Context of human services Essay

Social changes in diverse societies are brought about by several factors such as maintaining order and responsibility within and outside the society. In this case, human services such as attending offering medical attendance, and avoidance of social evils such as corruption, are portrayed as major opportunities for the social changes. Many people see mental anomaly as curable. In real case, one cannot be completely cured from it, but the most promising fact is that it can be recovered and maintained. People in the society are more often encouraged to live with mentally challenged as they support them from day to day. They should be friendly to them since it is not the wish of the victims to be what they are. Family environment has been considered the best in provision of care to the victims of mental illness. Presently, many people prefer discharging their patience from hospitals as soon as possible since the expenses increases from day to day. Insurance reimbursements by both private and governmental sectors usually provide a cover of not more than sixty days to the patients. These days are adequate enough to recover the mental patients. Several organizations have come up to attend the patience and also provide moral support to them. For example, The Office of Protective Commission and the Public Guardian has been established to help the mentally challenged individuals cope with the environment they are in. such organizations have maintained social order as evidenced from their efforts to protect the ill from being taken advantage of (Hasenfeld, 2009) Members of the society should be encouraged and given knowledge about the mental disorder. In so doing, they will be actively encouraged to handle the victims with proper care, love, respect and most of all with dignity since the victims are also human beings thus they deserve tender care. Mental illness has got no specific cause. However, causes has been identified as either due to hereditary factors (it exists in the family linage), caused by organic diseases and even sometimes by environmental situations such as one being subjected to adverse stress. This disorder has got no borders and any person can be a victim, indiscriminate of his religion, gender or race and even age (Hopkins & Austin, 2004) Health systems in some parts of the world are a times selective in provision of services to its customers. Not everyone stands equal rights in services offered. Depending on your pocket or rather financial strength one is likely to get better services than the poor. Patience that may require argent medical attention is kept on waiting bays for long. This is as a result of the financially stable personnel not observing the rule of first come first served basis. Such issues have been of much negativity to the society since others have lost their loved ones at the bays and the emergency rooms. Also, the limited number of qualified persons may be a contributing factor. In some circumstances, the patient attendants may be reluctant in provision of services. Evil thoughts that propel them towards this could be such as assuming that patients could have gone to private organizations with relatively shorter queues than theirs, for fast delivery of services. It is much disgusting to realise existence of inequality in any society. This is whereby when one is rich, he/she gets richer and richer, and in most instances at the expense of others (Pease & Camilleri , 2001). Strengthening the civil society can be a way of addressing social issues such as social injustices, discrimination, violence and even poverty. A strong society can enhance better governance, tolerance and can also maintain peace within its borders. People who are socially responsible have got no time to engage in activities that will in one way or another haunt others, for example negligently polluting the environment, discriminating against others and even engaging in violence. Currently, reforms have been put in place with an aim of strengthening communities. Public are encouraged to participate in policy making. Several governments have taken initiatives of letting its citizens participate in decision making thus enabling the nation to thrive well in terms of political, economical and social development (Patti ,2008). Social evils such as corruptions are a major issue towards the existence of social injustices. Corruption has been a reason behind increase in the levels of poverty in the societies and also retarded growth in the economy. Corruption is as a result of poor governance. Those in the government can carelessly use the funds at the expense of the public thus being a leeway to social irresponsibility. It is clear therefore that this evil in the society should be emphasized on and properly dealt with so as to bring social order and also desirable changes for the development in the society (Laurence & Heinrich, 2000). In summary, it is clear that opportunities of success in terms of social changes can be as a result of human participation in service provision. Social order is enhanced through provision of better services in diverse sectors and also through good governance.

Contrast Between Night by Elie Weisel and Sarah’s Key

Night by Elie Wiesel: Part 3 By: Susan Aguilar My book Night by Elie Wiesel is about a boy name Elie whose family and community is taken to a concentration camp by German soldiers. The story goes on about how Elie lives in those camp, how he suffers and sees many people die right in front of him. His own father dying right before his eyes and he not being to do anything because he just couldn’t. In the book he tells his story about what horrible things and how horrible it was to live in a concentration trap. He talks about how his faith went up and down and how much pain he had to suffer.He except of losing a leg and almost dying. He tells that there no one would help each other it was every man for himself. He never sees his mother or little sister ever again. His horrible, tragic, sad story about Elie touches me very much and reminds me of a movie I once watched called Sarah’s Key. The film starts out about this girl name Sarah who is startled by French policeman nock ing at her door on July 16, 1942. Sarah knows who it is and tried to save her little 4 year old brother. Sarah locks him in a closet and based on what saw, the closet was the family’s secret hiding place.Julia Jarmond is an American married to a French man living in Paris 2002. She is a journalist who is given the opportunity to write about the Vel’ d’ Hiv’ for the 60 year remembrance of this tragic event. The story then continues about how Sarah and her family got sent to be in a camp and then was separated from her dad. Later then the movies shows how Sarah goes through so much trouble trying to escape so she can return to her little brother and save him. She then unlike Night by Elie Wiesel finds a friend who helps her escape and goes back to her home. Sadly thought her friend dies after they escape and she goes through all this trouble

Pollution and Transport.Docx Uploaded Successfully Essay

Topic essay: types of pollution Industrilization is more and more developing. This accompanied by pollution. The three main types of environmental pollution are land pollution, air pollution, water pollution. The first type of pollution is land pollution. Land pollution is the earrth’s surface and soil, directly or indirectly as a result of human activities. The earth’s natural land is surface by industrial, commercial, domestic and angricultural activities. The second types of pollution is air pollution. Air pollution is pollution of the air which can affect the health, surviral or activities of many organism’s, including humans. Pollution of the air is the accumulation of hazardous substances into the atmosphere that danger human life and other living matter. The final types of pollution is water pollution. Water pollution is the introduction of chemical, biological and physical matter into large bodies of water that degrade the quality of life . that live in it and consumes it. Water pollution can also make water unsuited for the desired use. In conclusion, environment is very important to our live. Without land, we wouldn’t have the foods to eat. Without air, we couldn’t be able to breathe. Without water, we couldn’t live more than 5 days. Topic essay: The important of transportation Transportation is very important to any nation. All towns produce or need products. Those products must get there somehow. There are three main important of transportation: reduce the physical separation of different countries, one of the importance aids to trade and help people transfer easier. Firstly, transport reduce the physical separation of different countries. nowadays we can travel easier by air plant or the other transport from a country to another country.. Even we can travel to the other planet with transport. We just take about 1, 2 hours or more to transfer from a place to another place instead of 1 day, 1 weeks or more . Secondly, transport is one of the importance aids to trade. All trade of wealth and productive labor involves transportation, whether it is the movement of goods or the movement of people from their homes to their jobs or their  homes to the places where they shop. In other words, the global society would not have comfort and convenience had it not been for advancements in the transportation sector. Trade is essential to economic vitality, and transportation is essential to trade. There would not have been any great infrastructure, industrialisation, or massive production, if transportation was incompetent. Finally, transport help people transfer easier. It’s so easy to move around on transport. Without air plant, train or the other transport, this would so difficult to transfer, travel or trade. In conclusion, Nothing is more important to civilization than transportation and communication. Trade is essential to economic vitality, and transportation is essential to trade.

Pontecaster Car Rally case report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Pontecaster Car Rally case report - Essay Example The advice that could be given to Pontecaster depends on its rights or responsibilities in the contract. But before the obligation could arise from the contract, there is a need to establish whether there is a contract. A contract exists when the following elements occur: offer and acceptance, consideration, certainty of agreement and intention to create legal relations (University of London, 2007). If such a contract does exist between the parties, it could now be asked whether the rights of Pontecaster are being protected. On the other hand, Pontecaster may have responsibilities to be done under the contract which may make it at fault. As far as the issue on whether there is a contract between the parties on the basis of the presence or absence of offer and acceptance, consideration , certainty of agreement and intention of create legal relations, this paper submits that they parties are presumed to have a contract because the question presupposes the existence of such contract. As far as its rights under the contract (which is presumed to exist based on the question), it becomes an issue whether it can it ask â€Å"Grubs up† to pay for breach of contract. The case facts provide that there was confusion as to actual date of the sports event but it was also provided that Pontecaster had already contracted â€Å"Grubs up† (Emphasis supplied). The fact that there was contract already, â€Å"Grubs up† must have been ready to meet the obligations including the day when the car rally event would have been held. As far as its responsibilities in the contract is concerned, Pontercaster may be held liable for its failure to conduct the event in its earlier designated time, if there is any, as per its contract with â€Å"Grubs up†. On the other hand, in the absence of the of a definite dates of the event that was agreed upon, such may indicate lack of intention to be bound for which â€Å"Grubs up† may not be liable.

It is intended that small claims should be subjected to a process that Essay

It is intended that small claims should be subjected to a process that is easy to use and cheap for litigants. To what extent do - Essay Example This is important, because the small claims court is clogged with cases, according to the Bello (2010). There were 84,000 cases that were heard in the small claims court system in 2008, which most commonly include consumer compensation cases for faulty services, faulty goods and personal injury; cases for wages owed; and debt recovery for corporate creditors (Bello, 2010). The purpose of the small claims court, according to Bello (2010) is that they are informal courts – litigants can represent themselves, because the focus is on a process that is easily understandable to everybody. Evolution of the Small Claims Courts The evolution of the small claims court procedures have evolved. In 1973, according to the Bello (2010), the upper limit for the small claims court was only ?75. Obviously, the amount has grown substantially by then, and is going to grow even more. More importantly, the process has been streamlined by the changes in the Civil Procedure Rules which stated that, i n 1998, that there would be one set of rules for the civil claims in the high court and the county court, and that there would be special provisions made for small claims. ... This TCE Act, according to the HM Court and Tribunals Service, instituted a way of handling reviews and appeals. There is an Upper Tribunal, which decides appeals from the First-tier Tribunal. Each of these tribunals are also split into Chambers, each of which have their own rules and procedures. What this has done, according to the HM Courts and Tribunals Service, is provided a single mechanism by which a litigant may appeal the tribunal's decision. The Upper Tribunal's decision is not final, however, as it may also be appealed to the Court of Appeal (HM Court and Tribunal's Service). Mediation Probably the most important method that is being used to streamline the process of small claims, is the process of mediation. This has made the process cheaper and easier to use, at least in theory. Tagg (2010) explains that mediation in the English and Welsh courts began around 20 years ago with commercial disputes, and around 10 years ago for small claims issues. The rules of mediation are governed by Civil Justice Reforms implemented in 1999, and codified in the Civil Procedure Rules. In the small claims court system, according to Tagg (2010), there were reforms put into place in 2005/2006, in which the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) was made free to users. This is because the low amount of the claims would make paying for mediation not cost-effective. The small claims mediation service, which was implemented in the Manchester County Court after the reforms, was the most effective, and resulted in the greatest satisfaction and settlements. So, this was rolled out across England and Wales, and has since become well-established. This is a voluntary service (Tagg, 2010). The mediation process has some aspects in common, according to Reid (2007). Reid

Utilizing the Time Value of Money Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Utilizing the Time Value of Money - Essay Example But do to some limitations of these tools other tools such as Profitability Index and Payback Period. The payback period determines the duration of the time it would take to recover the investment made initially. This will give us the number of periods it would take to breakeven for the initial investment made. The profitability index is used as well in investment decisions because it measures the value created per dollar invested. So if the PI shows a greater than 1 value, then it means that the investment is returning a greater amount than invested. These two techniques are used because they resolve the disadvantages of NPV and IRR methods. (Helmkamp, 1990) The first disadvantage of a NPV calculation is its dependency on the interest/discount rates. It is very difficult for the investor to know the correct discount rate since they can change though out the life of that investment making considerable differences on the decision. (Investopedia, 2008) Another issue with the discount rate is the differences in the risk factor of the investment. Since the risk can change, therefore the discount rate, this can make lives very hard in calculating NPV. (Investopedia, 2008) Another disadvantage lies in the facts that NPVs are just mathematics calculations that do not take into account the real options available for investment.

