Textile- THE EXECUTION

INTRODUCTION

Robert Bennett an ambitious person resigned from his job and sold his other assets( vacation
home etc.) to exploit an idea of his to combine a refrigerator, freezer and 500-watt microwave
oven into a single unit named as “MicroFridge Inc” .

Problem Statement:

He wanted to increase the sales of the MicroFridge. But during the course of his journey he had
to face lots of challenges.

Initially he targeted to sell his product in colleges which had stringent policies against cooking in
the room due to safety aspects. He had to face strong apprehension from the college
authorities who feared that there was no demand and the student would go off meal plans.

College authorities did not had the trust on the quality and durability of the product since he
had no prior experience

Possible Solutions:

Evaluating the case depending on the 4P’s of the marketing:

1. Product:
a. To avoid fire accidents, he devised an electronic circuitry to shut off power to the
refrigerator/freezer whenever the microwave oven was switched on and vice versa.
It also was a very compact unit compared to the conventional refrigerators which
can fit in dorms room.
b. The product designed by Mr. Bennett was taking care of three functionalities, hence
is an innovative product and has taken care of the space constraints.
c. The electronic circuitry could be patented and later find the buyer of the concept
and keep getting a permanent royalty or a flexible royalty on the basis of increase in
sales. This way Bennett could have retained.
d. Additionally,

2. Place:
a. He had targeted the Colleges Campuses which were difficult for him to pursue in the
beginning. Additionally, he could have simultaneously consulted Army regiments, or
 the Corporate Pantries etc. And as and when the market had got favourable he could
have showcased his successful sales reports to the college authorities and have
persuaded them easily.
b.

3. Price:
a. He had cut down the distributors in the later stages of the sale which helped him
save on the finances and utilize them on hiring 4 individual sales representatives.
b. Also, could have setup stalls where he could give offers on the First-come-First serve
basis. This could initially boost up the sales.
c. As Sanyo and Samsung are ready to manufacture the product. Bennett should
negotiate with them, if he can pay the upfront cost of $170,000 once the sales start
to pick up and pay per unit cost with a credit period of 45-60 days after the delivery
from the manufacturer. That ways he would have enough time in hand to arrange
the money from the sales of the units.

4. Promotion:
a. He could have incorporated different channels of media to popularize his product.
b. Since the initially targeted customers where the College Administrations, he could
have come up with the idea that a Kiosk to be had setup to promote the positive
aspects and also exhibited the safety aspects of the product.