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/