Grade

Technology and Livelihood Education

AGRICULTURAL ARTS

FFFFOOD PROCESSING NCII

Most Essential Learning Competencies
Learner’s Module 2
Environment and Market (EM)

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Agricultural and Fishery Arts

FOOD PROCESSING NC II

Most Essential Learning Competencies

Learner’s Module

Writer: WINKY B. SIA

Masbate School of Fisheries
09352354006

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Module 2: Environment and Market (EM)

I. Introduction

This module covers the knowledge, skills and attitudes in Environment and
Market.

II. Objectives:
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
LO 1. Recognize and understand the market in Food Processing
1.1Identify the players/ competitors within the town
1.2 Identify the different products/services available in the market
LO 2. Recognize the potential customer/market in Food Processing
2.1. Identify the profile of potential customers
2.2. Identify the customer’s needs and wants through consumer analysis
2.3 Conduct consumer/market analysis
LO 3. Create new business ideas in Food Processing business by using various
techniques
3.1. Explore ways of generating business idea from ones’ own
characteristics/attributes
3.2. Generate business ideas using product innovation from irritants, trends and
emerging needs
3.3 Generate business ideas using Serendipity Walk

III. Vocabulary List

Competitors- Any person or entity which is a rival against another in a business.

Environmental scanning is the process of gathering information about events
and their relationships within an organization's internal and external
environments.
Serendipity means letting you wander with empty mind. It means roving around
without thinking any problem, agendas and preplans and sees what happens and
where you end up.
Serendipity walk- To walk around somewhere and discover ideas

IV. Pre- Test

Multiple Choice: Choose the letter that corresponds to the correct answer.
Write your answer in you quiz note book.

1. Which of the following is not an example of people’s basic needs?

A. Clothing

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 B. Food
C. Recreation
D. Shelter
2. Which of the following should be considered first by a prospective entrepreneur
in choosing the right location for his/her store?
A. Access of the target customers
B. The attractiveness of the store layout
C. The prevailing prices of goods in the area
D. Types of merchandise

Are you ready to assess yourself if you can now be able to generate potential
business ideas? Try by answering the succeeding pre assessment.

3. Lawrence plans to put up a “Seafoods Restaurant” in their locality. Which of the following
will help him determine a successful plan for setting up his business?

A. Checking for similar business to avoid competition

B. Conduct a SWOT analysis
C. Getting feedback on the quality of service
D. Survey of consumer associations

4. Why do Eleazar studies the population in his immediate community?

He is doing this to__________________________________.

A. Determine whom to sell his product or service
B. Identify his would be “suki”
C. Predict his biggest buyer
D. Select his favorite costumers

5. When an entrepreneur improves and alter products to make it more appealing to target
consumers, he/she is doing an __________ of the product.

A. Alteration
B. Improvisation
C. Innovation
D. Invention

V. Learning Activities

WHAT TO KNOW?

Lesson 1: Identify the player or competitors in town

In business, a company in the same industry or a similar industry which offers a similar
product or service. The presence of one or more competitors can reduce the prices of goods
and services as the companies attempt to gain a larger market share.

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 Knowing who your competitors are, and what they are offering, can help you to make
your products, services and marketing stand out. It will enable you to set your prices
competitively and help you to respond to rival marketing campaigns with your own initiatives.

You can use this knowledge to create marketing strategies that take advantage of your
competitors' weaknesses, and improve your own business performance. You can also assess
any threats posed by both new entrants to your market and current competitors. This
knowledge will help you to be realistic about how successful you can be.

This guide explains how to analyze who your competitors are, how to research what they're
doing and how to act on the information you gain.

• Who are your competitors?

• What you need to know about your competitors
• Learning about your competitors
• Hearing about your competitors
• How to act on the competitor information you get

Who are your competitors?

All businesses face competition. Even if you're the only restaurant in town you must compete
with cinemas, bars and other businesses where your customers will spend their money instead
of with you. With increased use of the Internet to buy goods and services and to find places to
go, you are no longer just competing with your immediate neighbors. Indeed, you could find
yourself competing with businesses from other countries.

Your competitor could be a new business offering a substitute or similar product that makes
your own redundant.

Competition is not just another business that might take money away from you. It can be
another product or service that's being developed and which you ought to be selling or looking
to license before somebody else takes it up.

