Raymond Mushroom Corporation. Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Raymond Mushroom Corporation. Case Solution

Competitors

For RMC, the size of competitive market was huge. Most of the domestic canners across the US packed mushrooms under their own personal labels and also packaged mushrooms for other brands. Green Giant was named the biggest competitor of RMC. GG was known to sell canned mushrooms and frozen vegetables. GG was also known for-providing mushrooms and vegetables in cans and in jars. However, the jars that Green Giant produced, were processed and packaged in Taiwan instead of the US. Most famous product of the Green Giant was whole mushroom cans with butter. GG’s share was estimated to be around 14% of the domestic output.

Broiled in Butter (commonly known as B in B) was also considered as one of the biggest and toughest competitors of Raymond Mushroom Corporation. Retailers earned a gross margin of around 21% on the canned mushrooms sold by B in B.

GG spent around $700,000 on advertising through television networks and B in B spent around $30,000 on marketing using local magazines in 1970’s and 1980’s.

Promotions and Marketing Plan

President of the Raymond Mushroom Corporation put a marketing and promotional plan in place. The plan highlighted the need for re-branding the label as well as the need to start a marketing drive. A proposal was put forward suggesting that RMC should rename the canned mushrooms, increase its price and promote its products. The proposal suggested that:

The price of one mushroom can should be increased to $9 instead of being sold at the old price, which was $8.
To consider the marketing strategies and to focus on in-store promotion and trade deals etc.
Advertising the product smartly by infusing it in different cuisines, such as: Italian, Chinese, and regular dinner staples like steak and mushrooms.
The original label should be changed with candle light as suggested.

There were disagreements about the aforementioned plan among the Raymond Mushroom Corporation management. The major disagreement was about the selection of marketing channel. The management was divided between two marketing decisions. 50% supported the electronic channel for marketing, while the remaining voted for the traditional marketing methods.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:	Opportunities:
· RMC provides domestically grown and freshly canned mushrooms. · RMC has the biggest area to harvest the mushrooms. · Customers of RMC belong from all parts of the world.	· Customers prefer canned mushrooms over the fresh mushrooms. · Customers prefer to purchase mushroom for different cuisines, such as: Italian and with steaks. · If RMC increases its production and market its product, which makes itmore likely to gain more customers and defeat its competitors.
Weakness:	Threats:
· Orders of mushrooms for RMC are large but in less quantity. · The company is not able to meet the delivery deadlines. · No proper marketing strategy is in place. · Mushroom yield per square feet is less than the average industry yield and demand.	· Strong competitors exist in the market. · Competitors spent massive amount on marketing, using television and newspaper ads.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Raymond Mushroom Corporation should re-launch its label with a new name and a new identity. In the past, the company had failed to meet delivery deadlines and had disappeared from certain markets leaving a bad impression on the consumers; this issue should be addressed.In order to reach out to customers and promote its domestically grown organic mushrooms that are canned to preserve the freshness of the mushrooms; RMC needs to invest and focus more on advertising. The company should invest in marketing its products using both electronic as well as traditional means. Local magazines, television ads and newspaper ads should be considered as the major promotional channels. After the re-launch; the company should not increase its product’s prices drastically. This will push the customers further away, since local supermarkets are selling their personal canned mushroom labels at a much cheaper rate and customers tend to purchase more mushrooms for less price.........................

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