Pran Group of Idustry Marketing)

Background of the study The different elements of a company's marketing mix can be divided into four basic decision areas—known as the "four Ps": product, price, place, promotion and—which marketing managers can use to devise an overall marketing strategy for a product or group of goods. These four decision groups represent all of the variables that a company can control. But those decisions must be made within the context of outside variables that are not entirely under the control of the company, such as competition, economic and technological changes, the political and legal environment, and cultural and social factors. ** Marketing decisions related to the product (or service) involve creating the right product for the selected target group. This typically encompasses research and data analysis, as well as the use of tools such as focus groups, to determine how well the product meets the wants and needs of the target group. Numerous determinants factor into the final choice of a product and its presentation. A completely new product, for example, will entail much higher promotional costs to raise consumer awareness, whereas a product that is simply an improved version of an existing item likely will make use of its predecessor's image. A pivotal consideration in product planning and development is branding, whereby the good or service is positioned in the market according to its brand name. Other important elements of the complex product planning and management process may include selection of features, warranty, related product lines, and post-sale service levels. ** Determination of price, the second major activity related to target marketing, entails the use of discounts and long-term pricing goals, as well as the consideration of demographic and geographic influences. The price of a product or service generally must at least meet some minimum level that will cover a company's cost of producing and delivering its offering. Also a firm would logically price a product at the level that would maximize profits. The price that a company selects for its products, however, will vary according to its long-term marketing strategy. For example, a company may under price its product in the hopes of increasing market share and ensuring its competitive presence, or simply to generate a desired level of cash flow. Another producer may price a good extremely high in the hopes of eventually conveying to the consumer that it is a premium product. Another reason a firm might offer a product at a very high price is to discount the good slowly in an effort to maximize the dollars available from consumers willing to pay different prices for the good. In any case, price is used as a tool to achieve comprehensive marketing goals. 1

** Considerations about place, the third major decision group, relate to actually getting the good or service to the target market at the right time and in the proper quantity. Strategies related to place may utilize middlemen and facilitators with expertise in joining buyers and sellers, and they may also encompass various distribution channels, including retail, wholesale, catalog, and others. Marketing managers must also devise a means of transporting the goods to the selected sales channels, and they may need to maintain an inventory of items to meet demand. Decisions related to place typically play an important role in determining the degree of vertical integration in a company, or how many activities in the distribution chain are owned and operated by the manufacturer. For example, some larger companies elect to own their trucks, the stores in which their goods are sold, and perhaps even the raw resources used to manufacture their goods. ** Decisions about promotion, the forth marketing mix decision area, relate to sales, advertising, public relations, and other activities that communicate information intended to influence consumer behavior. Often promotions are also necessary to influence the behavior of retailers and others who resell or distribute the product. Three major types of promotion typically integrated into a market strategy are personal selling, mass selling, and sales promotions. Personal selling, which refers to face-to-face or telephone sales, usually provides immediate feedback for the company about the product and instills greater confidence in customers. Mass selling encompasses advertising on mass media, such as television, radio, direct mail, and newspapers, and is beneficial because of its broad scope. A relatively new means of promotion involves the Internet, which combines features of mass media with a unique opportunity for interactive communication with customers. Publicity entails the use of free media, such as feature articles about a company or product in a magazine or related interviews on television talk shows, to spread the word to the target audience. Finally, sales promotion efforts include free samples, coupons, contests, rebates, and other miscellaneous marketing tactics.

Company overview

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PRAN GROUP was born in 1980, with a small number of employees. Since then, it never had to look back. Keeping in view the corporate mission of the group they have over the years diversified their activities. Today they are the largest processors of fruits & vegetables in Bangladesh. Pran group encourage contract farmers and help them grow quality crops with increased yields and to obtain fair prices. The Group comprises of 10 companies. The head offices are located at Dhaka with production facilities around the country.The management of pran group is modern adapted to their environment & culture. Their largest asset is their competent team of hands-on-mangers & dedicated employees. The chairman or the CEO, is LT COL MAHTABUDDIN AHMED (Retd), deserves ample amount of credit for bringing Pran to the path of success so far. The managing director, Maj-Gen AMJAD KHAN CHOWDHURY (Retd), and his son, the Deputy Managing Director, Mr AHSAN KHAN CHOWDHURY, are the final decision makers for the initiation of Pran’s ongoing activities.It is a limited company, where a partnership arrangement is made, where the liability of one or more partners is limited to the amount of assets they have invested in the firm. It consists of a number of shareholders from the general public, ICB investors account, financial institutions to the employees.

