Assignment on

Market Driven Strategy

for
Sarin’s Store

Submitted to
Professor Dr. Md. Humayun Kabir Chowdhury
MBA Program, Department of Marketing
North South University

Submitted by
Safa Jahangir
ID: 1835194660
Course: MKT634
Section: 3

Date of Submission: 4th June, 2020

1|Page
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Company Profile......................................................................................................................................4
Mission....................................................................................................................................................5
Vision:......................................................................................................................................................5
Goals........................................................................................................................................................5
Proposal...................................................................................................................................................5
Marketing Plan: Sarin’s Store Introducing Food Section..............................................................................6
Market Driven Strategy...............................................................................................................................6
Becoming Market Oriented.....................................................................................................................6
Distinctive Capabilities.............................................................................................................................7
Creating Value for Customers..................................................................................................................7
Macro Environmental Factors.....................................................................................................................8
Political Factors.......................................................................................................................................8
Economic Factors.....................................................................................................................................8
Societal Factors........................................................................................................................................8
Technological...........................................................................................................................................8
Environmental Factors.............................................................................................................................9
Legal factors............................................................................................................................................9
Micro Environmental Factors......................................................................................................................9
Suppliers..................................................................................................................................................9
Reseller....................................................................................................................................................9
Competitors.............................................................................................................................................9
Customers...............................................................................................................................................9
The General Public.................................................................................................................................10
Controllable Factors..................................................................................................................................10
Product..................................................................................................................................................10
Price.......................................................................................................................................................10
Place......................................................................................................................................................11
Promotion..............................................................................................................................................11
Segmentation............................................................................................................................................12
Demographic.........................................................................................................................................12

2|Page
 Geographic............................................................................................................................................13
Psychographic........................................................................................................................................13
Behavioral..............................................................................................................................................13
Targeting...................................................................................................................................................13
Undifferentiated Marketing...................................................................................................................13
Differentiated Marketing.......................................................................................................................14
Concentrated Marketing.......................................................................................................................14
Micromarketing.....................................................................................................................................14
Positioning.................................................................................................................................................15
Functional Positioning...........................................................................................................................15
Symbolic Positioning..............................................................................................................................15
Experiential Positioning.........................................................................................................................15
Value Proposition......................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
Reference..................................................................................................................................................17

3|Page
 Introduction

In a developing country like Bangladesh, growing a business based on local goods is fruitful yet
challenging. Sarin’s Store, an organic Beauty Brand of Bangladesh is working to eliminate the
toxic chemical usage in cosmetic products and encourage people to use more nature derived
products. The company also encourages the consumption and promotion of local ingredients and
products.
In current situation, we can there have been a huge economic distress in the market scenario. The
Covid-19 panic has changed the consumer behavior tremendously. The import market has
paused for many products. International flights have been halted. As much as it is a horrible
scenario for the financial structure of our country, there is a market opportunity for the local
business entities like us. There needs to be some different market strategies to cope up with the
situation.
Company Profile
Sarin’s Store is an herbal skin and haircare manufacturing organization. Their products are
completely organic and homemade. They procure all the ingredients from nature and formulate
powder or oil-based products for cosmetic use. It started as a social media-based business. That
means their operation was limited to Facebook and Instagram business pages. It has been about
four years now. They expanded their business to E-commerce websites like
Stylinecollection.com and Daraz.com. They do not own physical outlets but their products are
available in rented aisles of partnered beauty shops in Jamuna Future Park, Shyamoli Square,
Finlay Square (Chittagong), Arcadia Shopping Mall (Sylhet). They participate in different events
and fair organized by different university and event organizers time to time.

4|Page
Mission
In a world full of toxic chemicals, they want to establish a market where people can find
products with nontoxic and safe ingredients. Sarin’s Store offers a huge range of products which
are completely homemade and excludes unnecessary chemicals like preservative or additional
color or fragrance.
Vision:
Their motto is to bring people back to nature and to contribute to ecological balance by
preventing the usage of chemicals that damage the environment.
Goals
 Reduce cancer causing cosmetic usage
 Break the stereotype social beauty standard
 Protect environmental sustainability
 Encourage minimalism
 Inspire people to become healthy and conscious
 Build a better society