Case Study Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case Study Paper - Essay Example The news is a catastrophic event for the unemployed persons in the country, particularly for those who are living in their own house and have gone jobless for last few months or more and are unable to pay on their mortgages. Alan from Wall Street Journal reports, â€Å"About 3.6 million homes are likely to be lost to a foreclosure or distressed sale by 2013, on top of 6.7 million since 2006, according to Moody's Analytics.† This is really a grim situation in the sense that it is likely to bring a doom to all real estate owners. Why? In a free market, economic principles apply in its full force. One such law is demand and supply. Price remains in equilibrium when supply matches demand. Here the scenario is different. There is huge supply and very little demand. Sources say that the excess inventory of housing units for sale or on rent is estimated to be 1.2 million units at the end of 2010. (Fig 1; Berg, Robert 2010). Housing stock is stated to have aggregate demand of 0.3 mill ion units per year in the country. Simply these figures indicate that there is already a huge build up in the inventory over the demand.

Nursing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 7

Nursing - Assignment Example Both studies seem to promote the idea that critical thinking could be based on the learning process, but just partially. The personal attitudes of nurses are able to affect their critical thinking. It has been made clear that critical thinking, as all other elements of nursing, can be influenced by the social and economic environment of nurses. In this context, critical thinking has been proved to be a rather complex process, which could be only partially controlled through the learning process. Critical thinking is an important element of nursing. In the literature, emphasis is given on critical thinking as a vital skill of nurses. In this context, most studies published in this field promote the idea that critical thinking should be an indispensable part of education in nursing. The specific issue is explored in the two studies analyzed in this paper. In the first of these studies, the study of Raymond-Seniuk & McGrath (2011) emphasis is given on the philosophical perspectives of critical thinking, especially in regard to nursing (Raymond-Seniuk & McGrath 2011, p.45). The specific study presents a series of definitions of critical thinking, aiming to show the potential role of critical thinking in nursing. At the same time, a comparative analysis is provided between critical thinking and certain philosophical concepts, such as person, knowledge and truth (Raymond-Seniuk & McGrath 2011, p.47-48). The above study aims to show the relationship between nursing and critical th inking especially in regard to the following issue: whether critical thinking in nursing can be taught or not. On the other hand, the study of Wang & Liao (2012) presents a critical example of the incorporation of critical thinking in nursing education: reference is made to the communication skills incorporated in the English communication classes of baccalaureate nursing students’ (Wang & Liao 2012,

The Importance of Marketing for Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

The Importance of Marketing for Business - Essay Example The author has rightly presented that marketing helps a business in creating value for its customers. Most companies today implement customer-driven marketing strategies which allow them to create value for target customers. Companies today identify and select marketing segments, develop products and marketing programs targeted to each and focus on the buyers who have more interest in the values that they create the best. They then decide on a value proposition by differentiating the market offering and positioning it in the minds of the target customers. The customer relationship management part of marketing is about maintaining and building profitable business relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction. Just as companies are being very choosy about which customers to serve, they are serving the chosen customers in a more lasting way. Marketing today has become an art of finding, retaining and multiplying profitable customers. Apart from helping companies c onnect more deeply with their customers, marketing also helps companies connect to customers more directly. It helps customers buy virtually everything without going to a store through telephone, online, mail order catalogs etc. In fact, such has been the success of direct marketing that some companies such as Dell only use the direct channel to sell their products. Marketing also helps businesses build strong, lasting and profitable relationships with customers through social media

Cochlear Implant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cochlear Implant - Essay Example Studies show that as of April 2009, around 188,000 people including children across the world have received the implant (NIDCD 2010).That gives a very optimistic picture that the implants have been accepted and people have benefitted from it. The success rate of these implant strategy is because of a proper management of psychological problems, apt education on its advantages and disadvantages and timely intervention. Advancements in technology have also played a major role. An example of it could be the improvements shown in the circuit development reduction of noise factors and adaptable fitting hearings.There are numerous factors that affect the success of an implant. Improved circuits have played their part in advancing the signal processing methods but the continuous increment in the levels of hearing impairment and recruitment for loudness disrupting features of safe listening, the target of achieving 100% success has a long way to go. In addition to this, people who go for hea ring aids cannot be said to be completely clear of any hearing loss. It is because there are chances for pathology influences to affect the transduction processes through which these hearing aids transmit sound in the ear. Hearing does not start immediately after the implant. It takes about 1-4 weeks for the brain to register new sounds and generally turn the implant into an active mode. Primary factors that accentuate the success of an implant are the recipient’s immediate reaction and the period since when loss of hearing was detected.

Eisenhower Comparison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Eisenhower Comparison - Essay Example Greenstein who, in his article â€Å"A Look at the Evidence† characterized Eisenhower as an astute politician who was actively involved in shaping public policies and carefully considered all aspects of an issue before making a decision. Greenstein faults the false perception of Eisenhower to his inconspicuous, low-key leadership approach which served him well in managing the victory in WWII and was also effective during his two terms as President. As might be expected, there is little to compare in these two articles, each presenting opposing views regarding the effectiveness of this particular former President. Brand’s article characterizes Eisenhower based primarily upon his effectiveness as a leader in developing a National Security policy, an on-going practice throughout his term of office that provided few acceptable conclusions. This analysis is based primarily upon outside evidence as seen in the actual events that unfolded rather than through any kind of inside evidence that details the president’s actual involvement in the discussions that were held. For example, much of the article focuses upon the actions of Congress and of specialized committees that were convened to discuss the various issues involved in nuclear armament.

The Reluctant Security Guard Essay Example for Free

The Reluctant Security Guard Essay Summary of the Facts:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   David Tuff is a security guard of Blue Mountain. As a security guard, he is required by law to report to the police all serious accidents and crimes, including felonies, occurring within the premises wherein which he is detailed. However, Blue Mountain created a new company policy ordering the security guards to just escort intoxicated persons, including drunk drivers, from the parking lots onto the public road. The company policy prohibited the security guards from reporting such incidents to the police.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tuff complained against this new company policy. He says this is contrary to the oath he swore to uphold as required by law. Thus, contrary to another company policy, he revealed to the media this new policy which seemed wrong to him. The result was public disgust against Blue Mountain. Because of this, Tuff was fired. Propriety of Tuff’s Action   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As a matter of right, Tuff had every right to speak what he spoke to the media. His right springs from the constitutional guarantee to freedom of speech. This means that his right to speak is not just some ordinary right granted by some law. It is one which is inherent in every man from the moment he is born and is protected by the constitution.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, when he signed up with Blue Mountain, he agreed not to disclose anything to the media as reflected by company policy. In a sense, he waived a portion of his right to freedom of speech in order to be employed. This is a valid waiver. Since Tuff violated company policy, he violated an agreement he voluntarily entered into. Thus, his act of revealing company policies to the media is, in the final analysis, inappropriate. What he should have done?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If I were Tuff, I would have not been so rash as to incite public outcry against my employer. To my mind, such a course of action violates the rules of fair play. In fact, it is a violation of a company policy which I agreed to as a requirement for my employment. There are three things to consider: the law, the company policies and my employment contract. Since it is hard to harmonize all three in determining a proper course of action, the right thing to do is to have gone to a lawyer who will discuss to me my options. A lawyer could tell me how to proceed without violating the law, the company policies, or my employment contract, or at least, in case I should violate one, I will still make a better informed decision. Propriety of Firing Tuff   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tuff violated company policy. In fact, his violation can be considered as serious misconduct because he did it with utter disregard of specific orders not to talk to the media. His first infraction was forgiven by management. Yet after that, he made the same violation. This serious misconduct makes his termination justified. Alternative to Termination   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The termination of Tuff is not the only remedy available to Blue Mountain. From a certain perspective, such act is too harsh for after all, he was just exercising his right to free speech on what he sees to be wrong. Moreover, the new company policy is contradictory to what the law requires of him. Under the cognitive dissonance theory, he was just having a hard time harmonizing the dissonance. Management should have at least tried to see it this way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Surely, the company would hate to make a company policy which makes its employees violate the law. Hence, it should have first sat down with Tuff, which it did not do in this case, to discuss a solution for Tuff’s dilemma. They should have sought to employ one of the many alternative dispute resolution methods. A compromise would have been reached. This solution is quiet and amicable and makes everybody happy. Sensationalizing the issue by going to the media or to the court, for that matter, just worsens the situation and makes everybody edgy, including those not involved, making a compromise harder to reach.

