1. INTRODUCTION
This case is an example of market failure. Mr.Vora
proprietor of Vora and Company started this company
without much research. His brand of “Blossom”,Quick
cooking oats is facing many problems in the market. Its
only competitor is Ganesh Mills “Champion” oats. Both
these companies started production after the exit of
Quaker oats of America. However they have not been able
to capture the market as they expected. The market was
segmented based on the different parts of India & the
consumption pattern of oats in these areas. From the case
its clear that Mr.Vora’s short term plan is to make profits
and stop immediate loss of money.
2. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
The problem faced by Mr. Vora was the lack of
profitability of his Blossoms brand of oats. Some of
the reasons for this were:
Mr. Vora had no definite data regarding the volume
of sales of Quaker or Champion oats.
Product launch strategy into the market was not
very effective as Mr. Vora started on a trial & error
basis
Problems arose due to packaging , distribution and
advertising the product
The agents had no selling experience in selling of
products and had no idea in promoting a new brand
against well established competitors
3. CONTD…..
The commission process for the agents was flawed
The sales were not good in South India- the most
important market segment
There was a communication gap between the
agents and Mr. Vora
There was a mismatch between costing and pricing
4. SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
As Vora’s family had been in the grain business for
generations it had well established production units and
experience in this field created loyal customers
Financially sound company
High quality raw materials were used
Proper product testing before the launch of the product
Product had high nutritive value
The product Blossom was rated as equal as or better than
the competing product by consumers
Company used the required quality standards
5. Weakness
Market study before the product launch was not
satisfactory
Financial analysis of the product was not properly
carried out which lead to losses
Ineffective advertising
Packaging was not so impressive than the competitors
and packaging cost was very high
Distributors assigned to sell the product was new to the
sale of food products having competition in the market
Commission to distributors and discount to retailers were
high
Product had similar characteristics with the competing
product
6. Weakness
Trademark was less likely to be noticed
Choice of pricing strategy was poor
There was a communication gap between agents and
Vora
Product processing was through trail and error basis lead
to poor starting of production in the market
Marketing strategy was poor
Poor management of labour or labour was not utilized
properly
Under utilization of plant capacity