Proposal
As marketing Manager of Sarin’s Store, I suggest to introduce an organic food section in the
product line. The food line should be available in the social media business pages of Sarin’s
Store. Also, they will be available in other grocery digital platforms such as Chaldal.com, Pathao
tong, meenaclick.com, shwapno.com etc.
This pandemic situation has pushed people to change their purchase behavior. The average sales
volume of the beauty products has decreased as people are more concerned with hygiene issues.
So, to increase sales we need to pull the customers attention to a new section. Due to the lock
down situation people are not being able to buy their daily commodities from departmental stores
as well as super shops. So, the order volume on different online grocery platforms such as
Chaldal.com, Pathao Tong, Meena Click has increased. This is why I think opening a food
section that contains spices, dry fruits and organic items will pull a different customer base. Our
food line will include 3 categories of products:
Dried Fruit: Almonds, cashew nuts, pistachios, raisins
Whole Spices: Green cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cloves, saffron
Healthy food: Honey, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds

5|Page
 Marketing Plan: Sarin’s Store Introducing Food Section

Market Driven Strategy

Market driven strategy a long-term business plan that provides maximum value to the
consumers. Characteristics of market driven strategies include:
Becoming Market Oriented
This is a concept that makes the customer the main focus of the organization. It includes constant
analysis of customers’ need, competitor’s information and market demands. We can see now is a
time when our customer base needs groceries more than beauty products. That is exactly why
Sarin’s should start the food section.

6|Page
Distinctive Capabilities
Identifying an organization’s distinctive capabilities e.g. accumulated knowledge and
organizational processes are major part of market driven strategy. Sarin’s Store is a company that
believes in the goodness of natural resources and avoids harmful synthetic preservatives. This
strong brand image will help in new product launch.
Creating Value for Customers
Creating customer value is always a challenge for the managers. Superior customer value is
achieved when the consumers gets better user experience from the organization comparing to the
competitor. Better value can be provided through lower price and premium product quality
which stands out from the competitor.

7|Page
 Macro Environmental Factors

These are the factors which are affecting the organization externally. These factors play
important role on the marketing proposal. These factors are called uncontrollable elements of
marketing mix.
Political Factors
Political factors are set of government regulations that provide guidelines for business
operations. National politics, Governments’ stability in the future, tax laws, Government
provided facilities and decision regarding business operations in different industries; all these
factors impact tremendously in any business operation. Bangladesh Government decided to limit
the communication with other districts. As a result, suppliers from different rural areas will face
difficulty to send us the raw materials.

Economic Factors
These factors influence consumer’s spending patterns, trends and purchasing power. Natural
events can greatly impact growth, production, distribution of a product or service. In our case
Covid-19 situation has created a shortage in the supply of grocery items in Chaldal.com. This is
where our sales of dry fruit, organic honey, spices can grab the market. The distribution in
income also impacts on the pricing policies of the company and also affects the market
segmentation and decision. In current situation many people are being laid off. Many startup
companies winded up. Also, many employees did not get full salary in last 2 months. So, we
cannot put a high price for the new products.
Societal Factors
These factors include family size, income level, buying behavior etc. Societal changes are vital
because people are the market consumers. Knowing their perception towards price or quality is
compulsory if we want to if we are launching a new product or service. It allows our company to
forecast sales, create market demand and tailor our product to a specific market segment.

Technological
As days go by, technology is becoming the powerful factor in all aspects of our lives. The skills
and knowledge applied to the production, operation, communication, tracking and marketing
play an important role in the business. Now a day’s social media widely used as a promotion
platform. The adverts are tailored to fit the attraction level of tech savvy generation. Technology
plays an important role in our marketing plan as well. As we are going to offer the newly
launched food section in our social media page and E-commerce platforms, the target market has
to be tech savvy. They will have to be able to order the products from google form or
Ecommerce site or android/iOS app.

8|Page
Environmental Factors
As Sarin’s Store is an organic brand, the natural resources are the most important factor that will
control the operation. The new marketing plan is related to organic spices and dried fruits. That
is why agricultural scenario is vital for us. Few days back cyclone Amphan hit the coastal areas
of Bangladesh causing a huge damage. This cancelled our plan to procure pure honey from
Sundarbans. This product might have to wait until we find another supplier.
Legal factors
Any business needs to comply with all the regulation and legislature of the operating country.
These factors include consumer protection law, employee protection law, product regulations etc.
As we will be working with food, BSTI certification is must for us. Only after that we can
market our products.