Competitive Advantage: CSR

Competitive Advantage: CSR CSR means that a corporation should be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities and their environment; it may require a company to forgo some profits if its social impacts are seriously harmful to the corporations stakeholders or if its funds can be used to promote a positive social good (Frederick, Post, Davis, 1992, p. 10). Tougher competition recently has compelled the firms to adopt something that is different from their rivals and has also put a pressure on the firms to examine their philanthropy and other social activities, by doing so the company can sometimes achieve a strategic advantage over its competitors (Burke Logsdon, 1996). David Vogel wrote There is a business case for CSR but it is much less important or influential than many proponents of civil regulation believe, CSR is best understood as a niche rather than a generic strategy: it makes business sense for some firms in some areas in some circumstances.There is a place in the market economy for responsible firms. But there is also a large place for their less responsible competitors (Vogel, 2006, p. 3). This essay will outline whether and how competitive advantage can be achieved by organisations through CSR. This will be done by critically discussing what CSR is? Further emphasising on how it gives an organisation strategic advantage over its other competitors. Various definitions of CSR have been given by various theorists, making the study of CSR even more complex. CSR activities have been posited to include incorporating social characteristics or features into products and manufacturing processes like aerosol products with no fluorocarbons or using environmentally-friendly technologies, adopting progressive human resource management practices like promoting employee empowerment, achieving higher levels of environmental performance through recycling and pollution abatement like adopting an aggressive stance towards reducing emissions, and advancing the goals of community organizations like working closely with groups such as United Way. Researchers are moving beyond just defining and identifying CSR activities, to examining the strategic role of CSR in organizations. (Mcwilliams, Seigel, Wright, 2006, p. 2) There are 2 types of approaches to CSR, the charity principle and stewardship approach. Charity principle is when the companies take on a social role just because they want to; its a charitable deed and has nothing to do with the profitability of the company. Stewardship approach is when companies act in interest of the people that are affected by the business decisions and policies to gain an advantage, it is in line with the Freidmans stakeholder approach explained further in the essay. Even today companies interpret CSR as normal day to day decision making process that dont need much expertise. Its true that CSR is influenced highly by the moral imperative. In some situations moral implications are easy to apply like filing accounts honestly, acting ethically but sometimes the company has to weigh its moral decisions with the impact it can have on the stakeholders which can be difficult. For instance, Googles entry in china has created a feeling of repulsion amongst its US customers towards censorship imposed by the Chinese government. Therefore in this situation one social benefit has to be weighed against another and also against the financial costs that would arise (Porter Kramer, 2006). It is important for the companies to understand that if the prevailing approach to CSR is changed and more emphasis is given on the importance of social responsibility like other core competencies of a firm, it can be discovered that CSR is more than just a cost, constraint or a charitable deed; it is a source of innovation, opportunity and competitive advantage (Porter Kramer, 2006). There are various situations under which an organization would undertake the CSR approach, When an organization wants to create an opportunity based on the societal trend or issue or when a organization seeks to solve a business problem that cant be solved within the traditional business boundaries or When an organization seeks to protect itself from a threat posed by a societal issue. or When an organization seeks to have a greater business and societal impact from its existing CSR program. (Milliman, Ferguson, Sylvester, 2008, pp. 30-31) Milton Friedman in an article to New York Times said that, the only social responsibility of a business is to increase its profit (Porter Kramer, 2002, p. 6). According to Freidman the only aim of an organization is to achieve profit on the other hand Freeman argues that a firm has responsibility towards the internal or external stakeholders of the firm which should be taken into account (Galbreath, 2009). Freemans Stakeholder theory basically describes what a firm should do or should not do in terms of their societal responsibilities and is more inclined towards CSR. More recently, the society expects companies to behave ethically and in a socially responsible manner, that means they expect the companies to not only be interested in their profits but also pay attention to the interest of the broader group of stakeholders like consumers, suppliers and society at large. There has been increasing societal pressures like negative media coverage on the companies that are socially inacti ve thus driving the companies towards CSR (Pater Lierop, 2006). But the way CSR is being practiced recently, what Freidman said is proving to be right, companies adopt for short term CSR objectives that are not coherent and diffused with the organizations mission. It is only to attain profit and earn the goodwill of its customers, employees and the local community. (Porter Kramer, 2002). Many companies adopted CSR not because they thought it was important for the company to survive but because of the media coverage and public reaction to the issues they were involved in. for example, Nike faced consumer boycott after New York Times reported that the labour was being abused by Nike in third world countries like Pakistan and Indonesia. Thats when Nike realised that it was time to act responsibly or at least act to be responsible to regain one of the four 4 Rs of CSR that the company was losing -Reputation. On the other hand some other companies were successful in understanding that society and businesses are interdependent. One of them would be Mr. Steven T.Bigari, owner a string of McDonalds franchises in Colorado Springs. Steven had a problem of high turnover rates amongst his front line workers affecting the profits of the firm (Fitzgerald, 2007). The problem persisted even after giving them pay incentives. Steven concluded that the traditional HR practices were not helping and therefore he decided to look into the matter deeper and tried to find out from the workers the reason for them not coming to work regularly. He found out that many of his low wage workers had number of personal life constraints like lack of transportation, child care etc which was the key reason of high turnover. Therefore Bigari started considering various methods of how these underlying societal issues affecting his business can be addressed. He developed programs with governmental organizations and NGOs to provide social service needed by his workers. This process took time but it also solved the problem which the traditional HR practice couldnt. Therefore by doing so, Steve was successful in achieving a much more reliable and productive workforce and also create a positive impact on the personal lives of his employees (Milliman, Ferguson, Sylvester, 2008). Thus this shows how CSR can be used to gain economic benefits for the company by also creating a social impact. Social and economic benefits are often seen as two distinct objectives but companies need to find out where these two objectives converge for their organization. This would enable them to acquire decent amount of economic benefits as well create a sustainable impact on the society. Competitiveness today depends on how efficiently the companies use their resources to increase productivity and exploit the opportunities. CSR has to be seen as a strategic resource which has to be exploited to gain competitive advantage out of it. Does social and environmental consciousness actually lead to competitive advantage? This is one difficult question to be answered. Toyota Found a new market in Japan with its environmentally sound product Toyota Prius and Body Shop gained an advantage over its competitors for its safe products. Toyota took advantage of the opportunity it got to pioneer innovation to benefit the society thus generating a competitive advantage for itself. The Toyota Prius is the first successful hybrid gasoline/electric vehicle that has produced competitive advantage and environmental benefits. The cars engine is hybrid and emits only 10% of the harmful gasses that the conventional engines produce and consume only half as much gas. The car was rated as the car of the year in 2004 by the motor trends magazine. The car is associated with the slogan, harmony between man, nature and machine (3rd Generation Prius, 2009). This innovation has given Toyota a strategic advantage over its competitors, one of the m being Ford who wants to acquire the technology from Toyota (Porter Kramer, 2006). Competitive advantage occurs through CSR when one company implements the strategies of CSR for the benefit of the company and a competitor fails to do the same (Filho, Wanderly, Gomez, Farache, 2010). Adoption of CSR also gives the company an opportunity to premium price its product also helping in the promotions of the product and attracting consumers which impacts positively on the companys financial performance (Mason Simmons, 2011). But there are other companies that have also failed in linking CSR with profitability. Therefore its hard to say whether CSR leads to competitive advantage directly but it most definitely supports the other core competences of a firm, indirectly giving a competitive advantage. Gaining a competitive advantage by only introducing Triple Bottom Line is difficult, instead a company should focus on developing an innovative model of Triple Bottom Line. When a consumer finds a product or a company that is more inclined towards the CSR objectives; it tends to give them an advantage over other firms in a number of ways. A few consumers are just more environmentally conscious and therefore if they find a product which is environmentally safe, they would prefer that one over the one that is not. It is important for the companies to develop a niche market for their products. For example, body shop has distinguished itself by long term social commitment. The company should think of its long term advantages like reputation, etc that can be achieved through acting responsibly socially than the short term interests than can cause harm to the society or environment. And this approach fits perfectly if the company gains cost advantage out of it. Nestle is a perfect illustration of how long term competitive advantage can be achieved through CSR. In 1962, Nestle was expanding in India and they got a permission from the government to build a dairy in Moga, when they started expanding in the region they realised that the farmers in India were facing problems like severe poverty, the farmers were living without the basic needs like electricity, adequate food, there was no proper transportation, telephones or medical care in the region. Farmers owned less than five acres of infertile land and kept only one cow that would produce milk sufficient for their own consumption only. The milk often got adulterated in transit because there was no proper refrigeration, transportation and way to test the quality of the milk. Therefore to solve this problem, nestle implemented CSR strategies and tried to build the factor and demand conditions in the area. Nestle built refrigerated dairy which was the collection point for milk from the farmers in town and trucks were sent from these dairies to the veterinarians, ergonomists to test the quality of the milk. Thus Nestle established a value chain similar to its value chain in its country of origin, Switzerland. The farmers were also trained and the sick animals were taken care off. This improved the productivity of the cows and also improved the working conditions in the area for the farmers. Initially when the company expanded in the area there were only 180 farmers supplying milk but today there are almost 75000 farmers involved with around 650 dairies in the region and the milk production has increased 50 times. Nestlà ©s working with the small workers gives them an advantage of saving the costs that they would have to incur if they had middlemen. Nestlà ©s CSR objective is part of their strategy and is adopted by them when they expand in other developing countries too (Porter Kramer, 2006). Also there are various standards like that can be used to create a positive impact on the stakeholders creating a strategic advantage for the company. There are various triple bottom line indicators like the GRI (global reporting initiative), ISO: 14000, ISO: 26000, EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) that affect companys reputation to the customers, suppliers, competitors, the stakeholders basically. These standards help in developing good relations with the government. Also employees think that they are working in a company trying to save the environment thus increasing their commitment levels and increasing their chances to stay with the organization. Investors would also be interested because it would affect the share prices. EMAS and ISO dont give a full picture; these standards dont cover the social indicators whereas GRI gives a full picture covering all the triple bottom line indicators. Most researchers agree that CSR provides an organization with various advantages and is not only useful for the society but also for the organization. It provides with the societys favour and lowers the risks of business operations; forms the image of the corporation and improves its reputation; stimulates the organizations innovation and creative work; helps to find easier ways to attract external sources of sponsorship; broadens markets and makes situations for sales increase; helps to attract positively motivated employees, enhances the value of human capital; stimulates the organizations culture; lowers expenditures, stimulates production and income increase, enhances the efficiency of work (JuÃ…Â ¡Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ ius SnieÃ…Â ¡ka, 2008, p. 35). There have been debates that more and more companies have started adopting CSR and it has moved all the way to the boardrooms. This can be proved by around 360 CSR-related shareholder resolutions being passed by the companies in 2005. These shareholder resolutions range from issues relating to labour conditions and global warming and other social problems. Out of 250 large multinationals, 64% of the companies published their CSR reports either within their annual reports or separately as a sustainability report (Porter Kramer, 2006). Even the government has been stressing on the importance of CSR by making it mandatory for every publicly listed company to disclose its CSR related risks in the annual report. The businesses do know about these risks but they are not clear as to what has to be done to eliminate these risks and the response of companies have not been very strategic or operational. Companies come up with CSR reports but these reports dont really give an account of an art iculate or strategic framework of CSR activities of the company, instead it mentions uncoordinated CSR activities carried out by the company to show its social sensitivity. Therefore its important for the companies to turn to academic experts for advice and start thinking of CSR as a source of gaining competitive advantage (Porter Kramer, 2006). Companies know that addressing the societal expectations is important to keep their stakeholders happy but they are not aware about how to strategize it to gain competitive success (Galbreath, 2009). Companies are not liable for all the social, environmental problems that occur but it is about taking the responsibility to identify the problem that they can gain a competitive advantage from and act on them. As Porter Kramer(2006, p. 92) state, addressing social issues by creating shared value will lead to self sustaining solutions that do not depend on private or governmental subsidies. Thus it can be said that by linking businesses to the societal or environmental issues, a company can develop solutions that are socially responsible that provide an operational and competitive advantage (Fisher, et al. 2009).