And don't just research what's already out there. You also need to be constantly on the lookout
for possible new competition.
You can get clues to the existence of competitors from:
• local business directories
• your local Chamber of Commerce
• advertising
• press reports
• exhibitions and trade fairs
• questionnaires
• searching on the Internet for similar products or services
• information provided by customers
• flyers and marketing literature that have been sent to you - quite common if you're on a bought-
in marketing list
• searching for existing patented products that are similar to yours
• planning applications and building work in progress

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 What you need to know about your competitors
Monitor the way your competitors do business. Look at:

• the products or services they provide and how they market them to customers
• the prices they charge
• how they distribute and deliver
• the devices they employ to enhance customer loyalty and what back-up service they offer
• their brand and design values
• whether they innovate - business methods as well as products
• their staff numbers and the caliber of staff that they attract
• how they use IT - for example, if they're technology-aware and offer a website and email
• who owns the business and what sort of person they are?
• their annual report - if they're a public company
• their media activities - check their website as well as local newspapers, radio, television and
any outdoor advertising

Find out as much as possible about your competitors' customers, such as:

• who they are?

• what products or services different customers buy from them?
• what customers see as your competitors' strengths and weaknesses
• whether there are any long-standing customers
• if they've had an influx of customers recently
What they're planning to do

Try to go beyond what's happening now by investigating your competitors' business strategy,
for example:

• what types of customer they're targeting?

• what new products they're developing
• what financial resources they have

Learning about your competitors

Read about your competitors. Look for articles or ads in the trade press or mainstream
publications. Read their marketing literature. Check their entries in directories and phone
books. If they are an online business, ask for a trial of their service.
Are they getting more publicity than you, perhaps through networking or sponsoring events?

If your competitor is a public company, read a copy of their annual report.

At exhibitions and trade fairs check which of your competitors are also exhibiting. Look at their
stands and promotional activities. Note how busy they are and who visits them.

Go online

Look at competitors' websites. Find out how they compare to yours. Check any interactive
parts of the site to see if you could improve on it for your own website. Is the information free
of charge? Is it easy to find?
Business websites often give much information that businesses haven't traditionally revealed
- from the history of the company to biographies of the staff.

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 Use a search engine to track down similar products. Find out who else offers them and how
they go about it.
Websites can give you good tips on what businesses around the globe are doing in your
industry sector.

Organizations and reference sources

• Your trade or professional association, if applicable.

• The local Chamber of Commerce.
• Directories and survey reports in any business reference l
Hearing about your competitors
Speak to your competitors. Phone them to ask for a copy of their brochure or get one of your
staff or a friend to drop by and pick up their marketing literature.
You could ask for a price list or enquire what an off-the-shelf item might cost and if there's a
discount for volume. This will give you an idea at which point a competitor will discount and at
what volume.
Phone and face-to-face contacts will also give you an idea of the style of the company, the
quality of their literature and the initial impressions they make on customers.
It's also likely you'll meet competitors at social and business events. Talk to them.
Be friendly - they're competitors not enemies. You'll get a better idea of them - and you might
need each other one day, for example in collaborating to grow a new market for a new product.
Listen to your customers and suppliers

Make the most of contacts with your customers. Don't just ask how well you're performing -
ask which of your competitors they buy from and how you compare.

Use meetings with your suppliers to ask what their other customers are doing. They may not
tell you everything you want to know, but it's a useful start.
Use your judgement with any information they volunteer. For instance, when customers say
your prices are higher than the competition, they may just be trying to negotiate a better deal.

How to act on the competitor information you get

Evaluate the information you find about your competitors. This should tell you whether there
are gaps in the market you can exploit. It should also indicate whether there is a saturation of
suppliers in certain areas of your market, which might lead you to focus on less competitive
areas.

Draw up a list of everything that you've found out about your competitors, however small.

Put the information into three categories:

• what you can learn from and do better

• what they're doing worse than you
• what they're doing the same as you
What you can learn from and do better

If you're sure your competitors are doing something better than you, you need to respond and
make some changes. It could be anything from improving customer service, assessing your

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prices and updating your products, to changing the way you market yourself, redesigning your
literature and website and changing your suppliers.

Try to innovate not imitate. Now you've got the idea, can you do it even better, add more
value?

Your competitors might not have rights over their actual ideas, but remember the rules on
patents, copyright and design rights. For more information, consult Intellectual property as a
business tool.
What they're doing worse than you

Exploit the gaps you've identified. These may be in their product range or service, marketing
or distribution, even the way they recruit and retain employees.

Customer service reputation can often provide the difference between businesses that operate
in a very competitive market. Renew your efforts in these areas to exploit the deficiencies
you've discovered in your competitors.

But don't be complacent about your current strengths. Your current offerings may still need
improving and your competitors may also be assessing you. They may adopt and enhance
your good ideas.

What they're doing the same as you

Why are they doing the same as you, particularly if you're not impressed by other things they
do? Perhaps you both need to make some changes.

Analyze these common areas and see whether you've got it right. And even if you have, your
competitor may be planning an improvement.

