Private Brand Analysis 7Select and their Organic Sweet Tea

7-Select

(7/29/2016) --- As consumers tend to go and find products that we are familiar with. Brand acquisition and branding can be the best tools in a company to position themselves in the market; even if in the behavior of consumers, they are feeling tempted to pay more for a retailer brand because they can sense quality.

As consumers tend to move towards certain patterns in their shopping habits, such as focusing on their health but also consumers tend to go on what it gets their attention. It is not a big secret that on a retail environment, brands pay grocers to position their products on a spot that will generate revenues, but also the design of the products or goods has to be "flashy" enough to catch the attention and spark the interest of the purchase.

7-11 is a well-known brand towards the United States; many people probably had seen and been at a 7-11, they form part of the Americana pop culture but also many people had engaged business towards the store goods besides purchasing gas. I won't deny, I had purchased certain private goods from them and enjoy them (7-11, Private Brand).

Towards the year 2015, the company added certain products such as pizzas and expanded their brand to the sub-brands of GoYum! and GoSmart! The products are actually fair priced and tasty; towards the GoSmart which is their marketing option that appeals for consumers that seek "healthier options". In their line, they started to experiment with teas, organic teas, which towards flavor and body they aren't actually as good as any national brands.

The position they give on their stops shelves isn't actually the most proper one, they are almost placed on the bottom or far away from expensive brands. Why I am calling a product with the "organic" seal good, even if other products without that seal are probably even better? Because one aspect is the price, is actually cheap and second is the flavor. It is refreshing to see something that taste nice and also that is not expensive on a convenience store and it can be appealed to the public, not because the "organic strategy" to sell but rather because of it's affordability.

References:

1. Web Retrieved: http://corp.7-eleven.com/news/06-25-2015-7-eleven-sets-private-brand-bar-higher

Home Made Ice-Cream with two Ingridients

Home made ice-cream

(7/29/2016) --- Hello everyone, I been lately experiment with ice-cream, and with generally everything sweet. Probably the only time I use the word "experiment"  as I enjoy food more than I enjoy life on certain occasions, albeit with ice-cream for me is just mere joy and bliss.

I won't deny this was the first time I actually did ice-cream ever, it wasn't that bad but I am thinking seriously into buying the ice-cream machine, since they sell it at Target, Walmart or almost anywhere. I won't deny it was fun to do it without anything else except mere muscle power.

OK, not muscle power but just an effort; because talking about muscles I probably would need to hit the gym whenever I am not working in retail as the physical impact on my body will be diminished but no complains I am not giving ice-cream away.

OK so here is the list of ingredients:

1.  1- 14 oz condensed sweet milk (They sell this type quite cheap on certain bodegas and Latino supermarkets)
2. Two tablespoons of Nutella (please don't buy generic, it sucks on some occasions)
3. Mashed Oreo's (Don't forget to take out the filling, take it with a knife and then eat it all together in a frenzy where you know your life is finally complete)
4. 2-cups of heavy cream (Please remember to wisp it until is properly done)

What to do next:

1. Put the Oreo's a cup to be exact on a plate; take the filling out and place it on a side. You are not going to use it for the recipe, you are going to eat them and make a realization why your life is complete.
2. Then put the Oreo's inside a plastic bag and smash them like the Hulk.
3. Pour the sweet condensed milk in a bowl.
4. Scoop the Nutella inside the bowl with the condensed milk and blend it together (Any remains lick it, because life is not complete without Nutella!)
5. Whip the heavy cream; that's it. After Whip Nae-Nae I hate the word whip.
6. Gently mix a scoop of the whip cream into the condensed milk and light the condensed milk.
7. Transfer the rest of of the whip cream in to the mix.
8. Let it freeze for six to twelve hours and enjoy; FYI the best quality will only last five days to a week.

Enjoy y'all and remember vaccines don't cause autism and save lives!

Marketing Research Strategy for Guayaki: Acquisition of New Customers Through Traditional Media with Yerba Mate

Yerba Mate

As a rich and delicious drinks for the hot summer what Yerba Mate and Guayaki, the developer of the brand should consider the costs of expanding their marketing outreach of the brand beyond the use of social media, even if it has to create an additional cost in order to maximize the presence of the brand and products in the State of Florida.