Keventer Agro Market Analysis

Keventer Agro Market Analysis ABSTRACT Most producers do not sell their goods directly to final users. They design a multi-channel system to reach them. The design of marketing channel, that acts, as a strong interface, can provide competitive advantage to a firm in the industry. By contrast the absence of a good distribution network can also be a major fiasco in todays cutthroat competitive world. Marketing channel decisions are the most critical ones facing the marketing management today. It is complex and the complexity further gets compounded by the fact that the channel system take time to build usually years. Channel partners are not owned by the company in most cases. The sales force plays a crucial role in getting the best out of marketing channel. Integrating the efforts of channel partners and sales efforts within the whole marketing effort becomes crucial towards achieving organizational goals. Food and beverage giant Parle had entered into a franchisee agreement with Keventer Agro, for Keventer Agro to manufac ture, package, distribute and market its well-known brands namely Frooti -a popular mango drink, Appy and Appy Fizz-the in-style apple drinks and Bailley Packaged Drinking Water mostly in the eastern parts of India. The project Study of the distribution channel and market analysis of the products distributed and marketed by Keventer Agro under the license of Parle Agro involves the study of the strategies undertaken by Keventer Agro to distribute and market products of Parle Agro which includes Parles HIPPO Parle Agro forayed into snacks with the launch of Hippo, in line with the companys vision of becoming a major player in the foods and beverages industry. Hippo is a player of the snack food industry of India. As per an industry estimate, the branded and organized snack food segment dominated by major players such as Frito Lay, Con Agra, Kelloggs, Marico, Dabur, HLL, ITC, Parle, Haldirams. Thus, the study mainly constituted of studying and analyzing the distribution channel of Hip po and doing a market analysis of the product with respect to pricing, competition, brand awareness and consumer behavior of Hippo its present market position in relation to the well known established brands through retailer and consumer survey. Questionnaire, Schedule and interview and observation methods have been used in conduction of surveys. After completion of analysis of data collected through various methods regarding the sales and distribution and market position and other strategies proper conclusions can be drawn about the awareness and market strength and potential of Parles Hippo. These conclusion and deductions will help Keventer Agro to make any possible changes that would be feasible for the sustenance of the brands and any measure that will increase the market penetration of the brands Introduction The Project Study of the distribution channel and market analysis of the of the products distributed and marketed by Keventer Agro under the license of Parle Agro involves the study of the strategies undertaken by Keventer Agro to distribute and market Parle Hippo Keventer Agro: The Company Keventer Agro Limited is a subsidiary of Keventer Group which has been operating years in the Food Processing Industry in India for more than 125 years. Keventer exports Alphonso Mango Pulp, Totapuri Mango Pulp, Guava Pulp, Sweetened Alphonso Mango Pulp, Mango Pickle, Sesame Seed, Cashew Nuts, Peanuts, Cumin Seed, Fennel Seed, Fenugreek, Coriander Seed, Bakery Ingredients, Fruit Jams, Tutti Fruiti, Red Chilies Button Mushrooms etc. to various countries. Keventer Agro Ltd. (KAL) was established in the year 1986. The division exports food products such as Mango Pulp, Guava Pulp, Sesame Seeds, and Bakery Ingredients to various customers across the globe. In no time, it earned the coronet of being the first to i ntroduce aseptic packaging in the beverage category (a high-end packaging procedure that preserved the natural goodness of drinks in hygienic packs). The Group entered into a franchisee agreement with the food and beverage giant -PARLE to manufacture, package, distribute and market its well-known brands namely FROOTI -a popular mango drink, APPY and APPY FIZZ- the in-style apple drinks and BAILEY PACKAGED DRINKING WATER mostly in the eastern parts of India. In late 2010, Parle Agro inked another agreement with Keventer Agro to set up a plant at Barasat. This new unit manufactures Parle Agros snack brand Hippo. Besides manufacturing, Keventer is also responsible for marketing, sales and distribution of Hippo. Parle Agro chose to partner Keventer for their range of food brands which w.ll h.l. them to expand Hippos market share in the eastern part of India. Parle Agro: The Company Parle Agro is a household name in the beverages industry and has leading brands like Frooti, Appy, Appy Fizz and packaged drinking water, Bailley. A pioneer in the Indian industry, Parle Agro were the first to introduce fruit drinks in tetra packaging, first to introduce apple nectar and the first to introduce fruit drinks in PET bottles. In 2007, Parle Agro forayed into foods with the launch of two confectionery brands, Mintrox mints and Buttercup candies. This was soon followed by two more brands Buttercup Softease and Softease Mithai. Recent beverage products from Parle Agro include Saint Juice, LMN and Grappo Fizz. In 2009, Parle Agro forayed into snacks with the launch of Hippo, in line with the companys vision of becoming a major player in the foods and beverages industry. The snack brand Hippo, was launched in the western region starting with Maharashtra and then it was soon rolled out nationally. Parle Agro commenced operations in 1984. Starting with o nly beverages and diversifying to include bottled water in 1993 and confectionery in 2007. Frooti was the first product that was rolled out of Parle Agro in 1985. It went on to become Indias favourite mango drink. It still has a leading market share. Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd operates under three business vertical Beverages fruit drinks, nectars, 100% Juice, sparkling drinks, Water Packaged Drinking Water and Foods confectionery, snacks Product Industry Overview Product: HIPPO Parle Agro forayed into snacks with the launch of Hippo, in line with the companys vision of becoming a major player in the foods and beverages industry. Hippo is a toasted bread snack. Its ingredients include wheat flour, edible vegetable oils, seasoning mix, corn starch, sugar, raising agent, milk solids, salt, emulsifier, yeast extract powder, instant yeast. It contains added natural color and added natural identical flavoring substances; but no added MSG, no GMO and no Trans Fat. It comes in two variant; Hippo Munchies and Hippo Round-Round. The Hippo Munchies comes in 7 flavours (Chinese Manchurian, Hot-n-Sweet Tomato, Thai Chilli, Yoghurt Mint Chutney, Italian Pizza, Indian Chatpata and Arabian Salted) and Hippo Round-Round comes in 5 flavours (Punjab Da Pickle, Gujrati Mango Chatni, Shillong Noodle Masala, Goan Butter and Garlic, Firangi Cheese n Spice). It is available in three sizes which are priced at Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 20. Snack Industry: Industry to which Hippo belongs Hi ppo is a player of the snack food industry of India. The Indian snack industry is one of the largest when considered in the global level. With rising standard of living, people are more resorting to snacks items during breakfast, supper or any time; snacks most often take the place of meals. Right from production, using up, export and growth prospects owing to emerging markets, increasing demand, and incorporation of latest technologies, the snack industry in India has witnessed a dramatic change. Ready-to-eat foods, samosas, kachoris, namkeen, chips, are few of the snacks that are most preferred by Indians. Given the rising demand, the snack industry is going to witness further growth in the future. The snacks food industry in India can broadly be categorised into three segments staple (biscuits category), traditional (namkeens) and ready-to-eat packaged snacks (chips / crisps). The snack food market in India is $3 billion; with the organized segment accounting for almost half of the market share and growing at rate of 15 to 20 percent per year. A growing economy, changing lifestyles, rise in disposable incomes and preference for quality products of U.S. origin will continue to fuel growth of imported U.S. snack food items in India. As per an industry estimate, the branded and organized snack food segment dominated by major players such as Frito Lay, Con Agra, Kelloggs, Marico, Dabur, HLL, ITC, Parle, Haldirams, Nestle, Britannia, Cadbury, Bikano and Balaji is estimated to grow by 15 to 20 percent per year; whereas the growth of un-branded snack food is likely to grow modestly at 8 percent per year in the near future. Frito-Lay India led sweet and savory snacks with a retail val ue share of 46% in 2009. The companys Kurkure, Lehar and Lays Stax offerings have helped it to consolidate its leadership during the year. Haldiram Foods International Ltd and ITC Ltd remained the second and third ranked players respectively. Products like Hippo claim to be made from healthier ingredients than chips/crisps. With Indian consumers becoming more health conscious and more inquisitive about the ingredients in their food, sweet and savory snacks will witness an increase in products which are positioned as better for you and healthier snacks. Objectives of the Project To execute a qualitative study on the trend of packaged snack industry To gauge the acceptance of baked and healthy-snacks To understand competitors strategy in the market To study the sales and distribution structure, pricing (both to the retailer and to the consumer) of Hippo and problems in those respected area. To develop marketing strategies for Hippo To analyze the markets and determine the factors responsible for sale of products and provide recommendations about the scope for improvement. To provide a statement of collective responses of the retailersand determine the scope for improvement in the distribution channel for the products and the problems faced by the retailers. To study the pattern of consumer behavior and their awareness towards HIPPO To find out the problems faced by HIPPO if any and suggest solution to address those problems Project Methodology Primary Research is done through market survey. The research is mainly based on: Questionnaire Method Interview Method Observation Method Secondary Research has also been used as a supporting tool like: Some of the data related to holistic picture of the industry has been gathered from the data available on the internet PROJECT PROFILE The project revolves around Parle Hippo distributed and marketed by Keventer Agro under the license of Parle Agro. The first stage constituted of mainly studying and analyzing the distribution channel of Hippo and doing a market analysis of the product with respect to pricing, competition, brand awareness and consumer behavior of Hippo through retailer and consumer survey As per the objective of the project, two sets of questionnaire were prepared; For the retailer which aimed to assess the availability of Hippo, pricing of Hippo, sales, defect handling and some financial aspect of Hippo viz. Its competitors and the other for the consumers. For the consumer which aimed to gauge awareness of the product and the brand, product acceptance, their choice of product and buying pattern. The second stage constituted of observing the total sales procedure which consists of division of product, division of area, selective loading, selling, collection and submission STAGE ONE: RETAILER SURVEY FOR HIPPO This stage involved daily visits from the stock points to the designated markets. The markets covered includes: Salt Lake, Lake Town, S.K. Deb Road Market, Nagerbazar, Mrinalini Cinema Hall Market, New Market, Ultadanga, Kankurgachi, Bagmari, Beadon Street , Aurobindo Road and Vivekananda Road area, Shyambazar, Rajballavpara Baghbazar. Every shop that kept branded snacks in the respective areas was approached. The initial plan was to conduct the survey through questionnaire method but while performing the survey the method had to be changed to schedule, observation and interview method as it was not convenient for the retailers to fill up the questionnaire Objectives of Survey by observation method Findings to be recorded through observation method included: The visibility of Hippo and of competitors product Mode of stocking/displaying Hippo and competitors