Could you please check my below answer for the question in the both above and advice if it's fine to proceed with it or you have any comment to add or to adjust?

1. Firstly, John needs to have a vision and mission for his business. What is the kind of products John wants to go after and what is his customer-base like? This is something John must study and craft before going ahead. Secondly, john has started with various products simultaneously, additionally, he should identify market segments first. Understand the demographics, understand the pull of the customer. Thirdly, John should also implement brand health tracking. Brand tracking is way of continuously measuring the health of a brand and what they think about it. Simple questionnaires via social media could be used, loyalty scores are an important element to add.

In current scenario, the market of Becketts business is quite limited. Moreover, there has been a growth in the market of organic vegetables but the sales of Becketts company are quite stagnant. Beckett is not indulging in any kind of marketing service. This may be the primary reason behind the low sales of the company. Without sufficient marketing, the consumers do not have an idea of the services and products being offered by the company. In such ignorance, they will go to competing companies which approach the customers and make them aware about their offerings.

The importance of strategic marketing strategy is as follows:

• The company is able to approach the customers and present their offerings in a better manner
• A comprehensive marketing strategy gives an edge to the company over competition
• Areas and opportunities of business growth can be easily identified by the company with the help of strategic marketing strategy

Hence, there is a need for having comprehensive marketing and business strategy. As John is mainly focusing on the local market and depends on the traditional advertising tools such as the distribution of leaflets and personal meetings with the customers and the retailers, such old approach will not help him to grow his business. In order to grow his business, there will be a need for having greater marketing intensity. Secondly, his marketing coverage area is very limited, this needs to be increased.

All these objectives can be accomplished with the help of social media marketing which is free of costs and has a large penetration at present. For doing so, he can use many social media platforms such as Facebook. Twitter or Instagram. In these websites, he can make the business account of his business and promote the product through social media marketing. This will not only provide a good platform for the marketing and advertising but he can also contact the customers from a wider geographic area

2. SWOT Analysis of Becketts company:

• Strengths:
  • The market of organic products has grown quite rapidly
  • Becketts organic Vegetables are of superior quality and have more potential to sell any other organic product in the UK market where organic vegetables are in vogue and people in homes as well as restaurant prefer organic vegetables than traditionally grown vegetables
  • John has a very good technical knowledge about soil and varieties of the product
  • Existing customers hold special loyalty for Becketts business
• Weaknesses:
  • Turnover of the company has stagnated
  • Market coverage of Becketts company is quite limited as there is lack of knowledge by John Beckett about marketing and Sale strategy and he has not done the market survey as well to know the consumer's behavior. This is his business biggest weakness as in today's scenario it is not possible for any business to grow without a proper Research and development and a functional marketing strategy.
• Opportunities:
  • Rise of inclination of consumers towards organic food
  • Retailers encouraging organic food suppliers to do business with them
  • John has an art to grow the organic vegetables on his own and can produce a lot of stagnated varieties and at the same time, organic food industry is prevalent in the UK market and UK Government supports Organic vegetable because of good health reason
  • John has all his way to get a subsidy for the land and his business form the Government and his other loans related to his business will get easily passed by banks, as banks can easily see their profit in it and he also has the legal knowledge to get the documentation done at the earliest.. So his biggest Opportunity is the support from the local authorities
• Threats:
  • Increase in competition
  • Growth of farmers markets
  • The biggest threat for his business is the lack of response by the consumers. Now if he takes loan to expand his business and do the marketing activities and consumers still do not give any positive response, it is quite possible that he will be overburdened with his loan and as he has already left his job, he will have no other way to pay off his liabilities

3. Michael Porter has suggested some generic strategies, based on which, companies establish their competitive advantage in their respective industry. The primary generic strategies are:

• Cost Leadership
• Differentiation
• Cost Focus
• Differentiation Focus

The fundamental and core issue with Becketts business is that it has limited market coverage as well as limited reach. The turnover of the company was quite substantial in the initial years of business but with time, the turnover of the company had become stagnant. This can be primarily attributed to the reason that the base of the company is quite limited and Beckett is not taking any efforts to target new customers. In such a situation, Beckett needs to come up with ways, using which he can differentiate his business from the competitors. He needs to develop a unique selling proposition of the company. One of the Porters generic strategy which Beckett can capitalize upon is Cost Leadership. A primary reason behind limited scope of Becketts business is that the majority of the people in the targeted demographic belong to middle class. Middle class customers have limited purchase capacity and hence they cannot afford organic products. Beckett needs to attract these middle-class customers by offering products at a lower price than the market average. This strategy will help Beckett in developing a wider base for his business. Once he has been able to expand the market base for his business and the consumers have become habituated of his produce. This cost Leadership strategy will help Beckett in winning more customers for business.

