Green Cat (consulting)

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In fact, according to the FEDIAF's research, the estimated percentage of European households owning at least 1 cat is of 26% in the European Union and of 24% in Europe.

European Households Owning at Least One Cat or Dog (2014)[pic 5]

FEDIAF also claims that Romania, Hungary, and the Baltic States are also possibly interesting markets.

However, facts vary based on different sources.

Top 10 Countries With Largest Pet Cat Population (2006)

Country

No. of Cat

USA

76,430,000

China

53,100,000

Russia

12,700,000

Brazil

12,466,000

France

9,600,000

Italy

9,400,000

United Kingdom

7,700,000

Ukraine

7,350,000

Japan

7,300,000

Germany

6,700,000

As the table above from Compare Infobase Limited shows us, 6 of the top 10 countries and 2 from the top 5 are from Europe. That being said, despite the fact that Russia and Ukraine regroup more than 20 million cats, it will be over more interest for XYZ Limited to focus on Italy's neighbouring countries: France, the United Kingdom, and Germany. These 3 countries represent 25,700,000 cats and are all close to Italy which implies lower transportation costs. They also come with the benefits of trading with other members of the European Union which is not negligible.

Therefore we believe that expanding the Green Cat products to the UK is indeed a possibly good idea. That being said, France seems to be an even more attractive markets due to its higher ranking on both the FEDIAF's and Compare Infobase Limited 's results. It also happens to be closer to Italy than the UK, and is not separated by the sea. Finally France also shares the same currency as Italy which is of great interest from a financial perspective, and has the same tax rate as the UK on cat litter according to Duty Calculator (6.5% MFN duty rate and 20% sales rate) making it the ideal location for XYZ Limited to expand. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom also remains one of the best countries to export to.

Promotion

Since XYZ Limited initially wanted to sell Green Cat products in the UK, the first objective for promotion must be to discover what cats mean to British pet owners. Depending on countries cat owners will view their cats differently and will therefore have different expectations when buying cat related products. Defining this is of great importance in order to achieve an effective marketing strategy.

Before we begin, here is a table made by governmentandlaw.tripod.com estimating the average costs of advertising depending on the media used in America.

Type

Average audience

Total Cost

Newspaper

2,000,000 (national)

300$/square inch/day

TV

10,000,000 (national)

100,000$/day

Direct mail

N/A

2$/letter

Radio

500,000 (national)

150$/week

Magazine

500,000 (national)

10,000$/month/add

Outdoor

1,000,000 (major city, major budget)

25,000$/week

Online

20,000,000 (major search engine, major budget)

20,000$/month

Of course, costs vary based on the sources , and the context given, but nevertheless this table gives us a good approximation of the kind of budgets we'd need to expect from each type of media available.

The internet is a great tool not only to help you promote your product but to also obtain the data necessary to market it effectively. Google Adwords for example, allows you to post adverts on Google but also gives you access to detailed insight about your adverts. Social networks also allows companies to post original content and various information to attract potential customers, whilst having access to the data. If the company plans on launching a web site and/or a blog, other various SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques can be applied (such as blog commenting, forum posting, guest posting, or RSS feeds to name a few). Google Analytics can also be of great help to obtain valuable data about your website or blog. Either way, this kind of marketing is generally effective on quite a large scale and remains relatively cheap compared to the prices of other types of media.

Big TV stations, newspapers and outdoor adverts would probably be too expensive for companies like XYZ Limited. However, magazines specialised in animals or pets could be more realistic. Radio stations aren't too expensive either, but they rarely attract exclusively cat owners making the media less effective for products such as Green Cat litters. Direct mail is considered by most marketers today as outdated and ineffective leaving online advertising as our best option.

DAY 3 : Competitors and the 5 Forces Analysis

After having studied comparatively, 10 brands of cat litter we can