products i.e. whether it is on shelve or in the basket or inside almirah The location of the store i.e. whether it is beside main road or inside a lane or on a square Type of store Approximate demography Objectives of Survey by schedule method Findings to be recorded through schedule method included: About Hippo: Whether he keeps Hippo or not, if not the reason, its availability, reorder period, quality of defective product handling, margin offered, supply of banners and danglers. About Competitor: The competition brand kept, approximate margin they offer. About the market as a whole: The most selling brand. Objectives of Survey by interview method The interview methodology aimed to gain the intrinsic details of the market functions such as; if the retailer does not keep Hippo would he like to keep it future, the credit policy, frequency of visit of sales representative, retailers view on Hippos marketing strategy and scope of improvement. STAGE TWO: TOTAL SALES PROCEDURE OBSERVATION Distribution structure of Keventer Agro for Hippo Keventer Agro has 2-level consumer marketing channel. i.e. Manufacturing Unit>Distributor>retailer>Consumer. The product is manufactured in their plant located in Barasat. The products are sold directly to distributors on cash. A sales representative is appointed to the distributor by Keventer, who represents Keventer Agro and works shoulder to shoulder with the distributor. Level 1 Manufacturing unit to distributor The distributor buys the product in cash and the price of the free products which are part of below the line promotional activity are reimbursed on the claim made by the distributor. The transportation charge is borne by the distributor. Division of product and appointment of distributors: The aim of the company is: To ensure not only the highly profitable established products, but also new products with low initial sales reaches the end of supply chain. To ensures that all the SKUs of different products end up in the racks of retailers. Parle Agro has wide and deep product line; it is difficult for a single distributor to manage all the products. Earlier, Hippo was supplied to all the distributors of a specific area but as coordination became difficult, they have changed their policy and now supplies only to one distributor of the specific area. In some distribution area Keventer appoints more than one distributor each having different divisions of product. The division of products includes: Division A Division B Division C (Full information about this division is not known since I never had the chance to work in this divison) 200 ml, 400 ml, 1.2 litre of Frooti 160 ml 500 ml 1.5 litre and 2 litre of Frooti 200 ml of Appy 500 ml, 1 litre, 2 litre of Bailley Packaged Drinking Water 100 ml, 250 ml of Frooti 200 ml of LMN 600 ml of Bailley Soda. 300 ml, 500 ml and 1 litre of Appy Fizz The strategy of division of product along with division of distributor is adopted due to the reason discussed above. Level 2 Distributor to retailer Each distribution area is divided into five different distribution zones. They sell their products to those five zones in five days i.e. Monday to Friday. The sixth day which is Saturday is an extra day in which the sales representative does the miscellaneous work such as: If an order was not delivered on the due date then that product is delivered on Saturday. They conduct an approximate survey to estimate or forecast the forthcoming weekly demand. If a replacement of defective product was not done on the due date then it is also done in Saturday Hippo along with other product that are in the same division are be loaded in the LCV everyday. The flavours and quantities are not fixed. They load it according to the demand estimation of the zone. For example, on a particular day, more SKUs of Goan Butter and Garlic flavour is loaded more than the average quantity; the reason being from the experience, the sales representative found that when certain flavour/flavours are supplied to some particular area/areas, the retailer has lower re-order period i.e. the flavour/flavours sales more in that area depending on the demography of the area and buying pattern of the consumers. Sometimes the sales representatives are given target. For example: If they can sell 100 cases of Division A products on a particular day which includes Hippo, then they would get some incentive (Rs 250 extra). In that case, Division A products are loaded more, proportionally quantity of Hippo rises. However the elasticity of quantity of loading is low for Hippo compared to Frooti and Appy which are of high selling category. The sales representative finds it easy and handy to sell Frooti and Appy than applying push strategy for Hippo. Sometimes Hippo is not at all loaded in the LCV because the particular market demography could not accept Hippo and is not popular. Selling Each sales representative has different style of selling. Some capitalize on relationship between him and retailer and some on communication skill. Relationship marketing: In this type of marketing procedure, the SR does not start talking business in the first instance; rather he greets the retailer, talk about general things like current affairs or about family which helps him to build a rapport and trust. The trust and rapport becomes the psychological tool to win over the psychology of the retailer making it difficult for the retailer to reject the sales representatives selling proposal. Sometimes the sales representatives shares such good relationship with the retailer s that they dont even ask whether he needs anything or not but directly dump the products and produces the bill. Credit sales are more by this procedure since the SR does not want to freeze the warmth of the relationship. Communication Marketing In this procedure the SR starts talking about the business from the first go. The deliberation of the schemes or price seeks the attention of the retailers. Sales representative convinces the retailers by giving a clear picture of the business model. For example: Suppose the shop is near a school, he would right away say with much conviction that Hippo is bound to sell and with Rs 1.23 margin per piece, it would be a great business for him. He further elaborates on the schemes and produces a very rosy picture. The chances of credit sales are low. The sales representative of Keventer Agro is responsible to write the bill of receipt where he mentions name of the shop, the date, quantity of total product sold and its price. An account of free products is also scribed in the bill. The cash is handled by the distributors representative. Collection It is a process of collecting money for the credit sales made. Usually Keventer does not encourage credit sales. However if any credit sales are made, the credit period is generally 2-3 days or the period till the next order, whichever is earlier. Collection is not so difficult as Hippo is backed by Frooti which has high bargaining power. Submission Both the representatives are required to submit every bills and cash respectively to the stock point/distributor. The cash collected and the sum total of the bill has to tally. Problem identification and its solution: Problem 1: The targets that are set by Keventer for the sales representatives are not dis tinct enough. The target constitutes of only two conditions i.e. name of Division and amount of cases. For example, on a particular day while we were working in certain area with the sales representative, he was given a target to sell 100 cases of Division A product for an incentive of Rs 250. He worked till 8 pm and ultimately reached to the target. However most of the sales were of Frooti and Appy with very little proportion of Hippo. Solution to the problem: Providing target worked well but had skewed portfolio. The target scheme for the sales representatives should be more distinct for example, if the target would have been X cases Frooti, Y cases of LMN, Z cases of Appy and U cases of Hippo of Division A for Rs V then the sales representative would not have capitalized on Frooti and Appy but would have tried to push low moving new brands such as Hippo, Bailley Soda etc. The portfolio of sales would have been varied and would have provided an impetus to the sales of new brands s uch as Bailley Soda and Hippo. Problem 2: Most of the sales activities are done by the company representatives such: Converting potential customer into actual customer in level 1 of distribution structure Bagging re-order from the existing customer Handling defective product Negotiation and persuasion Accounting( bill of receipt) The distributor only provides with infrastructure such as godown, light commercial vehicle(LCV) and a representative. The field work is mostly done by the company representative. Solution to the problem: Initially in a new market, it is quite rationale to capitalize on the market knowledge and relationships of the distributor but while working with sales representatives we found in some areas that the retailers already trust the company representative while the company representative has commanded the knowledge on the respective market. In that scenario Keventer Agro can go for forward integration and move on to 1-level distribution structure which consists of only manufacturer> retail> consumer eliminating the distributor. This would further optimize the profit earned by the company Evaluation of the distribution system of Parle Hippo through statistics This part of data analysis is segmented in to two parts. The first part deals with retailers and the second part deals with the consumer. The first part is further broken up in to two scenarios. The first scenario provides a holistic view of the markets surveyed and the second scenario deals with analysis of the attribute according to the area in which the survey is conducted. Part I (A) -Holistic View of the Markets Surveyed 1. Hippo Stocked The graph below showcases the frequency of the shops who stocks Hippo in their shops. 36.2% of the samples do not keep Hippo, where as 24.6% of the sample use to keep Hippo and the rest however keeps Hippo. So it can be said that there are presently more shops where Hippo cannot be found. Since the percentage of shops that use to keep Hippo is considerably high, we get a negative sales trend here. 9 definite reasons for the low sales turnover have been identified. They are: Some of the shops were never approached by the distributor Some shops are already flooded with competitors product so there are no space to stock Hippo In Some areas, the supply was halted due distributor reappointment and other issues Some shops use to keep Hippo but due to low sales they dont keep it anymore Hippo has a limited credit option, so many retailer finds it difficult to block their money for a new product Some retailer does not keep Hippo due to lack of merchandize provided. Retailers demand shelve and almirah so that they can store and display and also protect from mice but very limited or no merchandize is provided to most of the retailers Some retailers do not keep Hippo because they perceive that it is a new product with low awareness, the market is still not ready to accept the product. Had it been ready, the consumer would themselves ask for it Some retailers complained about poor follow up from the sales team and is the reason for not keeping Hippo Some retailers, who use to keep Hippo complained that the expired stock were not replaced and they have lost faith in Parle Agro The chart provided below showcases the frequency of the reasons discussed above. Interpretations: 32.5% of the shops were never approached by the company. From the qualitative data it has been found that many retailers were positive about keeping Hippo if they were being approached by the company. 12.5% of the shops have no space to keep Hippo. While conducting survey it is found that many shops were flooded with competitor brand leaving no space for Hippo. Out of 24.6% of sample who use to keep Hippo, 11.2% stopped keeping Hippo due sudden halt in supply due to distributor reappointment problem and other associated problems. 8.8% of the samples do not keep Hippo anymore due to its low sales while 2.5% of the samples do not keep Hippo because of the credit policy. The low sales associated with limited credit policy makes it difficult for the retailer to invest in the slow moving stock. 