Background of the study

The different elements of a company's marketing mix can be divided into four basic decision

areas—known as the "four Ps": product, price, place, promotion and—which marketing

managers can use to devise an overall marketing strategy for a product or group of goods.

These four decision groups represent all of the variables that a company can control. But

those decisions must be made within the context of outside variables that are not entirely

under the control of the company, such as competition, economic and technological changes,

the political and legal environment, and cultural and social factors.

** Marketing decisions related to the product (or service) involve creating the right product

for the selected target group. This typically encompasses research and data analysis, as well

as the use of tools such as focus groups, to determine how well the product meets the wants

and needs of the target group. Numerous determinants factor into the final choice of a product

and its presentation. A completely new product, for example, will entail much higher

promotional costs to raise consumer awareness, whereas a product that is simply an improved

version of an existing item likely will make use of its predecessor's image. A pivotal

consideration in product planning and development is branding, whereby the good or service

is positioned in the market according to its brand name. Other important elements of the

complex product planning and management process may include selection of features,

warranty, related product lines, and post-sale service levels.

** Determination of price, the second major activity related to target marketing, entails the

use of discounts and long-term pricing goals, as well as the consideration of demographic and

geographic influences. The price of a product or service generally must at least meet some

minimum level that will cover a company's cost of producing and delivering its offering. Also

a firm would logically price a product at the level that would maximize profits. The price that

a company selects for its products, however, will vary according to its long-term marketing

strategy. For example, a company may under price its product in the hopes of increasing

market share and ensuring its competitive presence, or simply to generate a desired level of

cash flow. Another producer may price a good extremely high in the hopes of eventually

conveying to the consumer that it is a premium product. Another reason a firm might offer a

product at a very high price is to discount the good slowly in an effort to maximize the dollars

available from consumers willing to pay different prices for the good. In any case, price is

used as a tool to achieve comprehensive marketing goals.

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** Considerations about place, the third major decision group, relate to actually getting the

good or service to the target market at the right time and in the proper quantity. Strategies

related to place may utilize middlemen and facilitators with expertise in joining buyers and

sellers, and they may also encompass various distribution channels, including retail,

wholesale, catalog, and others. Marketing managers must also devise a means of transporting

the goods to the selected sales channels, and they may need to maintain an inventory of items

to meet demand. Decisions related to place typically play an important role in determining

the degree of vertical integration in a company, or how many activities in the distribution

chain are owned and operated by the manufacturer. For example, some larger companies

elect to own their trucks, the stores in which their goods are sold, and perhaps even the raw

resources used to manufacture their goods.

** Decisions about promotion, the forth marketing mix decision area, relate to sales,

advertising, public relations, and other activities that communicate information intended to

influence consumer behavior. Often promotions are also necessary to influence the behavior

of retailers and others who resell or distribute the product. Three major types of promotion

typically integrated into a market strategy are personal selling, mass selling, and sales

promotions. Personal selling, which refers to face-to-face or telephone sales, usually provides

immediate feedback for the company about the product and instills greater confidence in

customers. Mass selling encompasses advertising on mass media, such as television, radio,

direct mail, and newspapers, and is beneficial because of its broad scope. A relatively new

means of promotion involves the Internet, which combines features of mass media with a

unique opportunity for interactive communication with customers. Publicity entails the use of

free media, such as feature articles about a company or product in a magazine or related

interviews on television talk shows, to spread the word to the target audience. Finally, sales

promotion efforts include free samples, coupons, contests, rebates, and other miscellaneous

marketing tactics.

Company overview

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PRAN GROUP was born in 1980, with a small number of employees. Since then, it never

had to look back. Keeping in view the corporate mission of the group they have over the

years diversified their activities. Today they are the largest processors of fruits & vegetables

in Bangladesh. Pran group encourage contract farmers and help them grow quality crops with

increased yields and to obtain fair prices. The Group comprises of 10 companies. The head

offices are located at Dhaka with production facilities around the country.The management of

pran group is modern adapted to their environment & culture. Their largest asset is their

competent team of hands-on-mangers & dedicated employees. The chairman or the CEO, is

LT COL MAHTABUDDIN AHMED (Retd), deserves ample amount of credit for bringing

Pran to the path of success so far. The managing director, Maj-Gen AMJAD KHAN

CHOWDHURY (Retd), and his son, the Deputy Managing Director, Mr AHSAN KHAN

CHOWDHURY, are the final decision makers for the initiation of Pran’s ongoing activities.It

is a limited company, where a partnership arrangement is made, where the liability of one or

more partners is limited to the amount of assets they have invested in the firm. It consists of a

number of shareholders from the general public, ICB investors account, financial institutions

to the employees.

