7 April 2013

07 April 2013

On the Sunday we did not have any group meetings and everybody in the group thought they might be as lucky to have some relaxation time. However this is PDEM and if you are relaxing that can only mean two things.....1) you are more than likely dreaming (having fallen asleep from pure exhaustion) or you have forgotten that you have a massive assignment for the next day. This is was one of those days in which the latter applies.

With a massive marketing assignment due for Monday, we were forced to read up and learn about the various types of macro and micro environment conditions that effect an organization. The macro environment includes the demographic, natural and socio-cultural factors; whilst the micro environment includes the internal factors such as competitors, suppliers, customers etc. We then proceeded to use a SWOT analysis to analyse the environment as a whole.

When then break up the target market via segmentation and targeting where the specific section of the potential market is chosen to focus on. The product and service then need to position themselves tactically in the potential consumers mind as well as differentiate itself from the competition to give itself a favourable competitive advantage. 

When developing a product it is very important to take into account the 4 P’s – price, product, place, promotion in order to market your product effectively and make sure you are targeting the correct target market as well as developing your weaknesses.

6 April 2013

06 April 2013

As much as I would love to tell you of how my team and I did some deep meaningful activity that somehow transformed our group or gave a deeper understanding of what it means to be entrepreneurs.... I don’t want to waste your time. The fact that I am blogging on a Saturday is sad enough. I seriously doubt anything that happens on a Saturday is relevant to this blog in the slightest other than the fact that I was persuaded into buying two avocados from a rather sly street vendor. He demonstrated very good entrepreneurial skills by lulling me into a false sense of security with outrageously low prices. Two avocados’ for R10... I know, it’s ludicrous!(And not like the platinum selling rap artist). The price of his product instantly positioned the product favourably in my mind (the consumer).  His placement wasn’t particularly good seeing as he was in the middle of the road, which is in terms of his safety of course. His daredevil behaviour got my attention and it was convenient for me to buy avocados without having to get out my car.

I later realized that what can only be described as ‘door stoppers’ were in fact arguably the hardest avocados in the southern hemisphere. The day wasn’t a complete lost as this random homeless entrepreneur taught me something... price is everything. If the price is low enough, the consumer will purchase the product regardless of quality. We sold our burgers and Monster Combo for R20 at the 1^st cake sale and we plan on maintaining our extremely low prices going into the 2^nd cake sale.

5 April 2013

05 April 2013

We had a group meeting at 13:00 pm in the library to discuss the upcoming cake sale and make sure everyone knew their roles and responsibilities prior to the event.

Rough Roles:

Dean– organise fridge and grill delivery, precook burger patties, collect gas

Kim – Collect feathers and burger patties

Sarah – precook caramelize onions and organise rolls, secure location

Murray – collect Pesto Princess, and secure location

Sam – collect garnish, pre-cut garnish

Teboho – collect garnish, pre-cut garnish

Shea Farrell – precook burger patties, collect grease bags

 

4 April 2013

04 April 2013

No group activity took place. For this reason I have decided to address the elephant in the room and point out that team member Shea has put a picture of herself (horrible to start off with) sticking her tongue out... We have no reason for this and when confronted about the photo Shea replied “Ya’ll don’t know me haters.... quite hating player”... weird!!

Jokes! Thanks for reading it anywhere... on to the next day!

3 April 2013

03 April 2013

Today we confirmed our long-awaited drink sponsor. Monster Energy confirmed that they will be sponsoring us for the 2^nd time around and the whole group was relieved to hear that we did not need to source out another sponsor.

We as a group performed an After Action Review, after having a meeting with Stu the day before. We reflected on the strengths and weaknesses that Stu pointed out and how we could go about solving these issues. We proposed another prototype for a cell-phone protection device, but were shut down seeing as the product did not comply with the theme and was unable to be produced in South Africa. Stu however did agreed that the proposed cell-phone protection device was a clever product and suggested that we should run that as a side product to make more capital which can be used to manufacture more bags.

Stu seemed to love our prototype and agreed it would sell, especially with female students. Stu loved that whole concept of buying old clothing and remanufacturing them into a new trendy back-pack, however was concerned about the cost of production of the bags. Stu did agree that Gabi (our lead designer) was our competitive edge and was too valuable to exclude from the project.

Stu did have a few negative comments as well. His main concern with the product was the supply of material, in the sense that ‘Thrift' Shops’ and hospices are not the most reliable resources of materials. He was concerned that if the product ‘took off’, that we would have difficulty finding enough material and fabrics to keep up with the demand. A huge potential problem is that the prices of the clothing will also varying constantly depending on the material and store the garment was bought from. The product is extremely ‘brown’ in the sense that it directly gives money to the various hospices around Cape Town.

2 April 2013

02 April 2013

 We had a group meeting at 2:00pm in the library where we discussed various upcoming events and deadlines. We delegated jobs for the 2^nd cake sale on the 9^th of April. The second point up for discussion was the proposed prototypes/products. Our group is looking at adding a brand to our product which will be based towards UCT students. We voted on the best proposed logos.  The prototype report was printed and handed in at 3:30 pm.

We then had our team genesis meeting with Stuart at 3:30 pm where we presented our “thrift “pack-back prototype. Stuart seemed to enjoy our concept and agreed that the bag would be a hit amongst students providing we could keep our prices down.

1 April 2013

01 April 2013

It is the last day of holiday and our group is urgently preparing for our prototype presentation for the following day (Tuesday).We had a group meeting in the Leslie Social at 10:30am to decide which of our prototypes our group was going to present. We decided to present the “Thrift Back-pack” prototype and delegated every member a section to complete for the prototype report. Everybody completed their parts and Dean put the report together.