1.2% of sample reported that they do not keep Hippo because Parle Agro do not provide them with almirah or rack as result the products get damaged because of mice. Among the samples who never kept Hippo, 10% of the sample never kept Hippo because no customer demanded for it. They said, they will only keep Hippo when customer starts asking for it. The demand graph is provided below. Among those who use to keep Hippo, 8.8% of sample do not keep it anymore due to bad follow up from the distributor. One of the samples was approached by the distributor ho took order but never delivered the products. The expired date products were never replaced for which 2.5% of the sample does not keep Hippo. The reason for the 8.8% of the shops could not be gauged due to any response from the retailers. 2. Demand of Hippo: The graph below provides a holistic view about the demand of Hippo. 42.7% of the sample said that the demand of Hippo is low while 33.7% of the sample said that the demand is average followed by 23.6% of the sample who said that the demand is high. 3. Reorder period: Among the samples who keep Hippo, 57.6% of the sample orders on a weekly basis, 24.7% orders on a monthly basis, 10.6% on a fortnightly basis and 7.1% of the sample orders twice a week. 4. Most selling Stock Keeping Unit (SKU): 74.1% of the sample reported that the small packs are most selling stock keeping unit (SKU) while 25.9% of the sample reported about the medium pack. 5. Most selling flavour: On an overall analysis, we found that there is very low consistent pattern of choice of flavour. However 21.2% of the sample said that the bluish green pack (Goan Butter and Garlic) sells the most followed by Punjab Da Pickle. 6. Awareness of nutrition facts among retailers: 70.5% of the sample had no idea about Hippo being baked but not fried while that 29.5% of the sample had idea about the health positivity of the product. Among 29.5 % of the samples who are aware of the fact only 2.4% of the samples pitch about it while selling it. 7. Analysis of the margin/profit offered by Hippo and its competitors: The objective is to find whether there is significant difference among the margin offered by three brands i.e. Lays, Bingo and Hippo. In other words, it is a test for difference in distributions (medians) of the margin/profit for the different brands of snacks. Methodology applied is Kruskal-Wallis Test. The null hypothesis H0 = PL = PB = PH and the alternate hypothesis H1 is PL, PB and PH are significantly different. PL = Proportion of retailer to whom Lays provide them with highest margin PB = Proportion of retailer to whom Bingo provide them with highest margin PH = Proportion of retailer to whom Hippo provide them with highest margin The significance level (a) is 0.05. According to the Kruskal-Wallis test, the p-value is as low as zero, so we reject the null hypothesis. So we see that at the a = 0.05 level of significance, there exists enough evidence to conclude that there is significant difference among the three snack brand in terms of the margin/profit provided to the retailer. 8. Factor Analysis: The main applications of factor analytic te (1) To reduce the number of variables and (2) To detect structure in the relationships bet Therefore, factor analysis is applied as a dat The variables taken are: .Supply Quality of Hippo as r .Quality of Product delivered as r .Quality of service(Replacement .Merchandize offered and its a .Margin perceived by the samples .Quality of Hippo as responded by Samples or analytic techniques are: the number of variables and tionships between variables, that is to classify sis is applied as a data reduction or structure detection method. Supply Quality of Hippo as responded by Samples ed as responded by Samples placement and Adjustment) as responded by Samples and its availability as responded by Samples ed by the samples sponded by Samples classify variables. tion method. y Samples The main applications of factor analytic te (1) To reduce the number of variables and (2) To detect structure in the relationships bet Therefore, f actor analysis is applied as a dat The variables taken are: .Supply Quality of Hippo as r .Quality of Product delivered as r .Quality of service(Replacement .Merchandize offered and its a .Margin perceived by the samples .Quality of Hippo as responded by Samples or analytic techniques are: the number of variables and tionships between variables, that is to classify sis is applied as a data reduction or structure detection method. Supply Quality of Hippo as responded by Samples ed as responded by Samples placement and Adjustment) as responded by Samples and its availability as responded by Samples ed by the samples sponded by Samples classify variables. tion method. y Samples From the component plot above it is quite clear that plot above it is quite clear that quality of product, quality of supply and replacement and adjustment constitute one factor while margin of hippo and merchandizing provided constitute the other factor. From the Scree Plot it can be seen that 2 components have Eigen Value more than 1 and they can explain 74.09% of the variation. Part 1 (b) Area wise analysis of the attributes 1. Demand hippo vs Area 70%, 55%, 50% in Lake Town, Shyambazar, Ultadanga respectively consider the demand of Hippo to be low. 72.7% of sample in Salt Lake and 50% of sample in New Market feels the demand for Hippo is average. However 44.4%, 50%, 41.7% of the sample in Nagerbazar, Baisakhi and Ultadanga respectively fell the demand is high over there. 2. Flavour vs area Goan Butter and Garlic flavour is the most liked flavour in Salt Lake. While Punjab Da Pickle is the favourite in Nagerbazar. All the other area has no definite favourite. 3. Area vs Hippo Stocked Cross tabulation Area * Hippo Stocked Cross tabulation Hippo Stocked No Yes Previously Kept Area Salt Lake Count 0 12 0 % within Area .0% 100.0% .0% Lake Town Count 4 3 4 % within Area 36.4% 27.3% 36.4% Nagerbazar Count 2 10 0 % within Area 16.7% 83.3% .0% Baisakhi CK Market Count 3 1 5 % within Area 33.3% 11.1% 55.6% New Market Hogg Market Count 11 0 6 % within Area 64.7% .0% 35.3% Ultadanga, Murari Pukur, Kankurgachi Bagmari Count 13 5 7 % within Area 52.0% 20.0% 28.0% Beadon Road, Aurobindo Road Vivekananda Road Count 13 10 5 % within Area 46.4% 35.7% 17.9% Shyambazar, Baghbazar Rajballav Para Count 4 13 7 % within Area 16.7% 54.2% 29.2% Total Count 50 54 34 % within Area 36.2% 39.1% 24.6% From the cross tabulation above, we see that the penetration of Hippo is excellent in Salt Lake and Nagerbaz Keventer Agro Market Analysis Keventer Agro Market Analysis ABSTRACT Most producers do not sell their goods directly to final users. They design a multi-channel system to reach them. The design of marketing channel, that acts, as a strong interface, can provide competitive advantage to a firm in the industry. By contrast the absence of a good distribution network can also be a major fiasco in todays cutthroat competitive world. Marketing channel decisions are the most critical ones facing the marketing management today. It is complex and the complexity further gets compounded by the fact that the channel system take time to build usually years. Channel partners are not owned by the company in most cases. The sales force plays a crucial role in getting the best out of marketing channel. Integrating the efforts of channel partners and sales efforts within the whole marketing effort becomes crucial towards achieving organizational goals. Food and beverage giant Parle had entered into a franchisee agreement with Keventer Agro, for Keventer Agro to manufac ture, package, distribute and market its well-known brands namely Frooti -a popular mango drink, Appy and Appy Fizz-the in-style apple drinks and Bailley Packaged Drinking Water mostly in the eastern parts of India. The project Study of the distribution channel and market analysis of the products distributed and marketed by Keventer Agro under the license of Parle Agro involves the study of the strategies undertaken by Keventer Agro to distribute and market products of Parle Agro which includes Parles HIPPO Parle Agro forayed into snacks with the launch of Hippo, in line with the companys vision of becoming a major player in the foods and beverages industry. Hippo is a player of the snack food industry of India. As per an industry estimate, the branded and organized snack food segment dominated by major players such as Frito Lay, Con Agra, Kelloggs, Marico, Dabur, HLL, ITC, Parle, Haldirams. Thus, the study mainly constituted of studying and analyzing the distribution channel of Hip po and doing a market analysis of the product with respect to pricing, competition, brand awareness and consumer behavior of Hippo its present market position in relation to the well known established brands through retailer and consumer survey. Questionnaire, Schedule and interview and observation methods have been used in conduction of surveys. After completion of analysis of data collected through various methods regarding the sales and distribution and market position and other strategies proper conclusions can be drawn about the awareness and market strength and potential of Parles Hippo. These conclusion and deductions will help Keventer Agro to make any possible changes that would be feasible for the sustenance of the brands and any measure that will increase the market penetration of the brands Introduction The Project Study of the distribution channel and market analysis of the of the products distributed and marketed by Keventer Agro under the license of Parle Agro involves the study of the strategies undertaken by Keventer Agro to distribute and market Parle Hippo Keventer Agro: The Company Keventer Agro Limited is a subsidiary of Keventer Group which has been operating years in the Food Processing Industry in India for more than 125 years. Keventer exports Alphonso Mango Pulp, Totapuri Mango Pulp, Guava Pulp, Sweetened Alphonso Mango Pulp, Mango Pickle, Sesame Seed, Cashew Nuts, Peanuts, Cumin Seed, Fennel Seed, Fenugreek, Coriander Seed, Bakery Ingredients, Fruit Jams, Tutti Fruiti, Red Chilies Button Mushrooms etc. to various countries. Keventer Agro Ltd. (KAL) was established in the year 1986. The division exports food products such as Mango Pulp, Guava Pulp, Sesame Seeds, and Bakery Ingredients to various customers across the globe. In no time, it earned the coronet of being the first to i ntroduce aseptic packaging in the beverage category (a high-end packaging procedure that preserved the natural goodness of drinks in hygienic packs). The Group entered into a franchisee agreement with the food and beverage giant -PARLE to manufacture, package, distribute and market its well-known brands namely FROOTI -a popular mango drink, APPY and APPY FIZZ- the in-style apple drinks and BAILEY PACKAGED DRINKING WATER mostly in the eastern parts of India. In late 2010, Parle Agro inked another agreement with Keventer Agro to set up a plant at Barasat. This new unit manufactures Parle Agros snack brand Hippo. Besides manufacturing, Keventer is also responsible for marketing, sales and distribution of Hippo. Parle Agro chose to partner Keventer for their range of food brands which w.ll h.l. them to expand Hippos market share in the eastern part of India. Parle Agro: The Company Parle Agro is a household name in the beverages industry and has leading brands like Frooti, Appy, Appy Fizz and packaged drinking water, Bailley. A pioneer in the Indian industry, Parle Agro were the first to introduce fruit drinks in tetra packaging, first to introduce apple nectar and the first to introduce fruit drinks in PET bottles. In 2007, Parle Agro forayed into foods with the launch of two confectionery brands, Mintrox mints and Buttercup candies. This was soon followed by two more brands Buttercup Softease and Softease Mithai. Recent beverage products from Parle Agro include Saint Juice, LMN and Grappo Fizz. In 2009, Parle Agro forayed into snacks with the launch of Hippo, in line with the companys vision of becoming a major player in the foods and beverages industry. The snack brand Hippo, was launched in the western region starting with Maharashtra and then it was soon rolled out nationally. Parle Agro commenced operations in 1984. Starting with o nly beverages and diversifying to include bottled water in 1993 and confectionery in 2007. Frooti was the first product that was rolled out of Parle Agro in 1985. It went on to become Indias favourite mango drink. It still has a leading market share. Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd operates under three business vertical Beverages fruit drinks, nectars, 100% Juice, sparkling drinks, Water Packaged Drinking Water and Foods confectionery, snacks Product Industry Overview Product: HIPPO Parle Agro forayed into snacks with the launch of Hippo, in line with the companys vision of becoming a major player in the foods and beverages industry. Hippo is a toasted bread snack. Its ingredients include wheat flour, edible vegetable oils, seasoning mix, corn starch, sugar, raising agent, milk solids, salt, emulsifier, yeast extract powder, instant yeast. It contains added natural color and added natural identical flavoring substances; but no added MSG, no GMO and no Trans Fat. It comes in two variant; Hippo Munchies and Hippo Round-Round. The Hippo Munchies comes in 7 flavours (Chinese Manchurian, Hot-n-Sweet Tomato, Thai Chilli, Yoghurt Mint Chutney, Italian Pizza, Indian Chatpata and Arabian Salted) and Hippo Round-Round comes in 5 flavours (Punjab Da Pickle, Gujrati Mango Chatni, Shillong Noodle Masala, Goan Butter and Garlic, Firangi Cheese n Spice). It is available in three sizes which are priced at Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 20. Snack Industry: Industry to which Hippo belongs Hi ppo is a player of the snack food industry of India. The Indian snack industry is one of the largest when considered in the global level. With rising standard of living, people are more resorting to snacks items during breakfast, supper or any time; snacks most often take the place of meals. Right from production, using up, export and growth prospects owing to emerging markets, increasing demand, and incorporation of latest technologies, the snack industry in India has witnessed a dramatic change. Ready-to-eat foods, samosas, kachoris, namkeen, chips, are few of the snacks that are most preferred by Indians. Given the rising demand, the snack industry is going to witness further growth in the future. The snacks food industry in India can broadly be categorised into three segments staple (biscuits category), traditional (namkeens) and ready-to-eat packaged snacks (chips / crisps). The snack food market in India is $3 billion; with the organized segment accounting for almost half of the market share and growing at rate of 15 to 20 percent per year. A growing economy, changing lifestyles, rise in disposable incomes and preference for quality products of U.S. origin will continue to fuel growth of imported U.S. snack food items in India. As per an industry estimate, the branded and organized snack food segment dominated by major players such as Frito Lay, Con Agra, Kelloggs, Marico, Dabur, HLL, ITC, Parle, Haldirams, Nestle, Britannia, Cadbury, Bikano and Balaji is estimated to grow by 15 to 20 percent per year; whereas the growth of un-branded snack food is likely to grow modestly at 8 percent per year in the near future. Frito-Lay India led sweet and savory snacks with a retail val ue share of 46% in 2009. The companys Kurkure, Lehar and Lays Stax offerings have helped it to consolidate its leadership during the year. Haldiram Foods International Ltd and ITC Ltd remained the second and third ranked players respectively. Products like Hippo claim to be made from healthier ingredients than chips/crisps. With Indian consumers becoming more health conscious and more inquisitive about the ingredients in their food, sweet and savory snacks will witness an increase in products which are positioned as better for you and healthier snacks. Objectives of the Project To execute a qualitative study on the trend of packaged snack industry To gauge the acceptance of baked and healthy-snacks To understand competitors strategy in the market To study the sales and distribution structure, pricing (both to the retailer and to the consumer) of Hippo and problems in those respected area. To develop marketing strategies for Hippo To analyze the markets and determine the factors responsible for sale of products and provide recommendations about the scope for improvement. To provide a statement of collective responses of the retailersand determine the scope for improvement in the distribution channel for the products and the problems faced by the retailers. To study the pattern of consumer behavior and their awareness towards HIPPO To find out the problems faced by HIPPO if any and suggest solution to address those problems Project Methodology Primary Research is done through market survey. The research is mainly based on: Questionnaire Method Interview Method Observation Method Secondary Research has also been used as a supporting tool like: Some of the data related to holistic picture of the industry has been gathered from the data available on the internet PROJECT PROFILE The project revolves around Parle Hippo distributed and marketed by Keventer Agro under the license of Parle Agro. The first stage constituted of mainly studying and analyzing the distribution channel of Hippo and doing a market analysis of the product with respect to pricing, competition, brand awareness and consumer behavior of Hippo through retailer and consumer survey As per the objective of the project, two sets of questionnaire were prepared; For the retailer which aimed to assess the availability of Hippo, pricing of Hippo, sales, defect handling and some financial aspect of Hippo viz. Its competitors and the other for the consumers. For the consumer which aimed to gauge awareness of the product and the brand, product acceptance, their choice of product and buying pattern. The second stage constituted of observing the total sales procedure which consists of division of product, division of area, selective loading, selling, collection and submission STAGE ONE: RETAILER SURVEY FOR HIPPO This stage involved daily visits from the stock points to the designated markets. The markets covered includes: Salt Lake, Lake Town, S.K. Deb Road Market, Nagerbazar, Mrinalini Cinema Hall Market, New Market, Ultadanga, Kankurgachi, Bagmari, Beadon Street , Aurobindo Road and Vivekananda Road area, Shyambazar, Rajballavpara Baghbazar. Every shop that kept branded snacks in the respective areas was approached. The initial plan was to conduct the survey through questionnaire method but while performing the survey the method had to be changed to schedule, observation and interview method as it was not convenient for the retailers to fill up the questionnaire Objectives of Survey by observation method Findings to be recorded through observation method included: The visibility of Hippo and of competitors product Mode of stocking/displaying Hippo and competitors products i.e. whether it is on shelve or in the basket or inside almirah The location of the store i.e. whether it is beside main road or inside a lane or on a square Type of store Approximate demography Objectives of Survey by schedule method Findings to be recorded through schedule method included: About Hippo: Whether he keeps Hippo or not, if not the reason, its availability, reorder period, quality of defective product handling, margin offered, supply of banners and danglers. About Competitor: The competition brand kept, approximate margin they offer. About the market as a whole: The most selling brand. Objectives of Survey by interview method The interview methodology aimed to gain the intrinsic details of the market functions such as; if the retailer does not keep Hippo would he like to keep it future, the credit policy, frequency of visit of sales representative, retailers view on Hippos marketing strategy and scope of improvement. STAGE TWO: TOTAL SALES PROCEDURE OBSERVATION Distribution structure of Keventer Agro for Hippo Keventer Agro has 2-level consumer marketing channel. i.e. Manufacturing Unit>Distributor>retailer>Consumer. The product is manufactured in their plant located in Barasat. The products are sold directly to distributors on cash. A sales representative is appointed to the distributor by Keventer, who represents Keventer Agro and works shoulder to shoulder with the distributor. Level 1 Manufacturing unit to distributor The distributor buys the product in cash and the price of the free products which are part of below the line promotional activity are reimbursed on the claim made by the distributor. The transportation charge is borne by the distributor. Division of product and appointment of distributors: The aim of the company is: To ensure not only the highly profitable established products, but also new products with low initial sales reaches the end of supply chain. To ensures that all the SKUs of different products end up in the racks of retailers. Parle Agro has wide and deep product line; it is difficult for a single distributor to manage all the products. Earlier, Hippo was supplied to all the distributors of a specific area but as coordination became difficult, they have changed their policy and now supplies only to one distributor of the specific area. In some distribution area Keventer appoints more than one distributor each having different divisions of product. The division of products includes: Division A Division B Division C (Full information about this division is not known since I never had the chance to work in this divison) 200 ml, 400 ml, 1.2 litre of Frooti 160 ml 500 ml 1.5 litre and 2 litre of Frooti 200 ml of Appy 500 ml, 1 litre, 2 litre of Bailley Packaged Drinking Water 100 ml, 250 ml of Frooti 200 ml of LMN 600 ml of Bailley Soda. 300 ml, 500 ml and 1 litre of Appy Fizz The strategy of division of product along with division of distributor is adopted due to the reason discussed above. Level 2 Distributor to retailer Each distribution area is divided into five different distribution zones. They sell their products to those five zones in five days i.e. Monday to Friday. The sixth day which is Saturday is an extra day in which the sales representative does the miscellaneous work such as: If an order was not delivered on the due date then that product is delivered on Saturday. They conduct an approximate survey to estimate or forecast the forthcoming weekly demand. If a replacement of defective product was not done on the due date then it is also done in Saturday Hippo along with other product that are in the same division are be loaded in the LCV everyday. The flavours and quantities are not fixed. They load it according to the demand estimation of the zone. For example, on a particular day, more SKUs of Goan Butter and Garlic flavour is loaded more than the average quantity; the reason being from the experience, the sales representative found that when certain flavour/flavours are supplied to some particular area/areas, the retailer has lower re-order period i.e. the flavour/flavours sales more in that area depending on the demography of the area and buying pattern of the consumers. Sometimes the sales representatives are given target. For example: If they can sell 100 cases of Division A products on a particular day which includes Hippo, then they would get some incentive (Rs 250 extra). In that case, Division A products are loaded more, proportionally quantity of Hippo rises. However the elasticity of quantity of loading is low for Hippo compared to Frooti and Appy which are of high selling category. The sales representative finds it easy and handy to sell Frooti and Appy than applying push strategy for Hippo. Sometimes Hippo is not at all loaded in the LCV because the particular market demography could not accept Hippo and is not popular. Selling Each sales representative has different style of selling. Some capitalize on relationship between him and retailer and some on communication skill. Relationship marketing: In this type of marketing procedure, the SR does not start talking business in the first instance; rather he greets the retailer, talk about general things like current affairs or about family which helps him to build a rapport and trust. The trust and rapport becomes the psychological tool to win over the psychology of the retailer making it difficult for the retailer to reject the sales representatives selling proposal. Sometimes the sales representatives shares such good relationship with the retailer s that they dont even ask whether he needs anything or not but directly dump the products and produces the bill. Credit sales are more by this procedure since the SR does not want to freeze the warmth of the relationship. Communication Marketing In this procedure the SR starts talking about the business from the first go. The deliberation of the schemes or price seeks the attention of the retailers. Sales representative convinces the retailers by giving a clear picture of the business model. For example: Suppose the shop is near a school, he would right away say with much conviction that Hippo is bound to sell and with Rs 1.23 margin per piece, it would be a great business for him. He further elaborates on the schemes and produces a very rosy picture. The chances of credit