Dippin' Dots! An American company that produces an ice cream snack. It uses special freezing methods (cryogenic encapsulation) to make little beads of ice cream. They use ice cream ingredients that would lock in flavor and freshness. Only recently the company appeared in Moscow, but in a very "silent" way. That's why we want to analyze the market entry of the company and see how it can promote its brand on the Russian market.
Hi, guys, I've been following all your posts since the beginning and now I have a couple of comments and suggestions. I highly appreciated the combination of your researches with articles from the Internet, as it is important to keep in touch with new information concerning the company and use existing assessments of the product. Secondly, it was a good idea to run the survey in order to understand the preferences of future clients even on the example of small amount of ppl (by the way, it would be helpful if you posted the number of respondents, their age and include income as one of the factors)
I have several suggestions and questions after analyzing your marketing plan. 1. Why don't you use the country of origin as one of the tools to attract customers? There is a trend (i'm sure there are several works on this subject) among Russian consumers to copy preferences and tastes of Americans and European residents. I believe that there is a chance to attract more customers through "trendiness" of the product. 2. There is a pattern in Russia to buy large quantity of ice cream and bring it home (again, I have no reference, I think there are plenty of researches done by some major market players such as Uniliver). You mentioned supermarkets - great idea, however, there is a question of quantity. Will the package which is sold on the streets differ from the ones from the supermarket? How it might affect the price (additional costs for supply chain and production)? 3. Russia is the country with old-established traditions of preparing ice-cream (the perfect example is "stakanchik", i don't even know what is better to translate it in English or to use Russian word in latin, sorry). What is the main feature of the product that will attract customers and force them to change their decision, in your opinion?
Despite the stated questions I think the idea is great and I personally would have bought this product if it existed on the Russian market. There were several comments on the BB from your classmates about the customer power and some established patterns in customer behavior even in Saint Pet. and Moscow - i would like to emphasize them once more, as in my opinion it is one of the most important concerns about this product.
Hi, thanks for your comment and recommendations. I will try to answer them one by one :D 1) We do not intend to mention the country of origin (USA) as our plan is to cooperate with Finish suppliers and highlight the fact. Russians perceive Finish products as high quality and healthy so we could easily support the higher price. 2) There is a difference in the market entry stage (appx. first 6 months) and the period afterwords. In the market entry stage only smaller quantity will be available as we need to make sure the price stays low and we need to encourage customers to try our new product. We also plan to promote our product by offering samples (smaller packages) for only 1$ = 35 Rbls. In the second stage however larger quantities will be available (if there will be a second stage). The quantity sold in streets will be recogniseably smaller from the one sold in supermarkets. Ice cream bought in the street is meant for immediate consuption, whereas ice cream bought in supermarket is consumed home. 3) This is the first time I heard of this kind of ice cream and it sounds interesting. hovever I do not know wheather the stakanchik would last for a longer period of time...however it is a good idea and might be applied when selling smaller amounts of ice cream or ever for the small DD samples that we plan to offer.
Thanks and make sure you ask if you have any other questions :D Regards, Martin
Hi, guys,
ReplyDeleteI've been following all your posts since the beginning and now I have a couple of comments and suggestions.
I highly appreciated the combination of your researches with articles from the Internet, as it is important to keep in touch with new information concerning the company and use existing assessments of the product.
Secondly, it was a good idea to run the survey in order to understand the preferences of future clients even on the example of small amount of ppl (by the way, it would be helpful if you posted the number of respondents, their age and include income as one of the factors)
I have several suggestions and questions after analyzing your marketing plan.
1. Why don't you use the country of origin as one of the tools to attract customers? There is a trend (i'm sure there are several works on this subject) among Russian consumers to copy preferences and tastes of Americans and European residents. I believe that there is a chance to attract more customers through "trendiness" of the product.
2. There is a pattern in Russia to buy large quantity of ice cream and bring it home (again, I have no reference, I think there are plenty of researches done by some major market players such as Uniliver). You mentioned supermarkets - great idea, however, there is a question of quantity. Will the package which is sold on the streets differ from the ones from the supermarket? How it might affect the price (additional costs for supply chain and production)?
3. Russia is the country with old-established traditions of preparing ice-cream (the perfect example is "stakanchik", i don't even know what is better to translate it in English or to use Russian word in latin, sorry). What is the main feature of the product that will attract customers and force them to change their decision, in your opinion?
Despite the stated questions I think the idea is great and I personally would have bought this product if it existed on the Russian market. There were several comments on the BB from your classmates about the customer power and some established patterns in customer behavior even in Saint Pet. and Moscow - i would like to emphasize them once more, as in my opinion it is one of the most important concerns about this product.
Best wishes,
Zhalia
Hi, thanks for your comment and recommendations. I will try to answer them one by one :D
Delete1) We do not intend to mention the country of origin (USA) as our plan is to cooperate with Finish suppliers and highlight the fact. Russians perceive Finish products as high quality and healthy so we could easily support the higher price.
2) There is a difference in the market entry stage (appx. first 6 months) and the period afterwords. In the market entry stage only smaller quantity will be available as we need to make sure the price stays low and we need to encourage customers to try our new product. We also plan to promote our product by offering samples (smaller packages) for only 1$ = 35 Rbls. In the second stage however larger quantities will be available (if there will be a second stage). The quantity sold in streets will be recogniseably smaller from the one sold in supermarkets. Ice cream bought in the street is meant for immediate consuption, whereas ice cream bought in supermarket is consumed home.
3) This is the first time I heard of this kind of ice cream and it sounds interesting. hovever I do not know wheather the stakanchik would last for a longer period of time...however it is a good idea and might be applied when selling smaller amounts of ice cream or ever for the small DD samples that we plan to offer.
Thanks and make sure you ask if you have any other questions :D
Regards,
Martin