Case Study: Sweet Taste

Title of the Case

As a consultant for the business "Sweet Taste", the sales team and consultant
provides this case study in order to find the problems for the business in order to stay in
business and continue its legacy for that we will need to find out its situation and if it has a
problem at hand then to ascertain the problem and provide its solution, as well as
objectives, steps needed to be taken, measures and to see if the solutions put into action
have indeed made significant and effective changes, if not then another plan will be put in
place, another alternative course of action to aid the continuance of Sweet Taste's 50 years
of business.

Time Context

On the day August 6th of 2021 Friday (12:00 a.m.) until December of 31st 2021
Friday (11:59 p.m) a study will be made of the sales before changes are made, and the
result of the changes, the results then will be summarized the year after 2022 on January.

As of on the month of August we will study the the data from "Sweet Taste" from its sales,
expenses from labor, rental payments and utilities. On September the approved action will
put in place in (3) select stores out of the (15)outlets then afterwards its results will be
tested and if successful it shall be implemented throughout the year. Then another set of
data will be studied especially for Christmasa and New Year and a long-term plan shall be
tried to put together for the 2022 in January and preparation for Valentines in February
shall be put into place.

Perspective

The perspective is the sales team's perspective. So that the products can be sold all year
round to meet the costs of operation and products.

The "Sweet Taste" is company that engage in stuffed toys, dolls and pillows have stood for
50 years, a consultant is hired along with its Sales team in order to have another look onto
its situation. This is to make sure that the customers continue to purchase its product, make
sure the demand meets the supply and vice versa, make sure that the costs can be met, and
the business continues to profit.

The "Sweet Taste" has continued to be popular throughout the years, in their 50 years of
business, however it is not so popular throughout the year. It has made a very solid and
successful niche market and sales on special occassions such as Valentines day and
Christmas day, the reason being many purchases are being made by the customers in these
seasons of giving in order to gift them to loved ones and acquaintances.

Central Issue

1. The Sweet Taste products of stuffed toys, dolls and pillows are products that can be
sold throughout the year and are produced as so. However, the truth of the matter is their
sales are only reach their peak on special occassions, the products are seasonal. They are
having a hard time meeting the costs of utilities, rental payments and salary of its
employees on lean months.

2. The Sweet Taste is a specialty store, it is not a go to store for daily needs, it is not the
first place people will think of to purchase and browse from, getting attention or
advertising it as well as giving of incentive to students, children, parents and couples will
surely help in making it more popular on special ocassions and outside of those special
occasions.

3. The Sweet Taste is a go to for Valentines and Christmas, however there are market
that are not utilized other special events like Weddings, Bridal shower, Baby showers and
Birthdays. Another one of those markets is an outlet outside of leading malls in the country

4. Increasing the array of variety of products such as all sorts of trinkets, as well as designs
from the more plain selection, simple and smaller to a more extravagant and bigger gifts as
well as stuff toys, dolls and even pillows with all sorts of designs, from classy and romantic,
to cute and loveable and to trendy designs such as minions, pokemons and etc.

Statement of the Objectives

1.a For the business of Sweet Taste to be able to profit and pay for its expenses for the year.

1.b To be more profitable on its days without special occasions as well as profit more on
special occasions.

2. To be bought as gifts all throughout the year; be advertised to all sorts of customers from
different generations: young and old.

3.a To profit on many special occassions and not only on Valentines and Christmas and
increase its overall sales.

3.b To reach more people especially customers who do not always visit malls and such.

4. To give more option, more products and a wider variety of products, in addition to being
able to capture the customers' interest.

Areas of Consideration

Strengths

The strengths to be considered

a. Sweet Taste is a popular business on holidays such as Christmas and Valentines despite
the competition

b. Their products that can be bought for all ages hence it can have a target market from
babies, children, students, adults and even elderly even animals, and it is unisex and can be
bought by both male and female customers.

c. Their products are well known as gifts for special occasions and can be gifted on other
occassions especially since there is a wide array of target market and can be expanded to
other special occassions.
d. . They have been in operation for 50 years and many already know their name . they have
regular customers that visit and purchase from them and can spread news all about the
shop and its new products.