sales are low. The sales representative of Keventer Agro is responsible to write the bill of receipt where he mentions name of the shop, the date, quantity of total product sold and its price. An account of free products is also scribed in the bill. The cash is handled by the distributors representative. Collection It is a process of collecting money for the credit sales made. Usually Keventer does not encourage credit sales. However if any credit sales are made, the credit period is generally 2-3 days or the period till the next order, whichever is earlier. Collection is not so difficult as Hippo is backed by Frooti which has high bargaining power. Submission Both the representatives are required to submit every bills and cash respectively to the stock point/distributor. The cash collected and the sum total of the bill has to tally. Problem identification and its solution: Problem 1: The targets that are set by Keventer for the sales representatives are not dis tinct enough. The target constitutes of only two conditions i.e. name of Division and amount of cases. For example, on a particular day while we were working in certain area with the sales representative, he was given a target to sell 100 cases of Division A product for an incentive of Rs 250. He worked till 8 pm and ultimately reached to the target. However most of the sales were of Frooti and Appy with very little proportion of Hippo. Solution to the problem: Providing target worked well but had skewed portfolio. The target scheme for the sales representatives should be more distinct for example, if the target would have been X cases Frooti, Y cases of LMN, Z cases of Appy and U cases of Hippo of Division A for Rs V then the sales representative would not have capitalized on Frooti and Appy but would have tried to push low moving new brands such as Hippo, Bailley Soda etc. The portfolio of sales would have been varied and would have provided an impetus to the sales of new brands s uch as Bailley Soda and Hippo. Problem 2: Most of the sales activities are done by the company representatives such: Converting potential customer into actual customer in level 1 of distribution structure Bagging re-order from the existing customer Handling defective product Negotiation and persuasion Accounting( bill of receipt) The distributor only provides with infrastructure such as godown, light commercial vehicle(LCV) and a representative. The field work is mostly done by the company representative. Solution to the problem: Initially in a new market, it is quite rationale to capitalize on the market knowledge and relationships of the distributor but while working with sales representatives we found in some areas that the retailers already trust the company representative while the company representative has commanded the knowledge on the respective market. In that scenario Keventer Agro can go for forward integration and move on to 1-level distribution structure which consists of only manufacturer> retail> consumer eliminating the distributor. This would further optimize the profit earned by the company Evaluation of the distribution system of Parle Hippo through statistics This part of data analysis is segmented in to two parts. The first part deals with retailers and the second part deals with the consumer. The first part is further broken up in to two scenarios. The first scenario provides a holistic view of the markets surveyed and the second scenario deals with analysis of the attribute according to the area in which the survey is conducted. Part I (A) -Holistic View of the Markets Surveyed 1. Hippo Stocked The graph below showcases the frequency of the shops who stocks Hippo in their shops. 36.2% of the samples do not keep Hippo, where as 24.6% of the sample use to keep Hippo and the rest however keeps Hippo. So it can be said that there are presently more shops where Hippo cannot be found. Since the percentage of shops that use to keep Hippo is considerably high, we get a negative sales trend here. 9 definite reasons for the low sales turnover have been identified. They are: Some of the shops were never approached by the distributor Some shops are already flooded with competitors product so there are no space to stock Hippo In Some areas, the supply was halted due distributor reappointment and other issues Some shops use to keep Hippo but due to low sales they dont keep it anymore Hippo has a limited credit option, so many retailer finds it difficult to block their money for a new product Some retailer does not keep Hippo due to lack of merchandize provided. Retailers demand shelve and almirah so that they can store and display and also protect from mice but very limited or no merchandize is provided to most of the retailers Some retailers do not keep Hippo because they perceive that it is a new product with low awareness, the market is still not ready to accept the product. Had it been ready, the consumer would themselves ask for it Some retailers complained about poor follow up from the sales team and is the reason for not keeping Hippo Some retailers, who use to keep Hippo complained that the expired stock were not replaced and they have lost faith in Parle Agro The chart provided below showcases the frequency of the reasons discussed above. Interpretations: 32.5% of the shops were never approached by the company. From the qualitative data it has been found that many retailers were positive about keeping Hippo if they were being approached by the company. 12.5% of the shops have no space to keep Hippo. While conducting survey it is found that many shops were flooded with competitor brand leaving no space for Hippo. Out of 24.6% of sample who use to keep Hippo, 11.2% stopped keeping Hippo due sudden halt in supply due to distributor reappointment problem and other associated problems. 8.8% of the samples do not keep Hippo anymore due to its low sales while 2.5% of the samples do not keep Hippo because of the credit policy. The low sales associated with limited credit policy makes it difficult for the retailer to invest in the slow moving stock. 1.2% of sample reported that they do not keep Hippo because Parle Agro do not provide them with almirah or rack as result the products get damaged because of mice. Among the samples who never kept Hippo, 10% of the sample never kept Hippo because no customer demanded for it. They said, they will only keep Hippo when customer starts asking for it. The demand graph is provided below. Among those who use to keep Hippo, 8.8% of sample do not keep it anymore due to bad follow up from the distributor. One of the samples was approached by the distributor ho took order but never delivered the products. The expired date products were never replaced for which 2.5% of the sample does not keep Hippo. The reason for the 8.8% of the shops could not be gauged due to any response from the retailers. 2. Demand of Hippo: The graph below provides a holistic view about the demand of Hippo. 42.7% of the sample said that the demand of Hippo is low while 33.7% of the sample said that the demand is average followed by 23.6% of the sample who said that the demand is high. 3. Reorder period: Among the samples who keep Hippo, 57.6% of the sample orders on a weekly basis, 24.7% orders on a monthly basis, 10.6% on a fortnightly basis and 7.1% of the sample orders twice a week. 4. Most selling Stock Keeping Unit (SKU): 74.1% of the sample reported that the small packs are most selling stock keeping unit (SKU) while 25.9% of the sample reported about the medium pack. 5. Most selling flavour: On an overall analysis, we found that there is very low consistent pattern of choice of flavour. However 21.2% of the sample said that the bluish green pack (Goan Butter and Garlic) sells the most followed by Punjab Da Pickle. 6. Awareness of nutrition facts among retailers: 70.5% of the sample had no idea about Hippo being baked but not fried while that 29.5% of the sample had idea about the health positivity of the product. Among 29.5 % of the samples who are aware of the fact only 2.4% of the samples pitch about it while selling it. 7. Analysis of the margin/profit offered by Hippo and its competitors: The objective is to find whether there is significant difference among the margin offered by three brands i.e. Lays, Bingo and Hippo. In other words, it is a test for difference in distributions (medians) of the margin/profit for the different brands of snacks. Methodology applied is Kruskal-Wallis Test. The null hypothesis H0 = PL = PB = PH and the alternate hypothesis H1 is PL, PB and PH are significantly different. PL = Proportion of retailer to whom Lays provide them with highest margin PB = Proportion of retailer to whom Bingo provide them with highest margin PH = Proportion of retailer to whom Hippo provide them with highest margin The significance level (a) is 0.05. According to the Kruskal-Wallis test, the p-value is as low as zero, so we reject the null hypothesis. So we see that at the a = 0.05 level of significance, there exists enough evidence to conclude that there is significant difference among the three snack brand in terms of the margin/profit provided to the retailer. 8. Factor Analysis: The main applications of factor analytic te (1) To reduce the number of variables and (2) To detect structure in the relationships bet Therefore, factor analysis is applied as a dat The variables taken are: .Supply Quality of Hippo as r .Quality of Product delivered as r .Quality of service(Replacement .Merchandize offered and its a .Margin perceived by the samples .Quality of Hippo as responded by Samples or analytic techniques are: the number of variables and tionships between variables, that is to classify sis is applied as a data reduction or structure detection method. Supply Quality of Hippo as responded by Samples ed as responded by Samples placement and Adjustment) as responded by Samples and its availability as responded by Samples ed by the samples sponded by Samples classify variables. tion method. y Samples The main applications of factor analytic te (1) To reduce the number of variables and (2) To detect structure in the relationships bet Therefore, f actor analysis is applied as a dat The variables taken are: .Supply Quality of Hippo as r .Quality of Product delivered as r .Quality of service(Replacement .Merchandize offered and its a .Margin perceived by the samples .Quality of Hippo as responded by Samples or analytic techniques are: the number of variables and tionships between variables, that is to classify sis is applied as a data reduction or structure detection method. Supply Quality of Hippo as responded by Samples ed as responded by Samples placement and Adjustment) as responded by Samples and its availability as responded by Samples ed by the samples sponded by Samples classify variables. tion method. y Samples From the component plot above it is quite clear that plot above it is quite clear that quality of product, quality of supply and replacement and adjustment constitute one factor while margin of hippo and merchandizing provided constitute the other factor. From the Scree Plot it can be seen that 2 components have Eigen Value more than 1 and they can explain 74.09% of the variation. Part 1 (b) Area wise analysis of the attributes 1. Demand hippo vs Area 70%, 55%, 50% in Lake Town, Shyambazar, Ultadanga respectively consider the demand of Hippo to be low. 72.7% of sample in Salt Lake and 50% of sample in New Market feels the demand for Hippo is average. However 44.4%, 50%, 41.7% of the sample in Nagerbazar, Baisakhi and Ultadanga respectively fell the demand is high over there. 2. Flavour vs area Goan Butter and Garlic flavour is the most liked flavour in Salt Lake. While Punjab Da Pickle is the favourite in Nagerbazar. All the other area has no definite favourite. 3. Area vs Hippo Stocked Cross tabulation Area * Hippo Stocked Cross tabulation Hippo Stocked No Yes Previously Kept Area Salt Lake Count 0 12 0 % within Area .0% 100.0% .0% Lake Town Count 4 3 4 % within Area 36.4% 27.3% 36.4% Nagerbazar Count 2 10 0 % within Area 16.7% 83.3% .0% Baisakhi CK Market Count 3 1 5 % within Area 33.3% 11.1% 55.6% New Market Hogg Market Count 11 0 6 % within Area 64.7% .0% 35.3% Ultadanga, Murari Pukur, Kankurgachi Bagmari Count 13 5 7 % within Area 52.0% 20.0% 28.0% Beadon Road, Aurobindo Road Vivekananda Road Count 13 10 5 % within Area 46.4% 35.7% 17.9% Shyambazar, Baghbazar Rajballav Para Count 4 13 7 % within Area 16.7% 54.2% 29.2% Total Count 50 54 34 % within Area 36.2% 39.1% 24.6% From the cross tabulation above, we see that the penetration of Hippo is excellent in Salt Lake and Nagerbaz