Critically analyse current microeconomics conditionsfacing your allocated ‘Enterprise – brand’s product category’ and its two main competitors in the Australian marketplace.
ER Project Norco & Milk Established in Byron Bay, New South Wales in 1895 Norco is a 100% Australian farmer owned dairy co-operative with 326 active members on 214 dairy farms in northern New South Wales and south east Queensland. Annual milk production is 195 million litres. Norco's turnover reached 603m in 2019. Task 1 Milk Innovations Critically evaluate & apply any aspect/s of innovation, consider the source/s of innovation, identify and argue in favour of the type of innovation, explore the dimensions of innovations, ...etc. You may compare and contrast any two successful innovations, or one successful innovation versus one failed innovation, ...etc. The aim is to illustrate good innovation insights and understanding of your allocated ’Product category’ within the Australian marketplace. https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/6099317/qld-firms-claims-90-day-fresh-milk-shelf-life-breakthrough/ https://advance.qld.gov.au/whats-happening/stories-about-innovation/new-innovation-revolutionises-dairy-industry https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-05-01/fresh-milk-breakthrough-offers-60-day-fridge-shelf-life/11062284 Since 1864 when milk’s pasteurisation was created there have not been any new innovations to make milk last longer without compromising on the taste or quality of the product until May 2019. Naturo’s CEO Jeff Hastings and his company have created a world-first, globally patented technology for processing fresh refrigerated milk that is safe for consumption for 60 days and it does not compromise on the quality or the taste of the product. The process does not involve the heat that is involved in pasteurisation which will cause a loss of certain enzymes and vitamins whereas in the new technology it will not happen. (gov aus) In this innovation, Naturo recognised an innovation opportunity, found the resources to do it, developed the idea and captured the value of it. They asked them the important questions, which is a part of strategic analysis, such as what could we do? Make milk last longer. Would anyone buy it? Does people need it? Why would we do it? They have identified and created opportunities by meeting social needs and improving operations. This is incremental innovation which they have been trying to do for five years and they made existing product, milk better. The type of change they followed was a product change because they changed fresh milk from lasting couple days to 2 months. This innovation could be useful, but do we necessarily need milk that will last 60 days? It certainly does help people who live in rural areas who struggle with long distances between home and grocery store to be able to stack up with milk for longer period times rather than going to buy more every week. It can reduce the wastage of milk as well as making transportation to the other side of the world easier which are the positive aspects of this innovation. Australia could start exporting milk to increase its economy flow which is very important for the country. Everything has two sides, the positive and the negative side. On the negative side, the question is, what do they use for making fresh milk last that long? I certainly did not find an answer for that, but people do prefer more organic and less genetically changed food and unfortunately very often one that will last for longer period of time is very often genetically changed. Even though it got accepted through food authorities and it is considered safe to consume, I am not too sure can we all agree we can call 60 days old milk “fresh” anymore. 2 Process Innovation – change in the process https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/225556/Revised%20-%20Technology%20Review-Rev%20C%20changes%20accepted.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&fbclid=IwAR1nFoU02JE6SUTWZ8rKZf8bVmKVC-bJeO6CD1gpwIx1nj4QVPpr8PZyjLg Dairy is one of the products that we use almost every day in our daily basis. This means lots of dairy farmers are under a pressure of meeting consumer demands and this always creates some sociologic and environment problems particularly in case of salt disposal. Dairy products create a lot of salt that is difficult to dispose of as an evaporation and dilution methods, are often financially and environmentally costly. University of Melbourne has created several ways to dispose salt out of the dairy products such as milk and I chose to take a better look of method called reverse osmosis. Osmosis is one of water’s ways to transport water from less salty concentration to saltier concertation to balance it out. The scientists are using this method for reducing the salt in dairy without burdening the environment. ‘’The operating costs for some of these applications sometimes are prohibitively high due to the difficulty in the control and prevention of membrane scaling and fouling, as well as high energy requirements. For instance, treating condensate water (‘polishing’) for reuse was found to cost 30% more than using town water in one of the dairy processing plants in Victoria, Australia (46)’’. It is not the best way to do it because it is a very pricy way since they do have to pre-treat the water. Then we will face the question, is pre-treatment environment-friendly? Task 2 Current Marketing Analysis Critically analyse the current marketing activities of your allocated ’Brand’ and two of its competitors, within the allocated ’Product category’ in the Australian marketplace. Critically analyse current marketing environment, construct and evaluate SWOT analyses, evaluate the three brands’ perceptual positions, identify target markets for each brand, critically analyse each brand’s current application of their marketing mix, ...etc Competitors: 1. Dairy Farmers Limited 2. Amalgamated Dairies Limited Marketing activities - 100% Australian - It’s been around for a long time (over 100yrs) - “Australians favourite milk” Sales: - Coles - Woolworths - 7eleven