4. One of the key fundamentals missing from Becketts business model is that the company does not indulge in strategic marketing. Hence there is less awareness about his companys offerings in the market. Beckett needs to integrate strategic marketing in its business model, so as to attract new customers and build a wider base for his company. Beckett can capitalize on the potential of digital and social media marketing to promote his business. Digital and social media marketing are trending in the current business scenario. These tactics have emerged as the future of marketing and have eased out the way in which businesses can approach targeted customers. These marketing tactics also require very low budget from the company. Beckett can make use of these marketing strategies to reach out to new customers and make them aware of the companys offerings and promotions. Dedicated social media profile can be developed for the company which can facilitate direct interaction with the customers. In addition, the company can offer different offers and benefits to the loyal customer base. These strategies will help Beckett to attract consumers attention towards his business and increase his overall market reach and sales.

Market information is very important to know and analyze the prices of different commodities in the market, as well as the supply and demand situation. Price as an advantage is also an area to explore, therefore it is very important to understand how much a customer is ready to pay. Educating customers of the benefits of buying organic produce is very important also and goes a long way in boosting up sales. Furthermore, the key is also to understand, if pull is high at certain period of times of the year, like holidays season and others.

The Marketing Mix should be as follows:

Price: The Beckett organics can have two segments as follows:

• The first option can be cut and sorted vegetables and sold at a premium price. These will be ready to cook conditions and would target the small working families and people looking for easy to cook options.
• The second vegetable sold in normal form in pounds but still at a premium price compared to normal vegetables.

Product: The product can be sold in two ways as follows:

• Cut and sorted vegetables
• whole vegetables

Both options can be sold online and offline through distributors and at the farmers' markets too.

Place: The way to have a wide network and increase sales is to make it easily available to the consumers. The options are as follows:

• Online orders through own website, or other related websites, Moreover, book orders on mobile apps and home deliver the vegetables within a 15 km radius.
• Through local grocers and vegetable sellers.
• Negotiate contracts with local hotels and restaurants

Promotion: The product can be promoted as follows:

• Give offers to online customers like buy three 200 grams packaging and get one additional 200-gram package free.
• Introduce loyalty program for online customers
• Hold talks and discussion in community gatherings on a healthy diet and lifestyle
• Promote app and website on Google and Facebook
• Place an ad in a regular column in a local newspaper on diet and healthy lifestyle

Beckett Organics can innovate by offering cut and ready to use packages vegetable packages both online and offline. They can also home delivery to customers within a 15 km radius. They can also offer vegetables cut and packed according to the dish like 200 gm carrots plus 100 gm peas packed together for a specific dish.

Once this strategy results in good outcomes, John can look to have the formal marketing practices by using the distribution of the products, contact the large retail chains such as Wal-Mart and to advertise his product on the major TV channels, radio channels, newspapers. This will ensure greater penetration and reach in the future

