When Tiffany Friar-Hakes graduated from college, she went to work for Coca-Cola,

Question

When Tiffany Friar-Hakes graduated from college, she went to work for Coca-Cola, working on special event marketing. She could have taken an easier position in her father’s company, but he wanted her to go out on her own and learn more about how business is done before joining the family firm. After five years, she thought it was time return and her father agreed. But now, after six months, she was questioning her decision. “Dad,” she said, entering Mike Friar’s office. “Sales have been stagnant for the last few years, at least five from what I can see. Yet we’re paying our salespeople more now than we did then. Why is that?” “Cost of living—they have to earn more just to stay even,” he replied. “But I see your point. They aren’t selling more.” “Well, what if we had our smaller customers order through the Web? Then the sales-people could have more time to find new customers.” The company manufactures metal boxes, called cases, which other companies put their products in when those product shave to be used in tough environments. For example, AirLink uses Friar cases to house high communications equipment used by the military. “I don’t know—I think we’d have a riot on our hands if we tried to take customers away.” He frowned as he contemplated the consequences. “But our costs have risen and our sales haven’t. I don’t think we’ll make money this year. If we don’t find less expensive ways to sell, we’ll be out of business before too long.” Her dad stared at her earnestly. “Look, this isn’t Coca-Cola. We don’t have their big budget for fancy marketing, and selling to people is a whole lot different than selling to companies.” 1. What type of products does Friar make and sell? (Note: The type isn’t “boxes” or“cases.”) 2. What type of customers do they have? 3. What characteristics of the Friar Casing market are different from those faced by Coca-Cola, and how would affect how fair markets? It is an analysis of the case: THE FRIAR CASING, LLC .Give detailed answers to all the questions given at the end of the case. Use the knowledge from chapter 1 in the textbook to construct your answers. Save your work as a WORD file and upload it using the link Assignment 1 and submit it. Plagiarism will result in a zero

Explanation / Answer

The kind of products that Friar makes and sells are component parts or OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers parts. These are parts put together into the complete product with the absence of extra transformation. In some cases, a firm may buy OEM parts and put these together to construct a component for installation into a final product by another enterprise (Hutt & Spech, 2013). Friar manufactures metal boxes, termed as cases, which other firms put their products in when those products have to endure hostile conditions. Hence, this product suits into the category of component parts or OEM parts.

The kind of customers that Friar has are companies that consume (Original Equipment Manufacturer). The moment an enterprise invests in a service or product to be incorporated into its own final product, the enterprise is termed an Original Equipment Manufacturer (Hutt & Spech, 2013). This is precisely what Air Link utilizes Friar’s cases for (to house high communications equipment employed by the military).

The traits of the Friar Casing market that are dissimilar from those encountered by Coca-Cola are that it is not necessarily a big enterprise compared to Coca-Cola. Friar is a small company and in as much as it has been operating for more than ten years, its marketing strategies are not very productive as indicated by Tiffany. Friar is also a consumer marketing based enterprise compared to Coca-Cola, which functions at both levels of Business Marketing and Consumer Marketing owing to its status in the corporate world. These dissimilarities influence the fair market in that Friar has limited clients owing to its status in its industry and its marketing strategy. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, has experience and on-going success which makes it very influential and successful even its current endeavor.

References

Hutt, M. D., & Spech, T. W. (2013). Business marketing management. Autralia; Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning.

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