Company portfolio Pran products can be categorized under a few categories, such as, Juice, Drinks, Snacks, Confectionary, Dairy, Beverages and winery products. Their juices come in a great variety of quality packing in eight different flavors; orange, mango, lemon, litch, pineapple, mango-pine, gvava and fruit cocktail, offers collection of refreshing choices. From purified natural drink to processed fruit drink, pran provides a wide range to many alternatives for quenching the thirst. In their winery section, they offer a wide range of products from tea, spices, pickles, chutney, sauce and ketchup, rice products, mustard oil, semai and molasses, etc. Pran snacks products are variously flavored consisting of chanachur, biscuits, potato crackers and mini snacks. The dairy products include pasteurized milk, flavored milk, instant full cream powder, pure ghee, etc.

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Pran Company having a long listed product portfolio and pran juice is their SBU product. They are earning plentiful profit from this strategic business unit in every year. Using fresh natural Bangladeshi juices and hygienically produced with the state of art technology, available in eight different flavors as Orange, Mango, Lemon, Litchi, Pineapple, Mango-Pine, and Guava & Fruit cocktail. Very uncommon the fruit cocktail product is a combination of 12 different types of local fruits Juice. Real fruit juices, using pulp by own processed, available in attractive sprout pack. From garden to the consumer, PRAN ensures quality processing at all steps to provide a great variety of choices of processed juice.  PRAN juice competitors are ACME juice Danish juice Starship juice Slice Sejan juice  SBU’s relative market share with in the market .

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Target Market Kids are set as the target market for the Pran juice. There is a huge demand of juice and drinks among the kids. So Pran RFL group decided to capture the market of kids by this product. There is also a huge malnutrition among the kids of this country. So the company desires to fulfill the demand by offering them a tasty and nutritious juice item. Pran juice contains many nutritious ingredients which provide the children a better health. So, specially the kids and children are the main target market for Pran juice, though it is also popular among young generation. Pran mainly target to capture the capital, Dhaka city first by their product Pran Juice. Lately they want to market this product through the divisional dristricts.The market growth of Pran juice is pretty high and their mission is to capture the whole country, specially the kids. Pran group wants to deliver the Pran juice to the hand of each children of this country and provide them a healthy and nutritious juice item.

Target users Pran juice is under a Demographic segmentation which is the primary target market for the certain product. The reasons behind choosing this segment as primary target are given below: The company chooses the demographic segment on the context of Bangladesh where the chosen segment size is quite large and its growth rate is pretty high. The current population is 15 crore where almost 3.5 crore are children. Their age level relies between 6 to 15, who are the potential customer of Pran juice. Pran juice is highly popular among the children covering this age. So it is easily measurable why the company chooses this segment as their target market.

Marketing mix of PRAN juice The marketing mix the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that the company blends to product the responses it want in the target market. The marketing mix consists of everything that the PRAN juice can do to influence the demand for its product. The many possibilities can be collected into four groups of variables known as the four Ps. Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

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Product In short we can define product as anything that can be offered to a market or consumer for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a need or want. Product include more than tangible goods. In broad we can say product includes physical objects, services, events, persons, places, organizations, ideas, or mixes of these entities. # Levels of product: This product is a pure tangible good. The following are the three levels of the product: Core benefit – remove thirst, ensure nutrition to the children. Actual Product – PRAN juice (brand name), 3 types of juice (with different flavor, plastic and can packing. Augmented Product – free glass and straw with the purchase of family pack etc.

Core benefit Core benefit is the most basic level in levels of product. When designing the product marketers first define the core, problem solving benefits that a consumer seeks. As we mentioned before that we have chosen PRAN juice. So before designing the product they must have thought that what is the core benefit? The core benefit is consumer will buy the product because remove thirst, ensure nutrition to the children. Actual product

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At this level the product planners turn the core benefit into an actual product. In this level they develop the product features, design, quality, brand name. As we have selected PRAN juice, so we will be focusing on this. The product planners have developed its features authentically so that it satisfies a consumer’s need. They have developed its nutritious juice so that in future when children go to buy a new juice then they prefer ‘PRAN juice’ among the PRAN rfl group. Augmented product This is the last and final level. In this level market planners build augmented product around the core benefit and actual product. Nutrition and Vitamins, Delivery these are part of augmented product. If we talk about the classification of product then it is consumer product. Under the consumer product it is a specialty product.  Price The easy definition of price is that amount of money which is paid for a product or service. if we say more clearly then price is the value which is given by a consumer because of taking or receiving a product or service. How price is fixed? Basically price is fixed by bargaining between buyer ands seller.