Micro Environmental Factors

Suppliers
Suppliers can control the success of the business. They are the people who accumulate the
ingredients and resources for the manufacturers. So, the finished goods in the market largely
depend on the suppliers. As an organic brand, it is our first prerequisite to find out and make
deals with the finest seeds or herbs suppliers. Sarin’s store has always been very careful about
their ingredient choice. As skin is a sensitive issue, they never compromised with the quality of
their product. But now when it is about food, the quality and hygiene concern is even more
serious.
Reseller
When the product is sold by a third-party organization after production, those organizations are
called resellers or market intermediaries. Now besides our very own social media business pages,
we will partner with Chaldal.com, Cookups.com, Meenaclick.com and outlets of Styline
collection. The better the partnered platforms work, the bigger the customer base will be. This
will leverage the promotion of the product.
Competitors
The organizations which sell the same or similar products are considered competitors.
Competitors position should be considered when bringing a product or service to the market.
Studying their tactics and predicting their strategy might contribute to the competitive analysis. If
Sarin’s Store launches food items, their probable competitors will be Neo Farmers, Fit Food,
Khaas Food etc. So, to compete with them we should closely observe their marketing strategy in
current situation.
Customers
They hold the most importance amongst all the factors of micro environment. Customers are the
focus area. It is important for an organization to build a strong relationship with their consumers.

9|Page
This new product launch will target the old beauty product customer base as well as some new
customers from popular E-commerce website.
The General Public
They refer to the individuals who have actual or potential interest to my product and my
company. Every company has some responsibility towards the general public. Because it is the
public who help a business entity to achieve its goals. So, their perception about the company
contributes a lot to the marketing of the organization.

Controllable Factors

The factors that the marketer can control in a marketing mix are called controllable factors. The
4ps are the controllable elements for any business organization. We can manipulate them
according to our marketing plan for optimum revenue. They are- product, place, price,
promotion.
Product
This is what we are offering to the market. A product must have the qualities to solve the
problems of the target market. It includes, packaging, features, quality, size options.
Price
Pricing of a product depends on different factors like operation cost, distribution cost, advertising
budget and so on. The most important fact is that the price has to be within the income of the
target market. If not, the sales will not be satisfactory.

10 | P a g e
Place
The next important factor for the mix is how to get the product to the customer. Place or
distribution includes warehouse, pick up points, outlets, digital platforms, social media. After we
launch the food section in our business pages, we will partner with shwapno.com,
meenaclick.com, chaldal.com and other e-commerce grocery shops and food delivering services.
We will also try to reach the local departmental shops for more exposure.

Promotion
This factor includes communication to persuade the customers to buy the product. This includes
content creation, copy writing, advertisement, sales promotion. This is the fact that shows the
customer the benefit of using our product.

11 | P a g e
Figure: Marketing Mix for Sarin’s Store Food Section

Segmentation

Segmentation is a practice or identification process that determines and divides the target market
of the organization into small approachable groups. It creates subgroups within the total
customer base of a business based on characteristics such as demographics, priorities, behavioral
traits, consumption patterns etc. This segmentation process helps the marketers to understand the
target audience better and optimize product and advertising according to it.
We can follow different strategies to segment a different customer base.
Demographic
Demographics are common form of segmentation. Now if we want to analyze the demographic
for the organic spices our segment will look like this:
Age 25-40
Gender Female
Occupation Home Maker, Service holder, Restaurant
Owner, Catering Business Owner
Income Middle- High Class

12 | P a g e
Geographic
The regional demographic helps the marketer to understand which product or service has better
potential in which area. For instance, Sarin’s Store segments their market in between people
from Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. They are the people who are more interested in online
shopping.
Psychographic
Psychographic segmentation targets customers based on their lifestyle, interest, hobbies. This is
the segmentation strategy that is more concerned with brand recognition. The quality is more
important than price for this segment. For the dried fruit and healthy items such as almonds,
cashews, pistachio, chia seed, raisins etc. will target the healthy lifestyle enthusiasts and people
who attend gym, yoga, sports. It will also target the trendy people who follow different diets.
Both diabetic people and food enthusiasts falls under this segment. This segment also includes
middle aged people who have diabetes, hypertension and other conditions. Because they are
trying to make a food habit change with healthy food.
Behavioral
This segmentation strategy analyses the customers purchase pattern, frequency, brand loyalty,
price sensitivity, pattern of use etc. These behavioral patterns tell us what are the products they
are more likely to buy. Say for example if we can identify the group that cooks regularly and
purchases Radhuni powder spices and Rupchanda Soybean oil we will know they will be
interested to buy organic whole spices like cardamom, cinnamon and other whole spices from
Sarin’s Store.

Targeting

Target market strategy is selecting and describing one or more target markets that a company’s
product will identify for business opportunity. When selecting the target market, a company has
to decide if they are going to be focused on one or more segments. The choice they make in this
stage will impact the design of their marketing mix and positioning plan.
There are four target market strategies.
Undifferentiated Marketing
Generally, refers as mass market. This marketing strategy ignores the differences in the segments
and treats the entire market as a single segment. So, for undifferentiated marketing strategy
everyone is a potential customer.

