pringles, which also offers potato chips, this brand selling is world top 3(The Top 10 Bestselling Potato Chips, 2016). However, the big difference is the package, the Pringles only use paper roll as package. The Pringles selling price is higher than Lays in the same weight.The main competing product is Ruffles, but this brand has different taste potato chips    manufactured by Frito-Lay, which is also same as Lay’s potato chips. 

To sum up, Lays absolutely takes up the main market share of potato chips. The most stronger competitor is themselves. In another word, It is necessary to overcome the healthy issues caused by eating potato chips. The Lays will be the marketing leader of potato chips for long time.  In my opinion, the competitive position is market leader for Lay’s chips. The Lays have a majority of industry sales and market share. 

Lays company provides good brand reputation for customers. Comparing with other brand of potato chips, which is best differential advantage. Because when the customer or the potential customer is willing to buy some potato chips, the Lays could be the first brand in their mind. As we all know, the Lays belongs to the band of Pepsico, which is really famous snack brand in the world. the customer will believe this brand and buy the products.   

Lays growth strategy is market penetration, which means the market already familiar with customers. People know this brand and product for long time.    

References:

Profile, V. (2013). FRITO-LAY MISSION STATEMENT. Dangerouslycheese-z.blogspot.nl. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://dangerouslycheese-z.blogspot.nl/2013/02/frito-lay-mission-statement.html 

Lays Chips logo, Vector Logo of Lays Chips brand free download (eps, ai, png, cdr) formats. (2016). Logotypes101.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://www.logotypes101.com/logo/lays-chips 

The Top 10 Bestselling Potato Chips. (2016). TheRichest. Retrieved 14 September 2016, from http://www.therichest.com/expensive-lifestyle/food/the-top-10-bestselling-potato-chips/