Executive Summary: Omega Paws Inc
Executive Summary
Omega Paws Inc. is a company that was incorporated by its founder, Michael Ebert to distribute self-cleaning litter boxes which he invented to assist cat owners with disposal of cat litter in a much better and more effective and non-smelling way.
The company has grown significantly in its first year of operation with sales of $1M. The president knows that with current resources, the company could potentially target a much larger market. The product has shown promising results and many of the distributors in North America have shown a favorable interest in the product and have been willing to take on the distribution of the product.
His goal is to grow the business quickly by expanding its marketing initiatives and look for alternative channels of distribution.
The alternative channels are as follows:
Distributing through manufacturers’ representatives.
Distributing through mass distribution centers.
Distributing through grocery stores which is an untapped market for cat products in North America.
A detailed financial analysis was carried out and based upon this analysis; the end consumer price was computed after taking into consideration the various players in each of the distribution channels.
We are recommending that the company opts for the option of distributing the product through the 2nd alternative, which is through mass distribution channels. The reason behind this is that after taking into consideration the mark-up required by the distribution channel, the end user price is within the range of the prices of the competition. Secondly the budget required for the additional packaging, tooling and advertising is within the marketing budget set by the company.
Problem Statements
After a successful first year of operations in selling Self Cleaning Litter Boxes, Omega Paw is looking to expand its business by strategically implementing creative and distributing techniques to fulfill its objectives.
The problems that it faces in implementing its plan are:
Product – The litter boxes exist in a competitive environment with many competitors selling different but substitutable products.
Price – In order to pursue mass distribution, the company needs to market the product through distribution companies and grocery stores. Each of these distribution channels mark up the price over and above the MSP which causes the final consumer price to increase drastically. The question is whether these prices will be supported