Page 12 - CIMA OCS Workbook May 2019 - Day 1 Tasks

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

An alternative suggestion would be to offer a ‘subscribe and save’ deal. If a customer e.g.
commits to purchasing one pack of a product each month, perhaps they can save 20% on the
price.

Place

VitaMine currently offers its own-brand range of products, along with providing contract
manufacturing for other global vitamin and supplement brands and also works with new and
existing retailers looking to develop private label ranges. VitaMine branded products are sold
directly to retailers in South-East Asia and to wholesalers who sell the products overseas and via
online channels. The company is based in Eastland, South-East Asia and products are distributed
by road by its own road haulage trucks and by air, where appropriate. VitaMine could explore the
option of selling to small South-East Asian retailers as well as the medium/ large retail chains that
it currently sells to.

Under ‘place’ we can also consider the channels through which customers buy our products. An
obvious step forward in terms of another route for customers to purchase our products would be
an active website with customer purchasing capabilities. The link to the website should be made
widely available, for example on our product labels, in trade magazines, in health centres etc.

Promotion

VitaMine operates mainly a business to business (B2B) marketing strategy, but does occasionally
advertise its products in targeted media such as health food magazines or selected health related
websites. There is opportunity for more brand awareness through further business to consumer
(B2C) marketing.

For example, the company could start advertising in gyms or health centres via some form of
leaflet distribution with information about the product range on offer and where to but the
products. Social media advertising should be explored as a form of promotion in order to
targeting e.g. those looking at health/ nutrition related content.

If VitaMine can accumulate contact details of both existing and potential customers, they could
use direct marketing via email to offer special promotions and/or further products in line with the
customers’ needs. A suggestion of how to gather these personal details would be to run a
competition whereby personal information would need to be entered so the winner could be
contacted (along with a brief questionnaire perhaps to aid targeting marketing).

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