Lesson 2. Recognize the potential customer/market in Food Processing

Wants are desires, luxury and extravagances that signify wealth and lifestyle. These are over
and above the basic necessities of life. Some examples of non- basic needs are; fashion
accessories, shoes, travels, eating in fine dining restaurants; watching movies, concerts,
plays; owning luxurious cars, wearing expensive jewelry, perfume, living in impressive homes,
and others.

Needs and wants of people are the basic indicators of the kind of business that you may
engage in as they can serve as measure of your success. Some other good points that you
might consider in business undertakings are the kinds of people, their needs, wants, lifestyles,
culture and tradition, and social orientation

Environmental Scanning
There is a need to conduct environmental scanning to identify the needs and wants of people,
the niche for your business mission, and to give attention to trends and issues. This may also
serve as an evaluation of the type of the entrepreneurial activity that is appropriate
in the community.

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Environmental scanning is defined as a process of gathering, analyzing, and dispensing
information for tactical or strategic purposes. The environmental scanning process entails
obtaining both factual and subjective information on the business environments in which a
company is operating.
Environment in the community can be viewed according to its technological, political,
economic, and social aspects. For instance, you have your own Smoked Fish Industry, and
have successfully made and adapted innovations on the preparations and in the packaging of
your smoked products. People will look for the changes they experienced that relate to their
environment.

Lesson 3. Generating Ideas for Business

Here are some ways by which you can generate possible ideas for business.

1. Examine the existing goods and services. Are you satisfied with the product? What do
other people who use the product say about it? How can it be improved? There are many
ways of improving a product from the way it is made to the way it is packed and sold. You
can also improve the materials used in crafting the product. In addition, you can introduce
new ways of using the product, making it more useful and adaptable to the customers’ many
needs. When you are improving the product or enhancing it, you are doing an innovation.
You can also do an invention by introducing an entirely new product to replace the old one.
Business ideas may also be generated by examining what goods and services are sold outside
the community. Very often, these products are sold in a form that can still be enhanced or
improved.

2. Examine the present and future needs. Look and listen to what the customers, institutions,
and communities need in terms of goods and services. Sometimes, these needs are already
obvious and felt at the moment. Other needs are not that obvious because they can only be
felt in the future, in the event of certain developments in the community. For example, a town
will have its electrification facility in the next six months. Only then can you think of electronic
business such as photo copier, computer service, digital printing, etc.

3. Examine how the needs are being satisfied. Needs for the products and services are
referred to as market demand. To satisfy these needs, products and services must meet the
demands of the market. The term market refers to whoever will use or buy the products or

service, and these may be people or institutions such as other businesses, establishments,
organizations, or government agencies.

There is a very good business opportunity when there is absolutely no supply to a pressing
market demand.

Businesses or industries in the locality also have needs for goods and services. Their needs
for raw materials, maintenance, and other services such as selling and distribution are good
sources of ideas for business.

4. Examine the available resources around you. Observe what materials or skills are available
in abundance in your area. A business can be started by selling available raw materials and
by processing and manufacturing them into finished products. For example, in a
Bangus/Milkfish Producing town, large supply of Bangus/Milkfish can be sold and processed

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into “Ordinary Smoked Bangus”; Smoked Soft Boned Bangus; Deboned Bangus; Dried
Bangus. This can be sold profitably outside the community.

A group of people in your neighborhood may have some special skills that can be harnessed
for business. For example, residents of Tawiran, Obando possess net weaving skills that have
been passed from generation to generation. They set up net weaving business to produce
gillnet, cover net, cast nets, seine nets to sell to barangay folks or nearby communities.

Business ideas can come from your own skills. The skills and experience you may have in
agriculture and fishery arts, industrial arts, home economics, and ICT classes will provide you
with business opportunities and extra income. With your skills, you may also find useful things
that you can utilize during your spare time. Many products were invented this way.

5. Read magazines, news articles, and other publications on new products and techniques or
advances in technology. You can pick up new business ideas from Newsweek, Reader’s
Digest, Business Magazines, Go Negosyo materials, Small- industry Journal. The Internet
serves as a library where you may browse and surf for possible businesses. It will also guide
you on how to put the right product in the right place, with the right price, at the right time.

Listing of possible businesses to set up in an area may also be available from banks or local
non-government organizations.

VI. Practice Tasks

Task 1: Mini Survey

Directions: Conduct a mini survey in your nearby barangay. Gather data on the different
Fishery Products that are already available. Put a check your response.