Weaknesses

a. They are seen as a gift shop, a niche market, a popular go to only on Christmas and
Valentines, this will hinder them from being a normal go to by people when they buy dolls,
stuff toy and/or pillows.

b. There is already a struggle to pay for the costs on certain months because of low
turnover.

c. Expanding your target market will be challenging and will have its costs from unit costs,
labor costs, advertisements and rental costs to secure a place to store and sell products.

d. Non- regular and regular customers may not be interested in buying on days with no
special occassions or on certain special occassions.

Opportunities

a. Expansion from only a few special occassions to more special occassions will garner more
attention from people and more sales.

b. A wider target market will assure for more advertisement in person by word of mouth,
news about the business will spread through social media and it can be seen through the
spread of the products.

c. An opportunity to be a go to gift shop for family special occassions such as baby showers,
weddings and birthdays etc. will make the business family friendly.

Threats

a. Entering a new market, there will be new competition.

b. As there will be more products, there will be a need to procure more materials and/or
products that will be harder to get the more the supply needed.

c. When the supply doesn't meet the demand and when the demand doesn't meet the
supply the business will incur loss.

Alternative Courses of Action

1.a Hire or appoint or reassign employees, for design, sales, training research and
management.

1.b Advertise the products for other special occassions and for days without occassion.

3.a Provide new products for the wider target of seasons and customers.

3.b Restrain and control the costs of the gifts and make sure it is priced too high or too low
4. Set up a team structure for the new system and provide Training and information to
employees for the outlets, and make an outlet/stand outside of malls

5. Get Customer feedback for the products for the month of August, September, October,
November and December (Christmas time).

Decision Matrix

Products sold on Total Revenue Total Expenses Profit

2021 of

August

September

October

November

December

Products sold on Total Revenue Total Expenses Profit

2020 of

August

September

October

November

December

Products sold on Total Revenue Total Expenses Profit

2021 of

January

February

March
April

May

June

July

Cost Impact Effectiveness

Projects 1-5 1-5 1-5

Advertising efforts

Catering New Seasons

(Special Occassions)

Introduction of New Products

Conclusion

There is a need to advertise and make sales in certain months of the year where
sales are low, a need to either make an outside outlet/shop standgive out samples or use of
social media and other avenues are needed. Without action the sales be low will continue to
rise only days before and on Christmas and Valentines' Day. Another solution is to cater to
other special occassions and attract more customers. Lastly, Sweet Taste can put more
variety like greeting cards, pens all sorts of trinkets, more designs even designs fitting other
special occassions so not only are the gifts only fitted for Christmas and Valentines' Day.

Recommendation

The easiest thing to do advertising efforts, there are no need to make specific products for
specific occassions nor the need to make new products. Study shows, that word of
mouth,advertising social media and other mediums as well as online selling find those who
are your target market and increase your sales, not only will it increase the sales when they
are low but also the overall number of sales

The next approach that is favorable is to add a variety in the products. Adding a variety of
products will attract more customers as well as give more options for the consumers to
purchase, as the products that once is on trend will no longer be attractive there is a need to
make new products.

And lastly, to tailor fit the business for other special occassions and no ocassions, this will
certainly fit into the products of Sweet Taste however, more data and trial will be needed to
prove if it will be effective, this will be costly and challenging. It will be hard to determine
whether it will show fantastic results.

Action Plan

Matrix Organizational Structure should be implemented so that the sales team will
be able to be overseen by their respective manager in the outlet and another manager so
that they can foresee how much demand there is and supply needed to be brought up.
Other than that there is a need to determine which products are popular in a certain outlet
or location and in special cases if a customer/s will look for that certain product they can be
asked for in another outlet. There is a need to advertise and utilize online selling so that the
products can reach many customers and information can be learned by the customers from
their home. They can also buy in bulk capacities and in a wide selection, this will also help
spread the word about the Sweet Taste's business and products and solve the problem of
low sales.