Company portfolio

Pran products can be categorized under a few categories, such as, Juice, Drinks,

Snacks, Confectionary, Dairy, Beverages and winery products.

Their juices come in a great variety of quality packing in eight different flavors;

orange, mango, lemon, litch, pineapple, mango-pine, gvava and fruit cocktail, offers

collection of refreshing choices.

From purified natural drink to processed fruit drink, pran provides a wide range to

many alternatives for quenching the thirst.

In their winery section, they offer a wide range of products from tea, spices, pickles,

chutney, sauce and ketchup, rice products, mustard oil, semai and molasses, etc.

Pran snacks products are variously flavored consisting of chanachur, biscuits, potato

crackers and mini snacks.

The dairy products include pasteurized milk, flavored milk, instant full cream powder,

pure ghee, etc.

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Pran Company having a long listed product portfolio and pran juice is their SBU product.

They are earning plentiful profit from this strategic business unit in every year. Using fresh

natural Bangladeshi juices and hygienically produced with the state of art technology,

available in eight different flavors as Orange, Mango, Lemon, Litchi, Pineapple, Mango-Pine,

and Guava & Fruit cocktail. Very uncommon the fruit cocktail product is a combination of 12

different types of local fruits Juice. Real fruit juices, using pulp by own processed, available

in attractive sprout pack. From garden to the consumer, PRAN ensures quality processing at

all steps to provide a great variety of choices of processed juice.

PRAN juice competitors are

ACME juice

Danish juice

Starship juice

Slice

Sejan juice

SBU’s relative market share with in the market

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Target Market

Kids are set as the target market for the Pran juice. There is a huge demand of juice and

drinks among the kids. So Pran RFL group decided to capture the market of kids by this

product. There is also a huge malnutrition among the kids of this country. So the company

desires to fulfill the demand by offering them a tasty and nutritious juice item. Pran juice

contains many nutritious ingredients which provide the children a better health. So, specially

the kids and children are the main target market for Pran juice, though it is also popular

among young generation.

Pran mainly target to capture the capital, Dhaka city first by their product Pran Juice. Lately

they want to market this product through the divisional dristricts.The market growth of Pran

juice is pretty high and their mission is to capture the whole country, specially the kids. Pran

group wants to deliver the Pran juice to the hand of each children of this country and provide

them a healthy and nutritious juice item.

Target users

Pran juice is under a Demographic segmentation which is the primary target market for the

certain product. The reasons behind choosing this segment as primary target are given below:

The company chooses the demographic segment on the context of Bangladesh where the

chosen segment size is quite large and its growth rate is pretty high. The current population is

15 crore where almost 3.5 crore are children. Their age level relies between 6 to 15, who are

the potential customer of Pran juice. Pran juice is highly popular among the children covering

this age. So it is easily measurable why the company chooses this segment as their target

market.

Marketing mix of PRAN juice

The marketing mix the set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that the company blends to

product the responses it want in the target market. The marketing mix consists of everything

that the PRAN juice can do to influence the demand for its product. The many possibilities

can be collected into four groups of variables known as the four Ps.

Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

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Product

In short we can define product as anything that can be offered to a market or consumer for

attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a need or want. Product include

more than tangible goods. In broad we can say product includes physical objects, services,

events, persons, places, organizations, ideas, or mixes of these entities.

# Levels of product:

This product is a pure tangible good. The following are the three levels of the product:

Core benefit – remove thirst, ensure nutrition to the children.

Actual Product – PRAN juice (brand name), 3 types of juice (with different flavor,

plastic and can packing.

Augmented Product – free glass and straw with the purchase of family pack etc.

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Core benefit

Core benefit is the most basic level in levels of product. When designing the product

marketers first define the core, problem solving benefits that a consumer seeks. As we

mentioned before that we have chosen PRAN juice. So before designing the product they

must have thought that what is the core benefit? The core benefit is consumer will buy the

product because remove thirst, ensure nutrition to the children.

Actual product

At this level the product planners turn the core benefit into an actual product. In this level

they develop the product features, design, quality, brand name. As we have selected PRAN

juice, so we will be focusing on this. The product planners have developed its features

authentically so that it satisfies a consumer’s need. They have developed its nutritious juice

so that in future when children go to buy a new juice then they prefer ‘PRAN juice’ among

the PRAN rfl group.

Augmented product

This is the last and final level. In this level market planners build augmented product around

the core benefit and actual product. Nutrition and Vitamins, Delivery these are part of

augmented product. If we talk about the classification of product then it is consumer product.

Under the consumer product it is a specialty product.

Price

The easy definition of price is that amount of money which is paid for a product or service. if

we say more clearly then price is the value which is given by a consumer because of taking

or receiving a product or service. How price is fixed? Basically price is fixed by bargaining

between buyer ands seller.