Now come to the factor which is affecting pricing decision. Pricing consideration of decision of a company is affected by some internal factors and external factor. These factors are. 1 Marketing Objective

5 Product quality leadership

2 Survival

6 Market demand

3 Current profit maximization

7 Pure competition

4 Market share maximization Now come to the PRAN juice pricing strategy. PRAN rfl group use product mix pricing strategy. Under this strategy they follow optional product pricing. Optional product pricing 7

means the pricing of optional or accessory product along with a main product. And our product is ‘PRAN juice’. They fix their prize in these strategies because -2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 are not same. They are different by quality, shape and flavor. So people who want to buy new flavors. Because of different buyers and changing situation company has to take basic price and adjustment strategies just like allowance and functional discount. Allowance is received by consumer and functional discount is given by the company to the wholesaler and reseller. PRAN rfl group also use product-from pricing and location pricing. Product –from pricing: The company set different price for different flavor. Like the price of PRAN mango juice can are might not be the same of PRAN orange juicepak. Location pricing: The Company set the price of product according to place. Like the price of Dhaka might be the same as Chittagong. Here given PRAN juice pricing level and competitor pricing level.

Selling price of PR AN juice

Selling price of A CME juice

20 15 10

20 15 10

5 0

5 0 2004

2005

2006

2007

2004

2005

2006

2007

 Place Place include company’s activity that make up the product available to target customer. For distributing transportation, warehousing and dealer should be selected. Without distributing channels the distribution of product can be possible, the dealers keep and inventory of the company, demonstrate them to potential buyers and negotiate price, close sales and service the product after sale. PRAN juice’ target consumers are lower middle class children to upper class children. And for distribution of the product they use the channels such as wholesaler, transportation and reseller.

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Now come to the number of distributing channel levels. How a product is distributed? PRAN rfl group distributes the product in the following way: PRAN rfl group------- Dealer ------ wholesaler -------Final consumer SALES & DISTRIBUTION NETWORK: To make the Group’s products available at the every knock & corner of the country PRAN has developed the best sales & distribution network all over the country. To ensure fast & smooth distribution companies has set up 9 distribution depots & have appointed more than 1000 dealers all over the country.

 Promotion Advertising & Promotion is the key to the marketing of any product or brand. To cope up with the rapid & ever changing market situation & to come up with innovative marketing strategy and ideas company has set up a full-fledged In-house advertising agency comprises of the best talents of the country. Company spends a large portion of their promotional budget in brand building exercises at home & abroad. Basically promotion is an attempt to influence. it refers to any communicational activity used to inform, persuade and remain the target market about an organization, its product and its activity.

Promotion mix means total marketing communication objectives. In this mix there are 4 things. Advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relation are included by which company taken attempt of advertising and achieving marketing objectives. Media announcement PRAN Group believes in advertisement to cover all the remote people with their products. Pran advertises all the products in Television at every channel and in newspaper, which they think, bears a lot of profit for them. Their target is to acknowledge all the people of rural and

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urban area around the country about all of their products. They have become quite successful to perceive the attention of all types of people. Even the children and aged people too. It is a paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas or services by an identified sponger. PRAN juice pays advertising institutions for advertisement. They use the following mediums 1 T.V

3 Radio

2 Newspapers

4 Magazine

Sales and promotion These are short term incentives to encourage purchase or sell of a product. Like when a kids goes to buy a juice the company give quality product survive. This can also be termed as sale promotion. Public relation Building good relations with company’s various publics by obtaining favorable, publicity, building up a good ‘corporate image’ and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories and events. They also use public relation as a promotional activity for their company.

SWOT analysis of PRAN juice STRANGTH Local brand High quality product Preservative and healthy juice Local supply of food and raw material Nation wigs distribution 10

Laboratory tested BSTI certified Advance technology High marketing policy Weaknesses Lack of verity and product Lack of augmentation Lack of storage Fluctuating market Opportunities Reaching the leading position in the country World wide extension in the market Increasing the demand of all types of people

Threats Highly competitive product Increasing demand only among children Increasing demand turnover only consumer

Findings and recommendation Finding 11

1) The transportation system is not enough for huge production 2) Some vehicles are incurred for marketing from outside, which doesn’t maintain the time and causes a lot of expense. 3) Market value is increasing day by day, which causes the increase of price. 4) Till now, it has not been possible export their product worldwide. 5) Strikes, Hartal, Curfew cause a lot of loss to the company. Recommendation 1) Some transporting vehicles should be bought to minimize the expenses. 2) A strict system should be followed to maintain the time. 3) A strategy should be maintained to keep price in level. 4) Extend the exporting system and make Pran as a world wide product 5) A special action should be taken before Strikes, Hartal and Curfew.

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