13 | P a g e
Differentiated Marketing
Also known as segmented marketing. When several potential segments are revealed, a company
can select one or multiple to make separate marketing mix for separate segments. This is the
most preferred marketing strategy as it helps to increase sales volume, profitability and market
share. Sarin’s Store is going to use this strategy for their new section launch.
Concentrated Marketing
When several segments are identified but yet the company decides to serve a particular segment,
that is called niche marketing or concentrated marketing. In this strategy the company decides to
focus on one narrowly defined consumer group.
Micromarketing
Micromarketing just adds up one step in concentrated marketing. Basically, micromarketing
targets a specific localized group, or individual, within a niche market. This strategy is highly
specific as all marketing efforts are focused on the distinct characteristics of these small groups
or individuals.

The following features are important while selecting target market.

Criteria Size: To justify the segment, market of that product should be large enough.

Difference: Distinguished differences should be there between segments.

14 | P a g e
Profitability: Anticipated profits must exceed the marketing and promotional costs.

Accessible: Our marketing message should be easy enough to reach the understanding of the
segment.

Focus on Different Benefits: Different segments must need different benefits.

Positioning

This refers to the image of our product or company that we want to create on the target market.
This last step will determine where does our product stand out from the competitors. There are
three ways to position products. We will combine all of them for Sarin’s Store.
Functional Positioning
It refers to solving a problem and serving certain benefits for the customer. The food section
solves the scarcity of daily pantry needs in current situation.
Symbolic Positioning
This refers to enhancing the consumers’ self-image or the sense of belongingness. The people
who are into baking and healthy lifestyle feels satisfied with the quality of the product.
Experiential Positioning
This strategy connects the brand with the consumers emotionally. Sarin’s Store has already
created its image as a non-toxic, nature derived brand. The food section will enhance this idea of
fresh, raw and natural product usage. Also, as our products are grown locally, people who are
into veganism or promote local consumption will find our brand parallel to their belief.

Value Proposition

Value proposition refers to the value a company promises to provide to their customers. It’s a
statement that introduces a company’s brand image. It’s a declaration of what the company
stands for and works for. In total, it is the business proposition by a company summarizing why a
consumer will buy their product. If this statement offered perfectly, a potential customer will be
convinced that the product will add more value to solving a problem than the other competitors’
offerings.
One of the strongest qualities of Sarin’s Store is that all their products are completely handmade
and one hundred percent organic. Their face packs, scrub, oils are made from ingredients found
in nature and often have a shelf life of 2 months to 6 months. The advantage of informing
customers that our products are all made fresh and do not contain any preservative gives us a

15 | P a g e
competitive advantage against the competitors. There is another factor that distinguishes Sarin’s
Store from their competitors is their stand for local good consumption. Where all other
companies are importing goods and supporting the economy of another country, we are trying to
build a brand that represents and supports our lands’ native resources. Sarin's had been known as
a brand which uses the natural components without mixing any harmful chemicals or
preservatives. In terms of serving food items we are maintaining the same principles and thus our
products remain the most naturally served products in the market. The key value we provide to
our customers is our guidance. Sarin’s Store customer care executives suggest and explain the
benefits of the products to customers so well that a good relationship is created.

Conclusion

Currently the entire world is passing through a critical situation. In a country like Bangladesh, it is
important to follow the change of the purchase behavior of the customers. It helps with the market
driven strategy for the time being. In lockdown situation, many people are taking “Cooking/Baking” as
their stress relief or hobby. And many people are finding it difficult to gather their daily pantry needs. In
both cases, launching a food section in a beauty brand is an out of the box yet effective plan.

16 | P a g e
 Reference

Langford, S. (2020). Market Targeting: Why it Pays to Differentiate. Retrieved 4 June 2020,

from https://blog.hurree.co/blog/market-targeting
Market Strategy Segmentation Solutions: CMG Partners. (2018, May 10). Retrieved from
https://cmgpartners.com/blog/market-segmentation-strategy/
Scott, S. C. (2013, December 18). Macro environmental factors vs. micro environmental factors.
Retrieved June 2, 2020, from https://siobhancscott.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/macro-
environmental-factors-vs-micro-environmental-factors/
Target Marketing: Four Generic Target Marketing Strategies. (2013, December 8). Retrieved
from https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/target-marketing-four-generic-target-
marketing-strategies/13400

17 | P a g e