even be a liability, leading management down the wrong course of action. It is not clear that TPF has any understanding of what aspects of the product are popular with the consumer market, even though they are already likely selling it to some consumers in the southwestern US.Skills of the firmThough it is not discussed in the case, it is possible that TPF has developed some proprietary technology around the production of their dog food that may be leverageable to the mass market. Indeed, TPF is free from constraints of union or distribution relationships, at least in the northeast, thus has an opportunity to try some business practices in either, like outsourcing the manufacturing and/or the distribution, an increasingly popular technique to save costs and thus would allow TPF to focus on core strengths, like product development, marketing and public relations.Financial ResourcesThe $300,000 to $500,000 marketing budget is a tiny budget by the standards of large pet food companies. Although this may be enough to pay for the advertising needs of the launch for the Boston area, the small launch area will mean that the advertisements produced (particularly the television spots) will necessarily have smaller budgets than those made by the big companies, particularly very slick national advertising campaigns. Perhaps more importantly, there is currently no money allocated to market research. The budget may not be too small, but to succeed the launch will have to be more carefully strategized. This issue will be more thoroughly examined in Alternative Courses of Action, below.Distribution StructureAlthough the current marketing plan has a well specified market assessment and advertising plan, there is no mention of what approach to take with respect to distribution. Careful analysis of methods to get the product and development of a sales organization is crucial to a successful product introduction.Alternative courses of action1. More...
