CASE: VORA AND COMPANY

1) Should Mr. Vora continue in this business?

Lucknow based Vora and company’s manufactured Blossom Quick Cooking Oats has been
facing challenges to attain a profitable Volume of sales over the given period of time. They
have certain flaws in their system which could be some of the reasons resulting in the decline.
Once they properly understand and analyse the problems and the reasons behind them, they
will be able to tackle the problems and improve their volume of sales, without discontinuing
this business because oats is a daily use product and it still has many opportunities. Following
recommendations might be helpful for Mr. Vora in getting a better hold of the situation:
Mr. Vora should properly analyse the marketing analyses of Champion Oats as well as
Quaker brand of oats to get a better understanding, in order to understand the demands.
Mr. Vora needs to target the right audience and area of sales (southern part) and need
to improve their market strategies for them, in order to ensure their interests.
Mr. Vora needs to ensure direct contact with the agents, as it will help him understand
the market dynamics and requirements at a better level.
The product package does not properly highlight that it is a quick cooking oats, it needs
to be improved.
They should re-evaluate the agent commissions as, they are giving more commission
as compared to Champion oats manufacturers.

2) What are the major problems faced by Vora and Company?

Major problems faced Vora and Company:
- They spend a lot of time in introducing their first product after establishing the business
as they were unable to meet the quality standards.
- They did not do any proper marketing research of the other products.
- They kept their packaging similar to Champion oats and did not properly emphasis on
the unique feature of their product on their packaging which is “quick cooking oats”.
- Their commission rates were higher as compared to that of their competitor, even
though they were new to the market.
- They did not focus on the zones properly were the demands were high.
- They distribution channel had multiple member and they had to incur travel costs in
product every time demand was raised.
- Their overhead cost was high.

3) Should Vora make any changes in decisions concerning:

(i) product and packaging
One of the major drawbacks in their packaging is that they have failed to properly emphasis
that their product is a quick cooking oat, as it is the key feature of the product, which might
have affected its demand.
They are spending a lot on product packaging, which could be reduced.
Their packaging theme is almost similar to Champion’s; hence they should try improving
that too.
Champion oats provides product in two different quantities, while Blossom is available
only in one standard quantity.
(ii) advertising and promotion
He focused on advertising in the major cities only and even they discontinued after four
months, which resulted in him not effectively communicating to customers.
 He did not properly focus on the zones with higher demands which led in reduction in sales;
hence her should have focused more in the southern parts to improve advertising.
(iii)pricing and
Lack of inventory is resulting in increase in price of the product; hence they need to create
inventory in their sales zones in order to reduce transit cost every time demand is raised. It
is also resulting in non-uniform prices.
(iv)sales and distribution?
Their distribution chain has more channels then required; hence it need to be improved .
They should hire more experienced agents, unlike there attempt in some of their southern
zones.