United Cereal: Lora Brills Eurobrand Challeng Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Problem Diagnosis

United Cereal, a company with over 100 years of experience in the breakfast food business, is facing challenges in taking a decision for the launch of its new cereal product. The company is a multinational and has a global experience, but the company’s vice president Lora Brill is under real consideration of either adapting the concept of Euro brand and launch the Healthy Berry Crunch across Europe or to pursue France is the best option for launching Healthy Berry Crunch. The VP needs to analyze the situation to select the best possible alternative considering the pros and cons of every alternative.

Analysis

Situation Analysis

The breakfast category is becoming highly competitive, and in order to keep the company at the stage of growth and to sustain it, the VP is considering to expand into the European market. The reason to advance in Europe is because the continent generates or contributes 20% in the overall sales of the company, but the European market itself is becoming very competitive. In order to sustain the growth and become successful with the launch of this new brand, the VP of the company is considering the concept of Euro brand by launching the product in various European countries simultaneously. On the other, another alternative is also under consideration that offers to launch the product in France and take hold of the French market as the market shows potential. Therefore, the analysis portion will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the company along with the threats and opportunities according to the situation. Furthermore, using porters five forces, the industrial analyzes will be done in order to understand the situation more clearly to seek help in presenting the recommendation.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis will guide towards the strengths and weaknesses of the company and will highlight the opportunities and threats to the company.

Strengths

The major strengths of the company are its vast experience and global presence that makes it competitive with over 100 years experience. Furthermore the company’s values that focus on listening to the customers and then delivering accordingly, identifying the market trends and make a market for the product and last, focus on future while gaining guidance from the past. These three basic values of the company have contributed immensely towards the success of the company in a competitive industry and are considered as its major strengths. Adding more to the strengths of the company is adapting innovation and risk taking ability to adapt international integration. The company originated from America and conquered Europe, which shows that the company is highly capable of taking and managing risk. Another major strength of the company is the encouragement that the company provides to fresh and new ideas.

Weaknesses

The company as mentioned in the strengths encourage new ideas and give responsibility to young persons, but this strategy can sometimes backfire with the responsibilities assigned not handled correctly. Another major weakness of the company is the differences in opinions among the top managerial people as people at the top level have different view and strategies about the future of the company and cannot agree on a common direction. This difference in opinions is very crucial as the company will be unable to get a common direction for future growth.

Opportunities

The idea of Lora Brill to shape the company and transform it into a Euro Brand will create massive opportunities for the company to excel in the European market. This opportunity will further present an opportunity to redesign the job responsibilities of the managers, especially the country managers who will witness a major cut down in their job responsibilities. The company also has a major opportunity in the shape of competing with its major competitor Kellog in the fruit cereal category. Currently, Kellog is the only player in this segment and entering this segment will allow United Cereal to remain competitive and enjoy the early benefits of entering this new segment gained a considerable market share. Furthermore, the Euro Brand opportunity will allow the company to remain competitive with Kellog and keep the competition intense.

Threats

Competition and rivalry with Kellog that has the major share in the industry is the biggest threat to the company. Furthermore, the growing competition in the European market is posing a major threat for the company and adding more to worry the coordinating European strategy of Kellog. Another major threat is the high cost related to product launch in a single country and demand of the country managers for product extension rather than new products are also a conflicting factor that can be a major threat to the company......................

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