Beckett Organics John Beckett enjoys vegetables, so much so that he has given up his full-time job as a lawyer to concentrate on growing and marketing organic vegetables. He started growing vegetables 20 years ago in his back garden and eventually became fully self-sufficient in supplying vegetables for the family. Partly bored with his legal job and tempted by an attractive severance package, John decided he would try to establish his own vegetable supply business. Eighteen months ago he looked around for two fields to lease in which he could grow organic vegetables. Organic products including vegetables, is a growth market in the UK. Growers must adhere to strict guidelines in order to gain organic certification. Increasing awareness of the problems associated with many pesticides and fertilizers, coupled with an increased interest in healthy eating habits and 'wholesome food, has meant that many consumers are now either purchasing or interested in purchasing organic vegetables. This is true not only of household customers, but in addition, many restaurants are using the lure of organic produce to give them a distinctive edge in the market place. All this has meant that many of the larger supermarkets in the UK have begun to stock more and more organic produce from what was a relatively specialized market in the 1990s; the market has grown to where overall organic produce accounts for some 12% of the total UK grocery market and in worldwide terms as of January 2010 it accounts for approximately 3% of all food sales. The market for organic vegetables has grown more rapidly than other organic products and it is estimated that by 2018 some 40% of all vegetables marketed in the UK will be organic. This growth has been sustained at a rate of around 20% per year in developed countries. However, organic yields are between 10% and 20% lower than conventional agriculture, with crops like potatoes some 40% lower. Unsurprisingly, this makes organic produce on average around 40% more expensive than non-organic produce. Organic vegetables offer several advantages over their non-organic counterparts: They are generally tastier, and because they are not treated in the same way, are usually fresher than non- organic products. They are good for a healthy lifestyle as they contain no pesticides and chemicals. The fact that no pesticides or herbicides are used in their production means that they are much greener'. For example, they help to reduce the problems associated with nitrates in the soil and water supplies. On the downside, organic vegetables are generally less uniform, and as far as some consumers are concerned, are less attractive in appearance. This lack of uniformity has also been a problem in the past with supermarket buyers who have traditionally looked for uniformity in fresh products to aid merchandising and marketing in retail outlets. Generally, organic vegetables are more expensive than their non-organic counterparts Currently, on average they are somewhere in the region of 40% more expensive. In the UK, anyone wishing to claim that their produce is organic, and market it in this way, needs to obtain the approval of the Soil Association, which checks the organic credentials of a supplier. For example, in this case, they check the conditions under which the produce is grown and how the seeds used. Two interesting developments are taking place in the organic produce market. One is the growth of home supplies. This is where the producer supplies direct to the householder. There are a variety of ways of doing this. Some smaller growers use mail-shots and leafleting to build up a client base. They then deliver locally to customers who order from a list. Very often the supplier will simply make up a box of a pre-determined value or weight containing a selection of vegetables which are in season and ready for picking. Other suppliers are using a similar system, but take their orders via the Internet. This is particularly suitable for this type of product as customers can check on a regular basis what is available and order from home. The produce is then delivered at a pre-arranged time. The second development in the organic produce market is the growth of farmers' markets. These markets are usually run by local authorities, often on Saturdays or Sundays. Local and other producers attend these markets, paying a small fee for a stall and then sell their produce direct to the consumer. These farmers' markets partly came about as a result of the frustration felt by many farmers and growers at the way they were being treated by retailers and at the margins they were receiving. In addition, such markets have been successful because consumers feel they are getting fresh produce at lower prices than they might be able to obtain through supermarkets. Despite the growth in the market for organic vegetables, after 18 months in his business, John is worried Quite simply, his business has not been as successful as he envisaged it would be, and as a result he is not earning enough to make a living. The real worry is that he is not sure why this is the case. His produce, he believes, is as good as anything in the business. He is a very good grower and the land he has leased is perfect for the range of produce he wishes to grow. Starting with organic potatoes he now produces a range of organic vegetables including beans, sprouts, carrots, lettuce and his latest venture organic tomatoes and com grown in poly-tunnels. Although customers he currently supplies are very loyal to John, indeed many are friends and acquaintances he has known over the years when he grew vegetables in his back garden, there are simply not enough of them. As a result, his turnover which increased rapidly over the first year of the business has for the last six months has stagnated. He mainly supplies locally and has tried to increase his customer base by taking leaflets out and posting them through letterboxes in the area. He has done this by dividing up the housing areas in a ten-mile radius around his growing area and dropping leaflets throughout the area to as many houses as he can cover on a systematic basis. Only some 2% of customers have responded with an order, usually contacting by telephone. These customers seem to come from the middle class areas. He has considered taking a stall at one of the farmers' markets, the nearest of which is some 40 miles away and operates one day per month, but he realizes this would not be enough to reach the turnover levels he requires. He has in the past supplied one or two local restaurants and hotels, but usually only when they have contacted him because they have had a problem with their existing supplier. He has never followed these up. His growing area is currently too small to supply a major retailer, although he has been approached on an informal basis by the buyer of a voluntary chain of local grocers representing some 40 retail outlets in the county. John is wondering where he goes from here. He cannot understand why his superior products are not selling well. A friend has suggested that John needs a more strategic approach to marketing. John is not convinced. He feels his business is too small to warrant any kind of marketing, never mind strategic marketing, and he has always felt that a good product should sell itself. He is, however, anxious to grow the business and become a leading organic vegetable supplier. You were hired by John as a strategic analyst to develop a detailed strategic management process for this company. What shall you do? And how to direct the company in the future? Elaborate your