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Now come to the factor which is affecting pricing decision. Pricing consideration of decision

of a company is affected by some internal factors and external factor. These factors are.

1 Marketing Objective 5 Product quality leadership

2 Survival 6 Market demand

3 Current profit maximization 7 Pure competition

4 Market share maximization

Now come to the PRAN juice pricing strategy. PRAN rfl group use product mix pricing

strategy. Under this strategy they follow optional product pricing. Optional product pricing

means the pricing of optional or accessory product along with a main product. And our

product is ‘PRAN juice’. They fix their prize in these strategies because -2004, 2005, 2006,

2007 are not same. They are different by quality, shape and flavor. So people who want to

buy new flavors.

Because of different buyers and changing situation company has to take basic price and

adjustment strategies just like allowance and functional discount. Allowance is received by

consumer and functional discount is given by the company to the wholesaler and reseller.

PRAN rfl group also use product-from pricing and location pricing.

Product –from pricing: The company set different price for different flavor. Like the price

of PRAN mango juice can are might not be the same of PRAN orange juicepak.

Location pricing: The Company set the price of product according to place. Like the price

of Dhaka might be the same as Chittagong.

Here given PRAN juice pricing level and competitor pricing level.

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Place

Place include company’s activity that make up the product available to target customer. For

distributing transportation, warehousing and dealer should be selected. Without distributing

channels the distribution of product can be possible, the dealers keep and inventory of the

company, demonstrate them to potential buyers and negotiate price, close sales and service

the product after sale.

PRAN juice’ target consumers are lower middle class children to upper class children. And

for distribution of the product they use the channels such as wholesaler, transportation and

reseller.

Now come to the number of distributing channel levels. How a product is distributed? PRAN

rfl group distributes the product in the following way:

PRAN rfl group------- Dealer ------ wholesaler -------Final consumer

SALES & DISTRIBUTION NETWORK:

To make the Group’s products available at the every knock & corner of the country PRAN

has developed the best sales & distribution network all over the country.

To ensure fast & smooth distribution companies has set up 9 distribution depots & have

appointed more than 1000 dealers all over the country.

Promotion

Advertising & Promotion is the key to the marketing of any product or brand. To cope up

with the rapid & ever changing market situation & to come up with innovative marketing

strategy and ideas company has set up a full-fledged In-house advertising agency comprises

of the best talents of the country. Company spends a large portion of their promotional budget

in brand building exercises at home & abroad.

Basically promotion is an attempt to influence. it refers to any communicational activity used

to inform, persuade and remain the target market about an organization, its product and its

activity.

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Promotion mix means total marketing communication objectives. In this mix there are 4

things. Advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relation are included by

which company taken attempt of advertising and achieving marketing objectives.

Media announcement

PRAN Group believes in advertisement to cover all the remote people with their products.

Pran advertises all the products in Television at every channel and in newspaper, which they

think, bears a lot of profit for them. Their target is to acknowledge all the people of rural and

urban area around the country about all of their products. They have become quite successful

to perceive the attention of all types of people. Even the children and aged people too.

It is a paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas or services by an

identified sponger. PRAN juice pays advertising institutions for advertisement. They use the

following mediums

1 T.V 3 Radio

2 Newspapers 4 Magazine

Sales and promotion

These are short term incentives to encourage purchase or sell of a product. Like when a kids

goes to buy a juice the company give quality product survive. This can also be termed as sale

promotion.

Public relation

Building good relations with company’s various publics by obtaining favorable, publicity,

building up a good ‘corporate image’ and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories

and events. They also use public relation as a promotional activity for their company.

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SWOT analysis of PRAN juice

STRANGTH

Local brand

High quality product

Preservative and healthy juice

Local supply of food and raw material

Nation wigs distribution

Laboratory tested

BSTI certified

Advance technology

High marketing policy

Weaknesses

Lack of verity and product

Lack of augmentation

Lack of storage

Fluctuating market

Opportunities

Reaching the leading position in the country

World wide extension in the market

Increasing the demand of all types of people

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Threats

Highly competitive product

Increasing demand only among children

Increasing demand turnover only consumer

Findings and recommendation

Finding

1) The transportation system is not enough for huge production

2) Some vehicles are incurred for marketing from outside, which doesn’t maintain the

time and causes a lot of expense.

3) Market value is increasing day by day, which causes the increase of price.

4) Till now, it has not been possible export their product worldwide.

5) Strikes, Hartal, Curfew cause a lot of loss to the company.

Recommendation

1) Some transporting vehicles should be bought to minimize the expenses.

2) A strict system should be followed to maintain the time.

3) A strategy should be maintained to keep price in level.

4) Extend the exporting system and make Pran as a world wide product

5) A special action should be taken before Strikes, Hartal and Curfew.

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