The best approach is to re-think the grocery and convenience stores as Sweet Bay being the main center of distribution has ceased operations in Florida, leaving retailers as Publix or Target, even Walmart as focal points to execute business and think how much it can be invested on inventory. Tagging health stores such as Whole Foods or “natural” stores is limiting the selection of the outreach, and expand on how the product can be sell to new customers (Guayaki – Store Locator)

Redefining the product as a “health alternative” to tea or other caffeinated drinks could limit the customer who don’t enjoy “healthy” alternatives but also to attract customers from Hispanic heritage that enjoy what is Yerba Mate as a product; because we as a company we need to understand the cultural aspect of Mate, is not a healthy drink as is being promoted but is used as a refresher but as well as a drink that can be enjoyed at certain times.

Understanding the key demographics that can be exploited and position the brand not as a luxury item but as a good that is linked to the history of Latin America and Brazil, it can open the world to people who enjoy trying products that are outside their ordinary as well appeal to the Hispanics community; when we as a company understand that then we can start developing research strategies in order to execute a marketing campaign and which media can be used.

Traditional media can play an important role, the reason is using only digital media and viral campaigns will limit the viewers if there is no a proper use of the understanding of the protocols such as Twitter Business, Facebook Ads or Google Ad-words (applied to both Blogger and Youtube). Talking on a regional level the best approach is in a traditional marketing approach, samplings could be the best way to grab information and knowing what changes can be made to improve the flavor (Clown, 334) and it can be mixed towards the use of social by letting the customers know we response in the least time as possible.

The reason of using sampling is to make the customers getting used to the flavor and also it can serve to gather criteria in order to find out what approach to take. The company has been using digital media as the way to reach consumers; but on an anecdotal level speaking, I didn’t know about this drink until it got my attention with the logo and it wasn’t even located on a proper spot on the shelve, it was almost on the bottom and I was curious when I saw it.

The best approach to take is to invest into television advertisement, as people still use television as the media to gather information about newer products or products they hadn’t seen. Creating a 30 second advertisement where the potential customers can be directed to the company website and showing them the benefits of the products, could a considerable approach; also showing them the ethos of the company and the preservation Guayaki takes could bring potential new ones.

Towards the use of digital media and a digital marketing approach; as it was mentioned that the exploitation of the business model could bring significant revenue as the hashtags would be promoted but it will involve investing more money within the campaigns.

References:

http://guayaki.com/index.php?p=retailers&state=&zip=33647&radius=20  

Kola Roman with Condensed Milk Popsicles

Popsicles with Condensed Milk

(7/4/2016) --- Hello everyone, I hope everyone is having a nice day so far and I wish everyone a safe Fourth of July and also since summer is here let's all enjoy some nice cold snack, in this case we are making red cola Popsicle with condensed milk.

I used to enjoy a lot these kind of Popsicle's when I was younger back in Cartagena, Colombia and especially during the summer times. There were two sodas I enjoyed a lot, one of of them was the Kola Roman (Anderson, 2011) and the other was Kola Postobon (Kola Postobon Website).

On 2008, I moved to the United States; it took me a few years to start seeing some of the products I enjoyed a lot without me traveling to Miami or at least ordering them online.

The idea of these Popsicle's is to use as less ingredients as possible. With this one I made I only used Kola Roman and condensed milk. You don't need anything else to do this; the trick goes to measure how much you need, in my case the containers that I have are rather quite small, so what I do is add a cup of condensed milk and fill the rest of the measuring cup with the soda. Mix them together and then pour them inside the Popsicle containers, but don't fill the Popsicle all way up because the carbonation will make the soda rise up and you will have a mess in your cooler to clean later.

Overall I hope you all enjoy and don't forget to let them froze for at least overnight.

References:

1. Web Retrieved: Kola Postobon - Official Website: http://www.postobon.com/ (Español)
2. Web Retrieved: Peter Anderson - dizzyfrinks.com: http://www.dizzyfrinks.com/kola-roman/