Grand foods, Ltd Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Grand foods, Ltd - Case Study Example The product managers now bear the greatest responsibility of coming up with the best solution that could look into the matter. The discussion sparked some other issues that may be behind the poor performance. These issues include; the pricing structure, sales promotion, cooperative advertising and food distribution in market. Jessica Walters, the marketing manager isn’t against the solutions raised but is concerned with the possible effects that this would have on the company’s policies and its structure. Background Grand Foods Limited is a Canadian company and has its international headquarters in Minneapolis, in Toronto. The company has its subsidiary branches all over Canada and also in the U.S. Quebec and Ontario are the main largest markets of the company, where it accounts for 69 percent of the $350 million sales in Canada. The worldwide sales of the company in 1991 were more than $2 billion. Jessica Walters is the marketing manager of the company and has been in the position for four years. His efforts towards the success of the company are tremendous and this has seen an overall improvement in the company’s sales. Products from the Grand Foods Ltd are enjoyed by the people in the entire Canada and Quebec province. These products include cake mixes, pie fillings, puddings, and frozen dinners among others. To do away with monotony of the food preference, the company has introduced six new products into the market in the last six years. These products were gladly received by the consumers. Problem statement In the previous month, the company saw poor performances in some of its products. The main region hit by this problem is the Quebec province, which is largely dominated by the French. This means that the consumers did not buy the products and the reason behind this is subject to thorough investigation and coming up with necessary recommendations. According to Marie Lemans, a product manager, the problem was with the marketing of the products. Quebec, as stated before is largely dominated by the French speaking people. Leman suggested that this region should then be treated differently from the rest of the Canada population. This then would be done by coming up with an appropriate marketing plan for the French-speaking people. The company’s products would therefore be advertised in the French language in the Quebec region and in English in the rest of Canada. Jessica Walters needed to have a closer look and a bit of analysis on the implications of the matter before implementing it (Canada Business Network, 2012). Food distribution across the Quebec province is another problem discussed by the managers. They argued that most of the bigger supermarkets and big stores had low market shares. The only advantage that the company has on food distribution in Quebec province is that the products are stored on best selling stores. The managers raised concerns on including the big supermarkets in selling these item s since they have more customers. This, they said will help raise the sales. The company has also done less in boosting attraction of customers in the discount policies and pricing structure of the products. The prices need to be reviewed and at least introduce some discounts. This issue has made the customers to shun away and hence the drop in the amount of sales. Jessica Walter is the major player here since he is the manager. The issues raised might look simple and easy to implement but the effects that it will have on