Type of Fishery Processed Products LIKE DISLIKE

1. Cured Fish Products
a. Smoked Fish
b. Salted Fish
c. Dried Fish
d. Boneless
2. Value-Added Products
a. Fish Ball
b. Fish Nuggets
c. Fish Quekiam
d. Fish Burger
3. Canned Fish Products
a. Fish Afritada
b. Fish Caldereta
c. Fish Adobo
d. Sardines

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 e. Mackerel
f. Tuna Flakes in Oil
4. Others
a. Fish crackers
b. Fish chicharron

Task 2. Screening Business Ideas

Directions: After filling out the chart above, try to list down all the probable
business opportunities you may wish to venture in. Use the suggested matrix
below to indicate your choice. Write your answers in your notebook.

Example: Making and Selling Smoked Fish

Positive Factors Positive Factors

Strengths Opportunities Strengths Opportunities

Task 3: Generate Business Idea

Now that you have all the information, are you ready to test your ability
to generate your own business idea? If your answer is yes, accomplish the
Task Sheet below.
Task Sheet
Title:
Generate probable business in your community
Performance Objectives:
Given the available map of your community, as a student you will generate
probable business related to fish processing.
Supplies/Materials:
• Pen and Legal size bond paper
• Community map\
• Ingredients and materials needed for the chosen fish
processing business
Equipment:
Equipment needed for the chosen fish processing business
Steps/Procedures:
A. Answer the following questions

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 1. Who do you think are your target consumers/markets?
2. Where is the most ideal location to situate your business?
3. Which products or services would appeal to your target
consumers/markets?
4. Can you say that you have seized the most feasible business
opportunity?
B. Realize your generated or chosen Food (fish) processing business.
C. Report the result of your task to your teacher
Assessment Method:
Oral questioning
Direct observation

Performance Criteria

Criteria for oral questioning Yes No

Have the following items been identified?
1. Consumers/markets
2. Location of business
3. Products/services
4. Feasible business opportunity
Is the generated Food (Fish) processing business successful
in terms of?
1. Profit

VII. Post Test

Multiple Choice: Choose the letter that corresponds to the correct answer. Write your answer
in you quiz note book.

1. Which of the following is not an example of people’s basic needs?

A. Clothing
B. Food
C. Recreation
D. Shelter
2. Which of the following should be considered first by a prospective entrepreneur in choosing
the right location for his/her store?
A. Access of the target customers
B. The attractiveness of the store layout
C. The prevailing prices of goods in the area
D. Types of merchandise
3. Lawrence plans to put up a “Seafoods Restaurant” in their locality. Which of the following
will help him determine a successful plan for setting up his business?

A. Checking for similar business to avoid competition

B. Conduct a SWOT analysis
C. Getting feedback on the quality of service
D. Survey of consumer associations

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4. Why do Eleazar studies the population in his immediate community?
He is doing this to__________________________________.
A. Determine whom to sell his product or service
B. Identify his would be “suki”
C. Predict his biggest buyer
D. Select his favorite costumers
5. When an entrepreneur improves and alter products to make it more appealing to target
consumers, he/she is doing an __________ of the product.
A. Alteration
B. Improvisation
C. Innovation
D. Invention
6. It is a process of gathering, analyzing, and dispensing of information for tactical or strategic
purposes.
A. Environmental analysis
B. Environmental evaluation
C. Environmental Scanning
D. Environmental differentiation
7. Letter “T” in SWOT Analysis stands for ____________
A. Training
B. Threats
C. Treats
D. Thrust
8. Which of the following is not an example of strength and weakness of a
business?
A. Competition
B. Technology
C. Economics
D. Profitability
9. It refers to the positive factors that may influence your business.
A. Strength
B. Competition
C. Threats
D. Weaknesses
10. It is the basic indicator of the kind of business to raise.
A. Needs
B. Education
C. Leisure
D. Luxury

VIII. Assignment/ Additional Activities

Video Viewing
In order to deepen your understanding of the lesson, perform the following
tasks:

1. Browse the internet and view the topics related to:

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 a. customers‘ needs and wants
b. techniques in identifying customers‘ needs and wants
c. Steps in Selecting Business Idea
d. Criteria of a Viable Business Idea
2.Prepare a short narrative report about the aforementioned topics. You may highlight the
―aspects that increases your knowledge of generating business idea.

IX. Answer Key

I. PRE-TEST
1.C
2. A
3.C
4. A
5. C

II. POST TEST

1.C
2. A
3.C
4. A
5. C
6. C
7. B
8. C
9. A
10.A

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REFERENCES:

www. Tesu.edu>about>environmental-scanning

marketbusinessnews.com>financial-glossary>competitor

www.infoentrepreneurs.org>guides>understanding-your customer

LM- Food Processing 9- Generating Ideas for Business, pp.35-37

LM- Food Processing 9- Task sheets, pp.41-44

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